In this devotional broadcast, M.t. Clark reflects on how physical exercise can serve as a means of spiritual cleansing, using a recent photo of his cousin’s summit campsite as a visual metaphor for “hump day” renewal. He argues that caring for the body—through nutrition, rest, and regular activity—honors the temple of the Holy Spirit and produces endorphin‑driven joy that can be elevated into deeper worship when coupled with gratitude toward God. Clark then examines Psalm 1:1 and Psalm 112:1‑3, emphasizing that a joyful, reverent fear of the Lord and obedience to His commands bring personal blessing and generational impact. He contrasts this biblical view with liturgical traditions that foster fear of judgment, asserting that true Christian fear stems from love, mercy, and assurance of salvation. Throughout, he promotes several ministry resources: the mtforchrist.org website, a podcast with Arthur and Susanna Sincati, John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life (chapter 10), and the Arise online Bible study group focusing on 1 Peter. Personal updates—including his cousin’s recovery, his wife’s birthday, and his own prayer life—are woven into the message, culminating in a communal prayer for listeners. The overall purpose is to encourage listeners to integrate physical stewardship, scriptural obedience, and community fellowship as a continuous “gift that keeps on giving.”
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 the sun shining through the trees over a campsite comes from my cousin's recent excursion to the top of Keller Peak in Running Springs, California. He was recently laid up with a foot and ankle injury a couple of months ago, but now is back at it, stating on his social media post, uh, he was doing some soul cleansing by putting in some work while resetting the batteries outdoors. Well, it's Wednesday, and I thought this photo of a summit campsite and his sentiments to cleanse the soul were perfect to represent hump day and our continual focus to find peace in our souls by walking and talking with God. Like my cousin, I have found that the exercise of the body does have some ability to cleanse the soul, as our bodies and the life that God breathed into them were the first gift that we received from God. And when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, they become the temples of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. So it is good to keep our temples in order by keeping our bodies healthy, and that requires proper nutrition, rest, and putting in some work from time to time with regular exercise. After taking an uncharacteristic rest yesterday, I was raring to get back at it with my normal light exercise routine this morning, and as my cousin testifies, I can confirm that there really is something to be said for the ability of simple exercise to cleanse our souls, as we can sweat out frustrations or just experience the simple contentment of knowing that we are being good stewards to the bodies that God has given us. But as good as sweating out frustrations and stress, the assurance of being good stewards to our bodies, and feeling the euphoric rush of endorphins fire may be able to give us a measure of happiness in our souls, as Christians we can raise our experience to the heights of joy by bringing our praises and thanks to the Lord as our spirits are in direct communication with our Heavenly Father at all times. Not for nothing, but while you can think through problems or set your focus on things that lie ahead of you while you exercise, I can get a little frustrated anxious, angry, or depressed if the content of my thoughts is just me-focused. Uh, when we try to do everything through our own strength and cunning, we can really begin to feel overwhelmed, worried, or burdened with our lives. So while I work out, I may think of what I can do with the day ahead and with the situations that I have to face, but after a while I will get sick of me and will turn to the Lord and say something like, 'And that— and that's why I am so glad that you are in my life, O Lord.' And then proceed to remember that I am not alone and will recall all that the Lord and I have walked through together to bring me to this current day and present moment. And I will thank him and praise him and never— for never leaving me or forsaking me and always being with me. The weight of the world seems not to be so heavy when we have the Creator of the universe on our side. As the word says, if God is for us, who can be against us? Well, frankly, everyone can be against us, but with God it doesn't— it just doesn't matter, because when we walk with him, we never walk alone. And when we continue to seek his presence and follow his wisdom for living, we can have peace and joy regardless of the circumstances that surround us, because he has cleansed and saved our souls the minute we placed our faith in Christ. His love pours into us with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit when we first believed, and it abounds in us when we abide in him. So there I am, putting some work in by exercising, contemplating the current events of my life, and rejoicing because I know there ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough, and ain't— there ain't no river wide enough to keep the Lord from getting to us. The Lord has a mountain of love to pour out on us if we would just seek to receive it by keeping our relationship with him a healthy one where we care for our bodies, live according to his wisdom, continually reflect on his thoughts, his words, and our story together as a continuous expression of our faith. This gift of our lives, our bodies, our relationship with God, his love, his forgiveness, his hope, his strength, and how it all goes together is the gift that keeps on giving. So live your life as a continual exercise of praise and worship to the Lord who gave us life and sets us free to live with him forever when he showed us the truth of Jesus Christ and we accepted the gift of his mercy, grace, and love. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are Psalm 1:1 Psalm 112:1-3, and they say: Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands! Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will last forever. Today's Bible verses encourage us to praise the Lord, and they indicate that when we fear and obey him, Not only will we benefit, but the potential exists to influence generations through our faithfulness. When you are brought up in a religious tradition of Christianity where no one seems to know the joy of their salvation and everyone seems to be under a burden of obligation to go to Mass, you view the fear of the Lord as the fear of judgment and going to hell, and you view his commands as a list of requirements to meet with the silent warning of or else implied. The houses of worship where God is in the box require people to enter reverently, almost fearlessly— fearfully, because the doctrine of transubstantiation teaches that he literally is in the communion elements. So God is in the house, and you better— and you best come correctly into his presence, or you will face the wrath or condemnation of the priest, your parents, or the other congregants that bow low under their religious tradition, but who may not be good examples of the joy or love of the Lord. But here in, but here in today's verses, the Bible speaks of people who are joyful, who fear the Lord and obey his commands. Joyful? How can you be joyful in the presence of a God who is just waiting to send you to hell, or in an environment where his believers almost cower in his presence and will chastise and threaten anyone who doesn't put on a show of reverence while they are in the building. Well, the Bible is true, and the fact that people can be joyful when they fear the Lord and obey his commands must point to something that is other than what we see in some liturgical churches. It must point to a relationship with God that is based on his grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love rather than the traditions of men. That corrupt the gospel of Jesus Christ by making us think that our salvation depends on our perfect obedience and can be something that we can lose. While our God is awesome to behold and should be feared by anyone who, who hasn't been reconciled to him through faith in Jesus Christ, the fear of the Lord that the Christian has should be one that is born from the knowledge of his love and is reflected by our respect for his word and our joy at following the One who gave us life and set us free. Only when we are assured of our salvation and the love of God for us can we be joyful in obeying His commands. When we know the love of God and are assured that He isn't going to condemn us to hell at the drop of a hat, our obedience to His commands is an expression of our deep respect, fear, and love for that we have for him. Unlike religious traditions that are fueled by fear and guilt and seem to be fading away in our post-Christian society, this joyful relationship with God is something that future generations could be influenced by to pursue and emulate, as they can learn of the tremendous blessings that can flow from an authentic faith and love relationship with our God. We can't force anyone, including our kids, to follow the Lord, but we can show them the joy that we have from knowing his love, from hearing his word and obeying his commands, and how a life dedicated to following him is a blessing, not a curse or an obligation. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.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 conclude sharing from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life with chapter 10, which is simply Piper's prayer. Well, the title of the chapter is My Prayer: Let None Say in the End I've Wasted It. And the whole point of the book is not to waste your life, that God gave us our life for a reason, and it should probably include worshiping and following him. And so if you haven't checked out Piper's book, you know, Don't Waste Your Life is available. Um, well, I saw it free for a PDF somewhere online, but you can also purchase a copy of the book for less than $5 on some website. So, um, I, I read that book in Bible college and, uh, I thought it was a good book, and that's why I decided to share it on the website little by little, bit by bit. So if you want to, you can go back to the blog's history and, you know, read the entire contents of Piper's work. Or if you just want to check out his prayer, you can check out the blog post today at mtforchrist.org. Well, today is Wednesday, and I got a lot, you know, a lot to be happy about today. My