At Year’s End – A Time of Reflection and Rejoicing - Purity 929

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 boardwalk pathway that offers one last turn before the promise of the coming— of coming into the bright light at the end of the road comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene at what was the first of several parks that my wife Tammy Lynn and I would visit in the Tampa Bay area while on our honeymoon back on February 20th. Well, this is it, the last day of 2022, and we are less than 20 hours— when I wrote that at the time— uh, before we say goodbye, uh, to the year, uh, past and say hello to 2023. Before I launch into a recap and reflection of what has transpired in 2022 2022's 525,600 minutes and testify to another year of walking in the Spirit and enjoying another season of knowing God's love and so much more, uh, I would like to share a list of questions that I saw shared online that I thought could be a good vehicle for anyone reading or hearing this message to reflect on the past 365 days, to remember the times, because as the following Bible verse indicates, we should remember and learn from our lives as we go. I'm sharing a link to, uh, Bible verses on remembering if you want more, but the ones I saw that I'm sharing are Deuteronomy 32:7, which says, remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you. Deuteronomy 6:12 says, then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought— the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from from the house of bondage. Psalm 77:10-12 says, "And I said, 'This is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds.'" And as Paul told those he was departing, in Acts 20:35, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. So I give you these questions to ask yourself and to consider as we mark another year of life and remember the times, mourn the losses, celebrate the victories, try to learn from our experiences, and thank the Lord our God for all— for it all. The questions I saw in a meme posted on Facebook by Soul Shepherding asked: What did God bring to you through 2022? What did God teach you? How did you experience God's love? What are your favorite memories? What are your— what, what are you most proud of? What energized you? What drained you? How did your relationship with God evolve? What are you hoping for in 2023? What is one thing you want to do differently, or one area you want to grow in? While I am not familiar with Soul Shepherding, uh, the Soul Shepherding Ministry, their website invites you to thrive with Jesus in life and leadership. And I like the loaded questions they ask in this list, because unlike the general niceties or nostalgia you could, could undoubtedly receive from secular or mainstream media outlets today, Soul Shepherding rightly recognizes the central importance that God should have as we reflect and consider our progress through this life. What did God bring you through? What did he teach you? How did you experience God's love? How did your relationship with God evolve? If these questions leave you grasping at straws, let me encourage and assure you that God does indeed exist. He does care about our lives and is actively involved in his creation and in and through the lives— and is working in and through the lives of men and women on the earth. We can walk with him through life, we can learn from him, we can experience his love, and we can have a relationship with him. So I ask you to consider those questions and encourage you to continue or to begin that relationship with God and to live your life walking in the Spirit in the context of and in the presence of God, according to his will and ways as revealed in the Bible. I believe we all have a relationship with God from the moment we have life, but without Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it is a contentious relationship. Our sin and decision to live independently of him separates us from God, and while our lives are spent in his creation and in, in his omnipresence, If we don't make peace with Him through Jesus, our lives will ultimately be dissatisfying as we will eventually age, die, and face God's judgment and wrath. Our hearts tell us when we do wrong, and the Word of God tells us that no amount of our good works makes up for our sin. God's Word clearly tells us that it is through faith alone, in Christ alone, that we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In these three verses, we learn the method of our salvation: by grace, through faith, in Christ. And our purpose to do the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk into. Uh, sounds like a plan to me. After most of my life living, uh, in sin and rebellion and suffering the negative consequences and tragic losses, I sought the meaning and purpose of life in all the wrong places, but God was gracious and revealed to me the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ back in 2010. I have been trying to be authentic in my faith with varying degrees of success ever since. Through the years, the Lord has, has brought me through a lot. He has taught me a lot. I have experienced his love in countless ways, and my relationship with him has continued to evolve. And 2022 has been yet another amazing year walking in the spirit. On January 1st, 2022, I married the love of my life, Tammy Lynn. She