God is all there is – he is the environment in which we “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We have no life, purpose or use apart from him. Indeed, he is the air we breathe, the bread we eat, the life we live. Until we find ourselves desperate for him as for our next breath, hungry for him as for our next meal and thirsty for him as for our next drink we will never discover the intimacy with God our heart hungers for. He is our everything.

     Conversely, we are his nothings. That is, we can do nothing to promote or encourage his intimacy with us. The Christian disciplines will not bring God to us as in creating the proper environment for him. The proper environment for intimacy with God is a recognition of our profound nothingness apart from God and a recognition of our desperate need for him. Yes, we are his nothings – but, in our nothingness, inexplicably, he loves us with his all. Indeed, in our nothingness, we are his everything.

     Everything begins and ends in and with God. That includes our spiritual life. We substitute doing with being, believing for faith, reading for meditating, talking for listening, etc. We need to live in God – breathing him, consuming him – being him. He already lives in us, We need to live in (by means of) him. That is what the disciplines are all about: to bring us to the point where we live in and by means of God’s enlivening Spirit.

     As this week’s lesson points out, the disciplines puts us on the path to where God can bring about his recreative work in us making us a new creature: living because of him, breathing him in, consuming him until we are like him, like Christ.

     I have this vision of heaven: I am walking down a street of gold and God calls to me, “Jesus?” I turn around and God says, “Oh, you looked just like Jesus!” Perhaps, God wouldn’t make such a mistake, but, maybe, an angel would. The point is that the end of God’s work in me and the endpoint of my existence in God is a spiritual maturity that matches the spiritual maturity of Christ. That will finally happen when we are taken home to heaven. What a day that will be. I just need to “breathe” until then.

Here is the link to “Breathe” by Michael W. Smith

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oad8ov10AjY

1. OBEDIENCE

Matthew 7:21-23 – God doesn’t learn who we are by our doing of great things. Christlikeness isn’t, primarily, in the doing of things. Verse 23, in the Greek. literally says, “I never was even introduced to you.” These folks looked good, did great good things, yet Christ did not know them at all.

     Who does Christ know? Verse 24,  Those that hear what he says and who put it into practice. We must first do the little things, the known, revealed word of God before we can do the great things we may be called to do. People often say, “I wish I knew what God wanted me to do.” I often reply, “You do. He tells you in the Bible.” Do those things and you will often find your direction in life.

     Verse 28 states that the people said that Jesus taught “as one who had authority.” We must obey that authority and allow him to have authority over our life. We must in a very real way “Fear God.” (Unfortunately I cannot upload the DVD by Francis Chan due to copyright restraints and Facebook policy. It is available to take home to view – just let me know.)

     Obedience teaches us to trust God so that we will be able to yield ourselves to him and to surrender control of our life to him.

2. BAPTISM

     Baptism is something we must do in order to become a disciple (one who has and practices discipline).  – Acts 2:38

     Baptism is how we become known to God. Romans 6, our identification with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection is through baptism. We die to self, are buried in the water and rise out of the water to a new life – a spiritual life (2 Corinthians 5:17).

    In baptism we become clothed with Christ. In Matthew 22:1-14, we read of the giving of a wedding feast. The custom was that the host provided, specially selected wedding clothes for each of the guests. We find that one guest was without the proper clothing and, thus, was cast out. Galatians 3:27 teaches that, through baptism, we, literally in the Greek, put on Christ like a garment. Hence, our host chosen garment for the feast of God.  When God looks at us, he doesn’t see us, he sees Christ. He can fellowship and be intimate with Christ. Therefore, he can have intimacy with us.

      There is an interesting passage in Exodus 24:5-11. There we find that the 70 elders of Israel went up on the mountain and saw God and had lunch with him. One would think that such an encounter would promote obedience. However, less than 40 days later we find them leading the nation in the creation of an idol to worship rather than God. It is not in the meeting with God. It is in the meeting with God with a humble, contrite and obedient heart.

     Philippians 2 relates how Christ humbled himself. We, as his followers, can do no less. To be intimate with God we must have a heart of obedience and be identified with Christ in baptism being clothed in his likeness.

We closed with the following Puritan prayer:

     When thou wouldst guide me I control myself. When thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself. When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself. When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself. When I should submit to thy providence I follow my will. When I should study love, honour, trust thee, I serve myself. I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself. Instead of thee I look to man’s approbation, and am by nature an idolater.

     Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee. Convince me that I cannot be my own god, or make myself happy, nor my own Christ to restore my joy, nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.

     Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction, for when my credit is god thou doest cast me lower, when riches are my idol that dost wing them away, when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness. Take away by roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart. Show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience, or support a tottering frame, or uphold a departing spirit.

Then take me to the cross and leave me there.

YOU CAN HAVE ME

If I saw You on the street / And You said come and follow me / But I had to give up everything / All I once held dear and all of my dreams.

Would I love You enough to let go? / Or would my love run dry / When You asked for my life?

