Discipleship is a lifestyle. Whether you're at work, school, or driving, every moment is an opportunity to grow.
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 17, 2019
Wednesday Jul 17, 2019
You’re scrolling through your facebook feed, and there it is. Your friend is on another political rant. You see a few problems with what they’re saying, and you want to keep scrolling, but you just can’t let it go. What do you do? A lot of us probably take the bait, thinking, “I can change their mind.” But somehow what we though was going to be a civil discussion on an issue turns into a heated argument and half of the responses get deleted altogether. When we talk about human flourishing and helping people reach their God-given capacity, how do we actually do that when it seems most of the conversations cause more damage than anything else? In this chapter, Charlie walks us through some of the ways he engages with issues in the world around him. Chris and I can honestly point to Charlie as a great example of how we can engage others on social media and the world around us, even with our opponents, in a way that builds people up rather than tearing them down.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Is there a connection between our Sunday worship and the work we do throughout the rest of the week? While we may say “yes” to this question, most of our lives aren’t lived this way. We simply don’t see how the two are related. We’ve broken our lives into two categories. We put the sacred God stuff in one category, and the secular work stuff in the other. But this is a problem for the church, because God wants all of our lives. When we choose to make him Lord, the categories disappear and everything gets absorbed into the sacred space, especially our vocations and occupations. That’s why Step 4 to creating a lifestyle of discipleship is Serve with Purpose. And in today’s chapter Charlie helps us break down this sacred/secular divide and help us understand how we can serve others through the work God has called us to.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Monday Jul 15, 2019
Monday Jul 15, 2019
God has gifted you and me with a capacity, a capacity to bear fruit, to be productive. It’s actually the first command God gave humanity: be fruitful. So then what do we do with this first command to be productive, to flourish in the calling God has placed on our lives? How do we actually produce fruit? And is it really that important? This week, we’re talking with Dr. Charlie Self, whose own calling is to help equip others as they awaken to the purpose of God in their lives. And in this first chapter, he unpacks the value of human flourishing and why it’s so important for each of us to be fruitful.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Thursday Jul 04, 2019
Thursday Jul 04, 2019
There is so much suffering in the world at large and even in our own lives, it causes us to question whether or not it’s possible to delight in God. How can joy exists in the midst of suffering? And why should we take the time to enjoy God when so many others don’t have that luxury? Christine’s story speaks to these questions in a very real way because it was in the midst of suffering when she realized just how important delighting in God really is.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Do you remember waking up as a kid to get ready for school? You probably don’t describe those mornings and getting ready for school as something you were excited for. Practices like that aren’t typically fun, especially when you’ve done them over and over again for 12 years. Now think of what it was like waking up on a weekend. The whole world was ahead of you, and you had the freedom to enjoy cartoons, riding your bike with friends, or trips to a friend’s house for a weekend-long session on your Super Nintendo. Those things were fun. You couldn’t wait to get out of bed to go do those things on a weekend. Spiritual disciplines over time can start to feel like waking up for school on a weekday. But in this chapter, Christine talks about some of the ways spiritual disciplines are meant to restore and transform us. They can be life-giving practices. And God gives us the creative freedom to have fun with them as we work to grow daily to become more like him.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Tuesday Jul 02, 2019
Tuesday Jul 02, 2019
For those of us who’ve been in the church a long time, we have a tendency to get complacent with the presence of God. The sermons, the prayers, and the routine becomes too familiar. The “real” problems of our adult lives tend to crowd out the childlike joy and fun we used to experience in life as well as the church. We loose the awe and wonder we once had of who God is. But in this chapter, Christine helps us recapture that sense of childlike awe and wonder, and she shows us that our God wants us to delight in him through childlike play.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Monday Jul 01, 2019
Monday Jul 01, 2019
The Westminster Catechism says the primary purpose of humanity is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. A lot has been said about glorifying God. It’s often why we emphasize behaving in certain ways as Christians. We want to glorify God by our behavior, so that we don’t dishonor his reputation. But not as much has been said about enjoying God and delighting in him. John Piper modifies the Westminster Catechism slightly and says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” There’s a lot of truth in this. There’s a strong connection between God’s glory and the sheer delight of enjoying who he is and what he’s done. In this chapter, Christine gives us her take on what it means to delight in God. It may feel a little awkward at first, but delighting in God can become a way of life. And it’s a way of life that can lead to growth through those everyday moments when we take time to delight in just being with God no matter what we’re doing.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Friday Jun 28, 2019
Friday Jun 28, 2019
God calls you and me to trust him. It’s the basic premise behind what we call salvation. Our basic, sinful desire is to take control and rule our own existences. But God calls us to give that up and trust him instead of our own ability to take control. This is exactly what Jesus responded to Nicodemus’ questions in John 3. In this chapter, Jeff talks about some of the valuable things he’s learned from John 3 as well as the value of asking questions as a spiritual discipline. Wrestling with questions like this is a way of moving toward trust in God. It demonstrates we don’t know the answer. It demonstrates we’re looking for an answer from someone beyond ourselves. This is exactly the kind of person God is looking for.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Our conversation this week with Jeff Keuss has demonstrated that the Bible really is a book of questions. The characters whom we read about, and sometimes idolize, dealt with very real questions revolving around fear and shame and identity. They were searching for how their everyday lives were affected by the larger questions of life. And that’s what today’s chapter with Jeff Keuss illustrates as we dive into some of the difficult questions he wrestled with at a crucial moment in his life.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Wednesday Jun 26, 2019
Wednesday Jun 26, 2019
The room you’re in right now is shaping you. It’s forming you into a different kind of person, whether you’re aware of it or not. The lighting in the room, the people around you, and a lot of other variables all play a part in forming who you are as a person and how you’re going to interact with the world around you. God actually designed us to work this way. One of the tendencies every human being has is to be the ruler of our own existences. It drives us away from community and others around us and pushes us into isolation. But this is the opposite of God’s design for our lives. He created us with an intrinsic connection to the people around us. We need each other to survive and thrive in the world, especially as Christians. In this chapter, Jeff explains just how important this connection is, and he finds an important clue in Genesis 4, not too long after God first asks Adam and Eve, “Where are you?”
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.