Self-Conscious Pride, Fear-Bonds & The Truth – Purity 1657
Purity 1657 05/13/2025 Purity 1657 Audio Podcast
Purity 1657 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo the sun shining over the Schodack Creek and the freshly mown grounds just outside of my front door comes to us from yours truly as I had presence of mind to capture the beauty that was all around me as I finished mowing my lawn “down by The River” yesterday afternoon.
Well, it’s Tuesday and the lawn isn’t the only thing I mowed, as I hastily decided to take my clippers this morning and trim my hair down to the basics. Although, I have to admit that I may have been a bit too hasty in my decision to lay waste to my hairdo so early in the morning, now that it’s done, I am appreciating the comfort of having less on top even though it may take some getting used to when I look in the mirror.
Cutting our hair can make us self-conscious and it can really reveal our pride as we tend to worry about what other people will think of us or whether or not, they will like the “new you”. The truth is that people might notice the changes we make to our appearance and comment on it initially but usually each one of us is more concerned with the person in the mirror’s appearance more than the appearance of our neighbors.
True freedom can’t be experienced if we are concerned with the opinions of others. There are people out there who would love to exact a measure of control over us through their opinions and may even be vocal with their pronouncements of whether you are making the right choices in life. So, we have to be careful of who we listen to, and we have to consider where their opinions come from and what our response will be. If their opinions come from a place of love and concern, that’s one thing, but if our response to their opinions and comments causes us to fear what they will say or think about us, we have to revaluate our relationships.
When we are “fear-bonded” to people, our thoughts and actions toward them come from a place of dread. If we are fearful of the people in our lives and are living in fear of what they may think or what they may say about us, we should seek liberation by either establishing healthy boundaries to change the relationship to one of joy and respect or by establishing boundaries to limit or eliminate their negative or fearful influence in our lives.
Similarly, if we are “fear bonded” to God – fearing our salvation, or are responding to God fearing His wrath or displeasure, we need to re-evaluate our relationship with Him and establish the “boundaries of truth” by correcting our view of our Heavenly Father, because God is love and as
1 John 4:18 tells us “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
If we are afraid of God, we don’t really know Him. If you need to renew your mind with the truth about the Lord, I am sharing a link to a free PDF of Dr. Neil Anderson’s “My Father God” List that will help you to renounce the lies you have believed about the Lord and to announce the truth about God. Fear-bonds can be changed to joy-bonds when we have a true view of the Lord, and we choose to live by the truth reflected in the Bible.
Speaking of things being transformed through knowing the truth in Scripture, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today stresses the importance of understanding God’s word so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to meditate and to be changed by the truth of God’s word. David Jeremiah writes:
“His 66 Books
I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.
Psalm 119:101
Izaak Walton (1593-1683) wrote a poem about the power of the Bible to strengthen his moral life:
Every hour
I read you, kills a sin
Or lets a virtue in
To fight against it.
Reading and listening to God’s Word is the first step to understanding it, and understanding it leads to self-examination, self-correction, growth, maturity and to a wiser, stronger life. When God’s Word takes root in our minds, it produces fruit, resulting in a change in our conduct and our conversation.
Allow the words of Scripture to penetrate your heart and mind and lead to lasting change in your words and actions. Read the Bible actively, asking yourself, “In this passage, is there a change to make, a sin to confess, a habit to strengthen, or a weakness to, correct?” Let God shape your mind and clarify your life by an active daily engagement with His 66 books! Begin today!” – David Jeremiah
By the instrument of the Scriptures, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, God cuts away the corrosion from the template of His glory. Miraculously we are thus conformed to the peculiar shape of God’s glory. – John Piper
Amen. I love the way Jeremiah describes the process of allowing God’s word to transform us, that clearly shows that “simply reading the Bible” is not enough if we expect to reap God’s benefits.
We have to let God to “take root in our minds” by:
- Reading and listening to God’s Word
- Understanding it
- Examining ourselves by its truth
- Correcting ourselves according to its truth
- And continuously and progressively repeating this process.
Only then will we see the “growth, maturity, and a wiser, stronger life.”
This is one of the great mysteries of our faith. We grow through knowing God’s word, but we have to be careful to not get disappointed because our efforts at Bible study and mediation ARE NOT rewarded on a one-to-one ratio.
Quite frankly the Bible is a BIG book, and not all of the content of God’s 66 books is going to bring stunning insights or revelations just because we read it. That’s up to the Holy Spirit who rewards faith and perseverance.
So be faithful and persist in seeking the Lord through meditating on His word. The results may not come overnight but if you decide to pursue the Lord each day in His word, the Bible tells us that you will find Him. So seek Him, find Him, and be transformed.
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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. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Marriage, Husband/Wife Relationships.
Proverbs 31:30 (ESV) Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Today’s verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the fifteenth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Marriage, Husband/Wife Relationships.
15. The fear of the Lord is more important than physical beauty.
Today’s Bible verse informs us that charm and beauty should be of secondary importance in selecting a spouse. It’s their faith – their relationship – with God that is of the most importance for people of faith.
I have often seen members of the body of Christ suffer in their relationships because they are unequally yoked or because their partner was not the faithful person, they thought they were.
A few years ago, when I was soon to be married to TammyLyn, I did a series on the blog where I encouraged others to “play Blue’s Clues” by actively looking for tangible evidence of faith in the people we were interested in. Some good clues that could be evidence of authentic faith include:
- A well-used Bible
- Church membership/participation or service
- Christian media – music, books, movies, or television shows
- Christian decorations or clothing
- Ministry work – serving the church, sharing their faith.
- Christian family and friends
While these clues aren’t guarantees of someone’s authentic faith, when they are coupled with obvious manifestations with the fruit of the Spirit in someone’s life, that person probably has faith in Jesus and might be someone you may want to marry.
A woman, or man, who fears the Lord is a rare commodity these days and is a treasure to have and to hold in marriage.
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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 156
Return to your house and tell what God has done for you. -Luke 8:39
Of course, Jesus expects you to do the same. It is not enough for Him to have freed you from the chains of sin and the clutches of the evil one. The fact that He has done so makes you a debtor to tell others. Jesus was in Gentile territory. When Jews were converted He often forbade them to tell others about it. Why the difference here? Unlike His ministry elsewhere, He was to pass that way no more. He left the man freed from demons behind with a commission to become a preacher to the Gentiles there and throughout the Decapolis. You may be the one that Jesus is designating to preach the Word to your home, to the people around you at work, and in your neighborhood. Will you fulfil this commission as this man did? In no time, he went throughout the whole city. How far have you gone?
I will … tell of the works of the Lord.- Psalm 118:17 nasb[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 164.
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