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.

The reason we want to have disciplined lives is so that we have the vision, strength, and determination to join Christ in His work of restoring the reconciled world. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found on pages 39, 40:

“Discipline is not an end in itself. It is a future-oriented activity. Through discipline we bring our bodies into line with our vision of the future—of the good life, as we conceive it. We make our bodies obey what we hope to realize at some future point, and, for the Christian, that future can be summed up in the word ‘restoration’—the restoring of all things into the excellence and glory of Christ.

“Christ has reconciled the world and everything in it to God through His life, death, and resurrection. Now, seated at the Father’s right hand in glory, He is restoring the world to Him, setting the world right and upright, returning it to that ‘very good’ condition in which it was originally made. Christ is doing this work through His Church, which is both a sign and outpost of His Kingdom, His rule of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The watchwords by which Christians must live within the Body of Christ are words like ‘grow’, ‘increase’, ‘be transformed’, ‘be renewed’, ‘edify’, ‘work’, and ‘restore.’ We must do all things in life, everything that takes up the time of our lives, for the purposes of Him Who is making all things new.

“Thus, as we shake off whatever remnants of infancy still beset us and begin to press on to maturity in the Lord, we’ll want to make certain that the focus of all our disciplines is toward restoration, the restoration of all things for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Whether in our own souls, our relationships with others, the work we do, our lives together in community and culture, or in dealing with our trials and struggles, we want to know the newness of Christ, we work for the manifestation of His pleasure and glory, and we will be content only when we and others—and our culture and societies—are being transformed to refract the resurrection life of Jesus more and more.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What do we mean by saying that Christ is restoring the world to the Father?

2. What is your role in that work of restoration?

Restoration begins with ourselves. It is an ongoing project in our soul and life as we work to bring our bodies into submission to God and His eternal plan. Because what God wants is for us to know good in all things, and to bring His goodness to others, that they might seek Him as well. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to discuss how God’s work of restoration is proceeding in and through you. You can 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 Unto Restoration appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

These days Christians mostly give lip-service to the Kingdom of God. We acknowledge that there is such a thing, and sometimes even pray that it will come on earth. But the Kingdom deserves more of our attention, time, and discipline. Today’s reading from The Disciplined Life is found on page 36:

“Local churches are signs and outposts of the Kingdom of God, the reign of King Jesus in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. In local churches, the disciples of Christ gather to worship, become equipped, and serve one another and the world with the Good News and good works of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom comes to expression in local congregations, where believers, growing in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Lord, refract the reality of His resurrection life to a world of darkness and uncertainty. And from the church believers go into their personal arenas of influence and ministry to fill the world with Jesus through their words and deeds.

“Thus, Jesus intends the local church to sign the Kingdom to the world, like a billboard, to advertise its reality, like a road sign to point the way into the Kingdom, and like a translator of mysteries to the deaf, explaining and illustrating and reaching the imaginations of the lost with the promise of forgiveness, life, hope, purpose, and glory.

“And the church is an outpost of the Kingdom because Kingdom citizens draw from their churches the resources and perspective they will need to fulfill their callings as ambassadors of the Kingdom to and in the lost world.

“No wonder Jesus made building His Church the centerpiece of His agenda! Enthroned at the Father’s right hand, Jesus is building His Church like a great prism of hope. He shines the light of His truth in all its clarity and brilliance into the Church, there to be separated into polychromatic expressions as varied as the members of the Body and the spheres and niches in which they live, move, and have their being.”

For reflection or discussion
1. What do we mean by saying that the local church is a sign of the Kingdom of God? How do you see that in your church?

