Denying the Lie of a “Very Bad Year” and Declaring the Truth with Thanksgiving! - Purity 1202

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 a spectacular pink, purple, and yellow sunset sky over what appears to be smoke on the water comes to us from Dave Vaughan Photography, who shared this scene from his visit to Marino Rocks in South Australia last week on social media. Because it had been a while since Dave had generously shared his work, he apologetically stated that the 6-day hiatus hadn't been planned, and that not all things are planned, nor do they always go to plan. Tell me about it, brother. Anyway, Dave is giving us all an opportunity to support his work and to own a piece of it, as he has recently announced that the Dave Bond Photography 2024 calendar is now available for purchase. I'm including a link to Dave's merchant page on PayPal on the blog today so you can purchase a copy for yourself or to give away for Christmas. Dave has graciously allowed me to share his work on the blog in the past, and buying a calendar for myself and sharing the link seemed the least I could do to express my thanks and appreciation for Dave and his work. Well, it's Thanksgiving Monday, and as we drag ourselves into work, uh, for what, what for me is a shortened work week, I'm preparing my heart to be as thankful and appreciative as I can be, to be completely surrendered to the Thanksgiving spirit when we observe the national holiday in the U.S. come Thursday. Thanksgiving, or gratitude, or appreciation, is actually a regular practice on the path of Christian discipleship. And if you haven't made it a part of your normal daily routine, I highly recommend it, and God sort of commands it. Thank you very much, Lord. Uh, in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, uh, we're told to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. In Colossians 3:17, we're told, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And finally, Philippians 4:6-7 says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Those are all instructions to the church, us Christians, on how we are to act. And so let's be the most thankful bunch at the Thanksgiving dinner table come Thursday. I'm sharing a link to openbible.info's 100 Bible verses about giving thanks on the blog today in case you need some biblical support or want an easy reference to pull up some Thanksgiving wisdom. Let's see, part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, or is it the whole thing, is believing that what the Bible says is true, is the truth, and obeying it and obeying what it says. That is, it's what it's all about, believing what the Bible— that the Bible is true and we obey what it says regardless of the circumstances. Or situations that surround us. I say that because my encouragement to give thanks may be difficult for many of my friends to receive this year. While I don't like to echo negative reports and honestly don't believe in bad years, because frankly I have noticed that come November or December that declaring the, the declaring of the current year to be a bad year has become our yearly tradition of sorts. I think I first noticed it 2019, uh, this tendency to lament over the current year being a bad one in 2019, because I remember the New Year's Eve sentiments that year to leave behind the no good, very bad, terrible year of 2019, um, with the hope to have a quote-unquote clear vision going into 2020. COVID-19 sort of made things made things a little cloudy. Uh, but do you— but you know what? Regardless of the pandemic, the death, and the seismic changes of 2020, even that very bad year had its good points. For me, 2020 was a stellar year as I rose above all of it, worked hard, and was able to purchase and establish my little home down by the river for me and my children. And it was after that year that I stopped listening to the very bad leer —laments that rear their depressed little heads in November and December. Quite frankly, looking at and declaring a year to be bad is a misperception and undoubtedly something that the spiritual forces of darkness—yes, Satan and his demonic associates—support fully. Think of it, in the season where we are to give thanks and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, The enemy wants us to focus on the negative and call what is good evil. God warns us in Isaiah 5:20-22: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to you who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! Woe to men, mighty at drinking wine. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. Yeah, I had to include the drunken verses that follow that the sentiment to not call good evil or evil good, like it, like it's good to get drunk. Uh, no, it's actually evil. Shots fired. Anyway, I do sympathize with those who have loved and lost and suffered losses this year. I'm surrounded by people who have suffered the loss of loved ones to death, have struggled with finances, had health concerns, have had difficulties in their marriages, suffered broken relationships, and lost jobs. I have even suffered a surprising disappointment and shocking failure this year. But the circumstances of this world, and even my own performance or lack thereof, do not define who I am, and they do not— they don't need to be what controls my attitude or emotions as we go into the holiday season and into a new year. Yes, we have suffered losses. Yes, we will miss those who are gone. Yes, we may be in the midst of a trial that has us wondering about what we will do next or how we will survive in the future, but we are alive. And we know God. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we live today and will live forever. We have been forgiven and are accepted, secure, and significant because of who we are in Christ. I'm sharing a link to the Who I Am in Christ statement sheet, uh, PDF on the blog today from Freedom in Christ Ministries, uh, if you need to remind yourself of the truth. I use that list every day to go to ground myself in the truth of who I am in Christ as a part of my daily spiritual practice. Knowing who I am in Christ is an integral part of my daily practice of gratitude. So even if I'm going through trials or suffering heartache or loss, I can look at that list of what the Lord has done for me, and I can give thanks knowing that I'm cared for loved, and say it with me, accepted, secure, and significant in Christ. So deny the lie that 2023 has been a bad year and declare the truth that because of your faith in Jesus, God is with you always. And even though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are still walking, and the Lord is with us. So give thanks to the Lord our God and praise His name. Draw close to Him in prayer for strength and guidance. Ask for and seek His wisdom in His word. And keep walking and talking with God with the way you live your life, because a life spent in His continual presence and love is a good one, and there is nothing that can befall us that would make that untrue. Psalm 30:5 tells us that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And as that psalmist may have suffered, may have suffered, but he found joy as he testifies to God that you have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praises to you. And not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. So give thanks to God today, Thursday, and every day. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on the church, or communion of the saints, and it's a long passage. It's 1 Corinthians 12 uh, verses 12 through 31. And the word of God says, for even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body, it is not for this reason any, any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body, it is not for this reason any, any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be— where would the hearing be? If the whole were, were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much sure that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which may be— we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. And our, our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they?

