The Path to Resolve Unfinished Business Purity 825

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 water pathway between seemingly endless walls of rock comes to us from one of our family— one of my family members who captured this scene during a visit to the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks in Adirondacks in Ausable Chasm, New York. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the trip, and so, so many of my family shared photos from this trip that I'm not sure which one shared this scene. So I saved and shared it as Ausable Chasm Pathway, August 22, 2022, some Seguin or Clark. Even though I wasn't able to go because of the, of work, I can get a small sense of what it must have been like at the bottom of that chasm from photos like this one. Well, it's Thursday again, and even though I won't be leading any discipleship groups on Zoom this evening, I share today's photo as an encouragement to all who may feel that they are at the bottom of a chasm of problems or surrounded by problems on the right and the left to keep walking and talking with God on the pathway of Christian discipleship. When we decided to live out our faith by following the Lord with the way we live, live, somehow we can not only make it out of that chasm of personal and spiritual conflicts, we can have peace and joy while we walk through it because of the Lord's presence with us. Uh, today is also the first day of a new month, so let's choose to make a brand new start of it and take our first steps into September with confidence that, uh, with the, with the confidence that knows that God will be with us today and every day this month as we transition from summer to fall and all the new experiences and responsibilities that come with the changing of changing of seasons. I don't know about you, but right now it sort of feels like I am at the bottom of a chasm because of the uncertainty of my wife's current employment situation and because back-to-school season starts next week, as I will be leading a new group into the freedom, uh, through the Freedom in Christ discipleship course, uh, this Tuesday, and will be leading some former graduates of the course through a course of my own making as we examine Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship on Thursdays. Also, the Lord has put it on my heart to try to resolve some unfinished business of my past regarding my former home, and I am admittedly a little nervous about it because it will involve lawyers and confrontation. But recently I, I felt very convicted about this issue as I wish to walk into my future unhindered by the things of the past. Even though I have taken care of so many things to put my past in the past The issue of my old house has been something I have left on the back burner of my life and had resolved to ignore it and just hope that it would take care of itself in time. But the Lord apparently had different ideas. The other morning I was driving at work when suddenly I had thoughts of my own mortality and the simple fact that I am 50. I can't really assume that I will be around forever. I started to think of, think of my wife and kids and what would happen if I would suddenly die. My life insurance would be a blessing, I guess. But then I thought about my old house and how my ex has refused to sell it as we agreed to in our divorce. And now she is squatting there and according to my son has recent, uh, recently rented out a room to someone to help someone to help her with the cost of living. And I thought about how if I should die suddenly, my wife or my kids would have to deal with my ex and probably fight her in court or surrender the value of the home that was legally mine. And that's when my spirit, or the spirit, hit me. I had to take care of this. I like to think of myself as a nice guy, and I don't like confrontation, and I don't want to necessarily cause my ex any trouble. But I got the sense that right was right. We should honor our— she should, or we should honor our divorce agreement, and that as a Christian, I was supposed to be responsible and take care of the things I've been entrusted to and do the things I have agreed to, to do. Um, my ex and I both agreed to sell the house, and by leaving things alone, I was not only shirking my responsibilities but was possibly endangering the inheritance that my family would receive. So here we go into September and into the future ahead. There is uncertainty. There is the excitement of new opportunities for ministry and encouraging more Christians to experience their freedom in Christ. And there is this— there is the unpleasant business of settling unfinished business of the past. When, when part of me would just as much like to ignore things, But even though I have, have some, okay, anxiousness about what will happen, I somehow have an enduring peace because I know that the Lord will be with me through it all and that I am doing the right thing. The Lord wants us to trust him in uncertain times. He wants to walk with us into the excitement of new seasons. And the Lord wants us to resolve the issues of our past that would that we would rather just ignore because he wants us to experience the abundant life of freedom that we can know when we resolve our problems and take all the obstacles out of our way that keeps us from the joy of walking in peace with our Heavenly Father, knowing that we have resolved or forsaken all the trappings and turmoils from our old life to experience the new life we have in him. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Colossians 1:22, and it says, yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Today's verse reminds us that through Christ's death and our faith in him, we have been reconciled to God, brought into his presence, and are now holy and blameless, without a single fault, as we stand before him. The joy of our faith comes from Jesus. He paid the cost for our new lives with the Father, and when we put our faith in him, we are not only declared not guilty because our debt has been paid But we are also blameless, without a single fault in the presence of the Lord. We don't have to feel guilty anymore. We have been reconciled to God. We have peace with him. We are also holy. We are set apart as his children and for his purposes. And as I wrote about above, you know, the Lord will cause us to resolve the things in our past, in our lives. That make us doubt these facts of who we are. The Holy Spirit convicts us to live a holy life, to walk away from the ways of darkness that we used to live in, and to resolve the things in our past that would condemn or accuse us of, quote unquote, not really being a Christian. The way of righteousness and truth may not sit well with, with the world and may cause people to hate us. But when we follow the Lord with the way we live our lives, we can have the assurance that we are living according to God's will because we will have peace in his presence and will be able to honestly confess that we have done our best to resolve our past problems, make peace with others, and do what is right. Uh, so don't doubt who you are in Christ. The word of God is true. If we feel less than holy, we have to accept the forgiveness that we have received, live a righteous life now, and resolve those things in our past that would— that have been left undone. As always, 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. Uh, today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today, uh, Clinton, uh, examines the, the quote-unquote recent work of Frank Peretti Um, Frank Peretti was a, uh, novelist who wrote, uh, This Present Darkness back in the '80s, I believe. So this is the most recent book that I'm sharing when he talks about the recent work of Frank Peretti. But I, I know Christians who have been greatly impacted by, um, uh, Peretti's book, The Pre— This Present Darkness. I haven't read it myself. But apparently it tells a story of a town, um, that is, um, in the midst of, uh, of spiritual warfare, where demons and, and the forces— I believe angels, uh, basically are, uh, are at the forefront of a drama that's happening in a small town. So, um, according to my Christian friends who have read it, they said it greatly, you know, impacted their lives because they realized that there was the unseen realm of the spiritual forces of darkness all around us and possibly influencing our, our people to sin and in, I know, our governmental agencies or whatever. So if you want to read about what Clinton Arnold had to say about Peretti's work, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Um, as always, we invite you to, you know, walk in faith in the power of the Holy Spirit by, by deciding to be an authentic Christian, to live your life according to your faith. Um, now that doesn't have to be as complicated as it might sound, um, you know, but, uh, it, it does mean that you turn towards him and you turn away from the ways of the world. Um, little by little, bit by bit, one, one unresolved issue after another Um, as, as you'll see, that the Lord— when, when you come to faith in the Lord, he has things for you to do. He would like you to clean up the things of your past. He would like you to walk in freedom. And who knows, uh, what good things he has for you to do and walk into, you know, to discover your purpose in Christ. So that's what we, we sort of did that, um, and are doing it. You know, we're not only Pursuing it, we're doing it, as I say, day by day, little by little, by connecting to the Lord in prayer, by reading the Bible, and trying to be an encouragement for others to do the same, to, you know, have God as a real part of your life and to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ in whatever way you can with your life. So we still have a regular life of problems and concerns that can seem to be overwhelming at times, but when we are walking in righteousness with the Lord, we, we can have peace in his presence. So that's why we do what we do here at the mtforchrist.org blog and the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. Um, we just want to encourage people that, uh, you can really live a Christian life even in this modern world. Um, I got a lot to say today. Um, maybe I'll save it. No, I'm not gonna save it. Um, so for the 3, 2, 4, 5 people, 6, 7, or whatever people that'll hear this message, um, you know, uh, this morning I saw, uh, um, uh, basically sort of an obituary for a local fireman who, who died, and he was relatively young, probably younger— probably younger than— I'm guessing much younger than me. I'm 50. Um, he's a married man. He leaves behind a wife and an adoring fire department, um, who shared, you know, a very touching obituary of this person. And it made me, you know, made me think about his eternal destiny. And I thought, you know, by all the accounts that, that this, uh, obituary or tribute, um, gave, he was an excellent person. Um, you