Ready? Your Body is Meant for the Lord – Purity 1317

Ready? Your Body is Meant for the Lord – Purity 1317

Purity 1317 04/4/2024 Purity 1317 Podcast

Purity 1317 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a dirt path dividing fields of
green under blue skies with what I suspect to be the Catskill Mountains in the distance
comes to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this scene on social media on
or around May 24^th, 2021.   If
this pathway photo is yours and you would like to let us know where this is and
what your name is, I will update the blog to give you the photo credit you so
richly deserve. 

Well, It’s Thursday and as is my habit, I share
today’s pathway photo as a visual reminder or encouragement to get on or to keep
on walking on the path of Christian Discipleship by surrendering to the Lord’s
will for your life and following where the word of God and the Holy Spirit lead
you.  

Last night, I was unexpectedly called to co-lead the
Celebrate Freedom Meeting at Starpoint Church, and even though I had little notice
it felt good to be back in the saddle again as the Lord revealed to me, through
the use of some helpful technological tools, that next Wednesday would mark the
first 100 days of 2024 and I invited the group members to press into their
faith and ask the Lord to help them to “get ready” to make a positive change or
to develop a positive habit that they could add to their life beginning next week.  The “100 days” thing came to me as I reflected
on last year’s ministry, which began on May 10^th. As I have stated
when I began leading Celebrate Freedom, I was content that, with my victories over
drugs, alcohol, and sexual addiction being continuous, I didn’t really have anything
to work on.  However, the truth is that
we are all works in progress and the Lord has plenty of things He can clean up
in your life and He will help you to overcome them, if you would just take the
problem to Him and work with Him to conquer it. 
 And last summer I had quite a lot
of “cheat days” and binges of comfort eating to convict me of my admitted “food
addiction” that I still hadn’t overcome. So on August 18^th, I surrendered
to the Lord and asked Him to help me to overcome it and I utilized the basic
tools of awareness and accountability to help me fight the good fight – to finally
actually treat my food addiction as an addiction.  And that span of time from May 10^th
to August 18^th was, guess what, that’s right 100 days…. 

So I don’t know what that means, if anything, but after
100 days of going through the motions last year, I asked God for help and made
a commitment to change, and He helped me to accomplish a breakthrough in the war
against the flesh.  We “got ‘em on the
run now” but recently have been compromising with my adherence to my food plan
and being aware of what or how much I am eating.  I have been self-correcting of course – no fall
can’t be put back on track – with keto it only takes three days – but if you
fall every week or two which I have been doing since my trip to Disney in February,
you stop making progress and just plateau.

So last night, I decided that I would press into my
faith and make some positive changes in my life to launch into a new
breakthrough for 2024 and I realized that 100 days into the year was as good as
any place to start.    And so
I encouraged others to do so.  

One of the things I started doing recently has been reading
Neil Anderson’s “Who I Am in Christ: A Devotional” to stay grounded in my
identity in Christ.  Even though I recite
the “Who I Am in Christ” list as a regular spiritual practice, I know that living
from your identity in Christ is the game changer for our walk of faith and so even
though I had some resistance to getting that book, because I “already know that”,
I have been blessed in reminding myself or learning again – more about what I
already know. 

One of the aspects of our faith walk that is often
overlooked is the role our bodies play in our faith walk and this morning I
read the following passages from Anderson’s book, that I felt moved to share.
Neil Anderson writes:    

What to Do with Your Body

The
Bible is very clear about what we are supposed to do with our physical bodies:
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of
righteousness” (Rom. 6:11–13). We don’t have to work at becoming dead to sin;
we simply accept it as being so. In Christ Jesus we are alive to God, so we are
already dead to sin.

However, we do have
the responsibility to safeguard our mortal bodies from sin and keep them from
being instruments of unrighteousness. Failing to do so would be to violate the
unity we have with the Lord and our spiritual oneness with Him. If we use our
bodies as instruments of wickedness, we will allow sin to reign, actually rule,
in our mortal bodies, and we will end up obeying its evil desires even though
we don’t have to.

Your Body Is Meant
for the Lord

Let’s
look at one of the biggest problems in the Church, which is sexual sin.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:13, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality,
but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Verse 18 says, “Flee from sexual
immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins
sexually sins against his own body.” And, I would remind you, sinning against
your own body involves sinning against the One with whom you are united.

Scripture seems to
set sexual sins in a class all by themselves. For one reason, it is impossible
to commit a sexual sin and not use your body as an instrument of
unrighteousness. The moment you do, you allow sin to reign in your mortal body.^[1]

I love how Anderson presents this fundamental truth
about our faith. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies and thus sexual
purity and “holy sex” (between a man and woman in a marriage covenant) are the
only options for our sex lives as Christians. 
When we do anything else – with others or by ourselves – we sin, and we
disrupt our harmony with God and give a foothold to the enemy to torment
us.  

I would extend this to how we steward our bodies as well.  If we eat unhealthily or eat too much, are continually
lazy, or don’t get enough sleep we are in essence “missing the mark” of the
proper care and maintenance of our bodies and in a sense are sinning against our
bodies.  And we all know this inherently –
the diet and exercise industry are built on this conviction – and thus we
should not exclude our bodies from “getting right with God” – and we should “use
our bodies as instruments of righteousness” by getting them, as much as it
depends on us,  in good physical condition.  We can’t control everything that may afflict
our flesh, but we can control what we do with them and what we put in them, and
if we determine to “crucify the flesh” and restore ourselves to good health and
ask God for help – His wisdom and guidance – He will undoubtedly bless our
efforts.  

So next Wednesday is 100 days into 2024 and let me
encourage you to pray about a way that you can give glory to God by “doing what
is right” and turning from bad habits and establishing a good one to replace
it.  

This is our walk of faith and let’s not tire of trying
to optimize our harmony with the Lord by surrendering our hearts, minds, and
bodies to become instruments of righteousness to give Him glory.

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse 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 Contentment, Coveting
& and Priorities.

Proverbs 21:26 (ESV)
²⁶  All day long he (the
sluggard) craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.

Today’s
verse falls under the twenty-seventh and final point of our counseling
reference guide resource’s section on Contentment, Coveting, and Priorities.

27. The righteous will be ready to give liberally, rather than
to be covetous.

Today’s
verse highlights the dichotomy of covetousness and giving.  Psalm 23:1 tells us that the Lord is our
shepherd and we “shall not want” (NKJV) and that means that we will not lack or
be in need, but it also can be seen as an instruction to be content – and not
be “wanting” in a covetous manner. 
Coveting is a sin and Jesus reminds us in Matthew 10:8 – that freely we
have received and thus we should freely give. 
Everything we have comes from God’s blessings and when we are in a “right
spirit with God” we won’t be “craving and craving” like the sluggard, we will
instead give and not hold back.   So look
at your heart and determine if you are “wanting” or if you are content with
what you have and are ready to give from the treasure that the Lord has given
you – both materially and spiritually. God has given us everything for life and
godliness and when we realize that we stop the cravings for things that
ultimately won’t satisfy us anyway and we can find peace.

———————————————————–

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: JOHN 9

“I must work the works of Him who
sent Me
while it is day.” – John 9:4

The true principle of all real service for God underlies
this statement of the Lord Jesus. And since He was the perfect Servant when
upon this earth, He made this principle the basis of His loyal service to God.

The Obligation of True Service. The Lord Jesus said, “I
must work.” The obligation of loving and loyal service to His Father compelled
Him to work. Yes, right from the beginning (remember the temple when He was
twelve years old?) to the end.

The Occupation of True Service. There is only one great
occupation in true service – it is doing God’s will. I must work the “works of
Him.” “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,” said the Savior (John
4:34).

The Opportunity of True Service. “While it is day.” Now is
the acceptable time … “Time is short” (1 Cor. 7:29).

I can do nothing else but serve You,
Lord, all of my days,
For it is a privilege and an honor – yes, even my duty!^[2]

—————————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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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
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship