A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

V. Principles and Implications of the “Corporate” Disciplines

Through submission we live with others without manipulation, and through service we are a blessing to them. Confession frees us from ourselves and releases us to worship . Worship opens the door to guidance . All the Disciplines freely exercised bring forth the doxology of celebration . ~ Foster. Celebration of Discipline . p. 201. For Paul, therefore, salvation in Christ is a fundamentally eschatological reality, meaning first of all that God’s final salvation of his people has already been accomplished by Christ. . . . This essential framework likewise causes Paul to see the church as an end-time community, whose members live in the present as those stamped with eternity. We live as strangers on earth; our true citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3.20). Ethical life, therefore, does not consist of rules to live by. Rather, empowered by the Spirit, we now live the life of the future in the present age, the life that char acterizes God himself. This is why, for example, Paul appeals to end-time realities as the reason believers may not resolve present grievances before pagan courts (1 Cor. 6.1-4). Their heavenly citizen ship trivializes such grievances – and puts believers in the awkward position of asking for a ruling by the very people that they themselves will eventually judge. Believers have tasted of the life to come; and the full and final realization of the future is so certain that God’s new people become heavenly radicals as they live in the “already but – not yet” of the present age.

~ Gordon D. Fee. Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God . Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996. p. 52.

A. Principles

1. The discipline of confession involves confessing Jesus as Lord, openly acknowledging our sins to God for forgiveness, and exchanging forgiveness with others through prayers of healing.

2. As the people of God we are called to worship God, to give him glory and honor in every phase of our lives, and to specifically enter into his presence to adore him and be transformed through his presence and revelation.

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