Latest / How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack / Why Reading BIG chunks of the Bible is what you need... with Zach Windahl

Transcript

Why Reading BIG chunks of the Bible is what you need... with Zach Windahl · How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to the How to Faith a Life podcast, where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith, from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast and your favorite podcast streaming services.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Review this podcast so other people can find it and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, with all that said, let's begin.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hi friends, welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Today we have Zach Wendahl here.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a fun time to sit down and talk to somebody with mutual passions.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: He is kind of like one of those people I turn to for making complex things simple.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he has come out with I know you've seen it, I know you've heard of it, the Bible study, as well as the Bible Simplified.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's got so many projects in the tank.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's just such like a mastermind.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: We were talking before I turned on the camera about like all his cool, interesting projects and passions.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm so excited for this conversation and to hear all about his heart for the word.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the podcast, Zach.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm honored to be here.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're crushing it right now.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can we just say, can we all like give you a round of applause with how your how your new book is doing and all the content you're putting out?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think you help so many of us grow in the word.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you on behalf of every Bible nerd.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited about this conversation because I feel the same way about you and everything that you put out.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can see that you really care about it.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: You've thought about it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about how you care about the colors before we turn on the camera.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: You really care about like, I want to get to the heart of things.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just here to fill another book slot to, you know, just pass through the whatever it is, the machine, be another cog.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: You really want heart change.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: So can you share a little bit about your love for the word and where you feel like some people kind of miss it maybe and treat it as just like a box to check?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: My love for the word began in 2014.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I accepted the Lord when I was six years old, but I think as a six-year-old, you have no idea what you're signing up for, really.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so funny, I actually saw a video of the day that I accepted the Lord.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I found it on YouTube this week.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm writing this new book right now.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's called How to Be a Christian.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the chapters is just about the gospel.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I called my mom and dad, and I was like, hey, where was I when I actually accepted the Lord?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, Yeah, you were six years old.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: You were with our family friends at this living Christmas tree event.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What is a living Christmas tree?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I Googled it, and it's literally this giant Christmas tree made out of wood with the entire choir with their heads popping out as if they're ornaments, singing a compilation of Christmas songs.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting here, like, I can't believe I just like found photos of this, let alone I I I typed it into YouTube, and the first video that popped up was uploaded five years ago, but it was from when I was there in 1993 on December 11th, which is insane.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I literally watched the whole message and I heard the guy's like his sermon and the ultra call and when I actually gave myself to the Lord.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that crazy?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I got chills.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: You should have been traumatized by that.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, you're like, Yes, Jesus.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, literally, right.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I guess we had no idea what we were doing in the early 90s, but it was crazy.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I like grew up in the church and I saw God move in a lot of miraculous ways, we can talk about this later, but my mom's a four-time cancer survivor.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I saw God's goodness constantly.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him healing her, I saw him through the way that she loved me and taught me about him.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was dedicated to following Christ.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was going to church every week, I was memorizing Bible verses, I was doing the whole thing.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: But even then, I didn't have like a personal relationship with the Bible, and I didn't know necessarily how to read it, and I didn't even know really all that was in it.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think when you grow up in church, you just know certain stories and you know certain verses, but you don't realize that, like, okay, there might be a few devotional verses in Philippians, but the entire book of Philippians is a letter to a specific church, and we should be reading it that way.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I hit college, I fell away from my faith for years, kind of questioning everything.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was surrounded by a lot of Christians that were not good representations of Jesus, and I was surrounded by a lot of people that weren't in the church, but were really kind and loving.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think my understanding of love and and kindness was different at that point in life.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, there's a disconnect here.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, if I'm gonna stay in the church, if I'm going to consider myself a Christian, I need to know what I actually believe and I need to actually know the Bible.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I dedicated the next two years to like studying scripture as deep as I could.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved out to Australia.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I studied this program out there where we were doing 12 hours a day, six days a week, as intense as you could, really.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we would write our own commentaries on every book of the Bible.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so, say that it was like Genesis week, we would read Genesis five times through during the week and then write a commentary on it.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And like the first read-through, you're literally reading it out loud in one sitting.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so some of these books are four hours and you're just sitting, getting a raspy voice, just going in on them.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it was during that time when I really started to understand the historical background of things and the cultural context that really kind of illuminated everything for me in scripture.