A blog by Adam W. Christman

Tag: Historic Christianity

  • Spiritual Disciplines: Simple and Sacrificial Living

    “Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear.” -Richard J. Foster

    We have been going through a series of posts on the spiritual disciplines, which we defined as, “following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.” The introduction to that subject can be found at this link.

    The Bible has much to say about the spiritual disciplines across the breadth of its books, but these blog posts have zeroed in on the life and teachings of Jesus. I do not elevate the words of Jesus over and against the rest of Scripture. ALL of Scripture is God-breathed, after all. Instead, we are focusing in on a more narrow target for the sake of brevity. It may be of more help to Christians who are new to the disciplines to begin with a narrow focus before moving to a broader study of what the rest of the Bible says about these practices.

    Simple living is a spiritual discipline. Though it looks a little different than the intense study of God’s Word, or the frequent prayers of a Christian, it is still commanded by Christ. He designed and intends it for our flourishing! Simple living in the biblical sense is not a plaid-wearing, John Denver-listening1 country farm house away from the bustle of an urban center as packaged and sold to us by so many on TV and the internet. Nor is simple living just some form of minimalism. Marie Kondo is not the mouthpiece of Jesus on this issue. (Is a meme from 2019 too old a reference to use here?) Simple living is also not a form of transcendentalism, or trying to elevate the spiritual over the physical. Jesus has too much interest in the physical to be a true transcendantalist. The early church knew transcendentalists as Gnostics and rightly rejected the philosophical divisions they attempted to put between the spiritual and the physical.

    Some of Jesus’ modeling of Christian ethics is commanded, and some is not. The subject of simple living is a mixed one. Some simple living is commanded, but some is modeled and NOT commanded. Since the list of that which is modeled but not commanded is shorter, I will begin there before turning to the list of Jesus’ commands with regards to simple living. I will conclude with a definition of simple living based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

    The biggest example of an element of simple living in the life of Jesus that is NOT commanded is that Jesus had no home. Matthew 8:20 reports the words of Jesus. It is not a command, but a description, “Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” The context of these words is a brief passage where two men claim to want to follow Jesus, but would like to delay following Him. In response to one described as a scribe (Mt. 10:19), Jesus declares he has no place to lay his head. Again, this is a descriptive statement, not an imperative. He does not command his disciples to become or remain homeless. However! It has been true that some Christians will lose their homes as a result of following Jesus. I’ve known people who have been rejected from their families and their literal homes for choosing to follow Jesus as a Christian. Such experiences will continue and may only increase between now and the return of Jesus. But Jesus does not command our homelessness. He has come that we might have life, and life abundantly (John 10:10). He would know the negative impacts of such an experience on most people.2 Other suggestions may be made, but this example of simple living that Jesus modeled and yet did not command will suffice for now.

    The next, and the largest, section of this week’s post looks at elements or ways of simple living that incorporate both Jesus’ modeling and his commands.

    Jesus took very little with him on his journeys and encouraged his disciples to do the same. We see his words on this element in Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:4. Look in the Gospels for how Jesus traveled. Did he do so with an elaborate train of support staff, creature comforts, and riches? Certainly not. In Matthew 10:10, he told his disciples, “Don’t take a traveling bag for the road, or an extra shirt, sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his food.” Oh no! I can hear you saying. “I can only travel with the clothes on my back??” Looking at the context of Matthew 10 helps us see that this sending is a special sending for the 12 disciples/soon-to-be-apostles. But there is wisdom here that is applicable to all Christians. Let me give you an example. All the missionaries I have known do not pack up some ten-room house and move hundreds of pounds of belongings overseas or across the nation to share the Gospel. Often, they have a few bags of clothes and cherished possessions, then buy what they need once they arrive. This notion is right in line with the Sermon on the Mount in Mt. 6:19-24. In those verses, Jesus urges us not to treasure the things of this world, but to store up treasures in heaven. He warns us not to try to serve both God and mammon (aka, money). We can easily and quickly find so-called pastors on YouTube and social media who do not embody simple living with their expensive watches, clothes, cars, and private jets. But remember, pastors are not held to a higher standard! We hold pastors to the Christian standard; we just hold them to it more rigorously. (That’s a whole different blog post, though.)

