A PERFECT Walking Day Purity 831

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 wooden pathway into the forest of the Malta Ecological Park in Malta, New York comes to us from a friend who shared this scene on social media back on August 25th, declaring that it was a PERFECT WALKING DAY, with PERFECT in all caps. Well, it's Thursday again, and as is my habit, I am sharing another photo of a pathway because traditionally Thursdays are the days I have done recovery or discipleship ministry, and I like to encourage others to get on the path towards a closer relationship with God. But in all honesty, any day, uh, that we choose, uh, to follow the Lord is a perfect walking day. As in walking in the Spirit. Tonight, uh, I step on a new path as I will be meeting with some of the graduates of the Freedom in Christ course for an informal study or walkthrough of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. And even though I will be traversing over some new ground, I have decided to be bold and courageous and share the sessions on the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast and the M.t. for Christ 24/7 YouTube channel. I'm officially calling it an informal study right now so no one will expect a professionally produced program. Uh, so tune in tonight or tomorrow to see just how many bloopers happen. Uh, and then so let's talk about being perfect and how the idea that we must be perfect can be a real stumbling block to our Christian walk and our relationship with God. Christ told us to be perfect in his Sermon on the Mount, so you better be perfect. Well, to give some context, uh, I want to share some, uh, some of just a small section of the scripture that leads up to that famous verse. And I'm not sure if it will encourage or discourage you, but stay with me because we will try to give you some balance so you can accept Christ's words and not condemn yourselves. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good. And sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. If we even just look at the immediate context of the preceding verses of that perfect verse, we can see that Jesus isn't delivering a message on fulfilling the law or doing everything right. Jesus is talking about love. Jesus is calling for a change of heart that would cause us to consider loving our enemies. What is he, crazy? No, Jesus wasn't crazy, but the love of God is quote-unquote crazy love, as in extreme. John 3:16 tells us about God's love: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We were enemies to God, separated from him by our rebellious sins. But God loved his enemies enough to send Christ to die for us. So if we are to follow Christ, Jesus is encouraging us to show the same type of perfect love to others. I am not a Greek scholar, and I'm not exactly the word study guy, but I decided to look at the perfect— that perfect word in this verse, and this is what I found. Strong's definitions legend tells us that this perfect word is teleios, um, and it's— and the, the definitions they give, uh, say complete in various applications of labor, growth, mental or moral character. Neuter as a noun, uh, completeness of full age, man, perfect. The Common English Bible uses this complete use of teleios in its translation. And with it, Matthew 5:48 says, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete. Wow, talk about a change from thinking that we have to do everything perfectly, as in doing everything right, or being without sin. Here are a couple of scriptures that should further temper those who would tell us to, quote unquote, be perfect. Um, I almost hesitate to share this one, but here we go. 1 John, uh, 1:8-10 tell us, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Okay, there it is. This is a letter from John to the church, and in it, uh, it makes it clear that we will never be perfect, as in being sinless. However, I would point to the fact that we are not to remain complacent in our blatant sins because these verses say that we that we will sin. I included verse 9 because it tells us that if we confess our sins, we will be cleansed. And I believe that the rest of John's letter would indicate that we are not powerless with our besetting sins, because the remaining 4 chapters of this epistle encourages Christians to turn from their sin. That means we can have victory. But wait, if we can have victory, why does John say we, uh, we we have that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. I think James 4:17 helps us with that. It says, therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Here we go. I, I'm pretty sure all of us can admit to not always doing the good we know to do. Even when we can have victory over overt sins, we will never be sinless because there will undoubtedly be some good we have left undone. Paul's discipleship instructions to the church show us to abstain from evil and to do what is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 tells us, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. It's abstain from every form of evil. So instead of feeling powerless to those besetting sins, fight them. You won't be perfect, but you can make progress. You won't be sinless, but you can sin less. But back to being quote unquote perfect. Paul and John's verse and all the New Testament teaches us how to walk with Christ as And as a reminder, that perfect word could be read as complete, and the context of the passage it is used in tells us to be complete in our love towards others. So keep walking and talking with God. It just happens to be a perfect walking day, and God will always be with you regardless of the place, time, or weather to walk with you on the path of completeness. And one last verse, Colossians 2:10 tells us that you are complete in him, as in Jesus Christ. So guess what? When you put your faith in him, you are already complete. You might make some mistakes or not do the good you know to do, so you will sin, but in Christ you are complete. In him you are perfect. I'm actually running short on time today, so, uh, with all that scripture that I've given already, we're going to skip the verse of the day. Um, it was sort of a wordy verse that I looked at, and I'm like, I'm not gonna make it. So I, I apologize. I hope all that scripture, uh, gives you some meditation verses for the day. We'll get back to the NLT Promise Book for Men's verse of the day tomorrow, uh, which as a sneak