In this solo devotional podcast, M.t. Clark opens with a personal anecdote about photographing the sun after a demanding job, then launches into a detailed critique of Richard Rohr’s audiobook The Art of Letting Go. Clark argues that Rohr’s universalistic, non‑dualistic theology is incompatible with orthodox Christianity, labeling it heretical for equating Jesus with other spiritual masters, downplaying biblical concepts of hell, and promoting a pantheistic worldview. He then pivots to a pastoral exhortation on trust and obedience, quoting Dr. Charles Stanley’s In Touch devotional, emphasizing that true trust rests in God’s unchanging word and that obedience flows from faith. Clark reads 1 John 2:15‑17, interpreting it as a clear biblical warning against loving the world and its idols, and links this to the necessity of rejecting all religions that claim equal standing with Christianity. He follows with a meditation on Revelation 14, citing Stephen F. Alford’s commentary on the 144,000 pure believers, stressing sexual purity, virginity of conduct, and the call to “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” Throughout, Clark interweaves practical applications—calling listeners to trust God, wait on His timing, and maintain sexual holiness—while promoting several ministry initiatives: the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, a men’s “Grace for the Holidays” online course, upcoming Freedom in Christ men’s courses, and a library of past teaching series on YouTube. The episode concludes with a prayer for guidance, protection, and spiritual awakening, and a repeated invitation for listeners to become “empty for Christ” by surrendering to the Holy Spirit.
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Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. for— M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun shining over Depot Road in Altamont, New York, comes to us from yours truly. As I stopped to take a quick pic of the sun shining over me after I completed a rather long and difficult job. While, while it was grueling and frustrating, I kept my cool by just focusing on the task at hand and doing what I had to do while listening to an interesting but albeit heretical audiobook on spiritual formation. Well, it's Saturday, and yesterday I finished the audiobook version of Richard Rohr's The Art of Letting Go. Thinking it was going to be about, you know, general spiritual formation on a Christian basis. Uh, while I have to admit there were several good points within his teaching that could help someone change their perspective and possibly find a measure of peace and escape from the world system, Rohr's view of religion, um, took a universalistic approach and was less than faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, claiming that people are good at heart No. And have a God nature, more or less? No. And, uh, that people of all religions can find their way to God and salvation by whatever path they choose? No. Um, the way Rohr spoke— and because the author did present his audio teaching himself— about Jesus filled me with horror, quite frankly, as he seemed not to understand that Jesus is God and not just another spiritual master, as Rohr quoted others— Saint Francis, Thomas Merton, and Buddha, and the Dalai Lama— with the same level of respect, if not more, as Jesus. Um, Rohr's non-dualistic philosophy was more like Buddhism than Christian, uh, than Christianity, as he conveniently avoided all of Jesus's teachings on hell and judgment, claiming that Christ didn't think in terms of black and white. Is a hard pill to swallow when you consider Jesus's teaching on cutting off your hands and gouging out your eyes to stop yourself from sinning and going to hell. And I suppose it's easy to think of all— that all roads lead to heaven, uh, when you don't consider Christ's words on the separation of the sheep and the goats. Throughout his teaching, Rohr continually admitted to people calling him a heretic because of his New Age universalistic views, uh, and after listening to his teaching in its entirety, I think it is obvious that the venerable Franciscan Father could learn a thing or two, a thing or two about humility, as he obviously has rejected the warranted criticism that Christians have laid at his feet. Rohr thinks he's on a higher plane of morality and has turned a deaf ear to the truth drawn from scripture. In his search for meaning, he opened himself up to false teachers and is now one himself. Although he seems friendly enough, his teaching would lead people to pantheistic faith and torment in hell. So we have to be careful, uh, who we trust. We are to trust in God and his word alone. And after listening to Rohr's book, I realized that it was very important for Christians to know what they believe and why they believe it, and to have the Bible as their primary source for truth. That's our truth and standard, you know. Just like Satan, Rohr used scripture in a way that supported his non-dualistic philosophy. He sounded compelling, but when you have read and understood the Bible, it's easy to see that the picture he was painting didn't present the whole counsel of God's word and distorted what he did share from it. So read the Bible and know what it says for yourself, and then you will be able to trust and obey