Rejection’s Lies – Purity 1210

Rejection’s Lies – Purity 1210

Purity 1210 11/29/2023 Purity 1210 Podcast

Purity 1210 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a darkened highway in the
foreground of the Schodack Creek, and the Hudson River down the road a piece,
at twilight time comes to us from yours truly as I purposely took a moment to appreciate
my river view after returning home from work yesterday.  

Well, It’s Wednesday and although I didn’t share any
mountainous humps to visually represent our arrival at the midpoint of another
work week, I figured I would share  one
of the latest photos I have taken as a “check in” for current events.  While you can’t assume that my circumstances
or mood matched the tranquility of this twilight photo, I’m happy to report
that I was fully at peace when I decided to appreciate where the Lord has
placed me, down by the River.  

Speaking of check in’s and being moved by the Lord,
I am happy to announce that the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group at Starpoint Church
will resume meeting this evening and I am excited to see how the Lord will use
tonight’s lesson to encourage those who come in their faith.   

Tonight’s topic is “Identity” and the focus of the
lesson will be on what our identity is as “born again” followers of Jesus Christ
and how the acceptance of our new identity can be a major key to experiencing victory
over and freedom from our hurts, habits, and hang-ups, and can be the
foundation on which a life of peace and joy can stand and walk.   The focus is “on being a Christian” and
making that mean something in regard to how you think, feel, and live.  

The reason I started this blog was because I
discovered the truth of how I was actually a new creation after I put my faith
in Jesus as my Lord and Savior and that when I decided to follow the Lord with
the way I live my life I received healing, freedom, and a life that was defined
by peace and joy more than anger, anxiety, depression, and darkness.   So this is my continuous message of hope.
This is my ministry of encouragement. 

Among other things tonight’s lesson should convey
that our new identity in Christ means that we are accepted, by grace, because
of our faith in Jesus Christ, and that we don’t have to perform to be
accepted.  

When fully realized, that is a game changer because
it encompasses the love of God and goes contrary to just about everything the
world teaches us.   We don’t earn our way
into God’s kingdom.  It’s a gift given to
us by God. That can be hard to understand because the world is full of rejection
and standards to meet in order to be accepted. We have to earn our place in
many places in the world. We have to accomplish things in order to get things
and sometimes, in the world that includes love. 
If we act foolishly and fail to perform, we run the risk of being
rejected in the world but while God will encourage us to “do what is right”
according to His word – to be wise and righteous – if we put our faith in Jesus
as Lord and Savior – God will continue to accept us even if we mess up. God
doesn’t make us earn His love.  

I have faced a lot of rejection in my life.  Hey, not all the guys make “the team” right?
Some guys don’t have “the right stuff” or don’t know the “right people” or come
from the “right side of the tracks” and even though your performance may earn acceptance
in some circles, there are some places where you will never be accepted no
matter what you do.  If someone doesn’t love
you, there may be nothing that can change that.  

As a teenager, my first love, or obsession, was with
a young lady that shall remain nameless, who I honestly didn’t think much of
upon first meeting her, but we became friends and talked and as I got to know her
a little, I realized that she had captured my attention and my heart.  We had one “date” at a pizza place but
although I went into that meal with a great deal of hope, the topic of conversation
made me realize that she only considered me to be a friend.  Friend-zoned, oh yes. But I was really dumb and
instead of taking her no as an answer, I decided and even told her that I would
earn her love and that she would change her mind.  She didn’t. Things ended very badly.   And despite the disaster and the end of all
contact with her, a part of me held on to the idea that “unrequited love was
the best love” because it didn’t come easy – that love had to be some epic
quest.   And so that wound of rejection,
created so many strongholds its not even funny, such as:

·       You’re not good enough.

·       No one will love you for who you are.

·       You are deficient, fat, ugly, stupid, crazy, bad,
and or just plain evil.

·       You have to earn love.  

·       Nobody “worth anything” would want you.  

But to my credit I still believed in love and tried
again, got “friend zoned” again and that relationship – although it never went anywhere
took a considerable time, and a good amount of heartache and frustration to
end.

But after that and similar rejections, oh brother, my
broken heart made me “cold as ice” and I went from some one earnestly was seeking
love to someone who saw love as a lie and decided to never let anyone close to
my heart and to just seek shallow physical relationships.  And it was all because of how I saw myself as
someone that people would reject and as someone who had to “earn it”. 

