Our Biography with God & the Foundation of Praise- Purity 1519
Purity 1519 12/03/2024 Purity 1519 Audio Podcast
Purity 1519 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun shining over the Schodack Creek, the green grass of my front lawn, and the black asphalt of my driveway comes from yours truly as I was thrilled to capture the moment and the appreciate the beauty of where the Lord has brought me once again, at my house down by the River on Sunday, December 1st.
Well, It’s Tuesday and as much as I may be challenged by the chilling temperatures when I work outside in December, I know that the conditions are normal for this time of year and I suffer a lot less when I accept the weather for what it is and focus on the good things in life and my relationship with the One who gave me life and who sovereignly put me where I am in life.
While we do have a measure of free will and can choose our own path to some extent in life, the pathway to peace and joy – if we wish to experience them in a continuous and significant way – requires us to seek and find the Lord and to make peace with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.
We all have our own life story. Where we were born, the things we encountered, and the choices we made at different times in life make up the content of our story and as compelling as any story may be because of what happens from one moment to the next, we all instinctively know that a story is only as good as the ending. While macabre or shockingly tragic endings may be acceptable when we watch suspense, action, or horror movies – nobody wants to suffer or be shocked in the story of their lives.
I used to be an atheist and when I was, I believed that the story of everyone’s life ended the same. You die. The end. Roll the credits and fade to black. According to my atheistic world view, life was meaningless, and morality was subjective. What we did or didn’t do in life was without consequence because time and death would erase us from existence. So, with that nihilistic view of life, I lived it up. I did what I wanted to do as much as I could. My life was all about breaking the rules of men and avoiding the negative consequences for my “supposedly bad behaviors”.
But I was living a lie. Not only did I have a double life as a seemingly law-abiding citizen by day and an alcoholic rebel by night, I was also living with the wrong view of life. There is a God and He revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian religion wasn’t a well-crafted myth created to enslave us with social mores. It was the truth about life and ultimate reality.
Of course, I didn’t discover this on my own. Tragedy sent me to seek for meaning and in the search, God showed up to show me, once again, that I was looking for love and meaning in all the wrong places. Like the Apostle Paul who thought he was doing everything right by persecuting the early church, I thought I was right for believing that Christianity was a lie. Paul got knocked of his horse and was literally blinded by the light of His encounter with the living Christ and I had the scales of atheism and eastern mysticism removed from eyes by a gospel radio message. Both Paul and I were never the same. It took us awhile to get going but the Lord revealed Himself to us through His word and His Spirit to show us the truth of ultimate reality and to give us a purpose – to share and show the love of God to others by encouraging others to put their faith in Jesus and to turn from the darkness of their wrong ideas and their personal sin.
Each of our stories are different but they both involve God coming into our lives and changing everything lead to testify about Him and to give Him praise.
Speaking of praise, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion for today speaks on the topic and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to share our story – our biography with God – with others and to drive us to praise. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
The Foundation of Praise
Worship is the natural response to knowing and loving the Lord.
Throughout the Psalms, David spoke about God’s specific attributes and actions. This collection of songs and poems can be read as a biography of God—one that relies on the language of praise and adoration to tell His story.
Learning about the other person’s character is the basis for genuine love. And since our ability to worship God grows out of our love for Him, that means the true root of praise is knowledge. This is why God instilled in every believer a longing to know more of Him. We satisfy that desire by spending time with the Lord and observing how He works to meet our needs and provide blessings. Discovering each new facet of His character deepens our understanding of Him and our awareness of why He’s so worthy of our praise.
As believers, we all have a “biography” of the Lord to share (Psalm 66:16). It’s a story of accumulated praise—not only for the ways He has intervened in chaos, comforted in tragedy, and blessed abundantly but also for the lessons we’ve learned in the process. We should share our adoration of Him with the world so others might come to know, love, and praise the Savior.” – Charles Stanley
Today’s message from Stanley really goes beyond just “giving praise” – it’s about our seeking to know God more, interacting with Him, and telling the story of what God had revealed to us and done for us in the process of our seeking to know and follow Him.
Praise is just the natural response of our engagement with The Lord because He is SO GOOD!
So don’t forget your story – your biography- of what God has taught you and shown you throughout all the days of your life. We have all walked our very unique pathway through life and God was with us from the beginning, even if we didn’t know it.
So continue to seek the Lord. Reflect on your journey together. Rejoice over it. Praise God for it. And tell somebody about it.
The word says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. So be sure to do the second part of that “overcoming recipe”. Tell the story of how God saved you and how He continues to guide you through life to not only “do what’s right” but to also know and love Him more.
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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 Homosexuality.
Genesis 19:4–5 (ESV) But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”
Today’s verses are the first of two passaged of scripture that fall under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Homosexuality.
3. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed on account of their unrepentant homosexuality.
Today’s Bible verses introduces a scene of what would have been premeditated homosexual gang rape if the Lord didn’t intervene. I’m pretty sure that even the most fervent homosexual would have difficulty passing this activity off as a normal lifestyle. They would undoubtedly take objection to rape as being characteristic of homosexuality and may even agree with the punishment of people who perpetrate such acts of violence. They would state that homosexuality is just an alternative form of expressing love between persons and that it is acceptable between consenting adults. ‘
The problem is that God doesn’t just condemn violent acts of sex. He condemns all sexual acts outside of a covenant marriage between a man and a woman, especially homosexuality, and He commands that we repent of our sins and come to Jesus to be forgiven and set free.
Jesus is the pathway to peace but it also requires repentance. So whether your gay or not, God directs you to leave sexual immorality behind and to live according to His sexual ethics that are natural, pure, and loving.
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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 “Day By Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 18
The righteousness of a person with integrity makes his way straight. – Proverbs 11:5
The word “integrity” has to do with having all things together. A person of integrity is growing spiritually in every aspect of his life. Growth is neither sporadic nor irregular. If his life were compared to the slices of a pizza, each slice would be of roughly the same size and contain approximately the same ingredients. I say “roughly” and “approximately,” because in this life nothing is perfect. James’ teleios person (one who is “complete and entire,” James 1), accords with the Hebrew tam, “integrity,” and describes the same quality of righteousness. All of Scripture concerns itself with such integrity. The straight path, upon which every believer walks, is the one that leads to God. If a believer finds his path winding rather than straight, something is wrong. If the way becomes hilly or deviates, examine all areas of your life to discover what is lacking. Quality in living depends upon whether there is integrity in every sphere of life. This means you may not neglect any area, but must in all things serve Him from your heart.[1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 26.
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