Can’t Keep Quiet - Excited to Testify and Rejoice in the Lord - Purity 1527

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Uh, good morning. Today's photo of a sandy trail bordered by autumn-ravaged trees and the waters of Lake Ontario under a serene blue sky comes to us from yours truly, as I captured the scene on the 590 multi-use trail near Arondaquit Bay State Marine Park while on pilgrimage back on November 10th, 2022. Well, it's Thursday, and I share today's pathway photo as a visual encouragement or reminder to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, where every day is a mission and every trip we take can be used to seek the Lord and represent his kingdom. You know, when I— when you walk in the Spirit, your life becomes full of meaning and purpose. When we follow the Lord with the way we live our lives, every day is another day to rejoice in what the Lord has done and to testify to others of his amazing grace. As I looked at today's photo, I fondly remembered the trip I took back in 2022 when I captured this moment. I was headed west to Buffalo to serve as a volunteer for a David Jeremiah Ministry event, and as I thought about this, that pilgrimage, I recalled my 2023 trip to Deeper Walk International's 35th anniversary conference in Hobart, Indiana, and then began to lament that 2024 is coming to an end and I hadn't taken a spiritual pilgrimage this year. But then I remembered that Scott Salvador and I took a trip to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania for a Wild at Heart themed Band of Brothers boot camp weekend back in Pennsylvania, uh, or back in May. And I realized that I didn't miss out in 2024. My pilgrimage for this year was already accomplished months ago, and I didn't need to feel like I needed to rush off to take a spiritual retreat. And it wasn't like I hadn't been doing anything in my faith walk. Um, road trip pilgrimages aside, 2024 has been jam-packed with seeking and serving the Lord right where I am. And I marvel over how the love of the Lord has given me cause, has caused me to want to do even more, to seek to know him more and to live in his presence. God's love causes me to want to bear witness of his goodness and to give my testimony of what the Lord has done in my life. That's why we do the vlog. Speaking of giving a testimony and sharing our faith, the Turning Point, with Dr. David Jeremiah, uh, devotional for today addresses sharing our faith, and I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to get excited about the opportunities we have in these days leading up to Christmas to tell others about Jesus. And, uh, so Dr. Jeremiah writes— how he writes that Can't Keep Quiet. And from that devotional, he shares Luke 2:17, which says, now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And David Jeremiah writes, when Robert Annand of Scotland gave his life for Christ, he immediately felt a burden for the lost. A stonemason by trade, he devoted his spare time to witnessing on the streets. Often writing Bible verses in chalk on the sidewalks. He witnessed to everyone he met. He drowned at age 32 while saving a boy who fell into the river. Thousands attended his funeral, and afterward a man was seen on his grave sobbing and saying, "I have been a very wicked man, but the grace of God perhaps will do for me what it did for Robert Annan." When the shepherds left the stable on that first Christmas, they couldn't keep quiet. They told everyone what they had seen. The disciples did the same after the resurrection, saying, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Witnessing means telling others what has happened to you. Let's pray for spiritual excitement in telling others the wonderful things God has done for us. This season, say a word for the Savior. It's from David Jeremiah, and he also shares a quote from Robert Anand, which says, I love you, and my prayer is that your heart may be broken by the power and love of Christ in his cross. Yeah, amen. You know, I've heard— I've not— I had never heard of Robert Anand until this morning, but I can relate to his experience because it is similar to mine. And while I don't know anything more than what we read in this devotional message about him, I can tell you that his prayer and mine are the same. That others' hearts would be broken by the power and love of Christ and his cross, and that one day I would be remembered as someone who did something to help others to come to our Lord Jesus. Recently, I considered taking a break from my blog to focus on other things, but it only took a single day for me to realize that I didn't want to. That part of who I am now comes from the fact that I continually speak about what Christ has done for me and what he can do for others. Life in Christ is the abundant life of peace and joy that Jesus wants us to have, and I will speak about it as much as I can because it is such an amazing gift that I can't rest easy unless I try to give it to others. And big pause. Uh, so as we draw near to Christmas, rejoice that the Lord has saved you and get excited to go tell it on the mountain. That Jesus Christ is not just born but is alive and active in giving hope to the hopeless and setting the captives free. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for, uh, for counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on hope, and today's verse is 1 Corinthians 10:13 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience, and God is faithful He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so you can endure. Today's verse falls under the first point of our counseling reference resource section on hope, and that first point is God has solutions to our problems. Amen. You know, I mean, uh, today's Bible verse encourages us that our struggles with sin are not unique. And we can be assured that God will be faithful to help us to avoid temptation when we ask for his help and take his way of escape. One of the big lies the enemy loves to tell, uh, over and over again to people in bondage to sin is that they are all alone, that nobody would understand the troubles they see, and that they are fundamentally in some way broken and beyond the hope of help. Those who believe Satan's lie end up proclaiming a self-fulfilling prophecy of inadequacy, where they will state that they believe that God can help people, but when it comes to them, God can't. The enemy's lie causes the saint caught in a besetting sin to deny the Lord's love and power to change lives, and thus they remain stuck and feel hopeless. But in this passage, Paul tells us that nobody in Christ is beyond repair, that if we in the Lord and follow him with the way we live our lives, he will show us the way of— way to escape temptation and sin. With God's help, we can overcome. So ask him for help and take the escape that leads to freedom and victory. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters our brothers and sisters in Christ for their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional. We're on day 26, where Adams shares a portion of 1 Timothy 1:6, which says, certain persons have turned aside to empty discussions. And J.E. Adams writes, these same people want to be teachers of the law but don't understand correctly what they insist upon with such vehemence. When James insisted that not many of us should become teachers, since teachers will be subject to a more severe judgment, he had in mind, at least in part, such persons. Notice, they were walking well, but out of a desire to teach, turned aside from their proper path. Instead, they began to teach even though they were neither gifted nor prepared. Such people, out of an insatiable desire to teach, cause much trouble in Christ's church when given an opportunity. You are not one of them, are you? If so, think again. We ought to— what ought you to be doing? Where do your gifts lie? How thoroughly are you prepared to teach others, or does your supposed teaching actually do little more than involve others in worthless discussions? Think hard about this. Give up on teaching if these words apply to you. Whoa. Amen. Um, yeah, there's lots to learn from the word of God and lots of things you could, you know, speculate about and talk about, um, that would waste a lot of time, uh, quite frankly, and wouldn't necessarily do anything for God's kingdom. And that's, I think, what J.E. Adams is talking about. Um, I— God forbid that I'd be a teacher where I didn't— you know, for me, I just try to encourage people to walk and follow the Lord and, uh, to do what God leads them to do, to serve his kingdom, and, uh, to be changed into the people that God created them to be. That's it. I'm not trying to tell you about church history, uh, different points of doctrine, um, anything. Uh, we're not really into speculative theology. Um, we know the word of God is true, and we point you to that, tell you to read it, tell you to follow it with the, the way you live your life. And, uh, that's why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? And, um, we invite you to do that because we've discovered it's the pathway to peace and joy and meaning and purpose for your life. You know, the narrative of the world without God or Jesus, um, it's pretty hopeless. But the good news is that the gospel is true. Jesus did come, was born, you know, lived a righteous life, did miracles, was killed, um, and rose again to prove that he was the Son of God and God the Son. And when we put our faith in him, we're set free from sin and death. And, uh, we can overcome our sins by walking in the Spirit. We won't give into the ways of the flesh when we walk in the Spirit. So we encourage that surrendered life in Christ. Not only does it change your whole life, it gives you a purpose. And part of my purpose is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, um, on Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM. We met last night. It was a great meeting, and, uh, we're planning a little holiday get-together for next week, um, basically where we're going to bring a gift and do the old, you know, gift exchange, uh, white elephant gift exchange, whatever. I don't know what the— why it's called that, um, but, uh, we're gonna play a little game giving out presents to one another and, uh, you know, rejoicing over what the Lord's done in our lives. Uh, it's a supportive group, and I'm very happy to, uh been given the honor and privilege to lead it. And I invite anyone in Upstate New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night to join us. We'll be in the K through 3rd grade classroom next week before Christmas. We'll be taking a break for the holidays, but we'll start again in the new year after that. So that's that. Speaking of the holidays, currently I am doing an online support group for men called Grace for the Holidays, as I've been leading men through the Grace Course from Freedom in Christ Ministries. We meet on Monday nights online, and if you wanted to jump in and get access to all the teachings we've done for that, that course, you can do so by going to mtforchrist.com and looking for our group events coaching page. And you can sign up today and join us next Monday. There's two Mondays before Christmas, and you'd be welcomed into our fellowship with open arms. Yeah, anyway, beyond that, we encourage people to find or increase their freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. We've done teachings on Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ Ministries, uh, Freedom in Christ course, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. And so we invite you to check those out. Um, these, the teachings and messages that are based on the word of God that come in these, uh, lessons basically, uh, were the things transformed my life. And so I was happy to teach them and pass them along to others free of charge on our YouTube playlist page. Or you can go to mtforchrist.com, find our page that lists all our playlists, um, if you, if you want to do it that way. Anyway, uh, it's just another day in the kingdom, and we always ask the question: Are you empty for Christ too? Have you made yourself available for the infilling of the Holy Spirit? If so, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, ask for the Lord to reveal himself to you and to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Um, we— that's what we did, and, uh, we discovered a whole new life, and, uh, it's a good thing. And, you know, that's why we, we know prayer works, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do. Lord, and what you can continue to do in our lives, how you filled it with your goodness and your grace and mercy. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go. That's all I want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and, uh, definitely need help with that. Lord, we also pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them, their prayer requests, their walk of faith. They need your help too. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.