Looking Ahead to Restoration - Purity 1378

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of the clear waters of an unknown forest pond, lake, or stream comes to us from a similarly unknown Facebook friend who shared this quaint forest scene on social media back on June 18, 2021, 3 years ago to the, to the day today. If this memory is yours, let us know and we'll update the blog to give you your photo credit after the fact. Well, it's Tuesday, and as the weeks— last weeks of school are upon us, and we completely transition into the summer season in 2 days, I am trying to walk the fine line between finishing what I started and rushing ahead to the next thing. The first half of the year of our Lord 2024 has been positively packed with life and ministry, and as I start to look to the second half, I have come to two realizations that have conflicted— have me conflicted on how to walk out the next two months. The first realization that I came to is that many Christians desperately need to be shown the way to walk in the Spirit. They really need to be coached. They not only need instruction in the basic tenets of our faith and and how they can, how they relate to them, but they need to be shown how they can apply the truth of who they are in Christ and how to use their faith and their identity in Christ as a means to walk through life skillfully. This realization cements my purpose as a Christian life coach, and it was really brought to me, brought home to me yesterday when a client reached out to me to report that they were struggling with condemning thoughts. The attack was triggered by some stimuli that reminded them of the past, which caused them to compare their current circumstances unfavorably with their previous status and left them depressed that they were less than what they used to be. And this in turn caused them to be anxious about how their diminished standing would negatively affect the future. Uh, looking back not only caused them to be depressed, but it also caused them to fear the future. I've only been in relationship with my client for a short time, but I was surprised that they had fallen into this trap. But then it dawned on me that they didn't know how to defend themselves or were still relatively new at taking every thought captive and working on problem situations and emotions through the context of their faith. So I had to show them the way to look at things in a different way, from the context of the larger picture of who they are in Christ and the ultimate matters of life. In the process of offering my guidance, I was highly convicted that this is why I had been led to be a Christian life coach. People need to not only be given knowledge, they have to be instructed in how to use it, and they need to be in a relationship with someone who would not only support their efforts to live in a new way, but who would also hold them accountable to put them into practice and who would evaluate their progress. Christians don't only need a teacher, they need a guide to show them how to live in the new way of life that Jesus taught about. With this realization that people need teaching or— and a coach, uh, I am motivated to do something to answer this call on my life and to help others in their walk of faith. Over the last couple of weeks, I've been contemplating offering a group coaching by offering a class online, maybe based on Eldredge's Wild at Heart, where I could minister to many people at once. But I have also thought about offering the same material on a one-on-one basis to be able to not only go through the material but to be able to use it to personalize it to a single individual. Here's what Wild at Heart says about the masculine journey. Now let's talk about your journey. Meanwhile, I have— I also had moments where I was convicted to convert my master's thesis into a book, to get my Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course published, to possibly encourage the masses to pursue the Lord in certain areas that would guide them to new levels of freedom and joy. But all of these ideas for the, uh, for possible next steps for the next several weeks have been tempered by my second realization. The second realization is that I need to take a breather. As much as I feel the pull to go full steam ahead in one, if not all, of these ideas, I realize that I need to take a moment to rest, to appreciate all I've learned over the last 6 months, but to also just stop and use those soon-to-be-available evenings for some restoration work. Doing a writing project, launching a class, or developing an offering to take on more clients deserves a certain level of energy, preparation, and attention to detail, and I'm not ready to give just yet. So when the Celebrate Freedom support group goes on vacation after Wednesday night's meeting this week, I'm going to take at least a couple of weeks to do the same thing. I might only need a couple of weeks before the inactivity of rest drives me to the next thing, but I'm I'm going to do my best to take them and to not rush into something else until I get there. One of the things we do when we walk in the spirit is we raise our awareness to the things on the horizon so we will be fully prepared to walk into them when they get here. But with that forward-looking orientation, we can sometimes look too far ahead to the point where We are not taking the time to enjoy the present, and that's a big danger, a big danger to our well-being, because peace and joy is only experienced in the here and now. And so we shouldn't be so busy planning ahead that we miss the good life that our efforts have given us. So as we head into summer, even though I'm still— I will still be working my day job and doing the blog and podcast, I'm going to enjoy where my journey has brought me and take some of these summer evenings to bask in the peace of not having something on my calendar and use the time to be restored to full capacity again. I recharge pretty quick, but I'm going to plan on taking the time to make sure I'm ready before filling in the gaps between now and the then of a pretty full schedule this fall. So let me encourage you to utilize some of these days, nights, and weeks of summer ahead of us to be restored. Of course, the best way to do that is to keep on walking and talking with God. 