God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

“Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.

“Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.

“Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.” (Psalm 15, The Message)

I love this passage because it provides a pretty clear and simple explanation for how to please God.

Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don’t hurt, don’t blame, despise wrong-doing. Keep your word.

Although these things are easier to say than to do on a daily basis, if we keep them in our minds and on our hearts, and just take a moment to meditate on them now and then, they will become the foundation for how we go about our lives.

Take a moment to ask God for help with this. He is the only One who can provide you with strength and discipline to walk in holiness and love.

Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

If all Christians would take this idea seriously, and apply it to their lives, what a different world we would live in. Instead, we have a hard time resisting the urge to indulge in what the enemy has to offer while we are living here.

This idea has been more real to my wife and I recently, as we prepare to make a change that some consider crazy (we know some think this because they’ve told us). We are asked questions like, “how will you support your family?”, “what will you do once you’re done school?”, and other questions regarding our kids and our house which we are selling.

It seems as though we have this idea that we need to have everything in order before we respond to God’s calling. Here are a few things I think about when I have doubts:

• God does not NEED our money. He only asks that we be generous with what we have.
• God does not NEED our abilities, but wants us to be faithful with the gifts He’s given us.
• God does not depend on our plans to fulfill His own plan for our lives, He just asks that we listen and obey.
• We don’t need to know God’s whole plan to take the first step, we only need to trust Him.

Let us not get caught up in becoming too comfortable in enemy occupied territory. Remember, God has us here for a mission, which, in the details, can look different from person to person. But the call to all God’s people is to love and obey Him, love others and live a life that demonstrates the holiness given to us by God through Jesus Christ.

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works

- Augustine of Hippo

This is the first of the four corporate disciplines that I will be going through. These are disciplines that relate to the corporate life of a Christian, in fellowship with the Body of Christ.

The biggest problem with confession is that it makes Christians look “bad”. As believers, we like to make ourselves look holy so that others get the impression that we have it all together and that Christianity means a better and holier life. While I agree that Christianity should result in a holy life, I don’t agree that we should withhold confession in order to maintain a good reputation. God could care less about our reputation with others if we neglect our responsibilities as believers to live holy lives.

Another problem we come up against is that of embarrassment. We tend to think we are the only ones not living up to the high standards of Christ, and that we will be looked at as a failure if we confess we have done wrong. What results is a secret and hypocritical life which leads to deeper and more damaging sin.

I admit, I haven’t always confessed what I have done wrong right away. I am no better at it than the rest of us. I have no excuses and no reasons, other than the two mentioned above. What I have done, however, is made a commitment to a mentor that I will confess my sins to him. By doing that, I have someone holding me accountable, someone who cares about me, and who has gone through many years of practicing the christian disciplines.

I encourage you to find a mentor you can trust. Not multiple people, just one, who you can confess everything to. This could be a parent, counsillor, teacher, elder or pastor. My only recommendation is that you find someone who has dedicated their life to practicing christian discipline. My warning is that you don’t choose someone the same age as, or younger than you. The reason is that this can often turn into an accountability relationship, where you are holding them accountable. You may wonder why that is a problem. Here is why: the blind can’t lead the blind. If this person is experiencing the same struggle as you, they would be fine accountability partners, but not a good mentor. Accountability partners walk and struggle together, whereas a mentor leads the mentoree in their walk with God.

When we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated.

(From Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline)

Servanthood requires a great amount of humility. Not many of us are willing to become a servant to the point of allowing people to take advantage of us. Now, let me be clear about what I mean. I am not talking about involuntary and cruel slavery, rather, the type of servanthood in which a person chooses to engage in and allow people to make full use of the servant’s gifts and abilities. True servanthood means serving is constant and never ending, always willing and happy to be of service to another person, even when the other person is not grateful.

Humility is a virtue that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it, the more we move away from true humility. I can’t decide one day that I will be humble, however, I must decide to do good to others and put their needs before my own. Soon, without realizing it, humility will be built within my character and will be evident by the way I treat other people.

While studying and fasting can be done and moved on from, service is something that is ongoing and should be built within someone’s lifestyle.

First, I would like to distinguish the difference between self-righteous service and true service. I will be using references from Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline as well as my own notes.

• Self righteous service is mostly concerned with acts of service that will get noticed and are a big deal. It enjoys serving, especially when the service is titanic.
• True service does not concern itself with acknowledgment or the size of the act.

• Self righteous service acts based on moods and whims.
• True service acts faithfully because there is a need, despite it’s mood.

• Self righteous service is concerned about the glorification of an individual, fracturing community.
• True service builds community. It quietly goes about caring for the needs of others without concerning itself with the glorification of any person.

• Self righteous service comes through human effort and eventually wears out.
• True service comes from a Divine Source and does not tire or grow weary of doing good.

