Every Day Bible » Christian Disciplines

Christian Disciplines: Devotionals and Fasting

Happy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:16:37 +0000

Enjoy our last two weeks of discussion from our Christian Disciplines Class.

First, Home Devotionals. God is interested not in our spiritual lives, per se, but in our lives—the whole stinkin’ thing! We discussed this concept in our lesson on home devotionals. How can we season our entire lives with his presence? How can we recognize that our jobs, our retirement, our schooling, and our vacations belong to him? To drive home the point, we discussed developing a “theology of sleep.” Our lives, our existence should be wholly redeemed!

For comic relief (while our toes heal) listen to this “Phone call with God.”

For the class discussion on home devotionals (listen for the tips at the end) listen to the summary here.

Regarding fasting: it’s a hot-button topic (even though we’re silent about it most of the time.) The old adage is that “it’s regulated, but not commanded” is worth discussing, but isn’t that helpful. After all, who would regulate something you don’t expect to happen? The number of commanded OT fast days may surprise you. I hope this lesson stirs your thoughts and gives you one more tool in your spiritual disciplines tool-chest. Listen to the summary of Christian fasting here.

Christian Disciplines: Prayer

Happy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Enjoy this week’s recap of prayer – the Christian discipline.

Disciplines: Relationships as Disciplines

Happy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:51:09 +0000

This week we talked about how significant relationships are. In a post-modern world, they’re our greatest opportunity for evangelism. They enrich our lives–they allow us to survive and thrive. Since our relationships with others affect and reflect our relationship with God, we should treasure them and work on them to help us mature in Christ. We should leave behind surface friendships and risk rejection to move into deeper interaction. We should talk about what is really important.

Here’s a brief overview of relationships as a spiritual discipline, and a video we discussed about the world’s worst youth minister.

Christian Disciplines (Session 1)

Happy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:02:38 +0000

Last Wednesday night at Burns, we’ve started a class on “Christian Disciplines: Tools for Transformation.” This is a class I’m really looking forward to–I see a real need in the church here, and I see real potential.

The class has quite a bit of discussion, but there are several who are not able to join us, so I want to give you a jumping off point so you’ll know what we talked about. We’ve got a Journal that we handed out to help you keep your notes in one place. You can print it out and fold it in half to use as a note-guide.

Our first session was “Introduction to Transformation and Spiritual Disciplines.” I showed a little video clip called “Cardboard Testimonies” and I commend it to you as an exercise to open your eyes to the possibility of transformation. The homework for the first week is this: find someone whose faith you admire, and talk to them for a few minutes and just ask what they do to help nurture and grow their faith. Pick their brain a bit, and come back next time ready to discuss.