A New Mission – Activate Ego Trip… Pizza Delivery Guy ? Purity 815

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 pair of elephants under blue skies comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from his family's visit to the Indianapolis Zoo during their epic road trip vacation earlier this month. My friend's road trip took his family through Lancaster and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, through Indianapolis, uh, to Chicago, and then back home, um, with stops at Lake Erie, Niagara Falls, and to Buffalo where his family went to a Bills game. Just like these elephants seem to be headed in the same direction, I have to admit that when I contemplate my friend's path and the photos of his family's adventures, it makes me consider the possibility of following in his footsteps someday. Well, after what turned out to be an extra long Friday at work for me yesterday, I'm happy to have made it to the first day of my vacation this Saturday morning and pray that all who listen to or read this message use this second-to-last weekend in August to have some summertime fun and to thank the Lord for all he provides. Unlike my friend, I didn't make any plans to travel this week but have decided to use my time off to enjoy the things I have at home, uh, that, that work keeps me from keeps me away from. Sometimes familiarity can breed contempt and send us seeking happiness elsewhere when we don't appreciate the good things we have in our lives. But I know how good I got it, and I know the one who led me here. So this week's staycation will be one of rest, relaxation, and gratitude. But let's keep it real. As someone who does a blog 6 days a week and who is always looking to follow the Lord's will for my life. I won't be just sitting around bored, as I have some things I, I want to do this week that will make my quote-unquote time off seem like the illusion that it is. Let's face it, even when we are on vacation, there are things that have to be done, or should be done anyway, like bathing and feeding ourselves, for instance. I suppose I could stay in bed and fast to do nothing, um, but I'd rather not waste the time I have off avoiding anything that could be considered work, just to say I didn't have to do anything this week. Uh, the truth is I like to be clean and to be fed, and that, that desire goes beyond the physical realm. Uh, the desire to follow the Lord, uh, makes you want to be clean in his sight and be well fed with his wisdom. So we study the word of God and connect with God in the conversation of prayer to know his presence and to live in harmony with him. When we follow him, God cleans up our act, and after we walk in it for a while, we discover that even though we have the choice to do whatever we want or to do nothing, uh, walking in the Spirit is the way that leads to real peace, love, and joy. So this week I am not going to take a vacation from the blog. Frankly, it's part of my daily spiritual practice at this point, and the idea of stopping even for a short while doesn't appeal to me at all. I consider encouraging others to follow the Lord part of my mission in life, and the blog also provides a forum where I can thank the Lord and share his goodness and faithfulness that never takes a day off. I also have plans on creating lesson content for the Bonhoeffer discipleship course that I plan on launching after Labor Day and look forward to allowing Bonhoeffer's exposition of scripture to fill me with wisdom and encouragement to keep walking and talking with God on the path of Christian discipleship. I also have a training, uh, training scheduled to do, uh, to become one of the web hosts of Freedom in Christ Ministries monthly care and training series, uh, that they do once a month that encourage and equip anyone who wants to join the cause of helping people experience and maintain their freedom in Christ. Uh, what some could possibly look at as an imposition, I look at as an honor, and as, uh, as, and as further evidence that I correctly followed the Lord's call when I decided to become a Community Freedom Ministry Associate on the heels of completing my master's degree in Christian counseling. When others would be looking to take a rest from the whirlwind trials and tribulations of going through a nasty divorce, working two jobs, buying a new home, and completing a postgraduate degree, I felt the need to spend the money and the time to be trained as a CFMA and to launch a new discipleship ministry. This could have seemed a foolhardy thing to do considering "all that I had been through," but the fruit of that decision has resulted in me not only finding and marrying the love of my life, but has led to what I consider to be a worthwhile ministry where I have literally seen the face of the enemy and watched the captives get set free. God led me to my purpose, it seems, and I am happy to serve in this new capacity. But God also led me to my wife, and when you love someone, you walk with them and you support them in their walk in whatever way you can. My wife's journey has been as tumultuous as mine and continues to be a roller coaster ride of sorts. Uh, the latest turn is a new career as the general manager of a— at a local restaurant. Uh, what started as a part-time job to help ends meet in the summer months quickly turned into an opportunity that she boldly decided to pursue. But with the new job comes new responsibilities and new hours. The role of Skylerville Pizza and Pasta general manager requires her to cash out the day's receipts at the end of business, uh, 5 days a week, and it requires her to work Saturdays. As a 2-household family, that meant we would be separated from one another during our time together on the weekends. I considered the new, new schedule. I assured Tammy Lynn that I would still come up to her countryside home like I always do and would patiently wait for her to get out of work. But then I decided that I really wanted to show my wife I support her new career and wanted to do, wanted her to know that wherever you go, I go. So since I, since I know the manager, I applied to work at the restaurant as a delivery driver. Yep, a pizza delivery