On the Road Again Purity 829

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 the blazing sun and a blue cumulus cloud-filled sky over Waite Road in Easton, New York comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while out walking the dog back on August 13th. Well, it is the Tuesday after Labor Day, and for many it is back-to-school time, and And I, for one, am super excited at the prospect of the new season because tonight I begin facilitating the Freedom in Christ discipleship course for a new group of participants on Zoom this evening. Um, so as I enter into a new season of encouraging others on the path of Christian discipleship, I couldn't help but share a photo that visually represents the fact that we are on the road again. To help others to experience, maintain, or deepen their freedom in Christ. I am by far not a country fan, but when I consider the fact that the Lord has brought me to a place where I can regularly encourage others to discover the abundant life of meaning and purpose that he has for them, I almost want to sing that old Willie Nelson classic whose lyrics say that we are on the road again. Like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway. We're the best of friends, insisting that the world be turning our way. And our way is on the road again. Just can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is making music with my friends, and I can't wait to get on the road again. Uh, but seriously, while the participants to tonight's chorus and I are not the best of friends, in fact, with a couple exceptions, we are complete strangers, And while we won't be literally heading out to make music, I know that if they are faithful to follow the road that the Freedom in Christ course and the Lord have for them to travel, they have the potential to experience a sense of freedom and victory that may cause them to all want to sing a hearty round of "Freebird" like they never have before, except with the— they will be forced to change the lyrics to say, "Lord knows I can change." Lord, help me, I can change. Because our way is not on the road again to make music with our friends. Our way is the way, the truth, and the life. Our way is Jesus Christ. And I know that if we are just faithful in our pursuit to follow him, there is absolutely nothing and no one that can stop us from being the people that God created us to be. Except us. If we believe and follow him, our faith in Jesus Christ and his word will reveal to us the truth of who we are in Christ and will help these men to resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts, to experience their freedom like they never imagined they could. Christ is the answer. Christ is the way. I know this personally simply because I followed him. And experience the new life that He has given me. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a choice but to give Him honor and glory by telling others about what I have come to know. Regardless of my day job, this is my purpose in life: to encourage others to seek the Lord and to follow Jesus. The life I love— the life I love is to encourage people to know that God is alive and He will help them to know the truth that will help, that will set them free. So if you need encouragement and aren't enrolled in tonight's course, check out the teachings I have on the podcast and, and YouTube and start following the road that will lead you to your freedom in Christ, where you will leave behind the troubles of your past and find the peace, joy, and love that comes from walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 Peter 3:12, and it says, the eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face away— a face against those who do evil. Today's verse encourages us to do what is right with the assurance that the Lord is open to our prayers when we do, and his His face is turned away, uh, turned against those who do evil. Um, here the Apostle Peter explains the spiritual reality of prayer and our relationship with God. While God's unconditional love for us caused him to send Christ to die for us so that we could have peace with him and a new life, it doesn't mean that our relationship with God is unaffected by our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Here, Scripture tells us that if we do evil, the Lord turns away from us, or he's against us. If we do what is right, the Lord's ears are open to our prayers, indicating he is listening and may be receptive to answering our petitions of prayer. So this is a prayer principle for sure. If you want your prayers to be heard, you should do what is right, what's right. But this verse reveals much more than that. It points to our relationship with God and how the harmony of that relationship can be positively or negatively affected by our doing what is right. In my immaturity as a new believer, I thought that now that I was forgiven after I put my faith in Christ, I wrongly assumed that whatever I did, if I sinned, it didn't matter. And that's partially true. When I, when I put my faith in Christ genuinely, God's forgiveness is unconditional. I am forgiven for my past, present, and future sins. Nothing I can do can separate me from the love of God. I am His, warts and all. But when I am not acting like a child of God, I separate myself from who I am in Christ and from a harmonious relationship with God. It's been said that the most miserable person is a Christian who is locked in sin, because they are not only acting out of character, but they are denying God's power and truth by by giving them themselves to the sin that they have been set free from. So a Christian should avoid the misery and endeavor to do what's right. When we start living a righteous life based on God's word, we not only avoid the negative consequences of sinful choices, we also establish and maintain our harmony with God, where he is listening to our prayers and possibly granting them. So do what is right and pray to know the peace of a harmonious relationship with God and the joy that comes from knowing that God himself is listening to you. 