Jan/Feb 201 2
Fitter, Healthier, Stronger ‘For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things ...’ 1 Timothy 4:8
Selwyn Hughes Revised and updated by Mick Brooks Further Study: Ian Sewter © CWR 2011. Dated text previously published as Every Day with Jesus: The Care of the Soul (January/February 1997) by CWR. This edition revised and updated for 2012 by Mick Brooks. CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, UK Tel: 01252 784700 Email: mail@cwr.org.uk Registered Charity No. 294387. Registered Limited Company No. 1990308. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of CWR. Unless otherwise stated all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. © International Bible Society. Cover image: Getty/Blend Images/Erik Isakson Quiet Time image: sxc.hu/Scott Snyder Printed in England by Linney Print
Every Day with Jesus is available in large print from CWR. It is also available on audio and DAISY in the UK and Eire for the sole use of those with a visual impairment worse than N12, or who are registered blind. For details please contact Torch Trust for the Blind, Tel: 01858 438260. Torch Trust for the Blind, Torch House, Torch Way, Northampton Road, Market Harborough, LE16 9HL.
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A word of
ıntroduction … O
lympic fever will soon hit the UK: 30 days of sport, 26 different disciplines undertaken, 3,000 table tennis balls and 11,500 shuttlecocks used, and 100 tons of meat and 350 tons of vegetables consumed by the athletes. During the Olympics we will again be encouraged to get more active. How many of us have already, at the start of this new year, considered gym membership? We are all too aware that exercise strengthens the body, yet we so often fail to be intentional with regard to our spiritual development. In Selwyn’s letter of introduction when this issue was first published, he stated that this Every Day with Jesus is not only a very important one, but is also a very challenging one. How true. He went on to say that in his own life he found that where there is no challenge there is little change. Again, how true! It was Selwyn’s prayer, and is mine also, that when you have finished this issue you will be more spiritually fit, healthy and strong. As with physical exercise, start learning these spiritual exercises at your own pace and then build up over time, but be intentional. You might find the free online supplement helpful in discovering where to begin. As you stand on the threshold of this new year, may the God of all grace bless you as you read through this issue, building up your muscles of faith. ‘… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith …’ (Heb. 12:1–2). Sincerely yours, in His name Mick Brooks Consulting Editor Free small-group resources to accompany this issue can be found at www.cwr.org.uk/extra where you will also find the Spiritual Health Check supplement.
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In God’s gym
Sun 1 Jan
For reading & meditation – 1 Timothy 4:1–16
‘... train yourself to be godly.’ (v.7)
H
ow better to begin this year than by determining to become spiritually fit – ready for ‘the race marked out for us’ (Heb. 12:1)? To be lean and fit spiritually should be the aim of every one of Christ’s disciples. ‘The biggest problem in the Church,’ says one writer, ‘is that Christians regularly report unfit for duty. And a big part of their unfitness results from lack of spiritual exercise.’ How do we keep our physical bodies trim? We do it by exercising. It is now a well-known fact that to lose excess weight it is helpful to do more than diet. One should engage in physical exercise as well. And just as Further physical exercises increase the body’s fitness and Study health, so spiritual exercises improve spiritual fitness and vitality. The Authorised Version of the 1 Cor. 9:19–27; Bible translates the verse before us today in this 1 Thess. 5:11 way: ‘Exercise thyself rather unto godliness.’ The 1. How does Paul word ‘exercise’ in Greek is gumnazo, from which illustrate the our English words ‘gymnasium’ and ‘gymnastics’ Christian life? 2. What did are derived. In this issue, join with me in enrolling in God’s Paul want gym to start a spiritual exercise programme that believers to do? hopefully will result in us being spiritually fitter than ever before. Clearly, as our text for today makes plain, godliness does not just happen. We have to train ourselves for it. An athlete does not achieve greatness in his or her sport by eating badly and not training. And we won’t move forward in our spiritual lives if we neglect to train ourselves in the ways of God. So, the challenge facing us as we begin this issue is to ‘prepare for a workout’. There is no other way to find health for the soul.
