Latest / Heart Check Podcast / Christianity 101 (How to Read the Bible)
Transcript
- 0:00If you're new to Jesus, new to the Bible, or you've tried
- 0:03reading the Bible before and felt completely lost, this
- 0:07episode's for you. Yo, what's up everybody?
- 0:21Welcome back to Heart Tech podcast.
- 0:23I'm your host. Past the loads.
- 0:27Yeah, let's go. What's up heart check community.
- 0:32So glad you're back. I love you guys.
- 0:34I'm praying for you guys. If I sound a little stuffy, I am
- 0:36a little stuffy. I don't know if it's just
- 0:38allergies, the weather going up and down, but I apologize if you
- 0:42listen to a little bit of this stuff and sniffles, but we still
- 0:46going to get it in. I'm going to stay with you guys
- 0:47every week, every Thursday. Let's get after it.
- 0:50So we're going to be beginning a a new series titled Christianity
- 0:54101. I'm very excited about this.
- 0:57We are going to be learning how to check our hearts through the
- 1:00lens of scripture and not our feelings.
- 1:02But really this series is for three types of people, people
- 1:06who are new to Jesus, people who are returning to their faith, or
- 1:10people who have been in the church for years but realized no
- 1:13one really ever explained the basics, the Bible basics, the
- 1:17what it means to follow Jesus, how to read Scripture.
- 1:20We're going to get to a beginning, beginner course of
- 1:23Christianity 101 if you are in any of those categories.
- 1:27But even those who maybe been following Jesus, I hope you get
- 1:30it an encouragement through stepping into maybe some things
- 1:33you've never learned or stepped into when it comes to reading
- 1:36Scripture. And today we're starting with a
- 1:38huge one. What is the Bible and how do I
- 1:41actually read it? Because let's be honest, a lot
- 1:45of people come to faith. They go buy a Bible at their
- 1:48local bookstore. They open it up, and they start
- 1:51in Genesis. They get a few chapters in, then
- 1:55they hit Leviticus. And I don't know if you've hit
- 1:57Leviticus. I hit Leviticus in Christian
- 1:59college. And you think, yeah, I have no
- 2:02idea what is happening here. There's a lot of laws.
- 2:05There's a lot of things that God's saying that the people
- 2:07need to do and don't do. And I don't really know what is
- 2:10occurring. And you know what happens?
- 2:13You end up closing the Bible. And sometimes for some of those
- 2:16people, they never even end up opening it again.
- 2:19But here's the truth. The Bible isn't confusing
- 2:23because it's complicated. It's confusing because no one
- 2:26explained how it works to you. So I hope you hear that the word
- 2:30of God, it might at times feel confusing, but I promise you
- 2:36it's not complicated in the sense of God wants you to find
- 2:41him. In Scripture it says that God,
- 2:44God wants his people to seek him and find him.
- 2:47My Big Brother Chase says, he says God is the worst hide and
- 2:51seek player. He wants you to find him.
- 2:53He wants to have a relationship with his people and his breathed
- 2:56out word is a way for us to connect to our heavenly Father.
- 3:00So the Bible isn't confusing because it's complicated.
- 3:04It's confusing because no one maybe explain to you how it
- 3:07works. And so today we're going to
- 3:08break it down simply and dive into what it means to read the
- 3:13Bible. What is the Bible?
- 3:14How do we actually read it? So point #1 is this, the Bible
- 3:18is a library, not just a book. So when you go to the library
- 3:21and you pick out a book and there's just this one book with
- 3:24this one story within it, sometimes we think that the
- 3:29Bible works like just any other regular book.
- 3:32And it's it's not, it's, it is a library itself.
- 3:36One of the biggest misunderstandings of the Bible
- 3:38is this. People think the Bible is just
- 3:39one single book like they would go grab off the shelf in the
- 3:42bookstore, but it's not. The Bible is actually a library
- 3:46of 66 books written over about 1500 years with more than 40
- 3:52different authors. You have kings, you have
- 3:54prophets, you have fishermen, you have doctors, you have
- 3:57apostles who are part of those authorships that the Holy Spirit
- 4:01spoke through them to write these words down.