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 Arnold's Powers of Darkness. Um, and you know, as fate would have it, um, today's section is Know Who You Are in Christ. We're running through the conclusion of Clinton Arnold's book, and you know, it's a little— you know, we might say it's ironic or a coincidence that today when I start the Freedom in Christ course, the section we're sharing from Clinton Arnold's book, the one next one that should happen, just happen to come up, um, tells us to know who we are in Christ. And, um, you know, that's a foundational principle of the Freedom in Christ course and basically a foundational principle to our victory and our freedom in Christ. Um, you know, how are you going to be set free? Are you going to have victory if you don't know who you are in Christ? So that's the beginning. Tonight we'll be teaching, you know, why believe the Bible? You know, why believe the Bible? You know why? Because God's Word sets the foundation for everything. Everything we know about Jesus comes from the Word of God, and, you know, everything we know about ourselves as Christians comes from the Word of God. So we have to believe the Bible to have that as our standard of truth, because it is true, first of all, and second, it tells us everything we need to know about life and godliness and salvation and repentance and how to live this thing called a Christian life. And so tonight we'll be encouraging or teaching or facilitating the first section of the Freedom in Christ course that, you know, teaches us why we should believe the Bible, why it's totally reasonable to believe God's word. And to, you know, and if we believe it, the implication is, is that we all apply it. And that's what the Freedom in Christ course does. As I stated previously, I have lessons out there that teach you all about the discipleship path of freedom and victory, and they're available on the podcast. The classes I taught in the past are Victor Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. You know, that's a progression. That's the way I taught them, and I would say that's the way to go for the, you know, the ideal path. But if you wanted to dive in, you know, you really on any one of those courses you could, because you'll certainly learn something. And, you know, if you're stepping out in faith and seeking the Lord by doing something like that, you establishes your intention to follow him, follow the Lord, and when you seek him, you will find him. So we encourage people to check those out. If, if you're not one of the 10 or 11 or 12 guys that are on my list, you know, tonight— well, this morning I prayed for all the participants on my list, and I don't know, you know, they're literally all over the country. And they're— one of them is in Scotland, so I don't know, I don't know if all these men are going to show up tonight, but they have access, you know, to the Freedom in Christ course material, so they don't necessarily need to speak to me as much as speak to the Lord and seek him through the materials they have access to now. But if anyone should happen to listen to this podcast, you know, basically come to class. We'll keep you accountable and encourage you, you know, as you walk it out. That's the thing about this pathway. We're not really necessarily, you know, supposed to walk it alone. Other Christians should be on the path of Christian discipleship with us, but it can be a lonely road sometimes. And when we find a place where we can find others who have a heart to follow Christ and who want to encourage us as we go, we should walk with them. You know, we're on this road together. So I'm still walking it out myself in many ways. You know, the thing with this road of Christian discipleship is we never arrive until we see the face of Jesus. So So that's, uh, so that's— yeah, sorry, distracted right there looking at something else in my room, a bug. Um, so that's the enemy, you know, you don't want to be distracted. Uh, so we're back to work, we're back to school, and I'm so happy. Um, about the prospect of the potential of what could happen. I've seen people get set free. I've seen people's lives transform. I've seen people whose life was a bunch of struggles, and then they came to this course material and they overcame, and they haven't looked back. And so we have that going on tonight. Thursday we have, you know, some of our graduates from Freedom in Christ are going to join me in an informal study of Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship. Anybody wants access to that Zoom link and will remain silent as I speak, uh, you can email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com and I can invite you to sit in on that study on Thursday nights. I'll be recording it. For the podcast and for YouTube, and we'll see what kind of train wreck that turns out to be. But, you know, no regrets. I'll be encouraging people to follow the Lord, so you really can't go wrong. Yeah, maybe it's not going to be the, you know, the most professionally produced teaching, but it certainly will be sincere and And I think that's it, you know. The Lord cares about what we— how we feel and how we follow him with our hearts. And if you do that, really, you can't go wrong. Um, follow him with your heart, not follow your heart that might lead you into sin. Uh, you know, so follow him, follow Jesus with your heart, um, not your heart and then hope Jesus catches up, you know. Um, no, you want to follow him and And so we encourage that, obviously. And we also encourage the study of God's word as we study the Bible every day a little bit to get that wisdom in us and to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us. And we encourage that in our podcast by doing a weekly Bible study with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti called Bible Study with the Sincottis. Our latest episode was What Is Sin? And that's available on, on both the podcast and YouTube, along with all our previous studies, uh, one form or another, on both the podcast and YouTube. So that's it for today. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much, Lord, for what you've done for us. We thank you for this new season, this new opportunity to grow and learn and encourage others in their faith. Um, we just pray, Lord, for anyone listening. We pray for those participants tonight, and we pray for the special prayer requests that we've already made, um, for my wife and for my kids and my stepkids that are going to school today, and for health issues that, uh, that we know about. We pray for all those, but we also pray for the people listening and for their petitions, Lord, that you would come alongside them, that you would anoint them with your Holy Spirit and guide them in the way they should go. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today. We need your help. Uh, we want you to show us what we need to see, open our eyes to all that you have for us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Encourage us to represent you here on the earth and And, uh, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.