The Word for Everyday Disciples with Dave DeSelm
A weekly podcast bringing biblical teaching to everyday people in ways they can understand and put into practice. Visit us at DaveDeSelmMinistries.org.
Episodes
264 episodes
Faith, Suffering, and Hope: a conversation with Dave DeSelm
Today’s episode is different.In June of 2025, Dave was diagnosed with stage IV esophageal cancer. And so, after five years of weekly teaching, this will be the final new episode of The Word for Everyday Disciples.Rather t...
Christmas: The Bells of Belief
There is a popular holiday movie based on an award-winning children’s book called “The Polar Express.” In the story, a young boy is unable to hear the bells at Christmas. The reason? The disappointment of life had dimmed his belief and wonder. ...
Talking with God: Prayer Busters
In our last episode, we talked about the mystery of unanswered prayer. There are times when God, in His sovereignty and love, chooses to say “No” to our requests.However, the Bible also tells us that our Father loves to say “Yes” to His ...
Talking with God: The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer
Have you ever begged God for something that mattered more than anything — and He didn’t come through the way you hoped? That very thing happened to the great King David. After years of conquest, Israel was now unified and at peace. ...
Talking with God: Ingredients for Intimacy
When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that prayer wasn’t a responsibility to be pushed into for Him; it was a relationship to be pulled into. It was in prayer where He found rest, strength, and direction, and where He experienced the Father...
Talking with God: Ready, Willing, and Able
It has often been said that prayer is the greatest force in the universe. And yet, it remains a largely untapped resource for so many Christians. Why is that?There are a lot of reasons why we don’t pray, but I think they can be summarize...
Joshua: As for Me and My House
As we come to the end of our journey through the book of Joshua, our hero is now elderly—over 100 years old. He realizes his time of leading his people will soon be over. So, he calls the people together and gives a remarkable farewell speech.&...
Joshua: Rush to Judgment
They were ready to fight. They thought they knew the truth. They were wrong.Joshua 22 shows how fast things can go wrong when we rush to judgment. As the Israelites were making their way northward toward Canaan, some of the t...
Joshua: Possessing the Land
After twelve chapters of action, miracles, and conquest, our journey through the book of Joshua enters a long stretch of mind-numbingly boring descriptions of towns and boundaries. What in the world could the division of the land into tribal te...
Joshua: When the Going Gets Tough
When the going gets tough—and the battles don’t end as quickly as we hoped—it’s easy to grow weary and discouraged. That’s where Israel found themselves in Joshua 11. Victory didn’t come in a single day or even a single campaign. It took years ...
Joshua: Sun, Stand Still
Today, we’re going to be considering one of the most remarkable occurrences in all the Bible. It happened on a day when an ordinary man asked an extraordinary God for a miracle of the highest order. He asked for the sun to stand still. An...
Joshua: The Agony of Defeat
If there’s one lesson to learn from today’s message, it’s this: As freely as God’s blessing is given to those who obey, it can be removed from those who disobey.After Israel’s miraculous victory at Jericho, the next strategic targ...
Joshua: Strategy for City-Taking
The story about how the walls of Jericho came “a-tumblin’ down” is a favorite. But it’s also the target of a great deal of skepticism. Today, we’re going to look briefly at three of the most frequently asked questions related to the battle of J...
Joshua: Moving Forward God's Way
You would think that after miraculously parting the torrent of the flooded Jordan River, bringing fear to their enemies, God would have said to Joshua, “Now, go! Strike hard and fast while you have the momentum!” But He didn’t. God brought ever...
Joshua: Lessons from a Shady Lady
She wasn’t anyone’s first pick for a hero, but God had other ideas. She showed a courageous faith that changed her life—and history—forever.Her name was Rahab, a disreputable woman from the pagan Canaanite city of Jericho. The word the B...
Joshua: Be Strong and Courageous
As we open the book of Joshua, our hero is standing at the edge of the Promised Land, the destiny they have been hoping for. He is entering the third “leg” of his journey of faith. For the first 40 years of Joshua’s life, he was a s...
Abiding in Joy: The Joy of Celebrating
We’ve been talking about how to build a big connection to Jesus because the stronger the connection, the better the fruit, and the greater the joy. In this message, I want to look at a practice we don’t often think about in terms of spiritual r...
Abiding in Joy: The Joy of Praying
In this series, we’ve been exploring ways to build a strong connection with Jesus. In John 15, He calls it “abiding” in Him. What we’ve discovered is that the stronger the connection, the better the fruit and the greater the joy.
Abiding in Joy: The Joy of the Word
In John 15, Jesus tells us that if we hope to have lives of fruitfulness and joy, we must abide in Him. We must remain intimately connected with Him at the soul level. The stronger the connection, the better the fruit and the greater the joy...
Abiding in Joy: The Joy of Resting
In John 15, Jesus uses the analogy of a vineyard to describe the life of a disciple. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. Like branches grafted into a grapevine, so it is with our relationship with Christ: the stronger the connection, th...
Counterfeit Gods: Wrestling with God
With the powerful hold idols have over us, is there any hope that we might dethrone these counterfeit gods? The answer is, “Yes!” …IF we take to heart this foundational truth. Idols cannot simply be removed – they have to ...
Counterfeit Gods: Money Talks
You’ve probably heard the saying “Money talks.” What would money say to you if it wanted to be your idol? And what might God say in contrast?1. Money says: “Look at how much more others have than you.”
Counterfeit Gods: The Search for Love
An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your attention and affection more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.Idols can take on many forms: money, success, power, popula...
Counterfeit Gods: Good Things Gone Bad
Most of us believe nothing could be better than seeing our dreams come true. In that pursuit of happiness, it never enters our minds that getting our heart’s desires could, in fact, be the worst thing that ever happened to us. Good things can g...
Counterfeit Gods: The Idol Factory
The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel wrote, “These men have set up idols in their hearts.” (Ex. 14:3) I would suggest that those words written thousands of years ago could easily apply to us. Though we may not bow to idols of stone or woo...
