Part B of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Part B of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Show notes for Melinda Heath podcast “LIFESTYLE OF DAILY JOY” Episode #36 titled “Part B of Part 4 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about Discipleship” FAITH-FILLED spiritual wellness life actions for women. Helping women create sustainable, steadfast, unshakeable, authentic joyful abundant lives, the very joy that Jesus meant for us to have. Faith-led Podcast Life Coach   We all serve something or someone and that someone may very well be our own self. Beautiful soul I am glad you are here. I am Melinda Heath and I thank you for taking your precious time to tune into Lifestyle of Daily Joy episode #36 “Part B of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship.” If you would like, go ahead and take a moment to grab your favorite nutritional snack and beverage and we will dive in. We are continuing our discussion about taking up and carrying our cross as part B also had a long running duration because I was trying to fit the rest of what we have been discussing into it and there still is much to uncover and think about as well as to know about the heart that goes into us doing this. So, I decided I will divide this one too and add an additional episode regarding the subject- to lessen your listening time. So, then next week episode #37 will be part C of Part 4- the conclusion of taking up and carrying our cross, what Jesus means by this and how it looks in our life. I also have an exciting announcement at the end of today’s episode, so stay tuned for that. Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV) Mark 8:34-35 (NIV) Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) Galatians 5:24 (NIV) “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Galatians 6:14 (NIV) “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Romans 12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good pleasing and perfect will.” Colossians 3:2 (NIV) “Set your minds on things above not on earthly things.”  2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Philippians 4:6-8 (NIV) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”   1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) “Do not be mis-lead; Bad company corrupts good character.” John 10:10 (NIV) “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” Thank you for listening today, I hope you walk away from feeling impacted in one way or another and if you enjoyed today’s message will you please share with someone you know that you feel may benefit from it, I appreciate it. Announcement time. I have a giveaway I am planning to do, and all the details will be posted in the private Facebook community group. But what I will say here is I will be giving 1 bible to an individual who does not have one and would like one. I am also giving away a copy of my published book titled Refined. If you are interested in receiving a bible from me or a copy of my book, please send me an email expressing your interest. Now, if you choose to do this, please do not feel the need to send me your mailing address initially for I will request that when I know who the individuals will be. I do promise you that if you do email me about wanting to receive either one of these items, I will not be sending you any email other than about the giveaway so, no you will not be getting bombarded with daily, weekly or monthly emails about Lifestyle of Daily Joy, the only way you would receive something of that nature from me is you letting me know you would like to receive updates about the podcast via email on a regular basis, but other than that, this is simply for you to tell me yes I am interested in receiving a bible or yes I am interested in receiving a copy of your book. So, be checking on the Facebook group Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community for the other details regarding this give away. I do want to say- that I believe the best and most fair way to do this is the first individual who emails me expressing interest will be the ones who receive them. I also feel it will be fair that one person will receive a bible and a different individual will receive a copy of my book.  There are three ways you can connect with me Email Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] My landing page https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] and in the free private Facebook group I created for us called Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community. It is a place I use for announcements, for those who are interested in building positive relationships, encourage, support, and uplift one another, as well as a space to request prayer. If you would like to become a member, I am inviting you to do so. Meet you on the inside of Episode #36 "Part B of Part 4 What Does it Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship."

