Three Things to be Grateful For 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 9 – Purity 1065

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 sun seen through some reeds on the African plains somewhere in Zambia comes to us from Tommy Mallow, who shared this scene on social media on June 8th, reporting the good news that another missionary team had joined his team's efforts to do outreaches in the villages with fantastic results. Tommy reported that the presence of evil left an entire village of hundreds as the headsmen of the village came to put their faith in Christ, drug addicts were freed, and a church was planted. Praise the Lord! And faithful people like Tommy in the mission field who have boldly gone into the far reaches of the earth to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to set the captives free. Well, it is Saturday and even though my shift work will send me to work today, I am praising the LORD for the many things I can be grateful for and for the miraculous work that He does in people's lives when they put their faith in Jesus. I am a little delayed in getting this message together this morning. In fact, it is take 2 as the first version was cut off after 6 minutes and 38 seconds. Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully this one will make it. Anyway, I was delayed this morning though because of today's Joy Practice called me to be grateful, and that in part caused me to recommit myself to some of my household— no, some of my stronghold busters and to clean up my closet and a couple areas I had neglected. It was nothing major really, but my gratitude session reminded me of who I was— a problem solver. So I made a point of getting things in order by getting a check in the mail, cleaning up my PC, and by rewriting my morning stronghold prayers to include some things that need to be given notice as things that either sabot— sabotage my health goals or waste my time and money. Less is more, and while I didn't solve everything this morning, I set my intention to make goals to eliminate some things and organize some other things that I feel convicted to correct. It's amazing what a little gratitude can do. Gratitude can motivate us to get things done and to show people we, we love and appreciate them. And of course, the regular the regular stuttering practice of gratitude, uh, can build our joy. And that brings us to our current series where I'm walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge, because we are encouraging others and ourselves, uh, to, to find peace in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner in Chris Courcy's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Courcy on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. And the link, of course, is on the blog today. So let's jump into day 9, uh, which will direct us to choose 3 things we can be grateful for right now. The 28-Day Joyce Challenge says, uh, day 9, gratitude activation. Welcome to day 9 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: according to a study from Harvard Medical School, Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, uh, more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. What great benefits from one simple practice, and you are starting it now. Today's practice, Exercise 9. This practice gets us started intentionally looking for things in our lives to be grateful for. How this exercise will benefit you: gratitude activates the relational parts of our brain so we feel present, creative, and flexible. Exercise steps: identify 3 things you feel thankful for today, then share your thoughts with a friend or family member. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. That's from our good friends at 4habits.org. Uh, well, I'm not sure if we're good friends, but I support their work. So yeah, that's what they had to say and offered us— they challenged us to do it. So we did it. Even though I have to work this morning, in fact I am at work on my lunch break, when I focused on my life as it is right now, or this morning, and what I have to look forward to in the day ahead, it was pretty easy to come up with 3 things I am thankful for. The first thing I am thankful for is my job. While I may have not chosen it for the quote-unquote love of the game, I did choose it for the love of my family. The only reason I ever went corporate was because I wanted to have children and wanted to be able to provide for, for and support them. While the kids are adults now and the first marriage failed, uh, the job continues to be the means by which I can run to the mailbox in the wee hours of the morning to put a check in the mail. And be able to bankroll my needs and wants. In light of the recent news of others suddenly losing their jobs or having calamities that interrupted their abilities to work, I see what a blessing a regular job with good pay and benefits is. And when things began— when— and when things fell apart in my life, it was because of the job and the savings I had put aside and the Lord guiding me and moving things. That I was able to get a new home for me and my kids. So I am thankful for my job, even on a Saturday. Uh, next, at the end of the day, I will be seeing the love of my life, my faithful Christian wife Tammy Lynn, who fully supports my decision to follow the Lord progressively and continuously. So I am thankful for her. After my divorce— and not for nothing, ladies— and this is where it cut out last time, so I'm going to take it easy and make sure I, I say things correctly here. The spiritual condition of many women— not all women out there who call themselves Christians, you know. I never thought, you know, I never thought I would get married again because, you know, because of my divorce and because I didn't think there was a lot of authentic Christian women out there, and I stand