Strong relationships don’t just happen. We must work at them, beginning with reaching out to others and taking an interest in them. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 76 and 77:

‘I want to mention four disciplines that, if we can master them, will help us to improve daily in following the example of our Lord Jesus.

‘First, we must seek others with the love of Christ in prayer. Ask God to fill your heart with love for them, and to prepare you to seek them as Jesus would if He were doing so through you.

“Praying for the people you will see each day can lead to planning how you will seek them. What steps might you take to reach out to the people you will see that day with the love of Jesus? 

“Third, make a point to greet the people you see each day. Greet each one personally. Don’t wait for others to speak first. Greet people cheerily, as though you had some Good News to tell. Greet them sincerely, pausing to wait for their reply, and then replying as indicated. Think of Jesus greeting Nathaniel, the woman at the well, Zaccheus, and all the others. By initiating contact Jesus showed interest in others, and people generally respond very well when they think someone cares enough to be interested in them.

“Finally, try to engage the people around you each day in personal and meaningful ways. Take an interest in them as persons. Listen to what they reveal about themselves, their families, or their concerns, and add these to your times of prayer. Comment positively on their work. At some point, once you’ve become more familiar with them, let them know that you pray for them, and encourage them to share requests with you. Seek opportunities to engage others in conversation, by asking them questions, commenting on some common interest, such as work, or seeking their opinion on a contemporary issue or situation.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Seeking like Jesus did is a basic relational discipline. How can you improve in this?

2. How do you respond to others who take the initiative to get to know you?

Jesus was always reaching out to people, looking for ways to serve them, whether by word or deed. He is the model for us, that we should seek others as He did. Seeking others is the first step in getting to know them so that we can begin to build relationships of love with the people around us. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss how you help each other improve in seeking others. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

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Jesus made and built relationships by seeking others. He sought all the disciples, and He walked up and down ancient Palestine, seeking ways to serve and help others. He showed us that being a seeker is the way to build relationships. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 75 and 76:

“To love with the love of Jesus is to seek others, and not simply to wait around for them to find their way to us. The contemporary notion of a ‘seeker-friendly’ church is a distortion of Biblical teaching about how the love of Jesus comes to the lost world. The Scriptures teach that, among the lost of this world, none are seeking God because none understand their need for Him. Yet in our churches we throw out everything glorious in our Christian liturgical heritage, hoping to attract ‘seekers’ by our contemporary, relaxed style and our non-threatening messages of ‘love.’

“It’s instructive to note how, over the past half-generation of the rise of ‘seeker-friendliness’ in our churches, the work of God’s people in proclaiming the Good News to their neighbors, co-workers, and friends has essentially dried up. We’ve decided to wait for the ‘seekers’ to find their way to us; but what we’re finding is that few of our neighbors are joining our churches, and little in the way of Good News is going out to our communities. And those who have managed to find their way to us have discovered a gospel that is so compromised and watered down that it can only be described as a kind of ‘near Christianity’ rather than the Good News of the Kingdom.

“God does not expect the world to seek Him, though all are commanded to do so. Instead, He came seeking us, and in the example of His seeking, we can learn what it means to love others as Jesus did, and to love them with the kind of initiating grace that softens, piques, and attracts people to the Lord.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Would you describe yourself as a seeker, one who seeks out others for Jesus’ sake?

2. Why is it important that we as Christians should be seekers? What should we seek?

Jesus said that He had come to seek and save the lost. And He told us that as the Father had sent Him, so He was sending us. We are to be the seekers, not some unknown “seekers” in our community. God calls us to be seekers in our relationships with others, and this is a discipline in which we can all improve. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss what it means for you to be seekers like Jesus. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

The post Seekers appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

God calls us to a disciplined life so that we can fulfill His charge, that we should bring everything within the reach of our active will into subjection to Jesus Christ. Yeah, we’ve got work to do. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 72 and 73:

“God the Father has appointed the followers of His Son to bring the whole world under the sway of His rule of love. The writer of Hebrews summarized this high and holy calling by citing Psalm 8, reminding his readers that God has ‘put all things in subjection’ to His chosen and redeemed people. But in that day, as in ours, not all things had yet been brought into subjection to the rule of divine love. So what can we do?

“‘But we see Jesus,’ the writer reminds us, and seeing Jesus is foundational to mastering all relational disciplines—indeed, all the disciplines of the disciplined life. We must see Jesus as He walked among us by paying special attention to the reports of the four evangelists— Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospels deserve repeated reading and meditation if we are to fix in our minds the love that Jesus spoke and showed during His sojourn among us.

