Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 289 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Self

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 289 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 9th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Consecration. Today our hike takes us to the Trail of Self.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were able to take a break Sunday afternoon for a 4-mile walk as the weather was sunny and pleasant. Paula and I always enjoy our times of walking, as it spurs great conversations covering many aspects of our lives. Unless our plans change, we are heading back up to The Big House on Friday evening for a little over two weeks. We hope to get up there while the daffodils are still in bloom as we have missed seeing them in bloom the past couple of years. The daffodils come from ones that were around the property which my Granny planted, so they are special to us.

It is time to head out on our hike for today on the Trail of Self. This is a difficult trail because although we like to think of ourselves as being selfless, the contrary is true. Most of the thoughts that we have and the decisions that we make are centered on how we are going to benefit. Very few people, if any, are purely selfless in the decisions that they make. On our hike today, let us learn how to change our thinking about self when it comes to our relationship to God. This is the 10th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Self

One of the most important factors in Christian growth is the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the self-life to the believer. Self is the fleshly, carnal life of nature, the life of the first Adam described in Ephesians 2:1, "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins." Even the Apostle Paul in the height of his ministry understood how difficult it is for us not to be a selfish person when he wrote Romans 7:18, "And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t."  Nowhere do spiritual principles mean more than here. Plato, with his “know thyself,” was more right than he knew but still only half right. Paul, in Galatians 2:20 says "...it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…" and was 100% right!

In order for you to get beyond just knowing about the Lord Jesus and enter into a consistent and growing personal knowledge of and fellowship with Him, you must first come to know yourself. This is more than just introspection. It is the Holy Spirit guiding and teaching us through God’s Word and trusted mentors.

Here are a few items that we must learn first to grow from self-centered to Christ-centered:

Galatians 2:20 - My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

John 12:24 - I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 288 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Consecration

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 288 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 7th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Identification. Today our hike takes us to the Trail of Consecration.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trial of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were able to make some good progress over the weekend, but I also felt the need to have some downtime to relax and recharge a bit. It has always been difficult for me to set aside the time to recharge. There is always so much to do, and I am energized by most of the projects that we are involved in. As I grow older and wiser, I do realize that all my activities, when consecrated to God, are worthwhile and beneficial. The times of rest and reflection are as important as the times of focus and pursuit.

Let us head out on the hike for today on the Trail of Consecration. The word consecration is not a word that is used much outside of religious circles but it means to be set apart for God. As we hike today, let us learn about this word and set this entire trek apart for God. This is the 9th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Consecration

As we start out on today’s hike, we have to realize and understand that we do not have the capability to change other people in any aspects of life, and we certainly cannot force someone to be consecrated to God. It might be good to stress several points just here:

A Christ follower will never grow to healthy spiritual maturity through pressure, exhortation, or guilt. It is only when the Spirit has prepared a heart will a life change.

Healthy progress is based on the realization of a need combined with the understanding and appropriation of the truths in Christ which make for real growth.

The practical aspect of all truth and especially what are considered the deeper truths will not be evident until we are aware of our need to progress spiritually. If we do not become aware of our need, we will not grow spiritually and will remain an infant in Christ.

Hebrews 6:1 - "Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God…"

This subject of consecration seems to be badly misunderstood by so many Christ followers. Many, especially those who are young in the Lord, have been victimized time and time again in this matter of surrender or commitment. The club most commonly used is “The Lord Jesus gave His all for you, now the least you can do is give your all for Him!” The believer is exhorted and pressured to consecrate, surrender, and commit his life to Christ on the basis of his love and gratitude for what has been done on his behalf – the crucifixion of Christ. It is like telling a toddler who has recently learned to walk that they are now expected to run a marathon race.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 287 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Identification

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 287 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 7th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Appropriation. Today our hike takes us to the Trail of Identification.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. This weekend is focused on finalizing some company tax work and preparing returns for family members. Once we finish those up, we will be able to focus on our personal return. We did make further progress on business planning projects that we set aside because of our heavy workload.