CHORUS: When did love become unmoving? / When did love become unconsuming? / Forgetting what the world has told me / Father of love, You can have me, You can have me.

If You’re all You claim to be / Then I’m not losing anything. / So I will crawl upon my knees / Just to know the joy of suffering. / I will love You enough to let go.

Lord, I give You my life./ Lord, I give you my life.

( CHORUS )

I want to be  where You are. / I’m running into Your arms / And I will never look back. / So Jesus,  here is my heart.

( CHORUS x 2 )

Some of the latest statistics indicate that only 3% of all admitted Christians tithe.

Of those Christians that call themselves “born again” only 6% of them tithe.

It is a discipline that is lacking.

When we look at tithing in the Old Testament we find that the 10% tithe was a sort of tax imposed to keep the tabernacle/temple system operating.

Scholars have estimated that when you total tithes, gifts and offerings as prescribed in the Old Law the Jews were giving about 23-25% of their income.

Are you giving 10%?   10% of your -

Pre-tax / gross income? 10% of employer funded benefits? 10% of your recent garage sale/ Craig’s list/ Ebay income? 10% of the monetary value of your Christmas gifts you received? – Get the idea?

Building of the tabernacle – Ex. 35:4  Everyone who is willing; v. 20 everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him

1 Cor. 16:1-2 in keeping with your income

2 Cor. 9:7 decide in his heart  V.6 law of sowing and reaping

Tithing, as a discipline, is a good start to learn to trust in God’s provision and increase your faith and develop the trait of contentment.

Fellowship -

“”The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love him, honor him and reign with him forever.” – Rick Warren

Fellowship – The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love one another, honor one another and reign together with him forever.

As we practice the other disciplines they supplement our fellowship and increase our intimacy with one another.

See Koinonia handout.

Fellowship is the super-powered reality of the life of the church.

There is a sense that Christ is most present in the community of his people. In the church Christ is here with hands and feet. When we look into one another’s eyes we can see the eyes of Christ looking at us. See Matt. 25:20 – when we serve one another we are serving Christ.

There is a synergy in community. We are stronger when we share our lives with each other.

God made us for one another. We must be more intentional about creating community. We must impose ourselves on others more often. We are too concerned with intruding or being a burden on someone. However, the fact is that we are very often doing more harm by remaining in our silence and isolation.

What are some way s of practicing fellowship as a spiritual discipline? First, we must reach out and include those who are unable to participate in community on their own. We cannot allow people to suffer in isolation, loneliness. 1 Timothy 5 in one passage of Scripture that the church must rediscover.

Another way we can practice fellowship as a discipline is to gather a small group of fellow believers who can minister love, comfort, joy, encouragement, accountability and reconciliation to each other. Join and participate in our small groups.

Thanks to watersedge for some of this material.

     In Acts 2 the church is born with over 3,ooo baptized believers. They began meeting together, having fellowship, koinonia, in four areas according to Acts 2:42: the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. What was the koinonia of these activities?

     The basic idea of  koinonia is a joint participation, sharing, having something is common, communion, community, intimacy. It is important to note that the early church devoted themselves to this bond that they had together in Christ. Their intent was to be together, to share on an intimate basis the life they had as followers of Jesus. Below are some areas they, and we, share together.

KOINONIA IN MATERIAL THINGS - Romans 15:26,27 (contribution); 2 Cor.8:4 (fellowship); 2 Cor. 9:1 (distribution); Gal. 6:6 (communicate with); Phil. 4:15 (communicated).

KOINONIA IN SUFFERING - Phil.3:10 (fellowship); 1 Peter 4:13 (partakers)

KOINONIA IN THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST - Hebrews 2:14 shows that Christ became a  joint participant with us when He took on a human body

KOINONIA AT THE LORD’S TABLE - 1 Cor. 10:16 (communion with the body and blood of Christ)

KOINONIA IN SPREADING THE GOSPEL – Gal.2:6-9 (right hands of fellowship indicating joint participation)

KOINONIA IN SALVATION – 2 Peter 1:4 (partakers)

KOINONIA IN THE HOLY SPIRIT – 2 Cor. 13:14 & Phil 2:1 (joint participation of the believer and the Holy Spirit)

KOINONIA IN A COMMON EFFORT – Luke 5:10 (partners in a fishing business)

The more the believer discovers the salvation common to all other believers, the more fellowship, joint participation and intimacy occurs. The disciplines all work together to strengthen this bond, this communion we have as partakers together of the grace of God.

Thanks to Grace Notes Materials for some of this presentation.

Peace,

Richard

     If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn’t act the way we want God to, and why I don’t act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge….

     If I started with the mind and will of God, viewing the rest of my life from that point of view, other detail would fall into place…

     When I shift direction, I realize that God already cares about my concerns. . .more than I do. Grace, like water, descends to the lowest part. Streams of mercy flow. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility for what happens on earth, and ask what part I can play in God’s work on earth. …Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God’s.

