A Wonderful Life on Monday Purity 780

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 my canine pal Harley leading the way up Waite Road underneath a positively cloudless sky and bright morning sun comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene this past Saturday. Well, it's Monday again, and let's face it, if you keep moving forward through time and space, and who doesn't, Eventually you leave the weekend behind and find yourself at the beginning of a new work week. As we go through this repetition of con— and continually face the truth that we simply must work to support ourselves, we may set our hopes on the future and the day we can finally retire and be done with all this work and just rest and relax. Well, it's a good pl— it's good to plan for the future and make plans to secure to be secure in our latter days, looking, looking forward to a future happiness. Well, I should say, but looking forward to a future happiness could have some subtle and unexpected negative side effects. If we are looking forward to future happiness, we may fall victim to feelings of frustration and discontentment that will steal away our present joy. In the holiday classic film It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey, played wonderfully by Jimmy Stewart, is in a crisis that is no fault of his own, but if left unresolved threatens to destroy all that he has worked for and could very well take away his freedom. The problem is financial. The money is gone, and if he doesn't think of some way to get it, poverty and prison are real and present dangers. The crisis is so real and present that in his desperate moment, his nemesis suggests that because his only significant financial asset is a life insurance policy, he is worth more dead than alive. And because George loves his family, the business he built, and the people it supports, George contemplates suicide to get the money that will solve the problem. But God— yep, Although this Christmas movie is light on the gospel and biblical accuracy, uh, because George's plight is soon spread by word of mouth throughout his local community, his many friends and family pray for the Lord to help George in his most desperate hour. And the Lord comes through by sending an angel to intervene and stop George's suicide and to show George that his life is worth living. The angel then reveals to George just how wonderful his life has been by showing him what life would have been without him in the world. The movie is a slow burn, as in it takes a while to build to the crisis and the climax. But the slow buildup is masterful in that it documents the ups and downs of a regular life of struggle where George Bailey tried to do the right thing by raising his family and working. Putting his youthful dreams of world travel permanently on hold. The goodness of George's life is forgotten in the crisis, and it is only through showing the effects of his part in the life of his family, friends, and local community that George is able to see just how wonderful his life has been, resulting in his moment of clarity when he tearfully begs the angel to live again. Fully accepting whatever negative consequences may come as long as the goodness of his life is not erased. When he is brought back to reality, George rejoices. Although all the nagging little problems of his life are still in place and the huge crisis still has not been resolved, Bailey rejoices because he has the faith that comes from knowing that he can face whatever tomorrow brings. Because of the goodness of today. Although today is far from perfect, George has no regrets because his life of love has been restored. And sure enough, God works through other people, and, and the crisis that wasn't there and was caused by the mistakes of another and the evil of other men is resolved when the community of friends that George made through his life of sacrifice and struggle come together in dramatic fashion to save the day. I rehash that Hollywood Christmas classic in the middle of July because with the problems of this current economy and the changing circumstances of life that include death, disease, and personal struggle, some of us may be feeling the heat this summer. That has nothing to do with the daily temperature. Some of us may be facing an acute crisis, or we may be in the midst of an ongoing problem that may take weeks, months, or years to walk through. Or we might just be, um, bothered by our status quo and look forward to the better days of retirement. But I wanted to remind myself and all my friends, uh, to get to today, that got to today, we have made it. Through a lot. We have overcome struggles that may be well documented or may be completely unknown to most of the people in our lives, but we have made it. And even if things aren't perfect today, I can assure you that you are not alone in your struggles. God loves you and cares about you. When you trust in him by placing your faith in Jesus, he will hear your cries, walk with you, and work all things together for your good. So that sounds good. God is working for your ultimate good. But guess what? The truth is that he has been with us all along and has blessed us right up to today. So count your blessings, count the good things you have in your life, your health, your family, your things, and of course the past that you have walked through that made you the person you are today. You don't necessarily have to be a George Bailey to know you have had a wonderful life. If you even have one aspect of your life that is good, that can be enough to hold on to, to remind yourself that you have something to be thankful for. And if you know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you have to realize that you have a hope that lasts from here to eternity. But at the same time, you should see God's hand in your life right now. If you go to him for strength, guidance, and love, you you will receive it. If you remember what he has done for others and what he has done for you, you can see that you really have a wonderful life, even on a Monday morning. So don't look to some future happiness, your retirement, or even heaven, when the goodness of God can be seen by looking at your present through the reflection of your past that brought you here. We made it to another Monday and another work week. Thank God we get to go out and work to support the good things we want to do with our lives, and we get to love those around us as we do it. So keep walking and talking with God, and know that in Christ, your past is wonderful, even if it just means that you're no longer there. Your present is wonderful, and your future is going to be simply magnificent, as one day we will see the God who loved us all along and, and, and live with him forever and ever. Amen. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Titus 3:4-7, and it says, but when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth, a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace, he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Today's Bible verses speak of the confidence we can have in Christ that we have been forgiven declared righteous, and given a new eternal life. Hey, I gotta admit it, it has been a while since I've been in Titus. It's a short epistle, and I honestly don't recall anything about it. Um, talk about honesty and, uh, being honest and transparent, huh? Um, the Bible is a big book filled with things we need to know and need to apply to our life to experience the renewing of our mind and a life in the Spirit. So we need to study it because awesome spiritual truths about who we are in Christ, um, who we are in Christ are contained— well, the truths like that are contained in the, uh, today's— in verses like today's that are in there. Oh boy. Um, this short section of scripture says a mouthful. Like God is our Savior. He saved us, uh, not because of the righteous thing we, we have done. He is merciful. Our sins are washed away. We have a new birth, a new life through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been, been given, been poured out upon us because of, of, through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Um, we are declared righteous because of God's grace. And we can have confidence of our eternal life. You know, in these few verses is the summation of the spiritual realities of our faith. You know, God's grace, God's mercy, our forgiveness, our righteousness, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and Christ as Savior are all here. So take note of these, these verses, Titus 3:4-7, that reveal so much of what happens when we make Jesus our Lord and Savior. And we need to know this, believe it, and receive it by applying it to the way we look at ourselves and the way we live, so we will display the confidence of someone who knows they have been forgiven, are righteous, and have the guarantee of eternal life. In Christ, we receive God's grace, and this knowledge should be applied to our experience to give us joy and confidence for today and every day from here to eternity. 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 Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today we finish up chapter 6, um, and, uh, Clinton Arnold highlights what Paul does not say about the powers Um, yeah, sometimes, you know, truth is revealed in the things we say and from the things we don't say. So if you want to see what Paul does not say about the powers of darkness, um, you should go to emptyforchrist.org and check out today's, um, resource. Um, yeah, because, you know, the more you know, the more you go, or the further you go. And the life in Christ, you know, the peace we can have on a Monday— yikes— comes from who we are in Christ, not because we, oh boy, get to go to work. You know, the joy we can have is from the goodness of life. And if we look at our problems and the crises we face and— or even look to our future happiness, you know, we're not happy in the moment. You know, we hate it. We hate our lives because of the problems we face or the fact that we're not to that glorious retirement or happy moment of another weekend. But we can have happiness— well, I don't know about happiness, but we can have joy at all times because of who we are in Christ. As you know, I mean, really, you've been forgiven of all your sins. Let's not forget that. That's sort of a huge thing. The fact that we don't have to worry about death. Sort of a huge thing, you know, and the good things that we've done in our lives, the love we've had, the love we have now, the love that may come someday, and the love we can give to our family and friends and people in our churches and our local communities, you know, those are all things we can do right now, today. So if you want to share the love, you know, send a text or a message to somebody and tell them you appreciate them. You know, people need to know they're appreciated in our lives. And that's a simple way where we can share our love. You know, when you go to work today, just tell somebody you're happy to see them and you're glad they showed up. You know, something like that. You know, we can, we can share the love of God in very simple ways, and that's what we should do. Um, I got a praise report, um, you know, a few weeks ago I was at a meeting where a bunch of people came together to support each other as we have ministries that do Freedom in Christ. And in that meeting, I met a man who was unfamiliar with the material, you know, didn't know anything about The Bondage Breaker or Victory Over the Darkness or Freedom in Christ. And he was just sort of standing there, you know, sitting there sort of, you know, overcome because of all these positive testimonies that people were giving. About how this material from Freedom in Christ Ministries had changed people's lives. And he's like, you know, he'd like to consider himself a reader, and, you know, he hadn't read these things. He hadn't experienced his freedom in Christ, and, you know, he's sort of dumbfounded about the things he was hearing. Well, shortly after that, I reached out to him and sent an email to give him the links to my my class, you know, the classes I'd done on The Bondage Breaker because that was the book he was interested in, and, you know, links to my podcast and just an encouragement basically to, you know, walk it out and pursue the material, to put the knowledge in his head and to, you know, apply it to his life. And, you know, I didn't hear anything immediately, like I think I got a short thank you. It didn't really encourage me too much, like, oh, you know, I don't know if that was received well or not. But last night I discovered that yesterday he sent out an email and he said, let's see, I felt the need to send this out to whoever might be reading it. I've gone halfway through the steps and can already feel a new freedom enjoyed in my Christian walk. I'm doing this on my own and look forward to any kind of workshops that I can participate with other Christians. Thank you, Father, that through your