For so many of us, our identity of who we are is tied to the work that we do. I fall victim to this thinking and have to continually remind myself that we should consider our work as the platform for which we create and live our legacy. The positive impact that we have on others’ lives is most important. With that, we did take a break from our work for a great nephew’s birthday party on Saturday, and we do plan to worship with our local congregation at church on Sunday. We may also get outdoors on Sunday for a nice long walk.

As we consider our identity, as Christ followers, our identity should be in Christ, which is why today on our hike on the Trail of Identification we will explore the various aspects of how we are to identify with Christ. This will give us a focus of what to consider and how this applies to our spiritual lives. This is the 8th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Identification

As we head out on our hike for today, our direction moves from the core truths of our new birth in Christ to the discovery of what we would call the growth truths. The primary passage to understand our identification with Christ is Romans 6. We will dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found in that passage.

The very foundation of Christianity is Christ in us. The Christian life is Christ living His life in and through the believer. The life of Christ is reproduced in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is a new life with new relationships. When Christ resided in a physical body while on earth, he was restricted by the limitations of that physical body. This is why after his ascension into heaven he sent the Spirit of Truth that could reside in all believers at once, allowing His impact to be much greater found in John 16:13-14, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me."

Our identification with Christ is such a crucial element for a believer. Today we will barely scratch the surface of what this means. There are four essential ways that we have our identification in Christ. Those are:

We are identified with Christ in His Crucifixion.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 286 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Appropriation

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 286 of our trek. Yesterday we finished our hike on the 6th trail of this trek which was the Trail of Complete in Him.

Today we head onto the Trail of Appropriation. There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. This book contains a series of practical lessons which were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy.  I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. As we wrap up another busy week, it is our hope to utilize the weekend for additional business planning that we need to put in place. Even after all the years that we have been in business, it continues to be a balancing act of good priorities and plans. It sometimes becomes difficult to be patient and know how to exactly appropriate the time for all the activities that we would like to accomplish.

As we look at hiking the Trail of Appropriation today, especially during this election season in the U.S., it brings to mind how the various government entities appropriate funds for certain specific reasons. Once those monies are set aside, they are not to be used for other purposes. While that gives us some basis for the word appropriation, let us explore today how this would apply to our spiritual lives. This is the 7th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Appropriation

Appropriation is an important subject that has to do with our faith and the practical reception of that which we are able to trust God for. Appropriation does not necessarily mean to gain something new but to set aside for our practical possession something that already belongs to us. In the government analogy, it is the setting aside certain government funds for a specific purpose.

In order to appropriate something for our daily walk in Christ, there are two essentials: (1.) to see what is already ours in Christ and (2.) to be aware of our need for it. These two factors of seeing and needing bring us from childish meandering into a responsible, specific walk of faith. They take us from the “help me” attitude to that of giving thanks; from begging to appropriation. If we examine Ephesians 1:3 we realize that all of the spiritual blessings from God are already set aside for us, all we need to do is to be prepared to accept them, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ."

This verse does not leave any room for interpretation. It is much more ironclad than if the government would appropriate or set aside resources for a particular purpose. This is God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms…It is all done. It is finished. This verse is either true, or God is a liar and a sham. I know I fall into this same trap of asking, and sometimes pleading God to bless in certain areas in my life and the life of others. It is hard to understand that God has already blessed us, it is up to us to recognize and accept that appropriation of blessings that are set aside for us.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 285 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Complete in Him #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 285 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked the first part of our 6th trail of this trek, which is the Trail of Complete in Him. Today we will finish this same trail.

There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. This book contains a series of practical lessons and was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. On Wednesday, it was time again for my annual physical and blood work, so unless there are any surprises with the lab results, I should be good for another year. Since I am very dedicated to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, I do not expect anything out of normal ranges. Although it does take a little more effort on a daily basis to stay focused on exercising and eating properly, it is part of the overall holistic life that we have chosen to live. This is part of being a complete person physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. None of us is perfect in all of these areas all the time, but we need to incorporate into our lives the habits to help us reach these objectives.

