Into His Light Calling For Life Beyond the Manger Purity 911

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 Allen Waite Farm at twilight comes to us from yours truly as I was positively awestruck by the magic of twilight time as I descended down Waite Road in Easton, New York to see that while the land below was shrouded in darkness, the last light of day was on the rims of the horizon, creating this magnificent silhouette effect when from the ground— from the ground— when you looked up. I'm sharing two other out-of-focus shots that I grabbed while driving down to my countryside home last night on the blog today if you want to see more. I hate to admit it, that they are blurry as all get-out, but I share them to demonstrate just how distinct that rim of light on the horizon was, and as a warning to us amateur photographers out there to stop and get out of the car when you see something, uh, worth capturing. Part of the beauty of the moment was the stark clarity, uh, of the silhouettes, uh, of the objects from the ground view against the twilight sky. And because I didn't actually stop when I took these photos like I did with the Photo of the Day, these additional pictures' beauty pictures' beauty pales in comparison to what they were in reality. But the one with the utility pole looks like a cross, so I figured I would share it, and so decided to share the other blurry one as well. Even though they are both blurry, they still show the contrast of the light and the darkness. Well, it is Saturday, and I am rejoicing this morning because I have reunited with my beloved wife at our countryside home, and while there isn't much on the agenda for this morning in the early part of the day, Tami Lynn has planned our late afternoon and twilight time hours to be filled with experiences that will continue to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas, as we have plans to go to a live nativity display and to drive through Washington County's holiday lights display. As to where these events are, you will have to Google them or message my wife, although I have been weekending in the Great White North for over a year now. I am still a Hudson Valley-er and am still learning the lay of the land up here. But you know what? It doesn't matter because in my, in my wife I have an experienced guide that I can trust and can have faith that when she tells me to take a turn that appears to be going further into the middle of nowhere, I don't question her. Well, as not as much as I did anyway, um, and know that she will get us where we need to get to, even if I can't clearly see the final destination or the reasoning behind her process. Through my relationship and experiences with Tammy Lynn, I know that she has my best interests at heart and that she would never purposely lead me astray. She loves me and not only wants to make sure that I have everything that I need, she also wants to give me more than the bare necessities of a dutiful wife. And continually does and says things that makes me feel loved and fills my heart with joy. When I consider all that Tammy Lynn and I have in our marriage, I know that God has brought us together. And because of what God has done in our lives individually and because he has brought us together, we are intentionally— intentional in keeping him at the heart of our relationship. Through simple things like saying grace, going to church together, and praying for one another daily. And this December, to keep Christ in Christmas and to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, Tammy Lynn and I decided to use the first 21 days of the last month of the year to read through the Gospel of John, one chapter a day together. I have done this 21 Days in John Bible study in December before by myself in the past, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to draw close to the Lord in any any season, but I feel it is, is, is an especially good study to do if the December chill or the secular expressions of holiday cheer has your heart running cold and your lips whispering, "Bah humbug." As much as I absolutely love Christmas and the biblical narrative of Jesus's birth, the Christian focus in December on baby Jesus away in the manger, the angels, the shepherds, the Virgin and other aspects of the Nativity can cause me to want to remind people that Jesus isn't a baby anymore. As truly awe-inspiring and awesome it is to ponder the fact that God became flesh in the Incarnation, and the fact that the Divine literally pushed beyond the veil of eternity and broke into our physical reality, I feel that the focus on this one scene of Jesus's life at Christmas time can perpetually keep immature nominal Christians to be forever the babes in Christ who are more enamored with the glitz and gifts of Toyland of the world than of the wonders of God's love that can be experienced through a life of following the man and Lord that this— that precious little baby boy wrapped in swaddling cloths grew up to be. As things wrap up for another year, I remember well that the silent night of Christmas, of the Christmas Eve church service, can be a magnificent moment where we join in the company of family and, and friends to simply declare that God is good. But just like the way our happiness can fade after opening up our Christmas presents, the magic moment of remembering Christ's birth can fade as Christmas is over. And it's time to get back to normal. Well, like the born-again Ebenezer Scrooge— yes, Dickens' Christmas Carol is a salvation story, duh— uh, ran the streets with the hope that his neighbors would know the joy of