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 divorce, and today's verses are from 1 Corinthians 7, um, And verses 10 through 16, the Word of God says, to the married I give this charge, not I but the Lord: the wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, I not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman, woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates let it be so. In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? Today's verses fall under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on divorce, and that, uh, seventh point is: a believer may not initiate a divorce from an unbelieving spouse. Today's verses encourage those who are unequally yoked to not pursue divorce, but to allow for the possibility that their faith in God will impact the lives of their unbelieving spouses. However, they also indicate that if the unbelieving spouses should leave, separate, they are free to let them go. For me, these principles were a challenge. They and my Catholic upbringing convinced me that divorce wasn't an option and that regardless of my happiness, I was going to stay married even if I and my former spouse were both miserable in our unequally yoked union. Sometimes God separates us from our families as our decision to follow Jesus leads us away from those who don't receive the call. After I came to Christ and was born again, my life changed dramatically. As my new heart drew me to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, and I changed my attitudes and actions to be a "real Christian." My ex didn't feel that way, and as our marriage became more dysfunctional and she vehemently refused to be reconciled to me, these verses came to mind, and I came to the realization that even though we were cohabitating, my unbelieving spouse had separated herself from me. Making divorce permissible. I know other couples that went the other way, where the Christian spouse's faith changed their unbelieving spouse. So you should try to stay in the marriage to save it, but when it becomes clear that your spouse is separated from you, you may choose to let them go their way. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we're sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, and today's message is based on 1 Corinthians 5. And from that chapter, Alford shares a portion of 4 and verses 4 and 5 where the Word of God says, when you are gathered together along with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ deliver such a one to Satan. And Stephen Alford writes, the absolute essentials for such an action as delivering one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, or the precise converse, the deliverance of a man from the bondage of Satan, are these: believers must own his presence, they must be gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20. Believers must own his presidency, i.e., agreed together on his joy, presidents, lordship, and the action that is to be taken. Believers must own his power, his power on the basis of all he has accomplished and said, his blood and word. For after finishing the work, God gave him the due. The risen Christ said, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.' Matthew 18, uh, 28:18. And Alfred ends his sharing by praying, 'May I live and serve under your authority and in the light of your presence. Amen.' Yeah, um, Alford's pointing to, you know, unity and coming against the evil one, or releasing people to the evil one. Quite frankly, his message is a little confusing to me. Delivering one to Satan, or the deliverance of man from bondage, are these: you have to— well, you have to know his presence. God must be with you. And that you have to be under his lordship. Basically, that's how you get free, um, you know, you have to live in the presence of God and be surrendered to his will, you know. So there you go, that's the disciple's path. And deliverance happens, um, you know, that way, you know. That's, that's the only way deliverance happens, is when the person agrees to be under the lordship of Jesus Christ and to repent and live in the presence of the Lord. Otherwise, footholds and strongholds remain, and the enemy can come back regardless of your faithful prayers to the contrary. If you're not living as a Christian, the enemy goes, "Hey, this guy's bogus. I'm gonna stay." And so there you go. Anyway, I do have to work this today. Uh, it's going to be 92 degrees here in upstate New York, and so, uh, we're going to get there and get her done and, uh, get to the marriage class that we have tonight, uh, at Starpoint Church with our wife. So it's going to be a busy day, and, uh, we're moving into the end of the summer season, and all this busyness, um, will be completely set free next week when the classes that I'm in cease. And then after that, I'll take at least a week or two to rest on those evenings that are normally available. Then I'll see about whether or not I'm going to offer, offer to see clients on Monday and Tuesdays, or offer a class, or just use the time, you know, use the summer months to publish that book, you know, basically on Amazon or whatever. So a lot to contemplate, but I noticed that a lot of work's been done this year in my life— establishing the Christian life coaching business, finishing my certification requirements. Well, I don't know if they're met or not, but I've done all the work I've done. I've done the Freedom in Christ course, led another season of, uh, Celebrate Freedom, and, uh, now I've completed these two classes and even gone to a boot camp in Disney World. Over the last 6 months, so it's been busy. So we're gonna take some of the nights, you know, over the next couple of weeks, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to relax and to recharge. Maybe I'll use it for spiritual formation. I'm not sure, but it's good to recognize when, where you've been in your walk of faith and take some time off, even if— even in the midst of a regular working schedule, you know. So that's that. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the life you've given us. Even though it's sometimes busy, it's always good. So thank you for guiding us in the way we should go and giving us the purpose of showing other people, to have faith in you and to live according to your ways, uh, to find peace for them. So, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that they be blessed by you in their prayer requests and their walk of faith. And Lord, that you go before us today to 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 and your kingdom here on Earth. And we need a lot of help with that, so we're asking for it today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.