Friends Should Be Forever – Friendship Myths # 2 - Purity 1334

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a magnificent, magnificent view of the sun and sky over one of the Catskill Mountains' 6 fire towers comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared this scene on social media on or around April 25th, 2021. If this is If this was your photo from 3 years ago, let me know and we will update the blog after the fact to give you the photo credit you deserve. Well, it's Wednesday and I decided to share this mountaintop experience to visually remind us all that we have made it to another hump day. But when I selected it, I realized 2 things that I didn't initially when I chose it. One, I thought it was funny how we can get to the mountaintop and then actually build upon it. To go even higher. That's pretty inspiring. We can choose to decide that this isn't all there is and make efforts to go further than we thought we could to see if there's more in life to experience. Somebody built this tower, sure, to watch out for fires, but also just to get an even better view of what the surrounding area looks like and to get a better sense of what they accomplished in summiting this peak. So if you get to the mountaintop of whatever you are trying to experience in life, remember there may be more you can do. You can build on your mountaintop, and, uh, you should rise above it to truly appreciate what you've done. Victories that are relished, remembered, and revisited are what give us joy and the motivation to move forward to new challenges or to endure current ones. And the second thing I realized was that there was a person at the base of that fire tower. Hey there! Uh, I wonder if that's— that was a friend of the photographer or just another person visiting the fire tower. If they were friends, then I wonder if they are still friends now. That brings us to our impromptu series on friendship myths, uh, that I decided to start yesterday after having a prayer ministry subject have a breakthrough of insight into their lives when the Lord revealed to them a lie about friendship they had believed that was a root cause to negative thought patterns about themselves and addictive behaviors in their lives. When I researched the subject of friendship myths yesterday, I found a 2022 Psychology Today article by Sarah Epstein that, that addressed destructive beliefs about friendship, and I thought it was a— and I thought it was good and was going to share some of its content or all of it, uh, yesterday without really reading it. But I reminded myself to be careful in sharing psychological research unchecked because it often comes from an atheistic worldview. So instead of sharing all of the article's findings at once, I've decided, um, assuming that it was all good advice, I've decided to do so with my commentary, in which I will attempt to share some good mental health practices with a heads up of a biblical worldview. The first destructive belief and commentary that Epstein begins her article states, our messaging about friendship is one-dimensional. We often speak of friendships in platitudes like best friends forever and ignore the complexity of these important relationships. Out of this simplicity, myths have emerged. 'Here are 8 myths about friendship that need to be debunked,' and we're touching on number 1 today, which, uh, she writes: 1. Friendship should be forever. Some friendships last a lifetime, but more often than not, friendships shift over the course of a lifetime. Individuals change, their locations change, and what they look for in a friend changes. We need to normalize the notion that friendships regularly end fizzle, and that is okay. I really don't object to— and that was from Sarah Epstein, thank you— I really don't object to Epstein's statements, sentiments here. We often, we do often speak of friendships in simplistic idealistic terms, and when our reality and expectations fail to come together, we suffer mental and emotional pain. If we believe friendship should last forever, it will obviously hurt more when But our friendships end if we don't hold that idealistic belief. On the terra firma, time, circumstances, and death will eventually separate us all from one another. So, if we are viewing life from a practical or an earthly perspective, we should see just how foolish it would be to believe friendships will last forever. If we are seeking our happiness from human relationships, we're doomed to fail. Or, or hey, let's allow for the possibility of an enduring lifelong friendship. That's great, you guys were friends to the end, but what happens next? Scripture indicates that if you don't have a relationship with the Lord, you and your friends in low places will both end up in hell. And Jesus's description of that place don't indicate that it'll be some eternal party for the unrighteous. No, he said, it would be a place of eternal torment, of an unquenchable fire where the worm does not die, where people will gnash their teeth in anguish and regret, and from which there is no return, even to warn loved ones. So without faith in Jesus, best friends forever may be great for a lifetime, but we get no sense of friends in