Spiritual Disciplines Resources- Stewardship

Another week, more resources for you. This past Sunday, Justin taught on the discipline of stewarding your time and your money. I say “your” lightly. It’s not “yours,” it’s all God’s.

1. Jonathan Edwards preached a wonderful sermon on the preciousness of time and our use of it. Unfortunately, there was no audio or video recording of this, as Edwards preached the sermon in 1734. However, we can be thankful for the art of written sermons. Here’s the quote from Edwards that was in this week’s sermon to whet your appetite:

Eternity depends on the improvement of time. But when once the time of life is gone, when once death is come, we have no more to do with time; there is no possibility of obtaining the restoration of it, or another space in which to prepare for eternity. If a man should lose the whole of his worldly substance, and become a bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be made up. He may have another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone, it is impossible that we should ever obtain another such time. All opportunity of obtaining eternal welfare is utterly and everlastingly gone.

You can find the entire sermon here.

2. Tim Challies wrote a wonderful book on productivity called Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity. In it, he defines productivity as “effectively stewarding your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God.” We’re currently studying this book in MD|men, and if you would like to learn how to steward your time in an effective way, I highly recommend picking up a copy. It’s a short read too, so there’s that.

3. Head on over to Crown to check out tons of free and paid material on taming your finances and career. According to Crown’s vision, they “Aspire to be the most effective organization in the world at training God’s followers to be good and faithful stewards.” So set aside some time and browse their site (click on the resources dropdown) for some good content.

4. This list wouldn’t be complete without a personal recommendation from yours truly. Perhaps the best (and briefest) book I’ve read on stewarding money comes in the form of Money: God or Gift by Jamie Munson (a former pastor at Mars Hill Church RIP). This book will guide you through both the theology and practicality of what stewarding your money means. All in about 150 pages of easy reading.

Spiritual Disciplines Resources- Worship

I’ve been struggling with specific “worship” resources this week because, as Justin taught, worship encompasses many of the Disciplines we’ve already covered. So today you’ll be linked to several albums that have launched my heart into worship of God. Music that holds God up high, placing him where he should be so that our worship flows directly from him in all his majesty.

1. Stephen Miller // Behold - I was browsing Instagram this week and a respected pastor I follow posted great things about Stephen Miller’s new album so I checked it out. Each song contains such wonderful lyrics in direct worship to God that I had to place this at number 1. I don’t often listen to worship music, but this one is definitely worth checking out.

2. Beautiful Eulogy // Worthy - I mean, the title of Beautiful Eulogy’s new album says it all. I’m not great at genres, but this chill hip hop-esque album will cause deep reflection in your heart, stirring it toward vertical worship of God. It’s also free to download, or pay to support their efforts.

3. Shai Linne // The Attributes of God - In a similar vein as Beautiful Eulogy, Shai Linne offers a lyrical examination of the attributes of God, who God is and what that means. I can’t think of anything better to focus on for worshiping God than on him and who he is. So check this album out. We also still have some copies available of Shai Linne’s new album Still Jesus available at church for you to have as well.

4. The Saving // Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - This one is for any metalheads like me. The Saving is a solo project by some guy in Florida, but his music and lyrics are so powerful. Each album focuses on a topic or concept and runs with it. This is his most recent release and it focuses on our relationship to God and is based on that famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards of the same name.

I’d love to hear from you what things help you focus on God in worship! Let us know in the comments if you have anything to add.

Spiritual Disciplines Resources- Prayer

This week we have numerous resources lined up for you on the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer. Let’s dive in.

1. First we have an article by John Piper called Tips for Praying the Word. Here, Pastor John gives us very practical steps and examples of what it might look like to pray through a passage, thus further linking prayer and the discipline of meditation. Give it a try this week!

2. Since we’re talking about praying the word, here’s the link to one of the Elder’s favorite messages from the Living Scripture CCEF Conference from 2018. I’s called Praying Scripture: The Cry of the Longing Heart by Joe Novenson. In addition, here’s the outline that accompanied the talk. We highly recommend giving a listen.

3. The third is one of my (Jesse’s) favorite books on prayer I’ve read thus far. It’s called A Praying Life by Paul Miller. It comes with an optional study guide to guide you through different practices and really getting the practice of prayer down to an efficient yet effective system. Plus is has a forward by David Powlison so that’s a big plus.

4. Next we come to the Prayer Mate app. If you want to digitize your prayer lists, this is a great, free way to do so. Here’s what Nathan has to say about it from his time with the app: “The Prayer Mate app is a great app to keep track of all of your prayer requests. It not only keeps your prayer requests, but it also reminds you to pray for them throughout the day. It even allows you to add Bible verses and biblical prayers. It’s a solid prayer app that can be a great support to your prayer life.” So what are you waiting for? It’s available on iOS and Android.

5. Finally, we come to another article, this time written by Don Whitney himself (he’s the man behind the “tome” Spiritual Disciplines). The article is called The Gospel and Prayer and it examines whether or not the prayers of an unbeliever are heard an answered by God. An interesting and tricky question handled by a skillful theologian.

Next week we’ll be examining the discipline of Stewardship so stay tuned for more resources.

Spiritual Disciplines Resources- Meditation

Well, new year, new series and we’re already through week 1! Throughout our Spiritual Disciplines series, we want to provide you with additional resources to help you as you apply the Spiritual Disciplines to your own lives throughout the week.

We have two resources for you this week for the discipline of Meditation: Streetlights Audio Bible and BibleMemory.com

Streetlights is a fantastic app that gives you high quality Scripture readings with relaxing ambient music in the background. Readers include many spoken word/hip hop artists, including members of Beautiful Eulogy, a band we hold dear to our hearts at Missio Dei.

I recommend this to you for this reason: You’ve been charged with reading the whole book of Titus every day of this series. We’re not against getting creative here at MD, so use your time wisely. Some people need to sit at a desk with their Bible and journal open as they read, others might be helped by this audio Bible. It’s completely free so give it a try.

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Additionally, we encouraged you to highlight certain verses that interest you and dedicate yourselves to memorizing them. Biblememory.com is a fantastic tool for you to utilize memorization techniques and couple that with the Word of God. They have a free app to use with multiple Bible versions available to use for a little bit of cash.

That’s all for this week! We hope to continue updating these spaces with resources for you each week!