Last night I was part of a woman's bible study, its the first time I have ever been part of a bible study that only had girls in it but I found it great. We started working through a book "Displines of a Godly Woman" by Barbara Hughes. Check it out at Koorong here. It is an amazing book so far. The first chapter which we did together was basicly an introduction and an explination of what displine is and why it is important.
It described displine in a very different light to how I would normally see it and I think that is a good thing. When I think about displine I usually have very negative connotations to it, however Barbara describes it as a positive thing and something you do out of love for God.
The one lesson in the bible study that really stood out to me was the need to train for God. The best way to look at this is to compare to a athlete. A athlete will spend hours training in order to reach a goal - whether that be reaching the olympics, winning first place or getting a gold medal. In everyday life we do similar things, education is a form of training where the goal is a degree or a promotion, we exercise daily with the aim of becoming or staying fit or looking a particular way. No matter what your goals are, we all spend hours training ourselves to reach them.
However when it comes to the ultimate goal - eternal life with God, how much time do we spend working towards it? When you compare the time you spend working towards worldly goals with what you spend working towards being a better Christian - what comes out on top? For me I found that I really do spend to much time caught up in everyday life. I often find myself thinking - I am too tired to read my bible, or I dont have time to sit and talk to God and this is really the wrong attitude for me to have.
And so I start this blog. When the bible study finished last night and I was thinking all this through I decided that I wanted to make sure I put aside time each day not only to read the bible and talk to God but really focus on what God is trying to tell me and really learning from his word. I also realised that I wanted to reach out to others. This blog is a way for me to start that.
Last night I think we all agreed this powerful verse really summed up the message:
It described displine in a very different light to how I would normally see it and I think that is a good thing. When I think about displine I usually have very negative connotations to it, however Barbara describes it as a positive thing and something you do out of love for God.
The one lesson in the bible study that really stood out to me was the need to train for God. The best way to look at this is to compare to a athlete. A athlete will spend hours training in order to reach a goal - whether that be reaching the olympics, winning first place or getting a gold medal. In everyday life we do similar things, education is a form of training where the goal is a degree or a promotion, we exercise daily with the aim of becoming or staying fit or looking a particular way. No matter what your goals are, we all spend hours training ourselves to reach them.
However when it comes to the ultimate goal - eternal life with God, how much time do we spend working towards it? When you compare the time you spend working towards worldly goals with what you spend working towards being a better Christian - what comes out on top? For me I found that I really do spend to much time caught up in everyday life. I often find myself thinking - I am too tired to read my bible, or I dont have time to sit and talk to God and this is really the wrong attitude for me to have.
And so I start this blog. When the bible study finished last night and I was thinking all this through I decided that I wanted to make sure I put aside time each day not only to read the bible and talk to God but really focus on what God is trying to tell me and really learning from his word. I also realised that I wanted to reach out to others. This blog is a way for me to start that.
Last night I think we all agreed this powerful verse really summed up the message:
"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last forever; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
~ 1 Corinthians 9:25-27
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