Spring into Action – Setting Intentions and Making Goals – Purity 696

To see today’s photo go to mt4christ.org of follow me, MT
Clark, on Facebook or Twitter.

Spring into Action – Setting Intentions and Making Goals –
Purity 696

Purity 696 04/04/2022     Purity 696 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a view of Lake Paran under blue skies and through
trees still waiting to spring to life comes to us from yours truly as the wife
and I decided to take a hike on a path that was only travelled by a handful of
others this past Saturday as we ventured out to experience the Paran-Frost
Trail near the Robert Frost Museum in North Bennington Vermont this weekend.  

This view was the first sighting we had of Lake Paran as we went
up and down wooded hills, traversed a footbridge over an unnamed stream, and
hiked for a couple of miles before we reached this clearing to reach this
elevated location to finally see the lake that the trailhead promised would be
there.

The temperatures were a little brisk when we began our journey
but we trusted that the weather would be in our favor and even though I started
the trip with a hood over my head and gloves on my hands when we finally
returned to our car the gloves were stored in my hoody’s pockets which was tied
around my waist. What I needed in the beginning of my journey was put aside but
not abandoned as they could be utilized for later use.    

Well, It’s Monday again and Its April 4^th and It’s less
than two weeks before we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.   I say all of that as a reminder
of who I am in Christ and to re-orient myself to be properly prepared for the immediate
days ahead and the final journey through the season of Lent.  

I don’t know about you but to be honest the “winter’s woods”
that we seem to finally be emerging from sure can take a toll on one’s mind,
body, and spirit.  In the past stretch of
days, from the celebration of Christmas and New Years through the first three
months of the year and the season of winter, I have a tendency to go into “survival
mode” where I seem to keep walking and talking with God on the daily but seem
to slowly veer off course in some areas of my walk as I begin to compromise
some of my convictions and tend to let somethings go with the intention of “getting
back on track” in brighter days.  

This “slippage” is a really trap and impediment to our progress
but it can really show us that we are not perfect and that we desperately need
to rely on the Lord to help, guide, and strengthen us.  Left to our own devices, we give ourselves “grace
upon grace” and begin comforting ourselves with the things of the world because
the world of winter is just “so hard”.  If we are not careful that final and first
season of the year can become the winter of our discontent and can result in a
loss of peace and a regaining of some fleshly habits that we thought we had
conquered.  

The good news is that God is always with us and as we stumble
through the woods of winter and go all “Jerimiah Johnson” and do whatever we
have to survive through those cold and foreboding days of winter, the Holy Spirit
is with us to prevent us from going native and becoming feral and continually
calls us back to the light.  If we listen
to His voice we won’t go too far off track, but even if we do, as the days get
brighter He invariably will call us to do some “spring cleaning” and call us to
repentance.  

I believe that the founders of church tradition understood this tendency
of us all to go astray and developed the season of Lent to mark the days and to
give us an opportunity to be refilled with the Holy Spirit,  reach out to the Lord in repentance to renew
our strength and resolve and to be the people God created us to be.   

Sometimes we stumble into Lent and are still living in survival
mode but as we draw closer to Easter and the days get lighter, warmer, and
brighter, we can decide to right the ship and to go with God into His will for
our lives where we can drop the sinful or fleshly habits we may have employed
for our survival and answer His upward call to get out of the muck and mire and
stand on the solid ground of the Rock once again.   

Nothing and no one can prevent us from being the people God
created us to be, except for ourselves.  But we can overcome that “man in the mirror” through
the power of the Holy Spirit in us and making the decision to turn to God and
His ways for living.  

The journey out of the “woods” starts with the decision to go
toward the light.  So we set our intention
to go with God each morning and forsake the worldly things that we have been
seeking comfort from but we also have to set goals that the Lord can help us to
accomplish that will give us a purpose for the future.   

The proper walk with God requires us to lay things down that are
weighing us down but it also requires us to decide on a direction to go and a destination
that we want to arrive at.  Instead of
looking at the end of the map, we should decide where we can get to today and
where we would like to be at the end of the week.   Our final destination of some of our goals
could be months or even years away but if we keep going in their direction and
commit ourselves to continual progress we can one day accomplish what now seems
so far away and may seem impossible from where we are standing now.  

But with God, we can accomplish “impossible” things but we need
to decide to stop surviving and to start thriving by entering into the path
that He wants us to walk.  

So look up and see His light, listen for His voice, and decide
to follow where He wants you to go.   
Set your intention to go His way and make some goals that you can easily
accomplish in the weeks ahead and after you “get there” you can see that you “made
it” to where you wanted to be and that you are closer to where He wants you to
be.   

