We’ll Never Be Friends Again – Friendship Myths #4 Purity 1336

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or, or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a sailboat on turquoise blue, crystal clear blue waters under pleasant blue skies comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared this tropical paradise scene on social media on or around July 27, 2021. Causing us to sail away in our imaginations and to save it into our phone's photo archive. If this photo is yours, give us a heads up and we will update the blog after the fact to give you the appropriate photo credit. Well, it's Friday, my friends, and while I suspect today's photo is a shot from the Turks and Caicos Islands area, I don't recall who the Facebook friend was who may, who may have shared it, and frankly, at this point, I can't even assume the photographer is still a friend. Seasons and people change. As we have pointed out over the last few days in our current series on friendship myths, we know that friendships can and do end. But while we are encouraging the normalization of the belief that it's okay that friendships end, we also want to combat the other extreme belief that surrounds this unfortunate fact of life, which is that once a friendship has ended, we can never be friends again. We were inspired to start this series in part from Sarah Epstein's 2022 Psychology Today article about destructive beliefs about friendships, and here is what she had to say about the myth that once a friendship fades, it will never come back. She writes, while some friendships do fizzle permanently, others can come back— others come back stronger after a period apart or a particularly difficult stretch. Childhood friends may find that they drifted in college and found more common ground in adulthood. A friend going through a difficult personal period may pull back and reemerge later. A big event or the confluence of a life phase, say having children at the same time, can draw people back together who previously drifted apart. There is no single roadmap for friendship and closeness. As I have pointed out, the enemy's lies and common destructive beliefs— common destructive beliefs or myths— tend to have extreme language that set up a high and possibly hopeless standard of expectations that are doomed to failure, driving us to disappointment, disillusionment, or despair. The idea that a once cherished friendship that has been dissolved or has been broken will never be repaired or will return to us doesn't exactly fill us with the warm fuzzies. And the unseen demonic forces of darkness will seek to take this destructive belief and use it to torment us. You'll never be friends again. You must be a terrible person. Or you— or will use it to keep us sad and isolated. What's the point of making friends? Everybody leaves you anyway. Isn't that sad? Oh, what's the point? You can see that these mental whisperings, referred to as the fiery darts of the wicked one in Ephesians 6:16, are intended to steal our joy, a fruit of the Spirit, and to drive us into temptation, causing us to comfort ourselves independently of God with food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, entertainment, or sex. Or despair, uh, causing us to isolate, not love our neighbors as ourself, not serve God's kingdom, not share the gospel, and possibly drive us to suicide. While I can't guarantee that lost or broken friendships will be restored— some friendships are destined to end, and appreciation and acceptance of that fact could be a source of peace in itself— I would encourage you to renounce the lie that our friendships will never come back. We don't know the future, and instead of pretending that we do, we should remain open to whatever possibilities that the Lord will direct us into. Um, an example from scripture that demonstrates that friendships can be restored is the example of Paul and John Mark. Acts 15:37-40 tells us about the drama. Now, Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark, but Paul But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. Mark had deserted them in the mission field, and Paul didn't forget it. While Barnabas the encourager sought to restore Mark, Paul was done with him, and the contention over the issue caused the parties to split. And in those days, we didn't have social media, and the perilous journeys of sharing the gospel didn't guarantee you would ever see each other again. Although both parties went on to serve God's kingdom, we could easily think that Mark and Paul would never be friends again. But, as Epstein points out in her article, some friendships come back stronger after a period apart or a particularly difficult stretch. Later, when Paul was in prison and was facing the end of his life, he wrote a letter to Timothy to set his affairs in order. In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul writes: "Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry." Yep, it's that Mark. In his final hours, Paul requested only 5 things for Timothy to come soon, for him to bring Mark with him, and to bring his cloak, his books, and the parchments. We don't ask for the company of our enemies in the end. And beyond being useful for ministry, we can conclude that Mark and Paul were friends again. With God, nothing is over until he says it's over. And while we should accept what each day brings, and accept and normalize the hard facts of life—sometimes friendships do end permanently, and that's okay—we should avoid declaring "never" over anything, because we simply don't know what the future holds. If the Lord wills it, even the most unlikely of events will come to pass, and so we should be open to—and maybe even be hopeful for—the possibility that that lost friendships may be restored someday. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on death and eternal life, and today's verses come from 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 from the New American Standard Bible. The word of God says, for God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him. Together— or therefore, encourage one another and build one another up— build up one another, just as you also are doing. Today's verses fall under the 18th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on death and eternal life, and that 18th point is: Jesus died so that we may live forever with him. Encourage one another with this truth. Today's verses tell us quite clearly that we are not destined for God's wrath. He's not mad at us. But through our faith in Jesus Christ, He has called us to live with Him forever. Whether we are awake or asleep, that is, if we are alive or dead, we will live together with God. That means now, guys. I have faith in Jesus, and I'm not dead. And so my course through life should be guided by the knowledge that God lives with me. The promise of eternal life and God's continual pre— presence in our lives is why we can encourage one another and build one another up. Our joy over our salvation and our relationship with God should infuse our lives with hope and purpose. So let's encourage each other with the knowledge that God's not mad at us, and on the contrary, He is with us and will be with us whether we live or die. We don't have to be afraid. We are accepted, secure, and significant in Christ, and we will live with God now and forever. So keep walking and talking with him and encourage one another in our faith every day. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Um, today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture every day. Today's chapter is Acts number 7, and from Acts 7, he shares a portion of Acts 7:2, which says, Brethren and fathers Listen, and Stephen Alpher writes, what has impressed me more than anything else in the reading of this chapter is Stephen's amazing knowledge of the now-known Old Testament. From the second verse until the 50th, he gives a most comprehensive and yet precise resume of, of Old Testament history. How he must have studied the scriptures, how acquainted he was— he must have been with them, for a flow of language concerning a subject such as seen in these verses would have otherwise been impossible. The Holy Spirit only brings to remembrance such things as one has learned. Stephen must have been a real student of the Word, as was his Master. And Alfred Praise: Give me the power and needed grace, Lord, to study, to show myself approved unto God. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Amen. Amen. Alfred brings up a great point. Um, you know, one of the things I learned when, when I became a born-again Christian in 2010, um, I think it was from Billy Graham Ministries, is I was like, well, I'm a Christian now and I really want to be a Christian, so what do I have to do? Or, you know, what should I do? And one of the things that his, his ministry, uh, encouraged was that you read the word every day. And the word being the Bible. And I started to read the word every day, even though I was, you know, not Bible-versed before then. Uh, the Holy Spirit was in me, and that's one thing that definitely changed immediately, is that I had a real, a real desire to know God's word and know God more. I didn't want my faith to be some blind faith. I, I wanted to make sure it was true. I believed, but I wanted to be assured in my assured of my faith, you know, and have the assurance of my salvation. And so I read the Word. And the reason why you read the Word is so the Holy Spirit who's in you can call it into remembrance, as Alford points out. You have to know the Word. And I think— now let me get this straight— I believe the Lord is very gracious, and I think if we read it, you know, photographic memory— people with photographic memory remember everything. So that means in our minds, our brains, or whatever, what we've done is probably in there. And it might be hard to retrieve or recall, but I believe the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit can bring it into remembrance. So thus, I would say that, you know, from sitting in a church, from reading the Word of God, the Word of God has been thrown over us over and over and over again. And if you read the Bible in a year or took 3 years to read it or whatever, if you've read the Bible one time, I would say that it's in there, just like prego. Um, the word of God is in us, and the Holy Spirit is gracious and he'll use it. Plus, we hear, like I said, Christian messages and gospel, you know, gospel preaching, uh, when we go to church regularly or we listen to Christian teachings or podcasts. So So the Word of God is thrown on us, and the Holy Spirit will cause us— and, you know, the way it works is He'll cause us to remember these things. We'll be inspired. We'll ask for God's help, and suddenly we'll get a Bible verse in our head, and— or, you know, certain indications. And that's the Holy Spirit working in us to bring, you know, those truths into remembrance. And so Stephen probably had a much harder time in the Old Testament, you know, back then in the early days of the church, knowing the scriptures because of the availability of it. And but, like, as demonstrated in his discourse before he's martyred, he had a very good knowledge of how Christ would be— was revealed in the Old Testament. He was concealed in the Old Testament and later revealed, you know, through history. And so we can be greatly encouraged that the Holy Spirit can and will use us and will cause us to remember, you know, his truth and God's truth when we need it. So that's what we do. So we should never lose hope. You know, I know I said to avoid extreme language, but when We hope in God. He's the Eternal One. If we're going to put any extremes out there, it'll be on God, and he will help us. So anyway, um, uh, well, today is Friday and I'm rolling into work, so I want to pray and get this message uploaded as many platforms as I can. Um, as, as I stated, the new, the new, the new, the new website is mt4christ.com. Uh, I still have the domain of mt4christ.org, but due to a technical issue. I made a mistake, and right now if you try to go there, I think you get nothing because I'm checking it. People at WordPress say that it'll be redirected within 72 hours of yesterday, so I'm waiting for it to happen, and I'll probably have to reach out and contact them again, I fear, because like for one, you know, in some instances I go to .org and .com comes up, but I don't know if that's on my PC only, because when I use it on my phone, it don't happen. Um, so I don't know. Um, I think all the links that are out there for .org still work. Um, I don't know. Um, I'm trusting the Lord with it, and I got to let go and let God and let the technical experts do what they have to do, and then follow up and make sure it's done. Uh, beyond that, I, uh, took steps today to, uh, or last night, late last night, was inspired to take steps to get further along the Christian coaching pathway. And we'll be, uh, well, basically I formed an LLC, M.t. for Christ Christian Coaching LLC, um, yesterday. And so that's got a process, and then after that happens, we can really, you know, figure out how we're gonna how we're going to do that, because my coaching will be prayer ministry and discipleship. You know, that's, that's how I coach. And I can give you advice about food addiction and just overcoming sexual addiction or overcoming, you know, substance abuse and addictions and all that, and, and getting through a divorce and the loss of a child and, you know, a lot of things. And I have several degrees and certifications, so thus I feel, you know, I got something to tell you. Whether or not you want to apply that to your life and be transformed, you know, basically that'll, that'll be up to you and God, because that's who I'll be pointing it to— not my wisdom, but his. So I'm not sure when that'll happen, you know, in terms of developing the business, but I'm going to keep my full-time job, and thus I must get to work. Um, so let's pray. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done and how you guided our path, and we, we trust you with the future as well. And Lord, we just 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. And we pray for you to bless them. And Lord, as always, we 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 Lord, we— all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we need an awful lot of help with that, a lot of grace. So Lord, we're asking for that today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.