That’s why tonight’s lesson on Identity, and knowing
who we are in Christ, is so important – it tells you the truth about the world
and about the ultimate things of God’s kingdom and how they relate to you
personally.  After you put your faith in
Jesus, you can know that you are loved, accepted, significant, and secure – and
living from that point of view puts things in the proper perspective of God’s
view on things – the view that matters the most and ultimately will be the only
view that matters.   

So let me encourage you to check out the “Who I am
in Christ” statement sheet pdf from Freedom in Christ Ministries (https://www.ficm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/who-i-am-in-christ05.pdf).
It will tell you who you are in Christ and it’s all good news! When you
meditate upon and accept those statements as “true about you” and live
according to those truths, you can have peace and joy because you will know
that you don’t have to earn anything from God and that He will always love you not
matter what and will live with you forever.  

So, renounce the lies that the world has told you
and agree with the truth of who you are in Christ and live it! Keep walking and
talking with God because He has good things to say about you and will guide you
to experience just how true all those statements about your identity in Christ
are.

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Church, Communion of the
Saints.

Ezekiel 33:7-9 (ESV)
⁷  “So you, son of man, I have
made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my
mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
⁸  If I say to the wicked, O
wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to
turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood
I will require at your hand.
⁹  But if you warn the wicked
to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die
in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

Today’s
verses fall under the thirteenth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

 13. Office bearers must warn the wayward.

Today’s verses indicate
that we have an obligation to tell people to repent.  As much as we want to love our neighbors as
ourselves, we have to share the hard truth from the word of God that would
define much of what we believe and do in the world to be “sin”.  

Ezekiel shared the message,
so we don’t have to worry about someone’s blood being required at his hand.  That may be difficult to discern the meaning of,
is God saying we could lose our salvation if we don’t tell the wicked to
repent?   

I take the view that statements
like these in God’s word aren’t prescriptive but are descriptive.  For instance, the verses regarding
drunkenness in 1 Corinthians 6 and other places that say that drunkards will
not inherit the kingdom of God may cause some to think that if a Christian were
to get drunk they could lose their salvation. 

But I believe that these
verses indicate a general truth in regard to the sincerity of someone’s faith
and whether or not they are a “true convert”. If your life reflects your faith
in drunkenness more than in God, it may indicate that you are fooling yourself –
although you say you believe, your actions reveal what you really believe –
that God’s word is useless, and you are not a “slave to” or follower of Jesus
Christ.  

Likewise, if we say we believe
the word of God but never tell anyone the truth about sin and warn them to
repent, it may indicate we believe “the word of God is useless” and we really don’t
believe – because we don’t profess the truth or show our love for others by
sharing it with them.  

So speak the truth in love
and try to reflect that you really love the Lord by obeying His word.

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we are sharing from “God
is in the Manger- Reflections on Advent and Christmas” – By Dietrich
Bonhoeffer.   

As
always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all
to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his
work.  This resource is available online for less than $10 at many
sites.

God
is in the Manger – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ADVENT
WEEK ONE –  WAITING

DAY
SIX

Silence:
Waiting for God’s Word

We are silent in the early hours of each day,
because God is supposed to have the first word, and we are silent before going
to sleep, because to God also belongs the last word. We are silent solely for
the sake of the word, not in order to show dishonor to the word but in order to
honor and receive it properly. Silence ultimately means nothing but waiting for
God’s word and coming away blessed by God’s word.… Silence before the word,
however, will have its effect on the whole day. If we have learned to be silent
before the word, we will also learn to be economical with silence and speech
throughout the day. There is an impermissible self-satisfied, prideful,
offensive silence. This teaches us that what is important is never silence in
itself. The silence of the Christian is a listening silence, a humble silence
that for the sake of humility can also be broken at any time. It is a silence
in connection with the word.… In being quiet there is a miraculous power of
clarification, of purification, of bringing together what is important. This is
a purely profane fact. Silence before the word, however, leads to the right
hearing and thus also to the right speaking of the word of God at the right
time. A lot that is unnecessary remains unsaid.

Today is Remembrance Sunday. Will you have a
memorial service for B. Riemer? It would be nice, but difficult. Then comes
Advent, with all its happy memories for us. It was you who really opened up to
me the world of music-making that we have carried on during the weeks of
Advent. Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent: one waits, hopes,
and does this, that, or the other—things that are really of no consequence—the
door is shut, and can only be opened from the outside.

Letter from Bonhoeffer at Tegel prison to

Eberhard Bethge, November 21, 1943

For God alone my soul waits in silence,

for my hope is from him.

He alone is
my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God
rests my deliverance and my honor;

my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Trust in
him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us.

Psalm 62:5–8^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship