Draw Near to God and He Will Draw Near to You – Purity 1324

Draw Near to God and He Will Draw Near to You – Purity
1324

Purity 1324 04/12/2024 Purity 1324 Podcast

Purity 1324 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a Canadian goose on the shores of a
tranquil lake at the early hours of sunrise or the late hours of sunset comes
to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this photo on social media on or around
May 15^th, 2021. If this magic moment was yours, give me a heads up
and I will update the blog to photo-credit you after the fact. 

Well, It’s Friday, and as I enter into the last “workday”
off on my week’s staycation down by the River, I am thankful for the
opportunity to find rest and to be restored after a busy “Freedom in Christ”
season.  Last night  I met with Sue Huber, FICM’s national course coordinator
and other online course facilitators to debrief and to celebrate another round
of discipleship courses that led our students to know who they are in Christ
and to experience for the first time, or to increase, their freedom in Christ
as our ministry is discipleship (teaching people what we believe, why we
believe it, and applying it to their lives), repentance (actually turning from
our behaviors and beliefs that are contrary to God’s word and will for our
lives) and of reconciliation (where we confess our sins, accept God’s
forgiveness, and forgive those who have sinned against us).  Sue Huber perhaps said it best last night as
one of her concluding statements was “Our ministry is the gospel”.   

All we do as course facilitators is to lead people
to understand it, to choose to believe it, and to let it work in their lives by
going to the Lord in prayer and resolving all the areas of personal and
spiritual conflicts that have been keeping them from living the gospel. Our
faith in Christ should change us. It should give us peace and joy and when we
get real with God and surrender to His will and ways for our lives, we can
experience it. 

Even though this “Freedom Season”, has presented
some real challenges to my sense of peace and joy at times and made a week’s “staycation”
absolutely necessary, I am rejoicing over the work that has been done and the
rest I have enjoyed over the last few days. 
Peace and joy are never far from those who know who they are in Christ
and who keep on walking and talking with God. 

James 4:8-10 (NKJV) tells us to
⁸  Draw near to God and He
will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and
purify your hearts, you double-minded.
⁹  Lament and mourn and weep!
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
¹⁰  Humble yourselves in
the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.       

I know, we love to cherry-pick the “good sentiments”
from these verses and exclude the ones that chastise us – but in order to be lifted
up by the Lord – we must be cleansed, purify our heats, change our double minds,
lament, mourn, and weep over our sins – to be woken up from the world’s sinful
hilarity and to see we have gone astray. We must repent… and then the Lord can
lift us up to new heights of joy and peace that come from being reconciled to
the Lord and living in harmony with Him.

In the freedom appointments I have conducted over
the last month, I watched men humble themselves and lament over the sins of their
pasts but at the end, they reported having a “quiet mind” and a new sense of
peace that only comes from the Lord when you draw close to Him and He lifts you
up in freedom. 

These men “got real” before the Lord and they walked
away with a real sense of freedom – because their reconciliation with God and
their healing is real and they can enjoy it for the rest of their lives if they
simply agree to choose to believe it, tell others all about it, and keep on
walking and talking with God. 

——————————————————————————————–

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 verses come from the section on Death and Eternal Life

Revelation 14:13 (ESV)
¹³  And I heard a voice from
heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now
on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors,
for their deeds follow them!”

Today’s
verse fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Death
and Eternal Life.  

6. Those who die in the Lord are blessed.

Today’s
verse tells us the those who die in the Lord really can rest in peace – we may
rest from our labors for our “deeds follow them” – meaning that the good work
we do for God’s kingdom will not be forgotten or lost at the hour of our
deaths- they will follow us into eternity and be rewarded.  

Some
Christians hesitate to read Revelation because of the apocalyptic end time scenes
that tell us of the great tribulation that is to come but as today’s verse
challenges us to understand, we need not fear death for we who are “in the Lord”
– in Christ –  are not cursed – but are
blessed at the hour of our death.  We don’t
need to ask Mary to pray for “us sinners” now or at the hour of our death
because we are forgiven and free in life, and blessed when we die physically
because we will live spiritually and receive glorified bodies just like Jesus’s
resurrected body when we are called into eternity.

———————————————————–

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: JOHN 16

“Whoever kills you will think that he offers God
service.”
– John 16:2

Here is certainly
a sad state of spiritual affairs. There is coming a time, and in fact in some
places it has already come, when the departure from truth shall be such that
men who will not accept the real Truth will persecute and kill the very
servants of God. Of course, this primarily applies to the time when the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel and our Lord, will be set up in
the temple at Jerusalem, and the great tribulation shall take place. But even
now, it is possible to be so misunderstood by those who profess to bear the
truth, as to provoke hatred and persecution.

Enable me to stand for You, whatever the odds.
Amen.^[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

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
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,
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship