Being Put to the Test – Don’t Dwell on the Past – Purity 1870
Purity 1870 01/24/2026 Purity 1870 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of a right-of-way power tower and the sun shining over the snow-covered farmlands off of Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I paused for just a moment to capture this chilly scene of January beauty as I turned back into the wind on the return trip of my afternoon walk with Harley back to my countryside home yesterday afternoon.
Well, it’s Saturday, and even though I have today and tomorrow off, I will be using some of my time to study all things networking and information technology, as I will literally be put to the test at 9:00 am, Monday Morning. The first condition for receiving my new position at my company is passing the fiber customer support analyst test. If I don’t pass the test, I don’t get the job. This would be at least the second time that my future livelihood would depend on passing a multiple-choice test. Years ago, I was not in a good place with my career, and the fear of the possibility of being let go for my inconsistent performance was a clear and present danger at the time, but I was allowed to change jobs and become an outside field technician. To take that pathway, I had to pass a college entrance exam first. Even though I graduated from college in 1994 (BA in psych) and 2005 (BA in Business Admin/IT), my prior degrees didn’t require a whole lot of math. So, in 2009, when I faced the prospect of having to pass an entrance exam that was 50% math, algebra, and geometry, which would, in my mind, determine whether or not I would keep my job, I was understandably nervous. But despite my anxiety, I refamiliarized myself with long-forgotten math concepts, crammed for the test, and thankfully passed. The test of passing pole climbing and line school was still to come, but at that point in my life, that college entrance exam was the most stressful and significant test I had ever taken, until now, of course.
So, Mama Mia, here we go again. Monday, I pass the fiber customer support analyst test or go home. So yesterday, I went through pretest training with members of my union to teach me about the basic theories and knowledge regarding the hardware, software, operating systems of internet service, and networking operations. While I have a degree in information technology and experience setting up FiOS service and establishing basic networks, a lot of the theory and jargon related to networking is akin to learning a foreign language. When presented with some of the acronyms, functions, and topology of the networking jargon yesterday, I either didn’t know them at all or had to refamiliarize myself with the things that I used to know. After going through a few practice tests and making several mistakes, I was able to start answering the questions correctly. I will continue to study today and tomorrow, of course, but hopefully I will have remembered or learned enough to pass the test come Monday. I knew a lot of this networking stuff in the past, but didn’t need it for my job on a daily basis, so it fell to the wayside in my brain.
This latest challenge gives credence to the warning that those who forget their pasts are condemned to repeat it. In my case, I have forgotten a lot about information technology that I learned in the past, and now I will have to recall it or be condemned. Speaking of the past, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for this weekend speaks on that topic, and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to resolve the issues of the past and to move forward into our new lives in Christ. David Jeremiah writes.
“Wisdom for the Year: Don’t Dwell on the Past
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:18-19
If you are entering the new year with a sense of regret over things that happened in the previous twelve months, remember this: God is the God of the future. God does not want us to dwell on the past but to trust Him for the future.
Isaiah exhorted the captives in Babylon not to dwell on the past, including the sins that resulted in their captivity in Babylon. Instead, God told them that He was going to do a “new thing,” referring to their deliverance from Babylon. He would make a “road in the wilderness” to bring them home. The same principle applies to us. We do not live in the past; we live in the present and look to the future for what God is going to do.
As you prepare for the year ahead, don’t dwell on the past. Believe that God has for you “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). – David Jeremiah
Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to his love, and the future to his providence. – Augustine
Amen. As someone who has done some very regrettable things in my youth and in, let’s face it, my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s, I can tell you that the weight of the pain of guilt, shame, and regret can be a heavy burden to bear as we seek to follow the Lord into our new lives in Christ.
As damaging as the sins of the past were when we initially suffered from their negative consequences, our past mistakes and transgressions of God’s law can have compounded negative effects on us if we try to just walk away from them and try to ignore how they warped the way we think and act.
If we don’t go to the Lord and resolve the issues of the past, they will continue to prevent us from experiencing the fullness of our new lives in Christ. Similarly, if we dwell on the sins of the past, we could be tempted to do the same sinful things again or let the shame and guilt of what we have done stop us from being an outspoken, fruitful disciple of Jesus Christ.
The enemy wants to use our past against us to make us feel unworthy and timid, to be tormented with guilt and shame, or to keep us trapped in the sins of the flesh.
But the good news is that we can go to God and undo all these works of the enemy and our pasts with the Holy Spirit’s power through the acts of confession and repentance.
God wants us to be free of our pasts and to move forward with Him into our new life of purpose and peace. When we confess our past sins, admit to their damaging effects, renounce our sins as wrong, cancel the enemy’s permission to influence us, AND commit to turning from our old selfish, fleshly, and sinful ways, we can leave our pasts behind and move forward in freedom and joy.
After we repent, our past sins are resolved, and we can get busy with doing what God has for us to do now and into the future.
The adventure of our progressive personal sanctification and walking into our kingdom purpose is here for us right now, and the only thing we need to do to experience it is to decide to resolve and leave the things of the past behind and to choose to follow the Lord with the way we live our lives, one day, one step, at a time.
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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 Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
John 14:25–26 (NLT) I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
Today’s verses fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
5. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, teaches us through his own word.
Today’s Bible verses are the words of Jesus that tell us about the coming of the Holy Spirit and how He brings the conviction and instruction of the word of God, not our lives.
The supernatural life of a Christian isn’t always a matter of miraculous signs and wonders. As much as an experience of the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit can wake us up to the spiritual reality that God is very much alive, well, and present, the Holy Spirit’s most significant work could be in the illuminating work He does with the truth of scripture and our hearts and minds.
Before becoming a born-again Christian, I had a period of searching for spiritual truth that led me to consider other religions and philosophies. At one point in that journey, I decided to give the Bible a chance and purchased an audio Bible that I would listen to during walks, runs, and my commute to and from work. I wasn’t saved at the time, and when I listened to the scriptures, I did so with a lot of doubt and skepticism. My listening began from the beginning in the Old Testament, and from what I recall, it didn’t last very long. The Old Testament stories seemed strange and archaic and not relevant to my experience. I didn’t like what I was listening to, so I stopped.
Jump cut to years later, after I put my faith in Jesus, and now the Bible’s truth and wisdom pour into me with meaning, purpose, and joy. Granted, some of the Old Testament is still a chore or a challenge to get through at times, but now I read the word with new appreciation and an understanding that was foreign to me. How did this change?
After I got saved, I received the Holy Spirit, and it is undoubtedly His “leading me into all truth” that has given me the insights, knowledge, and wisdom that were previously unavailable. The Holy Spirit works to open our eyes to the truth and uses the word to teach us how to live as Christians through the word.
So, before you seek knowledge and understanding from the Bible, pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal the things you need to see. He is the One who leads us into all truth, and He is the one who will help us to become the people that God made us to be.
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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 “Pause for Power” By Warren Wiersbe.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Wiersbe’s 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 4 – Avoiding Oblivion – Read 1 John 2:17
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:17
Every great nation in history has become decadent and has finally been conquered by another nation. Some nineteen world civilizations have slipped into oblivion. There is no reason why we should think that our present civilization will endure forever. “Change and decay in all around I see,” wrote Henry F. Lyte (1793–1847), and if our civilization is not eroded by change and decay, it will certainly be swept away and replaced by a new order of things at the coming of Christ.
Slowly but inevitably, and perhaps sooner than even we Christians think, the world is passing away, but those who do God’s will abide forever. Long after this world system—with its vaunted culture, its proud philosophies, its egocentric intellectualism, and its godless materialism—has been forgotten, and long after this planet has been replaced by the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. 21:1), God’s faithful servants will remain, sharing the glory of God for all eternity. And this prospect is not limited to Moody, Spurgeon, Luther, or Wesley and their likes—it is open to each and every humble believer. If you are trusting Christ, it is for you.
Something to Ponder: If you are expecting to share the glory of God for all eternity, what things are you doing now to prepare for such an encounter?[1]
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[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures, 2nd Ed., Year in the Word Series (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010).
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