Pershing for a Lack of Knowledge and Being All Shook Up - Purity 1474

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Good morning. Today's photo of the Northern Lights illuminating the skies over Lake Ontario comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography, as Rocco Seja shared this view on social media on Monday, October 7th, stating that high winds and the Northern Lights came together to create a surreal scene over Oswego Harbor. Well, it's Friday, thank God. And when we see the things that God has done in his creation, like the Northern Lights, and in our lives, like the way he moved us from darkness to light, we can feel quite surreal ourselves. Uh, the definition of surreal is strange, not seeming real, or dreamlike. And after God comes into your life and causes you to see the truth and moves you to change, and you experience your freedom in Christ, It can feel strange and dreamlike. Now, each morning I blog, I look for photos for the day on my iPhone, and occasionally I'll jump back in time to grab something from the archives of my phone, and I'll see photos of myself from just a few years ago. Now, when I compare those photos to what I look like now, I have some real cognitive dissonance because I've changed so much. I know those photos are of me, of course, and that I can— and that I considered myself free in Christ at the time. But when I consider what I've learned since then and how I've grown and or matured spiritually and how I've decreased in physical size, losing 5 inches in my waist and going down a shirt size, uh, and losing about 40 pounds since last August, I can barely believe it's me. It seems surreal that this has happened. And yet, uh, what is perhaps more amazing is that God is still not done with me yet. Um, recently I fell off the rails of a disciplined life when it comes to my eating habits and was sidelined with pneumonia. I have since come out of that summer season of compromise and, and surprising serious illness with a conviction that God was telling me to to not take my health for granted. After I was healed, I was able to resume my regular workouts and have been disciplined with what I consume and feel so much better. I also recently listened to the audio version of Dr. Michael Brown's book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, Stronghold of Food, which has inspired me to face the facts of my food addiction with renewed vigor. And caused me to investigate Dr. Joel Fuhrman's work, which inspired Brown and his wife Nancy to conquer their food addiction and to make a complete lifestyle change to healthy eating. Yesterday, I began reading Dr. Fuhrman's Eat for Life and was shocked to learn the truth about not only how bad the standard American diet is for our health, but also how my current keto-focused food plan could lead to an early grave. Quoting a 2018 study from the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, on low carbohydrate diets such as paleo and keto, Dr. Maciej Barnak said, we found that people who consumed a low carbohydrate diet were at a greater risk of premature death. Risks were also increased for individual causes of death, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer, these diets should be avoided. I have only just begun to read Fuhrman's Eat for Life, and I'm only a few chapters in, but have come to the realization that animal-based food products are consistently linked with disease and death. And that I have to radically reduce or eliminate them from my food plan. You know, the Bible says in Hosea 4:6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. Now I know that verse is drawn from an Old Testament prophet who is calling Israel to reject idolatry, and they're being chastised for their failure to acknowledge the true living God and live according to his word. But the principle of perishing for not having, or even worse, rejecting knowledge has far-reaching implications and applications for our daily lives. While we all know that it would probably be best to primarily eat vegetables and fruit, we've rejected that knowledge or don't really know it in the first place, and have been deceived into believing that we are eating healthily, and, and are still able to do things our way. If we look at the facts, uh, we realize we believed a lie. And once, and, and I for one have gotten a hold of some truth that quite frankly has shaken me up. And that's what happens when we get truth. It shakes us up. The same, you know, the same was true for me when I finally realized the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Shook me up and changed my life. As it turns out, today's Turning Point Devotional, Dr. David Jeremiah addresses being shaken up. And so I'm sharing it on the blog today to inspire us all to seek out the truth about how we are living and to let it impact us to make a change for the better. And so Dr. Jeremiah writes, Shaking Things Up. Sudden earthquakes are fearful, shocking events. The Bible teaches that when the feet of Jesus descend to the Mount of Olives at the Second Coming, an earthquake will split open the ridge, producing great topological changes to Jerusalem and Israel. When Christ appears, he shakes things up. In a similar way, when Jesus comes into our lives, we tremble and are transformed. He unleashes the hidden rivers of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. He makes old habits fall away and he raises up new territories of praise for himself. Let the Lord shake you up for his glory. That was from David Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Vance Havner, which says, sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, shake