the Lord's will for your life and not be led astray by false teachers. Uh, speaking of trusting the Lord, a true teacher of God's word, Dr. Charles Stanley, in his, uh, In Touch devotional for today, addressed the topic of trust, so I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us with some solid biblical teaching. Um, Dr. Charles Stanley writes, The School of Obedience. We can fully trust and obey God's word because he will never fail us. Obedience is a funny thing. We expect it from our children and is essential to success in organizations like the military. However, we're being honest, None of us truly enjoys surrendering our will to another person. They can fail us after all, you know. Thankfully, God never does, and obeying him is always the wisest course of action. Learning to obey involves trusting. Obedience comes from a foundation of faith, while most rebellion stems from a lack of it. That means we will believe God is who he says he is and accept his plans, methods, and timing. We show our love for the Father by living this way. And remember, God delights in blessing those who follow his will. Waiting. When we don't know what to do, we often try to rely on our own understanding, make a move, and then hope God will bless it. That's not scriptural. Um, God's given— God's given us his Spirit as our teacher because he wants us to know his mind and intentions for our life. We must wait in an attitude of trust until we are certain. God assumes full responsibility for giving us direction in our life. He desires to reveal each step along the way, but we must come to him with a trusting heart and a willingness to wait before he reveals the next step. That was from Dr. Charles Stanley. And, you know, trusting and waiting may be two of the most difficult things for men to do. When things go south with our lives and we don't— and we have been betrayed, we naturally don't want to trust anyone ever again, and we don't want to wait for anything. We want the pain to stop, and we want quick answers and solutions to fix our problems. However, if we honestly examine our lives, we will realize that we weren't doing things God's way, and we have reaped from the seeds of disobedience and rebellion. We thought we were in control and could do things our way without any consideration for God's will for our lives, and now we see the consequences in our broken lives. But there is good news. If you're getting this message, you more than likely have seen the error of your ways and have repented. You've gone to the Lord and asked for his help, and he has heard you and may, and may have already proved that he is with you and helping you. No matter where you are on your journey, trusting and waiting will be a part of your pathway to peace. But God won't leave you alone, so you can trust in him and his word to guide you, and you can rest in his presence by simply talking to him. You may have to wait to see what will happen next, but you never have to be alone in the waiting. So draw close to God each day. Thank him for the blessings of the day and for the bad things that didn't happen and for the good things that will happen in the future. Read his word and follow his wisdom. Our old lives before Christ are over, and if we follow his call in our lives, we'll experience freedom, victory, and healing. We just need to trust him, obey him by doing what's right, and wait to see how he will guide us, realizing that we have peace in his presence right now, and we can trust that he will keep us in perfect peace if we keep on walking and talking with him. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture for Reference, uh, Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on friendships, and today's verses are 1 John 2:15-17 from the NIV, which says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Sounds conditional to me. Uh, today's verses are the second of two passages that fall under the ninth and last point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource on friendships. Um, and that 9th point is, um, friendship with the world is hatred towards God. Today's Bible verses tell us quite clearly to not love the world. And when we think about this passage in terms of false teachings, we realize that embracing all the other world religions as equal to Christianity would not only be irrational, intellectually dishonest, or obtuse, but would go against God's word. Exodus 20:3 tells us that the Lord said, you shall have no other gods before me. So we can't love our other world religions or the philosophies and systems of, of this world in the same way we love the Lord. World's ways are contrary to God and must be rejected for his truth. Naming the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life teaches us that the things of the world that the world says will satisfy us are false idols and are not of God. So seek the Lord and his fulfillment through our, our fulfillment through Christ alone and demonstrate that you are a friend and a son or daughter to God. Amen. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. And today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. And in Allford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is Revelation Revelation 14, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 4, which says, 'These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.' And Stephen Alford writes, 'Such is John's description of the 144,000 true believers in the coming day of tribulation. Actually, they are the spiritual remnant from among the Jews. There are 3 things in particular of these godly people.' They were purchased. They were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb, bought by the precious blood of Christ. They were pure in character. They were pure, and in their mouth was found no deceit. They are virgins in conduct. They are— they were pure. They are without fault. These are the ones who were not defiled with women. They were partisans. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, Lord, make this threefold testimony true of me. Amen. Amen. And yeah, so we as Christians, it would be, you know, we have been, you know, if you put your faith in Christ, you have been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus and You know, if you're a Christian, quite frankly, sexual, sexual morality, being pure, um, is, you know, an expectation. You know, we're supposed to be pure, um, for those who aren't married. We're supposed to be, you know, you know, we're not supposed to have sex outside of marriage, um, and for those who are married, just keep your sexual activity within your marriage covenant, um, you know, that's part of You know, God's will for your life is to, you know, to do his will. I believe it's Thessalonians says sexual morality is like right there. And finally, you know, we're to follow the Lamb wherever he goes. We're to follow Jesus with the way we live our lives. And that is why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God and his will for your life? He wants you to follow him with the way you live. And, uh, when you do that, things change. You know, you have to trust him. You might have to wait, um, but then he moves and he guides you in the way you should go. And the way he guided me was to do this podcast and to also lead this, uh, the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church that meets on Wednesdays, uh, at the— at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park. Anyone in the Capital District, uh, who would like to join us can find us in the K-3 classroom on Wednesday evenings at 6:30, and we invite you to come out. Um, also, if the Lord's led me to do, uh, a teaching of the great, you know, Freedom in Christ, uh, Ministries original Grace Course, uh, 6-week study, uh, on grace and experiencing grace in your life. Um, we're calling it Grace for the Holidays because it's during the holiday season, from the week before Thanksgiving to the week of Christmas. So it'll be from November 18th through December 23rd, and It's for men only, online, nationwide, uh, Monday, 6:30, uh, PM. And, uh, you, you, you can register for that class, as some have already done, um, by going to mtforchrist.com and looking at the group events teaching page, or group teaching events page, um, and there's a link. You'll fill out your information, and then we'll be in contact with, with you via email to send you the details before we, uh, we launch on November 18th. All right, and one more thing we're doing in the future is, uh, you know, um, another round of the Freedom in Christ course. We're currently teaching a course that'll end in 2 weeks, but, uh, we've already made plans with Freedom in Christ Ministries to, to, to facilitate another men's course Tuesday nights in 2025, beginning on January 7th. And the reason why we're mentioning it now is because registration is open. And you would find that at the link that's listed here, ficm.org, FICM courses, Freedom in Christ for spring 2025. So we encourage you to sign up. However, if you're, you know, can't, can't make those classes or whatever, we also offer our— and we believe that you can find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. YouTube. We've done teachings for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. And we invite you to check out our playlist page at the Empty for Christ 247 YouTube channel to check those out. Um, that's all the promotions. Um, so we ask the question: are you empty for Christ too? Being empty for Christ just means you surrender to following the Lord's will for your life and you make yourself available to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Um, and so when we ask that question, if you are empty for Christ, you say, keep on walking and talking with God. Uh, and if not, we, we suggest you pray, pray for the Lord to reveal himself to you, or pray, pray to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. After you do that, things change, and, uh, you get a call in your life from the Holy Spirit to follow him, and you know, called to read the word, know the word. So we encourage you to do that. And we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do. We just pray for you to be with us today as we go into work on a Saturday. We love your guidance and your protection and your providence, uh, for today. Lord, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go. And Lord, we also ask for you to pray for anyone reading, listening, or watching today's message, that you would come alongside them and their prayer request and, uh, and help them too. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
