Monday's With The Monk: How To Read The Bible As Jewish Meditation

If the Bible has ever felt like a battleground, a rulebook, or a homework assignment, we try a different door: reading Scripture as Jewish meditation literature. That one shift turns Genesis from something to argue about into something to practice, a way of training our attention until we can actually notice God’s presence in real life.

We start in the Garden of Eden before the fall, because what we plant first grows. When we begin with sin and shame, we can end up building a whole “sin consciousness” that quietly shapes our faith into fear and guilt. When we begin with Eden, we practice what we call easy intimacy with God: beauty, rest, and a memory of home that many of us feel when we’re near water, trees, sunsets, or wide-open sky.

Brian also unpacks “catch yourself in the act of being generated” which means paying attention to moments of hope, meaning, curiosity, and fascination. Those flashes are not random; they can become a compass for Christian meditation, spiritual formation, and Bible study. From there we compare Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, holding together a God who creates with transcendent word and a God who forms us in the mud, close enough to breathe life into us.

If you’ve been craving a calmer, deeper way to read the Bible, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s burned out on Bible debates, and leave a review with the moment that “generated” you this week.

This is the Buddy For Junior Show — where faith, truth, and courage come together. Join us as we explore life’s deeper purpose and carry the torch of conviction. The show begins now.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Mondays with the month, E. The Buddy Junior Show. There's a new series that we're doing. Brian, thank you so much. Brian Metzger is here with me. Former month,

Welcome To Mondays With The Monk

SPEAKER_03 0:12

we had a podcast, and it was so overwhelmingly downloaded. And the DMs and the messages were so easy. And he agreed, let's do this every Monday and let's engage. Let's talk. Let's be happy. Folks, this is gonna happen every Monday. That's what we're calling it Mondays with the Monkey. This is where we get happy. We allow Brian to lead us. And we take an approach to learning the word. I like to describe it as where we can put it into practice when difficulty when it's like when I find I have the most difficulty. And Brian has really helped me along with other leaders in my life. And why not bring them on here to guide us off? So the whole idea is for us not to react, is to relax, absorb, each, and receive. Brian, welcome. Welcome to Mondays with the Monk. I appreciate you being here. And I'm so excited. I can't thank you enough. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have you here. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yeah, buddy. Thank you for the introduction. Thank you for having me. The first time, thank you for having me back. Hello to everybody who's listening. The yeah, so buddy, the conversation that we had last where we discussed uh having doing an episode on this, was reading the Bible

