Wisdom-Trek ©

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 294 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Rest

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 294 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 14th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of The Process of Discipleship.  Today we will explore a very important aspect of our overall trek, and that is the Trail of Rest.

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 and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After several weeks of warmer than normal weather, it looks like this next week will be a bit cooler, especially since we will be farther north at The Big House for the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned, when we left from there the last time, the furnace has to be replaced due to a crack in the heat exchanger. Fortunately, the new furnace will be installed early this next week, so we should not be very many days without the furnace. All of the bedrooms do have gas inserts in them, and the kitchen/eating area has a separate large floor furnace. So, the house will not be without sources of heat. These situations are part of life, things wear out and break down, and we need to be prepared for these contingencies. In the same way, to make sure that our body, mind, and soul do not wear out prematurely, we need to exercise, eat properly, continue learning, and invest time in meditation and prayer. One very important area that I need to get better at is investing the proper time for sleep, rest, and relaxation.

As we head out on our hike for today, let us explore the very important Trail of Rest. This is the 15th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Rest

To become more and more like the Master Christ requires a significant amount of focus on discipleship, which we explored during the past two days.  Remember, first we must die to self, then be diligent in our growth, so that we can produce an abundant harvest, which will allow us to use that harvest to feed others that hunger and thirst for God’s justice. This process may appear to be exhausting. What this scenario of discipleship does not take into account is that God has already provided us with rest through this process.

An analogy that is used in Hebrews 3-4 is the comparison that the nation of Israel who disobeyed God when they refused to enter The Promise Land, which is referred to as God’s rest for them. The nation refused to listen to Moses and forfeited the rest for 40 years. Now someone greater than Moses is here, which is Christ. In Hebrews 3:3-4 it explains this, "But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself. For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God."

What Moses and Joshua were unable to do was completely fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews 4:8-11 explains this, "Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from ...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 293 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - The Process of Discipleship

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 293 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 13th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Discipleship. Today we will explore a related trail which will help us to put practical content into what we explored yesterday as we hike the Trail of The Process of Discipleship.

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 the days 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. If all goes according to plan, we should be heading to The Big House on the day this episode releases. We hope to get a lot more renovation work completed while we are in Marietta this time.

Paula should be back from her visit with Aunt Pauline late Friday. It has been a great visit for her, and we are certainly glad that she made the choice to invest the time with her.

Speaking of investing time, as we head out for our hike, today we want to discover how best to invest our time in the process of becoming a disciple of Christ. As with every activity that we integrate into our lives, let’s change our mentality from spending time to investing time. When we invest time, it has a return on it, just like a monetary investment. The difference is when we invest time, it can have an eternal return that is part of living our legacy each day. Our trail for today is the Trail of The Process of Discipleship as we learn the process to become an effective disciple. This is the 14th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – The Process of Discipleship

One of the best analogies of the process of discipleship is found in the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:15 where it says, "And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest." It shows a distinct process of growth through patience.  A parallel passage to this which gives us an analogy of return is Mark 4:8, "Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" There is a theme throughout the Bible of what it takes for solid growth that produces a good return.  It is integral to the process of discipleship if it is to be long lasting. A farmer completely understands that concept that is also mentioned in James 5:7, "Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen."

Within our lives, it has been a long season of growth from when the seed fell on the fertile soil of our hearts, sprouted, grew and is now producing an abundant harvest in our lives that is nourishing others. So many Christ followers only get to the 2nd or 3rd stage in this life process toward discipleship. If you are just growing and not producing an abundant harvest,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 292 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Discipleship

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 292 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 12th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of The Cross. Today we will explore a trail that we should seek after in many areas of our lives and that is Trail of Discipleship.

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. I have been able to stay focused this week on the tasks that need to be completed, so we are able to accomplish a good bit. AT&T cell coverage where Paula is in Fort Myers is nearly non-existent. Although phone calls can be made, the signal is certainly not strong enough to use as a computer hot-spot. I have been able to pick up the required daily duties that Paula provides for our client’s, so we are able to cover our duties as she is away.

Paula’s visit with her Aunt Pauline is going well, and they are finalizing the details needed for when God takes Aunt Pauline home whether it is soon or months away. Paula is her executor, and although they had all the planning and paperwork completed several years ago, it is best to recheck to make sure everyone is prepared and nothing has changed.

As we head out on our hike for today, it is necessary that we are also prepared for our daily trek. Many times we can learn from those that have traveled this path before. This is referred to as being a disciple of a master. Our trail for today is the Trail of Discipleship as we learn from the ultimate master, Jesus Christ. This is the 13th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Discipleship

When we think of being a disciple of someone, it evokes the concept of learning. We are the student or the apprentice of someone who is a master in their craft or knowledge. As a Christ follower, we should desire to be a disciple of Christ. While the word disciple in my mind creates a positive image, the same root word discipline does not. How about you? Do these two words bring two different concepts in your mind? I like to think of myself as a disciplined person, but the thought of being disciplined by someone else does not give me the same sense.