peek will be 2 Chronicles 26:16. I didn't have time to unpack it, so I'm not going to even try. Um, we'll, we'll take a look at that one tomorrow. Um, as always, I do 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. Um, today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold's Powers of Darkness as we draw to, uh, almost close. I think I'm going to keep sharing, um, we'll see. Um, but we're really near the end of the book. And, um, basically with that, um, today's sections from Powers of Darkness tell us to resist the evil one and to join God's people in the redemptive mission. So if you want to read what Clinton Arnold have to says about— has to say about resisting the evil one and, um, uh, you know, joining God's people in the redemptive mission, go to mt4christ.org and check out the resource at the bottom of today's blog post, which may be a little shorter than usual. Um, I'm gonna have to cut and paste around my normal text to, uh, to get it all in there today. But I didn't want to run short of time and be late for work. We have to be responsible, and that's one of the keys to a life of Christian discipleship. We take personal responsibility for our actions and our walk, and we do what is right in all things. Now, we're not going to do things perfectly, but, but, you know, that's our, that's our direction, um, you know, to abstain from evil. If we know something is sin, you know, something blatant sin, sexual sin, you know, stealing, lying, you know, these are the things that we can stop. We might not do it perfectly, but we can make progress in these areas. And trust me when I tell you this, there is the possibility for, you know, for purity in, in the sexual realm. And there is the possibility of living an honest life by abstaining from lies. That's one of the first things I, I teach in discipleship, is to stop lying. And thus you get these— this transparent stuff where I tell everyone everything. But, you know, we have to, uh, we have to, uh, temper that with wisdom, of course. Not to lie to people, but we don't necessarily have to tell everything to everyone, um, because, you know, knowledge is power and some people can't handle it. Anyway, um, the, the knowledge and wisdom that, that gives us the most power, of course, the word of God. So we encourage people to read the Bible every day. Today I read some Proverbs, uh, wisdom, and I shared a couple with my son, which should You know, I hope the Lord will convict him to have some direction in his life. Um, um, the, the, the Word of God is powerful, and we can, we can, uh, be built up by it. We can use it to encourage others. And, um, we, we encourage the Bible study, uh, by doing a Bible study each week. We do our Bible study with the Sankatis, and those are available on the podcast and our YouTube channel. For your listening or viewing enjoyment, whatever the case may be, and to encourage you that this Christian form of life is, is, uh, is an option. Um, so we encourage that. And if you want to learn more about walking in the Spirit, or basically experiencing your freedom in Christ, we've also provided teachings from Freedom in Christ Ministries' Dr. Neil Anderson that we did back in 2021 at our local church for Freedom Over— uh, just for Freedom Over— no, Freedom in Christ, The Bondage Breaker, and Victory Over the Darkness. Those classes are all available on the podcast and the YouTube channel, so we hope people check them out, as some people have. Um, and, uh, yeah, this is the path that leads to completeness. Well, that, you know, I love the paradoxes of the of Christianity, because as those scriptures that I shared today pointed out, we are complete. And, um, you know, that condemnation to be perfect, um, you know, that's the enemy. I think, um, we— while we should, you know, endeavor to make progress, we have to remember we will never be perfect. Christ was perfect, and, um, we'll only be perfect when we're glorified by him, and we when we're welcome into his eternal kingdom, either in heaven or when he comes to, you know, reclaim the earth and gives us glorified bodies. So in the meantime, we can make progress, and we can have peace and joy in walking with him. And, you know, there's nothing like the peace that comes from a victory, a victory over addictions, a victory over depression, victory over anxiety. These are all available through the Christian faith. We just don't have to— we just have to be committed to walk in it and agree with the Word of God, know who we are in Christ, and to continue. That's why I do what I do on the podcast and my ministry work with Freedom in Christ Ministries is because I've experienced it and I know God is real and he will manifest himself in real ways in your life if if you follow him, and your doubt becomes less and your peace becomes more. So keep walking and talking with God, as I say. So, uh, like I said, I was running out of time, but I think I, you know, you know, might have jumped the gun there, but not really. Uh, but so I'm gonna pray, uh, so we can get to work and, uh, continue on this day of this very busy first full week of September. Um, you know, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you so much for all that you do for us. Um, we love the fact that you've loved us so much that you sent Christ to, to show us the truth, the way, and the life, and that we could become part of your royal family simply by putting our faith in him. And being forgiven of all the sins we do and given the power to overcome the unrighteousness in our lives by simply walking in your ways and following your call on our lives. Lord, we thank you so much for the people that are on the path of Christian discipleship with us, the people listening today. We just pray for them and their prayer requests, Lord. I don't know what's going on in their situations. Um, I know things can be hard financially, in terms of, uh, health, health issues, or, or whatever. And, uh, we just pray for them to be strengthened by you and for them to know that you're always there for them, Lord. So we pray for your divine grace to come into their lives so they know that you're with them. Um, Lord, we also pray as always, for you go before all of us today, uh, to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and to lead our path, uh, to the things you would have us do to best represent you, uh, here on Earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.