Discipleship

In obeying, a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam’s dance backward, and returns.

Charles Simeon, retired after fifty-four years of ministry, was still rising at 4:00 a.m. to read the Bible, pray, and spend time with God. A friend pleaded, “Mr. Simeon, do you not think that, now that you are retired, you might take things more easily?” “What?!” he replied. “Shall I not now run with all my might when the winning-post is in sight?”

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross… Costly grace is the gospel. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and grace because it gives a man the only true life… Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son… When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.

There is a difference between praying to an unknown God whom we hope to discover in our praying, and praying to a known God, revealed through Israel and in Jesus Christ… In the first we indulge our appetite for religious fulfillment; in the second we practice obedient faith. The first is a lot more fun; the second is a lot more important.

Epistle to Diognetus CHAPTER V -- THE MANNERS OF THE CHRISTIANS. For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

The Christian needs to walk in peace, so no matter what happens they will be able to bear witness to a watching world.

Christlikeness is not produced by imitation, but by inhabitation. We allow Christ to live through us. "for this is the secret: Christ lives in you" (Colossians 1:27)

Live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow.

Christ is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for Christ.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

In 1836, Charles Simeon retired after fifty-four years of ministry at the Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, UK. There he had been engaged in a ministry of expository preaching that had sent several generations of young Christian leaders out into British society. He had accomplished far more than 99.99% of ministers ever do. Yet a friend discovered that this elderly man was still rising at 4:00 a.m. every morning to light his own fire and to spend time reading the Bible, praying, repenting, and spending time with God. His friend thought this was over-kill. “Mr. Simeon,” he pleaded, “Do you not think that, now that you are retired, you might take things more easily?” “What?!” replied the old Charles Simeon, “Shall I not now run with all my might when the winning-post is in sight?”.

Being a counterculture for the common good begins with what we focus on and what we choose to overlook.

In every way that is unimportant let them make us Chaldeans.

Discipline her heart without breaking her spirit.

It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found - in loving obedience.

Cheap grace means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as general truth...an intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross. Costly grace is the gospel. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son...it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life. Costly Grace is the incarnation of God... When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. That is why the rich young man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of His following was the death of his will. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts.

Dear Gunnar, No you don’t have to like the hymns. And yes, you do need to sing them—hopefully in approximate tune and rhythm with the rest. It’s an excellent exercise in humility. The peace of the Lord, Eugene Dear Gunnar, So your friends are trying to turn you into a religious consumer, are they, inviting you to their wonderful churches where so much exciting stuff is going on? I would resist it. You’re better off sticking with what you started out with at your Christian re-entry—the “smallest and nearest church.” It’s still my standard counsel in churchgoing. Of course, I’d admit exception, but not for the reasons your friends are setting out. Those several dozen phlegmatic Norwegians, dozing under the liturgical inexpertness of your young pastor, are as good company as any with whom to listen to God’s word and worship his holy name. Where did all this frenzy in “looking for good church" get started anyway? Certainly not from any passion for holy obedience among the “least of these my brethren.” This church-shopping mentality, where we expect to find a flavor to suit every taste, is spiritually destructive. I don’t see any good coming out of church worship that caters to our taste in worship. The peace of the Lord,

Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray!

If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Coach Graham used to ride me hard. I remember one practice in particular. “You’re doing it all wrong, Pausch” Go back! Do it again!” I tried to do what he wanted. It wasn’t enough. “You owe me, Pausch! You’re doing push-ups after practice.”

In fact, self-indulgence tends to suppress gratitude; self-discipline tends to generate

The classic longings motivate a sound life; so do faith and gratitude. Of course, all these things fail from time to time. Spiritually healthy people know very well the drag of sloth and doubt. They know about spiritual depression. They know what it is like to feel keenly that the world has been emptied of God. That is why a spiritually sound person disciplines her life by such spiritual exercises as prayer, fasting, confession, worship, and reflective walks through cemeteries. She visits boring persons and tries to take an interest in them, ponders the lives of saints and compares them to her own, spends time and money on just and charitable causes. A person of spiritual hygiene covets the virtues and character strengths that Christians since Paul have always prized —compassion, for example, and patience. She seeks these and other excellences —endurance, hope, humility, forthrightness, hospitality. She then tries to work them into a regular practice routine, always aware that in order to grow in these excellences she needs both to strive for them and to fail in her striving. 47 She needs to persist through striving and failure and growth in order to become a free and joyful contributor to shalom.

Just as in sports and music, discipline in spiritual hygiene has a point. Anybody can play, but only a disciplined person can play freely. Discipline is the basis and presupposition of both freedom and power.

A child must learn God’s Word and speak of it tenderly, respect God’s reputation and try to enhance it. She must place her very life in the hands of God and trust what those hands might do to it. She must shun emotional and religious junk food that might spoil her appetite for God and her hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Like some mad charioteer, we now run our lives with more speed than direction. We become off-track racers, amateurs who have lost sight of the finish line. 66 Even in little ways we keep corrupting others and ourselves. Worse, unless arrested by the graces and disciplines of God, we tend to gather momentum in this program: sinners who lose spiritual purpose and control eventually descend into a spiral of increasingly grave assaults on civic and personal integrity.

Nor can Satan detach and harm those who faithfully cling to Christ. Satan can tempt but not coerce. Satan can accuse but not convict. Satan can accost but not destroy —or, at any rate, cannot destroy those who “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6: 11). A central New Testament conviction is that the evil one gains no ground that we do not give him. Satan seduces only those who are in the market for seduction. Satan deceives only the self-deceived.

True Christianity is a fight. Do we find in our hearts a spiritual struggle? Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for mastery? Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness and indifference. The children of God have two great marks—they may be known by their inward warfare as well as by their inward peace.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…

Apart from me you can do nothing.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.