Disciples: Discipline

Disciples: Discipline

Cleaning Out
A certain man's garage is attached to his house. It's a wonderful convenience in inclement weather, but it's also a terrible temptation because all winter whenever he doe not know what to do with something, he puts it in the garage. Usually by March he is so ashamed of his garage that he doesn't want to open it up to the neighborhood.
By contrast, his neighbor keeps his garage spotlessly clean. He is one of those people who has a place for everything and keeps everything in its place. He has hangers for his shovel, his hammers, his screwdrivers, and his rakes. He paints his garage floor, and he actually vacuums his driveway. About mid-March the contrast finally gets to the first man, and he finally says, "This Saturday I'm going to tackle the garage." He gets up early in the morning, opens the door, tears into it, and by 4:00 in the afternoon, he has thrown half of it away. Then he gets all the rest organized, and feels absolutely fulfilled. In fact, he leaves his garage door open for three weeks so that everybody in the neighborhood can see how good it looks! But by that time, it's starting to look a little tacky again.
Biblical happiness is a life without the junk and clutter that a self-oriented life deposits in our spirits. It is a sense of well-being, cleanliness, and organization. It is to live an organized life so that there is the inner sense of well-being that harmony provides.

Freedom Restricted Becomes Power
No horse gets anyone anywhere until he's harnessed, no steam or gas drives anything until it is confined, no Niagara ever turns anything into light or power until it is tunneled, no life ever does great things it is until focused, dedicated, and disciplined. The Power of Discipline
USA Today polled 238 players who participated in at least one of the NCAA Final Four Championship games from 1977 to 1986. The survey indicated that an amazing number of these athletes have been able to match their achievement on the basketball court with continued excellence in life.
What is their secret? The pollsters concluded that those who make it in school "seem able to channel the athletic lessons of discipline and self-sacrifice into their academic lives."

Today...
I did not come this far-nor to this place-alone, but in the presence and power of my God.
The circumstances of this moment are not greater than my God. He knows them better than I do, yet He permits them. And He will overcome them-within me if I will allow Him. Mine is not to fret as though He does not know, or care, or cannot overcome. Mine is to walk on knowing that He is here.
I am His by His creation, and His new birth. I am His to do with as He chooses-to bless or to use up, to serve or to simply endure. The day belongs to my Lord, and it is the only day I have to serve and glorify Him. And so I shall give all that I have and am that for this one day He shall be honored.