Spiritual Disicplines...

Following are some kickstarts to some of the Christian Spiritual disciplines with some beginning exercises for each discipline summarized from some entries in the NRV Spiritual Disciplines Bible:

Fasting

Hungering for God’s deliverance  2 Chronicles 20:3

Don’t wait for the Moabites to come marching in before practicing fasting.  Practicing fasting, dependence upon God, prior to emergencies leads to the natural practice of looking to God when emergencies do happen.  Start off practicing a short 24-hour fast, lunch to lunch.  Drink plenty of water, perhaps with a bit of lime or lemon.  Expect distractions and some discomfort--use distractions and discomfort to turn to God in thought and prayer.  Keep a journal/phone/pad handy to record insights throughout the day.

Service

Leading by serving  Mk 10:41-45

Though God is all powerful and worthy of all honor and glory, he became a suffering servant (Is 53.)  In the eyes of God, greatness is not measured by where we stand but by where we kneel.  Where are you most tempted to seek places of honor?  Church?  School?  Sports?  What one step can you take to free yourself from seeking your own interests and to begin focusing on serving others?  Write it down and let your friend know.

Repentance & confession

The 10 Commandments:  A gracious moral inventory  Ex 20:1-17

By God’s grace, a moral inventory of our past behavior compared to the 10 commandments is not a process of despair but rather restitution, reconciliation and renewal.  Examine your spiritual life by reflecting on each of the commandments.  How does each one apply to you--both in attitude and behavior.  What causes you the most concern?  What causes you the least?  How can you make the Ten commandments a regular part of your daily confession to God?

Stewardship

A way to remind yourself  Deut 8:17-18

Prosperity can lead to spiritual amnesia.  If we allow ourselves to be numb to God through comfort and prosperity (America is still the most prosperous world nation), we will pay the price.  Do you consider your money a reminder of God’s provision?  Can you remember living “manna” to mouth?  How did it affect your spiritual life living on more manna and less money?  Read Deut 8 noting the promises of God’s provision.  Record as many specific occasions as you can remember that God has provided for you.

Spiritual Friendship

But isn’t God enough?  Gen 2:18

Our spiritual journey is not a solo journey.  Spiritual friendships can heighten our awareness of God’s presence, provide accountability, and provide encouragement.  Who encourages your spiritual vitality?  Who is trustworthy?  Make a list of some people and spend time praying for God to lead you into a deeper “soul” friend relationship.  If you already have a close Christian relationship as such, pray for God to lead you in deepening that friendship.  Include who God has laid on your heart about your intention to deepen in fellowship.

Prayer

Exploring God’s Mercy, Learning God’s Heart  Gen 18:1-33

Prayer can be one of the most frustrating yet rewarding disciplines.  Prayer begins not with requests but with our relationship with God.  Reflect on your view of God.  How do you think God views you?  Is there someone you know in a bad situation, or is something overwhelming you with anxiety?  Talk with God about it as a conversation with a special friend that wants the best for you and for all.

Bible Study & Meditation

Handwriting on the heart  Deut 17:18

Israel’s king had to make his own personal copy of the law.  Obedience to God was essential to his effectiveness as a leader.  Spend a period of time copying Scripture by hand.  Choose one of the shorter epistles or several favorite chapters of the Bible.  what do you notice as you copy?  As you make your copy, be ready to note insights and ideas in your journal so you can give them thought later.

Worship

Take a Rest  Exodus 20:8-11

Few of the spiritual disciplines are clearly commanded in scripture, though some are.  Most are accepted because of example and the testimony of God’s people.  But observing the Sabbath, a day of rest, is a commandment, to serve as a worshipful reminder of the Lord’s covenant with us and as a means to our well-being.  Worship sets the pace for our lives.  When was the last time you scheduled a time of doing absolutely nothing?  Reflect on you weekly sabbath day.  Consider eliminating some activities and adding some restful things like taking a nap, sitting alone with some music, taking a leisurely walk...how do you rest?  The purpose is to rest and refresh your soul, not exercise the soul.  Remember God’s covenant with you and refresh your soul.

God Promises

     I've been studying this week about Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Asa and the split of Israel after Solomon's reign.  God kept His promise to Solomon to keep the line of David through the blessing of the autonomy of Judah even though Rehoboam did not please God at all.

