Freedom in Living 4 Christ: Class notes 3/2/11

The Unpopular Virtue
- Virtue of Chastity: "The Christian Rule of Chastity must not be confused with social rule modesty"
- Culture: "Old, ol-fashioned people, should be careful not to assume that young people are corrupt, and in return, young people should not calltheir elders prudes." - C.S. Lewis
- Unhealthy view of sex & food parallel
- Chastity - acting on discipline...things can be confused. If you go as far as you want when you want...that's bad. That's why fasting is so good to do in different areas of your life. We are always wanting instant but the best things will be more blessed in time, when you wait.
- "Everyone knows that the sexual appetit, like our other appetites (food), grows by indulgence."

In the movie SUPER-SIZE ME the guy ate McDonalds food every meal and every day for at least a month to see what the effects were to it. Why do we crave things? Are you addicted to this or that? Is is harmful?
- "One critic said that if he found a country in which such strip-tease acts with food were popular, he would conclude the people of that country were starving."

Listen to this song. The song is probably most known to you by hearing Chris Tomlin but Bluetree wrote it. God of This City
- "A real desire to belive all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of te problems."
1 Corinthians 12 - "Spiritual Gifts"
*Watch Craig Gross from xxxchurch.com*

Christian Marriage:
Marriage: love & Christ
- "The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, anymore than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of teaste without swallowing digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again."
In relationships, try to press and push through obstacles!!
Justice: Christian & Rachel
- "Justice = keeping promises"
*MarryMe - Train*

(P.S. This made me emotional)
"Oh, How He Loves Us", The Trinity is so important and we need to love people and give them second chances as much as we can. Love them as much as Christ loves you!"
-"What Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go- let it die away- go on thru that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow- and you will find you are living in a world of new thrill all the time."
Divorce: love & Christ
- "A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for everyone, I do not think that."
- "Let truth have power!" "Worry about who, what, when, where, how and if to minister to people."
A Few Things: Being in Love
*Ceasing to be "in love" need not mean ceasing to love.
*Who could bear that excitement, what would come of your work, appetite, sleep, & friendships.
*Love is a deep unity, maintained by the will and diliberatly strengthed by habit; reinforced by grace which comes from each other and God.
*Being in Love first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enales them to keep promises. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

Forgiveness: mercy & grace
- "Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive."
- "When you judge someone, you will be judged."
- "When we sin, we want others to not judge by the sin but by the intentions. Consider yourself and everyone else better than you/they are." (giving yourself the benefit of a doubt).

"We cannot diect the wind, but we can adjust the sails." - Bertha Calloway

"There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loaths when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves." - pride leads to every other sin/vice

Photo by: Janel K. Weyant

"It is the complete anti-God state of mind." "It was thru Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads every other vice."

The Great Sin
- "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man."

Misunderstandings: of the great sin
*Pleasure in being praised is not Pride, thinking what a fine person I must be to have done it...is.
*Being proud, a warm-hearted admiration for.
*We must not think Pride is something God forbids or that Humility is something he demands
*Humility is not someone who thinks he is a nobody, probably he is a cheerful, intelligent, chap, who took a real interest in what you said.
A Few Things: the great sin
*Pride Test: Ask, how much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, show off?
*Power is what Pride enjoys
*As long as you are proud you cannot know God
*Whenever we fnd that our religious life is making us feel that we are good, above all, that we are better than someone else, I think we may be sure that we are being acted on not by God, but by the devil.

Charity/Giving: Christian love
*ONE*

**Romans 12 (The Message)**
A Few Things: charity/giving
*Charity: the state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have for other people.
*Do not waste time bother whether you "love your neighbor," act as if you did. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself dissliking him less.
*Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of infinite importance.
*Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will.
Hope
- "Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither."
A Few Things: hope
*Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.
*If you read history you will find that the Christans who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.
*Apostles and conversion Roman Empire and English Evangelials who Abolished Slavery.
*There are all scores of things in his world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.