Latest / #Faith4TodayPodcast / 🎧 Episode 54 — Reading the Story of God

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🎧 Episode 54 — Reading the Story of God · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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What if the Bible isn't just something you read, but a story
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that transforms US? Jesus didn't treat Scripture as
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a rule book or religious accessory.
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He trusted it. He lived it, he fulfilled it,
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and he invites his followers to be formed by it.
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In this episode, we're rediscovering why the Bible is
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no ordinary book, how it points to Jesus from beginning to end,
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and how reading the Scripture as an apprentice of Jesus, not a
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performer, can actually change us.
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This isn't about earning grace. It's about meeting in Christ on
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the page and letting his word shape our life.
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Welcome to episode 54, the Faith for Today podcast.
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Let's go. Well, welcome everybody.
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I'm so glad you're tuning in. I hope you have had a great
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start to the new year. There's a first episode of 2026.
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We're at episode 50 for on the Faith for Today podcast.
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I'm Matthew, I'm your host and it's a delight to have you
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listening or watching this episode on the Faith for Today
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podcast. Our desire is to not only help
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you be inspired through a Sunday message, but how so that you can
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integrate it into a life of faith on Thursday.
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We, we love the, the vibe on a Sunday, but man, we want to live
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it out even on Thursdays. And so each week we kind of
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recap the Sunday message. I'd give a little bit of bonus
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content and then answer or respond to some questions that
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we have in front of us from that message.
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And our our desire really is truly to come alongside you in
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your journey, your discovery of the word you're leaning and
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learning to help you just think biblically, know God more and
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follow him faithfully. So with that in mind, let's jump
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into today's episode and recap the Sunday message where we
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talked about reading the story of God to begin a new collection
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from practicing the way called the practice of Scripture.
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Now, in the sermon, we kind of invited you to rediscover a deep
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formative relationship with Scripture by seeing it through
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the eyes like Jesus did. Drawing from stories of martyrs
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like William Tyndale and other martyrs who gave their lives so
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that ordinary people could read the Bible, we're reminded that
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Scripture is no ordinary book. It's a living portal into God's
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reality and a peek into the Kingdom of heaven.
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While modern Christians often ignore or misuse the Bible,
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Jesus use Scripture as authoritative, trustworthy, and
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alive with God's voice. As a rabbi steeped in the
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scriptures, Jesus himself taught from the from the scriptures,
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constantly even rebuking religious leaders for not
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knowing quote UN quote the scripture or the power of God.
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That's in Mark 12/24. In Matthew 517 through 19, Jesus
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makes makes it really clear that He did not come to abolish, to
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dismantle, disobey the law and the prophets, but to fulfill
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them, revealing that the entire biblical story finds its meaning
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and completion in him down to the smallest detail.
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Now, because Jesus fulfills Scripture, he invites us to
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apprentice under him by practicing it.
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Matthew 519 shows a direct connection between taking
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Scripture seriously and becoming formed as people of God's
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Kingdom. Reading the Bible is not about
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information alone, but transformation, learning to be
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with Jesus, be like him, and do what he did.
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We trust Scripture because we trust Jesus, and as we read, the
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author is present with us. Scripture becomes a means of
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communion with God, shaping our minds, our imaginations, and our
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life. The call, then, is simple but
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yet profound. We have to begin reading
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Scripture daily as an apprentice of Jesus, slowly, prayerfully,
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and with an open heart, expecting to meet Christ on the
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pages and be formed by his Word. All right, let's get into a
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little bit of bonus content. Now.
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One of the things that I wanted to expound on was this reality
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that whatever you think scripture is, it certainly is no
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ordinary book that the Bible is such a fantastic collection of
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writings and so much to learn and study.
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And I mentioned in one of the services, you know, I'm 43 years
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old. I've, I've read through the
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Bible in its entirety many, many times, probably for for 12
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years, 1212 to 15 times through at least at minimum.
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I've read through the scripture. And I don't say that as as a way
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of bragging. I just simply say that as a way
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of context to say I'm still learning, I'm still growing and
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I'm still discovering things about who God is and refining my
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mind and my imagination as being more and more steeped into the
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scriptures themselves. And it's such a great book to
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get into. But for many people, the Bible
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does kind of a newer thing. And so I wanted to give a little
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bit of reasons why the Bible is just not an ordinary book and
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some of the the maybe problems that people have with the Bible
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and kind of offer some thoughts in that in that way.
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So first, what is the Bible? Well, the Bible is really 66
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different books penned by at least 40 different men over a
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1500 year period. But we really do believe it was
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authored by one by the Holy Spirit.
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It's inspired by the by the Spirit.
