In this solo devotional, M.t. Clark welcomes listeners to Day 11 of the 28‑Day Joy Challenge, which is built on Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey’s The Four Habits of Joy‑Filled People. He begins by directing viewers to his photo of the Hudson River and explains the day’s practice: using personal photos to recall joyful memories, noting the mental, emotional, and physical shifts that arise. Clark then reflects on the transitional struggles of several friends, contrasting loss with potential breakthroughs, and relates these observations to his own journey from a difficult past to a new life after moving into “River House” in 2020. He recounts the excitement of that move, the hard work involved, and how looking back at photos of that period fuels his current joy. The devotional pivots to a biblical meditation on Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NLT), emphasizing the urgency of doing everything well because there is no second chance after death, and ties this to living a Spirit‑filled, purposeful life. Clark promotes several resources: the free 28‑Day Joy Challenge at fourhabits.org, his own site mtforchrist.org, A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit (chapter 8), discipleship classes, a podcast, and a YouTube channel, encouraging listeners to study the Bible, walk in the Spirit, and seek freedom in Christ. He concludes with a personal update about a medical appointment, a brief reminder of unfinished practical tasks, and a heartfelt prayer asking for God’s guidance, revelation, and the strength to do all things well.
Chapters
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 view of the Hudson River from the vantage point of my front yard comes to us from yours truly as today's Joy Challenge calls us to look into our phones to find photos that bring us joy. Well, it's Tuesday, and while there are Things are relatively stable in my life. I am close to several people who seem to be in the midst of a major transitional period of their lives. Things that have been longstanding institutions of their normal lives—jobs, relationships, their health—are no more or on the verge of being over. In some cases, these changes are sad because from where they are standing now, it looks like things have gone from bad to worse. or from good to bad. But in other cases, although there may be a sense of loss and a heartache involved, the changes seem to be a step in the right direction, from bad to possibly good. In a couple of cases, I see people on the verge of a major breakthrough as they have the potential to leave bondage and brokenness behind but it's not my life, and only time will tell if they choose to step into the light of a righteous life or into the— another shadow of the same old darkness. And seeing these friends on the cusp of a new life of freedom, I find myself not only praying for them to do the right thing, but I also get a little impatient to see them do it because they are right there, and all they have to do is not do the stupid things they have done in the past and just keep moving forward away from their mistakes and into a new life. Come on, man, let's go! But it's not my life, and in some of these cases I am far removed from the drama and I'm just hoping and praying for them to wise up. In other situations, I am giving as much counsel and guidance as I can, but know all too well how others before the ones I am counseling now were able to walk in the Spirit for a while before they either stopped moving forward to sit in complacency, or who made a bad turn into confusion and brokenness, making their short-lived victory and subsequent fall all the more tragic. I also have noticed, as I have contemplated these friends' next steps, that I have recalled details from my own journey out of my past and remember the agony and the victory of transitioning to my new life, where I realized that there is no cost too high to pay for your freedom that things are just things, and that throwing things out or giving things away or abandoning things to your nemesis are all viable options when you are determined to leave your broken situation behind. I remember the git 'er done spirit on steroids that I had when God moved all things for good and brought me and my children to my new home down by the river. And while I can remember the difficulties and bitterness that surrounded that transition, Now that I am on the other side of it, I fondly remember the exodus to my new life as a time of exhilaration and joy. And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to find peace in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org, and the link is on the blog today. So let's jump into Day 11, which will direct us to look up some photos that give us joy. And, uh, the 28-Day Joy Challenge says, Day 11: Joy Pictures. Welcome to Day 11 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: we are so glad you are here today to practice building joy with us. Even if you missed some of the previous exercises, you can still receive amazing benefits by jumping in now and any day you are able to. Today's practice, Exercise 11. Today we are practicing building joy starting with appreciation. How this exercise will benefit you. Pictures are a great way to reminisce about some of the special moments from our lives. You can draw on the joy from these personal memories to jumpstart, jumpstart your joy today. Exercise steps. Find a comfortable place, then use your phone or picture album to look at pictures. The goal is to enjoy pictures that are meaningful and savor the joy that comes from remembering your special moments. Notice what changes in your thoughts, feelings, focus, and body while you reminisce. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. That's all from our good friends— well, our friends, um, I fully support their work at 4habits.org. As I stated above, I know people in time of transition right now, and their struggles towards a new life has reminded me of my journey and the struggles that I faced. But I also recognize those hard times were for a purpose, to bring me to a new life of joy and peace, a life that would be defined by walking in the Spirit continuously and progressively. And so, for this morning's joy practice, I immediately dialed the Wayback Machine to the year 2020 and to June, the month I completed the purchase of River House and moved in on my birthday, June 25th. So in 12 days, I will celebrate the 55th— 51st— 51st, easy— 51st year on this planet and the 3rd anniversary of moving into River House, my first sleep in my new home. Surprisingly, I didn't have any photos from my birthday of, uh, back then, uh, but now that I recall it, uh, I had to work on my birthday and finish bringing the last of my stuff to my new property. It was a long day of working and moving from my old place in Creryville to work in Albany to my new place in Stuyvesant was about 45 minutes between points. And so I didn't get done moving until the evening hours. And so that first night I very contentedly crashed I did have some pictures from the 27th, my first Saturday at River House, but I think a good deal of those