Taking Our Questions and Finding Sanctuary with God - Purity 1508

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of what I'm calling wispy sky sunset trees comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend shared this scene on social media back on October 26th, 2023. If this memory is yours, let us know and we will photo credit you on the blog after the fact. Well, it's Wednesday, and I'm sharing today's photo that features a mountain of a tree slightly off-center to visually represent our arrival at another midweek summit and to encourage us to keep our eyes open, uh, to the beauty that God has placed all around us and to go to the Lord to ask for help and guidance with the things that perplex us. Life can be stressful, so it is important to be able to find a moment's peace from time to time by smelling the roses and to remind ourselves that God is actually in charge of what can seem like chaos, and he is the one that we can go to for sanctuary and to take our pains and questions to. Today's Turning Point with David— Dr. David Jeremiah devotional for today reminded me of this fact, so I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage us not to get frustrated with life and to take our questions to the one who has all the answers. David Jeremiah writes Sanctuary, and he shares Psalm 73:16-17, which says When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. And then David Jeremiah writes, the writer of Psalm 73 knew in his head that God was good, but this writer, Asaph, was troubled in his heart by what he saw around him. The wicked were thriving. They scoffed at the notion of God, yet they were growing richer. Asaph, who tried to give— to live a godly life, wondered why he had more problems than the arrogant. What did Asaph do? He expressed his questions to God. He went into the Lord's presence like entering a sanctuary, and he gained new insights about the brevity of life for the wicked compared to the eternal glory afforded by him. Afforded him by his faith. There's a temptation when faced with spiritual questions to withdraw from God in frustration when we should withdraw to God in faith. We may not always understand our situations, but we'll draw closer, we'll draw closer to the one who does understand. Do you have spiritual questions? Go to God with them. And that was from David Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Elizabeth Elliott. That says, "Faith does not eliminate questions, but faith knows where to take them." Yeah, we take our questions to God. And Elizabeth Elliott, I believe, is the wife of Jim Elliott, who was martyred in the mission field back in the '50s. He was, you know, he's trying to share the gospel with, you know, indigenous people of South America somewhere, and unfortunately they They didn't understand his message of peace and murdered him. But as the story goes, Elizabeth Elliot, you know, went into those— into that mission field sharing the gospel after her husband was killed and brought many, many people to faith in Jesus, people who were, you know, directly responsible for his death. So it tells you a lot about our faith and who to take our questions to. So if Elizabeth Elliott knows that, you know, we should know that too. Anyway, I say amen. You know, let's face it, life is hard, and there are some troubling situations out there that make us question why things have to be this way. Life and the trials we can face give us lots of questions, but the good news is that we have been called out of the darkness of the world's ignorance by the one who is not only all-knowing but who is also all-powerful and is the the source of all goodness and love. We are troubled when the wicked prosper or go unpunished because God has written his law in our hearts. We know the difference between good and evil because of God, but the world is broken by sin and is influenced by the enemy who lies and tries to convince us that there are ways to live that are different from what God's word says. But God has given us his word and his Spirit to answer all our questions. The Bible teaches us what is right according to the Lord, and it assures us that everyone will answer for the things they have done. Because God is good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, we can trust that any evil not covered by the blood of Jesus will be punished. So we wait and trust in God to settle all accounts when Jesus returns. In the meantime, we can take all our pains and questions to the Lord and find sanctuary. We can study his word and ask the Lord to help us to understand the truth and to accept the things that are— that remain hidden. And we can receive his comfort and peace in his presence. Today's Bible verses come from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on giving, and today's verses are Matthew 25:34 through 35 and a piece of 40. From the NIV, the word of God says, then the king will say to those on his right, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. The king will reply, truly I tell you, whatever you did for, for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Today's verses fall under the 9th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on giving, and that 9th point is to give to God's children is to give to Christ. Today's Bible verses are, are, are the words of Jesus, and they teach us that God knows what we are doing and what we don't do. And when we do good works for others, it's as if we are doing them directly for the Lord. While we never earn our salvation through good works, today's passage of scripture indicates that God's people will do good works and that some will go into eternity thinking they are saved via church tradition, growing up in a church family, or through easy believism, and discover that they are not in the kingdom. And the Lord will demonstrate that all— although they talk the talk of a Christian, they didn't walk the walk of a follower of Jesus Christ. Um, so be sure to take your gift of salvation and share it with others and do good for those in need. Because the Lord saved you for a reason, for good works done in his name and for his glory. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mt4christ.