“It is what it is”? Not Any More… All things are New - Purity 920

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 the morning sky and the surrounding shoreline reflected on the surface of Cherokee Lake in North Carolina comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this scene on social media back on Friday, December 16th. Fred appreciates the great outdoors and is active in sharing the beauty of God's creation with his friends, and I've decided to no longer share his work anonymously. I mentioned him by name the last time I used his work, and although he has humbly never asked to be recognized for his contributions to the blog, I am no longer content in sharing his work as an anonymous friend. I want to give Fred the credit he is due and encourage anyone who would like to see more of his work to send him a friend request on Facebook. Because he will most likely accept it like he did mine, a veritable stranger, a few years ago. And because Fred is very active in his photography and shares a lot more, a lot more scenes like this one than I ever will. While that— with that said, although Fred and I share a mutual appreciation for the wonder of the world God has created, please don't assume that he agrees with me, with, uh, agrees with everything I write. Um, he may agree with me on some things, but we, we really, we really never discussed it. So just so everyone knows, the views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.t. Clark, only, and not, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent. I am copying and pasting this at the bottom of my, uh, to all my messages going forward because I should, and because I have received some recent criticism that reminded me that some people that are near and dear to me may not care for what I write or comment on. And while I am associated with different groups, ministries, organizations, churches, and people, I wanted it to be clearly stated that while I may represent or have represented these entities in the past, present, or possibly in the future, everything I do and say should be a reflection of me only. And likewise, no offense, uh, but that is a two-way street. The views and opinions expressed by these entities, uh, do not necessarily reflect me. Um, people love to categorize one another and will erroneously make judgments or draw conclusions by examining the people, places, and things we are associated with. Uh, this is something we all do. We should be discerning and, and get as much information about people we are interested in when we decide to be in a relationship with them, or consider the things they say. Uh, the things we have been exposed to and the relationships we have influence the way we think. And behave to some extent, and it's not a bad idea to know what someone has been exposed to and what relationships they have had to get a sense of where they are coming from. But we can also— but we can be so adept at this process of discernment and categorization that we can run the risk of not thinking and rush to make conclusions that are not necessarily true. As Christians on the path of discipleship, we want to know the and follow the truth. So we have to be careful in our interactions that we are rightly judging people by the content of their character that we can discern from their words and actions, and not by, uh, by solely— and not solely by, um, their associations. There is a fine line here, of course, that demands wisdom, and I am not saying we should ignore data that we receive that indicate people are indeed what they appear to be. I personally have made the two common errors that plague us in our relationships: one, jumping to conclusions too quickly based on limited information, and two, ignoring the subtle or obvious signs or red flags, uh, that go against what we want to believe to be true. Not surprisingly, Jesus gives us the best advice on how to judge someone wisely. He said in Matthew 7:15-20, beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So, every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. So yeah, as one part of the Trinity, Jesus is God and, unlike you and me, has perfect knowledge. While the world system would implore us to ignore the obvious signs of evil in the world and proclaim that everyone is "good at heart," Jesus, the Living Word of God, tells us like it is. He does, he does judge, and he does it rightly. He tells us that there are phonies out there, and he tells us that we can identify them by the way they act. Let that be a lesson to all, to us all. Uh, let's really hear that. I think it was Dr. Neil Anderson, uh, that said we judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. But if we are Uh, if we are in relationship with someone, uh, sometimes we will ignore the implications of their actions or inaction and project good intentions upon their bad fruit. When I sin against you or don't act in the way I should in our relationship, the tendency is to protect my pride or ego by rationalizing just why it was completely reasonable or acceptable for you to accept, um, um, my, uh, unreasonable, immoral, um, or unacceptable behavior. Uh, you're a Christian, so forgive me. And do it like Jesus, again and again and again. Forgive me repeatedly. Uh, you're forgive my repeated abuse and failures repeatedly. Oh, I really wanted to be there, but I had other things to do. I wanted to be on time but couldn't. Uh, I wanted to help you with that, but something came up. I don't know if any of this hits close to home, uh, for you, or if it is— if this is you. Uh, but we have to realize that we may have false prophets among us, false friends, and may— and maybe, uh, false family. Um, whoa, shots fired. Uh, the world's broken. The world's a broken place, and nobody— and nobody's perfect. And we may have grown up in dysfunctional settings where where certain things were just the way we do things around here, and may have— and we may have accepted it by saying it is what it is. But God has given us a hope and a future, and Christ encourages us to value his presence and family over the bad company we associated with before Christ. When Christ calls us to follow him, he calls us to die to our former lives, and unfortunately, he also knows that there will be people from our past or present who won't be going with us and who will actively or unwittingly oppose our purpose and progress. Forgiveness for the Christian is mandatory. We are to forgive everyone because God forgave us. But for those who reject the