Breaking Into the Bible: Where Do You Start?

The journey of reading the Bible begins with understanding your motivation and making practical steps to build a consistent habit rather than trying to tackle it like a novel.

• Reading the Bible requires commitment and an understanding of why you want to start this journey
• The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) are the best starting place rather than beginning in Genesis
• Motivation matters—reading to build a relationship with God rather than obligation will sustain your practice
• Making time requires intentionality—start small with a few days a week and gradually build the habit
• The Bible isn't meant to be read once but returned to repeatedly as it speaks differently in various life stages
• Consider practical approaches like devotionals, study Bibles with footnotes, or audio versions while commuting
• Young people are exactly who should be in Bible study as they are the future strength of the church
• Community enhances Bible reading through accountability and shared insights
• Personal struggles often strengthen faith rather than weakening it
• Your relationship with God, like any relationship, requires time, communication, and commitment

Transcript

Weekly Catch-up and Memories

Speaker 1 0:39

we're on. I should say, roger won't be. Here we are again yes, we're here another week.

Speaker 2 0:46

We're not going away people, we're not going away nope, and I skipped last week because my kids were in went away.

Speaker 4 0:54

I did my kids were in from massachusetts and my dad lost his keys and couldn't find him to get to the farm and that was his farm day. So we all loaded up in the car and we all went to the farm, spent the day down there. It was really nice, nice.

Speaker 1 1:09

I always like being like I was talking to you about it, like being at your. You know where your roots are. Yes, like where you grew up at. You know that's my happy place.

Speaker 4 1:27

It's nice that you can still go there. Yeah, I think, cordon, he did, you know, because his wife's definitely likes concrete under her feet. You know, she's been down there one other time and she lasted at the creek bank creek bank for 30 minutes we call it the creek so she made it 30 minutes and went to the car. So he and she left and we spent, but this time we all rode together. She couldn't get away, but I think she enjoyed it. She did. She was even in the water. She fished, didn't catch anything, but we had a good time I'll never forget the first time I went camping with them.

Speaker 3 1:57

I'm like where we get our bath, where we're get in the creek, in the creek, that clean water.

Speaker 4 2:02

That clean water runs right in off a pine honey, that's the best my hair ever feels is when I wash my hair in that creek water, it runs right into the ohio river yeah, okay, so the creek runs into the ohio river got it okay.

Speaker 3 2:16

Yep, it actually is a very clean yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 2:20

So nothing like I know a lot of people hate the smell of like lakes and but I love it, I just love it. I'm like, oh, it just makes me feel like, yeah, like I, I. It just makes me feel like I can smell it in my hair again when I was down at my grandpa's lake or something.

Speaker 3 2:38

Yeah, I don't know. We know with us on that boat out there and when you get a dead fish floating and it stinks yeah, flies around it, yeah.

Speaker 4 2:47

Yeah, there's no fishy smell down here, yeah a little bit of competition, but you know what our dock would turn their motor on, so it shoes it over.

Speaker 3 2:55

And that dock all their boats turn their motors on so it comes back our way.

Speaker 4 2:59

It's just somebody get a net and get that thing out of there a little bit of competition there yeah yeah

Speaker 2 3:07

it's funny, though, if you grow up around that kind of thing, I mean as long as it's not a really pungent smell right it's still kind of pleasant to you when you smell it like if you haven't been around it for a while like you're talking about, and then you know, because I I go fishing once a year with my cousin and we do it on good friday because that's what our dads did.

Speaker 2 3:27

They both passed away so we keep the tradition going. So when I'm out there one year on the lake, you know just certain, yeah, certain smells, certain sights, all those things bring me right back to being a kid, because that's where we spent our summer was on the pontoon boat out at the lake. We didn't go on these lavish vacations right?

Speaker 4 3:47

no, we didn't either. Our vacations were camping yeah.

Speaker 2 3:50

So yeah, all those things you know, bring it right back when yeah when I'm out there yep, so yeah so yeah, in some ways it's not. It's not a pleasant smell, but no, but it's. Yeah, something about.

Speaker 1 4:01

I think smells too. It's almost like the whole thing where, oh how can't, like I can't you know memorize I don't know just like, say, your science homework, but I can memorize this whole song, like I feel like that's kind of the same thing with smells, like it just takes you right back to that, those memories. I don't know Absolutely.

Speaker 3 4:26

I love when we're out there on the boat to leave that back door open, so this yeah, screen door yeah, and that air coming in through the night and yes, getting up in the morning that this, yes, coming up off of the water is so beautiful even just like the smell of a fire, like I I don't know yeah yeah, those kind of intertwine with me anyway.

Speaker 2 4:40

So yeah, yeah for those of us joining us. That is not our topic. No, no it was only.

Speaker 1 4:48

We're not talking about smells yeah, no, it's only four minutes. Speaking of, sometimes there's I don't know if you guys knew this, but there's a few hundred or thousand people in the world that can like sense what you smell. Like they'll hear you and they're like oh, it sounds like you smell like what? Yeah, I don't know. The one podcast was like talking about it.

Speaker 1 5:11

I'm like what there is some technical term for it, but like, well, give me an example okay, like, if you are okay, I'll try to think of the one girl on the podcast and she's kind of more like earthy tone, like she's like. She named her kids Forest and Oliver Gotcha, so they said she smelled like One of those things you hang from your no Mirror of your car.

Speaker 1 5:42

The Dots, the Dots candies, um, one of those things you hang from your no, actually of your car. The dots, the dots, um candies, and I'm like what. And there was something else. I'm like okay, I don't know, I don't think that really goes hand in hand. But the other one did, though, because she's kind of more oh, I shouldn't say goth, she's not goth at all, but she kind of gives you the more um, I don't know, just like a dark, like dark humor, and but she has like she tastes like dark licorice to these people when they hear her.

Speaker 2 6:14

I'm like okay I can kind of see that.

Speaker 1 6:17

Yeah, you know what I mean. But the first one, I was like, no, I don't see that one, but yeah, there's, there's a word for it.

Speaker 2 6:24

I don't know what it is, but yeah so you're saying that these people associate people's language with smells?

Speaker 1 6:31

yes, like yeah like that's the instantly but I don't, like, I don't think they associate, like I think they actually taste it when they're hearing that.

Speaker 2 6:40

Okay, you know what I mean that's wild yeah well, that could be really bad, I know right like what if you what if your like wife or husband, like tastes, like something?

Speaker 4 6:51

you can't stand the taste we're going real deep hopefully they figured that out before they got married yeah yeah, like, uh.