- 4:04This is an incredible, God inspired, God breathed word that
- 4:08we're living, that connects us to the living God, our heavenly
- 4:11Father. Yet somehow all of these
- 4:15writings with all of these authors throughout all of these
- 4:18different years tell one unified story.
- 4:22And that story points to Jesus. Jesus even said in John 539, you
- 4:27search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have
- 4:31eternal life. And it is they that bear witness
- 4:35about me. The whole Bible, hear me
- 4:38clearly, the whole Bible, even from the beginning, is pointing
- 4:42us to Jesus. So when you open up the Bible,
- 4:46you're not just reading information.
- 4:48You are stepping into God's story of redemption, God that
- 4:53created us humans in his image to have a relationship with him.
- 4:59We're not like the animals or the things of this world.
- 5:01We were created in God's image and God created us for
- 5:05relationship. But due to sin, due to choices
- 5:09that our our ancestors, Adam and Eve made, we were separated from
- 5:14God. And so from the beginning, the
- 5:17story of the Scriptures is pointing to Jesus who's going to
- 5:20come and live a perfect life that we can't and be the
- 5:24sacrificial lamb that we can't and take our sins onto him and
- 5:29die for us to take the penalty that you and I deserve that now
- 5:33through faith in Jesus, because three days later, Jesus raised
- 5:37from the grave. Oh yeah, you know, little
- 5:39spoiler alert, Jesus is alive. He's on the right hand throne of
- 5:42God now. And because of that, now all we
- 5:45do is put our faith in Jesus, and now we're made right again
- 5:48with God to have a right relationship with our Heavenly
- 5:51Father. So from the beginning, this
- 5:53story of redemption that's playing out from Genesis all the
- 5:56way to Revelation. So this is multiple books.
- 5:59It's a library, but it's telling one story of redemption.
- 6:04An easy way to remember this is this.
- 6:05The Bible is a library with one lead character, and that lead
- 6:09character is Jesus. Point #2 the Bible has two
- 6:14testaments with one story. The Bible is divided into two
- 6:19main sections. We have the Old Testament and we
- 6:23have the New Testament. The easiest way to remember this
- 6:27is this the Old Testament equals the promise and the New
- 6:32Testament equals fulfillment. The Old Testament is pointing
- 6:36forward to a savior in the New Testament reveals that Jesus is
- 6:42Savior, the Savior is Jesus. So Luke 2427 says this beginning
- 6:48with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all
- 6:53the scriptures the things concerning himself.
- 6:57Jesus was showing them. The whole Bible was pointing to
- 7:01me. Even in that Luke verse, he's
- 7:03saying in the beginning with Moses and even all the prophets
- 7:06he interpreted to them and all the Scriptures the things
- 7:09concerning himself. So here's an easy way to
- 7:12remember it. Old Testament is Jesus's coming
- 7:17gospels, which is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
- 7:21And gospels mean the good news, the good news of Jesus, that he
- 7:25came, he lived a perfect life, He died the death that you and I
- 7:27deserve, and he rose from the grave three days later.
- 7:29And if we put our faith in Jesus, we receive eternal life.
- 7:33So the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the beginning
- 7:37of the New Testament, those are the first four books in the New
- 7:39Testament. They're saying Jesus is here.
- 7:43But then the rest of the New Testament post John starting in
- 7:47Acts, all the way through Revelation, that is Jesus is
- 7:51returning. So there's three movements
- 7:54happening here. It's in the Bible, it's coming
- 7:57here, returning. That is the three, three
- 8:02overarching themes within the parts of the Bible.
- 8:06But point #3 the Bible has different genres.
- 8:10Another reason people struggle with the Bible is they read
- 8:13everything the same way. But the Bible includes different
- 8:17types of writing. You have history, you have
- 8:21poetry, you have a law which we talked about, Leviticus.
- 8:25You have prophecy, which is telling of things that are going
- 8:28to happen in the future. That was usually spoken through
- 8:31God's prophets who are the mouthpiece of God that they were
- 8:34saying. Thus says the Lord and God was
- 8:36speaking prophecy future tellings through these these men
- 8:42who were chosen by God to speak for God.
