Ascension – Choosing to Believe and Answering the "Upward Call of God”- Purity 1225

 

Ascension – Choosing to Believe and “Answering the
Upward Call of God”- Purity 1225

Purity 1224 12/19/2023 Purity 1225 Podcast

Purity 1224 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a lake and its shoreline reflected in
its waters while mist hovers above its surface comes to us from a currently
unknown FB friend, I’m guessing Fred Dimmick, who shared this photo back on or
around December 16^th of 2022. 
Whether it’s Fred or someone else, I wanted to say thank you and to
remind us of all that the things we share with one another matter, and the
things we believe in like friendship and beauty can have a major impact on the
quality of our lives.

Well, It’s Tuesday, and today is the day of testing,
and quite frankly it is a day that I wasn’t entirely sure that I would see even
though I set my intention to come to it earlier this year.

 I took the
day off from work today because I have a doctor’s appointment to pick up some
testing equipment to do a “sleep study” later this evening.  Since 2013, I have used a CPAP – sleep apnea –
machine when I sleep because I have always snored and when I complained of
falling asleep in the afternoons, a sleep study revealed that I had periodic
episodes in my sleep where I would stop breathing! The CPAP machine pumps air
into my breathing passages to prevent that. One of the causes of sleep apnea is
obesity, something I have been since childhood. However, after being diagnosed
with sleep apnea about 10 years ago, I have decided to try to lose weight to be
healthy and to possibly get off of the sleep apnea machine but my weight and
BMI (body mass index) has yo-yo-ed over the years and even though I have made
progress previously, I never got to the point that I felt I could attempt to
get rid of the sleep apnea machine.  

But this year, I decided that I would make a push to
reduce my BMI and weight – out of the Obese zone, and into the normal
zone.  In my estimation, my best guess,
if I wanted to try to get off the machine, I had to get down to 200 lbs. Even
though that was my intention early in the year I was 240 lbs. in the early
summer months and only after I got convicted about my food addiction, to treat
it like an addiction, did I finally commit myself to be accountable to a “food
addiction sponsor”, and monitor everything I ate with the my fitness pal App on
August 18^th.  Since then the
weight has come off at about a pace of 2 pounds a week.  Over the weekend I was weighing in at 198 lbs.,
after Sunday’s candy binge, this morning I’m weighing in at 203 lbs.  Now before you think I ate 5 pounds of candy,
let me assure you that my scale is terrible in terms of consistency – as I have
previously reported massive swings in its results regardless of changes in my
eating habits.  So although I was proud
to break 200 lbs., I had a feeling that the scale might change its mind, and I ‘m
not surprised to see myself back on the other side of 200lbs after my “food
relapse” on Sunday.  

But regardless of my “Christmas themed” food relapse,
I am in the best shape of my life and am hoping and praying that tonight’s
sleep study will result in my being set free from the need to sleep with a CPAP
machine.  Perhaps I should have waited
until I get to my goal weight of 185 lbs., but my DOT health certification is
due in January and it is my hope that I can get off the CPAP machine and get
re-certified for 2 years with my DOT license, rather than the one year that is
required for drivers with sleep apnea.  
So we will see!

I also decided to take the day off today in order to
get the next installment of the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course ready for
You Tube and for tomorrow night’s Celebrate Freedom Growth Group meeting.  The topic is “Ascension” – what I have decided
to call making the decision to pursue progressive sanctification by faith- the decision
to fight the next battle after one has experienced victory as a natural outflow
of life in the Spirit.  Time is short and
the lesson I prepared in 2020 is long and I am currently in the process of
making massive edits to get it to “growth group” size – which is 5 pages, and
so I am trying to flesh out what have been the keys of my progressive victories
over first alcohol and drugs in 2015, then sexual addiction since 2018, and now
food addiction in 2023. 

I’m not sure how the lesson will look in its final
form, as I will be working on and completing it today, but in considering my walk
and journey toward freedom, the thing that I have determined is fundamental to
victorious Christian living, is faith – surprise! Just as we are saved through
faith alone, we are also transformed through faith – although with winning
victories over the things that kept us in bondage – it must be accompanied by
volitional choices and our actions – which are driven by our faith – our decision
to believe.  

As simple as it may sound that faith is the answer,
the decision to choose to believe is far reaching as it applies to all the truth
in God’s word.  In order for our faith to
bear the fruit of the Spirit we must choose to believe:  

·       God is with us, cares about us, loves us, and will
help us.

·       We have been given a new life and freedom already.

·       The word of God is true and true for us specifically.

·       Nothing is impossible with God.

·       The ways of the world are corrupted by man or the spiritual
forces of darkness. 

