Truth over Feelings Purity 776

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 towering clouds over the Mahoosuc Mountain Range from the vantage point of the parking lot of Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine comes to us from yours truly as I stopped for a moment to capture this sight as I was walking to the resort to enjoy day 2 of the River Rock Music Festival on Saturday, July 2nd. Well, it's Wednesday, and I figured a photo of the Mahoosuc Mountain Range was as good as any a way to symbolically resent— represent our arrival at the midpoint of our work week, even though our Independence Day holiday on Monday may have caused us, caused us a little disruption in our normal routines and may have us feeling out of sorts, as we may think today. Today feels like Tuesday, but I assure you it is Wednesday, right? It is. It's, it's my daughter's, uh, Haley's 22nd birthday today, the 6th, right? Right. Uh, happy birthday, Haley. Uh, funny thing about that, uh, may not be funny to Haley, uh, actually, but a couple of years ago, um, for some reason I was confused and was momentarily convinced that Haley's birthday wasn't wasn't until the 8th. But no matter how sure I was in my feelings, it didn't change the date of Haley's birth certificate. Oh yes, and as I wrote this, I freaked out and had to confirm once again that Haley's birthday is the 6th. It is the 6th. Happy birthday, Haley! But my, uh, confusion about Haley's birthday and possibly some of our Tuesday feelings on this first hump day of July brings up a great point of emphasis for our journey down the path of Christian discipleship. In our faith walk, we base our lives on what the Word of God says, not on what the world says or what our own feelings may tell us. Throughout my life, although I have some positive attributes and abilities, I had an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and, and thus a very negative view of myself. Rejection from others, the roller coaster of emotions that come with a life of addiction and reactivity, and my failures throughout life did nothing to help my self-esteem. Although I had some successes in life, nothing I accomplished gave me any feelings of satisfaction, and rather than finding contentment, I had the tendency to focus on all the things I did not have in life. So my existence was pretty miserable as I was constantly trying to change the circumstances of my life to give me happiness. If I was feeling sad, I did something to make me happy. If I was angry, I would have outbursts or would do something to ignore it or take something to make me happy so I didn't have to be angry. I was a party guy. Slave to the flesh, so I was always celebrating something to take my pain away. I would watch sports or TV on— or music on— or I would watch sports, listen to music, or watch movies on TV and enjoy alcoholic beverages, drugs, and food and relax. I was a pretty chill dude and would work during during the day and do that on a pretty regular basis for, holy moly, about 25 years. 25 years from 17 to 43 when I, uh, when I went into recovery. The vast majority of those days were spent in the pursuit of drunken good times because food, drugs, sex, and alcohol were the only things that made me really feel good. But those things also came with a lot of pain. The pain of hangovers and the negative consequences that came from a life spent constantly reacting and seeking escape from reality because I had no peace within myself, because I didn't feel very good about myself. All those bad habits were born from the fear that life was meaningless and that it was all about trying to create happiness and that I should have fun while I could. But after a while, those sins of the flesh are exposed, and through the pain of repetition, you realize that the happiness you are creating is fleeting and offers no answers to the big questions, no sense of meaning, satisfaction, or purpose. My identity was built on the things I did. A sports fan, a horror and science fiction fan, a rock and roll beer drinker, etc. That's who I was. Those things gave me good feelings, so I became associated with them. That's what I discovered had given me fleeting, uh, the fleeting feelings of peace, so I was all about them. But they were surface deep. If I grew bored of them or stopped doing them, would I still be me? After the death of my infant son in 2002, I really started searching for answers. His death had traumatized me into questioning my life and seeking answers. And it was in that crazy search through error that the Lord revealed himself to me in a radio gospel message in which he taught me his acceptance of me wasn't based on what I did. He offered me meaning and purpose through his Son, Jesus Christ. I was forgiven and free to follow him into that meaning and purpose, and that— and he has continually led me into truth and the goodness of his love. So now I know that my feelings and the things I do don't define me. God is my creator, and he has called me out of the darkness of the world's lies to tell me who I am. I am accepted, secure, and significant in Christ. I'm also— so I'm sharing a link to a recent post in which I share the Who I Am in Christ list if you need to know who you are in Christ. If my, uh, you know, in the past, um, well, now if I'm feeling— if my feelings tell