Latest / The UNWavering Podcast / God's Word is Alive | Dr. Robin Bell

Transcript

God's Word is Alive | Dr. Robin Bell · The UNWavering Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, this is Monty and Cassie.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: And welcome to another episode of the Unwavering Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today is part three of a three-part series where we have been exploring what it really means to have an unwavering love for God's Word.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And today we have the chance to talk with Dr.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Bell.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that you will learn, I have a hunch, in this conversation is that Dr.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Bell is passionate about how, yes, God's word is alive, but also how it transforms us and what happens when the word of God, who is alive, Jesus, has a chance to impact our life.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't wait to have this conversation.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Join as we highlight the people, the purpose, and the pulse of Northwestern.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Unwavering Podcast.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Our guest today is Dr.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Robin Bell.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Bell, or Brother Bell, as he says and probably prefers, serves on the faculty at University of Northwestern St.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, where he teaches and mentors students with a passion for spiritual formation, theology, and transformational learning.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Before joining Northwestern, he spent more than 14 years serving in multicultural ministry, pastoral leadership, and youth development throughout Minneapolis, St.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, and Milwaukee.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Robin's heart is helping people experience not only knowledge about God, but genuine transformation through a living encounter with Jesus Christ and his word.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Dr.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Bell, it's fantastic to have you here.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Unwavering Podcast.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Good to be here.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you for being here.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna start as Dr.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Bell.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: We'll work our way to Brother Bell by the end of this podcast.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and and a little preface, uh, Dr.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Bell, if you could.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I know if you could just keep the volume at a manageable level as we record this episode.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pick it up a little bit.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: For you listening, um Dr.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Bell oftentimes is doing class in the room next door to our office, and I can hear him getting excited about his material.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're very excited to have you here.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, speaking of which, what are you teaching this semester?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, this semester, ethnicity and race, cultural awareness and leadership, social justice from the perspective of Jesus, ministry in a globalized world, and there's one more.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, leadership workshop.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Just a couple classes.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: A few.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm gonna come audit.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to hear about those topics.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that's awesome.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, what is the Lord teaching you these days?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_04: Boy boy, you're starting trouble.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um What I'm learning is that Jesus' teachings are transform are transforming.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_04: They are rooted in a powerful source.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's why they're transformed.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I call it the love ethic relationship with his father.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: When what does that mean?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, try to give you an example.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm ordained in a couple uh denominations traditions.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I have some, I don't know, institutional authority, denominational authority.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_04: Jesus didn't have that.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't need it.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_04: He was ordained by the power of God, his father.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_04: And people heard it when John the Baptist baptized him.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's where his authority comes from.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's a powerful perspective because uh all throughout the the Gospels, people are saying, you teach as if you're one with authority, right?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: And it was because of his relationship that we can have too.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: Very cool.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: Pretty cool.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is that a topic you're gonna touch on in any of your classes?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_04: My classes are laboratories.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can see that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you spent a lot of time thinking about how people grow spiritually, and how did how did that come about?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what drew you to that topic?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man, yeah.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: God is good.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_04: I came from Des Moines, Iowa, and landed in uh Southern California.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: And wow, talk about diversity.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: And um my second year, I was living near Skid Row.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: You have to look that up, but that's a rough place.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: Homelessness.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I was in this old hotel.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway, I came to Jesus, some people, um John Singleton and his wife, they shared the gospel to me.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: I said to Jesus in my heart.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Went home, woke up that morning and had an after-effect.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: When I came back from community college, I was commuting, someone had passed away next door to where I was living, and the lady knew I didn't have much, and she said, Um, do you need any cookware?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Yes.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I noticed a um a Bible, a little Bible, King James.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_04: It was very, very old.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: She said, Would you like that Bible?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I did.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: I took it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_04: I read John, the Gospel of John.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't get too far.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm talking about the first ten verses in John.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: I experienced the power, the living word, and my in my body.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_04: So mine and that was the beginning, but I didn't know what to do with it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so I had that experiential moment.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: But when I my soft, my junior year, I landed at California State University, Long Beach, and Lo Odenberg, German brother, never know who God's gonna send in your life.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: And um, he was a campus minister with campus ambassadors.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_04: As an undergraduate learner, notice I didn't say student, I don't know what that is.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: Who was a campus minister, yeah, with a campus ambassador.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mentioned that.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I was an undergraduate learner majoring in philosophy.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: He discipled me for three years and stayed in touch with me after that.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: He even went to visit my family when he was you know traveling during the summer, and I wasn't even there.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: He stayed in touch with me three years after I graduated.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_04: Lo practiced a love ethic with me.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_04: Elroy.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_04: The Hebrew word for God sees you.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: Use Lo to sow a seed in me to go to Dallas Theological Seminary, because he thought I was spoiled in my mind because I was a philosophy major.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: He said, if I go to Dallas, I will read every book in the Bible.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: So that's where it started at.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_04: Eventually, God sent me to University of Northwestern St.