hell, which actually sounds rather paradoxical anyway. As we look at today's myth, uh, that friendship should be forever, we can see that the wording contains warnings about believing it. Any lie or false, false, or dash destructive belief usually has an extreme or subjective language. In our first friendship myth, we can see forever is set forth as the standard for friendship. That if not met will result in disappointment. That's pretty extreme. Also, also, we— the word "should" is a key indicator of a possible subjective or relative belief. Friends should be forever. Should they? Says who? The word "should" usually indicates someone's internal beliefs of what others ought to do or the way the world ought ought to be. It is imposing our worldview on a reality that, that may not cooperate with it. So instead of us holding on to the idealistic version of friendship lasting forever, I have to agree with Epstein when she suggests that we normalize the notion that friendships normally end, and that's okay. This life will take us through different seasons, circumstances, and places, And an unfortunate reality of those changes is that some or most of our friendships will end or fizzle out or have virtually no contact at some point. Instead of lamenting over the transitory aspect of our human relationships, we should appreciate them and give thanks to God and to our friends who are in our lives or who have been in our lives right now. Also, not to go against the grain of what we're trying to cope with here, but I have to point out that if we, we and our friends have faith in Jesus, our friendships actually do have the potential to literally last forever. I'm not sure if me and all my Christian friends— I have a lot of them, some I've never met in person— will be hanging out with one another for all eternity. We'll all be there, but But how we will spend our time and whose immediate company I will be in is a mystery. The imagination runs wild with the contemplation of what God's kingdom, heaven, Christ's 1,000-year reign on earth, and the new heaven and earth will be like. But it's possible. But if it's possible, I know that I will desperately try to be best friends forever with my beloved Tammy Lynn. But as painful as it seems to contemplate, I am not telling the Lord what should be and will gladly accept my assignment in his eternal kingdom wherever it takes me, and regardless of who is by my side. But just saying, Lord, I request a position where I can be in the company of the woman that you directed me to walk with me through this life. Uh, so hold on loosely to the things of the world. Even your friends, because we don't know what, what forever holds. But we, if we know Jesus, we can rest easy knowing that we are friends with the one who holds forever in his hands. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crowe. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on death and eternal life. Today's verses are from John 10:27-30. 10:28-30, where Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Today's verses fall under the 16th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on death and eternal life. That 16th point is Jesus' sheep hear his voice and follow him, and he gives them eternal life. No one can snatch them out of his hand. Today's verses give us the joy of knowing that nothing can take us from our Heavenly Father's hand. When we follow the Good Shepherd, he guides us and protects us forever. He will— we will never perish. We are gifted eternal life. We are children of God and friends with Jesus. Who are one. Uh, we are in a relationship with the Almighty Lord, the most powerful being in and outside of existence, and he's got us in the palm of his hand. We are safe, we are secure, and I'll say it, we are accepted and significant as well. And we should rejoice that all who know Jesus will be safe with us for all eternity too. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org and mt4christ.com now where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, which is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And his devotionals, Alford directs us to read a chapter of scripture from the New Testament daily, twice daily actually, and Today's chapter is Acts 5, and from Acts 5 he shares a portion of Acts 5:42 which says, "They did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." And Stephen Alford writes, it is very instructive to notice the order of the two words, teaching and preaching. The disciples first taught the Lord Jesus Christ, then preached him. This is undoubtedly a principle we should strictly be regarded— which should strictly be regarded when working among people who do not really know the message of the gospel. There is no doubt also in the order of the two words, Jesus as the Christ. It is not Christ Jesus here, but Jesus, Savior, the Christ, the anointed or sent one, And teaching and preaching of the unsaved, it would seem from this verse that the order should be Jesus as Savior, then Christ as the Anointed One. This is certainly true in experience. And Alfred ends by praying, let the example of your disciples be my guide when reaching the world for your Lord— for you, Lord. Oops. And we