Introduction

In a world filled with distractions and challenges, individuals seeking a profound and transformative relationship with their faith often find solace and strength in the concept of deep discipleship. Deep discipleship goes beyond surface-level engagement with one’s faith and delves into the core of spiritual growth, fostering a connection that is both intimate and enduring. This journey is paved with essential elements such as small groups, mentorship, and a purposeful curriculum. This blog explores the significance of these components, emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive study curriculum that includes accountability and the practice of confessing one’s sins. We’ll also shed light on Thistlebend Ministries’ women’s study curriculum, particularly the “Falling in Love Again with Your Lord” series.

The Power of Small Groups

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” – Matthew 18:20

Small groups form the backbone of deep discipleship, providing a space for individuals to connect, share, and grow together. In the context of faith, these groups create a sense of community and accountability, fostering an environment where members can openly discuss their struggles and victories. The intimacy of small groups enables individuals to build relationships that go beyond the surface, creating a supportive network for their spiritual journey.

Discipleship: Guiding the Way

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.” – Proverbs 19:20

Thistlebend studies incorporate discipleship within large group, small group, and smaller “Bring the Truth to Life”* group formats. These work together to provide spiritual guidance and offer wisdom, encouragement, support, and accountability to those navigating their faith journey. This allows for a greater understanding of themselves, provides growth opportunities, and fosters a connection with God that transcends mere intellectual instruction.

Curriculum: A Blueprint for Growth

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” – Psalm 119:105

An effective study curriculum acts as a blueprint for spiritual growth, guiding individuals through intentional and purposeful learning. A well-structured curriculum addresses various aspects of faith, incorporating elements like accountability and the practice of confessing one’s sins. Thistlebend Ministries’ “Falling in Love Again with Your Lord” series, based on Psalm 63, exemplifies a curriculum designed for deep discipleship.

Thistlebend Ministries: Nurturing Spiritual Thirst

Thistlebend Ministries understands the profound thirst individuals have for a deeper connection with their Lord. The “Falling in Love Again with Your Lord” series takes women on a transformative journey through twelve chapters, delivered monthly. Grounded in Psalm 63, this series focuses on entering into divine communion with the Lord and growing to love Him with heart, soul, mind, and strength each day. The testimonies of women from diverse backgrounds and churches attest to the radical heart and life transformation experienced through this Thistlebend Bible study.

Conclusion

Deep discipleship is not a solitary pursuit but a collective journey that thrives on community, discipleship, and purposeful curriculum. Small groups provide a supportive environment, encourage accountability, and offer guidance, and a comprehensive curriculum acts as a roadmap for growth. Thistlebend Ministries’ “Falling in Love Again with Your Lord” series exemplifies a curriculum that meets these criteria, facilitating radical heart and life transformation. As individuals embark on this journey of deep discipleship, they discover a thirst-quenching relationship with the Lord that surpasses the challenges of a dry and weary land.

*“Bring the Truth to Life” is an integral part of our studies and is described in the Welcome section of each study.

Usually when I sit down to write a blog I generally just write about whatever the Lord has been teaching me lately. Recently, I was due to turn in a blog post and was praying about what to write as the only thing that kept coming to my mind I felt as if I had already written previously. At the risk of sounding super repetitive, however, I want to share what the Lord has been laying on my heart, particularly in this new season I find myself in with two little boys—one 17 months old and one four weeks old. I desperately need and you desperately need the Gospel.

What is the Gospel? There’s many verses that I could point you to that could sum up the Gospel, lately I’ve been thinking through Romans chapters five and six. “God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). All of us are sinful at birth, completely dead in our trespasses and sins with no hope of doing anything to reconcile ourselves to a holy, cannot be in the presence of sin God (Psalm 51:5, Ephesians 2:1-5, Romans 3:10-12). Referring back to Romans 5, however, our creator God loved us and had a plan to reconcile us back to Himself—Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself and came to earth as a baby, fully God and fully man and lived a perfect life for us, went to the cross to be crucified, take on the full wrath of God, the penalty for our sins, was dead and buried and then three days later He rose again, defeating sin and death forever and is now seated at the right hand of God. Placing our faith in Jesus and the Gospel allows us to have new life in Christ and we too then die to sin and can live to righteousness by His grace. This is a brief summing up of the amazingness that is the Gospel, if you would like to know more please contact Thistlebend through this post, on our website, or on any of our social media sites for any questions or more information.

The Gospel can sometimes be looked at as something that saves us, but then doesn’t get much thought beyond that. I’m learning more and more that the Gospel is not something that I need just once, but it is something I need every single day, every moment of every single day. I recently asked the Lord why I do laundry every day. I’ve heard people say that even the most mundane tasks matter and can bring glory to God, but in my exhausted mind after no sleep from our newborn and a whiny toddler all day, I couldn’t see how my doing laundry or any other small task that I do every day really mattered in the grand scheme of eternity. I couldn’t understand how that could possibly bring God glory. For the record here, I’m not saying you have to do laundry every day, I’m just giving an example of something that could easily be seen as no big deal. He sweetly brought scriptures from Colossians 3, Titus 2, Romans 12, Philippians 2 and many others to mind and helped me process the Gospel through the lens of doing laundry and why the Gospel makes it matter. Romans 6:13 says, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” I have been brought from death to life and so everything matters because of the Gospel, I am a slave to righteousness in Jesus because of what He did for me. This is so worthy to think on moment by moment because it causes such rejoicing and joy when you really believe it for the reality that it is if you are in Jesus. And this is such a perspective changer when both your babies are screaming uncontrollably, and both are smelling your house up with poopy diapers too ha-ha!

Like I said, I know I’ve written about this before, but if you don’t need to read it again, that’s ok, I just needed to write it out and think on it myself because goodness how easy it is to forget this beautiful, amazing reality when everything else that seems more real in our everyday world, like a mountain of laundry, is right in our face. I recently just finished a book by Gloria Furman called Missional Motherhood she said, “Discipleship is like waking up to remember that we are alive in Christ over and over and over again a hundred times a day, until the day when we no longer need to be reminded that we are in Christ forever because we can see Him.” So here’s one of your hundred reminders for today!

Planted for His Glory

A while ago I made a commitment to contribute as a writer twice a month to Bloom. I have not written a blog in a very long time. I had many reasons as to why I hadn’t written in a while. One, I would tell myself “Today is the day I will write!” but not surprisingly this would turn in to the next day which turned into another day and then another just because of excuses I could make in that particular day. Two, I could not justify being involved in an area that I felt so weak in and three, I found other tasks or mindless things to do that did not require my writing at all, but did occupy my time and keep me from this commitment (TV, Phone, Social Media).

I share this with you not to announce that I have FINALLY written a blog, but to share how the Lord used this season of my life to illustrate very clearly for me that pride is sneaky!

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly came out of this ridiculous funk of having absolutely no desire to write. I wanted to make sure that my blog posts would be “inspirational” or thought provoking to readers and I just felt as if I had nothing to contribute. I went from having a season of no inspiration and just plain ole discouragement about my writing to actually feeling as though I could contribute SOMETHING! I was ready to write because on this night Colossians 1:9-14 was brought to life in a whole new way for me.

Here is the scripture I had read from the Daily Light devotional that impacted my heart so greatly:

9 “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11  being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

I picked up my personal Bible, turned to Colossians 1 and continued in my reading. As I poured over word after word again, highlighter in hand, and journal in the other, I finally came to verses 15-29. This would have concluded the chapter for me, but what was even more exciting was as I was reading I thought that I could actually have two blogs that would hopefully read well and would be packed with what I thought was worth-while head knowledge. But just as quickly as I became excited about being suddenly inspired, I burned out and I became annoyed. Yes, I became annoyed while reading the Bible, I found myself being distracted. I told myself “Just stop, wait a moment, read through it again” As I said this to myself, I closed my eyes tightly and tried to refocus my brain but I could not. This studying and thought provoking quiet time I was having for the blog, started falling apart. Every thought fell out of my head as quickly as it came into it.

This was so frustrating. I felt like I could clearly articulate my thoughts on what I had learned from verses 1-14. I could not lose that. I could not be seen as not keeping my word regarding my commitment to the blog again! But unfortunately, my train of thought was gone and I found myself consumed with even more distractions. My brain felt foggy. I’ve felt so weak when it comes to my blog posts, that nothing I write brings any new revelations for readers. I was so sure the Lord was going to allow some major “light bulb” moments for me so that I could contribute once again to the blog the way I thought I needed to, and when that didn’t happen the way I thought it should, the focus shifted from Christ to self.

I want so badly to feel as if I am a strong writer, to be like my mentor and people I admire. To be able to construct this masterfully worded perspective on a particular passage is something I deeply desired. Let me be real, a lot of times when I am not at the level I THINK I should be, I do a ton of “Lord, why would you have me even involved in something I feel so weak in,” or I flat out avoid anywhere that I feel weak.

So, in frustration I got up from my desk and asked the Lord for His grace and mercy to show me why I was struggling so hard in this. Was there something I was missing, or is this His way of saying that I should not continue on with this commitment? In no time it came to my attention that I approached my time with Him not with eager expectation, but in pride. I have wrongly questioned the Lord and his plan for the commitment He has called me to. I would even say I wrestled and fought with it.

He gently showed me why I struggled to be obedient. I hate being weak. Like many people, I feel extremely uncomfortable with being weak, vulnerable, exposed, and wrong. All this outweighed my desire to fully surrender and allow the Lord to have all areas of my life—including a small commitment to contribute to a blog.

I was reminded that The Lord is not only going to allow scripture to come into a new light for me in different seasons of life, but He is also going to be constantly shining a light on my sin, showing me the areas I have knowingly or unknowingly resisted complete surrender to Him. He does not do this for me to be ashamed, but because of His deep love for me. You all, if He did not love me, He would not correct me. He could allow me to foolishly walk through life without correction. And you know what? God would be completely justified in doing so, He has no need for man’s pride.

He mercifully showed me that my pride was impairing my vision and mind. I could not see I had taken this beautiful passage in the Bible and tried to turn it in a way to promote self, to behave as though I had pridefully grown in understanding. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help fellow sisters and brothers in Christ by placing each other in remembrance of God’s word, but when I am doing so in a manner just so that I can boast or feel proud, then it is wrong and I am in serious danger of stripping away from the message found in scripture pointing to Christ and what He has done for us on the cross. Sadly, I wanted to use this passage to show that I could finally try and be strong in an area where He has not necessarily called me to be strongest, but to simply be obedient, and I’m learning that’s okay!

When I read Colossians over, it was humbling to realize that despite myself, despite my futile human thinking, Christ still loves me. Just to think, I can rejoice with gladness when I read how He has qualified me, a gentile, who had no claim to the promise God made to His people. It is only because Christ Jesus made a way. Despite my need to be approved by man I am loved deeply by my Savior. Jesus came to the earth, He lived, died, and rose again so that I can be counted among those who have been redeemed.

This saving grace does not get handed out based upon my ability to write a blog, or my ability to be the most articulate student of the Word, or my ability at all. It is an honor to serve the Lord in any capacity, in any way He would have me lay aside self so that He alone is glorified. I want my prayer to be “Nevertheless, Your will be done in every area of my life.”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2: 8-9).

All for His glory