    Jesus taught against greed in the Sermon on the Mount, but also in Matthew 19:16-30. The Rich Young Ruler approached Jesus, asking after eternal life. He even claims to Jesus that he has kept “all” the commandments (Mt. 19:20; check for yourself if you don’t belive me; its a bold claim!). Jesus tells the young man to sell his belongings and the young man walked away grieving! The Rich Young Ruler does not embody simple living. We should take his example as a warning. How much stuff do we really need? How much do we really need in our bank account? If our family is cared for by having all our needs and some of our wants, is that not enough? Can it be true that simply having all our family’s needs covered is enough?3

    “Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective.” -Richard Foster

    Jesus taught against greed, but we also see in his example that he sacrificed earthly gain. In John 7, Jesus’ brothers come to him with a proposal. They believed that he could heal after seeing him do it again and again. But they did not believe in him. And there is a big difference! His brothers urge Jesus to go to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem and show off! If he did so, he would perform in front of huge crowds and could maybe get a lot of money, power, and earthly influence. Instead, Jesus delays (Jn. 7:9-10). When he does go, Jesus does no miracles. Instead, he teaches the crowds and debates the Pharisees. He continues to live simply, seeking no earthly riches, power, or influence. His Kingdom is different.

    “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.” 1 Timothy 6:9

    Jesus’ ethics are simple, but far-reaching: Love God, Love Others. Simple! But they touch on everything and everyone in life.

    Simple living impacts our speech. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). If anyone on the face of the planet in 2025 speaks honestly with the most frequency, it better be Christians. Aren’t you tired of Christians lying? Or “twisting the truth”? Why must we act that way? Can we not live a better way, the way Jesus commands and intends? It is the way he designed for our flourishing. It is the way he designed for our best method of loving God and neighbor with our speech.

    Jesus’ simple living relates to not just his actions, but also his character. Jesus’ simplicity is seen in his humility. He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,” Philippians 2:7. Humility is simple, though it can be difficult. There are many good quotes on humility, but I have long defined it as realizing God is God and you are not, that you are creature/created, and living in light of that reality. Only God himself is perfectly humble. But simple living can assist your learning humility and humility will assist your simple living. I have been an arrogant, grasping person. I have needed a Jesus style simple living to help me love him and my neighbors better. I continue to need it.

    Jesus’ simple living includes the fact that he focuses on the things that matter most. He invites the lost into the family of God. He trains the believers. He has mercy on the hurting (e.g., the sick, the paralyzed, the possessed, the grieving). He gave us the task of inviting the lost into the family of God and then training those who would believe (Matt. 28:18-20). He also illustrated for us that he wants us to continue his mercy ministry (Matt. 25:40). We can sometimes confuse ourselves into paralysis with moral dilemmas. But the ethics of Jesus are incredibly simple.

    Jesus taught us that God is our provider, so we need worry for nothing (Luke 12:22-34; Mt. 6). We need to do our own work (2 Thessalonians 3:10), but God will provide. Everything we have, including the things we bought and paid for with our salary, are provided by God (James 1:17). Holding this perspective helps keep us humble. It helps us remember we can live simply, without all the excesses that culture would have us vainly pursue.

    Jesus sacrificed his time. He had mercy on the crowds after John the Baptist’s death, which led to the famous feeding of the five thousand. In Matthew 14:12, Jesus learns of his cousin’s death. Verse 13 reports that he sought solitude,4 but the crowds followed and approached him for healing. He chose to sacrifice his time and his feelings in order to serve those in need. Are Christians exempt from following Jesus’ example? Surely not.

    Jesus sacrificed (and taught us to sacrifice) earthly relationships if they rejected faith in Christ. Now, a word of caution is due for this subject. We live in an age of cancel culture and “going no contact” with people. We live in a divisive and angry age. These things are not of God. We must not let ourselves be ruled by foolishness, anger, or hatred. Let’s look at the passages and then talk more detail.

    In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus prioritizes the family of faith over his biological family. When the people tell him his family is outside and wish to speak with him, Jesus replies with the question, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” In verse 50, he goes on to answer his own question, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Earlier, in Matthew 10, we see a lot of instructions for how the disciples are to go on mission. He clarified the sacrificial nature of committing to Christ. It involves true faith, which will inevitably divide believer from unbeliever. Matthew 10:32-39 says, “Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven. Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn

    a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
    a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;


    and a man’s enemies will be
    the members of his household.

    The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.”

    Christians are people who want to lose our lives for Christ’s sake (“because of me”) so that we can find our lives again. They are found in Christ himself. So, yes, there may be times we have to face tough choices. It is extremely hard for some Christians to be Christians because they come from a family of people who are strong in their faith in a false god. They may be criticized, verbally abused, persecuted, or shunned for their faith in Christ. Sacrificial living at a small scale helps us understand and be ready for sacrificial living at a larger scale.

    Remember James 1:19-20, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

    We don’t look for reasons to be angry with our unbelieving neighbors, friends, or relatives. We give up the anger of man so we can choose the way of Christ. Truth in love. God’s peace, which surpasses all understanding. We embrace Jesus, who though he was mistreated and persecuted, did not respond in kind (1 Peter 2:23).

