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Faith – The Bridge Between Knowledge and God

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17

“And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:22-24

It is difficult to find a satisfactory explanation of faith in the modern religious world. No one can nail down a concrete definition of what faith is. It is always vague, ambiguous and unhelpful to the rational mind. The definitions most Christians give are so unclear that you may not even know if you have faith or not, because you have been confused about exactly what faith is.

Imagine a ladder leading to God. We build this ladder by gaining knowledge of God. We learn all we can about Him until a certain point where we no longer understand with our finite minds what He is and why He commands certain actions. At first we build knowledge until we can get no closer to God through our knowledge alone. The ladder we have built still does not reach God, so our faith has to cover the remaining distance. Note that faith must begin with rational knowledge (the ladder), and end with trust.

Faith is a distant relative to trust.

It is a type of hope. We do not fully understand how there can be an invisible being who created everything, so we must have faith. We do not see how it is possible to exist for eternity, so we have faith. Some do not believe that the punishment of hell fits the crimes of sin, do they still have faith then? We do not know, therefore we hope/trust/have faith.

As difficult as it is to have faith, it is much harder to have faith in atheism. Atheism is unnatural because it violates laws of nature by its very definition. It requires ten times more faith to be an atheist than to be Christian. Any man who comes to the conclusion that atheism is a rational belief is simply trying to justify a lifestyle of no accountability and maximum pleasure.

What we want to avoid are the weak minded habits of the religious people who use faith as an excuse to never learn anything.

Men want to just “have faith” so that they do not have to think about any difficult or complex religious idea. Faith replaces work for these men. Faith replaces the need of man to progress and improve, therefore men become fat and lazy. We must avoid this justification of weakness. Men then mistake faith for an emotion rather than a thought process. Faith is not a feeling, gentlemen, faith is a set of beliefs and thoughts that result in specific types of action and are founded on rationality first and foremost. Feelings are almost always irrelevant.

Of course, the opposite of the blind faith man is the blindly rational man. While there are overly emotional men, there are also overly rational men who never accept anything outside science even though science shows itself to be limited time and time again because it is carried out by human beings. Any highly logical man will find religious faith difficult, and this is not evil. This makes his faith more powerful than others because once he achieves a respectable degree of faith, it is set in stone forever because it took him so long to build. We must build our faith in the same way because we are rational men who do not trust in mere emotion.

Mantra

I trust Him who I cannot see.

Application

Faith is built by thinking, not by feeling. Therefore, we must foster the types of thoughts that lead to a bolstered faith rather than an emotional faith. The emotional faith can be destroyed in one second, it is the house built on the sand. The rational faith will outlast any siege.

You believe in God because it is rational and because all other explanations violate laws of nature. What God has told you about Himself is what you must trust. God has told us that He is merciful and longsuffering (Exodus 34:6), that He loves mankind and does not want any of them to be lost (2 Peter 3:9). Do we believe those words of Scripture or do we allow our emotions to think for us?

We must think rightly about God, and avoid “thinking” with our feelings. One of the benefits of faith is that it covers what we cannot understand logically, so we must use it as a tool. It is not intended to replace the work we are required to do in building our thoughts and belief in God.

Build thoughts conducive to a strong faith. Imagine the great heroes of the faith in the Word, mimic the thoughts you think they would have had. Above all, never let your faith be damaged simply because you are feeling a certain way. No one cares about your feelings, you must do what is right regardless of how you feel.

Ignore emotions, actions are what matter.

Strengthen your faith.

Harden your mind.

Build faith through constructive thought.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Execution of Discipline – Work

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth”
1 John 3:18

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
1 Peter 1:13

There are two types of execution. One is to exterminate or kill. The other is to carry out action with focus. When it comes to our discipline, we must be executing it every day. We must be exerting our will over our nature at every moment. Men, we must command our strength to outweigh our weakness at all times. We must make the mind control the body, rather than the body control the mind. Discipline must be carried out stoically and without distraction.

The man focused on the execution of discipline is not bogged down by the emotions of the weak, he focuses only on his discipline.

He knows that desiring to do what is right is not always possible. An emotional pull to take the right actions does not always exist for men. In fact, a strong longing to do evil takes the place of what once were righteous intentions. The execution of discipline overrides desire. It does not matter what combination of emotions are circulating in the mind of man, it only matters if he executes the discipline or not.

Action is the death of intention, because intention is passive and does nothing while action is active and leaves intention in the dust. Everyone has good intentions, but this is irrelevant. All that matters is that you discipline yourself to take action every day. You can intend to do a multitude of deeds and never lift a finger to any one of them.

A man of discipline might never have the desire or intention to do good deeds yet he does them anyways.

