P-S-E-L-F : Our Physical, Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, and Functional Intelligence is the key to LIFE!

The Diamond On Cross symbol of P-S-E-L-F

The Diamond On Cross illustration is a visualization of the five aspects of humans that Jesus mentioned in the Greatest Commandment, to Love God with all our Soul and all our Heart and all our Mind and all our Strength (Mark 12:30) and the concept of offering our body "as a living Sacrifice" in Romans 12:1. It relates these five to the Physical, Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, and Functional design and nature of the individual P-S-E-L-F.

 The concept of P-S-E-L-F (Physical, Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, Functional) is foundational because these concepts relate to the characteristics of God, and of mankind who was made in the image of God. They were described by Jesus when he stated that the first and most important commandment was to “Love God with all our Heart, with all our Soul, with all our Mind, and with all our Strength.” (Mark 12:30). When humans are formed in the mother’s womb, God says he knits us together. Our physical DNA formed at conception from mother and father, controls our physical growth and development. Our S-E-L-F, Soul, Heart, Mind, and Strengths are KNIT together with this physical body for our temporary period of life on earth and will continue to mature in the Kingdom of God throughout eternity. Eventually, these elements of our Secret-Space will be present in our heavenly body with perfect physical characteristics experienced by the first man, Adam and the resurrected Jesus. Even if our physical memory is wiped out by disease or death, God will restore all of our memory from his own following of the details of our thoughts and experiences as we enter his presence on death or rapture to heaven.

Physical Reality on Earth

In addition to bring Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, and Functional, we experience these elements in a Physical state of reality during our lifetime on earth. In Romans 12:1, we are encouraged to “…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (NIV). This may be applied as spiritual, emotional, logical, and functional service.” Just as each element of our makeup influences the other, our S-E-L-F is impacted by our Physical condition. The full formula, then, is S-E-L-F+P. Our Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, and Functional elements are KNIT together with our earthen vessel during our time on planet earth. DNA is the programming language the Creator designed and used to build all life forms on planet earth, from micro-organisms to plants to animals to humans. It fully controls the physical development of each unique life form. Our physical nature has five primary sources of interaction with the physical environment, touch, taste, hearing, vision, and smell. Added to these is the ability to speak (language or voice), mobility, and reproduction (male and female). Our physical life is influenced by the transformation of our spiritual, emotional, logical, and functional person.

The Diamond On Cross

         The symbol of the Diamond was chosen to illustrate that the Disciple’s primary purpose is to reflect the love of God to others. We have no light of our own but must grow to become a better reflector of God’s love for his people. The diamond is one of the most reflective of all gems, reflecting all the light it receives, accounting for its spectacular beauty. It is also durable and pure. It’s origin is a soft element called carbon, which changes it’s nature under pressure and heat, a fitting example for the life of a disciple of Jesus. Even after the diamond is formed, it must be precisely cut and polished to remove imperfections and allow for maximum reflection of light. The symbol of the Cross between the elements illustrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross to secure our salvation.

Secret Space, Relational Space, and Community Space

The four aspects of our individual and unique S-E-L-F are at the heart of a larger model that illustrates our God-given ability to engage in Relationships and the larger Community. The following visual illustration incorporates these elements surrounding the Diamond Cross of the individual S-E-L-F. Our Secret Space includes Soul, Heart, Mind, and Strengths. Our Relational Space includes individual Potential, Passion, and Presence. The Community Space includes the ways in which we relate to our community (including vocation) with Confidence, Competence, and Character. There is a connection to Faith, Hope, and Love.

  The Discipling relationship with a new disciple depends on the leader’s Potential, Passion, and Presence in their Relational-Space to plant, cultivate, water, nurture, and feed new disciples until they develop Christ-centered Competence, Confidence, and Character. An overriding purpose of discipling is to create mature disciples who will build up the Kingdom of God in preparation for Christ’s return as King of the Earth.