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I fell in love with it, and I saw my place in it, and I saw what God was doing in the world, and I was like, oh, I'm sold out on this.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want other people to also fall in love with scripture, but I also realized that a lot of people can't necessarily do a program like what I was doing, especially like if you have kids, if you have a job, like there's no way you can just get away to dive in that deep into scripture.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge advocate for getting people to be less overwhelmed by the Bible and kind of hold their hand through the process and be like, hey, it's not as difficult as we make it out to be a lot of the time.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think our our process is just maybe warped from what it should be.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so everything that I do, whether it's books or content or any other business, it's always how can I make this less overwhelming so that you're empowered to actually spend time in scripture yourself instead of only just letting like the really religious people or the really spiritual people teach you about it.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But like, no, you go in and you have the tools yourself to fall in love with it.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Quick pause.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast isn't sponsored by a brand or a company.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually just a ministry of Bible Nerd Ministries.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason we get to have conversations like this one is because of our Patreon community.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're the ones who fund and sustain this work.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to support the ministry, you can join Patreon for weekly in-depth Bible studies and access to so many years of past studies.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if a monthly membership isn't your thing, you can also support us by checking out our merch and studies and courses, all at Bible Nerdministries.com.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get back to the conversation.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now you said our processes are warp.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: What are some ways where you feel like the way that we get into the Bible kind of warps us from getting the real richness in it?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think a big thing, this might upset some people, but is that we focus on it from like just a devotional standpoint, where we're reading just like a few verses and like, okay, maybe you're sitting and meditating on them and you're like allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you about them, which is awesome and you should do that, but that shouldn't be the only thing that you're doing.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have access to so many incredible scholars available.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have access to so much insight from great, great people out there that we should be taking advantage of it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we should also be reading scripture at least once a week in large portions.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you can read Matthew in two and a half hours, you can read Philippians in like 16 minutes.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why don't we sit down and read through them?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But we're so willing to spend eight hours watching Bridgerton.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why there's a disconnect there.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that arises because people read the Bible and then they don't understand what it means, or they read through it and it's confusing to them.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we can, you and I and other people that do what we do can provide them with some insight in order to help them be empowered to read it, then I think that's the greatest thing we could ever do.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you can get somebody to fall in love with the Bible, man, that's like that's that's like an accomplishment.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Share a little bit more about sitting down and reading an entire book of the Bible.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like there's probably a ton of listeners right now that are like, mm, what?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I just sit down and just read it the whole thing right now.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm used to like one verse, one paragraph.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: How am I supposed to get anything from it?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Which is so common.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's like everybody, by the way.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's very rare to have somebody sit down and actually read through the a whole book at once.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of these books or letters were written to be read through in one sitting, or they're written as a storyline.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like so much of the Bible is a story.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so why don't we read it like that?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we read one verse about God's power in me and then just pray through that when in reality we could be reading it in context as a whole and get so much more out of it?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think when we read, say, so say Matthew, for instance, from beginning to end, you're gonna catch so much that you would miss.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you were doing like a regular Bible in a year reading plan where you're reading like two or three chapters a day, if you read all of it in one sitting, you're gonna uh understand so much more than you would if you were reading only a few a day.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Back in in uh December, actually, I read through the entire New Testament live on YouTube in three days.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: We did seven hours a day because I wanted to show people that it was possible.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, it's not that insane of a thing to do to read that much scripture at once.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so we did, yeah, it was it took like 20 hours.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: One day was six hours, the other two were seven, and we had people from all over the world log on, and people stayed for the entire thing where they're literally just sitting there with their Bible open on the other side of the screen, with me in front of them with a cup of tea, and I sat and read for seven hours straight each day.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like, I think it was just so eye-opening to a lot of people that it was even possible to do.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't teaching at all, I was literally just sitting there reading the Bible.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if more people learned to do that, it would be really impactful for them in the present and in the future.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I know for me, whenever I read like a book at a time, I typically notice a lot more connections, like, oh, this is like a theme throughout the whole letter, or oh wait, that happened at the beginning of the book, or whatever it is, like depending on if it's the old testament or physical or whatever.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: What are some other things that you think a lot of people miss by breaking it up into little paragraphs or percappes?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think they miss out on seeing God's heart behind a lot of things and how serious He is about our faith and how serious we are supposed to take our faith, and it should be a battle and we should fight for our faith every single day, and it should be all of us versus just a Sunday morning thing or a Wednesday night thing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But something that I love is just the understanding of Jesus as rabbi with us as disciples.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's this phrase that a lot of Jewish people used to use is to have the dust of your rabbi on you.