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Now it's full of wars and stories and Diaries and songs
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and poetry and prophecy and history and personal
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correspondence. It's got humor and metaphors and
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fantasy type writings. It's broken up into two main
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sections, the Old Testament which is 39 books, and the New
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Testament which is 27 books. In 1560, the Geneva Bible was
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first printed with chapters and verses throughout, but the
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original writings and manuscripts had no verses or
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chapter breakdown, just scrolls that would all all all the way
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through. Now here's something
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fascinating. Almost every book in the Old
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Testament is referenced at least one time somewhere in the New
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Testament. It is one book.
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It's kind of a a kaleidoscope of reference kind of back and forth
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with each other, which is why we would say you always use
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scripture to interpret Scripture that's primary and are trying to
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understand the scripture. Now what are some problems that
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people have some objections, some struggles people have
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around around the Bible. Well first you'll hear people
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talk about how the Bible is full of contradictions.
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Now one person tried to tabulate that there were over 400,000
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errors. Now the problem was how they
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were coming up with that number is see that that total is single
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variations of something within all the manuscripts kind of ever
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printed in in its original manuscript form.
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So let's say this if there was 1 variation found in Matthew 16
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and verse 4 and and we had 3000 copies of that verse and 3000
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different manuscripts containing, you know, that
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section of Matthew. Now this person would cite
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saying that therefore there are 3000 errors in the scriptures
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when really it's one copied 3000 times.
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So, so the number itself is a bit skewed.
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Now, there are really only two or three clusters of verses that
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we're not in the earliest manuscripts.
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In other words, some of the earliest manuscripts of the
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writing. This section isn't present.
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And of those earliest manuscripts that that are
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missing some of those clusters of scriptures in our Bibles
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today. The Scripture notes it, the
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Bible notes it. Most, most Bible publishers note
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that, hey, this wasn't in an early manuscript.
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And, and so I think it's, it's helpful for that now there's
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some fantastic research and scholars and a ton of writing
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and research being done all around scriptural integrity, the
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scrutiny of ancient texts and, and how we come to trust
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validity and ancient texts. And so there's a whole host of
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science and research being done that are really, really
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fascinating in and through. And there's some really famous
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people online that you can follow along and watch their
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Instagram and go to their you tubes that are really helpful
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and much smarter at helping us understand the the value of some
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noted, you know, scriptural integrity and even the
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manuscript understanding of things.
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One of the things that I think is interesting though, is that
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especially in the New Testament, there might be diverse details
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listed throughout the Gospel accounts, but it's still
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consistent in its thematic and main main focus where where one
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story might be represented in multiple gospels, the details
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would be different, but the basic understanding of what
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happened in those stories is consistent.
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Now, there are sometimes objections around like cultural
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antagonism. In other words, there are things
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culturally that were present in Scripture and in ancient times
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that we don't have in our day and we feel like that's not
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appropriate. Things like slavery or polygamy
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and mistreatment of women, all, all of which today the modern
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Christian would say, yes, those things are unholy, unwelcome,
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not not even of God's original design.
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And what you find in the Scriptures is that there's an
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elevated view of of people. There are sometimes that
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Scripture is being descriptive about what has happened in
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history. Not necessarily.
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Hey, this is how God wanted all of history to go again.
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We know that aside from like the creation and the new creation in
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Revelation, like God's full desire and design isn't really
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being lived like the like sin has corrupted and corroborated
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so much of what happens in our world, and that's not what God
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intends or what he longs for. But the Bible doesn't hide the
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the the dark shadow spots in history or even in people's
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story. The Bible is honest about out
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laying all of those things on the table and seeing how God
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redeems even in the midst of those things and how God was
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always writing into to long into how the people of God were to
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act in a specific culture in a specific time period towards
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people like women and slavery and other things.
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And so there's so much of that that is culturally present but
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not biblically commanded. And I think that's an important
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reality. Like think about this, 85 to 90%
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of the inhabitants of Rome and Italy in in the early centuries
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were slaves or considered slaves in origin in the 1st and 2nd
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centuries. In fact, many slaves in Rome
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during that time enjoyed much popularity and were afforded
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many great benefits. And so it's a different context
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in our than what we have in our world.
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And so it's just because it is a slavery doesn't mean it's the
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exact same of what we experienced here in the West or
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other places. There's been a trajectory of
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things that most not good and the redemption and the the the
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abolishment of slavery, things like that, that projection that
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that kind of that trajectory. Rather, man, those things we're
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we're thankful and Christians through reading the scripture
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correctly, we're at the forefront of many of those
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things in in our day, in our age.
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And then finally, the the last kind of element of this cultural
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antagonism really comes back to this idea that so many people
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don't like the scriptures because it doesn't align with
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our personal preference or thought line.
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And I think we've just got to be really honest that our grid and
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our thinking isn't the same as gods and isn't the same as the
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God of the Bible. And we then have to wrestle
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that, wrestle that out. But there's a great number of
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reasons why we can trust the Scripture.
