February 3, 2024

As Lent quickly approaches, it is good to talk about Spiritual Disciplines. Practices that can be practiced in Lent cover a number of different topics. All of the disciplines have the purpose of seeking a deeper life in Christ and a closer relationship with G-d. We call these “spiritual disciplines,” but the activities are physical, not spiritual. They are bodily activities that can engage and affect our whole person:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

This is what Paul has to say in Romans 12:1-2. So a more accurate term for the exercises might be “disciplines for a spiritual life in Christ.”

To excel in anything in life requires some level of discipline. This is true for athletes, musicians, accountants, electricians, and disciples of Jesus. Effective discipline should not be looked at as drudgery. Of course, training has difficult aspects, but the hard work pays off to facilitate a more faith-filled life. Just watch a master pianist and you’ll see that he or she is not straining to do well, but enjoying the music.

From the website Soul Shepherding: For You And Your Ministry by Bill Gaultiere, I am listing some disciplines. He puts them into two categories:

Disciplines of Abstinence – Disciplines of Engagement.

Disciplines of Abstinence are ways of denying ourselves something we want or need in order to make space to focus on and connect with God.

Solitude: Refraining from interacting with other people in order to be alone with God and be found by him. (Solitude is completed by silence.)

Silence: Not speaking in a quiet place in order to quiet our minds and whole self and attend to God’s presence. Also, not speaking so that we can listen to others and bless them.

Fasting: Going without food (or something else) for a period of intense prayer — the fast may be complete or partial.

Sabbath: Doing no work to rest in God’s person and provision; praying and playing with God and others. (God designed this for one day a week. We can practice it for shorter periods too.)

Secrecy: Not making our good deeds or qualities known to let God or others receive attention and to find our sufficiency in God alone.

Submission: Not asserting ourselves in order to come under the authority, wisdom, and power of Jesus Christ as our Lord, King, and Master. (If you think of this as submitting to a person as unto Christ then it’s a discipline of engagement.)

Disciplines of Engagement — are ways of connecting with God and other people, conversing honestly with them in order to love and be loved.

Bible Reading: Trusting the Holy Spirit-inspired words of Scripture as our guide, wisdom, and strength for life.

Worship: Praising God’s greatness, goodness, and beauty in words, music, ritual, or silence.

Prayer: Conversing with God about what we’re experiencing and doing together. (As we see in the Lord’s Prayer the main thing we do in prayer is to make requests of our Father for one another.)

Soul Friendship: Engaging fellow disciples of Jesus in prayerful conversation or other spiritual practices.

Personal Reflection: Paying attention to our inner self in order to grow in love for God, others, and self.

Service: Humbly serving God by overflowing with his love and compassion to others, especially those in need

I will take some time in Lent to look at some of these Spiritual Disciplines as I encourage you to take Lent seriously.

Pastor Dave

February 1, 2024 — “Easy to Deal With”

“Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?”  Acts 22:22-25

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:1-4

When asked of others, would they say that you are “Easy to deal with”, or “Difficult to deal with?” Now, you do not have to give your answer to me or to your spouse, or partner, etc. Perhaps you know yourself well enough that you already know the answer. No matter where you go, you will encounter people of both kinds. And, most likely, if you have the choice between two people to wait on you at the coffee shop, and one is easy to deal with the other is not easy to deal with, you most likely will pick the first person in which to give your order – because we all would rather deal with the person who is kind and considerate, rather than the one who is abrupt and cold.

Are you aware of how you come across to others? Do you know you are angry all the time, or negative, or cheery, or positive? Does it cross your mind that how you are feeling at the moment will come out in your responses and interactions with others? I have some friends who are always joyful and bubbly – they make it a point to see the good in everything. I also have some friends who are constantly looking at the other side of the coin in life – they are always negative and down.

Jesus preached “Blessed are the Meek”. The Greek word for “meek” is the word “Praeis”  — “the meek”. The essence of this Greek word is “balance.” It is the balance between anger and indifference; power of character and self-control; and self-assurance and humility. The meek are those who find a balance between kindness and being a door mat. You see, being easy to deal with does not mean you are always a door mat. You can be kind, easy going, and considerate and still stand up for your rights as a person, and as a Christian.

Life should not be about living so that people know you are always right. It is living a life that is a balance of kindness and strength of character. It is the balance between being humble enough to listen to those who disagree with you, understand that you are not always right, and yet have the fortitude to stand up and live out what it is you believe while respecting those who disagree with you. Living a balanced life means you can say you are sorry and mean it, without any caveat or “but….” – and give forgiveness as well as you accept it.

Pastor Dave

February 2, 2024 — “Finding Joy in Suffering”

“Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:7-11

Paul spends some time talking about his “thorn in the flesh” in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He says, “to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

“Though I have in my live experienced gout, bladder stones, a botched bone marrow biopsy, and various other screamable insults, until recently I had no idea what pain was. It islands you. You sit there in your little skeletal constriction of self-of disappearing self-watching everyone you love, however steadfastly they may remain by your side, drift farther and farther away. There is too much cancer packed into my bone marrow. It is a dull, devouring pain, as if the earth were already—but slowly—eating me. And I pray. Not to God, though, who also seems to have abandoned this island, but to the pain. That it ease up ever so little, that it let me breathe.” (My Bright Abyss, Christian Wiman; p. 115 Kindle edition)

Dare I say we all have some thorn in the flesh that has been a source of suffering – and perhaps a source of strength. Paul was not afraid to ask the Lord to take his thorn away. Christian Wiman, author of books like “My Bright Abyss” and “Zero At The Bone” prayed for his pain to ease up just a little – but he was praying to the pain. Even Jesus asks that his “cup be removed so he did not need to endure it” – but in the end he says that if it be G-d’s will to endure, then he would endure. Perhaps this is where we begin when it comes to looking at our own sufferings. In one of the readings I encountered in the book “The Tibetan Book of the Living and the Dead” the author writes that when we are suffering, we should pray that the Lord allow us to endure the sufferings of others as well, while we endure our own. It is a higher level of enduring and “pain management”, but perhaps it will help take our minds off our own suffering.

Suffering is just that – suffering. How we endure it demands prayer, community, and strength. And yet the pain may seem to be killing us. Enduring pain is nothing we can do on our own – it takes a relationship with Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us achieve such a level of endurance. 

Pastor Dave