Christianity Archives - Page 5 of 8

Thanksgiving

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18

“I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
Psalm 7:17

Thankfulness is rooted in humility, because it takes a humble person to realize that he is not solely responsible for all the good he has acquired in his life. A Higher Power aided him, and to this Power man must give thanks.

The root of thanksgiving is awareness. It can be difficult to be thankful if you don’t realize how much you have. If you exist in the modern world, you are blessed.

It can also be difficult to be thankful because it just seems cheesy. This is due to the way thanksgiving has been twisted towards emotionalistic liberalism. Thanksgiving is not an emotion. Emotions are for children. Radical Liberalism is for the beta. Radical Conservatism is for the beta. Thankfulness based in humility is for Men.

Thanksgiving is conscious awareness for what one has, and gratitude that one has it.

Mantra

I am aware of my good fortune, and I appreciate it.

Application

Take an inventory of the things that matter to you. Take inventory of your favorite things in life and think about them. When you think about these things, appreciation and thankfulness for them eventually emerges. These things do not have to be physical. Look at everything you have been given, and at how little others have been given, and it is difficult not to be thankful.

Take inventory of things in your life that you cannot control and that have aided you. If you were born into a great family or in a great country, that is a blessing. If your parents know great people and have good connections, that is a blessing.

Take inventory of all the situations that have gone your way in life. As humans we tend to focus on the negative things that happen to us. We forget all the times that things have gone our way. The only way to change this habit is to start being aware of when anything goes our way.

Be grateful for every single tiny thing that goes your way in life. Let nothing slip by unnoticed. Immediately give thanks to God when you do notice your blessings. Be wise.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Hatred

Hate is the opposite of the action of love, therefore, hatred must be an action.

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness”.
1 John 2:9

“Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.”
Proverbs 26:24-26

We hate most people in the world. Why? Because we sit and do nothing for their souls. The Church has done a great job telling us that love has little or nothing to do with emotional feelings, yet they have done an abysmal job preaching the same ideology about hatred.

Hate is the opposite of the action of love, therefore, hatred must be an action.

And it does not have to be a “hate crime”, or an active attempt at bringing evil on someone else, in fact, the most deadly hatred is passive.

We walk by hundreds of people every week who have no idea about the gospel. If they continue to live their lives the way they are now, they will end up in hell, no doubt about it. We know this already, yet what do we do? Nothing. We have the knowledge and power that would pull them from the depths of hell yet we sit on it, we don’t share it, we keep it to ourselves. This action is hatred. It is hatred and sin disguising itself as something innocent. If we do not share the gospel, we hate other people.

Does this mean we should stand in the middle of Walmart to evangelize? I don’t think so. While that wouldn’t be wrong, it almost certainly would be ineffective and therefore a waste of time just like door-knocking in the 21st century. That evangelism should be strategic and relationship based, rather than “business based” as it has been for so long.

People still think these old evangelism strategies are valuable!

Just know, these are the same people who kept their money in a bank that gave them 0.25% interest instead of investing to get 5-8% interest. How are their retirement accounts looking these days?

Hatred is a silent killer. All it needs is for you to be content and comfortable doing nothing with your faith, and doing nothing for the people around you. This is the general law of hatred. It’s not some big Hitlerian show of evil. It’s subtle, and it will result in the death of souls if we do not do something about it. Boys think hatred is an emotion. Men recognize hate as an action.

Once hate is recognized as an action, preventative measures can be set up against it.

Mantra

Hatred is an action, not an emotion.

Application

Awareness is always the first principle of improvement. You must become aware of your hatred for others before you can end it. Be aware of how you think about other people who pass you by. Think about their souls. Think about what would happen if you were them and they were you. Your soul would be lost at the end of life if someone didn’t have the love to tell you the truth.

After becoming aware, do something to stop it. Build relationships with people, and on those relationships share the gospel. This is how you defeat hatred.

It will be very difficult to share the gospel without a previous relationship with someone.

People aren’t going to invest in stocks they hear about for the first time without doing research. Why then would they invest in your faith if they know nothing about you? This is one of the reasons door-knocking has become less effective. Because in the 21st century human beings have never been so connected yet so lonely. That loneliness has to be counteracted with real relationships with people.

When you build relationships with people you are showing that you care about them as individuals, something that is not conveyed by banging on someone’s door and giving them a pamphlet. On the strong foundation of a friendship, share the gospel. You will find this yields a much higher rate of return than the classic methods still used in religion today.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Prayer

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:24

“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.”
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

We are permitted to speak to the Creator of the universe. We can open our mouths and utter words to God Himself. This is a tremendous privilege. What do we do with it?

The plague of beta-males in the Church have diluted prayer.

You walk into Church and what do you hear in prayer?

“Oh Lord God Jesus we just thank you just thank and thank just you are so wonderful just guide us and fill us just help us and just challenge us” et cetera, et cetera.

Bosh and twaddle. Senselessness. This type of prayer is a disgrace. Prayer is not a chick flick for your emotions. If you are going to get emotional in prayer, do so at home. Only at that point can you suggest that those emotions are legitimate and not meant for show.

Don’t be the emotional beta.

Do not conflate your emotions with spirituality, the two are not the same.

Are you praying each day? Probably not. You probably come crawling up to God only when you have fallen into abject darkness. You speak to Him when you are in need, and forget Him when you need nothing. This is the most shameful form of prayer.

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we do this. Prayer is a tool that we should take advantage of always.

Speak to the Lord daily as Daniel did. Praying three times per day and continuing to do so even when praying would cause his life to be in danger.

Mantra

Pray instead of a Mantra.

Application

Prayer should be a keystone habit for Christian people. Daniel prayed three times per day, same time, same place, out of discipline. Were there times he probably did not feel like praying? Sure. It is human nature to not always want to do things, but Daniel prayed nonetheless. And so dedicated was he that those who plotted to bring him down knew exactly how they could trap him. They knew he was fully committed and faithful in prayer. Daniel’s enemies knew that the only way to trap him was to use his God.

Jesus gave the model prayer to us to use it, not just so we could look at it. Use the model prayer if you cannot make your own. Use that prayer until you have developed the habit of praying every day. One small prayer every day, that is where you start. That is how you become a Man.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Obedience

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”
Romans 1:5

“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 14:15

How you emotionally feel about any of the commands of God is irrelevant. You may not agree with them. You may not want to do them, or you may even hate them at times. However, none of your thoughts matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not you obey through action. All that matters is whether or not you do what you know you must do.

The discipline to follow through with the commands of God is key. The ability to do what God says when we do not want to is a fundamental principle of Spartan Christianity.

Saving yourself for marriage is not fun.

No one who has undertaken that goal has enjoyed it. It is not meant to be enjoyed, that command exists for a purpose. Avoiding drugs and alcohol is not fun. These mind altering chemicals seem like they would be medicine to treat the misery of life. Alcohol could take you away from the pain, drugs could give you the best high of your life, but we cannot use them because we would be unable to be vigilant of the enemy. The command of sobriety is difficult. Few who keep that command enjoy it.

Obedience is a verb.

No one cares how you feel about it. As a man, you aren’t called to feel anything, you are only expected to act. You are only required to take action. You are not required to feel happy about it. Many of the commands are heavy and difficult, and feeling happy about them is something that will never happen. What you can guarantee is that day after day after day you will be grinding away at the discipline of obedience through action.

Mantra

Feeling is irrelevant, only obedience matters.

Application

Simple, do what God commands without getting caught up in how you feel about it. Sideline those emotions. Shut down those thoughts. Put ‘feelings’ in the trash can and focus solely on the action of obedience. You can feel any way you want, what matters is your obedience.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Temptation

He who is not tempted is of no value to the devil.

This is what I think about when people brag that temptation is seemingly non-existent in their lives. In the first place, the type of person who talks about their lack of temptation is obviously not intelligent enough to be of much use to the enemy. Not being tempted is nothing to brag about. Men think they are showcasing their “natural goodness” by way of not being tempted, but the opposite is true. The devil has no need of such weak, egotistical individuals. He already owns them.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”.
James 1:2-3

Hypothetically, Satan has a hit-list, a hierarchy of importance on which he ranks the most valuable players in the Church and plots to destroy them. If you aren’t tempted, you aren’t on the list, if you aren’t tempted, you should be worried.

If you are tempted, it is your job to destroy that temptation.

You can redirect the temptational energy, fight the temptation with willpower, or run from the temptation. Jesus was strong enough to crush temptation face to face using scripture. Are you strong enough to do that?

If you are weaker, or are worn down from temptations already, you will need to use the escape method to remove yourself from the presence of the temptations. Use the redirect method when the temptation is so strong that it causes huge surges of energy in your system. Take that energy and turn your focus onto something productive. Build. Create. Work.

Be aware of your weaknesses. The devil and his demons are cowardly, they will never hit you where you are strongest – they will always look for the chink in the armor. Any little crevice they can worm their way into in order to destroy you. Be aware of your weaknesses, and what sins you are inclined to commit based on your personality. Awareness is key in all aspects of dealing with temptation. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of the enemy, and use temptation to strengthen yourself for the future.

Temptation is the stress that produces growth of the mind, if you allow yourself to be trained by it. The willpower muscle must be used in order for it to grow. Temptation will either crush a man or make him more powerful, and you have to decide today which one it is going to be.

Mantra

I crush the temptation before me at all times.

Application

Awareness is always the first step in solving any problem. Becoming aware of the temptation is key, then you can analyze how the temptation is attacking you and how you can most easily destroy it. Or you can decide that it is too powerful for you and you can run away.

Make no mistake, the way of escape is a useful tool, but it requires you to have humility and accept that you are not strong enough to overcome temptation and must therefore flee from it. So when you are tempted, look in the immediate environment, there is a way of escape there somewhere.

Stockpile the mind with scripture. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, making it both useful for defensive measures and offensive maneuvers. This was the tactic used by Christ when He was tempted in the wilderness, and undoubtedly the tactic He used all the other times He was tempted which are not recorded.

Use temptation for growth.

Every time you resist temptations, you increase your experience in dealing with temptation, making it more likely that you will be able to resist temptation in the future as long as you don’t get comfortable and lazy.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Page 5 of 8

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next »