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Number one, we can trust the Scripture because of the the
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mass amount of the manuscripts. Now a number of manuscripts and
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time between events and dates of writing, or what scholars used
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to validate an ancient text, an ancient writing.
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So no historian can intelligently refute the
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validity of the Bible and its authenticity because of the
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number of manuscripts we have and the time between the events
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that occurred and the time of the date of the writing about
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those events. Such a small gap in that way.
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Just think about this, we have 5 copies of Aristotle Politics, a
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few manuscripts of Caesar's Gallic Wars, and two ancient
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biographies of Alexander the Great.
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And there isn't any of us who doubt those accounts, even
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though those accounts were written and the copies of those
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things that we have were written 400 to 1500 years after the
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events. Now when it comes to the New
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Testament, we have 25,000 copies of the New Testament with the
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earliest manuscripts circulating around the account of Christ and
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his life 40 years after the events, not 400 but 40 years.
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Which makes the the New Testament text trustworthy not
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only from a historical perspective, but from an
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accuracy perspective as well #2 We can trust the Scripture, I
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think, just because of the prophecies fulfilled.
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There are 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament and
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he completed or fulfilled every single one.
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In the book Science Speaks, author Peter Stoner talks about
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the odds of Jesus completing just eight of the 300
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prophecies. He says that the odds of Jesus
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completing 8 of the 300 prophecies, statistical
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probability would be one in 10 to the 20th power.
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That's one with 20 zeros after it, right?
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So the odds, the probability basics is is just crazy.
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So here's what that means. The thing, let me break it down
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simpler. If you had 10 tennis balls, the
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probability that one of them is white would be one in 10, right?
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That's the probability statistic there.
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So 10 to the 20th, that's enough.
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Think about like this. That's enough silver dollars
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stacked 2 feet deep covering the entire land mass of Texas, and
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then one of those silver dollars spanning 2 feet deep across all
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of Texas has an X marked on it. The chance of somebody in a
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helicopter blindfolded, randomly saying drop and skydiving out of
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the helicopter landing and picking up the 1 silver dollar
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that has an X on it. Well, that's the amount of
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probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the 300 prophecies
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that he fulfilled. So the statistical probability
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around the prophecies Jesus fulfilled is just absolutely
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staggering to consider that he did.
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And then finally, I think one of the reasons we can trust
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scriptures, just the test of time and the eyewitness
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accounts, the test of time, scribes, these were scholars who
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were charged with coppering each word and notation as originally
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written. I mean, these were like OCD
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people beyond all OCD people. They kept scripture unchanged
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through the centuries because of the voracious methods that they
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held on to. New discoveries are not causing
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rewrites of the Bible. In fact, new discoveries,
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whether it be scientific or through through archaeology, new
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discoveries are not causing us to rewrite the scripture.
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Actually, they continue to affirm what we already have in
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scripture. I think about this.
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The pool of Bethesda Solomon's five colonnades was finally
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found and dug up through archaeologists in the 1900s.
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So again, archaeology and science and, and, and even
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social sciences are showing us the truth of, of God's word.
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The Bible has, has endured wars and years and years.
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It's, it has endured and remained unchanged in that way.
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And, and the test of time is backed up by these eyewitnesses,
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especially of the New Testament, who bore witness to that which
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they, they had. And and if you're going to give
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your life to something and you're going to let me say this
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way, if you're going to make up a rumor and say this is what
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happened when that's not really happened and you're going to
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write it down, you're going to wait until there is nobody alive
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that could disprove you. In other words, you're going to
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write and say, well, Peter said this and then Peter shows up and
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be like, I didn't say that, right?
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Right. So like when they're recording,
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this is what Peter said and this is what John did, and this is
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what they saw. Like these eyewitnesses were
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around long enough to give verification of what was being
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written and saying, Yep, that's what happened.
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Like, and they gave their life for it.
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You're not going to give your life for a lie and you're
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certainly not going to give your life for somebody else's lie
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about you. And these eyewitness accounts
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kind of add a great strength of, of, of trustworthiness in my, my
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estimation to, to scripture. And I think it's, it's valuable
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to recognize the Bible is no ordinary book, something that we
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can really trust and hold to. Now, the Bible isn't a collect,
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isn't an ordinary collection of writings, which means that we
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must read it differently. Requires us to read the
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Scripture differently than we're going to read a novel,
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differently than we're going to read a Sports Illustrated
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article, more than we're going to read a school textbook or
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even a news op-ed. We have to read the Bible
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differently. Now, one of the things that I
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think is important is to remember that the Bible is the
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story of God. It's the story of God redeeming
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and renewing all of the cosmos through his people like it is
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the story of God. The Bible is not a textbook that
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we just read for information that we go to to try to prove
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certain scientific things. The Bible is not a science book.
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It's not a textbook in that way. It's a story of God giving us
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accounts of certain things that have happened.
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Sure, but it's not a textbook. And so we don't need to look at
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it in that way. Just trying to get information
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and try to win arguments. That's not the the main goal of
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the Scripture that the Bible is not a rule book.
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It's not it's not read for instruction even, right.
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Like we're not trying to get information.
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We're not trying to get instruction even.
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It's not some rule book. Do this, do this, do this, do
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this. And here are the seven tips to
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how to live your best life now and seven keys to having the
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perfect marriage or 12 keys. It's not that the Bible is so
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much more than those things. The Bible's not a cookbook,
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right? Some recipe that you can put
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together. And if you put all the pieces
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together correctly and you have all the ingredients, then like
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life is going to be perfect. It's not, that's not the point
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of the Bible. The Bible is not some magic
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formula for our lives. It's not some coffee table book
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that just got some really cool quotes that you can kind of flip
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through and be like, oh, that's inspiring.
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Oh, here's a quote. I'm going to tweet this out and
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put it in my bio. Philippians 419 right?
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Like it's not some coffee table tweetable little thing.
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It's so much more than that. It's not it's not a a guide
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book. It's not a road map.
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It's not a with I've heard it so many times.
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The the the acronym Bible basic instructions before leaving
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Earth. Number one, we don't really
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leave earth. Earth gets renewed.
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And the only time we leave earth is if we die before Jesus
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returns, and then our bodies remain and our spirits are
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disembodied, present with the Lord.
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So so #1 is not really about us leaving earth, right?
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Because earth gets renewed and restored in all things through
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God. It's the renewal of all the
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cosmos. But the fact that we call it
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basic instructions. But here are the things you need
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to do to instruct your life on how to like.
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Does the Bible contain instruction for our life?
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Sure it does, but that's not its primary design.
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Like not every element of the Bible is just instructions.
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So we can't read it just like an instruction book.
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It's stories, it's history, it's poetry, it's proverbs.
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Proverbs aren't promises. Those are, these are basic
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wisdom for life and insights to make us think philosophically
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and, and nuanced about certain things to, to kind of give us a
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juxtaposition of two ideas so that we wrestle with the tension
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of, of the duality in certain elements of our lives.
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And so it's not just a, a, a, a short shortcut And and you can't
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even read the Bible literally because the Bible literally
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wasn't written to you. It's for you and for our
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benefit, but it wasn't written to you.
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It was written to specific people.
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I think this is the biggest fallacy that people have with
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reading the Book of Revelation. We think that we need to
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interpret the Book of Revelation through the latest headline
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news, but the Bible, the Book of Revelation can't mean something
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to us that it didn't mean to the to the original audience.
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That's incorrect interpretation of the scriptures.
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And we do this all the time where we take something out of
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context into our culture and we're into our hearing and we
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make it about us as opposed to about what it really is trying
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to say. We have to learn how to read
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Scripture not just for like the information and the
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understanding of something, but for our formation so that so
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that we become inundated and understanding the life of God,
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the person of Jesus, and follow him faithfully.
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When we talk about reading the Bible, we really were talking
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about spiritual reading this, this idea that as we read the
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Bible, we are opening our heart, we're opening our lives.
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We're opening our imagination to seeing the Kingdom of God, to
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recognizing what God is doing in the world and has been from the
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beginning of time to open our hearts and our imaginations into
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the reality of God himself. This idea is that we we don't
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just read to get our heads around the data in the text, but
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we need to learn how to read it not just with our heads, but
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with our whole persons, not just informationally, but
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formationally. Because ultimately our goal is
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not just to know about the Bible or the facts of the Bible.
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It's to read the Bible in such a way that we meet Jesus himself
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on the page and are deeply formed to be like him.
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It's to read Scripture as a spiritual discipline or to say
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it another way, as a way in which we open our heart to God
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in a consistent, intentional way.
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That's the idea. And the Bible is really about
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Jesus. I really do believe.
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And there's some great resources and great things that are
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available to you. And there's a quote I said in
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one of the services that the, and I forgot who who this quote
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was original to, but they said that the Old Testament is
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concealed what the New Testament reveals.
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So, so it's the Old Testament conceals what the New Testament
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reveals. In other words, what you kind of
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begin to see in the Old Testament is fully seen and made
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understood in the New Testament. And so the two work together to
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paint a clear picture of who God is in Jesus.
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Our rabbi invites us to follow, to follow him, to to be with
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him, to be like him and to do as he he does.
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This formation is what we're all about.
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And scripture plays a vital role in our, in our formation.
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You know, twice a year we do a 10 week course called Formation.
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And with first two weeks we look at some resources from something
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called Alpha, where we look at who Jesus is and why he came and
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died. And then the, the final eight
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weeks we engage in something called practicing the way where
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we're where we're learning how to practice and be apprentices
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of Jesus, how to be with him, to to, to be like him and to do
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what he did. And, and at the end of this
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course, we give every person who completes the course this, this
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custom coin that we've made. It's got kind of our logo on it.
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And it says be with Jesus, be like him and do what he did.
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And it's kind of like a commemorative coin, kind of like
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you would get maybe like an A, a or Celebrate Recovery or
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something like that. To, to, to mark an achievement
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and to be a tangible reminder of who you are becoming and where
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you came from. So for me, every time I I grab
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this coin, I keep it in in my pocket or in my vehicle.
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And, and for me this, this point, every time I see it, I'm,
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I'm reminded I'm called to follow Jesus, to be more like
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him, to be with him and to live as he lived in this world.
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I think scripture he was in John where he says as he is, so are
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we in this world. This first John, maybe as he is,
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as Jesus is, so are we in this world.
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We're we're called to be with him, to be like him and, and to
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do what he did to reflect him, to look at him.
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And Scripture is one of the practices of our faith.
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And so this coin is a practice coin for me.
25:51
It reminds me that every day I'm practicing to live like Jesus.
25:55
I'm practicing to love like Jesus, practicing to think like
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the, the rabbi that I follow. I'm called to follow this man
26:04
Jesus and, and I want to be with him.
26:06
I want to become like him and I want to do do as he he did.
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And I, and I love this little reminder to help me be more like
26:14
him and less like me to overcome the sin and overcome the habits
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and to, to do today what I need to do to become the person that
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I want to be tomorrow. And so this is less about
26:27
performance and more about practice to become something
26:30
today that I want to be tomorrow.
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And I think that's what Scripture helps us to do, to be
26:37
formed and shaped, to be imaginatively immersed in the
26:41
story bigger than ourselves to where we see God and we look to
26:46
behold God and what we behold, we eventually become like.
26:51
All right, let's get into some questions and response today.
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Just a few questions today that I want to respond to.
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The first question is, is this if Jesus fulfilled Scripture,
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what does it actually look like for me to practice the Bible
27:09
today without turning it into legalism or rule keeping?
27:14
The the first difference between doing something as practice and
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doing something as performative has to do really with our heart
27:23
posture. And the Bible says that it is
27:24
God who sees and weighs the motives of our heart.
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In other words, the practice of reading the Bible isn't about or
27:35
practice of serving other people, or generosity, or
27:37
fasting, or silence and solitude, or any of the other
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spiritual practices. Sabbath, even like these
27:45
spiritual practices, are avenues and means by which we can
27:49
experience grace, not earn it. In other words, they are the the
27:53
the environment where we can encounter the grace of God, the
27:57
life of God, and be formed in Him in a fresh way.
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The difference between loyalty and legalism is our love.
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Where is our love is our love for our self is our love to it's
28:12
trying to be earned. I think they get love matters.
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In other words, we do things loyally to the Lord out of
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loyalty to God. Not to be loved by God, but to
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express love to God because we are already loved.
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So what's the Jesus fulfilled Scripture and but then invites
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us to practice in his way to live after him to pattern our
28:36
life after him to to faith without works his dad.
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And so this idea of patterning our life and living our life in
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obedience to his teachings and to his ways.
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That's not legalism, that's engaging in formation.
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It's what we do physically that shapes and forms us spiritually.
28:56
It informs our soul and our bodies.
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Like what you do externally impacts all of who you are
29:04
internally. Science is proving this all over
29:08
the place right now. It is fascinating to me to to
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pay attention to some of these things.
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And so I'm doing certain things on the outside isn't a way of
29:16
earning. It isn't about legalism or rule
29:19
keeping like we're we're good if we do, we're we're damned if we
29:21
don't kind of a thing. It it's more about my love for
29:25
God is being expressed in these actions and these actions I want
29:30
to do intentionally to move me in the right direction.
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Let me say it this way, I often will do things for my wife out
29:39
of habit, out of out of ritual, not because I feel obligated or
29:47
bound or I'm trying to keep some rule or be legalistic.
29:51
I do it because in my heart I deeply love her.
29:54
And there are sometimes I do things not because I feel it in
29:57
the moment, but because I want to feel it in the future.
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So I'm going to invest ahead of time and move in a direction.
30:04
I often tell couples like go hang out and have some fun
30:07
together and you'll find yourself being more passionate
30:10
with each other. Like there are certain things
30:12
that you do to invest into something that you don't reap
30:16
right away, but you'll invest and reap later.
