In this devotional teaching, M.t. Clark opens with personal observations about how visual perception varies, using a photo of Victor Harbor and a museum visit to illustrate how individual perspectives can distort reality. He then introduces the second installment of his "Self‑Deception" series, which follows Dr. Neil Anderson’s Steps to Freedom in Christ, focusing on the step titled “Deception Versus Truth.” Clark enumerates several ways the world deceives believers, concentrating on the first and central lie: the belief that wealth and possessions bring lasting happiness. He supports this claim with biblical passages (Matthew 13:22, 1 Timothy 6:10) and practical observations about the futility of material security, urging listeners to prioritize a relationship with Christ over financial ambition. The teaching transitions to a meditation on Psalm 51 (verses 1‑19), presenting it as a model of repentance and divine forgiveness, and linking it to a counseling reference on adultery. Clark then recommends several Christian resources—A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit, Dr. Anderson’s books, a weekly Bible study with the Zinkatis, and his own blog and YouTube channel—encouraging discipleship grounded in truth. The segment concludes with a heartfelt prayer that reaffirms the central message: true fulfillment comes from God’s presence, not from earthly riches, and asks for divine guidance to live in that truth.
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 magnificent view from the bluff at Victor Harbor comes to us from Dave Vaughn Photography, as Dave shared this scene from his visit to the Fleurier Peninsula on social media back on June 23rd. I love the way Dave's photo captures the different shades of blue in the water and the way that the sky seems to have the same colors. It's truly breathtaking. On Sunday, my wife and I took a somewhat spontaneous trip to the Clark Institute of Art, or Art Institute, where I captured a vast amount of the paintings on display with my phone. As impressed as I was with the paintings with my naked eyes, I couldn't help but notice how my phone's camera seemed to make the colors in the paintings really pop. My, my wife later explained to me that the camera captures things as they really are in a moment of time, and how the differences in our individual visions corrupt or distort what is right before us. Although my wife and I were looking at the same painting, because of the differences in our vision and focus, we weren't necessarily seeing the same thing. Likewise, our individual experiences, desires, preferences, and our overall worldview affects how we see ourselves. Ourselves and the world around us, and thus we could be operating with a false view of our situations, and our individual beliefs and desires could cause us to deceive ourselves. Personally, I've been— I have discovered some blind spots along the path of Christian discipleship that were caused by and obscured by my pride and self-reliance, and so I've decided to dedicate the blog for a time to revealing the ways, uh, we may be led astray with this current series on self-deception. When it comes to the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we use the Bible, the source of truth, to guide us. And one Christian resource that is based on the Word of God that I am very familiar with that seeks to lead us to resolve personal and spiritual conflicts by revealing the ways we may be deceived is The Steps to Freedom in Christ by Dr. Neil Anderson. Uh, step 2 of these Steps to Freedom in Christ is Deception Versus Truth. So I've decided to take a slow walk through this step by highlighting each point that this step presents as a possible source of deception in our lives. This step's first section is the ways you can be deceived by the world But even though the lie's source may be external to us, we still have to believe it. And in some cases, we'll discover that we have really bought into these lies to the point we will question whether or not they should be classified as lies because we believe them as true. So while this first section is classified as the ways the world deceives us, deceives us, I'm including it. I'm including them in our, our current series on self-deception because we personally believe them. Some of these points won't convict you because you know they are a lie, but some will. And that is why we are presenting them all, to lead us to understand the depth of the lies that permeate our society and that can affect us individually, leading us to sin or to not walk in the fruit of the Spirit. Uh, the first item under the ways you can be deceived by the world is number one. Well, they're not numbered, but I'm numbering them. Number one: believing that having an abundance of money and possessions will make me happy. The scriptures our resource offers for this point are Matthew 13:22, which says the seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. And 1 Timothy 6:10 that says, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." There are so many things we could say about this first point. The truth of scripture points out that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and the lure of wealth can crowd out the message of the gospel and lead to unfruitful or lost lives, as, as material concerns override any spiritual concerns. As much as money can provide security and pleasure in this world, it does nothing to secure our place in eternity. Also, in this world broken by sin and death, our human fleshly hungers are insatiable. Things lose their luster, things fall apart, and ultimately fail to satisfy us. Many a hard-charging, ambitious person has risen to the heights of material success only to discover that satisfaction and peace were not included in their prize package. Many people work hard amassing wealth all their lives for a blissful retirement and die with millions in the bank. Many underestimate what it will cost to live and blow through fortunes. And not with nothing to show for them when the money is gone. Money can't buy you love, and it can't buy you peace that lasts, because when death comes calling, no amount of money will save you. So we recommend investing in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation and heavenly rewards. So that should be the first thing you secure, uh, your relationship with God and your place in his kingdom. Through faith in Jesus Christ. But even Christians can fall prey to today's lie that money