“Faith Moments” Appreciated and Shared – Purity 1428
Purity 1428 08/15/2024 Purity 1428 Audio Podcast
Purity 1428 on YouTube:
Good morning, as I
Today’s photo of the sun setting over the partially frozen waters of the Schodack Creek and the salt-encrusted surface of State Route 9J comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene back on January 8th, 2021.
Well, It’s Thursday and I am sharing this photo of a sideways view of an asphalt pathway as a reminder to all my friends to look around and to appreciate where you are right now on your journey through life and, as always, as a visual encouragement to get on our to stay on the path of Christian discipleship.
Last night, I had the privilege of leading the Celebrate Freedom Support Group at Starpoint Church and was reminded of how God will arrange the events of our lives to speak to us. With the 2024’s second half, I have returned to the role of leading the meeting with an explanation of the “ABC’s of Celebrate Freedom”, doing the worship, and distributing the evening’s lesson as a group presentation. Just like a “table read” in show business, our lesson is passed out to all the attendees and together we share the information and encouragement of the lesson as a group effort. We pass out the parts randomly but even though there is no planning done on our part, we have seen the Lord working behind the scenes in these “growth group style” presentations to show us that, with a sovereign God controlling all things, there are no coincidences.
During last night’s “table read”, we saw the Lord speak to our newest members as they read the “Sanity” Lesson’s section on Integrity – they had to stop and ask, “Did you give me this on purpose?”
The lesson stated:
“Remember, a half-truth is a whole lie, and a lie is a result of weakness and fear. Truth fears nothing – nothing but concealment! The truth often hurts. But it’s the lie that leaves the scars.
A man or woman of integrity and courage is not afraid to tell the truth. And that courage comes from a power greater than ourselves – Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.”
It then shared.
Ephesians 4:25 (TLB) which tells us
25 Stop lying to each other; tell the truth, for we are parts of each other and when we lie to each other we are hurting ourselves.””
This person was highly convicted by the lesson because dishonesty and living in the shadows played a large role in why they had joined our support group. Only minutes before we began the lesson, this person shared about their current relational difficulties that were a product of their sharing half-truths and hiding their destructive habit from their loved ones.
And now the words of the lesson, and the word of God, were “telling them” to be a person of integrity as they were instructing us to do the same. That’s God. That’s how He moves – He puts signposts along your pathway to tell you which way to go and when you turn to follow Him, the directions to a righteous life become clearer and clearer.
Of course, we commented on this and had to point out that this was really happening – this was a sign of God’s presence in this person’s life. I didn’t have to speak in detail about this because Scott Salvadore, who joined our ministry team last year, confirmed that this “little coincidence” has happened in our group time and time again. Scott has not only led in our group, he, like myself, has also learned and grown as he has increasingly walked in the Spirit.
Just before this interaction, Scott bore witness to how the Lord removed roadblocks and opened doors in the process of buying his first home – how God made a way when there was “no way”. So Scott can recognize God’s handiwork and when we both saw it happening in this new member’s life – we both had to confirm that this was the Lord moving things again.
Somewhere in last night’s meeting, I encouraged everyone to appreciate one another’s presence at the group – because the C in the A,B,C’s of Celebrate Freedom is about “Connections” – with God – of course – but also with one another, and here we were appreciating one another’s presence to share how the Lord was active in our lives. Scott’s house closing story and this new person’s conviction with the lesson are good “faith moments” but they are made that much greater – in purpose and meaning – when we share them with one another. We are not only giving God credit where credit is due, like we should, when we share these experiences, we are also encouraging one another – “God moved in their life, maybe He will move in mine.” And beyond the encouragement, we are drawing closer to one another relationally through our shared experiences.
One of the things I try to tell every attendee of our Celebrate Freedom meetings is “I’m happy to see you” – because I am, it’s to have a ministry that people show up to, – but more than that I am happy to get to know them and to be able to see how God will work in their lives. This is rare in life – having faithful friends to walk through life with – and so I try to encourage people to keep coming because the only thing we can know for sure when it comes to our relationships on earth is that they will end.
I did Celebrate Freedom for 5 years at my old church – and had some thrilling moments of seeing God move through those meetings and met some people that I deeply cared for – and still do – but time moved – and at the end of 2020 Celebrate Freedom dwindled to the point that I started a CFM instead – Called “Community Freedom” – the name didn’t really sing but that’s what I wanted to stress – community and freedom – and one of director of the AV team sort of dubbed my CFM that and thus we did 2021 as Community Freedom – and although that started strong – it dwindled down to a few faithful participants – one of which was TammyLyn – who came from an hour away – and who agreed to marry me on January 1st of 2022. Time moves – God moves it – and we should really appreciate where we are now because believe me when I tell you, we have no idea where God will take you when you start walking and talking with Him.
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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 verse 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 the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
Psalm 103:8-12 (NKJV)
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Today’s verses fall under the seventh point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
7. How great is God’s forgiveness!
Today’s verses remind us that “we had it coming!”
Here David acknowledges that we really should have been punished for our iniquities but he is rejoicing because God in His great love and mercy for us has forgiven us and removed our transgressions “As far as the east is from the west”. That’s good news!
And for us, God made His mercy even clearer as He has revealed to us the truth of Jesus Christ. God’s mercy and love wasn’t clear enough and He sent Jesus to show us the way to be forgiven and free.
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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: 1 THESSALONIANS 5
“Putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a
helmet the hope of salvation.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:8
Faith, love, and hope are the three principles that govern the Christian Church as a whole, the Church locally, and the individual believer’s life. In this verse, these principles are seen working in the realm of spiritual warfare. The other two realms in which they work are the walk of the Christian and the work of the Christian.
The Breastplate. This portion of the armor of God (Eph. 6:14) protects the seat of those vitals in the spiritual life: faith and love. Faith is the living link between God and the believer. Love is the dynamic governing power in his life. The breastplate protects these in battle.
The Helmet. This protects the head (Eph. 6:17) which is the seat of the mind and thoughts – hope. Where there is no hope, there is no experience of salvation.
Help me to daily don this armor, Lord,
as well as teach others to do the same.[1]
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“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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