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And so I think the same is true in our relationship with God and
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our life with God. Yes, Jesus fulfilled the
30:23
Scripture, but that doesn't mean we have no participation in the
30:28
relationship with Him anymore, that there is no element of
30:31
loyalty or allegiance that we give to Him anymore.
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I think that's a Western misnomer where we think that
30:38
because of what Jesus did for us fulfilling the law, that then
30:42
there is no requirements on our part.
30:45
That's just simply not true. There are things that we are
30:48
invited to do and that if we don't do, we aren't growing into
30:52
right. Like there are certain if you
30:54
don't ever confess and repent, repent of your sin.
30:57
Like that is an act of your allegiance to Jesus.
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And if you never repent in confession, you are not
31:04
receiving the salvation saving work of God.
31:07
I don't care what how far into Armenian is you are or how far
31:12
into Calvinism you are. Like where you land on your
31:15
soteriology. Repentance is central to both
31:19
and it's an act that we do, birthed by the Spirit, convicted
31:25
by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, but in partnership with
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our will. Our decision to repent, to
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acknowledge God doesn't force us to repent, doesn't make it,
31:38
doesn't do it automatically for us.
31:40
We still do that. And so all of the things that we
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do the, the, the, the faith without works that the
31:46
embodiment. Faith isn't a disembodied idea
31:50
or an acceptance of ideology. Faith is an embodied trust in
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Jesus. It's loyalty given to God.
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It's a pledge of our allegiance wholeheartedly to the king of
32:05
all kings. That's faith.
32:07
And when we do that there, there are practices and ways of
32:10
participating and living out being a Kingdom, a Kingdom
32:13
person. And so it's not about rule
32:15
keeping or legalism, but it is about a loving loyalty that we
32:19
have for Jesus. And so I think that's an
32:21
important distinction. Second question, how do I read
32:25
the Bible in a way that truly forms me, not just informs me,
32:28
especially when I feel bored, confused, or disconnected from
32:31
it? The first thing I would just
32:33
respond is by reminding us that feelings can alert us of
32:37
something going on inside, but they shouldn't control us.
32:41
Feelings aren't the final authority in our life.
32:44
Reading the Bible is as much a discipline as it is some
32:49
euphoric feeling. I'm reading because every time I
32:54
read, my imagination is being steeped into the reality of
32:58
God's story and out of my own life and thinking.
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So we first read to discover truth about God.
33:07
Second, we read to correctly observe and interpret what is
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meant, what it meant to the original audience.
33:15
So the first thing I do is to read to discern and see.
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How do I see God on this? What is this telling me about
33:20
God? Second, I asked the question
33:22
what? What am I observing and how do I
33:25
interpret of what it meant to the original audience?
33:28
So the person who's experiencing it first hand or hearing Jesus
33:31
teach it for the first time. And then finally I integrated
33:34
into my life. So if I'm feeling bored,
33:37
confused, or disconnected from it, it's likely I need to 1:00
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Ask God to confuse his Spirit in life.
33:44
Show me something fresh and new that that it's not really about
33:48
me, but about Him. In other words, I read it as a
33:51
spiritual exercise and a practice to engage in the life
33:56
of God and engage into the story of God and to have my mind
34:00
oriented to the truth about who He is.
34:04
And often times when I feel bored, confused, or
34:06
disconnected, it's because I'm reading it incorrectly or with
34:10
the wrong perspective or, or I, I think 2:00.
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Let me say it this way. The first time you read a manual
34:18
on like a car, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
34:21
But the more you get to know the car and about mechanics, the
34:25
easier it is to understand the instructions.
34:29
The the more familiar you are with the elements of a kitchen
34:33
and the components of of measurements and what is
34:39
necessary to make certain dishes, the the easier it is for
34:43
you to read a recipe. My wife can read a recipe and
34:46
just go me when I'm making stuff I have to read the recipe like 5
34:50
times before I even start. My mind is not oriented to what
34:56
is really happening in a recipe and what it's entailed to make
35:00
the thing. But the more I do it, the better
35:03
I understand it, the more integrated that the quicker I am
35:06
to know what what is what. So the the first time you read
35:10
through the Bible, there's going to be a lot that you just and
35:12
and you just need to keep a big picture.
35:14
Okay, what is God? What am I saying about God in
35:16
this? You're not going to know every
35:19
detail of it. There's still things.
35:20
Again, I'm learning 43 years with 4040 plus years of
35:25
following Jesus since I was a kid, reading the Bible
35:27
faithfully since I was like 12, right?
35:30
So, so I've been doing this a long time and I'm still learning
35:33
and discovering things about things about God.
35:35
And so it's not about do I feel it?
35:37
Do I understand it? All my spirit is reading.
