Spiritual Disciplines Conference

We are having Dr. Don Whitney at our church this weekend. The conference started last night (Friday) and we had 3, 50 min sessions today and he will also be preaching tommorrow. He is teaching on the Spiritual Disciplines of a Christian and it is very insightful. I hope God uses this to bring me closer to Him through this conference in ways I could never dream of. Below is just my notes from some of the sessions.

Don Whitney ~ Spiritual Disciplines
Friday Night 09-16-05

Things we pray about:
Family
Finances
Future
Work/school
Church/ministry
“Current crisis”


Praying through Psalms
Psalm 23
The psalms were used to sing to God


Second best place to pray through:
New Testament Letters
1 Thessalonians 2

3rd best place to pray through:
Narrative passages
John 8


~Break~

Session 2

Meditation on Scripture
Psalm 39:3
“While I was musing the fire burned”
Meditation causes God's fire to flame up in our minds.
We feel deeply about what we think deeply about.
Psalm 1:1-3
We have to absorb the word of God like a hard rain that does not wash away because of hard soil.
Meditation = Obedience = God's Blessing
Meditation causes us to obey God which in turn brings God's Blessing
James 1:25

So how do we meditate?
When a verse stands out in your mind, go back and meditate on it or meditate on the theme of the passage.

10 methods of meditation on Scripture

1. Repeat the verse or phrase with emphasis on a different word each time.
2. Rewrite the verse in your own words.
3. Look for application of this text - what should you do in response to it?
4. Pray through the text.
5. Ask the Philippians 4:8 Questions.
6. Ask the “Joseph Hall” Questions.
7. Discover a minimum number of insights into the text (you set the number in advance)
8. Find a link or common thread between all the chapters or paragraphs you've read.
9. Use meditation Mapping. Recommended Book:

Don Whitney ~ Spiritual Disciplines Part 2

Don Whitney ~ Sat. Morning ~ 09-17-05

Session 2

Silence & Solitude …. “For the Purpose of Godliness”

Introduction

My favorite short story is The Bet by Anton Chekhov, a Russian writer of the last half of the nineteenth century. The plot involves a wager between two educated men regarding solitary confinement. A wealthy, middle-aged banker believed that the death penalty was a more humane penalty than solitary confinement because, "An executioner kills at once, solitary confinement kills gradually." One of his guests at a party, a young lawyer of twenty-five disagreed, saying, "To live under any conditions is better than not to live at all."

Angered, the banker impulsively responded with a bet of two million rubles that the younger man could not last five years in solitary confinement. The lawyer was so convinced of his endurance that he announced he would stay fifteen years alone instead of only five.

The arrangements were made and the young man moved into a separate building on the grounds of the banker's large estate. He was allowed no visitors or newspapers. He could write letters but receive none. There were guards watching to make sure he never violated the agreement, but they were placed so that he could never see another human being from his windows. He received his food in silence through a small opening where he could not see those who served him. Everything else he wanted—books, certain foods, musical instruments, etc.—was granted by special written request.

The story develops with a description of the things the lawyer asked for through the years and the observations of the guards who occasionally stole a glance through a window. During the first year the piano could be heard at almost any hour and he asked for many books, mostly novels and other light reading. The next year the music ceased and the works of various classical authors were requested. In the sixth year of his isolation he began to study languages and soon had mastered six. After the tenth year of his confinement, the prisoner sat motionless at the table and read the New Testament. After more than a year's saturation of the Bible he began to study the history of religion and works on theology. During the last two years his reading broadened to cover many subjects in addition to theology.

The second half of the story focuses on the night before the noon deadline when the lawyer will win the bet. The banker is now at the end of his career. His risky speculations and impetuosity had gradually undermined his business. The once self-confident millionaire was now a second-rate banker and to pay off the wager would destroy him. Angry at his foolishness and jealous of the soon-to-be-wealthy man who was now only forty, the old banker determines to kill his opponent and frame the guard with the murder. Slipping into the man's room he finds him asleep at the table and notices a letter the lawyer has written to him. He picked it up and read the following:

