Stepping Out of the Boat - Purity 1266

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 the sunrise just below the horizon on an otherwise cloudy and overcast morning comes to us from Tommy Malo, a missionary to Zambia, who shared this scene on social media back on January 25th upon his return to his mission field. After a brief visit back to the States. Tommy has been busy being back at work preaching the good news of Jesus Christ at village churches and literally building the kingdom through construction projects for congregational uses. Well, it's Monday, and as I go back to my secular day job, I am preoccupied with a pull in my spirit to get out of the boat in terms of ministering to the body of Christ with individualized Christian life coaching and prayer ministry ministry. Although I have recently resolved in my mind that I am content with my day job and am in no hurry to retire or to attempt to rush into full-time ministry half-cocked, I have increasingly felt the call to offer myself as a Christian life coach to men who have difficulties in renewing their minds and becoming the people God created them to be and who are plagued, with bondages or personal and spiritual conflicts that keep them living a life in the flesh rather than walking in the Spirit. I have increasingly perceived the need for solid biblical application, teaching, and guidance as I have noticed that my walk into progressive freedom and victory has been an unaccompanied one. Other than the Holy Spirit guiding me, I haven't noticed a lot of other men or women experiencing the transformed Christian life I am enjoying and walking further into. Admittedly, I am still growing and learning, and I know I haven't arrived, and won't ever fully arrive in terms of sanctification until I see Jesus face to face. But I have made progress in my faith walk, and I can't help but notice that the vast majority of the body of Christ that I encounter seem to be stuck or haven't even started to experience the abundant life that Christ is calling us to experience. While I don't want to be a fruit inspector and realize I can't fix anyone or drag them into freedom or maturity, I have a heart for the brokenhearted and those who sincerely want to change or who need emotional or spiritual healing but don't know how to walk yet. The author of Hebrews lamented over the babes in the body of Christ who couldn't eat the solid food of spiritual wisdom. And who are only able to drink the milk of the first principles of our faith. Hebrews 5:12-14 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness." For he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. While some in the Body of Christ who struggle are relatively new to faith, some who struggle in sin-confess-condemnation cycles have been Christians for years. And haven't been set free and have— and or have grown. Yeah, or have grown. While they ought to be teachers by now, they still don't seem to either know what the word of God says or fail to understand how it can be applied to and transform their hearts, minds, and lives. While I still have trouble chewing on the tougher portions of scriptures, and seek the Lord's wisdom always, I, by reason of use, through practice, have exercised my senses, my mind and body, to discern good and evil in terms of life, the life of a Christian disciple. And even though I try to encourage people through my blog, podcast, recovery ministry at my local church, and the volunteer work I do with Freedom in Christ Ministries, I feel that I could potentially really help individuals with learning to walk in the Spirit and to help them in their journey of becoming the people God created them to be through individualized Christian life coaching. I have great— greatly benefited from others mentoring, teaching, and encouraging me through the years on this path of Christian discipleship and really feel that the Lord is calling me to step out of the boat to to offer myself as a Christian life coach. As I have faced delays in what I thought was the Lord's plan to increase my education by pursuing a doctorate in pastoral counseling with Liberty University, and I'm still waiting to see how that develops, I have been drawn to disciple others in the Freedom in Christ course I'm leading, but sense that after the course concludes in April, I am to offer my help as a Christian life coach to the men I have helped in this current course and the ones I have led in the past who need further assistance in their growth or to overcome the issues they haven't— that haven't been resolved. And at this point, I'm convinced it isn't a consideration of whether or not I will do this, but it is more a matter of how I will offer my Christian life coaching. Yesterday I was researching becoming a you know, starting a 501 nonprofit organization for the purposes of offering Christian discipleship recovery education and life coaching. And I'm still fact-finding whether or not that'll be the way I operate or if I should just form an LLC. Arthur Cinkaty recommended speaking to a lawyer, we know, regarding which way to go, and I think that's wise counsel. And we'll make inquiries to figure it out. You know, when you have a heart to follow the Lord, he really will call you to do things you never even thought about doing. And it says, impossible as the call may seem when he calls you to step out of the boat, the fact that, that he is calling you sort of makes you forget just how unprecedented or non-conventional taking that step is. As you feel called to answer it, the only consideration is how you'll do it. Do I step in with my right foot first? The left foot? Or just jump in? I'm not sure which way I'll enter into these uncharted waters, but the burning in my heart demands to be quenched with action. And it looks like we're going in one way or the other. How? When? That is to be determined still, but we going, as they say, and I guess I will figure it out when I get there. But I have a good guide in God, and I know He will never lead me astray, and when He calls me, I follow. So let us get to work today and do the things that the Lord calls us to do, because His ways are best. And they help us to grow when we follow where he leads. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on communication, gossip, and lying. And today's verse is Proverbs 12:22 from the New Living Translation. The word of God tells us, the Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth. Today's verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the eighth point of the Our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. And that eighth point is: The Lord detests lying. Today's verse emphasizes the fact that God really hates lying. He delights in those who tell the truth. So again, white lies, half-truths, hiding in the shadows with our sin, God doesn't want that for us, and he is not calling us to conceal anything. Don't do something God hates. Don't lie. Remember, M.t. Clark's first rule of Christian discipleship, uh, is stop lying. Uh, God hates it, and he hates— and if, and if he hates it, we don't do it. Uh, God delights in those who tell the truth, and because of our love for him and because we want to represent him, we tell the truth. That's what we got for that. Pretty straightforward. Don't lie. Uh, as always, we invite you to go to mt4christ.org where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ, uh, with their walk. Uh, today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford.. It's from a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And in this devotional, Alford prompts us to read a chapter of Scripture. Today's chapter is Matthew 26. And from Matthew 26, he highlights verse 49, which says, "Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, 'Greetings, Rabbi,' and kissed him." If you didn't know, that's— I'm pretty sure that's Judas betraying Jesus. Anyway, Stephen F. Alford writes, Darby renders this verse: "Hail, Rabbi!" and covered him with kisses. What an antithesis this is to the picture in Luke 7:38. There we see a woman who has been forgiven much expressing the true love of her heart and kissing the feet of Jesus, covering them with kisses. Here in verse 49, it is not the kiss of love, but the kiss of betrayal. It is inconceivable and incredible that a man who had so lived and learned of Christ could be capable of such an act of treachery. The only solution is that we read, Satan entered him, Judas, and went out, in John 13:27 and 30. And Halford ends his little devotional journal with the prayer, Lord, keep me from ever betraying you with the outward sign of love. Yeah, um, so yeah, don't betray Jesus. Don't say you love him and then, you know, go against what he would direct you to do. Like lying, it's such a, you know, lying is such a pragmatic way to operate in this world, but it's, you know, something that God hates. Telling a small lie, hiding the truth You know, God doesn't want us to do these things, and he doesn't want you to betray his love. Oh, I love Jesus, and then to be, you know, um, duplicitous or a liar or, you know, a big sinner, or to have secret sin in your life. God calls us to repentance. He calls us to a life of Christian discipleship. And I understand that that's not easy, and that's why I'm considering becoming a life— uh, you know, I considering. I guess I'm going to become a Christian life coach to help others to know the truth of what God's word says and to apply it to their lives, because I know how valuable it's been to my life. That's why I do what I do. I encourage people to follow the Lord because it was the game changer, it was the life maker, you know, the miracle worker. The light in the darkness, you know, operates through our obedience to follow him. And like I said, I only offer my services to those who are willing to follow. And that should be enough, quite frankly. They don't need to follow me. I'm just going to point them to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But I'm willing to help. Some people need accountability to overcome. They need guidance and advice and they need companionship. And I'm willing to offer that. I have a real heart for helping people, and I think it's time to step out and offer that a little more formally, uh, in the limited, you know, to make it, to make it official, to make it formal, to get people to stay the course. I've offered my, my counsel to, as a friend, uh, to people in the body of Christ, and, uh, you take a friend's advice, I don't know if you take it less seriously than a professional's advice, but it seems to be the case. And I understand that'll be a limitation of the Christian life coaching ministry that I want to start, that, wow, I gave them the advice and then they stopped coming because they couldn't follow it. I understand that, but at least we'll make it formal and and, you know, basically, you know, encourage people to get what they pay for. Yeah, that's right, get paid. Why not? I'm going to invest my time into you, you invest your money into the process, and, you know, you'll get what you, you know, you'll get what you pay for. You'll get my companionship, you'll get my You'll get my advice, you'll get my pointing to the Lord and to Scripture, and you'll get strategies for overcoming, and hopefully you'll get progressive victory and freedom. You know, my life coaching would include prayer ministry as I would lead people through, you know, teachings that have helped me. I would lead them through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. I would lead them through prayer, healing prayer, emotional prayer, healing through Emmanuel prayer or real prayer, different techniques that I've come to learn and use and benefited from myself. And it's time to take those, this skill set, and to offer it to people in earnest. I'm gonna have to work out the details on that. And, uh, it's still a work in progress. We're researching these things, but, um, I think that's the way we're going this year. And as for the doctorate, I don't know. I think that was me trying to be approved to get credentials, and I think this latest call is sort of a step beyond that, or it might be stepping into both. I'm not sure. We're going to follow the Lord's wisdom on that. But first, we got a day job, so we're gonna have to go to do that, and we'll definitely need to pray about that. Let's do that now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for your guidance that leads me to repentance and to further into freedom and victory as you guide my steps. Lord, help us to follow you. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening, uh, today, that they would be blessed by you, that you come alongside them in their prayer request and their walk of faith, because we all need your help, Lord. And, uh, We're asking for it, and so that includes me. We pray for you to go before 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 and bring people into that kingdom with, with joy and increasing freedom. So help us, God. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.