is the Christian wife that I prayed for and that God literally delivered to me. In February, we honeymooned in Tampa, Florida, and have spent the year growing closer to God and one another as we continually pray together and for one another and worship together at Starpoint Church every week. Throughout the year, we have enjoyed various travels and family events. We love to go on day trips and hikes locally throughout the year, visiting various parks and nature trails nearby. And in the summer, we enjoyed a symphony concert performance at the— on the lawn at Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, New York, and traveled to Nuremberg for a 2-day River Rock Music Festival where we enjoyed a plethora of Christian musical artists including Dante Bowe, Big Daddy Weave, Micah Tyler, Blanca, and my favorite, John Rettick. We also spent time together volunteering for Operation Adopt a Soldier, supporting the good work they do to support our troops with our time, marching in parades and serving at various functions throughout the year. Although work and familial circumstances from our previous lives has us living with a two-household system, We spent every moment we could in 2022 learning to live with and love one another, and I am amazed at how our love for one another continues to deepen. As for my work, my day job as a telecommunications tech, in May I celebrated 25 years working for the company and have been— and have become acclimated in my relatively new job function as a maintenance Tech for the Albany Garage and am content with where the Lord has put me. The work can be frustrating and challenging at times, but it proves, uh, to continue to provide great opportunities to grow in knowledge and experience in terms of the job, and a great place to practice my faith as I keep walking and talking with God throughout my workday, asking for his strength, guidance, patience, and help as needed. As for my passion, my ministry in its various forms, I am happy to report that 2022 has been a banner year for stepping out in faith in many ways. This year I was honored to assume the role of as, as an online course leader for Freedom in Christ Ministries, leading 3 sessions of the Freedom in Christ course in the winter, spring, and fall, and independently led graduates from the winter and spring sessions through the Grace course during the summer. 2023 will see me continue in this role as I am scheduled to lead a Men's Freedom in Christ course on Tuesday evenings beginning on January 31st. Any man interested in joining the course can register at the link I'm sharing on the blog beginning on January 5th, as registration has been temporarily suspended for the holiday season. I have been honored to serve Freedom in Christ Ministries in this capacity and have been blessed to have encouraged men from all over the United States to learn who they are in Christ and to experience their freedom in Christ by leading them through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. The experiences I have had and witnessed in the lives of the men in these courses has been simply amazing and has confirmed my faith and the Lord's presence in our lives time and time again. I look forward to seeing what the Lord will do through this ministry this this year. As for the mt4christ.org blog, I'm happy to report that today will be the 394th blog entry for the year, as I have been committed to answer the call to journal my progress as I walk in the Spirit and encourage others to travel the path of Christian discipleship through the Purity Series on the semi-daily encouragements, uh, and by providing Arthur Cinkati's semi-weekly bible study outlines and various announcements and excerpts from Christian resources to encourage others in their faith walk. The MT for Christ blog was born from my desire to encourage others to live for Christ and was reborn and revitalized when others encouraged me to keep encouraging them. The blog is part of my daily spiritual practice, 6 days a week, and it's a labor of love and just another expression of how I keep walking and talking with God. So as long as the Lord wills it, I will continue. Additionally, the MT for Christ 247 podcast enjoyed its second and first full year of existence in 2022, and despite my hopes for the Lord to use it far and wide, I'm happy to report that people continue to download it and that the curious, and that the curious or the faithful few who clicked on it, resulted in a modest increase in the total number of downloads from 2021 to 2022, with 4,767 downloads this year, up from last year's 4,048 downloads, for an all-time total of 8,815. I'm not sure what these numbers mean, but I am humbled and encouraged that there are numbers to report on. So whether you are a faithful listener or have just downloaded a single episode somewhere along the lines, uh, I want to say thank you and may the Lord richly bless you. I've always said that if my messages, blog, or podcast even encourage a single person to seek and follow the Lord, I am content. In truth, the blog and the podcast encourages me So regardless of numbers, followers, or subscribers, unless the Lord indicates I should stop, I'll keep putting a voice to my text, um, for those who are curious or who would rather listen than read. Another interesting development began this year as I began using