Planning and readiness are two crucial disciplines to help us in doing the work God calls us to do. Planning entails getting our priorities in order each day. Readiness means living for Christ in all our life and work. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 103 and 104:

“The apostle Paul explains that the world, in many ways, has fallen under the pervasive influence of what he refers to as ‘the lie.’ The lie is the work of the father of lies, who leads people to believe that they can live their lives without the need of God or His Word. Nothing escapes the discoloration and distortion the lie causes, as people suppress the truth about Christ and His Kingdom by their unrighteousness ideas, words, and deeds. 

“Because all things are thus garbed in a cloud of untruth, none of them can realize their full potential of beauty, goodness, truth, and the glory of God and blessing of His Word. This is true of everything—relationships, communications, work, study, art, science, and all disciplines and vocations. Only Christ can redeem all things, reconcile them to God, and renew them in His Kingdom power. And He does this through His people, who possess the mind, Word, Spirit, and power of Christ for making all things new. This is part of every believer’s calling from the Lord.

“We must learn to identify the lie in all areas of life, whether its presence be great or small, and to expose and dismantle it, replacing it with the teaching of Christ for all things. For this we must be well trained in the use of all the weapons of our warfare, and skilled in directing them at every dark redoubt of the lie in every area of human life and interest.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What are some ways you see the lie at work around you each day?

2. What can we do to keep the lie from fouling or foiling the work we’ve been given to do?

Paul says we must do all things as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Even those aspects of our work for which we are accountable to men can be done as unto the Lord. Wherever we’re not living and working as unto the Lord, we’re opening to door to the lie to do is twisting and corrupting damage in how we do our work, as it does everywhere else we let it into our life. 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 to defend one another against the lie. 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

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As Christians, all our work aims at refracting Jesus into our world—His beauty, goodness, truth, and righteousness. We must discipline ourselves to see Him at all times. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 98 and 99:

“God has invested His glory in Jesus. He is moving His people into Christlikeness through His Word of promise. He leads and draws us forward by affirmation, so that we walk the path toward Christ gladly, joyfully, eagerly. If, in any area of our lives, any aspect of our calling, we are seeking any goal or promise other than what God has spoken, we depart the ‘Yes’ path to Jesus and are following the ‘No’ path of self-interest, leading only to more of self and the ways and concerns of the flesh. 

“But we can make sure the direction of our lives, in all aspects of our calling, continues to line up with God’s ‘Yes’ in Jesus, if we will take the time to pray and plan about how Jesus should come to expression in and through our lives. Here we must always bear in mind that Jesus intends to fill our lives and overflow our lives into our Personal Mission Fields, so that His light, His love, and His presence and power are the fruit of all our works.

“So it’s probably a good idea to review the promises of God more frequently and to discern the specific ways in which these promises are fulfilled by and expressive of our Lord Jesus Christ. Use part of your time in prayer each day to seek the Lord’s work for that day, and to envision the way His glory in Jesus should come to expression in each aspect and opportunity of your calling. We will be more likely to abide within the will of God for our calling if our plans each day enable us to commune with, participate in, and bear witness to our Lord Jesus Christ in all things.

“Seek the Lord in all your plans, and He will move you forward in His ‘Yes.’”

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you help a new believer to learn to seek the Lord in all their plans?

2. How would you summarize the promises God has made to us and fulfilled in Jesus?

Jesus intends to fill the world with Himself, and one day He will do that perfectly. For now, He is working in and through us—through the work He has given us to do—to show Himself to the world and to fill our spheres with Himself. What a privilege to be entrusted with the Lord Himself, as vessels of His glory! Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to talk about the good works of Jesus. 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

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From spiritual and relational disciplines we turn to look at some vocational disciplines. These are the skills and practices we use to serve the Lord by good works. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 97 and 98:

“God is at work within us to transform us into the image of Jesus, so that He increases in us as we decrease. This is the work of spiritual disciplines. As we are being transformed, we serve as conduits of God’s grace and truth to the people around us. This is the work of relational disciplines.

“Vocational disciplines prepare us for the good works we will do as we travel our journey in the Lord, in all the areas where God has called us to serve Him. When it comes to the direction in which our calling leads us, God’s Word to us is ‘Yes!’ Vocation is a positive, hopeful, even thrilling way of filling up the time of your life. God says ‘Yes’ to your needs, ‘Yes’ to your desires, hopes, longings, and aspirations. The road that marks your journey, as you work to fulfill the Lord’s calling, is ‘Yes’—positive and affirming and fruitful.

