CLASS NOTES, #1

This is what we visited about at our first class meeting, Wednesday, 3 Febuary, 2010. This will refresh your memory and clear up what I may not have communicated well if you were present for the session. If you weren’t there this will catch you up and prepare you for class this Wednesday, the 17th.

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Remember that the spiritual disciplines are not an end in themselves. The spiritual disciplines merely put you in a place where God, through the Spirit, can transform you into the likeness of Christ. The disciplines do not produce change, they only place us where the change can occur.

We must not take either of two approaches that will tempt us in our practice of the disciplines. The first, already alluded to, is that I am doing the disciplines therefore I will become like Christ. The change is not automatic. Change comes about through a humble, obedient spirit in the hands of God. The second way we can go astray is to get legalistic with our disciplines making meeting our disciplinary goals lettersof a law that we must keep. Keeping the disciplines as a matter of law diverts our attention from Christ and his grace to our own efforts and strength.

We must cultivate the soil of our soul and allow the seed (God’s Word) to be sown and then watered by the Spirit, blessed by the sunshine of God’s love and enlivened by a close relationship with Jesus to bring forth it’s fruit in our lives. This is done by intentional living, doing the work of the disciplines out of an expectation of meeting and knowing the Christ who loves us.

We must learn, believe and trust that we are accepted by, in and through Christ just as we are. He wants to meet us, sit at the table with as a friend, just as we are. We have to learn to be honest with God and honest with ourselves in regard to our sin. We have to expose our real selves to ourselves and, thus, to God. We are accepted just as we are, warts and all.

One of the great things about doing of the disciplines is that it prepares us to bear our cross. Through the disciplines we learn to discipline ourselves preparing ourselves, then, to die upon our cross in self denial and humility as we serve others in their need in this world. This is being used, intentionally allowing ourselves to be used, by God to work his will, not only in our lives, but in the world around us.

Remember that the purpose of the Christian disciplines is to put us where God can meet with us, deal with us, make us and use us to work his will in this world. We must believe, take to heart and live as a truth, that God accepts each one of us as we are, not as we should be, but as we really are in the deepest, darkest corners of our hearts.

We might need to spend time just quiet in stillness soaking up God’s love and acceptance of us, feeling the warmth of his love, basking in the acceptance we feel, opening up our lives and hearts to him. Once we truly believe with our heart, mind and soul that we are fully loved and accepted for who we are then we can fully give our bodies as “living sacrifices” ready to do his will and bidding. This is the foundation of the Christian disciplines.

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