The Life of a Disciple: Avenues of Grace
The Biblical Man – Epilogue
We just finished our study of The Biblical Man. It’s purpose was to tackle the major areas of Christian praxis: where we put theological truth into practice. Belief into action. God’s truth transforms every aspect of life into an opportunity to worship and glorify Him: Singleness, Purity, Marriage, Fatherhood, Work, Finances, Suffering, etc. The Gospel enables us to live as counter-cultural missionaries with renewed minds and hearts, thinking and acting in light of His kingdom values. We studied topically through the Wisdom Literature: Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Job. We started with theological ground notes (What is a Biblical Worldview?, The Heart, The Fear of the Lord, and Counter-Cultural Living), went on to address various areas of life where praxis happens, and sprinkled the study with tools for legacy-building: life inventory, principles/priorities, reverse-engineering, and getting a day away to plan your run with Jesus. The framing vision was “Theology + Doxology = Biography.” You get to know who God is, you worship Him, and as result you are gradually transformed into His likeness.
Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, Orthopathy
The overarching theme of the study we’ve been in since 2007 is “Discipleship: Right Belief, Right Action, Right Affection.” Graphically, this is what it looks like:
DEO GLORIA CURRICULUM
Here are some quotes/links that relate to this three-fold discipleship approach:
“The Bible requires not only that we speak truly about God (orthodoxy) and obey Him (orthopraxy), but that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. …Doctrine is never…an end in itself. The purpose of doctrine is to teach us to love God aright. Obedience is never an end in itself. Obedience is always the overflow of a heart that finds its satisfaction in God rather than idols. In some senses, orthopathy is even more fundamental than orthodoxy and orthopraxy.” – Kevin Bauder
“To balance orthodoxy (right beliefs) and orthopathy (right affections) and orthopraxy (right actions). . . these are the three movements of the healthy, growing spiritual life. This balanced path of growth-changing the mind and heart in order to change the outward actions-keeps us from the deadly trap of self-deception in which we believe, but do not grow, in Christ.” – Bruce Demarest
http://www.theologicalstudies.org.uk/article_living_stevens.html
http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/2007/11/06/the-full-monty-of-discipleship/
The Life of a Disciple: Prologue
The third and final part of our curriculum will deal with Orthopathy: Right Affection. The title of the study will be “The Life of a Disciple: Avenues of Grace” and the subject will be an introduction of the spiritual disciplines. The content will be based on two books:
Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (link to Amazon)
Richard Foster’s book A Celebration of Discipline (link to Amazon)
Jesus practiced spiritual disciplines: he spent entire nights with God without sleeping, went off alone to the desert to fast and seek communion with God, took off early in the morning to be alone with God, prayed all the time, served, evangelized, meditated on God’s word, etc… If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, we must have lives marked by discipline. In the spiritual disciplines, God has provided avenues of grace designed to help us grow in godliness, the means by which we come to Him and grow in Him. As Christians, we are to spend our lives treading well-worn paths to the cross, and the spiritual disciplines are the trailheads to these paths. Faithful Christians have engaged them for hundreds of years, only recently has their value been rediscovered as a crucial aspect of discipleship.
Inward, Outward, Forward
I have organized the disciplines into three categories: Inward, Outward, and Forward Disciplines.
The Inward disciplines draw us closer to knowing Christ,
The Outward disciplines are an expression of our following Christ,
The Forward disciplines represent means of glorifying Christ by continuing on his mission.
I believe that each inward discipline is naturally connected to a corresponding outward and forward discipline. As such, each Deo Gloria meeting will consist of a discussion of one or two of the inward disciplines, and the assignment for each accountability group will be to discuss its associated outward and forward disciplines, and to personally practice them.
THE LIFE OF A DISCIPLE – SCHEDULE