Are You Experienced ? Are You Gonna Go His Way? - Purity 917

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 double rainbow from the vantage point of one of the old cemeteries in Schuylerville, New York comes to us from the Adirondack Aerial and Ground Imagery Showcase page, who decided, with winter weather upon us, to share this and a couple of other autumn scenes of this uncommon phenomenon that they originally captured back on October 10th. It's Saturday, and although the snow fell yesterday, the power stayed on, and the snow totals, although not nothing, didn't seem to be the snowmageddon some may have feared. Of course, I make that assessment from the warm confines of my home in Easton, as I avoided travel and even chose to avoid walking the dog. In the early evening as I normally would have yesterday, because the snowplows seemed to wait until then to finally roll down our rural road. Well, it is my prayer that the roads get cleared and that all who read this message enjoy the experience of their weekend. In regards to sharing our experiences, I don't blame Adirondack Aerials' Mr. Lemieux for sharing some autumn photos yesterday, now that the snows have become semi-regular. Irregular, it may be some time before we see green scenes locally that don't have a fair amount of white in them. Although the double rainbow makes today's photo worthy of sharing, I also was moved to share it because Schuylerville is in my countryside home's backyard. And although I don't know for sure which cemetery this photo was taken at, if I chose to, I could probably go and see and figure it out for myself. I could go out and walk in Mr. Lemune's footsteps, but no matter if I found this spot or not, I wouldn't necessarily have the same experience. But I would in a way, but I wouldn't. Oh, another paradox. We can have the same experiences as someone else, but because of the different individual elements in each experience of life, we can't truly have the same experience. I can't recreate the double rainbow or the autumn day that this picture expresses, but I could have an experience of my own that could be peaceful or worthwhile. I could find satisfaction in the fact that I was at the same place where this scene happened, and who knows, maybe I would see something that our friend didn't see that was worth capturing. But if I sincerely wanted to even get a sense of what it must have been like, I would have to get up and and go out and do it for myself. Back in my college days, I was filled with a lust for life, among other things, and was really into celebrating my youth with a zeal and gusto to seize the day with enthusiasm. However, I wasn't just into looking at sunsets and rainbows and sought other experiences that would bring feelings of pleasure and euphoria. I was quite the prodigal back then and was experimenting with pushing the limits of reality and pushing through the doors of perception through experiences with drugs, alcohol, and sex. Not surprisingly, although a young man of the '90s, on that quest I rediscovered the classic rock music of the '60s and '70s and enjoyed artists like The Doors, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix, among others, who encouraged their listeners to consider a different perspective on life. And invited us to "break on through to the other side." Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix posthumously asked us, "Are you experienced?" with the implication that there was more to this life than meets the eye. I mean, hey man, do you really want to go through this life not knowing what it feels like to have all these wild experiences? The answer for me was, "No sir, no I do not." So not only did I throw off nearly all the restraints and give into temptation, I said, "I will have what he is having, please, and while you're at it, please fill my cup to the brim." Uh, unfortunately, having euphoric experiences of drugs, alcohol, and sex, although enjoyable for a season, don't actually teach you a whole lot. Other than what not to do, and don't actually take you anywhere other than into trouble and into addiction. I learned that my quest was in vain. I couldn't find the meaning and purpose I was looking for in wild, unbridled, selfish living. In fact, those activities actually hinder the search for wisdom, as those activities become an addict's meaning and purpose. A man who came to our Celebrate Freedom Recovery meetings once, speaking on his youth, shared how he noticed that his friends used to enjoy certain hobbies like camping or boating, but after the drugs and alcohol became a part of the experience, he noticed that his friends getting together became less and less about camping or boating and more and more about the booze and the drugs, until that was the focus of their friendships. Not surprisingly, those friendships didn't endure. Anyway, another anthem from those wild days in the '90s scenes came from Lenny Kravitz, who asked, "Are you gonna go my way?" Anyway, uh, this hard-charging hit, uh, won the Grammy for Best Rock Song in 1994 and reflected that searching spirit of the '90s grunge and alternative movement that the Saint disdained and abandoned the '80s pop and materialism that was all flash and no substance. We were the children of the children of Woodstock and— or were we just the children of Woodstock? I might have thrown one, one too many children in there. Anyway, and we, like our parents, were looking for something other than the established order. Unfortunately, we looked in the same places for the answers of life that those hippies from the '60s and '70s looked for. For, looked, and drugs, alcohol, rebellion, sex, and edgy music, with the same disastrous results. And now this pattern, probably actually started in the Roaring Twenties, seems to be— seems to keep on chugging along, as the answer now seems to legalize and legitimize the things that were formerly illegal and always considered as sin by the word of God. I know that prior coming— prior to coming to faith in Christ, I always looked at laws and commandments of religious systems to be impediments to my freedom to do whatever I wanted. Thankfully, through tragedy and pain, my wild living was exposed as bondage, not freedom, and was repeatedly demonstrated to not be the answer. No matter how many experiments I ran, I got the same results. Trouble and pain. I even threw in Buddhist practices in the mix for a few years, and even though I thought I was on to something with my quote-unquote "crazy wisdom" for a while, I realized that there was no peace in living in the mystery of moment to moment without having some definite answers about meaning and purpose. But on a Friday afternoon back in 2010, when I was fully content to just keep going the way I was going, God reached out to me to show me the way to go. A gospel radio message— in a gospel radio message, I heard the truth of reality that I would never find at the bottom of a bottle or through other euphoric experiences. I got the good and, let's face it, very convicting news that Jesus was who he said he was, and that the meaning and purpose to life lies in making peace with God through him, and then following the way that God leads you, leads you to go. Now, while I can't take you with me to that parking lot on Aviation Road to listen to that message that changed my life in a moment, I can tell you that if you seek God, you you will find him. And the answer to all the questions of life can be adequately addressed in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the reason for the season, guys, and it turns out for every season. Scripture reveals that he is co-eternal with God and the Holy Spirit, and that he played a part in the creation of the universe, holds it together, and will shape its future when he wants. One day comes to rule and reign on earth and then creates a new heaven and earth. Uh, the Word of God reveals all this to us, and I know by my study and experience that it is all true. While I can't give you my experience, I can assure you that it's for real, and I can encourage you to go to the Lord to establish a relationship with Him and experience this truth for yourselves. I don't know if you are experienced in the things of this world or not, but I can tell you that the experience that brings meaning and purpose to your life is having peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Although I would not invite anyone to go my way, I don't think any of you want to suffer some of the things I have, I do have a— I do have to highly recommend and implore you to go His way. If you have— if you still haven't found what you're looking for in this life, you're probably looking for love in all the wrong places. So give God a try. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you and seek His wisdom and ways. And if you quote unquote already know Him and don't have any peace, ask Him to reveal to you what is getting in the way of your freedom in Christ. If you are not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit in your life, it's probably because you don't know who you are in Christ, or because you are living in a way that doesn't reflect it. So keep walking and talking with God and go the way he shows you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 34:8, and it says, oh, taste Wait, I gotta get the, uh, NLT version. Sorry guys, let's do that real quick. 34:8 in the NLT says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him. I originally, uh, posted— I have on my entry here, uh, Psalm 34:8, the New King James Version that says, 'O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.' So even though the NLT, uh, points out, 'Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him,' uh, I wrote my commentary based on the word blessed, and that'll be revealed here in the podcast. Um, today's verse encourages us to experience the goodness of, of the Lord and reveals that When we trust God, we will be blessed. Taste and see, come and see—these are invitations in the Word of God that compel us to not just believe but to be doers of the Word of God and to enter in with our whole being—our minds, wills, emotions, and actions—into what the Lord has for us. These calls to experiencing God's goodness are a call to obey, to follow the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and strength. And the promised results of seeking out surrendering to God's call on your life? Blessedness, or the joys. Um, but yes, blessedness. The Holman Christian Standard translation of the Bible translates blessed, or blessed, um, I'm not— yeah, as happy. Psalm 34:8 in the Holman Christian Standard Bible says, 'Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in him.' So if you want to be blessed, if you want to not worry and be happy, God's word tells us to take refuge, which means to go, uh, to or into a place of shelter or protection from danger or trouble, uh, in the Lord. Take refuge in the Lord, to trust in him. We demonstrate our refu— our taking refuge or putting our trust in God by believing what He says is true and by doing what He says. So I encourage you to experience the blessedness that the Lord has for you by doing just that. It's a simple walk of faith that leads to peace and joy, but you have to walk in it and walk it out and experience it yourself. So, so walk it out. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, and today we continue sharing from the, the chapter on the visible church community. And so if you want to check that resource out, go to mt4christ.org christ.org, and you'll see that at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage people to go and see, taste and see what God has for you, because it's only through following him that you understand this. It's not just, you know, mental assent. Yeah, I believe that. Um, and, and what, what's the implications? I just believe that and live my normal life. Thanks. Uh, no. You should believe that and, you know, understand what the Word of God says and follow it, and to follow the Holy Spirit into all that He has, you know, has to lead you in. He will lead us into all truth, reveal to us things to come when we walk in the Spirit. And walking in the Spirit is just, you know, it's a mystical way to, you know, to describe the process of knowing who you are in Christ and walking that out and you know, living according to it. Um, and one thing I've noticed, uh, basically in my walk is, uh, the ever-increasing, um, compulsion to do what's right. You know, we do what's right. You know, it's just, uh, it's like a knee-jerk reaction. Um, recently at work I had, you know, I had a job before me and there was, you know, there was what I needed to do there was what I could do, there's— and then there, I guess, there was what I should do. Um, the job would only demand that I do what I needed to do. Um, only God would cause me to consider what I could do and make a judgment of what I should do and go above and beyond the basic need of what I needed