Encouragements Towards Self-Discipline
// June 28th, 2013 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I’m always looking for passages of scripture that will drive me to do greater things for Christ. This is also a helpful comment that draws the line between Christian self-discipline and asceticism, which is unbiblical. Here’s something I read recently: “…Christian discipline never despises earthly blessings, but consecrates them to spiritual ends. It permits their use with thanksgiving, but not their abuse. It sanctifies the physical by restraint and direction, offering the whole to God for sacrifice or service. It will not bow in slavery to the senses, but neither will it destroy them as evil. Its hallmark is not abstinence from God’s gifts, but temperance; but more than temperance, complete dedication to God’s glory.
True Christian discipline may at times deny itself God’s good gifts as rigorously as a hermit, but such denial will not be a means to holiness but a means of service. It will be practiced, not because the thing sacrificed is believed to be evil, but because the sacrifice in this particular instance is helpful in achieving a yet greater good. Some evangelists deliberately sacrifice marriage in order to be free to evangelize more effectively. In doing so they are casting no reflection on marriage itself; they are not rejecting marriage per se. Their celibate life is niehter a mark of holiness nor a means of holiness; it is simply a practical means to a greater liberty in roving evangelism.” The Discplined Life: The Mark of Christian Maturity by Richard S. Taylor
Oh yeah, since my last post on this site I greatly, greatly understate that by the grace of God He’s brought me into medical school, through my first year, and now into marriage to my lovely wife Kristen Dodd. 🙂 I’m thanking God that that’s the most understated sentence I’ve ever written. Lord, you’re amazing and greatly deserve all the glory!
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