Discipleship is a lifestyle. Whether you're at work, school, or driving, every moment is an opportunity to grow.
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 03, 2020
Wednesday Jun 03, 2020
The Teacher in Ecclesiastes wrote, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." While it's important to work, it's also important to rest and recognize your dependence on God. As we do this, we find God works in seasons in our lives. At times we're moving quickly and our schedules are full. But other times he calls us back to rest and dependence on him. In this chapter, Justin tells his story of stepping away from the company he founded and what it was like to face an identity crisis. What he found in the aftermath of that decision was a call to rest and a call to remember who he was in Christ. And from that place, God moved him again into another season of fulfilling work.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
When it comes to following God’s call on our lives, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in serving God that we forget to be with Him. We get so concerned with doing the next thing, and the next thing that we begin to define ourselves by what we do, not who we are in Christ. Justin calls this, the pursuit of the “Resume Virtues.” But we need to stop and ask, “What will they say about us at our funerals?" Will they be talking about the items on our resumes, or will they be talking about the kind of person we were. How we were kind, loving, and patient. Or how treated the people around us. That’s why we need to pursue God’s calling on our lives with these "Eulogy Virtues" in mind. As Justin talks about in this chapter, it’s good that we should pursue our callings, but we must not seek achievements and accomplishments if we lose sight of who we are.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
God has a calling on your life. And part of a discipleship lifestyle is serving with purpose in that calling. When you do this well, you feel great about yourself and who you are. It's like everything is right in the world. To say it another way, you feel fulfilled. But what happens when your calling and the work you find so fulfilling faces obstacles and setbacks? What do you do when the people you love most tell you your dreams and your work aren't worth pursuing? In this first chapter of our conversation with Justin, he tells his own story of following God's call on his life as he started an organization to fund the education of African young people. But it wasn't an easy journey. And along the way he encountered multiple obstacles. But he also found help as he continued to pursue God's call on his life in service to others.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Friday May 29, 2020
Friday May 29, 2020
When we're in the middle of recovering from a crisis or trauma, sometimes the last thing we want to hear is that the spiritual disciplines can help. But the truth is these practices can help develop our relationship with our creator and other people around us. And it's these relationships, especially our relationship with our Father that brings healing. In this chapter, Josh and Chris reflect on their conversation with Paul Smith and how spiritual disciplines play an integral part of the recovery process.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Thursday May 28, 2020
Thursday May 28, 2020
When God does a work in our lives, we have an expectation, or perhaps a hope, that God will instantly take away our struggle completely. But as we observe devout Christians of the past and present, it seems that God rarely removes all our struggles from us instantly. God does an initial work in our lives that restores hope to us or provides an initial healing, but then we still have to wrestle with continued cravings or sever weaknesses. And we ask God “why?" We want to be free of our burdens all at once. And although we can’t know the answers for sure, we can see in stories like Paul’s how God is faithful to continue the healing process in us, even if it lasts for years.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Wednesday May 27, 2020
Wednesday May 27, 2020
The everyday moments of life are filled with disappointments, regrets, pain, and sadness. It's an inescapable part of our lives under the influence of sin. And when we give our lives over to Jesus, we expect these problems to disappear. We believe if we serve him faithfully that our problems will never return or that somehow our lives will be free from injustice. In this second part of Paul's testimony, we get a glimpse at God's work in a life, even when that life was filled with depression and hopelessness for years. But the good news is God's work in us is never done. And he often brings people around us who can help us find healing. This gift of the body of Christ is exactly what Paul found in a ministry called Celebrate Recovery.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
A Christian’s testimony is a powerful thing. Much like the Bible, it’s a record of the great work that God has done in our lives to seek and save us from the power of sin and death. When we hear another’s testimony, we are encouraged because we see how God has faithfully acted in their life, and we are reminded that God has promised to work just as faithfully in our lives as well. But testimonies aren’t just stories of conversions. They are stories of salvation, of how God over a lifetime redeems those whom He loves. Coming to faith in Jesus Christ is just the beginning of the work He ultimately wants to do in each of our lives. So today and this week as you hear from Paul, I hope you see that no matter what we face, we have a faithful Father who walks with us through the everyday moments of life, longing to be with us, and to make us more like Him.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Monday May 18, 2020
Monday May 18, 2020
We love to ask the question, "Why?" Why do we do the things we do in the Christian life? Things like knowing our identity, practicing the basics, and walking with someone are great, by why do these things? It's about understanding the practical application of the things we know or hold to be true. In short, it's doing theology! In this special, one-chapter episode, Chis and Josh talk about a few of the reasons behind the steps in creating a lifestyle of discipleship. They also discuss a few questions from a listener about the authority of Scripture. Be sure to let us know what you think of this longer format if you want to see more of it!
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Saturday May 16, 2020
Saturday May 16, 2020
Dallas Willard described Jesus with one word: Relaxed. That may cause you to pause, but the more we explore this idea, the more we find it's absolutely true! If we've learned one thing from our conversation with Alan, it's that rest demonstrates our identity is in Christ as children of God. And this, more than anything else, describes who Jesus is: God's son, who relied fully on his father for everything. And from that place of rest in his father's care, he lived the way he did. The question today is simple, do we have the ability to rest completely in our identity as children of God and from that place of rest live out our calling?
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.
Friday May 15, 2020
Friday May 15, 2020
We're all familiar with the story of the talents Jesus told where a master entrusts his servants with a sum of money and returns later to see how they handled his money. In our American culture, we typically look at this story and walk away with an understanding that we are now called to do something with our lives and to produce fruit while we can. Almost as if the end of our lifetime is the cutoff date, the time when our master will come back to check on how well we handled the things he gave us. The problem we inherently sense in living an unhurried life is that it clashes with this perspective on Jesus' story. But what if the unhurried life Jesus demonstrated and that Alan is helping us discover means something more than fruitfulness while we're alive? In this chapter, Alan unpacks what it means to live an unhurried life with an eternal perspective. And it may just be the good news of the Gospel we've been neglecting in our culture of hurry.
Check out the full show notes and resources for this episode at dailygrowthdiscipleship.com.
Get your copy of the Daily Growth Journal and start creating a lifestyle of discipleship with the simple practice of journaling.