So I will ask you the same question that we started with yesterday again, “Are you living a complete life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?” All areas are important, but for our hike today, we want to focus on the spiritual aspect as we hike the second part of the Trail of Complete in Him. This is one of the foundational principles that we need to address in our life. This is the 6th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Complete in Him #2

We covered a lot of trail on yesterday’s hike on how we are complete in Christ. If you missed that podcast, it would be best that you listen to it or read the daily journal. One of the suggested practices for spiritual growth to understand what it means to be complete in Christ is to spend time meditating on God’s Word and in prayer. This is a very important concept if we are to effectively hike the Trail of Complete in Him. In chapter one of the book of John, Christ is referred to as the Word. Let’s look at verses 1-5 and 14, "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."

In our finite mind, we do not have the capacity to comprehend how God, his Son Jesus Christ (the Word), and the Spirit can be three distinct entities and yet divinely one. By faith, we must accept the premise of the revelation that the one human personality which is Jesus Christ, who is our Mediator and through Him we are made complete. With the entrance of Christ into us on a personal level, the Divine life becomes part of us.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 284 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Complete in Him #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 284 of our trek. Yesterday we finished hiking our 5th trail of this trek, which is the Trail of Preparation. Today and tomorrow we head out on our new trail called the Trail of Complete in Him. There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. This book contains a series of practical lessons and was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy.

I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a beautiful early spring week here in Charlotte, and although I love the work we do, when the weather is nice, it sure makes this farm boy want to get outdoors and enjoy it.

On a different topic, another podcast in which I was interviewed on “Being a Better Man” was released this week. The podcast is hosted by Alf Hergistad and focuses on helping men to live an impactful life, especially on the lives of younger men. It is important that we take the time to help impact the lives of others, and I was privileged to have another opportunity to share our focus on legacy. We want to live complete and full lives.

The question for today is, “Are you living a complete life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?” All areas are important, but for our hike today, we want to focus on the spiritual aspect as we hike the Trail of Complete in Him. Our spiritual core needs Christ to complete us. This is the 6th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Complete in Him #1

On today’s trail, we continue to deal with foundational facts of our spiritual growth since our life can be no better than our root, our source. Growth should include a maturing process.  Youth and immaturity tend to act first and think later, if at all. If we mature properly, we learn to take the time to assess the facts. God, our patient father, is willing for us to take time and learn the eternal facts without which we cannot be brought to maturity.

When Jesus was on earth, he so often used natural facts to teach the deepest spiritual truths. He first teaches us about our natural life that we have in Adam before we can understand and appreciate our new spiritual Christ-life. Genesis 5:3 tells us that all humans took on Adam’s image or attributes, "When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him—in his very image. He named his son Seth." This involves the source principle of inherited traits, or in the country we would say that you are the spitting image of Adam. Every believer first learns that he is complete in Adam. Romans 5:19a - Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. Or as Romans 7:18a states, "And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature." This sinful nature could also be thought of as the inherited image we have from the first Adam.

God, through our failures and struggles, has taught us about the natural. This prepares us to take on the image of the 2nd Adam, which is Christ. Romans 5:19b - But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Think about the image we take on from what we inherited in Christ as found ...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 283 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Preparation #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 283 of our trek. Yesterday and today we are hiking our 5th trail which is the Trail of Preparation. This entire 18 trail trek which we are currently navigating is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford.

This book contains a series of practical lessons and was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our youngest son Fred was able to come over on Tuesday night for dinner, and we worked together on preparing his income tax return. Since we have been involved in tax preparation for companies and individuals for many years, we count it a privilege to assist him, at least until he feels comfortable enough to handle it on his own.

