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Introducing Dr Nurse Mama Show Prescribing Hope For Healthy Families
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Dr. Richard Blackaby: Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for healthy families here on family radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you. Prescribing Hope for Healthy families.
The Need For Intentional Discipleship In The Digital Age
Listen, we got a really great conversation today if you listen regularly. You know that I have been talking about the need to intentionally disciple our families now more than ever. Culture is really invading every space of our lives. We are living in a world, world that is on 24, 7 and AI especially. You know, we've been told in the past technology is neutral. Technology is neutral. Well, it really is not neutral. And what we, what we see is that AI is shaping worldview. Every day our kids are being taught what matters, what success looks like, what relationships should look like, where their identity comes from, how they should respond to disappointment, what they should believe about themselves, and increasingly what they should believe about God. They're constantly being bombarded with theology recommendations from influencers online. And a lot of that teaching doesn't happen in a classroom. It happens through entertainment and social media and algorithms and peers and influencers and advertising, music and technology and the cultural narrative surrounding our children. Culture is constantly on and constantly discipling. So the question of whether or not our children are being discipled, that is already a, yes. The question we have control over is who is the primary disciple of our children? Is it us or is it culture? And that makes the Christian parents role particularly important. Intentional discipleship isn't just adding another Bible study, a devotional or a church activity to an already overwhelmed family calendar. I'm not telling you have to do one more thing. It's recognizing that our children are watching how we live, what we prioritize, does what we say match what we actually do, where do we turn in suffering, and how do we make decisions of, whether our relationship with, Jesus really changes our everyday lives. And that is where we're going with today's conversation. I'm so glad to welcome back Dr. Richard Blackaby. He has a new book called Following Jesus, and he challenges the church to reconsider what we mean when we say someone is a disciple. Now, the press material describes a discipleship crisis, that we see that from Christian press, that and influencers and leaders. And I agree with that.
Dr Richard Blackaby Discusses His New Book Following Jesus
That says there is a discipleship crisis where churches are becoming increasingly focused on programs and strategies and less concerned about people and relationships. And Dr. Blackaby is pointing us back to the model of Jesus himself, who intentionally invested in 12 ordinary people. And that is an encouraging message for us and how we can invest in our families today. Dr. Blackab, President of Blackaby Ministries International. He's authored more than 40 books. He speaks internationally on experiencing God. We've had him on the show before to talk about that. He talks about Christian life, spiritual leadership, and is the son, of course, of Henry Blackabe, co author of the worldwide bestseller experiencing God. So Dr. Blackaby, thank you so much for coming back to the show. We're so glad to have you here and I'm so glad to talk about this message.
Exploring The Meaning Of Following Jesus And Discipleship
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Oh, it's a delight to be back with you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, tell us about this. You Know, I, I think I'm old school church, I told you that last time. And I think of the, the song, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back, you know. Right. That's the classic invitation song. And we kind of talk about it like, it's almost like a catchphrase. Follow Jesus, follow Jesus, follow Jesus. What does that really mean? What was on your heart? What was the conviction that you had to really look at that and think about what it means?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Ah, yeah. Well, I realized I was asked to speak about discipleship to a room just filled with discipleship experts. And it forced me to have to think deeply if I want to talk to all these people who are professional disciplers. And I just went back to say, you know, most books, if you read most books on discipleship, it will say it will define discipleship as following Jesus. But then if you just keep reading, they don't describe following Jesus, they describe going to church, they describe going to a six week program at the church building, doing a four week course or something, but not actually following Jesus. And that's why I say we've reduced discipleship to a program, not to a relationship to a person. And in fact one prominent disciple, author said in the first century he said, following Jesus wasn't a metaphor. And as I read that I thought, well, I didn't think it was a metaphor. I think we're still supposed to follow him. but now we have lots of people who think as long as they go. And I would just say kind of in light of your, focus is the discipleship's never been more important to me than when I was raising three kids. And I wanted to disciple my three kids so that they love Jesus once they moved out of my house.
Raising Children Who Follow Jesus Not Just Attend Church
And but for a lot of parents, discipling your kids means you drag them to church every week, you get them in the youth program and as long as you've got them in the right programs, then we're baffled when they go off to college and they don't want to go to church anymore. And I realized, you know what you did, you raised a church attender, you didn't raise a Jesus follower. And there's a world of difference between the two.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think that's really true, Dr. Blackaby, because I think this emphasis of programs on church, we kind of feel good about that. We outsource the discipleship and we think, yeah, I'm taking them to church. They're there Sunday night, they're there Wednesday night, they're active in the youth group, but we don't look at it as an organic overflow. And I've really seen a, kind of pushback from churches that. There was one church that I talked to that has a ministry called I am Second, meaning that we are the second ministry in your kid's life. You are the first ministry in your kid's life. You are the primary disciplers. But there's families that have a number of reasons for that. First, they think, well, they're getting it at home. And we're, we're doing it, we're talking about it. But if you're really honest, you're not being that intentional about it. And we're busy. You know, you just think, like, what. When do I have time to do that? And what does that look like? And there's parents too, who feel like I'm not really qualified to do that. That's why I'm taking to the pastor who has a seminary degree. I don't feel qualified to talk about theology at home. How can we wake up the American family who really wants their kids to be discipled, who wants them to follow Christ, but to say, hey, you gotta be intentional and take steps towards doing that. It can't just be taking him to church, although you should do that. That's important.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, right.
Discipling Your Kids By Modeling And Trusting God
Well, you know, and what I would say with that is you don't have to be a theologian to disciple your kids. Right? Discipleship is not primarily study anyway. It is following. And so if you're a Christian yourself, the best thing you can do for your kids is show your kids how to follow Jesus yourself. You do know how to. Hopefully, you know how to do that. You don't have to be a theologian, you don't have to be a pastor, but you should be a follower of Jesus yourself. And so show me what it looks like to follow Jesus. That's your role. And then encourage your kids to follow Jesus. What I learned as a parent, one of the struggles that I face, that most parents face, you don't want your kids to go astray. You don't want to raise a prodigal, and you live almost in fear. What if one of my kids becomes a prodigal? And so we're framed. We know there's a lot at stake here, and so we'd rather just hand them off to a professional. But I remember my dad when I was a teenager, I would come to my dad and I'd need his advice. I'd say, dad, I. I'm looking at Going to this college or that college and maybe majoring this or that, what do you think I should do? And my dad always had the same answer. He said, I think you should go to God and ask him. And I would say, well yeah, I'm going to pray. But like dad, what do you think I should do? He wouldn't tell me. He'd said, look, go to God, ask him, pray about it, seek his will. And when you hear something, when, when God tells you, then come tell me what God said and we can talk about that, but don't come to me first. And what my dad was trying to do was to teach me not to follow him, but to follow Jesus. And for a lot of parents, we don't even realize we're doing that, but we're really teaching our kids to follow us. And am I? And one of the ways you saw later, when I was older, I said, dad, why is it you never told me, like you never gave me straight up answer? You should you, I mean, you must have had opinions. He said, well, two reasons. He said, first, God's a lot smarter than me. So he said, I. There's no man on earth who loves you more than I do. But I'm not perfect. And I would hate for you to base your whole life on my opinion because what if my opinion's wrong? I don't know the future. I didn't make you. I don't know what God's plans are for you. I can give you my best guess.
Learning To Follow Jesus And Trust God's Guidance
But God doesn't guess. He knows. And so I, wanted you just to always learn, just habitually go to him. But he said, secondly, I'm not always going to be here for you. He said, I'll be gone one day and if I, every time you come to me asking for advice, I just give it to you. I'm teaching you to always come to me first when you need guidance. I want to teach you to go to Jesus first. He'll always be there for you long after I'm dead and gone. And he died. My dad died two and a half years ago and I've, I've thought of that often. I'm so glad my dad taught me to follow Jesus because he's still available to me just like he always has been. And and, and so I, as a parent, I don't know if I had quite the self control my dad did. I had lots of opinions about, for my kids and it was hard not to tell them, but I, but I didn't Want to short circuit that. And, and like my dad always kept saying, we're always falling short of a relationship with Jesus. Instead we just give parental counsel, parental guidance, or we just take them to church, but we don't drive them to Jesus. And so I think one of the things I learned from my dad was ask the right questions. You know, when you're, when your kid says, I'm not sure where to go to college next year, don't say, well, where would you like to go? Where would you qualify? You know, which sports team would you like to cheer for? Ask them, well, as you've been praying, what are you sensing God is leading you to do? Where do you think God's leading you? And what's he putting on your heart? And my dad would always drive me to say, be God centered, God focused, and assume that we will spend our whole lives following Jesus. And so you, model that for them and then don't short circuit their own following of Jesus. Keep driving them back there and encouraging them to learn how to follow him themselves.
