Tough Love From the Deep Love of God - Purity 1430

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 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. Uh, good morning. Today's photo of a trail leading to a dark corrugated metal tunnel comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene at the beginning of a family outing up the Seperance Mountain Trail near Spruce Lake on Saturday. Well, it's Monday, and although I have the week off for vacation from my secular day job, it will prove to be a working vacation of sorts as I have ministry-related work or training of one type or another scheduled for the next 4 nights. When it comes to ministry work, I'm not sure that I will ever really have a vacation, as I was reminded over the weekend that I am what I do, I do what I am, and I don't feel right when I am not being the person that God created me to be. In fact, I learned when I deviate even a little bit from my daily spiritual practices, I make myself vulnerable to attacks from the spiritual forces of darkness. As, uh, yeah, as I woke up to nightmares on Saturday and Sunday, um, and when I got extra sleep. Anyway, on, uh, on Saturday's, uh, hike up Mount Severance, my skills as a Christian life coach came in handy as the going got rough for one of my nieces, whose negative attitude was exacerbated by fatigue and a barrage of bug bites causing her to complain, whine, and eventually refuse to move. Discomfort and fatigue can cause all of us to be irrational at times. But when we can't see the forest for the trees, we need someone to come alongside us to help us move past our pain. Unfortunately, the comforting words, kindness, and encouragement that were being administered to my niece were falling on deaf ears. And so I found myself motivating her to move it along with promptings that were less Mr. Rogers and more Marine drill sergeant, which proved to be effective in getting her off of the hump of rock that she had decided to crouch on, but had to be discontinued lest the drama be turned into childhood trauma. I got her going, but the kinder and gentler motivations of my wife and her mother helped lead my niece to the summit with far less kicking and screaming. In the end, the whole family made it to the summit to see the impressive views of Scroon Lake and Paradox Lake, and the descent was without incident, proving that once you push through the hard things to accomplish, your goals, it's all downhill from there. I'm not sure whether my niece will be signing up for any mountain hikes anytime soon, but I am delighted to say she wasn't angry with me, uh, after everything was said and done. As a life coach, you see problems and, uh, help others do the hard things they wish to accomplish. And when I saw a need for my services, even though I wasn't asked, I stepped out of my comfort zone and, and to meet it and thankfully didn't end up regretting it. Even though we may seek to help others do what's right, in this case, to stop being a nuisance to others, to get over yourselves and to keep going out of a sense of love. I know for a fact I wouldn't have done that or cared enough to motivate a stranger's brat. Um, we don't always know if our tough love will be appreciated, accepted, or effective. It could have been a real disaster, quite frankly, but because there was a need for a man to step in, her dad couldn't make the trip. And because my love for my niece was known and I knew, and I knew when to relent, it worked out. God's word teaches us to not spare the rod and to teach children in the way they should go, but we need to exercise mercy and wisdom in dispensing discipline. I was motivated to help my niece to do what's right and to get her past her distress out of a sense of love for her. And I believe that God used this difficult episode to draw me closer to my niece and the rest of my wife's family. Believe me, I would have rather not have stepped in like that, but as many, uh, many that they stated, that's me as a life coach. I am what I do, and I do as I am, I guess. I show people that they are stronger than they know because God showed it to me. I can show tough love because God showed me how to do the hard— to do the hard— how to do the hard things empowered by his love. I consider it my purpose in life to encourage others to know God's love and power. And to let him change them. You know, today's Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah reminded me of the, um, the Apostle Paul's prayer for his brothers and sisters in Christ in Ephesians 3:14-19, where he writes, when I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth, I pray that his glorious, unlimited resources— from his glorious and unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness and power that comes from God. You know, referencing verses 17 through 19 in today's devotion, uh, David Jeremiah writes He writes— well, geez, there are all the verses. Uh, he writes, um, the Apostle Paul was not a mathematician, but he mentioned 4 measures or dimensions when describing the love of God with length, depth, and height. Depth is the extra dimension not usually described in 3D geometry. And we don't know exactly what Paul had in mind with this term. He used the word deep to describe the Mediterranean Sea, a metaphor, no doubt, for its unfathomable reaches. He also referred to his deep concern for the churches in 2 Corinthians 11:28 and the deep things of God in 1 Corinthians 2:10. Perhaps immeasurable would be a way to describe the depth of God's love. Paul's prayer was that the Ephesians could comprehend the immeasurable dimensions of God's love. If you ever feel you have exhausted the limits of God's love, remember that his love is wider, longer, deeper, and higher than anything you will ever have. And David Jeremiah also shares a quote, an unknown quote, which says, the true measure of God's love is that he loves without measure. Amen. You know, God's love is without measure, never runs out. When we seek the Lord and find his love for us through our faith in Jesus Christ, there are no limits to the power that God can bring to our lives. Through his love, we can have faith that will move mountains, or that can cause us to endure and overcome them when God doesn't take them out of our way. Like the Apostle Paul, I pray that you will know the depths of God's love and let it cause you to grow and become more completely the person that he made you to be. Today's Bible verses come to us from A Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditations, uh, verses come from the section on forgiveness of sins, and today's verses are Isaiah 55:6-7. And the word of God says, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Today's verses fall under the 9th point of our counseling reference guide, resource section, guides, resource section on the forgiveness of of sins. And today's, uh, point, that 9th point, is God calls sinners to seek him and promises them forgiveness when they repent. Today's verses are Old Testament verses that point to a loving God who forgives those who seek him in repentance. God's love for us beckons us to seek him and to find the fullness of joy that comes from being forgiven. God calls us home to be forgiven and loved. Being right with God begins simply by turning toward him and accepting the riches of his mercy and grace. So forsake your work— wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts and receive the Lord's pardon that leads to an abundant life of goodness and love. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotion, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture every day, um, and today's chapter is 2 Thessalonians 2. From that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 10, which says, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And Stephen Alford writes, it is significant to note that those who are perishing and will yet perish are people who will not receive the love of the truth. God does not expect a perverse mind to comprehend the truth, but he does expect a cold heart to melt at the revelation of un— the revelation of unutterable love. Love is the universal language. And can be understood when words are incomprehensible. Such love then can be received or rejected. To receive is to be saved. To reject is to perish. If there is one lesson I am to learn here, it is that in my presentation of truth, there should be the outshining of God's love. Therefore, All my preaching must be balanced. Grace with truth, law with love, and the scriptures with the power of God. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, when I testify of you, Lord, let the truth of your words be voiced with the love of your heart. Amen. Amen. Yeah, we have to balance, you know, as Alford says, law with love. You know, grace with truth and the scriptures with the power of God, you know, and motivating my niece to do what was right, to stop being a bother and get up and go, get over yourself and go, you know, because nobody likes somebody that's just whining and suffering. So get up and go. There had to be some love there. Um, I cared, you know, I didn't want to see my niece be that person. Um, I cared for her and I know she's strong and she's a leader and, um, you know, that she had to see that for herself. And I helped to get her on her feet and get her moving. And after a while, I walked away and my wife said, okay, that's enough. And, uh, so I relented, and, uh, my wife and her mother, uh, you know, encouraged her up the rest of the mountain. And, uh, she got— she got there. And when she did, she rejoiced. Um, she was a little angry with me, but she forgave me. Um, it was because of the love, you know, that I have for her that she was able to forgive me. Otherwise, I'm just some jerk. And, uh, You know, we wanted to get her past her pain to see that she was strong and that she could, she could make it. And she did. And, um, you know, at the end of the weekend, and at the end of the day, she forgave me. At the end of the weekend, she treated me just as if, you know, as she always had, um, lovingly, you know, embracing me and saying goodbye. And, and, uh, you know, there was no distance between us. And that's difficult when you administer, quote unquote, tough love, because it can draw people away. I know that from experience. So we have to be very careful in how we bring our truth and bring our love and try to bring discipline in someone's life. It's as, as Stephen Alford points out, our love can be received or it can be rejected. And the great peril of rejecting God's love is that we'll perish. And so we have to be very careful. Of course, the results aren't up to us. We speak the truth in love and prayerfully pray for people to receive it, but we can't make them turn to God. To be forgiven and to receive God's love and become the person they created them to be. God's given us free will to choose our own way, and, uh, when we seek him, we'll find his love and discover the new life, uh, through Jesus Christ. But, uh, we can still choose to reject it and choose our own way and perish. So very, very— yeah, life's, life's not so simple, uh, it's a little difficult the difficulties of life and suffering and finding our way in this world and then finding our way into eternity. We need someone to guide us, and that someone is God. And so we ask the question, you know, have you fully surrendered to God and his will for your life? We think it's important to let you think about God as A.W. Tozer says, but we, uh, we think it's very important to do with, you know, what we do with God's word, um, and what it says about us is the most important thing about us because it will determine whether or not we accept God's truth and love. Well, we'll make— we'll make Jesus our Lord and Savior and be saved and be able to experience the power of God's love in our lives. Not, we'll perish. When we receive his love, he, he blesses us and he guides us to share, share our love with others. And that's what we do here on the blog and podcast. But he's also moved me to do things like the Celebrate Freedom support group, where I encourage other people to find their freedom in Christ over their hurts, habits, and hangups, to our Christian Recovery Discipleship meeting Uh, that's at Star Point Church on Wednesdays at 6:30. And even though I'm on vacation, I'll be there with the group again, uh, on Wednesday evening at 6:30. So we look forward to that. And, um, I just encouraged someone, um, in an email this weekend who is seeking my help as a Christian life coach, um, but I can't take as a client, uh, to join the Freedom in Christ, uh, course, which will be, um, this fall, uh, starting September 3rd, only a couple weeks away. Um, and I'm encouraging everyone to go to Freedom in Christ Ministries website, which is ficm.org, to try to find a discipleship class that's good for you, whether you're a man or a woman. There are different classes to partake in, but you have to sign up soon. I believe registration closes on August 26th. And what do these courses teach you? Well, they teach you about who you are in Christ, and they teach you the process called the Steps to Freedom in Christ, which helps you to resolve your personal and spiritual conflicts to experience your freedom in Christ. So it's very valuable. We highly recommend you enter in and do that. Um, soon find your freedom. Anyway, um, I am on vacation, and so we'll just ask the question quickly: are you empty for Christ too? If so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, ask the Lord to reveal himself to you, because if you seek him, you will find him, and he'll guide you to, uh, to the abundant life that Jesus was talking about when you make him your Lord and Savior. Anyway, uh, like I said, I'm on vacation, so let's pray real quick. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Well, we thank you for guiding us and, um, leading us in the way we should go through your word and through your spirit. Oh, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests, their walk of faith, and help them to go where you would have them go. Lord, um, we desperately need your help, so open our eyes and lead us in the way we should go today, as all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. Um, we definitely need your help with that. Well, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.