2. What do we mean by saying that the local church is an outpost of the Kingdom? How do you see that in your church?

Jesus is building His Church, supplying grace upon grace to make us more visible as His Body on earth, so that through the Church His Kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. And each of us has a role in this great work, for which we must acquire the disciplines that will fit us for Kingdom living in our world. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to discuss how you can acquire more of the disciplines essential for building the church and advancing Christ’s Kingdom. You can 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 Signs and Outposts appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

Peter tried to stop Jesus from doing God’s will and going to the cross, as if he—or we—had a better idea about how to follow the Lord. Today’s excerpt from The Disciplined Life is found pages 33 and 34:

“These days, I believe, we may be guilty of standing in Jesus’ way rather than following behind Him. The Scriptures speak clearly and sufficiently about all the disciplines we must take up in seeking the Kingdom and righteousness of God. They guide us in understanding the spiritual disciplines essential for setting the saw of our soul to cut straight and true. They instruct us in the relational disciplines designed to promote justice and neighbor love. The Scriptures help us to discern, understand, and prosecute the work each of us has been given to do in seeking the Kingdom. They are sufficient to direct our communal disciplines—worship, fellowship, mission, and ‘one-anothering.’ And the Scriptures can equip us with those provisional disciplines necessary for dealing with the temptations, trials, and setbacks that come to us from time to time.

“If we, like Peter, think we know better than King Jesus how any of these areas of life should be organized and conducted, then we are standing in Jesus’ way rather than following in His tracks, and we can expect not to be blessed but rebuked, all our good intentions and best efforts notwithstanding.

“Peter’s offense was to seek to do the work of God in a manner other than according to the Word of God. The Lord had just told Peter what was going to transpire, but that did not seem reasonable to Peter. Although clearly well-meaning in wishing to propose another course, Peter instead became an instrument of Satan by thinking a man’s way rather than according to the Word of God. He needed to ‘get behind’ Jesus and follow Him in faith, nothing doubting. “

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you be able to know if you were standing in the way of Jesus’ will and God’s plan for your life?

2. What are the best ways to keep from standing in the way of Jesus and His will?

Jesus says, “Follow Me.” He knows the path. He understands what it takes—what kinds of disciplines—to follow Him faithfully. He has given us His Spirit to empower us for such a disciplined life. And us? Are we just making up the rules of discipleship as we go along? To suit our comfort and convenience? We need to remember what Jesus said to Peter about standing in His way. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to discuss what you can do to help one another follow Jesus His way. You can 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 Standing in the Way? appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.

God, Who has saved us, calls us to seek His Kingdom and to work for the coming of His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That’s hard work, and it requires a specific raft of disciplines. Today’s excerpt from The Discipline Life is found on pages 31 and 32:

“The writer of Hebrews might just as well have been writing in our day when he said that, although God has redeemed His people so that we will put everything in life—all the time and work and activities of every moment of our lives—under our feet for the glory and honor of God the Father, we do ‘not yet’ see this happening.

“If that was understatement in the first century AD, it’s even more so today.

“When the focus of our lives, the aim of our worldview, is the comfortable and secure life of peace and prosperity, this is what we will discipline our time and bodies to pursue and what we hope will be the outcome of our efforts. And once we’ve achieved as much of this as satisfies us at any given moment, then we’ll simply settle down to indulge our hard-won gains.

“But the ‘world to come’ which God has entrusted to us His people is not the world of getting and spending and self-indulgence, the world of our secular and material counterparts. Rather, the world to come is that of the divine economy, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which Jesus is advancing even now from the Father’s right hand by His Word and Spirit, in and through every true follower and disciple.”

For reflection or discussion
1. How do you understand “the world to come” which God has entrusted to us? What does that world look like?

2. In what specific ways is your life disciplined so that you can realize that aim?

Jesus has transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness into His Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. God calls us to His Kingdom and glory, and Jesus instructs us to seek His Kingdom as the defining priority of our lives. It takes a life disciplined in a particular way to realize this aim. Share today’s podcast with some friends. Encourage your friends to listen to the podcast as well. Then get together to discuss what it means to live in “the world to come”. You can 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 The World to Come appeared first on The Fellowship of Ailbe.