James 3:13-18 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness."

One way to define wisdom is as the art of living well. It's not just knowing things that are true and good, but consistently practicing and exemplifying them. Now the question becomes as to how that wisdom from heaven gets into and animates me so that I can live wisely.

Attributions:

"The Colors of the Evening" from the album "Snatches of Memory" by Daminika.

https://soundcloud.com/daminika

https://promodj.com/daminika/music

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

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The church is not a group of people that merely thinks up ideas; the church is to be a declarative statement of what God has revealed through the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles as recorded in the Bible. What is true about God's nature and our nature, and that sin is a moral issue that stands between us and God, are established by God himself. The church as a group of people joining together across every conceivable social divide represents the supernaturally restored human race in reality when we conduct ourselves as the family of forgiven and adopted children we are meant to be. So as I am living individually in a supernatural universe there will be individual results and an individual display. But equally, as we are living as a collective body made up of many people in the light the supernatural, there will be results and a display of them as well. It is not only that the individual should so think and live, but the whole group as a community should be attuned to living consciously, moment by moment, in the reality of the supernatural. Then there is the witness, the display that should occur. The church should be that which encourages its members in the living out the Christian life. It should encourage them to walk in freedom in the present life from the chains sin wraps around a person. It should encourage substantial healing in their separation from themselves and a substantial healing in their separation from their neighbor, especially fellow Christians. To do these things, the church must first teach the truth, and second, the church should teach what it is to practice the reality and of an exhibition of God's character; that of holiness and love. The church cannot merely teach these things in words; we must see the practice of these things in the church as a corporate body. Can faith be taught? Yes, but the teaching should focus on what it is to exhibit what is ultimately true. You cannot teach faith only as an abstraction or merely a set of belief propositions. There must be a demonstration of the Christian life in word and action if it is to be learned and then lived out. We are called, individually and as the church, to function moment by moment on the basis of the work of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by faith. We must also teach in words the duty to exhibit that God exists and that he is personal, and practice as a corporate body what Jesus and the apostles taught and exemplified. We must also, in words and practice, show that the church takes holiness and love expressed toward our fellow man seriously. And how can we do this unless consciously, intentionally, and diligently extending love and compassion toward fellow believers as well as those outside the church? This is the Christian life. This is true spirituality.

Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"Enghave Lys" from the album "Leken," and "Sondermarken" by Henrik Lindstrand.

https://soundcloud.com/henriklindstrandofficial

https://henriklindstrand.bandcamp.com

"Chasing the Present," "Flow," and "Bliss" from the album "Chasing the Present (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" by Snorri Hallgrimsson. https://soundcloud.com/snorrihallgrimsson

https://modernarecords.bandcamp.com/album/chasing-the-present-original-soundtrack

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

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The primary evidence a Christian can present to the world that the teachings and truth claims of Jesus Christ and the apostles are true is in demonstrating the kind of love he exemplified, described, and called for in his teachings. The Bible teaches explicitly that being right in the vertical relationship is expressed in our horizontal relationships; there is a necessary link. How best to apply this in our day to day life?

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"Enghave Lys" from the album "Leken," and "Sondermarken" by Henrik Lindstrand.

https://soundcloud.com/henriklindstrandofficial

https://henriklindstrand.bandcamp.com

"Chasing the Present," "Flow," and "Bliss" from the album "Chasing the Present (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" by Snorri Hallgrimsson.

https://soundcloud.com/snorrihallgrimsson

https://modernarecords.bandcamp.com/album/chasing-the-present-original-soundtrack

____________________________________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The total system of unified Christian teaching states that I have been created by an infinite yet personal God, created truly outside of himself. So I know who I am in my being, which is a person bearing the image of God, and therefore my existence is validated on a deeply personal level as opposed to chance or randomness. And when it comes to perhaps the greatest of fears, which for most is the concept of non-being that death would seem to bring upon us, the Christian perspective provides the obvious solution. To Christians there is a continuity of life on a straight horizontal line from this life on into the world to come. The moment we trusted Christ, which Jesus and the apostles taught as resulting in a spiritual rebirth (being born again), death no longer represents a chasm but a passing from one life to the next glorious phase.

All this said, because of the Fall even Christians are vulnerable to tremendous psychological and emotional disturbance, whether it is short-term or more prolonged. And what we should do in these cases is help one another to act upon the Bible's teaching. We must talk to, pray for, and encourage one another to think in the light of the truth of the total unified Christian system. This informs us what and who we are and that, because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, we are connected to God by the Holy Spirit and therefore have access to what we need to make it through the day or even just the next hour in those times when things are so intense.

