Ready? Your Body is Meant for the Lord - Purity 1317

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 dirt path dividing fields of green under blue skies with what I suspect to be the Catskill Mountains in the distance comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared this scene on social media on or around May 24th, 2021. If this pathway photo is yours and you'd like to tell us, uh, like to let us know where this is and what your name is, I will update the blog to give you the photo credit you so richly deserve. Well, it's Thursday, and as is my habit, I share today's pathway photo as a visual reminder or encouragement to get on or to keep on walking on the path of Christian discipleship by surrendering to the Lord's will for your life and following where the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will lead you. Last night I was unexpectedly called to co-lead the Celebrate Freedom meeting at Starpoint Church. Even though I had little notice, it felt good to be back in the saddle again as the Lord revealed to me through the use of some helpful technological tools that next Wednesday would mark the first 100 days of 2024. And I invited the group members to press into their faith and ask the Lord to help them to get ready to make a positive change or to develop a positive habit that they could add to their life beginning next week. The 100 days things came to me as I reflected on last year's ministry, which began on May 10th. As I have stated, when I began leading Celebrate Freedom, I was content with that, with my victories over drugs, alcohol, and sexual addiction being continuous. I didn't really have anything to work on. However, the truth is that we are all works in progress and that the Lord has plenty of things he can clean up in your life, and he will help you to overcome them if you would just take the problem to him and work with him to conquer it. And last summer I had quite a lot of cheat days and binges of comfort eating to convict me of my admitted food addiction that I still hadn't overcome. So, on August 18th, I surrendered to the Lord and asked him to help me to overcome it, and I utilized the basic tools of awareness and accountability to help me fight the good fight, to finally actually treat my food addiction as an addiction. And that span of time from May 10th to August 18th was— guess what? That's right, 100 days. So I don't know what that means, if anything, but after 100 days of going through the motions last year, I asked God for help and made a commitment to change, and he helped me to accomplish a breakthrough in the war against the flesh. We got him on the run now, but recently I've been compromising with my adherence to my food plan and being aware of what, what, or how much I'm eating. I've been self-correcting, of course. No, Paul can't be put put back on track with keto. It only takes 3 days. But if you fall every week or two, which I've been doing since my trip to Disney in February, you, you stop making progress and just plateau. So last night I decided that I would press into my faith and make some positive changes in my life to launch into a new breakthrough for 2024. And I realized that 100 days into the year was as good a place as any to start. And so I encourage others to do so. One of the things I started doing recently has been reading, uh, Neil Anderson's Who I Am in Christ devotional to stay grounded in my identity in Christ. Even though I recite the Who I Am in Christ list as a regular spiritual practice, I know that living from your identity in Christ is the game changer of our walk of faith. And so even though I had some resistance to getting that book because I quote-unquote already know that, I have been blessed in reminding myself or learning again more about what I already know. One of the aspects of our faith walk that is often overlooked is the role our bodies play in our faith walk. And this morning I read the following passages from Anderson's book that I felt moved to share. And this is from the Who I Am in Christ devotional. I believe it's chapter 4, and the title is What to Do with Your Body. And Neil Anderson writes, the Bible is very clear about what we are supposed to do with our physical bodies. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. That's Romans 6:11-13. Uh, we don't have to work at becoming dead to sin. We simply accept it as being so. In Christ Jesus, we are alive to God, so we are already, already dead to sin. However, we do have the responsibility to safeguard our mortal bodies from sin and keep them from being instruments of unrighteousness. Failing to do so would be to violate the unity we have with the Lord and our spiritual oneness with him. If we use our bodies as instruments of wickedness, we will allows— we will allow sin to reign, actually rule, in our mortal bodies, and we will end up obeying its evil desires even though we don't have to. And he continues to write in a section called Your Body Is Meant for the Lord. Let's look at one of the biggest problems in the church, which is sexual sin. According to 1 Corinthians 6:13, the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." And I would remind you, sinning against your own body involves sinning against the one with whom you are united. Scripture seems to set sexual sins in a class all by themselves for one reason: it is impossible to commit a sexual sin and not use your body as an instrument of unrighteousness. The moment you do, you allow sin to reign in your mortal body. As I said, that was all from Neil Anderson's book, uh, The Who I Am in Christ, a devotional. And I love how Neil Anderson presents this fundamental truth about our faith. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, and thus sexual purity and holy sex between a man and a woman in a marriage covenant are the only option for our sex lives as Christians. When we do anything else with others or by ourselves, we sin and we disrupt our harmony with God and give a foothold to the enemy to torment us. I would extend this, this concept of our bodies to how we steward our bodies as well. If we eat unhealthily or eat too much, are lazy, are continually lazy, or don't get enough sleep, sleep, we are in essence, quote unquote, missing the mark of the proper care and maintenance of our bodies in a sense, and are sinning against our bodies. And we all know this inherently. The diet and exercise industries are built on this conviction. And thus, we should not exclude our bodies from, quote unquote, getting right with God. We should use our bodies as instruments of righteousness by getting them, as much as it depends on us, in good physical condition. We can't control everything that may afflict our flesh, but we can control what we do with our bodies and what we put, what we put in them. And if we determine to crucify the flesh and restore ourselves to good health and ask God to help through his wisdom and guidance, he will undoubtedly bless our efforts. So next Wednesday is 100 days into 2024, and let me encourage you to Pray about a way that you can give glory to God by doing what is right and turning from bad habits and establishing a good one to replace it. This is our walk of faith, and let's not tire of trying to optimize our harmony with the Lord by surrendering our hearts, minds, and bodies to becoming instruments of righteousness to give Him glory. Today's Bible verses, uh, well, Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on contentment, coveting, and priorities. And today's verse is Proverbs 21:26, and the Word of God says, all day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back. And our resource puts, you know, who is he? The sluggard, apparently, is He's mentioned in previous verses. So all day long he, the slugger, craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back. Today's verse falls under the 27th and final point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on Contentment, Coveting, and Priorities. And the 27th point is: the righteous will be ready to give liberally rather than to be covetous. Today's verse highlights the dichotomy of covetousness and giving. Psalm 23:1 tells us that the Lord is our shepherd and we shall not want, NKJV, and that means we will— and that means that we will not lack or be in need. But it also can be seen as an instruction to be content and not be, quote unquote, wanting in a covetous manner. Coveting is a sin in Jesus reminds us in Matthew 10:8 that freely we have received and thus we should freely give. Everything we have comes from God's blessings. When we are in a right spirit with God, we won't be craving and craving like the sluggard. We will instead give and not hold back. So look at your heart and determine if you are wanting or if you are content with what you have. Are ready to give from the treasures that the Lord has given you, both materially and spiritually. God has given us everything for life and godliness, and when we realize that, we stop— realize that we stop the cravings for things that ultimately won't satisfy us anyway, and we can find peace. As always, we invite everyone to go to mtforchrist.org, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist My brothers and sisters in Christ, with our walk today, we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of the New Testament. Today's chapter is John 9, and from John 9, he shares a portion of John 9:4, which says, "I must work the works of him who sent me." while it is day. And Alford writes, the true principle of all real service for God underlies this statement of the Lord Jesus. And since he was the perfect servant when upon this earth, he made this principle the basis of his loyal service to God. The obligation of true service. The Lord Jesus said, I must work. The obligation of loving and loyal service to his Father compelled him to work. Yes, right from the beginning—remember the temple when he was 12 years old—to the end. The occupation of true service: there is only one great occupation in true service. It is doing God's will. "I must work the works of him. My food is to do the will of him who sent me," said the Savior in John 4:34. The opportunity of true service: while it is day, 'Now is the acceptable time.' Time is short. 1 Corinthians 7:29. And Alford ends his devotion by praying, 'I can do nothing else but serve you, Lord, all of my days, for it is a privilege and honor— and an honor, yes, even my duty.' Amen. And that's, uh, everything. Uh, we're to do the works of him who sent me. Amen. And that's what we're supposed to do when we come into the Kingdom of God. You know, we're not saved by good works, we're made for, you know, we're saved for good works. You know, why did God save a wretch like me? Because He wants me to share the Gospel and do good things to represent Him in His Kingdom. That's the meaning of our Christian life, and that's our service, you know. The obligation of true service to do. I must work for the Lord. You know, it must do something, do something to represent his kingdom. And, um, yeah, so that's what we do, and that's why we do the blog and we do the podcast and why we, uh, do the recovery ministry and why we do the Freedom in Christ stuff, um, and why we, you know, I don't know why we try to do what's right during our work day. To live in harmony with the Lord, to do the works of him who sent Jesus, to do God's work here on earth the best we can, and encourage other people to know that they can live this way too. Because I never knew it, and maybe that's why I'm so zealous, I suppose. I don't want to leave the Lord's presence. I want to, I want to live in it. And I want to represent it because I suffered greatly before coming to Christ. All that wanting and craving of, you know, satisfying the flesh or my selfish desires, it didn't lead to peace, you know. I thought freedom was doing whatever I wanted. Well, it wasn't because I became, you know, what I wanted put me in bondage to the things I wanted. So it wasn't freedom, it was slavery. Slavery to the flesh, slavery to substances, slavery to worry and anguish and fear and depression. When you try to build your life around circumstantial happiness, setting everything just right, all the conditions correctly, things fall apart and you suffer for it. And even if they don't fall apart, you sort of get tired of the same thing over and over again. And why is that? Because the material world was never meant to satisfy us in an ultimate sense. The only thing that can satisfy us and give us true peace is the Lord and a relationship with him. He created us to be a certain way, and when we violate that, you know, with our bodies and breaking his moral law, we suffer in our bodies and our spirits. God doesn't want us to suffer. Part of our ministry will be to suffer, but that's not the purpose of our ministry. We're going to suffer on this earth because the world's been broken by sin and death. And even though we've overcome the grave, you know, basically until Christ comes back, death is still happening, and we go into eternity through it, and our bodies fall apart. That'll all change when Jesus comes and when he resurrects us and gives us resurrected bodies that will be like his. You know, things will be totally different. It's hard to even imagine, but this is our destiny, our future as Christians, you know, where there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more weeping. That's the promise that we hold on to, and that's the promise that can launch us through all adversity and pain in this life. And, you know, when we, when we compromise that, we lose the harmony that we are supposed to have with the Lord. And thus, thus we press into our faith and recognize when we go astray, even in little ways, that we try to, uh, try to correct, um, to be closer and closer to the Lord, to be more and more like Jesus. So we encourage you in your walk and keep on walking and talking with God. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the victory you've given us and the call that your, your word and your spirit puts on our lives to follow you into the peace that goes beyond our understanding, that comes from being living in your presence. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today, um, that you would come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith, guide them in the way they should go, and to bless them, uh, Lord. And as always, I ask you to go before me today, open my eyes to the things you want me to see, lead me in the way I should go, because all I want to do is represent you in your kingdom and, uh, to give you glory. And I definitely need to your help with that. So, so help me God. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.