Giving Up Control To Allow Children To Develop Their Own Faith
Dr. Jessica Peck: What a beautiful legacy that your dad left. I think that's really, really incredible. And it strikes me, as I'm listening to it, Richard, that your dad gave up some control there. That's really what he did. Because, as parents, I think that is our natural response to fear. We have fear that our kids are going to make the wrong decision, go the wrong place, get in the wrong friends, and then leave their faith. Right. That's ultimately the, the worst fear of a Christian parent is that our kids are going to walk away from their faith, reject their values. Just like you said, you're going to have a prodigal child. You're going to have a rebellious child, a broken relationship with your child. And so I think our natural human response is to have control and say like, okay, either through man, through outright, you know, I'm not paying for you to go there. What kind of faith was that like for your dad to give up control to allow you the freedom to make your faith your own and to follow Jesus like that?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. when, you know, and you know, the really sad thing is sometimes the fact is we're not even necessarily concerned there'll be a prodigal. We're concerned that God will ask our kids to do something we don't want them to do.
Parents' Fear Of God Calling Children To Difficult Paths
what if God calls my kid to be a missionary in Africa and take my grandkids to Africa? You know, what, what if, what if they end up working with the inner city homeless people and I want Them to have a good white collar job. And, and I've literally known parents who say, you can be a good Christian and still make lots of money and live in the same county as us. And and sometimes, you know, I've had parents, I've had young, young people who felt called to missions. And it was their own Christian parents that opposed them more than anybody else and said, you're not taking our grandkids to another state or another country. I remember teaching my kids that. And at one point there, was a window of time where all three of my adult kids all went to the same church I do. My oldest son was on staff at our church and my parents went to that church. It was like the ideal thing. I had three grandkids in the nursery at the church and it was like my perfect world. And then one day my son on that was on staff for the church. Mike, he, he met with me and my wife and he said, mom, dad, you know how you've always taught me to follow Jesus?
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, we're proud of you for doing that. He said, well, now God's calling me to go move 2800 miles away and start a church on the west coast of Canada. And I'll tell you what, that was hard. It was really hard. And my, that son has a child on the autism scale. And as grandparents, we just wanted to be there to help our grandson and help our son. and they sold their house and they had about a month where they lived at our house. The last month they were in Atlanta, they lived in our house. And he's got four kids now, four of our grandkids. And we loved on those kids. We loved on our daughter in law and our son. And I'll tell you what, the day, the morning we had to drive them to the airport, we came home and my wife sobbed for about three straight days, just sobbed.
Proudly Watching Your Children Follow God's Call Even Far Away
It was so hard to see this family that needed help, needed grandparenting help. But Jesus was leading them 2,800 miles away from us. And, it took us, and I'm devastated too. But, about three or four days later, my wife and I circled up and said, but aren't you proud? We raised this child every time Jesus showed up beside his fishing boat, said, get out, follow me. And he'd just get out and he'd go. And I said, as hard as it is on us, that's what we taught him to do.
Dr. Jessica Peck: That's what we taught him. We're already at our first break.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Hang on, hang on. I'm gonna hold you right there a block away.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Listen, we are gonna be right back on the other side of this break. You don't want to hear the end of the story, the conversation. We'll be right back. Following Jesus, Dr. Richard Blackaby, hello, I'm Jessica Peck, host of Dr. Nursemama.
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Living Hope by Phil Wickham: who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages step down from glory to where my m soul sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of kings calls me his own beautiful Savior. I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ. Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends.
Following Jesus And Embracing The Messiness Of Spiritual Maturity
That is Living Hope by Phil Wickham. And we do have a living hope. We have a hope that is alive. We have a hope that is a person. And that person is Jesus. And I'm so grateful today to be talking to Dr. Richard Blackaby. He's author of a new book. It's called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. And right before the break, Richard, you were just sharing a, really vulnerable story about watching your son follow Jesus 2800 miles across the country with four children, watching him go that far away, her wife sobbing for three days. I give her all the kudos in the world. I think I would be at least three weeks. It would be really, really hard. But, you know, I think there is this kind of misnomer and this really, this prosperity gospel that's really attractive. Like, hey, follow Jesus and your life is going to be amazing and God's going to answer your prayers and there's going to be blessings. But when we look at you talk about God's ancient pat to spiritual maturity, you know, we look at the outcome of the twelve disciples and they all ultimately gave their lives for the gospel. And the, the, the real story is that life is difficult, but we have that hope. Just like Phil Wickham was just singing about, we have that living hope. So how does that kind of hope anchor you to say, okay, God, I trust you even Though in this life I'm sending my son 2800 miles away or whatever it is where people are, are trying to get their kids to follow Jesus, they're following Jesus in their own life. How do we push against what we think that's going to look like, the kind of glamorized version of it and embrace the messiness of it?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, you know, and I think if, I've often thought if Peter and Andrew were like we are today when Jesus showed up by their boat, they would have invited Jesus to join them in their boat and say, come on, join us Jesus. Come. That's, that's kind of the prayer we always ask people to pray, ask Jesus to come into your heart. In their case, they could have asked him to come into their boat and then they could have thought, won't this be cool now whenever we go fishing, we'll have the Son of God here in our boat with us. but Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't enter into our world and say, okay, how do you want to make room for me here in your busy lives?
Radically Following Jesus Instead Of Adding Him To Your Life
He says, you, you make the adjustment, you get out of your boat and you come with me. And, and I think that just that simple mindset has caused us so much confusion because that's what we really want. We want to build our own little nest, our families and our worlds. And, and God, you just come us and be with us and help spice things up in our life. But, but we're bewildered when he starts taking people to follow him and to take them into where he's going and what he's up to. And, and I think that that caused a lot of our problems is, well, you don't just add Jesus into your busy life. You, you, he radically turns your life upside down and now it's focused not on where you're going, but where he's going. And you know, I, I would just say for us, if you like, my parents, they, I remember as a 8 year old having a family meeting and my parents saying, hey, we lived in Los Angeles and they said, hey, there's a church with 10 people in Canada. And God told us to go up there and save it. And we're so we're going and we watched our parents just humbly ordinary people following Jesus. And so it's not, so it's not surprising to me that all five of their children ended up following Jesus, becoming all five became ministers themselves. And to this day we're all still in ministry, still following Jesus, teaching our kids to do the same thing, but it was because we just watched. I guess the thing with my parents was, they, they had found the joy in following Jesus themselves. And because they had experienced that you can trust Jesus with your life when you follow him, that when their own kids started following Jesus, they knew they could trust Jesus with their kids too, because they'd experienced it. Our problem is there's a lot of parents who've never really followed Jesus themselves. And so when their kids start following Jesus, it scares them because they've not experienced that you can trust Jesus. He may take you to a really hard place, like you said. He might take you to martyrdom. He might take you to great sacrifice. But at the end of the path, you'll realize what a life it has been.
Discipleship Is Inviting Others To Follow Jesus With You
I never could have dreamed of this had I not just followed Jesus. And it'll be good. So, yeah, I just tell people, don't wait till you've been to, you have to be to seminary. You don't have to have a seminary degree in childhood development to disciple your kids. Just you follow Jesus and really disciple making is inviting others to follow Jesus with you. That's what it really is. Hey, we're still following Jesus. Come on, you'll love it. It'll be fun. And, off you go. Wherever Jesus leads. That's what discipling your kids ought to really look like.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And it really is. One of the biggest things that I have learned is to follow the voice of God in my life and to follow Jesus because I think about the scripture, about, you know, he's the good shepherd and his sheep know his voice. And I want to know the voice of God in my life and follow that voice and wake up every morning and say, okay, Jesus, what do you have for me today? Where are we going? What are we doing? Where am I on mission? Where can I follow you? And you've talked about that, you know, your, your own son following God's call to pastor A church 2800 miles away. Your own parents saying, God has called us. God has told us to go from Los Angeles to Canada to pastor this church with 10 people. I think there's some people listening, Richard, who would think, how do you have such confidence that that is the voice of Jesus in your life, that that is God's calling on your life? Like, where do you get to that point where you can say like, okay, I'm listening to God's voice in my life and I'm following the Lord with, with that degree of conviction? Where does that come From.
Learning To Recognize And Trust God's Voice In Your Life
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, well, practice time. you know, I've walked with a lot of people that have said, I don't. God never speaks to me. I've never heard God speak to me. And if I sit down with them over coffee and I just start asking them some questions, you know, what. Have you been reading the Bible lately? What verses have stood out to you? Did you hear a sermon recently that just. Just really got. Gripped you and you just felt like you needed to do something, you know, and it never takes very long before it begins to dawn on them. Wait a minute. It, seems to me like God's been speaking like crazy. I just didn't know that was him. I thought that was my wife. I thought that was. I thought that was. Just had a good preacher for a pastor, but I just. I just started weeping during a worship song. I just thought we just had. It was a beautiful song. I. And it's like, no, you are hearing from God. You just have never been discipled to recognize his voice. You just don't know that's what it is. And I've had to say to some folks, listen, just, not necessarily go with your heart, but trust your spiritual instincts. When you begin to just sense that you should sign up for this summer's mission trip with your church, or you suddenly just feel like, I need to volunteer and work with the youth group in my church. But it may not make sense. You may not figure out how you have the time, but there's just something within you. There's this sense. So often I've just said, just trust the Holy Spirit. He's working in you. That's him. And step out. Just get out of your boat, go with him. And he'll work it out, and you'll realize, well, lo m, and behold, that was God. And it worked out and it's beautiful and I love what I'm doing. Well, then next time he starts to speak that way, just trust that voice. Get out again. And over time, it'll just become like second nature to you. It won't be a real complicated thing because you just learned. Oh, yeah, I know that voice. You know, it's just like every now and then you turn and there's Jesus standing beside your fishing boat. Now, okay, here we go again. You know, let's climb on out. Let's see where we're going this time.