• 7:28
  unknown: Paul.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're glad you're here.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I am too.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_04: And that's a story.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_04: I I gee whiz.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: I was doing some other work for the Lord, but my wife was diagnosed with cancer, so I wanted to.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Lord, what can I do so I could spend more time with her?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, ah, teaching.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: And so I I searched the web, found out about University of Northwestern.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: I called the uh department chair, Gary Morgan.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_04: I said, God told me to call you, get ahead of you if I can.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: There, because there was a job posted to teach uh youth ministry, and I had an opportunity to develop the program.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, wow.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: So uh Dr.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: Morgan Gary says, uh, can you come tomorrow?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I did.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: They offered me, I don't know if I should say this, they offered me a job.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: I hadn't even filled out the application.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: So what still the deal?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_04: They asked me, um, uh, is there anything you want to ask us?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm saying, yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: I said, well, since this is a Christian university, when's the last time God performed a miracle here?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_04: Because I said, if there's no miracles going on, I don't want to be here.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so they they had a testimony.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: And uh that's how it's how I got here.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: But what came out of that in developing the the program, the Youth Studies program, so I the Lord had me create um four courses.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: One of them was spiritual formation.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: So that was another step toward exploring sp spiritual formation.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: I want to say thanks to Dr.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: Limke, give a shout out to him and Dr.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: Megan.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: Megan Brown.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_04: They gave me an opportunity to do, to teach, to revise the uh leadership development uh course, the internship course.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I saw it and I'm like, hmm.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, hmm, I wonder how I could I'll make a long story short, the Lord worked with me to develop to weave in the curriculum spiritual formation.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: And and and so, but then you don't get the spiritual formation unless you start with spiritual uh direction.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: If that makes sense.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: Because what I what I saw about what I experienced with my own life and what I see with my students, like I've been teaching gee going on thro three, three, almost three decades now, is is that I have to pause, I just want to be careful here.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: There's so much going on in the world today.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: And so we really have to, we really have to commit to this born-again journey.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: We really have to commit with our heart.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: There's so much emphasis on the mind.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: I think that comes from Christianity through Western culture.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm not down on that, that's okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_04: Other cultures they approach it different.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think we're in a time now where the Holy Spirit, for me anyway, and what I'm seeing with my students, especially coming out of COVID and other events that have happened, with that generation growing up, they're more sensitive with their heart.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_04: When I came to the Lord, it was all about getting the knowledge, mind, but the heart.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: So the so I tested, I'm testing it out this uh summer, and it's really amazing.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_04: So I try to we I try to read in with the Holy Spirit, heart.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Who will answer my question?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: When you go through some hard times, especially like I did, I didn't have that.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I went into a depression after my wife passed.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_04: I got two daughters to wet raise at home.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_04: And when I came out of it, I learned that I gotta live this out with my heart.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so who will answer my question?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's got to be Jesus.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then Jesus will send other sources, people.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: But it's gotta start with Jesus.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: What is prayer?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: Who is God for me?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Number two, Scripture.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: How do we hear the Word of God?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: And number three, gotta hang out with wonderful people like like you two, the body of Christ, the community.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes sometimes you might not get as much community in the church as we would like, but praying God will send you some people we can have community with if we're not getting it in in the church.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're hitting on a bunch of really great themes.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one thing that you just mentioned too is you're talking about getting at the heart.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wise actually talked about this too, just uh in our past conversation about even as we look at God's word being foundational, yes.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it head knowledge is good.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: We need to know his word.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Wise was very clear that what comes before God's word is actually God Himself.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's his word.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You still have to know him, and your heart has to be unlocked by his spirit, which drives you in to even more understand what his word is saying.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you're really getting at with the heart, and I think that actually really tees us up really well into our conversation today, talking about that God's word not only is it rich, not only is it foundational, but God's word is alive.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that has to do not with just page words on a page, but the fact that it it is him and his spirit.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when you hear the phrase God's word is alive, what comes to mind for you?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh boy, I gotta find my notes.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my goodness.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, first, in order to get there, see I like to jump ahead.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: So uh this information is coming out of my failures.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's good, I jump ahead.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_04: And the Lord will say, Look, son, God was gracious to me.