The Victorious Cycle of Life in the Spirit - Purity 1191

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 setting sun lighting up the sky over the Hudson River comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this photo on the go while I was passing through Castleton-on-the-Hudson on my way back to Riverhouse yesterday afternoon after a fabulous weekend with my wife, Tammy Lynn, in the real Upstate New York and Point considerably further east and north in the Green Mountains National Forest of Vermont. Well, it's Monday, and if you guys somehow missed it, it's November with a capital BRRR, as any remnant of Indian summer, or whatever it is okay to call the warmer days of autumn, are gone. I don't mean to cause any anguish or dread, but winter is coming, and even though it won't be here officially until December 21st, The cold temperatures and snow—yes, snow—that fell in various places of both the real and not real upstate New York attest to the fact that we are on borrowed time in terms of assuming we can enjoy carefree outdoor excursions in pleasant or bearable temperatures, or that our commutes to and fro will be similarly snow-free. The wife and I do enjoy going out on short hikes to enjoy the beauty, silence, and stillness of God's creation from time to time, So because the weather was agreeable, we set out to the Lybrook Falls trailhood— uh, trailhead— and near, uh, well, near Manchester, Vermont, uh, to boldly go where we have never gone before, to stretch our legs and enjoy what the, uh, what the God— what the Lord has given us and is in his earth and in our marriage. I'm currently without a doubt in the best physical shape of my life, and while I was down for whatever, or at least I said I was, in terms of going on a hike this weekend, I have to admit that when the Lybrook Falls Trail was rocky and wet and seemed to be going up, up, and up, I wondered just how long our hike was going to be. 2.3 miles is not that long of a hike, but but when you are going up, it's hard to gauge how far you've gone. And while the hike didn't defeat me, I have to admit that the physical stress of the hike made me determined to push on and get there already. Uh, that's the thing about a journey. Until you get there, you really have no experiential idea of how close you are to the finish line. And on Saturday, the trail was pretty well populated, and we encountered many people hiking out while we were hiking in. There were so many people coming out, I was simultaneously encouraged because if they could make it, I could make it, and discouraged. How far away is this place? After a while, it was like being at a circus with the clowns crammed in a car gag. How many people does this mountain have on it exactly? And as the going got tough, I was almost tempted to ask one of them, how much further is it? But I was worried that they— well, I was worried that A, they would think less of me. Struggling to get up the mountain, are we? Or B, tell me what I didn't want to know. Oh man, there's a long way to go. And if you're asking now, you might want to turn around and go back. But I resisted the temptation to make inquiries and just pressed on until we finally reached the falls at the end of the trail. After arriving, I was able to relax, and the way out was a whole lot easier than the way in, in part undoubtedly because I, I had been there and done that, or at least I'd been there, been that way once before. Tammy Lynn, on the other hand, enjoyed the journey on the way in and, and, and, and on the way out as well, but by taking her time and going at her own pace. She wasn't very far behind me but was a long way ahead of me in appreciating the experience. But that's me and that's her, the same but different. We both love the outdoors, but as a man, maybe I have to get where I am going before I can relax. I'm destination driven, and after a while of walking in the wilderness, I'm like, okay, I get it, trees, forest, middle of nowhere, Let's go! Whereas my wifey is taking pictures of mushrooms and rocks. But we know each other and love each other and let each other go at our own pace. We walk together but respect each other's right to go their own way with the understanding that we never get too far away from one another. While I might push on ahead, I would always stop and wait to make sure Tammy Lynn was still with me. Although I may have stretched it a bit during this hike, I know that we are together, uh, no matter the distance. God brought us together, and I won't do anything to mess that up. Walking together does take some getting used to, with couples and with the Lord. As I have reflected on the relationship I have with God, walking in the Spirit, I've been challenged to not rush ahead and to stay in step with the Holy Spirit because I have learned I, I can't get there sooner than God plans and often get lost when I go my own way. But I have learned just how good it is in his company and am determined to never walk away from him for too long. Reflecting on my walk in the Spirit, I felt moved to update my virtuous cycle model for walking in the Spirit. To visually represent the Holy Spirit and God's love and the love of self and others to better define the walk that brings us to love God, know and love who we are in Christ, and causes us to change the way we live and love others. Here's the original virtuous cycle. It's just a, a circle, uh, with truth in the middle, uh, which on the left has motivation and then which leads to good works, which leads to confirmation, like I really am a Christian, which leads to encouragement, and that leads to motivation. A very simple circle. And now there's an improved virtuous— victorious cycle that I've created that's on the blog today for your viewing pleasure, where the Holy Spirit is at the center as he comes to live in our hearts and give us God's truth and love. Then that love reverberates and goes out to us when we learn who we are in Christ And then it goes out to others, you know, as we learn to love others as well as ourselves. And again, the motivation, good works, and confirmation and encouragement are all on the outside of that circle. But I added good thoughts under motivation, good works, or good living to go with the good works, and good consequences to go with confirmation, and good feelings to go with encouragement. Of course, throughout the whole cycle, I'd say good thoughts are, you know, all around it because we're focusing on who we are in Christ and what the Lord would have us do. Anyway, that's what— that's my comments for the blog— for the podcast. Uh, the, the, the blog says the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts when we put our faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us God's love and truth, which should illuminate us giving us spiritual life and causing us— and cause us to love God, first thing. And then the truth of who we are in Christ should cause us to know and love who we are in Christ, second thing. And that love should, should cause us to live according to God's truth, changing how we live and causing us to seek and show and share God's love with others. The heart represents God's love and how it expands outward. The arrows show that this is a continuous cycle of living that never ends. It's a good place to be and stay, as God is at the center and of it, and the fruit of the Spirit should grow all around it. So if you don't know which way to go anymore and want to— want a guide for your life that will fill your life with truth, love, and joy, make Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of your life. And follow where the Holy Spirit guides you. And no matter how difficult your path through life may get, just keep walking and talking with God, and he will give you an amazing journey that never ends. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on children, and it's Today's verse is Acts 2:39 from the NIV. The Word of God says: The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. Today's verse is the second of two scriptures that fall under the second point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on children, which is: Children of believers belong to God and are in His covenant. Today's verse tells us that God's promise is for everyone that the Lord calls to life through faith in Jesus. The call is not for everyone. Some won't be moved to answer it. And so, if we hear the Lord's still, quiet voice in our minds or our hearts to follow him, we need to answer. And we need to encourage our children to do the same. We need to live a Christian life to show them the power of God in the world of the living. And to demonstrate that he is real and he is good and his ways are wisdom, truth, and love. So I don't like the way it just, you know, I get what the reference guide is saying there that, you know, children of believers belong to God and are in his covenant. Yes, but they still have, you know, they still have to make Jesus their Lord themselves. So that's all we can do is encourage them and give them a good example to follow and hopefully they'll put their faith in Jesus too. Anyway, as always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.org 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 Arthur— the Arthur Pink Anthology number 2, uh, the Another Gospel, as we share part 4 of 5 of that, uh gospel tract message that's shared in the Arthur Pink Anthology. So if you want to get all 4 parts, you have to go back to 3 previous blog posts to get them, but they're all out there, and the 5th part will be shared tomorrow. So Arthur Pink is a Christian, and he shares good messages. I might not agree with absolutely everything he puts out there, but, um, but Yeah, I would say the vast majority. I can't think of anything I don't agree with, but, you know, point out some things and maybe I'll tell you. Anyway, but we are to follow the Lord, believe the word of God is true, and make Jesus our Lord and Savior, and try to live a Christian life to share and show his love. That's the, that's the mission. That's the walk of the spirit. And when we do that, amazing things can happen. When we trust God and do what's right our lives get better. We stop sinning, you know, our heart's no longer in it. And when our heart's not in it— our heart belongs to the Lord— you know, we actually can make a change and break this— the strongholds and sin that binds our life up. Anyway, that's what we do here at, uh, mt4christ.org and the M.T. for Christ 24/7 podcast. We encourage a life of Christian discipleship because I discovered the Lord wants us to be the people he created us to be, and he gives us the power to do so through the— through obedience and following the Holy Spirit. And so we encourage that, and the way we encourage that on the blog and the podcast is by sharing our discipleship teachings that we did back in 2021 for Who I Am in Christ, for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Are all available basically on our YouTube channel and the podcast, and we would actually send you the handouts for those classes if you email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. A couple people have actually reached out recently and asked about that, and I've shared it. So I'm very, very, very encouraged to assist people. And just so everyone knows, I made an announcement yesterday for the Freedom in Christ Ministries has launched the registration for spring 2024 classes, online classes. There are various classes for men and women to take through FICM, and one of the men's classes, Freedom in Christ, is going to be led by me as I will facilitate, um, starting on January 8th. For the men that sign up. So if you want to go through the Freedom in Christ course and have the, have the opportunity to go to the Steps to Freedom in Christ, you know, sign up today. You'll see that in yesterday's blog, or you can go to FICM and look at, you know, discipleship classes and you'll be able to find it. My class will be on Mondays from 6:30 to 8:30 in case you actually wanted to, you know, if you actually heard this message and wanted to be part of the class, That'd be maybe a first. Actually, no, that wouldn't be a first. It'd be a second, for sure. But you'd be the first one to complete the class from someone I knew previously. Actually, that's not true. Well, whatever. Through the, through the online classes, anyway, as I previously had someone from, from my local church basically sign up for the class, but they didn't make it. You know, they got to the point where I think it was Lesson 4, and they got very ill and sick and had to drop out of the class. But they're walking in victory, as far as I know. So they were encouraged, but they were too ill to continue. And whether or not that was demonic interference or just health issues or concerns, that's for the Lord to know. But, uh, we walk together in Christ, and even if, um, our paths diverge, we keep following the Lord, we'll find the victory and freedom he wants for us, no matter where we have to go to find it. Um, as long as the Bible's held up as truth and we obey it, we'll be okay. Anyway, today I'm going to work. Um, yeah, so we should definitely pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We Thank you so much for the freedom you've given us. We thank you for this marvelous victorious cycle that you've put us in. And Lord, we just pray for you to have us never leave it as we've discovered how good and true your word is. And we just pray for you to encourage us on that today. We pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message that you come alongside them and their walk of faith and come alongside them and their prayer requests, Lord, because we all need your help, and, um, we're asking for it today. And as for me, we pray for you to go before us, Lord. We pray for you to show us, um, the things that we're going to need to know today, and we pray for you to protect and guide us to do everything according to, you know, how you would have us do it, because, Lord, I don't know what to do. Sometimes, and your ways are true. And so please show me the things I need to know today to best represent your kingdom, because all I want to do is share and show the love that you've given me to others and to, uh, to walk through this life as you would have me do it. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.