Disciple as Apprentice

         Recently, my 16 year old grandson had a discussion with a tutor about the value of having hands-on experience in the field of Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics. He asked him if he had ever done any projects that required hand skills. After some discussion with his parents, they determined that both of his grandfathers did a lot of house projects. He contacted me and asked if he could help with some building projects, learn how to use power tools, etc. For the first time in our relationship, he wants to be my apprentice. After his first morning installing new flooring, he is hungry for more work. What happened?

·      First: He began to recognize his Need to learn hand skills.

·      Second: This was a result of his logical decision that renewed his mind, accepting the fact that he needed to learn new skills, and I could help.

·      Third: He changed his emotional attitude toward working with me on projects and accepting the value proposition of being an apprentice.

·      Fourth: He made a connection between his future purpose and his current commitment to hands-on learning projects and skill-development through practice.

New believers require similar steps in transforming their lives toward mature disciples. The guidance of a mature disciple of Jesus is a great source of wisdom and practice for the new believer.

Romans 12:2 parallels the four steps my grandson took in his transformation.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is

– his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2, NIV)

This verse contains four keys to Transforming our Hearts and Restoring our Godly Purpose. First, we are admonished to Recognize our Soul Need (by not conforming to the pattern of this world, rather, seeking Spiritual growth). Second, we need to Reform our Heart (transforming our emotional and character qualities). This process begins by Renewing our Mind (Logically moving toward the mind of Christ). Finally, this process will allow us to seek and see God’s purposes come into clarity in Restoring our Strengths according to God’s Will (Functionally moving toward the best use of our gifts and natural skills).

Recognize our Soul’s need for Spiritual Inspiration

Move from Arrogance toward God to Humility that sees our need for His help in our life.

Ask and receive the Holy Spirit to abide on the Throne of our SOUL to provide gentle, reliable, holy guidance at our inmost center.

Ask the Lord to Inspire our Spirit through the inspiration and infusion of the Holy Spirit. Recognize our SOUL’s need for God’s forgiveness and redemption’s freedom

 The beginning of Wisdom is fear of the Lord, recognizing the Creator’s role in our transformation.

Jesus said: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Luke 11:9, NIV).

ASK and you will receive, Seek and you will find, Knock and it will be opened to you. In Luke 11:13 he has promised to give his Holy Spirit

 Reform our Heart’s Emotional and Character Qualities

All our relationships are dependent on the development of strong character qualities and emotional maturity.

Character qualities are outlined in 1st Corinthians 13, the LOVE chapter, Galations 5, Fruit of the Spirit, and many other scriptures.

Seek the Lord’s guidance as we Disciple our Emotions.

o  Emotional – Disciplined Character Qualities of Love

o  Self control based on Mature Character Qualities

o  I Corinthians 13 – the Love chapter contains a list of character qualities for our training discipline

o  Reform/transform our HEART in perfect love

Renew our Mind’s Logical skills

Develop our worldview in alignment with God’s Word in the Bible.

Adopt an approach of seriously seeking the mind and will of The Lord and his Kingdom through scripture and prayer.

Search for the Lord’s Truth as we Empower our Logic.

o  Logical – Empowered world view, basis of Faith, Decision to follow Christ

o  God’s Worldview rather than the patterns of this world

o  Romans 12:2 – Be transformed by

o  Renew our MIND in alignment with the mind of Christ

o  Seek the Truth of Christ, pursue it intentionally

Restore our Strength, our Functional and natural gifts

 Become a student of Who we are in God’s eyes.

Seek to learn our strengths, gifts, and natural skills that can be dedicated to our Christian life and purpose.

o  Acknowledge the Lord’s gifts in our life as we Affirm our Functional Design. Functional – Personal Strengths and Gifts

o  God’s purposes align with Our native strengths

o  “I knit you together in your mother’s womb” – physical (DNA), spiritual, emotional, logical, and functional (DNA + S-E-L-F)

o  Restore our STRENGTH and train for our purpose.

o  Our strongest motivations are aligned with our areas of strength

o  Clifton’s Strengthsfinders.com helps us learn what we naturally do best. While the assessment tool is not free, it will be a worthwhile investment in achieving our life purpose.

https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/product/en-us/10108/top-5-cliftonstrengths-access

Foundational Topics for Disciples

The disciple of Jesus desires to put into practice (through self-discipline and Christian disciplines) those living principles that Jesus taught his first Disciples. The primary source of these principles is contained in the New Testament, a compilation of writings by early disciples of Jesus who were guided by the Holy Spirit. These writings were peer-reviewed by the early church to assure their authenticity, accuracy, and completeness for the training of future disciples. The New Testament documents are heavily referenced to the writings of the Old Testament preserved by members of the Jewish community from the calling of Abraham to the time of Christ.

