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| Part 2 |
This blog
can read as a continuation to the previous one I wrote. To my utter surprise last Sunday my
husband Colin preached almost the same thing that I have blogged here . You can read that by clickinghere. I guess the Holy Spirit is indeed putting His finger on something , so I
thought I’d blog this any way.
Doing the
daily stuff deliberately while staying on the cutting edge is the flip side of
the coin. Not neglecting the boring basics is what helps build consistency and
character.
It’s the stuff
that no one sees you doing but affects you inside out. It’s the stuff that a
good soldier, sportsperson, musician is made up of. It’s the routine stuff, the
drill for a soldier, the scales for a musician, and the laps round the field
for a sports person.
So what it’s
for me a Christian follower? It’s the simple basic “Quiet Time” spent alone
with God each day, reading and mediating upon His Word, prayer, listening to
the Holy Spirit- in short the unseen Spiritual Disciplines. Then it’s learning
to put the Word into practice, being an obedient disciple of Jesus and then in
turn passing in these values to the next disciple and the next, slowly and deliberately.
We allow the roots to go deep down- we put foundations really deep till we hit
the rock.
This helps
put steel into the structure and keeps us steady in the midst of storms ,
trails and troubles. When we pass on these disciplines to a new believer we are
giving him or her tools for survival for the long haul. We are helping them to
run the long marathon of life and finish strong.
There is a
view that thinks anything to do with “discipline” is legalism and lacks grace.
How far from the truth!! the Word of God encourages us not to dwell carelessly
, to live quiet and self controlled lives. Jesus who is Grace himself practice the
above i.e. He got up very early in the morning to pray, He studied the scripture,
He waited on the Holy Spirit, He was obedient to the Father to the point of
death on a cross.
So if we are
Christ followers we need to model our lives after Him. We do not practice these
disciples to gain acceptance or brownie points with God. We can never merit His
love. We do it because we are already accepted completely but make it our aim
to please Him in every way just as was Jesus’ aim : to bring glory to the
Father.
So as we
move along in life, keep pace with change, there are some things that do not
change at all i.e our Lord Jesus, His Word, what He expects from us as his
disciples. When we do this we will put strong roots down, we are less likely to
loose our passion and vision/ so let’s doggedly do the deliberate stuff daily.
I want to
end with one of my favorite verses from the Bible:
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that
hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter
of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured
such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Navaz D Cruz
March 2013
