Missio Dei Communities

So aren’t spiritual disciplines really just a more spiritual way of talking about “How to be a Pharisee”?  Aren’t they all about religion and therefore about me? NO.

An Irreligious look would be:  “Disciplines, yeah right!”

A Religious look would be:  “If I get these down I’m in.”

The Gospel view:  “How do I best remind myself of the work God has begun in me so He can bring it to completion.” (Phillipians 1:6)

Spiritual Disciplines don't earn us God's favor.  They are how we create space to remember and feast on God's favor. 

Jesus states in Luke 6:40 ‘ a student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ Trained is the condition of something being suitable & ready for the designed function. 

Musician, athlete, artist, accountant, all are trained or disciplined to be suitable and ready for their designed function.  So we too as disciples of Jesus train and discipline ourselves, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be suitable & ready for our designed function, to be conformed to the divine nature.  Paul tells us to fight the good fight, to run the good race, to train ourselves to be Godly, to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Now I hated English in high school. I actually took senior English twice just so I could graduate but one thing I learned is that verbs are action words.  Run, fight, train, persevere, these require action on our part. This is not a race where once we are saved we lay back in Jesus’ arms and he carries us around the track.

Okay, so what are the spiritual disciplines?

We will be looking at some of the following: studying, prayer, worship, simplicity, fasting, meditation (yes, that is really in scripture), solitude, and service.  We will be looking not only at what they are and why we do them but also at how we can incorporate then into our living.  Sort of like learning to be ‘living letters’.