Tag: Time

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life: Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Donald S. Whitney 

  • Disciplines without direction equals drudgery. 
  • How can we pursue holiness? How can we be more like our Lord Jesus Christ? We must have discipline. 1 Timothy 4:7 — “exercise thyself rather unto godliness.”
  • Man arrives to maturity by way of spiritual discipline.
  • Our Lord modeled self-discipline for us.
  • Just as practicing to play an instrument requires discipline, so growing in your spiritual life requires discipline.
  • God’s Word.
        • No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s word.
        • Listen to the Word of God. Romans 10:17. 
        • Read the Word of God. How often do you need wisdom, encouragement, and strength? Every day! Then read God’s Word every day.
        • Discipline yourself to read the Word of God. Find a time. Find a plan. Find a word, verse, or thought to meditate on throughout the day.
        • What is one thing you can do to enhance your intake of God’s Word every day? 
        • Interview the text that you read. 
        • Consciously commit yourself to take at least one action from your daily intake of God’s Word.
  • Prayer. 
        • We learn to pray by meditating on the Scripture. 
        • Pray with others.
        • Where there is godliness, there is prayer.
        • Men and women of God are always people of prayer. 
        • Worship is responding to and focusing on God. 
        • Worship is a discipline to be cultivated.
  • Evangelism.
        • New Testament evangelism is presenting the gospel. 
        • Not every Christian should use the same means of evangelism, but every Christian should evangelize.
        • Evangelism is not a gift for a few, all of God’s children are to be ambassadors.
        • Before we make excuses, we should stop and ask ourselves, are we really too busy to fulfill the Great Commission?
  • Serving for Godliness.
        • If we don’t discipline ourselves for the purpose of God’s kingdom, we will probably never serve. 
        • Serving goes against two of our biggest fleshly enemies, our sloth and our pride.
        • We are to serve the Lord with gladness. It is a privilege, not a burden. 
        • Psalms 84:10 — “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
        • If we are to be like Christ, we must learn to serve.
  • Stewardship. 
        • Unless we practice self control, our bodies will choose to please self more than please God. 
        • Evaluate your use of time. The time to value time is right now.
        • Decide to discipline yourself and use your time for godliness.
        • We value time at the moment of death. 
        • Realize God owns everything you have. We are just temporary stewards of the things God owns.
  • Fasting. 
        • There is fasting from food as well as times to fast from entertainment and other areas.
        • The Lord expects His children to fast. He doesn’t say “if” but “when” you fast. 
        • Before we fast, we must have purpose, a God-centered purpose.
        • Fasting is one of the best friends we can offer to our prayer. 
        • It is more rewarding to feast on God than food.
  • Silence and Solitude for the purpose of godliness. 
        • God used silence and solitude in the life of both Moses and the Apostle Paul. 
        • Jesus practiced silence and solitude. 
        • One of the biggest reasons to get alone is to better hear God speak. 
        • We have an addiction to noise, and it’s connected to a spiritual shallowness. 
  • Spiritual Discipline of Journaling. 
        • A personal writing of thoughts to the Lord. Prayers, joys, verse challenge you read, etc.
        • Consider the discipline of journaling for godliness, and to remember God‘s faithfulness.
  • Learning for the Purpose of Godliness.
        • Wise and righteous people are teachable and continue learning.
        • Wise men seek and store knowledge. 
        • Mark 12:29–30. Our Lord teaches us to love Him with all of our mind.
        • How can we know more about our Lord if we do not learn more about him?
        • Learning is mostly intentional by discipline instead of accidental.
        • Most students don’t learn because their parents don’t learn. When was the last time you read a book to your children?
        • Growing Christians are reading Christians.
        • Godly learning leads to godly living. 
  • Perseverance in Godly Discipline.
        • Laziness does not lead to godliness.
        • Even though self-discipline is not easy, it is not self-punishment. Self-discipline is actually doing what your spirit need you to do.
        • Just as the only way to God is through Christ, so the only way to godliness is through Christlike practice of spiritual disciplines.
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Simple Discipleship Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Dana Allin

  • Discipleship is more of a journey than it is an event. 
  • Making disciples is the primary task to which Jesus calls us.
  • Many churches know that making disciples is a core value of the church, and will even put it in their mission statement, but are failing at doing it.
  • Discipleship, which is helping others love Jesus more, has too often been overcomplicated.
  • A reason we’ve failed in making disciples is because we do not have a clear, Biblical understanding of what a disciple of Jesus is to look like. 
  • If the church helps people love God with their heads and hands, yet not with their hearts, they’re doing a great disservice.
  • As churches, we sometimes confront discipleship as everyone needs to grow in the same areas, but that is not always the case.
  • We are not only saved by grace, but we continue to grow in grace as disciples of Christ.
  • Discipleship is so much more than dispensing information. A big misconception is that the more information we have, the more transformation will occur.
  • True discipleship is about being transformed.
  • Discipleship transformation does not happen at a microwave speed.
  • To disciple, a person should know you care for them and they’re not just a project. 
  • True growth takes time and intentional effort.
  • A mistake in discipleship is feeling you have to be a mentor, which is one who has more experience. It is good to see yourself as a coach, which doesn’t mean you are better than the other person, yet you are drawing out the best of the other person.
  • Clarify your goal as where you want the person to be after completing discipleship.
  • Be careful as you give advice. Do not try to offer solutions for everything they ask, rather ask questions questions that will help them think through what they need to do.
  • If you can help disciples, think for themselves, they will be better prepared to disciple others in the future.