guy. So today, on my first day of vacation from my regular job, I will be headed into work with my wife and be trained to help the kitchen staff with being prepared for the day and to make deliveries when called to. I see my life as a living expression of my faith, and when my wife was called to do this new career, I wanted to show her that we are in this thing together. And since God brought her into my life, I would boldly go wherever he called us. So, I will seek to represent the Lord by doing the best job I can, and to encourage the people I encounter along the way that life is good because God is with us. So, whether you are called to work today, or if you are on the road, or just enjoying the comforts of home, keep walking and talking with God. When you draw close to Him, He will lift you up and direct your steps in all kinds of ways you could not anticipate. But when we follow him, we can take each new opportunity or face each new challenge with peace, love, and joy. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 46:10, and it says, be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. Today's verse encourages us to be still and to know the Lord will be— and to know the Lord with the assurance that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Okay, I know today's verse doesn't say that, but it does say that God will be honored by every nation and throughout the world. And how will this be? Through Jesus Christ, of course. Today's verse is God speaking in the Old Testament of a future fulfillment of the entirety of his creation honoring him. That points to the second coming of Jesus Christ. As much as the church can evangelize and I can encourage people to follow Jesus, the word indicates that not everyone will come to faith in Jesus, even though the word tells us that the Lord doesn't want anyone to perish. So how will the Lord be honored by every nation and throughout the world? When a good portion of the earth's population openly rejects his Messiah and even denies his existence? Oh, God is going to make everyone know who Jesus is, and when he comes back, there won't be any denying who he is. God is the person— and God in the person of Jesus Christ will be honored by every nation throughout the world when he comes back to judge and rule the earth. It will be with tears of joy or with tears of bitterness, but every person in every nation throughout the earth will give honor to God by declaring that Jesus is Lord. So, what do we do in the meantime? Today's verse tells us to be still and to know that God is God and that He basically has everything taken care of. Things will be made right. Justice will come to those who refuse God's mercy and grace, and there will be hell to pay. But for those of us in Christ, we can be still, we can rest in knowing that God is with us and for us, and that we have nothing to fear because we know Him and have entered into His Kingdom family. So be still and know that God is the Sovereign King over all creation, and that we have peace with Him through Jesus, and He will work all things together for good until the day when all the nations throughout the world will give him honor. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and, uh, today we conclude chapter 13, uh, with Clinton Arnold's disposition on critiquing the modern worldview. Chapter 13 is all about, you know, what's the, the modern concept of the powers of darkness and, and what do they have to say about it. And he's presented different things, and this morning he is going to critique the modern worldview, uh, in light of scripture, of course, um, to, to see, you know, what the conclusion is. So if you want to see what Clinton Arnold has to think of the modern worldview, um, go to mt4christ.org and go to the bottom of today's blog post, and you'll be able to see that resource. As always, we encourage you to get Clinton Arnold's book, Powers of Darkness. It's basically an exposition of Paul's epistles and, you know, how the powers, you know, powers and principalities are presented. And it's a great— actually, it's a great historical study to show what the first-century views of the supernatural were like and how they relate to today. So, and, and of course, it pushes us towards Jesus Christ and, you know, knowing who we are in him and defying those powers of darkness. So we encourage you to get Clinton Arnold's book. We also encourage you to walk out your faith in everything you do. From your, from your day job to your vacation to whatever. Life is better when we recognize that Jesus is Lord and that we give honor to God with the way we live our lives. We can be part of that every nation. Um, we can start early. We can start honoring God now by, by reading his word and trying to live according to his plan and purpose for us. Here on the earth to make. And, you know, the purpose, um, uh, you know, basically is to know God and to know Jesus, um, you know, who he sent. That's our purpose as human beings, is to know God and to know Jesus and, uh, and to come in line with, with the kingdom that will reclaim the earth someday. So we can do that today. And we can encourage other people to do that today as well, to find their salvation and find their peace and to find victory and freedom over the things that trip us up. All the negative mind states, sins of the flesh, you know, basically can be conquered through faith in Christ. That's what it's all about. It's about freedom and victory, and it's ours for the taking. But we have to believe it, we have to receive it, and we have to follow the Lord into it. So what do we— what do you do? Well, we encourage people through our discipleship teachings that we've, you know, that we put on the podcast. We did teachings for the Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, all from Dr. Neil Anderson from Freedom in Christ Ministries. And that's all just happens to be based on the word of God. So if you want to check those out, we, we provide them on our blog, on our podcast and our YouTube channel. Um, you know, our YouTube channel hasn't blown up necessarily, but you know, I am greatly encouraged. Um, in the last 28 days it was like 854 