     I looked back at 2 Chronicles 7:14 at God's promise to Israel:
     if "...My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

   Israel was splitting, hurting and in need of healing amidst struggles for power and control.  Instead of humbling himself, praying and seeking God's face; Rehoboam rejected advice from the elders, had no recorded prayer life, and sought to elevate himself in declaring himself greater than his father, Solomon.  Jeroboam did no better, appointing false priests to tell him what he wanted to hear, a prayer life that was not noteworthy and his glorification of idols instead of seeking God's face.
   
     Israel was torn into the northern kingdom and southern kingdom...Samaria and Judah.  Israel was broken from the most powerful and revered nation under Solomon to a people group split into two weak kingdoms with no repentance--opposed to God in politics, worship and daily living.

What is there to learn from this?  Sounds a lot like America, but in studying and talking with God about things, I think there is also a personal application.  Saving you seems more at God's heart than saving any political entity, though nations will definitely benefit from a revival of individuals in the body of Christ.

     Looking at the original promise, my attention is immediately drawn to Jesus in baptism.  He did not sin but followed through with baptism as an example for us.  He humbled himself to allow a fallen man, John, to dip him in the water.  Then, his conversation with God was heard by those witnessing the event.  Prayer is talking to God, but not just talking to God.  Jesus listened to God's affirmation of him as a son with encouragement to fulfill God's will.  Jesus then sought God's face through fasting and prayer in the wilderness as he prepared for doing his Father's will.  Then, he brought a call to repentance and redemption to the world, healing the physically sick as well as the spiritually sick.

     He lived the example of God's promise and through Jesus, we are called to live such lives as well.  We must give up our poles, our calves, our selves and turn to God through the Holy Spirit in prayer and worship to talk to Him about His will and our daily part in that will.

     Matthew 7:7 covers the same expression through the admonition to Ask, seek, knock and find.  James 1:6-7 instructs that we must ask with faith, but we are not naming "it" and claiming "it" as it refers to our idols, but we are praying in faith that God's will is what we desire and that He wants to reveal it to us.

     We are all spiritually broken and in need of healing through the Holy Spirit.  We must humble ourselves, come before God in prayer and seek His face in our daily lives.  If we do so, the Spirit will heal us and turn us from our wicked ways to be whole in Christ.  God promises.

Praying for Others

I spent a week praying only for others, aside from asking forgiveness for my shortfalls.  I anticipated a grand revelation, but each day, I met with a simple struggle to keep my mind off myself.   People came to my mind that I would not have otherwise prayed for, and I expanded my recognition of God as creator and provider.

This all seemed pretty rudimentary, pretty average.  Hey, what if that's the point?  What if 'I'm average' is the point?  Focusing on self was a natural bent for me.  I had to fight every day to steer my mind in prayer from things I want to focus on the needs of others.  I use 'me' and 'I' more in my prayers than Dr. Seuss used 'Sam I am' in Green Eggs and Ham.

Am I out of whack, self-absorbed, a narcissistic soul amidst the average benevolence of human nature?  I seem to be average in every other respect.  I'm average height, average weight, brown eyes, brown hair, and above-average intelligence, which is what the average person feels about ones own brain--whether verbalized or silent, most of us feel we are right in the way we think most of the time.  Do you think I'm right?

I've handled grief in average ways defined by books and articles.  I've experienced mid-life anxiety similar to the average middle-aged male.

I am average.  So, perhaps the average human nature is to focus on self, which seems to be what I've done in this post.  Depression exists and there are unhealthy expressions of self-loathing (could there be a healthy expression of self-loathing?)  But, generally, we don't have to be told to love ourselves.  Jesus told us to love others as we love ourselves.  Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and love others as ourselves.

The world needs love--sacrificial love.  We need God Who is love to indwell us to help us look outward beyond ourselves, to sacrifice our selfishness for giving time, money, thoughts--love to others.

