Being Real with God Purity 1181

To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of water cascading down rock while nearby trees display the hues of autumn comes to us from my brother Michael Clark, who shared this scene from a recent visit to Kaaterskill Falls in upstate New York— exclamation point— on social media back on October 15th. According to Wikipedia, Katterskill Falls is a two-stage waterfall on Spruce Creek in the eastern Catskills, uh, Catskill Mountains of New York, between the hamlets of Haynes Falls and Palenville in Greene County. The two cascades total 260 feet in height, making Katterskill Falls one of the highest waterfalls in New York and one of the eastern United States' tallest waterfalls. The waterfalls are one of America's oldest tourist attractions, being depicted by, depicted or described by many books, essays, poems, and paintings of the early 19th century. According to Google Maps, the falls are a 58-minute drive from my place down by the river, and yet I have never been there. Well, it's Wednesday, and while a trip to Kaaterskill Falls is not in the offering today, I figured I would share this scene to inspire us all to make plans to do the things things we have never done, and to allow this Catskill Mountain scene to visually remind us that regardless of our plans, we will be summiting the midpoint of another work week as we make it over that hump later today. I'm a little more— I am a little more rested today than I was yesterday, and after last night's prayer ministry/freedom appointment with a brother and a friend, I am beyond the halfway point of completing my requirements of graduating and being a certified Deeper Walk minister. My heart's desire is to transition to full-time ministry someday, possibly as an independent Christian counselor or life coach or wherever the Lord should call me. Hello, Lord, send me! But regardless of whether or not that desire or the goal to be certified with Deeper Walk is realized, I consider myself to be blessed with the opportunity to help others in the body of Christ to resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And to encourage them to learn how to walk in the Spirit. My unnamed friend is relatively new to walking by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, but he has willingly accepted my offer to equip him with the Freedom in Christ course and to lead him through a prayerful repentance process by leading through the Steps to Freedom. Um, he went through Steps 1 through 3 last night, in which he renounced any and all occult, cult, or non-Christian spiritual experiences, confessed the lies that he believed, the world, the flesh, and through common mental defense mechanisms. And he bravely unburdened himself of some real traumas of the past and present by choosing to forgive people who have wronged, abused, or offended him. My friend was open, honest, and humble in our 2-hour prayer ministry session, and I am humbled. Um, I am humbled myself when I think of the courage it took for him to trust me, the Lord, and the process of going through the steps to help him. While the steps are written on paper and easy to read text, there is nothing easy about confessing, renouncing, and forgiving all the pains you have suffered through in life. My friend was real with the Lord, and it's not surprising that he seemed more at peace and texted me his thanks when our appointment with God was done. I just love how the Lord sets people free when they humble themselves and decide to follow him, and how that— how what he did for me is not unique. Freedom, victory, peace, and joy are available to all who put their faith in Jesus and repent. And tonight I host the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church to invite more people to discover the wonders of God's love and the power of his grace. I got home last night to discover that some— someone new registered for the group, and I pray that they decide to come to our meeting tonight. I would love to say that we have 100% participation, but although some may be moved to recognize the possibility that our growth group could help them and register for it, not everyone who registers shows up. It takes courage to admit you need help with a hurt, habit, or hang-up, and it may take even more courage to go to a Christian recovery group. But I know that when you make yourself vulnerable and humbly step out in faith to ask the Lord for help, He never lets you down. While God may not instantly bless you and make all your problems go away at once. When you surrender to His will for your life and earnestly follow Him, He will put you on a pathway to peace, meaning, and purpose. But you have to surrender, you have to humble yourself, and make the daily decision to keep walking and talking with God. So let me encourage you to seek the Lord and then consider following Christ. When you get real with God, He gets real for you, and you will be really amazed when he transforms your life with joy and peace for real. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on bitterness, resentment, and hate, and today's verses are 1 John 3:11-20. From the NIV, the word of God says For this is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Don't be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If one— if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, How can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. Today's verses fall under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on bitterness, resentment, and hatred. Hate. That 10th point is hatred is murder, and that's why we highlight, um, uh, verse 13: Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. Anyway, today's verses show us that our hate is akin to murder and that Christians are to be known for their sacrificial love. And we can only truly know what love is by knowing who Christ is and by adopting his ways for our lives. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because his ways were evil and Abel's ways were righteous. And even though Cain was warned by God to turn his frown upside down and to do what was right to be accepted, Cain's jealousy and hate let sin in. If we hate, we have not let the love of God change us. If we hate, we need to repent and learn to let the Lord's love move through us or we run the risk of being exposed as someone the Lord never knew. Unbridled hate may murder others, but it stays within us. But if it stays within us, its murder spree may end with us, as it will keep us out of the Lord's kingdom and deliver us to death. Yikes. Anyway, as always, we, we invite all to go to m.tforchrist.org, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with our walk. Today we continue sharing A.W. Pink's The Gift of the Holy Spirit, and today we continue with chapter 31, which is the Spirit Endowing, and the second point of our of our— of the section on practice, the practice of gifts in the church meeting. And so if you want to see what that conclusion of that section is, you just go to mtforchrist.org and you'll find it at the end of today's blog post. Also at the end of today's— at the end of today's blog post, you'll find an encouragement to join our Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, or Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the M.t. Clark 247 podcast. Those teachings are all based on the Word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and we highly recommend them. They teach you about who you are in Christ, about the spiritual forces of darkness, and how to overcome, overcome them all, basically, through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. So, as I stated, we led our friend through the steps last night, And I know, I know they had an impact on him, and I know, I know that because they had an impact on me. Um, you know, I've done the steps so many times, um, or led people through the steps so many times that it could be, you know, it could be a pretty elementary process for me as I, as I read the text and encourage people to go through the steps, but the work really happens on the other side of the table. You know, they bring their life, you know, the participant brings their life history to it and their sin and everything, and they bring it before the Lord, and when they renounce and confess and, you know, forgive people from the heart The Lord blesses it, and he blesses it with joy and peace and freedom, quite frankly. So we encourage people to read those materials, to jump into those classes, and to go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. Because if you never knew what Freedom in Christ was, you might not know you need it. And just like Katterskill Falls, I may have heard about it, but I haven't actually been there. Um, you might have heard about Freedom in Christ but not been there and wonder why some people are, you know, joyful with their faith and other people are not. I'd say the difference is freedom, freedom in Christ. So we encourage you to check it out and and seek your freedom. Seek the Lord. And not for nothing, guys, this is, um, you know, these aren't, um, these aren't just encouragements to keep on believing. This is, um, a call for surrender. This is a call to practice your, your faith, um, and, and being real with God. Um, that means we really do repent of our sin. That means we really do seek his truth. And apply it to our lives, that what we enjoyed in our sinful lives we now recognize is wrong, and, you know, and we renounce it. You know, it's one thing to say, oh well, I know, you know, I know something is wrong, but I love it. Whereas what we should say, I know it's wrong, so I renounce it and vow never to do it again, and I'll lead and start living, you know, I'll start living according to what the Word of God says instead. It's not just saying no, it's saying yes to Jesus. That's where the freedom comes from. I'm going to forgive and not live in bitterness. Once and for all, forgive from the heart, not hold things against people and move on. Now, you know, that's easier said than done, I understand, but It has to start somewhere. And when you do it, the Lord will bless it. And he'll set you free. Just ask me how I know. Been there, done that, doing it. So if you're in the Capitol District, we invite you to go to Celebrate Freedom tonight. You don't even have to register. But if you did, that'd be great. I can email you a bunch of stuff. That's the one thing that people do get. If they register and don't show up, that first email I send out loaded with, loaded with resources. Quite literally send out, you know, at this point in the game, we would send you everything we have, general, you know, with the exceptions of a couple of lessons because that's what I've done is like, as we've gone into the 20, it is now 20, week 24, I think. We've sent out the lessons we teach each week. And so if you just registered, like someone did last night, you end up getting 25, you know, 20-some lessons and a bunch of other documents basically to encourage you in your faith and to practice your faith. So you could do it by yourself, but we know how do-it-yourself projects sometimes work out. They don't work out too well, as you need some help and you need someone to tell you you're doing it wrong or encourage you in the way you should go. From time to time, we all need help. And that's what, you know, we're not called to be hermits. We're called to go and make disciples. And that's a relationship. And the big part of the relationship is God at the center. So, so let's do that. Let's, let's walk together as we keep on walking and talking with God. And, um, looking forward to tonight. And, um, but before that, we have work and we should pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all you've done, uh, in our lives. We thank you for the freedom that you— that we have because of you. Thank you for the joy and the peace we have because of you. And Lord, we thank you for the faithful men and women that follow you, um, that have inspired us and that, that we get to encourage along the way. Lord, we thank you for our friend last night who, um, humbled himself and went through the first 3 steps of Steps to Freedom in Christ to, uh, to help himself and to help me. Um, Lord, we, we pray for his blessings and we pray for blessings for anyone who's listening or reading this message. Um, we pray for you to come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Um, and Lord, we pray for you to go before us today. As always, we just pray for you to open our eyes to the things we need to see, and we need you to show us the way to go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom here on earth and let other people know that they can be free in Christ. Lord, so we just pray for you to go before us and, and show us the way, because all we want to do is represent you. And, um, so we, we just have to say we love you, we thank you, we praise you, Lord. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.