When I first wanted to get involved in ministry, I wanted to do the things that were at the forefront of the ministry, that people would notice and give me praise for. I wanted people to notice that I was serving. I soon realized that I was not getting the acknowledgment I was seeking and quit serving altogether.

As I grow deeper in my understanding of Christian service, I try not to concern myself with anything but simply caring for others and pleasing God. Of course, I am not even close to having achieved this perfectly, but I keep trying and in doing so, God blesses me with more opportunities to serve in a way that will bring blessings to both myself and others.

In the next post I will write about humility and door mats.

I would like to focus on what Foster calls the seven acts of submission:

1. Submission to the Triune God.
   We surrender our body, mind, and spirit into the hands of God to do with us what he pleases.
2. Submission to the Scripture.
   We yield ourselves first to hear the Word, second to receive the Word, and thrid to obey the Word.
3. Submission to our family.
   The primary deed of submission is a commitment to listen to the other family members.
4. Submission to our neighbors and those we meet in the course of our daily lives.
   No task is too small, too trifling, for each one is an opportunity to live in submission.
5. Submission to the believing community, the body of Christ.
   Most frequently, acts of submission are spontaneous opportunities for little tasks of service.
6. Submission to the broken and despised
   Our first responsibility is to be among the “widows and orphans”.
7. Submission to the world.
   Our act of submission is a determination to live as a responsible member of an increasingly irresponsible world

Please Note: I would strongly encourage you to read Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline to get the full message of these disciplines.

The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done… most of us can get the ball into the hoop eventually, but we can’t do it when it is needed. Likewise, a person who is under the Discipline of silence is a person who can say what needs to be said when it needs to be said… if we speak when we should be silent, we miss the mark.

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

I chose to focus on speech when it comes to the Discipline of silence because that is an area of particular struggle for me. I find myself talking when I know I should be silent, and often get myself into a situation I could have easily avoided by simply remaining quiet. Keeping out of trouble is just one benefit of remaining silent. Another benefit is simply being disciplined. A disciplined person in one area often becomes disciplined in other areas of life more easily, especially if a person is disciplined in speech.

What a marvelous companion is one who listens and shows genuine interest in other people’s lives. Solitude requires me to hear before being heard and an attitude of gratefulness for every opportunity to be silent before God and others.

Simplicity is freedom… simplicity brings joy and balance…

Contemporary culture lacks both the inward reality and the outward life-style of simplicity… We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments…

We crave things we neither need or enjoy… The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality…

Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.

I am surely not the best person to be telling others to live a more simplistic life, and that is not at all my intention. This discipline is most definitely one I struggle with most. I do not blame my career or the culture I live in, rather I tend to use those things as excuses for a lack of discipline in this area. I enjoy owning the latest in computer technology and knowing all there is to know about the Web industry. I don’t think those things are negative, however, if my time is only dedicated to these things for the purpose of making my own life better and easier, I have missed the point of hard work.

God has given us gifts, and all of us are capable of using those gifts to fill our lives with more stuff. However, God intends for those gifts to be used for helping others and bringing glory to God.

May God give you-and me-the courage, the wisdom, the strength always to hold the kingdom of God as the number-one priority of our lives. To do so is to live in simplicity

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

1. Repetition.
   Ingrained habits of thought can be formed by repetition alone, thus changing behavior.
2. Concentration.
   The brains natural ability to store and focus on information is enhanced when, with singleness of purpose, we center our attention upon a desired object of study.
3. Comprehension.
   When we not only repeatedly focus the mind in a particular direction centering our attention of the subject, but understand what we are studying, we reach a new level.
4. Reflection.
   In reflection we come to understand not only our subject matter, but ourselves.

One other thing that is important when practicing the discipline of study is humility. In order to make good and proper use of knowledge, I must approach the subject with a humble spirit. I cannot be teachable and arrogant at the same time.

It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive (Matt. 6:16-18). To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want.

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

When I first took a serious look at the discipline of fasting, I never really thought of it as something necessary for me to practice. However, I decided to do it anyway. I started off fasting for about a day and a half. Then, I fasted for 24 hours once every week for about 10 weeks. What a wonderful experience it was.

During the times that I would have normally been eating, I spent that time alone, meditating or in prayer. God, through His word, revealed to me things that I needed to change in my life.

I think my time of fasting was most effective because I did it out of obedience, rather than to get something from God. I noticed after a few weeks I started to expect God to reveal new things to me, and when he wasn’t, I was going to quit. However, I realized that the purpose of fasting is not necessarily so that God will reveal new things to me, rather it is a time devoted to God in response to recognizing His provision in my life. Foster also notes:

Fasting must forever center on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained. Like the prophetess Anna, we need to be “worshiping with fasting” (Luke 2:37). Every other purpose must be subservient to God.