The Bible As Meditation Literature

SPEAKER_02 1:48

as Jewish meditation literature. And so I thought, you know, let's set this up, let's open this up for folks. Um, see if they're interested in hearing more about this. Um, but Jewish reading the Bible, this is for me, it's actually a new idea. I learned this, uh, even though I would have been doing this while I was in the monastery, 21 years in the monastery, even though I would have been doing it while I was in the monastery, practicing it, I didn't know what it was. And I never heard anyone frame it like this before that the Bible is Jewish meditation literature. And what I did know is when I would pray with the Bible, I would have experiences of God's presence that then I would be on social media and on YouTube after leaving the monastery, and the monastery didn't have access to stuff like that. But after leaving the monastery, I would see all these debaters and these debates on the Bible, like the book that they're debating and the way that they're debating it's such a different experience of the Bible than what I was familiar with. And then this uh the yeah, let's see. The I'm trying to remember who the the name of the theologian that introduced it to me. Did you ever hear of uh the Bible project Tim Mackey? Yes. So Tim Mackey from the Bible Project, he's the first one that I heard say this that the Bible is Jewish meditation, and all of a sudden something clicked for me and it made sense. And so I'm I'm hoping that we can start to open that up and maybe even over these next couple of episodes we could uh develop this. Reading the Bible is Jewish meditation. And here's okay, so if you're not reading it as Jewish meditation, what are you reading it as? You know, it's true. The Bible has history in it, so you could read it as a history book, the Bible has morality in it, so you could read it as a morality book. Certainly there's theology in it, so you could read it as a theology book. Um, I know people read it as a how-to book, like how to live my life. You know, this is the this is the playbook of how to live your life. Um, and there's a lot that you can gain and learn from the Bible and reading it that way, but I want to propose that it's not until that last dial flips and we try one more type of literature, uh, the Jewish meditation literature. And this just to be clear, buddy, this is not just the uh the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. This is not just reading the Old Testament's Jewish meditation literature, but even the New Testament, which is about Jesus, Jesus is the center, it's still in that same same genre. He's he's Jewish. And then the more we learn about Jewish meditation, the way you teach it, you realize, oh my gosh, that's the way Jesus is a Jewish rabbi who's teaching with language of branches, which is the method of teaching this Jewish meditation. And one of the marks of it, buddy, is the um the teaching with symbols, talking about things in nature that while you're talking about the things in nature, you know, I love it. When Jesus is talking to fishermen, he's talking about fishing, when he's talking about people who work in vineyards, he's talking about being a vine dresser, when he's talking about women needing bread, he's like, What's the kingdom of God like? It's like woman knew uh the yeast through the dough, a little bit of dough makes the whole uh loaf rise. And so that method of teaching using things that everybody's familiar with. Meeting people where they are, yeah, meeting people where they are. And what that does is it gives power back to us. Because, like, I can find, oh, I I can, you know, as a fisherman, if you're talking about fishing, even though you're talking to me something about something new because you're talking about kingdom, but you're talking to me about it in a world in a language that I'm familiar with. And so that's part of this Jewish medicine.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Okay. I mean, yeah, you mentioned that on our our call. So Brian and I do a weekly spiritual unpacking where he guides me through my week. And we always start off with the greatness of God, which Allah Brian walk us through. And you had mentioned this past week the Bible being Jewish meditation. And I meditated on that, and and I'm still trying to sink my teeth or my mind into it, but I receive you mentioned it, and I'm so excited today to receive more of what that looks like.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah, amazing, buddy. And so I thought the yeah. Okay, so Jewish meditation this what the the big shift with this is I'm there's a value to do uh uh yeah. Let me just get the the fra frame it like where's where's the doorway into this for this to um shift gears? Is yeah the it's an altered state of consciousness. And I know that sounds weird, you know. We

A New Way To See

SPEAKER_02 6:47

this um to say an altered state of consciousness, but this is I want to say that this is what Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about in the Gospel of John chapter three, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, he says, Unless you're born again of water and the spirit, you cannot see the kingdom. My first takeaway there is we're supposed to see the kingdom. My second takeaway there is he's showing us how to see the kingdom by being born again of water and the spirit. And whatever that means, it's a new way of looking, it's a new way of listening. Uh, and I thought today, for today's episode, we could zero in on practicing reading the Bible as Jewish meditation from the from the Garden of Eden, from the book of Genesis. So particularly Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. So let's do it. I want to invite me, I want to invite you, buddy. I want to invite the listeners. Do you want to come with me to the Garden of Eden today?

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Let's do it, rock and roll.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Yeah. So, buddy, with those first two, let me just ask you, like, I'd love to hear. Um, when you think Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Garden of Eden, what are some of the first things that come to your mind? And there's no wrong answers here. So I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

The first thing that comes to mind, I always say I live in a Garden of Eden. I live in Lake George. Look at this beautiful lake, and I

Eden Before The Fall

SPEAKER_03 8:11

believe it's it's holy, it's it's divine. So that to me is a Garden of Eden, it's beauty. And then I go right to the fall, the apple.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Oh, I'm so glad I asked. And I'm like, because I forgot about that part, and I actually remember this from being in the monastery, and that's that's a sad part about the state of the church in the West and the state of the church today, because we go right to the we go right to the fall. Um, we go right to what's wrong, and we miss all this richness, this lush garden. And watch this, buddy. So if um whatever you start with in the beginning, think about an acorn. When you plant an acorn, it takes time, you grow a big oak tree, but eventually, if you plant an acorn, you're gonna get lots and lots and lots of acorns. So whatever you plant in the beginning, you want to make sure that you you start with what you want lots and lots and lots of. And sadly, oftentimes the Christian message, the gospel message, the church message starts with sin. So when we start with the fall, if the acorn we plant is sin, if the acorn we plant is the fall, even if we're well intentioned and we know we don't want that, you know, it's it's like they say um with a motorcycle, your your motorcycle will go where your eyes go. So if you, you know, you don't want to run into the wall, so don't watch the wall, watch the road. But we turn our eyes to what we don't want, and then we crash into the wall. And I want to say that my experience of Christianity, particularly growing up in the West, is there's been an overemphasis on the fall and on sin. And so then that acorn of sin, that acorn of sin consciousness, that acorn of the fall consciousness, if I could call it that, that's grown an oak tree. And then what do you wind up with? A church where there's a lot of guilt and a lot of shame, even though we teach there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Next thing you know, we've got lots and lots of sin acorns all around us. How did this happen?