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: When I came in, when I when I when I met the Lord, you know, I had experience.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_04: And there were people that discerned that, hey, you have anointing.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't even know what that meant.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_04: And so I kind of relied on my experience.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: But the Lord's like, son, you got to grow up.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: And so before we can experience God's word alive consistently, we must commit to living and practicing a disciplined spiritual life.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: Then we will learn how to listen in a personal and intimate way with a living word of God.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: We will recognize the silent and gentle voice of Jesus, but yet it reverberates.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_04: We feel it in our bones, in our heart.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: The teacher of our hearts, this is a mystery.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good place to start.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with our spiritual discipline and being able to then take that in to see that it's alive, right?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say tell me more about what you mean by that?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think you know, one spiritual discipline is you know, solitude and and being able to make space to actually hear his voice, but when you're saying it starts with spiritual discipline, what do you mean by that?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then how does that lead us to really grasping that God's word is alive?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you you nailed it, uh brother Monty looking at my notes.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But Cassie, you can call me Brother Monty from now on.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what works great for me.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, we do say we're brother and sister in our in our alumni office.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: That works great.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_04: But um Oh my lord.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: I w I would say a time and time and space or place.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: And first thing when you when we get up, wake up, go to that sp uh place, space wherever you're at, live.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: And just be still.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: I I share and teach with friends, students, just just because this is how I learned, just start with committing to three minutes.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_04: Just being still and watch what happens.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: Those thoughts will flow.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: We can't prevent them from coming in, those distracting thoughts.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_04: Let them flow and flow out and get still.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_04: Then when we get still, we can meditate, get in that meditate mode and um get in touch with the with the Holy Spirit.
• 15:53
  unknown: Okay.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_04: And and then and then from there, now, see what happened, that grows.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: It it's like chemistry.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's like dating the Lord.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: Getting flirtatious with the Holy Spirit.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_04: And the three minutes becomes five minutes and ten minutes.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes we're like, oh my goodness, I gotta, I gotta cut it off.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: And and so then um what happens is those distractions, those feelings of um anxiety, um, fear, self-doubt, guilt, shame, instead of carrying them, when we've experienced that, the love, now I can I can share that with the Lord.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't belong.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes I'm just like, Lord, this is what I call prefiness, prayer of prayerfulness.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: Lord, help me this morning.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_04: I have started off with anxiety because I'm gonna meet Monty and Sister Kat's there to here.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then next thing you know, I'm getting I'm getting calm.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_04: Now I can go into the word, start reading the Bible.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that sets us up to then see how what's going on with this word.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I like how you were you're playfully just talking about how it's like dating the Lord, right?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And like you're getting at the fact that our our love with the Lord and His His love towards us is deeper than any dating relationship could ever be.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not to be simplified to simple human romantic terms, but he's the creator of those relationships, but it is something that draws us deeper in.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I love that.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Starting with three minutes, it it would take me longer than three minutes to calm my mind right now.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta give myself a little bit more time.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: I have a question maybe you didn't prepare for, but you were saying you you started reading in John.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And in John it says that the word was with God and the word was God.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus is alive.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Does that mean that's why the the word is alive?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:04
  unknown: Okay.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: I had an epiphany, so maybe we can talk about that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: I think John that John uh 1.14 was the one that did it for me.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_04: And when I go there, oh my goodness.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: What's that verse?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember right off the top of your head?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: We can take a second look at that.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: Somebody helped.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's a goody goody.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, Lord help me.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: And now I've got a forgive me, I've got a different translation.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: The Brother Bell version.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: And the word became flesh, body, incarnate body, and lived among us.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_04: And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: So that's real powerful for me.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: That that's what really engaged me, because I'm thinking, God showed up.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: God crashed or entered into wow the cosmic atmosphere of heaven and shows up in a human body.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: Now, we weren't around when that happened.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: We weren't there, you know, but those brothers and sisters that experienced that.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: But it's so alive today for us, even though, you know, we didn't have that experiential seeing the body, the incarnate body.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: We have it in our heart.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: And if if I can say this, here's the funny thing, and Satan's really trying to trick us up with this body stuff, and we use language like race, which I feel is is Satan's just awful work of socializing us to look at each other as a category.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's a ranking language system.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: How can we really experience Robin being Monty Cassie as the beloved child if my mindset is I'm a black person?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: When Jesus came, where is it in John?