When you “get there” you can celebrate, and then you can make
some more goals that will lead you ever closer to the Lord and the goodness and
peaceful life that He has waiting for you.  
          

______________________________________________________________

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.

This
morning’s meditation verse is :

Acts 13:38 (NKJV)
³⁸  Therefore let it be known
to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of
sins;

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that it is “through this Man”, Jesus
Christ, that we are forgiven of our sins and that we need to “preach” this to
others to enlarge His kingdom and we need to “preach” this to ourselves to
remind us of who we are in Christ and to have peace as we walk through this
world. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gamechanger for life.  It teaches us that we can do nothing without
God to be approved.  It teaches us our
need for Him. It teaches us to rely on Him. It teaches us that we are made
right with God because of Jesus Christ Alone and that we can finally rest and
have peace because we “made it”, we are members of the kingdom of God because of
Jesus.   

The word preach gets a bad wrap because often people profess but don’t
do what they say. We have to practice what we preach. 

SO in terms of ourselves, if we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and
believe that we have been saved, forgiven of our sins and brought into God’s
kingdom, we should live like it first and foremost by expressing our joy at our
salvation, our gratitude for the gift we have been given, and our peace that we
have that comes from knowing we will never die and we are loved and accepted by
the One who made all things.  

Living like a Christian should be defined by someone who is filled with
joy, love, goodness, gentleness, and peace. 
I mean honestly – we have eternal life and peace with God, maybe we
should be happy about it and rejoice.    

I know that is easier said then done so we need to continually “preach”
to ourselves by reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ.   When we stand in our identity as children of
God, we can live according to the Spirit and experience the fruit of the Spirit.  

When we know our freedom in Christ, we can then “preach” to others how
they can find peace with God through Jesus Christ and how they can know what it
really means to be free and have an abundant life.   

So remember, you are forgiven! So preach that good news to yourself and
preach that good news to others and be a “real Christian” by practicing what you
preach by living a life of peace, joy, and love.    

As always, I
invite all to go to mt4christ.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 June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food
Fixation.  

As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s  books for your own private
study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many
websites for less than $5.00.

F. How to Find the Healthiest Foods

The
current “evil” word in the world of weight loss is carbs, something seemingly to be avoided like the plague.
Carbohydrates have been blamed for the obesity epidemic and have been targeted
as the source of increased health risks and disease. But not all carbs are bad.

According to many health experts, it
is vital to incorporate unprocessed,
high-fiber carbohydrates into a well-balanced diet of whole grains, lean
meats, fruits, and vegetables.

God has certainly blessed us with an
abundance to choose from.…

“I give you every
seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit
with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

(Genesis 1:29)

The
most nutritious foods to eat fall under six categories: fruits, vegetables,
nuts, protein, dairy, and grains. Notice the absence of candy, cookies, and
cakes! But healthy food can be prepared in an unhealthy way. Likewise, some vegetables are healthier than other
vegetables.

•     Eat fresh and/or frozen fruit.

—   Avoid canned fruit that contains high
fructose corn syrup.

•     Eat darker vegetables, which have more
vitamins than lighter vegetables.

—   Avoid iceberg lettuce, which has no
nutritional value.

•     Eat vitamin-rich sweet potatoes.

—   Avoid white potatoes.

•     Eat the “skins” of food.

—   Avoid peeling the skin of potatoes. The
skins contain vitamin C, vitamin B6, folic acid, beta carotene, and iron. If
preparing mashed potatoes, cook with the skin on to add vitamins and fiber.

•     Eat food with natural sweetness (fruit,
sweet potatoes).

—   Avoid sugar, fructose, and sucrose.

•     Eat nuts in their natural form.

—   Avoid nuts that are honey roasted or
prepared with saturated fat.

•     Eat broiled or baked meat, poultry,
fish, and vegetables.

—   Avoid fried foods, which are high in
fat.

•     Eat whole wheat bread and English
muffins.

—   Avoid white bread and items with
bleached white flour that remove the beneficial vitamins. (Croissant rolls are
very high in fat.)

The
Lord created you to need food, to have hunger, and to eat. Your responsibility
is to be wise with the proper foods eaten at the proper time.…

“The eyes of all look to
you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and
satisfy the desires of every living thing.”

(Psalm 145:15–16)^[1]

 —————————more
tomorrow————————

Join
our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, “Freedom in
Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can
also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The
mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts,
Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You
Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email
me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class
materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My
wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group:
Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask,
Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship