Overcoming 101 Saying Goodbye and Getting Over “The Hump” Purity 908

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, @mtclarkphoto on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of Bell Mountain from the shores of Chattoog Lake comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from Hiawassee, Georgia on social media back on November 27th. This particular friend's travels have been highlighted often on the blog, and it's been a while since I've used any of his stuff, but but I wanted to let them know that I see you, brother, and to thank him for his generosity in sharing his experiences with his friends. Well, it's Wednesday again, and I share our adventurous friend's photo of Bell Mountain today to visually represent our arrival at the first hump day of December and to highlight the enduring quality of friendship and the personal mountains of adversity that we have to face in life on the path of Christian discipleship. In all honesty, I have never personally met the photography— the photographer of today's work. I made his acquaintance on social media a few years ago and have been following him ever since. His journey that I can see has been an epic one. From our view of his life, we have seen him retire and move from his home in Hillsdale, New York upstate New York to hop around all over the place, settling for a time in Kentucky, Florida, and now North Carolina. And even though those were the states he has set up camp for a while, he has traveled to all the nearby places in between as well. The only thing that hasn't changed is his faithfulness in sharing the things he sees along the way. If I am ever at a loss for the photo of the day, he is someone I can look to and can usually count on to have something to use So thanks, Fred. God bless you and your traveling spirit. Friends are people we can count on, right? Friends are people that we have a bond with that can endure separation and time. As a Community Freedom Ministry associate and encourager for Freedom in Christ Ministries, and as a former teacher and the last director of Celebrate Freedom, my former church's now defunct recovery ministry, I I have made a lot of friends through the years. I have increasingly and continually found my freedom in Christ through the years, and since, uh, 2015, the year I went into recovery, I've been sharing the message of hope for a new life of peace and abundant joy that is found through faith in Christ alone. I have encouraged and walked with a lot of people on the path of Christian discipleship, and unfortunately, as I keep walking and talking with God, I eventually am separated from their company. As a facilitator of the Freedom in Christ course, I meet new people and walk with them for 12 weeks or so, and then have to wish them well as our paths divert. However, I consider all the people I have known through my old church, and the people I've met through recovery ministry and the volunteer work I do at Freedom in Christ Ministries as my brothers and sisters in Christ, but also as my friends. While we may have parted company for whatever reasons, I still consider them to be my friends no matter how long we have been separated. As I leave the people I meet on the path of Christian discipleship, I leave with the encouragement that they reach out to me to keep in touch, or if they need or want to talk. With my two-household existence and my secular and ministry work, My availability is something that is hard to pin down on a regular basis, and let's face it, if you're walking in the spirit, the spirit will move you to places you don't expect. But I always encourage the people I meet along the way to reach out to me periodically, or if they are in need, because I want to be a friend they can count on. We in the body of Christ need each other. I know how lonely this road of following the Lord can be, and I want to be thought of as someone who is faithful to encourage others who decide to pick up their cross and follow the Lord. So Monday morning, an old friend from the past reached out to me to confess that he wanted to talk. I was running out the door to work at the time and suggested they just text me or record a voice message to give me a heads up, uh, to tell me what was going on, and I would respond in kind later. But they sheepishly replied to never mind and wished me a Merry Christmas. So as I was driving down the highway, the Holy Spirit indicated to me to reach out and call them. My new car likes to hijack my phone, and I still don't quite understand how it works, so I reached out and eventually figured out how to speak through my car and learned that my friend had made some bad turns, suffered the consequences of poor decisions, and wanted some advice about what to do. Part of my friend's testimony, though, revealed to me the root issue of all his problems. His rebellion. We walked together for a time in the past, but we separated because we went, uh, he went against several of his friends' advice and got involved in a relationship that proved to be toxic. He also hid his relapse in drug and alcohol use. He has been running ever since, and predicted— predictably, everything has become a huge mess. In his statements to me, and asking for help, mind you, he was trying to establish his rights and his freedom to, quote unquote, have a beer at the end of the day, and was lamenting over how he had— has been misused or wrongly accused by the state and other people in his life. In essence, he was making the claim that he could do what he wanted and that he was a victim of circumstances. While he was asking for help, he seemed to deny that he was the problem. So what do you do? Agree with him and tell him the world sucks, or yeah, you, you do what you want? I don't think so. I reminded him of how when he was clean and sober, he was thriving in life, and I told him flat out that he had to say goodbye to the past, say goodbye to the beer, and start following the Lord again. I told him that there simply is no other way but the Lord's way, and that half measures don't would work. If he wanted true freedom and peace, he had to follow the Lord and do his will. Amazingly, he thanked me and said that he knew that he could count on me to tell it like it is, and he made the decision to start following the Lord again. He has texted me over the last couple of days and says he feels better, and he indicates that he is going to change his story from being a cautionary tale to one that tells of a turnaround., and a new life of victory. I sent him a, a YouTube video of Bethel's King of My Heart and an encouraging word to let the Lord rule his heart just this morning. It doesn't cost me a thing to send him an encouraging word, but I, I know just how valuable it is to have a friend in your corner when you decide to climb that mountain of problems that you have to overcome when you decide to be real with God and follow where he leads. I'm not sure what will happen with my friend, but I am praying that he stays faithful to seek the Lord and to surrender his will to God. It's hard going on this path of Christian discipleship, but if you keep walking and talking with God, you'll get over that hump, and eventually you will leave the darkness of your old life behind. As the Lord will fill your life with meaning and purpose that will just happen to lead you on a journey that never ends, whose road is paved with peace, love, and joy. So turn it around and follow the Lord into all he has for you. He did it for me, and he is faithful and trustworthy to do it for you too. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Isaiah 59:2, and it says, "It's your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore." Today's verse speaks about— speaks of the spiritual reality of how our sins disrupt the harmony of our relationship with God. As born-again believers who have put our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, nothing can separate us from the love of God or break our relationship with him. But when we come into a covenant relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ, there is an expectation that you are going to walk the walk as well as talk the talk of a Christian disciple. It is expected that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ that we repent. We are expected to turn from our sinful and selfish ways and to start living our lives according to, according to the, uh, to God's will and ways. To God's will and ways. Oh boy. So what happens when we don't? Well, it feels like God has left us because our sin separates us from fellowship with him. He— we don't experience His presence or blessing because we have walked away from Him by sinning. One of the principles of prayer is to be right with God. If we expect to have our request heard and fulfilled, today's verse— today's verse indicates our prayers won't be heard, fulfilled, because of our sin. But the good news is that God will hear us and be with us the moment we repent. Our fellowship with God is reestablished the moment we confess our sins to him and ask for his help. So don't treat your faith like some game where you can sin, confess, sin, confess. Instead, be faithful to never leave the Lord's side by turning from sin and walking where he would direct 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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we're sharing from the section on the Church of Jesus Christ and discipleship on quote-unquote Chapter 10, The Body of Christ. So if you wanted to see what Dietrich Bonhoeffer had to write about the body of Christ, go to m.tforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also, at the end of today's blog post, you'll find the encouragement to join our Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, or Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. We have audio podcasts that are basically on every platform out there. If there isn't one, let me know. And also, we have those, those same teachings that are audio are also on YouTube as well. So if you wanted to check those out to see what this whole thing about walking in freedom is all about, um, go to mt4christ— well, go to the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast or our YouTube channel of the same name, M.t. for Christ 24/7, um, to, uh, discover those, those classes. They just happen to be the most popular, uh, things on our YouTube channel, whether or not people are listening to them in whole. I will I don't quite know, but the fact that people are seeking these teachings tell me that it's a good thing I put them out there. Why? Because they can really help us. As I testify to continually, the greatest lie that the devil ever put on us is to tell us that some things are impossible, like overcoming our sins. Well, that's simply not true. The Lord has freed us from sin and death. That means we can walk just like Christ walked. Now, we might not be perfect about it, but we can definitely become better at it until we see him face to face. And so I'm not making things up here, you know. We're talking about freedom from addiction to drugs, alcohol, and, you know, sexual immorality. These are the things that the Lord has led me through, and all it, all it took was faith and to follow him. Um, it's not willpower, it's just believing that it's already happened and walking it out experientially throughout life. So do it. I'll encourage you, um, however I can. And if nothing else, I produce these, uh, these messages 6 days a week. You know, if you need encouragement, just tune in and listen. Or reads the blog post that we provide. But no, there is no condemnation in Christ. We all have busy lives, but I want to live mine according to what the Lord would have me do. And I believe that my purpose is to encourage people, to let them know that a life of freedom is possible through Christ and Christ alone. So do that, and, uh, Although we might be free in Christ, we, we still have to work, um, so we'll be heading off to work in a moment. Uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done, Lord, and the fact that even when we sin, we can confess and have that fellowship with you re-established if we just get right and real with you, Lord, to surrender to your will. You give us the freedom to overcome and the power to overcome. And, uh, Lord, we thank you for that. We just encourage anyone who's listening today to be blessed. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside their, their, their walk and their prayer request and to lead them in the way they should go. Give them the power that they need in their lives to, uh, to make a way where there is no way, to get over that hump or whatever they have to face in life. Lord, we know you can do it for them because you did it for us, and we thank you for it. Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today. Open our eyes to the things you need us to see and lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom as best we can here on earth until we see you face to face, either when Christ returns or you call us home to heaven. Uh, in the meantime, we'll just keep walking and talking with you, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.