Suddenly Called to Seek Wisdom – Purity 1244

 

Suddenly Called to Seek Wisdom – Purity 1244

Purity 1244 01/10/2024 Purity 1244 Podcast

Purity 1244 on YouTube: Coming Soon!

Good morning,

Today’s photo of farmland and a red barn with
forests and mountains in the background comes to us from Fred Dimmick who
shared this pastural scene on social media along with the following poem: 

“Life on the farm, Sure is good.

Milking cows And stacking wood.

Early to bed, Up before sunrise

Crawfish dinner, Fried apple pies.

A moonshine jug, With spoons in hand

Add Uncle Ernie ‘n,  you’ve got a band.

Swimming in the creek, And baling hay

Just wouldn’t have it, Any other way.”

While my moonshine days are over, I can appreciate Fred’s
appreciation for the simple and peaceful life in farm country. While I have no
desire to work on a farm, I am currently at my countryside home in Easton and
love the surrounding fields and watching the cycles of sowing and harvesting
play out throughout the year.  Life on
the farm has seasons and although it is unknown what the yield will be when they
sow their seeds, farmers are confident in God’s provision to produce new
growth.  

Well, It’s Wednesday and I figured the mountains in
the background of Fred’s pastural scene were more than adequate to visually
represent our arrival at “hump day” and as it turns out the farmland motif is
also oddly appropriate this morning as the Lord has a supernaturally “sown a
seed” in my spirit that caused me to something I didn’t anticipate doing and if
I allow it to develop will undoubtedly cause me to grow.  

When you walk in the Spirit, you really don’t know “what’s
next” in terms of where the Lord is going to send you. Sometimes you get a
stirring in your spirit that naggingly directs your thoughts in a certain
direction and after a while you encounter things that cause you to understand
what those thoughts were about, and you pursue the path that the Lord was
guiding you to. At other times, things happen suddenly, where you get a thought
and a sharp quick conviction to “go there” and you are compelled to follow the
call immediately – do this, do that, pray for the guy, run.

And this morning, I had that happen.  I received an email from Ligonier Ministries
about a conference that’s happening in a couple of weeks, in Florida, which I can’t
go to and quickly dismissed, but within the same email there was a link to
Reformation Bible College which caught my interest.  I clicked on it to discover that their
program offers undergraduate degrees in Biblical studies, and again, I
dismissed it as not being applicable to my situation – I have a Bachelor’s in  Bible Studies already – thank you very
much.  I have a Master’s in Christian Counseling…
the next step for me would be to get my doctorate… And suddenly, call it clickbait
or the leading of the Holy Spirit, I found myself googling doctoral programs in
Christian Counseling and applied to Liberty University to get a doctorate in
pastoral counseling. 

Currently, my plate is full to the brim for the next
few months with ministry and training in discipleship counseling, but as I
looked at the information about Liberty University’s program, I was convicted
that “this was it” – this is my “What’s Next” and while I will try to be wise
in when I decided to officially begin this next phase of my journey of faith, I
feel that this is what the Lord has for me to do.  Where it will lead, I have no idea, but I’m going,
and honestly, while I had some mild resistance to “having to get another degree”,
it’s the natural next step for the path I have been following.   And I knew that –  getting your doctorate follows getting your master’s
– but I didn’t want to push my own agenda or to satisfy my tendency to seek validation
with credentials, but this morning I got a stirring in my spirit that is
telling me that this is the time – this is what’s next and it will define a big
part of my future.  So, Mama Mia, here we
go again – Holy Spirit – how can I resist you? I can’t.

Ironically, my own words are coming back to haunt me
as I just encouraged someone to pursue theological education on Monday
evening.  One of the men in the Freedom In
Christ Course that I lead online, asked me whether or not he should go to Bible
college and while I understand that we don’t need a degree to serve God’s
kingdom, I had to encourage this young man to really consider going to Bible
college and getting a degree because – it would not only give him the
educational credentials that some ministry jobs could require and legitimize
the seriousness of his decision to follow and seek the Lord, but it would also challenge
him to learn things to be equipped in areas that he would never pursue
independently. 

We don’t know what we don’t know. On our own, we don’t
even know where to look and as Christians, we have been blessed with the body
of Christ and the men and women who have gone before us – the saints – who can
show us the way and teach us the things that impacted their walk of faith.   That’s why I blog – because I was lost and
got found – I was ignorant, and I learned – I was a slave and I got free – I didn’t
know a life of Christian Discipleship was valuable or even possible and I
discovered it is.  So, I tell people to
seek the Lord – to seek His wisdom and ways – and a lot of that can be shown to
you as you pursue and obtain a Christian education – so I guess I will be
taking my own advice and challenging myself with pursuing the highest level of an
educational degree I can get – a doctorate. 
Mama Mia, here we go again. 

So let me encourage you, It is never too late to
learn something new and if it involves seeking to know and serve the Lord more,
it’s a pursuit that is righteous and holy – so go for it. And in the meantime,
keep on walking and talking with God, because I know that the more you do that,
the more you will hear His voice and eventually you’ll receive His guidance to
show you “what’s next.”

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verses come 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 Comfort.

Romans 11:33-36 (NLT2)
³³  Oh, how great are God’s
riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his
decisions and his ways!
³⁴  For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to
give him advice?
³⁵  And who has given him so
much that he needs to pay it back?
³⁶  For everything comes from
him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him
forever! Amen.

Today’s
verses fall under the 14th point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Comfort.

14. God directs all things by
his infinite wisdom and his ways are beyond tracing out.

 

Today’s verses tell us of
how great God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are and marvels over how He has
created all things and they are intended for His glory.   So we should pursue the riches of His wisdom
and knowledge and even though this passage indicates that we can not know the Lord’s
thoughts and ways perfectly. But God has revealed Himself through His word and
His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so we can study the Bible and learn
from Jesus’s teachings and example to impart some of the Lord’s wisdom to us and
let it use us to give God glory.  

 

Two of the disciplines of
a disciple of Jesus Christ is regular Bible study and meditation and they are
valuable for helping us to become the people God created us to be because they
allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and fill our hearts with God’s wisdom
and ways.  So let’s seek God’s riches
every day. 

——————————————————————–

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 continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.

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

MORNING READING: MATTHEW 3

“It is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.”
– Matthew 3:15

The word “righteousness” here means “rightness” or
“justice.” The standard of the Lord Jesus Christ (right through His life) was
to fulfill right. At twelve years of age, He is heard to say, “Did you not know
that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). When He uttered the
words here in Matthew, the Lord Jesus was just about to step out on His three
and half years of public ministry and His standard was still the fulfilling of
righteousness (the will of God).

A little later on, He says, “My food is to do the will of
Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). Then, towards the end, “I
have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). Then
finally, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He fulfilled “all righteousness.” But
notice also, He says, “It is fitting for us.” Surely, this is what the apostle
directs when he writes, “Walk worthy [becomingly] of the calling with which you
were called” (Eph. 4:1).

 Lord, help me to walk worthily, that I might fulfill all righteousness.^[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