Imagine That – Faith Like A Child - Purity 1273

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 twin waterfalls spilling over rocks and emerging from a dense green rainforest comes to us from Dave Bond Photography, who shared this scene along with the following thoughts on social media back on February 6th, 2024. Dave wrote: That moment when you hear the water while hiking to a waterfall and you begin to imagine the scene. I have a good imagination, but I never quite match the reality that appears before me when reaching the waterfall. This is Horseshoe Falls at Mount Field National Park, one of many beautiful waterfalls all across the amazing island state. Yeah, our imaginations sometimes can conceive of the wonders that the world— can't conceive of the wonders that the Lord has in store for us in our lives. Sometimes our imaginations run wild and build things up to epic proportions, and we get disappointed. And other times we can— we go into an experience imagining the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised. Before coming to faith in Christ, I was super reactive to those disappointments of failed expectation, but now, since walking in the Spirit for a while, and when I am keeping in step with the Spirit, I can find joy and peace regardless of what I encounter, because I try to live in the context of God. You could say, "I imagine God is with me," but when you know the truth of who He is, how He is a good, good Father who loves you and cares for you, and how He will never leave you, You know that his presence is not just the wild imaginations of an unbalanced mind, but is reality itself, and it is only when we fail to see him in our lives are we deceived. Well, it's Tuesday, and I took a report from the higher-ups in my corporation seriously yesterday and took a preemptive day off from work today, but the predicted Snowmageddon of 7 to 13 inches of snow hasn't shown up yet. No matter, I don't like traveling in or working in the snow, and if it comes later or doesn't come at all, I am not disappointed and will use the day off today to pack my suitcase and pray for clear skies on Friday morning, as I will prayerfully take a flight to Orlando and a Disney World vacation. I'm not like a super Disney guy, although I have been to Disney World 3 times in my 51 years on, uh, on Earth, and I didn't really have plans on returning to the Magic Kingdom. But when the Lord blessed me with an unexpected windfall and I realized that I could bless my wife and 2 youngest stepchildren, whose previous vacations amounted to extended day trips to local county fairs and camping excursions that rarely, if ever, left the Empire State with a Disney vacation, I decided to book it, Danno. The Lord has given us one life to live and invites us into the adventure of living, and it's up to us to answer the call to see what's out there and to give God glory through our joy. As the Lord would have it, during this season where I will spend some time reflecting on the joys from my childhood in the happiest place on earth, I am being invited to examine my life through the awe, wonder, play, and imagination of a child, as I am enrolled in Renovare's book club and am currently reading Lacey Finn Borgo's Faith Like a Child. And while I have found some of the book's concepts and ideas to be cringeworthy to my theology and practical sensibilities, Overall, I love how it invites us to play and see our relationship with the Lord with the awe, wonder, imagination, and reverence that can so easily be lost and forgotten when we try— while we try to grow up in our faith. God wants us to be delighted in our, in our lives and in our relationship with him, and engaging in play and using our creative imaginations as part of our walk, uh, of faith are being shown to me to be childish things that should not be left behind as we mature with the Lord. A.W. Tozer famously said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us," to which I have retorted back in the past, "What we do with the word— with what the word of God says about us is the most important thing about us." And while I think we may both be on to something here, whether we just think or do, both processes are going to require imagination. Imagination is important in spiritual formation. We can't grow into progressive maturity and freedom if we never imagine it's possible. That's why I blog, to inform people with the fact that the abundant life— Alexa, stop that. Yeah, let's see, work alarm, which I'm not going. Um, that's why, that's why I blog, to inform people with the fact that the abundant life in Christ is possible and to inspire them to seek the Lord with their imaginations to find the life of peace and purpose that he has for them. And as we try to walk into this life of the Spirit, we need to flow in the joy of the Lord. With an inquiring and playful spirit. Play is important for our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Play not only relieves stress but can also address some of the root issues that cause us to be stuck. I read the following passage in Borgo's book this morning about the simple game of peekaboo and share it here to share what I have learned. Borgo writes, child psychologists tell us that this form of play, peekaboo, is essential for children whose greatest fear is abandonment. The repetitive play of "Where is Mama?" and "There she is!" confirms the child's fear indirectly through play and reinforces confidence that the parent will return. Absence is not permanent. Absence is perception. Not lasting reality. Perhaps play in the spiritual life looks like this too. Through play, the spirit accompanies us as we indirectly face our fears. We learn that God is never absent from us. Could it be similar to our experience of what Saint John of the Cross and others call the Dark Night? In this Dark Night, God's presence seems to go missing. In our connection with God, and reality shifts. We struggle to hear, see, or feel God. We wonder, "Where has God gone?" Our sensory experience tells us that God is not present, but as the Psalmist reminds us, "There is no place that God is not" . When the dark night recedes, we notice that our trust in God has deepened. Our picture of God has shifted, and we will never be the same. The great monster of abandonment has been tamed, and now we know that while our senses do dial us into God's presence, they aren't the anchor of reality. The reality of God's love, we learn, holds us even in silence and absence. That was from, uh, Borgo's book Faith Like a Child. That's on page 86. I love how even the dark night of the soul is shown for what it is: a misperception, a game where we falsely believe that our Heavenly Father is gone when he never really leaves us at all. And it is only for us to play hide-and-go-seek the Lord if we ever want to find him. And and where we eventually discover that we were the one who was hiding from him all along. I love how my Heavenly Father plays with me, how he invites me to find him, and how he guides me into new things that will challenge me to trust him and to grow into who I always— I was always meant to be: a child of God with a simple faith of a child that comes from knowing he is safe. Accepted, cared for, and loved. I think it's sort of ironic that I'm reading this stuff as I will be invited to revisit some of the joys of my childhood and to play and experience it all anew. But this time, even though I will be older than I ever was, I will be experiencing it as a man who knows he is a child of God and that no matter where he goes in his and his life, his Heavenly Father is always with him. So, I got the day off, snow or no snow. I'll be packing my bags in joyful anticipation of all that the Lord has in store for me with this trip to Disney World and all the days that lie beyond it. So, use your imagination if you must, but let's play a game of follow the leader. And you can follow me as I follow Christ and keep on walking and talking with God. 