In this devotional podcast episode, host M.t. Clark opens with a photo of Ten Commandment Mountain from the Fields of the Wood biblical theme park, using it as a visual springboard for a series of scriptural reflections and practical encouragements. He shares his personal Bible study routine—reading a chapter a day and praying the Psalms—highlighting Psalm 5 and its call to divine guidance. Clark then moves to the New Testament, citing Acts 20:21 to stress the universal message of repentance, faith, and turning to God. He brings in Dr. Charles Stanley’s analogy that treats the Bible like an instruction manual, reinforcing the need for regular reading, study, and meditation, especially drawing from Psalm 119. A brief counseling focus follows with Proverbs 22:9 on generosity and its blessings, and a devotional excerpt from J.E. Adams on 2 Cor 1:4, emphasizing God’s help in afflictions and the call to aid others. Throughout, Clark promotes several ministry resources: the Celebrate Freedom support group, the Grace for the Holidays online teaching, and the Freedom in Christ courses, providing URLs and scheduling details. He concludes with a call for listeners to be “empty for Christ,” offering a heartfelt prayer for guidance, provision, and spiritual filling. The episode blends biblical exposition, personal testimony, counseling insight, and promotional outreach aimed at encouraging daily discipleship and community involvement.
Chapters
Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm 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 the, of Ten Commandment Mountain, uh, comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this scene from his visit to Fields of the Wood in Murphy, North Carolina, on social media yesterday. Fred informs us that Fields of the Wood is a biblical theme park consisting of Prayer Mountain featuring 29 monuments, Ten Commandment Mountain with 5 letters 5 feet high and 4 feet wide bordered with 1-foot concrete sections measuring 300 feet from one— from side to side, a tomb replica, and more, including walking trails and a gift shop. Fred also shared a link, uh, to their website, which is on the blog today. Well, it's Saturday, and as Fred's photo points us to the word of God, let me share with you the nuggets of inspiration that I got from this morning's Bible study. While I've been keeping my time in the Bible to a minimum, a chapter a day, to increase the quality of my study of God's word. Lately I've been moved to pray the Psalms, so this morning I did Psalm 5 and have to recommend it to those of us on the path of Christian discipleship. I'm currently using a large print NLT version of the Bible for my morning studies, and I love how it puts verse 8, which says— Psalm 5:8— lead me in the right path, O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow. As a disciple who loves pathway, way, narrow road, or following references, the whole Psalm is a keeper, uh, for anyone who seeks to do what is right and follow the Lord. I'm also, uh, reading through the New Testament and currently in Acts, where I was inspired by the Apostle Paul's word, uh, words, and Acts 20:21, where he said, I have, I have had one message for Jews and, and Greeks alike, uh, the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. Paul puts our focus quite plainly. One message for all: repent of sin, turn to God, and have faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible is our source of truth and our instructions for life. Today's In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley trumpets this truth today, and so I'm sharing it on the blog to encourage us all to study and follow its wisdom. Uh, Charles Stanley writes, um, yeah, he writes, Wandering from the Word. The Bible is our most reliable source of information, inspiration for living. This is based on Psalms 119:9-16. And Charles Stanley writes, imagine a man brought— a man bought his grandchildren a new toy. After a brief glance at the instruction, he sets the booklet aside and gets busy building. A few frustrating hours later, he humbly opens the instructions again and follows the steps to put the toy together. Soon he is done, and the grandkids are playing happily. The grandfather knew that the manufacturer had a plan for assembling the toy, but he assumed he could figure it out on his own. Many of us approach scripture the same way. Instead of treating God's word like a manual to live by, we'll glance at it only when we're at a loss over what to do next. Uh, the Bible teaches believers who God is, what he thinks, and how he acts. Knowing the ways of the Lord ensures that we can make wise decisions that honor him. The Bible is also God's instruction book for living. Uh, in today's passage, uh, we read that if a person wants to be righteous, his or her life must comply with scriptural principles. And the only way to do that is to read, study, and meditate on the word. God's word is a possession of supreme value. Among the Bible's riches are stories teaching us how to serve the Lord and live in a way that honors him. It contains a wealth of instruction for building a righteous and meaningful life. That was from Dr. Charles Stanley. Amen. You know, Stanley message— Stanley's message refers to Psalm 119:9-16, where the psalmist proclaims, how can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. My whole heart I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget Your word. As we encourage others to live a surrendered life in Christ, we have, we have to echo Stanley and the psalmist's instruction to read, study, and meditate upon the truth in the Bible, and to contemplate our ways and determine what needs to change in our lives to more perfectly align with God's word and will for our lives. Our journey of faith becomes an adventure when we engage with the Lord and seek to learn from and, uh, learn from, learn from and live with him. Um, so, so read the Bible every day to hear from the Lord and seek to let it change your heart and mind about how you live your life. Today's Bible verse comes to us from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on giving, and today's verse is Proverbs 22:9, which says, he who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor. Today's verse is the third of five passages of scripture that fall under the eighth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on giving. That eighth point is God requires us to be merciful and to give to the Lord. Uh, today's, uh, today's Bible verse makes a direct correlation between generosity and being blessed. For those who give of their bread to the poor. While our modern economic system takes the bread of our money in the form of our taxes to support government welfare programs, we mustn't harden our hearts to the idea of giving because the Lord commands us to and makes it clear that it— that we were saved to perform good works. The blessing of giving has two possible aspects: the natural and the supernatural. It naturally feels good to do good things, as long as our hearts are in it anyway. Some Bibles translate the word blessed as happy, and so we shouldn't necessarily think that the Lord will do something special when we are generous and could, and could understand that the blessing of giving is just the good feelings of doing something good. However, the Lord is alive and working in the world, so while we don't wish to imply that he will give a special blessing for every active generosity. If it is his will, he could and he might. So if the Lord moves you, give more than your taxes and tithes and be blessed by choosing to be generous and freely giving your bread to the poor. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.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, uh, a devotional, um, by the Christian counselor. And, uh, today he shares a portion of verse, uh, Corinthians 2 Corinthians 1:4, which says, who helps us in all our afflictions to make us capable of helping N.J.E. Adams writes, here is a twofold promise. Paul, writing after grave trials of his own, having been rescued from near death, assures the Corinthians that God will also help them when afflicted for their faith. Uh, indeed, he goes even further, saying that the help that they receive is intended not only to sustain them in their afflictions, but it is also intended to enable them to help other believers when they face trials. Afflictions differ, but the help of God does not change regardless of the trial. God is— God's help is ever sufficient, unfailing, and perfectly adapted to each individual. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tried beyond what you are able to bear. 1 Corinthians 10:13. Are you suffering for the faith? For the faith at work, at school, in your family? God knows and will provide help for you on the way, but having experienced that help, he expects you to explain to others who suffer how to obtain his comfort for themselves. Those blessed by him must become a blessing to others. Believers are walking the way together and need each other. That was from J.E. Adams, and we say amen. You know, when we are rescued and we receive help from the Lord, we have to tell other people that God is with us, uh, if we're with him, and he will help us in times of need. But we have to ask, we have to believe, and we have to follow him, uh, to receive it. And if we should receive his help, we need to, you know, uh, encourage other ones to, to, you know, receive his help as well. Um, by telling them. And so we always ask the question: have you fully surrendered to God? Have you made Jesus your Lord and Savior? And are you trying to live a disciple life of knowing his word and living by it? We encourage you to do that because you will receive the help of the Lord. He'll help you to repent from your sins and to experience the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life when you do that. Also, you usually Discover your purpose for living, which, you know, uh, for me, part of that, uh, besides being a Christian life coach and podcaster, is to, uh, lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, uh, which meets on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM. It's a support group for Christian recovery and discipleship. It's open to the public, and so anyone in the Upstate New York area who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night, we invite you to come out and join our fellowship, which is, is currently growing. So, uh, it's very encouraging. Um, beyond that, if, um, you're not, uh, available, uh, on a Wednesday night, if you're a man, we're doing an online, um, teaching and support group called Grace for the Holidays on Mondays, uh, at 6:30 PM And, uh, we're going to be doing this throughout the holiday season, and I'm going to leave— you know, I've made the decision to leave the registration open, uh, throughout the holiday season in case anyone changes their mind and wants to jump in midstream. Um, we'll be teaching from the Grace course. I'll be providing the videos and participants' guides, uh, so even if you missed a week, you can catch up, presumably, or you can jump in right in the middle. Uh, it'll be in the— it'll be a teaching on God's grace, and even one, one of the lessons will benefit you. And if you register for the group, you'll have access to the videos of the previous sessions too, so you won't miss a thing. Um, so we, we encourage— uh, we sent out a blast yesterday to our email list and put it on social media, uh, so anybody who's vaguely connected to me might see that. And we pray for the Lord to, uh, draw more people in, um, for more men to, uh, get together to do this little walk through the holiday season, um, by focusing on God's grace. Anyway, um, beyond that, if you, if you can't make it for the holidays, we are doing another course for Freedom in Christ Ministries in the new year, and we'll be getting— we'll be getting on— beginning on Tuesday night, January 7th, we'll be doing a Freedom in Christ course again. So If you've never been through it before, I invite you to join us. And if you've been through it before, need a recharge, you know, basically to remind yourself about your freedom in Christ, um, you know, it wouldn't be unheard of for, for somebody to go through it again because we've had that and people benefit from a second go-round as much as they do from the first. Um, so we encourage you to go to ficm.org and look up their online courses. There are courses for men and women. The one I'm doing obviously is for men. Um, and you can sign up for them. They have stuff for Victory Over the Darkness, the Grace Course, Untying the Lie Knot, Free to Lead, I believe, and, uh, and Freedom in Christ. So, well, ours is the only men's group that takes place in the evenings. There is another men's group available on the morning times for those who want to check it out. Uh, beyond that, we encourage you, man, woman, or child, uh, to go find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube. We have playlists available for The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Group, our class, our course. And we invite you to check out our playlist page on YouTube, and you can access all our playlists basically by going to mtforchrist.com and looking at our YouTube playlist page. Um, it'll give you a list of all the ones we've done, the different series, um, that we've shared, and the Bible study with the Senkates. All of them are available through that, and they're all available on YouTube. So anyway, uh, we end by asking the question: Are you empty for Christ too? Uh, what does that mean? Well, it means you're simply surrendered, uh, to the Lord and, and available, making yourself available to be filled with the Holy Spirit. To be guided in the way you should go. So if you are, quote unquote, empty for Christ, we say keep on walking and talking with God. If you're not, we encourage you to seek the Lord, ask him to reveal himself to, to you, and, uh, and pray. Um, yeah, and that's what we do every day. We pray, uh, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all you've done in this journey of our faith. We thank you for pulling us out of the darkness and rescuing us, Lord, um, and leading us further into your will. Um, Lord, we, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and, um, bless them, Lord. Um, and Lord, 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, is, uh, do your will, and we need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