    But on a smaller scale, there will be times our unbelieving family or friends wants us to do something like get high. Or watch a major Hollywood movie that happens to have nudity or other pornographic content in it. Or they want to gossip. We must tell them in love, “No.” We sacrifice such activities because it is not the way of Christ. Some people will accept our answer. Some people will not. We have to trust God with ALL those people, and all those relationships.

    Jesus ultimately sacrificed on the cross! Jesus died so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). His death on the cross is the biggest way in which Jesus chose a sacrificial life and it is the best example for choosing a sacrificial life. While we Christians do not die for others as their savior, we do emulate him. We walk the path Jesus walked as we have opportunity to lay something down for the sake of others. We lay down our time, our energy. We lay down our laziness, or our arrogance. We lay down whatever is not of God so that we can take up whatever is HIS and offer to one another.

    “Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It’s costly service. God asks for your life. He requires that service to Him become a priority, not a pastime.” -Donald S. Whitney

    Living a simple life, as we talked about earlier, is not the same as living on a farm in the country. That’s not what we mean. Living simply means living without duplicity, as alluded to in the quote from Richard Foster at the beginning of this post. James 1:5-8 says, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.” Or, to go back to a verse we discussed before, Matthew 6:24 reports Jesus’ words, “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Or, in some translations, “both God and mammon.”)

    There is no flourishing coming your way if you engage double-minded, split-attention, syncretistic worship of Jesus of Nazareth AND your ego, or the pursuit of money, etc. You will not be the human being God designed and called you to be if you live that way.

    Just as simple living does not mean country living, it also does not mean ignorant or lazy living. We are called to know the Lord. He is knowable! He has made himself known through the Bible. And so we are called to study and know God’s Word so we might better know him. Simple living does not mean “never study the Word.” It does not mean “read for 2 minutes,” nor does it mean “consider reading a single-verse Instagram post as your daily Bible reading”. You don’t have to get a PhD from a seminary, but you are called to the renewal of your mind! Give God your best by trying to dig every treasure out of the Word that you possibly can! Remember the parable of the treasure buried in a field (Matthew 13:44). “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.” Dig, and dig, and dig again! There is SO MUCH to be found that will bless your life. Simple living is not intentional ignorance.

    “[Christians who seek God’s kingdom first] easily put all demands that come to them in ‘their place’ and deal harmoniously, peacefully, and confidently with complexities of life that seem incomprehensible to others, for they know what they are doing. In the spiritual life, simplicity is not opposed to complexity, and poverty is not opposed to possessions. In fact, as simplicity makes great complexity bearable, so poverty as Bonhoeffer explains it—freedom from desire—makes possessions safe and fruitful for the glory of God.”5

    Simple living is an active choice NOT to pursue the love of money or piling up earthly treasures. It is a choice not to make ourselves so busy that we never have time for God or our neighbors. Let me restate that last sentence in a positive way. It is a choice to make ourselves available daily, weekly, monthly, to the time needed for us to love God well and to love our neighbors well. As you do so, you will find yourself engaging not only simple living, but sacrificial living, too.

    Let me give you one more quote from Richard Foster before I close. I won’t apologize for quoting him so much on this subject! He’s the best writer I’ve read on it.

    “The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Jesus’ insight at this point. Everything hinges upon maintaining the ‘first’ thing as first. Nothing must come before the kingdom of God, including the desire for a simple life-style.” (Emphasis in original)

    In closing, Willard has a fittingly concise definition of simple living. In his words, simple living is “the arrangement of life around a few consistent purposes, explicitly excluding what is not necessary to human well-being.”6

    1. It is no sin to thank God that you’re a country boy, but Jesus has something richer and more meaningful in mind for us than John Denver. ↩︎
    2. Many studies, for decades, have shown the negative effects of homelessness on mental health. Deborah K. Padgett, “Homelessness, housing instability and mental health: making the connections,” BJPsych Bulletin 44(5), 2020 Oct. See also PT Fischer and WR Breakey, “Homelessness and mental health: an overview,” International Journal of Mental Health 14, 1985: 6–41. ↩︎
    3. Dallas Willard has much to say about this in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines. For example, “The idealization of poverty is one of the most dangerous illusions of Christians in the contemporary world. Stewardship—which requires possessions and includes giving—is the true spiritual discipline in relation to wealth” (emphasis in original; p. 194). ↩︎
    4. For my blog post about the spiritual discipline of solitude, click this link. ↩︎
    5. Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 205. ↩︎
    6. Willard, 170. ↩︎

  • Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

    “It is not enough for the believer to begin to pray, nor to pray correctly; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray. We must patiently, believingly continue in prayer until we obtain an answer. Further, we have not only to continue in prayer until the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing. Those who are disciples of the Lord Jesus should labor with all their might in the work of God as if everything depended upon their own endeavors. Yet, having done so, they should not in the least trust in their labor and efforts, nor in the means that they use for the spread of the truth, but in God alone; and they should with all earnestness seek the blessing of God in persevering, patient, and believing prayer. Here is the great secret of success, my Christian reader. Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance. Pray, then, and work. Work and pray. And still again pray, and then work. And so on, all the days of your life. The result will surely be abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed.” -George Muller, 1805-1898.

