Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The flip side to the cutting edge.

Part 2

This blog can read as a continuation to the previous one I wrote. To my utter surprise last Sunday  my husband Colin preached almost the same thing that I have blogged here . You can read that  by clickinghere. I guess the Holy Spirit is indeed putting His finger on something , so I thought I’d blog this any way.


Doing the daily stuff deliberately while staying on the cutting edge is the flip side of the coin. Not neglecting the boring basics is what helps build consistency and character.

It’s the stuff that no one sees you doing but affects you inside out. It’s the stuff that a good soldier, sportsperson, musician is made up of. It’s the routine stuff, the drill for a soldier, the scales for a musician, and the laps round the field for a sports person.

So what it’s for me a Christian follower? It’s the simple basic “Quiet Time” spent alone with God each day, reading and mediating upon His Word, prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit- in short the unseen Spiritual Disciplines. Then it’s learning to put the Word into practice, being an obedient disciple of Jesus and then in turn passing in these values to the next disciple and the next, slowly and deliberately. We allow the roots to go deep down- we put foundations really deep till we hit the rock.

This helps put steel into the structure and keeps us steady in the midst of storms , trails and troubles. When we pass on these disciplines to a new believer we are giving him or her tools for survival for the long haul. We are helping them to run the long marathon of life and finish strong.

There is a view that thinks anything to do with “discipline” is legalism and lacks grace. How far from the truth!! the Word of God encourages us not to dwell carelessly , to live quiet and self controlled lives. Jesus who is Grace himself practice the above i.e. He got up very early in the morning to pray, He studied the scripture, He waited on the Holy Spirit, He was obedient to the Father to the point of death on a cross.

So if we are Christ followers we need to model our lives after Him. We do not practice these disciples to gain acceptance or brownie points with God. We can never merit His love. We do it because we are already accepted completely but make it our aim to please Him in every way just as was Jesus’ aim : to bring glory to the Father.

So as we move along in life, keep pace with change, there are some things that do not change at all i.e our Lord Jesus, His Word, what He expects from us as his disciples. When we do this we will put strong roots down, we are less likely to loose our passion and vision/ so let’s doggedly do the deliberate stuff daily.

I want to end with one of my favorite verses from the Bible:

 Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.


Navaz D Cruz
March 2013