Take This Cup – 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther –
Day 30 – Purity 1303
Purity 1303 03/19/2024 Purity 1303 Podcast
Purity 1303 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun setting on the shore of the
Atlantic comes to us from Bonnie Schultz who shared this scene from near her
home in Navarre Florida on social media back on February 25th.
Well, It’s Tuesday and as the dust has settled on a
mental health crisis in home I am praying to God to move all things together
for good with my son, Brennan, who is suffering from depression, and thanking
the Lord for the systems of authority He had moved man to establish that
protect us from ourselves. Early yesterday morning while recording my podcast
the state police and county sheriffs came to my home based on a tip they
received regarding suicidal statements made from my IP address which caused me
to escort Brennan to the local hospital to get a psych evaluation.
I wasn’t aware of Brennan’s suicidal ideation. After
a few appointments with a therapist, I thought my son was getting the help he needed,
and things were going to improve. But yesterday’s emergency first responder
visit made me realize that I had assumed wrongly and really tried to impress upon
my son, the need to get the help he needed.
So I delivered him to the hospital with the expectation that he would be
admitted and treated for depression. But my son is 22 years old, an adult, and
after he was medically cleared, he was discharged into the care of his older
sister, Jeanette, who lives with her husband in Troy.
As much as I question the wisdom of this move, I am
hoping that the shock of the hospital visit and the care and support of his
sister and his brother-in-law will be the beginning of positive changes for my
son’s mental health. Brennan stopped by
yesterday to pick up some things and to let me know he was going to stay with
his sister, and I wished him well. He didn’t
talk to me about this before he decided to do it and I can only assume that he
is angry with me for taking him and leaving him at the hospital, but I honestly
thought that was what he needed, inpatient care. I don’t take suicidal talk lightly and my
work and ministry schedule prevent me from being able to watch him continuously. And as it is, even when we are home at the
same time, my kids and I do our own thing. We give each other privacy and while
that’s normally a good thing when there is the possibility of suicide, it’s a recipe
for disaster.
So I am not happy that my son was discharged but I’m
glad that he is with his sister and brother-in-law who have a smaller home and who
may be able to help him. I have offered my son the solutions I know that work,
but he rejected them because my methods are Christian, and he is not walking
with the Lord. That’s my personal help, okay – granted – but I also encouraged
to go to his doctor to possibly get medication to stabilize and I forced the
issue of getting help to the point he actually did see someone at mental
health, but now this… and so I am surrendering my son to the Lord and the care
of his sister because I know that I can’t fix him and I know that he will have
to decide to get help or change the way he thinks and lives to effectively deal
with this depression. So I am letting
go and letting God – knowing that I have not been a perfect parent and could
have done more – but also knowing that I tried to help my son and now its time
to allow him to find his way.
I often teach the men I minister to that we are to
be “problem solvers” – doing every thing we can think to do to make positive
changes in the situations that surround us – but I temper that with the reality
that we may not be able to solve all our problems or that they may take a long
time to see any progress, and in those instances we have to trust the Lord to
guide things that are beyond our control.
So I have to wait and see and be ready to give whatever help I can and
in the meantime I will thank God for all the good that I have in my life that
goes beyond this current crisis.
When we have a trial, if we aren’t careful they can
easily become all-consuming – stealing our peace and joy and negatively
impacting our lives – but if we keep walking and talking with God and doing
what we can and what’s right according to His word, we can have peace even in
the midst of troubles and trials.
So I will continue to do my daily spiritual practices
that ground me in the truth of all that the Lord has done for me, and I will
give thanks to God for all the people He has put in my life who offer their
prayers, help, and love when things go south.
Yesterday, I was reminded how blessed I am with my wife, my family, and
my brothers in Christ as I received support and prayers in this time of
need. And even when I was alone waiting
for a phone call from the hospital that never came, I wasn’t alone. The Lord
was with me and stayed with me while I foolishly relapsed on my food plan and regressed
by comforting myself with candy and ice cream and watching secular TV and even
though the stress of the situation caused me to do something foolish, the Lord didn’t
abandon me and today I asked for His forgiveness and went back to the way He
has taught me to stay in His presence and experience His peace – through my
daily spiritual practices that focus on Him.
And despite this present turmoil part of that
practice is to encourage to do the same – focus on Him – and we just happened to
be in the best season for doing that – Lent and speaking of Lent…
It’s the thirtieth day of Lent and so we continue my
personal walkthrough of Gracia Grindal’s 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther
to observe and celebrate the Lenten season.
In this walkthrough of Grindal’s devotional, it is our hope that we will get to know
Martin Luther a little better as we seek to draw closer to the Lord on our
journey to Resurrection Sunday – Easter.
And so we continue.
“Journey
Day 30
May
your will come about on earth as in heaven.
What
is this? Answer:
In
fact, God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer, but we ask
in this prayer that it may also come about in and among us.
So
here also; although we have prayed for what is most necessary- for the gospel, for faith, and for the Holy
Spirit, that he may govern us who have been redeemed from the power of the
devil- we must also pray that God will cause his will to be done. If we try to
hold these treasures fast, we will have to suffer an astonishing number of
attacks and assaults from all who ventured to hinder and thwart the fulfillment
of the first two petitions.
Biblical Wisdom
He
came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; And the disciples
followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may
not come into the time of trial.” Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s
throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Luke 22: 39-42.