me I'm sad, the word of God tells me to rejoice because of my salvation. If I'm angry, though, the word tells me to forgive much because I have been forgiven much. If my feelings tell me it's Tuesday, reality, the truth, tells me it's Wednesday. I know with that last one you have, you have to actively seek the truth from some non-biblical truth source like a calendar or a clock, and through various means we could be deceived. But guess, guess what? That's okay, because if we are living according to the truth of God's word, it really doesn't matter what day it is. And even if we are momentarily deceived, we can trust that the Lord through the Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth of eventually. And if we are seeking the truth, and if we are following him, we will find God and the truth time and time again. So keep walking and talking with God. Study his word, because it is through the truth revealed to us in Scripture that we can know the truth of who God is and who we are in Christ. So remember that when we walk with God, we don't let our feelings lead us. We follow the Lord and the truth of his word. Within the truth of his word and, uh, within the truth of his word and who we are in Christ lies all the answers, all the remedies for life's problems. These answers, these remedies, these truths are not just supposed to be reflected on in a Sunday worship service once a week to make us feel good. The truth of God's word isn't just a bunch of nice things or happy thoughts to to give us a momentary peace that evaporates when we leave the church building. The truth of God's Word is eternal, and it is a spiritual reality that tells us who we really are when we place our faith in Christ. The spiritual reality of God's Word invades our world of experience when we know it, believe it, and apply it to our lives. If you are not feeling it, you need to remind yourself, uh, of who you are in Christ, uh, that who you are in Christ is a done deal. It is finished. And you can continually, continuously experience the fruit of the Spirit when you live your life according to it. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. Yes, I found it, and it was in my briefcase. Uh, this morning's meditation verse is Luke 150, and it says, he shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. Today's Bible verse speaks of the Lord's mercy to all the generations that fear him. To fear God is to respect him as creator of all things and the judge of what is right and wrong. God is all-powerful and eternal. Thus, he deserves— determines the destiny of all of his creation. Whether we live or die, go to heaven or hell, is determined by him. Someone recently asked me why we had to fear God. Among other things, I tried to express how if we understood the awesomeness of who God is as Creator alone, really, the most appropriate thing we could do is fear him. All-powerful, eternal, over and above time and space itself, the one who determines your destiny. When we get saved, what are we saved from? God's wrath. Wrath. Uh, he sends us to hell, not the devil. The devil will be hell's most infamous prisoner. He is not in charge. The enemy is a created being that corrupted themselves through the sin of rebellion and will one day perish in the lake of fire. God takes down the devil for good in the end. Scary enough for you yet? But as Christians, God has made peace with us through our faith in Jesus Christ. We We need not fear our Heavenly Father because we have been made his children by faith in his Son. We have safety as God has adopted us into his family. So we don't have to be afraid of God, but we should still have fear of him as in terms of a holy respect that acknowledges his power, awesomeness, and holiness. Our fear of punishment and hell draws us to put our faith in Christ to be saved. That's a healthy fear. The fear of the Lord also causes us to repent. We love and respect our Father and seek to please Him by representing Him by casting off our besetting sins and trying to do good rather than evil. So fearing the Lord isn't as bad as it sounds. In truth, it is appropriate, and that is why the fear of the Lord is said to be the beginning of wisdom, for to fear Him is to know Him. And to respect him, and it draws us to obey and follow him. So enjoy the mercy that the fear of the Lord has brought to you and try to share the good news of salvation that will alleviate the fear of hell and bring the joy of the Lord. 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 Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today we're sharing from chapter 5, and the section is the Mission of the Disciples. So if you want to know what the missions of the disciples are, were, and is for us, um, and to learn about the ultimate victory of, for Christ and his people, uh, go to mt4christ.org and look at the bottom of today's blog post, and you'll see that excerpt from Clinton Arnold's book The Power of Darkness. As always, we share it, uh, to educate and edify the body of Christ. Um, you know, just because you're saved doesn't mean you stop learning. Um, you know, and, and our learning isn't just book learning, it's, it's learning how to apply our faith to our lives. How do you live this life as a Christian? You know, simple faith. Um, it is simple faith. We believe, we receive, we