Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Studying the Life of Jesus with Shane Stanford

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Studying the Life of Jesus with Shane Stanford · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friend, I'm back here with you today, offering another wonderful conversation with a new friend, Dr.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Shane Stanford.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's been a pastor and church planter for over 30 years as well as a prolific author.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: He has written on many topics and also about his journey as an HIV-positive and hep C positive hemophiliac.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And now in this new stage of his life and his ministry, he is diving into writing a four-part book study series about the life of Jesus.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Shane has poured years into preparing this material, and it was all birthed from a moment, wanting to equip his church with understanding the life of Jesus.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to dive into the details of this really unique four-part book study series.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we're also going to talk about things like Enneagram, a little bit about his health journey and what he has learned about Jesus in this process of writing about Jesus.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It truly was a fantastic conversation, and I'm so excited for you to get to know Dr.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Shane Stanford.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I also would love for you to consider starting this new study here about the life of Jesus right after Easter.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Amy Wicks, your wholehearted living coach.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that you stopped by to spend some time with me.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you curious about the Enneagram?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to learn biblical truths?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And have you wondered if there are life rhythms that will help you thrive?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, you are in the right place.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: For six years, this podcast has focused on sharing conversations with my friends about life, business, motherhood, faith, and all things any other from a Christian perspective.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I truly understand what it's like to juggle everything as a wife, mom to three teenagers, a pub, and all while building a growing business.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But still, the Lord is taking my broken-hearted pieces and healed them so I can live with all kinds of businesses.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I listen to you with a step-by-step process that you can get free of anxiety, pain, and frustration that might be holding you back from driving.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that the Lord speaks to you as you listen today and that you would invite your friends and family to join the fun conversation.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to laugh a little and learn a whole lot?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty, let's get to the conversation.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Shane, thank you so much for being on the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's my pleasure.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm so privileged where over the years I've gotten to have, well, it's been seven years now of the podcast, which I can't believe.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I tend to have women who are on, but every once in a while we get blessed with a pastoral voice that joins in the conversation.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so excited to add yours to this community.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love what I've read about the podcast, and I look forward to following you from this point on.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it seems like you're doing a great work.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Same, the feeling is mutual.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know that Jana had reached out sharing some of your work, sent me your books and the first two books of your series that we're going to be talking about today.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And she was emphatic of like, I think this connection is for you.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Holy Spirit definitely echoed and confirmed and was like, yes, let's go for this.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things, as yes, as you know, you've read a little bit about what Simply Wholehearted is about.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: We we talk about the Enneagram here.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it would be fun for you to share a little bit about your Enneagram type without telling us your type.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: How would you describe yourself?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do you view the world?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: How do maybe people experience you?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think if if I would have done this 25 years ago, I would have been clearly the pragmatic achiever, uh, ambitious, the type that was, you know, I was going to take the hill and was the first one out there.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I've always been at a war at war with time because of my health conditions.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you know the story, but I have hemophilia and tested positive for HIV and hep C as a teenager.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the the diseases were not the problem.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was the medicines that caused a lot of trouble through the years.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's funny about the Enneagram, when I took it, I had um a very interesting tension that we saw.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because I'm also a peacemaker, and I've become more and more a peacemaker over the last two decades.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, part of that I think is health and the struggles of health.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Part of that is having children that I've watched and grown up now who are all adults, and you know, seeing the world from a different place as an older person who's an older father and now have a grandson and the world is different of what matters to me.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's part of that transition.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of the struggles of our local churches and our denomination, I really have worked hard to try to piece things together that didn't seem they would work.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know if that tension is more out of practice because I had to do it over the last 15 years, or if it is part of a, I don't know, God reshaping my personality a little bit, which I have seen others go through.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I've seen them clearly be one thing.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it looks like, you know, oh my goodness, they're transitioning into something or transformation is a better word.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that would describe who I am.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I've become less and less uh of an extrovert.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm and more tendencies to introvert.