God’s love and Being Devoted to God – Purity 1699
Purity 1699 07/02/2025 Purity 1699 Audio Podcast
Purity 1699 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a pleasant blue sky, the waters of Lake Ontario, and a rock covered “beach” as my wife TammyLyn, is reaching down and searching for just the right rocks for crafting projects comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while resting in my lounge chair and pondering the big questions of life near Fair Haven State Beach on Monday June 30th.
Well, It’s the first Wednesday of July 2025 and I move toward the midpoint of my weeks’ vacation, I am rejoicing over the fact that I don’t have to go into my secular day job until next week and because God has been continuing to reveal His love to and for me in new ways.
Monday’s trip to the rocky beach in Fair Haven proved to be more than just a pleasant experience of summertime fun. After swimming and resting on the shore for a bit, I got the revelation that I should seize the day and really enjoy the fact that I was at Lake Ontario. Maybe it was the realization that my time at Lake Ontario was drawing to an end but at one point I had a stirring in the spirit to join my wife as she collected rocks – just to be with her- and to dive deep into Lake Ontario’s waters that I had only timidly waded into previously. Just sitting and watching TammyLyn’s “rockhounding process” made me feel closer to her and caused me to appreciate the gift that God had given me in my wife. As for the water and Lake Ontario, I had a stirring in my spirit to appreciate it as well. So instead of wading in the waters, I felt moved to dive into its depths and to float and feel the freedom of movement that being groundless provides. And as I did that I really appreciated the fact that I was swimming in one of God’s great lakes and as I thought about the goodness of God, His blessings to me, and the wonders of His creation, I got a spirit received revelation of Matthew 11:28
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
which repeated itself over and over as I swam in the water being reduced to:
“Come to Me… and I will give you rest.” “I will give you rest.”
As I appreciated my life, I was assured that God wanted me to know that He loved me and that He knew that I was devoted to Him, that like David, I too had a heart for God.
Speaking of David and being a man after God’s own heart, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion for today touches on these topics and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us in our efforts to seek and know the Lord. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
“Devoted to God
Obedience, humility, and service result when we are devoted to the Lord.
Psalms 62:1-2
Having been saved by faith in Christ, we express our love and gratitude through devotion to Him. Bible study and prayer should be an integral part of our daily routine. In addition, our commitment to the Lord is demonstrated through a passion to obey, a spirit of humility, and a heart for service—things David modeled well.
- Obedience. Although David lived imperfectly, his desire was to obey the Lord, and he sought to do so his whole life. We see in John 14:15 that obedience should be our goal as well: Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
- Humility. After killing Goliath, David was taken into the king’s service and put in charge of the men of war. Though the crowds shouted praise for him, he remained loyal to Saul and waited for God’s timing with regard to ascending the throne. Then, even as king, David remained humble. He knew what had been accomplished was due to God’s actions, not his own (2 Samuel 7:18).
- Service. Not only as a lowly shepherd but also as a mighty king, David prioritized following and serving the Lord (Psalm 25:5). This man after God’s own heart was fully devoted to his Father.
David’s actions reflected His humble attitude of servanthood and a longing to please the Lord. Let his example encourage you to take steps each day to express commitment to Jesus.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. I love Stanley’s encouragement to emulate David’s faithfulness in following the Lord. Stanley recommends that we too be people after God’s own heart by establishing a daily spiritual practice and then living our lives for God through our obedience, humility, and service to His kingdom.
However, to be people after God’s own heart, we first have to receive God’s love. Otherwise, all the spiritual disciplines and acts of obedience, humility, and service will just be a show or a performance.
We don’t do all of the things of a disciples’ life to earn God’s love – we do them because we know His love and we seek to honor the gift we received by sharing it with others.
While sitting on a rocky shore of Lake Ontario, two days ago I received a sign and a fresh revelation of God’s love that showed me that God sees me and that His plan for this world is grounded in love.
The sign? A rock with an inscription- God loves you. Some Christ follower had etched three simple words on a rock and left it amongst thousands of others like it. It was a big shoreline – but the Lord directed my steps to find it, encouraging me with awe and wonder, because I could have easily not seen it. But I did.
