Progress not Perfection – 40 Day Journey with Martin
Luther – Day 20 – Purity 1293
Purity 1293 03/07/2024 Purity 1293 Podcast
Purity 1293 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun peaking over a blue sky
horizon over a green meadow bathed in light and shadows comes to us from an unknown
FB friend who shared this scene on social media back on or around April 21, 2021.
I believe this is a scene from somewhere in the Catskill mountains area of
Green County and if this beauty is yours let me know and I will give photo
credit where photo credit is due by updating the blog after the fact.
Well, It’s Thursday, and I share this sunlit pathway
of green grass as a visual reminder to get out there and enjoy your life and to
find the peace and joy that is available through Christ alone and by following
His lead through life.
Yesterday, the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group met
last night at Starpoint church and I was happy to see some faces I hadn’t seen
in a while and glad to be a part of the ministry because we give people a place
to come to when they realize they have strayed from the path that God would
have them follow. More than one testimony
spoke of the suffering that comes from doing life without God and the peace
that results from turning back to Him and coming home.
One person testified that they were asked by their
significant other why they bothered going to our group at all since they were struggling
and sometimes miserable in their recovery, (believe me I wondered the same
thing at times) but I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged to hear them say
that our group is helping them – that even though their recovery has been a
series of successes and failures, this person reported that their current state
was SO much better than when they first started coming last year. They reported that they were currently clean
and sober and believed that they were making progress.
And that’s what our Christian walk of faith is all
about, progress not perfection. We are
seeking the Lord and asking for His help and sometimes that comes little by
little, bit by bit, one day at a time.
We celebrate our freedom today and seek to increase it by adding today
as another day free tomorrow. Progress not perfection, one day at a time,
following the Lord’s will for our lives, is the way we get free and the way we experience
the abundant life of peace, joy, love, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness,
patience, and self-control that comes from walking in the Spirit.
And so we take another step on the path of Christian
discipleship to experience that life and
move us through the season of Lent.
It’s the twentieth day of Lent and so we continue my
personal walkthrough of Gracia Grindal’s 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther
to observe and celebrate the Lenten season.
In this walkthrough of Grindal’s devotional, it is our hope that we will get to know
Martin Luther a little better as we seek to draw closer to the Lord on our
journey to Resurrection Sunday – Easter.
And so we continue.
“Journey
Day 20
And I
believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
died, and was buried; He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again;
He ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of God, the almighty Father,
from where He will come to judge the living and the dead.
When
we were created by God the Father and had received from Him all kinds of good
things, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all
misfortune. As a result, we lay under God’s wrath and displeasure, sentenced to
eternal damnation, as we have merited it and deserved it. There was no counsel,
no help, no comfort for us until this only and eternal Son of God, in His
unfathomable goodness, had mercy on us because of our misery and distress and
came from heaven to help us. Those tyrants and jailers have now been routed,
and their place has been taken by Jesus Christ, the Lord of life,
righteousness, and every good and blessing. He has snatched us, poor lost
creatures, from the jaws of hell, won us, made us free, and restored us to the Father’s
favor and grace. As His own possession He has taken us under His protection and
shelter, in order that He may rule us by his righteousness, wisdom, power,
life, and blessedness.
Biblical Wisdom
God
proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be
saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been
reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Romans 5: 8-10.
Silence for Meditation.
Questions to Ponder
· Note
the very strong sense of conflict between good and evil, Christ and the devil,
in Luther. Where do you think the human being is in this battle? If you have a
hymnal with you, read and meditate on Luther’s A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
The human
being is at the center of a battle between the Lord and the devil. Christ calls us to come to Him and be saved. The
enemy seeks to kill us and leads us to into temptation and sin. Even after we are saved, the enemy seeks to
neutralize us through doubts and sin to keep us in bondage to prevent us from working
for the kingdom. As “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” states –
“For
still our ancient foe, Doth seek to work us woe…”. The enemy is trying to bring
us down, but when we trust in Christ we can have victory over Satan. But we must believe in, abide in, and follow
Jesus to be victorious, as the song says, “He must win the battle”.
· What
kind of freedom do we receive from Christ’s victory? How is this worked out in
our daily lives?
We have been given freedom over sin and death (Romans
8:2) and when we know this and live according to it (or work it out in our
daily lives) we experience a life of increasing victory over sin as we are
progressively sanctified and one of joy and hope knowing that death has lost
its sting – there is nothing to fear for we are safe in Christ, forever.
· What
does it mean to say that Christ rules us by “righteousness, wisdom, power, life
and blessedness”?
