Last week, we looked at four of the seven disciplines necessary for healthy Christian living.
The first discipline is a personal one and is the basis for all the other disciplines…
1. A Private Time Daily in the Word and Prayer (quiet time)
 
The next three are grouped together for a very important reason… 
2. One Large Group Worship Experience Each Week
3. One Small Group Interactive Bible Study Each Week
4. Regular Meetings With One or More People For Accountability of One’s Moral, Ethical and General Life Focus. (men with men; women with women)
 
These three disciplines (corporate worship, small group Bible study and accountability) are all about developing Christian relationships, which is the basis for maintaining a love connection within the church.
 
With a healthy personal Christian life and a healthy relational life, we are ready to reach out beyond our church to include others. That brings us to the fifth discipline…
 
5. Maintaining an Avenue of Ministry:
EVERY MEMBER IS A MINISTER
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
 
Ministry is our way of expressing our life in Christ. This is our calling, our passion, our gifts and talents being used to minister to the church or to minister as an extension of the church.
 
There are two major bodies of water in the land where Jesus walked. One is the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful lake 13 miles long and 7 miles wide filled with fish and surrounded by lush foliage. 
 
The other body of water is the Dead Sea, 50 miles long and 11 miles wide, the shoreline of which is 1300 feet below sea level. Seven million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. The saline or salt content of the water of the Dead Sea ranges from 26-35%, making it 10 times saltier than the oceans of the world. There’s no seaweed or plants of any kind in or around the water. There are no fish or any kind of swimming, or squirming creatures living in or near the water.  As a matter of fact, what you’ll see on the shores of the Sea is white crystals of salt covering EVERYTHING. According to extremescience.com, fish accidentally swimming into the waters from one of the several freshwater streams that feed the Sea are killed instantly, their bodies quickly coated with a preserving layer of salt crystals and then tossed onto shore by the wind and waves. 
 
Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River. There is really only one difference between these two bodies of water, really only one thing that causes the Sea of Galilee to be beautiful and alive while the Dead Sea is barren and lifeless. The Sea of Galilee has an outlet; the Dead Sea does not! Water flows through the Sea of Galilee. Water flows into the Dead Sea, but not out! 
 
The same can be said of our lives. Spiritual input with no spiritual output = Stagnation.  God wants to flow to you, so that He can flow through you.