Discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness

In the Christian life we often think of disciplines as drudgery. As a task we would prefer not to do. The key to growing as a Christian and being Godly is living a life of discipline. Scripture says that if we want to be Godly, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7).

Key Idea is Purpose!
Whatever the Discipline, the most important feature is its purpose. Just as there is little value in practicing the scales on a guitar or piano apart from the purpose of playing music, there is little value in practicing Spiritual Disciplines apart from the purpose behind it.

“The Spiritual Disciplines are those personal and corporate disciplines that promote spiritual growth. They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times.” Donald Whitney, Author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

Application is another key idea. Application is apply what you hear. For a Christian it is taking God’s word and applying it.
James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Discipline Verses
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27: 17).
Jesus challenges us to learn and follow: Matthew 11: 29: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”
Offer of discipleship: “Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9: 23).
Learning and following involve discipline, for those who only learn accidentally and follow incidentally are not true disciples.
Discipline is at the heart of discipleship: See Galatians 5: 22-23, which says that spiritual self-discipline (i.e., “self-control”) is a mark of being spiritually disciplined.

Discipline without direction is drudgery. But the Spiritual Disciplines are never drudgery as long as we practice them with the goal of Godliness in mind. If your picture of a disciplined Christian is one of a grim, tight-lipped, joyless half-robot, then you’ve missed the point. Jesus was the most disciplined Man who ever lived and yet the most joyful and passionately alive. He is our example of discipline.–Donald Whitney

Areas of Discipline we can apply!

1. Bible Intake: No Spiritual Discipline is more meaningful than the intake of God’s Word.
It is not just hearing God’s word it is obeying it that is so important,“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11: 28).
We need to hear from God’s word, “Romans 10: 17: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

2. Reading God’s Word
USA Today reported a poll just three months before this writing that showed only 11 percent of Americans read the Bible every day. More than half read it less than once a month or never at all.

3. Meditating on God’s Word
Take at least one thing you read and think deeply on it for a few moments. Your insight into Scripture will deepen and you will better understand how it applies to your life. And the more you apply the truth of Scripture, the more you will become like Jesus.

Check out the different Reading plans that are available here: http://about.esvbible.org/resources/reading/

4. Study God’s word
D. L. Moody put it, “A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.”

“We should all have the passion for reading God’s Word of the man in this story. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner, in his book The Wonder of the Word of God, tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille. But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters. One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, “I can read the Bible using my tongue.” At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times. 6 If he can do that, can you discipline yourself to read the Bible?” Donald Whitney in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 35).

5. Prayer
Jesus Expects Us to Pray Don’t think of prayer as an impersonal requirement. Realize that it is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, with all authority and with all love, who expects us to pray. His words show that He Himself expects us to pray:   Matthew 6: 5, “And when you pray. . . .” Matthew 6: 6, “But when you pray. . . .” Matthew 6: 7, “And when you pray. . . .” Matthew 6: 9, “This, then, is how you should pray: . . .” Luke 11: 9, “So I say to you: Ask . . . ; seek . . . ; knock.”

Discipline is a Joy not drudgery and we should take the time to get in God’s Word and allow it to be our bread and butter as we seek to live Godly lives! “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7).

Anger Problem? Check the Solution out!

We all have a sin problem. Anger is usually how sin is manifested. Ever had road Rage? Or gotten mad at someone? But there is a deeper anger that can hijack our Christian life. Understanding the Gospel of Grace blows our self righteousness and humbles our-self. Anger is sin and repenting of sin is believing the Gospel of Jesus is the answer. “We don’t have time to maintain our regrets when we remember how much God loves us.” Jesus took our guilt and we really are that bad! The Gospel reminds us that Jesus is calling from the Cross saying blame me. You Don’t have to be mad at yourself or other people because Jesus took your blame. God got the raw deal and we get his free Grace. Understanding this will leave you no longer mad at God! But rejoicing in the finish work of Jesus. He was the answer to your sin problem of Anger.

Solution for Anger is remembering what Jesus did for you. Own your sin by Repenting and not blame shifting your sin and believe on Jesus and then the anger will be gone! Remember this is a process of changing and becoming more like Jesus. If we choose to read Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 helps us understand how to grow and change through Christ.

Put On the New Self! Put off sin and Put on Christ glorifying qualities!
We can not break habits just replace them with better more Christ like ones!

Colossians 3:1-17
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I have found the Pearl of Great Price!

Yes, I found Christ! I was sharing with a friend this week how the Lord answered my prayer and wanted to share with him because he had been praying for me. As we were discussing life we shared this sweet quote by D.T. Niles: “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.” We also discussed our greatest treasure being Christ. Which reminded me of the story of the merchant who sold all he had to purchase the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46).

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price
Matthew 13:45-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

When you find the greatest treasure you want to spend the rest of your days sharing this good news! But here is the Good News, “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6). We had a debt, and God in his glorious grace paid that debt through His Son and made us alive in Him. And not only were we made alive, but were made sons and heirs, we were given an inheritance when we deserved nothing. Now how glorious and beautiful is the truth of the real gospel; that we deserved death and Christ took on that death and delivered us into his kingdom as royalty. This is why we adjust our lives around the gospel, because at the center of the true gospel is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world who took away our sins and reconciled us to God.

