The Nightmare After Christmas & Out with the Old - Purity 1541

Good morning, welcome to the MT4Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, um, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning, today's photo of the sun shining through a forest clearing covered in snow comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene yesterday afternoon as I walked toward the farm farmland clearing on Wade Road. Well, it's Saturday, and although I woke to more notifications telling me that the hacking activity on my Facebook account had resumed while I slept, I say good morning because I have done what I can to resolve it and am leaving the rest up to God. I have actually chatted with a person at Meta support who is passing my complaint to the hacking specialist to resolve the issue. I disabled the payment method I couldn't remove yesterday, and I reached out to both PayPal and my bank to report all the fraudulent charges made against my account since Christmas Day. I also was able to possibly get a glimpse of who my attackers are, as a pair of Facebook accounts came up when I investigated the latest activity. They may be alias accounts, so I won't name my hacking attackers publicly, but I am— I, I did block them and will be sharing the information with the Meta support when they get back to me. As disturbing as this hacking has been, I've done all I can do for right now, and I'm going to let it go. Speaking of letting it go, boy am I ready to make some New Year's resolutions. I've been walking in the flesh more than walking in the spirit lately, and look forward to repenting of my latest indulgences in the realm of mindless eating. I am looking to start my New Year's resolutions early by beginning today. I will keep track of what I eat and say no to the things that I know are not good for me, even if they taste good. Uh, it's never too late to start again, and I have a certain level of peace knowing, um, that God is faithful to help those who ask for help. So I'm asking and am ready to say out with the old. Um, the turning point for devotion, uh, with the Turning Point with David and David Jeremiah, um, devotional for today is entitled Out with the Old. So I'm— even though I didn't— it didn't inspire me to turn towards repentance, it certainly encourages me. So I'm sharing it on the blog today to encourage anyone else out there who may need to hear it. David Jeremiah writes Out with the Old. And he shares, uh, Isaiah 43:18-19, which says, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. And David Jeremiah writes, the turning of the year reminds us time is fleeting. The past is on unalterable, the future is uncertain, and our God is unchanging. We can say, Lord, thank you for your faithfulness during all this dying year. There were good days and bad ones, but there were no days without your constant grace and care. My mistakes and sins are covered with the blood. My victories are committed to you. Now help me to anticipate the new graces before me, the blessings, the guidance, the opportunities, the promises. May I perceive your ways. May I foresee by faith your path toward— forward and the springs you will give me in the desert. You can record that prayer as your own, or you can write out a prayer in your own words. There's not a better plan than recording your thoughts in the form of a prayer as the old goes out and the new comes in. And that was from David Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Francis Ridley Habergal, who wrote, another year is dawning, dear Father. Let it be, in working or in waiting, another year with thee. Amen. 2024 has been a great year in many ways. I am proud of the ways I sought the Lord and tried to do his will by serving others, but I'm also humbled. By the many ways I was shown that I still need God's help, that brings me to a point of repentance as this year comes to an end. For all the steps forward I believe I've made in doing God's will, I know that in many ways I've, I've stepped off his path by trying to do things my way or by living in the flesh rather than in the spirit. And so I rejoice over what I may have gotten right, but I am now ready to repent in dust and ashes over the ways I have I may have drifted off course and am ready to surrender to the Lord and ask him to help and guide me in the year ahead. God's mercies are new every day, and I choose to recommit myself to him and his ways more completely today. I want to congratulate you out there, uh, for making it through 2024 the way you did. The people getting this text or hearing this message, I believe, have grown a lot. And although we all may have some regrets and could have done things better, I believe the Lord has seen us trying and is encouraging us all to remain faithful, to follow him into the new year with joyful anticipation over the possibility— possibilities of what he will do in our lives this year. So let's rejoice, take a rest if you need it, and then dust ourselves off and rise and walk into the new year with the faith that understands that God is with us and will lead us to where he wants us to go, as long as we keep on walking and talking with him. Have a great weekend. God bless you. Today's Bible verse is come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verse is coming from the section on humility or pride. Um, And, uh, today's verses, first verses are 1 Peter 5:5-6, which say, likewise, you younger people, submit yourself to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Today's verses are the fifth of five passages of scripture that fall under the first point of our Counseling Reference Guide's our section on humility or pride. And that first point is: Humility is a virtue most pleasing to God. Pride is a grievous sin in his sight. And I write, today's Bible verses encourages us to be submissive to one another because God knows that when we put our own needs above others, we can easily be operating out of the worldly ways of pride. Rather than the humble ways of Jesus. Jesus's way of self-sacrifice and serving others is our example to follow. And even though putting ourselves— putting others before ourselves and serving others first cuts against the grain of everything we may have ever been taught, we should trust that God is leading us in the right direction when he tells us to follow Jesus. While I need a lot of work in this area, I have to admit that I have experienced growth and real peace when I decided to let go of myself selfish needs or preferences and instead decided to try to meet other people's needs. When we stop worrying about our needs being met, we can relax. We usually get to discover that our needs were not more like wants, and our Heavenly Father actually gives us everything we do need. His ways lead to peace, but we must act on what God is directing us to do to experience it. So trust the Lord by being submissive to others and to love them with your humble kindness and service. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com where we always share messages that contain insights from various Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. And 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 40, where Adams shares a portion of 1 John 2:6, which says, "Walk in the same way that he walked." And J.E. Adams writes, "If you say, 'I remain with him,' then demonstrate it. This is more than an obligation; it is a privilege. By learning how the Lord lived his life, you may learn to walk as he walked." But how can you expect to do so if you don't know the Bible's teaching about his life? It is sheer nonsense to claim to walk as he did when you don't know how he walked. Moreover, all, all he did outwardly came from the light that was within him. The Pharisees looked good outwardly but were full of darkness within. To walk as he walked is to walk by the Spirit. As we have seen, it is he alone who opens the meaning of the scriptures to us so that we can understand what walking in the light means. It is also he who enables us to so walk. If you ask the Father for the help of the Spirit, he will not give you a scorpion. Rather, he will ever more willingly, uh, to— he is ever more willing to give that to give than you are to receive. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Do not hesitate to ask today. He is on the path to fellowship, which means literally to partner with you. That was from J.E. Adams. And I say, yes, Lord, um, please, I ask for your help of the Spirit to walk in the Spirit. I'm tired of walking in the flesh, and, uh, I surrender. Um, that's my prayer for today. And so we ask you, have you, have you fully surrendered to God? Uh, as much as we've, you know, walk in the Spirit, we have great victory. Let's not, you know, beat ourselves up too much. Um, but we have victory over the sins of the past of, uh, sexual immorality, drunkenness, drug abuse, depression, and anger, mostly. So we've made great progress, but, you know, with this indulgence eating that is so rampant in our society and so tempting, we realize that we're not walking according to how we should walk. And we're surrendering this to you, Lord. And we want to press in to let go of the world a little bit more and to enter into what you have for us, because we've discovered a measure of peace that goes beyond our understanding, and we want to increase that in our lives. And we encourage anyone else out there to do the same. You know, it's the end of the year, and this time to make a change comes up a lot. And most New Year's resolutions aren't completed, but when we trust in the Lord, He can lead us into a new life, and He'll lead us into purpose, too. And as for me, part of my purpose is to serve as the leader at Celebrate Freedom support group on Wednesday evenings at Starpoint Church. Uh, we begin again on January 8th. If you wanted to make a change, uh, needed support, um, we offer our Christian Recovery and Discipleship support group to help you. Uh, anyone in the Capital District can join us, um, by, by coming to the church Wednesday evenings, um, before 6:30, and we can let you in. Um, beyond that, if you're not in the Capital District, we're stepping out in faith and offering this, uh, Celebrate Freedom support group as an online, support group. Um, we're, we're doing that on Mondays starting January 6th. Might just be a teaching ministry as I haven't had anyone— haven't had anyone register yet. But if you'd like to register, you can go to mtforchrist.com and, uh, go to the group teaching, uh, groups coaching support page and register there. Um, ironically, the hacking all happened when I tried to promote this event, so Maybe it isn't the Lord's will. Maybe it is. I'm not sure. But I felt, I felt called to offer it. And I'm in the process of putting all the lessons together. So I'll be producing it on video one way or the other. Whether it's me teaching to the unseen audience of coaching clients, or if it's me with other people involved, I do feel called to do it. We're doing it. I think I was wrong in trusting Meta ads to help build the audience rather than letting the Lord do it. So we repent and we offer it to anyone out there who might want to join us. Register today. Beyond that, for free, we offer our online discipleship classes that we've done in the past: Picture of the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, Celebrate Freedom Discipleship. We believe these teachings can help you find or increase your freedom in Christ, and, uh, we encourage you to check those out. Um, beyond that, we, we always ask the question: have you— are you empty for Christ too? Have you surrendered to the Lord's will for your life? Are you asking the Holy Spirit to guide you? Uh, we encourage you to do so. If you do, that's great. Say, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, uh, We believe prayer will work and God will help you, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your, uh, in your kingdom. Lord, we pray for your protection against people who compromised our electronic accounts. We pray for you to shut that down and to make things right. Um, well, we trust you, Lord, with it, and we'll accept whatever happens. Um, as your will. And, uh, Lord, we do pray for you to bless what we're doing where we're trying to encourage people to change and follow you. Um, and I know I need it myself, so we're definitely asking for your help and guidance in that. Um, for the today and for the days ahead, we need your help. We're asking for it. Well, we're praying for anyone who's reading or listening to today's message, that you would encourage them in their faith walk and bless them too. Because, uh, Lord, we just want to follow you and do what's right according to your will only. And we need a lot of help with that. We need you to show us the way, and we need you to help us after you show us the way, um, because we can't do it without you, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.