and possessions will make you happy and cause you to focus on that rather than your relationship with God or the people he put in your life. Money and possessions won't make you happy. That is the truth. A life of walking in the Spirit, on the other hand, produces joy, peace, love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control What sounds for— sounds like a recipe based on truth which brings contentment regardless of the happenstances of life. So look at that lie and know it's a lie and pursue to know the truth that will set you free. Today's Bible verse, uh, verses comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on adultery, and today we present Psalm 51, verses 1 through 19. And the Word of God says: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness: let the bones that thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. For You will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Do good to Zion in Your pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on Your altar. Today's verses falls under point 11, the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on adultery. Number 11: David confessed his adultery and God graciously forgave him. Psalm 51 is known as the repentant psalm. You know, the joy of being forgiven of our sins should not be taken for granted or forgotten. We all sin and rightly deserve death, but Christ paid the cost to save us. And when we put our trust in him, we are forgiven once and for all. And as we walk through this world and invariably sin, we can reestablish our peace with God through confessing our wrongs as we go. Repentance is turning from our sin. And when we make it a habit of reporting our— our— no, repentance is returning from our sins. And when we make it a habit of reporting our wrongs to the Lord and pursue his righteousness, God will help us to change and will give us the peace that goes beyond all understanding when we realize we are forgiven. As always, we 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 we're in chapter 13 now, The Spirit Convicting. And so if you want to read that first section of that chapter from A.W. Pink's book, go to mt4christ.org and you'll find it at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship, and we offer our teachings on, on Christian discipleship based on Dr. Neil Anderson's books for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, all available on our YouTube channel and the blog. And we also offer a Bible study once a week with our good friends Arthur and Susanna Zinkati called Bible Study with the Zinkatis. Last week we did a— just a couple days ago we did a study on work in progress, and we are all a work in progress, and thus I'm doing this, this series on self-deception because we have to live in the truth, and occasionally we, you know, we get— we, we don't realize we're operating out of pride or a false assumption. Or like today's lie is, you know, that money and possessions will make you happy, so you spend all your time amassing wealth and amassing possessions. Meanwhile You know, your, your relationships on your earth and your per— more importantly, your purpose in God's kingdom may be jeopardized. You know, if you're not realizing, if you're not walking in faith, if you haven't been saved, first of all, that's, that's pretty, pretty alarming. Um, you've rebelled against God, you don't believe his word, and you're trying to build your own castle here on earth. Um, but there's no there's no endgame in that. Um, you know, there's no security in the riches that we can amass here on Earth. And we have to realize the riches of his glory, the riches of God's love, um, that come through, through faith in Jesus Christ. You know, our lives are, are, are not finite. They are infinite. They go on beyond this life. And, um, where we spend eternity is directly dependent upon our relationship with the Lord and knowing what really is of value, and that's life in God's kingdom. The Creator, he made all things and he will determine where all things go. And when we put our faith in Christ, he determines that we can come with him and live in his kingdom forever, whereas Jesus described the other place as outer darkness and the gnashing of teeth. So we want to be on the right side of things eternally, and more importantly, to be pursuing our purpose in Christ, to love God and love other people. And, you know, money doesn't play too big a part in that. We can use our money to finance ministries and you know, give to the poor. So we have to, you know, individually seek out this truth to see what role money will play in our lives and to see if it plays too big a part or not enough. You know, but we realize that ultimately that money and those possessions are not going to be what makes us happy. So we should pursue what the Lord tells us will make us happy, and that's being in his presence and and having a right relationship with him. So, speaking of money, I have to go to work, and so I should pray. Yeah. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for the ability to work and to amass fortunes, but Lord, more importantly, we thank you for showing us what really matters. That our lives are more than just the, the amounts that are in our bank accounts, that, that we've been given great value because you showed us the truth of who Jesus Christ is, that you declared us priceless in a way because Christ died for us. So Lord, let us enjoy that knowledge and live in that truth. And pursue your truth and pursue your presence and pursue your purpose for our lives. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message. We just pray for you to come alongside them and their prayer request and their walk of faith, guide them where you want them to go. And Lord, we, we also pray for ourselves that you would go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our steps in the things you would have us do. Because Lord, now that we know the truth, we just want to live in the truth and represent you in your kingdom here on earth, to invite people into a relationship with you and to, um, and to, and to live it ourselves every day. Um, and so Lord, we repent in dust and ashes over the things we, we do that aren't right, and we just ask for you to help us, um, to see the truth in our lives and to fully realize the abundant life that you have for us as much as we can. Um, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, Lord. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
