Disciple's Journey

07/28/2021

In the third century, St. Cyprian wrote to his friend Donatus: “This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see: robbers on the high roads, pirates on the seas, men murdered in the amphitheaters to appease the applauding crowds, all under roofs of misery and selfishness. It really is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.
“Yet, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians...and I am one of them.”

07/27/2021

The church is facing massive disruption. This sermon analyzes the modern church and how it has been devastated by the current global crisis. We look at how f...

07/07/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: The door closes on a thousand years of prophecy, as the children of Israel conclude the first chapter in their great history while looking forward to an even greater future that will be inaugurated by God's only begotten son and the savior of all humanity: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned..."

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212253

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6TWbN0oAUwaH2khcm37Vmt?si=WhwUpvrGSxSei2WZtBDQ6A&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361759

07/06/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: The Old Testament concludes with the Israelites at a crossroads: they continue to fall into apathy and sin while looking forward to a new age when God's new covenant will transform the entire world.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212339

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/15CITrl9mvmu61MQloLP9P?si=76yNw4o4TVa_6pl6t27Sug&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361761

06/17/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: Christians in the first century asked the same question we ask today: "If a loving god exists, why is there suffering in the world?" In a magnificent final passage that closes-out the book of Hebrews, the authors remind the Christian community that we live in a fallen world of our own choosing, a corrupted universe that is the direct result of our rebellion against God. But the suffering we endure is also the helpful work of God perfecting our faith like the sharpest swords forged in the hottest fires, and God's discipline strengthens us to develop a deep maturity that is the hallmark of a true disciple of Christ.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212321

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AXNOm8sduyf0pxOkYrds9?si=GfLUcZcnQMSItAB9xruymg&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361762

06/07/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: Christianity is often cast as a system of blind faith where followers must entirely suspend logic and reason in order to believe in the existence of God without any proof or empirical evidence. On the contrary, those who are familiar with the Word of God...including the authors of Hebrews...demonstrate time and again that Christian faith is backed-up by overwhelming proof (in the form of physical evidence and personal experience) that demands we reject the "null hypothesis" (life is due to random chance) and accept the truth that God is real and desires to intimately know his creation.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212340

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0t0zr90HHnn33LvA5Dtp13?si=C2H6Kx7zQBuZjsUylk_1ZA&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361763

06/02/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: The authors of Hebrews challenge their readers to look beyond the "letter" of the law, which is only useful for imperfectly describing sin and atonement, and focus on the "spirit" of the law to understand how Jesus gave his life as a perfect sacrifice to wipe the slate clean and destroy death once for all.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212320

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6D1YKUi4YJqptXlpAgO7i8?si=pfKtOmjuT7uwnR5qCKID8g&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361764

05/28/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: God established several covenants (contracts, testaments) with the human race over thousands of years that functioned as promises between God and his creation. The final covenant -- established by Jesus' earthly ministry and continuing to the present age --guarantees a deeply personal relationship between God and humanity based on grace and mercy rather than ritual and sacrifice.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212419

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0uvzhVuJ94ltOY2H3L1cvP?si=4FaKt2BMQ6KdUCUvy9co_w&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361765

05/14/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey Podcast: In the Old Testament, Jewish priests functioned as intermediaries between humanity and God in a flawed system that required mortal priests to make atonement for their own sins. The authors of Hebrews contend that God appointed Jesus as a final, sinless, eternal priest who enables humanity to be reconciled to our loving creator.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212418

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oCEzxYRCUvJXQw9CZFsYJ?si=UOQSG1APTc-O-l_wrBcHAQ&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361766

05/10/2021

Dan challenged us today to live on “solid food” by knowing the Word of God so well that we can spot truth (or lies) a mile away. Case in point: the “Infancy Gospels” of the second century. Written to help fill-in the gaps of our knowledge about Jesus as a child, one story involves Jesus out playing with other children on the sabbath by a rushing stream where he makes ponds to collect water. He purifies the water with a mere command. Then he takes the water and mixes it with clay to make twelve sparrows, an action that a man sees and reports to Joseph as a violation of the sabbath. When Joseph arrives to reprimand his son, Jesus claps his hands together and the sparrows come to life and fly away.

So, what say you all? Does this account pass the “smell test”? Does this story — fictional or not — jive with the Jesus you know from the scriptures? Why or why not?

05/03/2021

This week on the Disciple’s Journey podcast: Olympic athletes train every day to strengthen their bodies and prepare for athletic competition. In the absence of daily activity, the body becomes weak and lethargic, eventually succumbing to sickness and death. In the same way, the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to constantly train their faith to grow stronger in the Word of God to resist falling-away into apathy and spiritual death.

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disciples-journey-bible-study/id1583045732?i=1000533212254

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cQwtmmkZLUd2huEmsAASc?si=FCjPdmZ3T8GB1sZDxq7QWA&dl_branch=1

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/648740/episode/86361767

04/27/2021