Speaker 2 7:04

Well, like uh doug and patty mayonnaise doug from nickelodeon yes, because we need patty mayonnaise. Well, he just, yeah, mayonnaise.

Speaker 1 7:14

Yeah, couldn't imagine I gotta, I gotta figure out the name of that, because yeah, we went this far with yeah right and that people are probably the people listening.

Speaker 2 7:22

Insane. What are you talking about?

Speaker 3 7:23

well, yeah, because I was like my brain went that somebody smelled something and they could tell you what you were smelling. That's what I thought she was talking about. I'm thinking well, wait a minute, what kind of podcast you're watching?

Speaker 1 7:37

okay, the rare taste that lets people sorry. The rare trait that lets people taste sounds synaesthesia s-y-n-e-s-t-h-e-s-i-a. It's a neurological trait, hmm never heard of it it says um a neurological trait or condition that results in a joining or merging of senses that aren't normally connected. So yeah, seneznia, that almost sounds like a country.

Speaker 4 8:18

Right.

Speaker 2 8:19

Yeah, do we have that?

Speaker 1 8:20

on our board.

Speaker 2 8:21

Have we updated our board?

Speaker 1 8:23

I've the smart um on my way here. I was like I need to see. Actually I was going. I wanted to update it on saturday when we were here but michael was like busy doing things and I was trying to find the red. You know the pins, pins, and I'm like you know what this is another, a song for another time, because, yeah, we do need to look at that, get an update down in that area.

Speaker 3 8:45

We need to yeah, um.

Speaker 4 8:48

So do we know how many countries or I can tell that we're in?

Speaker 2 8:51

yeah, I was. We just need to have a state of the show episode yeah, yeah, okay stats.

Speaker 1 8:56

so we are Okay stats, so we are All time. But I want to know where we're at. Okay locations, All Okay. So we have had almost 2,000 downloads. We're at 1996. Actually, 1997.

Speaker 2 9:25

This is total for all time.

Speaker 1 9:26

You know what? No, there's more. That was only in North America, and then in South America we have one download. In Europe we have 65.

Speaker 2 9:38

South America is a tough crowd.

Speaker 1 9:43

Asia 173.

Speaker 3 9:45

Somebody go on vacation and download it.

Speaker 1 9:48

Africa, 10. And is it Oceania? Sure, Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, 13. So there's currently 288 cities. Nice, singapore, has passed our um canadian friends, really. Yeah, they have 99 downloads wow yeah, whereas our canadian friends only have 27 now.

Speaker 4 10:20

We really are reaching out, yeah.

Speaker 1 10:24

I mean, that's actually 288 cities, that's almost 300. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 10:31

That's not bad for this yeah.

Speaker 4 10:33

For what we're doing. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 10:36

We're doing our job.

Speaker 3 10:37

Small little community church, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:41

And we haven't spent any money to promote it.

Speaker 4 10:44

No, and we go down a lot of rabbit holes.

Speaker 3 10:48

We do and they still listen, right.

Speaker 2 10:50

Probably why they listen.

Speaker 4 10:52

Yes, you're probably right. Who are we kidding?

Speaker 2 10:54

Yeah. What will they say next?

Synesthesia: The Rare Trait Discussion

Speaker 1 10:58

Yeah, all right. Well, what's the topic, nick?

Speaker 2 11:01

All right. So once again, my wife Margie inspired this one, so we went into the new Barnes Noble bookstore up there in Canton. It's where, oh, it's up there by the right behind Canes.

Speaker 1 11:17

Oh wait, shai was telling me yeah.

Speaker 2 11:19

Yeah, so it's in that little strip mall there yes. So we had a little time to our movie. So we went into the bookstore and we're walking around and my wife got to the Bible section. She's like you know, I really want to get into the Bible but I just don't know how to start. Like, how do you start reading the Bible?

Speaker 1 11:40

Can I? I'm sorry, Go ahead. This whole summer we've kind of been like eight to 15, 16 downloads, the past two downloads or past two episodes we've had. 24 was two weeks ago and 28 was last week's.

Speaker 2 11:55

So that's awesome. Wow, maybe the heat's helping us out a little bit.

Speaker 1 11:58

Where typically we were between 25 and 35 before summer.

Speaker 2 12:03

So but yeah, very good.

Speaker 1 12:06

So she was saying she wanted.

Speaker 2 12:08

So there's that question. You know, I want to start reading the Bible, but I don't know how, I don't know where to start. I think that's a pretty common question, Pretty big challenge that people have Now somebody like me. You know I had an advantage early on because I love to read, I love the written word. To begin with, it doesn't matter what I'm reading.

Speaker 2 12:27

I get a lot of joy out of reading Number two. I really love history. So there's two in the bag right there. So, yeah, so there's two in the bag right there. Um, so for somebody like me, it comes, it comes easy to me to be curious, to want to learn yeah, you know, to want to get into the written word and you know she's going through them all. And it's funny because and you can tell what drives a lot of sales with these new bibles it's, it's usually how it's packaged.

Speaker 1 12:54

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 12:54

If you've got a really nice pretty cover maybe it's made out of leather. It's got flowers all over it. They've done wonders with marketing as far as producing Bibles, which isn't a bad thing, I think, whatever it takes to get somebody started.

Speaker 4 13:10

Right? Well, like my granddaughter, when we went to that Bible store up there, there was three Bibles to choose from, like I told you, but there was one that was very artistic. Lily loves to draw, she loves to color, she loves to do stuff with her colored pencils and there was an artistic like. Every page had something that she could literally, as she reads, color in the artwork.

Speaker 1 13:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 13:39

Like the adult coloring book, yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 13:42

So you have all these different bibles, you know, with all these different, uh, enticements, I guess, um, to get you to actually just pick it up, to get you to open it and hopefully walk out of the store with it. And for me, I think, as a person you know, you got to ask yourself a couple questions. I think number one always has to be well, what's your motive behind it?

Speaker 1 14:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:07

Are you doing it because somebody told you that you need to? Are you doing it because you're trying to find yourself? Or are you doing it because you're trying to find yourself, or are you doing it because you're trying to find God? I definitely don't think you should be going into this thinking. I'm going to enjoy it, as you would say a novel. If you're going into it for kickback and enjoy it. You're probably not going to be satisfied.

Speaker 2 14:36

You're not going to go too far with it. So I think it does come down to those questions is what is your goal? What do you want to get out of it? Are you looking for a relationship with God? Do you want to get to know God? And are you willing let's face it are you willing to put the time in to get to know him Because it is the written word of God? So it is not. You know, it's not like reading a classic novel, it's not like reading Moby Dick or you know anything new today.

