Many Happinesses - Preserving to Find Joy - Purity 1594

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Today's photo of a clear blue sky in the heavens and the colors of autumn among the trees comes to us from yours truly as I capture this simple scene of suburban autumn bliss while at work in the field back on October 18th, 2024. Well, it's Friday, thank God, and even though my TGIF joy is tempered by the fact that I have to work tomorrow, I am happy for those who will really be experiencing Friday today and look forward to the end of the workday all the same, because my joy is not dependent upon the days of the week. My joy comes from the Lord, and I keep reminding myself of that profound but simple fact, no matter what circumstances come my way. Yesterday is a good example of this. I work outside, and yesterday it rained. And I have to admit, having to work aloft, aerially, while it's raining doesn't naturally fill one with happiness. In fact, the rainy conditions yesterday really threatened to drive me down into the dumps as I had to do a job. I had a job to do, and it put me in the midst of the downpour. I even prayed for the Lord to stop the rain, but that prayer wasn't immediately answered. And the weather and the uncertainty about the problems I was diagnosing with my work combined to try to cause me to not only be grieving the weather, but also cause me to even question if I knew what I was doing. When your instruments give you results that you don't expect, you can doubt their readings, question what they're telling you, and even condemn yourself for not trusting in what they, you know, for not trusting what they're telling you. But God's Spirit in me encouraged me to persist in doing my job, and as I worked through my emotions and the situation, I found peace of mind and was able to confirm what my instruments were saying was in fact true. I weathered the storm and was able to move on, and then the rain stopped. Similarly, uh, when we come to put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can have storms of negative circumstances blow into our lives, and we can begin to doubt whether or not what what God's Word says is true, or if we are reading it right, or if its promises are true for us. But if we keep asking God for help and stay the course of following him, God will be faithful to help us, and we will come to know experientially that God's Word is true after all. His Spirit will uphold us and help us to overcome, and eventually the storms will stop. The Christian is blessed with the truth and with God's help— helping presence. And when we walk in the Spirit, peace and joy will grow. God doesn't want us to suffer, and when we follow him, we can find joy and happiness even in the midst of— in the middle of trials. Um, speaking of happiness, David Jeremiah's Turning Point devotion for today speaks about that topic, so I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us. Dr. Jeremiah writes, many happinesses, and he quotes Psalm 86:4, which says, give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you. And David Jeremiah writes, the founder of a large chain of Chinese supermarkets has introduced unhappy leave days for employees. Workers were told everyone has times when they're not happy, so if you're not happy, do not come to work. We all have days like that, but the Christian's life should be characterized by as much happiness as possible. Randy Alcorn wrote, until Christ completely cures us and, and this world, our happiness will be punctuated by times of great sorrow, but that doesn't mean we can't be predominantly happy in Christ. Thomas Brooks said, God is the author of all true happiness. He is the donor of all true happinesses. Happiness. He is the maintainer of all true happiness, and he is the center of all true happiness. Through cultivating our relationship with Jesus, we will know real personal joy and happiness in our lives. Ask God, give me happiness, for I give myself to you. May he remind you that you can achieve happiness through him. That was from David Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Thomas Brooks that says, ah, friends, if you would but in good earnest set upon reading the Holy Scriptures, why, you may find in them so many happinesses as cannot be numbered. And I say amen. You know, while I can acknowledge the fact that life can be extremely difficult and trying at times, Jeremiah's simple advice holds the key to experiencing joy even in the middle, in the midst of great suffering, and regardless of, of the negative circumstances that we may face. And he said, through cultivating our relationship with Jesus, we will know real personal joy and happiness in our lives. That's the truth, and I will spend the rest of my days proclaiming it because it was only through much suffering and struggle that I came to know it. My life was a mess. My emotions were a mess. I don't know if I was the chief of sinners, but I was definitely one of them. I was a rebel and viewed the world and anything religious with contempt. I saw life as meaningless and selfish pleasures as the only thing worth pursuing. I rejected God and sneered at those who claimed to know him. I can understand those who sneer at the idea of reading God's word or find it— or how they find it terrifying, because