Disqualified and Uncalled - Not a Pastor – Mental Health Coaching Series # 1 Purity 1343

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 heavens-on-fire sunset, uh, over some unknown tropical location comes to us from a similarly unknown Facebook friend who shared this fiery scene on social media on or around April 30th, 2022. If this flaming beauty is yours, give us a heads up and we will give you the photo credit you deserve by updating the blog after the fact. Well, it's Saturday and I share this— today's fiery unknown photo because I'm in a hurry this morning. Yes, I— since I launched, uh, mt4christ.com, I've been ablaze with a passion to build the site to better showcase the blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, and to also— and also in preparation of launching my Christian life coaching business. Every day I have been doing something to either improve the site or to lay the necessary foundations for what I hope will one day be my full-time vocation in ministry. And as I have done this every day, I become more and more certain that this will be the calling I've been waiting for ever since I put my faith in Jesus and decided to change my life to be, uh, quote unquote real Christian. As much as I have enjoyed walking in the Spirit from one thing to another and diligently seeking to be further and further equipped and educated for the day— for the day I would find my purpose— circumstances this year have led me to believe that I may have arrived to the point where I can stop preparing and start doing what I was called to do, which was, or which is to be a Christian life coach. Believe me, I, I understand if you cringe at that phrase, life coach. Um, I know I did when I first considered it. To be honest, I was somewhat dismissive of the idea that anyone should have to employ someone to help them to do life. But as I became more open to the idea after learning about mental health coaches I realized that a Christian life coach specializing in mental health coaching, recovery coaching, spiritual formation and discipleship coaching, and freedom and healing prayer ministry may be exactly what I was being called to and prepared for. I also realized that because of the circumstances of my specific situation and my heart to serve the Lord, the role of a Christian life coach may be perfectly suited for me. As I have walked further into my faith and sought my purpose in Christ through blogging, podcasting, and recovery and community freedom ministries, as grateful as I was to be used by the Lord, I've had a desire, the desire to do more. I've considered trying to pursue becoming a pastor or possibly pursuing a doctorate to become a licensed counselor, but felt I wasn't qualified or the circumstances of my past would disqualify me from those positions. While I haven't eliminated those roles as possibilities in the future, the ministry that I have been doing and the circumstances of my life thus far make those two roles unlikely. So why would I think that? Pastoring. Ever since my First Communion, When I was selected to read the part of the priest in our preparation class, I have had an odd feeling that I have been called to be a man of the cloth. But like Jonah, I ran away from that idea with reckless abandon. Not only left the Christian faith at a few points in my life and lived a life of debauchery at times, I also have been divorced. And according to God's word, that, uh, that and the circumstances of my past and present may be deal-breakers when it comes to serving as the head man in the church. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 tells us the qualifications of a bishop or pastor, and that word says, this is a faithful saying: if a man desires a position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Okay, I highlighted that passage on the blog for where I have previously or currently fallen short of the qualifications of a bishop/pastor. Blameless? Hardly. While most of my mistakes in life were before coming to Christ, not all of them were, and I still make blunders of various kinds today. The husband of one wife? Nope, I am divorced, and according to the letter of the word and some preachers and teachers who I highly respect, that alone seems to disqualify me from the role of a pastor. Temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, and not given to wine? From young adulthood until the time I went into recovery in 2015, my lifestyle was that of a not-so- closeted alcoholic, and although I am walking completely free of it now, that could be a reason not to hire me as your church's frontman. One who rules his house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. While I love and am proud of my children because they aren't into drugs and alcohol like I was, despite being brought to church to church from their childhood to young adulthood, neither my son nor daughter have an active relationship with the Lord. While neither of them is disorderly, I have documented— I've documented the difficulties with my son this year with his depression, and I have to admit that their sexual lives— not that I think about them or try to dwell on them— denial— are not following biblical standards that they should. So even though I would say I have relatively good kids, I couldn't honestly say I rule my house well because of the choices they've made. So by God's word, in my situation, pastoring seems to be out. Besides all that, which is probably more than enough to understand why pastoring isn't for me, on a personal level, I feel that if I was going to be called to be a pastor, someone would have asked me. Or a door would have opened up to thrust me into that position. But that hasn't happened. Throughout my walk, I have— I had hopes that I would find a place to be a pastor, but time and time again, it has seemed that there was no room at the table for the churches I have been part of, or it would mean that I would have to pursue membership and training to a liturgical church, um, that I'm not part of, to try to be integrated into a system that I was not too sure of in the first place. I love the liturgical churches out there, but let's face it, that's not where I found my relationship with God, and that's not where I found my freedom in Christ. Not for nothing, I didn't necessarily find them during the worship service of contemporary non-denominational churches either. So there you have it. With that long list of issues, it doesn't seem like pastoring a church is where my future lies. I would go on to address the issues with being a counselor, but I feel that I'm out of time for today, so I'll pick it up on Monday for this new series on mental health coaching, where I will talk about what that is and how it relates to what I, I feel will be my purpose for God's kingdom as a Christian life coach. So until then, have a great weekend and keep on walking and talking with God. But we move along. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes to us from the section on death and eternal life. And today's verse is 1 John 3:3 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, and all who are eager, who have this eager expectation, will keep themselves Be pure, just as he is pure. Today's verse falls under the second— uh, 22nd point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on death and eternal life. And the 22nd point is: Everyone who has this hope— certainty— will strive to live a pure life. Today's verse describes the importance of purity in the life of a Christian. Well, this verse doesn't speak to the issue of death or eternal life at all, really, but it does point to the point of the people, to the people that we're supposed to be as Christians. Now, I guess it does in terms of that expectation. The expectation is we'll have eternal life, so it does meet that qualification. Those comments right there are not in the blog. You know, I don't call— but purity is important. I don't call my blog series Purity for nothing. In 2018, when the end of my marriage was at— was all but a foregone conclusion, although I had to wait until late 2019 for it to be legally finished, I faced the crossroads of my future and future life. And while I was hurt and lonely, the question of how I would ever find love again came to the forefront of my mind and to the depths of my flesh. I am a man and I have sexual needs, right? Now, now that the marriage was over, uh, what was I going to do? Um, would I go back to the dating scene and give into the flesh and live a lifestyle of casual sex and hypocrisy? Or would I keep my sexual sin to myself with porn, uh, quote unquote, the Christian code word for masturbation? Sexual issues played into the end of my marriage, so I was going to— so was I going to walk into my new life as a divorced Christian and continue in the things that led to brokenness? I certainly didn't want to, but I had some real fears and temptations that I would inevitably compromise and fall into sexual sin one way or the other. But the Lord saw my heart to follow him. Only, and it was about that time that he revealed to me the truth about sexual immorality on a heart level with perhaps one of the simpler portions of scripture that addresses it. The Lord put Acts 15 before me about the early church and how the Jewish Christians asked the Holy Spirit what the Gentiles should do as the newest members of the body of Christ. Should they be required to follow the Old Testament law? What were the expectations on these non-Jewish new believers in Christ? After the Holy Spirit moved through Peter and Paul to seed Gentiles into the church, James spoke on the matter, saying in Acts 15:19-20, "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those who from among the Gentiles who are turning to God." but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. So the Gentiles had to avoid idols, things strangled, drinking blood, and that's right, sexual sin. This simple passage of scripture caused me to understand that sexual purity was important to God. It was and is. Our current societal permission— Permissiveness regarding our sexual expression blinds us from this truth, but the Lord made it clear to me, and I have been sexually— successfully walking in sexual purity ever since November of 2018. So there's been no fornication, sex outside of marriage, or masturbation ever since then. Homosexuality— I'm not a homosexual— it is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22. So, yikes. Our sex lives matter to God, and thus, as today's Bible verse states, we should keep ourselves pure, for Jesus is pure. And as always, we invite you to go to mt4christ.com or .org— they go to the same place— where we 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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. And, uh, in Allford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is Acts 14, and he shares from it, um, a portion of scripture, um, from verse 17, which says, he He did not leave himself without witness. And Stephen Allford writes: What a message this is today! Men and women on every hand are talking about the fearful consequences that would result from Germany to conquer Britain. But while the preaching of the gospel would no doubt be hindered, and while persecution and tragedy would abound, God would never leave himself without a witness. He is the unchanging one. His years fail not. What he had done in the past, he will do in the present indeed, and right through the coming eternity. It is a grand thought. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, from Hebrews 13:8. And Alfred ends by praying, Lord, do in and through your humble servant what you did in and through Paul and Barnabas. Be pleased to use me as your witness while life shall last. Amen. And Alford's, uh, referring there to Germany conquering Britain was because he wrote these journals, uh, in 1940 and '41, where it was not a foregone conclusion that Germany would be defeated. And so it was a real possibility that, you know, if If Nazism took over the world, would Christianity survive? And, and Alfred points out rightfully that regardless of persecution, there will be a witness. God will have a witness for his, uh, his truth. And, uh, until eternity comes, so we're to bear a witness. And while we don't have a world war going on like we do Like they did in the 1940s, we have a cultural world war where the world is becoming more and more, uh, Antichrist in terms of, uh, you know, the lack of, at least in the West, the lack of Christian understanding and biblical morals for living. And, uh, we see real compromise in the church And some churches are allowing for homosexual marriage to happen in their churches. And while I believe that God can forgive anyone of any of their sins, Scripture makes it clear that homosexuality and any sexual immorality is not to define Christian life. And if you're walking in fornication, homosexuality, or masturbation, you're living a life of sin that the Lord would call you from. And certain portions of scripture would, would say that would exclude you from the kingdom of the Lord. Um, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 hit that sexual morality pretty hard, that if you, if you practice these things, you're not part of the kingdom. And the verses after that say, "Such were some of you." That means some of the people in the early church had those issues, but after coming to Christ, they repented of them. Unfortunately, due to our permissive societal attitudes towards sex, the church doesn't, you know, the church in the 21st century doesn't necessarily understand that, even though it's very clear in Scripture. Although we just blow past them. Acts 15 speaks on the matter very, you know, very, very shortly. Doesn't really specifically say a lot, but it does say, you know, for the new believers in the church, there were only so many things they had to do. Some of them were pretty archaic, you know, no idols, no blood, no strangled things. Okay, that's easy. Thanks, Lord. But then the fourth thing no sexual immorality. That's what hit hard to me, that I had to change. And even though I thought it would be impossible, the Lord showed me that a life of sexual purity was possible through faith in Him. And, uh, you know, I don't mean to be a prude, but we're supposed to be, you know, committed to one person for our sexual lives in a marriage where we give honor and glory to the Lord. as it was first intended, as, uh, Adam and Eve was the model, and things got out of hand and wrong after that when sin came in. So we try to encourage that to follow the word of the Lord and that these things are actually possible in reality. That's the thing that's not highlighted. Time and time again you hear about, you know, well, is masturbation okay? You know, it's a lesser sin than adultery, so go for it. That's desperately wicked advice, and I've heard churches give it. So let's not listen to that. Let's listen to the Word of God. It says— and while some people would say, hey, you know, you could be a pastor, come on, all that stuff you did was in the past. I take the Word seriously, and as much as I've strived and thought about becoming a pastor or reverend, the Word of God and good teaching on it has convinced me that that's not my role. So I'm not going to be a pastor, and, or at least, you know, like I said, unless someone actually calls me. And shows me that this is what you need to do. I think that my purpose can be met as a Christian life coach. We're going to talk about that in the upcoming posts ahead to define what that is exactly. Anyway, today is Saturday. We're going to try to relax a little. Hopefully the weather cooperates and my wife and I will go out somewhere and enjoy God's creation and each other's company. As man and wife, as we both found a second chance at love and a Christian marriage with each other. So, um, God is good. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all you've done and how you've led us to this point where we think we're on, on, on track for your purpose for us. Lord, we just pray for you to bless our path as we go ahead in the days ahead. Lord, we also pray for you to bless anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them, their prayer request, and their, their walk of faith, because we all need your help, Lord. We need to find our way by listening to you. So please speak to us and lead us in the way we should go. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see and help us to do the things you'd have us do. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.