Paula finished up another quilt this week for a great niece who was born last month. We have three more nieces expecting so Paula’s quilt-making calendar is full. Her quilts are all beautiful, and she makes each one unique. I do help her in the preparation stage by going with her to select the fabrics, which provides us an enjoyable break from our otherwise busy workload.

Preparation in any aspect of life is important, and to have solid spiritual growth, God needs to prepare our hearts and minds. Let us continue today on the 2nd part of the Trail of Preparation. This is the 5th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Preparation #2

On the first part of the Trail of Preparation, we learned that solid growth takes time and may be filled with struggles. As we fulfill God’s purpose in our lives by becoming more like His image, we are also instructed that we can find rest from the struggles in Christ.

None of us like struggles and failures in our lives, but that is what life is made of. We need to acknowledge this fact, and accept life as it is, not as we wish it were. Much of God’s preparation in our lives consists of setting up this struggle, which allows us to see self for what it is, and the struggle to get free from its evil power and influence.

Paul described this in his letter to the Church found in Romans 7:18, "And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t." There is no hope of consistent abiding in the Lord Jesus as long as we are under the dominion of the self-life. So is there any hope? Yes, there is, as we explored on our trail yesterday in Galatians 2:20, "My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Once we are willing to allow God to unlock and remove the shackles of our old nature, we can then be set free. Oh yes, the struggle will continue. We have become accustomed to, and in a strange way, enjoy the shackles of life, but once removed, we do not have to allow them to restrict us. Our personal, heartbreaking failure in every phase of our Christian life is our Father’s preparation for His success on our behalf. This negative processing of His finally brings us into His positive promise of Philippians 1:6,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 282 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Preparation #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 282 of our trek. Yesterday we finished hiking on our 4th trail on our current trek, which is the Trail of Purpose. Today and tomorrow we will hike our 5th trail which is the Trail of Preparation.

This entire 18 trail trek that we are currently navigating is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. This book contains a series of practical lessons and was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of your spiritual background or perspective. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.

 

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have a variety of activities scheduled for this week. I am being interviewed on The Positivity Effect Podcast, we have one more company tax return and several personal tax returns to work on, we have time set aside for work on Your Life Plan Blueprint, and we have our usual client work to accomplish. It should be a busy but productive week. We have prepared well and will forge ahead taking one day at a time.

Speaking of preparing, before we set out on our daily activities for our trek of life, we need to make sure that we do prepare for whatever we may encounter. It is now time to break camp for today and head out on our new hike for the first part of the Trail of Preparation. This is the 5th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Preparation #1

We have already hiked the trails of faith, time, acceptance, and purpose. Once we know God’s eternal plan and purpose for us, we need to understand His method and process of preparation. In doing so, we will be able to reach the place of rest and confidence. Anytime we desire to grow, we must first understand our need. In the same manner, God’s basic ingredient for growth is need. Without the understanding of our personal needs, we will not grow in our Christian life. The reason our Father creates and allows needs in our lives is to shift our focus from all the religious trappings that are outside of Christ, centering us in Him alone. As part of this preparation process, we need to integrate the concept of Galatians 2:20 into our  lives, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

For both our growth and our service, it is all essential that we see and understand this principle. When we understand our need for Christ to live in us, it causes us to reach out and appropriate by faith, from our Lord Jesus, the strength which we require. The simple fact in everyone's life is that the true value of anything is known only when it is desired. If we do not desire something, we will never know our need for it. God makes Himself known to us through our needs. Those needs could be material needs, but it is likely that we will determine that we can work to fill our material needs. Spiritual needs are something quite different. We can never fill our spiritual needs apart from God’s Spirit living in us.

In this light, our needs are invaluable! We must face up to the fact that without spiritual hunger, we cannot feed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:6 should mean much to every one of us,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 281 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Purpose #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 281 of our trek. Yesterday and today we are hiking on our 4th trail on our current trek which is the Trail of Purpose.

