Developing a Christian Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Developing a Christian Mind - Essay Example However, it also means, according to Strongs Concordance (Strong 7965), completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom is a blessing (The Refiners Fire). There are three levels of Christian relationship. We are called to be in relationship with God, with God’s creation, and with others (Lowe and Claiborne). Our relationship with God is the most basic and critical. That relationship was a gift to us, through Jesus, the life-giver. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he left us the Holy Spirit, so that his ministry is still alive, still dynamic, still with us. By tuning into the leading of the Holy Spirit, and responding to that leading, we can stay within God’s plan for our lives. In that way, God is not something far away and external to us, but is internal and immediate. This is the deepest source of peace, of wholeness, completeness, health, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom is God’s blessing. What that looks like, in operation, is that a Christian reads God’s Word, prays deeply, listens to the silence in which God speaks. The peace, Shalom, shows in action, in word, in expression, in patience, in gentleness, in modesty. It shows in a Christian’s embodiment of all the virtues that lead to the other levels. The next level is a Christian’s relationship to God’s creation. Loving God and feeling his love for us, leads us to a great respect for his creation. In the flight of each flamingo, in the wing pattern of each butterfly, in the purity of snow on a mountaintop, in the startle of lightening, in the reflection of creation in the still surface of a lake, in the mist from a thundering waterfall, in the paw of a squirrel, in the whir of the hummingbird, in the strength of an ant and the