The Blessing Of Discipline

Could it be that discipline regardless of the area of life is often the biggest catalysts of us getting to where we want to go and what we believe God has called us to do?

I think this is true for me.

I am starting to realize that every area of my life that is not what I want it to be

a. physically

b. character and spiritual growth

c. knowledge and occupational competency

d. socially, even maritally

All are related to the issue of disciplines. I have long pushed back against the notion of discipline. After all I am a red blooded American who basks in my freedoms and autonomy (which if you break down the word autonomy it come from the greek word “autos” meaning self, and “nomos” meaning law, together equally self-law) and autonomy and this idea that I can be free from discipline, obligation, and diligence cripples me from being what I am made to be.

I am not advocating that we all work a lot harder and just develop militant lifestyles, but we can all use a little bit more discipline. As Christians we are to die daily to our flesh and pick up our Cross and follow Jesus. Jesus is asking us a pretty simple question in all of this, will you be conformed? Will you become a follower who is willing to be made new? One of my favorite things about Jesus is he is always completely cool with people coming to him just as they are, no matter how jacked up they are, in a sense he meets them where they are. But eventually he confronts them and calls them to be reformed or made new (John 8).

Much of this boils out of the fact that I have been trying to holistically add more healthy discipline to my life. Running/physical exercise, eating less and healthier, times of retreat with God, laboring more diligently in the tasks God has given me. What I am discovering though is that discipline is setting me free. It is a mechanism in which an idea or concept becomes a reality. I know running is a good for me, I am changed by running. I know that eating right is wise, I am changed by the discipline of doing so. I know that God is something I believe in, I know God and am made new by him.

Maybe it is in the disciplines we are somehow changed...

because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. (Hebrews 12:6)

Ryan

What honor could be greater?

“How great an honor will it be to a person to have God at the day of judgment owning a person, declaring before all men, angels and devils that that person is before his all-seeing eyes and that he stands innocent and perfect in his sight, clothed with perfect righteousness and entitled to everlasting glory and blessedness. How honorable will this render them in the eyes of all that vast assembly that will be together at the day of judgment. That will be an infinitely greater honor than any man or any angel declaring that they judge him upright and sincere and that eternal life belongs to him. What can be a greater honor than this — to be owned by the great King and Lord of all things?”

Jonathan Edwards, The Glory and Honor of God (Nashville, 2004), edited by Michael D. McMullen, page 61.

One Of The Best Things You Can Do This New Year

Read the entire Bible!

Here is a link to the ESV Study Bible web page where you can daily read selections of Scripture that will take you through the whole Bible during the next 365 days. If you have an ESV Study Bible you can find this same reading plan included in the back of it.

I will be reading through it this year and writing periodically here on passages that I am reading. I have been thinking about it the last few days and I am convinced that there is nothing as a church we could do that would be more beneficial then routinely, and constantly reading through the Bible. God's Word shapes us. God's Word convicts us. God's Word changes us. So rather than make a bunch of resolutions you will probably give up on in the next three weeks, why not make one that will change your eternity? God's word is a gift to us and I invite you to drink deeply.

Come Thou Fount

If there is one hymn I wish I could have written it might be Come Thou Fount. The author was actually Robert Robinson, a Baptist pastor saved by the preaching of George Whitefield. He wrote the famous hymn at 22 after spending his teenage years in rebellion and sin.

I find myself listening to different renditions of Come Thou Fount at least a couple times a day. Here are two of the best I know of and they are both free from Mars Hill Church for you to download or burn onto a CD.

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1. And This version by another Mars Hill band called "King's Kaleidoscope."

And here are the lyrics to the song which I would encourage you to meditate on and ponder their beauty and truth.

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

2. Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

5. O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

God Gives Us Eyes To See

I have been asked many times what to do when we lose our appetite or grow disinterested in God's Word. I find these words of the great theologian Jonathan Edwards to strike to the core of the matter in that our only hope is a broken contrite heart that cries out in prayer and repentance. And as we abide in Jesus we constantly petition in our dark moments for God to give us eyes to see the richness of his grace. In fact if you read the Psalms it is in many ways this story being played out over and over.

“If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. The reason why men are not affected by such infinitely great, important, glorious, and wonderful things, as they often hear and read of, in the word of God, is undoubtedly because they are blind; if they were not so, it would be impossible, and utterly inconsistent with human nature, that their hearts should be otherwise than strongly impressed, and greatly moved by such things.” - Jonathan Edwards

Why You Should Get An ESV Study Bible For Christmas

This is the best Bible at the best price I have ever seen it at...52% off! I can't think of a better purchase most of us can make during this Christmas season. Also, as a church a study Bible like this will come in very handy during the next year with some stuff we have planned. 23.99$ is a small price to pay for a Bible that will comes along with all the notes and articles on everything you could want in order to best understand God's Word.

Marriage, What Is It Good For?

Al Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has an interesting article up on Time magazines recent cover story on current views of marriage in America. I get Time every week so had a chance to read the article myself.

You can read Dr. Mohler's article here and I recommend you do as it is well worth your time.