Quieting and an Epiphany about The Long Haul – Purity 1462
Purity 1462 09/27/2024 Purity 1462 Audio Podcast
Purity 1462 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Well, it’s Friday, and as the sun sets on another workweek, I am happy to hear that the forecast is rain free and I am looking forward to the end of the workday because I will be reunited with my beloved wife, TammyLyn, at our countryside home later today.
Yesterday, I had to work in the rain and had a couple of jobs that really tested my patience and my emotional resilience because the circumstances I met tempted me to question and complain about the work I had to do, in the rain no less, in the rain! Yeah a bad situation gets a little bit worse in inclement weather and if we give into the grumbling, the enemy will be there to pull us into anger and quite possibly sin. If you have ever seen videos of people doing something destructive at work out of frustration, you know what I am talking about. Stress and frustration over our work can cause us to do something that could mean the loss of our jobs or cause us to take our frustrations out on the ones we love at home, so we have to remember to make a regular practice of “taking a pause” or “quieting” to be able to find a moments peace that will prevent us from doing something regrettable and make us more emotionally resilient.
The frustrations I met yesterday were not unique so even though I had a couple of situations that caused me to shake to my head and question why it had to be this way, I took a deep breath, still myself, and just focus on getting it done. Thanks to years of walking in the spirit, practicing gratitude, appreciation, and quieting, and grounding myself in God’s word, I am more resilient at finding peace in the storms I face.
I have walked through many a trial over the last 14 years since being born again and when I look back at some of the situations I had to go through I thank the Lord for giving me the wisdom and endurance to make it through. With God, we can endure, we can succeed, and we can have peace and joy regardless of the things we face.
The Turning Point with David Jeremiah devotion for today touches on the subject of endurance, in a way, and it inspired the latter half of today’s message so I am sharing it on the blog today to instruct and encourage us all. David Jeremiah writes:
Until He Appears
Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. – Titus 2:13
“Epiphany is the English rendering of the Greek epiphaneia, meaning “appearance or manifestation.” In Western Christendom, Epiphany commemorates the coming of the Magi—Christ’s first “appearance” to the Gentile world. In the East, Epiphany celebrates the baptism of Jesus, also commemorating His appearance at the beginning of His public ministry.
Paul uses epiphany to refer to the first appearance of Jesus (Titus 2:11), but more often to refer to His Second Coming as in Titus 2:13. And he connects the two: The grace of God that appeared with Christ is the grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live “soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” as we wait for His “glorious appearing” at the end of the age (Titus 2:12-13). Christ’s first appearing revealed the grace that teaches us how to live until He appears the second time.
We are saved by grace to be “zealous for good works” until the appearance of our Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:14).” – David Jeremiah
“I cannot think of even one lonely passage in the New Testament which speaks of Christ’s revelation, manifestation, appearing or coming that is not directly linked with moral conduct, faith and spiritual holiness.” – A. W. Tozer
Epiphany is one of those terms that primarily refers to Jesus’ coming but in that context is something that most of us don’t really know – (so thank you, David Jeremiah, for the clarity).
Most of us know epiphany to mean “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure” which I hope today’s message will bring.
When we come to faith and seek to be more like Christ, we may repent of our sins or go into recovery but the world, the flesh, and the devil will seek to lure us back into sin and bondage.
If we decide to follow Jesus, we will all come to a crossroads in our faith walk where the enemy will ask us “Are we done yet? Can’t we just go back to how we used to live? How long do we have to do this?”
Well, today’s message from David Jeremiah tells us how long: until Jesus comes back or until we see Him at the hour of our death.
Christ gives us a new and eternal life and when we decide to follow Him it is supposed to be for the long haul. There is no quitting. There is no stopping. And there is no going back.
For me in my recovery, I grabbed a hold of Jesus’ words in Matthew 26:29 to inspire my sobriety, where He said:
“Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” – NLT
So while the world, the flesh, and the devil would try to sway me to “just have one drink, surely you can do that”, I was able to tell them no because I knew the truth that it was poison for me here on earth – my addictive nature doesn’t allow for it because I would always fall into drunkenness eventually when I left that door open, and because I didn’t want to let anything control me or to get in the way of my relationship with God. And so I would tell the enemy or my flesh that that if I ever drink again it would be in God’s kingdom where there would be no sin.
The enemy will tempt me occasionally with booze but for the most part, He has stopped barking up that tree because I am committed not to even think about it unless God Himself says it’s okay.
And so whatever your struggle is, don’t worry about the question of “ how long am I going to do this?”.
The answer is forever and the only reason we have confidence in that is because God is with us. He calls us to a new life and holiness and He gives us the strength, wisdom, and power to accomplish it – by His grace alone.
While we could never hold out or “be good” forever in our flesh, the Lord empowers us to do so when we walk in the Spirit and stay in close proximity to Him.
Thus we walk this walk every day, from here to eternity, forever and ever. Amen.
As we wait for the epiphany (Christ’s return – His sudden manifestation), I hope this will be an epiphany (revelation) to you.
The word says to be holy as He is holy, so let’s do this today, tomorrow, and until His kingdom comes.
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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 verse comes from the section on the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV2011)
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Today’s verses fall under the thirty-fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
35. God reconciles us to himself through Christ and counts our sins against us no more.
Today’s Bible verses speak about how Jesus Christ has restored our relationship with our heavenly Father and how we are to be a voice in trying to bring others to have peace with Him too.
Our sins separated us from God. Because of the Fall, we were born physically alive but spiritually dead, while we may not like the doctrine of original sin, our original sin nature inherited from Adam quickly manifests in our lives as even the smallest child can quickly learn to lie, steal, or disobey their parents. We are born at enmity with God and to have true peace we need to be reconciled to Him and there was no way that we could earn our way back into His good graces – all the good works in the world can’t pay our sin debt.
So God sent Jesus to tell us the truth about God’s kingdom and make a way for us to be reconciled to God. Jesus’s death on the cross pays for the sins of the world and when we put our faith in Him we are redeemed and reconciled to God. We are made spiritually alive and given a new eternal life that makes us free from sin and death.
And so Christ has reconciled us to the Father and the Great Commission commands us to go and make disciples to be a minister of reconciliation ourselves. So don’t be shy in telling others about your faith in Jesus because God may use our words and lives to bring others to be reconciled with Him.
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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: JAMES 4
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
and He will lift you up.” – James 4:10
Promotion comes by way of deepest humiliation. This was true of the Lord Jesus, and it is true of all who have been exalted by God.
Philippians 2:8-11: “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
If ever Christ is going to be exalted in my life, it is when I humble myself “to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” When the cross and its shame and suffering come deeply into my life, and the flesh in me is crucified, then Christ will live.
Humble me then, O Lord. Bend me![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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