Silence for Meditation.
Questions to Ponder
· Why
does holding fast to the treasures of the faith cause suffering and assaults?
Since the Fall of Man in the Garden, this world is
ruled by the evil one and the world system that operates beneath the surface of
things causes people to question, doubt, and reject the truth of God’s word.
The spiritual forces of darkness and society at large will demonize those who
choose to walk in the light with the Lord, tempting people to govern themselves
and live independently of God, being consumed by their selfish and fleshly
desires they will persecute those who stand in faith. Christ teaches that we should expect
persecution and suffering in this world when we follow Him because if the world
hated Him it will hate us too.
· Jesus
prays to be spared drinking the cup of suffering but prays also that God’s will
be done. Why does the doing of God’s will often involve so much suffering?
Doing God’s will often involves suffering because of
the enemy. Ephesians 6:12 tells us our enemy is not flesh and blood and the
spirit that rejects God’s holiness, purity and wisdom is demonic, and whether
we oppose or join those forces, we will suffer attacks from them.
· Luther
states that “God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer”. Why
pray, then, that it be done “in and among us”?
We have free will and can foolishly choose to reject
God’s plan for our lives – our sanctification – and suffer from the consequences
of sin and being separated from God. God’s ultimate will comes to pass but to
be a part of His kingdom and to reap the fruit of the Spirit, we must choose to
follow it.
Psalm Fragment
The
Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word. Bless the Lord
all his hosts, his ministers that do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works,
and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Psalm 103:19-22.
Journal Reflections
· Have
you ever felt you were suffering attacks from those powers or people that were
trying to thwart the will of God? If so, write about what spiritual resources
you were able to bring to the struggle. If not, what’s best spiritual resources
will you have if such an experience comes your way?
Since doing recovery and freedom ministry, I have
felt I was being attacked by the spiritual forces of darkness that were trying
to thwart the will of God. The best weapons against these attacks are prayer,
faith, praise, and a lifestyle of Christian discipleship. Our surrendered lives
in Christ is the whole armor of God that helps us overcome the enemy. Our faith
is the resource we can bring to the struggle.
· Have
you ever, like Jesus, prayed to have the cup of suffering pass from you? If so,
write about the experience. If not, imagine what such an experience would be
like.
Oh yes, I have prayed for things to be taken away
from me in the past and I would say that all the things that have afflicted me personally
are gone now, for the most part, but to overcome them, I often had to suffer
through them and grow through the suffering to be free. Alcohol addiction, sex
addiction, broken relationships, getting a new home, food addiction, and now
this struggle for my children’s mental health and well-being could all be said
to fall within my “ministry of suffering”.
· There
are both joy and suffering for those who seek to follow God’s will. Journal
about the joy and suffering you have experienced in your faith life.
In all of those aforementioned sufferings, I
experience the joy of triumphing over them, and I can’t control what happens in
my son’s life, I will accept what the Lord brings and never forget the joy He
has brought to my life on a daily basis.
Prayers for the Life of Faith
Pray
that you can be obedient to God’s will despite suffering. Remember a friend or
a member of your family who has suffered for the good, pray that they will be
encouraged in their Christian journey.
Lord, I failed by giving into the flesh yesterday because
of stress, help me to be obedient to Your will despite the suffering I am
experiencing now. I pray for you to be with my son, Brennan, to bring into remembrance
all the things he heard in the past when he went to church with me, use whatever
means to draw him out of the darkness of what he is walking in and bring him back
to the light and prayerfully into a life of faith and trust in Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer For Today
Dear Heavenly
Father, I pray that your will be done in me and in my life. Show me how to
follow your way to the end.
Amen.
(Gracia M. Grindal. 40-day
Journey With Martin Luther. Kindle Edition.
(We encourage you to purchase Grindal’s book and
take the 40 Day Journey with Martin Luther for yourself by purchasing Grindal’s
book wherever books are sold. You can find it online at many different sites
and purchase it new, used – paper or electronic for less than $15.00).
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Contentment, Coveting
& and Priorities.
Proverbs 28:6 (ESV)
6 Better is a poor man who
walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.
Today’s
verse is the second of three passages of scripture that fall under the fifteenth
point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Contentment, Coveting, and
Priorities.
15. Don’t wear yourself out to get rich.
Today’s
verse highlights the importance of integrity – to do what is right even when no
one is watching. Wealth and
unrighteousness don’t lead to happiness, without Christ, they lead to death,
and the Bible tells us it is better to live a righteous life of integrity
without riches, rather than have it all financially and to walk in
darkness. So let’s agree with God’s word
and live lives of integrity and righteousness to give God glory.
———————————————————–
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 “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: LUKE 19
“The Lord has need of him.” – Luke
19:34
The ass or even the colt was a beast of burden. It could
carry valuable or valueless burdens. But on this particular occasion, the
animal was required for the purpose of bearing a very important burden – the
Lord had need of him. The Lord still requires beasts of burden – those upon
whom He can lay important burdens. He says, “Take my yoke upon you” (Matt.
11:29), carry my burden.
Notice also how the answer of the disciples (or rather the
Lord through His disciples) silenced those who tried to question their taking
the colt. When the errand is a divinely controlled one, there is no stopping
it. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
Lord, “Here am I, send me.” (Isaiah
6:8)[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
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Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
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 Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), 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)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional
Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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