September’s Done Sunday – Did the Devil Make You Busy - Purity 1155

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 misty morning sunrise view of Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I captured this haunting scene Saturday morning as my canine friend Harley and I braved the crisp autumn temperatures to begin a new day. Well, it's Monday, September 25th. And even though I failed to announce the first day of the fall season this past Thursday, I figured I would give us all a collective wake-up call this morning to the rapidity with which we go through the days of our lives by pointing out that September is done Sunday. That's right, it seemed like we had, had just arrived at the month that marks Labor Day and the beginning of school and the NFL season, uh, just a few days ago, only to blink and see that it will be October a week from today. This past week at the Celebrate Freedom growth group meeting, Debbie DeYoe, our women's leader, shared Corrie ten Boom's quote, "If the devil can't make us bad, he will make us busy," to point out the possible spiritual danger we can find ourselves in if we aren't being mindful of the passing times and being intentional about investing ourselves in our relationship with the Lord and with others. Debbie confessed that she had been inundated with work and personal projects recently and noticed that she got busy. As she got busy, the thing that seemed to suffer was her quiet devotional time with the Lord and consequently her overall sense of peace. Even though you would think that being busy, meeting responsibilities and getting things done would result in peace, that wasn't the Debbie's experience, and instead of deciding to get busier to accomplish peace, the Lord put it on Debbie's heart to do less instead of more. It was a timely word to deliver, uh, during this busy fall season, as many of the people in our group had similar testimonies of doing too much or not getting enough time with the Lord for themselves or with their families. That's another thing to keep in mind. While we may look on our busyness as the problem, we have to be careful not to go to extremes when we try to tip the scales in the other direction. While our busyness is one extreme, deciding to blow things off and let things go, or even to— or, or to even be super spiritual, uh, could just— could be just as dangerous, uh, to our peace as our peace of mind, as a failure to meet responsibilities would equal suffering negative consequences for not doing what we need to do, or spending excessive amounts of time in spiritual pursuits may cause discord with our human relationships and dysfunction to our families. Not for nothing, but this juggling act of our spiritual and real-world needs is why I arise super early each morning to attend to my needs for physical exercise and spiritual communion with the Lord. Years ago, as I decided to seek the Lord and know him more, I realized that the early mornings were really the only time that I could find not only the peace and solitude, but the actual time itself to pray, read the Bible, and get the physical exercise I need to be relatively healthy. My morning commute to work comes early each day, and the hours after work in the evening were filled with family responsibilities, household chores, or just resting. So if I wanted the balance and harmony that comes from physical exercises and spiritual disciplines, I saw that I was going to have to be diligent in rising early and be willing to sacrifice a little sleep to find a deeper sense of peace. So some may argue that my morning routine makes me even more busy, but the solid foundation of peace that is established through my daily spiritual practice in the morning paradoxically gives me the rest, joy, and resilience that prepares me for all the challenges that seek to exhaust my capacity. Uh, with that said, on Friday I consciously made the decision to cordon off my weekends as time reserved for, uh, time with my wife and even eased back on spiritual pursuits a bit as we spent some of the time just relaxing and watching movies. I love to help others when they are interested in following the Lord, but realize that my discipleship counseling or life coaching activities are going to have to happen on weeknights. Otherwise, I would run the risk of being too busy with helping others, uh, to the neglect of my marriage. So as we begin the last busy week of September, try to be mindful of what you are busy with and whether or not you are too busy, and try to find a balance between doing enough and doing too much. When we don't have peace, that is a red flag telling us that something is out of balance. And while we may have to be busy at certain times and seasons, if we don't manage our personal, professional, and spiritual lives properly, something may fall apart regardless of how busy we are. If you have too many balls in the air at once, even the best juggler, uh, will drop something eventually. So examine your life, know what you value, meet your responsibilities the best you can, But don't fall into the enemy's trap of being too busy. That will lead to something crashing to the ground and breaking. Today's Bible verse comes to us from this Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John J. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on anger, hot temper. Today's verse is Proverbs 15:18 from the New American Standard Bible. Bible. The Word of God says a hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. Today's verse falls under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on anger and hot temper. That seventh point is a hot-tempered man creates dissension. Today's verse contrasts the hot-tempered man with those slow to anger. And the difference is war and peace, as a hot-tempered man stirs up strife or dissension, disagreements leading to discord, whereas the slow to anger generally calms disputes. Angry people are contentious, and unfortunately anger can be as an addictive pattern of behavior as drug abuse, as anger provides feelings of power and satisfaction when the angry person gets their way. Might doesn't necessarily make right, and because we are predisposed to go with what works, if our angry bullying outbursts get people to bend and yield to our wills, we can get in the habit of being an angry person. Why are cycles of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse such a problem? Because the abusers learn to get what they want through angry and controlling means. And often these patterns get stronger and remain in place until something breaks. So be strong and courageous and slow to anger, and try to teach the hot-tempered person that there are better ways to get things done. And show them the strife they are creating, how their anger is more of a problem than a solution. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 as we continue sharing from chapter 26, The Spirit Interceding, and, um, today's section is on the negative and the positive. So you didn't think there was negative aspects of the Spirit interceding? I guess, I guess A.W. Pink is going to point that out. So if you want to see what that's all about, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also, at the end of today's blog post, you'll see an encouragement to join our discipleship classes for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and for Freedom in Christ via the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast. I was just contacted this morning or last night by somebody asking for materials on the Bondage Breaker study as they've discovered that— they discovered the Bondage Breaker and are, you know, basically incorporating that book into a recovery ministry somewhere in Las Vegas, of all places. So, so they're asking for the resources, and I'll be providing them via email free of charge because they reached out and contacted me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. I'm afraid I probably don't have much more than what they already have, but I'm going to give what I, what I can, and my recordings help, you know, in regards of this, you know, helping, you know, create a recovery program or even lessons based on the material, you know, all the more power to them. So that's what we do. We share what we know. And yeah, the work, The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, The Freedom in Christ, it's all based on the Word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson. But it was highly impactful in my life. And so I I pass it along to anyone else who comes along. Actually, in the recovery ministry I do, the Freedom— Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church, we'll have a period of time in November to December where the lessons are going to basically be sort of wide open. I'm contemplating doing Freedom in Christ or, you know, possibly Understanding the Wounded Heart by Dr. Marcus Warner, or discipleship materials that I have created as part of my master's thesis on Christian counseling, or well, for Christian counseling. It was basically on Christian recovery, how to infuse discipleship principles into that type of ministry. And that's what, ironically, that's what I'm doing now. And we do it because it worked for us. And instead of an angry response, our response is to agree with what the Word of God says and to live by faith, power of the Holy Spirit. It's a much better solution than running over people ramshod with your anger. Um, when you agree to, agree to the, to follow the Lord, the Prince of Peace, amazingly you find peace. So we shouldn't be too busy trying to get everything done in our own strength. We rely on the Lord to lead us. And sometimes we take a break. Uh, just this past weekend, um, much of my day Saturday was unproductive, which I'm a little embarrassed to say, but, you know, actually I watched a very sophomoric comedy, Aliens in the Attic. It was my stepdaughter's choosing. It was something from her childhood. It was less than stellar work. Anyway. But, but, you know, it was a nice diversion and a nice break. And, you know, sometimes we got to take a break even from spiritual pursuits to recharge our batteries. And it was, it was a good way to relax, spend time with my wife and my stepdaughter. So that's what we do. We have to find that balance and get things done, which I did manage to do. I managed to meet some responsibilities with some spare time. But I did take time to relax and take long walks with the dog this weekend. And we went to a Newsboys concert last night, which was absolutely stellar. I was very— I'm sort of set in my ways because of the routines I have and was not looking forward to a Sunday night concert when I'm usually home in bed, but the Newsboys were absolutely wonderful, and it was a real worship experience, and I was ecstatic by it. So talk about getting your spiritual batteries recharged. Such awesome worship. It was so great. No regrets. And I might be a little tired this morning because of lack of sleep, but man, it was good. And, and, uh, to follow suit, uh, our partner in crime for our Bible studies, uh, Arthur Sankhadi, um, he was working hard on Saturday, uh, preparing a church in Philmont for a church plant, uh, with Rock Solid Church. I'm not sure what the new church is going to be called or if it'll be whatever. Apparently they're going to do Sunday night services in Philmont. Arthur was busy, busy helping prepare the church for that. I don't know when they began, but Arthur was so busy with that particular work that he called it quits on the Bible study this week. Because he had worked there, he decided to take a break, so we didn't have a Bible study yesterday, if anyone was actually wondering. So we had to take a break from the 24/7 pace that we try to keep, and there was no blog entry, no Bible study, and, you know, nothing on Sunday, which I guess is actually appropriate. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, I guess. But anyway, the thing that never rests is giving thanks to the Lord, and that's what we did during church. And like I said, last night at the Newsboys concert. So if you ever get a chance to go see the Newsboys in concert, I would recommend it highly because they were great. Um, I, I might not know all their songs, but some of the worship songs they did were very familiar. And, uh, they were just excellent, excellent guys. And we got our picture taken with them and everything because my wife flipped the bill for VIP access. So it was really really great. I thank you, Tammy Lynn, and my prayers continue for my wife as she's healing from her dental work. I thank everyone for their prayers in regards to that because she is doing much better from where she was a week ago, and we're praying for continued healing and reduction— and continued reduction of pain, as I believe she plans on going back to work tomorrow. So continue prayers for her. And, uh, we have prayers. Uh, one of the people in our church, um, had a fire apparently, and so we, uh, we pray for them to get the assistance they need from their insurance company, uh, and their friends and family of our community, our church. Um, we pray for John Hodgins and his wife, um, I guess they went out for a walk and came back, the house was on fire. So I don't know what happened there, but there is a GoFundMe thing for them, and we're praying for people to provide for them, um, in this time. And there's been a lot of outreach from the body of Christ in regards to supporting them. So I pray for them and pray for them to be supported and get the help they need to get, you know, to repair the damage, replace the home, or I'm not sure what the situation is, but I saw that online. I thought I'd throw them out there for prayer. We also pray for the, you know, well, let's, let's pray, let's move on as we need to get going on this busy day to work. So let's pray right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that do. We thank you for how you give us peace and joy in the midst of our busy lives, um, and that you never give us too much to handle, um, because you're always there with us, and you'll be there even if it is too much to handle, um, that you'll be there to walk beside us and give us resilience and strength and guidance for the road. Um, Lord, we pray for you to go before us today We pray for anyone who's listening or reading this message. We pray for them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith, Lord, because we all need your help. We're asking for it today. So we pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, remind us of the things we need to do, and lead us in the way we should go, Lord, because we all need your help, your strength. And, uh, your presence in our lives. So we're asking for all of those things today. And Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.