Seeing Devils or Angels - The Importance of Knowing Christ - Purity 1587

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 a reproduction of M.C. Escher's Circle Limit 4, which depicts seemingly infinite angels and devils, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this work of park yesterday after spending several hours at WonderWorks Myrtle Beach, an amusement park that invites its guests to explore its 100 hands-on exhibits that challenge the mind and spark the imagination. While most of the hands-on exhibits are simply games and indoor thrill rides, uh, that point to scientific discoveries, I find it rather interesting that I was moved to stop and take a photo of this poster while I was leaving. To be completely honest, I didn't even know what this picture depicted when I took the photo and didn't even read the question on the poster that asked, are there black devils or white angels? The loud and somewhat chaotic environment of the amusement park wasn't conducive to deep introspection. And frankly, I took a few photos on the way out of WonderWorks of things that looked interesting so I could examine them later. In case they contained those informational tidbits that would challenge the mind or spark the— my imagination. It was only this morning that I realized that my random shots on the way out caught one of the few exhibits, a poster in a stairwell between floors no less, that contained anything remotely spiritual. And its discovery did inspire me to do research, on the original artist M.C. Escher and to ask the question, was this art artist a Satanist? When I looked at the photo this morning, all I saw was the black devils. I didn't even see the question that should have caused me to look for white angels before I Googled M.C. Escher and tried to discern if his artwork was pushing a demonic agenda. Wikipedia didn't really shed any light on Escher's faith. So I Googled M.C. Escher faith and discovered Kerry Pierce's 8-part article called Christian Minds: M.C. Escher, which indicates that some of Escher's mandalas can be interpreted to proclaim that Jesus was the agent of creation, the savior of mankind, and the final judge of mankind, which is the message behind Circle Limit 4. The devils or the angels in Circle Limit 4 depict the duality of good and evil and the final destination for mankind that will be judged by Jesus. What— whether or not we see black devils or white angels is more than a trick of perception or attention. It will ultimately be determined by whether or not we know Jesus as Lord and Savior. And as Matthew 7:21-23 tells us, whether or not Jesus knows us as his disciples. I can't tell from my limited research whether or not M.C. Escher, who died a few months before I was born in 1972, made it to heaven. But it is my hope that he did and that his work will be used by the Lord to point to the beauty and order of God's creation, and that it will draw people to the one who makes all things new. Whether we see angels or devils in today's photo doesn't really matter. It's what we see on the other side of this life in eternity that does. And that all depends on if we see that Jesus is who he said he is, and if we choose to pick up our crosses and follow him. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on imitating Jesus. And our guide points to Romans 6:10-14, but only quotes 10-12 from the NIV, which says, the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 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. Today's verses fall under the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on imitating Jesus, and that 11th point is: The risen Savior lives to God. We who have died and risen with Christ must do the same. Today's Bible verses call disciples of Jesus to repent, to consider themselves to be dead to sin, and to live the rest of our lives as Christ did. To be alive to and for God and his purposes for us. The concept of the exchange life—dying to self and living to God—can be difficult to understand and even harder to practice, but doing so holds the keys to experiencing the fullness of our identity and destiny in Christ. I know when I first believed in Jesus, the idea that I could ever be Christ-like was inconceivable. After understanding that the gospel of Jesus Christ was all about grace and not my performance, I was overjoyed and just happy to know that I didn't have to go to hell. But as I decided to be an authentic Christian and learn and do whatever the word of God taught me about living a Christian life, the conviction that I needed to change the way I lived my life came and drove me to repent and to surrender to the Lord's will for my life. And even though I thought life change would be impossible, the Lord helped me to leave the darkness of my past behind for his ways of truth, love, and light. Change may seem impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And when we decide to trust God and to follow Jesus, he empowers us to overcome and to be transformed into the new creations that our faith in Jesus made us to be. So reckon yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God. It's already true. You just have to believe, trust in God, and follow him into the new life you already have. 