In this devotional teaching, M.t. Clark uses a photo of the Great Smoky Mountains as a visual metaphor for discerning one’s worldview. He explains that without an objective standard of truth, beliefs become relative and contradictory. Drawing from the Steps to Freedom in Christ course, he outlines three dominant worldviews—Western (logic‑and‑science based, denying the spiritual realm), non‑Western (animistic, pagan, spiritist, affirming a universal spiritual power), and post‑modern (subjective, experience‑based, rejecting expert authority). He argues that each worldview offers mutually exclusive answers to fundamental questions such as what happens after death, demonstrating the necessity of an absolute truth. Clark then presents Christ as the embodiment of that truth, citing biblical claims (John 14:6, John 15:18‑19) and the spread of Christianity as evidence. He stresses that Christians must love others while standing firm on biblical truth, offering practical guidance on speaking truth in love and seeking God’s direction. The teaching highlights Proverbs 3:5‑6 as the day’s meditation verse, encourages reliance on God rather than personal understanding, and points listeners to additional resources: the Steps to Freedom in Christ guide, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship and the Cross (chapter 4), the mtforchrist.org website, podcasts, and YouTube channels. The message concludes with a prayer asking for wisdom, love, and the Holy Spirit’s work in sharing truth.
Chapters
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 breathtaking mountaintop view comes to us from a friend who paid a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee and shared the scene on social media on Tuesday. Well, it's Wednesday, and I thought our friend's photo of the Great Smoky Mountains was a great way to visually represent our arrival to another hump day and to suggest that we use discernment when deciding on our worldview and to not straddle the border of the world's, the worldview of the, of the truth and the truth of reality that is revealed in God's word. While we recognize the truth of what is going on in the world and in our daily lives as travelers on the path of Christian discipleship, We want to interpret our experiences with the wisdom that the Word of God teaches us. Without an objective standard of truth, our thoughts and opinions about various aspects of life are not necessarily qualitatively better than anyone else's. Uh, without an objective standard of truth, everything becomes relative and confusing, as people will put forth beliefs and ideas that logically contradict one another and then demand that we must affirm that they are all somehow equally true. Last night in the Freedom in Christ Course men's group that I facilitate on Zoom, we examined the Course's teaching on the importance of knowing the various types of worldviews and how they contradict the biblical worldview. According to the lesson, the Western worldview, uh, generally bases its view on logic and scientific observation, but all but denies any spiritual realm that may influence events on the earth. Um, this view can range from complete atheism with no God at all, or be deist, um, the belief that there is a God who created everything but since has left it to its own devices and does not intervene in the lives of men. Uh, the lesson also presents the non-Western worldview that generally believes that the universe is controlled by a kind of universal power that runs through everything. And by spirits of many types. This view can range from, from animistic— that God is everything— to pagan— there are local or tribal gods that can work for or against you— and spiritist— there are good and bad spiritual entities and those of the departed that can be communicated with. Where the Western view generally denies the spiritual realm, the non-Western view has many forms and expressions that affirm it affirms it, and seeks to manipulate it. And finally, the lesson presented the postmodern view, which is a reaction against past generations' reliance on science and experts, because after all, the experts have been often proven to be wrong. Whereas previous generations have seen truth as something revealed by God or discovered by science, postmodernists seek to test whether, whether ideas are valid based solely on their personal experience. Experiences. If it feels good to me, it's okay. And thus we can have political and social movements and special interest groups that deny aspects of objective reality or flies in the face of facts, but who collectively promote and reinforce each other's outlandish views on social media because it is quote-unquote true for them. And thus Christians are under constant pressure to be loving and to affirm others' beliefs and lifestyle choices that are not only possible but as equally valid and true, even though logic, reason, and the word of God indicate otherwise. The lesson points out that none of these worldviews—Western, non-Western, or postmodern—give us a true view of reality. When they all make different claims about things like our eternal destiny, uh, it becomes a little clearer that they can't be right because they contradict one another. The following excerpt comes right from the lesson, last night's lesson. It says, consider the most important question facing everybody in the world: what makes— what happens when you die? Hinduism teaches that when a soul dies, it is reincarnated in another form. Christianity teaches that souls spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Spiritists think we float around as ghosts. Atheists believe that we have no soul and that when we die, our existence simply ends. Can all those things be true at the same time? To put it another way, does, does what we— you believe will happen to you when you die make any difference to what will actually happen? Or will the same thing happen to everyone when they die, regardless of what they believe before the event? Surely, if Hindus are right, we will all be reincarnated. If Christians are right, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. If atheists are right, all our experiences will come to an end. If spiritists are right, we'll all float around as ghosts. But they simply can't all be true at the same time. So it's clear that there is such a thing as real truth that exists whether— whatever individuals may choose to believe. That came right from the Steps to Freedom in Christ Participant's Guide, a week— a 10-week life-changing discipleship course. So how can we know what is true? Christ came to tell us the truth. He lived a sinless life, taught wisdom, and affirmed the truth of the Old Testament scriptures that predicted his coming, performed miracles as a sign that he was heaven-sent, died on the cross for our sins, and proved that everything he said was true and that he was God by not— by not only rising from the dead but also literally ascending to heaven in the presence of angelic witnesses. The truth of Christ's claims are seen in the spread of Christianity throughout the world and the transformed lives of the millions that have put their faith in him and live according to his teachings. What's even more amazing is that while other religions won't name him as Lord and Savior exclusively, Every faith system from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and others pay homage to Christ in some way, either as a god among many, a prophet, or a wise teacher. Christ is special enough that even the religions that deny him want a piece of him. But Christianity doesn't do the same because they believe Christ when he said in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So as Christians, um, we know the truth and we live by it, and we shouldn't be surprised if the world hates us for it. For Christ said in John 15:18-19, if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one, one of its own if you belong to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you out to come out of the world, so it hates you. But we shouldn't hate the world back. Christ came to save that which was lost and taught us, taught us to love our enemies. Just before he told his disciples how they would be hated, he said in John 15:17, this is my command: love each other. So let's do that. Let's love one another, be kind, but also be clear about the truth. Love doesn't mean affirming someone who when they are harming themselves and don't know it. Obviously, this is a hard road to walk on, to love one another but to stand on the truth of God's word. So let's keep walking and talking with God and see what he tells us as we seek to be the peacemakers and to reconcile ourselves and others to come into his kingdom. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Proverbs 3:5-6, and they say, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Today's Bible verse encourages us to trust the Lord and to seek his will in all that we do. Um, I love it when a plan comes together. I don't plan these messages, but I think God helps bring that— bring it together sometimes. Last night's discussion, uh, we described— we addressed the fact that it was really hard to know what to do when, when talking to friends, loved ones, and/or others who don't have a relationship with the Lord. Um, how do we tell the truth in love? How do we stand for Christ and have peace with those who reject him? How do I live this Christian life without losing all the relationships in my life? I was honest and told the men to just to be discerning, uh, and to go to the Lord to direct their paths, and pointed out how Christ usually answered questions with a question or gave answers that took into account who he was talking to. So what do you do? It depends. While I could give advice to follow in every situation, That strategy doesn't even work with regular problems on the earth because of the complexity of the realities that we face. That's why politics is a mess. Life is not one-size-fits-all. So I point to the Word of God every time because I know the author has the answers. As today's verse directs our path, we should trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. Um, but we should seek, um, seek his will and in all we do and trust that he will show us what to do. That's walking in the Spirit. So before you speak or act, be sure to check in with your Heavenly Father and listen to what he tells you and trust him to show you the way to go. As always, I encourage— 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 Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we continue sharing from, um, uh, this, uh, chapter 4 of that book, um, which is, which is, um, Discipleship and the Cross. So if you want to read the next excerpt from that teaching, uh, go to M.t. for Christ mtforchrist.org and check out the, um, the, the bottom of today's blog post and you'll find it. It's a very short section as I'm chopping up chapter 4, um, bit by bit, so it's not a lot more to read than my regular message. And the good news is we're also doing a teaching on YouTube of chapter 4 this week, uh, for Discipleship and the Cross. Um, I'll be posting that as soon as I record it on YouTube this week at the M.t. for Christ 24/7 YouTube channel and putting on the audio podcast as well. So as always, life is hard, life is difficult, but we have the answer in Jesus Christ. How we live it out though can vary a little bit from situation to situation. I didn't mean to say like we don't know what to do. We always know to trust the Lord and do what's right, um, but how is that going to be expressed? That's different from case to case sometimes. But we always trust the Lord. We always stand on the truth of God, God's word. We don't seek to compromise our faith in any way, but we do also want to be loving and love others and love our enemies. So how do you do that? Well, that's why we go to the Lord, lean on his understanding and trust in him and ask for his guidance as we walk in the spirit. And that's why we need to read the word of God, apply apply it to our lives and to, uh, seek to bring people into, into the kingdom, but at the same time somehow stand for the truth of what, what the Bible says about how we should live our lives. So we encourage you to do that. If you need education on that, we do provide our, our, our teachings of the past from on Freedom in Christ, The Bondage Breaker, and Victory Over the Darkness, all based on Dr. Neil Anderson's work and the word of God. Those podcasts are available on YouTube and on the audio podcast wherever you find podcasts, I guess. Well, it's another day in the kingdom. It's another day to work. You know, those who don't work don't eat, as they say. And I, you know, well, we have to eat, and I enjoy eating. That's why we have to be disciplined in the things we do. That lust of the flesh can get us every time. So, you know, balance is a good way to live our lives, and the best balance comes from a life that surrendered to Jesus Christ and to do his will on the earth and in our personal lives, to renew our minds and to be conformed to the image of Christ. So that's what we'll do today, somehow, and work, you know, um to talk more about that tomorrow. Um, anyway, uh, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the, the truth of your word to direct our path. Lord, we pray for you to direct us in wisdom as we seek to share your truth and share it lovingly, uh, so the Holy Spirit can work through us and to not just offend people but to, to to, to open their eyes. That's your spirit that does that. Make us available and willing to do what you would have us do so you can, you can work through us, Lord. So we, uh, we thank you for the opportunity. We invite you to show us the way to go. Um, and Lord, we just thank you so much for anyone who might be listening or reading this message, Lord, that— and we pray that you come alongside them and their, in their walk. We pray for you to bless them with your favor and guidance as they go about their days today. Um, and I'm praying that for me too, Lord. We pray almost every day, you know, for you to open our eyes and show us the things we need to see and to guide our path and the way to go to best represent you on the earth. And so we pray that today, Lord. Um, Lord, we just, we just thank you, we love you, and we praise you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