well before using. This is what God has to do with some of his people. Shake them well before they are usable. Are ever usable. Amen. You know, that's how you really know you've been born again and called to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He shakes up your life. Being a disciple of Jesus is not just easy believism. It's a paradigm-shifting, life-transforming, supernatural event that sets into motion a process that changes the individual forever. Or at least it should be. Jesus calls us to a life of meaning and purpose, but he doesn't drag us there. He calls us to come and see the life that God has for us, but amazingly, he lets us decide whether or not we will follow, or just how far we will go into God's will for our lives. When we go all in and decide to follow Jesus, it shakes up our lives, sometimes causing things to break like shallow or toxic relationships, wrong ideas, and bad habits. But in the breaking and the shaking, we find freedom. If we fear the loss of what is familiar and refuse to follow, we won't feel— fully realize the abundant life that God has for us. So as a follower of Jesus who has experienced his fair share of shaking and breaking, Let me encourage you to be bold and courageous because nothing that is lost in following Jesus pales in comparison to all we gain in Christ. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on forgiving others, and today's verse is Galatians 6:1, which says, Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Today's verse falls under the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiving others, and that 11th point is: Restore with gentleness one who has fallen into sin. Today's Bible verse encourages us to be gentle with those who go— have gone astray and to lead them back to the truth and, uh, and God's way but to also be careful that their failure doesn't cause us to fall as well. Bad company corrupts good character, and misery loves company. So when we encounter brothers or sisters in Christ who have fallen into sin, we have to be careful that they don't drag us down with them when we try to lift them up. Amazingly, this happens. I've seen it happen in recovery ministry. The flesh and the devil sometimes work in tandem. And they can corrupt someone who is walking in the Spirit when they see someone else enjoying their forbidden sins. So be sure to make sure you— be sure to make sure you remain accountable to someone else when you go to rescue someone. Be sure to phone a friend before lifting someone else out of the mire so you won't be sucked into sin too. As always, we encourage everyone to go to m.t. forchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and pastors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Recording Your Word Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allpert. And in Allpert's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 1 John 3. From that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 22, which says, whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And Stephen Alford writes, previously I learned that the condition for perfected love in me was keeping God's word. Here the condition for answered prayers is keeping his commandments. John is no doubt quoting from the words to which the Lord Jesus gave utterance in those last discourses before he left for the cross and then the glory. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, 'You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.' John 15:7. 'And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.' John 14:13. The four conditions of foreanswered prayer are: keeping God's word, seeking God's will, seeking God's glory, pleading Christ's name. And Alfred ends by By praying, may I always consider my fulfillment of these conditions, Lord, before coming to your throne. Yes and amen. Uh, so yeah, if we want answered prayer, we have to keep God's word, we have to seek his will and his glory, and pray in the name of Jesus. And, uh, and that's also the spirit of Jesus. Um, you know, and so we always ask the question Are you in the spirit of Jesus? By saying, have you fully surrendered to God? Are you trying to follow Lord into the life that he has for you? Um, you know, and if you say yes to that, all kinds of things would get shaken up in your life. Um, he not only might change those relationships and bad habits and wrong ideas, but he also might lead you into ministry. And in my case, I've been blessed to, uh, given the ministry of, uh, leader at Celebrate Freedom, a Christian recovery and discipleship group that meets at Starpoint Church on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. We invite anybody in the Capital District of New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night to join us. But for those who aren't in Upstate New York, we recommend that you can find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. So go to our playlist page and you can find all of those. And, uh, we always ask the question, have you— are you empty for Christ? Have you emptied yourself and let go of the things you used to believe to follow the Lord? Um, when you do that, we say keep on walking and talking with God. If you haven't done that, we ask you to pray. So, so, so yeah, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for all you've done for our lives. We pray for you go before us, Lord. Uh, help us to see what you want us to see today and lead us in the way we should go. We also pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you bless them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Lord, we thank you, praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.