“Grace for the Holidays” Launch & The Miracle of Grace - Purity 1484

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm 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. Good morning. Today's photo of pines and leafless trees in the foreground of a rocky hill under blue skies comes to us from yours truly, As I captured this scene while awaiting my brother Matthew's long-anticipated wedding celebration at what used to be the Chalet in Cold Spring, New York on State Route 9D right near the Hudson Highland Hills State Park and the Breakneck Ridge Trail way back on November 13th, uh, 2016. Well, it's— and actually, you know, Matt and Carrie— Matt and Kat, his wife Kat, married in, uh, March of 2016 at a small gathering of family, but celebrated their nuptials at, at a scenic locale, uh, with a multitude of friends in November, proving that it's never too late to celebrate a good thing. Well, it's Wednesday, and I dove back into the photo archive of my iPhone to find a photo to visually represent our arrival at another hump day and was pleasantly reminded of my brother's wedding reception and the stunning area where it took place. Hudson Highlands State Park remains to be, uh, unexplained territory for me, but maybe, um, you know, maybe I will plan a trip there now to mark the passage of time and to appreciate another piece of God's creation. It's never too late to celebrate good things or to circle back to take a second look at the places we visited briefly. Speaking of good things, I continually experience the joy of my salvation and the grace of God as I seek to walk in the Spirit daily, uh, and make progress in the area of sanctification. I may be challenged or disappointed in my lack of progress at times, but whenever I worry about living a life that gives God glory, I just have to remember, um, where I was before, uh, I came to faith in Jesus and realized that God performed a miracle in my life on the day he saved me. And that miracle work that begun in— that began in 2010, uh, continues to move in and through me. Uh, by the grace of God, I now live with peace, joy, and freedom. God's grace has transformed my life, and I never tire of encouraging others to let God do for them what he did for me. Uh, I spoke yesterday of toying with the idea of doing a holiday-themed teaching on grace using the principles that I've learned from, uh, Freedom in Christ, uh, the Grace course, which was originally authored by Steve Goth, Rich Miller, and Jude Graham, uh, as a framework, uh, and how the Holy Spirit seemed to be compelling me to do it as a group coaching event. Um, yesterday afternoon I stepped out in faith and launched the group coaching events page on mt4christ.com to invite people to register for Grace for the Holidays, which will be a 6-week teaching/discussion group where the Participants will learn about the grace of God and be encouraged to lean on God's grace to utilize faithful strategies to implement good spiritual and mental health practices throughout the upcoming holiday season. The course is being launched as a part of my Christian life coaching services and is intended to provide teaching and support during the holiday season, right up to Christmas, um, to help us all to experience the holidays with peace and joy and a deep appreciation for the Lord. I pray that Grace for the Holidays will be just another good thing to celebrate that has come from the miracle of grace that has happened and continues to happen in my life. Speaking of the miracle of grace, yesterday's In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley's devotional spoke about the miracle of grace, and I'm sharing it on the blog today. Because it's never too late, um, to celebrate a good thing. And Stanley's message can help us to celebrate God's grace, you know. So, uh, Dr. Charles Stanley writes, the miracle of grace. At salvation, we became a member of God's family and receive eternal life, freedom, and love. Paul wrote and spoke extensively about grace, God's favor given to the undeserving. The apostle knew firsthand that free— the freedom that Christ gives. He describes himself as the worst of sinners because he persecuted many believers prior to his conversion. Once we accept Christ's death on our behalf, we're reconciled to God, and sin's power over us is broken. The Holy Spirit indwells us, and we become spiritually alive. We're given a new family and a purpose for living. Scripture likens our conversion experience to receiving a heart transplant, changing citizenship, and moving from the— from darkness to the kingdom of light. Our Father's desire and will is that we relate to him on the basis of grace alone. Just as we need to rely on Christ's gift for salvation, we are to live a life of dependence upon him. It's our faith expressed through obedience that pleases God. Grace is the most powerful life-changing force in the world. God the Father freely offers his unconditional love to whoever receives his Son. At salvation, our life is placed upon the immovable rock, Jesus Christ, whose favor is extended to us. That