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Wow, that's a great point. And I get it, right? I go away from the beauty to the fall, and I'm like, man, if someone ate an apple and screwed this up for me up here on the lake, yeah, man, I'd be part of my French pissed.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yeah, yeah. Where where focus goes, energy flows, and what we focus on, we feel, and and so, all right. So then what's the alternative? What if we what if we started somewhere else? What if we started with the Garden of Eden before the fall? The Garden of Eden as the place of easy intimacy with God. And what if we play, what if we planted that first acorn rather than an acorn of sin consciousness, we plant an acorn of God's presence, the the our conscious awareness of the nearness of God. Then when that tree grows and we have lots and lots of acorns, it's acorns of our awareness of the presence of God. How's that sound sound for starters?

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Yeah. All right. So so the uh so reading the book of Genesis, the creation accounts, first of all, I think it's we're gonna we're gonna hang out in the garden before the fall. So sometimes in the theological

Remembering Scripture Not Memorizing

SPEAKER_02 11:51

circles, that's called pre-lapsarian. I also want to reassure uh people, buddy, I love the idea that the the Bible, that this is, I don't study the Bible in order to memorize the Bible. I study the Bible in order to remember the Bible. Because the God who the God who created me, he wove the Bible into my physiology. He wove it, and this is true for each one of us. The Bible's in our DNA, the Bible's in the marrow of our bones, the Bible is in in every dimension of reality that's around us. So what when I when I'm reading it, when I'm studying it, when I'm praying it, I'm saying yes to the grace of waking up that memory of uh of the scriptures that that are in me. What's that what's that bring up for you, buddy?

SPEAKER_03 12:39

I mean, so I love that. I'm I'm lucky. I I I'm very fortunate, I think, the way I think about reading in general. I have an ADD of I'm I'm slightly dyslexic. That got better over time. And when I read something, I don't have the expectation to take away the whole book. I don't read things to remember them. I read things to spark some thoughts in my mind, like to create some creativity. I don't read, I only read, um, I only read true books, like biographies, really. Like I don't like going into false fairylands. I don't know, it's just a way I am. So I'm always reading about history or biographies, and I'm looking for inspiration to be planted in my head, not to remember or duplicate anything that I'm reading. So the Bible, I'm very lucky when I read it or when I when I read it now and I've studied it, I don't worry about remembering scripture. And I was very blessed with one of my pastor, I'm like George, Pastor Scotty. I said, you know, I really can't. He's like, are you talking to people about the Bible about what you're reading? I'm well, I can't remember scripture verbatim. And he goes, You don't have to, not the not with your personality. You can talk about how the Bible is impacting you and bring up scripture that you recall without knowing where it is in a book because it's in the book.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

And so so thankfully, I was encouraged not to worry about remembering what I'm reading. Right. So I read the Bible to be inspired to learn the truth and to meditate on it and see where it's really as a navigation tool, a compass, and see where it takes me.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Buddy, I love one of the first things you said when you talked about reading the Bible is I just I pay attention to what sparks up. You know, what is this, what is this wake up, what is this wake up in me? What does this spark up in me? And the, you know, there's a way in which, you know, if you read the well, first of all, I would say that is reading the Bible is Jewish meditation. So rather than trying to contain it, like I think about the ocean, the ocean, if you want to go swim in the ocean, it's great. It's wonderful that you can't see the end of it to the north, to the south. You know, if you look east, we're on the east coast, so I got an east coast white ocean here. Um, you can't the limitlessness of it is awesome. If you want to luxuriate in it, but if you're trying to drink it, if you're trying to contain it, if you're trying to, then that's gonna be utterly overwhelming. So I I think even that ADHD shift that you have to make with the reading literature, that's actually um that's giving you a breakthrough and that's giving you uh a catapult in the right direction.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah. Yeah, praise God for that. Yeah, it took a while. That took me a you know, I I was shamed out of looking at it that way in all literature. Because people approach it academia, you know, the academic version of it. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I stuck with it and God showed me, hey, whoa, just read it. Read it and let it take its course.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yeah, Biddy, uh buddy, you were talking about the the core the the sessions that we do and the the greatness that we