Tomorrow at twelve o'clock I shall be free, . . . but before leaving this room, . . . I find it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience, and before God, who sees me, I declare to you that I despise freedom and life and health and all that your books call the joys of this world. For fifteen years I have studied attentively the life of this world. It is true that I neither saw the earth nor its peoples, but in your books I lived. . . . I sang songs, I hunted the deer and the wild boar in the forests. . . . In your books I climbed to the summit of Elburz and Mont Blanc, and I saw from those heights the sun rise in the morning, and at night it shed its purple glow over the sky and the ocean and the mountain-tops. I saw beneath me the flashing lightning cut through the clouds. I saw green fields, forests, rivers, lakes and towns. I heard the song of the sirens and the music of the shepherd's reed-pipes. I felt the touch of the wings of beautiful [angels] who had flown to me to talk about God. . . . Your books gave me wisdom. All that had been achieved by the untiring brain of man during long centuries is stored in my brain in a small compressed mass. . . . I know I am wiser than you all. . . . And I despise all your books, I despise all earthly blessings and wisdom. All is worthless and false, hollow and deceiving like the mirage. You may be proud, wise and beautiful, but death will wipe you away from the face of the earth, as it does the mice that live beneath your floor; and your heirs. your history, your immortal geniuses will freeze or burn with the destruction of the earth. You have gone mad and are not following the right path. You take falsehood for truth, and deformity for beauty. To prove to you how I despise all that you value I renounce the two millions on which I looked, at one time, as the opening of paradise for me, and which I now scorn. To deprive myself of the right to receive them, I will leave my prison five hours before the appointed time, and by so doing break the terms of our compact.

The banker read these lines, replaced the paper on the table, kissed the strange, sleeping man and with tears in his eyes quietly left the house. Chekhov writes, "Never before, not even after sustaining serious losses on change, had he despised himself as he did at that moment." His tears kept him awake the rest of the night. And at seven the next morning he was informed by the watchman that they had seen the man crawl through a window, go to the gate, and then disappear.1

I don't recommend that we separate ourselves in this way, and I don't affirm all the lawyer's conclusions, but I do believe Chekhov looks into a room where every Christian sometimes dreams of living.

1. Explanation of silence and solitude.

The Discipline of silence is the voluntary and temporary abstention from speaking so that certain spiritual goals might be sought. Sometimes silence is observed in order to read, write, pray, etc. Though there is no outward speaking, there are internal dialogues with self and with God. This can be called "outward silence." Other times silence is maintained not only outwardly but also inwardly so that God's voice might be heard more clearly.

Solitude is the Spiritual Discipline of voluntarily and temporarily withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes. The period of solitude may last only a few minutes or for days. As with silence, solitude may be sought in order to participate without interruption in other Spiritual Disciplines, or just to be alone with God.

Think of silence and solitude as complementary disciplines to fellowship. Without silence and solitude we're shallow. Without fellowship we're stagnant. Balance requires them all.

Silence and solitude are usually found together. Though they can be distinguished, in this hour we will think of them as a pair.

Recognize that Western culture conditions us to be comfortable with noise and crowds, not with silence and solitude. In her book, Living the Christ-centered Life Between Walden and the Whirlwind, Jean Fleming observes, "We live in a noisy, busy world. Silence and solitude are not twentieth-century words. They fit the era of Victorian lace, high-button shoes, and kerosene lamps better than our age of television, video arcades, and joggers wired with earphones. We have become a people with an aversion to quiet and uneasiness with being alone". Therefore be careful not to let the world prejudice you against the Biblical witness on these matters. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15).

We are going to have to be more intentional for silence and solitude than any other generation.

2. Valuable reasons for silence and solitude.

A. To follow the example of Jesus (Mt. 4:1; 14:23; Mk 1:35; Lk 4:42)

B. To hear the voice of God better. ( 1 Kin 19:11-13; Hab 2:1; Gal 2:17)

C. To express worship to God (Hab. 2:20; Zeph 1:7)

D. To express faith in God. (Ps 62:1-2, 5-6; Isa. 30:15)

E. To seek the salvation of the Lord (Lam. 3:25-29)

F. To be physically and spiritually restored (Mk 6:31)

G. To regain a spiritual perspective (Lk 1:20, 63-64)

H. To seek the will of God (Lk 6:12-13)

I. To learn control of the tongue (Prov. 17:27-28; Eccl. 3:7b; Jas 1:19, 3:2)

3. Suggestions for silence and solitude.

A. Consecrate the occasional “minute retreats” each day for silence and solitude.

Example: Sitting at a red light for a min.