know, he cared about his community and served it and loved his wife and, um, was a dependable, likable, great guy. Um, I would assume, you know, you could assume from all of that that he was Christian. That he had a relationship with the Lord, but there's no mention of his faith at all anywhere in the long tribute. You know, nothing about speaking about God or Jesus or anything. It doesn't mean he didn't have faith, you know, but I can't assume he did. And it just sort of breaks your heart because it's like And then I thought about it. I'm like, I don't know many firemen that go to church. I don't know many first responders that go to church. Um, not that you necessarily have to go into a church building to be a Christian, but, um, not for nothing. I mean, and then, you know, you think about going to church in general, there's like, you know, next to zero people between the ages of 25 and 40 who even attend church. Considering the vast multitudes of people in our society in those age brackets, that, you know, there's very few people in our society who have a faith that brings them to church. Like I said, again, church is not necessarily the thing, but I was thinking that this is like sort of the gospel of the American dream. If you're a good guy, you love your wife, you pay your bills, and you serve the community as a volunteer fireman, yeah man, that guy was a saint, you know? But that's not the gospel. That's the gospel of the American dream, the gospel of being a good guy. But that's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's by faith alone, in Christ alone, that we're saved. And it made me worry about first responders. People dedicate their lives to serving others might not necessarily have, you know, a place in God's kingdom. So, so if you know a fireman or first responder, speak to them about Jesus Christ. My brother Mike is a state trooper. He's Catholic, so that means he doesn't go to church except for maybe Christmas. So, you know, you worry about your family, you worry about your friends. You know, they're great people, they're people we love so much, but then, but then there's no assurance of their salvation. Now, at the funeral there certainly will be you know, you know, it'll be almost like he's proven, you know, to be in God's kingdom because of such a wonderful person he was. According to the scriptures, not necessarily that, uh, you know, that's not how it works. So, so I would just encourage people to know, um, when we're out in the world, to encourage people to put their faith specifically in Jesus Christ and to, you know, to follow him. That's what we do here, because I don't want somebody who is, you know, good, you know, quote-unquote a good person and who helps his community to go to hell. Seems like a raw deal, you know. It would question God's goodness. But, but that no matter how good you are, there's sin in your life, and unless that sin's paid for by the blood of Christ, you're, you're not reconciled to him. So, uh, so yeah, this is a, a podcast special, um, to share the gospel with first responders and, uh, all the people in your life really, um, to try to get them, get them to say it, uh, I put my faith in Jesus. Um, so yeah, that was just on my heart this morning as I saw that on Facebook, and, uh, I didn't necessarily want to write about it, I guess, because I didn't know the person and And you know, that's what I do. But who knows, maybe I'll write about it tomorrow. But now that I've spoken about it, probably not. Anyway, we'll see. You know, I don't know what I'm going to write from one day to the next. Whatever the Lord puts on my heart, wherever the photos take me, or whatever. Um, so, um, but it's— the time is taking me to closer and closer to work, so we got to get there. So let's pray. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you so much for the revelation that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he paid for our sins and that we've put our faith in him, we are assured that we're going to heaven no matter how good we are. We don't have to be a loyal fireman or a loyal husband or, well, or any of those things, um, but we have to have our faith in you. Our works do not save us. It is faith in Jesus alone that saves us, Lord. And you, you taught us that. You showed us that way, and that gave us hope. To walk away from the darkness of our own life, because according to our works, we're never going to make it. Um, but according to your love, we could. You made a way, and that's why your grace is amazing, Lord. And we thank you for it. Lord, we thank you for everyone who's listening today that has come to know that truth. Lord, we pray for them that you'd come alongside them in this month of September to lead them and guide them in the way they should go, and to bless them with your grace and your divine favor., in all the situations in life, Lord, provide for them, heal them, you know, give them purpose and meaning, uh, to, to follow you, uh, all the days of this month. And Lord, we just pray for you today to go before us on this Thursday, the first of the month, to, to, you know, show us the things we need to see, things you'd like us to see, to appreciate your world. And, uh, guide us into the things we can do to best represent you and to lead other people to the truth of who, who Jesus Christ is and how important it is for this— for others to know him, to be saved. Oh Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.