Now before you get the idea that overcoming and
experiencing life in the spirit is just a matter of positive affirmations, let
me assure you that its not that simple – The Christian has been given two
things that set them apart from anyone else – the Holy Spirit and the mind of
Christ. 

1 Corinthians 2:12,14, 16 (NLT2) tells
us
¹²  And we have received
God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful
things God has freely given us. ¹⁴  But
people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It
all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are
spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. … ¹⁶
 ….But we understand these things, for we have the mind of
Christ.

This passage highlights the unique gift
that the Christian has been given because of His faith in Christ – we have the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to help us to :know the wonderful things
of God – and not just intellectually – experientially – and the “mind of Christ”
to “understand what the Spirit means”. “Understanding” is beyond intellectual knowledge
and is demonstrated with “practice”.  It’s
one thing to know what something is- like a screwdriver -, it’s another thing
to show our understanding by using it properly.

So we don’t just know those things that
we “choose to believe” – we understand them – by choosing to live by them.

Knowing God loves us “intellectually”
vs. experiencing and understanding God’s love, presence, and care is qualitatively
different. 

Knowing about our identity in Christ intellectually
vs. experiencing life through the context of who we are in Christ is different.  

And the idea of “ascension” is answering
what Paul calls the “upward call of God” on our life.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV)
¹³  Brethren, I do not count
myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
¹⁴  I press toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The idea of ascension is to keep pressing forward to know
God more and to be conformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ –
to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and through the power of the Holy
Spirit who operates in us through faith. 
We choose to believe that God is with us and surrender ourselves to
continuously following His call on our lives.  

When we choose to believe God’s word and that He is with us
and helping us, amazing things can happen and our lives go from bondage to the
things of this world and the negative emotions that accompany circumstantial
living to freedom to enjoy the good things God has already given us and the feelings
of joy, peace, and love that flow into our lives when we walk in the
Spirit. 

So choose to believe the Lord and follow Him into the upward
call of ascension on your life.

——————————————————————————————–

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.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (ESV)
¹  It is actually reported
that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated
even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
²  And you are arrogant! Ought
you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
³  For though absent in body,
I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment
on the one who did such a thing.
⁴  When you are assembled in
the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord
Jesus,
⁵  you are to deliver this man
to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord.
⁶  Your boasting is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
⁷  Cleanse out the old leaven
that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
⁸  Let us therefore celebrate
the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
⁹  I wrote to you in my letter
not to associate with sexually immoral people—
¹⁰  not at all meaning the
sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters,
since then you would need to go out of the world.
¹¹  But now I am writing to
you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty
of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or
swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
¹²  For what have I to do with
judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
¹³  God judges those outside.
“Purge the evil person from among you.”

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

8. Purge out the old leaven.

Today’s verses encourage
Christians to not allow the sexually immoral who claim to be Christians to be
within their fellowship.  This passage of
scripture is extremely challenging for our modern society as sexual immorality is
rampant and our sexual mores have continued to slide into liberalism but the
idea behind the church discipline that Paul is pointing to is that “true Christians”
within the church should practice sexual purity and be encouraged to repent
when they don’t. We shouldn’t be proud that we have sexually immoral people in
our churches so God’s grace and forgiveness should abound, we should exhort
them to repent and expel those who don’t from the assembly of the church with
the hope that they would turn from their sexual sins in order to be allowed
back into the church.  That’s what Paul
means in surrendering them to Satan, that the negative consequences of their
sins would cause them to repent and follow the Lord with the way they live,
instead of being a mockery of what Christians are supposed to be – set free and
holy – of light, not of darkness.  

——————————————————————–

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
SEVEN

God Does
Not Want to Frighten People

The Bible never wants to make us fearful. God does not want people to
be afraid—not even of the last judgment. Rather, he wants to let human beings
know everything, so that they will know all about life and its meaning. He lets
people know even today, so that they may already live their lives openly and in
the light of the last judgment. He lets us know solely for one reason: so that
we may find the way to Jesus Christ, so that we may turn away from our evil way
and try to find him, Jesus Christ. God does not want to frighten people. He
sends us the word of judgment only so that we will reach all the more
passionately, all the more avidly, for the promise of grace, so that we will
know that we cannot prevail before God on our own strength, that before him we
would have to pass away, but that in spite of everything he does not want our
death, but our life.… Christ judges, that is, grace is judge and forgiveness
and love—whoever clings to it is already set free.

Repentance means
turning away from one’s own work to the mercy of God. The whole Bible calls to
us and cheers us: Turn back, turn back! Return—where to? To the everlasting
grace of God, who does not leave us.… God will be merciful—so come, judgment
day! Lord Jesus, make us ready. We rejoice. Amen.

Bonhoeffer’s sermon for Repentance

Sunday, November 19, 1933

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Matthew
4:17^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

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Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship