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ultimately to take part in His eternal purposes, after He reshapes and recreates the universe itself. What is required of us, however, is  the surrender of our will for His Will, in a veritable exchange of destinies, wherein we place our future, in fact, all of our most precious hopes and dreams into His hands and pick up the cross of His choice to follow Him. This is certainly what distinguishes true Christianity from every other form of religion -- this idiosyncratic, tug of war relationship, between God's perfect will for each and every believer, and our acceptance or rejection (in varying degrees) to His Lordship. This is why (in His letters to the seven churches, for instance) Christ admonishes us over and over again -- "Let Him who has ears to hear; hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." Because the sad truth is that most of Christendom, while acknowledging Christ as their personal Savior (from the penalties of eternal damnation) refuse, or are unable (due to unrepentant sin, neglect or willful disobedience) to allow Him His rightful place as Lord of their lives. Far too many Christians, by living their lives for themselves, have become spiritually deaf; blinded by Satan, they simply choose to ignore the supernatural battles raging all around us -- mesmerized instead by a myriad of worldly enchantments and personal obligations. This is why we must take prayerful  care, lest we ourselves lapse into some obtuse form of spiritual asceticism, wherein we actually formulate our own religion, and use Christianity as nothing more than a springboard to validate our own pre-conceived, self-ordained, self approved Christmas lists, of good works and moral credos, born and bred in our own imaginations. (i.e., the soul realm). Unfortunately, many today have been deceived by just this very form of modern day Phariseeism -- by advocating a doctrine of moral absolutism, which mistakenly equates ethical uprightness with Holiness; for at its essence this brand of religion holds good and bad, right and wrong, as the measurement by which we should gauge God's approval; the Christian position however, must always rise above the dialectic of moral law completely -- for we are "not under the law but under grace." Also, as Christians, our righteousness must "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees." This can only be accomplished by "going the extra mile";  become the "least" rather that the "greatest" etc. etc. (Luke 22 vs. 25-26) All forms of self assertion must retreat so that God's Spirit can take control -- or as John the Baptist so aptly put it; "He must increase; but I must decrease." Truly, if God demanded strict moral servitude from us -- none of us would make it.  Do we therefore understand that being a good Christian is not about do's and  don'ts, but is all about active relationship with the Father through Christ. Legalism has no foundation in the Kingdom of God's Love. For loving the Lord our God," with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength"; and loving our "neighbors as ourselves", exceeds all moral law as we know it, while still fulfilling its demands.  Therefore, if we are to seek God's approval in all things, we must tune our ears away from the self-directed life and enter the Spirit controlled Life, (so clearly defined in the book of Acts), for it is then, and only then, that we will procure our genesis in God's divine and perfect will. Truly, God doesn't need or even want our good ideas to help Him institute and establish His Kingdom. What He does desire however, is men and women who will seek Him -- hear from Him -- and obey Him. Spiritual truth however, is often easy to abstractly conceptualize and extrapolate upon, but birthing its reality into our daily lives is always demanding and requires great personal sacrifice. This is why the death of our self-willed life, (symbolized in scripture by baptism