Let’s explore what Biblical discipleship means. A disciple is one who first maintains the fellowship of the cross, which results in fellowship with his Lord or Master, which is discipleship. Christ is the master, but the cross is needed to clear the way for Him. It was because of the cross that He also became our master.

As a true master would, in spiritual progress Christ never pushes. He gently leads us step by step both in word and deed. We struggle and fail through our self-effort, which sets up a yearning and desire to overcome the times of failure in our lives. We learn from our master by observing Him as Hebrews 12:2 tells us, "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 291 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - The Cross

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 291 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 11th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Self-Denial. Today we will focus on one of the most important trails which is the Trail of The Cross.

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. Paula had a long, but pleasant trip to Fort Myers on Tuesday to visit Aunt Pauline. Her aunt is very weak but is still living by herself. She has always been a very strong-willed person, but we are not sure how many more days on earth that God may grant to her. We are glad that our work situation and lifestyle allows for Paula to go and visit her on short notice. I was left to hold down the fort and have more work to do than hours in the day, so it was prudent that I remained in Charlotte although I would have liked to go. Paula is due back Friday night, and then we head to Marietta Ohio early on Saturday. We delayed returning to The Big House by a day so Paula could spend another day with Aunt Pauline.

As we move up the trail on our hike today, we are on the Trail of The Cross. The cross is where we gain our identity in Christ and the path to bring our image in line with God’s image. Until we learn how our lives as believers are completely integrated with Christ through the cross, we will have difficulty growing to maturity spiritually. This is the 12th of 18 trails, which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – The Cross

Understanding and appropriating the facts of the cross proves to be one of the most difficult and trying of all phases for the growing believer. Our Lord holds His most vital and best things in store for those who desire to grow into a mature faith, for those who hunger and thirst for His very best as it is provided through our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:6 tells us, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied." The believer’s understanding of the two aspects of the cross gives the key to both spiritual growth and life-giving service.

The cross is the starting point from which all Godly living must grow. We shall never know the experience of Christ’s victory in our lives until we are prepared to put our faith in His victory at the cross as the solution for our personal victory today.

There is no victory for us which was not first His. What we are to experience He purchased, and what He purchased for us we ought to experience. The beginning of the life of holiness is faith in the crucified Christ which sees more than His substitutionary work. It is a faith which sees yourself identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

As our Substitute, He went to the cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins. As our Representative, He took us with Him to the cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with Christ. We may be forgiven because He died in our stead.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 290 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Principles of Spiritual Growth - Self-Denial

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 290 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 10th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Self. Today we will expand on yesterday’s trail, as we hike the Trail of Self-Denial.

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. It has been a good week for work progress so far, and we have already completed several tasks that have been in the queue for a while and are making progress on others.

In a somewhat unexpected event, Paula headed to Fort Myers, Florida early Tuesday morning to spend a couple of days with her Aunt Pauline. She is not doing well, and it may be the last time she will be able to visit her. It’s a 12-hour drive, so it makes for a long trip to take alone. But, we both agreed that it would be best if I stayed and focused on our workload. Plus, it would be difficult to make arrangements on short notice for Paula’s mom who lives with us.

As we move from the Trail of Self, it is time now to hike a parallel trail called the Trail of Self-Denial. One of the most difficult tasks that we have in our lives is to deny ourselves those things which we crave. That could be food, drink, sex, power, or anything else that we struggle to overcome. Self-denial usually will not allow lasting victory through the struggles in our life because it is based on self. We established yesterday that left to ourselves, we will usually choose self over service to others or God. On our hike today, we will focus on why it requires a real change of heart and mind to grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and certainly spiritually.

This is the 11th of 18 trails which makes up the trek we call…

Principles of Spiritual Growth – Self-Denial

Remember that I have mentioned several times previously that the word for heart and mind is used interchangeably within God’s Word. To keep it simple, I will refer to the mind throughout this hike today.

Until we are willing to change our thinking by what we allow going into our minds about ourselves and our commitment to God, we will continue on the roller coaster of spiritual chaos. Self-denial will never work long-term unless we change the way we think. We change the way we think by what we permit through the filters of our mind. This is why diets rarely work and addicts have such a difficult time breaking free from the chains that bind them. Although you may desire to be free, until and unless you see yourself as being completely free in your mind, you will eventually slip back into your old mindset.

In order to grow spiritually, you have to be convinced in your mind that it all happened at the cross of Christ. Your sins were paid for. Your sinfulness was dealt with. Both by the ultimate act, which is death. As Christ called out as he gave up His life, “It is finished.” You have already received the benefits of the work of the cross simply by grasping this truth and believing the fin...

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.