35:40
And so when I'm reading, the Spirit of God is doing something
35:44
internally in me and in my mind that I may not see, feel or
35:47
understand, but I can trust that it's forming and shaping who I
35:51
am and who I am and becoming. And there's some days I read the
35:55
Bible and I'm like most cool. There's a little thought here,
35:58
great. Other times I'm reading and it's
36:00
like this profound encounter. Regardless, I'm going to show up
36:04
and do it. That's what a practice is.
36:06
A practice is me showing up and being intentional about
36:11
development, not necessarily about chasing some euphoric
36:15
experience. Every time you practice
36:17
basketball, you're not in the shooter zone, but you're
36:21
learning to develop rhythms and good mechanics so that one day
36:25
you can experience that shooter euphoria right where you know
36:28
you're in the zone and you can't miss and everything you're
36:31
throwing up there is going through the hoop.
36:33
Well, that only happens because you've laid the groundwork of
36:36
foundational practice and consistency.
36:39
That's what's happening in Scripture.
36:40
There are many times I encounter God in profound ways in the
36:43
Bible, but the profound experience only occurs because
36:48
I've got a pattern of practice beforehand.
36:51
And so we need to keep that in the forefront.
36:53
And so a spiritual practice is more about being disciplined and
36:58
consistent than it is about some euphoric feeling or experience.
37:02
Here's the next question. Why does scripture matter so
37:05
much for spiritual growth if my faith already feels really
37:09
sincere and personal without it? I think this is a fair question,
37:15
and you may not like my response, but let me say it this
37:19
way. Your relationship with God is
37:21
really supposed to be about God, not about you.
37:24
Like I said, you probably aren't going to like my response.
37:28
You know, scripture does matter for our growth.
37:31
Like we're not going to grow spiritually unless we're in the
37:33
word, just not. That's how we grow.
37:36
Scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
37:39
of God. So your loyalty to God will grow
37:42
because you are in the Word of God and learning about God.
37:47
That's it. The more I learn about my wife
37:50
in a in a curious way, the more I love her, the more I want to
37:54
be faithful to her. The same is true with God.
37:57
I'm not in my relationship with my wife.
37:59
For me that would be very selfish and short lived.
38:02
I'm in it because the the reciprocal nature of the
38:05
relationship is rich. It's something that I'm
38:07
committed to. It's something that I'm loyal to
38:09
and and how I engage in that relationship really does it
38:12
really does matter. And so when I come to the
38:15
scriptures and recognize that it has impact for my spiritual
38:20
growth, even if I feel sincere and personal without it, that's
38:23
great. But that's still probably the
38:24
shallow end of the pool. When you choose to ignore the
38:28
story of God and you focus only on what God does for you, where
38:32
you feel personal and you feel sincere and your feelings about
38:36
gone, then you've really made your relationship about you.
38:39
You're left to your own thinking.
38:41
Your own relationship with God isn't about God.
38:44
It's not about growing towards him.
38:45
It's about getting God to do things for you.
38:48
Ultimately, we we turn our relationship to God into a
38:51
relationship just with ourselves, with a little bit of
38:53
God complex. See, without Scripture, we don't
38:58
have any confidence for a relationship and we don't have
39:01
any real confidence in our understanding of God.
39:05
Again, the Scripture is essential for your life of God.
39:10
And and I don't think it's healthy for us to hyper fixate
39:17
on our individual relationship or our individual experience
39:23
near as much as recognizing that we're invited into a larger
39:26
story of God that we get to participate in.
39:31
And the story of God isn't about us, it's about him.
39:34
It's about what he's doing. And we are entering into a much
39:37
larger story than our personal things.
39:40
Now. It matters to God, we matter to
39:42
God. God sees us, God loves us, God
39:45
knows us. That's all true.
39:47
But but my walk with God, my relationship with God, my, my,
39:51
my, my, my, my feel. You might feel sincere, but that
39:54
doesn't mean you're growing and mature.
39:56
I might, you know, have familiarity.
40:01
About God, but that doesn't mean I I know God.
40:04
We want to know God, not just know about God.
40:08
And I don't think you can know about God correctly or know God
40:13
correctly without the scriptures.
40:17
Finally, here's the last question.
40:20
How do you respond to a Christian who says they don't
40:22
read the Bible faithfully because they don't like all of
40:24
the begats and all of the killing in the battles?
40:29
First, I would recommend a couple resources #1 the book How
40:33
Not to Read the Bible. Fantastic book, easy to read,
40:37
pretty short. It addresses several incorrect
40:40
ways of reading the Bible, like reading the battle scenes and
40:43
reading all the stuff about women and slavery and weird laws
40:48
that just sound crazy. It's a great book, a bit
40:52
comical. How Not to Read the Bible
40:55
addresses so many things. Highly recommended.
40:58
The other book I would recommend is The Problem of God.