The Memory Of Eden In Us

SPEAKER_02 15:57

always start with greatness, and one of the words that we use when we have that conversation is being generated. Catch yourself in the act of being generated and know that that's the presence of Jesus in your life. So even when you're reading the Bible and you have that spark, that's one of those moments of being generated. That's the word in you waking up. So I love the whole idea. I want to have my life in the word, and I want to have the word alive in me. I want to find my life in these pages, and I want to invite these pages to be alive in me. And those those moments of being generated, even when we first be when we were talking earlier, you were talking about your lake house. And uh did you say it's in St. George?

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Lake George.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Lake George, okay. So the the lake house in Lake George, um, the the beauty of it to oh, the fathers of the church, they say that each one of us has a memory of Eden within us, that we can remember Eden. And once that was explained to me, it helped me make sense of experiences that I had when I would go for a walk through the woods or a walk in the wilderness. And even if I was walking in a place in woods that I'd never been in before, there was something familiar about it. And there was something healing about it. And this, and this is what I would say is true about the Garden of Eden. When you walk in the Garden of Eden, this is the place where you relax. I mean, think about the stress that builds up on us in the world today, the various sources of pressure and anxiety and fear. Um, but when you walk in the garden, all that comes off. That's healing. So this the Garden of Eden is the place of easy intimacy with God. No matter how far you feel from God, I promise you, every one of you who are listening right now, you have the memory of Eden within you. You have the pages of scripture alive in you. And when you open up the page of scripture, you're waking up that memory. And it's not something that we have to contain and prove ownership, and I can control it and I can quote all the chapters and verses of it. Um, little by little we'll learn a little bit more, but we'll just love the process like swimming in the ocean, just loving being in the word, loving being in the garden, loving being in the ocean.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

So, what I'm hearing when you said all that, I pictured riding a bike. We rode a bike at one point, we learned how to ride it. There's a saying, it's like riding a bike, just got back on it.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

So you're saying that it's it's it's in us because we've been there. Because how so if it's in us and then we aren't in the word, and then we pick up the word, and we late so quickly. I know with most people that I talk to have an immediate connection with this word, as if it was a sibling they found on 24 mini. Yeah, that's it and they have a sibling from another mother or another brother or another father, whatever you want to say, and or another brother from another mother, or another sister from another mother. Right. And there's a connection immediately because of the DNA. Are you saying that that's is that the same thing with the garden?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah, uh, I yes. Well, and and here, let's let's back it up. So when we get these little sparks, these little insights, these inspirations, then we can look for scriptures like, okay, this is what I'm getting in my spirit, this is what I'm understanding, and I'm and catch yourself in the act of being generated. Don't believe it and know that that's the presence of Jesus. Don't believe it because I say it, but test and verify for yourself. So Jesus is that you, and often he will then bring my attention to a scripture verse to support it. So we're made in the image and likeness of God. So if the Bible is God's word that reveals who God is, and we're made in the image and likeness of God, then the fact that that word is in us, and each one of us, even though for as infinitely you infinitely unique as each of us all are in our personhood, there's never been another buddy before. Some people might say, Thank God to that, but there's never been another buddy before, and there'll never be another buddy again that the infinitely unique in your personhood, but we're infinitely the same in that we're creating the image and likeness of God. So as I'm reading God's word, I'm actually, yeah. It's like a mirror. I I see myself in it, and and yeah, and the presence that's in the word recognizes its presence in me.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Wow, that's deep. Now, you and I, you're saying something that listeners for the first time might be saying, Oh, slow that down. Can we unpack in we're getting close to the end of this episode, I think, right, Brian?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

We got time. Easy, easy 10 minutes here.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

All right, good. So can we unpack catch yourself in the act of being generated for new listeners?

