Any teaching, which purports to be a Christian teaching, but that does not have any inherent value for helping a Christian arrive at more intimate fellowship with Christ — intimacy that is possible only with acquiring of the necessary mind from Christ Himself (1John 5:20; Philippians 2:5)— is a teaching framed not for glorifying Christ, but for selfish interests of men.

Naturally, only those who desire to acquire the love nature of God ever arrive at intimacy with Jesus and The Father.

Intimacy with God is rooted first and foremost in the mind, that is, in knowledge, not in the feelings or passion. Only those who desire to know God ever enter into intimate fellowship with Him. All those songs that are sung in Church services that make people feel Gooey all over? If not accompanied by knowledge of God in the mind, valueless.

With respect to evil in the world, God never does evil that good may come (James 1:13; Proverbs 10:22). Man having invited sin and it’s consequences into life on Earth, all The Father can do is provide remedies. So then, The Father always is working to bring out good from evil that man creates in the world (Romans 8:28). Importantly, only those who refuse to rail at God, who choose to repose trust whenever they do not understand why bad things are happening, are able to participate in the good produced out of man’s evil by The Father (Isaiah 40:28–31). This is importance of the command to “in all things, give thanks to The Father” (1Thessalonians 5:18). Note we give thanks “in all things,” not for the things themselves, meaning the admonition relates to the state and focus of our minds.

The reality of spirituality is the well demonstrated fact in history that good times are just as dangerous as bad times for people’s attitudes towards God and Love.

You of course have written a beautiful piece on importance of the state of the mind titled, “Repent doesn’t mean what we think it means.”

The exercise outlined with the High School kids, I think, was both wise and brilliant.