Simply Amazing – Asking THE Awkward Question Purity 724

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 beautiful view late in the afternoon with some silhouettes of people enjoying the day on the shores of Hallett Cove Beach in Adelaide, South— South Australia comes to us from Dave Bond Photography. You can follow Dave on Facebook with the link on the blog today, and you can also read a blog post I shared last year about how a photographer from Pennsylvania found himself living in the land down under. His life— his wife Lisa shared their beautiful story of how God can take two hearts from opposite sides of the planet and make them collide with me after she discovered my teachings of Victory Over the Darkness on the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast and allowed me to share it on the blog. Uh, follow the link that I have on the blog to read Lisa's story in her words. And to see, uh, the wedding video. Um, so you can see that today. Well, it's Friday, and stories like Lisa and Dave's and my wife Tammy Lynn's and mine, uh, testify of the fact, uh, of how God will move people, uh, to do things, to go places, and to meet people that they would have never experienced if they didn't answer the call to make the Lord a part of their life. In our stories, we sought the Lord first and followed where he led us, not knowing what he had in store for us. Hebrews 11:6 says, but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If I were to only, if I were to only be able to share one piece of advice or one word of encouragement, it would be to Seek the Lord. The rewards we receive for faithfully seeking the Lord lie beyond our imagination, because when we decide to seek and to follow God, we simply do not know all the things he will work together for our good. Uh, life dedicated to following the Lord's call is best described as amazing. It is amazing in its grace that takes us from death to life, and amazing in the true sense of the word as we will live in the definition of amazing, that we will encounter things causing great surprise or wonder, things that are astonishing. Last night in the Men's Freedom in Christ course that I facilitate on Zoom, even though we are only in, in the first half of the class, uh, one of the participants, uh, is already testifying of the peace that he has found now that he has decided to investigate the Christian faith for himself. And to apply the truths of God's Word to his life. In this world where one's religion can be seen as a list of requirements—and Christianity can be no different—one can wonder and doubt whether they really are a Christian. This particular participant didn't necessarily come boldly into the class proclaiming himself as a Christian, so I was somewhat hesitant to directly ask him if he has put he had put his faith in Christ. But as we have advanced in the course, the questions in the course are presented with the presupposition that at this point the participants have already put their faith in Christ. So last night it was a little awkward asking the guys about what they have noticed has changed since becoming a Christian, when in this man's case I didn't know for sure if he was a Christian. So being me and actually following a basic principle of nothetic or biblical counseling, I just asked the question, are you a Christian? And this is a good point to recognize. If in our walk we come to a place where we are in conflict, uh, maybe we find ourselves between two people or who are presenting different views of what they are going through and we really don't know what to think. And while we don't want to offend anyone, we're stuck stuck in our ability to advise or counsel because things are unclear. So what do we do? Well, we have to make things clear. We have to confront the elephant in the room. We have to present what we have heard, how we perceived it, clarify if our perceptions are correct, and point out the inconsistencies that are getting— that we are getting from the various views and try to rectify them with the wisdom found in God's in the Word of God. When we are seeking to reconcile people to God and put them on the path of peace that comes from being in harmony with him, all problems are considered through the lens of the Christian faith. We recommend, um, and we, we, we, let's see, we don't recommend just doing what feels good or to do things according to what society deems okay. We direct people to seek and follow the Lord's wisdom for, for their lives. So when the course brought us to a place where the presupposition was being made that the participants had faith in Christ, I had to ask the awkward question and clarify things one way or the other. Have you put your faith in Christ? Are you a Christian? And not surprisingly, I was asked a clarifying question in response. Well, what do you mean by Christian? Uh, yep, he Bill Clintons me. And you know what, that's okay. Sometimes we need to know what the meaning of is is. Uh, so for him and for you, I simply presented being a Christian through the lens of scripture, right? With, uh, Romans 10:9, which says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And I should have included Romans 10:9 or 10:10, which says, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Because I then asked him if there was, you know, if there was ever a point in his life where he had had a moment where he, where he saw the truth of who Jesus was and made a decision in his heart to ask God for forgiveness of his sins and to make Jesus his Lord and Savior. To which my friend, a now fully confirmed brother in Christ, said, "Oh yeah, absolutely." He then explained that he had had doubts about his faith or status as a Christian because of the other Christians that he had experienced in his life seemed to present the Christian faith with a lot of have-tos or shoulds, like you have to go to church and read the Bible and do street preaching and tithe and etc., etc., etc. So looking at Romans 10:9, we can see that all that stuff, while good, are not required for salvation. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart— like really believe, uh, not just a mental assent— that he was raised from the dead— why is this a big deal? Oh, maybe because his resurrection proves he is God. '"Then you will be saved." That's it. That's all, folks. It is through faith in Jesus Christ alone that we are saved. This basic truth was a great relief to our friend, our brother in Christ. After this exchange, a burden seemed to be lifted from his shoulders, and he testified of how he was greatly encouraged by the Case for Christ documentary that I, that the link will be on the blog, that I had shared with him because it demonstrated how the Christian faith was rational and reasonable. And he described how since he started investigating his Christian faith, he has increasingly experienced peace that he simply didn't have before. Amazing. So if you are a sheepish sheep in the Lord's flock who may doubt your membership in God's royal family, let me assure you that the only requirement for being in the faith is faith, faith in Christ. If you believe in your heart that Jesus was and is who he said he is, and that his death on the cross was meaningful, that it did pay for the sins of all who put their faith in, put their trust in him, and you believe that he was raised from the dead, you are saved, you are forgiven, you are a child of God and only need to believe and trust in what the Lord has already done for you. In Christ, we have new life. It's only a matter of believing that truth and living according to it, uh, to experience the amazing life that God wants you to have, wants you to live. Uh, so thank God it's Friday. Uh, keep walking and talking with God, because when you do that, you will be amazed at what the Lord has in store for you. Today's Bible verse, uh, comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Luke 1:37, which says, "For with God nothing will be impossible." Uh, today's Bible verse comes from a heavenly messenger and encourages us to know that there is nothing that is impossible with God. This statement was from the angel Gabriel, who was sharing the amazing news that Mary would be— would have a baby through the power of the Holy Spirit. Talk about impossible. But Mary was a virgin and Christ was born, as the song says, on Christmas Day in the morning. Nothing is impossible with God. God is the creator of the universe. He literally created everything out of nothing. He is self-existent. No one created God. He is the one who has always been and is over time over and above time and space and will determine the course of his creation. The miracles of Jesus teach us that Jesus was God and that things we would think were impossible were possible through Christ. Testimonies throughout, uh, throughout the history of Christendom speak of miracles in the lives of believers. While miracles are very rare, they prove that God is still active in our world and nothing is impossible for him. In our lives as disciples, as we repent from our worldly ways, the Lord may put it on us to do things we never would have even thought to try to do before coming to Christ. Changing our lives and obeying the Lord might seem impossible, but the Lord gives all believers the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to empower us to accomplish all that he calls us to do. If we believe, if we have faith, we trust the Lord and do what he calls us to do, uh, and not just to get what we want necessarily, we will see the Lord help us to do what we thought was impossible. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. But the first step to being amazed is be— believing that with God nothing is impossible. 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. Today we continue sharing from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. Um, in today's sections, John presents risking for the wrong reasons, um, the power to risk is in the promise of God, and does God really supply all we need? So if you want to, if you want to check out those, uh, those topics, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and see what John Piper has to say about those things. And you'll see those at the bottom of today's blog post. Well, today is Friday, so we will thank the Lord that it's Friday. Um, let's see, the Lord's got a lot of things on our, on our plate. Uh, we have a full day of work, and then we're gonna run up and we're about to be reunited with our wife at our countryside home briefly, uh, before we head to Hudson Valley Community College to see my son Brennan perform in a play tonight. Um, so, uh, the weekend, uh, can be busy, but you know, it's gonna be good things. And, uh, tomorrow we have a party, uh, for, uh, uh, my stepdaughter Rachel, who's back from the Marine Corps, um, momentarily before being shipped out to Japan for the next 3 years. So if you're, if you're someone who prays, pray for, pray for that. Um, let's see, and, uh, that's about it. And of course we have the Bible study on, on Sunday. And it's Mother's Day, in case you needed the heads up. Um, it's Friday before Mother's Day, so get to the store as soon as possible because the Mother's Day cards will be flying off the shelf as, as sons and daughters, uh, remember their mothers. And seek to give them, uh, you know, some, some, some token of their appreciation. So we thank for— we are thankful for our Mother and, uh, and of course our Heavenly Father and our, and our earthly father too. Um, but, uh, time is of the essence, so let's pray and get ready for, for Friday. As, as, as the saying goes, we should thank God for— it's Friday because God is good every day. And the end of the work week is upon us, um, and all we have to do is keep walking and talking with God for 8 hours or 9 hours, uh, to get to the end of our shift and to enjoy, uh, the freedom that comes with the weekend. Uh, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for the, the joy of our salvation, uh, that we don't have to doubt our faith. We know in our hearts, did we, did we, did we confess that we need help, that we needed Jesus to, to pay for our sins, that we, that we made him our Lord and Savior? Did we do it one time in our hearts? Because, because the word says that if we did that, we confessed it with our mouth, that we will be saved, Lord. And that's, that's the entrance into your kingdom, and that's the invitation for us to grow in, in our faith. And, uh, we should never forget, uh, the joy of our salvation, Lord, because it's so good. We thank you for that new and everlasting life that lives in us now and lives in every one who has put their faith in you. Let us never doubt for a moment that we're fully approved, fully accepted, fully significant, fully secure in your love and in your kingdom when we put our faith in Christ. Lord, we pray for you to go before us as your children. You know, uh, we would appreciate your favor, your insights, whatever you got for us, Lord. We're going to have our hands open for us. We're empty for Christ because we want to be filled with your Holy Spirit, Lord. So, so we're just praying that you go before us to set things up for your glory, that we would encounter things that would help us to grow and where we can help other people to see that life is good and that, that there is a God who loves us all and who is inviting all of us to come and be reconciled to him through, through Jesus. So Lord, we pray for the Holy Spirit to anoint our lives. We pray for the people listening today, Lord, that they'd be blessed, healing and favor in the name of Jesus for them and their families. Um, Lord, because we know that, um, as the word says, when we, when we diligently seek you, we, we are rewarded. And so we'll, we'll take whatever words— rewards you have for us today, Lord. We thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.