Based on Donald Whitney's book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. These are teaching notes from LTCi, Siliguri

1. The spiritual disciplines:
The Lord expects them
We have seen from 1 Tim 4:7
that these are not an option.
Consider Pr 23:12,
Apply your heart to instruction
and your ear to words of
knowledge.
(NASB) Apply your heart to
discipline
This is also understood (or at
least implied) in the words of
Jesus;
Friday 4 May 2012

2. Matt 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me,
Luke 9:23
And he said to all, “If anyone
would come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me.
Such practices leads us to Gal
5:22-23 - which includes a Spirit
produced self control (discipline)
If we care to observe we see
that Jesus modeled the
disciplines for us:
Friday 4 May 2012

3. “My central claim is that we can
become like Christ by doing one thing
– by following him in the overall style
of life that he chose for himself. If we
have faith in Christ, we must believe
that he knew how to live. We can grow
more like Christ. Spiritual
transformation is authentically
possible through faith and grace if I
am willing to arrange my life around
the activities Jesus Himself practiced
in order to remain constantly at home
in the fellowship of His father.”
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the
Disciplines
Friday 4 May 2012

4. Many Christians are spiritually
undisciplined - the result is a lack
of maturity, power and fruit in
their lives. Whitney describes
these people as being, “a mile
wide and an inch deep” - there
are no deep channels of God in
their life, they dabble and have a
little knowledge but lack any
depth.
Many people will discipline their
life to grow in other areas (sport,
business etc.), but ignore spiritual
disciplines and the sacrifice
needed to grow and succeed.
Friday 4 May 2012

5. The gold of
godliness
does not lie
on the
surface but
has to be
mined from
the depths of
Christian
faith.
Friday 4 May 2012

6. More application
1. There is a danger in
neglecting the spiritual
disciplines, William Barclay
says,
“Nothing was ever achieved
without discipline; and many an
athlete and many a man has been
ruined because he abandoned
discipline and let himself grow
slack...
Friday 4 May 2012

7. “Coleridge is the supreme tragedy of undiscipline.
Never did so great a mind produce so little. He left
Cambridge University to join the army; but he left the
army because, in spite of all his erudition, he could
not rub down a horse; he returned to Oxford and left
without a degree. He began a paper called The
Watchman which lived for ten numbers and then died.
It has been said of him: "He lost himself in visions of
work to be done, that always remained to be done.”
Coleridge had every poetic gift but one—the gift of
sustained and concentrated effort. In his head and in
his mind he had all kinds of books, as he said himself,
“completed save for transcription...
Friday 4 May 2012

8. “...I am on the eve," he said,
"of sending the press two
octavo volumes." But the
books were never composed
outside Coleridge's mind,
because he would not face the
discipline of sitting down to
write them out. No one ever
reached any eminence, and no
one having reached it ever
maintained it, without
discipline.”
We all have spiritual gifts - the
question is will we use them
and bear fruit?
Friday 4 May 2012

9. 2. There is freedom in
embracing the spiritual
disciplines
Richard Foster calls the
disciplines “the door to
liberation” - these
disciplines produce liberty
in our lives. Watch a
“gifted” musician and they
can play anything - how? -
because of the years of
disciplined practice which
produces such freedom.
Friday 4 May 2012

10. Elton Trueblood “We have not advanced very far
in our spiritual lives if we have not encountered
the basic paradox of freedom…that we are most
free when we are bound. To one who would be an
athlete, but who is unwilling to discipline his body
by regular exercise and abstinence, is not free to
excel on the field or the track. His failure to train
rigorously denies him the freedom to run with the
desired speed and endurance. With one
concerted voice, the giants of the devotional life
apply the same principle to the whole of life:
Discipline is the price of freedom” – and I would
add - “freedom is the reward of discipline.”
Friday 4 May 2012

11. Freedom and discipline are often
considered mutually exclusive -
in fact one is the result or reward
of the other. Consider the
freedom of,
- being able to quote the Bible
- spiritual sensitivity through
fasting
- deliverance from self
centredness through service and
worship
We should remember such a
process is not an overnight affair
- it is a lifelong process.
Friday 4 May 2012

12. 3. There is an invitation to all Christians to
enjoy the spiritual disciplines
Freely given by the Holy Spirit to all believers.
Friday 4 May 2012