Never Not Amazing – Our Walk with God – Purity 756

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 clouds and blue skies over the surrounding green shoreline from the vantage point of the waters of Lake George comes to us from a friend's Sunday afternoon boating excursion there that they shared on social media with the comment, "Lake George will never not be amazing." For any of my friends who are not familiar with this large lake in the quote-unquote "real upstate," I would have to concur with my friend's assessment of the lake. It is amazing, but I would encourage that if you visit Lake George to definitely take a boat tour, or better yet, rent a boat to explore the vast expanses and travel the length of the lake to get a true idea of just how large and amazing the lake that God has made really is. Well, it's Monday again, and I love my friend's comment about Lake George. It will never not be amazing. That's a bold claim, but my friend makes it because he has not only seen it from the shores of the public beaches, he has seen it from his kayak and from his friend's rented boat, has done some overnight camping there, and has seen it at different seasons of the year. He might not be an expert regarding Lake George, but he definitely has a relationship with the lake that goes beyond just seeing it in passing while driving by on Beach Road or from just making an afternoon visit to one of the Village of Lake George public beaches. He knows the lake, not perfectly I'm sure, but he knows it and recognizes how amazing it is and doesn't preface his claim with its, with its quality of amazement being subject to the just the right conditions, like it's amazing on sunny days in June. No, my friend's words state that the amazing quality of Lake George is always there to enjoy, and it is. But I think we can all agree that experiencing the amazement of the lake has a lot to do with your relationship with the lake, your appreciation of it, and your awareness or perspective of the God-made wonder that lies before you. My friend's words reminds me of my relationship with the Lord. And how, because of who he is, it will never not be amazing. After a wonderful weekend spent with my wife at my countryside home, I drove my home yesterday afternoon and reflected on my relationship with her and how my journey of faith and my relationship with the Lord was directly responsible for meeting this faithful woman who would agree to be my wife in less than a year's time. She met me because of my podcast, which I did to try to expand the reach of the new discipleship ministry that I started at my old church, which I did to try to help other Christians to experience their freedom in Christ, because the Lord had led me to experience my freedom in Christ after I agreed to repent of the darkness of my past, which was a response to the decision I made to seek the Lord's will for my life and to be authentic in my Christian faith, which was a response to a gospel radio message that caused me to understand that I could be forgiven of my sins and given eternal life by making Jesus my Lord and Savior. I can go further back to give the testimony of the radio preacher's testimony and why he— why and how he became a pastor and how the Lord moved in their life. A part of which was described in the radio message that helped save my life, but I think you get the idea. The testimony never ends, for each Christian's testimony goes back to the person of Jesus Christ. Not only does our testimony go back to Christ, it would then go back through the Old Testament scriptures to creation itself. The Christian faith, the family of God, goes back to the beginning of an— uh, creation of and the fall of man, when God prophetically spoke of his redemptive plan, stating how Eve's offspring, her Seed with a capital S, one day would bruise the head of the serpent, meaning how Jesus would defeat the powers of darkness, sin, and the grave. But to see that long winding trail through the history of man, you have to have a relationship with God and his word. Talk about amazing stories, and this one is a true one that we get to be a part of. The mere fact that we have been welcomed into the kingdom of God and are adopted into his royal family through our faith in Christ should make us realize that our relationship with God will never not be amazing. But just like how we could have only a passing knowledge of Lake George or not really get it or appreciate it, We could similarly have a shallow understanding of God and not have the robust relationship with God that he silently invites us to explore. When we continue to seek God's presence, relate to him through prayer and Bible study, uh, Bible study, and when we reflect on who we are in Christ and our continuing relationship with him, we will understand how our relationship with God will never not be amazing, because not only do we get to reflect on and rejoice over who God is, what he has done, and how he made, saved, and moved our lives, but we get to be amazed over what he is doing here and now, today, and who we are in Christ here and now, today, and how our lives are forever connected. So even though it's Monday, remember your relationship with God that never ends. When you make Jesus your Lord and Savior, and enjoy the fact that there will never be a time when your relationship with him will not be amazing. The only thing that will change about our amazing relationship with God will be the specifics of the details of how we are interact— interacting with God and how we are appreciating and enjoying our relationship with him. If we get too caught up in the things of the world or we get too overwhelmed by the problems that surround us we could unwittingly choose to not spend time in our real amazing relationship with God, and we will suffer for it because we will be all over the place emotionally and mentally, as our thoughts and moods will be tied to the changing circumstances of our lives rather than the steady and constant acceptance, security, and significance that comes from being grounded and our relationship with our Heavenly Father. So keep walking and talking with God. Look around at the amazing things in this world that God has made. Remember the amazing things that God has done throughout history that is documented in the Word of God. Remember how he brought you from death to life through faith in Jesus and all the things that he has done in your life since then. And then rejoice and remember that your amazing relationship with God will never end, and it continues today. The more time we spend seeking the Lord and his will for our lives, the more rewarding our relationship will be. But whether it includes spectacular moves of God or is just expressed by an abiding peace, there will never be a day where our relationship with God is not amazing. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 John 4:10, and it says, this is real love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Today's Bible verse tells us what real love is: the love of God that is expressed sacrificially as he sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins. And to give us eternal life through faith in Him. Nope, we didn't earn our forgiveness or make up for our sins because of our great love for God. All our efforts would have failed to pay, pay our, pay for our sins of cosmic betrayal that was expressed every time we dismissed God's word or broke His commandments. We might be able to have a small idea of the depth of our sins by imagining having a child or pet, maybe, that although you created, loved, and raised, didn't repay you with love and affection, but instead took every opportunity to disobey your commands and instructions, took delight in the rebellion, and either cursed your name or chose to treat you like you didn't exist. Not only did this child or pet have one terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, They had years and years and years of willful or ignorant disobedience and rebellion, and somehow had the audacity to man— to demand they be provided for and cared for at great cost to you. That gives us a small idea of the depth of our sins. You can't pay that back. But God not only forgives us our sins through Through the sacrifice of Christ, he also freely welcomes us into his family with no hard feelings and no conditions other than putting your faith in the one who died for you. Such great love, such great mercy, such great grace must be understood and appreciated. We have been forgiven everything when we didn't deserve it, and it cost Christ suffering and death, but he paid it. So we could live. So appreciate God's real love for you by seeking to know him more and to share the good news of what real love is with others who desperately need it. 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 Clinton E. Arnold's Powers of Darkness. And today, um, it's still going over, uh, the first century environment that surrounded Paul's letters and discusses the uses for magic, spirit guides, and divination. So if you're interested in those occult topics, um, go to mtforchrist.org and see what, uh, Brettney Arnold has to say about that in his book Powers of Darkness. As always, we share that resource because we found it helpful, uh, in our, in our Christian walk. And, uh, you know, we invite you to, to, um, to, to, you know, get a sample here, um, and to, uh, you know, go out and purchase that book or read that book. Um, it's somewhat academic in study, to be quite, quite honest, but, um, it gives you a good background into the culture and environment that Paul grew up— well, Paul was writing in, in the first century when he wrote about principalities and powers in his epistles. And it's a good fundamental teaching on spiritual warfare and what the enemy does and how we can overcome. So that's why I share it on the blog. So you can check that out today at mtforchrist.org. And as always, I invite people to, you know, experience their amazing relationship with God by following the Lord with everything you do, um, by trying to connect to him. And we encourage that through a life of discipleship that includes Bible study and prayer. And if you don't know what that's all about, or, um, we provide teachings, um, on the podcast for, uh, the 3 classes we did in 2021, uh, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Gives you some fundamental teaching on your identity in Christ and, uh, you know, how to live, uh, and experience, uh, the peace and freedom that comes from faith in Jesus Christ. So we invite you to check those out in the podcast as well as the, uh, our YouTube channel for MT for Christ 24/7. So there are links for that on every blog post. So if you don't know where to find it, you can, you can just go to mtforchrist.org, scroll to the bottom of our messages, and you'll see a bunch of different links for, for all those things. And we also obviously love and revere the Word of God, and we love discussing topics drawn from it. With our good friends Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. Yesterday we did a study about the two paths you can choose to go by, and how it was discussion of sections of Proverbs. And so if you want to check that out, that's available on the audio podcast and on our YouTube channel, and as, as are all the studies that we've done previously. Not all the video studies as we are releasing them, you know, basically from the time we started in January up until Easter Sunday. All those video messages weren't released previously, and so we decided to roll them out one at a time until we're all caught up somewhere over the summer. I think it's going to be like the last week in July we'll have all the Zoom video class, uh, video Bible studies, um, available on the YouTube channel. So if you're interested in checking those out, you can check out the new one on Sunday, uh, and, uh, the, the throwback one every Wednesday as, uh, we'll be releasing those in the upcoming weeks. Um, and that's about it. It is Monday. We got to get out there and work. Um, I would think the vast majority, unless you're on vacation. It's a little early in June, so I doubt anyone's on vacation, but you never know. So if you're on vacation, enjoy it, but the rest of us, we gotta get to work today. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for the amazing— the relationship that's never not amazing. Um, as, as our friend stated about Lake George, we can state about you and and know that to be even more true than Lake George. Um, but it's got to be true based on our relationship with you, Lord. So we thank you for bringing us into the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for all the people listening today, and Lord, we pray for family and friends, uh, who are going through issues. As I've seen things on social media, we've made prayers this morning in certain circumstances. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside our friends out there who need healing, who need, uh, your hand of providence to bring, bring good results. And so we pray for that for, for our friends and family that are going through things right now. And we pray that for the people listening in today, Lord. Um, Lord, we just thank you for, for the people you put in our lives, whether they're walking along with us on the path of Christian discipleship, or they're just out there. Um, Lord, we appreciate the friends and family you've given us and for what they are, and we release them to you, and we hope they can be blessed by you because we know you're good. And we thank you for all of the good things you've given us in life and all the things that caused us to grow that may have not been so good. Um, Lord, we, we come at you in spirit and truth, and, um, we ask you to lead us into what you want us to do with our lives. We ask for you to open our eyes to see your truth and to, and to see the beauty that's out there in the world today. And we pray for you to lead us into the good works that you prepared for us beforehand. We know last week, uh, you led us into some acts of kindness even though we didn't want to walk into them. As, well, as I had an encounter with an older woman that I ended up helping out when I didn't expect to be helping out anybody and actually commented how I wouldn't help anyone shortly before that happened. So we thank you for being gracious and leading us in the way we should go even when we resist it. Um, but we thank you for that, um, that opportunity and, you know, that example of how you're, you're there, um, guiding us, um, to do what we should do, to do what's right and good and pure and holy. And it's only through your guidance, Lord, that we're going to be able to do that at all. So we pray for you to go before us today, Lord. We pray for you to set things up um, as you do every day, um, to lead us further and closer to you. And, uh, Lord, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.