“As we meditate and study Christ in His incarnation we will see love in action, seeking the lost, serving those in need, shepherding the souls of His followers, sowing the Word of truth, and doing all things to bring honor and glory to His Father and ours. Read daily in the gospels. Meditate deeply on the example of Jesus’ love. Think ahead to the day before you and the opportunities for seeking, serving, shepherding, sowing, and stewarding your time and resources in ways consistent with the love of Jesus Christ. Then prepare to go into your day, sent as Jesus was sent, to advance the rule of divine love.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Why is it a good idea to read daily from one of the four gospels?

2. How would you expect doing so to help you in mastering relational disciplines?

Paul says we must not grow weary in doing good works, and if we’ll set our minds on Jesus, as He preached, taught, and did good throughout His earthly sojourn, we’ll be more likely to follow His example in all our relationships. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to share what you love the most about Jesus as we see Him in the gospels. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Work to Do appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Other spiritual disciplines include meditation, solitude, fasting, and observing the Lord’s Day. These spiritual disciplines are designed to strengthen and improve us for all the other disciplines involved in redeeming our time. Next in order are relational disciplines—those skills and practices that help us love our neighbors as ourselves. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on page 70:

“Just as there are disciplines designed to reshape and nurture our souls, so also there are disciplines which, as we master them, can direct our outward lives in ways consistent with the life of Jesus Christ. And, as the focus of spiritual disciplines is the soul, so the focus of relational disciplines is love.

“Love is the greatest of all Christian virtues, and that for two reasons. First, love consummates all the other virtues of the life of faith. When we love others, we are showing them patience, kindness, humility, deference, consideration, selflessness, generosity, purity, and truthfulness. We may show each of these individual virtues by themselves, of course, but only when these are motivated and activated by love do they come with the fullness and genuineness that truly communicate the character of Christ.

“Second, love is the greatest of Christian virtues because love most expresses the being of God, Who is love. When we love others, selflessly and disinterestedly, it is not actually we who love, but Christ, Who causes His Spirit to well up within us, engaging our transformed soul, and flowing out from us in words and deeds that imitate Jesus and embody the fact that He is alive from the dead.

“Maturing in love, growing in the love of Jesus Christ and showing love more consistently to others, is, as the writer of Hebrews observed, a matter of practice. That is, we need to discipline the words we speak and the works we do so that, when we’re with other people, those words and works will channel the love of Christ.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Why does it make sense to think that we can improve our relationship skills and practices?

2. Why is it important that we do so?

Jesus said that the world would know we are Christians by our love, beginning with love for our fellow believers but branching out in love to everyone God brings into our lives. And we can all improve in love by mastering a few basic relational disciplines. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to discuss how you can help one another grow in love. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

The post Relational Disciplines appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Second in importance among the spiritual disciplines we need is reading and studying the Scriptures, feeding day by day on the Word of God. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on ages 54 and 55:

“Here are a few guidelines by which you can check your present use of the Word of God:

“First, feed daily. Never let a day go by, if you can help it, in which you do not spend time reading and meditating in the Word of God. 

“Then, feed on the whole menu. Don’t let yourself get stuck on the ‘easy’ or familiar parts of Scripture. All Scripture is profitable for us, Paul insisted, and so we need to cultivate our taste to feed on and delight in the full banquet of God’s Word.

“Third, follow a schedule for getting through the whole Bible regularly. It might take two years or so to do it, but set one up and plow ahead through it day after day. Then, when you’ve finished reading the whole Bible, start the regimen all over again.

“Fourth, make notes as you read. Making notes will slow down your reading, lead you to think through God’s message for you, and help your observations and impressions to ‘stick’ in your mind. 

Fifth, pray the Word back to God each day. What you read each day, bring onto the foundation of prayer. Carry it with you into the springboard of prayer, and make it a touch point as you walk with Jesus in the envelope of prayer each day.

“Finally, talk with others about the Word. You will grow and so will your Christian friends if you’ll make conversation about the Word a regular part of your time together.”

For reflection or discussion
1. How would describe your time in God’s Word? What does it involve or include?

2. Do you meet regularly with others to share the Word of God? Why is this important?

Jesus is the Centerpiece of all Scripture. We want to make sure, as we are reading and studying the Word of God, that we see Him throughout the Word and allow every section of God’s Word to shed light on Jesus and His work. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to share what God is teaching you from His Word. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post Daily in the Word appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Everything we do in the Christian life begins in and is framed by prayer. Where our prayers are wanting, so will our walk with and work for the Lord. Prayer provides the context and power for knowing, loving, and serving God in all we do. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found pages 51 and 52:

“Here is not the place for a full-blown explanation of the nature, purpose, and practice of prayer. Instead, let me offer something of a propaedeutic on the subject, which might point you in some directions for improving your own practice of prayer.

