Believe and Live – What About Other Religions Purity 1263

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 snow-covered trees lining a headlight-illuminated snow-covered Waite Road comes to us from Tammy Lynn Clark as she captured this scene during her morning commute on January 23rd, 2023— 2024, uh, sharing it on social media, commenting that there is something about fresh snow on trees that is just pretty. As much as I would love to, uh, love for spring to, to be sprung in an instant, I would have to agree with my beloved wife. Snow on trees is pretty, and a big part of experiencing joy and peace in life is appreciating what we have now. Uh, well, it's Thursday, and I appreciate pathway photos, and I particularly like to share them on Thursdays. As that was the day of the week when I really surrendered to the Lord's will for my life back in 2015 when I went into recovery for my drinking at a little Christian recovery ministry that was later named Celebrate Freedom. Well, a lot has changed since 2015. I am no longer, uh, struggling with alcohol and have been set free from sex addiction and food addiction as well as I have continued to follow the Lord. And been faithful to answer his call for continued repentance and progressive sanctification. Celebrate Freedom now exists at 3 different churches. Pastor Bob Costello restarted the ministry at Rock Solid Church in Hudson last year. Matthew Crandall and company, uh, started their own Celebrate Freedom ministry at Strong Tower Church in Philmont, New York in the fall. And I have been leading the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church since May of 2023. So if you are in Columbia County or in the Capital District/Clifton Park area and want to be built up in your faith and be set free from your hurts, habits, and hangups, check us out. This freedom train is running, and all you have to do to experience a new life of hope, peace, and joy is ask God for help and start the process of renewing your mind with God's word and living according to who you are in Christ. Those who come to our meetings apply, uh, and apply their— the teaching to their lives and start walking on the path of Christian discipleship are testifying to the way, uh, the Lord is changing their lives for the better. Testimonies of sobriety, healing, restored relationships, peace, and hope are being delivered every week. And all you have to do to experience the transformation is to believe and live what the Word of God says. That might sound easy, but due to the common ignorance of the Christian faith and our own ideas about what is right, agreeing with God's Word can be a tough pill to swallow. I know, as a natural-born skeptic and rebel, I had some serious misunderstandings of and objections to many of the doctrines of Christianity. To people searching for God, I would recommend the Freedom in Christ course, which I just happen to have a playlist of my podcast of the course on YouTube. Links on the, uh, on the blog today for that. If you can believe it, the playlist has 700— or no, let's see, 4,795 views. But to keep it real, the lessons themselves have less than that. That tells me that some were curious about the freedom in Christ, uh, about Freedom in Christ, uh, but they decided to not go down that path. Maybe they didn't like the fact that my teaching is an audio teaching, but I also know that as much as people profess their Christian faith and their desire to be set free or to grow in their relationship with God, not many of them will actually surrender and follow the Lord in earnest. Some people stumble before they even start this walk. Last night, one of the participants of Celebrate Freedom asked a good question that has a heartbreaking answer that causes many people to choose to not follow the Lord. What happens to the good Jews and Muslims? was the question. And this actually, uh, and this actually came shortly after lesson of the night taught about the hope we have in Christ alone. And that quoted John 14:6 that says Jesus— where Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father through me. It's hard to understand, and it's hard to answer this question quickly and simply because it deals with sin, the depravity of man, how people are forgiven of their sins, the the person of Jesus Christ and the exclusive— exclusivity of Jesus's redemption. But the bottom line is that because all men sin and because we can't earn our salvation by our own efforts, we need a Savior. That is why God sent Jesus to be that Savior, to teach us the truth and to pay the penalty for our sins and to give us new life through faith in him. This person's question was loaded and revealed the false belief in "good people" and the misunderstanding that God would somehow be unjust by rejecting the people who rejected Jesus. They also seemed to think that these questions were a matter of debate. They aren't. But you have to know God's Word, understand that it is true, and believe it to know that. The problem with spiritual questions is that they always come from a place of ignorance of God's Word. So I tried to, as compassionately as I could, answer that question and encourage them to read the Bible, specifically the book of John, to try to give— get a biblical understanding of the nature of reality, the person of Jesus, and why he is the only way into God's kingdom. I've read the Bible several times, gone to Bible college, read lots of Christian books and listened or watched loads of podcasts, movies, or sermons to help me understand and to know God and his will for our lives. The truth is out there, and when we seek the Lord— when you seek the Lord, you will find it, but in ways that are difficult to understand. It's up to God whether or not you will accept the truth and put your faith in Jesus. There are no good people. We need a Savior. Our faiths— other faith streams may have some truth to their teachings, maybe a lot of truth, but if they fail to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the resurrected Messiah, they are false religion, the doctrines of demons, and that would lead you straight to hell. So there's that. Uh, the truth is God is gracious in saving anybody. We are all worthy of judgment, death, and hell, and some— and we show our rebellion against our Creator when we refuse to believe and follow Jesus. Our eternal destiny hangs in the balance of whether or not we follow Jesus. And as, as well-intentioned as our concern for others may be, we really should secure our own salvation first. And then concern ourselves with helping others. Just like in a plane's emergency systems, we are to put the oxygen on ourselves first and then help our neighbors with theirs. We have to put on Jesus, and then if we are truly concerned about the people of different religions, we are to answer Jesus's call in Matthew 28:19-20, the last thing he said in Matthew's Gospel. Where He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So what about good— the good Jews and Muslims? Tell them about Jesus and and how he is the only way to the Father. Teach them the truth and teach them to be disciples of Jesus, to observe all the things that he has commanded us. Tell them to believe and live. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Greek Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from The section on communication, gossip, and lying. And today's verse is Proverbs 29:20, and that says, "Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Today's verse is the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the sixth point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. That 6th point is: Listen before you speak. Today's verse warns us not to be hasty in our words. Something said quickly often proves to be foolish. So we recommend a pause where you can think before you speak, before blurting out the first thing that comes to mind. As Christians, we don't want to react to life in the flesh. Yeah. To life in our flesh. We want to respond with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. When we craft our responses to consider the truth of God's word and the wisdom we can draw from it rather than our opinions or reactions, we will represent God's kingdom and give him glory. So don't be hasty in your speech. Remember, when you're— when you are an ambassador of God's kingdom, every word you say is important. Because it represents our faith, and we shouldn't be hasty in delivering the news that could save someone's life. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers in Christ with it in their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. It's a collection of devotionals from, uh, 1940 and '41. And in his devotional, basically Stephen Alford read the Bible. He recommended, you know, basically reading a chapter in the morning and the evening. And for this entry, he recommended reading Matthew 23. And from Matthew 23, he quotes Matthew 23:3, and just a single word with an exclamation point: hypocrites! Anyway, Stephen Alford writes To those whose comprehension of God is one of love alone, what a chapter is this! Woe, woe, woe, 8 times, like the toll of the death bell. Who could possibly deny that God is a God of righteous judgment after reading a chapter such as this? But why such strong language, the soul asks? The answer is because of the existence of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the greatest of all abominations before the Lord. Men who were outright sinners, the Lord called sinners and dealt with them in grace. But when it came to hypocrites, the Lord scathingly denounced them. Notice in Acts 5 that even among His own people in the early church, the Lord did not tolerate hypocrisy. Of that I might recognize any hypocrisy— oh well, And then he ends with a prayer: Oh, that I might recognize any hypocrisy in my life and deal with it swiftly and decisively. And we're not to— you know, my saying about hypocrisy is, if you don't like the hypocrites in the church, don't be one. Be authentic in your faith. And as for, you know, Acts chapter 5 that Alfred talks about, that was You know, that's alluding to the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the early church leaders about how much they sold for their land and how much money they gave to the church. If you recall that story, they were stricken dead by the Holy Spirit when they lied to Peter. So let's not, let's not be a hypocrite. It's not good. And, you know, in that one instance, it led immediately to their death. And yeah, so let's not be hypocrites and let's follow the Lord as honestly as we can, because that's the thing. And I can understand the objections that people have about the exclusivity of Jesus to save, but that just shows you don't understand. God's Word. So we encourage people to read the Bible and to follow the Lord. And like I said, I recommend the Freedom in Christ course because it starts at a very basic level with the first chapter, which teaches why you can believe the Bible, and then tells you about who you are in Christ, tells you about the world and the way they look at truth and the way Christianity looks at The Truth, and then it teaches you all about spiritual forces of darkness and the deceitful pride of life and, you know, the flesh and the devil and everything. It teaches you, and it's not just bad news, it teaches you how to be free in Christ. So that's why it's the Freedom in Christ course. We recommend that highly, and we also recommend Victory Over the Darkness The Bondage Breaker, which are all teachings from Dr. Neil Anderson and Freedom in Christ Ministries, which we represent as a Community Freedom Ministry associate. So it set me free in major ways, and it's continued to set me free as I, you know, this life of Christian discipleship continues to set me free. And that's why I point to it every day, one way or the other. So let's, uh, let's encourage each other to follow the Lord. And if we have questions, let's ask it, ask those questions, and let's seek the answer in God's word, because God's word is the truth and it will answer all your questions. And it'll be up to you whether or not you choose to believe it and live according to it. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us. Uh, we, uh, we pray for anyone who might be listening today that they would, um, come alongside you and, uh, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer requests, Lord, and you'd show them the truth from your word and put it in their hearts and guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, we pray that for ourselves too. Uh, we need all the help we can get, and so we pray for you to open our eyes today, 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 Lord, we need help with that. And so we just, uh, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.