The revelation? While sitting on said rocky beach a family of 4 were nearby enjoying the weather and water. A father, mother, and two young boys. The father attempted to teach the older boy to swim but there was a lot of resistance and whining. Dad tried to force the issue, and I don’t think it went well. However, he might have learned something from the failed attempt because with the younger son, his attempt was far gentler and resulted in a lot less whining. So much of the interactions among that family reminded me of scenes from my own life and how we humans pass along both the good and the bad of our experiences to the next generation. The teaching, the whining, the pain, the love and the futility of trying to find peace through our families and our finite worldly lives caused me to despair a bit and led me to ask the Lord: “What’s the point? What are we supposed to do? When get so much of it wrong?”
The response I got in my spirit was “To love”. We are supposed to love one another. We shouldn’t force agendas on one other or push for our selfish wants or ought to’s. We should merely enjoy the things that God has provided us with, and we should love one another.
That’s the plan. God’s way is the way of love.
And as I received this truth, I saw it all around me. I saw it I the family of 4 – so much better when love is practiced – and I saw it in me and my wife, other couples there, and a grandfather and his young grandson.
In these human interactions, where there was love there was peace. But to the past the fear of death and to answer the questions of purpose, we have to look beyond the love we can find in one another.
To find our ultimate peace and meaning in life, we have to look higher – to the one who made life and who is love. We have to look for and find Gods love- revealed to us in Jesus Christ and reflected in the love we can have for each other.
When we connect with the Lord through our faith in Jesus, we received God’s love, and all the questions of life and death are answered.
His love will make us into people after God’s heart, and when we abide in Him and walk in love, His peace and purpose follow us wherever we go.
——————————————————————
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 verse comes 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. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Overcoming Evil – How to Handle It When Others Wrong You.
Romans 12:19 (ESV) Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Today’s verse is the second of three passages of scripture that fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Overcoming Evil – How to Handle It When Others Wrong You.
6. Do not seek revenge.
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to give our wrath and bitterness a rest and to leave matters of ultimate justice in the hands of the One who is capable of judging rightly, God.
While we should establish earthly levels of authority to make people accountable for the crimes that we are able to detect and prosecute, perfect justice will never be accomplished on earth. The evil that men do is often done in the shadows and can escape detection. The corruption of this world could also let the guilty walk free.
The anger, bitterness, hurt, and offense we can carry on our hearts when we are wronged could lead us to want to make others feel as bad as we do, but God doesn’t want us to hurt others to make ourselves feel better. He wants us to release the responsibility of ultimate justice to Him and to receive His blessing of forgiveness. So don’t seek revenge, instead seek the Lord and His peace and trust that His justice will one day be done.
———————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com 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 “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 198
… be intent on His kingdom, and these things will be yours as well. – Luke 12:31
Since this is a true promise, upon which we can depend, there is absolutely no reason for a Christian to worry about temporal things. That is not to say that there will never be lean and difficult times. But God’s children are never out of His purview and care. If we are not to worry, what should we do? God always grants something to put on that takes the place of what we must put off. What should capture your attention and concern instead? God’s kingdom. If you focus on furthering God’s kingdom, then you will find that things you used to worry about will be provided by the One Whose kingdom it is. Where is your focus? The object of your concerns will have a lot to do with how you live. Do you spend time, money, energy on worry or on furthering the Kingdom of God? How large does kingdom-life loom on your horizon? This is a question you ought to take time to answer carefully.[1]
———————more tomorrow——————————
The MT4Christ247 audio podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartradio, Podbean, Audible, and many more podcast platforms!
Subscribe to The MT4Christ247 Channel on YouTube!
Email me at m.t.clark@mt4christ.com with any questions, or comments, or to inquire about our Christian Life Coaching or Prayer Ministry Services.
“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
Support MT 4 Christ Community Freedom Ministry!
To Give via Pay Pal Go to the MT4Christ Donations Page
Or Give Via Venmo or the Cash App by scanning the QR Code below:
[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 206.
Leave a Reply