Celebration of Discipline: Intro.

We are reading through Celebration of Discipline for my internship this summer. When i got it i thought it would just be another so, so book to read through but as i dived in and became immersed in it i began to realize how powerful Fosters words are. That the Lord has used him greatly in this book is evident. So, i decided after finishing it to go through it again and break it down here. One, for just my own personal understanding and appropriation but also, so that others who would not read the book may have a glimpse as the basic disciplines of the Christian Faith. Also, i told some i would write about how to study the scriptures. That would require its own post, rather, i would like to point you to a good site that can help. First, before you can study you must be reading the bible. After you have been reading it then you can begin to study.  http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestudyresources/ss/biblestudy.htm
 The book is written by Richard Foster and in the begginning of it he acknowledges several influences that came together to help him write the book. I'm going to start with a summary of Chapter One which is titled Spiritual Disciplines: Door to Liberation. He starts off by quoting Donald Coggan who says, "I go through life as a transient on his way to eternity, made in the image of God but with that image debased, needing ot be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think." Foster goes on to diagnose the current Christian culture as shallow. He says what we need today isn't more intelligent people, gifted people, but we need deep people. What does he mean by deep? He means full and robust in their faith, not merely intellectually but experientially as well. Those who understand who God is and know his voice because they have heard it through praying to him and seeking him faithfully every day. These spiritual disciplines are not just for Spiritual Giants but for all Christians. We need to apply the same rigor we apply to Sports or school etc. to our Christian Faith. 1 Tim. 4:7b-8, "Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds value for the present life and also the life to come." The purpose of the disciplines is freedom. We are stuck in slavery to our sinful nature and the ingrained habits it bears in upon our lives. The disciplines are not something done in drudgery. Joy is the keynote of the disciplines. They may be hard at the start but the more we practice them the more we will see our lives transformed.
We do not know how to practice the spiritual disciplines! The early church knew exactly how but, we have forgottena nd they have been swept away in our modern or post-modern culture. Many of us hear of studying the bible and believe we understand, but do we? To know of the disciplines intellectually without experiential knowledge reaveals that you do not understand them. It is about the attitude of the heart as much as a visible external change.
We have ingrained habits that our sinful nature has led us to accept and even promote in our lives. This is slavery. The answer to fixing this is not to simply buck up and determine by your will that you are going to stop, althought the will is involved. "The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshipping the will." Through practicing the disciplines we rely upon God's grace and essentially put ourselves in a position to experience that grace to a greater degree. If we continue on the pattern of believing we can save ourselves and stop these habits of sin by our own power we will only make the evil stronger than ever. It will manifest itself in many other ways! Also, the will has no power again the careless word. When you are with friends and you are relaxed who you are comes out. You can't alway put on a mask, eventually your will power will give out. That is why for true change we cannot rely upon our will power, but rather on God's grace.
One more thing to note. The Spiritual Disciplines cannot be made into law. They are not used to entrap others and seperate the righteous from the unrighteous. When the disciplines are made into laws you find pride and anger. Pride in how good i am for keeping these disciplines, rather than, joy in god's grace and his transformation. Anger because you fear losing control rather than realizing that you never had control and resting in God's provisions like the sparrow. This is just an introduction to the book. Next we will turn to the disciplines of meditation.