- 8:44And then you have the Gospels as we just discussed Matthew, Mark,
- 8:47Luke and John that tell the story of Jesus.
- 8:50And then we have letters post the Gospels as all letters or
- 8:53epistles that are literally speaking towards the church the
- 8:58the early church and helping teach believers what it looks
- 9:01like to follow Christ. For example, if you've ever been
- 9:05in the Old Testament, you see this one that a book that starts
- 9:08with AP, but it doesn't say Psalms.
- 9:12It's Psalms. Psalms are poetry.
- 9:15Psalms are David's prayers. Some of some of a chunk of them
- 9:20are King David and just his prayers and and conversations
- 9:23with God. So when we read that there's
- 9:27poetry to it and David's prayers in the Psalms.
- 9:30And then you have the Proverbs, which is from David's son
- 9:33Solomon, who was the wisest man to ever live on this earth.
- 9:36Proverbs are wisdom saying so it's wisdom.
- 9:39It's teach, as I like to say, Solomon's teaching us wisdom
- 9:43through his mistakes. And then you have the Gospels,
- 9:45which are eyewitness accounts of Jesus's life.
- 9:49This is people being interviewed as Mark interviewed Mary to ask
- 9:55her her eyewitness account of Jesus and what took place
- 9:59throughout his life and his ministry and his death and
- 10:02resurrection. And then Romans.
- 10:04Romans is a deep theological letter explaining salvation.
- 10:09Paul's writing this. If you've ever read the Romans,
- 10:11one of my favorite books in New Testament, it's this deep
- 10:14theological letter that is helping to explain salvation but
- 10:17teach people about Jesus. There's so much depth to it and
- 10:21purpose. But when you read that letter,
- 10:23knowing what these letters, what these books mean and stepping
- 10:26into that, this is super important because sometimes
- 10:30we're going to read a book in a way that we think it should be
- 10:33this. But that's not really what its
- 10:34intention was for the original audience.
- 10:37As I learned in in school from my professors, my amazing
- 10:41professors at Great Lakes Christian College, we were
- 10:43always repeated over and over again to read scripture within
- 10:47its context. Who was the original audience?
- 10:49Who was it meant for? And I've said this in a podcast
- 10:52before, the Bible was not written to us, but the Bible was
- 10:55written for us. But we have to remember that
- 10:58'cause sometimes we try to input and insert ourselves into the
- 11:01Scripture. We try to say, oh, I'm Joseph,
- 11:03oh, I'm the Samuel, oh I'm Ezekiel.
- 11:06We're not. But we also have to remember God
- 11:10gave his breathe that word for even future believers to come
- 11:13for us in 2026. He has given us his inspired
- 11:18word to help us know him and be more like him.
- 11:21So the Word of God is alive and active as we read the verse here
- 11:24coming soon. So we have to remember though,
- 11:26who was the original audience? Read it within its context, the
- 11:30cultural context, what's happening there in that place?
- 11:33Who would have been the people reading this and what was it
- 11:35for? So if you read poetry like law,
- 11:38like you read Leviticus because it's do this, don't do this.
- 11:41If you were to read poetry in Scripture like that, oh, it's do
- 11:44this, don't do this, you're going to get kind of confused.
- 11:48Or if you're reading wisdom like it's prophecy, that's not what
- 11:52it was intended to be. You have prophecy, you have
- 11:55wisdom, you have poetry, you have all of history, all these
- 11:58different types of genres within this library of books.
- 12:02It is super important to before you open up that certain book in
- 12:05the Bible to even take some time to study and learn what is the
- 12:09type of writing style within this book, within this verse,
- 12:12within this passage? What what is being, what is
- 12:16being spoken here? What would have they taken at
- 12:18the original audience when they read this?
- 12:20Because you'll get confused if you do not.
- 12:23And here's an easy way to remember it.
- 12:25The Bible has different styles, but one savior.
- 12:28Different styles but one savior. Remember a library books.