Speaker 2 15:05

It's you know, yes, there's a lot of different versions. You know, the New Living Translations is probably best for younger people or people in our generation, rather than trying to read. You know the king james version which I remember that's the first bible that I bought on my own was the king james version, and that's what I started reading yeah but again for me, I think I had a little bit of advantage.

Speaker 2 15:26

I didn't mind that so much because I didn't mind reading right, you know I didn't feel like that was a waste of time and I didn't so much feel like it was hard work, but a lot of people that would be really hard to actually get into and stay focused from day to day.

Where to Start Reading the Bible

Speaker 2 15:43

Yeah for sure. And then my Bible. Here it's a combination of actual Bible study, bible history, so I get a little bit of everything out of it. So if I don't quite understand what I'm reading, then I have all these footnotes, I have a dictionary I can go to, I have all these tools within the Bible itself that I can go to that will explain what I'm reading and give a little more insight into it. So I do get the history, I get the context of it.

Speaker 1 16:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:18

And, and it also challenges me to look further into other verses. Yeah so all of those things. You got to put all those things together. But, honestly, I think the first thing is you have to be honest with yourself and say what is it that I'm looking to get out of this when?

Speaker 2 16:34

you start reading it with yourself and say what is it that I'm looking to get out of this? When you start reading it and that has to be your goal, because it is going to be it's going to be a process. It's not something like I said. Many, many books in the Bible. When you read it, you may go I don't even understand what that was about. I couldn't even follow that. I didn't. I didn't understand a word. I just read and you may have to go back and read it again. You know, may you have to go back and look for context. Um.

Speaker 1 17:03

I think, like being honest with yourself, like what, what is it that I want out of it? And also asking God to like help you, like stir fire in you, wanting to read it and wanting to form that relationship. If that's what you really want, go to him and ask him for that Right.

Speaker 4 17:23

ask him for that wisdom to understand.

Speaker 2 17:26

And you also have to have something very practical, which is the excuse most people have is I just don't have the time. I have such a busy day. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I make dinner, I take care of the kids, mow the lawn.

Speaker 4 17:45

Mow the laundry yeah.

Speaker 2 17:47

Man or woman. There's plenty of things that will get in your way, daily life and, yes, all of those things have to be accomplished, not arguing that at all. But you do have to come to realization that you have to make time. Yes, you have to have that practical, you know idea that if I'm going to do this I have to make time. It's not going to come to me.

Speaker 1 18:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:12

You know if you're waiting every day for a time in your life to come along where you're not busy.

Speaker 1 18:19

There's always going to be something more shiny, right, yeah, oh, absolutely, there's so many distractions to begin with Absolutely.

Speaker 2 18:25

Yeah, I mean, you know, but you're always your own biggest distraction because you can always think of something you know that's easier. You know that, uh, that, let's face it, something you'd rather do than you know sit down, open the book, um, but it's hard. Like I said, you do have to force yourself to make time and it may come down to explaining to the people you live with or people closest to you that, yes, I know you all need a part of me. I know you all need something from me.

Speaker 1 18:59

Y'all need my time but I need jesus, but I need jesus you're gonna have to allow me, yeah, this time.

Speaker 2 19:08

you know, and and I think that's very important is that you have to, you have to be willing to say this is something that I have to make time to do, yeah.

Speaker 1 19:18

And that's hard if you're a new Christian, because Satan doesn't by any means once you end that book Right right, so he's throwing every distraction at you, mm-hmm mm-hmm, yeah, and even like, if you're like, say you, because you don't have to do it in the mornings, you know a?

Speaker 1 19:35

lot of people look at it and think, okay, let's do it in the morning, but let's say you, let's say that's the only time you can do it. Like Nick, I truly feel that is the only time you can do it. You know what I mean. And it's like, okay if you're not a morning person, but that is truly your only time you can do it. Make it easier for yourself to do it, like you know, for the night before. Just say, you have a smoothie every morning. Get that stuff in the smoothie or in the little container and then put it in your fridge. That way, whenever you wake up, you just have to ding, ding, put it on and you're done and like, then you can drink your smoothie while you're reading your bible. Like, make it easier for your future self to do it.

Speaker 2 20:14

That way you can actually have a chance to do it and start out slow. Yes, Don't give yourself this big like goal of I'm going to read my Bible every day for an hour, seven days a week.

Speaker 1 20:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:27

Again, be practical. Start out slow. Just if you only do it three days a week to start, it's better than nothing.

Speaker 1 20:33

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 20:34

It's better than nothing, yeah, and go from there and then once you get rolling, then you may find like, okay, I got that rolling. Well, maybe I'll take it just an extra half hour at night. Maybe I'll shut the TV off a half hour earlier before I go to bed and just read a couple passages, and sometimes that's even better.

Speaker 1 20:51

Yeah Is, don't try to tackle verse upon, verse upon verse maybe, I think, even if you just tackle a couple verses, oh, absolutely, and let it just soak in yeah, like what did I just read?

Speaker 2 21:04

like yeah, and just just let it sit on your mind, and then you may wake up with thoughts about it yeah and sometimes those thoughts alone, then, will lead to further development as far as okay, now I understand that.

Speaker 2 21:17

I hear what God's telling me to do and I think at that point God will tell you where to go next, and that's the kind of mindset you have to have is you are looking for God. That should be one of your main goals of reading the Bible, not because you feel like you have to or you should.

Speaker 1 21:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2 21:36

Because you truly want a relationship with God and there's no other place to get it. Yeah, Because there truly isn't. No, and you know that's a very unique thing to say. You're not going to find God anywhere else, but in the written word, you know. I mean people can tell you about.

Speaker 1 21:54

God Right, right.

Speaker 2 21:56

People can tell you about right god right. People can tell you about jesus. All those, things, but it doesn't really do anything. Yeah, until you, until you've invest your time to get into the world right, and so often that's when you hear from god yeah, exactly he will work through those verses to get to show you something

Understanding Your Motivation

Speaker 4 22:12

yes yeah, and as a new Christian, it's like not just opening up the basic novel or whatever you're reading. When you open this up. I didn't start in Genesis.

Speaker 1 22:22

Right, yeah, please don't.

Speaker 4 22:24

No, don't start in the Old Testament. Please go to the New Testament. Maybe start in John or Mark and the Gospels. Yeah, start there, you know. Yep, I Gospels. Start there, you know.

Speaker 1 22:33

I like doing Luke because it's like the chronological order.

Speaker 2 22:37

Well, he was the historian, I believe, of the disciples.

Speaker 1 22:40

Yeah, yeah, he was very structured.

Speaker 2 22:42

I think yes.

