Holy Spirit Companion – You are Not Alone - Purity 1506

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 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, or watch us on YouTube. Uh, good morning. Today's photo of the sun shining through the forest of trees somewhere along Trail Number 2 of the Graphite Range Community Forest in Wilton, New York comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while hiking with my wife Tammy Lynn on Saturday. Well, it's Monday, and as we walk into another work week, I am looking forward to the journey I will be on— I will be embarking on later this evening, as I will be leading a group of men through FICM's original Grace course and hopefully into the Lord's will for their lives, as I begin a new chapter in my, uh, Christian life coaching practice, as I will be leading my first independent group coaching with Grace for the Holidays, where the focus will be, uh, on living in and experiencing God's grace every day throughout the holiday season. It's November, and we are moving ever closer to the end of 2024. So beyond the course material, I'll be inviting the group of participants to look back over the last year to examine, uh, what has happened, what they had hoped would have happened, and how those two things compare. I will I will also invite the men to look ahead to 2025 and to decide what they hope to accomplish in the new year. However, as we are neither in the past or in the future, um, uh, yeah, and, uh, and the holiday season is upon us, as I stammer, um, I will also encourage the men to use the 6 weeks we have together to appreciate where they are right now. And to focus on their relationship with God to truly appreciate the wonders of his love at the time we celebrate Jesus's birth and the free gift of our salvation that is only possible because of him. The holiday season can be merry and bright, but it can also be a time of great sadness and loneliness. So the overall purpose of Grace for the Holidays is to encourage one another to focus on God and his grace over the next 6 weeks, to spend time in his presence and to take him with us wherever we go, and to allow him to guide us into a time of reflection and celebration, and to cause us to grow in his grace and love as he leads us. So when we have God in our lives, we're never alone. The In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion for today actually addresses this fact, and so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to draw close to the one who will never leave— who never leaves us or forsakes us. Dr. Charles Stanley writes, our incomparable companion. Because the Holy Spirit lives inside us, we are never truly alone. Loneliness will creep into most lives at some point. However, as believers, we are never truly alone because God has given us an unfailing companion, the Holy Spirit. None of us can truthfully promise always to be available. The realities of time, distance, and even death can separate people. Thankfully, by sending the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, Jesus keeps his promise to never leave or forsake us. Human beings were never meant to live alone. God designed us to be complete only when we were indwelt by his Spirit, which occurs upon our salvation. We can, however, choose to ignore the Holy Spirit. For example, some people stubbornly attempt to live the Christian life in their own strength or skip Bible reading when they find meditating on the word inconvenient. That kind of life is marked by discontent. Peace will be fleeting, and loneliness will feel like the heart's permanent residence. The Holy Spirit is our parakletos, or companion who walks beside. If we hold him at arm's length, we distance ourselves from the Father as well. But if we ask the Spirit to guide our steps and open our mind to God's plans, we will support— he will support and encourage us in ways we never imagined. And that was all from Dr. Charles Stanley. Um, I was a big fan of Green Day's song Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which begins, I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. Don't know where it goes,, but it's home to me and I walk alone. I walk this empty street on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone. I walk alone. I walk alone. You get the idea. I walk alone. Before coming to faith in Christ, I felt alone most of my life, regardless of having friends and later being, getting married and having kids. I felt alone. I felt alone because I was separated from God and doing life on my own, my way, by myself, lonely and ignorant of true wisdom and love, ignorant of the Lord and his presence. But God came in and changed all that. After putting my faith in Jesus, the Lord was with me and he led me out of my man cave basement and led me to experience life his way. He led me to churches in the mission field where I made friends and found my purpose for living, to share the good news of God's presence, wisdom, power, and love that is available to all who follow Jesus. God gave me wisdom, joy, guidance, and comfort at times when I needed it the most. He led me out of the darkness of my sin and loneliness and gave me hope in a future. While the path of Christian discipleship may be lonely at times, I am never alone anymore because God is with me in the person of the Holy Spirit. I walk and talk with God every day. So let me encourage you to spend time with the Lord by seeking him with a daily time of Bible study and prayer, and to keep the conversation with him going throughout your day. You are not alone anymore. God is with you, so don't ignore him. Ask him to show you the way and follow him. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on giving, and today's verse is Matthew 5:7, which says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Today's verse is the fourth 5 passages of scripture that fall under the 8th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on giving. And that 8th point is God requires us to be merciful and give to the poor. Today's Bible verse is the words of Jesus, the one who dispenses God's mercy, grace, and love to all who put their faith in him. When we are merciful, we are more like Jesus. And while we can never say we ever deserved mercy, His words here from the Sermon on the Mount indicate that when we show mercy to others, we shall obtain mercy. It's somewhat mysterious how exactly we obtain mercy. Does this mean that our mercy to others simply confirms we will indeed be saved and receive the mercy of God's forgiveness and the gift of eternal life in his kingdom? Is this just reaffirming the joy of our salvation and that our mercy to others merely reflects the mercy we have already received? Or does this mean that we can expect to continue to receive mercy as we go through life? I think it's both. God's mercies are new every morning, after all. So those who are with him will be merciful to others, and they can expect new mercies every day that they, that they will receive when they keep on walking and talking with him. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mt4christ.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their, uh, on their walk. Uh, today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams, and it's a 365-day devotional, and you know, we're on day 5. And, uh, with this, uh, he Adam shares a portion of John 14:6, which says, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' And Adam writes, 'We return to this verse for an additional look at the way of Jesus Christ. It is the way of truth and life. In our day, people conjure up their own ideas of truth, failing to consider that there can be only one truth—God's. All else is error.' In a world of sin, there are numberless ways of going wrong, but only one way of going right. Jesus calls himself both the way and the truth. He is truth's sole source. He is the truth, but he is also the life, as he is, he is its true source. In him was life, and the life was the light of the, the light of human beings. John 1:4. Contrary to the view of many historians, the Enlightenment came to Palestine, not to Europe. Everyone enlightened through faith is enlightened by Jesus, who went through the world for that purpose. Neither science nor education nor culture enlighten. Indeed, they cause darkness when divorced from the genuine light. Those on the way know that all other claims to light and truth are bogus. That was, uh, J.E. Adams. Uh, thank you. Um, amen. You know, he is— Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life, and any other way is darkness. So we encourage people, um, and we always ask the question: have you fully surrendered to God? Have you received the light of the world, Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Savior? And are you entering into his life by following him on the path of Christian discipleship? We encourage you to do so because we think that it's the most important thing about us is to, to do something with what God's word says about us. So we encourage you to do that. When you, when you follow the Lord, he'll lead you into repentance and he'll lead you to do good works. And one of the good works that the Lord has impressed and given me the opportunity to do is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM. It's a Christian recovery and discipleship group. We teach you how to walk in the Spirit and overcome your hurts, habits, and hangups, uh, to live a Christian life. And, uh, we invite anybody in Upstate New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday to join us. Um, beyond that, as I stated today, we begin a new venture, uh, called Grace for the Holidays. It's an online teaching and support group for men, and I'm leaving the registration open, uh, button for the whole 6 weeks, because if you want to jump in midstream, that's okay. Um, so, uh, I'll be sharing this throughout the holidays. Probably will stop sharing it the last week, um, that we do it. But I am recording the sessions, so, uh, if you want to be part of the group, you can always catch up. Um, so you can go to mt4craze.com, our group coaching events page, uh, to sign up. Uh, for grace for the holidays today or another day. Beyond that, we're, uh, you know, if you miss that boat, we're, we're doing a new Freedom in Christ course in the new year in 2025. So maybe that's your plan. Um, we can begin, uh, those classes begin on January 7th. However, you must register by December 9th, so the clock's ticking on that one. Uh, you still have time, um, but people are registering already, so Register today at ficm.org. Look for their courses in the Freedom in Christ course at 6:30 PM for men. Um, beyond that, we, uh, invite everyone— men, women, or children— to find or increase their freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. We have playlists out there for Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. You can find those by going to emptyforchrist.com and looking for our YouTube playlist page. And, or you can go to our, our channel on YouTube, Empty for Christ 247, and, um, you know, go to the playlist and, and find them there. You'll find those courses and you'll find lots of other Christian materials that we shared that we think will be helpful. Um, beyond that, we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? And what that means is, are you surrendered to follow the Lord the way— with the way you live your life? If you are, we say keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to do so. So that's where life and life more abundantly is, is in following the Lord. So if you're not, we ask you to pray to have the Lord reveal himself to you and to pray to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. That's when things really happen. Well, we believe in the power of prayer. We've seen it time and time again. 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 so much for all that you've done for us. Lord, we thank you for the life you've given us, um, the way you set us free, and, um, the way you stay with us and never leave us or forsake us. Lord, Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today, that you come alongside them, their prayer request, uh, to move them in the way they should go. And while you're at it, Lord, we're also asking for your guidance for us. Um, go before us today, 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, and we really need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.