Scary word for the day (3)

Spiritual Discipline

Moses lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. There are hundreds of new lessons to be learned as the people walked through the desert toward the promised land. The distance they eventually covered could have been marched in a month or two - much faster by an army or a small party, but with the massive crowd scene which was Israel, they moved much slower. But not that slow! So why did it take forty years for them to finally get there? They had some learnin' to do. So many things were put into place in the lives of the Nation and People of God during that time that I doubt even God could have done it any faster.

One of those things which was established during the Exodus was Rest. Sabbath is the formal term, and it is so well documented in the Bible that it truly is a Spiritual Discipline we should be practicing today. What are these "Spiritual Disciplines?" They are amazing things which every Christian should know about, practice regularly, and they are things which should be taught from every pulpit but rarely are.

Things like Fasting, Prayer, Silence, Solitude, Study, Blogging (OK, I may have added that one myself), and a few others. To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges and seminaries are requiring their students to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of many pagan societies. So I am careful when I begin to add things to my Christian life which I cannot find in the Word.

Some very simple behaviors are very good at helping us to grow Spiritually, but are not really Spiritual Disciplines. "Keeping record," or "counting your blessings" is mentioned here and there, and it has grown into Journaling for me. Good practice, not a Spiritual Discipline. But there are plenty which DO show up and I think God is calling me to stop playing with them, and get serious about making them part of my life on a regular basis.

Take a look at them, try them - even test them - and see for yourself the value of bringing yourself under submission in these ways. I think any of us who have cracked the Bible in our lives can point to things like Fasting and Prayer. Bible study is all over the place from "Study to show thyself approved" to dire warnings like, " 18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."

Well, then I think I should look at these things. Rest is one we seem to love to ignore in our society. Our days of 'rest' can be quite full! I'm a great one to talk about this: I can get up at the crack of dawn, take my boat - lovingly and carefully prepared the day before and loaded with gasoline, food and toys - and drive a couple of hours to the lake, spend the whole day dragging people around the place at the end of a rope, get a sunburn, a sore back and stiff neck, come home exhausted and broke and then work a couple more hours cleaning and putting away all the toys and stuff, parking the boat and trailer, then doing a load of towels and cleaning rags in the laundry, showering off all the sunblock which may or may not have worked for me... and call that a day of 'rest.'

God institutes the idea of Sabbath or 'day of rest' during the march through the desert. See the narrative of how God began to feed the people miraculously as recorded in Exodus. Moses explains how the people are to handle the amazing food which God literally rained down on them. See chapter 16: 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning."

20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers [b] for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.' "

Wow: "Rest" and "Holy" in the same sentence. Who'd of thought it?

Well, apparently God does.