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I think part of that has to do with just having spent 30 years basically on 24-hour call as a pastor.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: And now that I'm not a pastor, I've realized that in your life you do a lot of things because you have to.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you don't have to do them, I think your personality traits, as you're wired up, you know, the other part is how you're nurtured and how it unfolds in what you do.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: But how you wired up, and so I didn't know I boy had certain introverted characteristics, but boy, I do now.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I understand my grandparents a lot better who, you know, they didn't want anybody visiting them, you know.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: They were they'd call you, they'd write a letter, but they, you know, they were just as happy, the two of them sitting on the porch.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And my wife and I are now empty nesters, and we spend a lot of time together.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: She works uh with our center, but um, she is clearly an extrovert.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: She loves people, she's a fireball and just loves, you know, going and doing.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm always tagging along.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the quieter one.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that explains things.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's fantastic.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think you bring up a phenomenal point that I want my community to be thinking about continuously, and that is our starting point doesn't have to be our stuck point.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is just because where we start off or where what our lens are and and our perspective of the world, it doesn't always need to stay that way.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: It can evolve and grow and transform by the Holy Spirit's work in our life, which is key.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know there's a lot of other teachings out there with say bootstrap it or do this and do that.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think ultimately it's about our spiritual practices combined with the power of the spirit that we see that transformation.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that you can identify where you were and what your tendencies are, but the growth and evolution in your life and in your maturity ultimately, and how that shows up and it is how you experience the world now.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I and I think there is something to these new studies that that you're finding in the secular world, but also are being confirmed in the spiritual world about mindset.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think mindset plays a significant role in terms of how our wiring it sees itself come to life in various ways with family, with the world, with our dreams, with our decisions.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that, you know, I've always had a very optimistic mindset.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Even when I found out about my HIV status as a 16-year-old, my first question is, how do we fight it?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And there were no medicines at the time.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a really old hemophiliac.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, we uh so my whole life has been, okay, but how do we get to the next hill?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: How do we do this differently?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that part of that was your mindset, as Paul talks about in Romans 12, has a lot to do with how you actually live out the world that you encounter and your faith in that world.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had a lot of friends, Amy, that were also hemophiliacs.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: There were 12 of us when we were growing up in that in the region where I grew up.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm the only one left.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, because they've all died of either HIV, AIDS, or hepatitis C has actually just killed most of them.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I've talked to their parents and their sisters and brothers and loved ones, and what I've discovered is that there was a point where they gave up and they just were so overwhelmed.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it is a terrible disease once it cranks itself up.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: But the more they could stay optimistic, but one of them was a doctor that we love named Scott.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Scott was one of the most optimistic people I know, and he is was the last one of the group and then encountered a during COVID.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: He got a type of pneumonia that as an immunosuppressed person he couldn't deal with.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: But a mindset is what sets you up.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's why I believe that Paul talks about in two or three places, you have to renew your mind.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's why your salvation is a helmet that sits on top of your mind, because Satan uses that a great deal to be able to kind of coordinate the battle and the attack on you.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because if Satan can get you to give up, if he can get you to become uh unresponsive to the situation in your life, then what happens is that it makes it all the simpler for him.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I used to tell people when I was pastoring, the first thing I do every morning is put on that armor from Ephesians 6, my breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that word is your only offensive weapon.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I believe spending time with Jesus, spending time going deeper in the word is what allows you when maybe you don't feel as strong or as optimistic, that's when you really need that weapon and that way to be able to stand strong for yourself in Christ.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, you said so much in here that I want to respond to.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think what's really interesting as you pointed out just last week we had a conversation with Nick Connolly about don't give up just yet.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a message that is very timely and very important for society, for Christians specifically.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because to your point, opposition is never going to stop.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Resistance is always going to be there.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're fighting a disease, starting a business, pastoring a church, raising kids, raising my hands to all of these things, right?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: This world wears us down.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so what you just said, the antidote of putting on the full armor of God so we can stand against the attack of the enemy and the the resistance that this world throws at us.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you just for speaking to that.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think to tie in what you are originally saying about how you have seen your transformation in your life.