Love is Spoken Here & Who Does God Say You Are – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement - Purity 1216

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 3 Christmas trees shining bright with the proclamation that "Love is spoken here" displayed prominently in between in the front lobby of my local church comes to yours truly, uh, comes to us from yours truly as I had the privilege last night to have the place to myself after hours and decided to capture this peaceful moment that celebrates the Christmas season and tells us what the gospel is all about— love. John 3:16 tells us, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' Well, it's Thursday, and although I usually like to share pathway photos on Thursdays to visually encourage my friends to get on or stay on the path of Christian discipleship. Sometimes you have to show a photo of where you should be going. So in this case, I am subtly pointing out that if you are following Jesus, you should find yourself at church quite regularly. As a matter of fact, I can't tell you what an amazing honor and joy it is to be in our Father's house the church, serving in whatever capacity you can. When you serve the church, the church becomes your home, and there is no awkwardness in making yourself at home in the Lord's presence because he loves you and wants you to stay with him. The gift of God's love is really experienced in the church, and the best gift we can give one another in the body of Christ is, is each other in our presence, our fellowship, our comfort, our our help and our encouragement. I love the support I receive from my family, the church, and don't mind leaning on my brothers and sisters in Christ because we are family. So after a long Wednesday of work and ministry, I don't feel shy in getting a little help from my friend in the UK, Mindful of Christ Lawrence Roskillie, who sends out a weekly Word for Wednesday that I always find encouraging., so I am sharing it here on the blog today. You can sign up to get Lauren's Word for Wednesday and other valuable Christian resources from her by going to mindfulofchrist.net. Lauren shares 1 Peter 2:10 from the NIV. The word of God says, once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now You have received mercy. Lauren writes, who does God say you are? Have you ever wondered who you are? Perhaps you're still wondering. Well, if you are a believer, you belong to God and his kingdom. You are a child of Christ, and you have Christ in you. Who does God say you are? You are chosen. You are loved. You are wonderfully made. You are adopted into His family. You have been given gifts and skills. You have plans and a purpose for life. Do you believe these in your heart of hearts? Well, you should. So check out these verses and meditate on what God says about you. Look into a mirror and repeat these. I— it may be uncomfortable at first, but with repetition you will come to know these as truth and accept who you are in Christ. Blessings from Lauren. And, uh, thank you, Lauren. Any encouragement that points out our identity in Christ and that we are a family in the body of Christ is a good encouragement to me. Lauren also offers a free poster of affirmations, biblical truths for identity, and I'm sharing a link to it so you can get yours like I got mine. I printed mine out on cardstock, and as it is Christmas time, it wouldn't make a bad gift to a brother or sister in Christ. Just frame it and present it, and you could give a fellow saint a gift that shares the truth of their identity in Christ that they can enjoy the whole year round. Who we are in Christ is the most important thing about us. And when we live in that truth and enjoy the fellowship with other Christians that know it too, we really can experience the love that God so freely gave us. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on the church, Communion of the Saints. And today's verse is Revelation 7:9 from the New American Standard Bible. The Word of God says, after these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. Today's verse falls under the 18th point and— 18th and final point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on the church, Communion of the Saints. And that 18th point is: The church is a great multitude gathered from all nations and tribes. Today's verse points out— points to a blessed day yet to come for all who put their faith in Jesus. This scene from Revelation reveals that the church is a great multitude from every tribe and tongue. Who will one day gather together to celebrate the culmination of God's Kingdom being fully established. Joy to the world is the song that will be sung when the saints go marching in, in our white robes and palm branches in hand, to proclaim the victory and the peace that the Lord has won. As always, I invite all to go to M.t. Clark.org where I always share share information, insights, and prominent Christian theologians— from, uh, share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we are continuing the share from God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And as I explained previously, we are off the advent calendar a little bit because I wanted to share as much as I could from this devotional regardless of the current Advent season. So even though we're only a few days into Advent, which started on December 3rd, uh, in our resource we are on Advent Week 2, Mystery Day 5. And today's message from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is called The Power and the Glory— and Power and Glory of the Manger. And Bonhoeffer writes, For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod, for this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the Prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry. But the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught. They have no right, no hope, they are judged. Then Bonhoeffer continues to write, who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger, whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high, whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness. That was from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And our resource also shares Luke 1:46-55. The word of God says, and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has sha— scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. Luke 1:46-55. That concludes our sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God is in the Manger, uh, Reflections on Advent and Christmas, and, uh, We are moving in. Today is December 7th, and we're very happy. Another day closer to Christmas and another day closer to the weekend, so we're looking forward to that. Last night we, uh, we delivered a message on the, uh, uh, at Celebrate Freedom, our growth group at Starpoint Church where I was last night, captured that photo, um, on the enemy and how he can influence us and And so we need to realize in this time of peace that some people may be afflicted by negative thoughts. And a good defense against that is our identity in Christ. Any condemning thoughts about ourselves, bad things we think about ourselves, aren't true in Christ. However, if we do sin, we need to repent. Maybe conviction is one thing. But your identity is sealed by the Holy Spirit, and it's a great defense to stand in the truth of who you are in Christ and live according to it, to not contradict who you are in Christ, to defeat the spiritual forces of darkness. If you'd like to see that lesson on the enemy and his influence, basically we share it on YouTube under the playlist for Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course. It's lesson 3. And as it turns out, Lesson 1 is on the Kingdom, Lesson 2 is on Identity, and 3 is on the Enemy. So if you want to check those out, they're available for your viewing and listening pleasure on the blog, the podcast, and our YouTube channel. And as always, we encourage people to live a life of freedom in Christ, where you, you live according to your faith. And if you don't know what freedom in Christ is, if you haven't experienced that for yourself, we encourage you to check out our other discipleship teachings from Freedom in Christ Ministries, Dr. Neil Anderson, called Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all available on the podcast and our YouTube channel, and they're put out there to encourage you. To know who you are in Christ, to defeat the enemy, and to experience your freedom. So that's that. We do have to work today, so we'll move along in prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us and for the victory you've won in our lives and the victory you'll win at the end of days. All all will come into Your kingdom or be judged. Lord, we thank You for the mercy You've given us for showing us the truth. And we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message that You come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith, Lord, because we all need Your help. Even though we've been accepted by You, we're still walking around in this world and we need Your help and guidance to help us live how you would want us to live and be the people you want us to be. So Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent your kingdom and share the love, uh, that we've come to know in Jesus Christ alone. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.