“First, always begin your day with prayer. At the beginning of the day, prayer can help you to reorient yourself to the Kingdom and your calling in it. Your morning prayers should contain much thanksgiving and praise, being specific in each category, so that you remind yourself of the abundant goodness, wisdom, and power of God as you start each new day in Him. Don’t be too quick to get into prayers of supplication and intercession for yourself and others. Linger before the Lord in praise and thanks, wondering at the grace and power that sustain and bless you, and that await you during the coming day. 

“Second, make time for prayer during the day. You schedule the things that matter most to you each day—eating, appointments, tasks or projects, and the like. Try scheduling additional meetings with God for prayer at several times during the day. These don’t have to be lengthy, drawn-out times of prayer, just a few minutes to celebrate God’s goodness and prepare for whatever comes next. 

“Third, maintain an attitude of prayer at all times. Let prayer launch you into every new activity. Think in a prayerful mode as you work or meet with others. Simple phrases like, “Thank You, Lord Jesus,” or “Help me, Lord,” or “Your Name be praised, O Lord,” uttered to yourself amid the everyday activities of your life can keep that prayer line open and working to supply you with the orientation and strength you need to think, feel, decide, and act in consistent Kingdom ways. 

“Finally, learn to pray the psalms. Believers in every generation have found the book of Psalms to be a powerful resource for coming to the Lord in prayer. We don’t know how to pray as we should, and God has gone to considerable trouble to make these prayers available to us. It only makes sense that we should learn to use them as He intends.

“Here are no new insights on learning to pray and improving your practice of prayer. We’ve all known them. But it’s good to be reminded so that we take seriously this most foundational of all spiritual disciplines, and devote ourselves to praying and improving our prayers every day of our lives.”

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you describe the state of your spiritual disciplines? What do they include?

2. Why do we call these spiritual disciplines? Do they involve the body at all?

Spiritual disciplines are the foundation and framework of a life rightly ordered for loving God and our neighbors. Let’s pay more earnest attention to these, because they have the potential to bring daily and increasing grace to our everyday lives. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to pray and encourage one another in improving your prayer life. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends.

T. M. Moore

The post The Priority of Prayer appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Using our bodies for redeeming the time of our lives begins in the soul. If we’re not working hard to improve our soul, we won’t have the disciplines or desire we need to live for Christ. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 48 and 49:

“Who we are, what we’re like and how we talk and act, comes to expression in all our waking moments, no matter where we are, what we’re doing, or whom we’re with. It is the declared purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ to fill us with Himself and to spill out through us to flood the spaces of our lives with the life-giving spiritual water of grace and truth. Our body will only be capable of the words and deeds this high and holy calling requires if our soul is in proper spiritual condition, strong, growing, and at the ready in every situation.

“This is the work of spiritual disciplines. Through spiritual disciplines we devote a portion of our time each day to the direct and concentrated effort of training our thoughts, feelings, and priorities to get in step with the Lord Jesus Christ. We learn to think with the mind of Christ, to feel with the heart of God, and to choose, in the power of the Spirit, whatever course of action—whether words or deeds—will express the pleasure and redound to the glory of God. For this to be consistently the case, we must work hard at those exercises and protocols which have the power to shape our souls so that they become more like the mind, heart, and conscience of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Which makes spiritual disciplines the place to begin in thinking about how to make the best use of the time of our lives in training, shaping, and qualifying our bodies for life in the Kingdom of God. The world may deny the existence of the soul, but the Christian cannot. We will not be souled out to secular thinking; we long to be souled up with Jesus. As the inward vital life-springs of our unbelieving neighbors run dry, we Christians, our souls fresh-filled with the grace and truth of Christ, must be always ready to offer true spiritual water to quench their thirst.“

And making sure we’re ready for such opportunities, becoming the kind of person who can respond like this, is the work of spiritual disciplines.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Why do we refer to these as spiritual disciplines? Do they have anything to do with our bodies?

2. Why are spiritual disciplines work? What work do we do? To what ends?

Spiritual disciplines are those exercises of faith that aim at improving our soul, so that we become more like our Lord Jesus Christ every day. And they require a measure of work on our parts. We must not avoid them simply because they take time and energy. What better could we find to do with our time? Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to encourage one another in developing your spiritual disciplines. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post Soul, Body, and Time appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

For the Christian, a disciplined life begins within, as we labor to shape our soul for discipleship. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on page 48:

“For the Christian, few things could be more important than to understand and exercise proper stewardship over our soul. So important were the souls of believers to the apostle Paul that he spent himself in long days and short nights, and in many trials and troubles, seeking the wellbeing and edification of the souls of those entrusted to his care. And he did so, and resolved to continue doing so, gladly, for he understood just how important a healthy soul is for fruitful living in the Kingdom of God.