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that's the fruit that we can all experience.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: As we get in the Word of God daily, we put on the full armor of God, we do what Jesus did, we can see that transformation.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it helps us with the perseverance and the persistence that we need to live the fullness of what the Lord has planned for each one of us.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautifully put.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I try to encourage my daughters every morning.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have FaceTime calls and text back and forth.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the two things I tell them you have to do today is you have to be in his word and give yourself patience.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Be patient with yourself, give yourself grace because they're all very much achievers.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that they struggle with, you know, the things that often, particularly at that young age, that they're in their 20s, trying to, you know, uh set their own goals and do their own things.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the word is the are the guardrails, it's the point of reference for your life.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: That way you never lose that true north.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, I see so many people I did when I was doing counseling, because I also do marriage and family therapy, and their greatest enemy half the time was themselves.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't know how to love themselves, they didn't know how to give patience and have a sense of just finding peace for themselves.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And at the center, we have something called the Faith and Wellness Institute.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the primary resource out of that is called the anxiety algorithm.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's how Paul talks about in the fourth chapter of Philippians finding real peace, not just peace that's in a triage, but really walking with the God of peace.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, you know, think on these things.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Again, talking about the power of the mind.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's really good.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: You speak to where your daughters are at in this stage of life.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, man, I needed to hear that 20 years ago for sure.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I need to hear it today in my 40s.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I would love for you to speak to then really what does it look like to launch a book and to do ministry and to be in a really nuanced space that generations before us didn't have to deal with, which is this online world, promoting yourself, promoting the work and the ministry that the Lord has given you.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: How do you do that with the lens of your personality and also the point of transformation that you're at?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Even to your point, you feel more of like an introvert now as opposed to the days of being an extrovert.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like for you to sustainably, thoughtfully, and in a way that feels really fruitful and life-giving to launch a message?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I've been blessed that I've had a good team around me of people for 20 years now.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this team that we're working with at JourneyWise Network, um, some of them I've been working with for that entire time.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them have come in, but you know, I'm very careful about the personalities of those that I bring on the team.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I try to be very specific about that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've had tools that we use, uh, including the Enneagram, uh, to help say, okay, a new person coming on, not just what they're going to be like and what their situation will be, but also how is this going to affect the whole team?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And what is our responsibility to respond to how that person comes on the team?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: What I've found in this latest series of the Life Along the Way series with our first two books in it, it's a four-book series for 360 days Journeying with Jesus, is that the editorial team were some of the best people that I have ever worked with in my life.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm on my 19th book.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've worked with lots of editors and lots of producers and folks that, you know, we've done a lot of media.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing that I think is most important when you are bringing something into the culture right now is trying to get to the very core of what the message is.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think people want simplicity, but they want something that's going to matter in their life.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: They there's a lot of fluff out there.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so I love what your podcast does.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: You ask the questions about pragmatism.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, I know this, but how do I put this into practice?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: How do I do this and make it work?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the reason we did this series, Life Along the Way, was because I would have people for 25 years, they've been asking the what would Jesus do question.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I would do my best to answer that, but the more and more they would ask it, and I see it on social media, and Jesus is really getting a bad rap on social media because it is people that are saying what he would do.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of people being able to say, okay, well, what did he say and do during his earthly ministry?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how this series came about.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was for a sermon series.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the more I kept investigating it, the more I saw I thought, oh my gosh, there's 360 encounters.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's almost a full year.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you five rest days.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I did it for my first uh sermon for the year 2017 and at the church where I was pastoring, and it just went over very well.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: People would constantly say to me, I didn't know Jesus said that, or I didn't know Jesus responded that way to someone.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, has it helped you?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: When we finished the study, I said, Have you has it helped you know how to answer the question, what would Jesus do?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: And 89% of people's survey said, absolutely.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: They did it on a scale of one to five.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've now taken this out into other churches, but the the thing that I most appreciate about the journey is what it means for the individual.