Speaker 1 22:43

Yeah, like all four of those are similar, you know, in case someone doesn't know that, and it's all four of them is basically Jesus's time here on this earth.

Speaker 4 22:55

It's his life, his teachings, his miracles. Yes, tells us why he came. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 23:01

Yeah, like starting like it's not like we said, it's not like a normal novel because, first off, all these books are different. Like you got, you know, matthew, mark, luke and John that are all pretty similar, talking about Jesus's life and everything. But then you've got Acts, which is kind of like the church history, revelation, which is end times, like it all has, you know, romans or Proverbs, like kind of more inspirational and like when you need something to like lift you up. But you're not just, it's not one sided, like you're getting all of this from this one book, not one book, several books to one your gospels, yes, where you are learning, you know from his birth yes actually from his conception all the way through to the resurrection yep, even even after yeah, yeah, you know, and yeah, that's the foundation.

Speaker 4 23:56

Yeah, you have to start there.

Speaker 3 23:58

Yes, I agree.

Speaker 1 23:59

Understand that before you can go back and touch the Old Testament and see where you know so-and-so begat so-and-so coverage for your sin right where there is now and if you're a new christian and read that, that's scary, yeah oh yeah, absolutely yeah, that was actually the one podcast don't go into deuteronomy, no, no no, and the podcast that I was talking about earlier, the one girl was saying when she was growing up she was a huge reader, kind of like I'm picturing nick, you know like they were in their teenage years just reading the bible and she was going to church at the time but she had started from the beginning and I think she got through the whole test or the whole Old Testament, but then she's like like almost traumatized.

Speaker 1 24:45

She's like what am I reading, you know? And it's like if someone would have just sat down with her and explained to her. You know, this was before Jesus and you know, thank god we did have jesus to come to kind of help us with that right. No, like yeah, I don't know, because you don't, you don't want to start there.

Speaker 3 25:04

No, but I think proverbs after you've worked through the gospel yes I think proverbs is good, because that just tells you how you should live life.

Speaker 1 25:13

Yes, I mean some of it, is you know confusing. And Romans is kind of like the same.

Speaker 4 25:20

See, I did the Gospels. I can remember reading. I did the Gospels and then Romans, yes, and then I did Proverbs and Psalms, yeah, and then back to the New Testament again, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 1 25:45

I read somewhere Philippians, yeah, so yeah, I read somewhere Philippians. I think Philippians kind of focuses on life as a Christian, but dealing with all these troubles because you know that's going to happen, If's going to come and you'll know it like that's where you need to be headed Right.

Speaker 4 25:58

And in Romans, you know, not only does it talk about concepts of like sin and grace and salvation, but it also the importance of the unity of love within the body of Christ and how we need to show love.

Speaker 3 26:09

Yes.

Speaker 4 26:09

And that we've all sinned and fall short. Yes, all of us, and so we have to show that love to everybody Daily.

Speaker 3 26:17

Even though we strive to live like Christ every day, we still fall short, Sure.

Speaker 2 26:25

But in that you know the Bible is your stronghold against that kind of repeated behavior.

Speaker 4 26:32

Yes, yes Right.

Speaker 2 26:33

And that's sometimes, and that's also something that comes in time with staying in the Word.

Speaker 3 26:40

Exactly.

Speaker 2 26:42

It's not a book that you read from page one to page. How many pages does mine have? So mine's like 2,500 pages, and it's pretty small print too. So if I read it from page one to 2,500 and never picked it up again, I haven't accomplished anything.

Speaker 4 27:04

Right, exactly, yeah, just reading it through isn't accomplishing anything If you're not studying it, if you're not because they I mean they call it the living word.

Speaker 2 27:12

It is the living word. So you, you need to live in the word. So, like I said, if you pick it up one time, read it and say, yep, check the box, I've done it. I either got it or I didn't get it. Yeah, some parts were good, some parts were bad.

Speaker 2 27:26

I really like that yeah this parts could have been been better. If you read it like you would read any other book that you would take out of a library or any other book that you would go into Barnes Noble and pull off the shelf and look at the cover and say, oh, that's pretty, that looks kind of cool. I'll take that home and read it. You read it one time. You forget about it. That's not what you're doing here that.

Speaker 2 27:45

Forget about it. That's not what you're doing here. That's something that you do all the time, so that those words I mean how many times do we say you know? You can read that same part of scripture 10 times.

Speaker 3 27:57

Yep.

Speaker 2 27:58

And either all of a sudden, the light bulb will come on yes, or it may have meant something to you five years ago and you read it again and it has it completely different.

Speaker 4 28:09

Exactly, yes, absolutely yeah. You know something?

Speaker 2 28:10

to you five years ago and you read it again and it has it completely different, exactly yes, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 3 28:13

You know um well and not only that inspiration those, as you read those verses and get them etched on your heart.

Speaker 4 28:19

I mean you might not be able to, you know, quote them yeah, right, right, but you, you've got the concept of what that verse means.

Speaker 3 28:27

Yeah, and it lives within your heart. It lives within your heart, and then that is your battle against.

Speaker 4 28:33

Satan.

Speaker 2 28:34

If you know you're right there.

Speaker 3 28:35

Boom, boom, throw it right back at him.

Speaker 2 28:38

Yeah, you know, people are always looking for proof of God. That's always somebody's challenge to Christians. Well, show me that he's real, prove to me that this isn't all just made up, and written in there. Well, even if you quote Scripture to them, you can't quite do that.

Speaker 1 29:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2 29:07

The best answer would be well, look at my life, look at where I have been Right and look at where I am now. Because, because I am in the word.

Speaker 3 29:17

Exactly Because.

Speaker 2 29:17

I do everything I can to follow the word Right, and even though I'm not perfect never gonna be but I make as much effort as I can to stay in the Word, to follow it, and that's my proof.

Speaker 4 29:47

If it could change me, you know, to make me a and manage our relationships and our work and our finances and our morals.

Speaker 2 29:55

Yeah, and that's all you have to say to put it on the national bestseller list is just give it a shot. It's not going to hurt you, no, it's not going to hurt you, no. So pick it up, read it. If I guarantee you, you will see a change in yourself, if you give it enough time, if you give it enough effort. Don't give up. Yeah, you will.

Speaker 1 30:18

You will see changes and that's the proof of god. That's what I was going to try to lead into. So once you do pick it up and start reading it like, okay, this isn't so bad, how do you keep up on it?

Making Time and Being Practical

Speaker 2 30:30

Well, again, it's discipline. It really is. Because, no, again it's not. I mean, I'm not saying I don't enjoy reading. I do enjoy reading it but, like I said, I do have that advantage of I'd like to read, but again, it's not like a normal form of leisure. It's not like watching TV or watching a movie, or reading a novel or any of the things that we do to relax. That's not what we're talking about here. That's not how you go into it.

