Quieting and an Epiphany about The Long Haul - Purity 1462 - 09/27/2024

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm 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 the silhouette of a cactus tree in the foreground of a golden sunset's brilliance reflected on the surface of an unknown river or stream comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared this scene on social media on or around October 11th, 2020. If this memory is yours, let us know and we'll photo credit you on the blog after the fact. Well, it's Friday and— thank God— and as the sun sets on another work week, I am happy to hear that the forecast is rain-free and I'm looking forward to the end the workday because I will be reunited with my beloved wife, Tammy Lynn, at our countryside home later today. Yesterday, I had to work in the rain and had a couple of jobs that really tested my patience and my emotional resilience because the circumstances I met tempted me to question and complain about the work I had to do in the rain, no less. In the rain. Yeah, a bad situation gets a little bit worse in inclement weather. And if we give into the grumbling, the enemy will be there to pull us into anger and quite possibly sin. If you've ever seen videos of people doing something destructive at work out of frustration, you know what I'm talking about. Stress and frustration over our work can cause us to do something that could mean the loss of our jobs or cause us to take our frustrations out on the ones we love at home. So we have to remember to make a regular practice of taking a pause or quieting to be able to find a moment's peace that will prevent us from doing something regrettable and make us more emotionally resilient. Uh, the frustrations I met yesterday were not unique. So even though I had a couple of situations that caused me to shake my head and question why it had to be this way, uh, I took a deep breath. Stilled myself and just focused on getting it done. Thanks to years of walking in the Spirit, practicing gratitude, appreciation, and quieting, and grounding myself in God's word, I am more resilient at finding peace in the storms I face. I have walked through many a trial over the, over the last 14 years since being born again. And when I look back at some of the situations I had to go through, I thank the Lord for giving me the wisdom and endurance to make it through. With God, we can endure and we can succeed and we can have peace and joy regardless of the things we face. Um, the Turning Point devotional, uh, well, the Turning Point with David Jeremiah devotional, um, for today touches on the subject of endurance in a way. And inspired the later half of today's message. So I'm sharing it on the blog today to instruct and encourage us all. David Jeremiah writes, until he appears— and he references Titus 2:13, which says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ— and David Jeremiah writes, Epiphany is the English word rendering the Greek epiphaneia, meaning appearance or manifestation. In Western Christendom, Epiphany commemorates the coming of the Magi, Christ's first appearance to the Gentile world. In the East, Epiphany celebrates the baptism of Jesus, also commemorating his appearance at the beginning of his public ministry. Paul uses epiphany to refer to the first appearance of Jesus, but more often to refer to his second coming, as in Titus 2:13. And he connects the two. The grace of God that appeared with Christ is the grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. As we wait for his glorious appearing at the end of the age. Christ's first appearing revealed the grace that teaches us how to live until he appears the second time. We are saved by grace to be zealous for good works until the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ. And then, um, Jeremiah shares a quote from A.W. Tozer, where Tozer said, I cannot think of even one lonely passage in the New Testament which speaks of Christ's revelation, manifestation, appearing, or coming that is not directly linked to moral— with moral conduct, faith, and spiritual holiness. You know, and whatever, uh, well, let's see. Yeah, I had something else to say before this, so we should go back. Sorry about that. Uh, let's see. And have to key up the prompter. Epiphany is one of those terms that primarily refers to Jesus's coming, but in that context is something that most of us don't really know. You know, if you knew about Epiphany in your church, Eastern Orthodox or Western, you're probably a rare bird. You know, usually, Epiphany, what's that mean? You know, no. Anyway, so thank you, Jeremiah, for the clarity. Most of us know epiphany to mean, you know, an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure, which I hope today's message will bring. Um, when we come to faith and seek to be more like Christ, we may repent of our sins or go into recovery, but the world, the flesh, and the devil will seek to lure us back into sin and bondage. And if we decide to follow Jesus, we will all come to a crossroads in our faith walk where the enemy will ask Are we done yet? Can't we just go back to the way we used to live? How long do we have to do this? Well, today's message from David Jeremiah tells us how long: until Jesus comes back, or until we see him at the hour of our death. You know, Christ gives us a new and eternal life, and when we decide to follow him, it's supposed to be for the long haul. There is no quitting. There is no stopping and there is no going back. For me, in my recovery, I grabbed ahold of Jesus's words in Matthew 26:29 to inspire my sobriety, where he said, Mark my words, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. So while the world, the flesh, and the devil would try to sway me to just have one drink, surely you can do that. I was able to tell them no, because I knew the truth that it was poison for me here on Earth. My addictive nature doesn't allow for it because I would always fall into drunkenness eventually, uh, when I left that door open. And because I didn't want anything to control me or to get in the way of my relationship with, with God. And so I would tell the enemy or my flesh that if I ever drink again, it would be in God's kingdom where there would be no sin. The enemy will tempt me occasionally with booze, but for the most part, he has stopped barking up that tree because I am committed not to even think about it unless God himself says it's okay. And so whatever your struggle is, don't worry about the question of how long am I going to do this? The answer is forever. And the only reason we have confidence in that is because God is with us. He calls us to a new life and holiness, and he gives us the strength, wisdom, and power to accomplish it by his grace alone. While we could never hold out or be good, uh, forever in our flesh, the Lord empowers us to do so when we walk in the Spirit and stay close and, you know, in close proximity with him. You know, thus we walk this walk every day from here to eternity, forever and ever. Amen. As we wait for the epiphany, you know, Christ's return, his sudden manifestation, I hope this message, you know, will be an epiphany revelation to you. The word says to be holy as he is holy. So let's do this today, tomorrow, and until his kingdom comes. I want all that in that slide, but there. Anyway, um, today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Prewitt. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on the forgiveness of sins. Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 from the NIV, where the word of God says, all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he was— and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. Today's verses fall under the 35th point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And that 35th point is: God reconciles us to himself through Christ and counts our sins against us no more. Today's Bible verses speak about how Jesus Christ has restored our relationship with our Heavenly Father and how we are able to be a voice in trying to bring others to have peace with him too. Our sins separated us from God because of the fall. We were born physically alive but spiritually dead. While we may not like the doctrine of original sin, our original sin nature inherited from Adam quickly manifests in our lives as even the The smallest child can quickly learn to lie, steal, or disobey their parents. We are born at enmity with God, and to have true peace, we need to be reconciled to him. And there was no way that we could earn our way back into his good graces. All the good works in the world can't pay our sin debt. God sent Jesus to tell us the truth about God's kingdom and to make a way for us to be reconciled to God. Jesus's death on the cross pays for the sins of the world, and when we put our faith in him, we are redeemed and reconciled to God. Uh, how we are made spiritually alive and given a new eternal life that makes us free from sin and death. Christ has reconciled us to the Father, and the Great Commission commands us to go and make disciples, to be a minister of reconciliation ourselves. So don't be shy in telling others about your faith in Jesus, because God may use our words and lives to bring others to be reconciled with him. 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 for their walk. Today we continue sharing from Reporting Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford.. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is James 4. From that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 10, which says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. And Stephen Alford writes, promotion comes by way of deepest humiliation. This was true of the Lord Jesus, and it is true of all who have been exalted by God. Philippians 2:8-11 says, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of, of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. If ever Christ is going to be exalted in my life, it is when I humble myself to the point of death, even the death of a cross. When the cross and its shame and suffering come deeply into my life and the flesh in me is crucified, then Christ will live. And Alfred ends by praying, humble me then, O Lord, Bend me in Jesus' name. Amen. Um, yeah, and when we humble ourselves, we talked about yesterday about surrendering to the Lord to find contentment. We surrender to the Lord and trust in him, and that's how we can be content in life. Well, when we humble ourselves and follow him, then, then we can overcome and we can endure. Um, you know, it's very— some of the things we face in this life will humble us, and sometimes we don't like to be humbled. We get angry about it. Um, but when we, when we suffer patiently and quietly and endure through things, um, God lifts us up. He exalts us. In our suffering, we can be exalted. So, so when we submit, you know, we become more like Jesus because he was the obedient Son to the Father who, who even died on the cross for us. Talk about obedience. That's a great, uh, show. And so we always ask the question, have you surrendered fully to God? Um, or have you fully surrendered to God? Um, our faith is, is supposed to be forever, the long haul. When we put our faith in Jesus, we're to follow him, and we're supposed to do that every day. It's one thing to believe that Jesus did what he did, It's another thing to live it. And we encourage that life of faith because for us it is the narrow, you know, the narrow path, the path less traveled that has made all the difference. We were consumed by the world, the flesh, and the devil and locked up in chains. And it was only through Christ alone that we've been set free from in alcohol, drugs, sex addiction, and now the battle with food addiction. Well, we're winning currently in this, in this war, and it's great to have that peace. And so that's why we, that's why we share this message, to let people know that it's possible and to encourage them to follow after the Lord as well. And when he does that, he gives you meaning and a purpose. And for me, one of the things he's given me to do is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group. Um, at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park on Wednesday evenings at 6:30. We invite you to join our Christian Recovery and Discipleship Fellowship there. If you're in Upstate New York, um, yeah, check us out on Starpoint Church's website and you can register to join us, or you can just show up. A couple guys just showed up last week without announcing, and it was great. Um, so we invite you to come. However, if you're not in Upstate New York, we still encourage you to find or increase your freedom And we, we give you a way to do that, or at least we try. Um, we mean to reconcile you with, with not only God the Father but also your freedom in Christ. And we share our playlist teachings of The Bondage Breaker, The Victory Over the Darkness, and Freedom in Christ, um, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course, among other things, um, on our, on our YouTube channel, which is M.t. Clark 247. Uh, and it's on YouTube, so, um, we invite you to check those out and, um, you know, to sort of empty yourself for Christ, uh, you know, for the Holy Spirit to fill you. And so we ask the question: are you empty for Christ too? If not, um, you can say a prayer, make Jesus your Lord and Savior, and invite the Holy Spirit to come on in and guide you. If you are still walking with— if you are empty for Christ, that's great. Keep on walking and talking with God. And don't wonder about how long do I have to do this? Because the answer is forever and ever. And that's okay, because God's eternal, and he'll give you the power to do that. The way we connect with God's power is to pray. So that's what we're going to do now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you that it's Friday. Thank you for the jobs we have, that support us and, uh, you know, give us a livelihood, even if they challenge us and give us stress at times. We thank you, Lord, and we thank you for all the good things you've given us and how you've made it, you know, made us to walk through the fire so many times in our lives and to find freedom. Um, well, we pray for anyone listening today. We just pray for them to, um, pray that you would come alongside them, Lord, and help them in their walk and to bless their prayer requests. Lord, because we all need your help, and me most of all. So Lord, we pray for all of us today that you would go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go, because we just want to represent your kingdom and reconcile others to be with you. So we need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.