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 ...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 279 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Acceptance #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 279 of our trek. Yesterday and today we are hiking the Trail of Acceptance. The 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. On a personal note, Paula is finally finishing up one of the last major details of her quest of braces, which started nearly six years ago. She had the rare situation where she still had five baby teeth that never fell out. She had to have those pulled before getting her braces, so the orthodontist shifted her teeth to leave a place for a molar to be implanted. The permanent implant was put in today, and now she has a mouth full of straight teeth. We are so pleased. One minor adjustment to her retainer next week, and this project will be complete. How our teeth look does impact our self-image and our perceived acceptance by others.

As we continue on our hike of the Trail of Acceptance today, we once again consider what it means to be accepted by others, but most importantly, how we perceive that God accepts us. The thought of acceptance is part of our hike on our 3rd of 18 trails, which make up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Acceptance #2

As we continue from yesterday, we have come to realize that God’s acceptance of us is unconditional and based solely on His acceptance of us in Christ. Christ bought our full pardon so that we are no longer under any condemnation.

The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in your soul. It is not that you necessarily dislike it when you live contrary to God’s precepts. In fact, you may quite well be enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin, as is mentioned in Hebrews 11:25. Let’s look at how the Holy Spirit reasons. He shows us what we are in ourselves without God. That is one reason why the Spirit often seems to be very difficult and does not give peace to the soul because we are not comforted until we experientially, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are.

Until our soul comes to that point where we accept the Spirit’s leading and in agreement of our need for God, He does not give it peace. He could not. Anything less would be like placing a tiny Band-Aid on a gaping wound. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the goodness of God, and then we can acknowledge what Roman 8:31 says, "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?"

Sadly today, most believers actually reason just the opposite—from themselves to God. When all is going well and God seems to be blessing, then it is that we feel He loves and accepts us. But, when we are stumbling and everything seems dry and hard, then we feel that He does not love and accept us. How can this be? There is nothing about us to commend us to God, our acceptance is solely in Christ. We don’t like to acknowledge this, but the fact is that most of our true spiritual development comes through the dry and hard times. Thank God,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 278 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Acceptance #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 278 of our trek, and yesterday we finished our hike on the Trail of Time. Today and tomorrow we will hike the Trail of Acceptance.

The entire 18 trail trek is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. This information was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will 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 made significant progress on projects today on multiple fronts, so although it was busy, there was a sense of accomplishment. This is partially because the remote technical support for one client was a bit less intense today. Paula and our friend Bev were also able to make some reviews and edits to Your Life Plan Blueprint today, so hopefully we will be able to get back on track soon with that important project.

As we hike the trails of life, we all desire to be part of the group, to be accepted. As we are leaving our campsite for today and heading out on a new trail, we all want to feel as if we are contributing to the progress that we make. This concept is part of our very nature. As humans, our acceptance of others is usually conditional.

What we will learn on the Trail of Acceptance is whether God accepts us, and if He does, on what basis. These thoughts lead us to our hike on our 3rd of 18 trails, which will make up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Acceptance #1

There are two questions that every believer must settle as soon as possible in order to be able to live the rich and satisfying life that Jesus promised us.

Does God fully accept me?

If so, upon what basis does He do so?

This is crucial. What devastation often permeates the life of one, young or old, rich or poor, saved or unsaved, who is not sure of being accepted, even on the human level.

Yet so many believers, whether “strugglers” or “sleepwalkers,” move through life without this precious fact to rest and build on from Ephesians 1:5-6, "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son."

Every believer is accepted and made right by the Father, in Christ. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." The peace is God’s toward us, through His beloved Son—on this, our peace is to be based. God is able to be at peace with us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:19-20 - For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

And we must never forget that His peace is founded solely on the work of the cross, totally apart from anything whatsoever in or from us. Romans 5:8 - But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 277 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Time #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 277 of our trek, and on Tuesday of this week, we are started on an extended trek that contains 18 different trails that we will hike. Our first trail was the Trail of Faith. Yesterday and today we are hiking on the Trail of Time.

