Granger Smith’s Call to Discipleship – Purity 1469
Purity 1469 10/05/2024 Purity 1469 Audio Podcast
Purity 1469 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Well, it is Saturday, and although my shifted tour has me at my place “down by The River” waiting to go to my secular day job when I prefer to be with my wife in the Great White North, I am content this morning because no matter where I rest my head and no matter what circumstances the day brings, I know that the Lord is with me and I can rejoice.
As it is, the shifted tour coinciding with Starpoint Church’s Man Up event works out pretty well because the time demanded for ministry would have kept me from my wife anyway and I prefer not to have to go to my secular day job from her place. A man has to know his limitations and as much as my usual workday morning routine and daily spiritual practice help me to start my day on a solid foundation of faith, it has caused me to come to expect having the space and facilities that I am used to make being “disciplined” easier. While I don’t mind making adjustments and deviations from my normal routine on the weekends or when I travel, I have become so accustomed to my “process” and know its’ benefits that I don’t like to stray far from it because when I have in the past it has always resulted in me “feeling less than fresh” and usually begins a slide into compromise. Being a disciple and being “disciplined” go hand in hand and I don’t like monkeying around with the variables of something that I know that works.
However, I want to be clear here that it is not the disciplines (exercise, Bible study, meditation, and prayer) in and of themselves that give me peace. I suppose each one of those things does, but it is the fact that they are used to bring me into the presence of God that really matters. The joy of the Lord is my strength and the peace I have comes from the Prince of Peace, Jesus. I never mean to suggest that doing certain activities – even if they are “spiritual” or “religious” – is the secret to my success or contentment. It’s my relationship with God – my relational connection to Him – that drives this train and leads me to seek to know Him all the more.
When we come to faith in Jesus, we are supposed to be transformed by God’s love to compel us to follow Him with the way we live our lives.
Last evening, the Man Up event’s guest speaker – Granger Smith – shared a heart-wrenching testimony of personal loss and how the enemy tried to his grief to cause him to commit suicide. Thankfully, in the depth of despair, Granger, who admitted to only being a cultural or nominal Christian at the time, called on Jesus to help him and He was faithful to answer and save him. Granger testified of how until that “Nefarious Night” and the “Miraculous Morning” that followed, he wasn’t truly a follower of Jesus Christ.
Granger made an analogy about faith with the example of a deer hunter. If a man claims to be an avid deer hunter, you would rightly expect that he would be familiar with hunting techniques and adept at using the various pieces of equipment used in hunting, but you would also expect that he would spend time in the woods hunting and may even enthusiastically lead others to discover the joys of hunting. If a man claimed to be an avid hunter and you discovered that he didn’t actually go hunting, you would have to say that he wasn’t “a real hunter”, he just talked about it.
Likewise, if someone claims to be a Christian but doesn’t go to church, read his Bible, live according to its’ principles, and do things to serve or bring others into a relationship with Jesus, you would have to say that they weren’t a real Christian.
After experiencing the real presence and saving power of Jesus, Granger described how the joy of his salvation, not only gave him great peace, but it caused Granger to want to know more about Jesus and to commit his life to following Him. After being saved, Granger had a deep desire to read the word of God and to follow Christ in earnest.
And so Granger exhorted the men gathered at the Man Up event last night to take a look at their faith and to determine if they were just “cultural Christians” or if they were real followers of Jesus Christ and he made the impassioned plea for them to commit or recommit themselves to being true disciples of Jesus Christ, by trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior, connecting with God personally through prayer and reading God’s word every day, and by living according to its principles and being committed to share God’s truth and love. It was a call to action that would prove that the ones who answered it were not just cultural Christians, but real followers of Jesus.
At the end of the evening, the audience of men was invited to join together in small groups around fire pits that were assembled on the church’s lawn for smores and were encouraged to answer the question: “What is the next thing that you are prepared to do to move forward as a follower of Jesus.
I was a “fire pit leader” and I was blessed to hear men, young and old, be honest about their lives and who all made a commitment to surrender different areas of their lives to God. I gave a short version of my testimony and shared how I have recently been convicted to “say never” to the items that drive my food addiction – of how I have discovered that rather than trying to figure out how and when I could indulge in the foods that cause me to lose control, I can just no and I with the Lord’s help I can say it and remain in the peace of good health and freedom from the addictive cycle forever. I was tested last night at the event’s catered mac n’ cheese and sweet deserts and proved I was serious about that commitment to say “never again” by saying no.
It will be a battle that I have to fight one day at a time, but the Lord has been faithful in the past to help me and I know I can trust Him to help me in the future when I pick up my cross and follow Him.
————————————————————————
For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
———————————————————————–
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 Forgiving Others
Ephesians 5:1-2 (NASB)
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Today’s verses fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Forgiving Others.
6. Be imitators of God.
Today’s Bible verses encourage us to be “Real Christians” by being imitators of God. Jesus Christ’s living example is our blueprint of how to build a Christian life. We are to do the things that Jesus did – we are to pray, know God’s word, speak God’s word, and to do good works in His name and for God’s glory. and we are to do it all as an expression of our love for God. We are to “walk in love” as God’s “beloved children”.
More than following rules or knowing certain facts about faith, we are to let the joy of our salvation and the knowledge of Jesus and God’s truth, transform our hearts to act out of love. So draw close to the Lord and be an imitator of God by walking in love.
———————————————————–
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.
EVENING READING: 2 PETER 1
“Exceedingly great and precious promises.” – 2 Peter 1:4
“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20).
How grand it is to be able to claim such promises as are revealed in this grand Book. And to claim them in positive faith too – even as did Abraham, for he staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, “being fully convinced that what [God] had promised He was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:21).
Faith makes the promises realities.
O, to enter into the blessings of God’s promises now, Lord.[1]
—————————more tomorrow————————
The MT4Christ247 audio podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartradio, Podbean, Audible, and many more podcast platforms!
Subscribe to The MT4Christ247 Channel on YouTube!
Email me at m.t.clark@mt4christ.com with any questions, or comments, or to inquire about our Christian Life Coaching or Prayer Ministry Services.
“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).
Leave a Reply