As a new Bible class quarter gets under way at MoSt Church at 9:00 a.m. this coming Sun., Sept. 12 our auditorium class, the boomer/builder class, the 20/20 class, and the 20′s & 30′s class will begin a study of spiritual disciplines. As a guide to assist you in our study of Scripture on these exercises for our soul, I’m urging you to acquire a copy of, and to make daily, thorough use of, the same resource aid our class teachers are utilizing, namely, Richard Foster’s modern classic entitled Celebration of Discipline. Any quality Christian bookstore will have a copy or you can order one online via Amazon (http://amzn.to/cdmgr2).

Let me tell you straight up that this book, Celebration of Discipline, is not light, bedtime reading. If you try to just sit down and read it in a hurry or expect the author to entertain you to keep your attention, I guarantee you will come away from this work frustrated and disappointed. If you try to read it so, you will likely not make it halfway through the first chapter for this is anything but your average, run-of-the-mill, mass-market, sugar-coated, hold-your-hand Christian book. This book isn’t milk; it’s thick, red meat. It’s a “deep water” read, designed to give you a serious “workout” to challenge your thinking, call you to thoughtful reflection, and see you to come to practice what is taught. We’re deliberately raising the bar with this study. Dig down and find strength equal to the task. Remember: faith is a journey and thinking is required.

Let me put it this way: for those of us who read Francis Chan’s Crazy Love or viewed the Crazy Love video series, and found ourselves convicted in heart, think of Celebration of Discipline as a logical follow-up to that study. Crazy Love brought us to our knees and Celebration of Discipline will help us get up and walk again, this time with a stronger purpose. Consequently, we’ll need to read Foster’s book slowly and thoughtfully to truly absorb and digest what is being said. In fact, ideally it would be best for us to read only a few paragraphs of each chapter each day for we’ll will want to let the contents of each chapter slowly brew in our brains each week so let’s mull over a few paragraphs each day.

If you’re a part of the 20/20 class, let me urge you, if you haven’t already, to read chapters 1 and 2 before tomorrow night since we’ll focus on an introduction to the spiritual exercises, and meditation in particular, this coming Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. But again, don’t try to read chapter one and two in one sitting. If you have a copy, bring your book to class with you along with your Bible.

There are additional aids for your study that I am providing in addition to Foster’s book. My blog post series “What can I do to truly build myself up in Christ?” is the prime example. Part 9 in that series will appear in tomorrow. Also on the Internet, starting later today, you can watch for my daily Facebook (www.facebook.com/preachersmith) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/preachersmith) updates. Watch for my Facebook and Twitter posts that start with the designation “SD” (i.e. – spiritual disciplines). For those of you who may want to dig deeper into the spiritual disciplines, watch for my mention of other resources (primarily books) as we study each discipline each week throughout the course of this quarter.

If you’re discontent or downright unhappy with where you are in your life with the Lord these days, this study is just what the doctor ordered. Take the medicine. If you’re content and growing in the Lord, this work will help keep you on the trajectory. If you’re new to faith and don’t have a clue as to where to begin in working to deepen your faith, this study will start you off and take you down the right road.

Exercise your soul. Work up a spiritual sweat. Feel the burn of spiritual fervor grow. And smile in the Lord who causes you to grow in Him! (2 Peter 3:18)

Jesus said: “I always do what pleases Him who sent me.” (John 8:29) He lived a perfect, sinless life. How did He do this?

And the Spirit Jesus sent us declares: “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6) Now though we know we can’t stop sinning completely, just how are we to fulfill this “must” in our life, to “live as Jesus did?”

Answer: by daring to feed on every word, not just some of the words, that comes from the mouth of God. Whether it’s a word that is virtually new to me, strange to me, or nearly unpracticed around me. Whether it’s a word I’ve heard before but never truly considered, is a word I’ve considered but thought was only for others, or is a word I’ve deliberately ignored. Somehow, someway each of us must get to the place where we live by every word that God breathes out to us.

Take for example Psalm 1. Who doesn’t love this brief, wonderful psalm that sets the standard and tone for the one hundred and forty nine that follow? Rehearse the first three verses:

Blessed are those who do not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but who delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on his law day and night.

They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.

Now what specifically did this ancient/current word from God say makes a person “blessed,” enables them to not live like the world of people around them, and makes their life truly  beautiful and beneficial to others, akin to the way a healthy, productive fruit tree would bless an Israelite farmer of old? Did you catch it?

In a single word: meditation.

Ask yourself: “How different would my life be if I literally, consistently practiced the heart of this so rarely mentioned passage, to ‘delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on his law day and night’? “

If you did so, this would be a spiritual thing, no? And if you did so, it would come about only because you made it your discipline, true? Ah, and so we have a clear, direct word from God for the disciplined shaping of our life to His glory. And the word is meditation.

And so, just how much Christian teaching have you seen come your way, or you have deliberately sought out on your own, on this matter, meditation? That’s what I thought. It’s past time; way past time. And that is why every Christian should seek to know more about, and come to practice spiritual disciplines.

Being a member of Christ’s body isn’t about showing up at church every Sunday and Wednesday, being socially polite, regularly dropping something in the offering plate, and thereby, being considered a faithful, involved member. It’s about daily living as a real extension of Christ Himself, like one of His hands or feet. Have you ever got around to dropping the “membership club” mentality and truly taking on the mind and life of Christ?

Being a believer isn’t about trusting some essential teachings, subscribing to some nuanced doctrines, holding some personal convictions, and defending some favored traditions. It’s about trusting God with literally everything He speaks to you and brings to you in life and having faith enough in Him to give everything that is your life back to Him in the name of Jesus. What are you doing to make sure your faith isn’t about keeping a checklist of rules or perceived expectations, and is genuinely about being changed through and through for Him?

Being Christ’s disciple isn’t about doing good and avoiding bad. It’s about modeling your life after the only One who is Good and so living in such a way that when people see the good you do they’re reminded more of God than you. In light of all the good He has done, still does, and will do for you, will you not exercise yourself in offering Him your all, coming to actually adore Him in His holiness and abhorring all that is wickedness?

Being a Christian isn’t child’s play; something anyone can be about with only little effort. It’s hard, sometimes mind-wrenching and back-breaking, but always adult work. So just how serious are you about growing up and living a life of true responsibility?

In other words, what are you doing daily to deliberately bring discipline to your discipleship? What constants have you chiseled into your life to help insure that Christ is your chief concern? What practices are you performing so as to maximize the potential of progress in your faith?

What? What indeed?

Now perhaps you’re thinking: I understand now that such matters were central to Christ’s life, but why is it then that I don’t hear more about spiritual disciplines in church and see them lived out and recommended much by other Christians?

Surely there are many angles to the answer of this question. Here I will offer only three, but I do believe any one of these three is ample answer on its own.

We humans tend to imitate what is rather than create anew. We readily mimic or copy what is around us, acting like chameleons seeking to blend into our surroundings. Rather than begin a fresh quest for fire, we tend to do only what those around us do for we do not like to be different or to even go against the flow. This holds true for every aspect of life, including (especially?) our faith. And so, if these disciplines are not already commonly practiced by those with whom we associate in faith, we surely would not expect them to show themselves often, if at all.

We humans, Christian or otherwise, tend to take the easy way out with things. Given the choice between doing easy things and doing hard things, the vast majority of us gravitate toward the path of least resistance. Whether through busyness or laziness, we tend to avoid things that challenge, and if these disciplines do anything, they seriously challenge us. Consequently, while we may wish to enjoy the benefits such disciplines offer, precious few of us will invest ourselves in the venture. G.K. Chesterton said it well: “Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.”

Conviction, intention, and motivation certainly come into play as well. How many truly have faith at the center of their being as opposed to something more like wearing religion like a piece of clothing? William Law in his classic work A Serious Call to Devout and Holy Life pointedly put it this way: “If you will stop here and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.” Ouch! That stings because we know in our heart of hearts he’s right. Spiritual disciplines, however, can only survive in an environment of deep, abiding conviction and intention. If their practice is not common among us believers, such says more about our believing than it does anything else.

And so, the complete and/or prolonged absence of spiritual disciplines among those who claim Christ as their Lord and Savior is no argument against their validity or benefit. Being practiced by our Lord Jesus, if they are absent or rare, then the testimony is clear that His disciples have much yet to learn of, and experience in, Him.

If we passionately modeled our life habits after those of our Lord Jesus, what would we find ourselves doing?

I dare say we would earnestly seek to live simply. Indeed, we would not live fattened with surplus, but with frugality. Our exceeding familiarity with God’s word would betray the fact that we often studied what God has revealed in written form. Prayer would be as natural and necessary for us as breathing, it being our very private and public way of living.

Exercising keen awareness of what was happening around us, we would process what we took in with reflection and meditation combined with God’s word. In that awareness, we would so pour out our life in service to others, that our selflessness would be a sign of wonder to those watched our lives. Though living public lives, we would deliberately spend no small amount of time in solitude, intentionally fortifying ourselves for living selflessly when with others. We would make sure nothing else comes to have our ultimate attention or come to own us, save God alone as our supreme. We would be found chaste for Him.

The same would hold true for our economy of words, so much so that others would say we seem to be often given over to silence. Why? For we know that with many words, comes sin. We would weld ourselves in fellowship with others, whoever others God brought our way, caring passionately that we all become like our Father. We would believe our body and spirit are directly linked and would so live out that belief that fasting would be a natural response from us when facing great trials. Our celebration of God in our life would come not from our mood or the moment, from a life carefully arranged to distant ourselves as far as possible from all possible forms of discomfort or pain, but from our enchantment with Him.

In effect, we would become worship in motion. Our daily life would be a living, zealous embodiment and expression of our contemplation of scripture and its Author. We would not advertise or seek to make known what good things we did with our life. Indeed, we would shun notoriety and be indifferent to visibility, knowing that our Father knows full well what we do in secrecy and that this is all that matters. And in all of our living, and even our death, complete sacrifice for God and others would be what we had come to be about.

