“No Brainers” & The Cost of Complicating Simple Decisions - Purity 1151

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 mountains surrounded by a sea of clouds at sunrise comes to us from Fred Dimmock, who shared this mountain morning scene on social media this past Monday from his visit to Waha Bald in Franklin, North Carolina. Well, it's Wednesday and Fred's mountain photo is spectacular., and was a no-brainer of a selection to visually represent our arrival to yet another hump day. As easy a selection, as easy a selection was picking Fred's photo to represent our arrival at the midpoint of another week of our lives, unfortunately all our decisions aren't, don't always seem so clear. Life is complicated, and sometimes the things we think will help us disappoint us. Or the things we thought are what— the things we thought are, are not what we thought they were. And because of our mistakes and disappointments, we can become a little gun-shy about pulling the trigger on making decisions and taking actions. When we add in the elements of financial considerations— can I afford this? Do I have the money for this? Do I really want to spend the money on this? The days of our lives. I don't have time for that. I have to work. I have to go to blank. And our relationships, maybe they won't like it. I can't because I have to take care of blank. I would, but blank has to blank. So, so our past experiences of mistakes and disappointments and all these other factors can really muddy the waters, and we can become even more uncertain about making decisions and taking action. A simple no-brainer like, "When you're sick, you go to the doctor," can become a matter of debate. If you have ever gone to a doctor and been sent home with no treatment other than what you were already doing, you know how hesitant you can be in seeking out the assistance of a, of a profession that admits they are just practicing medicine. However, failing to seek medical medication or going to the doctor sooner rather than later can have severe, if not fatal, consequences. I was reminded of this as we got the news about my wife, Tammy Lynn's diagnosis yesterday. The infection that stemmed from Tammy Lynn's gums and spread to her ear and sinuses over the weekend is a serious one. The dentist told Tammy Lynn that if she didn't get treatment when she did, that it could have been fatal. Fatal as in dead. If she had ignored her worsening pain and swelling or even just gone to sleep on Sunday evening, The dentist stated that she could have gone into a sepsis condition and died. Fortunately, Tammy Lynn realized the seriousness of her situation and, despite her initial hesitations, asked me to take her to the emergency room. She admitted to me yesterday that at the time she had the feeling in her spirit that something was wrong and feared that if she fell asleep she would die. But of course she didn't voice that concern because she thought she was overreacting. From her symptoms, I surmised that she had a pretty serious ear infection caused by the germy kids at school. But guess what? I'm not a doctor, and even though I have quite a bit experience with ear infections and can tell you that if your ear starts making crackling noises like it did with Tammy Lynn, to get to the doctor as, as soon as possible, uh, there are some who that would say to just let things like that take its course and possibly die, apparently. You see, the ear infection and the sinus infection was a symptom of a more serious problem with my wife's gums and teeth that had no symptoms. And we are both thanking God for his mercy in moving us to get Tammy Lynn the medical attention she needed. Woo-hoo! Uh, that was a close one, but all's well that ends well, right? Tammy Lynn's got the help she needed and all is good, right? Um, have you ever noticed that when you tell people about serious medical conditions, they always push to the comfortable happy ending? So everything's good now is the assumption, uh, we all make before we suffer a serious loss or tragedy. All things work out, everything is going to be fine is an urban legend of those who have never suffered unexpected losses because, praise the Lord, most of the tragic bad things that could happen don't come to pass, leaving us somewhat naive about life. Yes, Tammy Lynn got her meds and is scheduled for dental surgery on Thursday, and we are trusting the Lord to use her dentist to rid her of the infection and help her to be healed. So everything is going to be good now. Good. Geez, you had me worried. Well, not so fast, because even though I have suffered, suffered unexpected tragedy in the past, I am still predisposed to believing everything's gonna be all right. But yesterday, to fully grasp the severity of Tammy Lynn's situation, her dentist advised her not to use a warm or hot compress to alleviate the pain or swelling to her face. Gee, why is that? Well, apparently Tammy Lynn's infection is so toxic that the dentist warned her not to use a warm or hot compress on her face because it could cause the infection to come out of the pores of her skin, and the toxicity of the infected material would cause burning or scarring to the point that she would need plastic surgery. So obviously, I am asking for prayers today for my wife and her healing. We trust the Lord to help us, and we will face whatever comes in, in faith and with the expectation that all will be well after the surgery. But we are staying in prayer until Tammy Lynn is cleansed of this infection. In