Lord, God tells us to separate ourselves from, from the darkness and shake off the dust from, from our feet as a curse against them. Uh, with the hopes, uh, that they will repent. So if you are suffering from a lack of peace in your life due to past or present associations that aren't a part of where you are going any longer, go to the Lord and ask him what to do. He may ask you to endure in your relationships, or he, he very well may take you and introduce you to new people that can be a part of your spiritual family. Although not joined by genetic flesh and blood, your spiritual family and you share, um, the blood of Jesus and a common purpose and direction to give God glory and to go where he leads. So don't be deceived by jumping to conclusions, ignoring those red flags, or remaining tied to producers of bad fruit. God calls us to an abundant life in the Spirit, and so we should keep walking and talking with Him and see where it takes— where He takes us. People tend to stay the same, but God can transform us to become the people He created us to be. That is a good path to be on, even if it means walking away from what you have always done or the people who would seek to convince you that it is what it is. For those in Christ, all things are new. We just have to surrender to the Lord's will and live by his wisdom and ways to experience it. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is James 4:7, and it says, "So humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Today's verse encourages us to humble ourselves before God and to resist the devil, and, and by association, his minions. With the assurance that they will flee from you. I'm sure that James 4:7 has been shared before because it is just— it just happens to be one of the quintessential verses for spiritual warfare and personal discipleship. It is shared in the Freedom in Christ discipleship course more than once because it highlights all the parts of the Freedom in Christ Two-Step. Although perhaps paradoxical, and really what isn't a paradox in our faith, the way to freedom is found in submitting to God. While we could think we are resisting the devil fine just by ourselves without God's presence and wisdom, we are deceived. Our individual will to do our own thing makes us a rebel and us the king of our lives, which obviously is an opposition to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Um, so be wise and be humble, uh, to God. This is important because narcissists would implore that you humble yourselves before them and seek to enslave you as their servant. I'm short on time this morning, so I encourage you to meditate and reflect on the wisdom of this short verse, because within it is wisdom and freedom in Christ. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. And like I said, they might not agree with me, but I guess by sharing it, I agree with them. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, and we're sharing from what is known as Chapter 12 in Bonhoeffer's works, Volume 4, Discipleship, the chapters on the saints and So if you wanted to read what Dietrich Bonhoeffer had to say about the saints, uh, not the Latter-day Saints, um, but the saints, um, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that, uh, resource at the end of today's blog post. Uh, as always, we encourage people to be wise and discerning and to, uh, you know, walk the way God would have you walk and From my experience, that does mean leaving bad company with the hopes that they'll follow us someday, but we don't change people. God does. So we can encourage people to follow us and go with us, but when it's clear they're rejecting the Lord and, you know, by implication us, we can feel content and forgiving them from afar instead of having to deal with the fallout of bad relationships. Um, so there's that. God has given us a spiritual family in the body of Christ, and we can find, uh, find our rest there. However, we have to be wise and discerning there too. You know, Jesus talked about false— you know, the word of God tells us about false teachers too, so we have to be wise and discerning um, in terms of where we go, uh, to worship and, uh, who we are, who we decide to follow. And keep an eye out for that fruit because, uh, it may take some time, but generally people will act and say, um, in a manner of what they actually believe rather than what they profess. So you got to be careful. Um, yeah, uh, anyway, um, like I said, I am short on time, so I would like to pray and, uh, you call it a day as this hump day, um, just before Christmas is upon us. And I'm getting excited, uh, as I'm finishing preparations for Christmas and getting ready for that, uh, that weeks-long vacation where I'm gonna rejoice in the Lord in the new year in the presence of my lovely wife as we celebrate our first anniversary on the first of the year. Um, what a year it's been. And, uh, I'm going to keep going because, uh, this, this is the best life you can have, and the life in the Spirit, following the Lord, um, with and doing what he says, um, what he leads you to. So do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done in our lives. Lord, we just pray, um, for the people listening today, um, that you would, um, encourage them in their walk, come alongside them in their prayer request, and show them the way to go. Uh, Lord, as, as I've stated before, all we want to do is do your will for our lives, because we've learned that that's the best thing we can do. That's what our purpose is, is to follow you. Um, so Lord, show us the way. Uh, open our eyes to the things you want us to see today and lead us in the things we, uh, things you would have us do. Uh, Lord, we want to do the best job we can to represent you on the earth. So help us, we need your help every day, and we're asking for it again today. Lord, we pray continued prayers for my, my father, who's healing from surgery, and for my good friend Bob Griffin, who's undergoing a walk with cancer currently. And in light of a recent co-worker's death, um, we know how serious this matter can be, and we know that that you have all things in your hands and we can trust you with the outcomes. Um, so, but we are going to petition for these situations because we know, um, you encourage us to pray. So we're praying for those things, and we're praying for the people who are listening today for their prayers as well. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and, uh, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.