    Now that you are a Christian, what is the most important thing you can do? If you took a survey with that question, you might hear responses like “evangelism” or “worship.” I wonder how often you would hear “pray.”

    Prayer can feel very passive. Isolated. When you are new to the practice of prayer, or perhaps during some of the harder times of life, you can feel like you’re sending out signals into an unanswering universe. Jesus wants you to know that this perspective on prayer is not accurate and it is not what he intends for your life.

    In the post where I introduced the spiritual disciplines more broadly, I defined the disciplines as “those behaviors that augment our spiritual growth and enable us to grow to spiritual maturity.” I also offered that these disciplines are “following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.” Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is for the human soul what watering, pruning, and fertilizing is to a plant. It is the way Jesus modeled how to engage the process of human growth and, for us, transformation. Author Richard J. Foster said, “To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives.”

    I wrote deeper examinations of the spiritual disciplines of studying the Bible and solitude in recent weeks. Today, we move to the discipline of prayer. As with all the disciplines, much could be said. I will endeavor to stay focused on a study of Jesus’ life with regards to prayer. I have placed a bibliography on prayer for further reading at the very end of the post.

    Jesus chose a lifestyle of prayer. More specifically, he chose to pray in the morning, during the day, and at night. He chose to pray alone and in groups. He prayed while fasting and he assumed his followers would fast. He commanded his followers to pray. He modeled prayer and explicitly taught us how to pray. So we see he took a variety of approaches to prayer, rather than one, lone model of prayer. We also see that he both modeled and commanded prayer for us to engage.

    Jesus chose a lifestyle of prayer.

    Richard Foster wrote, “Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.” Based on what I’ve read in the Bible and my own experiences, I assume that quote to be accurate for my life and for this post. Pastor and author H.B. Charles, Jr., defines prayer this way, “Prayer reflects our confidence in the heavenly Father to care for our needs.”1 Prayer is a method of spending time with God, of us communicating to him and him communicating to us. While it is a rare experience to hear an audible voice, God’s communication to us is real and discernible.

    In the rest of this week’s post, I will examine multiple passages from the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life to see the elements of Jesus’ various styles of prayer. Rather than list them all out as I did in the previous paragraph, they will occur together. I’m sure you will see the same thing I see in them.

    The Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, shows us several elements to Jesus’ prayer on a certain day. Jesus had just spent all day healing people and exorcising demons for “the whole town” (Mark 1:33), possibly into the night. Mark 1:35 then says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.” I have noticed five elements in this verse. Do you see them, too?

    One element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that it was early in the morning. The text makes this very plain. I am reminded of a famous quote from the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, who said, “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” In other words, Luther’s habit was to start his day with two hours of prayer, but if he was especially busy, he devoted THREE hours to prayer instead. This choice seems backward to me as a busy, 21st century American. But the more I know the Lord and the more I know the use of prayer, the more I see the wisdom in it. Jesus likely spent signficant time in prayer (more on that in a moment). He knew he needed it. If GOD THE SON needed to pray before he started his day, how much more do you and I need to do the same?

    A second element of Jesus’ prayer on this day in Mark 1:35 is that he prayed by himself. Notice, it said “he” got up and went out. Not “they.” He was unaccompanied by his disciples or family members. Praying in groups is good and right and commanded in the New Testament. But you will benefit greatly from consistent, regular prayer where you are alone with God. He wants you to know him. He wants your heart aligned with his. And he wants to guide your steps. It is difficult in our busy schedules to find time to pray alone. It is tempting to get on our phones or do something else for dopamine. But consistent, regular prayer will result in rich times spent with God. I have experience this truth in my life. I know you can experience it, too. Luke 5:16 reports that this style of prayer was a regular occurrence for Jesus, “Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed” (emphasis added).2

    A third element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is he prayed for a lengthy period of time. He was apparently gone so long, the disciples had to go look for him. We find this in Mark 1:36-37, the following verses. “Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’” If everyone was looking for Jesus, then enough of the morning had passed that people were up, dressed, had eaten their breakfast, and possibly had done their morning chores in order to be freed up to go find this miracle worker who might do something amazing right before their eyes. As they were looking for Jesus, they probably came to the house that hosted Jesus and the disciples the night before. And so the disciples were motivated to get outside and find Jesus! They found him having spent a significant amount of time in prayer. That kind of behavior may not seem possible for you right now. But what if you chose the rest of prayer over the leisure of Netflix? Are there blocks of time you spend on things that either can wait or that you do not actually need? Could you not re-allocate some of that to a regular prayer time? Time spent in prayer is never time wasted.