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: So that we would become a black person.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_04: No, a white person, no, a beloved child of God.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Another episode another another episode.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first John 3.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: The word of God is living, it's alive.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: The word is Jesus, and he's alive, as Cassie was just sharing, as you were expanding upon.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: What are some other texts that you really resonate with, uh, Dr.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Bell, that really point to the fact that the Word of God is alive?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my goodness.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, John is that John is good.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: Ephesians 2.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, help me, Lord.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_04: Low had me, my first uh mentor had me do uh scriptural memory, and you can see why.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: We all need it.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: But okay, Hebrews 4, 12.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: I got it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Should I read it?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: Another place, and we might get there later, is Luke uh chapter 24 with Twiddle D and Twiddle disciple.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll start looking that one up.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's Monty's nickname.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: The Bible is so relevant to today.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the one of the two of Jesus' followers who are walking the men?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna get in trouble.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, please.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: But you notice it's not the sisters.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: They showed up for the final exam, right?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: Which was show up at the you know at the tomb and got a lesson for your final lesson.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: The first evangelists, possibly, Mary?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: Come on.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens here on this walk to Emmaus?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Unfact this for us.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this is in Luke 24.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is, I think, what the story you're getting at here.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: That same day, two of Jesus' followers, which you've already identified, are probably men.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: As they walked, they were talking about everything that had happened.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they had as they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking along them.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: But God kept them from recognizing him.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: He asked them, What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: They stopped short, sadness written across their faces.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them replied, You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard all the things that have happened.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: What things?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus asked.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth, they said, He was a prophet who did powerful miracles.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all people.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and they crucified him.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: We hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: This all happened three days ago.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it continues and says there's some women and a group of followers, and they came back with this amazing report that he's alive and his body was missing.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes on to say, then Jesus said, You foolish people, you find it so hard to believe all of the prophets wrote in the scriptures.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus took them through the writings, explaining from all scriptures the things concerning himself.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it ends with the fact that he reveals himself to them as they broke bread at the table, and then they say something like, Why didn't we know this?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Weren't our hearts burning as he was sharing these things with us?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what's interesting is that these two brothers, I don't want to be too hard on them.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_04: See, initially during this journey, this encounter with Jesus, Jesus is the resurrected Jesus.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_04: He got a different body.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_04: So they don't recognize.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'll give them some grace.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_04: They don't recognize him.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: But I'd like to think the fact that they didn't show up at the tomb says something about their faith in the narrative, the story that they heard that was handed down, the pre-incarnational Jesus, that story was handed down to them, and they had the privilege that we didn't have.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_04: They actually saw this incarnation of Jesus, phase two.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: And somehow they received it incomplete while Jesus was in his incarnation teacher mode.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: But think about, talk about like who is my model teacher, teacher?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: It would be Jesus.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_04: Think about, he just got resurrected, he just came off of getting murdered and hung up and outside city gates on a dump site, and then he goes to Hades and does some more ministry and he comes back to go after two people.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: Because Twiddle D.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, those two disciples, they're, I don't know where they're going.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: Mall of America, I don't know where they're, you know, they're they're they're they're they're moving away from the historical site where they experience, I mean, what happened?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: They're not even gonna stick around for the dynamos in the upper room moment.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_04: But Jesus comes back for those two.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: He asked them what they are discussing in 17.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: They're looking sad.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Then one of them started telling the story.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so he said to them, so they asked him what things?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: And and thank you.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_04: And notice they notice, see, here's see Jesus, okay.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_04: I'm getting excited.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: Help me.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: I have students like this in my class, and I'm like this too.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_04: Jesus asked them what things, they replied, the things about Jesus.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_04: And they said, Jesus, Jesus of Nath Nazareth.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: Now the sister disciples would have said something different.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: See.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: That's why they get incomplete.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: And then they went on, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him in 21, he had hoped that, they had hoped that he was the one to be redeemed.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_04: They had experience, that's why experience is good, but it may not take you to the finish line.