Jesus Invites Us Into Relationship And His Mission Not Just Information
And it's not. It's not meant to be complicated. It's not a huge formula. You have to follow it. Just learn to trust that voice. And the Spirit of God within you. He'll. He'll. He'll have ways of getting your attention. And then just trust him. Don't. Don't keep agonizing for years about should I or should I not get out of that fishing boat. Just get out and start taking the first steps. And before you know it, you'll be swept up into the activity of Almighty God.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I can share a story with you, Richard, about a time that happened in my life when I was very young as a professor. I felt. I just felt a conviction from the Lord to take on this student group that was working in something called neonatal palliative care. Now, this is babies who are born prematurely or with really severe problems, and they're probably not going to live long in this earth. And I, I really didn't want to do it because I was thinking, oh, that's sad. I don't know anything about that. But I just felt a conviction from the Lord like, you need to do this. And so I did. And it ended up being a really beautiful experience. I learned a lot, and it really took my, my career and kind of a different direction. And when I went to a Christian university, the very first day I walked in and I spoke about, you know, just the way that that faith had influenced my nursing career in this faculty. I did. She walked up to me and she said, the Lord has just told me that you need to come with me to India. And I was like, india? What did you say? Perhaps Ireland or something else, you know, like India. She said, yeah, but the only thing is you have to have experience in palliative care. Do you have that? And I thought, oh, yes, yes, Lord, I do. So I see this. And I could just see how the Lord had moved in her heart and spoken to her and then apparently affirmed that obedience that I had that long ago. And, you know, I think, Richard, sometimes, you know, when we're pursuing relationship with the Lord, when we're trying to follow Jesus, we treat him kind of like a, genie or a Santa Claus. Like, okay, I'll ask you to help with all of my problems. I'll ask you for information. That's one thing you talk about in the book. Like, oh, you'll just teach me. Make me wise, solve my problems. But really, the exciting thing about following Jesus is that he invites us into relationship with him and into his mission. And he's going to accomplish his mission whether we step in or not. Well, we have the privilege of being invited into that. Tell us more about how you Differentiate that, that information piece versus the relationship piece.
Following Jesus Is About Action Not Just Gathering Information
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, it's. Well, you know, one of the things I just say in the book is Jesus is a whole lot more than a Bible study. For a lot of people, discipleship is just going to lots of Bible study. Just Bible studies are great. but I know people that will just study the Bible all day long and just run from what they might be in five different Bible studies each week, just filling their head with all kinds of information about Jesus that they're not applying in their life. But when you follow Jesus. But the thing about a Bible study is just, we're in control the whole time. We decide when we're going to go, we decide when we're going to pick up our Bible and read it. If we choose the books we want to study and we ignore the books we don't like God, starts getting in our grill in a Bible study, we just put the study down and quit for a while. But, so we still have control when we're just studying, when we're just gathering information. But when you climb out of your fishing boat and you have no idea where Jesus is taking you, you're not in control anymore. He is. And that's scary. And you know, we, we touched on that earlier. But, but that loss of control, that's why it's just, can I just go to another Bible study? Because, when I go to a Bible study, Jesus never makes me have to go work with the homeless or with people, of other races or people that go to the prisons. But, but if I follow him, who knows where he might lead? So I'll just go study. I'd love to study some more in the Book of Revelation. I'll just go study that instead. And, and Jesus is saying, you already know far more about me than you're applying now. Why just fill your head with more information? And, but, but a lot of our discipleship has basically been filled ahead, fill the head with more information. And there's nothing wrong with that except that it, it should never be a substitute for actually following Jesus.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, not too long ago, my husband went to a men's Wednesday night Bible study and they had several options for them to pick from. And he said it made me laugh, Richard, because he said the room that was overflowing, that there was standing room only, was the Revelation B. They ended up going, he and his, a couple of his friends ended up going to a Bible study about how to study the Bible. And there was three men in there, like three men. And they all sat around and had relationship with each other and talking about accountability and how to, how to study the Bible so that, how you can learn who Jesus is and how to recognize his voice and what his character is. And I feel like once you go to the word of God and you start to learn more about who Jesus is, that's going to be, be another metric test for is that the voice of God in your life? Is it consistent with his character as presented in his Word? You find that to be true.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: and does it lead to action? You know, yeah, like, like with Jesus, whenever he encountered somebody and invariably it was go, go into all the world, you know, as you're going do this. but, but there's, there's lots of discipleship programs that never leads to going, never leads to doing it. Just next week I can hardly wait to see what he has to say about, you know, the next chapter in Revelation. And it's so fascinating but you don't do anything about it. And so I would just say, I'm always suspicious of discipleship that never leads to action. just fills our head, crams it with some more stuff that tantalizes our imagination. and God's people just love to be tantalized and have Christian conspiracy theories and all kinds of things that we love to talk about.
Authentic Discipleship Leads To Action And Loving Your Neighbor
But meanwhile the homeless and the poor and the oppressed and the unsaved who've never heard the gospel are all around us and we're not doing anything about that. And I, just have a feeling that Jesus, you know, a funny story, years ago I had a kind of several. One weekend I had two different people in crisis show up at my house. Just desperate, just showed up one of them Sunday morning. And so I'm just trying to house these people and feed them and minister to them and they're broken. Good friends, good people, but both going through crisis. So we, we took them to church with us. But normally we'd go to the Sunday school hour, the Bible study hour first. And then we just couldn't navigate that. I'm feeding all these out of town guests so we, but we got to church for the service. I'm walking in but, but a friend of mine saw that I had missed the Bible study hour and he made this loud comment about not all of us value Bible study. And he was kind of teasing me, but I thought to myself, I've had so many Bible studies about loving your neighbor, I didn't need another Bible study about that today. God let me actually love My neighbor, he actually let me minister. And literally, if you missed a Bible study so that you could go with Jesus and do something, you probably get, you don't have perfect attendance in the Bible study. You must not be a very strong.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hang on.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We're going to be right back after this next break. More with Dr. Richard Blackaby on the other side. We'll see you. Don't go away.
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God I'm Just Grateful by Chandler Moore and Elevation Worship: There was no way until you made one. Grace upon grace. Hallelujah. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it there. Who am I that you keep me on your. God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life you been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you, God. I'm sorry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is God. I'm, just grateful. By Chandler Moore and Elevation Worship. And I am here today with Dr. Richard Blackaby, and he is author of a new book called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity.
Following Jesus Involves Trust Obedience Surrender And Enduring Discomfort
And we're having a really great, inspiring conversation about what does it mean today to follow Jesus? Now, we follow a lot of people. I think that is even more prevalent in modern society. It's normal to follow people because when we hear about the fall of a Christian influencer, the sin in their life, or their fall from their platform, we think, oh, oh, gosh, I, I followed her. I. I followed her on social media. I followed him. I followed his ministry. And we follow people, we follow influencers. But of course, the ultimate influencer is Jesus. Following Jesus isn't about just being inspired, feeling good about the content that somebody feeds you. It involves trust and obedience and surrender and sometimes leaving what feels comfortable and predictable. Just like the disciples left their fisherman nets, they left their boats and they followed Jesus. Jesus, as Dr. Blackaby said, did not get in their boat. They followed Jesus. Richard, what do you see in today's day and age? I see a lot of people following influencer content. And I think there's a lot of danger in that. it can be good, it can be inspiring. I know people are listening today, wanting some good encouragement, but there are also some dangers there and distortions of Jesus that can be presented, and we're not as careful as we should be about vetting the content that we have. What is the difference between, you know, between feeling good, like, looking for that feeling of, oh, I'm following Jesus, and I feel so good about it, and that. And actually the discipline of following Jesus, even when it can be scary or uncomfortable.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. And, you know, when you do, have people in your life, and they might be Christian leaders, Christian teachers, I always want to evaluate, is my walk with Jesus actually getting better? Am I hearing him better? Am I more obedient to him, or am I just. Now all I can think about is what this influencer tells me. Me. And I always worry about people that they start doing the thinking for you, you know, that you don't need to pursue God. I can tell you what God wants you to do. well, then there are all kinds of red flags should go off there. That's why I say, like, with my dad, he always drove me back to Jesus. And so really good disciplers are not necessarily the people that always have all the answers for you, but the ones who are the most faithful to drive you back to Jesus and make you have to go to that relationship. And then when you hear Jesus leading you to do a hard thing, they don't give you an escape. They hold your feet to the fire and say, have you followed yet? Are you doing what you told me Jesus wants you to do?