    A fourth element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that he chose prayer over ministry. We get this from the fuller passage, Mark 1:35-38. Here is verse 38: “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come’” (emphasis added). Jesus COULD have been performing acts of ministry already on this day. He knew that Capernaum had plenty of people in and around it. He knew there would be more people who were ill. The people of Capernaum were the reason the disciples went and found Jesus praying alone! We know from verse 37 that the disciples had just told Jesus that everyone was looking for him. So Jesus did not leave Capernaum due to an assumption that there was no longer any need in that town. We know, instead, that his primary mission was to preach the Gospel. Rather than spend every possible minute in acts of ministry, he chose to connect with God in prayer. You might even say he left ministry opportunities in order to go pray.

    The fifth element of Jesus’ prayer on this day is that he prayed before the difficult work of ministry. The following passage, in fact the next verse, Mark 1:39, says, “He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.” He transitions from a lengthy time of solitary prayer into a period of ministry service that cost him time and energy. Mark 1:39 probably refers to a period of multiple days, if not weeks. Do you jump into acts of ministry without praying beforehand? My friend, don’t do this to yourself. You could be so much more encouraged, invigorated, strengthened, and ready for the task at hand if you would pray first.

    “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness.” -William Carey, 1761-1834.

    Let us turn to a few more passages from the life of Jesus to see how he handled prayer.

    While Jesus did pray alone many times, he also prayed with others. We see this in a variety of passages, including the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6) and the Last Supper (e.g., Luke 22:17, 19).

    Jesus modeled prayer. He showed how to pray at his baptism in Luke 3:21. He laid his hands on children and prayed for them in front of the disciples in Matthew 19:13. He prayed privately, but his disciples were with him during his individual prayer time in Luke 9:18. He told the disciples of his prayers for them. The Lord tells Peter, for example, of his prayers for him in Luke 22:32. John 17 is a prayer for his disciples and is prayed in their hearing.

    He modeled prayer, but he also gave explicit instructions on how to pray. He taught us how to pray in terms of content in Matthew 6:9-13. That prayer is popularly known as “the Lord’s Prayer,” but some (myself included) have taken to calling it “the Model Prayer.” It is a prayer that WE, the disciples of Jesus, are to pray. Jesus has no debts or need for forgiveness. Those elements in the Model Prayer show that it is really a prayer for us to pray, not his prayer to pray. Directly before the Model Prayer, however, Jesus also taught us the posture of prayer we are to have in Matthew 6:5-8. As you read that passage, you will notice that the posture is not so much whether our bodies are lying down, sitting down, standing up, etc. The posture of prayer is one of sincerity, if I can use a simple term to sum up his teaching in those verses.

    Jesus modeled and assumed his disciples would fast. Matthew 4 famously reports the temptations of Christ by the devil at the end of a forty day period where Jesus modeled fasting and solitude. The Sermon on the Mount shows us that Jesus assumes we will fast when he says, “Whenever you fast…” He does not say “if.” He assumes that we will take up the practice of occasional denial for the purpose of dwelling on the truth that God is always and only our source of provision.3

    Jesus commanded us to pray. This fact makes prayer nonnegotiable for Christians. The joy of it is, though, that prayer is no begrudging duty. It is a powerful privilege to enter the presence of God, knowingly. God told Moses, “No one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). But now we have Jesus, Immanuel, God With Us. At the end of prayer we walk away unscathed, but not unchanged.

    He commanded us to pray in such strong terms that he even told us to love and pray for our enemies in Matthew 5:43-44.

    At the end of prayer we walk away unscathed, but not unchanged.

    Prayer changes us. Aligns our hearts with God’s heart as we spend time with him. Prayer is our walkie talkie as soldiers in the field reaching out to our commanding officer for orders. And prayer changes things (e.g., James 1:5). I hope you see the need for daily—or more accurately, constant (1 Thess. 5:17)—prayer.

    I want to close with a story I read in H.B. Charles Jr.’s book.

    A father and his son were riding their bikes together one day. As they rode down the trail, the father eyed a large branch that had fallen in the path ahead. Instead of riding around it, the father decided to use this as an opportunity to teach his son an important lesson. They pulled over, and the father instructed his son to move the branch out of the way.

    The boy pushed and pulled, but was unable to move the branch. “I can’t do it,” he said, exhausted. “Sure you can, Son,” replied the father. “Be sure to use all your strength.” The boy tried harder. But he could not move the branch.