wife is— her birthday is today, and the gift of her life and her love Um, um, you know, prayerfully will continue on for many, many more years. But, um, I'm just happy to be celebrating that I know her, and, um, you know, I love her, and she's married to me. Um, what a gift, uh, that keeps on giving. And, uh, so we're very happy about that, and I'll be happy about the fact of the possibility of seeing her later today, uh, Lord willing. And And last night I was happy to find a new venue for fellowship with the saints as I discovered a Facebook group basically that gets together and does Bible studies apparently. And it's through this organization or nonprofit organization called Arise where they encourage, you know, Christian discipleship and have different principles. That point to a life of, you know, Bible-based and, you know, kingdom-minded and, you know, and action, you know, there's action in your faith. So I like the spirit of the group. They're very friendly and we met on Zoom and in the weeks ahead they're going to be studying 1 Peter 1 and 2 for 1st and 2nd Peter, sorry, from the Bible, basically the epistles that the Apostle Peter wrote. So if you're interested in that, you can follow me on Facebook and, uh, message me and say, hey, I want to be a part of that Bible study, and I'll invite you to the group, and they'll share the link, and you can, you know, plug in. There was 35 Christians, uh, in that group last night, basically all just introducing themselves and very enthusiastic about the prospects studying the Bible. Um, they were from all over the United States, and some, some, uh, China, you know, some were as far away as India. Um, so, you know, the body of Christ, you know, you might— I don't know where you are, but sometimes it might seem like you're all alone in your faith. Um, even, even some of our churches, we can feel alone in our faith, uh, at times. Um, but so it's a joy when we can get together with, in the presence of other, other, uh, Christians where we can have joy. So I don't know how that group's going to go. I'm not sure about my availability to it, but, um, you know, it's another opportunity to encourage people in their faith, and, uh, I'm happy the Lord presented it to me. And, um, and I invite you to do the same. Um, if you didn't want to be a part of a group but wanted to listen to a Bible study, um, we provide one on our podcast. It's Bible study with the Sincatis. We do it once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincati. Right now we're asking for prayers for Susanna as she's recovering from her surgery, and we're praying for both Arthur and Susanna that everything goes well in her recovery and that we'll see them again Sunday. So we'll see, we'll see what happens. We're hoping for the best and we're accepting what comes. That's what we do. And we, we're not just hoping, we're praying to God for it. And we know our God is good, and, uh, but sometimes, you know, we can't call the shots, he does. Um, so we, we, we ask and we knock and we seek and we see what the Lord has for us. Um, and, and we always encourage a life of authentic faith by following the Lord, with how we live. And we encourage Bible study and, um, prayer every day. And we encourage you to, you know, apply the wisdom of God's word to, to your life through a life of Christian discipleship. If you don't know what that's all about, I've done 3 classes on discipleship, uh, that I share on the podcast, um, uh, Victor Over the Darkness, Freedom Freedom for Christ and The Bondage Breaker are all based on the word of God and the work of Christian counselor Dr. Neil Anderson, and they're all available to you on the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast and the M.t. for Christ 24/7 YouTube channel. Um, so if you want to check those out, go to the website mtforchrist.org and you'll find links for all of that stuff at the bottom of each and every podcast, uh, or blog post. Um, that's it for today. I'm looking forward to seeing my, uh, my wife and and, uh, wishing her a happy birthday today. And, um, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for all the gifts that you give us, Lord, through our lives, our bodies, our, our friends, our loved ones, and most importantly, for the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is and for the, the grace that you gave us that allowed us to put our faith in him. Lord, we thank you for that. And we thank you for everyone listening today, Lord. We encourage them in their faith, and we pray for them today, Lord, to receive the healing and the blessings and insights that you have for them. And we pray for you to hear their prayer requests, Lord. We come along beside them in their request that you would help, help them in their journey of faith. Lord, we pray, um, that you go before us today, each and every one of us, and that you open our eyes to what you want us to see and open our ears to what you want us to hear and open our minds and hearts to what you want us to know. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us to set up things according to your will that we can walk into the good things that you've prepared for us today to meet our purpose in Christ. Um, Lord, we thank you, we love you, and we praise your holy name each and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
