Rooted in Christ – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement – Purity 1223
Purity 1223 12/16/2023 Purity 1223 Podcast
Purity 1223 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of this “magical looking landscape with Bass Strait in the distance” comes to us from Dave Baun Photography who shared this scene two days ago as Dave was visiting “The Nut” which is top attraction in Stanly Tasmania. The Nut is the remains of an ancient volcanic plug with a large, mostly flat surface that can be circumnavigated on foot, and you can ascended to the 152 meter summit either by foot or chair lift to enjoy the fantastic views there, like this one that Dave captured “while looking in a different direction from a top The Nut.”
Well, It’s Saturday and while I won’t be in Tasmania any time soon, I like my friend Dave, try to look at life from different directions to find the beauty that others fail to see, My “different view” is greatly enhanced by my covenant relationship with God, through faith Jesus, and my Christian worldview that recognizes that God is the creator and sustainer of all things and that He will determine the direction of History. When we know there is a good good father on the other side of eternity and that is active and present int the universe, we can let go of fear – when we have peace with Him through Jesus Christ – and see the beauty that surrounds us on all sides.
Well, I am in the beautiful confines of my countryside home for another weekend where I am sure to be out walking later this morning to enjoy the beauty and peace of the country farmlands in my neighborhood but will also be going to see the beauty of the Nativity story being highlighted in the new “Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night” movie later today. Heads up, next weekend is Christmas Eve on Sunday – so if you haven’t reflected on the goodness of God and gotten into the Christmas Spirit I would recommend that you do it soon if not immediately. Our joy at Christmas should not be dependent on what we find under our Christmas Tree, it should be based on who we are in Christ, and how we are rooted in Christ.
Speaking of “Rooted in Christ”, it’s the weekend and after answering an email from a YouTube viewer who was seeking relationship advice, I have decided to share Mindful of Christ’s, Lauren Roskilly’s “Word from Wednesday” this week to encourage us to be “Rooted in Christ”. Lauren bases her message on the text in Romans 11:17-22, and shared verse 11 to introduce her message.
Romans 11:17 (NLT2) says
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree.
Lauen Writes:
Rooted in Christ
You have been ‘grafted in’ to share the richness & power of God! Wow!
‘But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
“Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either.
Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.’ (Verses 18-22)
In summary, this is an awesome but humbling visual. The tree is a metaphor for our life with Christ. Apart from Him we are and can do nothing at all. But when we are rooted in Christ, we enter into salvation. With this salvation comes power, peace and strength too.
DON’T STOP TRUSTING HIM!
So, check your life, are there any areas that you’re not completely trusting God in or that you haven’t given to Christ?
If so, give them up to Him now and let Him guide you and your new growth.
Blessings
Lauren x
Thanks Lauen. So don’t stop trusting the Lord and rejoice knowing that you have been established in God’s kingdom forever but be humbled and know that the Lord wants to work on you to become more and more like Jesus, to become the person that He created you to be.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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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.
Matthew 18:15-18 (ESV)
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Today’s verses fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Church Discipline
6. Jesus gives us the procedure for church discipline.
Today’s verses show us the way the church is supposed to operate according to Jesus Himself. We are to be accountable to one another to represent the kingdom of God in righteousness and when we are sinned against we are to challenge and encourage one another to repent and if we refuse we are to take the matter to others in the church to attempt reconciliation, but if the offender refuses to repent, they are to be “loosed” from the church fellowship. Concepts like church discipline and excommunication spring from this teaching. It shows us that we are to take our faith and our sanctification seriously and the lack of church discipline in today’s churches shows how far we may have strayed as a society and as a church from what Jesus was pointing us to.
Deviations from God’s word and distortions of the gospel to allow unrepentant sin is all too common in our modern churches but God’s word is clear, and we should seek the Lord’s wisdom in how to conduct ourselves as Christians in an era where “church discipline” is seldom seen. We have to govern ourselves as disciples of Jesus and be accountable to God because the local church unfortunately doesn’t perform this duty very often these days.
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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 FIVE
World Judgment and World Redemption
When God chooses Mary as the means when God himself wants to come into the world in the manger of Bethlehem, this is not an idyllic family affair. It is instead the beginning of a complete reversal, a new ordering of all things on this earth. If we want to participate in this Advent and Christmas event, we cannot simply sit there like spectators in a theater and enjoy all the friendly pictures. Rather, we must join in the action that is taking place and be drawn into this reversal of all things ourselves. Here we too must act on the stage, for here the spectator is always a person acting in the drama. We cannot remove ourselves from the action.
With whom, then, are we acting? Pious shepherds who are on their knees? Kings who bring their gifts? What is going on here, where Mary becomes the mother of God, where God comes into the world in the lowliness of the manger? World judgment and world redemption—that is what’s happening here. And it is the Christ child in the manger himself who holds world judgment and world redemption. He pushes back the high and mighty; he overturns the thrones of the powerful; he humbles the haughty; his arm exercises power over all the high and mighty; he lifts what is lowly, and makes it great and glorious in his mercy.
Close to you I waken in the dead of night,
And start with fear—are you lost to me once more?
Is it always vainly that I seek you, you, my past?
I stretch my hands out,
and I pray—
and a new thing now I hear;
“The past will come to you once more,
and be your life’s enduring part,
through thanks and repentance.
Feel in the past God’s deliverance and goodness,
Pray him to keep you today and tomorrow.”
Poem written in Tegel prison, 1944
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
John 3:16–21[1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 42–43.
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