Moving Forward – Remedies for Past, Present, and Future with the Lord Purity 915

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 former train track pathway running through the treetops under a pleasant blue sky comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from their outing with a group of friends on what I believe to be the Hadley Rail Biking Ride back in September of last year. According to the Revolution Rail Company's website, in just minutes into the ride, riders will cross a spectacular 500-foot-long and 90-foot-high bridge that crosses over the confluence of the Hudson and Saconaga Rivers. The bridge overlooks a beautiful historic parabolic bridge and a great set of rapids. If you are not a fan of heights, this may not be the trip for you. The trip continues through the pine canopy where you will likely see chipmunks, squirrels, and sometimes deer and fox. I share this photo with a sense of regret and anticipation as I, I may have missed my chance to do the Hadley Rail Trail back in 2021 and 2022, but there is always 2023 to consider and possibly experience this high ride among the treetops. Well, it's Thursday again, and as is my habit, I am sharing this railway pathway as a visual reminder to all who read this message or hear it on the podcast to get on or to stay on and to keep moving forward on the path of Christian discipleship. Uh, this photo was taken by a friend I met as a part of a divorce support group I was a part of back in 2021 who really came together as a community and who decided to move on with their lives with joy by coming together. Not just for the regular meetings, but in planning fun activities where they could enjoy, where they could socialize and enjoy their freedom in spite of the pain of the past or challenges they were currently going through as they adjusted to the new normal in their post-divorce lives. Um, let's see. Sorry, my bad. Although I don't attend the meetings any longer now that I am remarried, The Divorce Care Group still exists at Starpoint Church and continues to socialize and help its members with emotional support, practical and legal advice, and with fun social activities. So if you are a Christian in the Capital District who have, who have divorced or are going through a divorce, I would recommend that you get connected with this group by going to the Starpoint Church website and joining this growth group. I share the link to it on the blog today. It really helped me to process some of the trauma from divorce and to boldly go out on the social scene within the safety of like-minded Christians. DivorceCare is a national ministry, and I am including the link to their website in the blog today so anyone who needs support can possibly find a group near you or online. In the last couple of days, I have had to deal with the grief and criticism, uh, and as a way to get past the negative emotions, uh, I have gone through in the last 48 hours, I've decided to look back for, uh, for today's photo and to remind myself of the joy of the journey and where I am today. Uh, if you don't— if you didn't know it you can get stuck in the present as well as stuck in the past. So while we have to take care of the here and now, right now, if we are overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, we might, uh, we might decide to resolve to leave those present problems of the heart behind by moving on. However, if you are anything like me, with a somewhat obsessive ideation that can cycle back to the same considerations by dwelling on the same things over and over again, you might be well served to remind yourself of all you have been through in the past to put aside this present drama and to move on, knowing that you are in fact an overcomer. And no matter what has happened in your very recent past that may have been troubling or exposed a weakness in the idea of you making progress, your history will remind you that you are not perfect, but by God, you are not the person you once were. And if you were— are walking and talking with God, you were doing the best you can. Uh, so look back, realize You have made great strides on this path. Forgive those who have offended you, and forgive yourself for not being perfect. Stop thinking about the things you said or did that you cannot change. If you were wrong, apologize and seek forgiveness. However, if the drama that you have been dragged into is just drama, recognize that and move on. Keep doing what you were doing. Keep walking and talking with God. I am someone who may think too much or care too much at times and who can easily become overwhelmed when I have too much on my plate. At work, I normally get 4 jobs assigned to me every day. When I started being a full-time maintenance tech, I would get overwhelmed by thoughts of having to get all 4 jobs completed in a day's time, and I put pressure on myself because I wanted to, quote-unquote, do a good job and quote-unquote, get her done. And each instance I was filled with fear and anxiety about being able to perform. And when I looked at the 4 jobs in front of me, I would get— feel burdened. Oh, I got this one here and that one there. That, that sounds like a real mess. So that looks easy. How am I supposed to get all these done when they, they are all over the place? If this little drama wasn't enough, occasionally dispatch would change my assignments in the middle of the day. Adding new work or taking away jobs as the day progressed. So because I had anticipated how my day would go, I would go through the day like I was riding a roller coaster of reactivity, becoming anxious or angry at every twist and turn of the day. But I now have learned to, to do only what is it— what is before me, to only do what is before me, yeah, and to accept the things I can't do and to face the day without expectations and knowing that my value is determined by God who loves me for who I am and not by my performance at work. So now I don't even really look at the other jobs assigned to me. I try to only look at the job I'm going to dispatch on. All of these enlightened responses have helped me keep my peace and patience. So if you're dwelling on the past, look at now and look at the future. If you're stuck in the present— stuck in the middle with me— look to the past to remind yourself that you've survived this far, and look to moving on by dealing with this clear and present danger to your mental health by doing those steps: offering forgiveness, seeking forgiveness, and making a plan and, and going ahead. And making a plan and going ahead. And if you are worried about the big dark future of what may happen if this and that happen or don't happen, etc., slow your roll. Stand firm in the present with the determination that you will do everything you can do in your power and by the power of the Holy Spirit in faith today to set a course for the future when— where, uh, where when that day comes, you'll be ready for it and assured that you did all you could regardless of the results. Oh, and by the way, in all of these scenarios, we walk and talk with God and consider His ways and His wisdom for how we live our lives, and we do them to best— to, to the best of our abilities. We tell the truth, we live in the truth, and if we discover we have taken— made a mistake, we correct ourselves, we recorrect our course, but we do not live in condemnation and we do not change the direction of our path of following the road that the Lord has put us on. Because of bumps along the way, unless the Lord is directing us to. So hey, God's mercies are new every morning, and if you upset— and if you were upset yesterday, um, there's no reason— that's no reason to be upset today. Take time to connect with