Trying to live a Christ-like life is an intimidating prospect. That's why we're not supposed to do it. (The key word to be avoided is "trying.") Rather than waking up every morning telling ourselves, "I need to live like Jesus; I need to live like Jesus," we simply walk through each day in the spirit, that is, we let the nine fruits of the spirit flow through us naturally with every
breath that we pull in and blow out.
The best way to put it is that walking worthily of the high calling of Christ is unconscious. The conscious part is not the walking part, but the occupying of the mind with a continual state of thanksgiving for the gifts of God. God loves nothing more than thanksgiving.
Good works flow from a thankful heart—and a mind occupied with anything but self-analysis. "Be disposed to that which is above, not to that on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). Self-analysis belongs to the earth.
In this audio message, I set out for the first time the allegory of boarding a ship with Christ to avoid swimming across the English Channel. I developed this analogy somewhere around 1992, during a slow afternoon at the detached mailing unit (I was working for the postal service then) at R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Willard, Ohio.
Thanks once again to Rodney Paris of Texas who is taking audio cassettes made 25 years ago, digitizing them, and backing the words with video and text frames. This makes for a multi-dimensional learning experience. It is exciting for me to not only hear these messages again, but to see Rodney's video interpretation.
God is not the only one who makes all things new.
Remaining yours because of grace, from the Floridan peninsula,
—Martin
