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Pastor Beal

DEPTH OF DISCIPLINE

"And that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures..." Tim. 3:15

One time the great football coach, Tom Landry, was quoted as saying that, "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be." That is such a true statement when we look at the "freedom" that discipline can bring to a life. So often we look at discipline as a regimented and structured life that restricts our freedom, when it actually does the opposite. Discipline is the price of freedom, (freedom to accomplish things). As a child of God, reading and studying the word of God makes us free to serve God in whatever capacity that He has gifted us in. It's the ability to use the "gifts of God" to the utmost effectiveness, such as quoting a verse that may be needed, to give the scriptural counsel that could set one straight. I'm saddened by the fact that we have a spiritual level today that is a "mile wide and an inch deep". We have what is told in II Tim. 3:5, "...a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." He goes on to say that they are, "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (v.7) Over in Titus 1:16, he says that, "They profess that they know God: but in works they deny him..." In other words like the old saying goes, "Their talk talks and their walk walks; but their talk talks louder than their walk talks!" They want to be called Christians, yet they are undisciplined and careless in their behavior and conduct. They make statements like, "I don't have to go to church to get to heaven." And I say, "You don't have to go home to be married, but it sure makes sense." How can you trust a faith to get you to heaven when it can't even get you to HIS church?

Thanks! Pastor Earl Beal