Self Care and the Care of the Lord - Purity 1147

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 gravel trail winding through a dense green forest comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene last Saturday as my wife, Tammy Lynn, and I took advantage of our need to be in the Queensbury area by using what could have been considered wasted time and used it to explore the Rush Pond Trail's twists and turns. The parents out there can relate, I am sure, of how we can find ourselves on standby as we deliver our children to parties or other activities and find ourselves in the 2 to 4 hour waiting window between the time we have to drop them off and when we need to pick them up. While that time could be used to do household chores or used to do grocery shopping or other errands, I offer you the option of thinking outside of the box and choosing to use that standby time for a little self-care. There are nature trails out there to be walked, art galleries, museums, movie theaters, libraries to be visited, and restaurants and coffee shops to find refreshment and rest at. Although we love our children dearly and care and provide for their needs, we shouldn't forget forget our own. Well, it's Thursday, and I share today's pathway photo that was captured during standby time to encourage you to seek a little me time every once in a while. And I strongly suggest, uh, you up the ante by making it God and me time all the, all the time, uh, by seeking the care, presence, and comfort of the Lord on the path of Christian discipleship. Last night I hosted another meeting of the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church, and I was reminded of the immense value of our relationship with the Lord because although some of the group members are going through some very difficult trials currently, they were able to give their thanks, uh, for the Lord's presence in their lives and for the support they receive in our Christian community. Each week I have all the members check in by sharing how their week is going and to share something they were thankful for.

In many cases, the thing that people were thankful for was this group, this church, or the Lord helping me.

Some of our people are going through very rough times, but paradoxically, because of their faith, they are reporting peace, joy, and not feeling alone. It was sort of funny because in a couple of cases I listened to the overwhelmingly painful details of what they were going through— physical pains or relationship problems, etc.— I found myself wondering, uh, what to say to encourage them. But before I could speak, the narrative would change as they testified of how they were leaning on the Lord for strength and guidance and were glad because they had peace and joy in the midst of it all because of their faith. Uh, you know, you don't really hear that in the world. If someone starts to document their pains and troubles, usually the negative reports degenerate into anger, fear, bitterness, or depression. That's why sometimes we're careful in who we ask, "How are you?" to, because some people's tendency is just to report the bad things or to complain about their lives. But the people in our group have learned to walk in the Spirit, and instead of dwelling on the negative circumstances they're facing, Their focus is on the Lord, who they are in Christ, and how they are blessed and able to overcome because of their reliance on God. Their problems haven't magically vanished since deciding to follow the Lord, but they have peace because He is with them, and they trust He will help them until they walk through and beyond the problems they have encountered. This is more than just positive thinking. The people in our group are experiencing the Lord's power in their lives as addictions, negative mind states, and harmful patterns of behavior are fading into the past as they have decided to keep on walking and talking with God. They have discovered the new life they have in Christ and are thriving even in the midst of hardships and pressures of changing the way they live. They have trusted that the Lord will help them and they are receiving His help because they are walking with Him. So let me encourage you, God is alive and He gives new life to those who put their faith in Jesus. And this is important, uh, decide to earnestly, sincerely, authentically follow Him with the way they live their lives. When we repent and turn from our ways to do things God's way, the Lord is with us and blesses us with His presence, strength, and guidance. When we develop this harmonious relationship with the Lord, where we agree to follow His will over ours— well, yeah, over ours for our lives—

we discover the fruit of the Spirit grows in our lives.

So start or keep on walking and talking with God, because His ways are higher than our ways, and His path leads to eternal life peace and joy. Today's Bible verse is— or is it just one verse? Just one verse, uh, comes to us from this Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on anger, comma, hot temper, uh, and it's— the verse is Proverbs 10, uh, verse 12, and from the— it comes from the New Living Translation today, which says, hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses. Today's verse falls under the second point of our counseling reference— or actually, it's the third point, my bad, uh, the third point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on anger and hot temper, which says, love covers a multitude of sins and overlooks many offenses. Today's verse is the first of 5 passages of scripture that our resource provides to demonstrate love's power over anger. Rather than presenting them all at once, we are doing them one at a time, one day at a time. This verse from Proverbs is short and sweet: Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses. If you want fights in your life, be bitter, be angry, be hateful. However, If you don't, act in love. How does love make up for all offenses? Well, when we act in love, we seek to act to resolve offenses and establish peace. We have offended someone, we apologize and seek to make things right by offering our amends. We listen and try to understand how we have offended others and try to determine the best way to establish peace as much as it depends on us. Without compromising our faith. Sometimes that means we can reconcile our relationship with others, and sometimes that means we establish boundaries and end relationships with others for the greater good and personal peace of both parties. It doesn't— it does no good to remain in relationships that are contentious, and it may be more loving to say goodbye than remain in toxic relationships. On the other hand, if someone offends us, love will direct us to forgive the other party. Again, this doesn't necessarily mean saving the relationship. Forgiveness saves us from bitterness and pain, but it doesn't mean we need to stay in a relationship that is painful. As much as it depends on us, if we act in love by trying to make things right or by forgiving others, we will make up for all offenses and live with the peace of knowing we did what the Lord would have us do, whether the relationship continues or not. As always, I invite you 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. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and we continue in chapter 24, which is the Spirit's sealing. And basically, this chapter wasn't really divided up into sections, so we're just taking the text a few paragraphs at a time.

