All Saint’s Day – A Special Relationship - Purity 1492

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun setting over the Skodak Creek and a freshly stained deck This comes to us from yours truly as I ran to capture this magic moment while at my place down by the river yesterday afternoon. Well, it's Friday, thank God, and when I stop long enough to appreciate where the Lord has brought me since I answered his call on my life back in 2010, I can't help but rejoice, and I am often moved to tears when I think about all he's done. He not only moved me out of the darkness of my past and gave me a new home with a sweet view right out my front door, no less, but he has also given me, uh, so much more, as I now have a purpose, as I feel it is my mission in life to share his good news and to encourage others to find their freedom in Christ. I often tell my life coaching clients, recovery ministry attendees, and discipleship course participants that when the Lord sets you free, he does so for a reason, so that you can share what you have received. Um, one of the biggest gifts that the Lord has given me through my seeking him is the realization that although I was just a sinner saved by grace, uh, after I put my faith in Jesus, He made me a saint, period. Dr. Neil Anderson explains, being a Christian is not just a matter of getting something, it's a matter of being someone. A Christian is not simply a person who is forgiven and goes to heaven. A Christian, in terms of his or her deepest identity, is a saint, a spiritually born child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a a citizen of heaven. Being born again transforms you into someone who didn't exist before. Uh, what you receive as a Christian isn't the point. It's who you are. It's not what you do as a Christian that determines who you are. It is who you are that determines what you do. In Victory Over the Darkness, D. Anderson backs up this point by pointing to the epistles of Paul greets the church not as sinners but as saints. That is what we are, saints, and it's a title that we don't have to earn. Anderson writes, you know, notice that Paul didn't say we are sinners by hard work. He clearly states we are saints by calling. The tendency of the church is to believe that saints are people who have earned their lofty title by living a magnificent life or by achieving a certain level of maturity. In the Bible, believers are described as saints, which means holy ones. Being a saint does not necessarily reflect any present measure of growth in character, but it does identify those who are rightly related to God. In the King James Version of the Bible, believers are called saints, holy ones, or righteous ones more than 240 times. In contrast, unbelievers are called sinners more than 330 times. Clearly, the term saint is used in scripture to refer to the believer, and sinner is used in reference to the unbeliever. So don't be calling yourself a sinner. If that's what you're doing, repent, uh, because if you are— if you put your faith in Jesus, you are a saint, and it would be best for all of us if you start living like it. In Christ, we have a special relationship with God that calls us to interact with him on a regular basis through prayer, study, and just walking and talking with God in intimate conversations as we go through life. Uh, Dr. David Jeremiah's Turning Point devotion for today addresses this topic, so I'm sharing it on the blog to encourage us all, uh, to go deeper into our special relationship with God. Jeremiah writes. A special relationship. I keep asking that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:17, NIV. Many people write their names in the front of their Bibles, but have you ever put your name in the middle of the Bible verse? For example, with this verse, you might pray, Lord, I keep asking that you, the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give to me, M.t. Clark, the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that I may know him better. You can also insert the name of a loved one with those— with, with— in scripture for prayer. This is a particularly powerful verse because God created us in his image with a capacity to know him and to know him better. And better. This sets us humans apart from the rest of God's earthly creation. We can know the unfathomable, understand the incomprehensible, and worship the inscrutable. Our glorious Father— even children can sing his praises. Let's thank God for our special relationship with him and ask him for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. 'So that we may know him better.' That was all from David Jeremiah. He also shares a quote from Kay Arthur, which says, 'Knowing God enables us as believers to display strength in times of stress and take action when the rest of the world seems to be immobile.' Yeah, knowing the Lord empowers us. Amen. You know, praying the Bible, you know, is using— and asking the Lord for revelation and wisdom can and should be one of the ways that our special relationship relationship with God is expressed. Putting our name into Bible verses in prayer, like Jeremiah suggests, strengthens our relationship with God as it expresses our desire to know his word, our trust that God's word is true, our belief that God hears us, our faith that gives— well, that God will give us the help we need when we ask for it, and our hope to know him more and to be transformed into the people he created us to be. And it expresses our love for the one who has revealed himself to us and saved us. Praying the word puts us in the presence of the Lord because it declares, I know your word is true, and I know you are with me, Lord. Show me the way to go and give me what I need to do your will. That's a relationship. And because God is faithful to bless those who seek him, we can trust that the more we seek him, the more he will, will reveal to us, and the more we will understand our purpose in him. So pray the word by putting your name right in the middle of the precious promises of God, and let your heart's desire be to make this true about me. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on friendships, and today's verse is James 4:4 from the NIV. The word of God says, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Today's verse is the first of two passages that fall under the ninth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on friendships. And that ninth point is: Friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Today's Bible verse compels us to choose sides. Just as the Grateful Dead song, uh, 1970, uh, Friend of the Devil proclaims, "A friend of the devil is a friend of mine," if we are a friend to world, we are an enemy to God. That's what his word says. And Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world. And so we must be in the world but not of it. As, as born-again saints of the kingdom of God, we are to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. And see how dark the world system is. God is love and light. And as his sons and daughters, we can't divide our loyalty with the things of darkness and evil. So we have to decide about who we will be friends with, who we will give worship to, and who we will serve. If we believe in God, we will follow him and make the enemy of my friend, the world, my enemy, and work to cause those friends to the world to see the light and surrender to the love that we have found and make our enemies friends of God. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 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. Uh, today's chapter is Revelation 13, and from Revelation 13, he shares a portion of verse 1, which says, I saw a beast. Stephen Alford writes, it is interesting to notice the trinity of evil as it is revealed in this chapter. The beast of verse 1, it seems, is the Antichrist, Notice in verse 3, he will appear as one who was slain but now risen. What a counterfeit. In verse 2, it appears the dragon here is the anti-god. He will be vested with the power and authority of government, the power moreover to impart power, a counterfeit of God. In verse 11, this beast, the false prophet, will falsely represent the Holy Spirit. Thus the devil will see to it in that day that his infernal trinity will unite together to resist the power, truth, and life of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What a grand day when he that will come shall come to destroy his foes. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, oh for the day when I will witness the victory of the true Trinity. Amen. Amen. And, um, you know, Revelation points to the future. It also points to the fact that there is definitely a division, um, of good and evil, and that, um, Satan, the false prophet, and the Antichrist, um, basically have plans, uh, for the future. And, uh, the good news is the Lord knows all about it and has already revealed to us that we win, um, that he may allow Satan to, you know, come into the world, um, to— as a judgment against it, um, but ultimately he'll show his mercy and grace by sending Jesus back to undo the works of the devil. And we can rejoice. And so there's evil in the world, but there's a God above it all, and he will— and it wasn't his plan for humanity to experience this evil. It's a consequence of our sin. And luckily, the Lord made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and to come into peace with him. And as history works itself out, we'll see the kingdom of God revealed in really big ways. And so thus it is best to follow the Lord, be a friend of God, and to be a son and daughter as a, as a saint, and to follow him and to try to expand that kingdom. And that's why we ask the question always: are you— have you fully surrendered to God? Are you a son and daughter? Are you a saint on All Saints' Day? Um, did you make that profession of faith? If so, that's wonderful. Um, we can— we, we encourage you to follow the Lord and, and to all he has for you to do. And for me, that was, uh, ministry, and in a sense, uh, part-time ministry anyway, uh, as I was called to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group on Wednesday nights at Starpoint Church, which is for Christian Recovery and Discipleship. We invite anybody in Upstate New York to come out to Clifton Park on Wednesday nights to join us and learn how to walk in the Spirit and overcome your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. And, uh, you know, uh, a focused, God-centered community where we come together to support one another, not fix one another, but we give you the space where you need to work out that special relationship between you and the Father. So we invite anyone in Upstate New York to come out to us on Wednesdays. Beyond that, for men, we, we have plans to do an online teaching if you can't make it to the Upstate, an online teaching and support group on Mondays. We'll be going through the original Grace Course, 6 lessons, from November 18th to December 23rd. Registration is, is now open, as they say. You can get, get there by going to the group events teaching page our group, um, you know, our group teaching or group coaching events page on mt4christ.com. Um, you register and we'll contact you about, about the details of the course. But we encourage anyone, any men to sign up to get that support and to understand what it's like to experience God's grace throughout the holiday season. Beyond that, in the new year, uh, we're gonna do the Freedom in Christ course once again for Freedom in Christ Ministries On Tuesday evenings for men, again, uh, from 6:30 to 8:30 Eastern Time. Um, the reason I'm announcing it now is registration's open and spots are limited. So we'll be beginning on January 7th, 2025, and we invite all men, or, you know, any interested men to sign up and get registered. Um, I already have interest in the course, uh, basically for next year. Um, I'm not sure if they registered yet, but I have, I, I have a couple guys in my life, uh, basically who said they're gonna sign up. So that's the possibility of 2 spots being gone. And I think we, you know, basically I usually limit it to 12. Um, so if you want to sign up, sign up soon. Uh, beyond that, uh, if you're a woman or a guy who can't make it to those courses, we invite you to, you know, find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes. Um, for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course. They're all available on our YouTube channel, M.t. Clark 247, or, you know, and you'll find them all under our playlist along with a lot of other, you know, Christian materials, um, basically that we put out there. Even a worship playlist that we have for M.t. Clark, so, um, or Celebrate Freedom, one or the other. But, um, Yeah, we, we believe in worship and singing the praise of the Lord. So we encourage you to do that too. And we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ? All that means is making yourself available to do God's will in your life and asking the Holy Spirit to come in and guide you. Um, and God's, God's already come, you know, if you put your faith in Jesus, you already have the Holy Spirit in you. Just a matter of walking and talking with him. So we encourage you to do that. If— and we say keep walking and talking with God if you have. Uh, if you haven't, we encourage you to, you know, say a prayer for the Lord to reveal himself to you and say a prayer to make Jesus your Lord and Savior, because it was through faith in Jesus Christ that we can overcome, uh, and experience the life that we're, we're meant to experience. So we encourage you to do that as well. And we always pray, so we'll do that right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all the things you've you've done for us through the years, that lead us out of the darkness into your light, and to give us a meaning, purpose, and a hope for the future. Um, Lord, we pray for anyone out there who's listening or reading or watching today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, Lord, and guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, while you're at it, we need your help too. So we're asking 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 all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we really need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.