It’s the month of love, or so declared the marketing gurus of way back whenever. So we’re looking at romance through the Biblical lens of Psalm 118:1-4. When discouragement, frustration, sadness, anger, loneliness, jealousy, bitterness, or whatever other sinful or challenging emotions surface in our relationships (or lack thereof), we can look to Christ and his steadfast love, which endures forever. God's hesed love is merciful, given freely, even when we are in the most pathetic state. Way better than a box of chocolates - it never runs out and you ALWAYS know what you’re going to get - steadfast love.  

Are you already wishing for a New Year’s Resolutions do-over? Hopefully not the case if your resolutions had to do with reading God’s Word! The Bible says that all scripture is breathed out by God and it’s profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  If we want to be complete and equipped for every good work, then we must learn to study the Bible well - intently, carefully, and with great patience. Sure, sure. Sounds easy enough… and yet… it’s not so easy, is it? Fear not! Tune in and follow along. And make sure to grab a print-on-demand bookmark from our etsy store (large and small sizes, plus masculine and feminine versions available) or subscribe to our email list for free print-on-demand bookmark.  

Having a Sunday spot is not enough to make us feel like we belong. In our culture, we look to sameness in activities, hobbies, sports, etc but we get disappointed when it doesn’t bring about the sense of connection we really crave. That’s because belonging starts and ends with the gospel. God made us belong to him, when he drew us to himself, giving new hearts to wretched sinners, and making us His. As believers, we belong to Christ, and that’s where our sense of belonging must start. Philippians 2:1-4  So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,  complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Subscribe to our email list and receive a free Bible Reading Bookmark Guide. ThisistheDayRejoice.com

Dying to self: a godly habit that we have to practice and be sanctified in until we literally die, because it’s really really hard. But dying to self is what it takes to make friends and to keep friends - if you want those friendships to be built on the awesome love of Christ, that is. And you do.  Friendship expresses the love of God through us, to another child of God. If we could just get it through our thick skulls that friendship always requires sacrifice, we would be well on our way to enjoying friendships in the way Christ exemplified for us - loving unconditionally, sacrificially, and at all times.  John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Make sure you have downloaded a bookmark for FREE  to instantly print, by signing up on our website!! We’re walking through it in episode 7. If you’re not a fan of flowers or the font is just too small, other styles and sizes are available on our Etsy Shop for just a couple dollars.  

Is friendship really any easier nowadays than it was back when we were in kindergarten?  Nope.  It’s harder because now we overthink it all, plus we’ve become reeeeeeally skilled at sinning.  So what’s a girl to do? Forgo friendships? Settle with besties who only reside on social media? How does one go about making friends anyway? How does one choose who makes the cut and who doesn’t get invited? How do you avoid being picked last or even worse, what if you don’t get invited to the cool things at all? And what if….!?!?! And what if…!!?!?!? And what if….!?!?! Oh that snowball of selfish thinking is hard to stop! But if we look at John 13:34-35, we remember that friendship is in fact not about us at all. How can that be? Join us as we look at friendship through a biblical lens, and remind ourselves that even shopping for friendship, should glorify Christ. __________________ We have a free resource to give you to help with your Bible Study! This Bible reading bookmark is full of all the questions you want to ask yourself when reading the Bible, so that you consume God’s word in context, exegetically, making every effort to handle the Word of God rightly.  Just sign up for our email list and we’ll send you a free bookmark that you can instantly print at home! If you don’t like the design, more designs are available on our Etsy shop. ThisistheDayRejoice.com

How many Bible trivia questions do you have to get right before you’re qualified to disciple another? It all depends on what your goal is. To know what your goal should be, we should probably look at the Gospel, and see what God told us about discipleship, through his servant Paul. Paul said it was a struuuuuggle to disciple others. But we endure the struggle because a church where people are discipling one another - that’s a church where people are valuing the spiritual health of not just themselves - but of ONE ANOTHER.  If it was a struggle for Paul, it will certainly be a struggle for us, but believers have a secret power source that gives us all the energy we need to endure - Colossians 1:28-29.  Who needs to be reminded of this? Only those believers who are called to disciple others.  (Hint: It’s less than 101% of believers and greater than 99%, and it’s a whole number.) Discipling by Mark Dever You can learn a little bit more about us at our website, ThisistheDayRejoice.com

If we are all called TO disciple OTHERS, then we all must be called to BE discipled OURSELVES.  Is that really called a disciplee? Spell check doesn’t think so and we don’t know, but we like the way it sounds, so we’ll roll with it. Galatians 6:6 tells us to let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Hmmm…. It doesn’t say just elder’s wives or the most esteemed women at church - just “the one who teaches,” and yet that’s who we seem to chase for discipleship. What is a disciplee required to do, anyway? Does the Bible speak to that? (Yep, of course it does!) Let’s see how we should all embrace our roles as the discipleeeee. Weeee! Discipling by Mark Dever You can learn a little bit more about us at our website, ThisistheDayRejoice.com  

Our first episode! We're smooth as butta' (in our dreams!) and have more criticisms about our first several episodes than you do, we're sure. And yet - what a joy it is to launch! Hang with us. We improve!  ;)  We are starting off with the topic of discipleship, looking at it through Matthew 28:18-20. What is discipleship? We discuss some common confusion that surrounds discipleship, including the qualifications, why we disciple, how we disciple, and who helps us disciple. Spoiler: Discipleship is a command, not a suggestion! And you might be already doing it, without even knowing it.  As mentioned in our show, biblical counseling is a more intense form of discipleship, for those who are going through more intense trials of various kinds. If this is you and your church doesn't offer biblical counseling resources, you can try this link to find biblical counseling help.  Association of Biblical Counselors - Find a Counselor You can get to know us a little bit more on our website at ThisistheDayRejoice.com  Thanks for listening!