Christmas every day. I too want to make a case for experiencing the joy of the Lord every day in our lives by encouraging all of us to go beyond the manger past the shepherds, past the three wise men or kings— I'm not sure if they could be both— and definitely past the Virgin Mary to stand on our own two feet and to walk beyond our childlike faith of nominal infancy to pursue the path of Christian discipleship that the man and Lord Jesus commanded us to walk. I know the prospect of actually living every day like a Christian may be a unknown territory for most of us. I know when I first got saved I asked the Lord, 'So how do you— how do you do that? How do you live as a Christian? Is that even possible in this day and age? Do I want to do that?' Well, it is just like deciding to trust a traveling companion's directions for the first time. It requires faith. We have to believe that the person calling us to follow them has our best interests at heart and that they will not lead us astray. But the good news is that we can trust the Lord. Christ's coming to earth is evidence of His love for us, as John 3:16 tells us that, "For God so— God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." The world includes you and me, and when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are given eternal life. And when we follow Him, when we obey His commands, when we walk in the Spirit, we experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. That means love, peace, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, patience, and self-control will define our lives the more we follow the Lord's lead. So just like the farm trees and utility poles on Waitle Road were lost in the darkness of twilight time last night night, but were revealed when we decided to look up and see them in the last light of the day, the Lord wants us to be found by looking at ourselves according to His light. He wants our beauty to be revealed through our faith in the light of the world, Jesus Christ, and He wants us to experience the abundant life that He has for us when we decide to grow up beyond baby Christians and to walk like the men and women that God created us to be, created us and called us to be. So keep Christ in Christmas, but let's keep walking and talking with God before then, and let's keep on walking into the sanctified life of a mature Christian disciple into the new year and beyond. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Acts 13:11. And it says, brothers, listen, we are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Today's verse is an exhortation and a proclamation that forgiveness of sins is possible through Christ alone. And I would point out here in the— as a podcast exclusive, that it was this man Jesus. Um, this is, this is good news that many simply can't believe or won't believe or are spiritually blind to. Uh, scripture paints a simple yet complicated, uh, another paradox of salvation. It tells us that if— it tells us that it is through faith alone that we are saved, but that true faith will be shown by by the fruit of good works and good character. It tells us that anyone who turns to the Lord in repentance and calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but it also tells us that people are spiritually blind and that none come to the Father other than those that are drawn by him. Paul states that nothing can separate us from the love of God, but yet Christ's parable of the sowing of the seeds and the tares and the wheat seem to indicate that some will believe but will not endure, and that there will be real and false believers in the assembly of the saints. Christ warned us about the separation of the sheep and the goats to highlight this, and even indicated that these false converts could even be elevated to leadership positions, as Jesus warned us about false teachers too. No one knows the hearts of man but God, and when we consider all of these seeming conflicts about simple faith, We could wonder, like Christ's first disciples themselves wondered in Matthew 19:25, where the Word tells us that the disciples were astounded. "Then who in the world can be saved?" they asked. Who can be saved? Who can be forgiven? Well, while pointing out the different aspects of salvation can cause us to see that there may be more to salvation than just saying the words of a sinner's prayer or believing in a person named Jesus once existed, and we sort of like some of the things he said, and we like the cozy picture of the manger, uh, at Christmas, the preponderance of evidence of scripture clearly confirms that it is through Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and given eternal life. And today's verse really cuts to the heart of the matter for me. As someone raised in a liturgical church tradition that twisted the gospel to be a combination of faith and works, I knew I was a sinner, but I highly doubted that I could be forgiven. I thought I had to earn it somehow, or I had to be good in order to go to heaven. But when I heard in the message that saved my soul that forgiveness came because of Jesus only, and my faith in Him would give me the forgiveness that I thought I could never earn, I finally saw the light of the truth behind all of Christianity. The love of God that sent Jesus to pay for our sins, to die for us so that we could be forgiven and be accepted and live with God forever. I rejoiced then and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior through tears of, tears of the grief of repentance and the joy of a new life, and am continually reminded of the miracle that happened in my life. I was drawn by the Creator of the universe to be in His royal family forever and ever. It was through faith in Christ alone. So rejoice over your forgiveness that Jesus made possible and keep sharing the good news because this world desperately needs it. Needs— and they need to know that they are loved and forgiven by God and can be accepted into His kingdom when they surrender to the Lordship of Christ. We are forgiven. We are free. And we will live with the Lord our God forever and ever because of Christ. Amen. 