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we do it with churches.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have a program that churches can do it.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have programs that that if you're in a small group, you know, for all the stuff that goes with that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the but the most important part of it is what happens with that individual.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and the two words that I hear all the time is that I I walked with Jesus for this year, and it made me want to connect back to my brothers and sisters.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it made me want to be unified, which is the number one thing.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, churches today, we believe, should use the walking with Jesus to unify because churches are so divided, most of them.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: But the second one I have is that I hear I hear this word over and over again is grace.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, this man loved me and went through all this and died for me, knowing what I do on a regular basis, and really having that experiential kind of understanding of grace that we often don't.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: We get it in our heads, but do we really know the power of what grace did for an as an existential event?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's the reason we're here is because God had grace.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: His righteousness and grace being intention, he chose to pay the bill himself, is exactly what happened.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so as I talk to people over and over again, you know, that I have people ask about the elections.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've had people ask about making decisions for school, for their children.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've had people who've said, oh my goodness, you know, what am I supposed to do with, especially with through COVID?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: There were all these conversations that people were just searching for answers.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I've come to the point that I don't need to answer those questions.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus does a pretty good job himself.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to create an opportunity for people to be able to see that and experience it.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure I answered your question.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I gave it a shot, though.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, this is so great.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love what you shared.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I, you know, as you know, we pray before we hit record.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And however the Lord leads in these conversations, I believe is exactly what it's supposed to be for whoever needs to hear the words.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I think what you shared reminds me of the value of digging into the life of Christ because I can testify.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've been through a couple of dark nights of the soul, and the last several years I've recently shared a little bit more of my story, what I've been through.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: But in the early darker days, I didn't know what to do with my rhythm of getting in the word.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord wakes me up very early.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking like oftentimes 4:30, and I'm not a saint, it's just what he does, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned to embrace it and love it, and I actually look forward to it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're grieving or going through something really hard, it's the that time takes on a different flavor.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I I wasn't sure at first, and I felt the Lord lead me pretty quickly to a couple of different studies.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up spending that first year of grief with studies specifically about the life of Jesus.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you what, that was the tether, that was the anger when people are the opposite of Christ, when your life looks like the opposite of what the Father would do for you.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: We need to tether ourselves of who Christ is and who he is to us and what the word of God says about it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I can testify to the fruit that I feel like several years later the grief isn't gone because the experience isn't gone, but my love for the Lord has deepened because I chose to take that painful moment and go, what does the word of God tell me about who Christ was and who he is and who he can be to me in this time?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think then the the fruit of that was also then pointing to community.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love that you have done this in this is the most expanded and extensive way that I have seen.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, this just came across to me in the email a couple of weeks ago.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I've just had a couple weeks to uh immerse myself in the process of it.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, this no matter where people find themselves, if they want to, if they need to be tethered, even if it's by a thread to the person of Christ, or if they want to figure out what does the word of God actually say about this man and who is Jesus, wherever they are, I feel like this is such a critical study to add to their rhythm at some point here.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Finish up your link study and then dive into this after Easter.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I cannot say enough.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that because you get it.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you see it, what we've tried to do.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole idea I tell people is we wanted to write the story of Jesus, a study that would carry them from start to finish without putting our fingers on the scale.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted it to be Jesus talking back to them.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so we took us two years to work through all of the words from Jesus part.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you read the scripture, then you have a message from Jesus, then you have questions.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we threw out days and days of work that we did because it just felt like we were leaning maybe into our denominational, our theological stances, or maybe how we saw the world.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what we wanted to do.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted a Baptist, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, and a Methodist, and a non-believer to be able to pick up this book and get to know who Jesus is.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I have this image in my mind when we were writing it, Amy, of someone.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to admit, a lot of it is the chosen characters are in my image here as I see these people through.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I love it though.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love it too.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we've had the chance to work as a partner because their folks are working on this new gospel exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in DC.