- 12:31It is pointing to one lead character though, and the lead
- 12:34character is Jesus. Point #4 here is my and again
- 12:40this is my opinion. Some people may disagree with me
- 12:43and that's OK Don't start in Genesis.
- 12:47I think so many people we'll just open up right away and
- 12:50think again, I'm opening up like a book, every book.
- 12:53You're not going to open up a new book.
- 12:55You just got off the library. You know, you're not going to
- 12:57read a sci-fi, you know, a sci-fi book and just go straight
- 13:01to the middle and start there and then go back to the
- 13:03beginning, then go to the end. That wouldn't make sense, right?
- 13:06So when we approach Scripture, sometimes we think of it as if
- 13:09we're just reading a regular book and we go, well, we have to
- 13:12start at the beginning, right? Not to say that's a bad thing,
- 13:15but I would encourage you, let me say this clearly, Genesis is
- 13:19incredible. It's an amazement, one of my
- 13:20favorite books. We're reading it right now in
- 13:21our young adults Bible study. Hey, 40 chapters in, let's go.
- 13:25Proud of you guys. But it's not always the best
- 13:28starting place for brand new believers because the early
- 13:31books assume you already understand a lot of background.
- 13:34I even noticed that in one of our Bible studies, you know,
- 13:37having a few people who are new to the faith, which is
- 13:39incredible. So glad they're here.
- 13:41It's fun to dive into the word with them and teach them and,
- 13:44and get to context and all those things.
- 13:47But there'll be times where we'll be reading through Genesis
- 13:49and I'll say, oh, what's this? How's this parallel Jesus or
- 13:52this parallel Judas? Like Joseph's brother gave him
- 13:55over to slavery and they received this money for it.
- 13:58Joseph paralleling what Judas gave when he got the 30, you
- 14:01know, silver coins to give Jesus over the Pharisees.
- 14:04I kind of made that quick point in the Bible study once and one
- 14:07of my young adults was like, you know, raised his hand and said,
- 14:10yeah, what's that mean? Who's Judas?
- 14:13What silver coins, what money? How does Joseph represent that?
- 14:19Now when we're reading in Genesis, for us who have been
- 14:21following Jesus for a while, we are connecting things in the
- 14:24Gospels, in the New Testament that are now bringing even more
- 14:27so the Old Testament to life. And when we're having those
- 14:29conversations, you kind of start doing that in your communities
- 14:32or in Bible studies and you forget there's people who maybe
- 14:35are sitting there going, I don't know any of that.
- 14:39I've never read that part. I've never heard that story.
- 14:42The jumping into Genesis can assume you already understand a
- 14:46lot of background. That's why I would suggest
- 14:49Genesis not be in the place you start.
- 14:51So many people start strong, but then they hit genealogies,
- 14:56ancient laws, sacrificial systems, and they feel
- 15:00completely lost, and understandably so.
- 15:04Instead, here's what I encourage people to do.
- 15:07Start with the Gospel of John. Why?
- 15:11Because John literally tells us why he wrote his book or his
- 15:15gospel. As we said remember 4 gospels,
- 15:17Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the the eyewitness accounts of
- 15:21Jesus's life. But John start.
- 15:23John says this in John chapter 20 verse 31.
- 15:27He says, but these are written so that you may believe that
- 15:30Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you
- 15:35may have a life in his name, All of what John wrote.
- 15:40But these are written, all of this gospel's written so that
- 15:43you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
- 15:47that by believing you may have life in his name, have eternal
- 15:51life. John wrote his gospel so people
- 15:54could believe in Jesus, who's the main character, who's the
- 15:59lead character again in the in the Bible story, Jesus.
- 16:03So John's writing a gospel, the good news of Jesus.
- 16:09So if you're starting your Bible journey, start in the book of
- 16:13John, the Gospel of John, read 1.
- 16:15I want you to do this. I want you to read 1 chapter of
- 16:17John a day. I want you to then pick one
- 16:20verse within that chapter to memorize and meditate on for the
- 16:25whole day that incorporate it even into your conversation.
