Monday, October 17, 2005

Why Bother With Discipleship?

It is quite rare to find an article on the net that is worth reading from beginning to end but here's one from Dallas Willard thanks to a link from Dan at Cerulean Sanctum

Check out Why Bother With Discipleship?

He quotes from Tozer, "that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures." And then goes on to say a load of good stuff that puts it so much better than I could:

"Spiritual formation" in the Christian tradition is a process of increasingly being possessed and permeated by such character traits as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher. From the inward character the deeds of love then naturally--but supernaturally--and transparently flow. Of course there will always be room for improvement, so we need not worry that we will become perfect--at least for a few weeks or months. Our aim is to be pervasively possessed by Jesus through constant companionship with him. Like our brother Paul: "This one thing I do! ...I press toward the mark! ...That I may know him!" (Phil. 3)


This part ties in well with Clare's talk on "perfection" a couple of weeks back in the evening service.

The whole article is worth a good read, addressing a very real issue for us today and I am chewing on it at the moment.

posted by Seymour at 8:14 am Show/hide comments (0)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment


Tuesday, October 11, 2005

The First Fruits

In the law of Moses, the Israelites were to bring their "first fruits" to God.

You are to give him the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock.(Deu 18:4 HCSB)

What is the spirit of this law and what is the principle behind the precept as it may apply to us?

Does it mean that your first paycheck in a new job goes in the offering basket at church?

I have been thinking that there is something here to learn. Perhaps the first fruits law is calling us to give of our best and first; the first hour of the day, or of our leisure time - that sort of thing. Maybe the first batch of cookies from the oven (rather than scoffing them, give them away and bake yourself some more). I am sure if we listen carefully the Spirit will show us what the "first fruits" of any activity or time is and show us what to do with it.

Any ideas?

posted by Seymour at 8:50 am Show/hide comments (3)

3 Comments:

Blogger Matt said...

Especially relevant for a harvest, where the farmer has been waiting for months, giving the 'first fruits' must be very hard. As Hilary said its a sacrifice. I can see at least two aspects to the teaching:

1) Give your best to God.
2) Be willing to make sacrifices.

9:38 am, October 12, 2005  
Blogger Seymour said...

It seems to me that it requires a heavy dose of faith to give up your first fruits. For the Israelites it said "I trust God enough to provide in the future so I won't cling to what I have now."

When we become fearful and faithless it is tempting to hold on to what God has given us, quite jealously - often making the excuse "but God gave this to me."

The connection it is hard for my heart to make is that if God gave it to me last year or yesterday he is well capable and most likely willing to give me more agin this year or today.

Praying for you and your exams, Hils :-)

10:14 am, October 12, 2005  
Blogger cfg said...

I guess I'm mostly just reminded that everything we have is God's. It's hard to make this a reality in our lives sometimes. But I want to model the generosity he shows me - He gave his first and best!

'First fruits' as a symbol is really powerful, and I think the 'first' idea is important - as well as the 'best' - because you give up the first fruits with no real certainty that there will be more to come - except the certainty that God will provide. To me, I want to give back not only in joy and thankfulness for the 'harvest' but in faith that there will be more - and better - to come!

10:35 pm, October 17, 2005  

Post a Comment