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so the thought behind that is that we're so close to our rabbi that as he's walking, we get the dust from his feet kicked up on us.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because back then, so Jesus was a rabbi.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't re realize that, but he was a great teacher and obviously the Messiah as well, and so he had his disciples under him, and they would have left everything behind to see how their rabbi walked and talked, how he responded to people, how he got angry, how he laughed and taught scripture, and how he ate and drank, and how he interacted with other people, and they would take note of everything that he did in order to eventually become a replica of their rabbi.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of the times we miss that in our faith today is that we don't understand the rabbi-disciple relationship.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, if Jesus is our rabbi, we should want to be fully consumed by him every single day, understand how he would respond to things, understand how he would act around us.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that uh what would Jesus do bracelet?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But like seriously, like what would Jesus do in every scenario, and then try to mimic him and be a replica of him to the world?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's really what we're uh called to be is how can we share the love of Jesus to everybody around us?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think it's like devotional culture?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like just easy piecemeal verse of the day, kind of like a little horoscope of the day or a fortune cookie kind of like proverb?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you think it's like we just genuinely forget that that's how the Bible is supposed to be read?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like what do you think?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think we've kind of boiled Bible study into like a little devotional or proverb and move on and miss all of it?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really great great way to look at it as like we've turned it into like this horoscope fortune cookie thing that is like, okay, this is this is speaking to me today.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm gonna flip through the Bible and put my finger on a verse and see if like the Lord speaks to me through that, because it's easy, and I think a lot of our generation has been disserviced by not being taught how to study scripture or the importance of it because it's not talked about a lot, and I think it's a major issue in the church today.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if we made that shift from the pulpit and made it more attractive and and showed the intensity of our what our faith is supposed to be and how serious Jesus took it, I think it would change the way that we interact with the Bible.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I I also think that's a lot of stories in scripture aren't taught from the pulpit.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like most of the parables aren't taught from the pulpit.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: However, how what there's like 30 parables or something like that, and we only talk about a few.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about like prodigal son and a few others, and like the ta like the talents, like but we miss out on so much more.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus is savage.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you literally go through all the like the four gospels and only read the red letters, you're gonna be like, whoa, I didn't realize that I signed up for this.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And because like he tells it how it is, and it's like, oh yeah, a lot of us aren't going to like make it or continue on with our faith.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're being pulled from both sides, and like it's a lot more serious than we make it out to be.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we don't want to upset people often from the pulpit.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, I'm not a pastor, so I don't know if I have any weight here, but this is what it seems at least is that we don't want to upset people, and so we want it to be very welcoming, and we want every message to be based around getting hands raised for salvation instead of teaching that this is actual allegiance shifting.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for the early church, it would have made so much more sense than it did for us because we don't necessarily have kingdoms today.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: But for Paul to be going into these cities and saying, like, hey, Jesus is Lord would have been treason because Caesar was Lord to them.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the same for us today that like if we're saying that Jesus is Lord, it literally means nobody else is, and we have been moved from the kingdom of this world to God's kingdom, and that's a major deal.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: But for us, it's like this cute, like little thing where it's like, oh, I'm in the kingdom of God now.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And like hippie Jesus, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's like so loving.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a big issue that a lot of people run into because they haven't been taught the truth a lot of the times about how serious their faith is, or or even what they believe.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think so many Christians today would never be able to tell you what it means as to have Jesus as Messiah or like what they actually believe, like what it means to accept Jesus into your heart, or like any of the phrases that we use in church time and time again.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask the majority of Christians to explain them, I don't know if a lot of them would be able to, and that breaks my heart.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to provide resources and and and make this available to people so that they can read 10 pages in a book and be like, oh, now I understand the gospel.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in church for 30 years and it finally just clicked.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And like, that's so sad.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been in church for 30 years and you don't understand your faith, but it's the reality that we're dealing with in at least in our culture, and I don't I can't speak for other cultures, but that's what I've seen.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that sucks.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a big bummer.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh some people have snapped at me when I've said similar things.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's my um get out of jail free card is I'm married to a pastor, he's a son to another pastor.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: I have only pastor friends.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I'm not attacking pastors or the church, like the global church.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is Christ's bro bride, but I do think the church has failed Christians today, and they're not taught basics of hermeneutics and exegesis.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: They're not taught the basics of what is like orthodox historical Christianity.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: They're just like, I know Jesus is love.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: He turned water to wine, so let's get drunk.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like that kind of hippie Jesus.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's also, like, let's just be real, you're a businessman.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you get it.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's a marketability to being like, I'm not gonna teach you how to read the Bible because I want you to follow me, buy my books, listen to my sermons tied to my church.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so for so long, I think especially when we were growing up in the 90s, that was being a Christian was reading somebody else's devotionals for your Bible study instead of actually just reading the Bible.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were not discipled on how to read the Bible.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that we're like-minded and it's like, let's equip people how to fish, not do the fishing for them.