Hold On For One More Day… and Forever Purity 918

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 late afternoon clouds set ablaze by the setting sun over the fields along Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I took several shots of the marvel of creation before me as I was out walking my canine friend Harley and in the aftermath of, of the Friday snowstorm on Saturday afternoon. By sunset time on Saturday, the plows had cleared the roads, but there was still a hush over the land as it seemed like the heavens were recovering from the downpour of snow, and the Lord was blessing us with a magnificent light show to encourage us that we made it and we could rejoice that life and he was still good. Well, it's Monday again, and even though you may wonder if there will ever be an end of the regular routine of working, we can be assured of two things on this second-to-last Monday morning of December 2022. One, things will change. Two, God is good. Uh, as much as we may feel hassled with our regular routines of work or taking care of our responsibilities at home, With the passage of time, we could very well long for the days we are struggling to get through today. I recall the burdens of caring for my children on a continuous basis, with them in my presence when I wasn't working, from the time they woke up to the time they went to sleep. And now I live with two adults who I barely see. Just this past Sunday, I was reflecting with the Sankatis on how I no longer go to the school assemblies and Christmas concerts that were attended out of obligation, but were also a comfort that marked the season and the aging of all the kids from year to year as they progressed— progressively moved ever closer to graduation. And no more homework, no more books, and presumably no more teachers' dirty looks, as we may not have quite realized that school would someday be out forever. Likewise, as we go forward in time and space, our professional lives are gaining years and will someday come to an end. Although I find it hard to imagine, apparently the routine and purpose that we serve in making our ends meet at our day jobs can be so much a part of our lives that we will one day miss working. This really is a thing, and the corroborating statistical evidence that supports it is that many people die very shortly after retirement. This weekend, as I was musing over the coming Christmas holiday weekend and the passage of another year, I started to get anxious in considering the questions of, of the future. As I, as I was contemplating what would happen with my family and my professional career in the days, months, years ahead, I got suddenly anxious for a moment when I realized that I had positively no idea what our kids would do, or even where my wife and would be in 5 years, and I could only imagine a lot of changes between here and that relatively short distance down the road. With so many possibilities before us, I was hard-pressed to think of something that wouldn't change, or of something, something I could control. I came to the conclusion that I couldn't hold on to anything necessarily. My wife and I made a lifelong commitment to one another in our marriage, so I found comfort in that, God willing, we could be one another's constant. That even though we are not currently residing under the same roof 24/7, we have agreed that we would be together come what may. I have found that— I found the love of my life. I have found the love of my life in Tammy Lynn, and holding her in my arms and in my imagination as my life-traveling companion gave gave me a lot of peace. As much as it is up to us, we have agreed to count on each other. I've gotten more than I could have dreamed with Tammy Lynn as my, as my wife. But you never know how long we will be together, and no, and, and the more we love something or someone, the more we can be anxious over the possibility of losing them. But the good news is that I was walking and talking with God long before I ever met Tammy Lynn. And I credit him with bringing me this far in life and for bringing her into my life. The second thing we could be sure of, other than that things will change, is that God is good. Now, if you notice, especially considering we are in the Christmas season, the Emmanuel season, um, maybe I should have said God is with us rather than just God is good. But the thing is that while I know that God is omnipresent, somehow paradoxically everywhere at once, I know that His presence, His abiding presence, His manifest presence in our lives has a lot to do with us and how we interact with Him. God is good for sure. God is omnipresent for sure. But I haven't always enjoyed His presence or wanted to invite Him into my life. Out of ignorance, confusion, or rebellion, I thought He didn't exist or didn't care about me, and I didn't want Him to. Um, but he does exist and he does care about every one of us. That is in itself sort of amazing. I mean, there is just so many of us, but we do know he cares, and we should know he— and, and we should know he cares about us, especially this time of year, because he sent Jesus into the earth to live a sinless life, to pay for our sin debt, and to welcome us into his kingdom. Regardless of our relationship status, God is our constant, and when we make peace with him through putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can have a constant assurance of his goodness and presence in our lives. In the ever-changing world, we need something we can hold on to. While we may have lots of family, friends, or loved ones, the winds of change are going to blow, and from year to year we just We don't know who will remain in our company. But when you are connected to God, the Constant One, you never have to fear being alone or where the days, weeks, months, and years will take you. In Christ, God is with us. On the path of Christian discipleship, we can walk and talk with him every day. That's what our life of faith is supposed to be all about— the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, because we decide to follow him and never leave his presence. So I know how the uncertainty of life, um, uh, Christmas, uh, this week and the changing years ahead of us, um, can utterly freak us out, make us feel groundless. But we have a constant. We have eternal— we have an eternal companion in God, and we can cast all fear out because of his love, because of his presence, and the— in, in the presence of his perfect love for us, and face the day with confidence that in this groundless world we have a rock to stand and build our present and future upon. So take a breath and remember, although things may change, God is good. And if you're— and if you choose to, he can be with you all the days of your life. So keep on walking and talking with him. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are Psalm 42:4-6. And I do have to give you a heads up that they, they edited this. This is right from— there's portions of those, those scriptures in today's, uh the verses. Um, the Psalm 42:4-6, the portions they share are: My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be. Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my Savior and my God. Today's verses remind us that when our heart is breaking as we contemplate the good old days, to put our hope in God and Praise our Savior and our Lord! As I indicated in the first part of the message, even I, who like to think that I have learned how to navigate through life in relative peace and joy, can run into anxiousness and teeter on the edge of heartbreak as I consider the days behind me and the uncertainty of the days ahead. Let's face it, while it is awesome to accumulate life experience, the drawback is that we leave our youth behind. And become schooled in the impermanent way of the world. To echo the sentiments of old Father O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, we might see that nothing in this world lasts. As a plantation owner, O'Hara stressed the importance of the land because he saw the earth beneath his feet as "the only thing in the world that amounts to anything." For 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts. 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for. To see the civilization of the South forever changed by the Civil War broke his heart, and possibly his mind, as he undoubtedly wanted to live in the prosperity of former days. Remembering the good old days can really break our hearts when we ground our identity in time, seasons, relationships, or things that fade away. And thus today's verse encourages the brokenhearted to remember our God and Savior whose kingdom will never fade away. The remedy for those brokenhearted over remembering the way things were is to focus on and to praise God, the one who is good and eternal. So if Monday's, uh, So if this Monday, do what— so it's Monday, so do what you have to do, but if you feel low, focus on the One on high and praise him, for he lasts forever with us. And as always, uh, we invite you to go to mtforchrist.org. As I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with of their walk. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, as we conclude, uh, the chapter on the visible church community, chapter 11 from Bonhoeffer's works, volume 4, Discipleship. If you want to see what Bonhoeffer has to say about the visible church community, go to m.tforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. You got more than a few paragraphs to read today to finish off that chapter. But as we draw near the end of the year, I wanted to, you know, draw near to sharing Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. And I believe there's only going to be a couple chapters left, so I anticipate, you know, I don't know for sure, but I anticipate that we'll be finishing sharing Bonhoeffer's Discipleship as we draw ever closer to 2023. So possibly, possibly by then we'll be sharing another resource. We'll have to figure out what that's going to be. As a reminder, if you don't want to have to read Bonhoeffer's book bit by bit, we have 19 lessons of the whole thing shared, um, shared on the YouTube and the podcast, our YouTube channel and the podcast, Bonhoeffer's Discipleships Lessons 1 through 19. Have all been uploaded for your enjoyment, encouragement, edification, entertainment. I don't know, but if you want to check those out, we encourage you to do that. We also encourage you to check out our discipleship teachings that are based on Dr. Neil Anderson's work. We have 3 classes that we uploaded from our previous studies for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Also, if you wanted a Bible study and a Christmas theme, um, me, Arthur and Susanna Sankati, and my wife, um, came together this Sunday to do the last Bible study of 2022, and it's based on the— based around the Christmas tree. Uh, it's based— it's called It's a Tree of Life. So if you'd like to see what we had to say about Christmas trees and our faith and what the Bible had to say about trees, uh, go to, uh, M.t. for Christ 247 Podcast and check out Bible study with the Stinkatis from this past Sunday. Um, well, it is Monday and it's, you know, a short week for me. I got 4 days and then we're on a Christmas vacation that'll last all the way to 2023, and I for one look forward to it. It's my prayer that, uh, we all have ourselves a merry little Christmas this weekend, but we got to get there first. So let's, let's, uh, let's go to the Lord in prayer to get that strength and guidance to lead us. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us. We remember the good old days, but Lord, we remember that you're good right now, right here, and you'll be with us every day in the future. So So, uh, we just thank you for your presence. We thank you for your love. Thank you for your wisdom. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for everyone listening or reading the message today that they be blessed. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside their prayer request. Lord, we continue praying for our father, uh, Matthew, for his healing from his recent surgery. And we pray for our good friend Bob Griffin, who's undergoing cancer treatments. Um, and Lord, we just pray for other situations. We pray for my mother-in-law's knee, um, as she bumped and bruised it badly over the last week, and we pray for healing right now in Jesus' name. Um, Lord, so we pray for you to come alongside the prayer request of our— anyone listening today as well. And we pray for you to guide us today, Lord. As always, we pray for you to go before us, set things up, help us to walk into our purpose today to best represent you here on the earth. And Lord, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. And, uh, lead us in the way we should go. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.