The Secret to Healing Transformation and the Foundations of the Christian Life – Purity 1752
Purity 1752 09/03/2025 Purity 1752 Audio Podcast
Purity 1752 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of an imposing green giant of a mountain under a pleasant summer sky comes to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this view on social media back on July 14, 2021. An AI Google search informs us that this peak is Giant Mountain in the Adirondacks and those bare patches in the green are most likely a product of 1903 major wildfire that “burned a significant portion of the forest on Giant Mountain and the nearby Rocky Peak Ridge, leaving areas of bare, exposed rock that are still visible today and contribute to its distinctive appearance.” If this photo memory is yours, let me know and I will photo-credit you on the blog after the fact.
Well, It’s Wednesday and I share this photo of Giant Mountain as a visible representation of our arrival at another mid-week summit, happy hump day, and to encourage us to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation and to not let the fires of our pasts stop us from pursuing growth in the Lord.
Although Giant Mountain still shows the scars of when it got burn over 120 years ago, the devastation wasn’t complete, and it didn’t stop it from being restored by growth.
Similarly, we may have been burned by the consequences of ungodly living and may carry the scars of those poor choices in our minds, hearts, or bodies but it doesn’t mean that we can’t change our direction in life, receiving healing, and experience growth and flourishing on the path of Christian Discipleship.
My unhealthy habits have an impact on my life’s journey and health but thankfully due to God’s great love and grace, I found my salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and discovered the secret to having the pains of my past wiped away. I’ll never forget the moment I heard that David Jeremiah gospel message that saved my soul in 2010, but the healing and transformation that God had for me was a process that required patience, prayer, and diligent study and application of God’s word. When I chose to learn about God by spending time in His word and agreed to follow His teachings and Spirit, the Lord was faithful to lead me out of the darkness.
Speaking of the power of God’s word to set us free, the In Touch with Dr Charles Stanley addresses the importance of Bible Study for transformation, so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage anyone who will listen to study the Bible every day. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
“Foundations for the Christian Life
Strength and courage are gained when we regularly spend time with our heavenly Father.
Joshua 1:1-9
Most of us are familiar with Joshua 1:9, which says, “Be strong and courageous! Do not be tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” But if we look at the passage in context, we’ll see that strength and courage are gained through regular intake of Scripture. For this reason, spending time with God by reading His Word should be a priority in our life.
When we’re in daily communion with our Lord, we can more easily trust He is in control of everything (Isaiah 55:8-11). Whether we are pummeled by adversity or overwhelmed with joy, God has our circumstances well in hand. Spending time with the Father allows us to bring Him all of our concerns and feelings. Then He can rejoice with us or comfort us according to our need.
Praying through Scripture and asking God to speak to us about what we read is our privilege as Christians. When we’re quiet before the Lord, we receive His guidance and power for our circumstances. No matter what we’re up against, God restores our weary soul and renews us for another day.
Our lives are packed full of business and distractions, so we should set aside time each day to speak to God in prayer and to study the Scriptures. Doing this faithfully helps build a rhythm that keeps us steady, no matter what comes our way.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. When the Lord calls us to follow Jesus, He calls us to follow the living Word (John 1:1, 14) so it only make sense for a disciple of Jesus to have a relationship with God that includes regular study and meditation on God’s word, the Bible.
If we really want to be a faithful follower of Jesus – we must know what God’s word says and apply its wisdom to our lives.
While I never wish to suggest any legalistic requirements on our faith, I can’t help but testify to the incredible importance of Bible study as a regular spiritual discipline for Christians.
In my past I grew up in a liturgical church and had regular exposure to scripture through Sunday services. But the word didn’t have a great impact on my life because I paid limited attention to it, doubted it, and rejected its wisdom and authority over me.
I didn’t respect God’s word and lived contrary to it for most of my life and BOY did I suffer for that!
The Bible tells us the truth about our origins and gives us the secrets to life, death, and how to live on earth and to find life in eternity. When we disregard its wisdom or fail to put it into practice, we fall into sin, have no assurance of our salvation, and struggle to find peace or meaning in life.
So let me encourage you to seek the Lord’s peace, wisdom, and strength by establishing a robust relationship with Him through Bible study, prayer, and living according to God’s ways.
The Bible provides the answers, Jesus gives us eternal life, the Holy Spirit helps us, and God works all things together for our good.
So do yourself a favor and choose to be a student of the Bible and watch how its lessons and guidance change your heart and mind and lead you into the life of abundant joy and purpose that you have always wanted to have.
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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 Peace – Rest.
Isaiah 26:3–4 (NKJV) You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in Yah, the LORD, is everlasting strength.
Today’s verses fall under the tenth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Peace – Rest.
10. God gives peace to those whose minds are fixed on him.
Today’s Bible verses assure us that we can find strength and perfect peace when our trust is set on God.
The way we establish trust with anyone is by taking a leap of faith. To trust someone, we have to choose to believe that they will be true to their promises. Although we can’t be certain of someone’s character at first, we have to take a risk and decide to trust that people are the people they say they are and that they will do the things they say they will do.
Similarly, with God we have to trust that what He says in His Word, the Bible, is true and that he will be faithful to His word. To show we trust God, we have to act on what we learn in the Bible. To put God’s faithfulness to the test, we have to step out and obey what He says and see whether or not the results of our decision to follow Jesus demonstrate the Lord’s trust worthiness.
For me to present the evidence of why I trust the Lord would take up too much space – I have been doing the blog for years so there is plenty of material in the archives that tell why I trust the Lord, but I can’t trust the Lord for you but I can tell you that I have found God to be trustworthy and invite you to find your peace by choosing to put your mind stayed on the things of the Lord and to put His word to the test by living according to it.
God is faithful so I encourage you to draw close to Him to experience why you can trust God for yourself.
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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 251
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
Some have wrongly concluded that these words mean that Jesus was unconditionally forgiving the crowd for their heinous act of treachery. He was not! This is not a granting of pardon; it is a prayer to the Father. Was the prayer answered? Yes, and it was answered as it should have been—by the fulfillment of a condition. On the day of Pentecost and in the days thereafter, many of the same Jews who cried “Crucify him!” were smitten by the preaching of Peter and John and repented of their sins. So God answered His prayer by sending the apostles to proclaim forgiveness which was possibly because of the very act of crucifixion in which they participated! What irony! What grace! What forgiveness! But God conditions forgiveness upon repentance and faith; He doesn’t parcel it out to people willy-nilly. If He did, all would be saved whether they believed or not (see Luke 24:47).[1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 259.
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