In this devotional broadcast, speaker M.t. Clark uses a recent social‑media post from Katie Fisher McVey—who fell off an Adirondack fire tower—to illustrate the virtues of honesty, humility, and humor. Clark argues that radical truth‑telling frees believers from deception, builds trust, and aligns them with Christ’s identity, which is rooted in divine adoption rather than worldly standards of success. He shares a personal weight‑loss update, emphasizing honest reporting even when numbers are discouraging, and ties this practice to a broader theological claim that Jesus is the truth and believers must walk in it. The sermon then pivots to Hebrews 12:15, warning against the bitter root of resentment and urging honest confession as a means to prevent sin. Clark promotes resources from A.W. Pink on the Holy Spirit’s gift of prophecy and invites listeners to access discipleship classes (Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ) via his website and podcast. Community announcements follow, including a prayer for Scott Salvador’s mullet‑championship fundraiser and encouragement for new registrants of the Celebrate Freedom growth group. The broadcast concludes with a heartfelt prayer for guidance, healing, and faithful representation of Christ.
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 a majestic view of treetops, mountains in the distance, and a cloud-filled blue sky comes to us from Katie Fisher McVey, who shared this scene from the Buck Mountain fire tower on social media yesterday, reporting that her first trip to an Adirondack fire tower wouldn't have been complete without falling on her posterior. Uh, well, it's Wednesday, and while Katie's photo doesn't share a huge mountain peak prominently to visually represent Hump Day, her view from the mountain and her humility is more than enough to inspire us and to remind us to be humble as we ascend to the midpoint summit of another work week. I love my friend's humility, as I can imagine others may have left out the embarrassing moments when reporting their achievement of an inaugural ascension of an Adirondack fire tower. While others in Katie's shoes may have chosen to share a few flattering selfies to visually show everyone, "I did it," Katie chose to share a less than flattering photo of the evidence of her fall on her backside into some Adirondack mud, apparently. That reveals her honesty. Humility and humor. She really did fall on her, you know what. And you know what, God bless her, because Katie's Facebook post teaches us an important lesson on how honesty, humility, and humor are necessary attributes of the attitude that we need to go through life with peace and joy. That radical honesty or total transparency is something that liberates us. When we just tell it like it is and honestly report the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives, we walk in the joy of the freedom from deception or trying to put on a happy face. Instead of hiding in embarrassment or shame and concocting some false narratives to save face, we should just be real by being honest about what we have done, what we, what we thought and how we feel. When we communicate the truth of our experience to others, we avoid the pitfalls of being misunderstood or having people interpret our words and behavior. Although people could always second-guess your intentions, when you build your relationship on always telling the truth, they will eventually learn that they can trust you. And will be relieved to find someone who isn't a phony. Now, this is a big step for most people, and it wouldn't be my second— and it would be my second instruction for those I encourage: always tell the truth, or simply stop lying. Because the world, you know, teaches us to never let them see you sweat, and the ends justify the means. While the world's phony and deceptive ways may help you to avoid trouble or manipulate people or situations to your favor. Uh, the cost to your soul and peace of mind is not worth the benefits of lying or covering up. Lying and pretending or portraying to be something that you are not is not only a sin and possible foothold for the spiritual forces of darkness to oppress you from, uh, it is also a peace killer, as the lies we tell lead to other lies that must be remembered and maintained to avoid detection. Instead of telling lies, we tell the truth. Sounds simple, but it's not unless you base your sense of worth on who you are in Christ rather than basing it on the world's standards of beauty, power, money, prestige, and performance. In Christ, we are forgiven, accepted, secure, and significant. We have been accepted and forgiven by the highest authority in the universe, the Creator of all things, God, and are not only forgiven but are made citizens of heaven and co-heirs with Christ as we are adopted into God's royal family when we put our faith in Jesus. That makes us totally secure. We are not going to hell. We are not— we are never going to die. We are going to live with God forever. Wow! The most important person in the universe, God, is our Father. Nothing can separate us from his love. That's security. As for significance, by showing us the truth of Jesus Christ and welcoming, welcoming us into his kingdom, we have been chosen and called worthy of a gift of inestimable value. Uh, God's grace. God sent Jesus to die for us so we could live. We individually were deemed worthy of Jesus' work on the cross. That is significant. So why does this matter? It matters because when we know this about who we are in Christ, it does not matter what anyone else thinks of us. It does not matter if we make mistakes or do something embarrassing. We are forgiven and free, and we have no reason to hide what we have done or who we really are anymore. And so we can tell the truth. We can admit to what we think and feel and the mistakes we make. Although I was hoping to stand on the mountaintop of another successful report regarding my fight over food addiction today, the scale decided to throw me a curveball. I last reported 2 weeks ago weighing in at 214.8 lbs. And even though I had some food failures during my travels over the Columbus Day weekend, last week's unreported weigh-in showed the trend of weight loss continue. The scale showed 212-something, but I, I didn't quite trust it as my scale goes up and down and all around from day to day. So I didn't report the supposed success, figuring I would track my progress this week just to be sure the results were accurate. Well, this morning the scale has me at 215.6 pounds, and rather than second-guessing the scale, I just logged it into my MyFitnessPal app to honestly report my progress, even though it was reporting a move in the wrong direction. I try to be honest and transparent in my life, so even though I have my doubts about the accuracy of my scale, I'm just going to tell it like it is, regardless of circumstances each week— regardless of circumstances each week going forward. Being honest in all my ways is just easier. Um, so even though part of me would like to demand a recount, I'm just going to tell it like it is because my value is not determined on a number, by a number on, on the scale, or a continuous track record of progress. My value is determined by the Lord, and I don't have to prove anything. Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life. So because I'm his disciple, I'm going to live my life in the way of truth. And the truth is for this week, even though I did everything right, quote unquote, with my food plan and exercise regimen, I didn't lose weight this week. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes and don't always achieve what I hope to. In fact, I sometimes mess things up royally and have to work harder to make things right or humble myself by having to ask others for help or their forgiveness. Or both. But I haven't— I have learned, like my friend Katie, that I don't have to be destroyed when I, I make a mistake. I can admit it and even laugh about it because I know that the mistakes I make, or even the success that I accomplish, don't define who I am or determine my value. I can be honest, humble, and have humor about my situations in life because the Lord calls me to be honest and because he has chosen me as his beloved adopted son, and no mistake on my part will ever change that. So discover the peace and joy of an honest and humble life. But if you haven't done so already, be honest about your sin and your need of a Savior and place your faith in Jesus Christ so you can live with God forever and walk in Jesus' way of truth with honesty, humility, and humor. 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 bitterness, resentment, and hate. And today's verse is Hebrews 12:15 from the NIV. The word of God says, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Today's verse falls under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on bitterness, resentment, and hate. And that fourth port— fourth point is let no bitter root grow. Um, today's verse warns us of the subtle dangers of bitterness as a root cause of trouble and defilement. Here the writer of Hebrews states that letting a bitter root grow will cause us to fall short of God's grace. God doesn't want us to walk around with bitterness that would grow into anger and hatred and all kinds of sin. Honesty can expose the light on bitter feelings, so living in the truth coupled with a forgiving heart would nip bitterness in the bud. So instead of holding on to resentments, we should speak honestly about how we feel to resolve conflicts and offer forgiveness to reestablish peace with others and with God. Bitterness leads to trouble and sin, and sin that defiles us. So pull out the root of bitterness with truth, forgiveness, and love. 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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we're I was sharing from, uh, chapter 31 on the Spirit endowing, and today it's about the Spirit endowing the gift of prophecy. So if you want to see what A.W. Pink has to say about the gift of prophecy in regards to the Holy Spirit, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also at the end of today's blog post, you'll see an encouragement to join our Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, or Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast. It's also available on our YouTube channel of the same name. Um, we share those online because those teachings were transformative in our life, and thus we got trained, basically educated and equipped to deliver those messages at our Freedom, uh, Community Freedom Ministry that we had back in 2021 and um, they're still viewed today. So we encourage people to check those out. And if you wanted to, you could take a deeper dive and email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com to receive the class materials. And, uh, I would email them to you. Uh, they're just Word docs, but you'd have them and be able to go through the study guides or whatever handouts I gave out in class to accompany your teaching. And apparently people are still downloading and listening to those messages, so we, we are very happy be happy about that. So we encourage you with that because those lessons are all about who you are in Christ and about how the— about the spiritual forces of darkness and how to resolve your spiritual personal conflicts through the steps to freedom in Christ. Well, today is Wednesday and we're going into the Celebrate Freedom growth group tonight. We're also praying for Scott Salvador to win the mullet championship. Uh, he is in the top 3, so that we could have some good news today. Um, the news is probably already determined, but we've done our best to support Scott in his, uh, quest to be the only returning champion, uh, of, uh, the mullet champion. So, so we're praying for Scott to win., and, uh, for God to use it to give, you know, for us to be able to give God glory through that. As Scott gets an audience to speak to the media, and, um, and, and he's actually donating money if he, if he should win. He's donating money to, uh, a good cause. And the whole Mullet Champion thing is, uh, basically has charitable contributions to, uh, soldiers' housing, wounded warrior homes. So it's a good, it's a good cause all around and lots of fun to expose long-haired people. I don't know. Anyway, we're praying for that today, and we're praying for people to come to Celebrate Freedom as we've gotten many new registrations over the last couple weeks, but only one new person has shown up. So we're praying for the 5 or 6 people that have registered in the last few weeks that haven't come to our meeting. You know, coming into a Christian community to get support with your hurts, habits, and hang-ups is a daunting task, and the enemy doesn't want you to do it. But we're praying for those people who registered, who felt the need to register, but who haven't had the, uh, the ability to walk through our doors yet. You can't receive the encouragement unless you show up, although I do send everyone who registers all the materials. I guess you could study on your own, but there is value in the community that we, that we put forth. You need— we need— we're never meant to walk the Christian path alone, and we need each other. So that's what we're going to pray for everyone. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We just thank you for all that you've done in our lives. We just pray for anyone who's listening today that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. That you would encourage them in the way they should go and reveal the things they need to see. And while we're at it, Lord, we pray for that for ourselves as well. We just pray that you would lead our path today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go in terms of, you know, being able to expertly work the troubles that we run into today. We really appreciate your sovereign hands over us and the way it guides us and blesses us at times. Thank you so much for yesterday, how things went smoothly and I was able to pay back the sleep debt that I've incurred. And I actually feel pretty good today because of it, Lord. So we thank you for that. And Lord, as always, we just pray for you to, you know, lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. Um, here on earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
