In this episode of the MT for Christ 247 podcast, host M.t. Clark opens with a description of a pathway photo he captured, using it as a visual metaphor for staying on the Christian discipleship path. He marks Day 4 of the Hungry Generation Church’s 21‑day prayer challenge, sharing his own recent experience of prayer, fasting, and a surge of Holy Spirit that led to spontaneous worship and a small, impromptu teaching session at the Celebrate Freedom support group. Two men from the group testify to physical healing and newfound resistance to temptation, illustrating "a couple of live ones" who have encountered God’s power. Clark then presents Charles Stanley’s In Touch devotional on conquering fear, highlighting reflective questions, Romans 8:28, and biblical examples of God’s faithfulness. He encourages listeners to break down Stanley’s message for personal application. The episode includes two Scripture meditations: Lamentations 3:21‑24 (hope in God’s mercies) and Isaiah 1:18 (forgiveness and being made white as snow). Clark also shares Stephen F. Alford’s devotion on Colossians 3, emphasizing service to Christ as the sole master. Throughout, he invites listeners to local discipleship opportunities—Starpoint Church’s Celebrate Freedom support group (Wednesdays at 6:30 PM) and Freedom in Christ Ministries’ fall courses (men’s group Tuesdays at 6:30 PM, women’s groups elsewhere). He repeatedly asks whether listeners are “empty for Christ,” urging surrender, daily prayer, and a lifestyle of discipleship. The episode concludes with a prayer for Holy Spirit empowerment and a commitment to daily messages.
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Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 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. Good morning. Today's photo of a gravel and dirt road dividing a sea of green farmlands underneath a cloud-filled pleasant blue sky comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene during an afternoon walk down Freedom Road yesterday. Well, it's Thursday, and I share today's pathway photo as a visual encouragement to find hope in God by getting on or staying on the path of Christian discipleship. It is also day 4 of the 21-day prayer challenge that Hungry Generation Church Pastor Vlad Savchuk started to help those who need it to reset their spiritual life. And I can tell you that even though, uh, I was busy with medical appointments for a good portion of the day yesterday and didn't get to pray, study, or meditate as much as I would have liked to, I did pray and fast yesterday, and which resulted in me riding a wave of Holy Spirit momentum, uh, that erupted into, uh, spontaneous songs of praise to the Lord on that afternoon walk, and that spilled out into the Celebrate Freedom support group meeting last night when, due to unforeseen, uh, and unexpected illnesses, I was thrust into the roles of host and teacher for last night's evening lesson on hope. We only had a couple of participants show up last night for the meeting, but I broke down how to Lived by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, um, lead worship and taught the message of hope with Holy Spirit fire as I assured the men who attended that God through the Holy Spirit was working in their lives and had caused them to receive this word of hope. Um, one of the men confirmed those words as he relayed his testimony of an unexplained physical healing to his body an impossible—
his words—
victory over his flesh, as he was, um, as he was able to resist temptation like he never had before recently, and was moved to thank the Lord. And how can this be? Well, earlier this year he turned to God, started attending services at our church, and asked God for help, and he's received it. Uh, the other man, uh, in attendance confessed that he had been brought to a rock bottom place recently where He had no reason, uh, to hope to change. But now, because he had answered the call on his life to come to our group, uh, can say that he has hope that God will help him to overcome his hurts, habits, and hangups. You know, when you're in ministry, you want guys like this to show up, a couple of live ones, uh, who are supernaturally brought to your doorstep and who are ready to receive the Lord's help. They were encouraged by my enthusiasm, and I was encouraged by theirs. This is what it's all about—sharing the hope that we have been given and letting the Holy Spirit work in and through us to make a change. You know, finding hope in Christ gives us the power to move forward into his purposes for our lives and to begin conquering our addictions and fears. As the Lord would have it, today's In Touch devotional with Charles Stanley is about this process, and I just had to share its simple message on the blog today, where, where Charles Stanley writes, uh, about conquering fear. When you feel fear begin to rise, how do you typically respond? The next time you face anxiety, pause to ask yourself the following questions: Has God ever failed me in the past? Does he promise to meet all of my needs? Does he keep his promises? If we read the Bible, we'll find countless stories of God's faithfulness. For example, the Apostle Paul lived through persecution, pain, and all kinds of terrible circumstances, yet he was able to make the bold declaration that God weaves it all together for the good of his followers. Romans 8:28. This testifies to the fact that for those who trust in him, God turns every difficulty, loss, and separation into something beneficial. Whatever we read in scripture, whether it's a story about Abraham, Sarah, Job, Hannah, David, Isaiah, Jonah, John, Paul, or others, We see God's constant love and care for his people. His word is a lamp that, that will give us clear guidance when circumstances are bleak. It offers the best direction we'll ever find when we meditate upon it, pray over it, grapple with it, and incorporate it into our life.
His light chases away the darkness.
God, the sovereign ruler of this universe, is in control of your life. When you read your Bible and meditate on it, you will find genuine strength in his promises.
That's from my good friend, the departed Dr. Charles Stanley, and is in Touch Devotional for today. Um, you know, the—
you know, when I saw that, and I say amen to that message, you know, I shared this, this devotion, uh, this morning via text message with my life coach client and those live ones from Celebrate Freedom who attended last night. And when I did, I was moved to break up the text of the message into smaller passages because Stanley's message is packed with truth that should not just be glossed over. I didn't do that here on the blog because I wanted to be faithful to share it in its original form, but I invite you to go to mtforchrist.com, look at today's blog, copy and paste that portion of the message out into your notes or onto a document in your computer, you know, notes on your phone if you have an iPhone, um, and chop it up into smaller bits, uh, of what the Holy Spirit impresses upon you as particularly meaningful. Um, let God show you what in Stanley's message is meant to be inspirational material to encourage you and what is intended to be instructions for your walk. You know, conquering our fears is a great goal to pursue, but to achieve it in our experience will require us to take action. In addition to this message, I also sent my clients a reminder: And so we practice, and so we succeed. I also shared Lamentations 3:21-24, which says This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. Hope in him, because great is his faithfulness. Amen. And today's Bible verse, um, is brought to us from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on forgiveness of sins, or God's forgiveness. And today's verse is Isaiah 1:18, uh, which says, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet They shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Today's verse falls under the first point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiveness of sins, or, or the forgiveness of sinners, or God's forgiveness. And that first point in is that believers are made as white as snow, not mad as snow. Uh, my bad. Uh, but they're made white as snow. You know, today's Bible verse, the Bible verse, uh, paints a picture of what it's like to receive God's forgiveness. Stained with sin, we are corrupted and unacceptable to live in God's kingdom. Our sin makes us spiritually dead meat and hopeless because we don't have the ability to atone for our sins or to walk righteously on our own. But when we put our faith in God and in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God does what we can't do for ourselves. He erases the stain of our sin from our lives and makes us clean and holy through the work that Jesus did on the cross. Through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven and we are made as white as snow. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. And thank you. Holy Spirit. 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 in Christ with their walk. And today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotion, he prompts us to read a chapter from the New Testament, and today's chapter is Colossians 3.
And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 24, which says, you You serve the Lord Christ.
And Stephen Alford writes how this sentence lifts up the honor and privilege of service. You serve the Lord Christ. What a person to serve— the Lord Christ. Serving the Lord, owning his divine mastership. No one can serve two masters, says the Lord, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
Matthew 6:24.
To own true mastership is to acknowledge one master.
In this case, it is the Lord.
Serving the Christ, owning his divine majesty— he is the anointed one, the sent one, the divine one, the prophet, priest, and king. As a subject of the king, I owe him not only my unreserved service and allegiance but also all that I have. And Alfred ends by praying, O Lord, I do thank you for calling me into such a service.
Oh, to serve you more faithfully. Amen. Amen. And, um, that's, that's what we do. We serve the Lord when we receive the gift of our salvation. We're forgiven of our sins, and we should be motivated to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve God's kingdom and his kingdom only. Uh, we hope he, he gave it all for us on the cross, Jesus, and, uh, in return we should give him— he asked us to give us our lives. Um, so, you know, the question is, have you fully surrendered to God?
Well, if not, um, we invite you to try to do that. Um, you could do it little by little or all at once, um, and God will draw you to follow him and to what that means for you.
Um, you know, A.W. Tozer said the most thing— important thing about us is what we think about when we think about God. Um, but I sort of take it one further and say what's the most important thing about us is, is what we do with what God's word says about us is the most important thing. Um, you know, he tells us that we're children of God, so we should try to live that way. And, um, you know, be disciples. And God's word tells us, you know, Jesus' Great Commission to go out and make disciples. And, uh, that's, that's one way we can serve the kingdom. That's the Great Commission we should answer, um, to get people a future and a hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We just point them, point them to Jesus and let them follow. And we, we go where he leads us. And for me, he's led me to the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church. As I said last night, due to some unforeseen absences or, you know, circumstances and illnesses, there wasn't many people there, but, um, there were a couple. And I, I ministered to them as much as I could. Um, you know, basically I left it all on the floor. Um, you know, it's a Christian discipleship and recovery program. And I focus more on the discipleship, on how to walk in the Spirit. How do we do this thing called Christianity, and how do we let it affect our lives to the point where it can change us and heal us, um, from our hurts, habits, and hangups?
It's happened for me, and I know it can happen for other people. And as long as I get one person to show up, I'll be there to minister. So if, if anyone's listening or watching is in the Capital District of New York State, we invite you to come on next Wednesday night. Um, at 6:30 PM to Starpoint Church in Clifton Park.
Uh, you can go to Starpoint Church's website to, uh, look it up under support groups and, uh, register for the group to let us know you're coming.
Um, and if you can't do that, we'll encourage you online. Um, you know, Freedom in Christ Ministries offers discipleship courses this fall. They are open for registration right now for men and women. Uh, at ficm.org. I am leading a group on Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM for men, uh, so if you're a man you can sign up.
If you're a woman, you have to go to another group, but there's, there's hope, uh, and there's a freedom in Christ to be discovered, uh, through these courses, and we encourage you to check them out at ficm.org. Um, let's see, and that's it.
And the question is always, are you empty for Christ?
Um, if so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, you know, today's a new day, and we invite you to, you know, give it all to God and just ask him to reveal himself and ask him to help you. And most importantly, make sure that you're sure that you've made a decision and decided to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And because when you do that, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you, and he will like—
he will lead you into all truth and change your life.
And so we, uh, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship because, um, it's the way God wanted us to live. And, um, it's— it changed my life. And that's the message that we share every day. Um, that's why it's Empty for Christ 247, because, uh I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna stop.
6 days a week we give a little message. 7th day we go to church and we do a Bible study.
Um, so, um, we try to encourage people to, to discover the freedom that we found, and, uh, we do that through prayer. So let's pray.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom, Lord. We thank you for, um, the Holy Spirit moving in our lives, uh, to, to move us um, to encourage other people and to change our life. And when we're walking in the shadows, we—
you know, you thrust us back into the light, Lord. And we thank you for that. We thank you for this revival that's happening in our, in our life right now. Um, Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching on YouTube, that you'd bless them, come alongside them in their prayer request, and lead them in the way they should go. And Lord, we pray that always for ourselves as well, as we need to know what you would, you would have us do. Um, we, we're asking for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and we desperately need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
