The Three Persons in Recovery and Becoming a “One Hundred Percenter” – Purity 1221

The Three Persons in Recovery and Becoming a “One
Hundred Percenter” – Purity 1221

Purity 1221 12/14/2023 Purity 1221 Podcast

Purity 1221 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a garden pathway whose brilliance has
been increased by a vibrant Christmas light display featuring a tree covered in
multi-colored lights and electronic flowers lining the path comes to us from Bonnie
Schultz who shared this scene on social media last night from her visit to the
Bellingrath Gardens and Home in Theodore Alabama. 

Well, It’s Thursday and it is beginning to look a
lot like Christmas ever where you go, so I am sharing Bonnie’s photo to reflect
the fact that Christmas Eve is 10 days away and because I share pathway photos
on Thursdays in remembrance of the day of the week that I first went into
recovery and as a visual encouragement to all my friends to either get on or to
stay on the pathway of Christian Discipleship and Walking in the Spirit.  

I didn’t just begin recovery on a Thursday, after I
made it through Pastor Bob Costello’s Celebrate Freedom Program at Rock Solid
Church I joined the leadership team and taught and eventually led the ministry
on Thursday nights.  And it was in that
first season of leadership that I became friends with and served besides, my friend
and brother in Christ, Bill Hamm.  Bill
had gone through rehab in Florida and had a measure of freedom and victory over
his addictions that he brought with him when he served as part of Pastor Bob’s initial
Celebrate Freedom team and Bill has the distinction of being the only one from
that team, other than Pastor Bob, to remain faithful to the ministry after its
initial run.  

When Celebrate Freedom started its second season
Pastor Bob elevated me into service along with Bill and Paula Williams, who
stepped up to be the women’s leader. Paula faithfully served Celebrate Freedom at
Rock Solid until the end of 2020, and now has teaching at Celebrate Freedom as
Pastor Bob started up the ministry again this year.

In that second year, Pastor Bob like any good leader
intended to take a step back and to allow his underlings to grow and gave us all
the opportunity to teach the program’s lessons. Paula and I were relative newbies
so Bill was given the duties to teach first and I’ll never forget his lesson for
three reasons:

1.    Because Bill was a nervous wreck,

2.    Because it was a good message, and

3.    Because it was one if not the only time that Bill
taught at Celebrate Freedom.

Teaching isn’t for everybody, and I think Bill’s
nerves and lack of confidence got the best of him although he was faithful in
serving the ministry for years as an encouraging attendee and supporter to all
who came, he chose not to teach at Celebrate.  

That’s the way it was, we all have our roles to play
in the body in Christ and Bill served in all kinds of different capacities for
our church, including serving at jail ministry, so it wasn’t like he walked
away, although he had his struggles in maintaining freedoms at times, Bill
always fell forward and I recall how he eventually stopped struggling and
falling and he grew into his freedom, in what he called a 100%-er – as in
someone who was 100% clean and sober and committed to serving the Lord.  We are all a work in progress and sometimes
relapse is part of recovery, but Bill eventually showed himself and others that
it didn’t have to be when you followed Jesus.  
Bill eventually became “the person he hoped to be” – the man God created
Him to be.  

In that first and only teaching that I saw Bill
give, he shared a story or an illustration that he had seen when he was in
rehab.  It was an object lesson that highlighted
the past, the present, and the future and used three chairs to make the
point.  In recovery, there are “three
people”: the person we once were, the person we are now, and the person we will
be – or hope to be – in the future.   So the
way the message went, Bill told us about the three people and as he talked
about each one, he literally sat down in the chair and talked about what it was
like to be:

·       “the person we once were”, – who was a mess, angry,
depressed, addicted, and who selfishly always chose the wrong things.

·       the “person we are now” – the one who had been saved
by God and who had been led to repentance, who was under a lot of stress as
they had gone into recovery, but who had hope to be…

·       the person we hoped to be in the future – who rejoiced
over “making it” – of being clean and sober, of being free of being happy
because they were free.     

It was a good message and Bill did a good job of delivering
it and even if it was the only message I can recall that he actually taught at
Celebrate Freedom, it was one that he demonstrated with the way he lived.  

Bill died a week ago, last Thursday, and today is
his memorial service. I will be attending to remember my friend. I will be
overdressed in my new suit to honor him because even though Bill wasn’t always
perfect He stood up for the Lord, pointed people to Jesus, and tried and succeeded
in becoming the “person he hoped to be” – the person God created him to be – a faithful
man of God.

So, let’s all honor Bill Hamm today by thinking
about the person you were in the past, the person you are today, and the person
you hope to be in the future, and let’s keep walking and talking with God to
follow Bill’s example and become a 100%-er – a person that surrenders all and
gives themselves completely to following Jesus into the abundant life of freedom
and purpose that God has for us to live.

—————————————————————————————-

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 Discipline.

2 Corinthians 2:7-8
(NLT2)
⁷  Now, however, it is time to
forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. ⁸  So I urge you now to reaffirm your
love for him.

Today’s
verses fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Church
Discipline

4. Forgive and restore one who
repents; love him.

Today’s verse reminds us
to be compassionate to the one who repents by forgiving and comforting them and
leading them back into the family of God by reaffirming our love for them.  

Sometimes people walk away
from church. One minute they are walking strong in the Lord and the next minute
they fall into confusion and sin and leave the fellowship of the saints.  When this happens, they often don’t come
back.   However, on occasion, the call of
the Lord on their life is for real and it compels them even after terrible
mistakes to repent and go back to the house of the Lord.  

Rather than being cold and
judgmental towards people in this situation, we need to forgive them and
comfort them and encourage them to stay with us by reaffirming our love for
them.  People need God’s love, and we may
be the only ones that can give it to them. 
So follow the spirit of today’s verses by forgiving others and
encouraging them to come back home to the house of the Lord and to stay.

——————————————————————–

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 THREE –  REDEMPTION

DAY
THREE

Becoming
Guilty

Because Jesus took upon himself the guilt of all
people, everyone who acts responsibly becomes guilty. Those who want to extract
themselves from the responsibility for this guilt, also remove themselves from
the ultimate reality of human existence. Moreover, they also remove themselves
from the redeeming mystery of the sinless guilt bearing of Jesus Christ and
have no share in the divine justification that covers this event. They place
their personal innocence above their responsibility for humankind, and they are
blind to the unhealed guilt that they load on themselves in this very way. They
are also blind to the fact that real innocence is revealed in the very fact
that for the sake of other people it enters into the communion of their guilt.
Through Jesus Christ, the nature of responsible action includes the idea that
the sinless, the selflessly loving become the guilty.

In eight days, we shall celebrate Christmas and
now for once let us make it really a festival of Christ in our world.… It is
not a light thing to God that every year we celebrate Christmas and do not take
it seriously. His word holds and is certain. When he comes in his glory and
power into the world in the manger, he will put down the mighty from their
seats, unless ultimately, ultimately they repent.

Sermon to a London church on the third

Sunday of Advent, December 17, 1933

Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 1:18^[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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

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)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”

Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship