In this devotional monologue, M.t. Clark openly confesses a recent relapse into food addiction, describing how he overindulged in sweets after a day of spiritual work and a secular Harry Potter movie. He reflects on the spiritual and physical consequences of such temptations, arguing that humans were created to live in a garden, not a bakery, and urging believers to reject high‑carb foods as a form of spiritual bondage. Clark cites Psalm 89:1‑8 to emphasize God’s unchanging faithfulness and shares a recent Emmanuel Prayer experience with his friend Julien Jelaine Kamrath, noting a powerful encounter with Jesus’ presence. He then offers a brief biblical study of Matthew 8, highlighting the authority of Jesus’ spoken word and encouraging listeners to trust and obey God’s word for miraculous outcomes. Throughout, he interweaves personal testimony, scriptural meditation, practical counsel on diet and media consumption, and a concluding pastoral prayer asking for forgiveness, guidance, and freedom from addiction. He directs listeners to his website mtforchrist.org for further resources.
Chapters
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 the sun shining bright over the rocky shores of Lake Ontario and a group of SUNY Oswego coeds comes to us from a currently unknown Facebook friend who posted this photo on social media back on or around July 7th, 2023. I suspect that this may have been posted by my alma mater themselves, but if this summertime scene is yours and you want to claim it, give me a heads up and I'll update the blog after the fact to give photo credit where photo credit is due, and will gladly give the disclaimer that while I shared your view of Lake Ontario, you don't necessarily share mine when it comes to life and faith. Well, it, it's a Monday, and as much as I like to report on walking in freedom and victory. I have to admit, I have to admit it when I fall down. When we are tired of being sick and tired of our bad habits, we have to fight them. And even though it can be exhausting to keep having to fight the same battle over and over again, when we examine our losses, we may discover a way to win. It can be tiring, but if we keep going to the Lord for help, he is faithful to help us. Quite frankly, I'm a little tired of my sweet relapses and am recovering from making the foolish decision to abandon my food plan yesterday evening and to indulge in more carbs than I'm used to by eating a box of chocolate caramels, some mixed nuts, and other sweets that were, quote unquote, laying around the house. Yeah, those leftover holiday treats were just asking for it. And then they had to be devoured, or so the enemy, or my flesh, whispered in my ear, and I'm feeling the pain this morning. Food addiction is a tough cookie to crack and requires diligence, renewing the mind, and planning. And in this case, I think it required phoning a friend, but I didn't do that. I spent my food budget early yesterday, and even though I should have been satisfied with the food I ate, and just went to bed, I was inundated with the temptation to eat the candy. And although I resisted it for a time, I found myself giving in and then going hog wild, leaving nothing behind to tempt me today. But ooh, the pain, not just from regret, but from my body struggling to process that junk out of my system. One of the keys to victory over food addiction is recognizing how the food that tempts tempts us isn't quote-unquote good food. It's— it is actually the junk that we say it is, and it puts stress on our bodies if we are used to eating healthy foods. We were supposed to live in a garden, not a bakery, is my summation on what I believe was God's plan for us in terms of what we should eat. Agree to disagree if you'd like, but my experience, I've learned that carb-high foods are the enemy's trap for the obese peace and good health will only come when we change our hearts and minds about how we think about them and make the decision to stop eating them for good. Jesus said that people don't live on bread alone, and for the food addict, I would suggest saying no to the stuff altogether, as our freedom over the bondage to food that enslaves us may require the elimination of the smorgasbord of high-carb food choices that keep the fat attached to our bodies. I have learned this lesson the hard way and made great progress in beating my food addiction and experiencing the best health of my life currently. So while yesterday's binge won't move the dial on the scale too much, it has moved me to once again see how dumb, uh, how dumb it is to give in to temptation. And how much I need the Lord to guide me. The truth is, I had a long day of spiritual pursuit yesterday, and as the day got late, I got the idea to, quote unquote, take a break and decided to watch something secular. And I decided I would watch a Harry Potter movie I'd never seen. And as soon as I made that switch to worldly entertainment featuring witchcraft, no less, It was as if a spell was put on me, and off I went to eat all the junk. Did I invite the enemy in? I think I did. So even though I have only seen the first few Harry Potter movies after reading the first few books years ago, I will not be looking to Harry and his friends to entertain me ever again. Evil is a subtle beast, and I now realize that if I look to the world for comfort, especially the occult, there will be negative consequences and most likely a fleshly response followed by regrets. So I'll try to learn from this. Harry Potter movies, not for me. Cheat days only cheat me and make me feel physically ill. I'm a work in progress, but I am confident that if I stay self-aware and keep walking and talking with God, I'll continue to experience the freedom and victory that the Lord has for me that will be accompanied by the peace and joy that comes from walking in the Spirit and living with no regrets. 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 Comfort, and today's verses are Psalm 89:1-8 from the NIV, the Word of God says, I will sing of the Lord's great love forever. With my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you will have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. You said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through through all generations. The heavens praise your wonders, Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared. He is more awesome than all who surround him. Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. Today's verses fall under the 18th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Comfort, and that 18th point is: God is unchangeably faithful. Today's verses literally sing of the Lord's love for us and how there is no one like our God when it comes to faithfulness. Yesterday I was led through an Emmanuel Prayer section by my friend Julien Jelaine, uh, Kamrath. And even though I have had my doubts and skeptical thoughts regarding this type of prayer ministry, yesterday's session left me with a lot less of them as I had an amazing experience, um, of Jesus's love and presence. In Emmanuel Prayer, participants are invited to recall joyful memories and then invite God to reveal to them his presence in that moment. While I won't go into specifics of what I went through yesterday, I will say that Jesus showed up in a major way, and I felt the love that is unique to encounters with the Divine. I am no stranger to the Lord's presence, and it was good to be back together again to share in the joy of our journey together, to receive guidance and encouragement, and to thank him for his faithfulness. In order to find God, you have to seek him, and Emmanuel prayer is one way to do that. However, I would say that a life of discipleship, walking in the Spirit, sets the foundation for a life of peace and joy and of continually knowing the peace, joy, and love of the Lord. If you seek the Lord and if you— well, if— let's see, if you don't seek the Lord and you don't follow him with the way you live, you may struggle to know peace, to know joy, or to know experientially God's love. If all there seems, you know, if all this seems like for— of all of these seem like foreign concepts to you, or you think I'm just making things up and trying to lure you into some religious trap where you end up at a cult, let me assure you You don't, you don't need to follow me or join a particular church to experience the presence and love of the Lord. You can find him for yourselves and experience those things for yourselves when you decide to put your faith in Jesus and decide to surrender to his ways for your life. You seek him by following him, and when you follow him, you will find him and you will know his love because As the Psalmist says in today's verse, God's love stands firm forever, and His faithfulness surrounds Him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. Which is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And the way it works is Alford, you know, prompts people to read a certain section of Scripture and makes a few comments on it. So today the Scripture would be Matthew 8. And so if you're— if you need a prompting to do Bible study, read Matthew 8. And Alford writes, speaking from Matthew 8:8, where it says he quotes the verse of saying, "Only speak a word," Matthew 8:8. And then he writes, or he shares Hebrews 4:12, which says, "The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword." And then Alford writes, "He brought the worlds into existence by speaking a word. He upholds all things by the word of his power." He spoke and the dead were raised. At his word, men and women were healed. Even though it was faith that revealed it to him, it is a wonder that this man could utter such a statement. Only speak a word. Peter likewise on one occasion had to set aside experience and knowledge and by faith say, "Nevertheless at your word" in Luke 5:5. People marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of the Lord's mouth. He spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes. And Alfred ends his entry by praying, I praise you, O Lord, for your wonderful and powerful word. May I trust you, Lord, and act upon it more fully. And now what Alfred's pointing to in Matthew 8:8 is, um, I believe— and I'm just pulling it up as we look— you know, the Roman officer who said, 'Lord, my servant lies in bed paralyzed and in terrible pain.' And Jesus offers to come and heal him, and he says, 'No, just say a word. Say the word from where you are and my servants will be healed,' um, you know, basically. And so, you know, Jesus said, 'What great faith!' And he said, 'All right.' And, and sure enough, Jesus spoke the word and he was healed. Long-distance healing. So, you know, the words, you know, Jesus is the living word and it's powerful. And, you know, when he spoke it, things happened. And God spoke creation into existence. And Peter saying, nevertheless, at your word, in Luke 5:5, that was, you know, surrendering to what Jesus had to say. And so when we surrender to the word of the Lord You know, and we obey him, things will happen. In Simon's case, he didn't want to lower his nets after fishing all night, but the Lord said to do it. He said, okay, according to your word, I will. And guess what? Big, big catch of fish. So in our life of faith, we want to, we want to listen to the word of the Lord, follow his word, and obey his word, and amazing things will happen. Thus, those are the incense sites that, you know, it's not very clear, so I guess you do have to read Matthew 8:8 and look up the scripture references that Alford gives you. But you can get that message, you know, from him, you know, that basically your gracious words that proceed out of your mouth have authority and power. So let's live in that power today. And I'm short on time, so I'm gonna pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much, uh, for your mercy and grace, because when we fall down, you're there to pick us up. And when we beat ourselves up, you tell us that we shouldn't do that, that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and that we can get, get up and, uh, you know, walk in freedom and victory once again and learn from our mistakes. And Lord, you know, Help me learn. It's the school of hard knocks sometimes that we have to learn the hard way. And as much as I knew, you know, not to give in to temptation, I'm feeling the consequences today and regret and physical pain of my body just going yuck. So, We just pray for you to forgive us and to, uh, guide us in the way we should go. And, uh, Lord, we also pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer request, and to, uh, help them walk away from the things that enslave them. Help them to overcome. Help them to trust in your word and to follow you, to experience your joy, your peace, and your love, because we need you, Lord. And when we, when we, when we're encouraged by you, we can, we can follow you. So we pray for your encouragement and help today. And Lord, we just pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead us in the way we should go, um, every one of us, because we all need your help, uh, and we all want to represent you the best we can. So, so help us today, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