In other words, we would live our life with clear boundaries and disciplines in place. We would deliberately refrain from some things in life while embracing other matters. In our seeking a life so structured, we would feed our ability to say “No” by fortifying our spirit with disciplines of solitude, simplicity, silence, secrecy, sacrifice, fasting, and chastity. We would fuel our ways  of saying  ”Yes” with disciplines such as fellowship, prayer, service, study, and worship.

“So where exactly did these ‘spiritual disciplines’ come from and what are they?,” you ask.

As Christians, we know the objective of our life. It’s about having our attitude shaped into the mind of Christ. “… have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had …” (Phil. 2:4) . It’s about making our actions reflect the habits of Jesus. “… follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1) We want to become “true worship” to God and so, we seek the “transformation” of our mind and the “living sacrifice” of our bodies (Rom. 12:1).

This faith in, and knowledge of, Jesus calls for us to pay very close attention to his life. Being his disciples, we drink in not only what he tells us to do, but we watch his every move, seeking to learn from his own practice of what he preached. We seek to lean on Jesus and learn from him daily for we know that while we may have good intentions, good intentions are only the first step down a very long road. What know we’ll need his very real, truly practical help just to put one foot in front of the over if we’re to ever make this journey with him.

Now even just a passing glance at how Jesus lived his life speaks volumes of how he lived it with purpose. However, it’s only when we zoom in and focus on the “framework” of his living that we begin to sense a real sense of rhythm, a rhythm shaped and undergirded by a life of discipline. After all, Jesus himself was constantly in learning mode, too, you recall. “Son though he was, he learned obedience …” (Heb. 5:8a) And so this question bubbles up to the surface, “What did Jesus do to assist his own learning of obedience?”

Looking at Christ’s life in this way is like viewing those cut-away sketches you’ve seen of anything complex, whether it be a human body, a building, a car, or a machine. Once a portion of the simple surface of things is peeled away to reveal what is underneath, we’re enabled to see the structures that provide support, hold everything together, and “makes the thing work.”

What is the source of “spiritual discipline?” Ultimately, a who, not a what. Jesus himself. In our next installment, we’ll look closely at some of Jesus’ habits and so, begin to see some of his disciplines revealed for our learning.

As for me, essentially nine tools were handed to me by fellow Christians in my earliest Christian months, three of them emphasized as “big ones”: (1) go to church, (2) read your Bible, and (3) pray. That is: do whatever it takes to be in the church building for Bible class and worship every time the doors were open on Sundays and Wednesdays, study your Bible daily, and privately talk to God often.

Now not nearly so frequently mentioned, but certainly emphasized, were six more tools, namely: (4) deliberately jettison as many non-Christian friendships as possible and hang out with Christians instead, (5) talk to others about how they need to be baptized, (6) drop something in the offering plate every week, (7) be willing to serve in Sunday assemblies in some way (i.e. – help serve communion and/or lead public prayer), (8) read Christian literature authored by members of the Churches of Christ, and (9) “go down front” on Sunday morning and request the church’s prayers if you commit a “big sin.” And that’s about it. Anything else would fall under one of those headings.

Now I will refrain from comment here as to the quality or practicality of those tools. I’m simply reporting what much more experienced believers stressed to me as a new Christian as to what I should do in order to grow up to be a strong, healthy Christian. And I know I’m anything but alone in my experience for I have encountered a legion who would offer essentially the same testimony.

What I will offer is a singular observation: the spiritual Honey-Do kit I was given could have been selected with much greater care. I could have been given more and better tools, some of them far more Biblical, God-centered, and effective for the task of helping me grow up in the Lord. Tools that would have powerfully assisted me in being “built into a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:5). And those tools have historically been known as “spiritual disciplines.”

Amidst all of the gifts at my soon-to-be wife and I’s wedding shower was a gift tagged specifically for me. And what was inside? A “Honey-Do Kit” consisting of a tool tray loaded with the following items: (1) a hammer, (2) assorted screwdrivers, (3) a tape measure, (4) a flashlight, (5) a pair of work gloves, (6) a box of screws and nails, (7) some picture hanging wire, (8) a roll of electrician’s tape, and, (9) of course, duct tape.

I must say that Honey-Do kit was one of the most practical gifts I’ve ever received. The items not only had been picked with care from the many tools that could have made up that kit, but were selected by someone with enough experience to know what I really did, and did not, need not only at that point in my life, but for the rest of my life. Thirty years later, I still make use of all of those same sort of tools; even that very same hammer and set of screwdrivers. Thirty decades plus of use have only made them all the more meaningful to me.

Now I’m curious: what tools were handed to you when you became a Christian? That is, in your first few months of life in Christ, what thoughts were deliberately, repeatedly put in your head by your brothers and sisters in Christ as to how to build your spiritual house? Were those tools selected and suggested with the care comes from deep Christian discernment and personal experience? Did their selection demonstrate careful, Christian wisdom? Have they proved to be the tools you’ve needed most, given all you’ve encountered in life? Do you still make use of them or have they long since been laid aside?