| | This week has been almost too much, but those little surprises in life are what keep me going. So I was at Wendy's after youth group on Wednesday night, talking with everyone who had been able to come there. Everyone seemed to be getting into pointless conversations, or maybe that's just the way I felt on the account of how I wanted to share some things about a new book I had been reading, "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" written by Donald Whitney. I began talking with Schmick and used the book's name as quickly as I could in my sentence. Once the title left my tongue, Mr. Schmucker, who had been in a deep conversation with Mike Brown, immediately cut Mike out and pointed to me as soon as he heard the words. "You mean the one written by D.S. Whitney?" He exclaimed. In response, I answered how it was the same. He told me, in his opinion, that that was the "best book"; which I found to be a vague statement. "Best" of what? Well, of every book he has ever read, this is his favorite; knowing his reading background, I was surprised (he once read this book during one of his lessons on worship, I just remembered that today). Heck, I grabbed this out of my family's book case with five minutes before school one morning. As it would seem, I must have pulled the needle from the haystack without even noticing it. Even before he told me his view of the book, I had realized just how much of a gem this paperback truly was. I'm not even a hundred pages in and, well, I've already came up with three ways to change my life; not just the way I live, but application to my life. 1 Timothy 4:7
Discipline yourselves for the purpose of godliness. That is the verse which this entire book is based off of, and the purpose of this book itself seems to be an aid to striving for godliness. Every application in this book, each and everyone, points directly back to Scripture. Every application requires Scripture, this book by itself is nothing; every thing in this book requires and calls for a massive amount of Biblical study on the side. This book is to grow, and you grow through Spiritual Discipline. I can't even get into how helpful this book is, I haven't been able to put words on it yet. All I know is that I've memorized 4 verses in two days (planning to attempt 1-3 per day for a year), have read my Bible with a much greater zeal, I am scheduling my study and prayer, and have meditated on these verses and readings throughout the last two school days. That's just the application that I've been given the passion to put into place (and I've seen that it's pretty much a necessity), in relevance to what I've learned and how much I've grown, the techniques I have put into place over the last week have allowed me to retain more growth than a month of study could accomplish. It's pretty darn awesome. There was one quote that caught my eye, it directly stated a problem I had been having. This came from a chapter on Bible intake and how finding the appropriate passage is almost essential.
"Sensing distance from God or a dryness in your spiritual condition? Looking for clues to the character of God and drawing on them is a good choice [to read]". I began studying God's character, and in another act of finding a needle in a hay stake (or in this case, finding the right needle, for the job, in a needle stack), I randomly found Job 33:12-14. This passage and the ones around it were all about God's greatness and our relation to that greatness. I had forgotten just how great the Book of Job was, you feel such a greater reverence for God after reading it! Anyway, I memorized the verses, and verse 14 made an amazing statement that is similar to Matthew 7:7-8, a passage used throughout Whitney's book to talk about prayer. Which is another thing: this book really explains the heavy importance of prayer. I would also like to add that this had a huge effect on me after the kind of week I had just gone through and due to the way I felt at the time; so this book is extremly applicable. That's all I'm going to get into, I could probably talk about this book for days. What's so amazing about this book is that it's pretty much a guide to becoming a stronger christian through building your relationship with God and striving for godliness. This book covers such a wide range of disciplines to build on; listing Bible Intake, Prayer, Worship, Evangelism, Serving, and so much more! I recommend that if you need to grow spiritually, and everyone does, than you should read this book. Believe me, this book makes you feel really guilty about your study, prayer, worship, and meditation habits. "True spiritual self-discipline holds believers in bonds but never bounds; its effect is to enlarge, expand, and liberate" --D.G. Kehl (I honestly don't know who he is, but I love the quote). |
