Urban Reformation

What are the three catalyst that God uses to conform us to the Image of His son Jesus Christ?

1. People(Relationships)
2.Circumstances
3.Spiritual Disciplines!

We have begun our new Shepherding Groups this fall, and we are focusing on three areas this year.

* Dependence Upon God (Spiritual Disciplines) Loving God
* Meeting the Needs of the needy both in our (Group/Church and Unbelievers) -Loving your Neighbors
* Reaching the Lost for Christ ( Praying and reaching out to the Lost ) -Loving the Lost

In this first chapter of the book Don Whitney beings “Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian LIFE” with this verse.

1 Timothy 4:7 “Discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness”

Don states that, “God uses three primary catalyst for changing us and conforming us to Christlikeness, but only one is largely under our control.”

People is his first one, circumstances is his second one, and disciplines is the last and the one that we spend the rest of the chapter focusing on.  Don makes a comparison between playing an instrument at the level of an expert and all of the effort put into playing this instrument is difficult and takes effort but in the end when the expert is playing the value of its worth is seen when it comes time for the concert, or time to exercise the God given discipline you’ve been given.

“Consider the people who will work hard at learning to play an instrument, knowing that it takes years to acquire the skills, who will practice hard to lower their  golf score or to improve their sports performance, knowing it takes years to become proficient, who will discipline themselves throughout their career because they know it takes sacrifice to succeed.  These same people will give up quickly when they find the Spiritual Disciplines don’t come easily, as though becoming like Jesus was not supposed to take much effort.”

But how often do we sit back and decide that Christianity is supposed to come through one of the first two and this third aspect in Spiritual Disciplines only if it suits our schedule.

Luke 9:23 is used as an example as well, and then he ends this weeks’ chapter  with this paragraph.

Discipline without direction is drudgery.  But the Spiritual Disciplines are never drudgery as long as we practice them with the goal of Godliness in mind.  If your picture of a disciplined Christian is one of grim, tight-lipped, joyless half-robot, then you’ve missed the point.  Jesus was the most disciplined Man who ever lived and yet the most joyful and passionately alive. He is our example of discipline. Let us follow in to joy through the Spiritual Disciplines.

This first chapter was a delight to read and it was difficult to put it down and hold off.  We had Shepherding Group around this book last evening and it was particularly exciting to discuss these things and become excited, encouraged, and stirred up to do the things of this book vs. simply read them for a mental ascent.

One of the suggestions that Don puts before us, is he ask to think of someone that you Spiritually admire.  And in that admiration of them, realize how they became those qualities that you’re thinking about.  For example if someone is wise, and learned in the word, it took Spiritual Discipline for them to get there.  If there is someone who seems to have a connection to God through prayer that’s unprecedented that you know, imagine the spiritual discipline it is to get there.  If you know someone with great humility, imagine their heart, the road of getting to that point with I’m sure a number of insights to get there.  Don speaks about our freedom and our slavery to be bound by the good thing in the sense that we are bound to be free to quote scripture, to be wise in the things of God, to have discernment, to have peace, to know Joy.  All of these things we are bound to in our spiritual disciplines but it takes being a slave to the discipline to see the joy of their results.

I’ll end with this encouraging quote Don uses from the Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry.  Tom said, ” The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.”

In the same way, the hard work of the disciplines start off conforming us to Christlikness and Holiness as the goal, but we must do the hard work of the Spiritual Disciplines if we are to see God’s results as He works out in us all of these things for His Glory.

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