Summertime Fun and The Pain of Self Deception - Purity 796

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 beach on the shores of Long Pond comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene yesterday when I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Grafton Lakes State Park in Grafton, New York. While it is Friday and we should thank God for that— thank you, Lord— Um, because I have a— because I have to work Saturday, it is more like a Monday for me because I had the day off yesterday and because I had my one-day weekend to enjoy. I felt— I felt the overwhelming compulsion to try to make the day worthwhile, as July will be over come Monday. So I meditated upon the idea of if you have— if you only had one day to mark the summer of 2022 with What would you do? Um, well, that was a rough transition, but oh well. Uh, for me, summer has always been associated with swimming, and if I was going to have a perfect summer day, it would include that. And also, I love the cinema in every season, but as Hollywood releases a lot of its blockbusters in summer, I also associate summer with going to the theater and watching movies. As a good time in general. Luckily, I've had both of these experiences this summer, so as I contemplated what to do yesterday, I didn't feel I had to do anything really, but felt because I had the day off and July will soon be a distant memory, I decided to be intentional in doing something. Because we can see a movie anytime, swimming was the something I decided to pursue. But I wanted the experience to be somehow new. And as much as we may enjoy going to our old familiar places, I wanted to do something different. So I let Google be my guide and searched for a New York State Park somewhere between my countryside home and my river house, and Grafton State Park fit the bill. In the Freedom in Christ course, one of the lessons teaches that fun comes from being spontaneous, and I teach it and so I live it and have discovered that the lesson is true. It is fun to be spontaneous. So even though the experience at Grafton State Park was similar to other past swimming excursions, the fact it was new and spontaneous really satisfied my desire to do something. One of the other things I have learned about having fun part of fun is to not put expectations or arbitrary limits on our fun experiences. Having expectations can lead to disappointment if we build something up in our mind and our experience falls short of our vision. So I set out to Grafton, uh, with only the knowledge and expectation that there is swimming there. So no matter what I experienced, I would know that whether I was successful or not, my intentions to go swimming were true, and even if the beach was unexpectedly closed, I had acted in good faith, which is really all we can ever do. Another way we can get in the way of our own fun is by imposing arbitrary rules on our experience that take away our freedom. These possible strongholds of tradition or "doing things right" are strategies that we are taught or have developed that can be either— that can either ensure a good time or destroy it. These strongholds are usually revealed by conditional statements or arbitrary policies that we have developed, and while they can be useful, they could also keep us from experiencing our freedom. For instance, one such statement could be, "Since I'm going to the beach, I must blank." Fill in the blank. Must we? One, one must would be to get my money's worth by spending a certain amount of time there or doing something specific like swimming. While it was a goal of sorts to swim, what if the beach was closed? Would I turn and leave, or would I choose to make the best of the trip by going for a hike or by experiencing other options, exploring other options at the park? And guess, and guess what? There is no right answer there. It really depends, uh, how you feel, how about how you feel in your spirit. The rule of thumb is to examine your emotions and to see if you're maintaining your peace. If you have peace leaving to go home or elsewhere, do that. If you have peace in staying and doing something else, do that. The key here is to keep your peace and to freely choose your path. Yesterday's trip for me was fun because I enjoyed the journey. I literally enjoyed the drive because I, I went through some backcountry roads I wouldn't normally drive through. So just getting there was part of the fun, and it was fun to see the facilities that are, that are at the state park at Grafton Lake, uh, because Grafton Lakes, because I have never been there to enjoy myself. And while I was there, I was open to do what I wanted and not impose— and did not impose any limits on myself. When I felt I had accomplished what I wanted to accomplish and enjoyed my visit enough, I picked up and left. Experiencing the freedom of movement is a joy in and of itself, and it doesn't hurt our experience of fun when we realize that and appreciate it. And that is the ultimate key to fun, to appreciate it. And if we are grounded in the truth of our existence, it is right to pass our appreciation of our lives up the ladder to the one who created it all, God. As always, I never travel alone because I know that the Lord is with me wherever I go. I make a point of it to talk to him. And thank him for all the things I experience. My life, my, uh, the drive, my safe comings and goings, the things I see, the places I go, the weather, the sky, and the ability to do it all are all examples of what we can thank God for. So as we enter into what's, what is the last day of the work week for most, I encourage my friends to appreciate what you experienced today and to use the last days of July to have some summertime fun. And to do so without expectations and without putting limits on your freedom. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Philippians 4:9, and it says, "The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you." Today's verse reminds us that God, that the God of peace and the peace of God will be with us when we do the things we have learned and received in our walk with God. As touchy-feely as my summertime fun encouragement is, I have a confession to make. I haven't been doing what I have received, learned and received from my recent walk with the Lord, and it has slowly brought pain into my life. My back hurts, and I wish I could say that it was due to a sudden injury rather than a slow but steady fall into compromise and neglecting the things that I have come to know are true. I have an addiction background, and as much as I have had victory with my issues with drugs, alcohol, and sexual immorality, I have had less success with crucifying the flesh when it comes to food. We all have our weaknesses, right? But as understandable as our weaknesses are, as Christians who are seeking to live in the comfort and peace that comes from walking in the Spirit, it is especially disappointing when we continually find ourselves comforting ourselves with other things and neglecting the practices that are based on the things we have learned and received in our walk of faith. I know all about overcoming. Making small and continuous progress and being transparent and accountable. But somewhere along the line, I decided to give up on the accomplishment of my health goals and have given myself grace for my failures and, um, by giving myself quote-unquote a break. And now my back and my conscience hurts because I have allowed myself to ignore my patterns of compromise and blatantly and to blatantly turn a blind eye to what was happening. While I was— while I have been rather diligent in following my eating plan during the weekdays, I have also thrown my plan out the window on weekends and special occasions. In my faulty logic, I decided that cheat days were okay, but I was only really cheating myself. My patterns of unbridled overeating on weekends and special occasions started started slow and have progressed over the last few months to the point where I have gained back about 30 pounds from where I was, where I felt the joy, you know, where I felt the joy and peace that comes from carrying less weight and from being a good steward to the body God gave me. The first conscious step of the slow downfall was the decision to stop weighing myself. I I thought I was being wise because I didn't want to be controlled by a number and thought that my body would tell me what I needed to know. And it has been trying to tell me what I needed to know for months. You are too heavy. Another subtle hint are the photos I see of myself that reveals, oh yes, you have gained weight. I've struggled to right the ship and feel I have been up and down with success, but my weight and and today, my weigh-in today has told me that what may have felt like ups and downs has in truth been a steady decline in progress and a significant increase in my weight. So I am outing myself and resolving to weigh myself each week again like I had been when I was making progress. To keep myself aware and accountable to myself and my Lord, if no one else. Because frankly, that is all we really have in the end, us and God. And that, and that is a relationship that we have, have to be honest in. We can't blame others, weekends, or special occasions for diverting, uh, some diverting us from the things that we have learned and received. So, like today's Bible verse encourages us, I will encourage myself to simply do what I have learned and received in the past and use those strategies to be successful again and to be diligent to stay in the guidelines that I have established before. God gives us the desire and the power to overcome, but we have to do our part and be honest and transparent with ourselves and do the things we have learned and received. Without condemnation, but with the conviction that many times, that many times our suffering comes from our denial, self-deception, and failure to do what we know is right. So do what you have learned and received. And as today's verse says, the God of peace will be with you to help you experience the peace of God and the good results that come from living according to his wisdom and ways. 