The Simple Life
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· 100 viewsSpiritual disciplines are not boring practices but bold pleas for more grace.
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But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
We exist to glorify God by making mature those who believe.
We exist to glorify God by making mature those who believe.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colos
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
To grow in grace is to mature as a Christian.
To grow in grace is to mature as a Christian.
We are saved by grace through faith (), and we mature and are sanctified by grace alone. We know that grace is a blessing that we don’t deserve. It is God’s grace that justifies us, sanctifies us, and eventually glorifies us in heaven. The sanctification process, becoming more like Christ, is synonymous with growing in grace.
We grow in grace by practicing spiritual disciplines. Disciplines by themselves don't mature us, but God uses these spiritual disciplines to help us grow. Therefore, maturing in our Christian life is not about what we do, but about what God does in us, by His grace.
Grace is that attribute of God that enables us to break free of our sinful nature and follow Him. It gives us strength and protects us. Without God's grace, His favor, we would be hopelessly lost in this world. The more grace we have and ask God for, the more mature as Christians we will be.
To grow in grace does not mean gaining more grace from God. God’s grace never increases; it is infinite, it cannot be more, and according to the nature of God, it could never be less.
But to grow in grace is to grow in our understanding of what Jesus did and to grow in our appreciation of the grace we have been given. The more we learn about Jesus, the more we will appreciate all He has done, and the more we appreciate His love and sacrifice for us, the more we will perceive the never-ending grace of God. The more grace we see the greater our transformation.
These agents The key to transformation is visualization. We
The key to transformation is visualization. Discipline without direction is drudgery. We must understand what we will become.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
We will not ultimately be conformed to the image of his Son until he returns.
We will not ultimately be conformed to the image of his Son until he returns.
Romans 8:28
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
This yet to be conformity does not mean that we sit idle and do nothing.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
This is not saying that those who pursue holiness will go to heaven. It is teaching that those who are going to heaven will be infused with a hunger for holiness and this will fuel their pursuit.
Spiritual disciplines are not boring practices but bold pleas for more grace. Spiritual disciplines are not meant to build up pride but a means to place ourselves in the path of Christ.
Spiritual disciplines are not boring practices but bold pleas for more grace. Spiritual disciplines are not meant to build up pride but a means to place ourselves in the path of Christ.
Spiritual disciplines are not boring practices but bold pleas for more grace. Spiritual disciplines are not meant to build up pride but a means to place ourselves in the path of Christ.
Spiritual disciplines are a means not the end. Spiritual growth is not mechanical but organic. Spiritual growth is like gardening. You use some mechanical means but growth ultimately occurs organically. A farmer does everything within his power to place the seed in a place of growth and then actively waits for the increase.
Think of the Spiritual Disciplines as ways by which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seek Him, much like Zacchaeus placed himself physically in Jesus’ path and sought Him.
Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team for most of three decades, said, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” In much the same way, Christians are called to make themselves, by the Spirit’s power, do what they would not naturally do—practice the Spiritual Disciplines—in order to experience what the Spirit gives them a desire to be, that is, to be with Christ and like Christ.
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 13). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 13). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Scripture
Scripture
Scripture
Scripture
No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.
Hearing
Hearing
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Reading
Reading
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Studying
Studying
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
As author Jerry Bridges put it, “Reading gives us breadth, but study gives us depth.”
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 31). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Invest
Invest
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Illustration: The Latte Effect
$5 per day for 20 years @ 5% annual return.
Total spent $54,720.00
Forgone Interest earnings $71,183.31
Real Cost of expenditure $126,503.31
$5 per week for 20 years @ 5% annual return.
Total spent $7,800
Forgone interest earnings $10, 232.27
Real Cost of expenditure $18,032.27
Memorization/Meditation
Memorization/Meditation
Memorization supplies spiritual power & Matthew 4:1-11
Memorization supplies spiritual power & Matthew 4:1-11
Memorization strengthens your faith
Memorization strengthens your faith
Memorization prepares us for witnessing and counseling.
Memorization prepares us for witnessing and counseling.
Memorization provides means for God’s guidance.
Memorization provides means for God’s guidance.
Memorization stimulates meditation. Psalm 119:97
Memorization stimulates meditation. Psalm 119:97
Prayer
Prayer
A modern British writer, Peter Toon, in his book From Mind to Heart, summarized the teaching of the Puritans on these things:
To read the Bible and not to meditate was seen as an unfruitful exercise: better to read one chapter and meditate afterward than to read several chapters and not to meditate. Likewise to meditate and not to pray was like preparing to run a race and never leaving the starting line. The three duties of reading Scripture, meditation, and prayer belonged together, and though each could be done occasionally on its own, as formal duties to God they were best done together.
To read the Bible and not to meditate was seen as an unfruitful exercise: better to read one chapter and meditate afterward than to read several chapters and not to meditate. Likewise to meditate and not to pray was like preparing to run a race and never leaving the starting line. The three duties of reading Scripture, meditation, and prayer belonged together, and though each could be done occasionally on its own, as formal duties to God they were best done together.
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 89). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 89). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 89). NavPress. Kindle Edition.
Live One Another’s
Live One Another’s
According to a University of Scranton study by Dan Diamond in Forbes not having an accountable partner to help a person accomplish their goal is one reason 92% of people did not accomplish their New Year's resolution
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?
And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
I’m changing the name from accountability partner to L.O.A.D. partner.
Engage for Eternity
Engage for Eternity
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Evangelism is not successful when people are saved but when seed is sown.
We should measure evangelism success like that of the postal service. They measure success by the careful and accurate delivery of the message, not by the response of the recipient.
Today you have been provided the means for spiritual growth. Will you take these means of grace and use them to place yourself along the path of Jesus so that you might grow in grace and thereby be transformed by it.