Beneath My Rib - Trail Mix for Your Spiritual Journey Kathleen Ann Thompson

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues because all the other virtues stand on one’s courage. C.S. Lewis God commands us to be courageous and delineates the penalty for not being courageous. Kathleen asks the question in this podcast; WHY?  Why is it a command and one that carries a penalty for not complying.
It is very clear from the scriptures that complying with that command  elicits great rewards. What are those?  If we knew the rewards of courage, why wouldn’t we choose it?  Fear is the answer. That may seem like an obvious binary choice; however, Kathleen digs deep into the ‘living’ effects that the virtue of courage has on the human brain. Understanding this makes  fear vs. courage much more nuanced and less obviously binary.
This discussion lays out how the neural plasticity of the human brain mirrors this plasticity in the ‘ Mind of Christ’.  The mind of Christ is the spiritual character of Christ described in the scripture as the Spirit of Wisdom, Spirit of Understanding, Spirit of Knowledge, Spirit of Counsel, Spirit of courage, might and power and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. It is a gift to us who desire to be formed in the image of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit within us.
We are told that we are transformed into the likeness of Christ by the renewing of our mind - even the Mind of Christ. Therefore, the neural  plastique process which is on-going in the organ of our brain is first demonstrated in the Mind of Christ as we freely take on this gracious gift offered to us by our Father God and are transformed into the likeness of Christ.

And God saith, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them have governance over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.’ Gen.1:26
Our greatest gift from God after HE gave us life was the gift of our free will. Free will gives us authority. We have authority when we own something and are able to  make a free will decision what we will do with what we own.
What happens if we voluntarily give up our free will little by little until we own nothing and have no authority to freely decide the crucial choices of our life?   Does our eternal salvation depend on the strength and endurance of our free will?
Humanism and its partner transhumanism has spawned the fastest growing new religious movement in history. It is aimed at  creating a God through AI (artificial intelligence) development in which all of humanity will willing surrender its divine mandate to govern all of creation in exchange for  the illusion of safety, provision, inclusion and security offered by humanism.  As the high tech industry mushrooms they openly admit they are selling ‘digital resurrection’. All you have to do is abdicate your mandate to govern God’s creation in unity with HIs will.
The choice is yours.

The body of believers who follow the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our redeemer from sin by virtue of His crucifixion and resurrection are often call ‘the Universal Church’. Jesus defines His body of believing saints as both a Family and as an Ecclesia. These two limbs of the body of believers, just like our arms and the legs, both belong to the body, but have two different functions which contribute to the whole body’s productive behavior.  The church has been diligently applying themselves to the structure of the Family in recent history and trying to perfect family dynamics while losing completely the power of the Ecclesia to govern the earthly creation, an assignment which God mandated to man in Genesis 1:26-28.
We need to understand the power and the function of the Ecclesia and then apply our mouth to it so we can vote.  If we ignore and prevaricate about our responsibility to be authentic citizens of God’s Kingdom and govern His creation we will have to live under the laws, mores and cultural dominance of a foreign government.  
The Family of God is an environment which shepherds family relationships, healing, education, counsel and leadership so that believers can function with maximum effectiveness in the Ecclesia, serve the Kingdom of God and fulfill your unique assignment.

 
In times of great turmoil we find the body suffering from the cracks of stress;  anxiety, depression and reaching out for substances to ingest in hope of quelling the weakened and challenged physical condition. 
Is there a healing essential oil - a balm in Gilead- available for us?
Yes, it is the essential oil of the Spirit, PURITY.
Why is Purity, a condition of body, soul and Spirit, a value that we should be enamored of or solicited to acquire an ambition for its acquisition.  Because there is a reward and restorative healing favored upon us as we strive for it.
We are intentioned for intimacy with our Creator - to be a pure, chaste bride in order to co-govern His creation with Him. And, the purity we are called to is a call to great indivisible strength, producing courage and thus, to know peace and be led forth in hope.
An absence of the pursuit of purity is spiritual castration resulting in psychological and mental confusion, as well as a weakened physicality, which is  susceptible to divisible threats from illness, addiction and loss of prowess
However, His favor is on us to push us toward the functional heart of His design for us, which is purity.
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At the heart of man’s instinctual response to life is an insistent, nagging, impulse to bring all uncertainty under control. We need to keep a lid on the explosive threat that uncertainty poses to becoming fear-dominated.
Uncertainty keeps us from putting our hands on tools to wrestle down unwieldy circumstances. Uncertainty becomes a breeding womb for negative and frightening non-stop tapes and films occupying the real estate of our brain and soul day and night. Uncertainty eats at our peace and robs us of vision for the future. If man’s unsuccessful attempt to muscle control over uncertainty persist, he cries out for a sovereign. One who will take over and give him peace. But first, he will have to reconcile his resistance to relinquishing any part of his self-governance. 
Kathleen’s podcast probes this antagonistic dualism in man and inquires as to how man can arrive onto the path of peace, as well as accomplish successful self-governance.

Man is desperate for a sense of relevance in his life. We need to know our life 'counts' for something. We envision goals which we believe will mark our life as 'being worth living'. The psychological  sciences  tell us that man fears two things above all others; death and irrelevance.
We often move through our life with a sense of being hidden - out of view - anonymous. This can lead to us feeling worthless, even a failure, mis-understood, lacking motivation and questioning our callings. But, as a Christian, God gives us understanding, wisdom and can transform how we experience these attitudes.
Kathleen talks about five rationals which gives some understanding why we experience being hidden and where we find true satisfaction for the committed, faithful works we do to bring the good news to the world.  
Isa 52:7    How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…