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a lot of barriers, I think, for people mentally to go there and be like, I can trust myself to open up the Bible.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to those listening that are like, yeah, but when I open up the Bible, it still doesn't make sense, or I feel still feel like I'm not hearing from God, or I feel really intimidated.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to those people?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: First things first is like find the right translation for you.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can compete on the best translation all the time, but read whatever one is easy for you to read for the first time through.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to grab something that's super deep and scholarly, like as a commentary right out of the gate.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Read the NLT.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the most readable translation.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Start with that.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Great, awesome.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now find the the right books to read.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe start in Mark.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like pick one of the gospels, read Jesus, read about the early church in Acts, and then by reading that, you're gonna realize that the rest of the letters in the New Testament are gonna make sense.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're reading through the Old Testament and it doesn't make sense, keep reading through it because everything that Jesus said and did was a fulfillment of the Old Testament.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't read the Old Testament, you can't understand what Jesus is saying.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can't understand that he was the Messiah that they had been waiting for.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just doesn't work like that.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Read the Old Testament too.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Break it down into chunks.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Read through, like, if you don't know what's actually going on, just keep going anyways, because I think the Spirit speaks to us at the same time.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then have like a great guide to follow.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have people that help you understand these things.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Pick a few scholars, or if that's like too intimidating of a word, pick like some teachers that really teach like Bible-based theology instead of just topical, like that they actually teach you through what these chapters are saying and what's going on historically.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's incredible resources out there.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you like really want to get deep, you could use the logos platform where you have literally like thousands and thousands of commentaries and books available at all times.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Bible Gateway, they have like a great platform as well.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's just online.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy books.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at your background.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like NIV application commentary, game changer.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary up there, the Zondervan Bible Dictionary, like have an amazing dictionary so that you can look up these places and these words.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you promote them, but they're in the back of your video.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: So like the Holman Illustrated Diction Bible Dictionary, awesome.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Grab the new Bible commentary, like one volume, so then you don't need 60 volumes.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: You just have one.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have like one encyclopedia or one background, like IVP Bible background commentaries.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like you could have five books in your like Bible library, and that would be enough for the next 10 years if you actually took them serious.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to go crazy like Faith and I might, but like have just understand the basics and and have a few people that you read everything that they write.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's me saying like read even more than the Bible, but I think by having those and by by also reading more into it, you're going to understand the Bible.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you understand the context and the historical background of the text, then you You're gonna spend the rest of your life falling in love with scripture.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that might mean that the next five years you're really gonna be digging in, studying on your free time.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's worth it because I wanna be 70 years old.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be confident in what I believe in, and I want to pass that along to my kids and my grandkids.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm trying to do every day.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think we forget that it's not just an academic thing, like it's actually a soul thing too.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like it actually like Jesus is everything we're searching for.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we make it into this like, check the box, have my Jesus time, post the Instagram thing, and move on with my day.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I feel good about myself now.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, wait, but actually, our is this our lifeline?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is this what's really gonna take us to that 70 years old?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm wise enough to pour into my grandchildren, you know?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you're a new dad, you get it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah parenting is not easy.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I need grace.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: My my son dead again last night.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh again, washing the laundry, you know, and it's just but you know what, Laura?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Your grace is enough for me.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is also enough in this moment, you know?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we need it every single hour we need it, but we forget it's just we use it as Christianese, the band-aids, you know, just check the box, yeah, Jesus, and everything, but we don't even know what we believe or why we believe it.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we've gotta be in the word.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Quick pause before we get further into the conversation.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Last year I flew to Kaungwari, Kenya, and saw firsthand one of the most thoughtful mission models I have ever encountered.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Us Bible nerds are working together to find 2,000 water filters through the Bucket Ministry.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: They don't just bring clean water, they come back three times for discipleship, sharing the gospel and helping new believers get connected to the local church.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: And they do it by hiring local missionaries, discipling neighbor to neighbor in the local language.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to be part of that work and join us Bible nerds, we'd love for you to join us in support of the Bucket Ministry.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: All the information and all the links are in the show notes.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: All right, now let's get back to the conversation.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: What's a passage of scripture that's really changed your view of Jesus or even your view of the Bible as a whole?