Speaker 2 30:59

If you're like, yeah, I read that one chapter that time. That was boring. Yeah, you're right, it is boring.

Speaker 4 31:06

A lot of it is A lot of, it is not I struggle going.

Speaker 3 31:10

okay, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to read through the book of John. I struggle with that, but now you throw something at me that's going to make me. Hey, I like that, I'm going to dig and dig and dig. I really enjoyed yeah like the research part.

Speaker 1 31:24

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Even you know I'm the same way, beth. Like I, I have a hard time, like, okay, I'm gonna sit here. You know, I think when I first became a Christian I was like the small books you know I'm going through, I'm like how many pages is this one?

Speaker 1 31:40

okay, okay, let's do that one, you know, and yeah but because I have a hard time of reading just like a full you know um book and but it's like maybe, if you know yourself, like maybe you do need to pencil in the time. You know, I don't, I don't necessarily like carve out my day, like I don't even use my digital calendar on my phone like I, but I know some people are like that. So it's like if you are, maybe you need to pencil in from 5 am to 6 am or 5 am to 5 20. You know that's where I'm gonna do that and I think like power of writing things like kind of helps anyway, like I don't know, oh, yeah, yeah and that's a big thing too.

Speaker 2 32:18

I I really do believe that, that if you take a short verse and only read it, but try writing it out yes, yes, notebook.

Speaker 1 32:25

Yes, on a notebook. Yes.

Speaker 2 32:27

And I think you'll find you'll remember that verse better.

Speaker 1 32:30

Yeah, oh, yeah, if you write it out, I agree, yeah, yeah, so we can. You know like we can dissect like a topic, like we do, kind of we could just sit and read a chapter or a book. There's like devotionals we can do. Uh, what else is there? Well, that podcast you can listen to to help broaden your thinking and well, I'm not help you understand, yes, kind of put it.

Speaker 2 33:02

Put it, get it down to earth.

Speaker 4 33:03

Yeah, yeah, so that you can understand, yeah yeah, well, I'm not much of a reader, so when I became a Christian I bought it on disc, on CD, oh yeah. So it was read to me, you know, I mean I would follow along, but if I was in the car or whatever, I would throw in my disc and I would listen while I was traveling or whatever, because I'm not the best reader.

Speaker 1 33:23

Yeah.

Speaker 4 33:23

I get tired when I read. It just kind of puts me to sleep, no matter what I'm reading.

Speaker 2 33:27

Was it Morgan Freeman?

Speaker 4 33:31

Right, I think it was. No, I'm not sure who it was.

Speaker 2 33:37

But I wanted to bring that point up. When you go back to asking yourself okay, why do I want to start reading the Bible, why do I have this desire to do it? Perhaps it's because you've looked at yourself and realized, yes, there are things that I want to change in my life, and sometimes that is also one of the main things is you have to be ready to change.

Speaker 2 33:58

You have to be honest with yourself and say whatever it is, I'm ready to change. I'm ready to give my life to the Lord. I've had enough of this life and doing it on my own and trying to figure it out. I'm ready to give it over to the Lord. I'm ready for change, and once you accept that, then you may be able to look at yourself and say, well, yeah, the thing dragging me down is anger.

Speaker 2 34:21

You know the thing dragging me down is alcoholism. You know the thing dragging me down is unforgiveness. So then you can go okay, that's what I'm going to. Open up the Bible and what. Like you said, whether, using your devotional, a study Bible, do whatever you need to do to attack that, whether if it's unforgiveness, then look into it. Just start trying to find everything you can in the Bible about forgiveness.

Speaker 4 34:49

And that's what I did when I started. I would go back to say the dictionary or whatever, and look up whatever emotion I was feeling that day, and you'll find a lot of that in the book of Psalms. All of the emotions are in the book of Psalms. Right yeah, and it teaches us how to approach God with our honesty and vulnerability and our faith.

Speaker 1 35:10

And I've been one to say that I don't really care for devotionals, but I said last week that I was kind of starting one Like it kind of I don't know compares your time with your toddler like what they could possibly be going through, like what they could possibly be going through.

Speaker 1 35:29

And there was something today that was like, oh, you know, because there's so many spills at this age or so many, you just accidents and like, oh, you know, oh, not again. And it said, you know, whenever your child has spilled their cereal for the umpteenth time, like what are you doing? How are you going to react to that? Yeah, and you know, it said this scripture um luke 6, 45 a good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. So I'm like, wow. And it also took one step further, stating you know, currently, with what he's going through, like the attachment I don't know, just like they're really learning about, hey, should I? What can I do with this person versus this person, and how will they react?

Speaker 1 36:18

and you know if, they're forming relations yeah, and like they want to have that secure relationship. They don't want you to be so reactive that way and they was kind of saying like you want to be that secure relationship and you don't want to have all these meltdowns yourself. That way they're not scared to do things their own to learn you know, exactly.

Speaker 1 36:39

If they do have a problem, yeah, and that exactly, and then that actually, like it kind of just like, produces anxiety on them, and then they are not wanting to try new things, therefore they're not wanting to learn and grow, and I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? But you know it just like and that was all from two sentences, I think like I just, you know, it was like mind-boggling, so I don't know, that's just a great resource that you can. Yeah, that's very. All those devotionals and patience.

Speaker 2 37:11

I mean, patience is a big one, yeah, you know, yeah, and all in all walks of life and all you know, and everything we go through. Patience is such a you know, uh, that's, that's a hard one for, yeah, a lot of people and I have to wait and it kind of compares like god.

Speaker 1 37:27

You know, god's so patient with us, yeah, yeah, why can't we be patient with him? And I'm like, oh well, yeah.

Speaker 3 37:36

Well, and even though a new Christian, they might not understand everything that they're reading right off the bat, yeah, and they're still getting in that book every day. They're still building that relationship.

Speaker 1 37:48

Right, right yeah. And they're still getting in that book every day. They're still building that relationship. Right Right yeah, like there's no perfect way.

Speaker 3 37:51

One day it's just all going to come together yeah.

Speaker 1 37:54

Yeah, yeah. And like right now, that devotional is helping me because I'm you know, because it's able to help me go through all these changes with Cooper. Well, one day Cooper's not going to be as little as he is or, you know, he's going to be fully grown, like you know he's going to be fully grown right like that's, you know. So right now it's connecting to me in that way, but you know I'm going to have to find a new way.

