Columbanus (16)

You will show me the path of life;
In your presence is fullness of joy;
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16.11

Bring up the subject of discipline in polite Christian company, and watch folks begin to scatter from you.

Discipline is harsh. Stern. Perhaps even cruel and unusual. At least, that’s how many think about this idea. They want nothing of it because they’re convinced it would mean unpleasantness and even (horrors!) change.

Such thinking demonstrates the thought patterns of the one who is continuously whispering to us, “Yea, hath God said…?” Columbanus (Sermon IV) had a much more Biblical and positive view. He wrote, “All training [Latin: “discipline”, and thus hereinafter], according to the Apostle, for the present seems to be a matter not of joy but of sorrow…”

Well, there you go! Just like we said. Who wants to know more sorrow?

Columbanus continued, “…nevertheless afterwards discipline yields a pleasant fruit and peaceful increase of reward to those who are exercised by it. For indeed what is learnt here without sorrow and toil, in the time of our very greatest stupidity and weakness? But if temporal sorts of discipline destroy the sweetness of present joy, what is to be hoped for from this discipline of our school?”

Exactly! What good can come from discipline?!?

“This,” Columbanus continued, “is in fact the discipline of all disciplines, and at the price of present sorrow it prepares the pleasure of unending time and the delight of unending joy.”

We can sometimes give the impression that it should not be too hard to be a Christian, that following Christ should be a matter of what “comes naturally” rather than what we impose on our time and bodies to bend them toward obedience and transformation by God’s grace.

Everyone lives by disciplines of one kind or another. Most are unaware of the disciplines that are shaping their lives. Meanwhile, the disciplines that shape us for Christlikeness go little or poorly used. If we do not train our people for disciplined lives, we will rob them of the joy of being in the presence of Christ and knowing the pleasure of His comfort and glory, here and now, and absolutely then and there.

Resources for Shepherds
Our ReVision study, “The Disciplined Life,” lays out in great detail why we need discipline and which are the disciplines we need. This is an excellent study for personal or group use, and if you’ll write me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., I’ll send you all seven installments in PDF, together with some tools for assessing your time and planning to improve your disciplines.

If you haven’t visited our Resources for Shepherds page lately, I encourage you to do so. I’m pursuing a series of Insights on Paul’s teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit from Romans 8. This is not the usual go-to place for learning about the Spirit, but what Paul teaches here is vital.

May I humbly encourage you to download a free copy of A Reading Journal from our bookstore (click here)? These summaries of articles from journals, periodicals, and websites, together with a handful of book reviews from the past 10 years, can be a helpful resources for building out your own Kingdom worldview, and sharing it with others.

Men, join us Tuesday mornings at 10:00 Eastern for 30 minutes of seeking the Lord for revival. We use a psalm to guide us as we join via Zoom in this important work. To join, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

From the Celtic Revival
Here’s an excerpt from Celtic Legacy, our bi-weekly teaching podcast featuring longer excerpts from the writers of the Celtic Revival:

Who can satisfy God in the last times,
when the noble rules of truth have been changed,
save for those who scorn this present world?
I invoke God the unbegotten Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
and his Son, begotten before ages,
and God the Holy Spirit, true, single, most exalted,
that he may grant his most helpful assistance
to me, though I am the least of all the deserving,
to whom the Lord will grant comradeship with the angels in their thousands.

  - Colum Cille, Altus Prosator (“First High-Sower”) in John Carey, King of Mysteries

Colum’s poem outlines the redemptive plan and work of God, culminating in this stanza in which we feel his intense longing to be with the Lord forever. One must “scorn this present world” in this time when “the noble rules of truth have been changed”, because this is how we please God now and stoke our longing for eternal glory. Listen to the entire podcast by clicking here. 

Check out our Celtic Legacy podcast and the other resources available on our dedicated Celtic Revival home page.

You can also download a free copy in PDF of our book, The Celtic Revival: A Brief Introduction, by clicking here.

T. M. Moore.

Considering Membership in The Fellowship of Ailbe
Pray that God will bring to our Fellowship men who are committed to realizing more of the presence, promise, and power of His Kingdom. If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Brother in The Fellowship of Ailbe, click here to watch a brief video. If you’d like to talk about Membership, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I’ll send you some additional information.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.