Part A of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus-Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Show notes for Melinda Heath podcast “LIFESTYLE OF DAILY JOY” Episode #35 titled “Part A of Part 4 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about Discipleship” FAITH-FILLED spiritual wellness life actions for women. Helping women create sustainable, steadfast, unshakeable, authentic joyful abundant lives, the very joy that Jesus meant for us to have. Faith-led Podcast Life Coach   We serve a merciful God for he does not give us what we deserve regarding our sins but rather he loves us through our mess-our mess ups, our bad decisions-our poor choices, our faults, our shame, our guilt, our less than desirable ways, our darkness. And with the kind of loving heart that he has toward us- we should want to be different than we have been in our life, not feel we have to, but for our heart to want to change our ways- for our heart and desire to yearn to become like him- because of his great love, mercy, and grace that he extends to us and because of the gratitude we feel toward him.   Thank you for being here and tuning in. My name is Melinda Heath, and I welcome you to Lifestyle of Daily Joy episode #35 “Part A of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship.” If you haven’t already- take a moment to grab your favorite nutritional snack and beverage and we are diving right in. This episode is a bit long in length as there are many sentiments I would like to share with you for there is so much to be said and for you to understand before we start concluding our discipleship series. And so, I have decided to divide it up in two as I have done recently with another episode, I am hoping you do not mind as I am not wanting to not make the duration so lengthy as I want to be considerate of your time. Today, we will be continuing this series as we will be talking about taking up and carrying our cross daily, which can be considered the foundation of discipleship.  Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV)  Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) Mark 8:34-35 (NIV) Galatians 2:20-21 (NIV) Luke 14:27 (NIV) three main requirements or means rather if we are to take up and carry our cross and they include self-denial-making ourselves a lesser priority, what we want in life. complete surrender of personal will and continuous daily commitment to follow Christ regardless of the personal cost. Matthew 10:38 (NIV) And so, if we were to break down what taking up and carrying our cross is, it would be this. It is serving Christ, serving others through Christ rather than living to serve our selves. Deny yourself- to stop feeding your own ego- to stop boasting about yourself-to stop making your desires and independent goals to be the most important in your life. Die to self- this is putting personal pride, comfort, and status behind you to align fully with what Christ asks of us in this life. Follow Jesus- this is you walking in the direction and manner Christ leads- with no plan to turn back. Active obedience by keeping your commitment to God and others even when it may call for hard work or sacrifice. And acceptance of this life- by enduring life as it comes with our faith intact for example- the things in this life that we will possibly experience such as unavoidable hardships, sickness or scorn or persecution from others and going through or enduring this without us feeling anger or bitterness toward God. I would like to thank you for listening today, I am hoping though we are dividing the episode that you are able to walk away with some things that will impact your life in a good way, some things that you found are good takeaways. Would you please share with others who you know you think may enjoy this episode so they too can hear this message? I would greatly appreciate it. I would also like to apologize for my once again being late in getting this to you as I have explained in a few of my previous episodes I have been needing to focus on taking care of my dog as her health is failing. Both Friday this past week and Saturday were extremely difficult days she needed me to be by her side as she was struggling. And the thing is just so you are aware it has become and is becoming more difficult to get my podcast to you on time due to my caring for her taking a lot more of my time and I appreciate your patience and understanding during this season of our life in my caring for my sweet girl as well as in this season of Lifestyle of Daily Joy. You are amazing my beautiful soul. You can connect with me 3 ways Email Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] My landing page https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] and in the free private Facebook group I created for us called Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community. It is a place I use for announcements, for those who are interested in building positive relationships, encourage, support, and uplift one another, as well as a space to request prayer. If you would like to become a member, I am inviting you to do so. And I encourage you to check out the community group as I have been posting several songs for you to listen to if you are interested, they go along with the subjects I have been discussing in the last couple of months, they are meant for you to enjoy and be of encouragement to you. I believe there are 5 or 6 songs so far that I have shared in there. So, check them out. Meet you on the inside of episode #35 "Part A of Part 4 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship."