    Near tears, he said again, “I can’t do it.”

    “Did you use all of your strength?” The father asked.

    “Yes,” the boy answered.

    “No you didn’t,” the father replied. “You didn’t ask me to help you.”

    For Further Reading:

    • Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline.
    • H.B. Charles, Jr. It Happens After Prayer: Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer.
    • Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines.
    • Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy.
    • Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
    1. H.B. Charles, Jr. It Happens After Prayer: Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2013. ↩︎
    2. Luke 6:12 also reports another example of solitary prayer, “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.” ↩︎
    3. You may have dietary or other health complications that may change, limit, or prohibit your ability to engage in traditional fasting from food. If you think this may describe you, ask your physician if there is a form of fasting from food or drink that you CAN engage. If you cannot engage in fasting from food or drink in any way due to your dietary or health needs, leave a comment here or otherwise contact me and I’ll be happy to make some suggestions that do not impact your diet or health in a negative way. You can, for example, change a habit. Instead of watching TV for the last hour of your day, you can give that time to God by spending it reading or more intensely studying the Bible. ↩︎

  • An Introduction to Spiritual Disciplines

    You can become more like Jesus in your daily living.

    I don’t mean you can become divine. Rather, I mean you can fulfill God’s empowering call from Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” But we don’t seek or need a directionless transformation. We need the best direction to head towards. God also said this in Romans 8:29a, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”

    To look like Jesus in our actions, priorities, and choices, and to sound like Jesus in our words and tone of voice, is a tall order. He is perfect and we are not! BUT! Christians do experience change from the old self to the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). At the same time, Christians do not make good progress merely by accident or via passive accumulation of godly habits. No, our growth in godliness benefits and abounds as we purposefully and actively seek to become more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Since our growth to become more Christlike requires our active and purposeful efforts, we utilize the spiritual disciplines.

    The spiritual disciplines can be defined as “those behaviors that augment our spiritual growth and enable us to grow to spiritual maturity.”1 I would also phrase them as following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself. In the rest of this post, I will cover an introduction to the spiritual disciplines, arguing for what they are at a broad level and why we need them. The end of this post will feature a suggested bibliography for further reading on the subject. Future posts will cover specific practices in detail.

    Humanity’s greatest problem has always been and continues to be a spiritual one. Sin entered the world through the choices of human beings. We perpetuate those choices, ourselves, at an early age. Sin’s infection shows itself through things like depression, addiction, anxiety, personal emptiness, consumerism, sex, violence, cultic obsession, and suicide, among other expressions.

    We must take seriously the need for human transformation. We also need to realize and utilize realistic methods of human transformation.

    Some think faith should make us different all by itself, as long as we don’t have to do anything to make it happen. It’s called the Fruit of the Spirit, so the Holy Spirit does all the work, right? Well, as with anything having to do with the lives of human beings, God chooses to work with you and through you. You ever watch Power Rangers? They have this little object called a Morpher. They hold it out after doing a little choreography, say a little something, and poof, they’re transformed into their Power Ranger gear and are ready to call down the Zords so they can save the day. God doesn’t work like that. Nor does he wave a magic wand over you like Cinderella’s fairy godmother. His hand is extended out to you. Take His hand, follow Him, and together you will change your life.

    I want to take a brief moment to comment on the Kingdom of God. It is relevant to this issue. The Kingdom of God is an ongoing spiritual presence. If your faith is in Christ, you are already in the Kingdom of God. You are already forgiven (Eph. 4:32), redeemed (Eph. 1:7), born again (1 Pet. 1:23), as well as a part of the family of God (Eph. 1:5) and a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven (Phil. 3:20), among other descriptions. God’s presence is with you! Jesus said in the Great Commission, Mt. 28:20, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Where God is, His Kingdom is. If He is with you, then He stands alongside you, ready to empower you and encourage you as you take at least one step every day in your faith journey.

    Now that we know He is with us, we can talk about what His presence and power does for us. We must not take this gracious opportunity lightly or flippantly. Through the spiritual disciplines, you will meet with and dwell with the Triune God! That’s an amazing thing! Further, God designed human beings and how we are best to live. Jesus did it perfectly. He mastered it. Just as an apprentice worker benefits from spending time with a master craftsman, we strongly desire to spend time with Jesus to learn from Him. Spending time with Jesus changes things.

    G.K. Chesterton was a writer in the 19th-20th centuries.2 He once wrote, “Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.” Even as difficult as Christianity is, we love Jesus. And because we love Jesus, we set our will to resolve to be like Him whom we love.

    Jesus said many beautiful things, but I want to highlight one in particular at this point. In Matthew 11:29-30, He said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (emphasis added).