was from the good doctor, Dr. Charles Stanley. As much as I encourage others to get on the path of Christian discipleship, the best I can hope for is that the Lord will use my words as a conduit, uh, to his grace, that something I say will be used by the Lord to trigger others to seek the Lord. That's my hope, and that's my message. Seek the Lord, because I know if you seek him, you will find him and discover the miracle of grace. The miracle of God's love, favor, acceptance, and forgiveness being freely given to an otherwise undeserving sinner. We don't earn it. We don't have to clean ourselves up to get it. God's grace comes via the Holy Spirit and his living word, Jesus. And it seems to be received when we find— when we are finally ready to stop running from God and admit that we can't save ourselves. The miracle of grace comes to us, and we should rejoice, uh, continually and allow it to empower us to become more like Jesus and to be conduits through which grace can go forth to others and God's kingdom can expand. So enjoy the grace of God. Never lose sight of the fact that whether we are walking in righteousness or stumbling in sin, God has saved us by his grace, and it will be through his grace that we can live in peace freedom, victory, and joy. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on friendships, and today's verse is from, uh, Proverbs 14:7. From the NIV, the word of God says, stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips. Today's verse falls under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on friendships, and the fourth point is stay away from a foolish man. Today's Bible verse gives the simple advice to stay away from a fool because he will not— we will not find knowledge from their words. You know, one of George Carlin's comedy albums was called Occupation Fool, and Carlin was circumspect in examining how the job of comedians evolved from courtroom jesters, entertainers, and just plain old mentally deficient imbeciles. Carlin was one of my favorite comedians as a kid and as an adult before coming to Christ. But even though he seemed rather insightful about certain aspects of life, in a final summation of his collected wisdom, I have to deem that not a lot of truly meaningful knowledge flowed from his lips. Although born into a Catholic family, Carlin was outspoken in his rejection of religion in all forms. Frequently criticizing and mocking it in his comedy routines. When asked if he believed in God, he responded no, according to Wikipedia. Um, so, but the word of God says, Psalm 14:1 tells us, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is no none who does good. You know, comedians deal in the absurd or seek to help you see life from a different perspective that is humorous. But what When they reject the Lord, they prove they are fools. And although a laugh may do us some good, worldly or irreligious comedians are probably just best to be ignored as foolish. I sold all my comedy cassette tapes to a neighbor as a bargain when I was 14, and little did I know at the time— little did I know it at the time, but that was pretty wise, as the foolish and childish things of this world are best to be put away as we seek the joy and peace that comes from knowing the Lord and his wisdom. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we already share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Uh, 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 devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is Revelation 5, And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 5, which says, the lion has prevailed. And Stephen Alford writes, John says, I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it, verse 4. And well might he weep, for the solution to the universal problem lay in the unsealing of this book. But John records, the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. He prevailed when he fought and won that greatest of all battles at the cross of Calvary. On the basis of that same victory, all books, all seals can now be opened. Books and seals of problems in my life, in my life present no problem now to him, for he has prevailed. Oh Lord, teach me how to appropriate the fruits of your death in everyday life. Amen. And, uh, amen. You know, uh, on the basis of the victory at Calvary, all the books, all the seals can now be opened. You know, all the— the big mystery has been revealed. How do we have peace with God? Through faith in Jesus Christ. You know, and all the problems of my life are solved in him, for he has prevailed. The Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. So that's why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? Have you found Jesus to be who he said he is? You know, do you— have you sought the Lord and did you find him? And if you found him, did you surrender to follow him? You know, it's not just one or the other. It's got to be all of the above, really. So we encourage that. Obviously, we've benefited greatly. You know, God saved us from death and hell. Okay. You know, it benefited greatly. Yeah. That