Scripture
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love.
~2 Peter 1:5-7, NET
Quote
If you are an unhappy and depressed Christian it is more than likely due to your lack of discipline.
~Martyn Lloyd Jones
I had lunch with an old college class mate some three or four years ago and he asked me if I was reading Martyn Lloyd Jones. I told him that I was familiar with the name and had used his quotes but could not remember reading any of his books. He challenged me to get some Martyn Lloyd Jones books which I did. I have been reading SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION for the past two years. I ordered it for someone else who I thought was depressed and then picked it up and started reading bits and pieces. I have heard expositions of 2 Peter 1 and the list of disciplines, but I’ve not been very good at teaching it myself due to my ignorance and lack of understanding. Salvation is by grace through faith. This is God’s way and there is no other. Any form of works doctrine will lead to pride and misery.
With that understood, we need to suppliment our faith. Faith is like a muscle, it needs to be exercised or else it will not grow. When we think of exercise, we thing of exertion, sweat, effort and energy. There are no easy workouts. The first thing on Peter’s list is ‘excellence’ or some tranlate it ‘virtue’. The real meaning of the Greek word is moral energy or vigour. Now you see how it relates to exercise and discipline. It will take some energy and vigour to suppliment our faith. Languid and lethargic Christians are unenergetic. They are weak and timid. They lack effort. Compare most Christians to sports fans. Do you see a contrast in vigour and enthusiasm? The next thing on the list is ‘knowledge’ or understanding. Then the biggie is self-control. This is where discipline becomes hard. We must learn to control our eating, sleeping, leisure time, habits, etc. If you believe the Bible but you don’t believe the news paper or the TV news, why are you spending more time listening and reading what is not true instead of feasting on what is true. Then come perseverance or endurance or stamina. Can you maintain a discipline? Can you bear up under a burden? Can you work through the blisters? Or, do you avoid everything that is painful and difficult? Next is Godliness, your relationship with Christ and putting Him first. Brotherly affection {philadelphia} and unselfish love {agapē} are the icing on the cake.
All I can add is this: if you will put effort and energy into a daily devotion {quiet time} of bible study and prayer, and be diligent and disciplined about it, you will see your faith grow and there will be a marked increase in your love for others and your love for Christ and His holy word.
Extra
Sorry about missing the blog on Friday. I thought I hit the button. I have a lot of emails from Word Press. I don’t think they have censored me but we will find out today. I noticed in one of the emails, I have over 1.5 million comments that I have not responded to: this is over a period 13 years or so. I respond to comments sent by text {phone} but not on line. Too many people want to argue and I don’t have time to argue; plus some of them are very negative, borderline hate mail. I don’t want my mind cluttered with negative comments. They are distracting and discouraging. I can live without them. Yes, I was shocked by the number. This is word for word what is in the email…Currently 1,588,010 comments are waiting for approval. That looks like 1.5 million to me.
A very good service yesterday. I could sense the Holy Spirit at work and it was refreshing. My, my what a crowd! I know we had 30-40 visitors for the Baptism but it sure was encouraging to see a crowd that size. All total we had less than a thousand. We also had less than thousand for the revival service last night. The house was not close to full. I wanted standing room only. We have two more shots.
I hope you have great day and I hope you get the blog.