Preparing for Christmas and Seeking the Best Gift - Purity 1536

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com, or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of my canine pal Harley looking toward the snow-covered expanse of Freedom Road comes to us from yours truly as I caught this scene, captured this scene, uh, back on November 29th while out walking near my countryside home in Eastern— Easton, New York. Uh, well, it is Christmas Eve Eve, and all through the house not a creature was stirring except for me and maybe a mouse, as one of our cats seemed to be very curious about something under the fridge of my countryside house. Anyway, enough of my attempt to be rhymey this morning. You will have to forgive me for my silliness because I have been positively joyful since I have entered into my Christian Christmas vacation on Friday, and I realize that although I have off from work, uh, work today, uh, others may not, uh, as it is Monday after all. With that said, it is my prayer that all who read or hear this message or say it, uh, are able to navigate the next 48 hours of work and holiday preparation with grace and peace. For most of us, Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve, so that means you have a single day, more or less, to get those final presents, clean the house, and start preparing the food for your Christmas gatherings. So try to keep your cool and realize that, that few are will judge you for an imperfectly clean domicile. The quality of food is better than the quantity, and that most last-minute gifts are not going to make Christmas special, because no matter what present you give to others and how much it may be appreciated, it will fade over time. And material gifts simply do not compare to the gift, um, that someone could have in a personal relationship with Jesus. Something that we unfortunately cannot, uh, cannot give. Um, we can encourage others in the right direction of faith, but it will be up to the Lord and them whether or not Jesus's gift of peace will be received. And it is the best gift ever. As for my preparations, I'm done. Uh, the gifts are wrapped and ready for distribution. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll attend Star Point's, uh, Star Point Church's 2:30 PM candlelit Christmas Eve service, and then we'll go to my my parents for Christmas Eve, uh, for Christmas Eve to see my mom and dad, my brothers, and my adult children for gift giving and food before going back to my countryside home. On Christmas Day, I'll give gifts to my wife and, and expect to spend the day with her in peace. Um, God has gifted me with a new life in Christ and a wonderful wife in Tammy Lynn, and I will be enjoying them and giving thanks to God for them on Christmas and every every other day that I draw breath. Um, the Lord's been good to me, and I make giving thanks to him a daily spiritual practice and will seek his will for my life until I see him face to face. Speaking of seeking the Lord, uh, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today speaks about how the Lord sought us. So I'm sharing it on the blog today to remind us, uh, all of the reason for the season and to encourage us to seek the Lord's will for our lives and to follow Jesus. Dr. David Jeremiah writes, Seeking and Saving, and he shares Luke 19:10, which says, for the Son of God, or for the Son of Man, has come to seek and save that which was lost. And David Jeremiah writes, countless paintings show Jesus holding a lamb in his arms. Other paintings show him approaching an individual sheep that he, the Good Shepherd, sought out after it became separated from the flock. This latter image comes from the parable Jesus told about a man who owned 100 sheep but discovered one was missing. He left the 99 and searched until he found the lost sheep. In his words to Zacchaeus the tax collector, Jesus summarized his mission For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. The premise behind seeking is an acknowledgment that something is lost. In Romans 3:10-18, Paul cites a litany of Old Testament verses showing that man is lost and in need of being found. The problem is that man is not inclined to seek after God. And verse 11 says, there is none who seeks after God, and no one can be found who does not first acknowledge he is lost. The first step in being saved is admitting one is lost, separated from God. The good news is that Jesus came to seek and save all who need to be found. That was from David, Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Augustine, which said, thou didst seek us when we sought thee not. I say amen. And boy, did I need to be found. My salvation came quite suddenly. I had separated myself from God by following a false religion. I denied what little I did know about Christianity and left no room for any of God's truth to come into my life. But the Lord sought me by the only means I left available to him, through a chance encounter with a David Jeremiah radio message. Although I was lost for 38 years and didn't really know it, the Lord was able to get me to admit that I was lost in less than 30 minutes. I finally saw that salvation was all about God's grace and not my performance. God's love caused me to say yes to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I've been enjoying his gift of grace and seeking God's will for my life ever since. I learned that salvation was only the beginning of God's gift to me. And that even though we can be found in one sense, unless we repent and surrender to God's will for our lives, our sanctification, we can still be quite lost. If we are stuck in sin or negative mind states, we haven't found all that God has sought us for. And although I have experienced a whole lot of freedom in Christ, I know that there is more freedom, joy, and peace to know. So let me encourage all of us all to keep on walking and talking with God until we find more of the good life that he saved us for. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on hope, and today's verse is Romans 15:13, which says, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope By the power of the Holy Spirit. Today's verse falls under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on hope. That 10th point says, "Trusting in the God of hope will bring you yet more joy, peace, and hope." Today's Bible verse encourages us to be filled with the joy and peace that comes to us via the Holy Spirit when we decide to live in the hope of our new lives in Christ. Living in the presence of the Lord and in the realization that we are eternally accepted as God's children should give us an abiding peace and joy that transcends our circumstances. And the reason why is because of our God of hope. Before Christ, we were hopeless, with no means of being righteous or canceling our sin debt in our own strength. We had no hope of heaven. But through our faith in Jesus, God has opened the gates of heaven to us and has filled us with his hope, with the Holy Spirit, to assure us that we are God's children. Our future is in God's presence. Because of Jesus, we will never truly die. Because of God's— because God's will for our lives is our sanctification, we can have the hope of being set free and living as his holy people. Because of God, because of the God of hope, we have the hope of an eternal destiny and for the hope of progress in being the people he made us to be. So trust in the God of hope and let him increase your peace, hope, and joy. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional. We're on day 35, where Adams shares a portion of Hebrews 12:14, which says, pursue peace with everybody and sanctification. And J.E. Adams writes, so as we saw earlier, you are a hunter, one who pursues, one who pursues Hunters don't wander at random. Hunters have specific targets in mind. One of those that you must pursue with energy and determination is peace. Peace means not entering into unnecessary hostilities. Not all battles can be avoided, of course, but all that is possible to avoid without compromise ought to be shunned. You have no reason to pick a fight. Peace always, uh, peace also means the cessation of hostilities. Peace with God should lead to peace with men. Pursue peace with those with whom you have quarreled in the past. But as we saw, peace is also shalom, a state of well-being within, if not without. Peace is your target and therefore has much to do with your daily pursuits. Like a good hunter, keep in mind— and keep it in mind— and when there is an opportunity for attaining it, see to it that you do not neglect it or miss the target. Shoot straight and hit it. So, uh, and I say amen. Um, one of the things I tell, uh, guys I counsel or disciple, um, is that when we're walking in the Spirit One of the fruit of the Spirit is peace, and that's what we should be experiencing. Now, while God will challenge us to do difficult things, um, there will be an abiding sense of peace if we're on the right track, that we're, we're doing God's will. And regardless of the results, we, we succeed or fail in what we attempt to do, we can have peace knowing that we are true to our heart and true to our call that we felt you know, we got from the Holy Spirit. But when there's a lack of peace, this usually indicates— well, it can indicate fear, or it can just indicate that we're on the wrong track, that we're, we're thinking too much, too highly of ourselves, or putting ourselves first above God or above others. And so you should try to seek peace. And seeking peace can also mean leaving toxic people out of your life. Just saying. Uh, but, but with that said, um, Christmas is a time where you might have to get together with people that are toxic, your family, and, uh, make peace and be a light to the gospel. You know, show, show those who don't have peace what peace looks like, uh, by being a follower of Jesus Christ and giving them the good news of a transformed life. Anyway, um, as always, we encourage— well, we always ask the question Have you follow— have you fully surrendered to God? If you have, there might not be peace at first, but if you keep walking and talking with God, you'll find peace and usually end up finding your purpose. Part of my purpose is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which will begin meeting again on January 8th in the new year. So we invite anybody in the Capital District of New York that can get to Clifton Park on a on a Wednesday night to come to sign up and come on out to join our Christian discipleship/recovery group, support group on Wednesday nights at 6:30. Beyond that, we're making a step of faith by offering Celebrate Freedom online as well. It's open to all out there, so register today by going to mtforchrist.com and going to our group Events, uh, group event, group coaching events page, um, where you can register. We'll be meeting online, uh, beginning on Mondays at 6:30, beginning on January 6th. So we're trying to promote it online, and we're gonna— and we're praying for the Lord to, to bless it with participants. Um, I felt this call on my life to, to do the Celebrate Recovery, Celebrate Freedom Freedom in Christ, Deeper Walk combination recovery discipleship ministry, uh, thing that I do online for quite some time. And, um, win, lose, or draw in terms of participants, we'll be recording the 25 planned sessions, um, to present it and to have it available, um, for viewing for anyone who wants to go into recovery, who wants to be set free in Christ. Um, so we're gonna do this thing. And we're going to record the sessions and have them available so you can start or jump in anytime you want. Um, so we encourage you to go to our mtforchrist.com group coaching events page and sign up today. Um, beyond that, we, uh, if you don't want to do that, we offer our teachings, our previous teachings on our YouTube playlist page and our mtforchrist.com playlist page. Um, for our teachings on the Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course, along with all the other series that we put together playlists for. So we encourage you to check those out because we believe they can find or help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ. Beyond that, uh, we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? And all that means. It's a clever play on words to be empty for, um, just to make yourself available to the Holy Spirit to fill you and to lead you in the way you should go. Uh, it's pointing to a surrendered life of Christian discipleship. And, um, if you're there, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, ask God to reveal himself, ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, and ask him for his help, uh, for you and guidance to help you follow him. Um, we know that prayer works because we've seen amazing things done in our lives and others, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for this Monday, and we especially thank you for, uh, the blessing of, uh, having it off for vacation, Lord, so we can rest and reflect on your goodness and to, uh, enjoy the Christmas holiday that's vastly approaching us, Lord. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and we need a lot of help with that. And Lord, we know other people need help with that too. So we pray for anyone who's reading, listening, or watching today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and help them too, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.