Daily I am battered by an array of stimuli. 

A glance at my desk reveals files, books, emails, lists, magazines, and DVDs that call for my attention. At times I feel myself immobilized by the diversity and complexity of stimuli. 

Daily I have to choose what to do based on priority and commitment.  It occurred to me that my desk is a picture of our culture - cluttered lives filled with daily important decisions that demand to be first in line. 

I'm reminded that Scriptures have a way of confronting us, and that's what Joshua was doing in Joshua 24.  He was bringing clarity to the choices before the people then and today.

The sixth discipline to consider is confession. Western culture has embraced cyber confessions which allow persons to talk, but not experience transformation. The believer talks as a means to transform.

Modern confessionals of dialoguing-only offer no healing to the inner scars that fester deep in the spirit that causes all kinds of troubles. Every discipline is designed for a practical purpose in the quest to mirror the image of our Lord.

Sunday, October 26th, we will address what confession really is, the history of confession, and a classic form of confession from a great man of the past.

Forgiveness is one of the most difficult disciplines for the disciple. People offend and hurt us in many ways.

We’ll talk this Sunday why it is so important to remove the trash of un-forgiveness from our hearts.

Jesus shows the way and the Epistles gives us a glimpse of what it looks like.

In our fourth installment of the series, 7 Disciplines For The Disciple, we will address the area of worship.

We will look at the protocol for worship from Psalm 100, and ask how we can know if we’ve been successful in our worship.

In thirty-three years of ministry I have preached on the subject of “fasting” rarely.  In fact, in one church I was instructed by the leadership not to preach on this topic, that is unnecessary. 

Strange request when you look at the New Testament.  There is MORE teaching on fasting than on repentance, confession, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.  It is now a conviction of mine that the early church, and the church throughout the centuries practiced this discipline for a reason. 

This Sunday we will look and hopefully learn about a practice that can bless our lives.  Richard Foster, in his book, Celebration Of Discipline, puts it this way:  “That [fasting] is the only way we will be saved from loving the blessing more than the Blesser.”