Spartan Christianity

Angels – Walking among Men?

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”
Psalm 91:11

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them”
Psalm 34:7

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
Hebrews 13:2

“Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
Hebrews 1:14

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:10

People’s beliefs about angels are primarily speculative.

Though we do have a few places in scripture that suggest angels could be at work in the present moment, we do not literally see them. Even though we cannot prove that at this very moment, angels have active roles in our lives or in spiritual warfare, let us assume for this moment that there are angels and they are at work. How do they help us as men?

The Hebrew writer speaks about angels a great deal, using the beginning of the book to show the distinction between God the Son and the created angelic beings.

The end of chapter 1 states that angels minister to those who are going to inherit salvation. Based on this passage it seems that angels are active in some way in the lives of men. What exactly they do is something men should discuss.

An angel ministered to Christ when he was in the garden before His crucifixion. In that instance, it seems that the angel acted as a being of comfort for Christ. Therefore, one possibility for what angels do for man is to comfort them at various times.

This does not have to be active comfort but instead could be passive instead. In theory, an angel could be the cause of that sense of calm that comes over you in the middle of a moment of fear. We cannot prove this, we can only speculate.

We know that based on scripture the angels rejoice in heaven when one sinner repents from his sin.

This was made clear by Jesus during His parable about the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-10). At the very least we can think that angels are cheering for us and are rooting for us to win the spiritual war while we are still alive.

Theoretically, angels could be walking on Earth disguised as humans. I find this unlikely in the present day, but we know this happened in biblical times. The last chapter of Hebrews shows that in past times people have entertained strangers not knowing that they were really entertaining angels (Hebrew 13:2).

This is most likely an event of the past, but it is still interesting to think that perhaps we have interacted with an angel. They could simply be regular people. This, again, is mere speculation – just a thought experiment.

The Psalmist writes about angels and the Angel of the Lord many different times. Angels are comforters and aids. What they do in the modern day is still up for debate.

However, it may be comforting to you to think that you are not alone and that someone or something else is there to help. Again, this is not a very scientific belief, and there is not a great deal of evidence to build upon. For most Christians, belief in angels tends to be personal and speculative.

Mantra

None

Application

None. Conduct yourselves like men.

Fasting – Mental And Physiological Benefits

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:16-18

“Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Isaiah 58:3-7

Men do not talk about fasting anymore.

No one likes to fast because everyone loves pleasure and comfort. Many people view food as a god in the way they think and speak about it, including many Christians. This section is not going to be about bashing food and eating. Some Christians feel the need to avoid any and every type of pleasure including the enjoyment of eating. That is not the purpose of this section, though people do tend to bow to the altar of food.

“For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
Luke 4:2

When Christ spoke to us about fasting, He said that “when you fast” you should conduct yourself in a certain way (Matthew 6:16-18).

We place emphasis on the word “When”. Christ expected us to fast, it was not simply a suggestion. And while it seems like fasting is just another commandment, it actually brings several physiological benefits. As always, God, the Great Scientist, directs us towards actions that benefit us in the long run. Here are a few of the assorted benefits of fasting, and the sources for these statements are at the bottom of the page:

Fasting has been shown to have anticancer effects. It can also reduce inflammation in the body. This is beneficial if you have inflamed joints or any kind of sickness that involves high levels of body system inflammation. If you have blood pressure problems, fasting can help mediate those symptoms to a degree. Fasting protects brain cells and prevents the onset of dementia. This is known as the neuroprotective effects of fasting. It also promotes the growth of new brain cells in a process called neurogenesis. Overeating and gluttony may be prominent contributing factors of all the various types of dementia that we are seeing in the world. Weight Loss is an obvious benefit of consuming less calories during a fast. Fasting also increases growth hormone secretion in men, allowing for more muscle growth and better hormonal biochemistry overall. Lastly, fasting, and calorie restriction in general, can increase your lifespan.

Fasting can be uncomfortable, but the benefits it provides are numerous.

You save time during fasts because you do not have to prepare food. When Christ gave the command to fast, He wanted us to replace the time we normally spend eating with prayer.

We gain more time besides what we spend eating meals. All the time it takes to buy and prepare food is saved. Besides all the health benefits, there are benefits for your mentality that come from fasting. After you go through the hunger pains, you might have greater focus and mental clarity though these benefits are more subjective and tend to vary from person to person. Whatever your motivation for fasting is, you must fast. Christ expects it from us.

Mantra

I Sacrifice the pleasure of food for the profit of prayer.

Application

If long-term fasting scares you, you are weak minded and must strengthen yourself. You will need to start with the easy path of Intermittent fasting (IF). IF is where you fast for a portion of the day and then consume all your calories in a small eating window. Most people practice 16 hours of fasting with an 8 hour eating window. Obviously you will want to sleep during part of the 16 hours fasting window. If you have a standard job and are hungry in the mornings, you may want to start eating at 10 AM and stop at 6 PM. 12 PM – 8 PM may be the most reasonable eating window if you can wait until lunch time. IF will give you some of the benefits of fasting without the pain of long term fasting.

I think full day, 72 hours and longer fasts are the best. Work yourself up to the point where you can hold these fasts. There is no advice and there are no tips for fasting. You simply do not eat. Be sure to drink water. Easy.

Build the strength of the mind.

Behave wisely and with honor.

Prioritize action over emotion.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Sources

1 – Brandhorst, S. “Fasting and Caloric Restriction in Cancer Prevention and Treatment.”, Recent Results Cancer Research, 2016.

2 – Lavin, Desiree et. al. “Fasting induces an anti-inflammatory effect on the neuroimmune system which a high-fat diet prevents”, Obesity, Aug. 2011

3 – Anderson, B. Et. al. “Acute effects of short-term fasting on blood pressure, circulating noradrenaline and efferent sympathetic nerve activity.”, Acta Medica Scandinavica. 1988

4 – Manzanero, Silvia et. al. “Intermittent fasting attenuates increases in neurogenesis after ischemia and reperfusion and improves recovery”, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow Metabolism. Feb. 19, 2014

5 – Ho, K. Y. et. al. “Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man”. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Apr 1988

6 – Carlson, Anton J. et. al. “Apparent Prolongation of the Life Span of Rats by Intermittent Fasting: One Figure”. Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Mar 1, 1946

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.

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