You Get One Choice Purity 828

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 kayaker paddling into the sunrise light of a new day on what I presume to be the waters of Greenwich Bay, Rhode Island, uh, comes to us from a friend who shared this scene from their daybreak paddle session on Saturday morning. Uh, happy Labor Day everyone, and as I saw on a billboard on I-787 on Saturday. I wish everyone an enjoyable, honest day off. Um, say, say what you will about labor unions, but if you have the day off, um, today, you can thank the labor movement in the 19th century for literally fighting and dying for workers' rights and the day off today. Um, according to history.com, in the late 1800s, the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, At the height of it, the average American worker worked 12-hour days and 7 days— 7-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories, and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts' wages. People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often face extremely unsafe working conditions within insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities, and breaks. The labor movement fought to give workers protections, benefits, and living wages, and one of the results of their efforts is the Working Man's Holiday that we celebrate today. So enjoy, enjoy the day off, and if you should happen to see workers on strike or, or trying to organize a union, I suggest you support their efforts. As much as people seem to complain about corporate greed, there sometimes seems to be a lack of support for unions who try to make them provide a living wage for their employees. Even today, some of the people who have the most challenging, challenging jobs struggle to make a living because there is no union to represent their interests. I work for a Fortune 500 company, and the wages and benefits that I have are the result of my union's history of successfully negotiating for its members when the company who annually makes billion-dollar profits would have given us less. Unfortunately, in this world broken by sin and corrupted by the love of money, sometimes you need someone to fight for you, and you need to band together with others to demand what you need to live. But, you know, but the one who really gives us life and was willing to die to give us what we need is Jesus Christ. The unions might help provide what we need in this life, but only God and faith in Jesus Christ will give you good conditions when you go into eternity. And before I got on my union rant, I was musing over the fact that in this life it may appear that we have a plethora of choices of where we will work, who we will love, or what we will do with the time that we aren't working to support our families. But at the end of each day, it becomes clear that in reality we only have one choice: the thing we decide to do. Because it was Labor Day weekend and we are facing— faced with the clear and present danger of summer drawing to a close, even though we have the days off, there can sometimes be pressure to do something to make the most of these last days before school starts. Yesterday my wife and I were faced with the uncommon situation of being kid-free on a Sunday after church, and she decided to leave the planning for what we would do with our Sunday afternoon up to me. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so we, we went home and I decided to walk the dog and use the short stroll to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of the day. When I think of summer, I think of swimming. And so I pondered going to a relatively nearby swimming spot, uh, we had gone to that actually allowed the adults to go into the water above their waist. The day was sunny, so I felt that would be appropriate. And because it was Labor Day Sunday, I felt a real pull of urgency to make summer memories. Uh, but because of my wife's hectic August schedule and stress of working in Hell's Kitchen, I really missed being with her, and because we were going to be alone for a few hours, I decided to just spend the day with her in our countryside home. When we first got together as a couple, I told my then-girlfriend that one thing I had learned about relationships was that often the couple would, you know, couples would run here and there going on dates and doing activities and either don't know how or are uncomfortable just being in each other's presence. So in the beginning, instead of trying to excite or impress one another by going to places on dates, uh, we stayed at our countryside home and just talked and enjoyed each other's presence. And I think this is a good test for couples, you know. Can you stand to be with one another when there is nowhere to go and nothing to do? Are your temperaments in sync that you can enjoy just being together? Can you rest in each other's company? And on the flip side, are you independent and secure enough to allow each other time to be yourselves, uh, time to yourselves to be alone without clingy codependency? Um, I believe that most of the relationship problems people suffer from today are caused by selfishness and the failure to establish the intimacy that comes from being at peace in each other's presence. So I only really had one choice yesterday. So I decided not to chase after a vague sense of fulfillment that I would have possibly gotten by going swimming, and instead chose to rest in the presence of the one I love. And this morning, I know I chose wisely. So in life, we get one choice. We can consider all the options, but in the end, it will come down to what we actually choose to do. Yesterday I chose love, and I have no regrets. And that's the thing too, no matter what we choose, life— live your life without regrets. You get one shot at this life, so you might as well do what you want and see how it goes rather than having to wonder what if. But of course, from someone who had— who made a lot of bad decisions and suffered from them, let me encourage you to ask the Lord to help guide you. Sometimes we need someone stronger than us to fight for us. Sometimes we need to band with others to make a way. Through Jesus Christ, the Lord has fought for us and won, and is only up to, up to us to answer the call on our life to follow him and join with others who have done the same. Ultimately, we get one chance at this, and so I would encourage you to keep walking and talking with God and allow him to show you the power of his provision, the depths of his love, and the peace of his presence. Choose love, choose the Lord Jesus, and live. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 Peter 3:7, and it says, in the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. Today's verse encourages husbands to honor their wives and treat them with understanding, with the encouragement that if they do so, their prayers would not be hindered. Um, well I, I don't pre-plan these messages, and when I speak about spending some quality time with my wife and a Bible verse comes up that tells me to honor my wife and treat her with understanding, I have to believe I am quote unquote tracking with the Spirit. Um, here are some simple biblical advice to husbands to meet the responsibility of their marriage covenants: to honor your wife and treat her with understanding. And according to today's verse, when husbands fail to do that, not only do we suffer for neglecting or taking our wives for granted, we also disrupt our relationship with the Lord to the extent that our prayers could be hindered. Amazingly, of all the various teachings I have heard on about prayer, I don't recall any of them telling husbands to honor their wives and to treat them with understanding to get your prayers answered. But here it is, uh, treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. It says it right in the verse. So the bottom line here is that the Lord has entrusted us, men and women, with our spouses. When we fail to honor, love, and respect them, we sin. We don't, um, do what we know is right, and sin will hinder our relationship with the Lord and the answer of our prayers. So let's remember to honor our spouses and treat them as we should. Um, the love they bring to us, to our lives, may just be the answer to our prayers we need without knowing it. And when we love them, the Lord might answer our prayers specifically that we make. So there's that. As always, I, uh, invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today's, uh, brief section is, uh, invites us to reflect on where the powers may influence you. And, uh, that's just some general advice, uh, from Clinton Arnold about examining our experience to say, hey, um, am I thinking these thoughts because I want to think these thoughts? Or could it be one of the powers of darkness influencing me, tempting me, accusing me? You know, do I feel this way because, you know, could I be influenced by— am I being deceived? Am I being tempted? Am I being condemned? Are these things that I want to happen in my life? The answer is probably, you know, could be no, and the source could be one of the spiritual forces of darkness. Good news is those in Christ have the protection of God and the authority of Jesus to command these spirits to leave, but we do have to— we do have to do that. So we invite you to check out Clinton Arnold's work. And if you need some help with spiritual warfare, we invite you to check out our discipleship studies that we've done on, well, The Bondage Breaker. And of course there's Freedom in Christ and Powers of Victory Over the Darkness. And they're all based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson and the They're all available on our podcast and our YouTube channel, uh, under those titles. So if you need some help to walk out your Christian faith and to resist the enemy and get your freedom, we offer those teachings via podcast and YouTube. Um, they're all audio podcasts, but if you want to look at the audio podcast, YouTube has a video of it. So, um, there's that. And obviously we, we, um, we encourage the study of the word of God here at mt4christ.org. The Bible shows us what's true, shows us what God has to say. You know, it's God's message to his creation, and if you don't read it, you don't know what it says, and you can't benefit from, from, from God's wisdom. So we encourage you to study the Bible, and we do that in our own little way by doing an informal Bible study discussion with Arthur and Sister Suzanne with Anna Sencati each week that we podcast. It's called Bible Study with the Sencatis, and yesterday we did a study that asked the question, what is sin? And as I pointed out in today's post, sin is also doing, you know, not doing what you know is right. That's sin. There's a verse in James that says that basically, to not do what you know is right is and it's in one of the later chapters. The verse escapes me currently, so do a Bible study and find it, um, and you won't regret it because you get filled with God's wisdom when you read his word. And we encourage that because it can transform your life and give you peace and give you hope for a new day. Well, it is Labor Day. I don't have to work today. God, amen. Thank you, thank you, God, and thank you, unions. We're gonna enjoy the day. I don't know, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Again, I, I get one choice, but I don't know what I'm gonna choose. Um, I guess I'll see where the day takes me, um, and I'll be open to suggestions. And, uh, you know, we'll see what happens. Um, but if you have to work today, I pray for you, and, uh, because that happens. And, uh, I know I had to work Saturday, so whatever. Um, anyway, if you have to work today, um, I feel your pain. And hey, it's only 8 hours, and you're doing the right thing. Um, you're working to support yourself and to fulfill your dreams, so why not? Um, it's a good thing. Sometimes you have to have 2, 3 jobs. Ask me how I know, um, to get where you want to get. Accomplish what you want to accomplish. But you know what? You never regret doing the things you need to do and doing what's right. So we encourage you to work towards a deeper relationship with the Lord and to, to, you know, take care of your responsibilities here on earth. God made us to be stewards of everything he's given us. That's our mind, our body, our souls, and all the people and things in our lives. We're to take care of them. And represent the Lord and how we deal with people and things, you know. So let's do that today. Um, I just, uh, yeah, let's pray. Let's move it along. Let's get to the Labor Day weekend day off here. Um, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for this life where we get to find periods of rest and, um, and rejoice over the work we've done. And the work that you've done in our lives, Lord. We thank you so much for the revelation of Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace that set us free, that gave us hope, gave us new life all in one moment. And we thank you so much for that. We thank you for the people listening today, Lord. We pray for you to bless them. We pray for them to have an awesome day off or an awesome day at work, whatever the case may be. And Lord, we just pray that you go come alongside them and help them and guide them in their walk. We pray for the Holy Spirit to anoint them and to, uh, to answer their prayers, Lord, because we all need your help and you're the one who's all-powerful. So Lord, we just pray for— we have prayer requests on our hearts, Lord, for, for loved ones and situations that have happened this week, and we just, uh, we pray for you to help us and to guide us into what, what we should do and wherever we should go. And of course, the Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, to open our eyes to everything you want us to see, and to lead us into everything you want us to do to best represent you here on the earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.