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Yeah. So the the moment of go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

No, it's just so important.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah. So this anytime okay, let me set it up with this way, this way, a bit, buddy. From a from a spectrum, from one to ten,

Catch Yourself Being Generated

SPEAKER_02 21:29

ten being extremely generated, and one being a low-level generation. So being generated is anytime you find something beautiful, meaningful, something moving. Um by the way, when we do find something meaningful or something moving, something beautiful, uh something that gives us hope, when we do have that experience, that's it, that's proof of the existence of God, and that's proof of the existence of the soul. You can't, you know, the materialist view that says the only thing that's real is the material reality. The only thing that's real are things that you can measure and scientifically, empirically examine. That falls to the ground as soon as you recognize something as beautiful or as meaningful or as moving. So, for example, like the sun. The sun can rise and the scientists can tell you the temperature of the sun, the size of the sun, the distance of the sun, the gravitational pull of the sun, how fast light travels, what's the reason you can learn all this about the sun, but science can't explain why it is that when I see a sunrise, I feel I feel hope inside. You know, I I feel I get a sense like everything's gonna be all right. You know, what what is that? Why is the sun beautiful?

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Wow, and I'm on the west coast of Florida and at sunset at the beach on Annemaria Island, there's a traffic cam of everyone going to see the sunsets. Why? Why? Like, why do they see such beauty in a sunset? Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yeah, that's it. The you know, buddy, it would the same thing would happen. We I remember going to the Grand Canyon, and you know, uh every place you go has got all kinds of people from all different types of uh world views. Um, but it's not uncommon in Colorado to meet people who are doing do-it-yourself spiritualities, whether or not they believe in God or not. But I tell you, they all show up, that traffic jam, they all show up to see sunrise in the Grand Canyon, and they all show up to see sunset in the Grand Canyon. And I want to say that's the religious instinct, that's the part in us. That's that's the word in us recognizing the presence of God in the reality before us. And it's we're we're naturally, we have an instinct for God. We have an instinct to come home.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

So that's being generated, like that's an example. That's being generated. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

And then on that spectrum, you know, there's there's level 10, which is full-on fascination. And then there's moments where just like, you know, I find that curious. I remember one morning when uh in the monastery, we used to do dedicated times in silence and solitude. And I was at in Monticello, New York, and the, you know, just sitting outside with a cup of coffee in the morning, and there was dewdrops on the grass. And I my attention got drawn to the way that the dewdrop reflects the canopy of the trees around it. It's like the whole world is in that dewdrop. And I just thought, to this moment, I can remember that memory from more than 10 years ago. And so, whether it's a low level of curiosity or a high level of full-on fascination, probably something being interesting would be right in the middle. I want to say that's Jesus, and I want to say that's the word in you waking up. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Wow. So go back to the garden, yeah, right? This is where creation, yeah, this is where the Bible starts, yeah. And the significance of the garden, it's what I'm hearing from you, is where we started. Yes, we have an invitation. Our story starts there. That's why we're invited, if I'm hearing you correctly, yeah. God invites us back to the garden to walk with him, is that what I'm hearing?

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah, so the garden in the beginning, there, that's the first line, right? In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, in the beginning, intimacy with God was easy. So that's why I say the Garden of Eden is the place of easy intimacy with God. Every evening in the cool of the day, God would come and walk with Adam and Eve. And I want to say that same presence of God shows up in our lives when we see something beautiful that pulls our attention, that pulls us out of a stressful work-a-day world, and says, just pause me for a minute here.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

That's so good.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

So, so what's happening there in the by the way, buddy, look look how long we've stayed in the garden and we didn't talk about sin yet. You know, let's let's get in there, let's uh let's luxuriate in this lush garden. You know, as you're walking, I was meditating on this morning, buddy. I was like thinking, like, there are no paths in the garden because nobody's walked here before. So this is green grass under my feet, and I was just feeling that green grass, you know, getting grounded in that green grass, walking with God in the garden. And then everything, as you go through the seven days of creation. Well, let me let me set this up. The two creation accounts are unique, they're different. And one is