O Father, help me rise to this challenge. I want to be fitter than ever this year – fit to carry out Your purposes. May all spiritual flabbiness, all excess spiritual weight be trimmed by exercising my soul. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Mon 2 Jan
Right acts – wrong motives For reading & meditation – 1 Corinthians 15:1–11
‘But by the grace of God I am what I am ...’ (v.10)
O
ften many Christians when considering this issue of developing godliness mistakenly think it depends upon rapturous spiritual experiences. Others believe we must depend on disciplined effort. Relying solely on either is wrong. Though spiritual experiences are to be enjoyed, it is a mistake to use them as the basis for spiritual growth. Then to regard disciplined self-advancing effort as the secret of becoming a godly person is also an error. You see, it is possible to do right but for the wrong reason. I have known many Christians who were meticulous in reading two or three chapters of the Bible Further Study daily, working through a prayer list, and so on. However, they practised these disciplines not out Matt. 6:1–5; of gratitude for the grace that saved them but to 23:2–7 advance themselves. In other words, they came 1. What was to depend more on their spiritual exercises for right about progress in godliness than they did on the grace of the Pharisees? God. This is the worst kind of legalism. I think it is 2. What safe to say the apostle Paul was one of the most was wrong disciplined disciples in history, yet in the text about them? before us today he gave the credit for his spiritual progress not to his disciplined living but to the grace of God: ‘by the grace of God I am what I am.’ One of the things we must guard against continually is the tendency to place greater emphasis on what we do for God than on what He has done for us. A question I regularly put to students who are training is this: where is your dependency? I ask them this because I am aware that the more we learn and the more we understand, the more likely it is that we will depend on our knowledge rather than the grace of God. Father, although it is right to appreciate what I am taught and then understand, help me not to rely on this, but may I totally depend on You. By grace I was saved, and by grace I am sustained. Thank You, my Father. Amen.
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Dependable disciples
Tues 3 Jan
For reading & meditation – Galatians 5:1–15
‘... do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ...’ (v.13)
N
ow that we have made it clear on whom we should depend – on God and not on ourselves – we are ready to focus on the need for disciplined living. Some Christians shy away from the word ‘discipline’ because it suggests lack of freedom and harsh rituals. Although the Christian message is that we draw our life and strength from God, nevertheless, in order to do that, we need to be disciplined. Often ‘free grace’ has been talked about in such a way that it has weakened character. Paul warns against this in the passage before us today: ‘do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature’. The Galatian converts Further were in danger of turning liberty into licence. Study Discipline was needed. The gift of grace is a blessed privilege, but our Prov. 20:4; lives have to be permeated with discipline too. I 24:30–34; Gal. 6:7–10 quite like the story (which I have used before) of the woman suffering from paralysis of the legs 1. Why do who went to a healing service in her Anglican we need to church and was instantly made better. A few discipline days later she said: ‘Lord, you have healed me ourselves? of paralysis of the legs. What are You going to 2. What law do about my overweight?’ The answer seemed to of life does come as she opened up her Bible and read: ‘This Paul explain? kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting’ (Matt. 17:21, see NIV footnote). Where only dependence could bring results, that was the answer. Where only discipline could bring results, that was the answer. The effective Christian life is a balanced life. Being dependent means we draw our life from Another; being disciplined means we pay attention to the ways by which we draw from that Other. Dependence plus discipline makes dependable disciples.
My Father and my God, You have shown me my need to be dependent on You, and I accept that. You are showing me too my need for discipline. May I also accept that – wholeheartedly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Wed 4 Jan
Discipline without direction For reading & meditation – Romans 8:28–39
‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son ...’ (v.29)
I
t is hard to be in training unless one sees the point of the discipline. ‘Discipline without direction,’ says Donald Whitney, ‘is drudgery.’ A story I heard tells of a young schoolgirl doing piano exercises while her friends were playing out in the street. She found the task tiresome and tedious. Then suddenly she was visited by an angel who whisked her away to a concert hall. There she watched a young woman playing to a packed hall and holding the audience enthralled by her virtuoso performance. ‘Who is that amazing pianist?’ the young girl asked the angel. ‘That,’ came the reply, ‘is you in a few years’ Further Study time.’ From that moment on, so the story goes, the young girl had an entirely different attitude to her Ezra 7:6–10; daily piano practice. Luke 19:1–10 When it comes to discipline in the Christian 1. Why was life, many feel like that young girl – that practice Ezra chosen is tiresome and tedious. But how different when to teach? we see the direction in which discipline takes us. 2. What efforts Our reading today informs us that God’s great did Zacchaeus goal for us is to make us like Christ. In fact, we take to see are predestined for that – God’s grace is working Jesus? in our lives to make us like Christ. But if we are predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image, what need is there of discipline? It is through discipline that we assent to God’s purposes for our lives. Just as Zacchaeus put himself in a position where he could see Jesus, so spiritual discipline puts us in a position where we will receive the grace that flows from the heart of our Saviour. C.H. Spurgeon put it well when he said: ‘I must take care above all that I cultivate communion with Christ, for though that can never be the basis for my peace ... it will be the channel of it.’ O Father, thank You for reminding me again that Your biggest single purpose for my life is to make me like Jesus. I am predestined for this and I will co-operate with You. You will do Your part, help me do mine. Amen.
