Devotion, Discipleship, Discipline is the best way to follow our series “The Good Way”, which by the way, never really ends. Last week we brought that series to close and remind you that the three of the main marks on our map of the good way was the 10 Commandments,Knowledge, and the Unity of the body of Christ. This week we’re gonna look at some of the stops along the way that help us to remain on and to even continue on the good way. The first of those would be Christian devotion, which is defined as simply being the practice of a dedicated time and heartfelt affection towards God. It involves daily activities like reading the Bible, prayer, and worship to grow closer to him. While some of this we covered in the previous series, but this involves a personal internal commitment to relationship with God and attitude, and an outward expression of that commitment through obedience. It means looking to things that provides spiritual encouragement and guidance. The very core of this is a personal relationship with God spending time with him through study and prayer. It involves reading the Bible and looking to understand God’s word. Our prayer should also be for our personal needs as well as others, and it is a means of communicating these to God. I will add here how important it is to go to church and to engage in singing, hymns of praise and engage in the worship itself. It’s a conscience effort to make God the center of your life, allowing that relationship to influence all your decisions, and you find yourselves a position of an intentional form of living. Not all of this is really kind of an individual emphasis on our self, so we must get beyond that and remember the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. It simply means that this relationship that we’re cultivating with God should extend outward to how we treat others. So how do we bring all of this together? Well, we start out by having a daily routine that brings us closer to God by using the resources that are available to us our Bible, online articles, things of this nature that give us a structured time of guidance towards how our God would have us live, but the purpose of all this is not just to complete a task, but to change our heart and mind and for a genuine connection with God, even at times when it’s not always filled with great enthusiasm.

The next “D” is discipleship, which is the process of following and becoming more like Jesus through a learning relationship and obedience to his teachings, and of course has a personal commitment to grow in one’s faith while we’re working hard also to help others do the same. It is an ongoing transformational lifestyle. It should not be treated as a one time event. We should be aiming for a personal transformation which involves a Holy Spirit and a desire to apply Jesus’s teachings to daily life, and to grow in spiritual maturity. There is a part of this discipleship which requires accountable relationships with people that are around you mentoring those who perhaps need help and using dialogue and discussion to encourage spiritual growth. A crucial part of what is going on, of course, is helping others to follow Jesus and this involves teaching them to obey Jesus’s commands and reproducing Christ’s life through our discipleship is really a very comprehensive process. The studying of the word of God, prayer and fellowship, praise and worship.

We really can’t ignore the fact that sometimes it will involve working through past pains and events that can hinder that growth.

The last “D”…Christian discipline, how we practice our faith and how we extend that faith and belief to others to help them grow in their faith and then there’s a part in there that I really do like. It’s in an instructive correctional procedure by parents to provide to their children not only the disciplines of life but also of a Christian life. And we’re talking about activities such as prayer Bible study, Fellowship, which help a Christian develop deeper relationships with God and to cultivate godly character. As parents, we must realize that godly discipline is characterized by compassion, clarity, consistency, and aiming to guide a child towards godly choices, rather than simply punishing misbehavior. Many of the factors that are part of this apply to adults and children alike. Our purpose is to grow in holiness to resist temptation and become more Christ like. Remember the old days in Sunday school when we used to have to memorize Bible verses, come back next week and share them with everybody? It is my wish and I would kinda hope that Bible reading, study and memorization will continue to be a large component of our children’s Bible studies. We have this thing today that in many churches or denominations, when you join there’s always a list of don’t do’s… well here’s a list of things to do. Make these things a part of your daily life. Prayer. fasting, fellowship with other believers having a sense of generosity and service and taking a little bit of time away from everything for meditation and solitude. Where our children are concerned a little word if you don’t mind please about parental discipline. It should be provided to lovingly guide a child to make godly choices and develop a respectful character. Some of the characteristics of that would be… consistency applying rules and consequences that are fair and  reliably dependable. Compassion, approaching the child with a loving and understanding heart. Clarity, clearly communicating rules and expectations. And of course correction directly addressing wrong choices with firm, but loving guidance. And all of these things about discipline that we’ve been discussing should contain these three key principles. One, it should be a means of grace not just a form of punishment, two, it balances love with firm boundaries. Three, it aims to develop godly character, and understanding of God’s presence.

Thank you for joining us in the pew this week and I hope that you’ve enjoyed our discussion today about the Three “D’s”. Here in the Pew we do work at trying to find a balance and not overwhelm you with scriptures. Come back and join us next week.

Life is Good

jk