"The question is important: What are the rationale and the role of discipline in a life where the accent is usually placed on divine grace? In just what way do divine accomplishment and human action interact in the shaping and fulfillment of Christian experience?
"... Discipline is education; it results when we properly respond by accepting and obeying that which instructs and cultivates us for the concerns and issues of a godly life" (3).
"God also trains us by means of his action, which is sometimes punitive in order to correct us. In such instances we can see that the notion of discipline, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament references to it, is two-sided. It deals from God's side with his authority, right, and wisdom to command us, while from our side it deals with our need to submit to that authority, honor that right, and obediently learn to live by wisdom. If we understand discipline in this way, we do not see it primarily as a compulsion imposed on us from the outside, but as a self-imposed training designed to keep the self organized for its proper response to God.
"The motivation behind this understanding is our love for God" (4, emphasis mine).
"Freedom must be dependent and related in order to properly fulfill the self. It is by discipline that freedom best focuses for action. Such discipline is an instrumental necessity in integrating the whole self for godly living" (4).
"No comprehensive New Testament definition of conversion will omit the clear demand that the believer respond in faith and discipline of resolve. Conversion demands both" (5).
"Conversion is a new life rooted and grounded in the structured existence of Jesus Christ" (8).
"The imperative mood in the Sermon on the Mount is no accident; the imperative mood in Paul's writings is no mere literary experiment. The imperatives call for our disciplined response to God's goodness and sovereign will" (11).
"Grace always demands effort on our part" (12).
"A discipline is at work, I say, when a person keeps himself or herself open to the ongoing demands of the conversion experience" (14).
"The problematic nature of the self is its multiplicity, and that multiplicity is a major part of the riddle of humanity" (15).
"We must learn the art of sanctifying all of life, not in a rigorous asceticism that denies life, but by inciting the self to know God in the midst of what has conditioned and influenced us" (19).
"We hold a fateful freedom unless we wisely invest that freedom in the will of God, yielding it to God for his use in guiding us" (20).
"Discipline is the willed use of the Christian's given freedom" (21).
"The disciplined Christian follows a vision: holiness. This Christian has an example: Jesus. And this person possesses certain insights for following that example: Scripture" (21).
"[The mastery of will of Christian experience] demands that we move constantly from information and instruction found in Scripture (the written statements about Christ) to discover how to apply them in the rough-and-tumble of life situations" (23).
"The Christian gives serious consideration to the future of one's thought and activity" (24).
"In another place I have written, 'Christian faith involves a mysticism. In fact, Christian experience demands one'" (24).
"Meditation is the process of mind by which life and mind meed in intimate fashion" (30).
"Understanding usually comes later than the experience itself. Understanding usually comes when we observe, handle, and sift our experience to see its meaning and interrelationships in light of our life and concerns. Attention is therefore the first requirement in the process of meditation-prayer, but the data for our attention are found in life as we have become aware of it" (30).
"Meditation-prayer is the act of giving attention to the living data of the world" (31).
"Thus, meditation and prayer interpenetrate each other; meditation keeps prayer thoughtful, while prayer sanctifies the meditation, claiming it for God" (33).
"Meditation means giving attention with intention. Meditation-prayer is meeting with God on the field of the inward self, applying oneself to discover, discern, watch for detail, and act with responsible decision in light of the finds" (36).
"Meditation-prayer is more than thinking about God. It is thinking in the presence of God. It is thinking with God" (36).
"Meditation-prayer should be forever aimed toward learning more and more of God as well as of oneself. Such learning will demand consistency as well as openness" (49).
"Fasting became a way of sensitizing the human spirit to discern God's will" (58).
"Fasting is a discipline that leads to vision, understanding, and creative spiritual behavior" (59).
"Fasting is important in Christian experience because it deepens within the whole self a sense of one's dependence upon the strength of God. Fasting is more than an act of abstinence. It is an affirmative act; it is a way of waiting on God; it is an act of surrender. Fasting tends to induce within us an awareness of the spiritual dimension of life" (66).
Quoting Buber: "All real living is meeting" (71).
"Humans regard too lightly the fact that we have the ability to frame and use words. A word is a vital creation; it is a decisive tool. A word is a reflection of some reality, a means by which that reality can be apprehended and understood" (75).
"The very act of speaking or hearing implies we have relationship and togetherness with others; it demands that we face one another" (75).
"[Jesus] knew how to listen. Jesus knew how to speak--and when to speak...But something was at work within Jesus prior to his speaking, something deeper than a facility with words. That something was a spirit of openness to other human beings. He had a will for mutuality" (79).
"Dialogue is the way of community. It is the personal dimension of sharing. Dialogue concretizes the human will to be in relation with another person. It is the self-conscious response of an individual with another self. It is the way of willed encounter, a means of grace, a celebration of shared meaning. Dialogue is the way of explored intention, the way of God who is always seeking to share himself with others" (90).
"Worship is best understood as an experience of celebration in honor of God" (91).
"True worship is a considered action on our part; it is born out of a basic intent to celebrate God. This considered act of praise is more than a mere expression of thanksgiving; it is also a kind of interpretation of who God is and what God has done" (91).
"...true worship demands a high standard of inwardness on the one hand and a high degree of involvement on the other" (91).
"The worshiper must be challenged by bibilical statements so as to enter more fully into the faith they enshrine" (93).
"The first factor that influences a person's worship pattern is that person's temperament" (101).
"The second factor that influences a person's worship pattern is that person's tradition" (102).
"Tradition does not always change one's temperament; tradition rather trains it" (103).
"... third factor that influences someone's worship pattern: the worshipper's apprehension of truth and the way of relating oneself with it. Any alert Christian not only seeks the truth but, having found it, orients the self to its implications" (104).
"Music for worship must convey significant doctrine, human sentiment, and inward strength. And it must make sense as music" (112).
"Music that aids worship must give meanings and perspective to the worship experience; it will not undercut thought, even as it engages the emotions" (115).
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