Alternate Universe – What if I was not “In Christ”- Purity 964

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 sunbeams reflected in the water and reaching across the beach of Green Lake comes to us from yours truly, as I was thrilled to capture several shots of the sunset light show God put on at Green Lake State Park on February 8th. Well, it's Saturday and I am now thrilled to be in the presence of my beloved wife, Tammy Lynn, for the weekend. And after I awoke this morning, I was positively marveling over how God has blessed me with my wife as I was thinking about the joy we have in our marriage. So intense was the joy I have over our— over my marriage, I had to remind myself that if it wasn't for the Lord, I would have never known it. As I was meditating on the Who I Am in Christ list a few days ago, I decided to ponder what my life would be like if I was not in Christ. I remembered the previous way I used to live and tried to imagine what my life would be like now if the past path I had been on continued without being interrupted by the radio message that saved my soul. While we shouldn't play the what-if game as a rule because it tends to sow seeds of discontentment and is a practice of futility because we can't change the past, I imagined a life in which I was never born again. Like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, I tried to see what life would be— would have been like if M.t. Clark had never been born. And just like how George Bailey's experience took on a sinister turn, resulting in his pleading to his guardian angel, "I want to live again," I saw that I didn't like the life that could have been if I wasn't shown the truth of reality and never made Jesus the Lord of my life. I am not sure if my previous marriage would have lasted. Quite possibly it could have because of the codependency that we had, but neither one of us were happy and we had more or less lived separate lives in the same house even before I came to Christ. So whether or not I would have been divorced or not in this alternate reality where I didn't have Jesus, I find it hard to believe that we would, would, we would be happier now than we were in the days of my pre-Christ existence. Likewise, I can't really imagine an alternate reality where I would have been clean and sober and free of my sexual addiction without Jesus. This. It just wouldn't have happened, period. I would have been locked in the vicious cycles that come from seeking your happiness from substances, relationships, or creating pleasurable experiences. I would have been locked in that rat race of temptation, indulgence, guilt, and shame to this day, and I can't imagine that my body or mind would be healthier than they are now. One of the things that what sort of frightened me about pondering this life without Christ was how much of my life wouldn't have changed. Even with Christ, I kept the same job. Because of the need to provide for my family, I didn't change my job even after coming to Christ. So I can't imagine that my career would, would have changed, uh, unless I lost it as a consequence of my addictions. But I was so well-versed in living a double life and keeping my addictions in the darkness, even that alternate worst case scenario doesn't seem likely. It seems unlikely. Uh, I, I have worked— I have been— I have, I've been with— it has been 26 years with my current employer, and I think that would have stayed the same. If anything, I could have had an easier go of it at work because a life without Christ would be free of the subtle and not so subtle persecution and isolation I have experienced because of my faith. In terms of hobbies, I would imagine I would have continued to watch and gamble on sports. That could have increased— that would have increased probably because of the legality of online sportsbooks. My music would have been classic and alternative rock, maybe some rap and some emo EDM. My evenings would have continued to be filled with television series and movies that featured the macabre fantasy, sex, drugs, and violence. I would have remained isolated in my man cave basement where I would blow off steam playing the guitar and possibly the latest video games. I can't imagine that any of this would look any better than it was 13 years ago, but without Christ, is— it is easy to imagine staying trapped in it. One of the most sad contemplations of a life untouched by Christ would have been the continuing isolation that I would have lived in and all the people I would have never met. Before Christ, I didn't have any close friends. Besides my meditation sessions at the local Buddhist temple that I went to, which is now closed, I didn't really go anywhere or do anything that would— that took me away from my home or family. So I can't imagine that would have changed either. I would have continued a very lonely existence. But thank God, thank the Lord, I did find Christ and gave my life to him. And since then, he called me out of the darkness of my addictions, loneliness, and broken relationships. He has called me to be a voice for the abundant life of freedom and victory that comes from, from living for Him in His presence. And I have made hundreds, if not thousands, of relationships and connections with other people because the Lord called me to seek Him and follow Him. His call has let— has had me step out in faith to meet people all across the world, to learn, to grow, to serve. And as their lives have, have, have touched mine, I too have played a small part in theirs. The sheer number of people I have met, served, and worshiped, uh, the Lord with, with since coming to Christ is simply staggering. As I have entered into several communities of my brothers and sisters in Christ and have gone out into the mission field locally, nationally, and internationally to tell anyone who would listen about the goodness of God and the abundant life that is available in Christ alone. So if you ever wonder what would change in your life if you decided to get serious about walking and talking with God, let me assure you that you would lose nothing of value and would gain so much of abundantly more by entering into and serving the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. So if you, if you are in Christ, rejoice, my friends. No matter where your faith finds you today, let me remind you that you are better here and now in Christ than you could have ever hoped to be without him. And if you are not in Christ or not sure, let me encourage you to seek the Lord and make the decision to follow Him into a life of purpose and meaning and the joy that goes beyond all understanding. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 57:3, and it says, He will send help from heaven to rescue me. Disgracing those who hound me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. Today's Bible verse reminds us that God is our rescuer and that he will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness and help to those who follow him. When we come to faith in Christ, we are rescued, and we shouldn't forget that. We have literally been pulled out of hell because of God's love for us. The help from heaven is best exemplified by Christ's coming to earth and dying for our sins and showing that he is God through his resurrection. If you are in times of trouble, we shouldn't forget this help, this rescue that we have already received, because in times of tribulation and trials, the remembrance of our salvation and drawing close to God may be the way we experience His unfailing love and faithfulness the most. To know we are never alone in Christ, to be able to be in God's presence and talk to Him in desperate times can be the thing that can give us the strength to carry on. And beyond our salvation and drawing close to God, we should also remember that God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. And because of that, we should expect good things to come. We can dare to hope for things to change for the better because the Sovereign God of all creation is with us and for us. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from the A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and we're continuing in to share from chapter 6, The Sovereignty of God in Operation. And today we're going to highlight the, you know, well, I'm, I'm like, we're sharing A.W. Pink highlights, uh, God's method of dealing with the righteous. And so if you want to see how that starts out, go to mt4christ.org and check out that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage people to follow the Lord individually on the path of, uh, path of Christian discipleship. While life is, you know, centered around a community, a local church usually, you know, your faith is your personal responsibility and your personal journey to take. So the Lord might draw you to places beyond the four walls of your church. Myself and remembering the contemplations of my life, there was volunteer work I did in my local community, you know, without the church, but I did as a, as a mission to, you know, help people and to let people know the reason why I was there was because of Jesus Christ, and that I was doing good works for the community I was in because Jesus had changed my life. And so all the people I met in my volunteer things with the AFSP, Salvation Army, and, uh, you know, various walks, um, you know, were all because of my faith. But, uh, you know, I would have never been there because of Jesus. But, um, you know, that wasn't a church thing. Um, it was a, it was a thing to try to, try to share the, share and show the love of the Lord. And so we shouldn't limit ourselves to just thinking of our Christianity as something that happens in church. You know, God's a lot bigger than that, and, you know, and of course there's the work I did in the mission field for, you know, in the U.S. for flood relief and in Africa and Guatemala to help Christians in various vacation mission trips. Um, but, and the work I do in Freedom in Christ, basically, for, for encouraging people to know their freedom. That's all over the U.S. And the, the podcast and, and the YouTube channel have touched people all over the world, I guess, based on the numbers. Um, you know, not big numbers, but I'll take whatever, whatever I can. I just want to give glory to God, and when I get to touch people from overseas through the blog or through my podcast, I know I'm giving God glory. And like I said, you know, I've met so many people, including my wife, because I decided to be faithful, to follow the Lord and live for Him. And I would have been content all by myself in doing that, but he saw fit to give me a wife who could worship the Lord with me and support me in what I do. So it is really a wonderful life in Christ. I was just contacted yesterday from someone online to get the materials for the Victor Over the Darkness class that I teach on the podcast. So as a reminder, as it's put on every blog post, you know, if you want you can email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com to receive the class materials for any of the classes I taught back in 2021, including Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. These things are, you know, these teachings are all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and are foundational to a life of freedom and victory. So I highly recommend them. And also we highly recommend the study of God's word. The Bible. And so we provide a Bible study once a week, and I was thrilled to see that someone is activating, you know, the, uh, the archives of our blog to, to pull up Arthur's Bible studies from the very beginning of our, of our, uh, our study from back in 2021. They pulled up the first messages over the last 24 hours. I saw several— well, I saw that several of the, the old blog posts for the Bible studies had been, you know, they've been hit on. So someone out there is clicking, clicking something to get to see those Bible posts, Bible outlines. So, you know, I remind— I'd like to remind everyone they're available to, to read and listen to and to be encouraged by, as ours is a topical study where we talk about different aspects of our faith and draw from Scripture to speak God's wisdom into it. So we invite you to check those out, and we'll be doing another study tomorrow, God willing. Today, well, today I'm going to enjoy being with my wife. We're going to some formal gala for Operation Adopt a Soldier tonight in Saratoga, where we get to dress up and have a nice meal, and I think there's some sort of dancing or something. But, um, we're going to enjoy our lives. Um, it's more than, you know, and that's it, you know. God gave us our lives to enjoy them, and we should go out into the world, see the beauty of it, really engage, um, the world with our lives so we can go out and show people, you know, how, how Christians, how filled with joy live their lives by being out in the world and not hiding away somewhere. So that's my encouragements for today. I am so very happy, um, to have the weekend off and to, uh, to be in Christ, quite frankly. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for everything, including whining dogs. Um, Lord, we just, uh, we pray, uh, for anyone who might be listening or reading the uh, the blog or podcast today, Lord, we just pray for them to be blessed by you and be encouraged, um, about the goodness of life in Christ as opposed to without it. Um, Lord, we just, uh, we pray for you to go before us today, Lord. Show us the things you want us to see. Encourage us to walk into the things you want us to do. Oh my God, I said the word! I said walk! Anyway, um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.