The Pursuit Of Holiness By Jeff Bridges

Change is constant with a society that is always recreating itself. From the Enlightenment period to the Industrial Revolution there is a massive difference when comparing these two societies of their norms and daily life.

Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, is a lawyer from the rural south that advocates for mostly children on death row. He spends most of his time in low income communities with next to no hope. His TED talk was based on his experiences in these communities, his career, and his knowledge regarding minorities while addressing his predominately financially stable, White audience. Trying to persuade an audience that is not effected by what you are trying to speak against is hard, however, Bryan Stevenson is able to do so. Bryan Stevenson’s 2012 TED talk uses ethos to persuade his audience by using his status as a prominent lawyer and an everyday person who many people know and can relate to with strong respectable values in life to prove himself as a trustworthy person in order to argue his point on how the American justice system distorts the truth racial discrimination in the system, as well as the poverty t faces. His use of ethos enables him to establish trust in his audience that can make a major difference in the justice system with most of them being well respected people in society.

The novel, “Afterlife” by Gary Soto was mostly about how this guy named Chuy who was killed in a Club, Club Estrella to be specific. He was killed in the men’s bathroom for complimenting someone else’s shoes, which were yellow. He got stabbed 3 times, and was left there till dying. He then became a ghost, a ghost who couldn’t be heard, seen or touched. He could see everything that was going on, but couldn’t do anything about it. After the ambulance had taken him away, he was already dead, or i mean the body was already dead. When his parents got the news Chuy went to visit them to say one last goodbye, he also visited his school, and the girl he used to like for a long time. He then found this girl named Crystal, who had killed herself taking

In his memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson recounts the stories of several clients whose mental illness was ignored during their trial. Some had intellectual disabilities, others were dealing with the aftermath of severe trauma, but each one was changed in some way. Whether their reasoning had been altered or they simply did not understand what was happening, any crime they committed was closely tied to their mental state. Logically, a major detail like the defendant’s thought process and motivation behind the crime would have been discussed, but this was not the case. Any evidence of their illness was forgotten about or outright ignored by both the prosecution and the defense. When considering each crime with their mental illness in mind, sentencing the defendant to death row is needlessly cruel. Their avoidance of the topic shows a complete failure to understand how important it can be to an individual’s decision-making abilities.

Fictional writers often write about the human condition as a way to connect with readers who contain narrow knowledge. In fictional books, characters are given emotion and senses like any other actual person, which can make the reader relate quicker in detail unlike factual novels. In other words, readers gain a new perspective on a period of time by examining a fiction novel. Ironically, some argue fiction can educate us about part of our life by enabling us to relate and empathize. I am certain that many people can learn factual items in fictional stories. In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, the near death experiences of Rufus Weylin transported an African American woman named Dana from 1976, to the antebellum south to gain an unbelievable experience of what it is like to have been a slave. Through her daily life on the Weylin plantation, the reader begins to understand just how complicated slavery is and how it affects both the slaves and the plantation owners. This novel gave a new definition of reality and a new meaning of the 19th century exploitation practice.

Are some lives worth more than others? Are some lives worthy to be considered lives at all? Bryan Stevenson aims to answer that in his book Just Mercy. In it, he explores the American justice system and its systemic prejudice, whether it’s based on race, income, or gender. Stevenson is a lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), an Alabama-based nonprofit that aims to defend those who have been unfairly represented or unjustly imprisoned, and Just Mercy is a compilation of some of the cases he encountered during his time. Just Mercy is a collection of redemption and corruption--almost everyone he represents in the story finds their freedom from the unnecessarily harsh sentences they were given. In every other chapter he details the stories of multiple people punished by the legal system, including women and children. It is notable that throughout these chapters Stevenson emphasizes real, human connections with his clients to shine light on how distant and unjust the prison system is. In a system where these people are given subhuman treatment, Stevenson reaffirms their inherent dignity and cares for them. This has a profound effect on them and the people around them, seen especially in the cases of Charlie (Chapter 6), Joe Sullivan (Chapter 14), and Avery Jenkins (Chapter 10).