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, and we're on day 86, where Adams shares a portion of Proverbs 8:35, which says, whoever finds me finds life, and he will obtain favor from Yahweh. And J.E. Adams writes, the fool who departs from wisdom turns his back on life and loses favor with God. You cannot be in his favor if you reject wisdom. Those who prefer foolishness over wisdom prefer life that is not really life. This fact comes to the, to the fore as Paul discusses the life of one who lives to accumulate wealth. He is not— his is not life abundant, though for a while he may think so. Only Jesus provides life. That satisfies. Favor from Yahweh outweighs all else. Favor from man is the goal of many. It should not be yours. Acquiring wealth or acclaim from others misses out in the long term in preference to the short term. Remember Moses, who by faith chose to be mistreated along with God's people rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasures of sin. Because he was looking ahead to the reward. The love of money is a root of all sorts of evils. People kill, lie, steal, and fornicate for love of money. The love of wisdom is a root of every kind of good. Have you regularly been obtaining favor from Yahweh? If not, don't you wonder why? Because you are pursuing wealth or anything other than God. The only source of true wisdom. Amen. Amen. And, uh, obtaining God's favor is a pathway that is formed by wisdom, you know, to do what God says is right regardless of what the world says or what our own flesh tells us to do, uh, in the short term for immediate pleasure or satisfaction. Uh, God tells us to look ahead and to seek him and to find his ways and to do good. And when we choose anything other than that, we, uh, we choose wrongly and, um, we suffer for it. Um, and so, so like Moses, we should choose to suffer, um, rather than to be, you know, outside of God's favor. So that is why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? You know, what A.W. Tozer once said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. But what I say is, what we do with what God's word says about us is the most important thing about us. Um, knowing and doing are sometimes two different things, and, um, We have to choose to, um, not just believe in Jesus, but to reckon ourselves dead to sin and to follow wisdom and to leave our past behind for the new good life that the Lord has for us. Um, he'll set us free and he will give us a hope and a future and a purpose. And part of my purpose normally is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets on Wednesdays. The group met last night, and from what I understand, they were able to live without me. So they were faithful in serving the ministry, and they were there to provide encouragement and support for Christian recovery and discipleship last night. I plan on being back next week, so we encourage anyone who would like to join our fellowship to join us next Wednesday at 6:30 PM at Starpoint Church., and, uh, we'll see you there. For those who can't make it, there's good news. I'm currently doing a series called Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark. That's the name of the playlist where we're doing all the teachings that we do at Celebrate Freedom, so we can encourage you in your recovery and your life of discipleship. So we encourage you to check those out by going to our YouTube channel, looking for our playlist, finding Christian Recovery, or going to mt4grace.com where we have a whole page dedicated to the YouTube playlist that we have available, um, playlists that include, uh, classes we've done previously on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and many other series that I've done and teachings that I've done over the years, um, on the podcast, um, to encourage you in your faith and to help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ. And so we encourage you to check those out. And if you appreciate that, we'd love to hear about it. Um, you can send us an email at mtforchrist247@gmail.com to let us know. And if you feel moved, we'd appreciate your donations and, and support, um, by going to mtforchrist.com, our donations page. You can give via PayPal, the Cash App, or Venmo, uh, to support M.t. for Christ Community Freedom Ministry. Thank you. Beyond that, we always end by asking the same question twice, um, in a different way. Are you empty for Christ too? Have you surrendered for— ever surrendered yourself to the Lord's will for your life? Have you asked the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you in the way you should go? If so, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray Ask the Lord to reveal himself to you and to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Um, that was the beginning of the change in my life, is when I finally recognized that I needed a Savior and I needed someone to help me, and the Lord was the one. Um, and he led me to find other Christians to encourage me in the way I should go, and, um, I've been supported by so many through the years, um, to follow this path. And I just encourage anybody out there who's looking for answers, looking for hope, to turn to Jesus and turn to find a local church where you can have a spiritual family that will support you in this journey of faith. And, um, we believe in prayer, so you should pray about that. And, uh, we're going to pray right now. Um, to try to help. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us, um, Lord. We thank you for leading us out of the darkness and, um, to find you and finding the new life you have for us. Lord, we pray for anyone reading, listening, or watching today's message, that they'd be encouraged by it, that they would turn to you as well. We pray for you to bless their walk of faith and, uh, their prayer requests, Lord, um, because we all need your help. And we're asking for today, Lord, we know you're a good Father and that, um, you give good gifts to those who belong to you. And so, Lord, we're asking for you to guide us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.