This is how life of a Spartan Christian should be. Men do not wait around for motivation to find them, they take action through discipline. Men do not wait for the right time to get started, they begin their work immediately. Strong men do not need emotions to drive them because their focus is more than enough to power them and all the men around them. Discipline triumphs over weakness, emotion and motivation. Be a man of discipline.

Mantra

I force myself into action at this moment.

Application

The breeding ground of discipline is a power over the mind and thoughts. Without this power, you will find it difficult to build your discipline. The thoughts you carry in your head should be such that they empower you to greater discipline instead of tempting you towards weakness. Most men make mistakes here and focus their minds on the comforts they desire rather than the benefits that are brought on by the application of discipline over time. Turn your thoughts to your goals and long term desires, rather than your current cravings.

The discipline of the day is driven by the discipline in the morning.

The morning is where you must execute discipline and force yourself into action. If you can just get the ball rolling then you will gain momentum. Once you gain momentum, discipline becomes easier to maintain throughout the day.

It is difficult to recover from a morning of weakness and undisciplined action. It is hard to get the engine going in the afternoon if you have been dragging your pathetic self around all day. Make it a point to win in the morning. If you win the morning, you win the day. Win in the small detail disciplines. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is a small win for discipline, for example. Rack up on those small wins because they will add up to victory. And avoid stacking up those small losses because they will add up to defeat.

Win the day.

Discipline yourself.

Control your thoughts.

Stack up positive patterns of thinking.

Be in command of your emotions.

Start the execution of discipline.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Execution of Sin – Death Sentence

Most men never execute their own sin because it lives beneath their mind in the unconscious. Their sin is so ingrained in their lifestyle that it is committed passively. This should not be a shock as it is more natural to sin than to be righteous. Almost all sins are simply perversions of natural drives. Pornography is a perversion of the natural sex drive of man and promiscuity is founded on man’s biological need to reproduce with as many women as possible. Lying is a way to avoid pain, a manipulation of the most basic survival instinct of man. Stealing is a form of fear of poverty, greed, or insecurity. Gossip comes primarily from insecurity, which is why it is mainly considered a “women’s sin”. Greed is an exaggeration of the desire to be safe and secure monetarily.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Matthew 5:29, 30

All these sins lie in the unconscious part of man’s mind. They are automated because they are so deeply rooted in the natural aspects of man. This is how habits function. Negative habits are detrimental because they are actions that either do not benefit us or harm us and they are performed automatically. The automated form of sin is the most insidious, because it can eat us alive without us even knowing it is there.

The only way to begin to bring our sin to the surface and finally execute it is to follow the sin to its root cause.

We must learn our own selves and psychology if we are to see why we behave and commit the sins we do. Sin is almost certainly related to your personality and weaknesses. Trace your sin to the core. Your sin is a reflection of who you are, what you fear and what you desire. If you are going to execute your sin, you must first know yourself.

Mantra

Kill the source of sin, then kill the sin.

Application

Outline your personal weaknesses. What do you fear? What do you desire?And what are the small and seemingly insignificant desires and fears that live within you? What problems does your personality type encounter regularly? Answer these questions and you will begin understanding your sin. The enemy knows how to manipulate your needs and convert them into evil. Recognize and short circuit this process and you can win the war against the self. Your sin is dead if you are willing to lay the ax to the root of its tree.

Even better would be to correct the weaknesses of your personality so that they are no longer a target for attack. You cannot be tempted by greed if you are no longer insecure about poverty. The sexually satisfied husband or man who knows how to transmute the sexual energy has no need to seek an outlet through other women. You have the opportunity to win, and eliminate one sin at a time forever.

Also be aware that if you eliminate a sin, but forget to put a sentry on guard against the return of that sin, it will inevitably come back.

Remember the story in scripture of the demons who were cast out of a person but eventually got back in? They got back in because the person had not worked on themselves and invested in their own spirituality (Matthew 12:43-45). The sin will attempt to return because of your personality and particular weaknesses, but you must stay in command of your mind and do not let the evil near it. Never give evil a chance to take root in your mind again.

You have the weapon of vigilance on your side.

Always be aware of the evil, and do not let it near you.

Fight to the end.

Correct your flaws.

Strengthen your vigilance and resolve.

Begin the Execution of Sin.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Prime The Machine – Morning Hours

Prime the machine in the morning hours so that your entire day is a win. Victory begin in the morning.

“but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Psalm 1:2

“Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.”
Joshua 1:7-8

The morning is the most important time of the day. In the morning you set the tone for how the rest of the day will go. You can either waste your morning or you can use it to get the edge. You can hit the snooze button ten times or you can get up and get after the day. When you wake up you can make your bed right away, or you can leave the sheets in a pile until you stagger home that night. You can eat donuts for breakfast or you can cook some eggs. You can read books, train and work on your disciplines in the morning, or you can mindlessly watch television as your ability to think for yourself slowly fades into oblivion.