As the Messiah was promised in the Old Testament, Jesus fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Old Testament and provided the sacrifice desired by the Father for the redemption of all mankind. His blood sacrifice under Jewish law provided the ransom (payment) for our freedom from the Father’s wrath and provides the basis for our restoration of relationship with him.

He is our Redeemer Relative, a person defined by Jewish law as one who meets four requirements in order to redeem one from a lost situation. The Redeemer Relative must be 1) Related, 2) Free, 3) Willing, and 4) Capable. Jesus was related because he became a member of the human race. He was not bound by any law that would prevent him from paying the ransom for someone else. He acted from his own free will in choosing to redeem us. He was capable of redeeming us because he was God’s Beloved Son and the father accepted the sacrifice of his life as the perfect Lamb of God, in exchange for our forgiveness and salvation. This special role is examined and illustrated by Dr. Reimer in his book Kinsman Leadership: Loving God, Loving Others (Amazon.com/author/docreimer).

Prepare for Battle

Disciples of Jesus will experience resistance in every area of our being just as Job experienced all of these aspects during his testing by satan.

Spiritual Warfare – The Spirit of Christ demands his rightful kingship on the throne of our Soul, and is our only protection from spiritual attacks.

Emotional Warfare – As we exercise and build up our Character Qualities through the disciplines of Silence, Solitude, Sabbath, Scripture, Study, Service, and Sacrifice, we build up our emotional maturity to resist attacks at this level of our life.

Logical Warfare – Disciplined study, seeking, asking, and knocking on the door of knowledge and understanding, we are enabled to defend our worldview, comprehension of Truth, and the wisdom that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Functional Warfare – As we affirm our Strengths and gifts from the Creator, we enable our completion of God’s will through our lives.

Physical Warfare – We often have to overcome our physical limitations by training for additional strength, engaging in physical therapy, overcoming pain and injury, and preparing for new challenges. Our Spiritual, Emotional, Logical, and Functional elements can be powerful tools in effectively managing our physical reality.

To withstand these attacks, we are admonished to build up our Inner Armor, the whole armor of God to withstand the fiery darts of the wicked one. In the words of an old gospel song,

“It’s a battlefield, brother, not a recreation room,

it’s a fight, it’s not a game...”  (Kenny Bishop lyrics from “I Came Here To Stay”).

 Questions for Disciples of Jesus?

What sparked your interest in Jesus of Nazareth? Who do you think he was? Who do you think he is? What is it about him that is attractive to you? What do you expect to gain by learning more about him? Do you think you can have a reality-based relationship with him? Do you expect that relationship to be anything like relationships you have with other people? Do you think you can relate to him as equal individuals, or do you see him as being superior to yourself in some way? Why do you seek relationship with Jesus.

What does it mean to Follow Jesus? Do you see him as a Teacher? Do you expect to learn from him? Do you want to become his apprentice in building His Kingdom? Do you want to be his Servant? Will you submit to his Leadership? Will you Seek and Study his Words? Do you see The Bible as a compilation of accurate, dependable, historically correct writings that were directed by the Spirit of Jesus?

Who can you TRUST?

Who do you Trust? Is it dangerous to trust without careful analysis and study? Must Trust be based on Truth? Is it wise to trust without an assurance of truth? Are you willing to Seek Truth and Pursue it? Study it? Discuss it with those who seem to have mature wisdom?

