change Archives - Spartan Christianity

Blood – Unlimited Power

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” – 14 “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
Leviticus 17:11,14

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Hebrews 9:22

“But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
Genesis 9:4

The Israelites were instructed never to eat the blood of the animals they killed, for in it was the life force. Animal blood also contained many diseases and pathogens. This would be the practical reason to avoid eating it since it can make you sick and perhaps even kill you. I chalk that up to the scientific revelation of God to man before germ theory even existed.

Within our blood is our physical life.

Within the Blood of Christ is our spiritual life. Also within it is our lineage to generations long past. It has long been known that the blood of our fathers runs through our veins. Through that blood we are expected to stay the course and to be men of character, strength and integrity.

Through that blood also comes many weaknesses that have plagued our bloodline for years. Sons tend to inherit the weaknesses of the father or grandfather. This must be undone. We do not have to be our fathers. We do not have to carry their weaknesses just as we will not wish for our sons to carry on our personal flaws and weaknesses. In this way we must break away from the lineage and reject the evil that we are naturally inclined towards. We must defy this portion of our own bloodline.

Through choice and action we can create a new bloodline.

We create new habits and actions we carry out consistently and this results in a transformation of character. You do not have to be limited by the character of your father or grandfather. Forge your own lineage today.

The blood of God represents our salvation. It covers all the insufficiencies and flaws we have in our minds and bodies. It wipes away the rust from our character. And it guarantees that we have salvation even though we fail. This is the great value of the blood. This blood can be our blood. It can run through our veins. We are adopted into the lineage of Christ as His sons. It is about time we started acting like it.

Mantra

I alter my bloodline through my conscious actions.

Application

We do not have to accept our genetics. We can alter our genetic code through the actions we take. This fact was discovered recently (in the past 50 years) and now forms a portion of the scientific field known as epigenetics. By altering our genetic code we give a better foundation to our children when we have them.

At the same time, we are not limited to our genetics. We may naturally lean towards certain actions, but that does not mean we have to take them. Natural does not always equal good, meaning what we are naturally inclined to do is not always the best course of action. You must many times take the action that is in opposition to your nature, especially if you are looking to make change in yourself.

You have to take an inventory of your own character. Ask yourself the following questions and write our the answers:

In what ways am I like my father and grandfather?
What am I naturally inclined to do that is positive?
What am I naturally inclined to do that is negative?
How can I interrupt my current behavioral patterns and change?

You are not limited by your genetics. You can change anything about yourself that you want. Start taking action today by being mindful of your behavior.

Reject what you currently are.

Cast aside your current weakness and be more of the ideal man you want to be.

Honor the Lord with your wealth.

Focus your mind on the task at hand.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Repentance – Change of Action, not Emotion

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance”
Matthew 3:8

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent”
Acts 17:30

Repentance is all about action. No one cares about your feelings, what you are experiencing emotionally or what chemical reaction is going on in your brain. When it comes to repentance, and when it comes to Christianity as a whole, what matters is your actions. Feel however you want, if you do not act, your feelings means nothing.

Repentance is a change of action. Beta males use the cliche “Repentance is a change in heart that results in a change in action”. Wrong. The “heart” is not necessary. Only the change in action is necessary. By saying that repentance is a “change in heart”, it is implied that some emotions should be involved. This is common propaganda that has no basis in reality whatsoever. Feelings are absolutely meaningless when it comes to repentance. If you “feel really bad” about all your sins, but do nothing to change, then you have nothing. Will feelings alone save you? No. Why? Because feelings mean nothing without action.

Repentance is not possible without stopping the sin.

Stopping an evil action is an action in itself. The best part about repentance: you do not have to feel a single thing. Just as feeling bad without taking action is meaningless, if you take action yet feel nothing, that is okay because you repented, i.e. you change your actions.

All you have to do is stop whatever sin you are in the habit of committing. And I have a surprise for you: you are not going to enjoy stopping the sin. Do you think any man wants to stop going out and having sex with different women every weekend? No. In order to repent of that, he is going to have to make a major sacrifice in giving up that sex. That is not fun. Repenting is not a fun thing. It’s not an emotional experience, even though you might mistakenly think it is after attending a youth rally or a liberal church.

Repentance for men should be a stoic experience, in which a man takes seriously his commitment to change himself.

He isn’t signing up for a fun time or an emotional experience. He is not changing with a romanticized delusion of what change is. Many men attempt to change while inspired by their emotions and they fail and fall back into their sin mere weeks later. The same beta males make New Year’s resolutions and fail.

Now all of this is not to say that all emotions are completely useless. They can be used as a catalyst for change, but I advise against this. Because the zeal and fervent desire to change that you feel at the moment will fade away quickly. That inspiration will not last. The motivation will fade into nothing. What will you use to drive your change then? When the alcohol withdrawals kick in and you want nothing more than a drink to take the edge off, where are your emotions then? Where are your motivations then? Are you having the same “moving emotional experience” you had when you first decided to change? No. You have no internal motivating factors and will thus fail in your goal of changing. You will make the same New Year’s resolutions next year, and you will fail them again. Do not base a change in behavior on a temporary feeling. You wouldn’t commit to marriage based on emotion alone (unless you are an irrational male), so do not commit to a major lifestyle change based on emotion.