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like really just kind of transformed the way that you view the Bible.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would say recently in this last year, John 15, and just the impact of the importance of abiding in him.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where like true fruit comes out of our lives.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And like they'll know that we're Christians by our fruit.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so our fruit is like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if our lives aren't producing all of those things, if we don't see growth in those areas over time from when I first accepted the Lord to today, then there's something off.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think John 15, there's a the first half of it, there's a whole section on like abiding in Jesus and and essentially like attaching to him, being pruned by him.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the more time that we spend with him in his presence, the more we're gonna see him in all of our actions.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really the end goal is to like be a light to the people around us and and bring them into the kingdom of God as well, and to be able to show them our lives as an example of that.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, John 15.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good chapter.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a good book as well.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: But like I think often we forget, like, we're like, oh, we're supposed to have the fruit of the spirit.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: I need to muster up the strength to be kind, to be loving, or or have that joy or whatever.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like it's by abiding in Christ, it's by being transformed by Christ that then we have the fruit, a lot like how James talks about.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: But we focus so much on the performance, on the output that we forget it's not even really input, it's being grafted in, you know, being clinging to Christ, you know, and having him transform us.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: How do you feel like this would transform the church?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: It would transform cities, it would transform our nation, it would transform the world.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: If everybody took their faith as serious as I believe Jesus means us to, I think the church would be smaller as well.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it would be a lot smaller in the sense of if you have a ton of people in church right now that are going because they feel good about themselves going and it's more devotional and it's not as serious and life-transforming as the Bible says, I I think it would weed out a lot of people and it would make the people that are there that are staying much more strong and dedicated to their faith.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I think if if we spent time actually attached to Jesus and more time in scripture and his presence, it would be incredible.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: It would be it would be city transforming.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what that would look like in every one of our cities in Texas and in Florida and wherever everybody that's listening to this is listening from, your city would be way different if everybody around you dove into scripture the way that Jesus wants us to.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that starts with one person, and I think I think it starts with us, our real relationships with other people.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, uh it inspires other people to take their faith as serious as well.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there it's just a ripple effect, and we do really see great change.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's like massive change in just the last few years alone with Bible sales through the roof.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think is like one of the highest years in a really long time.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Church attendance through the roof.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like people are flocking to the church right now for truth, and even a lot of pastors have seen like such a shift in their sermons and and their focus on just teaching the word.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's amazing to see.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're definitely moving in a really awesome direction right now, and and I think it's like us, all the Bible nerds, like we have a job to do.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have like we have a role in this.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Help people fall in love with scripture even more because I want to see change in my city, as I'm sure you do too.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts with just loving one person and letting that ripple.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus at first, I thought it was gonna make me feel good.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, actually, it makes me feel safe for sure, but yeah, really crappy about all my life decisions up to this point and all my goals before and everything, like almost like all of that was a waste.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: So totally.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the day-to-day level, I have to constantly reorient my mind after it's poisoned online and with the world and stuff.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: So for you personally, when you sit there and you read Matthew in a sitting and you're like, dang, this totally means X, Y, and Z.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: What does that look like for you?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think it means I'm extremely selfish.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: After taking my faith serious, I realize that so much of my day is based around my needs and what I want.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think so little of our days are based around the Lord and his presence.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think I think there needs to be a shift for a lot of us where we do, instead of like rushing through quiet times, rushing through worship, rushing through prayer, spending more time actually sitting in it.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: I heard this one guy say, I I definitely don't do this.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I did this, but I heard this one guy say, like, if we tithe our money, why don't we tithe our time?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you're like, why isn't 10% of our day um focused on the Lord?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And like how different our lives would be if that was the case.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's really convicting to me because it can be really easy for me to just start running through my day and and not taking a a second to step back.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so it comes down to like our systems and like we can have goals for things, but what systems do we have in place to actually spend time with the Lord?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure criticism there is people will be like, well, then it's not real because it's not like spirit-led.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a lot of the times, I think if we're consistent with our habits and we're consistent with taking time for the Lord, even if we don't feel like it, I think He rewards that and I think it pays off in the long run, and I think it compounds over time.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what are those systems?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me right now is spending time in in scripture every day, and that looks different year to year.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm spending time in prayer every day, journaling what I feel like the Lord is saying to me.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Another awesome prayer exercise is the Lectio 365 app.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever used that?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a little bit.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like uh daily prayers.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's morning, afternoon, and night.