worship the Lord. Um, you know, that's, that's enough. But what's involved? How are you living your life? Do you have peace? Are you reacting to everything angrily? Are you seeking happiness continually through the things of this world? Um, you know, the world still gives comfort, but our joy, our peace, it comes from the Lord. Or it's supposed to. Otherwise you're just going to be, you know, going and going and going. Recently I was at a grocery store, maybe not too long ago, not too recently, but not too long ago. I was walking through the grocery store and I basically reflected on the fact that back in the day when I was raising my kids and, you know, still in my addictions and everything, you know, like The weekends would be a trip to the grocery store to buy a bunch of food and to buy whatever flavor of beer or alcoholic beverage I was drinking for that week or that day. And I was like purchasing happiness. You know, it was like, you know, life's hard, we're going to go home and I'm going to consume these things and I'll feel better. I'll feel like I'll be able to relax and I'll feel happy. And I did that every week, and I would do that every week, and I would do that several times during the week as I would need supplies continually, you know, alcoholic supplies, you know, every day of, you know, nearly every day of my life for nearly 25 years. So it's sort of crazy, you know. So I didn't wake up, I didn't wake up and go, wow, this is bad, I should stop. No, I lived it for a long time. You know, it's a— I'm sort of a far cry from that existence, and I rejoice over it. But, you know, you don't know the trap you're in until you get out of it. And it was a trap. You know, some people would say, well, he just likes to have— enjoy his wine. Some people like to say, I just like to enjoy my wine. Yeah, there's no enjoyment in that. You know, you're isolating yourself, you're drunk, and you're alone, and it's usually covering the pain from, from not knowing who you are in Christ. You know, trying to, you know, give yourself peace that you're doing everything right, or, or you're better than what, you know, other people or whatever, um, because of the things you have, the things you do. But there's no real peace. And someone takes away all your things and your job and, and all the things— do you have peace? Um, with the Lord you do, in the world you don't. And, um, so that's why we do what we do. We encourage people to seek the peace and the freedom that comes from overcoming, uh, the world, the flesh, and the devil through faith. And so we prescribe a life of discipleship. That means you study the word, you read the word, you connect with God through prayer and through conversation, and keep him before you and try to mold your life to follow him. You're not following a person, you're following the Lord and the truth of his word. So you don't have to worry about being led into a cult or being led astray. You know, the Lord will lead you to do, to live a good and holy life, and we do that with balance. And, and, uh, you know, we try not to go to too many extremes, um, as we, as we seek to live in the world and, uh, share the good news of the gospel. So we do, we do that by sharing, um, our teachings that we, that we that we taught back in 2021 and with our— on our podcast for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, all available on the podcast and YouTube now. And we also share a Bible study once a week with our good friends Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. We took a week off and man, am I missing it. So I'm looking forward to talking to my friends about the Bible on Sunday. But if you want to see our old messages, they're all available on the podcast and, uh, YouTube. So I encourage you to keep following the Lord. I appreciate anyone who's listening to this podcast or reading my messages. I recently got contacted by some people who were following the Bondage Breaker study on YouTube, so I'm encouraged. You know, I'm encouraged in my faith, and it doesn't have to necessarily encourage anyone else because it encourages me. Because I know, know the peace that I have in following the Lord, and I just want to share it. And that's why I do this. So let's, let's pray about today. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for the people listening or following the blog or listening to our messages, because we, we only seek to bring the truth of who you are and how you, how you save us and how you give us peace, um, in this world, um, when we follow you. So Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the people. We ask for you to come alongside them and their prayer requests, Lord, and meet them where they are and lead them where they should go. And, uh, Lord, that's our prayer for, for them and for all of us today. Lord, we just pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to what you want us to see. And lead us, uh, lead us into the things you want us to do. Lord, help us to do the best job we can to represent you here on the earth today by living a life of peace and trying to, um, to touch others with the truth of your word and, you know, the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do. And we pray, we love you, we thank you, and we praise you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.