Mantra

Action dominates over emotion.

Application

Cast aside the emotions and take up the strength of discipline. Acquire internal motivating factors when it comes to behavior change. It is not enough to be motivated or inspired to change. You must have internal, mental motivating factors.

Ignore how you feel at all times and set your focus on changing the behavior. You must have clear long term goals for who you want to be as an individual. You must imagine yourself as the ideal man. Picture in your mind who you want to be, then imitate that individual. Copy how he interacts with others, his work ethic, his character, his strength of mind and his discipline. When you have a clear vision for who you want to be, you have internal motivating factors.

When it comes to repentance, imagine yourself as the man who has already defeated your evil. Imagine yourself as a man who doesn’t drink alcohol and who isn’t even tempted to do so. Picture yourself as the man who doesn’t use drugs or who has complete control over his words. Visualize yourself as a man who dominates the sin of lust and has his penis under complete control. When you put these images in your mind, eventually they become reality.

Thoughts become things.

Dominate each day. Do not worry about the long term, only worry about today. Only examine the long term goal after you have progressed a great distance, then look at how far you have come to motivate yourself to go even farther. Repentance equals change. Change is action. Action must be consistent day after day after day. Commit to the change for the long run.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Endure The Pain of Change

The pain barrier breaks us down every time. The pain barrier makes us stop writing when we have 500 more words in our mind. It makes us stop running when we can go faster. It makes us stop lifting when there are a dozen more potential reps. Pain makes us binge watch on Netflix or eat sugar when we are emotional. It makes us fall back into comfortable addiction of sloth and lust.

It makes us do these things because we let it.

The pain embodies itself in the darkness, and in the isolation of quiet thought it attacks. When there are no other thoughts in the mind, the darkness will rush to fill it. Pain crashes upon the mind with an onslaught of vicious lies. It gags the mouth of positive reason and gouges out the eyes of hope in an instant. Pain slays the rational mind. Darkness tells you that the end result is not worth the renovation of character.

Still, most pain only exists in the mind. We suffer primarily in our imaginations, not in reality. The fear of pain is itself a pain so great that it shuts down any movement towards growth.

1 – The process of change is painful. The first instance of pain is the blow dealt to the ego that is the result of acknowledging a wrong. Change cannot begin until one realizes that some portion of his current character is insufficient. Humility must come into the mind before any change can begin. The ego is injured, it must take a seat.

To begin the change, you must suffer the pain of humility

2 – The second part of pain is beginning to shift away from ingrained behaviors that are the results of thousands of mindless actions. Mindless eating, video games, television and social media reading. The Mindless chatter of small talk. Mindless laziness and lies. All these things become automatized and take on a mind of their own in the unconscious and subconscious.

The automaton of habit is alive, and to engage it in battle is painful. You sustain injuries. The automaton was built by your actions over time. To destroy it is to destroy a part of yourself, this is painful.

Many stop fighting right here. When you stop fighting, you die.

Eventually you see the light at the end of the tunnel, if you persevere. The tables turn and the process of change swings to your favor. The automaton weakens and shrinks. His energy source is your personal weakness and it begins to vanish away. You see the value of perseverance and discipline. You begin to see the fruits of all your labor.

To defeat yourself, you must endure the pain of repeated failure and perseverance.

3 – If you destroy the old habit, you have to build a new one through conscious effort and discipline. Consistent Discipline over long periods of time. Actions should be consciously taken until they can be done without thought, this is habit. You are the New Being of character.

Building this character requires that you suffer the pain of patience.

4 – Even though the new character trait you have build is automatic, it still must be maintained. Joints must be lubricated and cleaned. Energy sources must be maintained. Parts and pieces must be adjusted, upgraded or replaced. The new character must never be left totally unsupervised. Because at any instant, one small action can send you spiraling back to the original behavior that you worked so hard to change. Character and habit have to be sustained over the lifespan.

To do this you must suffer the pain of endurance.

The pain of a change is for a moment, and maintaining a new habit requires much less effort. The benefits of positive change last a lifetime, and are worth the pain it took to build it from the ground.

Change is not the inspirational quote from a cheap devotional book. You cannot buy discipline from a devo book that roots itself in emotionalism. Emotions will not maintain your change for the long term. This is why mankind lacks the character refinement of the past.

There is no refinement without fire, and there is no fire in society today.

We have minimal persecution, non-existent problems. We have everything we need and still think we have it hard. There is no fire, so we have to provide our own. The fire is going to burn out the impurities of character, but it is also going to hurt us.

However, do not let the pain or the fear of pain scare you away from the gigantic potential for personal growth. Walk through the fire of change today if you want to know the peace of character tomorrow.

Spartan Christianity