Love is Spoken Here & Who Does God Say You Are? – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement Purity 1216

Love is Spoken Here & Who Does God Say You Are? – A
Mindful of Christ Encouragement Purity 1216

Purity 1216 12/06/2023 Purity 1216 Podcast

Purity 1216 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo three Christmas trees shining bright,
with the proclamation that “Love is Spoken Here” displayed prominently in
between, in the front lobby of my local church, comes from yours truly as I had
the privilege last night to have the place to myself after hours and decided to
capture this peaceful moment that celebrates the Christmas season and tells us
what the gospel is all about – love!

John 3:16 (NKJV) tells us
¹⁶  For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Well, It’s Thursday,
and although I usually like to share pathway photos on Thursdays to visually encourage
my friends to get on or stay on the path of Christian Discipleship, sometimes
you have to show a photo of where you should be going, so in this case, I am
subtly pointing out that if you are following Jesus, you should find yourself
at church! Quite regularly as a matter of fact!

I can’t tell
you what an amazing honor and joy it is to be in our Father’s house, the
church, serving in whatever capacity you can. 
When you serve the church, the church becomes your home and there is no
awkwardness in making yourself at home in the Lord’s presence, because He loves
you and wants you to stay with Him.

The gift of
God’s love is really experienced in the church and the best gift we can give
one another in the body of Christ is each other in our presence, our
fellowship, our comfort, our help, and our encouragement. I love the support I
receive from my family, the church, and don’t mind leaning on my brothers and
sisters in Christ because we are family.  

So after a
long Wednesday of work and ministry, I don’t feel shy in getting a little help
from my friend in the UK, Mindful of Christ’s Lauren Roskilly, who sends out a
weekly “Word for Wednesday” that I always find encouraging. So, I am sharing it
here on the blog, today.   You can sign
up to get Lauren’s Word for Wednesday and other valuable Christian resources
from her by going to https://mindfulofchrist.net/
.

Lauren shares:

1 Peter 2:10 (NIV2011)
¹⁰  Once you were not a
people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but
now you have received mercy.

Lauren writes: 

“Who does God say you are?

 

Have you
ever wondered who you are?

Perhaps
you’re still wondering!?

 

Well, If
you are a believer you belong to God and His kingdom. You are a child of
Christ. & You have Christ in you.

 

Who does
God say you are?

 

You are
Chosen…

You are
loved…

You are
wonderfully made…

You are
adopted into His family…

You have
been given gifts & skills…

You have
plans and a purpose for life…

 

Do you
believe these in your heart of hearts? Well, you should. So check out these
verses and meditate on what God says about you, look into a mirror and repeat
these. It may be uncomfortable at first but with repetition, you will come to
know these as truth & and accept who you are in Christ.

 

Blessings

Lauren x”

Thank You Lauren! Any encouragement that points out
our Identity in Christ and that we are a family in the body of Christ is a good
encouragement to me!  

Lauren also offers a free poster of Affirmations –
Biblical Truths for Identity and I am sharing it a link so you can get yours (https://mindfulofchrist.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e7594469f7467301d13e436b3&id=a84fa6abbb&e=539e18b8b8)
like I got mine.  I printed mine out on
card stock and as it is Christmas time – it wouldn’t make a bad gift to a
brother or sister in Christ. Just frame it and present it and you could give a
fellow saint a gift that shares the truth of their identity in Christ that they
can enjoy the whole year round.  

Who we are in Christ is the most important thing
about us and when we live in that truth and enjoy of the fellowship with other
Christians that know it too, we really can experience the love that God so
freely gave us.  

——————————————————————————————–

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 verse come from the section on Church, Communion of the
Saints.

Revelation 7:9 (NASB)
⁹  After these things I
looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every
nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were
in their hands;

Today’s
versesfall under the eighteenth and final point of our counseling reference
guide resource’s section on Church, Communion of the Saints.

 18. The church is a great multitude
gathered from all nations and tribes.

 

 

Today’s versespoint to a
blessed day yet to come for all who put their faith in Jesus. This scene from
Revelation reveals that the church is a great multitude from every tribe and
tongue who will one day gather together to celebrate the culmination of God’s
kingdom being fully established!  

 

Joy to the world is the song
that will be sung when the saints go marching in, in our white robes and palm
branches in hand, to proclaim the victory and peace that the Lord has won.  

 

 

——————————————————————–

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 TWO –  MYSTERY

DAY
FIVE

The Power
and Glory of the Manger

For the great and powerful of this world, there
are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid
deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and
the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and
this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty
fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come
to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied
he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before
God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope;
they are judged.…

Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly?
Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all
arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets
God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory
of God precisely in his lowliness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of
his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me
blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of
their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their
thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our
ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1:46–55^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

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

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

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These teachings are also available on the
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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

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