All are not workers of miracles, are they?

All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. Today's many verses fall under the sixth point of the counsel— of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the church and the communion of the saints. And that sixth point is: each member of the body is necessary. We need one another. All must have a deep concern for each other. Today's verses testify at length of how each member in the body of Christ is necessary, in that we are to care for one another as we utilize the gifts we have received to serve God's kingdom. Our resource offers up this entire passage to make the point that each of us is necessary for the service to God's kingdom, but it highlights verses 25 and 26 in bold to emphasize the fact that we aren't just brought into God's kingdom to work. We are to also love one another and show our care for one another and share in the suffering and joys we experience. Last week, my— freedom— at the Celebrate Freedom growth group, Scott Salvador, our men's discussion leader and two-time mullet champion— you can't make this up— suffered the loss of his mother. And while you could think of our relationship to be function-focused as ministers to a small group community for recovery and discipleship, while we have worked, we have developed a friendship of mutual trust, respect, and affection that goes beyond our roles of the ministry. My fondness for Scott makes, makes me want to see him succeed and prosper in life. I voted and contributed towards the campaign that made him the first-ever two-time mullet champion. I have leaned on him for accountability with my food addiction and have experienced unprecedented success in return.

We have rejoiced over one another's victories.

Our care for the growth group we serve has carried over to one another. And so when Scott's mom died, although though it might not have shown too much, I felt the pain of the loss for Scott and prayed for his and his family's comfort and healing in the wake of the loss. So with the length of today's passage, don't forget the love that we are to have for one another as we seek to accomplish our purposes for God's kingdom. Without God, we can do nothing, so we should always remember that and seek to obey his and to love one another as we try to give him glory. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Arthur Pink Anthology, and we're on the tract called Christian Fools, as today we'll be sharing part 6 of 8. And So that keeps us on pace to share it all. Well, maybe all of it by Thanksgiving. Um, it should— 6, 7, and 8— but we'll see. Um, as, as Dave Bond pointed out, not all things go according to plan, and things might be changing. Um, I, I have started sharing the Celebrate Freedom discipleship course on the blog and podcast, and might be doing the next installment on the enemy between now and then. Maybe I'll share that on Thanksgiving, I don't know, but that's in the offering, and it's sort of, you know, it might— like I said, not all things are planned, and it might mess up the sharing of this resource, the Arthur Pink Anthology Parts 6 through 8. So we'll see about that, but they'll be out there eventually. And with Thanksgiving going around the bend, I've also, you know, felt it in my heart to possibly share an Advent devotional. So this might— this Arthur Pink Anthology might be the last one, and we'll go back to it after the— after Christmas.

Or after the New Year, as I have plans on sharing something possibly near and dear to my heart on the blog as a resource. And actually, it might replace the, you know, our resource reference from John D. Cruis. Things might be different in the days ahead. We'll see. We'll see, you know, that's all we can do. We'll be sharing something, and we hope it'll encourage you, as we hope today's message encouraged you to be thankful in all things, and to, you know, adapt and overcome the losses, and grieve, you know, say goodbye, and say hello to the Holy Spirit and the Lord. Who always, always moves us to go forward. Although there is a time to grieve, a time to mourn, when the time is over, we, we go back to life and we go back to encouraging people to, uh, to follow the Lord and give him thanks and praise.

So that's what we do on the blog, and that's what we'll continue to do.

And we'll continue to encourage people to, you know, live out their faith We are inundated in a world system that's surrounded by lies. Some of them are, you know, whoppers.

Some of them are systemic.

I discovered that in my food addiction. A lot of the food we eat isn't good for us. You know, if you can hear that, hear the truth of it, you would actually not eat what you eat. You know, that's like a huge thing.

You know, like, hey, what you're eating there is poison.

Whoa! You know, in terms of what it does to your body, you know, I had no idea I could be in the physical shape that I'm in currently. But I listened to the truth of what good nutrition is and exercised and have reaped the results. And as I declare to myself quite often now, I ain't going back. I'm not gonna go back to the bad habits I had before.

I declare that today as truth, and I'll try to walk that every day. And with Thanksgiving rolling around, that's gonna be a challenge. But you know, it's not—

you sort of start to hate the lies, and you know, the fact that these foods that people push on you really not good for you. Makes it easier to say no, no matter how well-intentioned people are in trying to offer that.

So be strong, food addicts. We can overcome. I know it. With the Lord, we can do it. Anyway, we have to go to work though, so we should probably pack a sensible lunch and figure that out.

As today is a short work week, but we still have to work. So, uh, let's pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you so much for all that you've done for us. Thank you for the people you put in our path, uh, along the way.

We pray for Scott and his family, uh, as they, uh, you know, just had that loss last week. And we pray for everyone else out there who's suffering the loss of loved ones or suffering loss of broken relationships or failures in their personal lives. I get it. It's tough.

And that's why I encourage people to follow the Lord. The strength of the Lord is our, you know, our joy of the Lord is our strength. And we can find peace, joy, and strength and guidance in him.

And when we really listen to what his word says and really decide to surrender to it, you know, we can find the peace that goes beyond all understanding. Understanding, you know. So we encourage that.

And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to bless anyone who's listening or reading this message, that you come alongside them in their prayer requests and guide them through their day.

And Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today. We need you to open our eyes to the things we need to see, and we need you to help us do the things we would— we need to do, and we need your guidance. Us every step of the way. And so we'll be walking and talking with you today, Lord. We're praying right now for you to— for you to go before us as you always do, uh, to help us and guide us along the way.

And, uh, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you.

We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.