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can put a reminder on your phone, like the notification pops up, and it like just forces you to s like take a step back for five minutes and recenter your attention on the Lord.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many different things that we could do.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just what works for each of us.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it just matters, like we just need to do it.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even if that means you put it on your to-do list and you check it off every day.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how you build habits.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been on my to-do list for five years.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like it's just what is what we should do.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, put it like as it put as the same as you putting laundry in the dryer, like I also need to spend time with the Lord today.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it would be really beneficial for a lot of us to put those habits in place because it'll force us to refocus our time.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've been thinking a lot about how I when I rush through things like prayer or Bible reading or whatever, it's because I technically feel a little uncomfortable, whether it's I'm feeling comfortable about the time that I'm putting towards it or I feel uncomfortable about my other to-do lists or whatever.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've been thinking a lot about how God calls us out of comfortability, not into comfortability.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we have these idols of comfort that we tithe to, that we live onto or make sacrifices unto.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's kind of like what our conversation a lot today has kind of revolved around in my head or how I've been kind of thinking about it.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Cause it's easy to fall for, I want comfort, I want what feels good, what fits into yeah, what it's really just me on the throne.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Comfort is, you know, worship to myself, right?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't call us to that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I I know for me and my husband, like, we have to schedule our date nights.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta hire a babysitter.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how much more with the Lord?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Do I need to be like, no, I'm not checking my email before I spend time with the love of my life to the max extreme, you know?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: But we act like spiritual things are just supposed to be feeling sinful and come naturally.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Which I mean, like, like funny thing, like I'm sure a lot of the Bible nerds out there might be in a like season where they don't have kids yet.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they don't have to hire babysitters.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they aren't married, so they don't like have to schedule date nights.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have the time because when you're married and when you have kids, when you have a newborn at home, like I have a seven-month old uh old at home, it's so much harder to spend time with the Lord now, and you have to be so intentional with every waking minute.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, if you don't have kids, if you don't have a husband or wife, like now is the time to build those habits and get in the word as much as possible because you have the ability to.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, stop wasting time on things that aren't going to have any reward in the future.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Stop wasting time on comfortability, like you said.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, get uncomfortable for a season and it will compound and benefit you for the rest of your life.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Amen, man.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: If there's one thing that you were to leave listeners with, one little last charge or encouragement or whatever, what would that be?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think the importance of showing up every single day, even if it's a small amount, I I I think I so I'm fascinated by the concept of compound interest.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we look at business, when we look at finances, when we look at anything in our life, what we do in small amounts over time compounds to such greater rewards.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you've read Atomic Habits, I think it's like getting 1% better every single day results in you being 37 times better over the course of one year.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: So look at your faith that way.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: What if we got 1% closer to Jesus every single day?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: How much greater that would be for us over the course of a year?
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because it compounds with time.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say tomorrow, what does that look like for you?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is 1% closer?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you like love somebody at work that's really annoying?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you call your mom who you've always considered a narcissist and you don't talk to anymore, but you've wanted to like redeem that relationship?
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that you're gonna spend time in prayer throughout the day or put on worship music, a podcast, put on other episodes of your podcast instead of somebody else's?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what does that 1% change look like?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that by the end of this year, by the end of 2026, your relationship with God could be completely different than it is right now.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're just one of those people where I know people listening to this is are gonna be like, I got to listen to more from him, I gotta learn some more from him.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, I want to encourage you to check out he has a new book.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: It came out actually right before mine.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's called The Bible Simplified, and it's a study guide, essentially.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Came out in July.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what you said?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it came out just a couple months before.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those things where I think you cannot read enough about the big, overarching how do we approach scripture?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: How are we reading it faithfully?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: How are we treating it?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's constantly a study.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like hermeneutics is a study of how are we reading it and treating it.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want to highly recommend this book to check out, as well as all of your other resources and books that you're working on, past, present, all the things.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: But where else can they find you?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously, that means the world.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: On Instagram, on Zachwendell.com, Zach Wendell on Instagram, Zach Wendell on TikTok, YouTube a little bit.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that people are gonna love all the stuff that you've put out to your heart and all your great resources.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks so much for coming on and sharing your heart on the podcast.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to the How to Faith a Life Podcast, where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith, from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast and your favorite podcast streaming services.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Review this podcast so other people can find it, and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.