Baptism and How to Walk Wisely - Purity 1395

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a mammoth mothership of a cloud formation hovering over a shadow-covered stretch of the newly blacktopped surface of Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I captured what I thought to be an epic scene Saturday evening as I took my canine friend Harley out for a walk. Well, it's Monday again, and after spending all day Saturday indoors doing office work with my wife, even though we had both been productive, I couldn't help but think that we had wasted the day as the weather forecast betrayed us, as the day-long warnings about imminent thunderstorms never came to pass. But I seized the day yesterday to enjoy the sun by going immediately to the pool at my brother-in-law's place as we visited there with his family following church. As my niece Grace took the next step of faith and took the plunge into the waters of baptism and a whole new life in Christ. I'll never forget my next step in getting baptized on April 15, 2013, as it was not only at a Hillsong Church NYC baptism event at a hotel pool near Times Square, but it was also the day of the Boston Marathon bombings. New York City was a veritable police state as the city was on high alert after the terrorist attack in Massachusetts made people remember 9— September 11th's multiple attacks, and the terrorists were still at large. Fear in the city was palpable as my subway ride uptown to my baptism was accompanied by announcements that law enforcement could and would search the bags of anyone they deemed to be suspicious. As I prepared to take my baptismal plunge, I had a real sense of leaving the chaotic world behind as I was making a commitment to follow Jesus in a way I never had before and was reminded of what a very dark place the earth could be. So yesterday I was very happy to see another one of my family members get baptized, and while we swam in the backyard pool, I offered my niece and encouragement and advice on how to be a real Christian by giving her and my nephews a mini testimony of just how sinful I was when I was a kid and how my life changed completely after following Jesus. I tried to impress the importance on— of not taking their faith in Jesus lightly and to actually be a follower of Jesus by living by what he and the Bible teaches. They seemed shocked to hear about my shoplifting ways as a youth and agreed that my thieving ways were wrong and not how they were supposed to live. I'm not sure what impact my words will have, but I hope it encourages them to stay on the straight and narrow and to be real about following Jesus. As it turns out, Saturday's In Touch Ministries daily devotional message would have proved to be helpful advice if I had but I didn't see it until this morning. Its topic was how to walk wisely, and I feel moved to share it today on the blog as my encouragement to all of us on how we can live as Jesus' disciples. Dr. Charles Stanley writes, How to Walk Wisely. Living committed to the Lord calls for following his wisdom. Let's look at attitudes necessary uh, for a Christian-centered lifestyle. Determination: walking in wisdom doesn't happen automatically. We must wholeheartedly pursue righteous living. Focus: to stay on the path of God's will, we must fix our attention on his word. As we meditate on scripture, our mind will align with Christ. Sensitivity to the Spirit: With determination to live a holy life and with close attention to scripture, we become more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Trust. At times, the Lord's choice for us doesn't appear sensible. Trusting in his perfect wisdom is necessary if we're to walk according to his plan. Courage. Some things God requires may cause us to react with fear fear. As our trust in him deepens, our courage will grow, and we'll discover the joy of embracing his choice for us. Perseverance: By depending on God, we can persist and choose wisely no matter how long our challenges last. Walking wisdom requires that we practice a few basics: know God, trust him, and obey. Is this your pattern for living? Remember, a lifetime of godliness develops one choice at a time. The good doctor— the good departed doctor provides excellent advice on how we must be intentional in shaping our attitudes to follow God's lead. Walking in godly wisdom doesn't, doesn't just happen. We must seek the Lord and his righteousness to know the way we should go through life. But when we make it our will to know Him and do His will, God is faithful to guide us, strengthen us, and to protect us as we progressively enter into His kingdom and His purposes. So don't lament and think you, that you've wasted your time or missed opportunities to be faithful in the past. Instead, choose to put your best foot forward today to develop your determination, focus, spiritual sensitivity Trust, courage, and perseverance, and wholeheartedly pursue all that God has for you. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on Example, Good or Bad, and our resource notes all of 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 here, but lists and and thus highlights verses 8, let's see, 9 through 13 of chapter 8. And that's what we'll read today from the English Standard Version. The word of God says, but take care that this rite of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if who makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Today's verses are the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on example. Good or bad. And that seventh point is: one must be ready to give up what— that— give up that which is in itself indifferent rather than cause another to sin. Today's verses tell us not to sin against our brother by wounding their consciences with our behaviors or our choices. Know the room. While there is liberty for us in Christ, we need to be wise in how to live out our freedom in Christ. While we are free, we don't want our freedom to cause our brothers to stumble. One bit of wisdom that, uh, that I heard recently is what parents do in moderation, their children will take to excess. Similarly, those babes in Christ may take to excess what should only be practiced in moderation and with understanding that they don't possess. So teach your children well. Biological or spiritual, and choose not to exercise your freedom in areas that will cause them to stumble or sin. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and, and counselors to assist my 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. Allford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of the New Testament morning and evening. And today's chapter is 2 Corinthians 5. And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 9, which says, "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him." And Stephen Alford writes, this was the apostle's ambition to to be well pleasing to the Lord. And what an ambition! As to whether he succeeded or not is to be decided by his Lord in that day. He could say, however, "I fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness." But though he could say this at the end of his life, he could only say it because he determined to forget and press on, never counting to have— never counting to have apprehended. This was also my blessed Lord's ambition. He could say, I do always those things that please him, God, in John 8:29. God could therefore say of him, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Matthew 17:5. Alfred ends his devotion by praying, to be well pleasing to you, Lord, is my— to you is my desire, Lord.