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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we continue sharing from the section on The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship from Bonhoeffer's Works Volume 4, Chapter 10, The Body of Christ. And so we share more from that chapter today, and we'll conclude that chapter on Monday, Lord willing. Um, and, uh, this week we intend to conclude the, uh, the Bonhoeffer series that we're doing based on that work that we're doing on YouTube. So we invite you to go to the blog today to check out that excerpt that we're sharing on the blog, and we invite you to go to our YouTube channel where we've done lessons that actually surpass this section of text. As it turns out, you know, Lord willing, God willing, we'll be completing the Bonhoeffer study this week, and we'll— long before we stop sharing it on the blog. You know, based on, uh, based on the way things seem to appear going, I'll be sharing— I'll be sharing the end of, uh, Bob Huffer's book by the end of the year, uh, I would hope. Um, and I'll— but I'll be completing the, the study that I'm doing with PowerPoint presentations long before then, hopefully, prayerfully by the 15th, which is this Thursday. So I got a little bit of work ahead of me this weekend to, uh, you know, fine-tune the PowerPoint presentations or create them. Um, before then, uh, but it's a labor of love as I, uh, I'm deeply encouraged by Bonhoeffer's work to be a disciple, to live out my faith. And that's why we share it here on, uh, on the podcast and the YouTube channel and on the blog. So, um, yeah, we, we discovered the joy of Christmas, the joy of our salvation. A while ago, and we continue to experience that joy in our lives because we follow the Lord as much as we can and we surrender more and more of our lives to his will. Um, so there's lots of room for growth, and we encourage people to start walking towards their maturity and beyond a way in the manger. Um, yeah, I won't be Extra salty. We'll just leave that alone. Yeah, we encourage you to pursue your faith in the purpose that the Lord has for you. Um, yeah, so we'll do that and we'll pray for everyone this morning. Um, because, uh, you know, recently a friend reached out to me to, you know, tell me he wanted to turn to the Lord. And I'm a skeptic at heart, so I'm like, yeah, I'll encourage this guy, but I don't know. Will he walk in it? Well, it certainly isn't over yet, but the indications are, as I'm receiving texts from him this morning as I speak, that he's on fire for the Lord again. Whether or not that fire will burn brightly or burn for a long time— you know, it could burn brightly and go out, or it could burn brightly for the rest of his life into eternity. It's really up to his decision to keep walking and talking with God. Endurance is part of the race that we run as Christians, and so we shouldn't start sprinting necessarily. We should walk with the Lord and be, you know, make the decision to follow him every day. But when you do that, your life, like this man's life, is being, you know, lit on fire with excitement and joy that he's been— he's come back into fellowship with the Lord again, and he's feeling the joy of the renewed relationship with him. And he's doing that the most perfect time of the year as we draw close to Christmas. So will that— will it last beyond Christmas? I don't know, but I can assure you that it can. And I encourage you that you should, you know, like my friend, make a decision to follow the Lord and turn away from the worldly ways that you fell into and enjoy the peace and joy that comes from knowing that you're right with God and that you're loved and accepted. And no matter what you do, he's gonna, he's gonna lead you on. But you know, even though it's no matter what, he accepts us, but the joy of our, our relationship and our lives comes from following him continually. So we encourage that and we pray. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for the love you gave us, the way you draw— drew us to become part of your family, and the way you encourage us to keep on going with you and keep trusting even when things you know, seem uncertain. Um, you know, we've come to discover that your way is really not only the best way, it's truly the only way to live our lives. And Lord, we encourage people, uh, whoever might be listening to this message, to know that and to accept it and to enter into it for yourselves. Um, I have a patch on my backpack It says, don't follow me, follow Jesus. And, uh, yeah, although I'd like you to follow the podcast and the YouTube channel, we encourage you to follow the Lord and only him. Um, so Lord, as we pray that and encourage people in that, just follow you and not me. Um, we ask for you to give us guidance, uh, because we want to follow you. We, we ask for you to open our eyes to the things you you want us to see. We ask you to, um, lead us in the way we should go today. Lord, we thank you, we love you, and we praise your holy name. And we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.