{"id":5468,"date":"2019-06-21T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5468"},"modified":"2019-06-21T08:15:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T16:15:38","slug":"kicking-off-the-2019-chi-alpha-summer-reading-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/06\/21\/kicking-off-the-2019-chi-alpha-summer-reading-project","title":{"rendered":"Kicking Off The 2019 Chi Alpha Summer Reading Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"book<\/figure>
\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2019<\/a>. The sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Celebration of Discipline \u2014 Introduction and Chapter One<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Remem\u00adber that we\u2019re sav\u00ading the pref\u00adace and fore\u00adword for lat\u00ader. For now we\u2019re just read\u00ading the intro\u00adduc\u00adtion and the first chap\u00adter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter One \u2014 The Spiritual Disciplines: Door To Liberation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuper\u00adfi\u00adcial\u00adi\u00adty is the curse of our age. The doc\u00adtrine of instant sat\u00adis\u00adfac\u00adtion is a pri\u00adma\u00adry spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal prob\u00adlem. The des\u00adper\u00adate need today is not for a greater num\u00adber of intel\u00adli\u00adgent peo\u00adple, or gift\u00aded peo\u00adple, but for deep peo\u00adple.\u201d<\/p>page 1<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

BOOM! What a start to a book. Fos\u00adter wrote those words over 40 years ago and the prob\u00adlem has only inten\u00adsi\u00adfied. Our soci\u00adety has col\u00adlec\u00adtive\u00adly become the thorny soil in Matthew 13:22 \u2014 the wor\u00adries of this world choke out the work of the Spir\u00adit with\u00adin us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solu\u00adtion, Fos\u00adter says, is to cul\u00adti\u00advate a pat\u00adtern of liv\u00ading that breeds depth. Things like prayer and fast\u00ading and con\u00adfes\u00adsion are like a firmware update for our souls.

The prob\u00adlem is that we\u2019re not sure how to do these things. This book is meant to be a how-to man\u00adu\u00adal to help us emu\u00adlate the dis\u00adci\u00adplined lifestyles por\u00adtrayed in the Bible.

The dis\u00adci\u00adplines Fos\u00adter empha\u00adsizes are vital because with\u00adout them we have only willpow\u00ader to rely upon, and willpow\u00ader does\u00adn\u2019t work as well as we hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willpow\u00ader will nev\u00ader suc\u00adceed in deal\u00ading with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet Fox writes, \u201cAs soon as you resist men\u00adtal\u00adly any unde\u00adsir\u00adable or unwant\u00aded cir\u00adcum\u00adstance, you there\u00adby endow it with more power\u2013power which it will use against you, and you will have deplet\u00aded your own resources to that exact same extent.\u201d<\/p>page 5<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With the dis\u00adci\u00adplines we are train\u00ading, with\u00adout them we are only try\u00ading. Train\u00ading trumps try\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gets close to the the\u00adsis under\u00adly\u00ading the entire book \u2014 the for\u00adma\u00adtion of habits like fast\u00ading and prayer bear fruit in a way that willpow\u00ader does not. As Fos\u00adter observes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA farmer is help\u00adless to grow grain; all he can do is pro\u00advide the right con\u00addi\u00adtions for the grow\u00ading of grain. He cul\u00adti\u00advates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the nat\u00adur\u00adal forces of the earth take over, and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal Disciplines\u2014they are a way of sow\u00ading to the Spir\u00adit. The Dis\u00adci\u00adplines are God\u2019s way of get\u00adting us into the ground; they put us where he can work with\u00adin us and trans\u00adform us. By them\u00adselves the Spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal Dis\u00adci\u00adplines can do noth\u00ading; they can only get us to the place where some\u00adthing can be done. They are God\u2019s means of grace.\u201d <\/p>page 7<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Next week we begin get\u00adting prac\u00adti\u00adcal as we study the dis\u00adci\u00adpline of Chris\u00adt\u00adian med\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtion. I hope you\u2019re excit\u00aded! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE: I did\u00adn\u2019t include any excerpts from the intro\u00adduc\u00adtion but I high\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend read\u00ading it and espe\u00adcial\u00adly focus\u00ading on the key role laypeo\u00adple played in men\u00adtor\u00ading this pas\u00adtor. Assum\u00ading your call is to the mar\u00adket\u00adplace or acad\u00ade\u00admia, make it your ambi\u00adtion to grow into a Chris\u00adt\u00adian layper\u00adson mature enough to dis\u00adci\u00adple a pas\u00adtor. How awe\u00adsome would that be?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ad\u00ading-project-2019. The sched\u00adule is online. Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline \u2014 Intro\u00adduc\u00adtion and Chap\u00adter One \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cKick\u00ading Off The 2019 Chi Alpha Sum\u00admer Read\u00ading Project\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Kicking Off The 2019 Chi Alpha Summer Reading Project - Celebration of Discipline","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[264,263],"class_list":["post-5468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-celebration-of-discipline","tag-summer-reading-project-2019"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1qc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5468"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5473,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions\/5473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}