Issue #139

Your weekly roundup of insights and resources to help you on your journey to becoming a more productive Christian.

​Read on the Web​

In Today’s Issue:

• How I find balance as a busy Christian
• The COMA Bible Study Method
• How to Make Yourself a Learning Machine
• Notion’s Newest AI Feature Is Insanely Useful
• A Great Book on Budgeting

Dear steward,

As I mentioned last week, I’m finally back to making videos and podcasts.

​You can watch the first video here. It's about finding balance as a busy Christian (you can also listen to it on your preferred podcast player)

I’m currently planning the production schedule for Q1 of next year, so let me know what topics you’d like me to cover in future videos!

Speaking of 2024…

At the end of each year, I host a free webinar on how to make a God-glorifying plan for the year to come.

This event is designed to help you:

• Get clarity on your priorities
• Set goals for the year to come
• Create visibility on your schedule
• And do it all with an eye toward honoring Christ

Plan Your 2024 for the Glory of God will be on December 15th at 12 p.m. EST. And it’s completely free to attend.

Hope you can make it!

​Register here.

• How could a good God allow evil?
• Is the Bible homophobic?
• Is Christ really the only way?

Whether you’re new to the faith or have been raised in Christianity your whole life, these questions have most likely crossed your mind, perhaps even creating serious doubts for yourself or someone you know.

If you want to deepen your own faith or help those who are struggling, we invite you to join us for our weekend seminar, “Christianity vs. Everybody,” hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

We’ll tackle these difficult questions, engage in helpful discussion, and also take time to have some fun together!

• When: January 6, 2024 – 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
• Who: Young adults (college & career)
• Where: First Baptist Church of Troy, MI (2601 John R Rd, Troy, MI 48083)

​How to Interpret the Bible: The COMA Bible Study Method (2 mins)

Micah Colbert / Rooted Thinking

This is a simple and helpful set of questions to help you better understand the Bible as you read it.

• Context
• Observation
• Meaning
• Application

The article shows 3–4 questions for each of those steps that will help you understand the passage you’re studying.

It’s also available as a PDF worksheet.

​How to Make Yourself Into a Learning Machine (13 mins)

Dan Shipper / Superorganizers

Here's a little inspiration for building your productivity systems.

It’s a deep dive into the learning system of Simon Eskildsen, Shopify’s Director of Production Engineering.

This one is definitely for the nerds. Simon has integrated Readwise with Anki's flashcard app and even a custom-built connected note-taking app.

​Notion’s Mind-Blowing New AI Feature (7 mins)

Thomas Frank Explains

With all the hype around AI, there’s just been one thing I’ve been waiting for—an AI that can help me interact with my own notes where they live.

Notion has just released a beta feature that does just this, and it’s actually insanely useful. This video shows what it is and how it works.

​Understanding the Purpose of Your Vocational Work (46 mins)

Christi Rose / Smiling at the Future

I had the opportunity to be on the Smiling at the Future podcast with Christi Rose this week. We talked about how believers honor God in their jobs, emphasizing how Christian women who desire marriage can make the most of their career vocation, even if they don’t view it as their final destination in life.

I have been an avid user of the finance app You Need a Budget for over a decade. I compare it to a digital version of the “envelope system” for money management. But the real backbone of YNAB (as it is affectionately called) is its four rules.

1. Give Every Dollar A Job. Be intentional about what you want your money to do before you spend it.
2. Embrace Your True Expenses. Break up more significant, less frequent expenses into smaller, more manageable amounts. By saving monthly for insurance premiums, holidays, or car repairs, your money is ready and waiting to do its job when the time comes.
3. Roll With The Punches. When life changes, so must your budget. Make adjustments and move along. Flexible budgets succeed because they’re guilt-free, realistic, and sustainable.
4. Age Your Money. As you repeat the first three rules, you’ll increase the time between when you earn a dollar and when you need to spend it. You'll finally break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle for good when your money is at least a month old.

The founder of YNAB, Jesse Mecham, wrote the book You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want back in 2017 to elaborate on how one can apply these rules to their budget. As I prepare to remake our family’s budget for 2024, I finally decided to read the book to get some inspiration, and I’ve really enjoyed it!

You don’t need to be a user of the YNAB software to benefit from the book, either. It’s more about the principles of money management. And I appreciate Machen’s emphasis on how your spending expresses your values, so we need to be intentional about it. Budgeting is just being intentional.

The approach taught in this book will be beneficial to anyone discouraged by budgeting in the past. It’s very step-by-step and has a lot of built-in flexibility that other budgeting systems do not.

Financial stewardship is an integral part of our Christian walk, and You Need a Budget might give you the practical tools you need to exercise more faithfulness in this area of life.

​How I find balance as a busy Christian (14 mins)

Everyone wants a more balanced life. But is balance really what Christians seeking to steward their lives for God should look for? In this video, I expand on one of my most popular articles, "The Myth of a Balanced Life."

​​​

That's all for this week.

Question for you: Do you use any type of system to keep track of things you're praying about? Could you reply and let me know what you use? I'm looking for ideas.

For His glory,

Reagan Rose

Reagan Rose

I talk about personal productivity from a Christian perspective. Creator of ​Redeeming Productivity​.

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