     “Be still and know that I am God”, the Latin imperative for “be still” is vacate. As Simon Tugwell explains, “God invites us to take a holiday  [vacation], to stop being God for a while, and let him be God.” Too often we think of prayer as a serious chore, something that must be scheduled around other appointments, shoehorned in among other pressing activities. We miss the point, says Tugwell: “God is inviting us to take a break, to play truant. We can stop doing all those important activities we have to do in our capacity as God, and leave it to him to be God.”. . .

     Why pray? I have asked this question almost every day of my Christian life, especially when God’s presence seems far away and I wonder if prayer is a pious form of talking to myself. I have asked it when I read theology, wondering what use there may be in repeating what God must surely know. My conclusions will unfold onlly gradually, but I begin here because prayer has become for me much more than a shopping list of requests to present to God. It has become a realignment of everything. I pray to restore the truth of the universe, to gain a glimpse of the world, and of me, through the eyes of God.

    In prayer I shift my point of view away from my own selfishness. I climb above the timberline and look down at the speck that is myself. I gaze at the stars and recall what role I or any of us play in a universe beyond comprehension. Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God’s point of view.

_______________________________________________

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.

 Silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the stark realities of our life. – Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines

We receive only when we are recollected; only in silence is heard the beating of the heart of God. - Father Bernardo Olivera

It is a good discipline to wonder in each new situation if people wouldn’t be better served by our silence than by our words. – Henry J. M. Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

     There are many attitudes, actions, and assumptions, which are a part of our normal routines that are occluding God’s work of changing our hearts. Our first step to opening up our lives to God’s grace is to expose these “occlusions.” . . .

Noise and Company: Trying to Fill the Infinite with the Finite

…We have an infinite void in our hearts that we attempt to fill with noise, people, busy-ness, possessions, and other finite things. This is a major sickness in our culture.

We are addicted to noise.

Think about how much we hate to think… It is because we look at what our life really consists of, we are terrified by it vast emptiness.

…Do you know someone who is terrified of being alone? Is that person you?

…Think of all the things people do to “get their mind off it” – whatever “it” “might be.

We are addicted to company…However, our attempts to fill our lives with company will never satisfy the true hunger of the heart – community with God.

…time is necessary if one is to develop a true friendship with God. This must be time spent in solitude.

Solitude and Silence:Filling the Infinite Void with the Infinite Fullnes of God

Solitude is the practice of  being absent from other people and other things so that you can be present with God. In solitude, we rest from our attempts to re-create the world in our image. We rest from arranging our relationships and manipulating people with our words. In solitude, we say to God, “I am here to be changed into whatever you like.” In solitude, we learn to “wait on the Lord.”

Solitude teaches us that we do not need other people in the way that we ususally think we need them. It teaches us that our value is not determined by our usefulness to others…Solitude teaches us to hear the voice of God…

Solitude forces us to face despair, yet it provides the only opportunity to discover the amazing power of God’s presence. … it is often in the midst of such experiences that God’s presence is most powerfully felt. It is only here that we truly comprehend the words of Jesus, “I am with you always”…

Silence is the practice of quieting every voice, including your own inner and outer voices.

Silence means being still so that we can hear the Voice that searches our hearts and minds. We must quiet our own hearts and mouths if we are to be able to listen to the voice of God.

Silence also means excusing ourselves from the voices of others…there is One Voice that is above all necessary for us to hear. For this reason, we must develop habits of being unavailable to the voices all around us so we can learn to hear the Divine Voice.

Silence is also necessay to free ourselves from our tendency to control…Thomas Merton wrote, “It is not speaking that breaks our silence, but the anxiety to be heard.” When we are silent, it is much more difficult to manipulate and control the people and circumstances around us. Words are the weapons we lay down when we practice silence…Silence forces to surrender to the will of Another.

Solitude and silcence, combined with an engaged mind. These are the practices to open our lives up to the grace of God. God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). They are the practices of waiting on the Lord. They are active stillness. They are readying one’s heart to receive.

Solitude and silence, combined with a mind that is actively waiting on God will enable us to view life as God reveals it to us. We will consider our actions and the motives behind them. We will consider the actions of others and allow God to season our response with compassion and forgiveness…

Solitude and silence, when matched with such attention, destroy the darkness of loneliness as we recognize that there is One who is eternally present with us. No longer will we coerce people into paying attention to us. ..We are freed from the suffocating chains of isolation as we recognize that we are not alone.

In silence and solitude, we discover that our infitely empty lives can only find fulfillment in an infinite God…

The most fantastic thing occurs when we develp what Brother Lawrence termed, “the practice of the presence of God.” …God removes the “continual lust for more” (Eph 4:19) that results from a life apart from Him, and replaces it with contentment and ridiculous generosity.

Silence and solitude combined with attention to the presence of God; these are the starting point for all other practices. They place us where we may listen to hear God’s perspective on our world, our circumstances, our goals, and our relationships.