Salty Sacrifice and Holiness

     Recently, I was reading a book regarding holiness, which ironically, pointed me back to scripture by pointing out Leviticus as a book devoted to holiness.  Many times we search for answers ourselves while God directs us back to His word, so I found no surprise in finding a verse I noted years ago in my Bible:
  "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.  Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy."  Lev 20: 7-8

     So even before Jesus came in flesh, God instructed us to set ourselves apart, following His instructions, His law; but regardless of our efforts, it is God who makes us holy.  Paul poses the New Testament question of if we should just forget about trying to obey God, so that God's grace can be even greater.  The answer is absolutely not, and James expanded that answer to write that faith without works is a dead faith.

     Getting back to Leviticus and holiness, how does this work if God does the work, but we are supposed to play an active part.  Isn't playing an active part, in essence working?

     If I do not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman, will God make me Holy?  What about if I avoid taking my wife's sister as a rival wife?  Or not mating different kinds of animals?  Or not eating blood, making sacrifices correctly, burning mildew?  What do all these laws mean?

     Leviticus runs through a ton of instructions to give further detail from God's greatest instructions as applied to the Israelites.  Much discussion can be had on what those instructions meant to them at that time in relation to modern times on this side of the cross--but as a general look, it seems that the point of all the instructions was laying out things that would sever relationship with God, setting us apart from God instead of setting us apart for God.

     How do we set ourselves apart for God?

     "Season all your grain offerings with salt.  Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings."  Lev 2:13

     We must make an offering to God.  We don't make grain, or fellowship, burnt or guilt offerings today as they were prescribed back then, but this description given of the grain offering means everything compared with the offering we are asked to give today.  Jesus told us to sacrifice ourselves by taking up our cross daily to follow Him.  Paul describes the Levitical instruction in greater detail in Romans 12:1.

     "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."

     And when we offer our bodies, we should be applying plenty of salt.  Does this mean we should shower each morning in saltwater?  I don't think so, but Jesus referred to us in Mw 5:13 as the salt of the earth.  We don't want to lose our saltiness, so should be bathing in the light of Jesus each day to salt our living sacrifices in the Spirit.

     We can't produce the salt ourselves.  From where does it flow?

     "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."  Lev 17:11

     This verse referenced the restrictions of eating blood given to the Israelites, but we can see God's message that becomes clearer this side of the cross.  It is the blood of Jesus that makes atonement for our sins.  Jesus is THE salt of the covenant.  That is why we must salt our lives with Christ.  He makes us holy,   set apart,   as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever!  Amen.

Creation

     Create what is uncreative
set out for ordinary
     navigate normalcy
Stand out to be whacked
Back to the safety of mediocrity
     Passive language
     Describing being rather than action
Raze the foundation of safe
     uncreated creation
Raze perception of the uncreated
Demolish ordinary, annihilate passivity
     The uncreated created all
Breathed life into something from nothing
     Seek the uncreated for meaning, truth
beyond human mediocrity, exceeding language
     into space, time, passing through
safety of parameters
     into holes of everything but nothing
through dimensions emitting nothing
     Nothing but curiosity
Is being active
     producing an active being
or being, abiding
     action to behold
Behold the uncreated
     Creation holds You as nothing
Nothing from which came everything!

Yada -- Knowing God More

After some encouragement from others desiring to see my journal on this experience, I am sharing my journal notes from an exercise in prayer, listening for God rather than talking.  I encourage you to spend an extended period of praying to God to know Him more and then listen for Him, patiently, and with not only your mind or your ears open, but all of your senses to how He may want to communicate with you.  Here's Day 1:

Praying to know God—to see His face, to know Him more… 

Day one: 
In prayer today my mind wandered a bit and staying focused on God rather than self was difficult, but as I struggled, a rain-soaked chunk of soil entered my thoughts. Dark black dirt bleeding water beside a stream poured through my heart. Though plain and dirty, grass grew lush green on the banks, and the mud and muck screamed life. God creates. He uses muck to produce life and beauty. The darkest, dirtiest soul, once saturated to bleeding out living water glorifies the Creator with the beauty of fresh life. 
He breathed life into all—into me. My breath is the breath of God our Creator—Who created everything. What then shall I breathe but God and His word, that I may inhale Christ and exhale life to a suffocating world? Sola Deo Gloria! 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 2

Day two: 
Today again, my thoughts were running wild rather than listening for God. I sat outside, and with my eyes closed, every twitch or breeze set my mind on thoughts of bugs hopping all over me. Then I thought and perhaps boasted to God that at least I’m not like those legalistic folks who feel they need to pray on their knees. Then God said, “Submission.” I quickly understood this was God’s intention for me to learn of Him today, but while Jesus submitted to His Father, is God really the face of submission? 

