How to Become Better - presentation with slide designs

 How To Become Better

— presentation with slides

— by Stephen D Green with AI wording

Slide 1

Slide Title: The Question That Matters
Slide Content:

• How do people actually become better?
• Not richer. Not smarter. Better.
• If life has consequences, improvement matters.
  Visual Suggestion:
  A quiet road or path stretching forward; neutral tones, no symbols.

One of the most important questions any human being can face is how people actually become better. Not richer, not more successful, not more informed—but better in character, direction, and integrity. If our lives carry real weight, if our actions have consequences, and if we will one day be judged—by God, by truth, or by the lasting effects of what we have done—then improvement is not optional. A life that does not aim upward will inevitably drift downward. The question is not whether we are being shaped, but by what.

Slide 2

Slide Title: Two Common Paths
Slide Content:

• Indulgence: pleasure as improvement
• Intelligence: knowledge as improvement
• Both promise growth
  Visual Suggestion:
  A forked path or two diverging arrows.

Most people attempt improvement in one of two ways. The first is indulgence: believing that greater satisfaction, comfort, or pleasure will lead to a better life. The second is intelligence: believing that more knowledge, sharper thinking, or superior reasoning will make us better people. Both paths promise growth, and both can achieve results. Yet neither reliably produces moral strength, integrity, or lasting goodness, which is what truly matters when life is weighed.

Slide 3

Slide Title: The Problem With Indulgence
Slide Content:

• Appetite does not create freedom
• Excess weakens responsibility

No life is improved by being ruled by desire
Visual Suggestion:
Soft-focus image of excess fading into emptiness (abstract, not graphic). 

Indulgence does not create freedom; it creates dependence. When life becomes ruled by appetite—whether for food, pleasure, substances, gambling, or ease—it weakens responsibility, damages relationships, and narrows the soul. Satisfaction may feel like progress in the moment, but over time it erodes self-command. No one looks back on a life diminished by excess and calls it improvement when truth and accountability are taken seriously. It can even result in criminality.

Slide 4

Slide Title: The Problem With Intelligence Alone
Slide Content:

• Knowledge increases power
• Power without direction multiplies harm
• Being clever is not the same as being good
  Visual Suggestion:
  A bright light casting a long shadow, or a tool beside a warning sign.

The second path is intelligence. We assume that if we know more, think more clearly, or reason more accurately, we will become better people. Intelligence certainly has value, but it does not guarantee goodness. Knowledge increases power, not character. A highly intelligent person may solve complex problems, invent powerful tools, or master difficult ideas—and still act selfishly, cruelly, or destructively. History shows that brilliance without moral direction can magnify harm rather than prevent it. Being clever is not the same as being good.

Most people mix both of these paths, while some focus on one or the other.

Slide 5

Slide Title: A Third Way
Slide Content:

• Not indulgence
• Not intellect alone
• A life led by spirit
  Visual Suggestion:
  A single upward path or a subtle light breaking through clouds.

If indulgence fails to improve us, and intelligence alone fails to improve us, then we must look for a third way. That way is the life of the spirit. This does not reject the body or the mind, but it rises above them. Spirit is the part of us capable of governing desire, correcting thought, and choosing what is right even when it is costly. It is the inner capacity to live from the inside out rather than reacting to every impulse or opinion.

Slide 6

Slide Title: What We Mean by “Spirit”
Slide Content:

• The ability to rise above impulse
• The strength to choose what is right
• Living from the inside out
  Visual Suggestion:
  A calm human silhouette with light at the center (abstract, non-religious).

By spirit, we do not mean emotion, enthusiasm, or religious excitement. Spirit is moral strength. It is the ability to say no when saying no is hard, and yes when yes requires sacrifice. It is what allows a person to act with integrity instead of convenience, with courage instead of fear. A life led by spirit is a life shaped by truth rather than appetite or pride.

Slide 7

Slide Title: Why Willpower Isn’t Enough
Slide Content:

• Determination without direction fails
• We must know what is worthy
• Direction must be higher than appetite or cleverness
  Visual Suggestion:
  A compass or navigation map with a clear heading.

Yet even this requires more than sheer willpower. 

Determination without direction does not produce goodness; it produces stubbornness. To truly improve, we must know what is worthy of our effort—what is true, what is good, what deserves our loyalty. That direction cannot come from appetite, and it cannot come from clever reasoning alone. It must come from something higher than both, something that gives clarity, steadiness, and moral weight to our choices.