41:01
Some of the statistics and things that I read about the
41:03
validity and trustworthiness of scripture earlier on in this
41:06
episode comes from Mark Clark, the author of the book The
41:11
Problem of God. Great book.
41:13
I've referenced it so many times.
41:14
I think I've read it 3 times myself.
41:16
I've done a teaching series back in 2018 on it in and of itself.
41:21
I'm here at our church, a great book to to kind of get into
41:25
understanding and kind of hearing some of the objections
41:29
that we would have about about God, including all the killing
41:32
and the battles and the so and so, but got so and so and all
41:35
the numbers and the things. The reality is we have to
41:38
remember everything is in there for a reason.
41:40
Some things are in there just to tell us contextually what is
41:43
happening. Some things because it's a a
41:46
record of historical Canon lineages that do matter to
41:51
especially the the Jewish people, but also to the life of
41:54
Jesus, numbers that have personal inference and, and, and
41:58
that's necessity for us. And ultimately, I'll say it
42:01
again, the Bible isn't, is written for us, but not to us.
42:07
And many parts of history have cringe moments in them, whether
42:11
it be battles, whether it be mistreatment of individuals or a
42:14
group of people. And there are cosmic spiritual
42:18
dimensions to what we're reading that we sometimes have a hard
42:21
time grasping. It's a different way of thinking
42:24
and viewing the world. And so many of us live in a
42:28
physical separated from a mystical world.
42:31
Like there's the the spiritual side of things and then there's
42:33
the physical, practical side of things.
42:35
But the Bible tells us a different story that those two
42:39
things are interconnected and the same that the physical and
42:43
spiritual are united. It's not just divine and, and
42:46
practical. No, it's all together, all in,
42:49
in one experience that we have in our lives.
42:52
And, and so when people want to say, well, I don't, I can't read
42:56
the Bible because it's so much this or so much that I'm just
42:59
like, man, this is the story of God and the story story of God's
43:01
people. And, and while there are parts
43:03
that you may not understand, there are plenty of parts that
43:05
you can understand. And when you begin to understand
43:08
the parts about Jesus better, you'll be able to interpret and
43:12
understand the parts that seem more challenging and more
43:15
difficult to read and see. Now, right now in the Bible
43:19
recap, we're reading through the book of Job.
43:22
And it's honestly not my favorite book.
43:24
It's a really hard one to read for a lot of different reasons.
43:28
But at the end of the day, I keep noticing the patience of
43:31
God to let us process in a human way.
43:35
And ultimately in the end, God shows up with his presence that
43:40
then transforms our past experience where our hurts and
43:46
our pains aren't always answered with why, but he still gives us
43:50
himself in the midst of it. And so there's some great things
43:53
to learn and see in the book of Job, even though it's a really
43:56
challenging read at times. Same thing with other parts of
43:59
the Bible when you get to the laws and the things and the, the
44:02
cleansing rituals and some of the stuff that really just feels
44:05
like worlds apart from us. And it, and it is in many ways.
44:09
But all of those things are actually illustrating and
44:12
pointing to Jesus and and God giving people access to him,
44:17
ways in which they could be purified so that they can
44:20
encounter the holy, so that the holy and the human can be in the
44:25
same space for a period of time. Because ultimately all of
44:29
Scripture is about God finding and creating union with
44:34
humanity. That's what God's been after
44:37
from the very beginning. Communion with humanity, humans
44:42
and divine beings together in the space with God.
44:46
And God is telling his story. He is revealing himself.
44:50
He's coming to us. And in the person of Jesus, he
44:53
full fully reveals all of God and the heart of God and the
44:58
life of God. And so I would say anyone who's
45:00
having a trouble with the killings and the battles and all
45:02
that, just sit in the Gospels, spend three years reading
45:07
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Don't read anything else.
45:09
Just read those and watch your heart just be set up a blaze for
45:13
Jesus. Not discounting the other
45:16
things, but being humble enough to recognize I don't understand
45:19
why it's in here and I might not understand all of why it's in
45:23
here, and I may never get my questions answered.
45:26
And I'm OK with that mystery because what I have understood
45:30
is who Jesus is. And that changes everything.
45:35
And we want to learn how to read the story of God correctly and
45:40
consistently as a spiritual practice to be formed in the
45:45
people as people of God, to be with Jesus, to be like Jesus and
45:50
to do what he did. Hey, that's going to wrap up
45:53
today's episode of the Faith for Today podcast.
45:58
I hope you continue to live loyally.
46:00
And if this episode has been helpful, would you would you
46:02
share it with your friends, text it to somebody, share it on
46:05
social media, Help us get the word out.
46:08
And man, I, I pray blessing on you friends.
46:11
And as you, as you open the scriptures, may you encounter
46:15
the person of Jesus in a fresh way each and every time.
46:19
I love you guys. We'll see you next week.