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 Communication, Gossip, and Lying. And today's verse is Proverbs 29:19, and the word of God says, By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he understands, he will not respond. Today's verse is the fourth of five passages of scripture that fall under the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. And the 11th point is: Do not hurt your neighbor by gossip or careless talk. Control your tongue. Today's verse indicates that words alone won't be adequate in disciplining a servant, and that even though he understands the words coming out of your mouth, he will not respond. Similarly, you can draw a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. So likewise, the disobedient servant won't do what you say, and the unbeliever will not choose to follow the Lord even though They will claim to fully understand what you are trying to tell them to do or about the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I understand the truth of this verse. Mere words are not enough. The spirit of a man must be touched in order for him to comply. Our faith in Jesus comes by the grace of God, not by the words we speak. But God will use our words sometimes. So, say what needs to be said. And keep talking, because even the most disobedient servant will occasionally obey after a multitude of words, and even the hardest heart can be softened when the Lord's will and the right words, the ones used by God, are spoken. As always, I invite all to go to M.t. Clark.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. Alford. And those are a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And in today's entry, Stephen Alford invites us to read Mark chapter 5, and he highlights verse 33 in Mark 5, which says the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And Stephen Alford writes, nothing is hidden from the eyes of him to whom we must give account. All things are open and naked. This woman was conscious of this fact, so she told him the whole truth. This confession brought her heart peace, and she went away happy. The only real secret of peace lies in the unburdening of the heart to God. Acts 5 records the story of two who kept back that which they professed before man to have given to God. Man might have taken it as the whole truth, but not so God. The result of this deceit was death. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And Alford ends his journal entry by praying, Lord, help me to be honest and open before you. And here Alford highlights Matthew 5:33. And, um, and, and if you don't— and you— if you don't know the passage of scripture, which I admittedly I did not know as I read it. It's about the woman who touched Jesus' robe as he passed through the crowd and she got healed. And so she, fearing and trembling, knowing that she was healed, fell down before him and told him the whole truth. Yes, it was me who touched you. And, you know, you have to be— you know, talk about a scary moment, you know, because Jesus is like, who touched me? And, uh, uh-oh, you know, something miraculous just happened to me and I might be in trouble for it. But she fearfully and trembling told him the whole truth. And that's what we should do always, always speak the whole truth. The scripture reference in Acts 5 that Alford points out is the story of Ananias and Sapphira who kept back part of the proceeds they, they earned from selling their land, uh, lying to the body of Christ saying they gave them all the money. Well, man would have been deceived. The Holy Spirit knew the truth, and God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead. And that's one of our proof texts for, uh, how the enemy can, can, uh, come in and afflict believers. They call, you know, he's the deceiver. And he tempted them to steal the money or to keep money and lie to the church and God's holy, you know, he's starting a new covenant. And, um, he, he killed Ananias and Sapphira for their, for their, for their lie, you know, to show that, uh, you know, you can't be duplicitous in the body of Christ. He's, he's trying to establish the church. Um, only I'm not going to wish for those judgments to continue to today because I would have been dead a long time ago. Um, so anyway, um, let's be honest, let's follow the Lord, um, and let's just have a playful spirit but, uh, do what's right. Um, and imagine, you know, the life in Christ That's what we invite you to do here at mt4christ.org and in the MT for Christ 247 podcast. We invite you to follow the Lord and, uh, to follow the leader in Jesus and to use your imagination to imagine a life where you live, uh, the life of a Christian. You read the Bible, you pray, you do good works, you say no to sin, you get free of bondages to sin. And you live a good, simple, righteous, faithful life. And you can have fun, you can play and have a childlike faith and a simple, wholesome life that's in Christ. That's what we're, we're trying to grow into, and that's what we encourage people in, because we've, we've discovered the joy that comes from following the Lord and being set free. So that's what that's about. Today I have the day off. Um, I thought it was going to snow and I was like, you know what, I don't want to deal with that and I gotta pack my bag anyway and I got lots of stuff I can always do with the computer during the day. So we're going to do that to try to keep up with our ministries and, uh, you know, and our study and just knowing the Lord. So It's going to be a good day. And so let's pray. 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. We thank you for, you know, you know, accepting us when we had less than the faith of a child. Um, you know, that, uh, we needed a simple message that we would be forgiven, that we didn't have to earn it, and that you died for our sins, and that you would give us eternal life. Um, he would accept us if we put our faith in Jesus. And that was the truth, and it was more than enough to make me a child of God and to cause me to want to grow, uh, into a man of God, to follow you and surrender to you. And Lord, I thank you for calling me out of the darkness and waking me up and opening my spiritually blind eyes and guiding me into righteousness, um, and I still need your help. And Lord, we just pray for anyone who might be listening, that you'd help them too. You come alongside their prayer request, their walk of faith, to encourage them, um, to follow you with the joy— with the joy of a child. And we, we pray that, and we also pray for you to guide us today, help us to pack the bag right, get ready and prepare for our upcoming trip and to accomplish, uh, things that'll, uh, feed our spirit and give you glory and draw us closer to you. Um, this is our prayer today. Uh, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.