Condemnation or Vacation? - Wherever You Go - Purity 1584

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 boardwalk pathway leading to a sandy beach and the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean comes to us from yours truly as I captured this seen after my second arrival at my hotel in Myrtle Beach yesterday. Well, it's Monday, and even though I am on vacation this week, I will not be taking a vacation from my daily spiritual practice, and that includes my blog. I know that confession is good for the soul, and so is encouraging one another along the path of Christian discipleship. And so I've come to realize that my blog is an important part of my overwo— overall well-being and what I believe to be part of my purpose in Christ. After living most of my life entrapped in low self-esteem and in bondage to a myriad of addictions of the flesh, the Lord was gracious enough to save me and set me free. And I believe that this act of mercy was done for a reason. And from the best I can figure out, the reason is to tell others about Jesus Christ and the various truths that I have learned about what you can expect when you decide to be an apprentice to the King. As much as I encourage people to follow Jesus, to experience the peace, love, and joy that comes from a spiritual byproduct, as a supernatural byproduct of walking in the Spirit, I also try to keep it real by telling them that choosing to live as a follower of Jesus comes with its cost and with quite a bit of resistance from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Your faith in Jesus will cost you time, money, and loss. Following Jesus requires time in his word, attending church, serving the kingdom, and in prayer—our walking and talking with God. Christian discipleship will also cost you monetarily, and if nothing else, tithes and offerings. Generosity is a spiritual practice after all, and the Lord calls us to be cheerful givers. And finally, the path of Christian discipleship will also cost you loss. What will you lose? Maybe everything, but I would, would say that you can almost certainly count on following Jesus to cost you some relationships. Some friends and/or family or loved ones will not support your decision to be a religious zealot, Bible thumper, or Jesus freak, and will distance themselves from you, if not outright reject you. Whether they say stay or go, your pre-Christ relationships will change and you will feel the pain of loss. But one of the more surprising losses may be of your relationship to your former self, as the old man is transformed into the person God created you to be as you become more and more like Jesus in your character. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell us when we put our faith in Jesus, and he will call us to repent of our former ways. And if operate with what God wants us to do in our lives, we will echo the sentiments of John the Baptist in John 3:30, uh, when he said of Jesus, he must increase, but I must decrease. And so as we begin to turn from our sins, we realize that the person we used to be decreases and our Christlike qualities increase. That said, old habits die hard, and transformation doesn't necessarily happen overnight. And so the process of walking in the Spirit is related— is often related to in terms of dying. As I shared in yesterday's Bible study with M.t. Clark message, uh, Jesus said as much in Matthew 16:24-25, where he said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, Well, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So we lose our old life, and when we follow— when we follow Jesus, but he is faithful to save us and to give us a new life in Christ. But just to be clear, some of our old challenges or struggles will come along for the ride until we are— until they are completely killed. As I stated, low self-esteem was a struggle of my past, and that often manifested in a lot of negative self-talk, condemning thoughts, and the tendency to people-please. Before coming to faith in Christ, when you're feeling low and not confident in yourself, the world system would naturally lead you to look to find validation from others. The world system is a performance-based system, and so it encourages you to perform. For others and to gain their acceptance to alleviate your feelings of unworthiness. Receiving acceptance and praise from others feels good, but if we are seeking our feelings of acceptance, security, and significance based on our performance at someone else's approval, our self-esteem will always be subject to their opinion. In essence, we make others our gods and become enslaved to their opinions of us. But that's idolatry, and God doesn't want us to look to anyone else but him for validation. He sent Jesus to set us free, and he wants us to know our self-worth, which is determined by what God says about us in his word, which is detailed in Neil Anderson's Who I Am in Christ list. And I'm sharing a, a link to that in the blog today. I've renewed my mind quite a bit with God's truth by meditating, uh, on these truths. But, uh, occasionally I'll have— we'll have those old familiar thoughts of condemnation when I don't perform well, disappoint someone, or receive negative feedback. These thoughts can even happen when you're on vacation. This morning I did my regular morning exercise routine, and I'm glad I did because even though I was— I successfully got my family to hotel safely and pleased with the accommodations, I was having negative thoughts over minor details I couldn't control, like the weather, the travel time, minor inconveniences, not knowing everything, and receiving negative feedback. I also woke up to a doozy of a nightmare featuring relational problems of the past that I, I also didn't have control over and that I suspect are demonically driven. Um, because I forgot to pray over the room, cast the demons out, and claim the space for God's kingdom, which I did just a minute ago. So even though I was under spiritual attack, I knew how to deal with it by doing what I always do— my daily spiritual practices of exercising the body, casting off any negative thoughts, or, or domestic, and by focusing on the truth of who I am in Christ. And by thanking God for another day of life. There is an old expression regarding when we travel, uh, that says, wherever you go, there you are. And in terms of experiencing the chaos of condemnation or peaceful tranquility while on vacation, we have to be intentional in deciding who we are when we get to our final— this— who we are when we get to our final destination. And what bags we want to unpack. We can unpack the old bags from the past where we base our self-esteem on how we are performing while on vacation, where every hiccup or disappointment can cause us to doubt our worth or steal our joy. Or we can unpack the truth of who we are in Christ and know that no matter where we go, what we do, or what we suffer, nothing can separate us from the love of God, and nothing can change what the world— what the Lord thinks about us. When we choose to stand in our identity in Christ and do what is right according to God's word, it doesn't matter where we go or what we experience on the road, because God will give us peace that comes from knowing that no matter where we go, we are accepted, secure, and significant in Christ. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crowes. This morning's meditation Verses come from the section on imitating Jesus. Today's verses are 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 from the NASB. Um, the word of God says, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation but the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. Today's verses fall under the 8th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on imitating Jesus. That 8th point is: Thessalonian Christians soon became good models for others, partly by imitating Jesus and his disciples. Today's Bible verses remind us that we can receive the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ even in the midst of tribulation and receive it with joy. And allow the Holy Spirit to move us to be imitators of Christ. Why would we believe in Jesus when people will hate us for it? Why would we believe to follow Christ when it would cause us trouble? How could we have joy in our suffering or our faith? Because, uh, the higher truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which guarantees life everlasting in the presence of God, overrides the temporary concerns and circumstances of this world. That's why when we understand the truth of eternity, or as I say, ultimate reality, we understand that what Paul was saying when he talked about our suffering being a light affliction in 1 Corinthians 4:17. Our current suffering is only temporary and leads to an eternal reward. We can endure trials because we understand that they help us to grow in our character in Christ., and will one day be rewarded in God's kingdom. So we can boldly continue to imitate Jesus and share his good news because of the joy set before us. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors who assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional And we're on day 83 where J.E. Adams shares Proverbs 9:5, which says, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine that I have mixed. And, and J.E. Adams writes, wisdom is also available for those who will come to her house for a meal. She has made herself equally accessible, even seeking that who will partake of her feast and sending her messengers after them. There is no excuse for failing to acquire wisdom. She does not hide but freely offers herself to all those who will come. She says, forsake the naive and live, and urges her listeners to walk in the way of understanding. She promises increased days and added years. Compare the results of eating at her table with eating with an unfaithful woman whose guests are in the depths of the unseen world. One leads men to early death, the other leads to prolonged life. Is there any real choice? Why would you choose wrongly? Wisdom is the other woman, the one who seeks your welfare and blessing. This other woman is the one to embrace with all your heart and soul. Fear God and he will make you wise. Amen. And yeah, in that passage in Proverbs, they, they highlight the adulteress and then they highlight wisdom. And wisdom's calling you, um, and we should, we should go after wisdom instead of the adulteress, um, because her ways lead to life and not death. And that is why we always ask the question: have you fully surrendered to God? Um, have you made Jesus your Lord and Savior, and are you trying to follow him? That's the way of life everlasting, and, uh, we highly recommend it because it makes a big difference in the way you look at life and experience peace and joy. And it also gives you meaning and purpose that the world just doesn't provide. And, um, part of my purpose normally is, uh, leading the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church on Wednesday evenings. Um, I won't be there this week, but my leadership team will be, and they'll welcome you to our Christian Recovery and Discipleship support group there Wednesday evening, 6:30 PM. Um, so we invite anybody in Upstate New York to go check it out and to be blessed by it. Um, if you're not in Upstate New York and can't get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night, The good news is, uh, there is a series that I'm currently recording called, um, Christian Recovery. It's, um, Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark, where we share all our teachings that we give out at the Celebrate Freedom support group. So there'll be a new episode launched tonight, 6 PM. I've already recorded it, pre-recorded it, and, uh, have it all set to launch on YouTube later this evening. So, um, you'll be able to check that out, and, uh, we encourage encourage you to check out all the, all the episodes in our, uh, in our series. I believe there's— there'll be 8 after this evening, so check those out if you want to get encouraged with good Christian teachings about recovery, and, um, or if you want to share it with someone else. Also, we've done other series in the past, um, that we believe you can, can help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ, and we invite you to check those out. We've done series on A Picture of the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, many others that are all available at mtforchrist.com, our YouTube playlist page. And, um, yeah, we invite you to check those out. And if you're encouraged by them, um, we'd love to hear about it. You can email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com with your comments, and we'd also appreciate your support and donations. And you can go to mtforchrist.com, our donations and payments page, to, to give via PayPal, Cash App, or Venmo if you want to support our ministry, Empty for Christ Community Ministry. And beyond that, we always end by asking, are you empty for Christ too? If so, we encourage you to keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray ask the Lord to reveal himself to you. As we know, when you seek the Lord, you'll find him. And when you pray a prayer to make Jesus your Lord and Savior, everything will change. And you may lose some things, um, it may cost you something, but what you gain in Christ is more than worth anything that this world has, has to offer you. So, um, we believe in the power of prayer, and we pray every day. Including times like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing me safely here, uh, to Myrtle Beach, uh, for the next few days. We just pray for you to guide us, protect us while we're here. And, uh, Lord, we dedicate our hotel room space, uh, to your kingdom and your kingdom purposes only. We cast out the enemy, uh, or, uh, any familiar spirits that might be here to seek to disturb us. We pray for you to give us peace and joy while we're here in Myrtle Beach and to keep my family safe. Um, Lord, we also pray for you to bless anyone reading, watching, or listening to today's message, uh, that you bless and encourage them in their faith. Because, uh, Lord, we need your help, and, um, we're asking for it today. We thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.