Holy Spirit I understand more of who I really am. You know, this is it. You know, the more we know about who we are in Christ and accept this as a spiritual reality, as a— not just a spiritual reality, but a— you know, this defines who we are as people, as Christians. Of who we are, you know, our identity is in Christ when we come to him, um, you know, and, and we accept, you know, this truth, we inherit all the, the, the promises, you know. This is— it changes the way we look at our lives, uh, and this person reached out to let him know. Like, in it, he wasn't very specific. He's like, I, I listen to all M.t.'s teachings or anything, um, whether he's reading the book or whether he's listening to my teachings or not, he's learning, um, you know, he's learning who he is in Christ, and it's having an impact on— an experiential impact on his life, um, to the point where he's apparently sending all this out to whoever— he felt the need to send this out to whoever might be reading it. So, you know, basically send it out to me to encourage me. Um, I've read it, I've taught it, um, you know, I keep sharing the hope of Christ and who we are in Christ, um, of these materials of Freedom in Christ because it has a significant impact on our lives. When we apply who we are in Christ to our lives, we can overcome our besetting sins, walk out of darkness of depression, anxiety, and fear. And that includes the fear of death. You know, these are all significant ways, uh, you know, the big problems of life are, are made little, and we see how wonderful our life is. It is a wonderful life, especially in, you know, in Christ. You know, in any life you can say, wow, you, you know, really did some good things. You, you built a family, you had a good career, you know, all those things are great. But in Christ, um, we have eternal life. So, you know, and we know we're in the will of God, we're following the person he sent to Earth, um, to save us and bring— give us peace with him. When we're following him, we really know we're doing things right, you know, and have the assurance of eternal life as the verses in Titus taught us today. So keep walking and talking with God is not some, you know, mystical, you know, sort of quasi, you know, I don't know, like a hyper-spiritual blandness of dig in on the universe, bro. It is about following the one true God that's been revealed through Jesus Christ and his word, the Bible. It's very specific. It's not general. It's not platitudes. It's following the Lord in the one way to him. So I encourage you, you know, as always, to find out who you are in Christ and to follow where the Lord leads you. We get to dig on the beauty of his creation in general, in a general sense, but how much better is it when we know the grand narrative of the gospel and the fact that this world has a purpose to glorify God and to bring us to peace with him through Jesus, and that everything he's made is for us to enjoy and to use to give him glory. So keep walking and talking with God. If you need that instruction, like I said, I provide classes on the podcast for Freedom in Christ, The Bondage Breaker, and Victory Over the Darkness. The, the information contained therein, those books, are all drawn, drawn from the word of God and, you know, can have a significant impact on your life when you apply them to your life. So that's why we share them. We share them on the podcast and on our YouTube channel. So if you want to check those out and not into books, you can listen to our classes. And obviously, we, like I said, it's all based on the word of God, so we revere the word of God and we study it daily. And we, um, you know, and we, we share a Bible study once a week. We did a Bible study with our good friends Arthur and Susanna Cinquatti yesterday called Peace at All Costs. Should we have peace at all costs? What do you think? Well, if you don't know, you can listen to our Bible the study discussion to hear it. And as always, I, I, well, I don't know if I've always said this, but I would encourage you to, you know, to, to stay for the entire study because sometimes, you know, you could soundbite us and, you know, think something about us, but our heart is to, to help people by showing them the right thing to do and following the Lord. And We're not out to condemn anybody. We're only there to encourage people to follow the Lord and to repent of their sins, to be restored by the Lord, and to be made new by walking out of the darkness of whatever you might be in. And no matter if society says it's normal or, you know, acceptable or whatever, you know, we have to be in agreement with the Lord and what his word says. Um, so just because things are okay in our culture doesn't mean it's okay with God. So we want to be right with God, have the peace of— the peace of the Lord and the joy of the Lord. And we get that when we walk with him. So we encourage that walk, and today we encourage you to walk through your work day. Uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we pray for everyone listening today, um, that, Lord, that they would be encouraged that they have a wonderful life, and that you came into it. They have a magnificent life, um, and a wonderful future. But the wonderful life is, is here right now for them to experience, Lord. So just help them to see who they are in Christ and appreciate what they have. And the fact that they, you know, if they have to work today, they have the ability to work. Many people don't, aren't physically or mentally able to work in this world, and, um, we have the ability to move about and, and accomplish things, um, and love one another as we do it. So we thank you for that, Lord. We thank you for your presence and everything you've done for us. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us, to open our eyes to all the good things that are here in our lives, and to lead us into the good things you want us to do. Lord, we need your guidance every day. And we, we ask humbly for you to come alongside our prayer requests. Lord, we're praying for our friends and family who are suffering disease or losses and struggles. We bring them to you before, before you today in prayer. You know our hearts and you know our minds and who we're thinking of when we say these things. And we, we ask you to come alongside our friends who are listening today as well, and their prayer request. Lord, we thank you for listening, for hearing us and helping us. And all these things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.