You Can Run But You Can’t Hide! – God’s Remedy for Shame - Purity 790

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 a magnificent sunflower sunset comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from their, their home, uh, from near their home in Milton, Kentucky on social media back on July 17th. I don't know all the details of this friend's story, but I know that their journey is similar to mine, involving the pain of divorce in spite of their faith and the joy of a new Christ-centered marriage. They are enjoying the dawn of a new life where they have left behind the troubles of the past as they've progressively sought to follow the Lord's lead. When I see them share scenes from the latest chapters of their journey, I rejoice because each scene of the simple joys of their new life provide evidence that the Lord was faithful to provide a way to the promised land to one who was faithful to follow him. In this sense, their story is my story, and, and I am thanking God that it is Friday, because not only will today mark the end of another work week and the beginning of the weekend, but today I will leave work regardless of how my day go day goes, with the pure joy of anticipation of being in the loving arms of my wife again, as our two household lives will converge and become one again as we are reunited at our countryside home in Easton, New York. Reunited, and it feels so good. So I am rejoicing over my friend's new life, my life, my wife, and the transformation I am continuing to witness in the lives of the men that I meet meet with via Zoom as we review Freedom in Christ Ministries' The Grace Course. The Grace Course material is great, but our fellowship of mutual support as we are open and honest about our walk of faith is what really makes our 2-hour meetings seem to fly by as we seek to grow in our maturity and fight the good fight by applying the wisdom of God's Word to our daily lives. Although none of us are perfect, we have all agreed that we have made significant progress on the path of Christian discipleship, and our meetings are a reminder of the victories we have won and an encouragement to keep walking and talking with God. Last night's session was on the topic of shame and how it can be brought into our lives through our family, work, or church dynamics, where the shoulds and ought to standards that are established could make us feel that we don't measure up. Shame can also come from the regrettable things we have done, or even from the things that others have done to us. Our sense of shame typically sends us running away from God and causes us to develop strategies for dealing with it that deny, cover, bury, or seek to overcome our shame by our own efforts. While our bet— while our different strategies may work for a while, residual shame can remain despite our best efforts because whereas guilt says, "I did something wrong, I made a mistake," shame says, "There is something wrong with me. I am the mistake." So no matter what you do or where you go, there you are: unacceptable, sick, twisted, warped, wrong, degenerate, dirty, or different. Shame says, "You can run, but you can't hide. Eventually, others will know who you really are and they will reject you." So we run, we hide, or we work to overcome certain problem areas so we can feel acceptable. But even if we achieve a measure of success, shame says that there will still be something very, very wrong about us fundamentally on the inside. But God gives us a remedy for our brokenness. God gives us a way to take away our shame. Romans 10:9-11 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For the heart— for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." The remedy for our sense of disgrace is God's grace. Overcoming our sense of shame is not about our efforts, it's about his grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is a gift of God." not of works, lest anyone should boast. It's not about our making ourselves into a new person. It's about realizing that through our faith in Christ, we have already, already been made new, and there is nothing to be ashamed about. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And Romans 1:16-17 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. But in it, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. So through putting our faith in Christ and by living by faith, by By living according to who we are in Christ and by the wisdom of the Word of God, we walk into the new life that God has for us, leaving our shame, our sense of unacceptableness, behind because we are accepted. Through God's gift of grace, we have been forgiven, made righteous, and given a new and eternal life. God has taken away our shame and doesn't want us carrying it or condemning ourselves anymore. Romans 8:1, of course, says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." We tried to run, we tried to hide, we tried to be all that we could be, but it never solved anything. No matter where we went, there we were. But God found us, and he has pulled us out of the shadows of our former lives and invites us to walk with him into the light of a new life. So keep your chin up and know that you are accepted by the only one who really matters, and he has agreed to never leave you or forsake you as you walk out your journey of faith from here to eternity. He made you, he saved you, and he has healed you by making you new. So keep walking and talking with God and rejoice over the new dawn, the new day, and the new life that the Lord has made. In you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 119:2, and it says, joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. Today's verse describes the spiritual condition of one who obeys God's laws and continues to search for him with all their heart. The condition is joy. In this one little verse lies the truth regarding walking in the Spirit. When we simply obey the Lord and continue— continually seek Him and His will for our lives, we have joy. Throughout Scripture, God directs us to obey Him, to turn to Him and follow Him. If we view God's law as a set of rules, we will undoubtedly feel condemned because we can't keep them, or we will rebel and seek to beat God at his own game by breaking them and avoiding detection or any negative consequences. Our pride doesn't like being told what to do, so we will challenge God's law, and the devil or our own imaginations will seek acceptable alternatives to obedience. We look for shortcuts. We look at what the world does, and we see that there are various different ways to live. So we trust in ourselves, what our families have taught us, or what we see in the world, and we disobey. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we suffer, but regardless, when we have to continue to work to create peaceful circumstances and environments, the inevitable will happen. We will fail, and we will struggle, and we will lose our happiness. What we create is not joy. It's happiness because we made it happen. But joy is different. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and it doesn't depend on circumstances. Joy depends on a relationship with God, and when we search for him with all our hearts and live according to his ways by obeying his law, we are blessed with an abiding sense of joy that can endure through even the most tumultuous times in our lives. The wisdom in today's The verse is plain and simple, but although it may be simple, it may not be easy, because this joyful path is only discovered by surrendering our pride and agreeing to humble ourselves to trust and obey God's law, His instructions for living, rather than going our own way. This way to joy may not be easy, but it is worth it. Christ went to the cross because of the joy set before him. The joy was twofold. Jesus had joy over doing the Father's will, thus proving today's verses true. Christ had joy because he obeyed. But Jesus also had joy because his death on the cross meant he was making a way for all of us to be forgiven and to experience the joy of our salvation. So be like Jesus. Obey the law, the Lord's law, and search for him and his will for your life with all your heart, and discover the joy that has been set before you. 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 Clint Arnold's Powers of Darkness. And we begin chapter 9, which is basically the chapter title is The Influence of the Powers on Believers. And it's somewhat controversial in terms of some people don't believe the powers of darkness have any influence on us, that we can't be oppressed by the powers of darkness. It's sort of that stands sort of, you know, you know, has sort of contradicts, you know, having to put on the whole armor of God for the Christian. And, you know, the different— and different scriptures basically where it's indicated that even believers had moments where Satan influenced them. So that's in scripture. It's highlighted in the book The Bondage Breaker, and it's highlighted in Clinton Arnold's book. So if you wanted to check that out, go to M.t. Clark's dot org. And you'll see that, uh, the beginning of chapter 9 on our, uh, the bottom of our blog post from today. As I stated, basically, uh, we share these things to build people up in their faith, to help them to grow so they can live out their Christian faith and experience the joy of not only our salvation but our, our, our relationship with the Lord on a continual basis. So that's why we're here. That's why we do a podcast. That's why we do our blog, is to really just testify the goodness of the Lord and encourage others that you can, um, you know, have peace in this world. You can have joy through our faith. We can solve the problems that we have in our lives when we go to God and, and, and ask for his help and agree to walk with him and obey his law and and continue to search for him with all our hearts. When we turn away from the world and turn towards God, good things happen. And I recommend it highly because it happened to me. The new life I have, like my friend, you know, they had issues in their past and they persevered and established, you know, a new life just like me. That has a, you know, Christ at the center of their new marriage. And it just fills me with joy to see other people that are faithful and that prosper because of it. And, you know, that's what we're here for, is to encourage people to follow the Lord, walk on the path of Christian discipleship, you know, live by faith, walk in the Spirit, to, you know, not only experience it but to be a witness to the world, to show people that this, this is, this is, this is what our Christian faith really is, really supposed to be about, uh, honoring God, giving him glory, and, uh, you know, and, and trying to make people, uh, others disciples, to teach, teach people what we know, uh, and to follow Christ. So we do that, uh, we do that by sharing our, our our discipleship classes that we did in 2021 for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all available on the podcast and our YouTube channel, um, M.t. for Christ. All those links are at the bottom of each blog post on mtforchrist.org. So if you want to check those out, go ahead. We also share a Bible study discussion once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti called Bible Study with the Sincottis. So if you don't have a Bible study of your own, want to hear what we have to say about the topic of the week, uh, check out Bible Study with the Zinkatis. As, uh, all our, all our messages are on the podcast and the YouTube channel, and all the messages from this year have videos of, of, of us on Zoom. And all of those messages, all those video messages, will be released by the end of the month, with the last one coming— the last throwback video will be released next Wednesday. So if you want to check those out, go ahead. I myself am going to thank God it's Friday. I'm rejoicing that no matter what the heat or workday brings, or even thunderstorms— who knows what's going to happen, the Lord does— that I can have joy over of my life in Christ and all that it's brought me. New home, new marriage, you know, a new hope, victory over addictions, victory over negative mind states, and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ that are just, you know, those relationships are so good, so happy. With my life, and I thank the Lord. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all you've done and all you've shown us and the way you took away our shame. And, you know, we revealed, you know, we confessed our secrets, we've been forgiven of our sins, and, and now we walk in victory, and it's all because of you, Lord. So we thank you for that. We thank you for the people listening to this podcast or reading the blog. Uh, we just pray for them to be blessed, um, Lord, and to, to be encouraged to, to keep walking and talking with you, Lord. We pray for their prayer request, whatever they may be, um, that you'd come alongside them and grant their requests and, uh, lead them in the way they should go. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to, uh, show us what you want us to see, give us a moment from the hecticness of our workday to have moments of peace and joy over the simple things in life, whatever they may be. The things we see, the things we enjoy, help us to, to have joy, um, and just knowing that we're, we're with you and, uh, that nothing can separate us from your love. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today establish our day and our work, um, to, to give you glory and honor. Help us to grow and help us to accomplish what we need to accomplish and to best represent your kingdom here on the earth. Lord, we just thank you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.