gave me such joy when I first came to the Lord in 2010. And, you know, I continued to follow even though I was sort of a mess, to fall in love with the Lord. And he led me to, you know, basically follow him into, into sobriety and freedom from my addictions and, and to to go and speak his word to whoever I could, to encourage them to find a life that is, you know, filled with the fruit of the Spirit. And so that's what we encourage here. And when, when you, when you enter into a relationship with the Lord like that, amazing things happen. One of the things that happened to me is I was given the, given the honor of leading the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets on 6:30— that's tonight at 6:30 PM, uh, Wednesdays. Uh, if you're in Upstate New York, we invite you to come out to join us for Christian Recovery and Discipleship, where you get to learn how to, you know, increase your joy and peace through walking in the Spirit and leave those hurts, habits, and hang-ups of the past behind, as God will give you the strength to overcome. As I announced, basically, there's also an upcoming group coaching online teaching and support group that I'll be doing beginning in November., for called Grace for the Holidays. And basically it'll be meeting on Monday evening, 6:30 PM online Eastern time. If you want to sign up for that, you know, basically go to mtforchrist.com and find the, uh, the group teaching, or, you know, uh, page that I mentioned in the blog and left a link for in the blog, um, the group coaching events. Um, and basically this is my first group coaching event, um, you know, officially through the, uh, through my life coaching practice. And, uh, we, we hope that people will sign up. In fact, we're definitely doing this because I already have somebody registered for the group. So there you go. Um, so we're doing this. So, and we're, we're hopeful that people jump on board and, uh, you know, so we can come together, talk about grace and support one another from the day, you know, the weeks, the week before Thanksgiving to the very couple days before Christmas to encourage ourselves to keep Christ in Christmas and to celebrate God's grace, you know. And we'll, we'll be hitting the high points from, you know, uh, Freedom in Christ's, uh, the Grace Course. But this will be somewhat original teaching, even though I will, you know, utilize and, you know, share the information from the original Grace Course with the participants in the group. So you'll have that, but what we meet for, you know, might be a little bit different from that, uh, old grace course that was done long ago, um, and it's been updated too. So anyway, that's, that's Freedom in Christ Ministries. Check their new grace course out, um, they'll be doing classes in 2025. Um, anyway, uh, and if those things don't work out for you and you don't have time to meet on a Monday night or a Wednesday in Upstate New York, we, we encourage you to find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. Uh, it's really, frankly, the, uh, the most popular, uh, videos that we share on YouTube, uh, For the Freedom of Christ course and Bondage Breaker. Uh, but just want to give people a heads up, there's Victory Over the Darkness out there as well, as, as well as our Celebrate Freedom discipleship course that we did in 2023. So, um, we try to share the good news, and, uh, the good news about salvation, the good news about our freedom in Christ, uh, through these teachings. And, uh, they impacted us, and that's why we taught them in the first place. So, um, we encourage you to check those out. And we always end by asking the question, are you empty for Christ too? To be empty for Christ just means to be surrendered to the will of the Lord and be available for the Holy Spirit to come into you and move through you and deliver that grace of God that performs miracles in our lives and in others. If it's just increasing our joy, that's a miracle, you know, and That happens when we come into faith with Jesus. So, uh, if you are empty for Christ too, uh, that's great. Keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we always encourage you to pray, seek the Lord in prayer, and ask him to reveal himself to you. Ask and make Jesus your Lord and Savior, and things will, will start to happen. Um, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for causing us to step out in faith with this latest, uh, offering that we'll be doing in November. We pray for your grace to be with us as we prepare messages, uh, that will correspond for that course. Um, Lord, we just pray as always for today. We need you to go before us, Lord, uh, set things up, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom, and we desperately need your help with that. Lord, we pray also for anybody who's watching or listening or reading today's message, um, that, that you would come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith too. Lord, um, we pray for you to bless them, Lord, and lead them as they should go. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.