B. Set a goal of having a time each day for outward silence and solitude with the Lord.

C. Try to get away for a few extended (half-day to overnight or longer) times yearly.

D. Locate special places which can be used for silence and solitude. Find them: within the home, within walking distance, within a few minutes' drive and for overnight or longer retreats.

E. Arrange a trade-off system of daily responsibilities with your spouse or a friend when necessary in order to have the freedom for extended times of silence and solitude.

Application

1. Will you seek for daily times of silence and solitude?

2. Will you seek for extended times of silence and solitude?

3. Will you start now?

Hurricane Katrina

This is a article from my favorite modern writer, John Piper. I really think people need to read this because to many people think that they have to defend God or they do not think that God is in control of everything.

Was Katrina Intelligent Design?

September 2, 2005 — Sermons Edition

By John Piper

Permanent Link

On his 89th birthday (August 31) NPR Senior News Analyst, Daniel Schorr, observed that President Bush had “staked out a non-position” on the debate between evolution and intelligent design. Bush had said that “both sides ought to be properly taught in the schools of America.” Then, with manifest scorn, Schorr linked the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with the concept of intelligent design: “[Bush] might well have reflected that, if this was the result of intelligent design, then the designer has something to answer for.”

No, Mr. Schorr, you have something to answer for, not God. God answers to no man. Come, Daniel Schorr, take your place with Job and answer your Maker: “The Lord answered Job [and Daniel Schorr] out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for actionlike a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. . . . Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed”?’” (Job 38:1-3, 8-11).

Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Shall the pot say to the Potter, “This is an unintelligent way to show your justice and your power? Come, Maker of heaven and earth, sit at my feet—I have lived 89 years and have gotten much wisdom—and I will teach you—the eternal God—how to govern the universe”?

No. Rather let us put our hands on our mouths and weep both for the perishing and for ourselves who will soon follow. Whatever judgment has fallen, it is we who deserve it—all of us. And whatever mercy is mingled with judgment in New Orleans neither we nor they deserve.

God sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners. He did not suffer massive shame and pain because Americans are pretty good people. The magnitude of Christ’s suffering is owing to how deeply we deserve Katrina—all of us.

Our guilt in the face of Katrina is not that we can’t see the intelligence in God’s design, but that we can’t see arrogance in our own heart. God will always be guilty of high crimes for those who think they’ve never committed any.

But God commits no crimes when he brings famine, flood, and pestilence on the earth. “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6). The answer of the prophet is no. God’s own testimony is the same: “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). And if we ask, is there intelligent design in it all, the Bible answers: “You meant evil . . . but God meant it [designed it] for good” (Genesis 50:20).

This will always be ludicrous to those who put the life of man above the glory of God. Until our hearts are broken, not just for the life-destroying misery of human pain, but for the God-insulting rebellion of human sin, we will not see intelligent design in the way God mingles mercy and judgment in this world. But for those who bow before God’s sovereign grace and say, “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever,” they are able to affirm, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:36, 33). And wisdom is another name for intelligent design.

No, Daniel Schorr, God does not answer to us. We answer to him. And we have only one answer: “Guilty as charged.” Every mouth is stopped and the whole world is accountable before God. There is only one hope to escape the flood of God’s wrath. It is not the levee of human virtue but the high ground called Calvary. All brokenhearted looters and news analysts and pastors are welcome there.
Famine Flood and Failing Fortune

Meditation on Psalm 105:16

When the staff is broken,
And in judgment spoken
Righteousness is heard,
Think not God is silent,
Though the famine violent,
This is but His word.
He stands not to give account.
It is we who must before Him.
Come, let us adore Him!

When the flood is breaking
And your fear is waking,
Comfort not your soul,
Thinking the Almighty
Yielded up the right He
Once had to control.
Every river and the seas
Do His sovereign bidding purely.
This is comfort surely.

When your fortunes fail you,
Deep diseases ail you
And your death is near,
Know that Christ your Maker
He alone is Taker
Of your life and fear,
Fall before His power and pray:
Jesus, I now trust you merely,
You have bought me dearly.