A Better Pathway - Purity 956

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 boardwalk stairway descending to a white sand beach in the blue and teal waters of the Indian Ocean below, all under a cloudless blue sky, comes to us from Dave Bohn of Dave Bohn Photography, who shared a bunch of his views from his vacation holiday excursion to Rottnest Island, Island on social media yesterday, promising his friends that there would be more to come. Well, it's Thursday again, and as is my habit, I share Dave's pathway as a visual reminder and an encouragement to all who read or hear this message to get on or to continue on the pathway of Christian discipleship, which always promises more to come as we seek to follow the Lord's call on our lives. Dave's spectacular photos changed my plans for the photo of the day this morning, as I had originally decided to share another view of the Hudson River/Skodak Creek outside my home under yesterday's sunset sky, which featured a horizontal view of the pathway of State Route 9J. But I decided I like Dave's vertical pathway to the white sand— to a white sand beach better, and frankly wouldn't mind following in his footstep footsteps in the land down under someday. And this changing of my mind about choosing a different pathway reminds me of how the Lord opened my eyes to His better way, even though I had been relatively pleased with the path I was on when He woke me up to the fact that I didn't see the danger I was in as I was gleefully skipping down the The Highway to Hell. As much as I have shared my testimony and admit to the fact that I was lost, I didn't know I was lost. As much as I have testified to the fact that I sought spiritual answers after the death of my son, uh, when God decided to wake me up, I wasn't searching anymore. Um, because of my pain, my suffering, my ignorance, and my sin, I had ruled out Christianity as an option and chose a path where I could be spiritual and still indulge in all the sins of the flesh that I loved and hated. When God reached through the veil and reached out to me with the Gospel Radio message, I thought I had it going on. I thought I was wise. I understood, I understood that rules were meant to be broken and that I was successfully playing the game of life. I had a job that provided for me, a family, and an active social life. All by myself in my basement with my booze and my drugs after hours. I was an upstanding citizen by day and pushing the limits and exploring the universe through spiritual and philosophical ponderings accompanied by euphoric experiences by night. I worked hard and I hated it, but I played hard to make up for it. I was living the undercover double life, careening around the clock of a vicious cycle of addiction with all the ups and downs and reactive emotions that come with it. As crazy as my life was back then, the path I was on, quote unquote, worked for me. And because I was doing whatever I wanted, I thought I had figured out life, or I thought I had life figured out, uh, and was wise while everyone else was stupid. Of course, one of the pieces of wisdom I held on to was that there was no God. Or at least not the God of Christianity. No, because of my interest in Buddhism, I viewed existence to be run by unseen impersonal forces like karma, and that Christianity had gotten it wrong because we didn't have, have just one life to live, and we never really died because we would be reincarnated in some other form based on our wisdom when we died. When we When you live according to this pantheistic worldview of reality, you simultaneously agree with and check out on personal responsibility and morality. The impersonal cosmic forces would determine your fate, and no matter what, you would always get a second chance at life in the next go-round. Morality was reduced to not harming others, so there was no guilt over the things I did. There was no reason to change, even though I had an overwhelming sense that much of what I did was wrong. The ends justifies the means and the pleasure principle worked for me, at least until I got into trouble. I knew I wasn't perfect, but I kept my darkness in the shadows and figured that was okay. I was a quote-unquote nice guy as far as anyone knew, and I didn't need to share anything that would lead anyone to know any different. But God knew. He saw me alone in the dark. He saw the path I was on. And because of his mercy, grace, and love, he decided to rescue me from myself. He showed me the truth, the way, and the life that was infinitely better than the pathway to destruction that I was on. One thing I didn't have on the path I was walking on was forgiveness. My life was a vicious cycle of shame and guilt. I rationalized and justified myself and decided there was nothing wrong with the way I lived, but my heart, mind, and body knew different. No matter how long I walked in darkness and told myself I was "fine" and "free," the truth was I wasn't fine and I wasn't free. I was operating against God's wisdom and ways and was personally separated from Him. In essence, I was doing everything wrong. Not only was I going against the advice of the One who created life itself, I was rejecting the One who would determine my eternal destiny. But I was blind to it all. Life was what it was, and I was just trying to be, quote unquote, trying to be happy, and in and of myself. Something that is impossible. It's God's creation. How could we think that we could have happiness or lasting peace by ignoring him? How could we think we are— we're quote-unquote fine without making peace and having a relationship with him? Like I said, I was ignorant. I was blind. I mean, these are very simple questions. Is there a creator? Do you think it might be a good idea to be in alignment with Him? Perhaps? But we are spiritually blind and willfully rebellious. We dismiss the big, these, the big questions because if we entertain them, we would have to humble ourselves and follow the Creator's way of living. So we run away from God and do