life, we can't let the circumstances of our past experiences, finances, times, or relationships and responsibilities get in the way of making those no-brainer decisions. Often when we fail, you know, often when we fall into calamities or conditions of suffering, we fail to do some simple things that could have prevented disaster. We are invariably asked, "Why didn't you do what was right?" Heck, my whole testimony of brokenness could have been avoided if I had only done what was right according to God's word. Time and time again, so much pain and suffering could have been avoided in my life if I had only done the no-brainer of believing God's Word and doing what it says. So whether it affects your physical, mental, emotional, financial, or spiritual health, let me encourage you that it is better to make those hard but simple decisions to take corrective action sooner rather than later. Those decisions to take care of yourself or to repent and follow the Lord just may save your life, if not your soul. So listen to that still, quiet voice. That's God calling you to do what's right and follow him into the healing he has for you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on anger, and today's verse is 1 Peter 4:8 from the English Standard Version. The word of God says, "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." Today's verses— uh, verse falls under the third point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on anger. And that third point is: love covers a multitude of sins and overlooks many offenses. Today's verse is the fifth of five passages of scripture that our reference— our resource provides to demonstrate love's power over anger. And rather than presenting them all at once, we are doing them one at a time, one day at a time. And today's verse highlights the first clause of our resource's third point by pointing to God— love's power to cover a multitude of sins. This is it, guys. The love covers a multitude of sins verse is 1 Peter 4:8. Put that into your mental Rolodex for quick Bible verse dropping. Love covers a multitude of sins. Uh, 1 Peter 4:8. Impress your friends. But seriously, what does that mean? Well, the verse that precedes— the verses that precede it encourage repentance from sin, and the verses that follow it indicate that we are to stop complaining and serve others. And the reason we behave in these ways is because of the love that was shown to us. That we, we be willing, that we willingly face suffering, insults, and trials because we have entrusted our souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. God's love for us sent Jesus to die for us. It was the only thing that, you know, that covered our sin. This isn't a Hallmark moment of some nebulous lovey-dovey feeling making everything all right. This is the hard love of God that cost the life of his Son and causes us to do the hard things like repenting and forgiving and being patient and choosing to put others above ourselves. And we do them because the one who loved us did it for us, and we reflect his light by living like Jesus. As always, I invite all to go to m.t. for christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue sharing from chapter 25 on the Spirit assisting, and today's section is Help in Intercessory Prayer. And so if you want to re— read how the Holy Spirit helps in intercessory prayer, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. You'll also see at the end of today's blog post an encouragement to join our Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the MT for Christ 247 podcast, um, and they're on our YouTube channel as well. Um, and I'd be willing to send you the materials that I handed out for those classes free of charge via email if you contact me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Happy to make the plug about those classes because yesterday on YouTube I received a comment on lesson 1 of the Freedom in Christ series of why we believe the Bible that said thank you. And so I'm greatly encouraged that someone apparently listened to enough of the message to, to be thankful, uh, to, to hear what it had to say. And I'm greatly encouraged that the, the those discipleship classes for Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and Victory Over the Darkness, um, you know, are continuing to get hits, um, on YouTube. Um, it's difficult to discern how much people watch or whatever, but the comments tell me that, you know, they're receiving the good news that, that those, those, those lessons have that teach you, you know, why we would believe the Bible and, you know, who we are in Christ. And it teaches about the harsh realities of the spiritual forces of darkness that would seek to lead us astray, and the difficulties of life, and, um, you know, basically how you can resolve your personal and spiritual conflicts through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. So we share those because those teachings were transformative in my life, and thus I was trained to to lead a freedom ministry, and I led it, and I had the presence of mind because people asked for it to provide a remote option back in 2021, and that basically started the whole podcast thing. And, um, you know, whether it doesn't reach many people, but I'm greatly encouraged that people are— it's more than zero views. And we'll take it, and we'd love to give God glory for anything that comes out of the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson, his word. Obviously, I'm just