that was me. But God called me out of the darkness in a moment of grace and invited me to follow him, to know the truth, and to test his ways. His word and his spirit answered my questions, led me deeper into his love, and guided me through the fires of tribulation and affliction. Coming in line with God and accepting his truth and ways is not always happy, happy, joy, joy. But when we pray to him to help us to believe and to do his will, he is faithful to guide us through our objections, doubts, fears, and skepticism to reveal that he is real, he is alive, and all his words are faithful and true, and all his promises and claims are true about us individually too. My latest, uh, yeah, my, my, the, the, the latest devotion, devotional I'm reading, 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory by Matthew Kelly, prompts me every day to trust, surrender, believe, and receive. And I have to tell you that when you put your faith in Jesus and do these things, it won't be too long before things change. It might be a struggle for quite some time, But if you continue to follow the Lord, peace will come and joy isn't far behind it. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis, and this morning's meditation verses come from the section on loving and serving others. Today's verses are 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, where the word of God says, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the tru— with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Today's verses fall under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on loving and serving others, and that fifth point is Paul describes what love really is. Today's Bible verses answer the request of that 1984 Foreigner classic, "I Want to Know What Love Is." Well, Foreigner and Sojourners, love is patient and kind. It doesn't envy or boast, and it is not proud. Love doesn't dishonor others, isn't self-seeking, and is not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs. And get this, love does not delight delight in evil but rejoices in biblical truth. Love always protects, trusts, and hopes in God and always perseveres. Restating these biblical truths makes me feel like Linus in that Peanuts Christmas special. That's what love is, Charlie Brown. So, and so the word of God informs us of what love is with the implication that we are to practice true love with one another. 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 walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional. We're on day 93 where Adams shares a portion of Proverbs 6:22 which says, and when you awaken they will talk to you. And J.E. Adams writes, how many people have been duped by thinking they would hear a word from God apart from the scriptures? No such extra-biblical revelation is promised to you. God revealed all truth to the apostles. He gave this to them so that they would be able to remember all he did and said, in order that they might write inerrantly in the books of the New Testament. The books of the Old Testament were not complete when this proverb was written, since Christ had not come. But with the final words of the Spirit to the apostles, all scriptures came to completion, so that now, far more than in the time of Proverbs, the scriptures speak to us. God's commands, like those of a good father, talk to you. As you study Scripture and your mind becomes filled with God's commands, your conscience speaks out of that embedded word. Carry God's word with you upon your heart and follow it in your walk daily. God speaks fully in his word. He gave the apostles all the truth you need. Amen. And I agree. You know, we don't need special revelation that goes outside the wisdom of the Lord. But I would like to point out that, you know, you can still get a quote-unquote word from the Lord. It's called listening prayer. We pray to the Lord, ask him for guidance and help. Lord, what should I do? And, you know, I don't know if you're going to get an audible response, but some people have. But generally you'll get a sense in your spirit. You know, and you might remember scripture, you know, that will point you in the right direction. And, you know, you're to listen, you're to listen to that and to try it and see what happens. When we walk in the Spirit, we listen to the Lord and try to figure out what he would have us do. And if we get an impression on our spirit, our soul, basically what to do, we should do it. And usually that thing leads us to do something good, and sometimes it leads us to do hard things. But we won't know whether or not, you know, that was a word from God unless we do it. If we follow the Lord, you know, basically he'll lead us to do good things and we'll have peace in our spirit. That's the idea. We won't be too disheveled when we follow the Lord's word. And guess what? We can test it by knowing what the word of God says. And so in If we know what the Bible tells us to do, um, and we, we don't let any words come into our, our minds, hearts, or, you know, spirits that contradict it, then we'll be okay. Because the enemy would love to whisper, here's what you should do. Um, but guess what? If it goes against the word of God, you know, that's not the Holy Spirit, that's, that's evil spirits trying to direct you. So, um, but J.E. Adams