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, uh, Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness. And today's message basically states that the powers of darkness, part of their mission is hindering the mission of the church. And how they can affect that. Um, you know, all of this, you know, the things that lead us into failure, um, compromise, are the things that mess us up, you know. Um, giving ourselves grace for, for being human, or, or, or, or for getting what we need. Um, you know, these are the things that seem well-intentioned, but always when we deviate from the things we have learned and received from our faith walk from the word of God and from our brothers and sisters in Christ who try to help us, we don't do ourselves any favor. We basically deceive ourselves when we compromise the basic principles of our faith. To be diligent is a big one, and to be honest is another. When we deviate from those small things, you know, those, those key things in our faith walk, that's when we fail. And sometimes it's a slow fail, and it's a slow, you know, it's a slow decline of our progress. And, you know, we— and, you know, quite frankly, I knew it every step of the way. I knew, I knew it, but I felt powerless to do it or felt to give myself a break. And quite frankly, in my, my walk with food, you know, there's been Periods of great discipline, and then, you know, in this— in these last few months, there's been periods of great failure in terms of, you know, hiding and hiding from myself and others that I was feeding. You know, I was eating food. I was binging on candy and sweets and just over an abundance of food at you know, on a regular basis, but it was separated by a few days of good, you know, good eating. So, you know, I figured the two would balance out and I'd maintain and stay the same, but I didn't. You know, I was being deceived. And when you turn a blind eye to the truth, like stop weighing yourself, that's when the compromise really can compound. Because if at least if we're weighing ourselves, we we can know that we're steadily declining. But even in the face of that changing number, you can still feel powerless and just keep doing what you're doing and just keep falling. So we have to stop. When we're falling, we have to stand up and declare, I'm messing up, and I need your help. And the person we need to be saying that to is the Lord, because we really can't put it on somebody else to help us fight our battles. From my experience in addiction, I know a sponsor is a wonderful thing to have and people to come, you know, come to and confide in. But ultimately, the man in the mirror is the one we're going to have to go to. And the and to our God. You know, no one's gonna, no one's gonna give you your freedom for you. Um, you know, people can, uh, you know, sympathize with you and encourage you until they're blue in the face, but if you yourself are doing things that are dishonest and, and hidden in darkness, um, that's when you suffer. The last thing I want to be is considered a hypocrite, to tell people to live a certain way according to their faith and at the same time, you know, not do it myself. So today I'm honestly telling everyone on the blog and myself that, you know, enough is enough. We ran free and loose without the accountability of a weekly weigh-in. For long enough, and regardless of other people's feelings in the world about, you know, what makes you happy and everything else, I know I felt much happier when I was progressing towards my weight goal than by compromising here and there, by compromising, you know, with the assurance that I was only human. I might be only human, but other humans have lived at a healthy weight. Other humans know the joys of not carrying around extra pounds. And a lot of those humans don't even have faith in Jesus Christ. So if they can accomplish it, certainly I can too. The biggest lie the enemy ever tells us is that something is impossible. And while I don't want to be controlled by a number, I do want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and to exercise the self-control that he gives us. I know I have it. I know I have the fruit of self-control. I've used it in the past. I use it today. But it's time to focus that power and to, um, to go back to the things that I've learned and received from my this walk of faith and to do what is right and, you know, and to reap the rewards. But it's a journey, and it's going to have to be one where I take it one step at a time, one day at a time, but with a constant conviction that this is how we're going to live. And I might sound like a broken record about going over this food thing, but this is the one, you know, I can claim victory in other areas. Now some people never had problems in those areas, so it might not seem like that's too big a deal. But why not take the— I want all the freedom I can get, and I don't want to put limits on myself. I have so much freedom, but, you know, I like to give in to binging on food. That's not freedom. That's bondage. And it's unwise living. I've seen my father's weight adversely affect his health to the point where he's had surgeries and his life is a life of pain. And that stark example should not be wasted on me, and I should turn and correct the ship while I still can, because I want to live and I want to I want to prosper in this world. I want to be effective for the cause of Christ. And so I help myself. And I'm not a perfect person. I don't always do and say things that are correct, but I know whenever we, we follow the Lord, we're on the right path, even though it might not be the easiest path. So that's what I'll try to encourage other people to do and encourage myself to do. And to be real, uh, you know. So let's be real and let's be right with God and let's do what's right, uh, even if it might not be easy. And even if people— that's the biggest, you know, not for nothing, I know it's on me, but one of the biggest stumbling blocks we'll ever have is