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personal discipline is the indispensable key for accomplishing anything in this life.
the quantitative discipline of their work, prepared the way for the cosmic quality of their work.
None of us naturally seeks after God, none is inherently righteous, none instinctively does good (cf. Romans 3:9-18). Therefore, as children of grace, our spiritual discipline is everything — everything! I repeat . . . discipline is everything!
Men, we will never get anywhere spiritually without a conscious divestment of the things that are holding us back.
What things are weighing you down? The call to discipline demands that you throw it off. Are you man enough?
When one seriously trains, he willingly undergoes hours of discipline and even pain so as to win the prize
The difference is one of motivation: legalism is self-centered; discipline is God-centered. The legalistic heart says, “I will do this thing to gain merit with God.” The disciplined heart says, “I will do this thing because I love God and want to please Him.
If you are married, the presence or lack of spiritual discipline can serve to sanctify or damn your children and grandchildren.
spiritual discipline frees us from the gravity of this present age and allows us to soar with the saints and angels.
Is there a cost to spiritual discipline? Check out 1 Corinthians 9:25-27. What could greater discipline cost you? Are you prepared to pay the price? Why or why not?
How does spiritual discipline differ from legalism? Which do you most often practice? Is a change needed? If so, how can you bring this about?
What did God speak to you about most specifically, most powerfully in this chapter?
Sensuality is easily the biggest obstacle to godliness among men today and is wreaking havoc in the Church.
Deuteronomy 17, which set down the standards for Hebrew kings, commanded that they refrain from three things: 1) acquiring many horses, 2) taking many wives, and 3) accumulating much silver and gold (cf. vv. 14-17).
David’s collection of wives, though it was “legal” and not considered adultery in the culture of the day, was nevertheless sin.
Men, it is the “legal” sensualities, the culturally acceptable indulgences, which will take us down.
Just when we think we are the safest, when we feel no need to keep our guard up, to work on our inner integrity, to discipline ourselves for godliness — temptation will come!
who was bathing without modesty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the observation that when lust takes control, “At this moment God . . . loses all reality. . . . Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”5
The mind controlled by lust has an infinite capacity for rationalization.
for a professed Christian to reject this teaching regarding sexual purity is to reject God, and this may indicate a false faith!
If you are married, ideally you should use your spouse, but I also recommend another man, one who will give you no quarter in sensual matters.
it is impossible for you to maintain a pure mind if you are a television-watching “couch potato.
you will watch more murders, adulteries, and perversions than our grandfathers read about in their entire lives.
There must be no sexual humor, urbane vulgarities, and coarseness, as so many Christians are so prone to do to prove they are not “out of it.
Mike Mason, author of the classic The Mystery of Marriage, says pointedly that marital love is like death — it wants all of us.
Marriage is a call to die, and a man who does not die for his wife does not come close to the love to which he is called. Christian marriage vows are the inception of a lifelong practice of death, of giving over not only all you have, but all you are.
those who lovingly die for their wives are those who know the most joy, have the most fulfilling marriages, and experience the most love.
Christ’s call to Christian husbands is not a call to be doormats, but to die.
Sometimes this may mean doing things she doesn't like and allowing your price and idolatry of her to die
Christ suffers with His bride, and husbands ought to suffer with and for theirs.
Men, you ought to have a list of her needs, spoken and unspoken, which you passionately hold up to God out of love for her. Praying is the marital work of a Christian husband!
marriage is the one institution which tames the inveterate barbarianism of man.
Over the years a good marriage can change us for the better — almost beyond recognition. There is indeed a mutual sanctification in marriage.
Men (ignoring for the moment our wives’ spiritual responsibility to us), do you realize it is your responsibility to seek your wife’s sanctification? Even more, honestly, do you accept it?
Loving your spouse is not to love her as a saint, but as a sinner.
Is my wife more like Christ because she is married to me? Or is she like Christ in spite of me? Has she shrunk from His likeness because of me? Do I sanctify her or hold her back? Is she a better woman because she is married to me? Is she a better friend? A better mother?
It is a flat-sided masculinity which imagines that understanding another is a feminine trait.
Ephesians 5 presents us — sacrificial love (love is like death!), sanctifying love (love that elevates), and self-love (loving your wife as much as you love your own body).
“Marriage is not an achievement which is finished. It is a dynamic process between two people, a relation which is constantly being changed, which grows or dies.”8
if there is the tiniest thought in the back of their minds that they can get out of the marriage if the other person is not all they expected, I will not perform the ceremony. The truth is, marriages which depend on being “in love” fall apart. Those which look back to the wild promises they vowed in the marriage ceremony are the ones who make it. There is no substitute for covenant plus commitment.
Men, our wives must be able to rest in the fact of our fidelity. Everything about us: our eyes . . . our language . . . our schedules . . . our passion must say to her, “I am, and will always be, faithful to you.
Men, the discipline of communication demands that you set aside regular time to talk — and that you really do talk, and that you communicate more than facts, that you communicate feelings
A commitment to building up your wife is of greatest importance.
Compliments on her kindness and her daily provisions should be commonplace, as should showing her respect by observing common courtesies.
Schedule weekly times together that do not just “happen.” Be creative. Date! Surprise her. Be extravagant.
my most treasured possessions, next to life in Christ, are the members of my family.
Colossians 3:21 indicates that children embittered by nagging and deriding4 “lose heart” (NASB) — like a horse that has had its spirit broken. You can see it in the way a horse moves, and you can see it in the eyes and posture of a disheartened child.
As conscientious fathers we have to say “no” to many things. Thus we should try to say “yes” to as much as possible, and save our no’s for the really important situations.
Some say you treat your fellow man on the level. But when you are home with the wife and kids, are you mean as the Devil?
the overall idea is to speak to one’s children with gentleness and friendliness.5
