{"id":3863,"date":"2020-07-08T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3863"},"modified":"2020-07-06T08:26:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T13:26:05","slug":"seven-disciplines-of-healthy-christian-living-continued-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/seven-disciplines-of-healthy-christian-living-continued-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Disciplines of Healthy Christian Living (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"
We have looked at six of the seven disciplines necessary for healthy Christian living.<\/span><\/div>\n
The first discipline is a personal one and is the basis for all the other disciplines\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
1. A Private Time Daily in the Word and Prayer (quiet time)<\/span><\/div>\n
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The next three have to do with developing Christian relationships, which is the basis for maintaining a love connection within the church\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
2. One Large Group Worship Experience Each Week<\/span><\/div>\n
3. One Small Group Interactive Bible Study Each Week<\/span><\/div>\n
4. Regular Meetings With One or More People For Accountability of One\u2019s Moral, Ethical and General Life Focus. (men with men; women with women)<\/span><\/div>\n
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The last three are about reaching beyond ourselves and our church to include others\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
We discussed the discipline of\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
5. Maintaining an Avenue of Ministry<\/span><\/div>\n
6. Expressing our Faith Through Our Tithes and Offerings<\/span><\/div>\n
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The importance of reaching beyond ourselves is summed up in this statement: \u201cspiritual input with no spiritual output = Stagnation.  God wants to flow to you so that he can flow through you.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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There are many other disciplines to Christian living, but I want to end with this very important one\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
7. Regular Communication of the Gospel <\/span><\/div>\n
Romans 10:17 (NIV) says: \u201d\u2026faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Healthy Christians are always talking about Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The more we share our faith, the more our faith grows.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The more we hear ourselves declare what we believe in, the more we will develop the assurance of the truth we declare. This is true even if we are communicating our faith to our Christian friends.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
There is one thing that is common with all people regardless of their personalities: we talk about what matters to us; we talk about what happens to us.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Before I had knee surgery, I was in really bad shape. Every step was painful. I waddled like a duck. I couldn\u2019t go down a flight of stairs without holding on to the rail and stiff legging myself downward.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
But after I had my knee replacement surgery, I was like a new person. My doctor made the incision differently than many surgeons. He cut around the muscles instead of through it. The results were a much less painful recovery and much quicker recovery.  <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
For months, all I could talk about was Dr. Slater. In fact, I often joked that I wasn\u2019t talking much about Jesus because I was so excited about what Dr. Slater did for me.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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Even now, if I hear someone is going to have knee surgery, I immediately want them to go to my surgeon.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Are you getting my point?  If we really believe that Jesus has done something so life changing, then the most natural thing would be for us to want to talk about Him and tell others that they should go to Him for their own spiritual surgery.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I realize that we are all different and that we have different personalities. Some \u201cshy\u201d people say it\u2019s harder for them to know how and when to talk about Jesus.  On the other hand, some of us more energetic ones need the Holy Spirit to tell us when not to talk.  There is a right time and a wrong time for sharing, but there is never a \u201cno time\u201d for sharing.  <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The missing component in witnessing is a genuine reliance on the Holy Spirit\u2019s power. Fear is never an excuse. When we use fear as our excuse, what we are really saying is that we do not have faith, for faith overcomes our fear.<\/span><\/div>\n
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1 John 5:4\u20135 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
4<\/sup><\/span> For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world\u2014our faith. <\/span>5<\/sup><\/span> Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Hebrews 13:6 (ESV) \u201cSo we can confidently say, \u2018The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

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We have looked at six 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\u2026 1. A Private Time Daily in the Word and Prayer (quiet time)   The next three have to do with developing Christian relationships, which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3865,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions\/3865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}