being in the world. But the Lord doesn't call us to live as a monk separated from the world. We're going to have to be real, um, and righteous, uh, in the face of of the compromising people that have no faith. Of course people are going to tell you to compromise because they live in sin. They're compromising, so of course they're going to encourage you to compromise. No one's going to encourage you to take a path that they themselves are not taking. So we can, you know, we have to lovingly say thanks but no thanks. We have to lovingly and possibly, you know, quite quite, you know, let's not try to be a jerk about it, but we might have to tell people to buzz off, that they can stop barking up the wrong tree, that through tempting us they are in fact, you know, working, you know, playing the role of the devil. And to laugh or to, you know, take lightly someone else's failure just because you're failing It's really, really a dark spirit, and it just shows the darkness of this world system and how it's been corrupted by sin. And we should recognize that, and we should fight it. And, you know, we can't save other people, but we can certainly walk the way the Lord wants us to and experience all the goodness that he has for for us, because when we get there, you know, we'll know we've arrived. And, and when we, when we, when we have victory over a certain area, we don't need to surrender it. Um, so we got to stop fighting these battles that keep taking that hill over and over and over again. We need to keep going up the hill. We made it up quite a ways up the hill, but we didn't get there. Um, so we have to keep going. And that's what I encourage myself to do, and I'm encouraging everyone to do, is live a life of faith. We do that by sharing our teachings on discipleship on the podcast and the YouTube channel, and by encouraging the study of the Word of God, because through that study, that discipline, we can renew our minds and we can know what's true. Yeah, we can deny the lies of the earth, you know, the lies of our families, the lies of our friends, the the lies of this world system that is corrupted by sin and the lies we tell ourselves. You know, all these things, their traditions, our backgrounds, everything we've been taught has been corrupted by a world system that tells us to get money, get, get things, get, get food, get experiences, all these things that'll make you happy, when in fact we know that they don't. Those, those, those joys are, you know, happenstances. They're happinesses that, that pass away with time. But the enduring peace that we can have with the Lord comes from following him. So we have to not deceive ourselves and be diligent to follow that. So that's what we do to encourage it. I don't mean to be— go have fun, but and, you know, realize that it's more fun to achieve our goals than to have a momentary thing that'll mess up our goals. Fight the good fight of faith, trust in the Lord, and keep walking and talking with God, as I say. That's what I intend to do, and I know with the Lord's help I can accomplish many things. And we're gonna keep pressing on, I think. Oof, a lot of work ahead. But, uh, it starts with one day. One day. That's what repentance is, is turning towards the Lord and going his way. So we're going to do that. And we do that, of course, with prayer. So we'll do that today. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for revealing to me the things that I, I've, I've let go of and, uh, let you know, let the compromise in my life. Lord, as we go into this Friday, we thank you, Lord, for the end of the work week, for most of my friends. And Lord, we thank you for the time off and the ways we can work to accomplish what we need to accomplish in terms of supporting ourselves and our families. Lord, we thank you for all the blessings of this life, but the blessing that, that stands above it all is the blessing of your truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the truth that if we walk in the Spirit, we will experience the fruit of the Spirit, and that if we crucify the flesh, we can have a life that's filled with, with the fruit of the Spirit, and that you will give us the desire and the power to accomplish it all, Lord. So we ask for your help today as we go forward. Lord, help us to do the best we can do to represent your kingdom in the way we work and the way we act and the way we treat our bodies. Lord, we pray for our friends today who might be listening, that they'd be encouraged, that, you know, that as long as they have the Lord in their lives, they, they're not alone. And Lord, we just pray for you to come alongside them in their prayer requests and their walk, to help them examine their lives and to surrender to you anything that's taken away their peace or causing them pain. Lord, we thank you for all that you've shown us. We pray for you to go before us to open our eyes to the truth and to the beauty of this world, um, and just to open our eyes to the things that appear good to man but lead to death and compromise and, and take us off of the path. Show us the traps that we've set for ourselves that we've fallen into and can't get out of. Show us the way to where we can go to you and find peace and and, um, show us the way that we can overcome. Lord, we thank you for all these things, and we love you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.