Episode 82 - How can we cultivate spiritual integrity?

We beckon you deeper into the Book of Proverbs this week. Once again, Stephanie introduces us to a fictional character. This week, his name is Brian, and he struggles with an addiction to people's approval of him. This leads him down to dangerous places of self-worship, deceit and manipulation. These are our key themes this week in Proverbs, underlying the concept of spiritual adultery.

In this episode, we will learn to see our heart as the driver behind our will (yes, the pun is absolutely intended!) and how we can surrender our will to God's perfect wisdom from above the sun. Our will both shapes and is shaped by our identity, so we will wonder: how can we center our identity on Christ?

We follow Lady Wisdom and Folly in the pages of Proverbs today. We look at seven things the Lord hates, and how they all speak of behavior-based identity. We see that the road of flattery and deceit leads to death, but the road of integrity and truth leads to life. Then, we dare to dive into what it means to consider Christ as our Bridegroom. How is He our spiritual Husband? What does it mean? What does Scripture teach on that? And how is a human marriage as God intends, between a man and a woman, a picture of His heavenly intention of a spiritual marriage between Christ and His bride, the Church universal composed of all the true believers across time and space?

Proverbs provides us with two mirrors to understand life: the self-centered-love mirror, with a distorted reflection; or the Christ-centered-love mirror, which points to God.

We end with a powerful word picture helping us see that we live inside the picture book of God's universe, where marriage and wisdom are but stick-figure picture of the true Reality, with a capital R, that awaits us beyond the book. We live inside this universe-book today, but the Holy Spirit beckons us already, in Christ and through wisdom, to peek over the edge of the page into the glorious bottomless infinity of God's weighty presence.

Through the Book of Proverbs, God invites you to taste the intoxicating love of His Son through the Holy Spirit. Come and be filled. Taste and see that the Lord is good today!

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This season of the Gospel Spice Po