Last One for Class....

1. Here says spiritual disciplines are not designed to be ends in themselves, but are intended to facilitate a person's journey into greater freedom in living a Christ-like life. How did your practice of the disciplines help you grow in your faith in and obedience to God? Answer: Each of these disciplines affected me in a unique way. It would be hard for me to explain some of them because you are not me. But I can tell you in general My spiritual life at the beginning of the semester was stagnant. I didn't really do much with it, just read the bible, prayed and went to church on Sundays. But throughout this class I started to learn about different things I can and should be doing in my life. As I started doing these I have found a new fervor and pull towards ministry and the life God has planned for me. Without this class I think, I would sill be at that stagnant state instead of where I am now which is alive and pursuing God's will in my life.


2. What were some of the distractions or hinderances that kept you from practicing or practicing to the fullest, the assigned disciplines this semester? What does this show about yourself? How do you plan to address this area of struggle? The biggest hindrance was remembering to do them. I have a memory about the size of a peanut. So trying to remember one more thing was hard. When I did remember, I didn't really struggling with the action of doing it. This shows about myself, that I need to work on reminding myself and try to remember different ways. I need to focus on things more in order to remember them. So I plan on confronting this area of forgetfulness just by doing that, I am going to put notes on my phone, write down and re-write things.


3. Identify 3 disciplines you think mesh together well and explain how you see them interrelating. How would you plan on practicing them together?  The most mesh worthy and beautifully out of all the disciplines are Study, Solitude, Meditation. These all deal with getting away from distractions and focusing on whats truly important, God. Study is the aspect of reading and rereading the Bible, Solitude is where you get away from it all in order to study. Then when that is done and maybe even during that, we need to meditate on God's word. This is how these would be practiced together.


4. Identify one discipline you would urge a new believer to practice. How would you instruct the discipline? Why do you think this discipline is especially well suited to the formation of a new believer? The one discipline that I would urge a new believer to follow would be study. I would instruct the discipline almost the same way we did in class. I would tell them that every four days or so they find a passage and them they pray on it and read it then reread it everyday. I chose this one because as Christians we must follow God's will and we can't hope to do this without reading his word and rereading his word. Reading the Bible and learning what God has to say is the most important thing for a new follower of Christ.


5. Spiritual disciplines fortify believers against some of the universal struggles and weaknesses all Christians have battled against. Identify and describe an area of weakness you observe Kuyper College student population. What spiritual discipline, if corporately practiced, would target this area of weakness and why? Not to beat a dead horse but the discipline Kuyper struggles with I would say is study. I am not saying Kuyper students don't read the Bible. I am saying that they need to study it. SO many times we at a Christian college think we know it all so we read the Bible through tinted glasses. How can we even hope to glean more information and new information if we keep reading only what we want to read and hearing only the parts we want to hear? So corporately we must keep each other accountable with this discipline. We must study in order to become better Christians and better people.


6. What advice would you give to the next class of spiritual formation students at Kuyper College who will be practicing these disciplines? I would say remember, remember. Stay accountable and keep others accountable. Try to keep practicing these disciplines even after the required time because you learn even more. Good luck and pray often God bless.

SUBMIT!! no... NOW.... ok...

 This was the last week of class and that means the last spiritual discipline. This week I was told to follow the discipline of submitting. I at first wouldn't submit to this idea. But after it was defined to me as submitting to God's will and doing as Christ would. I figured it was on practice that I needed to start doing more. I told myself that I would pray more for God to guide me and for me to follow his call no matter what. Now this isn't always played out in one week. So I also tried not to be so over bearing with my opinion and to hear what others have to say.


In the end I feel like I accomplished my goal so far. This task of spiritual disciplines never truly stops. The blogs may stop but not the practice. I will hopefully continue and follow and submit to God's will. Although I may falter. I hope that I can stay on the path as much as possible. God has provided and will provide. I will continue blogging and hopefully keep doing well on all of these disciplines. Keep practicing these disciplines. God is good.