Part 3 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Show notes for Melinda Heath podcast “LIFESTYLE OF DAILY JOY” Episode #34 titled “Part 3 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about Discipleship” FAITH-FILLED spiritual wellness life actions for women. Helping women create sustainable, steadfast, unshakeable, authentic joyful abundant lives, the very joy that Jesus meant for us to have. Faith-led Podcast Life Coach In biblical discipleship he calls us to free our soul, to free our spirit in Jesus, free it from sin. Freedom is what a life with Christ is about, freedom from being a slave to our darkness, and from the world’s ways. It is from self-will to God’s will- surrendering to Christ, it calls us to free ourselves from things that hold us down, from things that hinder you from having a relationship with Christ or good healthy relations with others, from things that are or could be destroying you or your life- things perhaps such as- differing types of addiction, anxiety- stress or worry- things that bring harm to ourselves or others- let him help you break those chains break those bondages of whatever you might be facing or dealing with, things you are struggling with, it doesn’t mean then your life is going to be perfect, life is still going to be life, it may still be difficult but he is going to be walking and going through it with you, getting you to where you need to be- helping you to heal, and be able to fulfill his purpose and plan for you, getting you onto the path he meant for you to be on. You just need to hang onto him through your faith, he’s got a plan, he’s got a purpose, and he calls on us to trust in it fully. Welcome beautiful soul- thank you for choosing to spend your time with me. I am Melinda Heath. If you are new to Lifestyle of Daily Joy, I am glad you are here listening in to episode #34 part 3- What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship.” And if you have heard previous episodes, it is wonderful you have come back to tune in again. Okay, grab your favorite nutritional snack and beverage and pen or pencil and some paper as well as your bible if you have one and we will get started. Today we will be continuing our conversation about discipleship and things we weren’t told when accepted Christ and it will be surrounding what is called counting the cost of following Jesus what this means biblically what it means to Jesus and how that may look in our life. And then toward the end I have several scripture verses I plan to share with you that I believe will offer encouragement for you as well as will be clarifying several things I have covered over the last few episodes to explain things a bit better or more clearly as I listened back to them and thought my clearing up what I have shared a bit more may be helpful for you. Alright- let us get to it- counting the cost to being his disciple- that cost simply is making the decision to be committed to putting Jesus above anyone or anything in our life. Making him first above all things. And there is 1 scripture verse that talks about counting the cost and we will talk about this in detail. Luke 14:28-33 (NIV) Matthew 6:24 (NIV) Jesus’ words John 6:66-69 (NIV) Psalm 32:8 (NIV) Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) Philippians 3:7-14 (NIV) Thank you for taking your valuable time in listening today, I hope there was something that you can take away from the message that will be useful for you. If you enjoyed the episode would you please share with those you know who may enjoy it too. Thank you so much. Next week for episode #35 will be titled “part 4 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about discipleship” as we are starting to finish up this series and will be getting into one last aspect of things we weren’t told when we accepted Christ. You can connect with me 3 ways Email Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] My landing page https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] and in the free private Facebook group I created for us called Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community. It is a place I use for announcements, for those who are interested in building positive relationships, encourage, support, and uplift one another, as well as a space to request prayer. If you would like to become a member, I am inviting you to do so. And I encourage you to check out the community group as I have been posting several songs for you to listen to if you are interested they go along with the subjects I have been discussing in the last couple of months, they are meant for you to enjoy and be of encouragement to you. I believe there are 5 or 6 songs so far that I have shared in there. Meet you on the inside of "Part 3 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship."

Part B of Part 2 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus-Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Show notes for Melinda Heath podcast “LIFESTYLE OF DAILY JOY” Episode #33 titled “Part B of Part 2 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about Discipleship” FAITH-FILLED spiritual wellness life actions for women. Helping women create sustainable, steadfast, unshakeable, authentic joyful abundant lives, the very joy that Jesus meant for us to have. Faith-led Podcast Life Coach I am so glad you are here beautiful soul, I am Melinda Heath and I welcome you to Lifestyle of Daily Joy episode #33 Part B of Part 2 “What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical truths about discipleship.” Luke 14:25-26 Matthew 10:37 (NIV) Matthew 22:36-39 Luke 10-25-37 John 13:34-35 Galatians 5:13 1 peter 4:8 Exodus Old Testament 20:12 (NIV) Thank you so much for taking your precious time to listen today. I pray you were inspired or touched in your heart by today’s message. I pray it has impacted you in a good way somehow and if you enjoyed it will you please share it with others, I would greatly appreciate it. You can connect with me 3 ways Email Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] My landing page https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com] and in the free private Facebook group I created for us called Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community. It is a place I use for announcements, for those who are interested in building positive relationships, encourage, support, and uplift one another, as well as a space to request prayer. If you would like to become a member, I am inviting you to do so. Meet you on the inside of "Part B of Part 2 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths About Discipleship". Thank you for listening.

