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

f. Uncomfortableness and inability to submit or subordinate one’s own will to the say-so of others (even competent, compassionate, capable others)

4. Division and alienation: the breakdown of family units

a. Absence of governance in the home (“In our family, we issue pants to everyone. We all wear the pants in this family”)

b. Isolation and disconnection among family members created by technologies and lifestyle issues

c. The emergence of the awareness of child abuse and its consequence on the nature of discipline

d. Breaking of vows and commitments resulting in broken relationships and families (e.g., rise in divorce rates, alternative lifestyles, the normality of dysfunction, etc.)

B. The answer we require: the discipline of Christ

1. God does exist, and he has provided us with his wise counsel regarding the meaning and direction of life.

a. He made us, Ps. 95.6-7 – Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! [7] For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

b. He has revealed himself to us.

(1) In creation, Ps. 19.1-3