What do we “Get ‘er Done First” Purity 840

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Let's see, today's photo of a magnificent sunset over Lake Ontario in Oswego, New York, come— which, which I take the liberty of calling August Departs, comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography, who captured this last sunset of the month and shared it on social media back on August 31st. Well, it's the 19th of September, and although it's been a while since August departed, it is still officially summer until Thursday. But I won't be looking for some, um, to have some— wow, I won't be looking for any last minute summertime fun as the next few days will be filled with work during the day. And ministry opportunities at night. And so now I am in the midst of the fine art of juggling and prioritizing my tasks in order to be fully prepared and effective to perform what's expected of me. And in the days and nights ahead— as he corrects his text— and so comes the question What do we get her done first? Um, yeah, when we look at all, all that the calendar— when we look at the calendar and look at all the things we have to do— wow, um, we have to do, uh, Here we go. When we look at the calendar, look at all the things we have to do, sometimes we can easily be overwhelmed and perplexed about how we are to accomplish what we need to without being a total wreck. Uh, I'm still a work in progress, obviously, as we all are and will be, and will be until Christ returns or welcomes us into his kingdom. But one of the things that I have learned on the path of Christian discipleship is that perfection and results is not a thing we have to worry about. But at the same time, we don't necessarily want to be accused of not putting forth our best efforts when we seek to represent the kingdom of God with the ways we live our— with the ways we live our lives. So thus, another set of paradoxes to life in the Spirit. We want to care about what we are doing, but not care so much that we stress ourselves or, and others, out to the point we lose our peace. Uh, we want to press in to do a good job, but we should realize that our work will never be perfect, and we will have to be aware of our limitations and have peace with what we can actually can do. Um, we may want to do many things, and we may want to do things well, but we may have to realize that if we agreed do too many things, we won't be able to do them all as well as we like. And then finally, we may want to kick back and relax, but it may be better to work. Or we may want to work, but won't be effective at our work unless we get some rest. Uh, now these challenges of life and work are more or less universal, but as Christians who want to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, the the way we get 'er done, the ways we rest, and the ways we get results, and the way we prioritize things matter. While the world would justify their means by their ends and put the overall emphasis on the end results and possibly ride an emotional roller coaster ride to get there, our walk with Christ and the proof of our maturity as Christians will be demonstrated by our ability to maintain our peace and joy in the midst of the process of completing what we need to accomplish. So we have to keep connected to the Lord and be wise in discerning and choosing our path. Uh, and although, um, we want to be disciplined in our lifestyles of faith, we don't want to be so rigid that we can't think outside of the box and change the ways we normally do things. When met with challenges that will require a little juggling or a reprioritizing of our goals. This morning I had to make the decision to forego my normal morning exercise routine because I didn't make enough headway in the ministry project I was working on over the weekend. And as I looked at the calendar, I could see that time would be scarce over the next week, and I had to find the time somewhere. Yesterday afternoon I was faced with the fact that this ministry work hadn't gotten done, and, and I had a decision to make yesterday. Um, do I press in on Sunday afternoon to get it done, or do I spend time with my wife? I chose my wife over the ministry work, and I don't regret it. Oh no, I don't. So yesterday I chose my wife over the ministry work, and today I chose the work over the, the exercise. And the lesson I learned today is that in order to avoid having to compromise in my regular routine, I will have to find the time to accomplish these ministry work projects in a way that doesn't interfere with the other things that matter to me. So in examining my time, I realized that there are places where I can make adjustments to put, put it all together in a way that runs smoothly by doing a little bit, a little bit each day rather than leaving things undone and scrambling at the last minute. That was sort of the way I did things in the past. Work hard, play hard. Leave things undone to the last minute and then run around angry and stressed out to get things done at the last minute. The thing that was always the problem back then was selfishness. When I thought about projects, I would think, I don't want to, and would, would do whatever pleased me, all of which was not productive at all. I wasn't— it wasn't like I shirked work responsibilities to do something else that was good, necessary, or productive. No, I would watch TV, eat, drink, or play video games, or all of the above, and it was all about entertaining myself. But since coming to Christ and attempting to live according to his ways, I realized how foolish I was and how my selfishness led to negative consequences personally and in all my relationships. I spent most of my time doing what I wanted, but somehow I didn't have any lasting sense of peace because I wasn't, uh, wasn't wise to be a good steward of the things God had given me. Eventually I lost it all. Ironically, I lost it all when I decided to follow the Lord. You would think I would have lost my former home, marriage, and most of my possessions because of my alcoholism and roller coaster of emotions of depressions, anger, and anxiety. But I only lost all of those things when I finally saw the light. Decided to stop being in bondage to my addictions and emotions by surrendering to the Lord. Unfortunately, my ex wasn't with the program, and even though I didn't try to change her, she wasn't content to be with the new me and demanded a divorce. So in the process of building a new life, I have learned when to work and when to rest and how to prioritize my life in a way where the Lord is at the center of it. Even though there has been a lot of changes to my life in the past few years, I would say that through it all I've had a peace that goes beyond all understanding because I was diligent to stay in the Lord's presence, to let go and let God, and to do the best I could with my part of this relationship. And even though I might have to do some juggling at times to get 'er done, Somehow there is always a measure of peace and joy as I keep walking and talking with God. Well, the clock tells me that my time management isn't perfect yet, and I will have to skip sharing the verse of the day from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men like I usually do. Um, but I'll give you this one. It might be out of context from its part of the Bible narrative, but it will was on my heart as I was writing, so here it is. Christ said in John 14:27, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Christ came to give us peace. I have found that when we follow him, you find it. So keep walking and talking with God. You don't have to be troubled or afraid, but the pathway to peace requires you follow the one who came to give it to you. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights of prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ. If you go to the website not on your phone, you'll be able to see our new logo basically I made over the weekend. That was sort of a little waste of time. Um, so I just wanted to give you a heads up. Basically, there's a post if you wanted to see it, and a little video I made of it on YouTube too. So, um, I don't know why I mentioned it. It's a waste of time. Anyway, um, we're sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. I'm still sharing from chapter 2, and, um, it's all about, uh, the, the— we're sharing the section that's all about how all Only believers obey, and only the obedient believe. It's a compelling portion of the cost of discipleship, so I certainly encourage you to read it. And if you wanted to hear a teaching on chapter 2, you know, go to YouTube. We just put up on Thursday— me and Peter McCabbage do a walkthrough of the text of chapter 2 for the most part, and we invite you to check that out along with all our discipleship teachings that we've put on the podcast and YouTube from the past for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Although there will be turmoil in your life, you can have peace and joy when you follow Christ. So that's why I share all these things. That's why I, that's why I encourage people and run around, uh, trying to get her done, uh, without losing my peace and joy. And And somehow managed to do that. But you know, one of the ways we managed to do that is we pray. So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done and how you, you know, guide us into what's good, which is your peace, Lord. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening today. We ask you to come alongside their prayer request, Lord, and to guide them in the way they should go. We pray for you to pour out your grace upon their life, to give them that divine favor. And the things they, they're facing. Particularly, we're praying for our wife Tammy Lynn, that this week someone will give her a job offer that'll, that'll meet her needs and where she can, you know, best represent you as a faithful servant of God here on the earth. For all of us, I pray that you go before us, Lord, to open our eyes to the things you want us to see. And to guide our path into the things you want us to do. Lord, let us never forget you, and let us remember that we represent you, and the pathway to peace is to follow your lead. So Lord, we thank you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.