Amen.

And that's it. We want to, you know, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ and we experience the joy of our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, the realization that we'll never die and be welcomed into his kingdom for with him forever, be it in heaven or on earth, our heart's desire should be to do what God requires and to be well pleasing to him. To, you know, to fight the good fight and to finish the race of faith. Or to do as Jesus said, to do what God, you know, to always do those things that please God.

Or to try to.

And we have to develop. It doesn't happen naturally, as Dr. Charles Stanley points out in his devotional entry. We have to work at it. And, you know, we don't have to work at our salvation. That's given to us by faith through grace. And, you know, through— by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But after that, we want to experience harmony with God by living and being well- by being well-pleasing to him. And so we have to be determined to walk righteously, to say no to sin, to focus on God's word, to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leadings, to trust what we get from the Lord in his word and through his spirit, and to take courage and to do what those things—

to do the will of the Lord for our lives, to to be sanctified and to do good deeds and good works to glorify Him.

And to keep at it, to persevere in our faith, to not walk away from our faith. This is the Christian life, and it's a good life. Believe me, I didn't live this way for most of my life and had developed other means of living that, well, they never lasted and they never provided peace, they never gave me joy, and, you know, they never gave me life. They never gave me the assurance of salvation, the forgiveness of my sins.

The only thing I could do with my sins before coming to Jesus was try to forget about them. I certainly wasn't going to ask forgiveness from anybody, and so we just tried to walk away, walk away from them, like leaving the scene of a crime. If we stay away long enough, maybe no one will punish us for what we've done. You know, that's the truth.

That's what I used to live with, you know. And thus, if you live a life like that where you sin and walk away, you live in fear. And if you seek to comfort yourself with the things of this world, you become addicted. And that's what I was.

I was fearful, angry, and addicted and depressed because I didn't have the answers to life and death and was just trying to do whatever to please me, which nothing could. So luckily the Lord came into my life in a dramatic way after I'd cut him off from every avenue of my life to reveal that I didn't have to be— I didn't have to try to earn acceptance into His kingdom, that it was a free gift of His grace through faith in Jesus Christ, I could be saved. And when I heard that word, I accepted it and made the determination that if this was true, which it was, I was going to be as true to Him as I could be, to follow in His ways. And that's been the journey ever since 2010, reading His word, knowing His word, becoming more and more like Him by walking away from the darkness of my former life.

And it thrills me that my nephew Patrick got baptized earlier this year and Grace got baptized yesterday. It's my heart's desire for my own children, Haley and Brennan, to one day make their profession of faith, which they, they made in their youth, to be lived out, and for them to take the next step of baptism and, you know, following the Lord with the way they live their lives. My daughter Haley's responsible and has a job. My son Brennan has chosen the path of depression and is forsaking doing what is right and is suffering emotionally and mentally because of it.

I always point to Genesis, if you do what's right, don't you know it'll be well with you? If not, sin is crouching at the door.

And I don't know about sin, but I know depression is barking up his tree. Whereas my daughter at least is doing what is right and seems pretty happy, pretty content.

Maybe not ecstatic, but she's being responsible and taking care of, taking care of herself.

These are the basic principles of life that, you know, apply to everybody, not just to Christians. But when we do it in the context of faith, when we have a relationship with the Lord, that's when joy, peace, and kindness and all the other fruit of the Spirit flow.

And that's why we do the blog, to encourage that, to not only believe in Jesus to be saved, but to, to be transformed, to experience the new life that he has for us. So that's why we blog and podcast and follow, because we've discovered the answers and the peace that the Lord wants for us, so we want to share it.

We do still have to work.

We still are in the real world.

I have a secular job as a telecommunications worker, and I have to go to that.

So we should pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just pray for you to help us to walk wisely by shaping our attitudes to follow you and you only. Lord, we pray for any of our friends out there who are listening or reading today's message. We pray for them that be blessed by your Holy Spirit to guide them in the way they should go, and to come— for you to come alongside that, their prayer request. And Lord, while you're at it, you can come alongside our prayer requests and come alongside 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 need your help with that.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.