Genesis 1 And Genesis 2

SPEAKER_02 27:22

the in fact, Genesis 1, that's the seven-day creation account. Uh that's uh a later text that the Bible authors in their wisdom put first. Okay. Um, but that's a later test text. It's a more sophisticated text. And then the second creation account, that's the the first one is a seven-day creation account where God says, Let there be light, let there be a dome that separates the waters above and the waters below, let the waters be gathered together and the dry land appear. Um, that's the first creation account. So it's very structured, and the way God creates, he creates with his word, so and which is considered a high form of technology. Versus the second creation account, um, rather than God creating from heaven and speaking the the heavens and earth into existence, God's in God's in the picture. He's walking in the mud, he's shaping Adam with the mud, he breathes into his nostrils, and Adam begins a living being. And so it's a God who creates with his hands, which notice there's no tool there. So this is your hands, that's primitive technology. Um, and then whereas, so Genesis 1 think God is creating from a heavenly place with an advanced technology using his word. And then Genesis 2, God is in the mud, he's in the mix with us, he's in the dirt, um, creating with a primitive technology that's very close to us.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

So when he creates man, he's in the dirt with us.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

When he created well, here's the thing, buddy. He creates man both in Genesis 1. On the sixth day, he says, Let us create them in our image and likeness. That's where we get the image and likeness language. But he creates us, and male and female let us create them. That's all in that's Genesis chapter 1, verse 7. So that's the God of heaven creating man and woman in a heavenly way and creating them at the same time. Whereas in the Genesis 2 account, now we get another creation story where man's made from the mud, and then Adam has the experience of original solitude, and he names all the animals and says it's not good for man to be alone. Then he puts Adam into a deep sleep. And our translation in English says it takes the rib, but in Hebrew it says he halved Adam. So this idea of your your beloved, your significant other, your beloved being, your other half, that goes back to the Bible itself. Adam is halved, and then he wakes up, has the encounter. That's all the Genesis 2 account. And my takeaway from that is twofold. One, God is both. God is both a transcendent God, the divine essence who's who the heavens themselves can't contain them. You know, God is utterly unknowable. John says he dwells in light, inaccessible. So that's no explanation. Say this again.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

There's no explaining.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Yeah. So this this trans this transcendent God, invisible and inaccessible, utterly unknowable, except for the fact that he desires to be known. So Genesis 1, God is this uh heavenly God, and then he creates us in that image and likeness. So there's something about us that's supremely majestic, fearful, and wonderful. However, then the next one chapter we learn not only does God dwell in the highest heavens, but he's also closer to us than our very breath. He's with us in the mud, he's with us in the dirt. You know, they that said um Bono from U2 was quoted as saying about the nativity that Christ was born in the midst of straw and shit, which is where we live our lives, where we we we work out our our journeys. Um, so this you get this earthly image. Now, God is still majestic and he's still perfect in the earthy realm, but for us, then that opens up like I mean, sometimes I'm really proud of myself, and sometimes I'm not very sometimes I'm shocked at the things I'm capable of doing and the things I'm capable of saying. And I feel I feel like the mud, I feel lower than the mud. Um, and isn't it interesting? In the Genesis account, both those uh dimensions of God are there, and both those dimensions of our humanity are there.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Wow, and then you jump to Genesis 6. Everything we think and do is nothing but pure evil, and he won't put up with us for much longer.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they go go back into that original sin consciousness, and yeah, we'll we'll deal with that. But notice how valuable. So, reading the Bible is Jewish meditation is our invitation to to the original innocence, to the original beatitude. And while it it was lost, it was never entirely destroyed. And then, next level is in Christ, it wasn't just restored, it was restored and upgraded. So every day we can, yeah, the the garden consciousness, the garden of Eden, that memory within us, Christ restores it, upgrades it to us, and we're bumping into it every single day when we catch ourselves and a beautiful sun. And look at this, you you know, we're since we're talking about the sun, that's part of the creation account. You know, sometimes I wish I could have been there during those seven days. Well, God has Genesis one on replay every week. Here it comes again, the seven days of creation. Here it comes again, the seven days of creation, here it comes again the seven days of creation, and then we get invited on the Lord's day to rest with him again.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Wow, boy, that's that's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

But you know, buddy, look, look at your, you know, you you selected of all the backdrops that you could have selected, you know, something spoke to you about that. I want to say that was Jesus, you know, calling you back to the garden. You you got the call in your life. And even if you look at my bookshelves there, I got green on it. Why, you know, and that's not uncommon. If you look at, if you look at 20 bookshelves online, you'll see 19 of them will have some type of green plant on it. Yeah, right. And I want to say, like, that's the garden. The garden's part of every we wake up in the garden, we go to sleep in the garden, the garden calls to us. If we're away from the garden too far, too long, we we get anxiety and stress, and as soon as you get back to it, it's like everything's gonna be all right.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

The garden, the garden, the garden. Wow, it's so good. Yeah, excellent. So maybe maybe we could wrap up today on the garden.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Is there anything else that you want to say in wrapping up on the reading the Bible is Jewish meditation through the lens of the Garden of Eden?