And so this is the second passage from that chapter, and it's obviously about the Holy Spirit sealing. So if you want to read up on that, basically you can go to yesterday's and today's blog post, and you'll see that resource at the end of each blog post, as we always share Christian resources because they encourage us in our faith and teach us how to live. And A.W. Pink, um, has been, you know, one author I, I enjoy. And so we share his book on the Holy Spirit because I think people need to know about the Holy Spirit and the fact that he lives within us and, um, he's a person and he guides us. That still small voice that we hear to do good things that we wouldn't normally do, or pray for somebody. That's the Holy Spirit guiding us. Of course, you have to have faith in Jesus to have the Holy Spirit, and you can experience various manifestations of his presence, whether or not just, you know, scripture coming to life, or like I said, that, that those intuitions to do something, you know, do this, do that, do these good things for the Lord. And that you're always blessed when you do them. So that's why we walk in the Spirit. We are slow to speak and quick to listen, and we listen for the Lord's guidance as we keep on walking and talking with him, quite literally. Last night we talked about conversational prayers and that That's what we want to establish with the Lord. A lot of people talk to themselves, but I would say just to shift that from yourself to the Lord.

Lord, what would you have me do? Lord, can you believe what is happening here?

Lord, can you help me? Lord. So yeah, that type of conversation. And listen, and if you don't hear anything, you know, read the Word of God and you'll we are bound to hear the Lord speak that way. Our relationship is a dynamic relationship, but it does require our input. We have to seek the Lord and, you know, his ways. And we're not going to necessarily learn his ways by just, you know, listening, listening to pastors. We should read the word ourselves. The Lord will direct your path to what you need to know and Whenever you get an inkling that maybe I should study the Bible, that's the Lord calling you to do it. So that's what we recommend, is a lifestyle of Christian discipleship where you study the word and try to apply it to your lives the best you can. Um, we teach about this and, uh, uh, how to— who you are in Christ and how to experience your freedom in Christ in our discipleship series of classes that are available on the podcast and our YouTube channel. Those classes, of course, are Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. And, uh, yesterday, somebody— well, last night, someone sent me an email, you know, thanking me for the growth group and specifically for the information regarding Freedom in Christ, because it's, it's transformed their life in a few short weeks, and they're walking in that joy and that peace., that come from walking with the Lord.

So we highly recommend those teachings. They're based on the Word of God and the work of Dr.

Neil Anderson, and we provide them to you for free on the podcast.

So why do we do this?

Because, you know, we were shown this, shown this way by the Lord, and he's led us into peace and victory and freedom, and we're going to continue walking in it. And we're going to encourage everyone that comes along our path to do the same, because I never knew what it really meant to live as a Christian and what it meant to follow His ways. Or, you know, I never thought that was a desirable path, but it's the path that leads to life and life everlasting and peace and joy to boot.

So we encourage that, even though we have to live regular lives where we work jobs and stuff, uh, like, like I have to, to do today.

Um, so without further ado, let's pray.

You know, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do, and you know, all that you're doing in the Celebrate Freedom growth group.

We, we thank you so much for the faithfulness of the people that keep coming back. I've noticed the more people come back, the more joy and peace they seem to have. And so we just pray for you to be with them, and we pray for you to be— to bless anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you'd come alongside them and their faith walk, uh, and come alongside them in their prayer requests, Lord, because we all need your help and, um, we're asking for it.

We pray that you would go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see Help us accomplish the things you would have us do today, Lord, because we need your help and guidance every day.

And, um, we just want you to know we love you, we thank you, and, um, we praise your name. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.