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"Enghave Lys" from the album "Leken," and "Sondermarken" by Henrik Lindstrand.

https://soundcloud.com/henriklindstrandofficial

https://henriklindstrand.bandcamp.com

"Chasing the Present," "Flow," and "Bliss" from the album "Chasing the Present (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" by Snorri Hallgrimsson.

https://soundcloud.com/snorrihallgrimsson

https://modernarecords.bandcamp.com/album/chasing-the-present-original-soundtrack

_______________________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having looked into our thought lives in part 9, we will now examine what Christianity has to say in regard to the various psychological challenges we all experience from time to time. This involves addressing some rather complex concepts that may sound a bit technical or even foreign to most hearing these ideas for the first time. However, the payoff is a deeper understanding of the unparalleled explanatory power of the Christian belief system in terms of how it not only accounts for all aspects of the human situation, but provides livable answers to the most profound questions a person can ask. After all, Christianity is more than just a set of belief propositions to accept as truth, but the animating principles for how to live in all dimensions of what it is to be a human being.

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"1" from the album "Parhelion" by Hakobune.

https://soundcloud.com/hakobuneofficial/albums

https://hakobune.bandcamp.com

_____________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

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True spirituality always begins within the thought-world. The internal is central and first. The spiritual battle is always fought in the world of our thoughts, which is why living the Christian life necessarily involves actively and intentionally setting your mind on and making every effort to live out the teachings laid out in the Bible.

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"1" from the album "Parhelion" by Hakobune.

https://soundcloud.com/hakobuneofficial/albums

https://hakobune.bandcamp.com

_________________________________________________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thus far in the series we've been considering freedom from sin's power to hold us down and keep us in bondage to things and attitudes that harm us. Now we're turning to consider the question of freedom in the present life from the results of sin's bondage. And this is where we come into very sharp conflict with modern intellectual thinking, and we'll see what Christian teaching has to say to this.

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"1" from the album "Parhelion" by Hakobune.

https://soundcloud.com/hakobuneofficial/albums

https://hakobune.bandcamp.com

________________________________________________________________________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christianity teaches that the answer to humanity's fundamental problem is that the central relationship that makes all other relationships most meaningful is that of the Creator and the creature, which is restored when I accept Jesus Christ as Savior and then approach life following his teachings and example. When this happens, I am to be in my appointed position, in the proper place and in a personal relationship with God. This is what I was made for in the first place. And when I am functioning properly as creature before the Creator, living by faith in him and allowing his very Spirit to work within, on, and through me to produce good fruit, all the other dimensions of and relationships in my life fall into place.

This is the Christian life. This is true spirituality.

_________________________________________________________________________

Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"1" from the album "Parhelion" by Hakobune.

https://soundcloud.com/hakobuneofficial/albums

https://hakobune.bandcamp.com

_________________________________________________________________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Christian concept of salvation isn't just about past events, including Christ's death on the cross and when I accepted him as Savior, and a future destiny on into eternity, but how life is to be lived in the here and now. It is engaging life in all dimensions by faith in God and being strengthened by him to live moment by moment as one following the teachings and example of Jesus and the apostles. This is true spirituality.

____________________

Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971).True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Enough Time" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"1" from the album "Parhelion" by Hakobune.

https://soundcloud.com/hakobuneofficial/albums

https://hakobune.bandcamp.com

____________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having concluded in previous episodes that the Lord tells us to live as though we had died, gone to heaven, seen the truth there, and then come back to this world, he is not asking us to act on just some psychological motivation, but on what really is, what is ultimately real. Therefore I am to live now by faith, grounded in three space-time realities: what has occurred, such as Christ's death and resurrection; what exists right now in the unseen realm; and what is to come, including my future bodily resurrection and return with Christ.

This should inspire us to live in a manner reflecting an authentic and expectant hope that takes shape in having a more joyous and tranquil outlook no matter the particular circumstances we experience in life. The gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, provides the animating principles for how best to be the creatures God made us to be: human beings bearing his image. And in Christ we are presented with the calling to be this creature by choice, to be creatures glorified.

But now we have to turn to the practicality of it all. How is it possible to live this way? All this talk of the Christian life, true spirituality, which is basically the ideals taught and exemplified by Christ and the apostles, is often quite daunting and feels sometimes out of reach, doesn't it?

What is the answer to the how of it all? How are we going to live this way, if we are to think of this not merely as some sort of abstract religious experience, a set of unattainable ideals, a combination of mood and moment, a vague, meaningless existential experience? How do I get started?

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Attributions:

Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971).True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House.

"Hope" and "Dawn" by Kazukii.

https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki

https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com

"Nycterine" from Echo Grid.

https://soundcloud.com/echogridmusic

https://echogrid.bandcamp.com

____________________

For more resources from and information on how to contact Pastor Johnny, please visit the following sites:

https://www.invictusmaneopress.com

https://www.thoughtoutfaith.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.