The Right Place to Begin

Speaker 3 38:17

Yeah, you know, sooner rather than later. So, yeah, my grandmother always said they step on your toes when they're little and their hearts your hearts when they're you're, they're grown yeah and that's true. Yeah, because when they're adults you can't fix their problems no, no, no.

Speaker 2 38:31

But sometimes in that parent-child relationship, even with your relationship with god, you're going to have to realize that sometimes that relationship is going to be rocky yeah, it's like every other loving relationship. That it's not always, you know it's not always going to be you know, I always tell people I look, if you have a relationship with God, relationship with Jesus, and once in a while you get mad at him, I'd say that's okay, Because at least you're putting your emotion towards the right person.

Speaker 2 39:05

Yeah, yeah, Like almost because we all get mad at our father we all get mad at our mothers but that relationship is more important than anything.

Speaker 1 39:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:13

So yeah, if you get in my opinion, if you throw your anger at God once in a while, to me I was like that's okay, and you might as well as long as you always realize that, yep, you are the son, you are the daughter.

Speaker 4 39:28

Right, right, that, yep, you are.

Speaker 2 39:29

You are the son, you are the daughter right right, as long as you understand that relationship, yes, I think he would rather have you be mad at him once in a while, yeah than to have no relationship at all right because he knows, if you stick with it, if you trust him, you'll get over being upset you'll get over. You know um having that impatience to where you don't understand why it's taking him so long right, you know, to to do something in your life that you've been praying for.

Speaker 2 39:53

So having that relationship, regardless of you know how it's going all the time and how you see it going and what you want for your life, as long as you're still directing it towards, towards God, I think.

Speaker 3 40:05

Yeah, you'll be OK, you'll be okay, you'll be okay. And the thing is, when you're upset with him and he's not answering a prayer quick enough for you or whatever, you might as well tell him yeah because he knows anyway.

Speaker 4 40:18

He already knows. He already knows. You're not hiding anything from him.

Speaker 3 40:20

As soon as that thought crossed your mind he already knows, so you might as well just let him say why God or why yeah right.

Speaker 2 40:29

I think he will get just as much pleasure out of that as when you give him credit for something.

Speaker 1 40:34

Yeah, because you're acknowledging him as we mature as children of Christ.

Speaker 4 40:40

We'll give that praise and thanksgiving. And he knows where you are in your walk, even in the bad times, right, right.

Speaker 2 40:44

He knows exactly where you are in your walk, so he'll understand if you're impatient, if you're upset and don't quite understand.

Speaker 3 40:53

Yeah, he knows not, everybody's a seasoned veteran, right, right and even though I know that maybe my prayer is not being answered because he has better plans. It's sometimes frustrating because I think I, yeah, and I'm bad about I want to fix things first, and then, when it all goes haywire, I'm like god, here, here and then I hand it to him really bad and he's like, if you just would have let me take it from the beginning well, that's such an important thing that the bible will teach you is that?

Speaker 2 41:25

and no matter what situation you read in the bible, no matter what part of history guess what, god's always in control, no matter who's trying to upend the table no matter who's trying to change things for their will, to honor themselves, it always goes right back to him. He's in control of everything. So you have to develop that part of the relationship and understand that he is in control yeah and I have to let him, you know, I have to let him control events in my life yeah, and that's hard for me.

Speaker 3 41:55

I can't. That is a hard one for me, even though I know and it doesn't take prayer out of the equation.

Speaker 2 42:01

You should still pray for it every day even if you feel like well, I didn't get it today, well, pray for it one more time.

Speaker 3 42:07

Right.

Speaker 2 42:09

But just go into it with that understanding that, yep, I'm going to continue to trust you. Trust is such a big part of it and that takes a long, long time.

Speaker 1 42:19

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 42:20

But you're never going to get it if you're not in the Word all the time.

Speaker 1 42:22

Right.

Speaker 2 42:24

It's not that easy.

Speaker 3 42:26

Oh, there's been many a times I went to that altar and hear God, I'm giving it to you, I'm giving it to you, it's all yours. Monday morning, I'm picking it up.

Speaker 4 42:32

You pick it right back up. Oh heck, you're picking it up before you ever get back to your seat. Yeah, Been there, done that.

Speaker 1 42:40

Yep, I think even just having like this is good that we are able to talk to each other weekly, but not everyone is, or not everyone commits to a bible study or not, you know. But I think community is so important because you get to talk to people like the other. I think it was on my lunch break last friday and I walked over to miller's creamery in dover and um was like I don't know, I'd say someone in her mid 40s, but she was like mentoring someone like late teens, early 20s, and I'm like you just don't see that anymore and it was so nice to see it, you know,

Speaker 1 43:21

I think that is very important and I wasn't eavesdropping, but it was. I mean, they were right beside me, you know, and like they were, they talked about not just about life, before they got into the Bible, you know, and they're like, oh, you know, let's, you know, I suppose we should get into it, you know, and they weren't like mad that they had to do it, they were just like open hearted and, you know, and it was, it was nice, like yeah. So I think a lot of people forget the power of community.

Speaker 2 43:52

Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a uh kid that just started where I work.

Speaker 2 43:56

He's going to work in the office and he had to shadow everybody over the course of the last two weeks, so he shadowed me, I think yeah this last monday and, uh, in my office, on my big chalkboard, maggie, when she was little, had drew a big picture and it's three crosses and of course the middle one says Jesus. And then she has. She drew me, her mom and herself at the bottom and I never erased it. It's been up there a long time and I don't remember what he said, but he made some reference to God and asked me. I forget the direct question he asked me, but his reply came back he goes. Well, he goes. I'm not part of a Bible study. He goes. I'm just not old enough for that yet and I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. I was like have a seat. And I was like I said you young people are exactly the ones that should be in Bible study right now, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 44:52

I said you, young people, become the strength of the church. Right, you guys are the next movement.

Speaker 1 44:57

Right.

Building Discipline and Consistency

Speaker 2 44:57

I said never take that attitude that you have to be so old to get into a Bible study, because it's not some crungy. Yeah uh, you know stale uh you know activity right that people just fall into when they get older, because now they don't have the energy, uh, to go winter skiing or you know, surfing nothing else to do nothing else to do, and they're too old, and so that's. All that's left to do is go to church on Wednesday nights and talk.

Speaker 2 45:30

So I was like no, that is the exact, that's the wrong attitude.

Speaker 1 45:34

I have about that.

Speaker 2 45:35

And he was just kind of like whoa, he wasn't quite ready for that answer.

Speaker 3 45:42

But that would be exciting for you that God has dropped somebody, another Christian, within your office.

