The Pleasant Pain of Discipline (Part 3)

After 21 straight years of working out six days a week, I can honestly say that I feel better about myself after a good workout. For me, training in the gym is a great way to reduce stress. I was talking to a friend the other day who had recently visited the doctors office. This person used to be fitness trainer and was in terrific shape. From his external appearance he still looked like he was in top form. However, he told me that he was diagnosed with a stress conditon. Due to family and job responsiblities, he found it quite difficult to get to the gym. As we talked, he reflected on how much better he felt when he was working out. He exhorted me to continue to make my physical conditioning a priority.

I must admit that working out is not always a pleasant activity for me. Sometimes it is painful and sometimes it is mundane. However, because I have been working out consisitently for 21 years, I have disciplined myself to go to the gym even when I don't feel like it. Without exception, even when I don't want to go, I always have a great feeling of peace when I finish my workout. I have noticed the same is true in my walk with God. I don't always feel like reading my Bible, praying or doing the right thing. However, after 12 straight years of being disciplined by God, I have learned to respond to feelings, temptations and trials based on truth. As a result, I have a peace that rests in my soul as his child. Hebrews 12:11 says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace by those who have been trained by it.

This leads my to my third benefit of God's discipline--peace. The Hebrew word for peace is Eirene. It means the absence or end of strife. Such a state of peace is the object of divine and saving promise and is brought about by God's mercy, granting deliverance and freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as a result of sin. Peace as a Messianic blessing is a state brought about by the grace and loving mind of God wherein the derangement and distress of life caused by sin are removed. Hence, the message of salvation is called the gospel of peace. It can be the result only of accomplished reconciliation, referring to the new relationship between man and God brought about by the atonement.

We can only have true peace when we recieve Jesus as Lord and Savior and allow Him to remove sin from our lives. As you become a child of God, God disciplines you and punishes you because he loves you. He is after the development of His character inside of you. Just because you believe in Him doesn't mean you are now acting like Him. His discipline works Christlikeness in you. Here is how it works. You pray, "Lord I want to be like you." God answers that prayer by beginning to discipline you through hardship. And for some reason, we forget our prayer and lose sight of how God answers. . Hebrews 12: 5-6 says, "And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, (6) because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

After God disciplines you, he draws you back close to Himself. He does not want us to stay distant, disconneted or condemned. I have personally experienced the wisdom of discipline as I have applied it to my children for disobedience or bad attitudes. Proverbs 13:24 says, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him. As I discipline them with the rod, my sons are learning at an early age the truth that disobedience leads to pain. A thrity second sting on the behind is much better than a lifetime of living with a broken, bruised, or hardened heart due to sinful behavior. It also teaches them how to humble themselves and admit when they have behaved wrongly. How different would our society be if we would just admit when we are wrong? Next, it teaches them to ask their father for forgiveness. And without exception, they always get forgiveness and an abundance of mercy and grace. After a time of prayer, I speak words of destiny, instruction and affirmation over them. As I wrap my arms around them and hug them, I tell them with full assurance how much I love them. As they leave the room, they are smiling, laughing, secure and at peace. As Proverbs 6:23 says, "the corrections of discipline are the way of life."

As we become the children of God and receive his discipline, peace is produced in our lives. Another indicator that we are the chidren of God is the ability to make peace. The Hebrew word for peacemaker is Eirenopoios. It means the one who makes peace in others having first received the peace of God in his own heart; not simply one who makes peace between two parties. Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God.

Of course, Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker. Only Jesus can remove sin from our lives and give us peace. Its amazing that Jesus would use the cross, a instrument of torture, suffering and death, to bring peace to the world. I will conclude with a powerful story of a monk impacted by the cross of Christ, and as a result, spread the peace of God.

In the fourth century, a monk named Telemachus wanted to live his life in pursuit of God, so he lived alone in the desert praying, fasting, and meditating. One day as he prayed, he realized his life was based on a selfish love of God, not selfless. If he were to serve God, he must serve men. He decided to return to the city where there was sin and need.

Telemachus headed for Rome. He arrived at a time when the Roman general, Stillcho, had won a great victory over the Goths. Since Rome was officially Christian, triumph brought people pouring into the churches.

But one pagan practice still lingered in Christian Rome—the gladiator games. While Christians were not thrown to the lions, prisoners of war were cast into the arena to fight and kill each other. Spectators roared with blood lust as the gladiators battled.

Telemachus arrived on the day of the games. Following the noise, he made his way to the arena where 80,000 people had gathered to celebrate. The fights began and Telemachus stood aghast. Men for whom Christ had died were about to kill each other to amuse a supposedly Christian populace.

Telemachus jumped the wall and in a moment stood between two gladiators. For an instant they stopped, but the crowd screamed, “Let the games go on.” So they pushed the old man in monk’s robes aside. Again he came between the gladiators.The crowd hurled stones at him; they urged the gladiators to kill him and get him out of the way. The commander of the games gave the order—a sword flashed and Telemachus lay dead.

Suddenly the crowd hushed silent, shocked that a holy man had been killed. The games ended abruptly that day—and were never resumed. Telemachus, by dying, had ended them. As historian Edward Gibbon observed, “His death was more useful to mankind than his life.” (From an article by Nancy Hardin in "On Target", a publication of Denver Seminary)

May our lives glorify God and spread His peace. Stay tuned for benefit number four.