The Inward Disciplines

Have you ever gotten stuck? I mean really stuck? Stuck so bad that you're not sure what to do next? Last week we were headed to Tom & Margaret's for the potluck dinner for the Sunday School and we were getting ready to head over there. Sherri asked me, "should I go on the dirt road?" Well, knowing it had rained the night before, but it had gotten hot the next day, so I said, "yeah, sure, why not!" "Ok," she said. So we headed down there and as soon as we went down from the gravel to the dirt road, I knew we were in trouble. I heard the tires spinning, saw mud flinging and sure enough, we got stuck. So Sherri tried rocking the van from fwd to rvse, but nothing. Now what!? Well, the only thing I knew to do was to get out and push. Envisioning myself all muddy, I hesitated for a second, but remembering that the van is front wheel drive, I breathed a sigh of relief. So, I got in the back and pushed. We made progress, but my sandles were caked in mud. We got to a hill that measured about a 3 ft incline, and I could no longer push the couple thousand pound vehicle up that incline. So, I got in front and pushed it back far enough so Sherri could turn the wheels and get into the grass. Finally, after about a 5 minute push, she got onthe grass and I was on my way back to the house to get a pair of clean shoes. But, we had one more obstacle. She couldn't git the van between the power pole and the garden. It was too narrow. So, frustrated as I was, I almost considered leaving the van there until drier weather and taking the SUV up to Tom and Margarets. That, however, was the easy way out. So, I took the van and carefully judged the distance between the pole and the garden, and decided I had just enough room to fit it. I was right. I had plenty of room to spare...about a few inches. Woo!! Finaly, we were on our way back to the house for fresh shoes and a longer route around to the Leeper house.

The point is this: sometimes we get into our spiritual lives and end up stuck just like I did this past week in the mud. Today begins our journey into the Spiritual Disciplines. Today is the day we'll look at the Inward Disciplines of meditation, study, prayer and fasting. These disciplines are partaken of mostly in the personal realm, which is why they are considered inward. They are a personal focus for ourselves to gain a closer relationship with God. We partake of them together as a congregation sometimes, but the end result falls on behalf of the person to absorb and keep the trend going personally.

On the Inward Discipline side, the whole goal is to have a healthy communion with God. You see, communion isn't just something we partake in at church every Sunday. When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they had perfect communion with God. They walked together, talked together and spent time together. God dwelled with them. It was perfect. Then, they decided to eat of the tree. Oops...we've been struggling with communion with God ever since. We have trouble communing with God...we have problems commune...icating. That is what the Inward Disciplines are all about. Communing, Communicating and having perfect communion with God. That is why Jesus was sent in the first place. To rectify the communion problem we have. Now, we take part in the act of communion at church, but please realize that it is much more than that. Communion is about having a relationship with God. Communing with God is something that we should be doing every day, all day.

Our Scripture for this morning is going to be two different ones. The first is Acts 13:1-3 and then we'll flip to Psalm 119:9-16. We'll start in Acts. Please read with me...

1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

And now, Psalm 119...

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, LORD;
teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.

Now, I want you to keep in mind that there are two books that I am relying heavily on for information this week. #1, The Bible, as always. #2, Richard Foster's book, "Celebration of Discipline" written back in 1978. This book, for those who are serious, is a great read to growing a deeper relationship with God. However, I am sure to check what he says against the Bible, which is why I will take what I believe out of the Bible before I will any person. There really isn't a great place to start with one discipline or the other, so we'll jump right in with the Discipline of Meditation.

Christian Meditation is so very different from Eastern views of meditation. An Eastern religious view says the person should 'empty' themselves in order to lose selfhood and individuality. They seek to become 'one' with the universe. That is their main goal. With Christianity, meditation seeks to fill our mind. Fill it with Scripture, focus on God, allow him to move us beyond detatchment and move us to attach ourselves to God himself. Instead of attach, perhaps we could insert the word "commune". Just a thought. This allows us to freely give ourselves to God in a way we never thought we could. Now, don't get meditation confused with Study, which is what we'll tackle next. Meditation is the process of internalizing Scripture. It is the ability to hear and obey God's word. With meditation, there really is no technique involved to do it the correct way. Practice. Really, the only way to get good at meditation is to actually do it. In Psalm 46:10, the Psalmist writes, “Be still and know that I am God.” Meditation is a great technique to follow study, prayer or fasting. What we are doing is listening for the response of God. The problem is, it takes practice in order to do this. Internalize, personalize, and hide the word of God in your heart, just like in our Scripture for today. That is how it is done. I want to take you on a brief taste of some meditation. We’re going to take John 14:27 where Jesus talks about ‘my peace I give you.’ Close your eyes, and I’ll paint a picture. You’re on a hillside, the wind gently blowing the tall grasses all around. It’s a bright, beautiful sunny day, clear blue skies and white puffy clouds all around. Jesus is standing before you and says the following words, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” You can open your eyes. Did you actually see Jesus with his arms open wide, giving you his peace, not as the world does, but fully and eternally? That, my friends, is Christian Meditation. A small taste, but nonetheless, a starting point.