“From the Christian perspective, human beings are creatures of two components, one material and one spiritual. We are body and soul, each person being endowed with a unique expression of the various respective components of each. What God is to the world—architect, sustainer, redeemer, molder, keeper, guide, and power—the soul is to the human body. A healthy soul means a body that will know God’s Presence and carry out His purposes in a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

“The soul animates the body and gives it its peculiar character, expressed in words and deeds. When our soul—our mind, heart, and conscience—is aligned with God’s purposes, shaped by His counsel and plan, and filled with His Presence, then our body will refract the Presence of God into the world and demonstrate the Christian’s claim that Jesus Christ has, indeed, risen from the dead.”

For reflection or discussion
1. Suppose a non-Christian friend were to ask, “What is the soul?” What would you say?

2. What specific disciplines are you currently practicing to shape your soul for following Jesus?

The inside-out secret of the Christian life is that eternal life begins within, in the soul, where the Holy Spirit is at work to make us willing and able to do and know the pleasure of the Lord. Spiritual disciplines are the foundation and starting point for all the other disciplines we may pursue. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to talk about the state of your soul and your spiritual disciplines. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post Importance of the Soul appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

In our secular and materialistic age, interest in the soul—what it is, how it works, how we should care for it—is waning. Even, sadly, among many Christians. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on page 47:

“These days talking about the soul is considered either ignorant, naïve, or just not in good taste. Secular and naturalistic thinkers since before the turn of the 19th century have tried to distance humankind from the idea of the soul, insisting that, since everything that matters is material in composition, talking about the soul as some kind of an explanation for human behavior is an exercise in futility.

“In our day certain neuroscientists are on a quest to demonstrate that every action of our bodies, every thought or feeling or decision or impulse we experience, can be traced to electro-chemical movements within our brains. What we call ‘consciousness’ or ‘affection’ or ‘thinking’ or ‘the soul’ is really just the stuff of our brains, doing what they’re supposed to do in looking out for the wellbeing of themselves and the rest of our bodies.

“On some college campuses, talking about the ‘soul’ or ‘self’ or the ‘person’ is considered out of bounds and a mark of inferior intelligence. You can go to college for four years, study for all you’re worth, and come away without ever having considered the soul as something other than an aspect of human life people used to believe way back in the dark ages.

“So, is this the end of the soul? Is talking about spiritual disciplines really just a waste of time?“Is our society destined to become souled-out?”

For reflection or discussion
1. What is the soul? What does it do? How would you explain this to a non-Christian friend?

2. Are you experiencing growth in your soul? In what ways?

Christian life begins in the soul, when the Spirit of God comes to dwell there. And spiritual life grows and becomes a reality to the extent we understand, nurture, care for, and strengthen our soul. But it takes discipline to do this, and that means time plus attention for the duration. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to talk about the state of your soul and your spiritual life. Download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

T. M. Moore

The post Souled-Out? appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Christians have always valued strong communities, but strong communities require strong members, and strong members require disciplined lives. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 43 and 44:

“Christianity in Ireland during the 6th-9th centuries was organized primarily around a monastic model. Each monastery was like a small town, with the religious living within the compound and a community of lay people of various trades living in the outlying areas. Monasteries were referred to as ‘foundations’ because, in many important ways, they provided the base on which revival, renewal, and awakening were brought to lost and straying people and their cultures.

“Medieval monks served the people—teaching, shepherding, helping with a wide range of tasks—and the people helped with the support of the monks, just as Paul outlined in…1 Corinthians 9 and Galatians 6. The monks embraced a raft of disciplines designed to serve the community at large, and the community took up disciplines that allowed the whole ‘foundation’ to grow and reach out to new places and peoples.

“This symbiosis of monastic community life generated and sustained a movement of revival that lasted for nearly four centuries and brought renewal and awakening throughout Ireland, Scotland, and much of Europe.“But…this didn’t just happen. 

“Monasticism was a demanding way of life, particularly for the religious, who were often subject to persecution, deprivation, and intense spiritual warfare. Monks, pastors, missionaries, and other religious leaders found strength and consistency in living according to ‘rules’ that outlined the life of faith they pursued.”

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you describe the community of believers to which you belong? What are its strong points? Its weak points?

2. What does living a disciplined life have to do with having a strong community life?

Vibrant, growing, loving communities require hard work. Hard work requires disciplines. And when everybody in the community is on the same page about the importance of a disciplined life, the community will benefit as will all the people touched by that community. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to discuss how better disciplines make better communities. For more information about the disciplined lives of Celtic Christians, download our free PDF, Living to Rule, from The Ailbe Bookstore. And while you’re there, download a free copy of The Disciplined Life by going to The Ailbe Bookstore. Get yours, then share it with all your friends. 

The post For Strong Communities appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.