points to some really good, really good truth here that, you know, go with what the word of God says and You know, you can't go wrong. Um, and that is why, you know, we always ask the question: have you fully surrendered, uh, to God? Are you reading his word to know what it says so you can walk through life with wisdom, joy, and peace? Um, you know, that's why we do the podcast, is just to encourage people that this life is possible, a life of walking in the Spirit and a life of joy and peace, um, that gives you a purpose to share this message and to live a good and righteous and holy life. And part of my purpose is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church on Wednesday evenings. It's a recovery and discipleship— Christian recovery and discipleship support group— and we teach you how to walk in the Spirit and to lean on the Lord to help you to overcome your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. So if you, if you're in Upstate New York and you need support, uh, we're willing to give it to you. So you can come join our group at Starpoint Church, 6:30 PM Wednesdays. Um, the door will be open for you, and if it's not, you know, just knock or, or, you know, call the number if there's a, there's a sign on the door. Um, we sometimes do that, uh, so you can get in. But, um, yeah, it's available to you. Um, however, if you're not in Upstate New York, there's still good news. Um, you can, you can glean from the, the wisdom that Celebrate Recovery and my experiences, you know, basically in recovery and Christian ministry, my theological training, all of it comes together in the teachings that I do for Celebrate Freedom. And we're doing a series on YouTube right now called Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark. That's the name of the playlist. And if you need recovery or want to learn, you can check that out. And we'd love it if you like it and share it and you know, with anybody out there. And beyond that, there's other teachings we've done through the past based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson. We've done Victory Over the Darkness, Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, sharing that message of freedom in Christ. And other series we've done through the podcast are available on our playlist page on mt4christ.com or YouTube. You can find those. And beyond that, you know, all this teaching online, you know, just, you know, led me to do another one. So here we go. We're offering it as of today. So we're doing the Grace Course. Steve Goss revamped Freedom in Christ Ministries' original Grace Course into a new teaching that he wrote in 2024. And Freedom in Christ Ministries have launched classes this spring doing it. And so I decided that after my Freedom in Christ Course is done, I'm going to launch one online for, for, you know, for anybody out there. And you can now register for it at mt4christ.com/group-coaching-events/. And, um, you know, basically you go there, uh, it's, it's going to be an 8-week course. I'm just going to cover the lessons that are produced, um, basically. And, um, you know, share the video. I bought the DVD, see, and so we can watch— you can watch the video through the access I'll give you. And you'll have to buy the participant's guide, and you'll have to pay a registration fee. It's 8 weeks, so we're doing it for $80, $10 a week, basically, so you can join a group of Christians and be encouraged by me to learn about and experience God's grace fully in your life. So go mt4christ.com group coaching events to, you know, register today. And that will be on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30, uh, beginning on April 1st. So you got about a month to sign up. We'll see if anyone comes, you know. So there you go. Um, beyond that, if you appreciate what we do, we appreciate your support. You don't have to sign up for the class. You you just donate, um, basically at mtforchrist.com. You can go to our, our donations page to give. You can give, um, uh, you can give basically via PayPal, the Venmo, our Venmo app, and, uh, the Cash App basically are all options for you. Um, it supports the M.t. Clark Community Freedom Ministry, uh, sharing this message of hope, recovery, and discipleship, uh, with anybody who will listen. We'd appreciate your support. Beyond that, we always end by asking the question, same question twice, or in a different way: Are you empty for Christ too? If so, keep on walking with Talking with God. If you're not surrendered to the Lord and following, or even have faith in him yet, we suggest that you pray. We know God answers prayers, and if you ask him to reveal himself and you seek the Lord, we believe that you'll find him. Um, we know that prayer works, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you for showing us the way yesterday, and we're asking you to do that again today, Lord. Um, we just pray for you to go before us, open our eyes of things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go. Help us, God. And while you're at it, we're also asking for you to anybody out there who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, their walk of faith, Lord, and that you'd bless them. Lord, we all need your help and we're asking for it. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.