it's gonna be painful

last night at league (ladies bible study at the compass, fyi... it's a long story. ask me sometime. well, it's not that long, but it's long'ish'... i digress). back to league... we were talking about discipline. and punishment. how they're different, how they're the same... what it looks like to be disciplined by god. some big ideas came forth that i wanted to highlight.

-we misunderstand discipline, often because we have been disciplined and punished by falliable people in our lives
-discipine is GOOD
-the definition of discipline starts with the word training
-we are not being punished by god for our sin when we are being disciplined; jesus took the punishment for our sin already
-rather, we are being sanctified; we are being made more and more like christ and less and less like our sinful flesh-selves
-our discipline from the father is glorifying to jesus. we become more like him. this is a good thing.
-discipline is NOT easy
-god has enough grace and mercy, enough unconditional love, to allow us to be disciplined for our good
-true happiness is not in ease, comfort, etc; it's in knowing christ deeper and deeper... and deeper still
-we will never escape discipline until we die, because we will never be restored to our pre-sin state until this earthly life is over
-we can step into discipline willingly, in fact, we can pursue it through confession of sin to god and a sister/brother, repentance, accountability... who did you confess sin to this week?

despite the heaviness of the topic and the intensity of the conversation, it was a wonderful night of sharing, discussion, weeping, praying, and locking arms with sisters. if you're not in community, why aren't you? you're missing out. the body of christ was made as the bible tells us for a reason. it's beautiful in it's brokenness and christ is faithful to redeem it, despite our sinful hearts.

if you know christ, you can know you are being disciplined. that's a good thing.