Skip to main content

The Discipline of Love

Image
By
On the desktop of my computer I keep a document entitled, “My Motivation.” It is designed to remind and inspire and focus me toward Christ-centered living, but it’s comprised of pictures rather than words. Words are important and my life is filled with them, but pictures are important, too, especially when they capture something of the spirit words are meant to arouse.

Five of the fifteen pictures have to do with cycling which is important to me because it is the primary means by which I pursue physical health, and I pursue physical health because I want to live long and bring as much glory to the name of Jesus Christ as I can. There is no higher calling or privilege than dying for the sake of the Name, and by God’s grace I would embrace that destiny if Christ called me to do so, but oh how I long to preach Christ with passion when I’m 75 or 90 or 100. There’s something beautiful and powerful about old preachers who’ve been long refined by the Spirit of God and time, and I want to be one of them! Make no mistake, Glory of Christ, this is what lies behind my passion for cycling.

One of the pictures is of the small prison in which the Apostles Paul and Peter were likely kept in the days before their respective trials in Rome. A few years ago, I had the privilege of standing in that space for ten or fifteen minutes, and it had a very deep impact on me. These men were willing to suffer any discomfort or danger to exalt the name of Jesus Christ in the world and I, too, want to live with that disposition. As lovers of Jesus, we don’t seek suffering but we’re willing to suffer if that’s what it takes to spread the love that’s shaped our lives, and this picture reminds me of this calling.

The remaining nine pictures are of various men of God who inspire me for a number of reasons. In order of appearance, but not importance, they are Martin Lloyd Jones, John Piper, John Bunyan, Augustine, David Livingston (one of the long-time Pastors at Bethlehem Baptist Church), Dawson Trotman, Hudson Taylor, and Jim Elliot. In the coming weeks I plan to write about why I have chosen each of these men to be on my personal “wall of faith” but for this week I want to encourage you to contemplate this question with me: in what practical ways do you discipline and inspire yourself to remember Jesus Christ and his love and call upon your life? Love is greater than discipline but there is discipline in love (2 Timothy 2:8-9; Hebrews 12:1-2). More on this in the weeks to come!

Growing with you in the discipline of love,

Pastor Charlie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Displays His Beauty While Lifting Heavy Burdens by Pastor Kevin

By
I know I am a little bit overweight. My doctor tells me so. The mirror that I look into affirms it and the scale (that I mostly avoid) reminds me every time I step on it. All of that makes what I am about to say so much more impressive. I had the privilege of sitting on the beaches of Florida's Atlantic coast for 8 days on our most recent family trip. For me there is something magical about the beach, especially on the Atlantic side with the waves washing up against the shoreline. We have been lucky enough to find a sleepy beach town to vacation at. A nook, if you will, that typically features retired folks or families with kids. Out of the way of those who want to party, the beach is truly a relaxing place for me.  Let me tell you something that I gleaned this time around that never quite landed on me. This last week it landed on me, almost literally. My son Ben and I are the more adventurous specimens in the Feder five. We actually get into the salty water where there are jelly f...
2 comments
Read more

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is your Sense of Identity Tied to your Smartphone?

By
In her book Alone Together Sherry Turkle writes, “To make more time would mean turning off our phones. But this is not a simple proposition since our devices are ever more closely coupled to our sense of our bodies and minds. They provide a social and psychological GPS, a navigation system for our tethered selves” (167). Hmm, that’s a profound point. Our phones are no longer just a tool we use to get things done; they have become part of who we are. They make us feel awake, alive, and connected to the world, and therefore we must have our phones with us at all times. But why is this so? Or to ask a question that gets closer to the heart of my issues with my phone, Why do we feel the compulsion to check and respond to messages multiple times per hour? Perhaps… We want to feel important, bigger than we are. We want to feel needed, even indispensable. We fear the disappointment, disapproval, or anger of others if we do not respond in a certain period of time. We feel i...
2 comments
Read more