On the Road to a Deeper Walk - Purity 1164

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 winding stretch of New York State Route 28 and 30 and disappearing around the bend of some colorful fall foliage comes to us from Tara Becker, who shared this road photo from her trip to in the Blue Mountain Lake region of the Adirondacks on social media back on October 2nd. Well, it's Thursday morning and my wife, Tammy Lynn, and I are, are traveling to the Deeper Walk International's 35 Years of Breakthrough Conference in Hobart, Indiana. So I have taken the liberty of preparing this message ahead of time on Tuesday evening, no less, because Wednesdays are when the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group meets. Or met, and I will meet— and we'll meet again next week. Uh, anyway, I am writing and recording this message Tuesday evening because by the time I would have normally sat down to do the podcast and blog on Thursday morning, I am scheduled to be on a Delta flight to Atlanta on the way to Chicago before a rental car drive to Merrillville, Indiana to check in to our hotel before making our way to Deeper Walks headquarters in Hobart. As you may know, I am currently enrolled in Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministry, and beyond the benefits of Deeper Walk's anniversary celebration and a conference loaded with encouraging and educational Christian messages, I am looking forward to finally meeting some of the other students from my Thursday night classes. Also my client experience prayer minister Christy Edge, uh, Nick Harang, our cohort instructor, and Dr. Marcus Warner, the president of Deeper Walk. I get to meet all of them in person. Uh, it's amazing how I can have come to know, admire, and love these people whom I would have never met if it wasn't for the Lord, and whom I now consider friends whom I've never, never met or even seen in person. Uh, the technology available today gives us the ability to not only Boldly go where we never thought we could. It gives us an expanded opportunity to form heart-focused discipleship communities. In fact, if you want to go to the conference with me, you can't, it's sold out. But because of streaming technology, you could still attend the conference online. I'm including a link on the blog if you want to join us. Um, I believe it's $99. Uh, anyway, um, so obviously I'm very excited to be on my way today to see a bit of America I haven't seen before and to see my friends and to be equipped and encouraged when I reach the end of the road. So in the spirit of going on this pilgrimage to the Deeper Walk Breakthrough Conference, I thought I would share Psalm 121, which is known as song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. And Psalm 21 says, I look to the mountains, does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let you stumble. The one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The Lord himself watches over you. The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever. I don't know if I would say I'm coming or going today, but I know that the Lord is faithful to keep watch over all of us who are his in Christ. No matter where we are, both now and forever. Today's Bible verse comes to us from— verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on anger or hot temper, and today's passage is Matthew 5:21-22 from the English Standard Version. The Word of God says, the Word of Jesus says, You have heard that it was said of those— to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Wow. Anyway, today's verses fall under the 13th point of our counseling reference guide's resource section on anger. And that 13th point is: Jesus said that one who is angry with his brother without a cause will be subject to judgment. Today's verses come from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where he really expanded the crowds, the gathered crowds' understanding of of what God's holy standards were really like. Jesus raises the bar on righteousness by equating anger with murder and indicating that an angry attitude and insolent speech could result in eternal separation from God in the hell of fire. Jesus came to set the record straight and to point out that God would not be mocked by a show of righteousness, and that hypocrisy and hidden, unconfessed, and unrepentant sins of the heart would be judged. In John 4:24, Jesus told us— well, he told, told the Samaritan woman at the well that if we were to worship the Lord, we would have to do so in spirit and in truth. We have to be authentic in our faith and obedience. Anything less than faith in Jesus Christ and a surrendered obedience to the spirit of God's word will be seen for what it is. And attitudes and actions that deviate from God's ways will be judged as something worthy of His wrath. So seek to turn from anger and the sin that it leads to. Follow Jesus' way of love and forgiveness, and rather than reacting with malice and hate, respond with actions that would represent the Kingdom of God and cause others to think of "Our Father who art in heaven" and of his son Jesus, who walked in righteousness all the days of his life until he died for us so we could live. 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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we begin sharing from Chapter 28, the Spirit Preserving. So if you want to see how the Holy Spirit preserves us, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that, um, you'll see that, that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we share these encouragements and our testimony to encourage people to, to pursue the Lord, to seek the Lord, and to find him in the person of Jesus Christ, and to put your faith in him, and to live according to what God's word says, according to his truth. Because when we live by the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit grows in our lives, and the fruit of the Spirit includes love, joy, and peace, and a lot of good other good attributes as well. Um, well, it is Tuesday evening and I am about to crash, but hopefully, uh, my plane won't crash today, um, as it is Thursday— as I plan to upload this just before getting on the plane Thursday morning. So, um, today's a day of travel for me and Tammy Lynn, and it's a day of work for most of you. Um, so I know we should definitely pray Uh, let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, uh, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for today's opportunity, uh, to travel, uh, to the Deeper Walk International Conference and to meet some of my friends that I've, I've only seen online. Um, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today and protect us and protect our travels. Lord, we pray for the people who might be listening or reading today's message, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk through life, Lord, because we all need your help. We need you to go before us and to keep us safe and to, to guide us in the way we should go, especially when we make a mistake. We need to know that you're, you're not going to just cut and run on us, Lord, that you're with us and you're there to help us when we need you. And guess what? We need you all the time. So we pray for you to go before us today, Lord, uh, protect us and guide us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move us in the way we should go. All we want to do is represent you in your kingdom now and forevermore. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.