Speaker 2 45:46

He might not be- practicing Well, and he started asking like so what church do you belong to? And he started asking questions. But he was like yeah, he's kind of like, yeah, I'm kind of in it, but kind of not in it. And, like I said, he's just like yeah, I'm not old enough for that yet, and maybe we should talk about that a little bit. Just the young people.

Speaker 1 46:10

Yeah.

Speaker 2 46:13

I think they do have For me. You know, when I was 13, like I had the advantage, my mom did talk to me about God and we prayed every night. That's what we did before we went to bed, but that was kind of simple.

Speaker 3 46:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2 46:28

Kind of thing. So it meant a lot, but maybe on paper it doesn't seem like it would mean a lot. But when I was 13, my mom got sick. It was like, up to that time I don't think I'd ever had a bad day in my life.

Speaker 3 46:41

You know?

Speaker 2 46:42

yeah, I'm sure I you know, brother and I would fight. Yeah, I, you know, brother and I would fight. And you know you didn't get what you wanted and this and that. I'm sure I got upset plenty of times. But if you look at it again on paper you're like that kid never had a bad day in his life. I had a great childhood. But all that was completely shattered when my mom got sick, because you know she was the one that hosted holiday dinners. You know she was just a nucleus of everything. So everything fell apart. So for me, you know, I had to find something to lean on, to fall back on, and I do think to a certain extent, yeah, I was lucky that my mom had brought me up that way and I had been to church a little bit as a kid, so I had a little bit of background. But there was just something instinctively in me that was like I'm going to go up to the mall and Walden Books and I'm going to get a Bible.

Speaker 2 47:29

And I bought it with my own money, which for a 13 year old, not every 13 year old is going to spend their hard earned allowance money or whatever it was to get a Bible. But I did that and I would just start reading it and again it was just aimless reading. I didn't say, you know, like all my Civil War books, I'm going to start at page one and go to the end, but it just seemed like when I was feeling bad, I was feeling lonely.

Speaker 4 47:57

All those things that my mom could no longer provide for.

Speaker 2 47:58

I found myself in it and that's exactly what we should be doing. So I understand sometimes, when you know God bless them that there's young people out there that have never had a bad day in their life and they don't, so they don't really feel any need for something else you know to fall back on. They just don't. They don't instinctively feel the need for God because, yeah, their parents are holding them up.

Speaker 4 48:23

Everything in their life is good.

Speaker 2 48:25

So they don't quite understand that part of it.

Speaker 3 48:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 48:29

You know, and they're very fortunate for that. But do you see?

Speaker 3 48:32

God's work in your life. From that I mean from God knew, so he instilled that in your mom to raise that, yeah, he instilled that into you at a young age. So when you, when things went bad, you had that foundation built you knew where to go.

Speaker 2 48:50

yeah, and I can. Even. I'm always a type of person that I believe, even when, like on christmas morning. I've always been the type of person that when I'm I'm, I am an in the moment type of person, but at the same time, I have this thing where I know this moment's going to pass. When I'm in it, like Christmas morning, I would unwrap my presents a little slower than my brother and sister because I wanted it to last, because even in my mind I'd be like this is going to pass, this is going to end. So I could always see moments in my life like I understood how precious it is to be where I am, because it's not going to last forever and I've always been that way. There's certain things that I consistently think about and I'm like, yep, you better enjoy it while it lasts, because if you live long enough, you better enjoy it while it lasts.

Speaker 2 49:49

Because if you live long enough, then everything's going to come to pass. I've always been that way, and when I got into the Bible I could tell myself, even at that young age, I knew there was going to be battles to be fought with it. I didn't look at it as I don't know how to explain it. I just knew that, as we say, once you open the Bible and start reading it, it's like I knew the enemy was going to come after me.

Speaker 3 50:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2 50:26

And he did. And I've lost many of those battles yeah, I really have, but I always keep fighting them. That's the important thing.

Speaker 4 50:36

Absolutely. You fall down, you just pick yourself back up and go again, because, as my mom said whatever you do, don't forget about Jesus.

Speaker 2 50:42

And I never did, even when I was mad at him, as we've talked about, because I was. Plenty of times I was angry with him because I didn't understand. And it kept piling up, you know, first it was my mom, then I had a divorce and my mom passed away, and then my son, you know. He got into an accident with a bear, lost his finger, and I could go on and on. It just piled up, piled up, piled up, and it's like you know, and sometimes you say that to yourself, like you know, when I was 13, I went out of my way, pick up a Bible, start reading it and I think, for as young as I am, I've been pretty faithful.

Speaker 2 51:16

What the heck's going on here? You know, why have I had so many things thrown in my face? You know, if, if I've been so faithful, sometimes you think, well, why don't I have that life that person has to, where it seems like they, they don't have any problems, they have both of their parents, they seem as though they've never had a bad day in their life, and I just keep getting one after the other, you know, and that's tough, yeah, but I had that grounding from the beginning. It almost seems like I understood that I was accepting battle more or less yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 51:51

Sometimes that's what it's about. You realize that the world we live in is you are accepting battle with the enemy and it's something that you are going to have to go through for the rest of your life. Yes, and perhaps because you see these other people who are not accepting battle yeah, they're kind of flying by because they're not in it Right?

Speaker 1 52:10

Yeah, they're not in it. They're not all in.

Speaker 4 52:12

They're not all in.

Speaker 2 52:13

Yeah, so devil don't have to worry about it yeah, exactly. So maybe that is why they've got three cars parked in the lot and a really nice house. And you know, like I said, both their parents lived till they're 90. And perhaps that's the reason. I don't know, I can't say for sure, yeah, but for me I just it's you know I've been my own worst enemy at times.

Speaker 2 52:36

I can be honest and say that Like yep, all the things I can look at God and be like yep, that one is completely on me. It is not anything you did. It is not anything you know. It's just it's not. I'll be honest, I'm like I don't even know if that was the enemy's fault. I will say that was completely on me. But I take accountability for it and I'm ready to go on to the next, you know, ready to go to the next level. Let's keep going. You know I'm not going to throw this away because life up to 45 has been at times just really rough and just doesn't really make any sense.

Personal Faith Journey Stories

Speaker 1 53:10

You know, nick, though like people looking on the outside, just like you're looking on the outside at everyone else, they would never know that you've dealt with those struggles. You know, and that's the same with me'm like it. It because it bothered me too. I'm like you know if, why, you know, why is it that? I because same with me, I I was always grew up in a church, like always had that backbone, but I'm like, why do I keep having all this stuff, like you know, and it's like, well, god, never told us it would be no, and his path is narrow.

Speaker 4 53:39

Yeah, yeah, and it's the path of destruction is wide.