True Discipleship Drives You To Jesus Not To A Person
So, yeah, there's lots of people that want to guide you and tell you what to think and do. and I always evaluate them when I'm around that person. Does it drive me to Jesus, or do I just become enmeshed with this person's way of thinking and their rants and their, their soapboxes? or are they always just driving? In fact, my dad used to always say, when he was a pastor, he would say, now I'm As I'm preaching, he said, you need to have your Bibles open and everything I say you need to check, to check me, he said, like I'm trying to be biblical and God honoring, but, but I'm human. So even me, your beloved pastor, have your Bible there to check me out, make sure if I ever get off track, go with Jesus instead of me.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I really do wish I could have met your dad. He sounds like such a remarkable man and his ministry has influenced so many and you are carrying on that legacy, that family legacy so beautifully. And you know, to hear a pastor saying that check me, that is really a good thing. And I think it is really difficult in today's day and age to say things sometimes that are uncomfortable to say things that are countercultural, but say things that are, are in line with God's truth. And we really have very little tolerance for an uncomfortable feelings. Almost, almost an idolatry of our feelings. Like, like when we go to church, I, I'll hear people complain about the worship. Like, I don't, I'm not feeling that. Like I, I'm, I'm just not feeling that. That did not make me feel good. And really it's not about that good emotional experience. Like if you pray with the Lord like you're, it's always going to be amazing and refreshing. And I think about in my own life that when, and God has been just the closest to me when I felt the presence of Jesus so much. It's been in those tough times, it's been in those dark valleys.
Spiritual Maturity Involves Growth Discomfort And Enduring Hardship
It's been in those situations where I've begged the Lord for a different outcome or an answer and he has said no, but he has stayed with me. How do we move past just, chasing that good feeling and realize that being a disciple is disciplining ourselves to also endure some uncomfortable emotions sometimes?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. Well, that's why the subtitle about just God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. We, you know, with so much church discipleship today, we don't even know what spiritual maturity looks like. We don't, we don't. We measure maturity by attendance. If you, if you come every week, then you must be one of the more mature believers. But I've known people who've hardly missed a Sunday in 40 years who, some of the spiritually most immature people around down. But they're, they just, they love going to church, but they've never changed, they've never grown. And so, you know, I would just say to folks, Jesus is not interested in leading you into comfort. He's leading you into maturity. And maturity means that you get stretched. It means you have to use muscles and get sore and suffer disappointment and go through crises and hurts. And and you know, I, I've often said if you want to experience God as your comforter, you're going to have to, to be uncomfortable first. If you want him to be your shield, protector, then you're going to have to have enemies. If, if he's going to be your healer, then you got to be sick first. So, Jesus wants you to know him that way. He wants you to have the full experience of Him. And so if you follow him, he's. He, he knows where to lead you so that you have the kind of experiences that help you to grow up. And, and I can be sure if you always get what you want, you never experience disappointment or hurt. You're not going to grow up, in physically or, or spiritually. Jesus wants you to mature and so to become that adult that, that gets told no sometimes that, that things don't work out, that people turn on you and all you have left is Jesus. But through all of that, you look around, you realize, you know what? I'm not the same Christian I used to be. I, I challenge people all the time to say, are you the same Christian you were five years ago? Do you pray this? If I could, if I had a tape recording, recording a digital recording of you praying five years ago, and then I just record you praying this morning, would it be the very same? Like, you've had five more years to know God. Do you still talk to him the way you were five years ago? Or has your relationship with him gone to a deeper place? And so, yeah, that maturity, that's, that's part of where Jesus is leading you, is to places that will help you to grow up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, when I think of, of the words of scripture, we're told, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And people are so looking for the life hack, the instant fix, the, you know, the, the magic thing that's going to suddenly make everything better. We have no tolerance for long term struggle or, or, you know, character formation like you're talking about. You know, as a society we've kind of gotten pitiful about that because we're so used to modern creature comforts. And, and yet that can be kind of hard. You know, when we're saying, hey, follow Jesus. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. But he's come to give of joy, to give you the fullness of life. How do we say yes, follow him. It's not a magic cure, not an instant fix, not a guarantee for no hardship in your life, but it is still better. How, how do we, how do we walk that line and really convey the truth of that?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. And of course you have to have experience. If you're going to convince someone else of that, you have to have experienced it yourself. Right. Worse. And my wife and I, My wife is the ultimate nurturer, caregiver, and we've got a couple grandkids right now playing sports that they've had some adversity and some losses and different things going on. And, and my, my wife hates that. She just hates sports and disappointment and someone's going to lose. And she, and I've had a lot of talks to say, yeah, but I don't like to see my kids lose either, or someone play dirty with them. But, but I also, I also don't want them to be babies. I want them to grow up, be mature and, and to be able to handle life however it comes. And, and you learn a lot of those lessons along the way. And so, you know, I, with people, I would just say just, you know, the great thing about when you're following Jesus, even when you go into the valley of the shadow of death, if you're following Jesus, you're with, you're with Jesus. And, and I, and so you might not be experiencing what you like, but at least he's with you. And as long as he's present, you'll discover that you've got all that you need. And he's enough, I'd rather have Jesus in a hard place than not have Jesus in a good place. and so just keep just going, follow. That's why I follow him, stays close. In fact, I tend. When I'm in a hard place, I tend to be walking even closer to Jesus.
Jesus' Presence In Hardship Provides All We Need
I'm right next to him, I'm holding on to him. And and, and, and I think Jesus likes that, that he likes that. When, yeah, when, you know, when I take Richard through this adversity, he draws closer to me. And that's the whole point. So why wouldn't he keep taking me into some hard places if I just instinctively get closer to him when I go through those times?
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I remember one particular Thanksgiving when my husband had to have emergency surgery. We were really far from home in the middle of nowhere, Missouri. he had to have, ah, an Oral surgery. We were at an oral surgeon's office. I had no idea who this person was. I've got four little kids in the car trying to figure out, you know, what is going on. And I was so worried and so overwhelmed. And Richard, when I walked into the office, into that oral surgeon's office on Thanksgiving, the first thing I hear over the speaker is, your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. It was One Thing Remains by Christian Stanfield playing on the speakers of that office. And I looked over at the wall, and all I see is all of this oral surgeon's mission work. And the oral surgeon walks in, and I said, what made you come on Thanksgiving? You know, help a stranger? And. And he just pointed to the wall and was like, that is the Lord at work in my life. And I see so many times where, you know, I, wish that we hadn't had to have that experience, but to meet that. That just miraculous working of God and to know that he doesn't promise that my life is going to be perfect, but he does promise to never leave me, to never forsake me. And if I look at the options there, that this life is just the best that I can make it for my own human frailties, or I serve a God who, if he was small enough to be understood, wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped, and somehow is going to redeem and restore and renew and make all things better. That leads us to the eternal mindset. And that really is where our hope is, isn't it, Richard? That this life is not all there is, that one day we will meet Jesus face to face.
Sharing Generational Stories Of God's Faithfulness In Following Jesus
And that is the ultimate goal.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: And, you know, that's why you want to tell those stories to your kids. Kids like, you want to keep. Share your journey about you as you follow Jesus. Hey, you know, kids, let me tell you, like with my. With my wife, we. We had our, our firstborn, and we literally were down to our last jar of baby food. We had no more food and no money, no credit card. We were, obediently at school, trying to go to seminary. We have no money to feed our child, and down to the last jar, baby food. And then we get a random phone call from people that their kid just stopped eating baby food. And they've got all this baby they don't know what to do with. They were about to throw it out, and they just thought of us and thought, you know, no offense, Hope you're not offended that you. We're not. Don't Acting like you need charity or anything, but we're gonna throw in the garbage and you don't need it. It's like, wow. And then like my son was probably six months old when that happened. So later you tell him, son, you wouldn't even remember this, but you were down to your last jar of food. Food. And we just. But we were right where we knew God want us to be, but we didn't. It just didn't make sense. We didn't have money, feed our kid. And then let me tell you what happened. And so, and that, that's, I think, why generations start to all follow Jesus. Because each generation tells the story of their journey. Hey, as we follow Jesus, it was hard. It was tough. We were sick, we had to go to the hospital. But let me tell you what Jesus did. And you know what? When you're sick, when you're in the hospital, that same Jesus will be there for you too. And you just, generation by generation, you just develop this spiritual legacy of every generation we follow Jesus. And you'll find it's the best way to live your life too.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Richard, you've been such an encouragement to us today.
Intentionally Following Jesus Creates A Miraculous Everyday Life
I encourage our listeners to get a copy of the book called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. And I hope that you will take the invitation to follow Jesus. It really is, is the best way. And that is our source of hope that will never, ever disappoint us. But you can be intentional about creating a home where Jesus isn't just talked about on a Sunday, but our kids and our grandkids and our families and our friends and our neighbors. They see what it looks like to intentionally follow Jesus. And it's in that mundane of the everyday that becomes miraculous. And God is always at work. If you are open your eyes to see. If you start writing down the ways that Jesus is meeting you, even in that every day, you will see that there is so much to be grateful for, so much at work. Thank you so much, Dr. Blackaby, for reminding us discipleship isn't just something we do, it is someone we follow. That is such an encouraging message. And as you ponder that today, I pray as I always do, that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. And I pray that you will follow him. You will find that he is so, so good.
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Introducing Dr Nurse Mama Show Prescribing Hope For Healthy Families
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Dr. Richard Blackaby: Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for healthy families here on family radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there friends and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you. Prescribing Hope for Healthy families.