- 16:29So pick a pick a verse within that chapter, meditate on it,
- 16:34memorize it. So then the word of God is
- 16:36starting to be written on your heart, stored up in your heart
- 16:38that you are memorizing God's word, that you can utilize God's
- 16:42word in your day-to-day walk. And then I want you to pick one
- 16:45word within that chapter. The one word could be within
- 16:48your one verse and I want you to circle it and meditate and
- 16:53meditate on that word and and really pray on why did this word
- 16:57jump out to me. So 1 chapter, 1 verse, one word
- 17:03and do that daily. 1 chapter of John a day.
- 17:07Meet Jesus first. Everything else in the Bible
- 17:10will make more sense after that in my opinion.
- 17:14Easy way to remember this. Meet Jesus before you, master
- 17:18the scriptures. Meet Jesus the Son of God, the
- 17:22one who came to die for you and me, that through his death and
- 17:26resurrection now we have eternal life, that we have this library,
- 17:30this God inspired word that is pointing us to him.
- 17:33Meet him, spend time with him, learn more about him.
- 17:37I believe you should always be reading the gospel stories of
- 17:41Jesus whenever you're studying. You're studying all throughout
- 17:43Scripture. When you start to dive more into
- 17:45all the word of God, always, always have time daily to read
- 17:49about Jesus, to learn more about him.
- 17:51Cuz that's ultimately who we're trying to become more like.
- 17:55Point #5 how to actually read the Bible.
- 18:00A lot of people think reading the Bible means read a lot,
- 18:03understand everything, take perfect notes, but that's not
- 18:08the goal. The goal is transformation, not
- 18:11information. Sometimes I think again back to
- 18:14how we approach reading the Bible, like people just read a
- 18:17regular book they took off the library shelf.
- 18:19We think that the goal of this is just to get through a lot.
- 18:22I want to finish the whole story.
- 18:24I want to get a lot of information.
- 18:25But remember guys, you are reading the Word of God that was
- 18:29inspired from Him. Heavenly Father, the God of the
- 18:32cosmos. He created everything.
- 18:34It's a lot to process. It impacts us, it it cuts deep.
- 18:40Hebrews 412 says for the word of God is living and active,
- 18:44sharper than any 2 edged sword piercing, piercing through our
- 18:48hearts, our joint and Merrill. It reveals to us what is wrong
- 18:51in our lives. It's heavy in a good way.
- 18:55It is alive. It's God's Word impacting our
- 18:58souls and our hearts, helping us be more like him.
- 19:01So this isn't something that I can kind of just scan and flip
- 19:04through really quickly quickly, or you don't get the SparkNotes
- 19:07as back matter. You guys probably know what
- 19:08SparkNotes is. You got ChatGPT.
- 19:10Now, back in my day, if you had to read a book for class, we had
- 19:13to go to SparkNotes and it gave you basically a quick little
- 19:15synopsis of the book you're reading so you can act like you
- 19:18read the book. Lord, forgive me.
- 19:21This ain't no SparkNotes. This ain't no ChatGPT trying to
- 19:24quickly get in and figure it out.
- 19:26This is the word of God that's living, that is alive, that
- 19:29impacts you, that speaks to you every time you read it.
- 19:33The scriptures say God's word will never come back voice.
- 19:35When we open up God's word and we spend time with him, we
- 19:38meditate on it, we memorize it, it transforms us.
- 19:42It's not it's not just informational.
- 19:44It's not that we don't, we do learn things, but it's
- 19:47transformational. It's the word of God that helps
- 19:50us be more like the one who created us.
- 19:53The Bible is alive. It just, it doesn't just inform
- 19:55your mind, it transforms your heart.
- 19:58So here's a simple rhythm. I encourage people to follow the
- 20:03four piece. I want you to pray. 1st so pray
- 20:07before you even open the scriptures.
- 20:08We do this even in even in anything I lead Bible study
- 20:12small groups before you even open up the word of God, you
- 20:15pray 1st and you ask God for understanding, to give you
- 20:18wisdom and insight for the Holy Spirit to fill you and to help
- 20:22point things out that you need to see or give you wisdom and
- 20:25knowledge and understanding on certain things before you even
- 20:29read the chapter or the parts of the Bible that you're about to
- 20:32read. Psalm 1/19/18 says open my eyes
- 20:36that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
- 20:41So first pray #2 passage, read a small section.
