Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

Guest: Rev. Dr. Shane Green

In This Episode: The purpose of the disciplines are centered around liberation and freedom from the stifling slavery to self and fear. The Christian maturation process is spiritual growth, and disciplines are a means to that end. We don’t do them to get God to love us. We engage in them because God already loves us. Our faith is more about who we are than what we do.

Disciplines give greater meaning to our lives. The more we engage in them, the more we are aware of the Kingdom of God.

“The Pilgrim’s Regress” (by C. S. Lewis) and “Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness” (by John Eldredge)

We would love to hear from you. You can contact us at [email protected].

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr

Celebration and joy comes when we let God redeem our ordinary life. Quote from C. S. Lewis: “Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just had out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.”

Scriptures: Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Kings 19; Luke 2:10; Nehemiah 8:10; 1 Peter 5:7; Revelation 3:20; Romans 12:1-2; John 10:10; Lamentations 3:22-23; Exodus 14:13-14

If you’d like to reach out to us, please email us at [email protected].

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

In This Episode: God’s guidance is not just recognizing the voice of God. It is obeying it, too. Be encouraged to move from hearing God to obeying God. We are spiritual beings created for a relationship with our Creator. Embrace what would be different in your relationship with God if you leaned into this today. See “Hearing God” by Dallas Willard.

Scriptures: Psalm 32:8, Psalm 25:4-5, 1 John 3:1, Genesis 24, Hebrews 4:16

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

In This Episode: Do you have a little God or a big God? If your view of God is little, then worship to you will always fall to the margins of your life. Scripture does not give us the option for worship to be anything but the center. What would be different this week if you practiced the presence of God in your life each moment of each day?

Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19; Romans 6

HOSTS: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

IN THIS EPISODE: At some point in our lives, the cycle of retaliation has to end. The Discipline of Confession is the first step to stopping this vicious cycle. Confession not only makes room for others in our lives, but it also makes room for God. John Wesley said, “Give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God … such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.”

HOSTS: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together,” practice these three acts of service: Listen to others, practice active helpfulness, and bear each other’s burdens.

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

In This Episode: The Disciplines are a means to an end. The desired end of the Disciplines is freedom. There is freedom in submission. The desire to always get our own way is bondage. We’re all tempted to do it our own way. We must daily look at the example of Christ who not only submitted to dying on a cross, but he also submitted to a cross-life. When we step outside the boundaries set by God, the is no rest and there is no peace. Whatever God wants to do for you, He begins by doing it in you.

Scripture: Mark 8:34-38

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

In This Episode: The disease of “Constant Partial Attention” (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/opinion/01friedman.html). Accept the fact that God is in control. Until we accept this fact, we wind up exhausted. We live as though the opposite of Matthew 6:33 is true. We incorrectly believe that we must seek everything else thinking the Kingdom of God will be added afterwards. Solitude is not a place. It is something in our hearts. “Talking” is too often used to control others, ourselves, or things. If we’re silent, where’s the control?

Listen to our interview with Carlos Whittaker: https://spumccolumbus.com/podcast/episode-10-carlos-whittaker-shares-about-the-holy-spirit/

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

In This Episode: What’s controlling you? Are you content with being a child of God? Foster defines the Discipline of Simplicity as “an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle … We deceive ourselves if we believe we can possess the inward reality without its having a profound effect on how we live. To attempt to arrange an outward lifestyle of simplicity without the inward reality leads to deadly legalism.” Our lust for status in things produces within us anxiety and worry. Three inward attitudes that produce in us that outward reality of how we live: (1) What we have we receive as a gift from God, (2) What we have is cared for by God, (3) What we have is available to others.

This Week: The Discipline of Study

The Inward Discipline of Study demands that we ask ourselves this question, “What does this mean to me?” According to Foster, there are four steps involved in the Discipline of Study: Repetition, Concentration, Comprehension, and Reflection. Listen to our discussion about this Discipline.

Hosts: Tommy Bridges and John Fugh, Jr.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth is a spiritual guidebook explaining the twelve Spiritual Disciplines and how they can bring a person closer to God. The disciplines are divided into three groups, Inward, Outward, and Corporate. The twelve disciplines are meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. The discussion of each discipline is supported with Scriptures and scholarly quotes that help readers grow closer to God.