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 7, where Adams shares a portion of Hebrews 11:40 which says God has something better in sight for us. And J.E. Adams writes, the, the many promises made to the saints in Old Testament times of a heavenly country symbolized by the land of Canaan were never realized by them. They continued to look forward by faith. These vague and shadowy promises were made clearer after the coming of Christ. About whom all the types and shadows dimly spoke. Today, enlightened as you are about the meaning of the temple sacrifices for sins, you should all the more readily recognize that there is a better land toward which the way is leading you. The saints of old look forward to a heavenly country that we can picture more plainly than they since the writing of Revelations 21 and 22. Surely then, knowing that your citizenship is in heaven, you too long for the better country where righteousness is at home. Someday that longing will be fulfilled, and you will enter into God's heavenly rest, to which the way alone leads. That was from J.E. Adams, and we say amen to that. You know, this is— it sort of parallels perfectly with the message from David Jeremiah today, that we go to the Lord with, you know, to, to answers. And the ultimate answer is, uh, life eternal, uh, in God's kingdom, uh, which Adams points to in Revelations 21 and 22. That's the fulfillment of history. What happens after that? Oh boy, who knows? Um, but it'll be good because we'll be in the presence of the Lord. There'll be a new heaven and a new earth, and, uh, we just have to wait to get there. So any evil done, uh, here on Earth will be punished. Nobody gets away with murder. Nobody gets away with anything., that all sin will either be judged or be covered by the blood of Jesus. And, you know, when we know that, we can, we can endure through the hardships of this life, and we can find peace knowing that God's in charge and he's all-powerful, and that he will, you know, move all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We follow the Lord because We need, we need his forgiveness. We need the life that he has for us. And so we ask the question every day: have you fully surrendered to God? We're not joking, you know. That's, that's, uh, that's our encouragement, uh, to surrender to the Lord, to not just believe in the Lord Jesus but to follow the Lord Jesus, to be a disciple or to be an apprentice, as some say, of the Lord Jesus Christ, to apply his wisdom to your life and do good works in his name. Um, you know, that gives you meaning and purpose, and it not only helps you to clean up your act, um, it helps you to have joy and peace in the process. And it usually gives you meaning— it gives you meaning and a purpose. And part of my purpose is to encourage people. And to, um, and one of the places I encourage people is to, uh, at Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets on Wednesday evenings. That's tonight. So if you're in the Capital District of New York, we invite you to come out to a group where you can be supported for Christian recovery and discipleship. We teach how to walk in the Spirit. We give you a place to come and give thanks and pray and praise the Lord and talk about your hurts, habits, and hangups and, you know, where you can walk out your freedom. So we invite everyone who's local to come out and join us this evening. Beyond that, if you're a guy, we're doing a men's, uh, online, uh, teaching and support group called Grace for the Holidays, where I am walking men through the Grace Course by Freedom in Christ Ministries, the original Grace Course, um, to keep Christ in Christmas, to remind us of God's grace, and to help us to experience God's grace every day. And I'm leaving that registration open until it's done, so if you wanted to be a latecomer, you could join us., on Monday nights for the discussion, or you can watch the recorded sessions after the fact. Um, basically we're putting it into a private playlist on YouTube, um, for all the, all the participants in the group. So you can sign up for that. However, if you miss the holidays, uh, we, you know, we are also planning ahead for 2025. We have already committed ourselves to teaching the Freedom in Christ, uh, course for men online Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM Eastern time, and, we invite people to sign up, uh, at ficm.org. Um, so, and you'd go and look for their online courses, you'd look for Freedom in Christ, and you look for the one at 6:30 Eastern Time, uh, PM, um, to join me. Um, however, um, for anyone out there, there's other courses available, um, including the new Grace course, um, among many, many other courses for men and women. So check out what's available at ficm.org. And Uh, let's see. Finally, uh, no matter who you are, where you are, um, you know, we, we encourage you to find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. We have playlists for The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course that you can enjoy. Um, that you find those under our playlist page, and you can also find them at mtforchrist.com. Basically under our YouTube video playlist page on our website, basically sort of make it easy. All of our series that we've done over the years are there, and we also offer many other Christian materials basically on our YouTube playlist that we believe will help you in your faith. And we end every, every day by, you know, asking the question, are you empty for Christ too? Have you surrendered fully to the Lord's will for your life? Are you inviting the Holy Spirit in to, you know, move and guide you and reveal to you all truth? If so, we say awesome, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray. Pray for the Lord to reveal himself to you and pray for the Lord to lead you into salvation so you can make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Um, you know, the, the Bible's the true story of life, and we need to connect to it if we want to live and be forgiven, so, and set free. So we encourage you to do that. And we believe in prayer, and so we pray every day, and like right now: Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you for how you set us free. Lord, that you give us the answers to the questions that we, we have on our hearts, and you, you get us to trust you that, that you'll take care of the things that we don't get answers for. Um, Lord, we thank you for, um, your love and your grace. And, uh, Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube, uh, that you come alongside them in their prayer requests, Lord, in their walk of faith. Because, uh, it's hard. Life is hard, but, uh, you make it bearable and make it so good when we, um, when we understand that you've given us all things that we need for life and godliness. Or so we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom, and we definitely need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these might— all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.