All Things For Good on Columbus Day - Purity 1476

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Uh, 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 a roaring bonfire in front of a rustic picket fence and a sun-filled forest comes to us from yours truly as I captured this photo from my brother-in-law Steve's backyard yard on Saturday afternoon while at a birthday party celebrating the beginning of my niece Maddie and nephew Patrick's 16th year. Well, it's Monday and Columbus Day, AKA Indigenous Peoples' Day, and as much as I am happy to have the day off of work today, I have to admit that I'm a little sick in the stomach, and I wish I could say it was due to the conflicting themes of today's federal holiday celebrating the discovery of of the new, quote-unquote, new world and remembering the people who were oppressed in the process. No, I foolishly began transitioning from my keto food plan to a nutritarian lifestyle on Friday without much of a plan and ended up throwing caution and my sanity to the wind and ate sugar-filled and processed foods at Saturday's birthday party and yesterday's church growth group meeting, and my body isn't used to those foods, and I spent last night tossing and turning with stomach pains and gas. But enough about me. Um, uh, for— but for today and today's holiday, we encourage anyone reading, listening, or watching today's message to enjoy the day off today, uh, but to do so while being a good steward to your body. And don't be like me, and to honor the day by remembering the God who stands above the discoveries of men and the evil that they do. Romans 8:28 tells us, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And while we may never fully understand God's ways and have a tough time trying to interpret history that has gone before us, or understand the suffering we have to go through personally, we can rest with this— with the assurance that God moves all things together for, for good, for those who love him and were called according to his purpose. Um, his, his word says so, and God is good. And so despite the troubled history of these United States, or our current negative circumstances, or quote-unquote bellyaching, uh, let's practice gratitude and kindness today to obey the Lord's injunction to love him and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Uh, today's Bible— well, yeah, so yeah, I wrote all that out and didn't use it anyway. Uh, today's Bible verses, um, uh, this morning's meditation verses come from the section on forgiving others from The Source, which is the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. And today's, uh, Bible verses are 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, now however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him. Today's verses fall under the, the 13th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiving others, which says, forgive a repentant sinner and affirm your love. Today's Bible verses encourage us to forgive repentant sinners from the heart and to comfort them by reaffirming our love for them. These verses recommend what is known as an envelope conversation, where we package our confrontational conversation into the context of our relational connection. For example, to a friend named John who sinned against me, I would say, "John, I really appreciate our friendship and don't want anything to come between us to spoil it, so I want you to know that while I felt hurt by what you have done, because you've asked for forgiveness, I forgive you from the heart and will never bring this incident up again or use it against you. I forgive you, and I want you to know that I love you. That's how it's done. When we put, uh, when we approach forgiving others from the context of our overall relationship with them, and with a desire to maintain those relationships, we may find it a little easier to forgive from the heart and to affirm our, our, our love to, for our repentant friends and family. 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 devotion, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture, and today's chapter is 1 John 5. And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 14, which says, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And Stephen Alford writes, I had a quiet time on a similar verse only the other day, but the message of power and prayer has gripped me once again. Notice the verse that follows the one quoted above: Whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. Verse 16. To know that the whatever is the will of God is to know that I have the petitions that I desired of him. It only requires the taking of positive faith. I have already seen that the great divine principle in creation, in redemption, in the believer, etc., is that God thinks his will, the Son speaks, and the Spirit produces. If I know his will, the rest of that principle is worked out in my life. Blessed fact. And Alfred ends by praying, Thy will be done, Lord. Amen. Yeah, it's, it's easy to have your answer— your prayers answered when you know what the will of God is. And how can we do that? Well, we, we can know what God's will is in part, um, through knowing his word. And, um, you know, when we, when we align ourselves with what God's word says and try to live by the truth of the Bible, um, we can really walk in the spirit. Um, as we would not sin against ourselves or others or our Lord if we're trying to follow it. And, um, when we do that, we discover the fruit of the Spirit, um, one of which is peace. And there's joy and love and goodness and kindness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And this is the pathway that we point to because Well, first and foremost, we need our salvation in Christ. Um, we have sin and we need it forgiven, and God made a way through Jesus Christ. He proves that he's good by sending Jesus and revealing the gospel to us. And, uh, when we come in line with that, we get a new life, uh, we get a new and everlasting life, and we get the opportunity to live and work in God's kingdom. And, uh, that's what walking in the Spirit is all about, is just trying to live out our faith, uh, to take that gift of our salvation and to, to use it for good. And so we ask the question always: have you fully surrendered to God? Have you made Jesus your Lord and Savior? Have you decided to follow him on the narrow way? Uh, because it's one thing to know who God is, it's another thing to do something with what the word of God says. And so we encourage Lifestyle of Christian Discipleship. And we do these messages to encourage people to let you know it's possible even in the secular world to live as a Christian and to grow. And so, uh, so we, we encourage everyone to fully surrender to the Lord. And because we know when you do that, all kinds of good things happen. And one of the things that might happen is ministry. As we have been blessed by, uh, given the opportunity at Starpoint Church to lead the Celebrate Freedom Christian Recovery and Discipleship support group, which meets on Wednesday nights at 6:30. So anybody in Upstate New York is cordially invited to join us, uh, to walk in the spirit and to overcome those hurts, habits, and hangups on Wednesday evenings. Uh, however, if you're not in the capital district of Upstate New York, you can still find or increase your freedom, we believe, by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. And you can find those underneath playlists under our channel, M.t. Clark 247. You'll find teachings on Neil Anderson's Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ course, and you'll find our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. Um, we believe that these teachings can help you because they helped us, and they led us into freedom and abundant life. And we're still a work in progress, obviously, but We like the way things have happened since coming to Christ. I once was lost, and now I'm found, and I experience peace and joy on a regular basis. And so we ask the question: Are you empty for Christ too? Have you surrendered to the Lord and allowed him— given him space to send this Holy Spirit to live in your life? If so, we say, great, keep on walking and talking with God. And if not, we just encourage you to pray about it. Ask the Lord to reveal himself to you. Or if you know the truth of the Gospel, just say a prayer to make Jesus your Lord and Savior and follow him after that. And, uh, because we know a lot can happen in prayer. Things change, and, um, things— um, God blesses people who come humbly before him to ask him for help. And so, uh, that's why we pray every day. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for everything you've done for us, Lord. Lord, we pray for complete healing in our body, uh, this morning, uh, to get rid of any, um, stomach issues. Uh, Lord, I feel better already and just praying this prayer, and, uh, we'll receive your healing by faith today, Lord. We thank you for that. Lord, we also pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, uh, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, their walk of faith. And, uh, to help them, Lord. We also pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is follow you and live in your kingdom, Lord. And we need a lot of help with that. So we're asking today, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.