The poem, “Gospel” by Philip Levine gives a vivid description of what the narrator sees around them. The narrator focuses their description on nature. They make many references to types of plants like lupine and thistles. Throughout the poem, nature can be seen as and abstract creature. Nature is giving and lively. The conflict in the poem is between the speaker and nature. The narrator tries to show how nature can give nice outdoor views and how the earth gives people a place to walk on while people give nothing back to nature. Levine’s speaker uses repetition and comparisons to show how nature is constantly pleading for the narrators attention yet they cannot offer anything to the relationship they have with nature. The poem slowly evolves

Creed, is a movie that performances by Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Johnson, Apollo Creed’s son, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, and Tessa Thompson as Bianca was directed by Ryan Coogler. Adonis Johnson, who is the son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, was living in the youth facility when Mary Anne, Creed’s widow visited him and decided to adopt him. Adonis work as a professional, but he was not satisfied with his current life. Mary Anne was so disappointed with him because Adonis’s father passed away in the ring, and she did not want Adonis to follow his dad’s step. Despite the fact that he wanted to pursue his dream to work as a professional fighter, he gave up his current job and went to Philadelphia. He found Rocky Balboa there and he requested Balboa to become his mentor and trained him. In the process of becoming a professional fighter, Adonis went through challenges. Even though Adonis faces challenges in life, he overcomes them because he never gives up.

In the book, THE PURSUIT OF HOLINESS, Jerry Bridges gives a Biblical structure to the long haul Christian trouble for how to live "honored as God is great" (Leviticus 20:26, 1 Peter 1:16). Each area is squeezed with a Biblical outline of a specific district of blessedness. The book is Biblically shake strong, important, apropos, and allowing for creating supporters. It is obvious as you read this book, that the author bestows this fight to sin close by his followers. It is motivating to understand that no one can perform singular consecration in solitude; regardless, God has given good duty to each of us to look for after the brilliance of God. The reason of Bridge's book is that immaculateness, as for all intents and purposes all else in life,

Eliade, in his book “The Sacred and Profane,” poses an interesting conjecture that all people are inherently religious. What one does and the decision they make in their lives are all reflections on what they find sacred. Sacred in this context is an extension of one’s belief held up in high esteem to the point where what is deemed sacred is god like. Religion is the frame that interprets what is sacred and gives it a name and a face. Christians, for example, view Christmas as a sacred time as it is the season of the birth of their savior; Jews view the Passover as sacred as it represents a time in their religious history where God passed over the Jews while sending a message to their enemies. What is sacred can manifest itself in any shape, form, or time; truly entering the fourth dimension of space. If something sacred is god like, what is sacred to those who do not have a God? How can something be sacred if there is not a frame of reference for the thing to be sacred? How can every decision a person makes be reflect what they find sacred, if they do not have a religious language to reflect this phenomena?

In his poem "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace," published in 1968, Richard Brautigan places the reader in a future realm: a sparkling utopia "where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony" (1). He draws us in by juxtaposing images of nature, man and machine that challenge us to imagine this new world. In essence, Brautigan's poem is a supplication for that dream world, but to the modern reader it can be a land of irony.

In the 1950’s the melodrama genre came to age and there is no better example than Douglas Sirk’s All that Heaven Allows. The melodrama followed some basic characteristics which can be identified in the film. First and foremost the narrative of the melodrama focused on the family. All that Heaven Allows follows the narrative of the typical melodrama but at the same time also challenges the social conventions. While Sirk follows many of the key themes he does so in a more detached fashion. The protagonist Cary is bound to her community by her social class. Change was occurring in society and the melodrama displayed people’s restraint to this. In All that Heaven Allows Sirk began his focus on the female and her desires in contrast to the more conservative male focused melodrama. As with the melodrama the legibility of the story, displayed through the plot, is simple and easy to follow. “Our engagement with the story depends on our understanding of the pattern of change and stability, cause and effect, time and space” (Bordwell and Thompson, 2008). The linear time flow of the film allows for it’s simple understanding. This is added to by the expressiveness of the melodrama, where everything is brought into the open and nothing is left unsaid. The expressiveness of the melodrama is also represented in the highly expressive mise-en-scene. Sirks use of colour, the human figure, camera work, lighting and music allow him to portray suppressed meaning and significance.

Our purpose in life is to serve God. Jesus gave us the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew 28: 16-20 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The next characteristic in which he had created us in is holiness. Holy means “to separate or to cut off.” or (Towns 68-69) God is holy which means that he is separated from sin and cannot be sinful. Like himself, God has made us to have the ability to separate ourselves from sin and separation onto God. In the church as Christians we can use this attribute to help lead those to Christ. Holiness encompasses all of what is needed for some to receive salvation in the first place. As humans we will never be born holy, however with those we meet in the secular world, we can teach them that the ultimate goal is to reach salvation with God but also to become holy in God’s vision. The secular world is not concerned about being holy but instead more material things, however being made in God’s image, we as Christians see the importance of holiness and can be able to preach its importance for generations to come.

Hence, during the in class discussions, I have recognized that the spiritual tradition that my church subscribes to is a combination of holiness and evangelical. Subsequently, the holiness tradition is living a virtuous life whilst the evangelical