Pershing for a Lack of Knowledge and Being All Shook Up – Purity 1474
Purity 1474 10/11/2024 Purity 1474 Audio Podcast
Purity 1474 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Well, it’s Friday, thank God, and when we see the things that God has done in his creation, like the northern lights, and in our lives, like the way He moved us from darkness to light, we can feel quite surreal ourselves. The definition of surreal is strange, not seeming real, or dream-like, and after God comes into your life and causes you to see the truth and moves you to change and you experience your freedom in Christ – it can feel strange and dream like!
Each morning, I blog, look for photos of the day on my iPhone, and occasionally will jump back in time to grab something from the archives and I will see photos of myself from just a few years ago. When I compare those photos to what I look like now I have some real cognitive dissonance because I have changed so much. I know those photos are of me, and that I considered myself “free in Christ” at the time, but when I considered what I have learned, how I have grown or matured spiritually, and how I have decreased in physical size – losing 5 inches in my waist, a shirt size – going from XL to Large, and losing about 40 pounds since last August, I can barely believe it’s me! It seems surreal that this has happened and what perhaps is more amazing is that God is still not done with me yet!
Recently, I fell off the rails of a disciplined life when it came to my eating habits and was sidelined with pneumonia. I have since come out of that summer season of compromise and surprising serious illness with the conviction that God was telling me to not take my health for granted. After I was healed, I was able to resume my regular workouts have been disciplined with what I consume and feel so much better.
I also listened to the audiobook version of Dr. Michael and Nancy Brown’s Breaking the Stronghold of Food which has inspired me to face the facts of my food addiction with renewed vigor and caused me to investigate Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s work, which inspired Brown and his wife, to conquer their food addiction and to make a complete lifestyle change to healthy eating.
Yesterday, I began reading Dr. Fuhrman’s “Eat for Life” and was shocked to learn the truth about, not only how bad the Standard American Diet (SAD) is for our health, but also how bad my current Keto focused food plan could lead to an early grave! Quoting a 2018 study from the Medical University of Lodz, Poland on low carbohydrate diets, such as Paleo or Keto, Dr. Maciej Barnach said: “We found that people who consumed a low carbohydrate diet were at greater risk of premature death. Risks were also increased for individual causes of death including current coronary disease heart disease stroke and cancer these diets should be avoided.”
I have only just begun to read Fuhrman’s “Eat for Life” and am only a few chapters in but have come to the realization that animal-based food products are consistently linked to disease and death and that I have to radically reduce and eliminate them from my food plan.
The Bible says in
Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, …
Now I know that verse is drawn from an Old Testament prophet who is calling Israel to reject idolatry and a failure to acknowledge the True living God and live according to His word, but the principle of perishing for not having, or even worse rejecting knowledge has far-reaching implications and applications for our daily lives.
While we all “know” that it would probably be best to primarily eat vegetables and fruit, we have rejected that knowledge – or don’t really “know” it in the first place – and have been deceived into believing that we are eating healthy and still able to do things are way. If we look at the facts, we believed a lie and one has gotten ahold of some truth that has quite frankly shaken me up.
And that’s what happens when we get truth, it shakes us up. The same was true for me when I finally realized the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ – it shook me up and changed my life.
As it turns out today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah addresses being shaken up and so I am sharing it on the blog today to inspire all of us to seek out the truth about how we are living and to let it impact us to make changes for the better. Dr. David Jeremiah writes:
“Shaking Things Up
Sudden earthquakes are fearful, shocking events. The Bible teaches that when the feet of Jesus descend to the Mount of Olives at the Second Coming, an earthquake will split open the ridge, producing great topological changes to Jerusalem and Israel.
When Christ appears, He shakes things up. In a similar way, when Jesus comes into our lives, we tremble and are transformed. He unleashes the hidden rivers of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, He makes old habits fall away, and He raises up new territories of praises for Himself.
Let the Lord shake you up for His glory!” – David Jeremiah
Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, “SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING.” This is what God has to do with some of His people…. Shake them well before they are ever usable. – Vance Havner
That’s how you really know you have been born again and called to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He shakes up your life, lol!
Being a disciple of Jesus is not just “easy believe-ism” – it’s a paradigm-shifting, life-transforming supernatural event that sets into motion a process that changes the individual forever…. or at least it should be.
Jesus calls us to a life of meaning and purpose, but He doesn’t drag us there. He calls us to “Come and See” the life that God has for us but amazingly he lets us decide whether or not we will follow and just how far we will go into God’s will for our lives.
When we go “all in” and decide to follow Jesus it shakes up our lives – sometimes causing things to “break” – like shallow or toxic relationships, wrong ideas, and bad habits. But in the “breaking” and shaking, we find freedom.
If we fear the loss of what is familiar and refuse to follow, we won’t fully realize the abundant life that God has for us.
So as a follower of Jesus who has experienced his fair share of shaking and breaking, let me encourage you to be bold and courageous because nothing that is lost in following Jesus pales in comparison to all we gain in Christ.
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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 Forgiving Others
Galatians 6:1 (NASB)
1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
Today’s verse falls under the eleventh point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Forgiving Others.
11. Restore with gentleness one who has fallen into sin.
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to be gentle with those who have gone astray and to lead them back to the truth and God’s way but to also be careful that their failure doesn’t cause us to fall as well.
Bad company corrupts good character, and misery loves company so when we encounter brothers or sisters in Christ who have fallen into sin we have to be careful that they don’t drag us down with them when we try to lift them up.
Amazingly, this happens. I have seen it happen in recovery ministry. The flesh and the devil sometimes work in tandem, and they can corrupt someone who was walking in the Spirit when they see someone else enjoying their forbidden sins. So be sure to make sure you remain accountable to someone else when you go to rescue someone. Be sure to phone a friend before lifting someone else out of the mire, so you won’t be sucked into sin too.
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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 JOHN 3
“Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because
we keep His commandments and do those things that
are pleasing in His sight.” – 1 John 3:22
Previously, I learned that the condition for perfected love in me was keeping God’s Word. Here, the condition for answered prayers is keeping His commandments. John is no doubt quoting from the words to which the Lord Jesus gave utterance in those last discourses before He left for the cross and then the glory: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7); “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
The four conditions for answered prayer are:
• Keeping God’s Word
• Seeking God’s Will
• Seeking God’s Glory
• Pleading Christ’s Name.
May I always consider my fulfillment of these conditions,
Lord, before coming to Your throne.[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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