The Need For Intentional Discipleship In The Digital Age
Listen, we got a really great conversation today if you listen regularly. You know that I have been talking about the need to intentionally disciple our families now more than ever. Culture is really invading every space of our lives. We are living in a world, world that is on 24, 7 and AI especially. You know, we've been told in the past technology is neutral. Technology is neutral. Well, it really is not neutral. And what we, what we see is that AI is shaping worldview. Every day our kids are being taught what matters, what success looks like, what relationships should look like, where their identity comes from, how they should respond to disappointment, what they should believe about themselves, and increasingly what they should believe about God. They're constantly being bombarded with theology recommendations from influencers online. And a lot of that teaching doesn't happen in a classroom. It happens through entertainment and social media and algorithms and peers and influencers and advertising, music and technology and the cultural narrative surrounding our children. Culture is constantly on and constantly discipling. So the question of whether or not our children are being discipled, that is already a, yes. The question we have control over is who is the primary disciple of our children? Is it us or is it culture? And that makes the Christian parents role particularly important. Intentional discipleship isn't just adding another Bible study, a devotional or a church activity to an already overwhelmed family calendar. I'm not telling you have to do one more thing. It's recognizing that our children are watching how we live, what we prioritize, does what we say match what we actually do, where do we turn in suffering, and how do we make decisions of, whether our relationship with, Jesus really changes our everyday lives. And that is where we're going with today's conversation. I'm so glad to welcome back Dr. Richard Blackaby. He has a new book called Following Jesus, and he challenges the church to reconsider what we mean when we say someone is a disciple. Now, the press material describes a discipleship crisis, that we see that from Christian press, that and influencers and leaders. And I agree with that.
Dr Richard Blackaby Discusses His New Book Following Jesus
That says there is a discipleship crisis where churches are becoming increasingly focused on programs and strategies and less concerned about people and relationships. And Dr. Blackaby is pointing us back to the model of Jesus himself, who intentionally invested in 12 ordinary people. And that is an encouraging message for us and how we can invest in our families today. Dr. Blackab, President of Blackaby Ministries International. He's authored more than 40 books. He speaks internationally on experiencing God. We've had him on the show before to talk about that. He talks about Christian life, spiritual leadership, and is the son, of course, of Henry Blackabe, co author of the worldwide bestseller experiencing God. So Dr. Blackaby, thank you so much for coming back to the show. We're so glad to have you here and I'm so glad to talk about this message.
Exploring The Meaning Of Following Jesus And Discipleship
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Oh, it's a delight to be back with you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, tell us about this. You Know, I, I think I'm old school church, I told you that last time. And I think of the, the song, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back, you know. Right. That's the classic invitation song. And we kind of talk about it like, it's almost like a catchphrase. Follow Jesus, follow Jesus, follow Jesus. What does that really mean? What was on your heart? What was the conviction that you had to really look at that and think about what it means?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Ah, yeah. Well, I realized I was asked to speak about discipleship to a room just filled with discipleship experts. And it forced me to have to think deeply if I want to talk to all these people who are professional disciplers. And I just went back to say, you know, most books, if you read most books on discipleship, it will say it will define discipleship as following Jesus. But then if you just keep reading, they don't describe following Jesus, they describe going to church, they describe going to a six week program at the church building, doing a four week course or something, but not actually following Jesus. And that's why I say we've reduced discipleship to a program, not to a relationship to a person. And in fact one prominent disciple, author said in the first century he said, following Jesus wasn't a metaphor. And as I read that I thought, well, I didn't think it was a metaphor. I think we're still supposed to follow him. but now we have lots of people who think as long as they go. And I would just say kind of in light of your, focus is the discipleship's never been more important to me than when I was raising three kids. And I wanted to disciple my three kids so that they love Jesus once they moved out of my house.
Raising Children Who Follow Jesus Not Just Attend Church
And but for a lot of parents, discipling your kids means you drag them to church every week, you get them in the youth program and as long as you've got them in the right programs, then we're baffled when they go off to college and they don't want to go to church anymore. And I realized, you know what you did, you raised a church attender, you didn't raise a Jesus follower. And there's a world of difference between the two.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I think that's really true, Dr. Blackaby, because I think this emphasis of programs on church, we kind of feel good about that. We outsource the discipleship and we think, yeah, I'm taking them to church. They're there Sunday night, they're there Wednesday night, they're active in the youth group, but we don't look at it as an organic overflow. And I've really seen a, kind of pushback from churches that. There was one church that I talked to that has a ministry called I am Second, meaning that we are the second ministry in your kid's life. You are the first ministry in your kid's life. You are the primary disciplers. But there's families that have a number of reasons for that. First, they think, well, they're getting it at home. And we're, we're doing it, we're talking about it. But if you're really honest, you're not being that intentional about it. And we're busy. You know, you just think, like, what. When do I have time to do that? And what does that look like? And there's parents too, who feel like I'm not really qualified to do that. That's why I'm taking to the pastor who has a seminary degree. I don't feel qualified to talk about theology at home. How can we wake up the American family who really wants their kids to be discipled, who wants them to follow Christ, but to say, hey, you gotta be intentional and take steps towards doing that. It can't just be taking him to church, although you should do that. That's important.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, right.
Discipling Your Kids By Modeling And Trusting God
Well, you know, and what I would say with that is you don't have to be a theologian to disciple your kids. Right? Discipleship is not primarily study anyway. It is following. And so if you're a Christian yourself, the best thing you can do for your kids is show your kids how to follow Jesus yourself. You do know how to. Hopefully, you know how to do that. You don't have to be a theologian, you don't have to be a pastor, but you should be a follower of Jesus yourself. And so show me what it looks like to follow Jesus. That's your role. And then encourage your kids to follow Jesus. What I learned as a parent, one of the struggles that I face, that most parents face, you don't want your kids to go astray. You don't want to raise a prodigal, and you live almost in fear. What if one of my kids becomes a prodigal? And so we're framed. We know there's a lot at stake here, and so we'd rather just hand them off to a professional. But I remember my dad when I was a teenager, I would come to my dad and I'd need his advice. I'd say, dad, I. I'm looking at Going to this college or that college and maybe majoring this or that, what do you think I should do? And my dad always had the same answer. He said, I think you should go to God and ask him. And I would say, well yeah, I'm going to pray. But like dad, what do you think I should do? He wouldn't tell me. He'd said, look, go to God, ask him, pray about it, seek his will. And when you hear something, when, when God tells you, then come tell me what God said and we can talk about that, but don't come to me first. And what my dad was trying to do was to teach me not to follow him, but to follow Jesus. And for a lot of parents, we don't even realize we're doing that, but we're really teaching our kids to follow us. And am I? And one of the ways you saw later, when I was older, I said, dad, why is it you never told me, like you never gave me straight up answer? You should you, I mean, you must have had opinions. He said, well, two reasons. He said, first, God's a lot smarter than me. So he said, I. There's no man on earth who loves you more than I do. But I'm not perfect. And I would hate for you to base your whole life on my opinion because what if my opinion's wrong? I don't know the future. I didn't make you. I don't know what God's plans are for you. I can give you my best guess.
Learning To Follow Jesus And Trust God's Guidance
But God doesn't guess. He knows. And so I, wanted you just to always learn, just habitually go to him. But he said, secondly, I'm not always going to be here for you. He said, I'll be gone one day and if I, every time you come to me asking for advice, I just give it to you. I'm teaching you to always come to me first when you need guidance. I want to teach you to go to Jesus first. He'll always be there for you long after I'm dead and gone. And he died. My dad died two and a half years ago and I've, I've thought of that often. I'm so glad my dad taught me to follow Jesus because he's still available to me just like he always has been. And and, and so I, as a parent, I don't know if I had quite the self control my dad did. I had lots of opinions about, for my kids and it was hard not to tell them, but I, but I didn't Want to short circuit that. And, and like my dad always kept saying, we're always falling short of a relationship with Jesus. Instead we just give parental counsel, parental guidance, or we just take them to church, but we don't drive them to Jesus. And so I think one of the things I learned from my dad was ask the right questions. You know, when you're, when your kid says, I'm not sure where to go to college next year, don't say, well, where would you like to go? Where would you qualify? You know, which sports team would you like to cheer for? Ask them, well, as you've been praying, what are you sensing God is leading you to do? Where do you think God's leading you? And what's he putting on your heart? And my dad would always drive me to say, be God centered, God focused, and assume that we will spend our whole lives following Jesus. And so you, model that for them and then don't short circuit their own following of Jesus. Keep driving them back there and encouraging them to learn how to follow him themselves.
Giving Up Control To Allow Children To Develop Their Own Faith
Dr. Jessica Peck: What a beautiful legacy that your dad left. I think that's really, really incredible. And it strikes me, as I'm listening to it, Richard, that your dad gave up some control there. That's really what he did. Because, as parents, I think that is our natural response to fear. We have fear that our kids are going to make the wrong decision, go the wrong place, get in the wrong friends, and then leave their faith. Right. That's ultimately the, the worst fear of a Christian parent is that our kids are going to walk away from their faith, reject their values. Just like you said, you're going to have a prodigal child. You're going to have a rebellious child, a broken relationship with your child. And so I think our natural human response is to have control and say like, okay, either through man, through outright, you know, I'm not paying for you to go there. What kind of faith was that like for your dad to give up control to allow you the freedom to make your faith your own and to follow Jesus like that?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. when, you know, and you know, the really sad thing is sometimes the fact is we're not even necessarily concerned there'll be a prodigal. We're concerned that God will ask our kids to do something we don't want them to do.
Parents' Fear Of God Calling Children To Difficult Paths
what if God calls my kid to be a missionary in Africa and take my grandkids to Africa? You know, what, what if, what if they end up working with the inner city homeless people and I want Them to have a good white collar job. And, and I've literally known parents who say, you can be a good Christian and still make lots of money and live in the same county as us. And and sometimes, you know, I've had parents, I've had young, young people who felt called to missions. And it was their own Christian parents that opposed them more than anybody else and said, you're not taking our grandkids to another state or another country. I remember teaching my kids that. And at one point there, was a window of time where all three of my adult kids all went to the same church I do. My oldest son was on staff at our church and my parents went to that church. It was like the ideal thing. I had three grandkids in the nursery at the church and it was like my perfect world. And then one day my son on that was on staff for the church. Mike, he, he met with me and my wife and he said, mom, dad, you know how you've always taught me to follow Jesus?
Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, we're proud of you for doing that. He said, well, now God's calling me to go move 2800 miles away and start a church on the west coast of Canada. And I'll tell you what, that was hard. It was really hard. And my, that son has a child on the autism scale. And as grandparents, we just wanted to be there to help our grandson and help our son. and they sold their house and they had about a month where they lived at our house. The last month they were in Atlanta, they lived in our house. And he's got four kids now, four of our grandkids. And we loved on those kids. We loved on our daughter in law and our son. And I'll tell you what, the day, the morning we had to drive them to the airport, we came home and my wife sobbed for about three straight days, just sobbed.
Proudly Watching Your Children Follow God's Call Even Far Away
It was so hard to see this family that needed help, needed grandparenting help. But Jesus was leading them 2,800 miles away from us. And, it took us, and I'm devastated too. But, about three or four days later, my wife and I circled up and said, but aren't you proud? We raised this child every time Jesus showed up beside his fishing boat, said, get out, follow me. And he'd just get out and he'd go. And I said, as hard as it is on us, that's what we taught him to do.
Dr. Jessica Peck: That's what we taught him. We're already at our first break.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Hang on, hang on. I'm gonna hold you right there a block away.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Listen, we are gonna be right back on the other side of this break. You don't want to hear the end of the story, the conversation. We'll be right back. Following Jesus, Dr. Richard Blackaby, hello, I'm Jessica Peck, host of Dr. Nursemama.
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Living Hope by Phil Wickham: who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages step down from glory to where my m soul sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of kings calls me his own beautiful Savior. I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ. Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. This salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends.
Following Jesus And Embracing The Messiness Of Spiritual Maturity
That is Living Hope by Phil Wickham. And we do have a living hope. We have a hope that is alive. We have a hope that is a person. And that person is Jesus. And I'm so grateful today to be talking to Dr. Richard Blackaby. He's author of a new book. It's called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. And right before the break, Richard, you were just sharing a, really vulnerable story about watching your son follow Jesus 2800 miles across the country with four children, watching him go that far away, her wife sobbing for three days. I give her all the kudos in the world. I think I would be at least three weeks. It would be really, really hard. But, you know, I think there is this kind of misnomer and this really, this prosperity gospel that's really attractive. Like, hey, follow Jesus and your life is going to be amazing and God's going to answer your prayers and there's going to be blessings. But when we look at you talk about God's ancient pat to spiritual maturity, you know, we look at the outcome of the twelve disciples and they all ultimately gave their lives for the gospel. And the, the, the real story is that life is difficult, but we have that hope. Just like Phil Wickham was just singing about, we have that living hope. So how does that kind of hope anchor you to say, okay, God, I trust you even Though in this life I'm sending my son 2800 miles away or whatever it is where people are, are trying to get their kids to follow Jesus, they're following Jesus in their own life. How do we push against what we think that's going to look like, the kind of glamorized version of it and embrace the messiness of it?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, you know, and I think if, I've often thought if Peter and Andrew were like we are today when Jesus showed up by their boat, they would have invited Jesus to join them in their boat and say, come on, join us Jesus. Come. That's, that's kind of the prayer we always ask people to pray, ask Jesus to come into your heart. In their case, they could have asked him to come into their boat and then they could have thought, won't this be cool now whenever we go fishing, we'll have the Son of God here in our boat with us. but Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't enter into our world and say, okay, how do you want to make room for me here in your busy lives?
Radically Following Jesus Instead Of Adding Him To Your Life
He says, you, you make the adjustment, you get out of your boat and you come with me. And, and I think that just that simple mindset has caused us so much confusion because that's what we really want. We want to build our own little nest, our families and our worlds. And, and God, you just come us and be with us and help spice things up in our life. But, but we're bewildered when he starts taking people to follow him and to take them into where he's going and what he's up to. And, and I think that that caused a lot of our problems is, well, you don't just add Jesus into your busy life. You, you, he radically turns your life upside down and now it's focused not on where you're going, but where he's going. And you know, I, I would just say for us, if you like, my parents, they, I remember as a 8 year old having a family meeting and my parents saying, hey, we lived in Los Angeles and they said, hey, there's a church with 10 people in Canada. And God told us to go up there and save it. And we're so we're going and we watched our parents just humbly ordinary people following Jesus. And so it's not, so it's not surprising to me that all five of their children ended up following Jesus, becoming all five became ministers themselves. And to this day we're all still in ministry, still following Jesus, teaching our kids to do the same thing, but it was because we just watched. I guess the thing with my parents was, they, they had found the joy in following Jesus themselves. And because they had experienced that you can trust Jesus with your life when you follow him, that when their own kids started following Jesus, they knew they could trust Jesus with their kids too, because they'd experienced it. Our problem is there's a lot of parents who've never really followed Jesus themselves. And so when their kids start following Jesus, it scares them because they've not experienced that you can trust Jesus. He may take you to a really hard place, like you said. He might take you to martyrdom. He might take you to great sacrifice. But at the end of the path, you'll realize what a life it has been.
Discipleship Is Inviting Others To Follow Jesus With You
I never could have dreamed of this had I not just followed Jesus. And it'll be good. So, yeah, I just tell people, don't wait till you've been to, you have to be to seminary. You don't have to have a seminary degree in childhood development to disciple your kids. Just you follow Jesus and really disciple making is inviting others to follow Jesus with you. That's what it really is. Hey, we're still following Jesus. Come on, you'll love it. It'll be fun. And, off you go. Wherever Jesus leads. That's what discipling your kids ought to really look like.
Dr. Jessica Peck: And it really is. One of the biggest things that I have learned is to follow the voice of God in my life and to follow Jesus because I think about the scripture, about, you know, he's the good shepherd and his sheep know his voice. And I want to know the voice of God in my life and follow that voice and wake up every morning and say, okay, Jesus, what do you have for me today? Where are we going? What are we doing? Where am I on mission? Where can I follow you? And you've talked about that, you know, your, your own son following God's call to pastor A church 2800 miles away. Your own parents saying, God has called us. God has told us to go from Los Angeles to Canada to pastor this church with 10 people. I think there's some people listening, Richard, who would think, how do you have such confidence that that is the voice of Jesus in your life, that that is God's calling on your life? Like, where do you get to that point where you can say like, okay, I'm listening to God's voice in my life and I'm following the Lord with, with that degree of conviction? Where does that come From.
Learning To Recognize And Trust God's Voice In Your Life
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, well, practice time. you know, I've walked with a lot of people that have said, I don't. God never speaks to me. I've never heard God speak to me. And if I sit down with them over coffee and I just start asking them some questions, you know, what. Have you been reading the Bible lately? What verses have stood out to you? Did you hear a sermon recently that just. Just really got. Gripped you and you just felt like you needed to do something, you know, and it never takes very long before it begins to dawn on them. Wait a minute. It, seems to me like God's been speaking like crazy. I just didn't know that was him. I thought that was my wife. I thought that was. I thought that was. Just had a good preacher for a pastor, but I just. I just started weeping during a worship song. I just thought we just had. It was a beautiful song. I. And it's like, no, you are hearing from God. You just have never been discipled to recognize his voice. You just don't know that's what it is. And I've had to say to some folks, listen, just, not necessarily go with your heart, but trust your spiritual instincts. When you begin to just sense that you should sign up for this summer's mission trip with your church, or you suddenly just feel like, I need to volunteer and work with the youth group in my church. But it may not make sense. You may not figure out how you have the time, but there's just something within you. There's this sense. So often I've just said, just trust the Holy Spirit. He's working in you. That's him. And step out. Just get out of your boat, go with him. And he'll work it out, and you'll realize, well, lo m, and behold, that was God. And it worked out and it's beautiful and I love what I'm doing. Well, then next time he starts to speak that way, just trust that voice. Get out again. And over time, it'll just become like second nature to you. It won't be a real complicated thing because you just learned. Oh, yeah, I know that voice. You know, it's just like every now and then you turn and there's Jesus standing beside your fishing boat. Now, okay, here we go again. You know, let's climb on out. Let's see where we're going this time.