our own thing. We think the path we are on is just fine, but it is not. It's God's way or the highway to hell, ultimately. And when we live independent of the Lord, we can experience some of that hell right here on earth. One picture of hell is torment. Shame, guilt, anxiety, fear, depression, and anger are the reactive emotions that torment us on earth. We experience these little hells when we are separated from the Lord and are violating His ways. But God welcomes us home. He calls us to the pathway of peace. By making Christ our Lord and Savior, we find it. This world will try to convince you that there are many roads you can take through life, but God has the only road that leads to life everlasting and peace on earth for those who become His children by faith. So if you are experiencing those little hells, you need to draw close to the Father and learn from Him. You need to learn about who you are in Christ and how, how to live according to God's way. God's, God's, God's put us on the pathway to peace, but we have to walk in His footsteps to experience it. So keep walking and talking with God. Remember that he has shown you the way to life, and all we have to do to experience the fruit of the Spirit here on earth is to follow him. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, and they say, all praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Today's Bible verses remind us that, uh, remind us that God, our merciful Father, is the source of all comfort, and that when we experience his comfort, we can share it with others. God gives us forgiveness, eternal life, and an example of how to live through Jesus Christ. He also gives us the Comforter, the indwelling presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. He heals our wounds. Restores us and invites us into an abundant life. That's very comforting. Um, but if you notice, this language is quite intimate— God comforting us. It points to us being in his presence, drawing on him to help us. So stay close to God and seek his comfort only. And when you have received his comfort, share it with others in the world that desperately needs it. 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. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's Sovereignty of God as we continue in chapter 5, The Sovereignty of God and Reprobation, as, um, A.W. Pink's walking through Romans 9 right now and He'll be going through verses 18, 19, and 20 through 23 today on the blog. So if you want to see some good Bible teaching from A.W. Pink, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. So we invite you to check that out. And as always, it's Thursday, we invite you down to the path of Christian discipleship. By deciding to live out your faith and doing it every day. Um, our faith was never meant to be a visit to church on Sunday. It was supposed to be a lifestyle of, of making disciples and sharing and showing the love of God here on earth. And so we, we— that's why we do the podcast, just to encourage people to walk it, walk with the Lord, and to make Christ their Savior, because there's a lot of different philosophies out there that would lead us to destruction. And they seem perfectly reasonable because they're, they're an alternative to doing what is right, to following the Lord. And unfortunately, we can be very selfish in meeting our personal needs and, and just following ourselves. But we have to realize there's a Creator, and that Creator sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to tell us the truth. And we can either ignore it or we can listen to it. And when we listen to it, we decide to follow the Lord and to share the truth. His truth is, you know, documented basically by the Word of God that is historically accurate. Its prophecies have come true, including the prophecy of Jesus Christ coming and the Messiah. And the amazing things that he did on earth and the way he amazingly changes the lives of those who believe in him, like me. So that's why we do all this, uh, the, the podcast and all that. We invite you to check out the teachings we did at our local church back in 2021 for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. These are teachings based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson. And they can really help you to understand who you are in Christ and to experience your freedom in Christ. So that's why we provide them on the podcast and our YouTube channel, all with the same name, M.t. Clark Christ 247. So we invite you to check those out. And as always, we point to the Bible as our source of truth. It's not just my opinions and experience, it's also the word of God. Um, that, that's the standard of truth, um, that we we, we try to align our lives with because God has told us what to do in his word. And so we should, we should know it and follow it. So we encourage Bible study by sharing our Bible study that we do once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. And if you'd like to check out our studies, we have them all going back to April, I believe, of 2021. So there's a bunch of topical Bible studies out there for you to listen to and enjoy. Um, and we hope you'll check those out. Um, well, it's Thursday, we have to work, um, you know, that's life. Uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for all that you do for us. Lord, thank you for making us alive and safe in Christ. Uh, Lord, thank you for giving us a purpose, uh, and, and an eternal life through your Son. Lord, we just pray today for you to go before us, and we pray for anyone who's listening or reading this message, Lord, that you would bless them, that you would come alongside them in their prayer requests, and, um, or that you would help us, uh, as we go. Um, Lord, all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom and share the comfort that we've received with others. So help us today to see what you want us to see. And lead our steps into the things you would have us do. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.