Garden Consciousness In Daily Life

SPEAKER_03 35:01

No, I mean, I I'm still unpacking that, and I have a feeling these next four, these the the next three episodes, four in total, we're gonna unpack this topic. And I'm just you have my attention, like I'm leaning into it and receive receiving more. You know, it's one thing I tell people that are reading the Bible, like kids, even and friends, is sometimes you don't have to completely understand what you're reading, just make room to learn more, hear more, and in that room, make room for the Holy Spirit to help you figure that out and meditate on it. So I'm I'm not a hundred percent. There's a lot of things I'm not very happy with about it. Like I just I struggle or wrestle with it or both.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Yeah, but that's that's Jacob. All these patterns, you know, wrestle with God through the night. That's so all these patterns are are being legitimate.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

I can't wait to get to that because I love I love the fight. And um, so the point is I don't necessarily understand 100% the Jewish meditation. A lot of my listeners might be scratching their heads also. So and all I'm saying is that's okay because that's a journey we're gonna go on on these next episodes. And I'm I'm I I think I know that when I'm in a Bible study and it gets to me, Ed, we're yeah, or buddy, we're yeah. My real name's Ed. Buddy, we're yeah. I'm gonna go, you know, I'm I'm not I'm not picking it up a hundred percent, but I'm not I'm not disengaging, I'm leaning in and I'm paying attention, I'll get there. Don't worry about it. Like you don't have to unpack it right now with me. So I don't have any questions, I don't want to waste the group's time. I'm gonna make space for me not completely understanding where I'm at with the word, and know that the Holy Spirit's gonna bring me there. So sometimes when I don't understand it completely, I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Yeah, Brian. Amazing. That that's exactly it. That's exactly it, buddy. The uh what do we close in prayer? Can we do that on the podcast?

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm laughing because I got a DM and somebody that we both know who said, why don't you close in prayer on your midweek episodes? And I'm like, I know I'm not there yet, man. We're just not there. I'm not there. I'm working on me, bro. So, yeah, please, Brian, close in prayer.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

All right. So, uh, so Father God, we want to thank you for the gift of the word. We want to thank you for the gift of the the Genesis one revelation of who you are and what you're like,

Prayer To Plant The Seed

SPEAKER_02 37:39

and the Genesis two revelation, Father God. We just we say yes to the grace as as Buddy was expressing of just making space in our hearts for the indestructible seed of your word to be planted in our hearts. And Father God, thank you that it takes God to know God. And so we want to say yes to knowing you by your power, and and it takes God to love God. So we want to say yes to loving you by your power, God. And and even right now, Father God, I just want to bless that seed being planted in each heart and each mind and each soul, that even as we spend our days, that these seeds are germinating, these seeds are growing in words and expressions and inspirations are going to be coming back to us. And even in the in the night garden, when we're sleeping, that you're gonna be speaking to us, just like Adam was laid down to sleep, and in that deep sleep, he entered back into the mind of God. We want to say yes to the grace of entering back into your mind of God. Father God, thank you for the ways in which you make your mind accessible to us, the utterly unknowable mind of God, except for the fact that you desire to be known by your sons and daughters, that you created us to share life with us. And so, Father God, we're so grateful for that gift. And and then also not just know your mind, Father God, but to know your heart, to feel the emotions of God. So we make space in our hearts for our hearts to feel the divine emotions within us, Father God. And yeah, we we we thank you for your word, for for the word made flesh and in the the presence of Jesus in our lives, every time, every act of being generated, that that's Him there again, leading us, uh, leading us deeper, leading us back, and and then leading us out. And thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We just say, more, Lord, more of your spirit. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

All right, thank you for that. Thank you.