    Isn’t it so interesting that Jesus invites us to learn from Him? We all take up a yoke or burden in life. For some of us, the yoke is parental expectations. For others, it is societal expectations. Maybe it is a career goal, or a life goal like living in a certain city, or a certain style of home. Maybe the yoke is to be “free,” but eventually we find our so-called “freedom” is a shackle to meaningless or mindless consumption of Netflix, sex, or drugs. We all take up a yoke or burden. Why not trade the difficult and heavy yokes of this world for the only one that is easy and light? Joyfully, Christians make that trade. We often mess up and try to pick up the old, heavy burden. But when we repent from sin, we let it drop to the ground again, choosing to continue down the path with our loving Lord.

    Not only are you taking up a yoke in your life, one way or another, you will also learn from somebody, somewhere. If we have learned anything from the age of social media, we have learned how powerful and how easy it is for one person to influence another. A meme goes viral and suddenly middle school kids quote it ad infinitum. A young man who is really good at editing silly YouTube videos gets a new haircut and now you can’t walk through a store or mall without seeing it dozens of times. Or we see a middle-aged adult share a “life hack” or whatever that is supposed to be some health secret. (Remember the “raw water” trend that popped up for a few years around 2015-2019?) More serious examples include isolated individuals who watch social media for an incredibly unhealthy number of hours, weeks, months, or years, and decide to hurt themselves or others with some action (surgical, sociological, political, or violent) they have convinced themselves to take. My point is, you are going to learn from somebody anyway. And what you put your mind on, you become. Preachers often use the phrase, “You become what you behold,” and that is true.

    Since you are going to learn from somebody anyway, why not learn from Jesus? Why not learn from the best human being in the history of humanity? The call to learn is right there in Matthew 11:29. He wants to teach you. Will you not learn from Him?

    We can learn from Jesus by following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself. He told us this in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

    Let’s learn from Jesus. Let’s see what HE did so we can see what to emulate.

    In the coming weeks, we will talk about individual spiritual disciplines as practices we can utilize to realistically participate in God’s plan for our transformation. The spiritual disciplines include reading the Bible and prayer, as you might expect, but they also include times of (healthy) solitude, living simply, living sacrificially, service to others, confession of sin, celebrating what God has done in your life and the lives of those around you, and worship.

    “Ours is an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down . . . Above all the discipline of divine grace is derided as legalism or is entirely unknown to a generation that is largely illiterate in the Scriptures. We need the rugged strength of Christian character that can only come from discipline.”-V. Raymond Edman

    This series of posts about the spiritual disciplines has concluded. Here are direct links to the rest of the posts:

    For further reading:3

    • Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline
    • Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
    • Mason King, Spiritual Disciplines: How to Become a Healthy Christian
    • Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
    • Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives4
    1. “What are the spiritual disciplines?” GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/spiritual-disciplines.html, accessed August 19, 2025. That website is a great resource. ↩︎
    2. Best known for his book Orthodoxy, which is easily available online, Amazon Kindle, in paperback, etc. ↩︎
    3. Notice I am not posting links. These are simple recommendations. I won’t be making money off of affiliate marketing with this post. Although if you’re reading this and are interested in asking me to review your book…….. 🙂 ↩︎
    4. If you only have the budget or time to read one of these, pick Foster or Willard. ↩︎

  • What Some Conscientiously-Dissenting Christians Think About the SCOTUS Ruling and Why

    This morning the Supreme Court handed down their decision ruling on the nationwide legality of same-sex marriage. Quite a few of my friends and acquaintances celebrate this, and quite a few of my friends and acquaintances do not. In my reading today, I have come across a variety of responses within those two streams. There are some Christians who are angry, even vitriolic, over the decision. On the other hand, there are LGBTQ folks and their supporters who do not understand why anyone might be a conscientious dissenter to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

    What you will find below is a curated list of articles and a video that demonstrate what I consider good responses from biblical thinkers. I provide short introductions on who each person is and the subject they discuss in their article or video. I will update this list in the days and weeks ahead as more helpful articles, letters, or videos come up. I prepared this for Christians wondering what a good response is to the news and for non-Christians who might want to understand what we think and why.

    “Why the church should neither cave nor panic about the decision on gay marriage” – opinion piece by Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention via The Washington Post.

    Moore explains the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision for future cultural debate, legislation, and so on, but he also explains the insignificance of the decision on core matters for Christian life and faith.

    A supporting video, “Reaction to the Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage,” was released today by Moore through the ERLC YouTube channel. It ends on an important note, that Christians and churches are not to respond with yelling and anger, but rather with the love of Jesus. Borrowing from his Washington Post piece, we must speak with the “accent” of Jesus. We must speak the truth in love, and we must speak love with truth.