first river views that I took have already been shared on the blog and moved to cold storage of my Seagate hard drive. But as I looked through what was there, I was filled with joy of remembering the stunned joyful disbelief that I had finally accomplished what I had worked and prayed for for about 18 months or so. Even though I was working two jobs at the time, I was in a state of bliss all that summer. And today's photo was taken on July 28th at 6:09 AM as I would wake up rejoicing over being free and being in my house. So today's joy practice was great. The pictures I looked at were meaningful and I savored the joy that came from remembering my special moments. I noticed my spirits rose and my body relaxed. And I am currently suffering some negative consequences because of the things that are beyond my control. So today's practice was just what I needed to remind me that whatever I have to pay for the things of the past is worth suffering, because those broken days are over. And as, as we go forward in time and space, all things will be resolved eventually, for better or for worse. But no matter what I have to pay or suffer because of others, nothing and no one can take away the freedom I have in Christ. And when I remember what the Lord has done for me and continues to do for me, no one and nothing can steal my peace or joy for long. As always— well, no, let's not say always. Today's Bible verse is, uh, comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Ecclesiastes 9:10, and the Word of God says, "Whatever you do, do well, for when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom." Today's, today's verse encourages us to do things well, because after we pass into eternity, there is no way to make up for what we didn't do or know. The NLT Promise Book for Men only shared the first part of this verse, "Whatever you do, do well," But I decided to go with the whole verse because the emphasis to do things well is stressed even more when we realize that we may not get a second chance to do things right. While I guess we could interpret this verse to see the afterlife as some lazy limbo where there will be no need to work, plan, learn, or know anything, I think that would be a false view of reality. As God's purpose for man from the beginning in the garden, in the garden, in the garden was to tend and watch over it, to rule and reign. And while I can't tell you exactly what we will be doing when God's kingdoms come— kingdom comes, I have to believe that God will give us something to do, and learning will definitely be part of fulfilling our purpose on the earth, or the new earth. But as for here, we don't always get a second chance, so do things well the first time. How many times have we cut corners or done things in a manner less than, than our best and regretted it? That's my whole life. But as I have increasingly walked in the Spirit, the conviction to do what is right is a driving force in my life. And when I agree with it in both what I think and what I do, I have learned that regardless of outcomes, I don't have any regrets. I did my best. So whatever you do, do them well, because not only do we not want to suffer the consequences of doing less than, but we also want to represent God's kingdom in the hopes that the things we say and do will be used by the Lord to welcome more people into his peace. 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 their walk. We can always be learning. Today we continue share— sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we continue sharing from chapter 8, which is on the advent of the Spirit. Yesterday we did the meaning of the advent of the Spirit, and today we consider the purpose of the Spirit's descent. You know, why— what— for what purpose did the Holy Spirit come? Well, If you want to know, A.W. Pink gives us 4 points and lots of explanation of that. So you can go to mtforchrist.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage people to go out and get the whole book, but we provide, you know, we provide these resources at the end of the blog just as, you know, in case I don't say anything of value, you can find something from someone established basically to learn from. My journey has been all about learning, a lot from trial and error, but also a lot from the Word of God and from Christians that, you know, took the wisdom from the Word of God and made it, you know, a little more digestible by explaining it. So that's why we share these things, to encourage people to go in the way they should go. Anyway, Um, oh, and obviously we encourage Bible study. You should read the word of God to hear what God's saying to you and to see how you should live your life. Um, and we encourage walking in the Spirit and getting your freedom in Christ. If you don't know what that's like, we offer our discipleship classes that are on the YouTube channel and our podcast so you can understand who you are in Christ and how to be set free from, from the spiritual forces of darkness and the flesh. And, you know, by going through the steps to freedom in Christ, you repent and turn things around. Anyway, I think that's it for today. I have to go to work. I do have a doctor's appointment., today. So it'll be half a day at work. There's no medical issues really, at least I don't think. I just want to get a physical, um, because the one thing I left undone in my transition from 2020 is I still have a— my primary care provider is still, you know, in the distant south basically. So I wanted to get a primary care provider that's a little closer to home. So Finally, you know, that's one thing I left undone. And, you know, when we, when we move on to a new life, we'll discover, oh yeah, I got to do this. Oh yeah, I got to do that. Oh yeah, I forgot I left that out there. And now someone's, you know, being irresponsible and destroying, you know, destroying things. Yeah, so like I said, we'll have to pay for the cost of our freedom. But good thing is Christ paid for all our sins and gave us new life. So we don't have to do that much work, just sort of get things straightened out here on earth as best as we can, as we encourage people to come into the kingdom. So let's pray and we'll do our best today. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done for us, how you set us free, how you took us away from the broken, stupid decisions of our past. And gave us a new life that's filled with hope, peace, and joy. It was a hard road to learn that your way is the best way, but we thank you for showing it to us and increasingly showing us how to live it out. Lord, we pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and bless them with revelation and, you know, come alongside them in their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Because we all need as much help as we can get. So we ask you to go before us today, show us the things we need to see and move our steps in the things we should do. Put that, that force of your spirit on us to do what's right and to do it well, and help us to do it the best we can, and to lean on you and depend on you for everything. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