say amen. Uh, help us to reach the world with your word, Lord, and let us teach and preach Jesus as the Christ, um, for sure. Um, and yeah, because, because guess what? Preaching could be like this: you got to believe in Jesus. If he, you know, if you believe in Jesus, you'll be forgiven of your sins. And there, do that. Right now and be saved. Believe in Jesus and you'll be forgiven and you'll go to heaven someday. Hallelujah. Amen. But we should also teach about Jesus. Why should I believe in Jesus? You know, um, well, he was prophesied about in the, uh, the Old Testament. He fulfills the prophecies of, you know, an innumerable, uh, not— well, that's memorable, but I don't know the number of prophecies of the Old Testament for the, the coming Messiah. And while he was here, he, he did some pretty miraculous things to demonstrate that he was God. He wasn't just the Son of God, he was God the Son. Um, he did miraculous things, he had wonderful teachings, and, um, he just happened to raise himself from the dead. He didn't die. He overcame death to show us all that he was God, and no other person in all of human history has ever done that. And, you know, we can't find his body because it's not here. He's seated at the right hand of the Father according to the apostles, and we believe it because it's true. Um, so, so yeah, we need to teach, and that's part of this ministry. We try to share Bible passages, uh, Christian authors, and, and things to, uh, to teach about Jesus, because we're not trying to hoodwink anybody and tell you to have a blind faith. We're going to try to support it with as many facts and figures as we can, and most importantly, with God's word. But in the end, um, you can always choose not to believe, which is insane. You know, you would think we'd be able to give truth to somebody and they'd be able to receive it, but, um, that's not how it is. The world's been broken by sin, and we all get a choice. Um, in fact, that, you know, God, God didn't want automatons. He wanted us to love him freely, and so he gives us a choice. Like, he gave Satan a choice. Apparently Satan said, "I don't wanna," you know. He had an insight of God that we don't have, and he chose to rebel. So, you know, I know Satan doesn't know everything, but probably knows a lot. He's been around a long time. He's had a lot of time to study and experience life. So, and he chose not to go with God. So anybody, anybody could reject the gospel. That's why it really is given to us by God. It's through the power of the Holy Spirit. How it works exactly, I don't know. Well, God chooses us and we choose him. And, you know, the proportion of each is debatable, and there's whole lines of doctrine that go with one side or the other. But I believe that He calls us, and He calls us all. Who answers and why and how? Well, some say it's divine election, you know, He picks us. Other people say, "No, no, we must choose." And I say, "Yeah, you're both right. He picks us and we must choose." You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. God's will is sovereign and we have free will. Well, these things can coexist. And that's, it's difficult, and it's confusing. And that's why I try to speak about the gospel, basically, to try to clear up the confusion, that the Christian religion isn't what you think it is. It's not a set of rules. It's not a way to be approved by God. It's a story about a God who loved us and just asks for you to believe in his Son and to follow him, to, to experience the life that he intended for you. He's the Creator, and he wanted better things for us than this world has to offer. And we can find them and experience some, some of them right now when we follow Jesus. So anyway, uh, that's, that's it for today. We did launch emptyforchrist.com yesterday. It's our intention to be a Christian life coach and prayer ministry sometime in the future, uh, on a part-time and possibly full-time basis at some point. And so we decided to take a step out in faith, create the website. Uh, got a lot of work to figure out the Christian life coaching practice and prayer ministry practice, how that would work. But if you build it, they will come. And so we built the website, and we might be migrating mt4christ.org over to it. But for right now, we're going to have both separate and somewhat, well, equal, because they'll each have our messages every day, or at least that's what we're intending. And that's my cat Marvin telling me I better pray. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for calling— thank you for waking us up to the changing times and the need to pray. Lord, we thank you for all you've done in our lives and We thank you for the call you put on our lives to follow you and serve the body of Christ. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you would come alongside them and bless them and lead them in the way they should go. Lord, while you're at it, you can help us too. We pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and guide us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent and serve your kingdom here on earth. And Lord, we desperately need your help for that. So Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.