    “So-Called Same-Sex Marriage” – article by John Piper, theologian, preacher, and retired pastor from the Baptist General Conference.

    Piper gives a short-hand account of the biblical view on humanity, God, sin, and salvation. He explains that Christians do not support same-sex marriage because it is a push to institutionalize a sin. Sin kills the soul, and so we need a Savior from that sin and its consequences. In my reading of his books and listening to his sermons over the years, I can tell you I believe John Piper’s concern for those who are not saved.

    “Mohler responds to Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision” – article by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

    Mohler’s article covers much of the same ground as Moore’s, though it has several distinctive features. I would highlight for you what I believe is Mohler’s wise assessment of what this means for the future of religious liberty, even the near future of religious liberty. Again, I agree with what Moore asserted in the Washington Post, that Christians should not panic, but I believe these two writers agree that today’s Supreme Court decision has implications for Christians, Christian-owned businesses, churches, and Christian schools that will be argued and decided in public discourse and eventually in the court system.

    Here is a supporting article to many of the points Mohler makes about the potential future of America based on looking at the ten years of legalized same-sex marriage in Canada, “Same-Sex Marriage Ten Years On: Lessons from Canada” by Bradley Miller. I don’t know anything about Miller, but the history he recounts is very interesting and eye-opening.

    “Black Christian Leaders Respond to SCOTUS Ruling on Same-Sex Unions” by Jemar Tisby, writer, and president & co-founder of the Reformed African American Network.

    Tisby collected statements from several black Christian leaders on the SCOTUS ruling. Maybe the most interesting to me is the last one from Phillip Holmes, co-founder of RAAN, on love.

    “Don Carson Responds to the SCOTUS Ruling on (So-Called) Same-Sex Marriage.” This is from the “Ask Pastor John” podcast, hosted by Tony Reinke. It usually features John Piper, but this special episode is an interview with Don Carson, writer, preacher, and always a gentleman scholar. Run time is ~18.5 minutes, available streaming or as a download at this link or through the “Ask Pastor John” podcast.

    In the early part of the interview, Carson covers pretty much the same topics as I have done here. The latter part of the interview is a discussion of potential problems for Christians from the SCOTUS ruling. I agree with Carson on this, that the most realistic threat (or, at least, the nearest) is to para-church organizations and Christian schools (especially those less tied to particular denominations or outright non-denominational).

    “Christians React to the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage: 9 Key Findings” by Barna Group.
    Barna Group is a well-known research group, having conducted thorough surveys for years. On July 1st, they released this data on how American Christians have reacted to the SCOTUS decision. Most of this data isn’t too surprising. What DID surprise me is the significant percentage of Christians under the age of 40 finding so much in common with Christians over 40. I thought we were more fractured than that.

    *        *        *

    When I read these articles, I did not sense anger or hatred. These are people expressing their worldviews calmly and considerately. So on that count, please reconsider whether “bigot” is actually a helpful term at any level of discussion with those who are disappointed by the SCOTUS decision. Recent statistics say that around 70% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion, and many of those are conscientious dissenters, like myself. Religions are defined by their traditions. (Oh, and are all traditions bad? Let’s remember that the baggage associated with this word thanks to the Protestant Reformation and recent decades is not the only way to understand that term.) Many religions base their traditions on their holy writings. This is the way in Christianity. The Bible shows that sin spiritually kills humanity by separating us from God. It is, in God’s eyes, a rebellion against the King of creation. Jesus died, was buried, and came to life again to pay our penalty for that sin. This is how Christians think of the world at large. The Bible defines many sins. One of those is homosexual behavior. Christians dissent from this SCOTUS decision because it is an institutionalization of sin, putting it on a pedestal. Why would we celebrate something that kills? Our entire worldview is based on the idea that sin kills and we need Jesus to save us from it. Christians struggle with sin every day, losing many battles, but winning a few, as well, by the grace of God. We seek salvation from our sin, we seek to be changed from our previous sinful habits and mindsets into the habits and mindsets that characterize Jesus Christ, and we seek to bring those who are willing with us away from sin and into life.

    This is historical, biblical Christian thinking.

    So to the angry Christian yelling quotes from Leviticus today, I say calm down. Look in the Gospels and see how Jesus spoke to people. How many times was he angry and shouting? Those moments are rare. How did Paul and Peter respond to the courts of their day? Paul especially suffered specific and physical persecution. How many times is he angry and shouting in the book of Acts? I would argue that number as zero.

    To the non-Christian who might want to understand what we believe and why we dissent from the SCOTUS ruling, this is what I have to offer. If you want to engage in a kind discussion on the issue, I will happily speak with you in kindness and sincerity. If not, I hope that at least my brief thoughts and the items I listed above help you understand me and people like me to a better degree.