SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES AND
PRACTICES, #3
The Spirit of the Disciplines
Counting the Cost• Christianity has not so much been
tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
• Lk 14:25-33
The cost of discipleship
• Crushing burdens, failures, disappointments
• Unresolved problems• Mt 16:24-26
The cost of nondiscipleship
Character Transformation
Solid beliefs and
doctrines
Definitive actions
A Holistic Salvation
Provides deliverance leading toward an abundant
spiritual life
Invites participation in the reign of God
through bodily action
Spiritual Life - Willard
That range of activities in which people cooperatively interact with God and with the spiritual order, which flows from and through God’s personality and action.
Spiritual Person - Willard
One whose life is correctly integrated into and dominated by God’s Kingdom.
What spirituality is notA
lifestyle
A commitment
A social or political stance
An attempt to correct social and political
injustice
Christian spirituality includes…
Activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring personality and being into effective cooperation with the divine order;
Bringing fulfillment to the body as well as to the spirit.
The idea that a lack of the disciplines associated with spirituality damages the body as well as the spirit
History of the Disciplines
Elton Trueblood
What we are beginning to learn is that asceticism is a valid part of religion or of any other important enterprise.
Contemporary Western Thought
• To do what I want when I want
• To pursue happiness at all costs
• To feel good• To be successful• To enjoy the “good life”
I have
a right
Contemporary Western ThoughtThis has come to be a natural and accepted way of life promoted by
Popular media
Political rhetoric
Educational system
Contemporary Western Thought
If I am not experiencing the “good life”• I am a failure• I have been treated unfairly
Contemporary Western Thought
• Not wholly sane• Irrational• “Holy” or a
“saint”
Those who choose not to work toward a “happy and successful life”
The Call to Discipleship
Lk 14:25-30Mk 8:34-37
The Call to Discipleship
How can a call to move forward in
one’s apprenticeship to Jesus fit with the
“good life”?
This may be an indicator of where our
culture’s negative attitudes or
misunderstandings about spiritual
disciplines have arisen.
Dallas Willard
Somehow, the fact that “mortification”—self-denial, the disciplining of one’s natural impulses—happens to be a
central teaching of the New Testament is conveniently ignored. . . . The result is
our almost universal inability to understand what the disciplines for the
spiritual life are.
Abuse of the Disciplines
Old Testament• Isa 58:1-8• Mic 6:6-8
New Testament• Mt 23:1-12• Rom 2:25-29• 1 Cor 13:1-3
Abuse of the DisciplinesThe abuses occurred when
such practices were conductedAs
expressions of fear and hatred of
the material world
As attempts to
manipulate or impress
God
As attempts to
manipulate or impress
others
DisciplineHistorical context
“The discipline” was a whip that
was used to chastise the body during
acts of penance in the Middle
Ages
In the 13th century,
flagellation was used for
penitential processions of
the laity and the religious orders
Christ never engaged in
practices such as these
DisciplineBiblical Models
Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, John the Baptist,
Jesus, Paul—
People who fasted, prayed, sought
solitude…
And gave themselves to
humankind and God in
ways that are ascetic in nature.
However…Jesus showed that spiritual strength is not manifested by great and extensive practice of the spiritual disciplines but by little need to practice them and still maintain full spiritual life
Dallas Willard
The Spiritual DisciplinesHave no value in themselves
The aim of the spiritual life is in the effective and full enjoyment of
active love of God and humankind in all the
daily rounds of normal existence
The spiritually advanced person is
not the one who engages in lots and lots of disciplines
The Spiritual DisciplinesMissing the point
If it is easy to engage a certain discipline, it is no
longer a discipline
The “disciplines” to practice are
those one is not “good at” and
hence does not enjoy
The Spiritual DisciplinesMissing the point
Those who think they are
spiritually superior because they practice the
disciplines
The need to extensive
practice is an indication of
weakness, not strength
The Spiritual Disciplines
The spiritual disciplines, then, are
those practices which, when “endued with
power from on high” (Lk 24:49), enhance the
spiritual walk and help apprentices become more like the Rabbi
The Spiritual Disciplines
The spiritual disciplines bring the
whole self into cooperation with the divine order, so that
apprentices can experience vision and power beyond
oneself
The Spiritual Disciplines
The spiritual disciplines cease to be disciplines when they are fully integrated
into one’s spiritual life.
The Outward Disciplines
Simplicity Solitude
Submission Service
Simplicity What do you think of when you hear or
see the word “simplicity”? An attempt to define
Brings freedom and generosityCultivates the great art of letting goAims at loosening inordinate attachments
Simplicity Why should disciples practice simplicity?
To live an uncluttered lifeTo live out of the “Divine Center”To stake one’s identity in God’s love rather
than in possessions
Simplicity “True simplicity makes us conscious of a
certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety, and serenity, which is charming when we see it near to and continually with pure eyes”—François Fénelon
The practice of simplicitySpiritual Classics (114, 137)Spiritual Disciplines (74-77)
Solitude What is solitude? An attempt to define
An inner fulfillmentThe other side of the “loneliness coin”A “container discipline” for the practice of
other spiritual disciplinesA companion to “silence”
Solitude Why should disciples practice solitude?
To give God time and space without competing distractions
To rest and refreshTo think with GodTo allow for the experience of the “dark night
of the soul”
Solitude “Settle yourself in solitude and you will
come upon Him in yourself”—Teresa of Ávila
“Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. . . . Let him who cannot be alone beware of community”–Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Solitude The practices of solitude
Spiritual Classics (149-50, 156-7)Spiritual Practices (107-13)
Submission What is submission? An attempt to define submission:
The ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get one’s own way
The attitude with which one views and values others
The giving up of one’s rights
Submission Why should disciples submit to one
another?To be freed from the need to controlTo esteem and honor othersTo be set free from a rebellious spiritTo lose one’s life in order to find it in ChristTo learn to deny oneself, take up one’s
cross, and follow Jesus
Submission “Never think [that] in lowering yourself
you have less power for good”—Charles de Foucauld
“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all”—Martin Luther
Submission The practices of submission
Spiritual Classics (178, 194)Spiritual Practices (118-120)
Service What comes to mind when you hear the
word “service”? An attempt to define follows:
A way of offering resources, time, treasure, influence, and expertise for the care, protection, justice, and nurture of others
The outworking of the grace of humilityThe ministry of the towel
Service Why should disciples practice
servanthood?To say “no” to the world’s games of
promotion and authorityTo abolish the need for a “pecking order”Not to do away with leadership and authority
but to allow them to be redefined and rearranged
Service “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. When we choose to be a servant, we surrender the right to decide who and when we will serve. We become available and vulnerable”—Richard Foster
Service The practices of service
Spiritual Classics (217-23)Spiritual Practices (144-7)
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