The entire trek is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. This information was instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will 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. Since we are hiking on the Trail of Time for a couple of days, I am reminded just how brief our time is here on our trek of life.

Last week an online friend’s, who is a leader within one of the Facebook communities that I belong to, husband died un-expectantly. They also have two young children that have lost their father. While each day seems to rush by, and we may not accomplish all that we desire to, let us make sure that we take time for the most important people in our lives. We do not know when God may call us home, let’s make sure that we are living a legacy each day and leaving an impactful legacy for generations to come. Let’s not try to rush what is important.

These thoughts lead us to our hike for today on the 2nd part of our Trail of Time. This will complete our 2nd of 18 trails which will make up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Time #2

As I mentioned yesterday, it seems that most Christ followers, including myself, have difficulty realizing and facing up to the unchangeable fact that God does not hurry in His development of our lives and the impact that we should have on our world. He is working from and for eternity! So many times we don’t feel that we are making enough progress unless we are swiftly and constantly forging ahead. Yesterday, we used the analogy of the oak tree and the squash. One takes decades to grow to maturity, and the other just a few months. It is only the oak tree that will be left standing for generations to come. It is the same with our Spiritual growth and renewal.

Spiritual renewal is a gradual process. All growth is progressive, and the stronger the organism, the longer the process. It is from measure to measure as Matthew 13:23 tells  us, "The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" It is from stage to stage as Mark 4:28 says, "The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens." It is from day to day because God is not in a hurry as 2 Peter 3:8 describes, "But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day."

How varied are these analogies! There are great days, days of decisive battles, days of crises in spiritual history, days of triumph in Christian service, days of the right hand of God upon us. But there are also idle days, days apparently useless, when even prayer and holy service seem a burden. Are we, in any sense, renewed in these days? Yes,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 276 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Time #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 276 of our trek, and yesterday we are started on an extended trek that contains 18 different trails that we will hike. In order to keep them short, we may split some of the trails over two days. Our first trail was the Trail of Faith.

Today and tomorrow we will hike the Trail of Time. This trek is adapted from a short book called Principles of Spiritual Growth written by Miles J. Stanford. The truths contained in this book were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. I trust that you will 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. This week is continuing the brisk pace that seems to be the norm for us in our workload.  One company where I provide technical support has had an extra heavy caseload for the past month, so that has limited some of the time we had allocated for Wisdom-Trek journals and Your Life Plan Blueprint, but they still remain a very high priority for us.

I know that life gets in the way for all of us, but I try to make sure that I always fulfill previous commitments before moving onto new projects. We are thankful for the work we have to do and the ability to complete it effectively. Time is really the only finite commodity we have in our lives. How we effectively invest that time is very important.

That leads us to our hike for today on the Trail of Time. Let us start on our 2nd of 18 trails which will make up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Time

It seems that most Christ followers, including myself, have difficulty in realizing and facing up to the unchangeable fact that God does not hurry in His development of our Christian life. He is working from and for eternity! So many feel they are not making progress in any area of life unless they are swiftly and constantly forging ahead. Now it is true that the new Christ follower often begins and continues for some time at a fast rate. But this will not continue if there is to be healthy growth and ultimate maturity. God Himself will modify the pace. This is important to see, since in most instances when it seems like a decline in growth begins to set in, it is not, as so many think, a matter of backsliding.

To paraphrase theologian John Darby, “It is God’s way to set people aside after their first start so self-confidence may die down. With Moses, he was forty years tending sheep after being part of Pharaoh’s household. On his first start, he had to run away, but God was using this time to prepare Moses to lead His people.  The Apostle Paul was in isolation for three years also, after his first testimony. Not that God did not approve the first earnest testimony. We must get to know ourselves and that we have no strength in ourselves. Therefore, we must learn, and then leaning on the Lord we can with more maturity, and more experience, be prepared in a greater way to do God’s work.”

The Christian life matures and becomes fruitful by the principle of growth as is expressed in 2 Peter 3:18, "Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

In addition to the struggles we may face and the experience we gain, much time is involved. Unless we see and concede to this,