We Made IT and We are Halfway There! - Purity 1169

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 shining above a mountain range of clouds high above the green grass farmlands off of Waite Road in eastern New York comes to us from yours truly as I was positively mesmerized by the beauty of the heavens above and captured the scene on Monday. While today's photo doesn't contain any actual mountains to visually represent our arrival at another midweek summit, I hope you will allow this peak experience from my day off to encourage you that we are all, we are all halfway there in terms of being right where God wants us to be each morning. And making it all the way is just a matter of making the decision to agree with God and follow where he leads. As much as our hump day reminders point to the halfway point of our work week and encourage us to look ahead to the supposedly better days of the weekend, I hope to point out that one day is not necessarily better than another, and that the time to find joy and fulfillment in life is right now. In Matthew 6:34, Jesus said, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Basically, Jesus was encouraging us to trust the Lord, to live one day at a time, and to be focused on right now, today, and its challenges, rather than focusing too much on the future. When we don't worry about the future too much and focus on the things we need to take care of today, we can find peace and contentment and maybe even joy knowing we have dealt with today's troubles to the best of our abilities. Uh, we do all we can and leave the rest up to the Lord. And even though we may not solve every problem in a single day, we can rest easy knowing we did what we could. With this orientation of life, of living in the Spirit, uh, being responsible and living in God's presence, we can experience a, a life of peace and joy every day, regardless of circumstances. When we draw close to God with our daily spiritual practices of Bible study, prayer, and gratitude to set the foundation for our day, we can face, uh, faced those troubles for today with confidence and appreciate our lives that have become brand new because of our relationship with God. I go back to my day job today, and while I have no idea what troubles I will face, I go into them knowing that I will do the best I can, fix what I can, and pass along the troubles I can't fix to those who can, knowing that my job performance will not define who I am or determine my value. Because I know God does that. He defines me, and through the revelation of the truth of Jesus as Lord and Savior, he has determined that I am valuable, again, regardless of my performance. And, and he has welcomed me, uh, to, uh, into his family and kingdom where I will live with him forever. In Christ, my past is forgiven. My new life is now, and my peace and my hope are forever. The Lord has proven himself to be loving, trustworthy, and good. And rather than looking ahead too much, I can rest easy knowing that I'm all the way there in, in who I am supposed to be in Christ, because I have eternal life in Christ Jesus and can be excited about today and tomorrow. Because there is more to know and more to grow into when I continue to live with Him. In Christ, paradoxically, we have everything we need. We have accomplished all we need to accomplish, but at the same, same time, there is more to know, more to experience, and more to see and become as we walk with Jesus and seek to follow in His ways. We just have to remember what we have in Christ and live accordingly, and we can rest in the peace that comes from knowing we have made it in one sense, and we are only halfway there to experiencing even more of what the Lord has in store for us. So let's focus on right now and keep on walking and talking with God to move past the troubles of today with a sense of peace and joy, knowing that we live in God's love. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. Today's— this morning's meditation verse comes from the section on Assurance of Salvation, and today's verse is 2 Timothy 1:12. And the word of God says from the New American Standard Bible: For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. Today's verse falls under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the Assurance of Salvation. And that fifth point is: Paul had assurance of eternal life. Uh, today's verse speaks of an assurance we can have when we know whom we have believed and can rest knowing that he will protect what we have entrust him with. Our very lives. Here Paul talks about the personal relationship with God. Remember, Paul saw the resurrected Christ, was blinded, healed, and called into seclusion for some time to learn directly from the Lord before he was sent out to share the gospel, build churches, and suffer persecution for proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. While Paul may have wondered what would happen next during his tumultuous life of evangelizing the world, Paul didn't have any doubts about whom he believed. To echo my mentor, Bob Costello's comments about his salvation experience, Paul met God, and when you know him, you know that his word is true, that he has brought you from death to life. Yesterday, I offered counsel to a brother in Christ about his assurance of salvation. Like many Christians, my friend didn't have confidence regarding whether or not he would go to heaven if he were to die tonight. So I led him through the first section of the Steps to Freedom in Christ to show him through scripture how he has been saved by grace and through his faith in Jesus. My friend was relieved as I encouraged him to understand and to believe that God has brought him into his kingdom the moment he put his faith in Jesus. I explained that God has made himself known to my friend by showing him the truth about Jesus, and that he could know God more by reading his word and by going into his presence through prayer. Knowing God personally changes everything. When we understand whom we have believed, we can have confidence that the all-powerful, all-knowing Sovereign Lord of all creation will protect the lives that he gave us and that we have trusted to him to save. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians to to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ, uh, with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we continue sharing from, uh, chapter 29 on the Spirit confirming. And today's topic is called The Holy Spirit as Earnest. And, uh, you don't know what earnest money is? It's not sincere money, it's the money that shows you're sincere. Earnest money is like if you put money down to buy a house, and that money is showing that you really mean it. You're really gonna, you really intend to purchase it. And the Holy Spirit shows that, shows that God really means that he means to save us. You know, he's the earnest of Christ, that he sealed us with his Holy Spirit. Anyway, time is running short today, so I'm very happy to invite anyone who's in the Capitol District to the Celebrate Freedom Growth group at Star Point Church tonight, and if you're not local, I encourage you to check out our discipleship teachings on the podcast and the YouTube, our YouTube channel, M.t. Clark 247, as we have done previous studies on Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also Freedom in Christ, The Victory Over the Darkness, and The Bondage Breaker. And those, those are all based on the Word of God. Bonhoeffer's work is based on Bonhoeffer's work and the Word of God, and the other ones are based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God. So we encourage you to take that truth of the Word of God, apply it to your life, and to walk in it every day to experience the peace that the Lord has for you. As I said, short on time, so I'm going to pray real quick. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do. Uh, Lord, we just pray for you to bless anyone who's reading or listening to today's message, um, that you would come alongside them in our prayer request and that you would bless them. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, to guide our path, to trust, uh, to help us and to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and do, um, Lord, because we desperately need your help. And we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.