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CW
CWR Ministry Events Please pray for the team
Date
Event
Place
9–10 Jan
Leaders’ Time Out
Waverley Abbey House Philip Greenslade & Andy Peck
Presenter(s)
14 Jan
Counselling Training Enquirers’ Morning WAH
CWR team
7 Feb
More Than You Can Handle Alone
WAH
Lynn Penson
10 Feb
Helping Survivors of Childhood Sexual and/or Emotional Abuse
WAH
Heather Churchill
17–19 Feb
Bible Discovery Weekend – Mark’s Gospel WAH
Philip Greenslade
18 Feb
Small Group Leader’s Toolbox
WAH
Andy Peck
28 Feb
The Bible in a Day
WAH
Andy Peck
29 Feb
Headteachers’ seminar
WAH
Coleen Jackson
Please also pray for students and tutors on our ongoing BA in Counselling programme at Waverley and our Certificate and Diploma of Christian Counselling and MA in Integrative Psychotherapy held at London School of Theology. Waverley Spring Programme For spring 2012 we have planned a variety of residential courses at Waverley to help you to grow in God and be equipped to help others. 9–11 Mar
Women’s Weekend of Spiritual Refreshing
with the Women at Waverley Team
12–16 Mar
The Big Story
with Philip Greenslade
19–23 Mar
Introduction to Biblical Care and Counselling
with the CWR team
26–30 Mar Pastoral Care in the Local Church
with Stuart Pascall & Lynn Penson
We look forward to welcoming you!
For further details and a full list of CWR’s courses, phone +44 (0)1252 784719, or visit the CWR website at www.cwr.org.uk
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Thurs 5 Jan
Love that ‘springs’ For reading & meditation – 1 Timothy 1:1–11
‘The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.’ (v.5)
T
he Christian way is sometimes referred to as ‘The Christian Discipline’. With this in mind, listen to how the translator James Moffatt worded our text for today: ‘... the aim of the Christian discipline is the love that springs from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith.’ We don’t usually connect discipline with spontaneity, but this is what the apostle Paul seems to be doing in this text. Discipline produces a love that ‘springs’, he says. We saw yesterday that the goal of Christian discipline is to make us like Jesus. We are predestined to Further Study be conformed to His image. Has there ever been anyone more disciplined and yet more free than John 14:15–24; Jesus? Yet He was free because He was disciplined. James 1:25 Society today has a false idea of freedom. ‘I am 1. What is the free to do as I like’, is a comment frequently heard. relationship But the true Christian says, ‘I am free to do as I between ought.’ A young student said to his teacher: ‘Sir, obedience this is supposed to be a free country. But where’s and love? my freedom? I’m told to study, to do my homework. 2. What is the And I have to do it. Where’s the freedom in that?’ relationship He was serious – and in serious trouble with between law himself. Liberty comes from obedience to law. and freedom? No law – no liberty. That is the way life works. Love can ‘spring’ – be spontaneous and free – only as it comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. In other words, from a life that has discipline. Any supposed freedom that leaves you with an impure heart, a bad conscience and an insincere faith ends not with a love that springs but with a love that sighs. And a love that sighs soon dies. A disciplined person has a love that springs – and a love that sings. Father, help me grasp the fact that freedom and discipline are not mutually exclusive. I am free not to do as I like but to do as I ought. Drive this truth deep into my spirit I pray. In Christ’s name. Amen.
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