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_04: Besides this, now is the third day since these things took place.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: Now, if they would have, I've had students, they don't show up for class.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's what happened to them.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: Oh Lord.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_04: I like this here in 22.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: Boy, you gotta love, you gotta love, you gotta love males.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: Moreover, some of the women of our group astounded us.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: You mean they they were surprised, they they were learning.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_04: They were at the tomb early this morning.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: I bet you they probably, they probably got there maybe, I don't know, 4 a.m.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: before before dawn?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Discipline, commitment.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: 23.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_04: And when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm wondering, why are you guys on the road toward nowhere?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: Don't you hang out with the sisters?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but they did not see him.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: So Jesus 25 now, then Jesus said to them, How foolish you are, and how slow of what?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: Of mine?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_04: Did you say mine there?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: Was it not necessary for the Messiah that the Messiah suffers these things and then enter into his glory?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then Jesus goes on and talks about the beginning of Moses and the prophets and what they had learned growing up.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and it said that their spirits were burning, their hearts were burning.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, as a reader myself, my heart doesn't often burn when I'm reading other books.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: But the Bible's transformational.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: So why is the Bible different from other things we're reading?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Ross Powell Oh, look at you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's a mystery.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: And for me, it's hard to put it into words that would that would make sense to my 93-year-old mother.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um I mean that's that's the miracle.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: I I think we make it too complicated.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_04: We want to try to figure it out instead of living it out.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_04: Faith is meant to be lived out, not figured out.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: That's my little insight.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's a good question.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I, you know, I think like in my own life, I think about, and it goes back to spiritual preparation, spiritual discipline.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: The sisters had it.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: You you gotta have some discipline to get up at the crack of dawn to go see this miracle that you don't know is gonna really, you know, happen or not, but you're faithful enough to show up.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: And bless them for showing up.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we had a guest, we had a guest on a previous season of this podcast, an alum, say the Bible is the only book that the author is there with you every time you read it.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I love that.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: See, I yes.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: And in 30 it says their eyes were were open, you know.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: And because it's alive, we feel it, it burns in our heart, but it will open our eyes, our spiritual eyes.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: There's something about faith, even if you can't figure it out, can we can we still have courage and and move forward, you know?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's good.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we we just kind of unpack this text where Jesus Himself, the living word, has been sharing with these brothers on the road, and their hearts are burning within themselves because they're just it's it's hitting home, it's changing them, it's transforming them and reminding them of what is true.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, why does God's word still have that power to change lives today?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like it did it changed those two guys, it impacted them.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it still change lives today?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why why it's living?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's alive, it's living.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's living.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um I wish I had a verse that would come to mind, but it it's it's information, but it's its nature is transformational.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: If if we read it with our heart, if if we have those spiritual disciplines, we have to be real intentional.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: I like how you just said read it with your heart.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we read it with our mind or read read the words.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you're you're involving the heart in into that.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe and maybe we kind of go from here and then talk maybe some more application.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: But do you have an example from your life where where the Lord, the word, has impacted your life or changed your life through his word.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_04: Let's see if we can get to that.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um Yes.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um I would say with my wife, when when she was journeying with stage four cancer, breast cancer, and just witnessing her, I mean, she's got this death sentence, but she lived like she was gonna live forever.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_04: And then the other thing that I noticed is that the ambulance came out a lot, a few times, it seemed like a lot.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I always thought, oh, this is gonna be it, you know.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so I'm running around like a chicken, you know, with the head cut off.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: And uh my wife is so when I and she's telling, she's she's wise, way wiser than she says, Robin, go do this and do that and do this and do that.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: She's trying to get me out of the way because my energy is it's bugging her.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: Meanwhile, when I get in getting all those things hurt that she needs to take to the hospital, and I'm gonna follow them or come after, they're they're gonna take her in the ambulance.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: So when I come out, they're laughing.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: She's fixed something for them.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what is going on?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_04: Love.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: Witnessing, and yet she's facing death.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: That was powerful for me.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: She left a journal and I discovered it.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: I read the journal and um she wrote in that journal, it was one section, she wrote how the most difficult time was the she said the scariest time was being alone with the cancer.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: And she said, if it had not been for my um faith in the promises of God.