The Practice of love

God is Love. Our purpose is fulfilled by learning to live in response to God’s love for us. Jesus chose to join the human race (like an undercover boss) in order to become the perfect sacrifice necessary to redeem us from our sin, and satisfy the Father’s requirement for justice. In dying on the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, shed his own blood to complete that sacrifice through love for each human. On his resurrection, he was restored to the right hand of the Father, and authority over all creation was restored to him. He is our redeemer and only source of eternal salvation. He said, “I am The Way and The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(John 14:6, NIV).

When asked which of the commandments was the most important, he responded with a pattern for practicing our Christian life and fulfilling our purpose. He said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:30, NIV)

We will fulfill all the Commandments if we Practice the following two:

1)    Love God,

2)   Love your neighbor as you Love yourself. If we Love God and Love Others as we Love Ourselves, we will Restore our Purpose within God’s plan for our lives. The Christian life is about Relationships, with God, with our neighbors, and with our self.

Our Purpose: Love God and Love Others as our self. As new Christians, we must learn the difference between Trying and Training. As much as we try, we will fail to live the Christian life successfully without training.

Training versus Trying - The Wise Coach

         A wise couch walked into the athletic training room and found a young athlete attempting to lift 300 lbs., unsuccessfully, of course. The coach asked the young athlete how much he thought he could lift right now. He said thought he could lift about 150 lbs. The coach suggested that he lift the 150 lbs., which he was able to do. Coach suggested that for the next week, he only lift 150 lbs., but many repetitions. At the end of the week, the Coach added 10 lbs. to the weight bar. At the end of each successive week, an additional 10 lb. weight was added. Finally, the young athlete was able to work his way up to lifting his initial goal by training.

         Wisdom says, Don’t Try, Train. Training allows us to start from where we are, repeating what we can currently do. Over time, training continues to add more capacity until we reach our goals.

The successful Christian life is all about Training; Practicing our skills as followers of Jesus. Over time, we will learn to “Enjoy the Practice” of building up our four areas of human life as a way to fulfill Christ’s command to Love God and love others as our self.

JOY – Jesus, Others, You

         As a young child I learned a song about JOY. Here are the words:

Jesus and others and you

What a wonderful way to spell Joy,

Jesus and others and you,

In the life of each girl and each boy.

J is for Jesus, for he has first place,

O is for others, we meet face to face,

Y is for you, in whatever you do,

What a wonderful way to spell JOY.

(Copyright 1945 by Percy B. Crawford in “Pinebrook Victory Songs”

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1965)

The Diamond Cross is a visual reminder of the IDEA of SELF discipline. The diamond is a fitting symbol of our Christian discipline resulting in the continual refinement of our SELF in order to Love God and love others. As we train ourselves through the practice of discipleship, the Lord promises to polish and remove blemishes that prevent us from reflecting the true love of God. The diamond is the most reflective of all gems, and is a fitting symbol of our life purpose, to reflect the love of God to our neighbors. In the natural world, diamonds are simple coal, changed through heat and pressure. The sacrifice of Christ and our practice of SELF discipline led by the Spirit of God transforms us from coal to diamond. The cross of Christ is central to this definition and process of becoming the person God wants us to become, as his redemption on the cross and abiding Spirit of Christ provides the super-power of our Christian life. In comparison to the temple of God, this diamond represents the “Most Holy Place” of our lives, the Secret Space where we have intimate communion with the Father and build up our Inner Armor to achieve our purpose in our Relational Space and the Market Space.

 An IDEA To achieve God’s Purpose for your life, partner with the Lord to:   

1.     Inspire your Spiritual needs by seeking an intimate, Soul relationship with your Creator and Lord,

2.    Disciple the Emotional maturity of your Heart by  practicing and training the Character Qualities of Love,

3.    Empower the Logical nature of your Mind by studying scripture and God’s creation,

4.   Affirm your Functional Strengths by learning about your natural gifts and skills.

Learn to enjoy the PRACTICE of self discipline and a life of quality relationships will follow. You will fulfill Jesus’ command to love others as you Love God and love yourself. A key part of this growth journey is to know yourself.

To achieve God’s Purpose in you life, Love God and love others as you love your self, with all your BODY, SOUL, HEART, MIND, and STRENGTH. The key to life's purpose is finding Jesus as "The Way, The Truth, and The Life.