the voice that delivered the message, someone else's message, the Lord's message, you know, to know who we are in Christ and to follow Jesus. Um, you know, not for nothing, when you lead a freedom ministry, um, you know, you get spiritual resistance.. And whether or not Tammy Lynn's attack was demonically inspired, I don't know. But I know God is good, and luckily we, um, we got her to the doctor in time, and prayerfully, um, you know, um, Tammy Lynn will be completely healed. We're praying for that today. But at the same time, and I can't even make this up, the other man that's in ministry with me Scott Salvador, you know, oops, I'm sorry, Scott, I just threw you out there, had a medical issue as well unexpectedly on Sunday. You know, we're both serving in a recovery ministry to encourage people to find their freedom in Christ, and you know, we're finding resistance, difficulties in our lives on occasion. You know, when you follow the Lord, not everything's going to be all right. Sometimes you run into opposition or trials, and the question is, will you remain faithful? And for me and my— I don't know about my house, but for me and my house, as much as I can encourage, we're going to follow the Lord. You know, all roads lead to God. However they might lead to God, but whether or not you face you know, a welcome into his kingdom, or you face his wrath, depends on whether or not you have faith in Jesus Christ. And you have to have Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And when you, when you discover that truth, you're supposed to follow and serve him and his kingdom. And we do that by pointing to Jesus and by encouraging people to break the bonds that keep them in, you know, in slavery to sin. Uh, we don't, you know, we don't— we used to practice greasy grace. We were very happy to be forgiven and just continue in our sin. But the Lord didn't really lead me to Christ to stay a drunk. And so, so, uh, he was patient and he encouraged me to repent. And I found freedom and victory and a whole lot of trials in between. But the Lord was faithful to lead me out of the darkness into his light, and I'm going to keep on walking and talking with God until I see him face to face. So I encourage you to do so. You know, it's difficult. I've recently been counseling a man who's interested, you know, following the Lord. He's first moved to, you know, possibly forgive people in his past, which was a big breakthrough. And now there's the possibility of turning from alcohol, you know, for good. And I'm like all for it, you know, obviously. But it's a difficult road. And I said, you got to do this for the right reasons. I don't know if you're trying to impress somebody or save a relationship, but the relationship that you'd most be concerned about is the one that you have between you and God. And then if you choose a lifestyle of Christian discipleship, you have to choose it because you love the Lord, not because of what it could possibly give you. Because you will suffer, but God will heal you, you know, and God will lead you out of the darkness. You might suffer for a time, but all his ways lead to peace. And it might be rest in peace, but even in that, there's no, there's no fear because Christ has given us eternal life. So, so I encourage you, tonight we have Celebrate Freedom, uh, the growth group at Starpoint Church. If you're in the Capital District, I encourage you to come. Uh, the meeting is 6:30 PM and you can register for that online through Starpoint Church, through the events. It's an event, not just a growth group. In other words, if you look in growth groups, you won't find us, but we are an event basically, and you can register through the events for Celebrate Freedom. That's once a week on Wednesday nights. And how can a single meeting change your life? It can't, but a relationship with the Lord that we encourage and the community that we provide that supports your walk can help. So we meet once a week. To encourage people in the way they should walk according to the Word of God and the material that's in the Celebrate Recovery material and everything I know from Freedom in Christ and Deeper Walk International gets thrown out there somehow to encourage people to walk. And when you start to walk and talk with God, amazing things happen. And I've really gone on and over, I think, today, so we're going to wrap it up with some prayer. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we pray for our wife, Tammy Lynn, that you would continue her healing until she is completely healed after her surgery on Thursday. We pray for everything to go well. We pray for you to bless the dentist and his skills and his team and deliver my wife safely through this trial. Um, or we ask for you to, uh, to help us as we always do. And Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening. We pray for them and their prayer request. We don't know what situations they're going through, but we know some people are suffering still. They suffered some unexpected losses and some heartbreaking losses and tragedies themselves. And so we pray for them, and we pray for you to come alongside them and lead them in the way they should go, come alongside them in their faith walk. And Lord, for all of us today, we want you to go before us, um, help us, um, 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 remain faithful to follow you, Lord, and represent you on— in your kingdom here on earth. So Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.