Famous Authors on the Good News!
1. “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”
― John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life

2. “If your preaching of the gospel of God’s free grace in Jesus Christ does not provoke the charge from some of antinomianism, you’re not preaching the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.”
― D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

3. “The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”
― Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

4. “The gospel is neither religion nor irreligion – it is something else altogether. Religion makes law and moral obedience a means of salvation, while irreligion makes the individual a law to him – or herself. The gospel, however, is that Jesus takes the law of God so seriously that He paid the penalty of disobedience, so we can be saved by sheer grace.”
― Timothy Keller

5. “We are changed not by being told what we need to do for God, but by hearing the news about what God has done for us.”
― J.D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary

I came across a old school hymn that depicted my same thoughts!

Hymn: I’ve found the pearl of greatest price! My heart doth sing for joy
Author: John Mason (1683)

1 I’ve found the pearl of greatest price,
My heart doth sing for joy:
And sing I must, a Christ I have;
O what a Christ have I?

2 Christ is the Way, the Truth, the Life,
The way to God on high,
Life to the dead, the truth of types,
The truth of prophesy.

3 Christ is a prophet, priest and king,
A Prophet full of light,
A Priest that stands ‘twixt God and man,
A King that rules with might.

4 Christ’s manhood is a temple, where
The altar God doth rest;
My Christ, he is the sacrifice,
My Christ he is the priest.

5 My Christ he is the Lord of lords,
He is the King of kings;
He is the Sun of righteousness,
With healing in his wings.

6 My Christ, he is the Tree of Life,
Which in God’s garden grows;
Whose fruit does feed, whose leaves do heal;
My Christ is Sharon’s rose.

7 Christ is my meat, Christ is my drink,
My physic and my health,
My peace, my strength, my joy, my crown,
My glory and my wealth.

8 Christ is my father, and my friend,
My brother and my love;
My head, my hope, my counselor,
My advocate above.

9 My Christ, he is the Heaven of heavens,
My Christ what shall I call?
My Christ is first, my Christ is last,
My Christ is all in all.

Repentance leads to Joy and freedom!

What exactly does it mean to repent? Many believe just confession alone is repentance. Others believe that if they feel bad enough for sinning then you hey have repented. Others say that you must leave that sin alone and yearn to never go back there again then you have repented.

Scripture defines it as, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10. We should mourn over our sin, but in a way that brings repentance, not wallowing or self-pity.

Repentance leads to a change in direction: “It is a change rooted in the work of regeneration, a change of thought and opinions, of desires and volitions. It involves the conviction that
the former direction of life was not just unwise but wrong. It alters the entire course of one’s life.” Rev. James Beggs

Repentance defined by 3 famous authors:

1. Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.
-Charles Spurgeon

2. Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.
-J. I. Packer

3. Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience.
-John Piper

SCRIPTURE:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32)

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:41)

Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3, 5)

Confession alone is half the battle! True Repentance leads to recognizing our sin and longing to kill it and never return.

We can dwell on our sins but not repent.
One problem that is common is dwelling too much on past sin and less dwelling on how our sins have been blotted out by Christ. Mark Driscoll offers a helpful point on not dwelling on our sins. “Careful not to dwell on your sin more than you dwell on your Savior. Sin leads to mourning. Salvation leads to celebration.”

What Repentance involves by Stuart Scott:
•          Godly sorrow over the sin that has been committed because it is an offense before a holy God (Psalm 51: 4).
•          A full admission of sin and responsibility for the sin and brokenness with no excuses to God or others (Psalm 51: 3).
•          An asking of forgiveness from God and others who are involved with the perspective that forgiveness is not deserved (Psalm 51: 1-2).
•          A hatred for the sin and a desire to avoid it completely ( 2 Corinthians 7: 11).
•          A plan and an enthusiasm to make changes (both away from the sin and toward righteousness), whatever it takes (Luke 3: 8-18; James 1: 22-27)
•          A willingness to accept the consequences of the sin and to see justice done (Luke 23: 40-43).
•          A desire to be in God’s Word and with God’s people (1 Peter 2: 1-3; Hebrews 10: 19-25).
•          Without a heart of true repentance you will never be able to change. But if you are willing to humble yourself and turn from your sin, you can glorify God with a changed life.

Joy comes in repenting from sins and turning to God for help to change. We cannot fight sin on our own but only with dependence on God and he provides that strength for the battle.
The fight of faith and battle to find your joy in Christ is essential in living a life of repentance!
God is worth it! He never leaves us nor forsakes us in the battle!
May God gives us grace and strength as we make war on our sin and place our faith in him!

Blessings!
Donnie Nelson

This you want to hear by Timothy Keller on understanding Sin and Grace!

I read a few quotes recently from author Timothy Keller but these two quotes just spoke to me in a very powerful way. Often times we can’t hear someone because of our defensiveness and our own sin. Joy comes in recognizing our sin but also seeing our Savior doesn’t stand ready to condemn but to save us! Joy comes in following Christ and freedom to be real about our sin and real about our great and glorious Savoir!

This blessed me I hope it blesses you too!

Timothy Keller a famous author has written several books shared this:
The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope – at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.

This also creates a radical new dynamic for discipline and obedience. First, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed because we know we won’t be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness. Second, it makes the law of God a thing of beauty instead of a burden. We can use it to delight and imitate the one who has saved us rather than to get his attention or procure his favor. We now run the race ‘for the joy that is set before us’ rather than ‘for the fear that comes behind us.’

Duck Dynasty: What EXACTLY do they believe?

Baptism does not save you! It is a outward picture of something that already has happened to you when you believed in Jesus. I enjoy the Duck Dynasty Show. But I do not hold to their view of Baptism.

Wretched with Todd Friel

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