The Danger of Going Through the Motions – Purity 1850
Purity 1850 12/29/2025 Purity 1850 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun setting on the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean, or Carribean Sea, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this beautiful moment from the balcony of my stateroom on the Koningsdam cruise ship yesterday.
Well, it’s Monday and today our ship docks in our first port stop in Grand Turk, as in the Turk & Caicos Islands, so I will keep it short.
As awesome as cruise ship life is there are many temptations on board, alcohol, gambling, and eating an over abundance are just a few. Even though I booked this trip with David Jeremiah Ministries and Insipration Travel, not everyone on board is with the conference. It turns out that our conference is only a very small portion of the travelers on board. So if one isn’t careful the enemy could easy lead someone astray into the worldliness and sin that is still all around us. If we were just going through the motions of religious obligation, we could easily fall.
Speaking of going through the motions, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today addresses that topic and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to stay close to the Lord and be diligent in lighting the fires of faithfulness that keep us from going astray. David Jeremiah writes:
“FILL THOU MY LIFE
The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord…. “When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?” – Isaiah 1:11-12, NIV
A strange danger lies along the paths of Christians, the temptation to start going through the motions. It seems incredible that we would become desensitized to the sacred, but that’s what happened to the people of Israel. Isaiah accused them of going through certain rituals without mindfulness of their meaning or holiness.
We, too, can become so familiar with the “typical” things we do as Christians (like carrying a Bible, going to church regularly, or saying grace at meals) that their significance and meaning fades in our hearts. How easy to sing a song or share in a prayer while our minds wander!
To change all this, we need to cultivate a sense of God’s presence and remember the personal nature of our relationship with Him. We need to worship Him with our study of the Scriptures. During the coming year, make time every day to go to God’s Word, allowing it to fill your heart and mind with His truth.” – David Jeremiah
Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God, in every part with praise, that my whole being may proclaim Thy being and Thy ways.-
Horatius Bonar
Amen. With all the wonder and beauty of creation around me on this cruise ship or in the world in general, one should naturally be drawn to consider the bigger questions of life, but the enemy can easily turn our attentions away from the transcendent and lead us to serve our own pride and flesh instead.
So let’s be aware of the danger of going through the motions and finish the year strong by committing ourselves to staying diligent in our pursuit of the Lord’s will for our lives by passionately seeking Him in study, worship, and prayer.
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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 Prayer – Waiting On the Lord.
Psalm 66:13–20
Psalm 66:17–20 (ESV) I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!
Today’s verses fall under the eighteenth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Prayer.
18. Praise and thank God for answered prayer.
Today’s Bible verses encourage us to reject the temptations of this world and to praise the Lord, knowing that our praise and devotion to the Lord opens the doors to His love and answered prayer.
Thankfully, Turning Point’s Michael Sanchez is a talented worship leader and this conference has been filled with enthusiastic praise. The Lord has truly blessed Michael with amazing musical talents and we are blessed to join him in praise and worship.
Rejecting the temptations of our selfish desires and choosing to worship and pray to the Lord instead brings us into His presence. So don’t forget to sing to the Lord regularly because it strengthens our faith and brings us closer 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 349
… believing what is according to the law and … the prophets – Acts 24:14
They were calling the Way a “sect,” that is, a Jewish group like the Pharisees and Sadducees. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was a new phase of the true church of the Old Testament that left all Jewish sects behind. It arose and pursued its course according to the truths of the Old Testament, all of which pointed by type, shadow, and explicit prophecy to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus said, “your house is left to you desolate,” and when the temple veil was torn from the top down, the old had come to an end even though the old ways lingered on for a time prior to the final collapse in 70 ad. We too believe the same as Paul did. The Old Testament is still God’s Word to us. We may not discard the Old Testament, since we see in it the spiritual things which are part and parcel of the New Testament beliefs and which the Jews failed to see.[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 357.
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