Most people take the easier path every morning.

They want to eat whatever food is tastiest and do whatever is most convenient and requires the least amount of work. People want the path of pleasure, but that path never rewards you. The path of pleasure never builds your character or discipline. The path of enjoyment does not make you more successful or put more money in your pocket. However, the path of discomfort and pain is the only one that produces the growth of character you want.

Every day you look in the mirror and you are not where you want to be in your life. You do not have the money, character or discipline you want. Worse than that, you are not even progressing towards those goals. You wake up every day, look at yourself and realize that you have made no progress towards those desired end state goals since you started them. You never prime the machine. You have never gotten the edge first thing in the morning and you waste every morning with activities that bring you no profit, neither monetarily nor in character. Today is the day that ends.

This is the day that you stop wasting your time every morning and start investing in your future.

Start writing your book in the morning hours before anyone is awake. Start training the body in the morning. Start eating better, if only for breakfast. Over time your morning victories will compound and spread to midday and then to the afternoon. Discipline produces more discipline. Effective mornings produce effective afternoons. Do not waste your morning hours. Prime the machine for a day of victory and growth.

Mantra

Crush the morning, crush the day. Prime the Machine.

Application

You must stop wasting yours mornings.They may be the only blocks of time you have in your day to truly make progress on yourself and your goals. If you can have a productive morning, you can have a productive day. Even if you do not have a productive day, you still have the satisfaction that results from having a productive morning.

Take all the disciplines you want to start and compress them into the morning.

Do not put them off until the afternoon or you will talk yourself out of being disciplined. Put your reading, writing and thinking work at the beginning of the day and do it instantly upon waking. Do this consistently for several days and you will establish it as a habit. Once it is a habit, you gain momentum and maintaining the discipline becomes easier. The only time you will have to make massive effort is on the days you do not feel like priming the machine and doing your work. On these days you must work even harder. You must obliterate your disciplines and teach your mind that you do not stop working for anything. Teach the mind that it has no say over whether or not you will be disciplined.

If you can be disciplined on the days that you do not feel like being disciplined, then you will make true progress on your character.

We only improve when we do what is right when it is uncomfortable and inconvenient to do so. Stop wasting your mornings and start making them the most productive time of your day.

Arm your mind with strength.

Bring your thoughts into submission to you.

Gather all strength to your mind.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Defeat – The Foundation for Success

You must be mentally prepared to suffer defeat.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5

It will not matter how you conduct yourself while you are winning, it only matters how you act after you have lost.

Defeat is where the true personality of man shows its ugliness to the world.

Have you ever seen a young child lose at a game and then proceed to embarrass his parents with his behavior? It happens very often. What is even more unfortunate is that fact that many of the kids never grow out of this behavior. They take their weak mentalities onto the sports field and display just how immature they are after they lose.

Then they grow up and take that mentality into the workplace. They never take responsibility for their failures and always pass the blame. Everyone knows one of these men, and they were created by their parents who failed to teach them to accept defeat graciously and with strong character.

We often fail to act righteously and we sin. Sometimes we are caught and our sin is publicized. This is public humiliation and defeat. How do we conduct ourselves during this defeat? Do we exhibit grace, humility and repentance? Or do we manifest anger, ego and further rebelliousness? Answer these questions and you will discover everything about yourself that you will ever need to know. How you behave in defeat is an open window into your character. So you must prepare yourself not only for defeat, but also to conduct yourself like a man when you find yourself defeated.

Defeat is inevitable, but acting like an idiot while we are defeated is something we can control and avoid.

By acting graciously we show that we are men of character and add bricks to our reputation. We can convert a defeat into a great victory simply by conducting ourselves like men while we are defeated. All failures have the potential to profit us if we learn to use humility and build our character. Defeat is the foundation of victory.

Mantra

Train until virtue is automated.

Application

In every victory you should be mentally preparing yourself for defeat. Just as in the moments of happiness you must prepare yourself for depression. You have to stockpile supplies in your mind to outlast defeat. Decide how you will conduct yourself during defeat before you are ever defeated. Have your programmed behavior ready to go so that when you suffer a defeat you do not have to think about what to do, you can fall back on your plans and training and conduct yourself well. Many vices can be cured by this simple method: train. Train yourself to have the actions you want without having to think about. Then when you are in the situation you trained for, you can shift your mind to autopilot and shut down the ego immediately.

“We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”
Archilochus

Stockpile your actions and practice them as a musician practices scales until they can be performed unconsciously.

Keep your mind vigilant and prepared.

Focus your mind on being a man of character.

Annihilate the adversary.

Remember who you represent.

Conduct yourself like men.

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