- 20:47Or as we said, read a chapter. Don't open up the book you're
- 20:51going to read in scripture and say alright, I'm going to read 5
- 20:53chapters today. Just just a, just a chapter.
- 20:57OK, so passage read that read, read that chapter or read a
- 21:01small section #3 principle ask what does this teach me about
- 21:07God? So within that Scripture reading
- 21:08that chapter, that passage, ask the principle of it.
- 21:12So we pray, we passage we principle what does this teach
- 21:15me about God #4 practice. Now ask God, how should this,
- 21:20how should this change how I Live Today?
- 21:24Because again, just as James says, not knowing what the word
- 21:30of God says and then not doing it, not obeying it is like
- 21:33looking at yourself in the mirror and walking away and
- 21:35forgetting what you look like. If we read God's Word now, let's
- 21:39put it into practice, live it out.
- 21:43If you guys have never read the book Practicing the Way by Mark
- 21:45Comer, I highly, highly suggest it.
- 21:48It's an incredible book. But the whole premise of we read
- 21:52God's word, we learn more about them, we become all heady and
- 21:55knowledge filled. But if we don't live it out, as
- 21:57Paul says, we're just clinging symbols.
- 22:00It's useless if we don't love like God, if we don't live out
- 22:05who he calls us to be. The whole point is we read God's
- 22:08word to learn more about God and to live more like God.
- 22:12So pray passage, principal practice, live this out in your
- 22:17time when you're reading through Scripture.
- 22:20Number six, what if I don't understand it?
- 22:23If that's a question you're asking, What if I read even
- 22:25deeper than that, guys? What if I don't understand?
- 22:28Or what if I read it and I feel like I got nothing from it?
- 22:30I didn't feel this lightning bolt from heaven or this
- 22:33complete conviction or the Holy Spirit film where I got this
- 22:36insight and this vision. What if it was just like, oh, I
- 22:38read my chapter and it was like, cool.
- 22:42Here's something important for you guys, for new believers, for
- 22:45people who are wanting to learn more about what it looks like to
- 22:47follow Jesus. Confusion is normal.
- 22:52Having to need a feeling or experience that might not be the
- 22:55case every time. Sometimes it looks like I'm
- 22:58doing this because I know this is me connecting with my father.
- 23:04Is there something wild and transformational that happens
- 23:07every single time you talk with your best friend?
- 23:09Every single time you and your best friend hang out, do you
- 23:11leave? Like bro mind blowing hangout.
- 23:14My dog playing the switch together and you saw Mario jump
- 23:19over bro crazy. That was transformational
- 23:21moment, no, but does that stop you from spending time with the
- 23:25people who matter the most to you?
- 23:27Of course not. God is our heavenly Father.
- 23:30We spend time with them because why would I not want to dwell in
- 23:33his presence? I know dwelling in his presence
- 23:36is what fills me, what transforms me.
- 23:39So it might not look like every time this clouds party in
- 23:43heaven's open moment with God, there is those times as well,
- 23:47which are incredible. Sometimes it's a matter of I
- 23:51know that this fills my soul as Jesus says in the Lord's Prayer,
- 23:56give me today, give us today Our Daily Bread.
- 24:00We need Our Daily Bread, our spiritual bread.
- 24:02We need to open up God's word. Cause what you don't realize is,
- 24:05is what that's storing up in your heart and your soul and how
- 24:07it's transforming you little by little because you are being
- 24:11impacted by his word. But it's OK.
- 24:14Sometimes confusion is normal when you read the words,
- 24:17sometimes you might be like, I don't really know what this was.
- 24:20I don't understand it. Even the apostle Paul admitted
- 24:22that some of Paul's sorry, even the apostle Peter admitted that
- 24:26some of Paul's writings were hard to understand.
- 24:28Second, Peter 316 says there's some things in them that are
- 24:31hard to understand. So Peter could say that you're
- 24:36allowed to be confused sometimes, but but confusion
- 24:41doesn't mean you quit. It means you keep seeking.
