The Way to Spiritual Growth – Drastic Obedience – Purity 1520
Purity 1520 12/04/2024 Purity 1520 Audio Podcast
Purity 1520 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of “Cascade Sunset” (The Dark Hills), 2001 comes to from yours truly as I captured Paul Matthews work of art while visiting the Adirondack Museum back on August 9th, 2023.
Well, It’s Wednesday and I am sharing this photo of Matthew’s painting of Cascade Mountain to visually represent our arrival at another midweek summit, happy hump day and to encourage us all to boldly take on those challenging “mountains” in our lives.
One of the mountains I had to overcome in life was my addiction to drugs and alcohol and even though I came to the realization that I should stop drinking a very long time ago, it wasn’t until I came to faith in Jesus Christ and a Christian Recovery Ministry began at my local church in 2015 did I finally make the decision to go into recovery and to be “drastically obedient” to the Lord’s call on my life to leave drunkenness behind forever.
If substance abuse is a cross you are bearing let me encourage you that a new life of sobriety, peace, and joy is possible when you make the decision to follow the Lord into the life, He has for you. God will help you and you can overcome when you come out of the darkness and lean on Him to find your way into the light. God helps us to throw those “mountains” into the sea, but it requires you to be drastically obedient to His way of life.
Speaking of being “drastically obedient”, that phrase is highlighted in today’s Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotional, and I am sharing it on the blog today because I believe that it is the key to a transformed life in Christ. David Jeremiah writes:
“Steps of Drastic Obedience
Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife. – Matthew 1:24
Joni Eareckson Tada, the well-known Christian encourager and quadriplegic, recently described the progress of her Christian life as a long series of “taking small steps of drastic obedience.” That’s how she has managed a half century in a wheelchair. “Those small moments of drastic obedience end up building a lifetime of integrity,” she said.1
We all progress spiritually by taking small steps of drastic obedience. Consider Joseph! After his dreams were shattered by Mary’s pregnancy, an angel appeared to him in a dream telling him to take Mary as his wife. He was bewildered, but he took the necessary steps of drastic obedience.
How about you? Is there a small step of drastic obedience you should take to further your spiritual growth? What is it? God calls us to respond in obedience whether we understand why or not. Ask God to help you be open to His instruction and willing to be obedient in every situation.” – David Jeremiah
I think I got here from taking small steps of drastic obedience, tiny, little steps forward and a few back. Yes. But always forward, always moving forward, always pushing through the pain. – Joni Eareckson Tada
Wow. This message hits to the core of what is required for spiritual maturity, growth, and a deep challenging yet joyful experiential relationship with God.
The other night at a small group I lead online I added a little more to our normal “check in” – I normally ask the guys for a progress report (by asking how they have been since the last meeting) and I ask them to look ahead (by asking them what they are looking forward to). But Monday, with advent upon us, I dared to ask the men: what are you doing to get closer to God?
I didn’t mean to catch them off guard but the whole point of our small group is to learn about and experience God’s grace in our everyday lives and so I had to ask:
what are you doing to get closer to God? – (presuming they would be doing more than going to my small group)
You see, God is ever present and if we are not experiencing God’s grace in our lives – it is not God who was wandered off – it’s us!
God calls us to follow Him with the way to live our lives to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” and one of the ways we do that is through “drastic obedience”.
It’s not really that drastic but living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit is so uncommon it may seem drastic. Living by faith is really just doing “the next right thing” and doing so according to word of God.
That includes knowing God’s word, drawing into God’s presence in a conversational relationship with Him, and doing thing and doing what is right by applying God’s wisdom.
The drastic things we may be called to do include:
Repenting of our sins
Going into recovery
Forgiving those who have harmed us.
Publicly declaring our faith
Sharing God’s good news
Becoming sexual pure
Stopping bad habits
Being a good steward to our possessions
Treating our Bodies as God’s temple through diet, rest, and exercise.
God calls us to follow Him with our very lives and you can see that there are many ways to “worship God in Spirit and in truth”:
But the question is: Will you obey? Will you risk your reputation to follow a different way of life by living as a Christian? Will you “come and see” the life the Lord has for you by being drastically obedient?
I hope the answer is: Yes!
I have said “Yes!” and discovered the meaning of life and now continually seek to be obedient to answer God’s calls on me to give Him all of what I have to give and to experience the peace and joy that He has for me.
Choose God’s way. It’s the best way and it leads to joy and fullness of life.
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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 19:24–25 (ESV) Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Today’s verses are the second of two passages 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 show us the extent that God’s wrath will go to and warns us to repent of our sins lest we be destroyed.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah also teaches us quite clearly that the sin of homosexuality is especially despised by God. While we can suppose that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah sinned in many other ways, the sin that is highlighted in the text of the story is homosexuality.
However, we can also suppose that not only homosexuals were killed in the destruction of those cities. The anti-gay and gay affirming heterosexuals were also consumed in the fire and brimstone that was poured out on those twin “sin cities” because they were “friends of sinners” and sinners themselves.
All men sin and fall short of the glory of God and all men are called to repent of their sins and to put their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins to be saved. So, whatever your sin is, repent, surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and live free of your former ways of darkness.
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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 19
The one who walks in integrity walks securely. – Proverbs 10:9
The truth of the pudding is in the eating. Integrity produces security. In a life beset with sin, few things are secure. But the believer who walks in integrity such as we have described, finds security in God. The rest of the Proverb warns, “but one who takes a crooked path will be found out.” The crooked path is often taken precisely to avoid detection, yet it is such deviation from God’s norm that causes him to be noticed, or “found out.” He may think that by leaving the straight and narrow path he will get to his destination in a better, easier, or more reliable way. He hopes to find security in men and things, but, in the long run, they let him down and his deviousness is discovered for what it is. So, he does not have to trust failing men and things, but instead follow God’s path and find true security in Him. Many today are insecure. There is no need to search far and wide for security when God has shown how it may be yours. How about your life?[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), 27.
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