“Get on your knees.” 

Surely that’s Satan playing with my mind. I’m not legalistic and I’m quite comfortable praying in the chair. 

“Submit.” 

“Got it…I kneeled.” 

I am prideful even with no one around. After getting on my knees God brought to mind bigger submission failures on my part. Submission is the key for today. Follow His prompting. Don’t wait for God to explain Himself or beg—just submit in humble obedience.

Kneel. Pray. Write. Tell. 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 3

Day three: 
It’s taken me a couple of days to revisit this exercise. The delay could be blamed on “busyness” and fatigue, but truthfully, after two “wow” days of God revealing Himself, I feared what would come next. In my mind, I expected that I couldn’t be and don’t deserve to be in tune with God every day. What if God is silent and won’t talk to me? How would I interpret that? 
He was not silent. Today—He is not silent still. When I sat to pray, fatigued and pessimistic about prayer this morning, He reminded me of our chats earlier this week and led me back to my knees. The breeze on my face reminded me of His breath and as I turned to my knees, He gently blew on my back. 
Encourager. 
He didn’t waste any time this morning, as if anxious to let me know—God has my back. God you are in me and with me and as I breathe in your Spirit and submit to your instruction, you encourage my soul. In His Word God told Abram to get up from His father’s house, go to the land “which I will show you…And I will bless you.” 
No matter what stands before me, Lord you permeate me, you instruct and guide me; you encourage me. With the One who created everything so involved with me, what fears then should I have—only the reverent fear of God to listen for His voice, Wisdom. 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 4

Day four: 


I Am Infinity. 

“Meow!” And I Am a joker—Infinite humor! Sending a cat 


up behind me, You might as well have just said, “Boo!” 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 5

Day five: 
I’d been flying since 7 AM and gained three hours coming to the West Coast. I then drove around 40 miles into Los Angeles, only receiving two honks and one exasperated gesture. 
After getting checked into my hotel, I decided to go for a bite to eat at a Burger King in walking distance. I’d only had coffee and a muffin within the last 10 hours and was hungry. 
Why do I note this? 
After getting my meal, God prompted me to give it to a homeless man passed out on the side of the road. After walking towards him, away again, back and away, with a war of thought in my mind, I dismissed God as merely self-imposed guilt from recent discussions of the homeless. Besides, I was hungry! 

God is compassion! I am not! I’m still working on submission. Lord, in the past week, I’ve prayed like a Pharisee, and shown the lack of compassion as a Pharisee! How wretched am I?! 
Still You are with me. Abraham gave Sarah to another and still you were with him. I’m reminded also having realized I’m checked into room 777. God, You don’t just have compassion on the homeless, but on me as well. Everyone needs compassion, forgiveness of a savior. Thank you for your compassion. Forgive me please of my callous, rebellious heart. I pray today for a heart of submission filled with compassion for others. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 6

Day six: 


God is affectionate. Sometimes He doesn’t want to say anything. He just wants to give a big hug. I’ve been struggling in my emotions lately and after babbling a bit in prayer, God gave me a hug—unexplainable to a point, but it was not as if I was in some hallucinatory state or physically hugging myself…somehow God’s arms were around me in hugging fashion and I knew it. I know Jesus used the sense of touch in His ministry on earth; He still touches today! His Spirit is within me, yet also around me, with me, touching me and comforting me. I can’t wrap Him up with crisp, pretty paper in a package with a nice ribbon, but somehow in prayer this morning, I know He hugged me because I needed it and because that was His desire. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 7

Day seven: 

The Way, the Truth and the Life. 

I noted this morning in Genesis 46 how Jacob sent Judah ahead to show the way to Goshen. In the same fashion, the Lion of Judah was sent ahead to show us the way to salvation from spiritual famine and death. (He went ahead to conquer death and show us the way!) 

In prayer, God kept directing me back to “the way.” I knew I had just noted this in my reading so I asked God to shut up my thoughts that I may see Him today. Do I not believe He speaks through His word? 

The Way—The Way, the Truth and the Life. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14) God is Trinity. I can attribute the components of the way, truth and life to the Son, Father and Holy Spirit; but they are all three all three. The Trinity is a great mystery to me, yet I know more clearly today that Jesus, who is the Word, is God the Father revealed to me from the Spirit indwelling my heart and directing my response to the Word. 
Jesus is the Way!

yada -- Knowing God More Day 8

Day eight: 

Seed. Seed? God, You are seed? A small, hard nut producing life in the right conditions? 
When a seed is planted in good dirt (kind of oxymoronic, right? Rich filth, fertile filth, righteous mud….) given water and sun, it breaks forth from its burial to brilliant life. It uses the soil, yet there is nothing dirty about a daisy other than from where it is rooted. 
I am righteous clay with God’s holy seed planted in the depths of my dirt, fed by His Word—the Son, the living water; and pruned by the Gardener, the Father. Another view of the Trinity in a single seed. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 9

Day nine: 
It’s so noisy in here this morning. The TV is pounding a dark song through the house, through my thoughts, my attempts to pray. 
To the back deck I must go! God, the birds won’t shut up out here—I can’t concentrate this morn---- 
Wait. The TV had orchestration from man—dark and ugly music. These birds have incredible songs! Incredible morning music orchestrated and directed by the One who created music. Listen to the symphony! God, this music is so cool! I want my music to resonate Your song because it is not my music but Yours placed in my soul. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 10

Day ten: 
Why worry? God provides. 

Easier said than believed. In my darkest heart I believe God's providence is insufficient--like coriander cakes when I crave meat. God sustains me; my wanton desires stretch me thin. Why do I struggle with faith that God's manna is enough? He is the bread of life; God, You are my bread of life. Please, God, sustain me even as my sinful appetite hunts for variety in my diet--food that will make me ill in my greed and steal the life You have breathed into me. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 11

"Day eleven: 
I am the Lord your God." 

He is my lawgiver and judge. 

"I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God." 

God saved Israel but still burned in anger when they sinned. Sin angers God. 

Lord, may I desire You and revel in your commandments rather than pursuing my own gods and laws; that I may be as Caleb and Joshua, ready to enter Your rest by Your power and grace. 

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God. 

Spiritual Block: Read and Listen

Sometimes we have struggles keeping in step with the Spirit. I seem to be going through the motions sometimes going to church, praying for dinner, saying, "God Bless you," when someone sneezes. You could list a few going-through-the-motions activities yourself--I could list many more here, but the purpose of this block is to offer exercises in getting back in touch with the Holy Spirit--to find life in Christ and Kingdom living here on earth now!

Choose a book from the Bible.  If you normally find yourself in the New Testament, choose one from the Old; if you normally find yourself in the Old, choose one in the New.  Divide the number of chapters by 30 and read that many chapters per day.  Pray before reading for God to open His word to your mind for the day.  Then read intently.  After reading, pray to God, listening for Him and what He brings to your mind of what you just read.  Be patient and as your mind may get distracted, direct your thoughts back to what you just read and listen for Him.  Now journal your thoughts for future reflection and reminders of God's voice.

In Christ, Andy

yada -- Knowing God More Day 12

Day twelve: 
Clean. Pure. God, You breathe life into all life. Therefore, life itself is clean and pure, holy--sacred. Death is unclean, dirty, unrighteous and rebellious. Life screams love. Death screams nothing. Life abundant sheds entanglement with sin and death, solely focussed on the Giver of life--our clean, pure, holy, perfect God, the Wellspring of life. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 13

Day thirteen: 
Keep the faith 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 14

Day fourteen (Psalm 29): 

Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, 
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; 
Worship the Lord in holy array. 

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; 
The God of glory thunders, The Lord is over many waters. 
The voice of the Lord is powerful, 
The voice of the Lord is majestic. 
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; 
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, 
And Sirion like a young wild ox. 
The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. 
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; 
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 
The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve 
And strips the forests bare; 
And in His temple everything says, "Glory!" 

The Lord sat as King at the flood; 
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever. 
The Lord will give strength to His people; 
The Lord will bless His people with peace. 

NASB