“RAISING THE STANDARDS—PRACTING HARDER”

I know that God wants us to set high standards in our lives.  He wants us to be all that we can be.  However, he does not want us to be all that we can be at the expense of losing or decreasing our relationship with Him.  I am convinced that far too many Christians have established their standards of Christian Discipleship at a minimal level.  More times than we care to admit we do just enough in our walk with Christ to minimize our guilt about the amount of time we spend with God.  Perhaps what we need to do is to set our Christian Discipleship and commit to reaching those standards not for our personal glory but because our heart’s desire is to be serving God in all that we do.

Our current church-wide study on “The Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation” makes me aware of the fact that to establish and maintain a high level of consistence in ministry a church needs to continuously practice the things of ministry.   Practice is not glamorous.  It is not the easiest thing to do.  Nor is it the most popular thing to do.  But practice is essential to the success/effectiveness of anything we attempt to do better.

Perhaps we should be more like the Scottish discus thrower that I recently read about.  There was a Scottish discus thrower from the nineteenth century.  He lived in the days before professional trainers and developed his skills alone, in the highlands of his native village.  He even made his own iron discus from the description he read in a book.  What he did not know was that the discus used in competition was made of wood with an outer rim of iron.  His was solid metal and weighed three or four times as much as those being used by his would-be challengers.  This committed Scotsman marked out in his field the distance of the current record throw and trained day and night to be able to match it.  For nearly a year, he labored under the self-imposed burden of extra weight.  But he became very, very good.  He reached the point at which he could throw his iron discus the record distance, maybe farther.  He was ready.

The Scotsman traveled south to England for his first competition.  When he arrived at the games, he was handed the official wooden discus—which he promptly threw like a tea saucer.  He set a new record, a distance so far beyond those of his competitors that no one could touch him.  He thus remained the uncontested champion for many years.

You know, something in my heart connected with this story.  So that’s how it’s done:  Train under a great burden and you will be so far beyond the rest of the world you will be untouchable.  This is where God wants our Christian training to be.  He wants us to base our Christian journey upon the standards that he establishes for us.  I believe that if we place our hearts fully into the things of God that He will do and accomplish things through us that will amaze us.  Jesus even told His disciples that they would do far greater things than Him.  This is our promise today.

I think the way to begin this Discipleship training is through immersing ourselves into God’s Word—daily; through continuous prayer and meditation; through regular Church and Sunday School attendance; through attending Bible Studies; through small group involvement; through evaluating our lives in order to discover where our priorities lie and re-establish those priorities in order to build up a heart that is the very heart of God.

Now this training will not be easy.  It will demand sacrifice, discipline, self control, and hard, hard work.  It will be time consuming, thus our schedules will have to be adjusted.  There will be days when we will not feel like doing the things that are required but steadfastness must prevail.  There will be things that will try to minimize this necessary training.  It is during these times that faithfulness must prevail.  There will be voices that try to drive you away from this training.  This is when your regular attendance among the Christian community—the church will provide you with the voices of reassuring and encouragement.  There will also be times during training when you will need instruction and evaluations in order to keep or adjust the form you are establishing.  Once again the Church will provide instructions as to what needs to happen in order for you to better your technique and style.  When questions arise during training one can always turn to the book of the expert—the Bible to find clarity and direction.

When does this Discipleship training end?  The day the master instructor says unto you, “Stop Practicing, you who have been blessed by your Father and who have made your Daddy proud.  Come receive the prize for your Practicing.” (My paraphrase of Matthew 25:34)

The practicing continues; hope to see you in Church on Sunday!

Pastor Steve