This entire 18 trail trek is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. This practical information was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of your spiritual background or perspective. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We made good progress with the tax returns and other financial work that we needed to accomplished this weekend, which gives us a great sense of accomplishment. We were also able to attend our local church here in Charlotte. With us traveling back and forth to Ohio, we are only able to attend the services once or twice a month. It is always good to worship with our local Christ followers as we have the opportunity.

As we start this new work week, it is now time to break camp for today and head out on the 2nd part of the Trail of Purpose. This is the 4th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Purpose #2

Yesterday on the first part of the Trail of Purpose, we came to understand that regardless of our status or situation on our trek of life, our purpose in life is to reflect and then become more like God’s image.  This is possible as 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells  us, "So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image."

It is one thing to know what God’s purpose is for our lives, and it is quite another to know how we integrate that purpose into the very fabric of our lives. One of God’s most effective means is through the process of failure. Most people, including believers, are simply frantic over the fact of failure in their lives. We will go to all lengths in trying to hide it, ignore it, or rationalize about it. All the time we may very well be resisting the main instrument in the Father’s hand for conforming us to the image of His Son!

Failure, where self is concerned in our Christian life, is allowed and often engineered by God. His purpose is to turn us completely from ourselves to His source for our life—Christ Jesus, who never fails. Instead of dreading failure, we are to rejoice in our need and hunger of the heart. Jesus told us in Matthew 5:6, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied."

We integrate more and more of God’s image as we recognize the fact that our old nature has been crucified with Christ which is told to us in Galatians  2:20, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

By our very nature, we will conform to those things in life that we focus our attention, interest, admiration, love, and time.  In his book The Great Stone Face, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote this sentence, “Then, too, think of Germany some years ago, full of little Hitlers all because of fanatical devotion to a second-rate paper hanger!

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 280 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Purpose #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 280 of our trek. For the past two days, we hiked the Trail of Acceptance. Today we are heading out on the first part of the 4th trail which is the Trail of Purpose.

This entire 18 trail trek is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. This practical information was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will also find this trek valuable in your own life, regardless of your spiritual background or perspective. Each of the trails that we will hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We had the privilege of voting early in the primary elections on Friday. Regardless of your political persuasion, I encourage everyone to invest the time to exercise your right to vote. It is one of the many reasons the U.S. is a great nation.

This weekend we are focused on completing company tax returns for our two companies and a couple of client companies. Once we are done with those, we can then move onto the several personal tax returns that we must do for ourselves and family members. All of our work with clients and family certainly adds to our purpose on this trek of life.

It is now time to break camp for today and head out on a new hike on the Trail of Purpose. This is the 4th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Purpose #1

Do you ever wonder what your purpose in life is? I think we all have those thoughts at times. How wonderful and encouraging it is to know that our Heavenly Father has made it crystal clear in His Word exactly what His purpose is for each one of us. During these two days, we will explore His overriding purpose for your personal life.

Let’s start at the beginning, when man and woman were created. In Genesis 1:26 it tells us that "Then God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us…'" The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were made in God’s image in the realm of personality, intellect, emotions, will, and choice. This was so that there could be communion, fellowship, and cooperation between them; with God sovereign and man subject—subject to His will, which is perfect freedom. But, we know that Adam and Eve chose their own way in preference to God’s way, relying on themselves only, loving just themselves. As a result, they immediately became self-centered instead of God-centered. They were dead to God, who is the source of all life, dead in trespasses and sins. In this self-centered condition, Genesis 4 and 5 describe how Adam and Eve had children of their own, in their image, including their disobedient character traits. These inherited traits were passed down to all humans from that point forward as mentioned in Ephesians 2:1, "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins."

Adam and Eve’s wrong choices, and by extension our own choices, are not the end of God’s story. In ourselves, we have failed to maintain the character of God, so he provided an alternate solution. This is found in Hebrews 1:1-3, "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the ...