- 24:45Easy way to remember this for you guys.
- 24:47Don't quit in confusion. Grow in curiosity.
- 24:52Don't just bounce out just because it's confusing.
- 24:54I don't fully understand it. I don't want to do this anymore
- 24:57because, well, I just read it. I don't understand anything.
- 24:59This is never going to work. I'm never going to understand
- 25:01God's word. I'm just going to kind of bounce
- 25:03out. Don't give up, don't run away
- 25:06from it. Just know growing curiosity.
- 25:09Find some people in your life. Go up to your local church
- 25:12pastor. If you're not a part of a local
- 25:13church, become a part of a local church.
- 25:16Get connected to other believers, people even around
- 25:18your age in the same age range who are following Jesus, who are
- 25:21who have been following Jesus. Go up to them.
- 25:23And I know it's my behalf of my introverts.
- 25:24Go up to them and say, hey man, I really want to learn more
- 25:26about scripture. Can you walk with me once a
- 25:28week? Can we read through?
- 25:29Can we read through John read a chapter today and then we can
- 25:32kind of come together and talk through that.
- 25:34I can ask questions, go to the library and get some
- 25:37commentaries that help teach you more about the context of what's
- 25:41happening in Scripture. Do those things.
- 25:43Find some people who you can walk with, because there's going
- 25:46to be times that it's confusing, but don't quit in the confusion.
- 25:50Grow in curiosity. Go be curious.
- 25:53Ask brothers and sisters. Go ask a pastor to sit with you.
- 25:56I promise you as a local church pastor, that is exciting.
- 25:59If someone who's new to the face says, hey pastor Lois, I really
- 26:02want to learn more about God and who he is and how to read his
- 26:05word. Can you walk with me and
- 26:07disciple me 100%. That's what we're here for by
- 26:10guys. I love you guys.
- 26:12This is, this is what we're called to do as brothers and
- 26:15sisters to walk with each other because sometimes it is it, it
- 26:20does feel confusing at times. This is God's word.
- 26:24And let me tell you clearly as a pastor, someone who's went to
- 26:27school for this and studied it for years, there is still things
- 26:30I don't understand and I never will because it's from God.
- 26:35He is God. His ways are above my ways.
- 26:37His thoughts are above my thoughts.
- 26:38I'm not going to fully understand everything what I
- 26:42want to strive to because again, that's what Scripture tells me.
- 26:46This is this. I, I know this is breathed out
- 26:48from the living word of God from his mouth.
- 26:51I want to learn more about him. I want to become more like him,
- 26:54but that takes intentionality. It takes curiosity.
- 26:58So be curious. Step into those conversations.
- 27:00Don't feel. Let me let me say this to you
- 27:02guys who maybe are sitting in a Bible study in your local church
- 27:05or your community and you have a lot of questions, but it feels
- 27:08like man, I am so like in the deep end around people who
- 27:12clearly know way more than me. I'm just not even going to raise
- 27:14my hand or just stay quiet. Don't do that.
- 27:19Raise your hand, ask the questions.
- 27:21It's actually super cool because when you start to do that,
- 27:24you'll see how God moves in those conversations, how he
- 27:26impacts your hearts. You don't realize how he's
- 27:28speaking through your brothers and sisters to even speak some
- 27:31wisdom and knowledge to you and understanding.
- 27:34That is what we're here for, to gather to spur one another on,
- 27:38to encourage each other. As long as it's today, I pray
- 27:42for you to keep being curious, but don't let confusion cause
- 27:46you to quit. Keep seeking, ask questions,
- 27:50learn context, talk with mature believers, and keep reading.
- 27:55Don't stop reading. Here's my final challenge for
- 27:57you guys. So here's your heart check for
- 28:00this week. If you're new to reading the
- 28:02Bible, start the Gospel of John. Read 1 chapter a day for the
- 28:07next 7 days. Underline one verse, memorize
- 28:12and meditate on it and then circle one word and meditate on
- 28:17that word and ask God why that's the word he's having you sin on
- 28:22and pray. Before you read, pray, Holy
- 28:26Spirit, fill me with knowledge and and understanding of who you
- 28:31are, who God is, but also let this word fill me and transform
- 28:39me more into Jesus. So pray before you open up the
- 28:42word, Holy Spirit, fill me with knowledge and understanding and
- 28:47help me know who God is. But also let this word fill me
- 28:52and transform me more into Jesus looking like Jesus, living like
- 28:57Jesus, acting like Jesus. Because the goal of scripture
- 29:01isn't just knowledge, it's knowing Christ.
