2.26.2010

Like an Ox

We had a great convocation speaker today, I'll have to look up what his name was haha, but he went through a really cool leadership principle. He mentioned the 4-faced creatures of Ezekiel 1 which have the face of an ox, man, lion, and eagle [weird, yes, and to be honest I never thought too much about the significance of each face.] He talked about how each one of the specific faces can be applied to how we should respond and serve as Christians.

The 4-faced creatures are, according to Matthew Henry's Commentary, angels. Which obviously are about the business of serving God. These four faces actually represent how the angels served God, which of course we can practice ourselves.

The first face was an ox, which is often likened to being a servant. This was obviously displayed in the life of Jesus when he was here on earth. Especially in washing the disciples feet in the garment of a 1st century slave, a fact that the disciples would certainly have picked up on. If Christ was a slave to all, how much more should we be active in seeking selfless, ox-inspired, service?

2.25.2010

The Discipline of Discipline

I've recently finished up an assignment on spiritual disciplines. Long story short I had to pick 2 spiritual disciplines and practice them for 15 days. Wish I could say that I stuck it out for 15 days straight but, for what I did, I still learned alot.

I picked the discipline of silence, and the discipline of journaling. I seemed to get more out of the whole practice of silence than I did the journaling. Maybe it was just something that I was doing wrong, or the fact that now since we have computers, the idea of taking the time to record, by hand, the events of the day is just, at best, a little time consuming.

Regardless, I learned a lot practicing of these two disciplines. Adding routine silence to start the day seems to not only calm my worries before the day, but its also allowing God to speak. I discovered I like to talk way, way too much, even if its about "good things". Sometimes God just wants us to listen, and starting out in silence, focusing on who God is rather than what God needs to do for the day, well, all I can say is I've experienced a noticeable difference in my spiritual condition and relationship with God because of it.