Jesus Invites Us Into Relationship And His Mission Not Just Information
And it's not. It's not meant to be complicated. It's not a huge formula. You have to follow it. Just learn to trust that voice. And the Spirit of God within you. He'll. He'll. He'll have ways of getting your attention. And then just trust him. Don't. Don't keep agonizing for years about should I or should I not get out of that fishing boat. Just get out and start taking the first steps. And before you know it, you'll be swept up into the activity of Almighty God.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I can share a story with you, Richard, about a time that happened in my life when I was very young as a professor. I felt. I just felt a conviction from the Lord to take on this student group that was working in something called neonatal palliative care. Now, this is babies who are born prematurely or with really severe problems, and they're probably not going to live long in this earth. And I, I really didn't want to do it because I was thinking, oh, that's sad. I don't know anything about that. But I just felt a conviction from the Lord like, you need to do this. And so I did. And it ended up being a really beautiful experience. I learned a lot, and it really took my, my career and kind of a different direction. And when I went to a Christian university, the very first day I walked in and I spoke about, you know, just the way that that faith had influenced my nursing career in this faculty. I did. She walked up to me and she said, the Lord has just told me that you need to come with me to India. And I was like, india? What did you say? Perhaps Ireland or something else, you know, like India. She said, yeah, but the only thing is you have to have experience in palliative care. Do you have that? And I thought, oh, yes, yes, Lord, I do. So I see this. And I could just see how the Lord had moved in her heart and spoken to her and then apparently affirmed that obedience that I had that long ago. And, you know, I think, Richard, sometimes, you know, when we're pursuing relationship with the Lord, when we're trying to follow Jesus, we treat him kind of like a, genie or a Santa Claus. Like, okay, I'll ask you to help with all of my problems. I'll ask you for information. That's one thing you talk about in the book. Like, oh, you'll just teach me. Make me wise, solve my problems. But really, the exciting thing about following Jesus is that he invites us into relationship with him and into his mission. And he's going to accomplish his mission whether we step in or not. Well, we have the privilege of being invited into that. Tell us more about how you Differentiate that, that information piece versus the relationship piece.
Following Jesus Is About Action Not Just Gathering Information
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah, it's. Well, you know, one of the things I just say in the book is Jesus is a whole lot more than a Bible study. For a lot of people, discipleship is just going to lots of Bible study. Just Bible studies are great. but I know people that will just study the Bible all day long and just run from what they might be in five different Bible studies each week, just filling their head with all kinds of information about Jesus that they're not applying in their life. But when you follow Jesus. But the thing about a Bible study is just, we're in control the whole time. We decide when we're going to go, we decide when we're going to pick up our Bible and read it. If we choose the books we want to study and we ignore the books we don't like God, starts getting in our grill in a Bible study, we just put the study down and quit for a while. But, so we still have control when we're just studying, when we're just gathering information. But when you climb out of your fishing boat and you have no idea where Jesus is taking you, you're not in control anymore. He is. And that's scary. And you know, we, we touched on that earlier. But, but that loss of control, that's why it's just, can I just go to another Bible study? Because, when I go to a Bible study, Jesus never makes me have to go work with the homeless or with people, of other races or people that go to the prisons. But, but if I follow him, who knows where he might lead? So I'll just go study. I'd love to study some more in the Book of Revelation. I'll just go study that instead. And, and Jesus is saying, you already know far more about me than you're applying now. Why just fill your head with more information? And, but, but a lot of our discipleship has basically been filled ahead, fill the head with more information. And there's nothing wrong with that except that it, it should never be a substitute for actually following Jesus.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, not too long ago, my husband went to a men's Wednesday night Bible study and they had several options for them to pick from. And he said it made me laugh, Richard, because he said the room that was overflowing, that there was standing room only, was the Revelation B. They ended up going, he and his, a couple of his friends ended up going to a Bible study about how to study the Bible. And there was three men in there, like three men. And they all sat around and had relationship with each other and talking about accountability and how to, how to study the Bible so that, how you can learn who Jesus is and how to recognize his voice and what his character is. And I feel like once you go to the word of God and you start to learn more about who Jesus is, that's going to be, be another metric test for is that the voice of God in your life? Is it consistent with his character as presented in his Word? You find that to be true.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: and does it lead to action? You know, yeah, like, like with Jesus, whenever he encountered somebody and invariably it was go, go into all the world, you know, as you're going do this. but, but there's, there's lots of discipleship programs that never leads to going, never leads to doing it. Just next week I can hardly wait to see what he has to say about, you know, the next chapter in Revelation. And it's so fascinating but you don't do anything about it. And so I would just say, I'm always suspicious of discipleship that never leads to action. just fills our head, crams it with some more stuff that tantalizes our imagination. and God's people just love to be tantalized and have Christian conspiracy theories and all kinds of things that we love to talk about.
Authentic Discipleship Leads To Action And Loving Your Neighbor
But meanwhile the homeless and the poor and the oppressed and the unsaved who've never heard the gospel are all around us and we're not doing anything about that. And I, just have a feeling that Jesus, you know, a funny story, years ago I had a kind of several. One weekend I had two different people in crisis show up at my house. Just desperate, just showed up one of them Sunday morning. And so I'm just trying to house these people and feed them and minister to them and they're broken. Good friends, good people, but both going through crisis. So we, we took them to church with us. But normally we'd go to the Sunday school hour, the Bible study hour first. And then we just couldn't navigate that. I'm feeding all these out of town guests so we, but we got to church for the service. I'm walking in but, but a friend of mine saw that I had missed the Bible study hour and he made this loud comment about not all of us value Bible study. And he was kind of teasing me, but I thought to myself, I've had so many Bible studies about loving your neighbor, I didn't need another Bible study about that today. God let me actually love My neighbor, he actually let me minister. And literally, if you missed a Bible study so that you could go with Jesus and do something, you probably get, you don't have perfect attendance in the Bible study. You must not be a very strong.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Hang on.
Dr. Jessica Peck: We're going to be right back after this next break. More with Dr. Richard Blackaby on the other side. We'll see you. Don't go away.
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God I'm Just Grateful by Chandler Moore and Elevation Worship: There was no way until you made one. Grace upon grace. Hallelujah. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it there. Who am I that you keep me on your. God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life you been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you, God. I'm sorry.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is God. I'm, just grateful. By Chandler Moore and Elevation Worship. And I am here today with Dr. Richard Blackaby, and he is author of a new book called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity.
Following Jesus Involves Trust Obedience Surrender And Enduring Discomfort
And we're having a really great, inspiring conversation about what does it mean today to follow Jesus? Now, we follow a lot of people. I think that is even more prevalent in modern society. It's normal to follow people because when we hear about the fall of a Christian influencer, the sin in their life, or their fall from their platform, we think, oh, oh, gosh, I, I followed her. I. I followed her on social media. I followed him. I followed his ministry. And we follow people, we follow influencers. But of course, the ultimate influencer is Jesus. Following Jesus isn't about just being inspired, feeling good about the content that somebody feeds you. It involves trust and obedience and surrender and sometimes leaving what feels comfortable and predictable. Just like the disciples left their fisherman nets, they left their boats and they followed Jesus. Jesus, as Dr. Blackaby said, did not get in their boat. They followed Jesus. Richard, what do you see in today's day and age? I see a lot of people following influencer content. And I think there's a lot of danger in that. it can be good, it can be inspiring. I know people are listening today, wanting some good encouragement, but there are also some dangers there and distortions of Jesus that can be presented, and we're not as careful as we should be about vetting the content that we have. What is the difference between, you know, between feeling good, like, looking for that feeling of, oh, I'm following Jesus, and I feel so good about it, and that. And actually the discipline of following Jesus, even when it can be scary or uncomfortable.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. And, you know, when you do, have people in your life, and they might be Christian leaders, Christian teachers, I always want to evaluate, is my walk with Jesus actually getting better? Am I hearing him better? Am I more obedient to him, or am I just. Now all I can think about is what this influencer tells me. Me. And I always worry about people that they start doing the thinking for you, you know, that you don't need to pursue God. I can tell you what God wants you to do. well, then there are all kinds of red flags should go off there. That's why I say, like, with my dad, he always drove me back to Jesus. And so really good disciplers are not necessarily the people that always have all the answers for you, but the ones who are the most faithful to drive you back to Jesus and make you have to go to that relationship. And then when you hear Jesus leading you to do a hard thing, they don't give you an escape. They hold your feet to the fire and say, have you followed yet? Are you doing what you told me Jesus wants you to do?
True Discipleship Drives You To Jesus Not To A Person
So, yeah, there's lots of people that want to guide you and tell you what to think and do. and I always evaluate them when I'm around that person. Does it drive me to Jesus, or do I just become enmeshed with this person's way of thinking and their rants and their, their soapboxes? or are they always just driving? In fact, my dad used to always say, when he was a pastor, he would say, now I'm As I'm preaching, he said, you need to have your Bibles open and everything I say you need to check, to check me, he said, like I'm trying to be biblical and God honoring, but, but I'm human. So even me, your beloved pastor, have your Bible there to check me out, make sure if I ever get off track, go with Jesus instead of me.