Slide 8

Slide Title: The Way Jesus Taught
Slide Content:

• Not rules, but transformation
• A call to become a different kind of person
• Truth lived, not just known
  Visual Suggestion:
  Simple image of people walking together; no overt religious iconography.

This is the way Jesus taught. He did not primarily offer rules to follow or theories to master, but a call to transformation. He pointed people away from lives driven by impulse or ego and toward lives shaped by truth, mercy, integrity, and self-giving love. His focus was not outward performance, but inward renewal—becoming a different kind of person.

Slide 9

Slide Title: Beginning Again
Slide Content:

• Leaving lives driven by impulse
• Moving beyond intellect alone
• Choosing rebirth from the inside out
  Visual Suggestion:
  Sunrise or fresh morning light over a horizon.

To live this way requires a real beginning again. It means turning away from lives driven only by physical desire or mental cleverness and choosing a life led by the spirit. Jesus called this being born again—not a surface change, but a fundamental reorientation of what drives us. True improvement begins when the center of life shifts inward and upward.

Slide 10

Slide Title: When Life Is Led by Spirit
Slide Content:

• Love becomes steady and sincere
• Integrity replaces impulse
• Stability replaces chaos
  Visual Suggestion:
  Hands holding something fragile with care, or a steady flame.

When a life is led by spirit, love itself changes. Love becomes steady instead of impulsive, sincere instead of self-serving. Integrity replaces reaction. Stability replaces chaos. A person becomes less controlled by urges or opinions and more aligned with what is genuinely good. This kind of life does not promise ease, but it does offer wholeness.

Slide 11

Slide Title: What This Saves Us From
Slide Content:

• Living small and reactive
• Being ruled by desire or pride
• Standing unprepared when judgment comes
  Visual Suggestion:
  A shadow receding or weight being set down.

A spirit-led life saves us from being ruled by desire, pride, or fear. It saves us from living small, reactive lives that collapse under pressure or temptation. And it prepares us to stand honestly when judgment comes—having lived according to something greater than appetite or intellect alone. It is not escape from accountability, but readiness for it.

Slide 12

Slide Title: The Invitation
Slide Content:

• Live from the inside out
• Align with what is truly good
• Become the kind of person who can stand
  Visual Suggestion:
  An open door or open landscape, calm and hopeful.

The invitation, then, is simple but demanding: live from the inside out. Choose alignment with what is truly good. Become the kind of person who can stand upright in truth, love sincerely, and live with integrity. This is not about perfection, but about direction. Not merely being saved from failure, but becoming whole—at one with what is right, and with the life Jesus taught.

Spirit-driven life (AI-generated wording)

 The Way We Become Better People

One of the most important questions we ever face is this:
How do people actually become better?

Not richer. Not more successful. Not more informed.
Better.

If our lives matter—if our actions have consequences—then improvement isn’t optional. And if we will be judged someday, whether by God, by history, or by the truth itself, then how we live now matters deeply.

Most people try one of two paths.

The first is indulgence.
We tell ourselves that satisfaction is improvement. But we know better. Becoming ruled by appetite—by food, alcohol, drugs, gambling, greed, or pleasure—does not make a person stronger or freer. It weakens us. It damages families. It erodes responsibility. No one looks back on a ruined life and says, “At least I enjoyed myself.”

The second path is intelligence.
We assume that if we just think better, know more, or reason more clearly, we will become better people. But intelligence does not guarantee goodness. History is full of brilliant minds who caused immense harm. Knowledge increases power—but power without moral direction can multiply evil.

So if indulgence fails, and intelligence fails, what’s left?

There is a third way.
It is the way of the spirit.

By spirit, this doesn’t mean emotion or religious excitement. It means that part of us that can rise above impulse and error. The part that can say no when saying no is hard, and yes when saying yes costs us something. The part of us that can choose what is right even when it isn’t convenient.

This is what separates a life that merely reacts from a life that stands for something.

But willpower alone is not enough. Determination without direction just creates stubbornness. We need to know what is worthy—what is true, what is good, what deserves our loyalty. That direction cannot come from appetite, and it cannot come from cleverness alone. It must come from something higher than both.

Jesus taught this way of life. Not as a system of rules, but as a way of becoming. He pointed people away from lives driven only by the body or the mind, and toward a life led from the inside out. A life shaped by truth, integrity, mercy, and self-giving love.

He called it being born again.
Not starting over with better habits—but becoming a different kind of person.

When a life is led by the spirit, love changes.
It is no longer just desire or preference. It becomes something steady, sincere, and trustworthy. Love becomes something you choose, not something that controls you.

This kind of life gives stability.
It gives hope that is not easily shaken.
It gives a conscience that can stand upright.

This is what saves a person—not escape from life, but transformation within it. Not perfection, but alignment. Not control, but unity with what is truly good.

This is the invitation Jesus offers:
to begin again,
to live from the inside out,
and to become the kind of people who can stand honestly when judgment comes—having lived by something greater than impulse or intellect alone.

(Stephen D Green, with AI-generated wording)

Spirit-driven life (wholly non-AI wording)

 How we can better people is a vital question, if we know we will be judged in the future and maybe throughout our lifetimes. Jesus mainly taught how to be better people, and so he saved people. His way is the way of bettering ourselves by spirit. Would indulging ourselves improve us? No. Getting fat, becoming a drunkard, wasting our lives on drugs, gambling away our ability to provide for family, getting rich by criminality, these are not improvements when we know judgment is coming some day. Would philosophical thinking and cerebral cleverness improve us? No. Making ourselves like the most advanced AI computer, having answers to every puzzling question, always getting things right intellectually, masterminding the greatest achievements such as by military inventions, medical cures, theological dogma, it all sounds good but we might still commit heinous crimes at some point, and even greatly amplify the evil outcomes of such criminality. There is a third way: Improvement by spirit. As humans we do have this third aspect to our lives. Spirit transcends the other aspects of flesh and mentality. It is our potential to rise above these other aspects. By spirit we have potential to live more nobly, even if we are not nobles. It is our ability to use willpower to overcome both mind failings and physical weaknesses. We can rise above things, exerting will power and determination to do better, but only if we have direction in what is worthy. That direction must itself be above mere mentality and physical drivers. Given the right spirit, the pure leadings, the wisdom of what is true, we can put our spirit behind it, coming alive in that spirit, animated to really live right. This leads to the ideal outcome for us when we are judged. It saves us. Jesus came with teachings to direct and lead us in spirit. His way came by spirit and leads in the way of spirit: spirit and truth. Then he died for sins, rose by his divine Father’s power, and asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his followers to lead them even more in the way of spirit. By becoming his followers we can have this spirit-directed life. This needs to be how we begin: We effectively have to begin again, reverting from lives driven by physical and cerebral drivers to this life of spirit. It is like rebirth. This is how to be saved from the judgment incurred by living by the weaker mind and body alone. It results in a greater kind of love. Love becomes something pure and truthful, genuine and sincere, as it is not tied merely to physical satisfaction or indulgence and human thought processes. It becomes more divine, more worthy, more saintly. This is the ultimate goal. Then we have true hopes, and rightly persuaded faith. We gain true stability in this life driven by spirit. Not just saved, but at one with God and wity Jesus His Son. 

Spirit-driven life

 How we can better people is a vital question, especially if we understand that we will be judged—both in the future and, in some sense, throughout our lives. Jesus primarily taught how human beings are to become better people, and in doing so, he saved them. His way is the way of improvement by the spirit.

Would indulging ourselves improve us? No. Becoming gluttonous, falling into drunkenness, wasting life on drugs, gambling away our ability to provide for family, or gaining wealth through criminality—these are not improvements when judgment is real and inevitable.

Would philosophical thinking and mere intellectual cleverness improve us? No. We could make ourselves like the most advanced AI—able to answer every difficult question, always correct in reasoning, masterminding great achievements in military technology, medicine, or theology—and still commit heinous crimes. Worse, such intelligence might greatly amplify the harm caused by our wrongdoing. Intelligence increases power, not goodness.

There is a third way: improvement by spirit. As human beings, we possess this third dimension of life. Spirit transcends both flesh and mentality. It is our capacity to rise above appetite and error, above physical weakness and intellectual failure. By spirit, we have the potential to live nobly, even if we are not nobles by birth or status.

Spirit is our ability to exercise willpower—to overcome both mental failings and bodily weaknesses. Yet willpower alone is not enough. We can rise above only if we are rightly directed toward what is truly worthy. That direction itself must come from above mere physical impulses and human reasoning. Given the right spirit—the pure leadings, the wisdom of what is true—we can place our whole being behind it. We come alive in that spirit, animated to live rightly.

This is what leads to the ideal outcome when we are judged. It saves us.