views. I don't know if that's a lot, but it seems a lot to me. It's more than 28 views, which sometimes it seems like, you know, some of the things I put out get zero views. Um, but lately there's been a small upsurge from zero. Um, so we'll take it as a good sign and an encouragement. You know, all I can do is try to point people to the Lord as far as I'm concerned. And, you know, even if they listen for a second, at least I tried. I can't save anyone, but the Lord can. And I'm hoping that he can use our, our messages of encouragement or lessons to, uh, to help people connect to him, because it's tough. This modern world goes in total opposition of faith and And even our churches can sometimes confuse what a relationship with God is supposed to be. That's what we do as a Community Freedom Ministry associate is try to show people that God is for us and that he leads us into victory and freedom if we would only believe and stop condemning ourselves as sinners and accept our identity as saints. And that's how you do it. When you discover who you are, you can live as who you're made to be. And so we do that. Um, we also revere the Word of God, which all those teachings are based on. Um, basically that's the Bible, and we believe it's true and inerrant and Holy Spirit inspired, as the Word tells us. And so we study it daily. In fact, I was going to share a bunch of stuff from I was going to share all of Proverbs 2 today, but then I started, you know, blogging or whatever, and suddenly it wasn't there. The good thing is if I ever want to mail it in, I could just share whatever I, uh, whatever I read in the Bible each morning, because the word is good. And I encourage anyone out there to read Proverbs. Proverbs 2 was especially good. It was only 22 verses this morning, but it was, you know, solid, you know. Biblical wisdom because it was encouraging us to seek God's wisdom. So we revere the Word of God because we study it, we love it, and really it's one of those books that, you know, it's more than a book. It's God's revelation to us, and we need to know him continually. And, you know, as many times as I've read the Bible, it's like I've never read it. I mean, it'll be familiar, but the Holy Spirit will use, you know, each subsequent reading to reveal more truth and to impact and encourage me in my faith. And so we tell people, you really should read the Bible, not just sort of as a do or don't, but as a, as a great piece of advice to, to help you, because this is what God calls us to do. Renew our minds with the— with his word. So when we do that, something more than just reading the book happens, you know. The book reads us, and it, it changes our hearts and our minds to follow the Lord's call more and more, which, believe me, is not a bad thing. So we, we also share our Bible study discussion that we do with our fellow Christians and lovers of the word, Arthur and Susanna Zinkadi. So if you want an informal Bible study discussion to listen to, you can check out our Bible Study with the Zinkadi series that is on the podcast and on our YouTube channel. All the messages are on both, and they go back all the way back to, I believe it was April of 2021. So Um, that's when we began, or it was March, but, um, that's it. And, uh, so we will continue, um, with this day, uh, basically by being thankful for the Lord and, and going to a new job and, you know, facing the stress of trying to, you know, do a good job and meeting new people. And, you know, life's an adventure, and I can You know, as much as I would caution people about busyness, I tend to— I would rather you be busy than sitting around doing nothing and feeling depressed. You know, that's something that's on my heart, is that life is to be lived. The Lord wants us to live. He wants us to get out there and love people. And do things. And to make him known, we have to be involved in the world, whether it's through social media or through community service or service at your local church, or just traveling and seeing the world and, you know, sharing it on social media. You know, you can, you can point to the Lord in all kinds of ways. And God gave you a life to do more than sit around. If you ever been to a nursing home, and that's a possibility for our futures, is that home where we will just sit around all day and be taken care of. So in the meantime, before we get there, we should probably enjoy our lives and get out there and do something and be active. And, you know, because we're gonna have to learn to be still and know that God is God in our old age. And I look forward to it. It'll be great rest, but I'll be praying and reading and, you know, still blogging and podcasting if I can, right until the day the Lord takes me home. So I encourage a vibrant life of faith. This is the abundant life that God called us to, to follow him and to make him known throughout the earth. So we encourage in that, and we're going to pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for how good you are and how faithful you are, and that, you know, this journey with you, this relationship with you, never ends. And, and it's so exciting just to, to answer the call to another, another new challenge, another new opportunity, uh, to, to know people and to make you known through us in the earth. Lord, we pray for our friends who listen. Um, we pray for you to bless their walk. We pray for you to answer their prayers. We pray for you to come alongside them and encourage them in their faith. We pray for your Holy Spirit to reveal things to them that they need to know. Um, and so we pray that for all of us today, Lord. We pray for you to go before us, to make us grateful for what you've given us. Open our eyes to the beauty in this world and to the purpose of our lives, and to, and to guide our steps. Keep us safe, Lord, and, and show us the things we can do, and, and help us to be bold to say the things we can say, to, to show people that we know God and that, and that's a good thing, and that they can know him too, know you too. And, um, so Lord, we pray all these things. We love you, we, we, we praise you, we thank you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.