In this devotional monologue, M.t. Clark shares a personal snapshot of his life—traveling to Syracuse for work training, coping with a cold snap, and caring for his dog Harley—while emphasizing the centrality of daily spiritual disciplines (exercise, prayer, Bible study, and writing) in anchoring his Christian identity amid change. He recounts his journey from a nominal, liturgical background to a born‑again conversion in 2010, rejecting the "church game" of religious formality in favor of an authentic relationship with God. Clark outlines the biblical basis for his practice, citing Romans 12:1‑2 on presenting one’s body as a living sacrifice and renewing the mind, and Proverbs 25:11 on the value of timely advice. He urges listeners to speak up with spiritual counsel when they see others in need, likening it to the security mantra "If you see something, say something." The talk promotes various resources on mtforchrist.org, including A.W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God (chapter on reprobation), podcasts, and weekly Bible studies, encouraging consistent discipleship that produces the fruit of the Spirit. The piece concludes with a heartfelt prayer for guidance, protection, and effective witness.
Chapters
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 Harley running free over the white farmland tundra underneath the blazing February sun comes to us from yours truly as I decided to let him go as we made our way up Waite Road just before noon on Saturday. The sun may have been shining, but don't let that bright light fool you. Just like the devil can be disguised as an angel of light, this past Saturday afternoon may have had clear skies and sunshine, but I can assure you that the sun rays did little to dissipate the polar vortex-like cold that had descended across the land that sent the temperatures below zero degrees. Well, it's Monday again, and I am happy to report that the cold spell that started Friday and lasted throughout the day on Saturday lifted yesterday. With temperatures in the high 30s, and it looks like that's where we will stay temperatures-wise for today, even though I am currently 100— for today, even though I am currently 156 miles away from where I usually find myself at the beginning of another work week. Yep, like Willie Nelson, I'm on the road again, as my employer has sent me to Syracuse, New York to learn a new set of skills for work. And in case you were curious, No, I didn't volunteer for the trip. So it's training day, I guess. And this morning I am extremely grateful for my daily spiritual practices of exercise, prayer, Bible study, and writing this blog. And these disciplines— as these disciplines start off my day right, and they are the only thing that is familiar as I find myself in my new home for the next 8 business days. Really? Not 10 days, as in 2 full weeks of training? No, let's have him travel back home in the middle of the week at the end of the work— workday on Wednesday and have him return to 2 days of his regular work on Thursday and Friday. Pardon my questioning the scheduling of this assignment. I'm sure it makes perfect sense to someone. Apparently one week of training isn't long enough, but a full two weeks would just be insane. Anyway, it is in the times of changing circumstances and in the moments of stress caused by the cognitive dissidence of trying to figure life out that our relationship with the Lord and the spiritual practices of the path of Christian discipleship in which we abide in his presence are proven to be the most important thing about us. Our relationship with God and the ways we draw close to the Lord confirm who we are by reminding us of whose we are. And when we know whose we are, we instinctively become of what we do because we follow the example of Christ and do what the Word of God says. As I have stated before on the blog, when I became a born-again Christian back in 2010, I had a deep desire to be authentic in my faith and sought to know God more and to live my life according to his desires, according to his will, not my own. And as hard as one might think that it is to live a Christian life in these modern times, I discovered that it is surprisingly simple, but that doesn't mean that it is easy. Um, from my liturgical Christian background, I knew that Christians went to church, but that's really all I knew, and I knew that wasn't enough. I had played the church game in my former life, and although there was a few times throughout my life that I would say my faith was probably genuine, for the most part, uh, I would say I was a member of a religion more than I was in a relationship with God. Religion was cold, was cold comfort because it was powerless to change me. And so I experienced a lot of guilt, shame, confusion, and anger when I used to play the church game. So when I finally heard the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and made the decision to put my faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, I knew that church would not and could not be all there was to my new relationship with the Lord. I also knew that my old liberal church with its homosexual clergy— a fact— would not be a part of my new life in Christ. So until I found a conservative church where the Bible was taught, I was on my own. And frankly, I wasn't ready to run, run out into some fundamentalist cult where the religion was just a different flavor of the day. My faith in Christ was something new, but I decided that I would be a very discern— I would be very discerning in how I followed the Lord because I didn't want just another church game. I wanted to be a real Christian. For those early— from those early days of my born-again experience, I knew that I had to know God more. I had a deep desire to read the Bible, and I did, dusting off the Bible I had received when I was confirmed as an Episcopalian and highlighting all the passages that that caught my attention. If I was going to walk by faith, I knew that I knew that I knew that I needed to know the Bible for myself. It turns out that this was the approach. This approach, it turns out that this approach was recommended by nearly every Bible-believing evangelist that I was becoming familiar with through Christian radio and podcasts. My initial research revealed that the basics of Christian life, beyond worshiping at a church and doing good works, included regular, if not daily, Bible study and prayer. So even though they were new practices to me, I began praying, reading the Bible, and tried to live by what I learned. It turns out that this is it. This more or less is what encompasses a Christian life. Talking to the Lord in prayer, reading the Bible, and doing what it says. Like I said, it sounds pretty simple, but actually doing it and doing it consistent— consistently is where we learn to grow as Christians. Biblically, the Apostle Paul summarized what we are to do in Romans 12:1-2, where he said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are to present our bodies for God's service, to actually surrender ourselves to God and to live for him. And we are to change the ways we think by renewing our minds with God's wisdom His word and to be transformed. Our new lives will be different as we seek to do God's will increasingly and progressively as we go. At first, these practices can be hard to establish as we really do have to— we really do have to renew our minds to the habits themselves and to the Lord's ways of thinking and living, to live in the context of the kingdom of God and to dwell in the Lord's presence. However, with time, our daily spiritual practices become a part of our regular routine, and we discover that they are actually quite effective to cause us to be transformed and to allow the fruit of the Spirit to flourish in our lives. So this morning, even though I am a fish out of water and having to adapt to hotel living and being in a strange environment for work, I arose and immediately went to my daily spiritual practices. Even though the landscape was different and I needed to make some modifications to how I did them in my temporary home. I'm running a little late, but I got her done in terms of physical exercise, prayer, and Bible study, and I'm now finishing this report that I hope will encourage anyone who listens or hears this message. To either establish or to continue in your quiet, quote-unquote, quiet time with God each morning, because it is through these practices that we draw close to our Heavenly Father and live out our identity in Christ. So keep walking and talking with God. This is not a church game, and the more you walk with him and draw close to him through a daily spiritual practice, You will discover that the Christian life is something you can really live, and that when you keep following the Lord, the transformation is real too. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Proverbs 25:11, and it says, "Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket." Today's Bible verse speaks of the loveliness of timely advice. There is a saying that you hear at airports that says, "If you see something, say something." In the post-9/11 world of global terrorism, we have to be on guard against the threat of terrorist attacks by keeping our eyes open for anything suspicious, suspicious, or out of the ordinary that may indicate that something is not right. If we see something, we should say something because it could be a matter of life and death. The timely report that saves someone's life is beautiful because it prevents tragedy. In medical circles, a regular checkup can reveal a disease that, if caught early, can be cured. So if we suspect something isn't right with ourselves or our loved ones, we should say something and get it checked out. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, when we see someone living without Jesus in their life, or someone who is far from God in the way they live, we should say something. Our encouragement to others to put their faith in Christ may save their souls. Our encouragements to Christians to repent and follow the Lord may rescue them from bondage. So let me encourage you to say the awkward thing. And encourage others to come to Jesus and to follow the Lord in the way they live. We never know when our words will be timely advice, but we have to trust that the Lord wants us— wants to use us to do His work on the earth. So if you feel moved to speak, speak, because like today's verse tells us, timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket. To those who need to hear it. 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 and sisters in Christ with our walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and we're doing the slow walk through chapter 5, Sovereignty of God and Reprobation. So if you're On Track. You'll have another section of that to read today, uh, where A.W. Pink talks about reprobation. So there's a few points and some Bible verses referenced. So if you want to check that out, see what he has to say about the doctrine of reprobation, reprobation, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that on the bottom of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship because Well, it's what God would call you to do, to live out his good and perfect will. So we recommend it, and not just because it's the right thing to do, but it also happens to generate the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Those fruits, again, or those fruit are love, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. And And, uh, they really do bring all those things. So even when you're on the road, a work environment that you didn't ask to go to, uh, you can find peace and joy. So, um, as always, we encourage you to live the Disciples' life by, uh, checking out our, our classes that we recorded on the podcast from 2021 for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all available on the podcast and our YouTube channel, M.t. for Christ 247. And, uh, we also recommend Bible study. As we said, it's one of the foundations of your life as a Christian is to know God's word. So we encourage that by sharing a Bible study that we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti once a week. Yesterday we, we did a topical study called Bound by Freedom. So if you want to know what we— what Bound by Freedom encompasses, uh, go to the podcast and search for Bible Studies with the Zinkanis, and you'll find that to be the most recent chapter of that program. So we encourage you to check that out and all the other ones we've done in the archives if you, if you're interested. We offer all these things to encourage people to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Um, because in this world you wouldn't even know being a Christian could be a thing, but it is. And when you do it, it leads to a transformed life. So we recommend it. Um, today's work— I'm running a little bit late, but I start late, so I guess there will be some grace for that. So let's pray though. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all that you do. We thank you for bringing us here safely. And Lord, we just pray for you to be with us as we go about our day today. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading this message, that they be blessed, um, by you, and that you would come alongside their prayer requests and help them in their walk. Lord, Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, to open our eyes to the things we need to see today. Lots to learn. And, uh, Lord, to lead us in the way we should go. Help us do things effectively, if you can, um, help us and guide us, uh, to represent you best here on the earth, Lord, and, uh, to do, do what you would have us do. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