“That is, as long as you travel the highway of God’s promises toward communion with, participation in, and witness to Jesus Christ. 

“God’s precious and very great promises, all of which are fulfilled in Jesus, can guide our every next step, but we must walk in them day by day, moment by moment, in every situation and for every task. Here is where vocational disciplines come into play, leading us ever more deeply, joyously, and fruitfully into the ‘Yes’ of our calling in the Kingdom and glory of God.”

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you explain the promises of God to a new believer?

2. Vocation has to do with our work. What does your work have to with God’s promises?

God has saved us by grace through faith so that we would fill up the time of our lives doing good works in one form or another. We don’t do good works to be saved but because we are saved. We must be ready and diligent to maintain good works, for this is how the grace of Jesus passes through us to others. 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 encourage one another in good works. 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

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Besides seeking others and serving them as we are able, relational disciplines include shepherding others in their walk with the Lord, sowing the Word into your world, and being a good steward of all your relationships. We can improve in all these disciplines, but we must work hard at it. So also with the disciplines that attend to the work God has given us to do. And that begins with owning our calling from the Lord. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 94 and 95:

“We have said that every believer must discern his or her calling from the Lord, the vocation within which we seek the Kingdom and glory of God in every area of life. This can take a while, as we see in the case of Moses. But even as Moses finally gave up arguing with the Lord and accepted what God had prepared for him, so we too may expect to discern the Lord’s unique calling for us.

“We have further said that we can expect to discover that vocation within the confluence of our burdens, experience, skills and abilities, and opportunities and needs. Seeking the Lord with these matters in mind will help us to discern areas of personal growth, church participation, and earning our daily bread that will fill up and improve the time we have each day for seeking the Kingdom and glory of God.

“One’s calling from the Lord can change, of course, but, even if it does, we still need to be able to discern where the Lord is leading us. Vocation involves how we use our time within that sector of the Lord’s vineyard where we have been sent like Him to bring near the Kingdom of God. All our time comes from the Lord. It’s His time, on loan to us, and He expects us to receive, invest, improve, and return it to Him at the end of each day, radiant with His glory and praise.

“So, having discerned our calling, we need to embrace it.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What kinds of work, places, activities, people, and so forth make up your calling from the Lord?

2. How does you calling relate to Jesus’ command to seek first God’s Kingdom and righteousness?

The work God has given us to do is greater than the job at which we work. All our work, every daily exertion of attention and energy, can bring glory to God. But we must take steps before the Lord so that we offer all our work unto the Lord for His Kingdom and glory. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to join you by subscribing to the Read Moore podcast. Then get together to talk about the callings God has appointed to each of you. 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 Calling and Kingdom appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

A second relational discipline that follows from being a seeker is being a servant. Those we seek, we must be ready to serve. Jesus showed us the way in the upper room with His disciples. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on  pages 78 and 79:

“First, serving others begins in setting your own interests and needs aside. Jesus was about to be treacherously betrayed, falsely tried, and brutally crucified. Yet He did not allow His own concerns to dominate in that upper room. More important than what was on His mind was the opportunity to love His disciples and to teach them what it means to love one another.

“The apostle Paul put it this way: ‘Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.’ Then he pointed to the example of Jesus, Who came among us as a Servant. Serving others begins in self-denial, setting our own interests aside to be available to others.

“Second, note that Jesus identified the opportunity for serving. He was alert to the need that presented before Him, and He quickly diagnosed what must take place for that need to be met. If we’re paying attention to people, praying for them, and engaging them regularly and sincerely, God will begin to show us ways we might serve them to meet some need in their lives, whether small or large. 

“Third, Jesus prepared Himself to serve His disciples. He gathered the necessary equipment, dressed Himself accordingly, organized the room, and got started with His work. As we begin to discern the needs of people around us, even if it’s just for more consistent encouragement or affirmation, or assistance with some routine task, we can prepare each day in our times of prayer and planning to step up to the opportunity and lend a kind word or a helping hand.

“This is not to suggest that we can meet everybody’s needs, or even that we’ll always be able to serve every person or need that presents before us. But by becoming moreservant-minded and practicing the disciplines of self-denial, discernment, and preparation, we’ll be in a better position to serve others as we can, and thus to touch them with the love of Jesus.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What opportunities for being a servant will you have today?

2. What can you do to improve your work as a servant to the people around you?

We serve others when we put their needs and interests first. Serving can involve many things—a word of encouragement, a gesture of love, help with some project, or just a ready listening ear. Relationships grow strong where each person follows the example of Jesus and seeks to serve their friend. 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 your work of serving others. 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

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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

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