Stepping Out of the Boat – Purity 1266

Stepping Out of the Boat – Purity 1266

Purity 1266 02/05/2024 Purity 1266 Podcast

Purity 1266 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sunrise just below the horizon
on an otherwise cloudy and overcast morning comes to us from Tommy Mollo, a
missionary to Zambia, who shared this scene on social media back on January 25^th
upon his return to his mission field after a brief visit back to the States.  Tommy has been busy being back to work
preaching the good news of Jesus Christ at village churches and literally
building the kingdom through construction projects for congregational uses.

Well, It’s Monday and as I go back to my secular day
job, I am preoccupied with a pull in my spirit to “get out of the boat” in
ministering to the body of Christ with individualized Christian Life Coaching
and Prayer Ministry.   Although I have recently
resolved in my mind that I am content with my day job and am in no hurry to
retire or to attempt to rush into full-time ministry halfcocked,  I have increasingly felt the call to offer
myself as a Christian Life Coach to men who have difficulties in renewing their
minds and becoming the people that God created them to be and are plagued with bondages
or personal and spiritual conflicts that keep them living a life in the flesh
rather than walking in the Spirit. I have increasingly perceived the need for
solid biblical application teaching and guidance as I have noticed that my walk
into progressive freedom and victory has been an unaccompanied one. Other than
the Holy Spirit guiding me, I haven’t noticed a lot of other men or women
experiencing the transformed Christian Life I am enjoying and walking further
into.  

Admittedly, I am still growing and learning and I know
I haven’t “arrived” and won’t ever “fully arrive” in terms of sanctification
until I see Jesus face to face but I have made progress in my faith walk and I
can’t help but notice that the vast majority of the body of Christ that I
encounter seem to be stuck or haven’t even started to experience the abundant
life that Christ is calling us to experience. 
While I don’t want to be a “fruit inspector” and realize that I can’t fix
anyone or drag them into freedom or maturity, I have a heart for the broken-hearted
and those who sincerely want to change or who need emotional or spiritual
healing but don’t know who to “walk” yet. 

The author of Hebrews lamented over the “babes” in the
body of Christ who couldn’t eat the solid food of spiritual wisdom and who were
only able to drink the milk of the first principles of our faith.  

Hebrews
5:12-14 (NKJV) says
¹²  For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the
first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and
not solid food.
¹³  For everyone who partakes only
of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a
babe.
¹⁴  But solid food belongs
to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.    

While some in the body of Christ who struggle are
relatively new to faith, some who struggle in sin-confess-condemnation cycles
have been Christians for years and haven’t been set free or have grown. While
they ought to be teachers by now, they still don’t seem to either know what the
word of God says or fail to understand how it can be applied to and transform
their hearts, minds, and lives.  

While I still have trouble chewing on the tougher
portions of scriptures and seek the Lord’s wisdom always, I by “reason of use” –
through practice – have exercised my senses – my mind and body – to discern “good
and evil” in terms of the life of a Christian disciple and even though I try to
encourage people through my blog, podcast, recovery ministry at my local
church, and the volunteer work I do with Freedom in Christ ministries – I feel
that I could potentially really help individuals with “learning to walk in the
Spirit” and to help them in their journey of becoming the people God created
them to be through individualized Christin Life Coaching.  I have greatly benefited from others mentoring,
teaching, and encouraging me through the years on this path of Christian
Discipleship and really feel that the Lord is calling me to “step out of the
boat” to offer myself as a Christian Life Coach.

As I have faced delays in what I thought was the
Lord’s plan to increase my education by pursuing a doctorate in Pastoral
Counseling with Liberty University, and am still waiting to see that develops,
I have been drawn to disciple others in the Freedom in Christ course I am
leading but sense that after the course concludes in April, I am to offer my
help as a Christian Life Coach to the men I have helped, in this current course
and the ones I have led in the past, who need further assistance in their growth
or to overcome the issues that haven’t been resolved.   

And at this point, I am convinced it isn’t a
consideration of whether or not I will do this but it is more of a matter of
how I will offer my Christian Life Coaching. 
Yesterday I was researching starting a 501c3 non-profit organization for
the purpose offering Christian Discipleship/recovery education and Life
Coaching and am still fact-finding whether or not that will be the way I
operate or if I should just form an LLC. 
Arthur Cincotti recommended speaking to a lawyer we know regarding which
way to go and I think that’s wise counsel and will make inquiries to “figure it
out.”  

You know when you have a heart to follow the Lord,
He really will call you to do things you never even thought about doing and as
impossible as the call may seem when He calls you to “step out of the boat”, the
fact that His is calling you sort of makes you forget just how unprecedented or
nonconventional taking that step is, as you feel called to answer it the only
consideration is how you will do it. Do I step in with my right foot first? The
left foot? Or just jump in?   I’m not sure
which way I will enter into these uncharted waters but the burning in my heart
demands to be quenched with action and it looks like we are going in, one way
or the other.  

How? When? That’s to be determined still but “we
going” and I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there but I have a good guide in
God and I know He will never lead me astray and when He calls me, I
follow.  

So let’s get to work today and do the things that
the Lord calls us to because His ways are best and they help us to grow when we
follow where He leads.     

——————————————————————————————–

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 verse comes from the section on Communication, Gossip, and
Lying.

Proverbs 12:22 (NLT2)
²²  The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights
in those who tell the truth.

Today’s
verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the eighth point
of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Communication, Gossip, and
Lying.

8.     The Lord detests
lying.

Today’s
verse emphasizes the fact that God really hates lying. He delights in those who
tell the truth.  So -again – white lies,
half-truths, hiding in the shadows with our sin – God doesn’t want that for us
and He is not calling us to conceal anything. 
Don’t do something God hates. Don’t lie. Remember MT’s first rule of
Christian Discipleship – stop lying – God hates it and if He hates it, we don’t
do it. God delights in those who tell the truth – and because of our love for
Him and because we want to represent Him, we tell the truth.   

———————————————————–

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.

EVENING READING: MATTHEW 26

“Immediately he went up to Jesus and
said,
‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed Him.”
– Matthew 26:49

Darby renders this verse: “Hail, Rabbi, and covered him
with kisses.”²

What an antithesis this is to the picture in Luke 7:38.
There we see a woman who had been forgiven much, expressing the true love of
her heart in kissing the feet of Jesus. Covering them with kisses!

Here, in verse 49, it is not the kiss of love but the kiss
of betrayal. It is inconceivable and incredible that a man who had so lived and
learned of Christ could be capable of such an act of treachery. The only
solution is that we read, “Satan entered him [Judas]” and he went out (John
13:27, 30).

Lord, keep me from ever betraying You
with
the outward sign of love!^[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