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I I remember when I came to the Lord, I didn't know nothing, just illiterate as far as the scriptures, but some old saint sister, she gave me uh a little pamphlet, promises of God.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_04: Down south, I met Claire was Southern Belle, and so I met her down south, and they were into the you go to different places and people they have different experiences about how they their journey with the Lord.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: And down south I heard promises of God.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_04: That was a big thing.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: But that um that uh changed my life.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I said the takeaway was that, oh wow, she really spends time with God, God.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: She's so disciplined, even with the cancer and taking her medicine and going to the treatments.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: She's she she takes care of that discipline.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_04: So I took a train trip throughout the country and and just to be alone, and then when I came off of that, I started going to retreats, spiritual retreats.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_04: Dematreville, right outside of still uh still water.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: Silent retreat.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Whoa! For three and a half days, and when you come out of that, the world is so noisy, you just want to scream.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: I say you ought to put that on your bucket list, spiritual bucket list.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Mante, you should do that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was just gonna say, Cassie, yeah.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: I should have, I wasn't waiting.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh see, your your wife, that's an incredible testimony to her and what the Lord's doing in her, that when she was going through all that, the way she could still love others despite what was going on in her world, it was not because of her or her greatness, it was it was her character that was formed by these promises of God that she clung so tightly to, which are found in his word as one place.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's one place where we find promises of God.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that to wrap up what we've been talking about this entire time, is those promises of God that were written down a long time ago were very real today for your wife.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they were actively transforming her faith to a point where it was lived out and felt by the people that were around her.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, we're we're wrapping up this series where we're talking about God's love for his, you know, our love for God's word.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what's been fascinating about all these conversations as we've been trying to talk about our love for God's word and what that means, so it's not just our words saying that, is every one of these conversations goes back to like, yes, it is his word, but it's him.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's him.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's our love for him.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you've been sharing throughout this entire conversation.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's our love for him.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: But as we close, what what encouragement would you leave with someone who wants to, yes, develop a deeper relationship with the Lord, but also on the way, develop a deeper love for God's word?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: What encouragement would you give them?
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: One more thing back to my wife.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: So just before she she passed, of all that all the children were there except for Brandon, and he had something to attend to.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: And she had they had gotten together the night before.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: We didn't know that.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: And so she told, so we're around the bedside, and she told two daughters and one son, I love them, I love, I love you, I love you, I love you.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_04: And um the baby daughter, Nicole, said, What about dad?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_04: And she had this twinkle in her eye, and she said, Um, Robin, you know I love you.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_04: And um, when I go to prayer, I say, Lord, just teach me, and I and I say this to encourage y'all, so sometimes we gotta go back to the basics and have that conversation if you're unsure a little bit, and say, Lord, I know you love me, but I ain't feeling it, I ain't acting it, acting like I ought to.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I know you love me.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: And you'd be surprised what might come out of that conversation.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: So, how's your prayer life?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna leave you with two questions.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_04: See, Jesus always gave people questions.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: First, the first time, if you read John, the disciples are hanging out with John, and they kind of, I don't know if I can say this, but I'm gonna say it, they kind of kicked uh John to the curb on the practice because they saw Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: And they and they said, look, oh, there goes, there's the Messiah.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like somebody, it's like if somebody were to leave out of my class because they saw Cassie or Monty's, oh, there's Cassian Monty.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_04: And where are you guys going?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_04: Well, there's Cassian Monty.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: So they would never.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_04: So they left, so they left.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_04: And um and um Jesus said to them, What are you looking for?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: Jesus, what I'm trying to say is it's more about the question, not to be answered, but to be lived out.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_04: So how do you live out?
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: How is your prayer life?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: And number two, my brothers and sisters, sisters and brothers, how are you making space in your life for God to speak to your heart?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: How do we live that out?
• 40:33
  unknown: It's good.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's good.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Brother Bell, for joining us today, sharing your heart, your passion, your enthusiasm for the Lord.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we we love having you here at Northwestern, and we're we're praying for you as you go into this school year as well.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh thank you for listening as well.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we just really hope that you have found deep encouragement, not just from this conversation, but from all three of these conversations and and that you're feeling just yeah, encouraged by our by our opportunity to, yes, love God's word, but as we've heard again, the opportunity to love and and get to know the love of our Savior even more and more.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um, if this is the first part of this series you've heard, go back and listen to the first two.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but otherwise, uh, we look forward to continuing this season as we continue to hear from different voices around campus and continue to hear about the people and the purpose and the pulse of Northwestern.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: So may the Lord bless you today as you go forward.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: To hear more, subscribe and leave a rating wherever you listen.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: And if you know an alum, faculty member, staff, or student of Northwestern doing amazing things out in the world, let us know at alumni at unwsp.edu, the unwavering podcast, highlighting the people, the purpose, and the pulse of Northwestern.