Dr. Jessica Peck: I really do wish I could have met your dad. He sounds like such a remarkable man and his ministry has influenced so many and you are carrying on that legacy, that family legacy so beautifully. And you know, to hear a pastor saying that check me, that is really a good thing. And I think it is really difficult in today's day and age to say things sometimes that are uncomfortable to say things that are countercultural, but say things that are, are in line with God's truth. And we really have very little tolerance for an uncomfortable feelings. Almost, almost an idolatry of our feelings. Like, like when we go to church, I, I'll hear people complain about the worship. Like, I don't, I'm not feeling that. Like I, I'm, I'm just not feeling that. That did not make me feel good. And really it's not about that good emotional experience. Like if you pray with the Lord like you're, it's always going to be amazing and refreshing. And I think about in my own life that when, and God has been just the closest to me when I felt the presence of Jesus so much. It's been in those tough times, it's been in those dark valleys.
Spiritual Maturity Involves Growth Discomfort And Enduring Hardship
It's been in those situations where I've begged the Lord for a different outcome or an answer and he has said no, but he has stayed with me. How do we move past just, chasing that good feeling and realize that being a disciple is disciplining ourselves to also endure some uncomfortable emotions sometimes?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. Well, that's why the subtitle about just God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. We, you know, with so much church discipleship today, we don't even know what spiritual maturity looks like. We don't, we don't. We measure maturity by attendance. If you, if you come every week, then you must be one of the more mature believers. But I've known people who've hardly missed a Sunday in 40 years who, some of the spiritually most immature people around down. But they're, they just, they love going to church, but they've never changed, they've never grown. And so, you know, I would just say to folks, Jesus is not interested in leading you into comfort. He's leading you into maturity. And maturity means that you get stretched. It means you have to use muscles and get sore and suffer disappointment and go through crises and hurts. And and you know, I, I've often said if you want to experience God as your comforter, you're going to have to, to be uncomfortable first. If you want him to be your shield, protector, then you're going to have to have enemies. If, if he's going to be your healer, then you got to be sick first. So, Jesus wants you to know him that way. He wants you to have the full experience of Him. And so if you follow him, he's. He, he knows where to lead you so that you have the kind of experiences that help you to grow up. And, and I can be sure if you always get what you want, you never experience disappointment or hurt. You're not going to grow up, in physically or, or spiritually. Jesus wants you to mature and so to become that adult that, that gets told no sometimes that, that things don't work out, that people turn on you and all you have left is Jesus. But through all of that, you look around, you realize, you know what? I'm not the same Christian I used to be. I, I challenge people all the time to say, are you the same Christian you were five years ago? Do you pray this? If I could, if I had a tape recording, recording a digital recording of you praying five years ago, and then I just record you praying this morning, would it be the very same? Like, you've had five more years to know God. Do you still talk to him the way you were five years ago? Or has your relationship with him gone to a deeper place? And so, yeah, that maturity, that's, that's part of where Jesus is leading you, is to places that will help you to grow up.
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, when I think of, of the words of scripture, we're told, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And people are so looking for the life hack, the instant fix, the, you know, the, the magic thing that's going to suddenly make everything better. We have no tolerance for long term struggle or, or, you know, character formation like you're talking about. You know, as a society we've kind of gotten pitiful about that because we're so used to modern creature comforts. And, and yet that can be kind of hard. You know, when we're saying, hey, follow Jesus. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. But he's come to give of joy, to give you the fullness of life. How do we say yes, follow him. It's not a magic cure, not an instant fix, not a guarantee for no hardship in your life, but it is still better. How, how do we, how do we walk that line and really convey the truth of that?
Dr. Richard Blackaby: Yeah. And of course you have to have experience. If you're going to convince someone else of that, you have to have experienced it yourself. Right. Worse. And my wife and I, My wife is the ultimate nurturer, caregiver, and we've got a couple grandkids right now playing sports that they've had some adversity and some losses and different things going on. And, and my, my wife hates that. She just hates sports and disappointment and someone's going to lose. And she, and I've had a lot of talks to say, yeah, but I don't like to see my kids lose either, or someone play dirty with them. But, but I also, I also don't want them to be babies. I want them to grow up, be mature and, and to be able to handle life however it comes. And, and you learn a lot of those lessons along the way. And so, you know, I, with people, I would just say just, you know, the great thing about when you're following Jesus, even when you go into the valley of the shadow of death, if you're following Jesus, you're with, you're with Jesus. And, and I, and so you might not be experiencing what you like, but at least he's with you. And as long as he's present, you'll discover that you've got all that you need. And he's enough, I'd rather have Jesus in a hard place than not have Jesus in a good place. and so just keep just going, follow. That's why I follow him, stays close. In fact, I tend. When I'm in a hard place, I tend to be walking even closer to Jesus.
Jesus' Presence In Hardship Provides All We Need
I'm right next to him, I'm holding on to him. And and, and, and I think Jesus likes that, that he likes that. When, yeah, when, you know, when I take Richard through this adversity, he draws closer to me. And that's the whole point. So why wouldn't he keep taking me into some hard places if I just instinctively get closer to him when I go through those times?
Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I remember one particular Thanksgiving when my husband had to have emergency surgery. We were really far from home in the middle of nowhere, Missouri. he had to have, ah, an Oral surgery. We were at an oral surgeon's office. I had no idea who this person was. I've got four little kids in the car trying to figure out, you know, what is going on. And I was so worried and so overwhelmed. And Richard, when I walked into the office, into that oral surgeon's office on Thanksgiving, the first thing I hear over the speaker is, your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. It was One Thing Remains by Christian Stanfield playing on the speakers of that office. And I looked over at the wall, and all I see is all of this oral surgeon's mission work. And the oral surgeon walks in, and I said, what made you come on Thanksgiving? You know, help a stranger? And. And he just pointed to the wall and was like, that is the Lord at work in my life. And I see so many times where, you know, I, wish that we hadn't had to have that experience, but to meet that. That just miraculous working of God and to know that he doesn't promise that my life is going to be perfect, but he does promise to never leave me, to never forsake me. And if I look at the options there, that this life is just the best that I can make it for my own human frailties, or I serve a God who, if he was small enough to be understood, wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped, and somehow is going to redeem and restore and renew and make all things better. That leads us to the eternal mindset. And that really is where our hope is, isn't it, Richard? That this life is not all there is, that one day we will meet Jesus face to face.
Sharing Generational Stories Of God's Faithfulness In Following Jesus
And that is the ultimate goal.
Dr. Richard Blackaby: And, you know, that's why you want to tell those stories to your kids. Kids like, you want to keep. Share your journey about you as you follow Jesus. Hey, you know, kids, let me tell you, like with my. With my wife, we. We had our, our firstborn, and we literally were down to our last jar of baby food. We had no more food and no money, no credit card. We were, obediently at school, trying to go to seminary. We have no money to feed our child, and down to the last jar, baby food. And then we get a random phone call from people that their kid just stopped eating baby food. And they've got all this baby they don't know what to do with. They were about to throw it out, and they just thought of us and thought, you know, no offense, Hope you're not offended that you. We're not. Don't Acting like you need charity or anything, but we're gonna throw in the garbage and you don't need it. It's like, wow. And then like my son was probably six months old when that happened. So later you tell him, son, you wouldn't even remember this, but you were down to your last jar of food. Food. And we just. But we were right where we knew God want us to be, but we didn't. It just didn't make sense. We didn't have money, feed our kid. And then let me tell you what happened. And so, and that, that's, I think, why generations start to all follow Jesus. Because each generation tells the story of their journey. Hey, as we follow Jesus, it was hard. It was tough. We were sick, we had to go to the hospital. But let me tell you what Jesus did. And you know what? When you're sick, when you're in the hospital, that same Jesus will be there for you too. And you just, generation by generation, you just develop this spiritual legacy of every generation we follow Jesus. And you'll find it's the best way to live your life too.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Richard, you've been such an encouragement to us today.
Intentionally Following Jesus Creates A Miraculous Everyday Life
I encourage our listeners to get a copy of the book called Following Jesus, God's Ancient Path to Spiritual Maturity. And I hope that you will take the invitation to follow Jesus. It really is, is the best way. And that is our source of hope that will never, ever disappoint us. But you can be intentional about creating a home where Jesus isn't just talked about on a Sunday, but our kids and our grandkids and our families and our friends and our neighbors. They see what it looks like to intentionally follow Jesus. And it's in that mundane of the everyday that becomes miraculous. And God is always at work. If you are open your eyes to see. If you start writing down the ways that Jesus is meeting you, even in that every day, you will see that there is so much to be grateful for, so much at work. Thank you so much, Dr. Blackaby, for reminding us discipleship isn't just something we do, it is someone we follow. That is such an encouraging message. And as you ponder that today, I pray as I always do, that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. And I pray that you will follow him. You will find that he is so, so good.
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I'll see you right back here tomorrow. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and has seen over 100,000 commitments to Christ. Will you join PreBorn in continuing this good work supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com/AFR
Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
In this episode, Jessica welcomes back Dr. Richard Blackaby to discuss the essence of discipleship in today's world. They delve into the challenges that families face in intentionally discipling their children amidst cultural distractions, particularly from technology and social media. Dr. Blackaby emphasizes the importance of modeling a genuine relationship with Jesus rather than merely attending church or participating in programs. He shares personal stories and insights on how to guide children to follow Christ authentically, highlighting that true discipleship is about relationship, trust, and obedience. Tune in for a conversation that encourages parents to take an active role in their children's spiritual journey.
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