Discipleship is a lifestyle. Whether you're at work, school, or driving, every moment is an opportunity to grow.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 10, 2019
Tuesday Sep 10, 2019
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote, "Every father is pleased at the baby's first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy." It would be comfortable to continue crawling around on the floor as Christians. Life is simple there, and we don't have to do much. But we never grow when we're comfortable. And, like a good father, God desires our transformation as his sons and daughters more than he desires our comfort in staying in the same place. In this chapter, Jeff unpacks the ways God unsettles us and leads us through discomfort. It's not an easy path, but it is a path of transformation.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Monday Sep 09, 2019
Monday Sep 09, 2019
As disciples we each have a desire to grow in our relationship with God. We want to know our loving Father more. And like any relationship, this requires communication. We must spend time talking and listening to God. But for most Christians, listening is a struggle. We worry that we might mistake our own voice for God’s. We wish he would just speak to us audibly so we would know, without a doubt, what He was saying. But God often speaks through ordinary moments and events. And Jeff Tacklind illustrates this so well with how he opens his book, The Winding Path of Transformation. Jeff found himself at the bottom of a creek bed looking at a lonely alder tree. The creek ran between a great oak forest to the South and a great evergreen forest to North. But the alder tree couldn’t grow in either one of those forests. It had to remain in that creek bed, and lay down deep roots, if it were to grow and survive. And God used this image of a lonely alder tree to speak to Jeff and confirm his own calling.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Friday Sep 06, 2019
Friday Sep 06, 2019
If you’re listening to this podcast right now, then it’s likely that you have a deep desire to grow in your relationship with Christ and to make other disciples. But if you’re like most Christians today, you struggle with talking to non-Christians about your faith. Well that’s okay, because our guest Don Everts used to feel this way as well. He was, what he calls, a reluctant witness. But he’s here to share with us how we can become eager conversationalists. How we can become disciples who are ready and willing to take advantage of the opportunities for spiritual conversations. And it starts with the right preparation.
Check out the full notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
Thursday Sep 05, 2019
There are always reasons we don’t share our faith with someone. These reasons may or may not be true, but we can usually justify them in some way. When it comes down to it, spiritual conversations can be scary. You may be an introvert who doesn’t like talking to people. You may be afraid of rejection and public shame. Or maybe you just don’t know what to say. In this chapter, Don summarizes and debunks 5 myths he’s found people believe about spiritual conversations. So whether you’re afraid of talking to someone or you just don’t know what to say, Don has some good news for you. And sharing your faith may not be as difficult as you think.
Check out the full notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Step 5 in creating lifestyle of discipleship is to make other disciples. But this is often the step that causes us the most fear. We’re afraid of talking to a stranger about our faith. We don’t want to say the wrong thing, or be asked a question we don’t know how to answer, or be the one responsible for turning someone off to the gospel all together. And so we avoid spiritual conversations of any kind. But in this chapter Don Everts helps us gain some peace of mind by giving us a better way to think about sharing our faith and making disciples.
Check out the full notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
Tuesday Sep 03, 2019
You’ve probably felt it before. It’s that guilty feeling that you haven’t been sharing your faith with others like you should. We’re all called to evangelize, right? So then why don’t we witness more? Why is it so hard to have spiritual conversations? In this chapter, Don opens up with us about his latest work in studying why Christians aren’t having as many spiritual conversations any more. We may come up with excuses or justifications for why we don’t talk about our faith with others. But could it be that there’s something deeper happening in our culture?
Check out the full notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Friday Aug 30, 2019
Friday Aug 30, 2019
Throughout this week’s episode with Tricia Rhodes, our conversation has focused on how we can integrate the Spiritual Disciplines into our lives, even when our lives are filled with chaos. There is something incredibly refreshing to hear that the Spiritual Disciplines can be practiced in a variety of ways. We don’t have to feel bound to spending a solid hour each morning in isolated prayer. For some of us, because of the season of life we’re in, we are doing good just to get in 15 minutes alone with Jesus. Don’t feel bad about that! Be grateful for the time you have and make the most of it. The Spiritual Disciplines aren’t meant to establish a new standard or law we must live up too. They are meant to be practices that help us create space to be with and hear from God. To grow in our relationship with him. We often miss this point when we talk about the disciplines because that word holds such negative connotations. But I hope our conversation with Tricia this week has shown you that the Spiritual Disciplines can be a means to walk with God in freedom and grow in His grace. And this comes through so prominently in Tricia’s life and work. And so it isn’t surprising that freedom and grace have been a highlight to how God has worked in her life.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Thursday Aug 29, 2019
Thursday Aug 29, 2019
Have you ever tried to practice a new spiritual discipline like journaling or fasting and thought you had to understand how to do it perfectly? Maybe you had to have the right journal and write about the right events. Or maybe you found yourself in an argument over what you should fast and whether or not it’s proper to drink juices during a fast. At times it’s good to be precise with what we do. At other times though it’s better to experiment a bit. We were all created with our own personalities, and the way each of us grow is often just a little different. Experimenting with spiritual disciplines isn’t about finding your own personal path to growth though. We all need to pray and communicate with God. But the way we communicate with God may come in different forms and in different places. In this chapter, Tricia talks about the value she’s found in experimenting with the spiritual disciplines and how it helped her find growth in the chaos of life.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Wednesday Aug 28, 2019
Wednesday Aug 28, 2019
Have you ever had a friend that was so spiritual that it made you sick? You know, the type that would pray about everything! Even what they were supposed to eat for lunch! Well while that might seem extreme to many of us, it demonstrates a desire that we all have. We want to develop such a close, intimate relationship with God that we would trust him with even our mundane choices. We want to see the world through his eyes, and so be led by his Spirit throughout our day. Well Tricia tells us a story of a woman she knew who had this sort of relationship with God who taught her an important lesson about we can develop this sort of spiritual sight in our own lives.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Tuesday Aug 27, 2019
Tuesday Aug 27, 2019
Habits can be powerful tools for growth. We all have those menial tasks at work that we have to do. It’s that task that requires doing the same thing over and over again. As we do that task, our brain and our body get so used to doing it that we get faster at doing it. We know exactly which key to press on the keyboard and when, we know exactly where to move to pick up the next item. We develop habits. And when we develop these habits, our job becomes a little easier. In this chapter, Tricia unpacks the way habits can actually benefit our spiritual growth as well. Because the more we practice a habit, the more natural it becomes to keep doing it.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.