Those are attributes of God – that’s who Jesus is –
and so it makes sense that he would rule by “righteousness, wisdom, power, life
and blessedness” and when we are obedient to His rule over our lives that what
we experience too!
Psalm Fragment
Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits- who forgives all your
iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who
crowns you with steadfast love and mercy…Psalm 103:2-4.
Journal Reflections
· Meditate
on the struggle between good and evil, Christ and the devil, in your own life.
Does it seem real to you? Do you sense it daily? How?
Yes, the battle is real. Besides the occasional demonic
nightmare, there is a fairly steady campaign from the enemy to draw me into
temptation to indulge the flesh or to just be condemned into despair. It seems really to me, and I can sense it
daily by looking at the world’s confusion and sin around me. The state of the
world and the suffering of those not following Christ makes the enemy and his
world system very easy to see.
· Journal
about the ways in which public worship and private devotion reassure you of Christ’s
victory and empower you to live in the freedom Christ gives.
Public
worship and private devotions remind me of the goodness of God and of who I am
in Christ. Through the proclamation of the truth of the word of God I am
assured of Christ’s victory, and it empowers me to live in the freedom He gives
us.
· Write
about the ways in which you experience Christ’s power and presence in moments
of weakness, failure, fear, or doubt. Is there anything you might do to better
avail yourself of Christ’s power and presence at all times?
When I am
feeling weak, fearful, or have moments of failure or doubt, I remind myself
that I have been born again and I have put my trust in Jesus as my Lord and Savior,
and it is HE who defines me! The best way to avail ourselves of Christ’s power
and presence at all times is to “walk in the Spirit” and to abide in Christ –
where you are literally walking and talking with God throughout your day. When
we stay in His presence we receive the Lord’s power and peace!
Prayers for the Life of Faith
Pray
that you may claim daily the victory of Jesus over “sin, death, and the devil,”
and that you may help those around you to hear the good news that in Christ
there is hope and victory.
Lord, I thank You that I can claim Your victory over
sin, death, and the devil, because I have put my faith in You. Help me to help others around me to know that
there is hope and victory in Christ alone! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Prayer For Today
Lord
Jesus, I thank you for all your many blessings to me. Help me to claim your
promises all through the day today no matter the difficulties I may face.
Amen.
(Gracia M. Grindal. 40-day
Journey With Martin Luther. Kindle Edition.
(We encourage you to purchase Grindal’s book and
take the 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther for yourself by purchasing Grindal’s
book wherever books are sold. You can find it online at many different sites
and purchase it new, used – paper or electronic for less than $15.00).
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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 Contentment, Coveting
& and Priorities.
Luke 12:16-21 (ESV)
16 And he told them a
parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced
plentifully,
17 and
he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
18 And
he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and
there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And
I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years;
relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’
20 But
God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things
you have prepared, whose will they be?’
21 So
is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
(The rich fool stored up things for himself but was not
rich toward God, so his life was demanded of him.)
Today’s
verses fall under the seventh point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Contentment, Coveting, and Priorities.
7. The parable of the rich fool teaches that life is more than
material riches.
Today’s
verse reminds us that money can’t buy us a place in heaven and that trusting in
the riches of this world is foolish. Man
is capable of great things through hard work and intelligence, but we are fools
to think that “this earth and this life is all there is”. As the lent slogan from
Genesis 3:19 (NKJV) says
19 … For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
And so we should realize that we will
die someday, and our possessions will be left behind and we will face God. Our
riches can’t save us, only Jesus can – and it is the Lord Jesus Himself who
tells us this. So don’t trust in
material riches, trust in Him who can give you the rich life of peace that
comes from walking in the Spirit and life forever more in God’s kingdom.
———————————————————–
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: LUKE 9
“Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid
him, for he who is not
against us is on our side.’” – Luke 9:50
John had seen one casting out devils in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and just because he did not recognize this man to be a disciple (or
one who followed with the twelve), he forbade him. John said distinctly,
“Because he does not follow with us” (Luke 9:48, emphasis mine). He did not
seem to realize that a person could be a sincere follower of the Lord Jesus,
without necessarily being outwardly associated with the disciples.
The Lord
Jesus, however, said, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on
our side.” He could look at the heart, while John merely looked at the outward
appearance. The Lord was satisfied; John was not. Jesus did not condemn the
man, but John did. O, how simple it is to condemn fellow Christians just
because they do not follow us.
Lord, help me to be able to
comprehend with all saints,
what is the length and breadth of Your 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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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
[1]
Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional
Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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