"If a man would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23
My home church (Christ Methodist Church, Singapore) has embarked on a "Intentional Discipleship" program, which has started with the 40 Days of Purpose program, and now has moved to the MasterLife series of books. In short, we believe that Christianity is a discipleship process and hence we need to be deliberate about our efforts to become disciples, and disciple-makers.
So what has Intentional Discipleship got to do with Triathlons?
Erm... Not much really, except that I have come to learn that both requires Intentional, Disciplined and Balanced effort in multiple disciplines to have results. In training for a triathlon, one should focus on weaknesses rather than strengths, to ensure that all 3 disciplines of Swimming, Biking and Running are equally developed - e.g. in my case, swimming seems to be the weakest discipline, so I have to work on that more. If I cannot even swim 800m, there is no point for me to be the fastest runner nor biker (not that I am either of those). :) In the same way, being a Disciple of Christ also requires balanced development in 3 critical areas:
- Putting Christ 1st in our hearts EVERYDAY and in EVERYTHING
- Relationship with God
(a) studying His Word
(b) prayer - Relationship with others
(a) with believers - Fellowship and Service in Church (Ministry)
(b) with non-believers - Evangelism
For example, if I pray daily but do not read His Word daily, I run the risk of not being effective in prayer, because God's promise of answering our prayers is CONDITIONAL on (1) us remaining in Him, which (2)enables us to pray in accordance to His Will.
"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." John 15:7
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15
Similarly, if I pray and read His Word, but do not serve my brothers/sisters in church, nor be a witness for God's grace to non-believers, I may have a good relationship with God, but I am not doing any of the good works that the Lord has set out for me to do.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. " Ephesians 2:8-10
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2:14-17
What I am setting out to do...
- Continue to grow in Intentional Discipleship, with the aim to increase in the fruits of my Christian life
(a) In being a channel for God's blessings and saving grace to the believers and non-believers around me
(b) In growing the fruit of the Spirit within me
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 - Complete my 1st ever Sprint Triathlon by end 2005. Two reasons why I want to do this:
(a) Believe it or not, I have started feeling bored in the free time I have between work and the family! Lately, when I have nothing to do, I feel like I am wasting precious time (and I am not getting any younger - mid life crisis???). I must confess that this has led to me being rather irritable and even depressed for no apparent reason. I believe the Lord wants me to focus on positive things and stop all these negative thoughts and feelings.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. " Philippians 4:8
(b) To submit my body to the Lord in the form of regular exercise (since my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, I better keep it in good condition). Me being me, I seem to be able to keep up with regular exercise when I have something to aim at, so the Sprint Triathlon is just that.
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - Have a lot of fun doing BOTH!
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