to to do and, and to do more. Um, and I was blessed by the experience. Um, I had an elderly customer who's out of service, and, uh, you know, basically I had a solution that was going to work out, but they weren't going to get all they had prior to my solution. So I looked above and beyond to, to meet all their needs, even though I didn't need to. Um, and there wasn't this— and they would have accepted whatever I had to give them. So, but I went above and beyond, went out of my way to set them up and bless them with, with, you know, more than they had when I started, you know, when before the service went bad. Um, and it was a lot of work, um, but, but I just had that compulsion to do, do what needs to be done, to do what's right. Come on, you know, do what's good, you know, help this person out. Do what's good, you know, that ain't me, or it wasn't, you know, like I said, I come from selfish stock and, you know, you don't have to do that is like sort of a mantra. You don't have to do that, why you want to do that? Because it's what's right, it's what's good, it's what the Lord would have us do, that's why. So, you know, not for nothing, if you get on this path of Christian discipleship, that's gonna happen to you eventually. Cutting corners sort goes away and just doing what's right becomes the way. Because the one thing about that path is you never regret it. Sure, you might regret it. "Wow, I had to do all that." But in your heart, you'll know you've done what's right. You might regret the time you spent or whatever, but the end results are always worth it because you were obedient to the Lord's call on your life. So, you know, trust me when I tell you, you can find peace and joy in the Lord and not, you know, I get it, you know, some things are very nice to experience in the flesh, but they leave you empty and they separate you from the Lord. You know, I was saved and running around drunk for a time in the beginning. I was so happy to be saved and forgiven of all my sins, I celebrated with the same gusto as I did before. Except for I knew I wasn't going to go to hell. So, you know, bottoms up. But it didn't feel right, not in my spirit. And as I studied the Word of God and encountered drunken verses and everything like that, you know, I realized I wasn't living the life that God wanted me to live anymore. And he was calling me to follow him. And just, you know, to show I really did believe and show I really did trust Him, I decided to trust Him by laying it all down and walking away from my lifestyle of addiction. And that was just the beginning. You know, it's not just quitting an activity. It's changing your heart, your mind to be available for what God wants you to do. It's like, whoa. So it's more than just getting off drugs or alcohol. It's, uh, that's, that's where the meaning comes from. I know people in recovery who've gotten off of drugs and alcohol, but they don't fill their lives with the Lord, and thus they eventually fill it with something else. And generally, um, with that, disaster results. They fill it with a relationship, um, that's not godly. They fill it with activities or whatever. And some people succeed, but there seems, you know, if they succeed, it's, you know, how successful can you be if you still don't have a relationship with the Lord that'll give you eternal life? Ah, you're going to be all clean, you know, you know, you're going to be all clean and spotless for when you go to hell because you're clean and sober and going straight to hell because it's all about you. And how awesome you are for getting off drugs and alcohol, but you never humbled yourself truly to put your faith in Jesus. That's a bigger tragedy than the guy who never gets off drugs, in my opinion. If you're gonna go both to hell, at least, you know, at least the one guy got to enjoy, you know, some euphoric experiences before he got out instead of white-knuckling it through into his death. But, you know, But no, I would actually— I guess it's better to be— so no, in truth, it's better to be sober than drunk, uh, whether you go to hell or not. But, um, but yeah, but that's a judgment call, so whatever. Um, I don't want to judge, but I would encourage you to follow the Lord one way or the other. Well, it's Saturday and I'm rejoicing because, um, well, it's a day off. I'll be with my wife today here in Easton, and I'm not sure what the day holds, but it's going to be peaceful. Um, just to give you a heads up, I finished the Dietrich Bonhoeffer study that I decided to do, um, felt led to do. Uh, so if you want to watch 19 episodes of, of the entire work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's discipleship, it's out there on the podcast and on YouTube. Um, and if you want to, you know, study the Bible We have Bible studies with Arthur and Susanna Cincotti that go all the way back to, well, 2021, I believe, is when we began. Um, or was it 2020? I don't know. We'll have to check the archives and let me know. Um, but we put all that out there to encourage you that this lifestyle of Christianity, of being a disciple of Christ, is something you can do in this world. You know, I think that's the biggest stumbling block, is that we have these categories of faith and life and that we keep them separately, but it was never supposed to be that way. Our life of faith is supposed to envelop us and, you know, basically address every part of our life. Um, sure, it'll stand out more in some places than others, but, you know, our basic relationship with the Lord should be continuous and our conversation should keep going. And thus my encouragement to keep talking and walking with God every day. Um, so let's do that in prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for the blessings of this life. You know how I, I've been able to taste and see and go and see just how good, uh, life is in your kingdom, Lord. And I just pray that anyone listening or reading this message today would come to experience that as well, and in a deeper level every day. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside anyone who's listening in their prayer requests. We pray for you to come alongside the people we prayed for yesterday and the people on our hearts today, um, that we brought to you in prayer. Um, and Lord, we just pray for, uh, pray for you to go before us today, lead us into good things, open our eyes to all the things you want us to see, and show us the way to go. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.