Jesus came with teachings that direct and lead us in the spirit. His way came by spirit and leads in the way of spirit and truth. He then died for sins, rose by the power of his divine Father, and asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his followers, so that they might be led even more fully in the life of the spirit.

By becoming his followers, we are given this spirit-directed life. But this requires a true beginning again. We must turn away from lives driven by physical appetite and mere intellect and enter into a life led by the spirit. It is like rebirth.

This rebirth saves us from the judgment incurred by living according to body and mind alone. It results in a greater kind of love—one that is pure, truthful, genuine, and sincere. Love is no longer bound to physical indulgence or limited human reasoning. It becomes more divine, more worthy, more saintly.

This is the ultimate goal. From it come true hope and rightly grounded faith. We gain real stability in life—not merely being saved, but becoming one with God and with Jesus, his Son.

Spirit words

 The teaching words of Jesus, and the words of those sent by Jesus, are spirit and carry the power to save. When these words are adhered to—believed, held onto, and lived out—they become a means through which God’s salvation actively works in a person’s life. If you live by spirit you truly live. 

Scripture

 Deciding which religious texts are truly authoritative is tricky. No text can prove on its own that it belongs in an official set of sacred writings. Someone outside the texts—like a church, a council, or a long-standing tradition—has to recognize them. This means the authority of the texts depends both on the texts themselves and on the people who acknowledge them. The process is circular: texts are important because they are recognized, and they are recognized because they are important. Even rules that say, “Nothing is valid unless it comes from these texts,” cannot be fully self-consistent unless the rules themselves are part of the recognized texts. Otherwise, authority comes from both the texts and the act of recognition.

Even systems that claim “Scripture alone” as the ultimate authority face the same problem. No text can declare itself the ultimate rule. Recognition—whether by a church, a community, or history—is always needed to identify which writings count as Scripture. Anglicanism tries to solve this by claiming Scripture is inherently authoritative, yet even there, someone must still decide which texts are Scripture. This creates a paradox: texts are considered authoritative because they are Scripture, yet outside recognition is still required to determine which writings belong. Authority is therefore always both inherent and dependent.

One way to approach this paradox is through personal discipleship and looking to Jesus as the true light sent by God. Instead of relying solely on external authorities to decide which texts matter, a disciple can focus on discerning what Jesus believed and taught about the scriptures and the nature of God. This involves seeking to understand the overarching principles he lived by—truth, love, and God’s revelation—rather than just following a fixed rule about which writings are canonical. By centering faith on him as the ultimate guide and light, believers can navigate the questions of authority and interpretation with a living, relational standard. Scripture then becomes meaningful not only because it is recognized by others but because it illuminates the truth revealed in Jesus, who embodies the authority of God himself, and because Jesus showed his own belief in such scriptures.

In this way, the paradox of self-authoritative texts is mediated through relationship and discipleship. The authority of Scripture is interpreted through the lens of following Jesus, trusting his teachings and character as the authoritative source of truth and faith. This approach allows believers to engage with the texts thoughtfully, discerning their meaning and applying their principles in ways consistent with the God who is true and who sends light into the world.

The Strict-Sola-Scriptura Paradox

 Any system claiming that Scripture alone is the ultimate norm of authority—strict sola scriptura—is formally self-referential, because no text within the canon can, by itself, establish its own canonical status or delimit the scope of doctrinal authority; the recognition of which texts are authoritative necessarily relies on an extrinsic agent—whether a community, Church, or historical consensus—whose act of recognition both confers and enforces the authority that Scripture is claimed to possess, so that the normative force of Scripture is contingent upon an authoritative judgment that Scripture itself does not provide, creating an inescapable epistemic circularity in which authority is both asserted by Scripture and grounded in an extrabiblical act of recognition.

The Closed-Scripture Paradox

 Any attempt to close a scriptural canon is necessarily self-referential: no text within a prospective canon can, by itself, establish its own authority, because doing so presupposes recognition of canonical status that the texts alone do not provide; therefore, the determination of which texts are authoritative must rely on an extrinsic agent—whether a Church, council, or tradition—exercising normative judgment to delimit the boundaries of authority; yet this exercise presupposes the very authority it seeks to regulate, creating a formal circularity in which the canon’s legitimacy depends simultaneously on the texts themselves (whose authority is contingent on recognition) and on the authoritative act that recognizes them, such that canonical closure is epistemically grounded not solely in Scripture, but in the mediated, contingent, and self-referential authority of the recognizing agent.