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we've partnered with them that when you come out of the exhibit, you will get life along the way information to go on and continue for a year working with Jesus.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we're very excited about this.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the image I have is of you know a guy sitting by himself or a woman sitting by herself, hearing that Jesus is on his way.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: So he gets there and they he passes them.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then they get up and they think, Well, okay, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna make the decision to follow him.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they begin to follow him.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then they get a little closer and they hear the conversation of those who are walking behind him.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually he turns and says, Hey, come walk with me.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then as they walk and they know each other, Jesus puts his arm, you know, right here and says, Hey, well, let's walk together.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get to the point where your life, he's completely changed by this fact.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen overnight, but over time, eventually, Jesus is gonna say, okay, now you go find someone that can walk arm in arm with you and tell them about my story.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is the walk to Emmaus, actually.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: But I love that image of what life along the way does.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for the first 200 years, we weren't called Christians, we were called people of the way.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, life along the way, what it means to hear about this Jesus, because we start with the prophecies that, you know, you're going to read through a lot of the prophecies, then we have the birth, and then you have the unfolding of the ministry in front of you.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I want people to go by the end of it, you know, what a journey, what a trip this was for me, because I'm not where I was, I'm not where I ultimately will be, but boy, this has transformed the way that I see Jesus and see the world.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think that it's an important thing to highlight here that we could have read about the life of Jesus.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: You could have read the Bible multiple times.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there's still another facet to learn.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a new piece of information that can be illuminated, shimmer, highlight, however you want to say it, when you reread these accounts and this gospel.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love that this is a a new format, that it's accessible to those, or it's being, you know, kind of highlighted to those walking through who are looking to engage in a more profound way.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and for those who are, you know, the achievers out there for that Enneagram, for those who like to measure and like to make sure everything's you read all four gospels and the first chapter of Acts in 360 days, but we put them in chronological order.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you literally are walking through the life of Jesus in one year.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I hit my table there.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so you finish up in a year through all the gospels.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in my third time doing it though, and I created it, I'm in my third time doing it, and I'm still learning something every day that I haven't seen after 35 years and lots of degrees of studying Jesus.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because the power of the Holy Spirit is the variable in this equation, and he is always willing to say, I have I've held this back from you a little bit.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now let me show you what this means right here.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, the woman at the well was the day that I was reading.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I've read that so many times.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've preached on it a number of times.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: But yesterday was the first time that I saw something that I had never seen before.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it was so beautiful and it was just so wonderful to be able to go, okay, thank you, Jesus.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for waiting until right now to show this to me.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, then it would be impossible to ask you what was your favorite either sermon to teach or chapter to write.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that right a whole year, 360, it's four volumes, if you will, of this.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot, but is there anything that has stood out to you, maybe even in this last season?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, in fact, I'm glad you're the first person to ask this question.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've been waiting for someone to ask it what my favorite one is.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: It is the story of Jairus and the woman with the bleeding condition.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that one was very personal to me because what you find is that God had sort of orchestrated that together.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Jarr's daughter was 12 years old.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: The woman had been dealing with the bleeding condition for 12 years.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so at the time the daughter's born and the time the woman starts bleeding, God says, This is going to be an example of my love and grace and the and a miracle for my son.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, years aren't anything to God.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, therefore, this was something he felt like was yesterday he was planning.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: But what's so amazing is that the reaction of everyone when this woman who's considered unholy, and we all have people in the world that we shied away from or things that maybe we don't understand.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden she walks up into the middle of this crowd and she says, you know, I'm not worthy enough to talk to him.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not worthy enough for him to know who I am or look at me.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just going to touch the back of his clothes.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: And when she did, the power radiated out, and Jesus turns around and sees her, and of course, she's dropping to the ground because she could actually have been killed because she's considered unholy.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I, at the same time, and this is where I was going to, Jared has come to say, My daughter's dying.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And while the woman is receiving power, his neighbors come and say, Don't bother Jesus any longer.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Your daughter is dead.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: And these words, and because I've had these said to me by my best friend 30 years ago, 35 years ago now, with my diagnosis, Jesus looks at Jarrus and says, Do not be afraid, just believe.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And those were the words that my friend, who is about 10 years older than I am, said to me, He was a young doctor, and he said, Shane, the Lord has given me this word, do not be afraid, just believe.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: The words that are for Jarrus are the words that are for you.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been able to preach that literally all over the world.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had a chance, but when I was writing it, Amy, there was there was something almost cathartic about it, you know, because I was able to just be with the Lord and say, thank you so much for this illustration, for this story, because 2,000 years later, it has affected me.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so the power of that day then led into other stories that I really had forgotten about.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then you see the man with the son that they're trying to cast the demons out of him in Mark.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes down from the transfiguration.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And this man, all he wants is his son to be well.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, the disciples can't heal him.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: They're all, you know, fussing at each other.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees are saying, we've got them now.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: The crowd's laughing.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if anybody's ever taken the time to just really see what's happening in that setting.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is frustrated with the disciples because they haven't been able to do it.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to the Father, This only can be transformed.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: This demon only comes out when you by faith.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the Father, you know what he says.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: He says to Jesus, I do believe, but help my unbelief.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think about how many people don't ask that question because they are so ashamed or afraid.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so they say, I do believe, but really, no, we there's we're we're never going to be perfect.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: The brokenness will remain in us until the day we look him in the eye.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: But between now and then, he wants to help not just our faith, but to help our unbelief as well in those circumstances.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: He does not abandon us.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I just love that setting there.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: That in the middle of his own earthly frustrations, he ministers to that father.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just, I don't I know I'm going on and on, but it's just so powerful to me how personal these stories are.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: This Jesus is a real guy, he's a real man, uh, as much as he is also real, real God.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he he is fully human and fully divine, but his humanity is a gift to us because when we pray to him, and he's the only religious leader in world religions that says he is the deity.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody else was a prophet or or someone who talked about it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: But that gift of the incarnation, Amy, means that when I pray to him about what I'm grieving over, he knows what grief is like from Lazarus from his own death.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: He knows that deeply.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that can happen to us that Jesus does not also feel.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in even those accounts in the gospel about Jesus responding, I think we complicate it when all we need to say is help, whether it's help our unbelief, help our daughter, help with my healing, all of those things.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is sufficient enough for him when we are surrendered in our posture of like help, he encounters us and and he can do that.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I just love that.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for for answering that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how you lay it out.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I I guess I want to give a couple of more insights because you talked about the chronological piece, which I think is fabulous.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's it's there's the chronological Bible and there's other resources.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that if we read all of the gospels, we get bits and pieces of these accounts.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: You also have really formatted it in a way, well, for today's world, right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where we we only have so much time.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe just give us a minute and walk through, besides the chronological piece, what we could experience or how we would experience these books.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you have a devotional that's every day.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: You read the scripture passage for that day, you have the words from Jesus, kind of a paraphrase to help you think deeper about it, and then you have some questions for that day.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: So every day you're on the journey.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we have written Bible studies that for every Sunday, every Sabbath, that you do that talk about a theme that you've been reading that week.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there's 52 of those to help you to kind of start sewing everything together.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: We have some checkups for however or whoever you do family with during the middle of the week that are also about that week's readings.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that was written by our faith and wellness folks who are doctors and psychologists who wanted to kind of take, you know, okay.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, how is Jesus talking about your health in terms of living with all your mind, body, soul, and spirit?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And how are you able to do that?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have what's called the great adventure, which you can do through maybe one of the 90 days, or you do all one, you know, during the whole 360, but it's putting action to faith and it's suggestions for how you can live out what you're reading about Jesus.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the thing that I'm excited about is you talked about trying to be very present for this day and age, is we have four modalities by which you can do this book, uh this program.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: You have the book, you can hold it in your hands.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have an app, and the app is in it's on sale right now, and it's going to be about a tenth of what would cost to buy all four books.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you get all four when you download the app called Life Along the Way.