corrected. I figured my faith was too extreme for the pseudo Christian secular women of the world, and that I would never find anyone that would either want to be my wife or would, uh, or would meet my criteria for being Christian. For some, and this includes men, uh, and especially men, uh, Christianity is little more than a superstition or a cultural name tag. And when it comes to actually following the Lord, few are real Christians. There are a lot of— there is a lot of ignorance and compromise even among those I would consider to be in the body of Christ. But I did not go through all I went through to live my life in Christ to live in ignorance or compromise. So, as far as I was concerned, I was ready to be a monk. But the LORD brought me Tammy Lynn, and while she is not perfect, her faith is authentic and her love for me and the LORD is deep. So I thank God for Tammy Lynn every single day. And so last, and always first in my book, I am thankful for the Lord who saved a wretch like me. I was much— I was more than a prodigal. I was a rebel. I rejected God most of my life, but He loved me enough to show me the truth of who He is, as in, hello, wow, God is real. As in the Holy Spirit just manifested in my car, and to forgive me of all my sins and call me to walk with Him all the days of my life. And God has been with me all my life, waiting for just the right time to change everything for good. So thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. And thank you, Holy Spirit. So what three things are you thankful for? If the Lord is in one of them, I demand a recount, and I encourage you to seek and follow Him always. Today's Bible verse for men— no, sorry, not just for men. Today's Bible verses come to us from my personal Bible study this morning, as the NLT Promise Book for Men, my resource, is most likely at my countryside home, and I did not have it. So this morning's meditation verses are Malachi 2:5-6, and the Word of God says, the purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and what is— and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. They passed on to They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat. They walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin. Today's verses inform us of the purpose of the Lord's covenant with the Levites and all of us, to pass on the truth and instructions in God's Word and to walk with the Lord, living good and righteous lives, in turning ourselves and others from a life of sin. The grace of God gives us a New Covenant. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and accepted into God's Kingdom. But just like the faithful Levites, we are to hold our covenant with God with awe and reverence, and respond accordingly by following Him with the way we live our lives and to encourage others to do the same. God is holy, and He has called us to be holy. While we will never get it perfect, we are to continually follow after Christ's example and progress in sanctification as we repent of our old ways and embrace the good life that God always wants us to live. Living a righteous life has its own benefits, but beyond those, we express our love to God by being obedient to His instructions. So, do not profane the gift you have been given by acting like you do not know God. Instead, show your awe and reverence for the One who saved you by looking more and more like Him with the way you walk through this world. As always, I invite all to go to M.t. Clark.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in MT for Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue in chapter 8, The Advent of the Spirit. And today, uh, A.W. Pink presents 18 parallels in the advents of Christ and the Spirit. So if you want to see how the two advents of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are similar, run parallel to one another, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. And as always, you will also find encouragements to join our Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes via the M.t. Clark 24/7 podcast. They are on the YouTube channel as well, and so we encourage you in that. We also encourage Bible study, you know, The Word of God is true, and just like today's Bible verse told us, we are supposed to share that instruction with other people. So we encourage Bible study, and prayerfully we will be doing a— producing a Bible study of our own with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti tomorrow for Bible Study with the Sincottis. So if you do not have a Bible study of your own, you can always check out ours. Um, well, I am, or I'm at work. I'm beyond the midway point, and I'm looking forward to the end of the day. So today's prayer is going to be a little different. I apologize for the technical difficulties, and I pray that they don't happen now, aren't happening right now. Um, and, uh, yeah, anyway, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for the way you set things up today. Work. Um, they weren't too difficult, not too challenging, and we got her done. Um, Lord, we just thank you for, for everything you do, for the life you've given us, and for, you know, for, for our job and our wife and everyone who's following you, Lord, including the people who may be reading or listening to today's message. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside them and their prayer requests and to bless them in their walk. And Lord, as always, we just pray for You to go before us from this point forward and help us to see what the things You want us to see and help us to accomplish the things You want us to accomplish. Because Lord, all we want to do is represent You in Your Kingdom and bring other people into it. So Lord, we need Your help with that. So we just ask You to help us and and, uh, and to guide us today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.