Part A of Part 2 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus-Biblical Truths About Discipleship

Show notes for Melinda Heath podcast “LIFESTYLE OF DAILY JOY” Episode #32 titled “Part A of Part 2 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical Truths about Discipleship” FAITH-FILLED spiritual wellness life actions for women. Helping women create sustainable, steadfast, unshakeable, authentic joyful abundant lives, the very joy that Jesus meant for us to have. Faith-led Podcast Life Coach   Biblical discipleship God never meant for it to be diluted or sugar-coated. No, he is very clear on what this life is, what it will take, what we must do if we want it, there is no confusion regarding the life he calls his followers to, the one who willingly accepts the charge of being his disciple. I believe as I have seen and heard it time and again in the many churches I have attended over the years biblical discipleship was in fact watered down and sweetened- as Jesus’ bar and standards were not talked about, what his biblical truth and the type of life with him calls us to live, this was not talked about, they did not focus on Christ in regard to how we are to be, that we are meant to be transforming to be more like him, no they focused more on what God is going to do for us instead- instead of how we are supposed to be living in discipleship for this way of life in many of those churches was not mentioned, the type of faith a life with Christ will take was not mentioned, they focused on what their idea of following him is, not from Christs biblical perspective but basically what I call having been neatly packaged up with a pretty bow and allowing those who are listening to their sermons to believe they are good, that this life doesn’t call for more than basically to pray and have God help us in our life. But the truth is, the bible lacks zero clarity in what this really is, and it is one of those things we, you most likely were not told. I as I am sharing biblical discipleship with you and are speaking about it, I will not be watering it down, I will not be sugar-coating it, I will not be diluting it in any way. I am going to give it to you straight, exactly the way Jesus meant for us to understand and live it, and it is non-negotiable for him, his words about biblical discipleship are non-negotiable. For this means we don’t get to say well I don’t really like that, I don’t really want to do that, so I am just going to do this or only follow the scripture I do like. That my sister- is not biblical discipleship- it is either you are willing to live the life he calls us to, or you are not.   Hi there! I am Melinda Heath- welcome to Lifestyle of Daily Joy episode #32 “Part 2 What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Biblical truths about discipleship.” I am excited you are here. If you haven’t already, go ahead and grab your favorite nutritional snack and beverage and we are diving right in. I would like to apologize as I am getting this out incredibly late to you for I made an important announcement last week Wednesday June 17, 2026 in the private Facebook Community group Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community regarding what is going on with my podcast and that I may be late in getting this to you explaining my computer, the one I use for podcasting ended up needing repair for it wouldn’t do what I needed it to do as I had been having technical trouble with it lately as you may have heard me mention in recent episodes this happening and it got to a point I could not get on to the podcasting site or much of anything else and because of this, I was not able to get this episode recorded or published on time however, I have my computer back and we are going to see how it goes, hopefully well, and as I am working to get back on track, I would like to thank you for your patience with me. With all this having taken place, I would like to let you know if something like this happens again, God willing it won’t… but if it does, the only way I will be able to let you know that I am not able to get an episode to you is either in the Facebook community group or by emailing you to provide you updated information regarding what is happening with Lifestyle of Daily Joy so if you would like to receive information about it then you can find it in the group or send me an email and I can respond back to you with the goings on and I will give you my email at the end and it is in the show notes as well. I also would like to let you know I have shared several songs in our community group that speak of what I have been talking about these last couple of months so go in and tune into them. Ephesians 1:4-5 (NIV); 1:11 Romans 8:28 (NIV) Matthew 6:21 There are 3 ways you can connect with me By email Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [Melinda@lifestyleofdailyjoy.com]   My simple landing page https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com [https://www.lifestyleofdailyjoy.com]   and in the free private Facebook group I created for us called Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community. It is a place I use for important announcements, for those who are interested in building positive relationships, encourage, support, and uplift one another, as well as a space to request prayer. If you would like to become a member, I am inviting you to do so. Thank you for downloading and listening in.  Meet you on the inside of episode #32 "Part A of Part 2 What Does it Really Mean to Follow Jesus? Biblical Truths of Discipleship" and go into Lifestyle of Daily Joy Community on Facebook to tune in to the music or the songs I have shared that go with what I have been speaking about last several weeks. Enjoy