Grace Point Church invites members to join The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting On the Characteristics of Christ on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m.
The church website mentioned that the said program is a 12-week personal and group study for men and women. They would discuss the book “The Good and Beautiful Life” by James Bryan Smith. In this book, he said that the problem is that people have bought into the false belief of happiness and success. They added that these self-centered choices lead people further into the vices that cause destruction, anger, lust, lying, worry, and judgment.
Smith also noted that this book is relevant to the Sermon of the Mount to guide participants to look behind their flaws and replace their false beliefs with Jesus’ stories about life in the Kingdom of God.
The Good and Beautiful Life
According to the Villanova University website, “The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ” is a follow-up book to Smith’s “The Good and Beautiful God.” The author wrote 12 points on soul training on living without negative emotions. These are anger, lust, lies, curse, worry, etc. The said book also tackles praying and keeping the Sabbath by living in the kingdom every day.
In the book’s preview on Google, Smith mentioned that the said book is the culmination of twenty-five years of learning from two remarkable men, Richard Foster and Dallas Willard. Foster had been his mentor since he was a student in college. Then Smith met Willard and worked as a teaching assistant for ten years. He noted that the idea for his book came to him soon after he began working with Willard.
Besides, Willard discussed the need to make “a curriculum for Christlikeness” for people and churches. In 1998, Smith stated that he began working with his simple blueprint for a course of educating to live as Jesus taught and created a curriculum. Then in 2003, the church leadership board of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita agreed to go through the curriculum with some members.
Smith led twenty-five people through the one-month course. In the middle of the year, he said he began to think that Willard was right. He witnesses that it is possible to have a genuine transformation into the character of Christ.
Issues Addressed in this Book
The author mentioned that this book focuses on targeting the reader's heart. The heart is the center of life and exposes one’s actions and proves an individual’s character. The author emphasized that Spiritual formation shapes character, and this book starts by looking at life in general and asks, “Who is living a good life?”. Chapters 2 and 3 explore the crucial words of Jesus. He added that both chapters introduce the available and unbreakable kingdom of God. Then he explained the importance of life.
More importantly, Smith encourages readers to continue with hope and certainty that they are committed to something that can make a positive difference in their life. He said that he believes that God, who has begun a good work in the readers, will finish it. The author hopes that individuals may change their minds, heart, and life to change the world as they read his book.
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