Belonging to God – Purity 1369
Purity 1369 06/07/2024 Purity 1369 Podcast
Purity 1369 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun setting over the ocean and an unknown beach comes to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this scene on social media on or around June 6th, 2021. If this memory is yours, let us know and we will update the blog after the fact to give you the photo credit you so richly deserve.
Well, It’s Friday, Thank God and as we enter into the last day of the work week and the “last” day of my 5 day fast, I am truly thankful for my relationship with God and the fact that I have been given a new life of adventure, joy, and peace in Christ.
Last night I met with one of my life-coaching clients and I was so encouraged by his decision to set goals that should prove to draw him closer to God and to significantly improve the quality of his life, as he, even though he is in the midst of a major life transition, is choosing to increasingly seek God’s will and purpose for His life. He admittedly has been just focused on his career and physical health and realized that something was missing and I have been honored to ask to encourage and advise him as he has decided to develop His relationship with God and repent in areas of his life where he knew he was outside of God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will for His life. As a Christian, my client is realizing that he belongs to God and wants to be more authentic in his walk of faith and surrender to doing things God’s way.
I recently been watching an apologetics class by Frank Turek, who among other things stresses that Jesus didn’t tell us to go out and to make “believers” in the great commission (Matt 28:19-20) but to make “disciples” – disciplined followers and students of our Lord – “teaching them to obey everything” He commanded. Of course, as someone who offers “encouragement on the path of Christian Discipleship”, I knew this but its good to hear someone else say it because often it can feel like no one else gets this – that after we put our faith in Jesus, we belong to God and are supposed to be transformed into the people that He created us to be.
This morning I was reading The Chosen’s “Get Used to Different Student Guide” and this youth-focused devotional addressed the idea of “belonging to God” and I felt moved to share some of what they wrote because it is good teaching and is a fundamental key to our life in Christ that can easily be forgotten in our current church society’s penchant for “easy believe-ism” or as Bonhoeffer said “cheap grace”.
The Chosen Team’s authors write:
“… What does it mean to belong to God instead? Well, let’s start with what belonging to God doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean you become a religious robot, devoid of personality. And it doesn’t mean you become a religious puppet with some heavenly force pulling your strings.
Ironically, belonging to God does mean you’ve been set free. When Jesus tried to help the disciples understand this idea, he said it this way: “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8: 32). Which actually means you’re free from being a robot who mindlessly follows others. You’re free from being a puppet controlled by yourself focused drives and desires.
You are free from being enslaved by sin (John 8:34).
… Jesus doesn’t just show up, give you a hug, and then leave you alone… He’s inviting you into a way of life, a way of learning how to live with him at the center instead of you.
And it starts with admitting a couple of things: (1) your self-centered life is a dead end because living without God doesn’t get you where you truly want to go, and (2) you were created to belong to and be in relationship with God.
Of course, please add missions aren’t a magic wand that fixes everything that’s broken. Life, as you already know, is way messier than that. And changing your mind and heart from being self-focused to being God-focused (i.e., believing you belonged to him instead of yourself) takes time. In fact, throughout the New Testament we see that even the disciples didn’t get it right away – and they had Jesus right in front of them!
They didn’t automatically figure it all out when they started following him.
Neither will you. But life change begins with knowing who you belong to… and that he loves you enough to call you his own.”
(Get Used to Different Student Guide, The Chosen Team: Covington, Bennett, Hershberger, Claypool, Mallerna, Campbell, & Murdock, 2024).
I love that because it is so true. Life change begins with knowing who you belong to. When Jesus calls you to put your trust in Him, you belong to God. So keep walking and talking with Him and He will lead you out of the darkness and into a life of adventure, joy, and peace… even if life can be a pretty messy at times.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verses comes 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 Depression
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV2011)
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Today’s verses are the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the seventh point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Depression.
7. We may experience some tough situations, but we can avoid deep depression.
Today’s verses are a great encouragement for those of us who are in a dry and dusty season of affliction or who have just lost their zeal on this sometime trying path of faith through life. So life is hard. That is a given since sin came into the world after the Fall. There is pain, death, disease, and disappointments a plenty. So should we focus on that aspect of our lives? No, we should fix our eyes on what is unseen, The Lord and the fact that God’s kingdom will be fully realized as someday Jesus will come back to reclaim the earth. In the meantime, we can draw close to God through our spiritual disciplines and by the way we view life and choose to direct our thoughts and actions. When we focus on God, there is hope and we can avoid depression. The gospel is “good news” for nothing – In Christ, we are God’s beloved children, God is with us – right now, even if we can’t see Him, and one day we will be with Him in a new heaven and a new earth forever. So grin and bear the trial you face, knowing that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com 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: ROMANS 12
“You present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable service” – Romans 12:1
When the Lord Jesus spoke to the woman of Samaria, He said, “Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24); in other words, spiritually and according to truth. To worship spiritually is to worship under full control of the Holy Spirit. To worship according to truth is to worship according to the knowledge of the Truth. As to the Truth, note that there must be the unreserved presentation of the body:
A Living Sacrifice. Spiritually living, quickened from spiritual death.
A Holy Body. Separate from all defilement. Cleansed and made acceptable for worship. Thus, the apostle says, “Let a man examine himself ” (1 Cor. 11:28).
An Acceptable Body. Conformed to God’s will.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.12[1]
—————————more tomorrow————————
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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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