Next up is Study. Study is one of those disciplines that is hard to start and hard to keep going. It’s all too easy to fall away from it and lose ground. True growth and change come from study. Have you ever been at a point in your life where you were coming to church every Sunday yet not seeing any change happening? One of the ways we can help that along is by engaging in daily study. Study is not just taking a bible and reading. Reading is good…but it isn’t study. Study is actually digging into what the passage is actually saying. Digging into the context of the Scripture, finding out who the letter was written to, for what purpose. That is how we bridge the gap from Scripture to application for today. It’s called exegesis. It’s what pastors do every week. When I first started preaching, one of my mentors told me that preaching was like writing a term paper every week. 8 pages, double spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, and exegetically sound. Wow. He wasn’t kidding. I thought he was, but it is the absolute truth. 8 pages gets me about 20-25 minutes if I don’t get too windy. Now, as a lay member of the congregation, you don’t have to worry about giving a report at the end of the week. Your report is only to God. When you do proper study, fasting, prayer and meditation all play a part. Foster outlines four steps to proper study: repetition, concentration, comprehension, reflection. All four of these steps are hard enough by themselves, let alone all together. So you are aware, we have all of the tools here at the church to study. A quiet place, pastors, teachers, bibles, commentaries, concordances, maps and more. It is also helpful to have a discussion as well. Discussion and debate are part of study. Talking about it can help us grow and see sides to the equation that we hadn’t seen before. Something else we can do is to take a passage or small book of the bible and read it every day for 30 days. Things will pop out at you after a while. Style of the letter, basic outline of the passage or letter. Keep in mind that each book of the bible was actually written as a letter, meant to be read front to back as a whole.

Next, we are talking about prayer. My friends, prayer is something that we make out to be so much harder than it really is. Prayer is simply communication with God. It is more than just giving the laundry list of requests to God. It is listening for a response afterward. In today’s world, we get swept up by the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, and if we do pray, most times we forget to listen afterwards for God’s answer. Real prayer is life changing. It has the ability to move mountains if we ask them to. Real prayer is beginning to think God’s thoughts after him, desiring the things he does, loving the ones he loves. Like meditation and study, real prayer takes time to develop the habit. It is something we learn, and that takes time. The only way to really learn how to pray is to actually do it. Jesus gives us the basic format in the Sermon on the Mount in Mt 6:5-15 where he talks about prayer. The problem we have most days is that we are not tuned to God’s frequency. We have to be focusing on him, tuning him into our radio dial in our heads, scanning the frequencies to find God. Once we find him, pray and then be sure to listen for the answer afterwards. Prayer is simply the reflex action to God’s prior initiative on your heart. The problem is, most of us do not pray until we feel like it. Don’t wait, because it’s too late by then. Pray before you feel like it. Prayer is like work, once you get into it, it doesn’t seem like a chore. It isn’t so bad! The more you pray, the more prayer and action become one. It isn’t always the hands folded, on your knees, bowed head position. It is, and should be, always in constant motion. Pray on your way to work, pray after completing a task, before starting another, during a task. It should be taking place all the time. The more we are focused on God during the day, the less likely we will be to stray away during the day.

Fasting is the final inward discipline and it is on that most people shudder. Now, keep in mind that some of us cannot fast. We medically cannot do it…diabetics are a good example. But fasting is one of the disciplines that has gone by the way side…we are a culture of pure gluttony. There’s a McDonald’s on ever corner in the city and we are a Burger King “have it your way” kinda people. We’ve been trained to think that if we do not get 3 big meals plus snacks a day, we’re on the verge of starvation. Fasting can actually be a good thing. What fasting really is, is a restraint from physical food, and instead, feasting on spiritual food instead…God’s word. A normal fast is restraint from solid and liquid food and drinking plenty of water. A partial fast is what Daniel does in chapter 10. No meat, no delicacies, no wine, only water and veggies. An absolute fast is abstaining from food and water for no more than 3 days, because the human body cannot go without water for more than 3 days. This type of fast is usually designated for dire emergencies only. Esther and the Hebrews did this when they learned that they were going to be put to death. Fasting is usually done personally, but sometimes in groups. In Acts 13, it was a group fast. The point of a fast is to focus on God and not bring light to it. We must be sustained by the word of God. We are feasting on him instead of physical food. God must be at the center of our fast, not doing it for physical benefits, power, success in prayer, spiritual insights or anything. Fasting is to focus on God primarily. That is it. If you want to know more and partake in a fast, please start slowly, and do your research. Ask your doctor too, be sure you are healthy enough!

So, now that we’ve been through all four, do you see how they totally depend on the other? Fasting depends on prayer, meditation and study and vice versa. The whole goal if the Inward Disciplines is to have communion with God. There are many, many scriptures that talk about these disciplines. I pray that this week, as you go from here, that you take them and start to put them into use. Do not get discouraged at first if it is not successful. It takes time to get them down. As Christians, we should be in a constant state of change. The disciplines, along with the Holy Spirits help, we can take these disciplines and form the habits necessary to begin to restore the communion we lost with Adam and Eve, and gained back when Christ died and rose again. The only piece of the puzzle left, is your commitment to him. Have you done that yet? Do you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you actually said the words and been baptized? It is vital that you do…a Savior is waiting to accept you with open arms, no matter how bad your past is. No one is too far gone for Jesus to save. He rose from the dead, if he can do that, then he can save you from the sins you commit. Give your life to him today.

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