Welcome back to a new week of episodes on the Aspastor John podcast, and for the first

few days of this week we're going to be joined by Dr. Don Whitney again, professor of

biblical spirituality and associate dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary in Louisville.

He is well known for his classic book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, a book

originally published in 1991 and then revised and expanded in 2014.

I know a number of listeners are familiar with his book, and he's also the author of

a new book from Crossway, which is titled, Preying the Bible.

Dr. Whitney, on to the next question on my list, the common questions that we get on the

disciplines here in our inbox.

This one is really foundational and important because there's a lot of questions about why

Christians are called to practice the spiritual disciplines in the first place, or how do

we know if we're doing the spiritual disciplines right?

What should be the goal of it all?

What should we be seeing in our lives, but essentially, why do we do them in the first

place?

Well, we are to practice the spiritual listeners, first of all, because they are commanded

in scripture.

First Timothy 4.7 says, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness and the practical

ways that we carry those out.

We call the spiritual disciplines, and so, first of all, the Bible commands these things,

discipline yourself, and so that's not just some amorphous attitude that is, involves

...