Zoom for the work I did for Freedom in Christ Ministries in 2022, and I further understood and realized that pod— Bean created a video version of my audio podcast, I made the decision to really launch the M.t. for Christ 247 YouTube channel, um, and began the project of taking all of the Community Freedom Ministry classes that I podcasted in 2021 and all of the Bible Study with the Sankhadi, quote unquote, programs, uh, we had done and uploaded them to YouTube. Uh, the Sankhadi and I also made the decision to use Zoom to record our Bible studies beginning in 2022. And actually, we're bold enough, um, we're bold enough to release the video of our sessions beginning in April, eventually releasing all of the previous video sessions later, later as throwback episodes. So if you're— you were not aware, go to www.youtube.com at M.t. Clark Christ 247 to check out all of the archives of our Bible studies, audio and video, and the discipleship classes I taught at my local church in 2021. But that's not all. I also eventually decided to upload the Purity Series to YouTube and now do that every day, including the links on the, uh, to, to the YouTube video on the blog. Uh, in the fall I also, I also felt moved to produce a 19-episode series based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, a video series where, where I present the text of that classic Christian work with the use of PowerPoint presentations and offer my encouragements. And as always, I, I share the— all the M.t. for Christ blog posts I create on social media regularly to to reach who I can. I even created a list of links to help anyone to join the Reddit subs I have created or to follow the podcast or me on social media. Go to the link I'm including on the blog to find those links. Um, in November, I also traveled to Buffalo to serve as an altar counselor for the Evening with David Jeremiah event. Where I ministered to people who came forward at the end of the service. Locally, I joined the prayer team at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park and will continue to serve there in 2023. Although I have written much of what has happened in the last year, there was even more, I am sure, that I have forgotten about. As for my plans for the new year, you can read all about it as I live and experience and report about it on the blog. My life and relationship with the Lord is a never-ending adventure of joy, hope, and peace that spills over into all the areas of my life. And I encourage all who read this or hear this message to join me by making the decision to seek the Lord and to follow wherever he leads you. And of course, I wish you all a very happy New Year. God bless you all. And, uh, as always, uh, you know, that's not it. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, uh, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians, uh, to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. I'm going to share that link to the Bible study, uh, to the Bible study links that Ligonier Ministries put out, uh, one last time before New Year's in case you need a Bible study plan. This is all blog— this is all podcast exclusive, of course. I didn't write that. And I'm continuing to share on the blog the conclusion of the introduction to A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God. So if you want to check out that resource, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see it at the end of today's blog post, along with a bunch of links and disclaimer that the, the things I write about express my opinions, are based on the word of God as much as they can be, and are meant to encourage people to follow, to make Jesus their Lord and Savior, and to follow him with the way they live their lives. And I invite anyone to go to M.t. Clark.org if you don't know what it— who you are in Christ, or what it means to be free, um, Freedom in Christ Ministries can help you with the resources they have. So that's it. And it's also a prayer ministry, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for a fantastic year of 2022. I'm sure it's had its ups and downs and frustrations, but in reflection, we just remember the good. You know, well, we learn from the mistakes and the losses and everything else too, Lord, but you know, we, you know, in anticipation of the new year and what you'll do, we can't help but rejoice. Um, we'll mourn with those who mourn, but right now I'm rejoicing because you've led me from, from the darkness to the light in a progression ever since I first said yes Jesus. And, uh, I had to be bold and courageous some— sometimes, but I know, um, you gave me the strength and the courage to follow you, Lord. So we just thank you for that. Lord, we thank you for anyone who's reading or listening to this message today. We pray for them to be blessed. Um, and Lord, we pray for you to come alongside their prayer request to help them, uh, in the areas they need help in and to lead them in the way they should go. And as always, Lord, we pray— Lord, we just pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead us into those things that you want us to do. Because, Lord, all we want to do is represent you on the earth and represent your kingdom, to encourage people to follow you and find the life everlasting that you provide through your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.