God’s Grace and Creative Ways Reflected in Us – Purity 1678
Purity 1678 06/07/2025 Purity 1678 Audio Podcast
Purity 1678 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo, which I am calling “The Heavens in the Waters” and features a blue cumulus cloud filled sky reflected in the waters of some unknown Australian watery landscape, comes to us from Dave Baun Photography, as Dave shared this photo on social media (Dave Baun Photography on Facebook) back on June 16th, 2022.
Well, it’s Saturday and I greet the new day with excitement as my wife, and I spent last night in a hotel in Lenox Massachusetts and are scheduled to participate in a basket weaving workshop at the Hancock Shaker Village today. Tomorrow is TammyLyn’s birthday and because she loves doing crafts and is interested in homesteading “technology”, I gifted her with a new experience that will give her some hands on training in a skill she has yet to try and will also give her the “gift” of a handmade utensils basket, of her own making. When we create things with our own hands and imagination, we reflect our likeness to our Creator God and it is my hope that our experience today will be fun, draw my wife and I closer together, and give Him glory.
Speaking of the glory of the Lord, His glory is best reflected by His word and His grace and this morning I read these words in Isaiah 55 that I am sharing them on the blog today to remind us of some fundamental truths about Him and our appropriate response to His holiness.
Isaia 55:6–9 (NLT) tells us to:
6 Seek the LORD while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
7 Let the wicked change their ways.
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.
8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
This tells us that even though God’s ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts, He wants us to come to Him in humble repentance to be forgiven and accepted. This Old Testament passage tells us that grace wasn’t just a New Testament phenomenon and that all we have to do to be forgiven is to seek Him, to call on Him (now in the name of Jesus), and turn to Him to receive His mercy and forgiveness.
This has always been true about God and has only become clearer with the revelation of Jesus Christ, who demonstrated God’s love and His eternal plan for us through His life, death, and resurrection.
God is near to us, so turn to Him today with thanksgiving and consider reflecting His likeness and love by creating something (physically, relationally, or through good works) that will give Him glory.
Although His ways are higher than our ways, we can walk in some of them as His attributes, Jesus, and His words teach us how to be more and more like Him and to give Him glory as we creatively represent Him on the earth.
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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 verses come from the section on Obedience – Keeping the Commandments.
1 Samuel 15:22–23 (NASB) Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
Today’s verses fall under the seventh point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Obedience – Keeping the Commandments.
7. To obey is better than sacrifice.
Today’s Bible verses reflect the truth that outward religious expressions pale in comparison to simple obedience when it comes to giving true worship to the Lord.
In this passage of scripture, the first king of Israel, King Saul, loses his divinely appointed office because he coveted being honored by His fellow man more than honoring the Lord with simple obedience.
Instead of following the Lord’s instructions regarding completely destroying the Amalekites, “Saul and the people” did things their way by sparing the life of the Amalekite king, keeping some of the Amelekite choice livestock for spoil, and by setting up a monument to Saul to celebrate.
Today’s verses are the Lord’s response to Saul disobedience. Because Saul did what was right in his own, and the people’s, eyes, he was rejected from being king. When Saul tried to backpedal and explain that the livestock spoils could be used as a sacrifice to the Lord, Samuel shared that the Lord’s delight lies in our obedience much more than sacrifices.
So, remember that while the Lord loves our formal acts of worship, He wants our hearts more than some outward religious observance, and He wants our lives to be surrendered to His will, and our actions to be obedient to Him.
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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 177
but some … said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the chief of the demons.” – Luke 11:15
Jesus easily refuted this absurd charge by observing that Satan would be dividing his own kingdom if he were to do such a foolish thing. And He went on to explain that, instead, He was casting demons out by “God’s finger” (v. 20; it didn’t even take a hand for God to do it!). Furthermore, He pointed out that this activity meant that the kingdom of God had arrived. He had invaded the kingdom of the devil; he had bound the strong man. He was now the rightful King of the land—and, for that matter, of the world. He was actively plundering the defeated foe. Soon they would see the full demonstration of His power when He ascended to His waiting throne! The old will be replaced by the new order. Men try in every foolish way to discount Jesus. But He always has an answer that reveals their stupidity. We too need to rejoice that His spiritual kingdom has come in all its earthly fullness in this world. It is no mean thing to belong to that kingdom and to count Him your King![1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 185.
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