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: We have it on audiobook when people say to me, Well, I'm in my car all the time, I can't do this.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we have an audio book for you.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can listen to it.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have it on Kindle and ebook.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so for those who need to make the print much bigger or like doing it that way.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason we did that, Amy, and it's taken us, again, a couple of years to put all this together, is we wanted there to be no excuses for why a person talks themselves into not doing it that day.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we've tried to make it very affordable because our job here is not to make money, our job is to get the word of Jesus into people's lives.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we are focusing a lot on churches.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've beta tested several churches.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have several churches that are signed up and they're doing it for one year.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we even have pulpit helps.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the pastor will be preaching on that theme every week of whatever is in that day, uh, and therefore that week, and therefore the whole church together.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: We have it tested for ages 12 and up.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that youth and adults, it works very well with.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're in the process of developing a children's version that would be for the little ones to go through the life of Jesus.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit different, you know, but still the scriptures and the and the purpose.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: So again, I can only testify to what it's meant to me.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I was I had very good education, had great theological training, uh, did a lot of work in the life of Jesus, but there's nothing better than just sitting with him every day and and and and hearing it and feeling it.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I am amazed how accessible you have made this material.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can absolutely get on board with getting a church to go through that.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's it's just one of the best things.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I know we, you know, our denominations have certain rhythms and maybe church calendars they follow and things like that.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: But um, as someone who's been a part of the evangelical church a long time, man, I think just getting into the life of Christ for the year would serve us really, really well.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the intentionality.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you've lived what you believe, you've sewn in years into the kingdom in your local body of Christ, in your family, and then here on a global level.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much to learn from you, I imagine, or to be able to glean.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely gonna put all the links so people can not only just get this resource, but learn more about your offerings and what the ministry is doing.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: But is there any last word of encouragement that you want to just share with us, whether it's about the material, about the life of Christ, or just maybe what the Holy Spirit's leading you to encourage us in today?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I try to finish up every podcast that I do or every situation or interview by just reminding people that, you know, we've heard this in songs and in poems about, you know, if if you were the only person, Jesus would have died for you.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: But think for just a moment why he did it.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's because you matter to him.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: You matter to God.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no greater gift in the life of Jesus and in what he did for us in the passion and his promise to come back.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's doing that because you have value, and that value is special and precious.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: And God was willing to battle his grace and love with his righteousness to solve the problem for us.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the way it did it was personal.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: A part of him had to be given as that gift.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: What an amazing gift.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: But the reason for it is that you matter.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I just hope people know that when they begin their day and when they go put their head on the pill at night, no matter what they're going through, they matter.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if knowing that means changing, doing our 180s, if it means turning around, yes, do that.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: If it means loving on your children more, if it means making better decisions about your job or other things, or just making decisions about the way the day is going to go, do that knowing you matter.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that is so precious and special to God.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Beautifully said.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Pastor Shane.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate and value your time and just what you've shared here.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's going to just be exactly what someone needed to hear today.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Amy.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was a pleasure.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't that so good?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love that I still get surprised and wowed by the conversations that I get to have here, even after seven years of doing this.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I go into an interview knowing it'll be good.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very picky in the process of choosing the guest, but it's ones like these.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, wow, that was really good.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so grateful that I got to talk to Pastor Shane and that I got to record the conversation and share it with you.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I have confidence because I pray over every conversation that the words that are captured are for you and that anyone who needs to hear the words gets to hear them.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've listened all the way through, I know there was something for you today.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as always, if there was something that you heard in this conversation that you knew someone really needs to hear, like a family member or a friend, would you do me a favor and make sure they get this episode so they can be encouraged or hear exactly what it is that they needed to hear today?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, friend, until next time, continue to pursue God's perspective, purpose, and plan for your simply full hearted life.