Cross Training - The Disciplines of Faith

Donald Whitney in his book "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life," writes about a past-time that has long been overlooked or forgotten in the life of a believer.  It is the topic of the Christian Disciplines.  Some of you might be thinking right now, "Ah, great, Randy wants to talk about the regulations of the church and all the rules I'm supposed to follow."  Actually, No, I'm not, but I am going to talk about a lost practice within the church and every believer, that I believe needs to be regained if we are to understand the deep chasms of faith that await us.

I love what Whitney says about the disciplines -- "The Spiritual Disciplines are those personal corporate disciplines that promote spiritual growth.  They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times." 

Kent Hughes in his book, "Disciplines of a Godly Man," tell the story of Winston Churchill.  "In our time Winston Churchill has been rightly proclaimed the speaker of the century, and few who have heard his eloquent speeches would disagree... But the truth is, Churchill had a distracting lisp which made him the butt of many jokes and resulted in his inability to be spontaneous in public speaking.  Yet he became famous for his speeches and his seemingly impromptu remarks... Actually, Churchill wrote everything out and practiced it!  He even choreographed the pauses and pretended fumblings for the right phrase.  The margins for his manuscripts carried notes anticipating the "cheers," hear, hears," "prolonged cheering," and even "standing ovation..."  A naturally disciplined hard-working man!

Hughes remarks that "none of us naturally seeks after God, none is inherently righteous, none instinctively does good (Romans 3:9-18).  Therefore, as children of grace, our spiritual discipline is everything -- everything!  I repeat... discipline is everything!"

In a nutshell, Spiritual Disciplines are the catalyst for Godliness and living life victoriously.  Think about it, if we are to be "successful" at whatever hobby or joy of life we are a part of, then we need to find out how to practice the task with perfection in mind, not to strip the task of joy and life, but so that we can enjoy the task because we have developed the disciplines that motivate success. 

Whitney says the disciplines are "like God's channels of transforming grace."  What he wants us to understand is that disciplines help in making God's grace in our lives more apparent, more real, more obvious.  When we refuse to pursue the disciplines God's grace in our lives remains distant and incomprehensible. 

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be looking at the discipline of God's Word.  Here is what I would like to propose.  I would like you to to take Psalm 119 and read a portion (Ps. 119 is already broke into segments in most Bibles) for 28-days.  They say it take 28-days to develop a new habit and I would like to begin with the habit of daily reading God's Word.  There is my challenge.  More next time.

Randy