the Lord in Bible study and prayer, and by thanking him for all he is and for all he has done and done in and will do in your life. Sure, a little rain will fall, and occasionally there will be some major storms to walk through in this life. But when we remember who we are in Christ and the fact that we never walk alone when we follow the Lord, we can have peace and amazingly joy when we apply his wisdom to our lives. So figure out God's remedy for your situation today if you need to. Or just continue in the way of peace that you have discovered when you walk and talk with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are Hebrews 6:11-12, and they say, our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance. Today's verses encourage us to keep loving others with the expectation that it'll make you spiritually sharp and caring, and thus proving that you are in God's kingdom and due to inherit His precious promises. Loving others is easy when you don't have to deal with them. Loving people from afar on the safe confines of a meditation cushion may work for the Buddhist, but the Lord calls Christians to get our hands dirty and occasionally wash some feet. God calls us to care for people and to help them. God calls us to love our enemies. Before Christ, it was so much easier to just hate people who disappointed you. Oh, he said something I don't like? I hate him. He's dead to me. But now, as Christians, we are called to make peace as much as it depends on us with all men. Yikes. So instead of just knee-jerk reacting to people and considering— and consigning them to the realm of the hated people that we don't interact with, God compels us to consider what it is like to to walk a mile in their shoes and to actually listen and try to understand where they are coming from. And even if they are wrong and way off base, we are called to forgive them and love them anyway. Iron sharpening iron isn't always a buddy-buddy situation. We become spiritually sharp by leaning— by, by leaning— by learning to reject our worldly knee-jerk responses for the Lord's wisdom and by being patient in suffering, to be kind in the face of adversity. So as much as we may feel righteous by rejecting people that disagree with us, we should consider traveling the path of humility that Jesus walked. He knew everything and had to deal with untold levels of ignorance and sin when he came to Earth. He was misunderstood and hated, but he responded with love and forgiveness, and He showed us the way to inherit the promises of God. So keep loving people, try to show them the way, but understand that even if they reject, reject it, we are to still be kind and loving towards them, to sharpen our resolve to be like Christ. 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 visual— the visible church community chapter from his book. Basically, there's, there's a bunch of paragraphs there for you to read. So if you're interested in what Bonhoeffer has to say about the visible church community, go to m.tforchrist.org to check out resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage people to check out the other things that we provide. Basically, we've, we've provided discipleship classes called Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, all based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God. They're available on the podcast and our YouTube channel. Both have the same name, M.t. Clark Christ 247. Um, so we invite you to check those out to, to be edified, be encouraged in your walk of faith and freedom in Christ. As always, uh, we also work here on the Word of God, and we encourage people to study the Bible because that's where the wisdom lies, in God's Word. And we encourage that by providing our Bible study discussion that we we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti once a week. Uh, that little program is called Bible Study with the Sincottis and is available on the podcast. All of the episodes are available on the podcast and the, uh, the YouTube channel. Um, well, it's Thursday, and tonight I'll be doing the final lesson of the Bonhoeffer discipleship series that I'm doing on, on the podcast. Basically, it's on the image of Christ. So if you wanted to check that out, that'll be uploaded later this evening after I complete it, Lord willing. It was a little, you know, I love Bonhoeffer's book The Cost of Discipleship, and, you know, after reading it the second time, I really felt led to share it with as many people as I could. There's really, I mean, there is an audiobook out there for people who want to listen to it. I recommend that, it's sort of great. That's how I first got exposed to it, and, but I wanted to do something, I wanted to do something on the podcast with it, so I thought I was going to summarize some of the teachings, and then I ended up basically presenting the entire entire text, not from the original Cost of Discipleship version, but from the updated version, actually, that I have problems with at times. But the translation's a little different. But I've used the Bonhoeffer's Works Volume 4, Discipleship, for the— I would say a good 90% of the lessons. So if you are not familiar with that version of the text, my, my read-through of the material is a way to introduce you to it. And I do it with a PowerPoint presentation and pictures, so, you know, you don't have to read it. I read it, and we run through it together, and I share my insights— what limited ones there are— as we go. So it was a labor of love, and this about to complete. And, uh, after that, I look forward to, um, you know, next week, um, leads into Christmas. And what a great time to complete a project and to, uh, press in, uh, to, you know, new independent studies and whatever I might do, um, after tonight's final presentation. So, um, we encourage people to walk and talk with God and Lord, you know, and guys, if you're, you know, you're gonna run into problems in life, you gotta learn how to, you know, move past them. And I hope today's blog post was helpful for that. You know, if you're stuck in the past, look in the present and the future. If you're stuck in the present, look in the past and then move on toward the future. If you can, at least move on to today, into tomorrow, etc. And if you're worried about the future, just Prepare for it today, um, and every day until you get there, and, uh, you'll be okay. And do it always in the presence of the Lord. And so let's, let's draw him into his presence in prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us and who you made us, and, you know, um, who you made us to be and who you made us in Christ. You know, when we realize our value is determined by you, we can rejoice every day and not beat ourselves up about, you know, the things that we do that aren't perfect. And we can rejoice in your forgiveness and the new eternal life that leads us out of sin and into the purpose that you made us for. So Lord, we pray for you to bless everyone who's listening today or reading the blog post. We pray for them Uh, that you would come alongside them and bless them in their prayer request and everything they're doing. And Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, um, to lead us in the way we should go, to open our eyes to all the things that you want us to see and all the things you want us to do. Because Lord, uh, we're not perfect people, but the one thing we, we have is we have a perfect love to do your will. Uh, the love's there. The, the performance might not be perfect, but But we do want to do, do, do right by you, Lord. We want to be right with you. And so we just pray for you to help us in that every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.