Speaker 1 53:42

Yeah, I mean, and it's you just don't there's, I don't know, there's just it doesn't matter what people think. You know and god knows what god knows. You know that it's not fair, you know, but he's going to give those to the toughest soldiers and you know, maybe, maybe, for everything that you've gone through, like, maybe you will be a mentor to someone who's going through something similar. Who knows?

Speaker 3 54:09

you know, you don't know the reason.

Speaker 2 54:10

I believe everything you've been through is why you're such an excellent exactly, yeah well, you know and I was, and I do get, I do get satisfaction out of sometimes you think the enemy's got you, and then you still praise God the next morning and you can feel it Like he is so disappointed and discouraged. Yet again, I did my best and this guy is still you know.

Speaker 4 54:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 54:38

He's still kicking. Yeah, he's not going to fall back, he's still gonna.

Speaker 2 54:40

he's not gonna fall back, he's still gonna move forward and praise and thanksgiving and he's just like, yeah.

Speaker 2 54:45

So there is a lot of satisfaction in it when you get that deep into it yeah, yeah, that you're like, yeah, because when you get to know your enemy pretty well by doing this all the time, you know and that's really important that you do um, but you do. And so I can't help but say you do get some satisfaction that, no matter what happens, it's like, well, jesus Christ is still my Lord and Savior. I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 2 55:10

You can try again tomorrow, but that's the way it's going to be, so you might as well bother somebody else, but I accept battle. I'll keep going at it Because we've been doing this since I've been 13. So I'm a veteran now. It's like I don't care. You want to keep going, let's keep going.

Speaker 4 55:28

And I think once you get through all of that, another couple good books to read is 1 and 2 Corinthians. First Corinthians is going to focus on correcting and addressing immorality and guides the believer in proper conduct and their spiritual gifts, marriages, worship. And then Second Corinthians tells us what true ministry is, and to be humble and to be sincere and to have resilience.

Speaker 2 55:56

Yeah. And maturity, yeah, yes, yep Plays a big part Maturity and maturity.

Speaker 3 55:58

Yeah, yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 56:02

Yep Plays a big part of maturity is a big part of it, yeah, but again, everything is earned? I think yeah. So you have again getting into the words. You have to earn it.

Speaker 1 56:15

Right, yeah, and like we were talking about last week, what kind of crown are you going to have if you don't earn it? You know, yeah, are you going to even have a crown?

Speaker 3 56:25

Yeah, that made me really question, like wow okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 56:30

This is not the Generation Z participation. You know school Metal.

Speaker 4 56:37

Yeah, metal.

Speaker 2 56:37

Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said, you can be saved from the burning building. Sure, right, but you know yeah so much more to earn than that I.

Speaker 3 56:48

I just I don't want to go before the lord and not have a crown to lay at his feet. You know I don't want to and I don't even know that that's in there biblically, but that's what it's. You know, I was taught. Yeah, I don't want to go up and say hi, thank you, I'm on my way to the yeah thank you for saying don't make eye contact.

Speaker 1 57:08

Thank you for pulling me from that burning building.

Speaker 2 57:11

Yeah don't make eye contact right, that's not gonna happen.

Speaker 1 57:18

but you know if you would be embarrassed and like everyone else is laying these crowns at his feet, and here you are, like where's my crowns? You know, I did the bare minimum, guess we're living in the basement.

Speaker 2 57:30

Oh you weren't kidding. Yeah, so there's a lot to consider when somebody has asked that question, it's not you know. It took us an hour to answer it.

Speaker 1 57:45

Yeah, but there's no perfect way, no Multiple ways, absolutely it really is your own personal relationship with him.

Speaker 2 57:54

Yeah, and like I said, you got to be willing to say, yeah, I'm going to start making time to do it. It's like any other relationship you have, you have to make time for it, yeah, and communication like communication with a relationship yeah. I mean just think, if you.

Speaker 1 58:07

Your dialogue every day with him.

Speaker 2 58:10

Just if you treated your spouse the way you treat God. Yeah, how do you think that's going to work?

Speaker 3 58:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 58:22

It won't work out too well for you. Yeah, so yeah, it is a personal relationship which is hard for people to understand, and that's the only way we can get it is through this book, and I think a good point to be made is that's the way God wanted it. He didn't want us looking over here, over there underneath the rug, you know. No, we know exactly where to find him. This is it.

Speaker 2 58:42

This is the only place you're going to find him Again. A lot of things people think. Why does God make things so difficult? Well, he really doesn't, it's right here he said, yeah, it's going to take that relationship to understand it all and it's going to take a lifetime.

Speaker 4 58:57

If you seek, you will find.

Speaker 3 59:01

But you have to do it, otherwise take your commitment it's not a one-way street like yeah, yeah yeah it just makes me. I don't know what, why I thought of this. But you know, people want to read different books. In this book, in that book, they want to read about murders or love stories with adultery, whatever.

Speaker 4 59:19

Open up the old testament, oh boy right, yeah, it's all in there. Yeah, it's all in there, yeah, yeah all of it yeah, you'll find everything uh-huh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 59:30

Sometimes, time and time again, yeah, and some with the most uh people that um some of the top dogs yeah.

Speaker 4 59:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2 59:42

You know that, yeah, some of the people that were most influential in the Bible are the ones that. Yeah, well, they got a checkered past.

Speaker 3 59:54

Right, yeah, exactly, and they were chosen by God.

Speaker 2 59:57

Yeah, and they were chosen by God, despite all those things, yeah, yeah and at any time. God could have said and they were chosen by God, despite all those things, yeah, yeah, and at any time God could have said okay, you did this, we're done.

Speaker 3 1:00:04

Yeah, but he doesn't do that Once he's chosen you it doesn't really matter what you do. God's love.

Speaker 4 1:00:12

Yes, his love, his grace, his mercy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I thought they had left. They have, they're going to practice do?

Speaker 1 1:00:28

we want to wrap up?

Speaker 2 1:00:29

we good anybody got anything else who's turn to pray Roger? Okay, go ahead, roger.

Wrestling with Challenges in Faith

Speaker 1 1:00:40

Roger. That's why he wasn't here today. All right, let me see if I can get this All right. Dear Heavenly Father, lord, I just thank you for this time that we had this evening. You know, I really felt that we had a great topic and we stayed on track, and I just pray that this, you know, touches someone's heart, whether that's tonight, tomorrow, 10 years from now. Lord, just just really emphasize you know just how we do. Things could be different than what's going to work with them. I just pray that whatever they end up getting from this, it is you, is from you and not from us, and I pray for travel. Mercies in your name, amen, amen.