“Saying Grace” with our Lives Purity 901

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 an outlet of the Hudson River under— well, in the shadows of the fading light of day comes to us from yours truly as my wife and I decided to enjoy the last bit of daylight this past Saturday in each other's company. A walk at Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, New York. I had spent most, uh, most of the day indoors working on PowerPoint presentations for the Bonhoeffer series I am producing while Tammy Lynn went to lunch with her mother and daughters. But upon her return, with the day disappearing, I just had a sudden impulse to do something, and off we went. And I'm glad we did. Not Not only did I snag this spooky beautiful photo, but I got to spend some simple quality time with my wife where we didn't necessarily say or do much, but enjoyed this simple— the, the simple fact that we were together and that we loved one another. Well, it's Tuesday, and I guess recalling this past weekend's little excursion is my attempt to encourage you to be cognizant of the time you have and to utilize it where you can to enjoy your life and let the people you love know you appreciate them. At the— at that late afternoon hour, we could have just surrendered to the regular routine of getting ready for dinner and watch the daylight wane from the inside of our countryside home, but instead we enjoy the last brightness of the day on the drive to Hudson Crossing. And at a time some would have determined to be too late to go on a walk, we were on our way out, having seen every bit of daylight in a place where we could enjoy God's creation and each other's company rather than indoors. I think about this stuff often, the fact that although God gives us his word to guide us, he also gives us a lot of quote-unquote free time to decide what to do with our lives. We can work, we can study, we can sleep, we can stay indoors, we can go out. But the thing is, even though I do enjoy my times walking and talking with God outside, I have pondered that fact that much of our human existence would be— would seem to be awash in terms of our impact on our decisions, on the impact that our decisions make on our lives. In the grand scheme, one single day in our lives may not mean that much. And in hindsight, we can analyze similar days and see no difference between a day spent indoors or a day spent outside. There is little in and of itself of certain experiences that make them better than others. And God's word is rather silent on the particular, uh, particulars of each and every day of our lives. We can do anything, and one thing isn't necessarily better than any— than another. However, the reason I write this blog and do this podcast is that I have discovered and continue to learn that a life spent, regardless of our particular activities, in the presence of the Lord and then the context of who we are in Christ is a life that is spent in peace, love, and joy. Anybody on the outside looking at Tammy, Lynn, and I during our walk in the park would have counted two in our party, but they would have been missing someone. Yes, we were alone, but the love and gratitude that we expressed towards each other at various times in our little stroll was replete with mentions of the God that we credit with bringing us together, and with thanks given in his direction. As each— as easy as this is to do when you are surrounded by the glory of God's natural creation outside, it is also something you can do inside too. I have to admit that before Tammy Lynn, I never was much of a saying grace Christian, but early on in our relationship I saw that it was a regular practice for her, or at least I guess it was, because since I've entered her life, the saying grace thing seems to have fallen to me. But social awkwardness aside, it's easy to do. What could be more appropriate than thanking the Lord for providing the food you are going to eat, and in my case, for the beautiful woman who longing lovingly prepared it. So that's just one way we can— we keep the Lord in the midst of our presence while indoors. But the truth is that I am continually saying grace over my life as I literally thank God moment to moment for all the things I encounter. When I say keep walking and talking with God, I really mean it, like literally. Yes, like, wow, that dude's crazy walking and talking with God. Um, while I can't say that all of my life is without problems, a lot of which I create myself, uh, walking through life and recognizing the beauty of just being with the people we love, just being where you are, and just being alive is something God never tires of hearing. Or at least he hasn't complained to me about my constant awe and thanks. So if you are not doing this already, start living with and start loving the Lord. There is much to be thankful for, and unlike some of our human companions, he never tires of hearing us point out the obvious or tell him— telling him about how we feel. The constructs of society and just the business as usual way we do things can make us less free as we are absorbed into the mundane mundanity mundanity of the humdrum, when the truth is that our lives are a miracle and a mystery, and there's nothing humdrum about them. But you have to open your eyes to see it and open your heart to feel it. And the one that you never have to be ashamed to, to ashamed to share your silly thoughts with is the Lord. So It's another boring Tuesday again, or it is another day of living the adventure of our lives where we can do almost anything we want, with consequences of course. But even in the tight confines of doing what we "need to do," we can still find wonder and joy. So look around and appreciate where you are, or go do something and appreciate that. But no matter what you decide to do with this last Tuesday of November in the year of our Lord 2022, turn aside and thank the Lord for whatever you encounter. The pathway to peace isn't a destination. It's determined by the way you walk and the company you keep. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Philippians 4:8, and it says, 'And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing: fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.' Today's verse highlights the importance of what we think about in our Christian walk. I can't recall exactly what I was thinking about on my Saturday afternoon walk with my wife, Tammy Lynn, but I can tell you this: I wasn't thinking about my problems, my work, or the bad state of the world. And because I didn't think on those things, I recall the walk quite fondly. But let's not get that twisted, okay? We are not to walk through life in denial. The world is out there and The failure to recognize our surroundings and our responsibilities will eventually cause us to suffer. We are to be stewards of what God has given us and care for it. However, at the same time, we can manage that quite well without dwelling on the things that will lead us into sin or disturb— or that will disturb our peace. As much as we are world citizens and care for our fellow man, In truth, there is not much we can do about the events that are distant from us, or even near to us, unless we choose to get involved with them. So there you go. If you choose to think on things that disturb you, I would like to hold you accountable by suggesting that your thoughts are not just something that will steal your, your peace, but that you will seek to solve the situations that disturb you. Oh yeah, I'm no political pundit, but if, if the way of the world bothers you so much, I'm calling you to— I'm going to call you out and tell you to do something about it. I have had friends that would spend hours telling me about political situations or conspiracy theories, and I would listen for a while but then would always ask— would ask, "So what should I do?" Unbelievably, or perhaps very believably, other than getting obsessed or angry like them, they didn't have many helpful suggestions or a course of action that would correct the situations other than to hand the problems over to someone else. Thinking about problems will steal your peace, but figuring out solutions, solutions and enacting them is another matter. Solving problems is what we are supposed to do on earth as Christians, but the biggest problem is sin and the fact that we are hopeless without Jesus. So that's my suggestion every time: put your faith in Christ and apply God's word to the way you live your life. And listen to today's verse's advice. Think on what is true and honorable, right, pure, and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. The world is fading away and our lives on it every moment. There is only, only so much we can do, but we should do it if we can. But the way to peace, no matter what we accomplish, is the way of the Lord, and to think on those things he would tell us to think about. 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. Uh, today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, uh, with, uh, another part of, uh, The Messengers, uh, from Matthew 10. Um, today's topic is the suffering of the messengers, which is based on Matthew 10:16-25. So if you want to see what he has to say about that, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the bottom of today's blog post. I include these resources because if you get nothing out of my message or the Bible verse of the day This is a solid piece of theology from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that you can glean from. So we provide lots of, lots of encouragement, and we provide lots of resources here at mtpforchrist.org. On the blog, if you go to the webpage on other than a phone, you'll see labels for various topics where you can look at previous blog posts and discover entire books on different topics ranging from depression to grief to spiritual warfare to who knows what. So, and always discipleship. I think there's so many, you know, posts that I've tagged with discipleship, including today's. So if you, if you're looking for something, there's stuff out there. And if you need, if you need some suggestions, you can always email me at M.t. Clark christ247@gmail.com. But as always, I also encourage you to check out our discipleship teachings that we put on the blog and pod— podcast and YouTube channel for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. These studies are all based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God, and they just happen to to be transformative if you apply them to your life. So we encourage that. We also encourage you to apply the Word of God to your life. You should read what the Word of God says so you can stand on that word. And, you know, to apply the Word of God to your life, you have to know what it says. And that's, you know, that's taking responsibility for your personal relationship with the Lord. Not to have some pastor or priest be the only means in which you hear the Word of God. You know, we're adults, so we should act like it and take responsibility and seek the Lord by reading His Word. Not for nothing. So we encourage that because, yeah, you can go out in the wilderness and look around and go, "God is wonderful," all day long. "Look at that tree." Look at the sky, so good. Um, but you know, that's, that's his created revelation. Um, however, he did, he did speak to us through his word. So if you want to get more than that's a pretty sunset, um, you'll have to open the book. Um, it's called the Bible. So we encourage that because there's much beauty to discover within the pages of it, um, as well as in the outside world. Well, it is Tuesday and we have to work today as always, uh, to pay for our way through life. Um, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you so much for what you've done in our lives and revealing the truth of what we should think on, the good things that you've made and the best thing, you. Um, so Lord, we, we thank you for another day in your kingdom and we just pray for the people who might be listening or reading our message Lord, that you would bless them and you would guide them in the way they should go. We pray for you to come alongside their prayer request, and we pray for you to come alongside the prayer requests that we're making continually for our friends who are suffering from illness or who are just going through difficult situations, um, or who just, you know, um, we're hoping that they will, uh, follow you, Lord. So we pray for you to help because we know we can't solve everything. We, we rely on you to guide the course of this world more than anything, because we know we can trust you, because you made us and, uh, you're guiding this whole thing wherever you're going to take it. And we just want to be with you, Lord, and we thank you for that. Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to see what we need to see today. Lord, and to guide us in the way that we should go, because all we want to do is represent you on the earth and point people to, to walk and talk with you for the rest of their lives. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.