- 29:06It's becoming more like Jesus. It's not just informational,
- 29:10right, guys, we talked about this.
- 29:11It's transformational. It's the word of God.
- 29:15So if this episode helped you, send it to someone who's new to
- 29:19the faith. And if you're starting your
- 29:21Bible journey this week, message me Started.
- 29:25Just message me. Comment below say starting
- 29:28started we getting after it. Let's go.
- 29:32Just let me know because I would love to pray for you and I'd
- 29:35love to be able to just kind of be here as a resource guys,
- 29:38whatever that looks like. Message, comment below in this
- 29:41YouTube video, comment on wherever you're listening to
- 29:44audio or streaming. We have an e-mail that you can
- 29:47connect with us. That's on all all our social
- 29:49media media media, social media media by I still can't say that
- 29:54my stuff knows social media BIOS.
- 29:58We have that also in our YouTube.
- 29:59We have a link as well. Sign up for that.
- 30:01You get a weekly e-mail from my beautiful wife kind of
- 30:04explaining what the episode is that's about to drop, what's
- 30:06going on, even some new things, even a free devotional.
- 30:08If you still haven't got a four week devotional from our first
- 30:11four week series in this podcast called heart Check.
- 30:15And so yeah, reach out. I want to know, I want to get to
- 30:18know you guys, my heart check community.
- 30:20I want to know how I can be praying for you guys and just be
- 30:22here for you guys. Truly my heart in this, I
- 30:25believe in person discipleship is super important.
- 30:28Connected to a local body, connected to a godly community,
- 30:31super important. It is vital to your walk with
- 30:34Jesus. But now we got this cool thing
- 30:36called Internet and podcasts and things like this.
- 30:38And so digital discipleship is a piece of that.
- 30:41But I truly want to know you guys.
- 30:42I want to pray for you guys because I appreciate you being a
- 30:45part of this journey with me. It's been incredible.
- 30:47And I pray that you continue to learn more about God and become
- 30:49more like him. This next episode of the series,
- 30:53we're going to be tackling a huge question though, So get
- 30:55ready for Week 2. Week 2 is going to be who is
- 30:58Jesus really? Because a lot of people think
- 31:00they know Jesus, but the real Jesus of the Bible is far
- 31:03greater than most people imagine.
- 31:04And and as always, keep checking your heart because we're here to
- 31:09check hearts so lives can change.
- 31:11Checking hearts and changing lives.
- 31:13Let's go. Let me pray for you all so we
- 31:15can get them out of here. Lord Jesus, we love you.
- 31:19Lord Jesus, we thank you for who you are.
- 31:20Heavenly Father, thank you for your breathe.
- 31:22That word that we can learn more about you, become more like you
- 31:25through it because it's alive and it's active.
- 31:26Because you are a living God. You are with us.
- 31:29You will never forsake us. And God, I pray that we continue
- 31:32to intentionally run after you through your word, that we study
- 31:35it, that we learn more about you, that we go be curious in
- 31:39this world, that we don't get confused and run away, but that
- 31:41we get curious and run towards you, run towards brothers and
- 31:44sisters. Ask questions, Lord Jesus,
- 31:46because we want to learn more about you so we can become more
- 31:49like you. I love you, God, I thank you.
- 31:51I pray for your blessing over everyone who's listening to this
- 31:53podcast. And I pray for your will to
- 31:55continue to be done. And I pray for your safety over
- 31:58this whole world. Our brothers and sisters who are
- 31:59impacted all around the world with everything going on, I just
- 32:02pray, Holy Spirit, that you give them comfort and peace and keep
- 32:04them safe. We love you.
- 32:05We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
- 32:08Hey, I love y'all. God bless.