Showing posts with label Discipline. Show all posts

                          Image via WikipediaBuying diet books won’t make you lose weight. Reading an auto-repair manual doesn’t make you a mechanic. Getting an online degree doesn’t make you an expert. Owning a Bible doesn’t make you a Christian, nor does joining a church. There is something more to it. 

It is easy to be spiritualistic without being spiritual; it is easy to believe in Jesus Christ without being Christlike. But it is impossible to be a disciple without discipline, and the longer we deny this simple fact, the longer our church will lack relevancy and power. 

--Rev. Dan Dick

Image via Wikipedia“The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word-that has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus,” the question is, “What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?” If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life.

“By discipline, I do not mean control. If I know the discipline of psychology or of economics, I have a certain control over a body of knowledge. If I discipline my children, I want to have a little control over them.

“But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means “the effort to create some space in which God can act.” Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life; discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on…”

Nouwen, From Solitude to Community to Ministry

(HT to NextReformation)