Is This Verse of the Day Enough? [29]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of the podcast, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, addresses the challenge many Christians face of not regularly engaging with the Bible. He shares personal stories of his own struggles and how finding a different translation helped him understand Scripture better. TJ emphasizes the importance of prioritizing time for Bible reading, offers practical tips for integrating it into a busy schedule, and explains the benefits of deep engagement with God's Word.

Key Points:

• Reading the Bible as a Chore: Many Christians go through seasons where reading the Bible is easier and others where it feels like a while since we’ve spent time with the Lord. Even though it’s a hard truth to stomach, many times this is because we are not rightly prioritizing time in the Word. We need to remember that spending time in the Word is more important than lots of things we do in a day. 
• Why it’s Worth it: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that the Word is profitable for us. We can know that reading the Bible will only benefit us! It teaches reproofs, corrects, and trains us in righteousness. Since God created us, we can only be whole if we are spending time with Him in His Word. The more we read, the more we are equipped to live like Christ. 
• How to Read the Bible: Commit to more than just reading one verse or chapter a day and just being done with it. Read it, draw some observations from it, try to interpret it, find some applications to your own life, and then pray through that text. Start with a smaller portion of Scripture and spend some time really reflecting on it. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Pick up a translation of the Bible that you understand. If you can’t understand what you’re reading well, you will have a hard time meditating on it. Sometimes we need to read a different translation to help us get into the Word more. Study notes can also be an aid in our understanding of the Bible. 
• When you sit down to read God’s Word, take a second to pray and ask the Lord to help you understand it. Ask also that it would transform your heart and mind.
• Go back to episode four of this podcast to hear more about how to read the Bible!

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook
• Email: tj@brainerdinstitute.com

Transcript

Imagine skipping breakfast every day and then grabbing a single bite of dinner. And calling that enough. You'd never do that, at least not regularly. Our bodies have to have food to survive. But how often do we do that with God's word? Quick verse of the day here or there, a week without opening the Bible here or there.

Is it any wonder that we're struggling so much in our lives? Well, today we're going to talk about how to stop snacking on the Bible. And to start feasting instead, even if you have a super busy schedule. Well, hello, my name is TJ Freeman and I am the host of this podcast. I am also a rural pastor. That's right.

Like you, I live in the middle of nowhere. And I know that sometimes following Christ in rural places is tough for just some unique reasons. One of those is that you don't always have a lot of encouragement To be in the Bible on the regular. There's just maybe not quite the same pool of people around who share that interest and you want to do it.

You mean to do it, but it's a little bit of a struggle living in the middle of nowhere just doesn't help. Besides that, you've got responsibilities that are pretty significant and you can't just shirk those. So what are you supposed to do? Well, this is actually a topic that I can really relate to. There have been seasons in my life where I felt like I was really engaged in the Word, really understanding and learning and growing.

And then I've had seasons in my life where being in the Word felt more like a chore. And it would be something where I'd go, you know, I am, if I'm honest, I think I left my Bible in the car. And I haven't gotten it out for a couple days. And I didn't actually even realize that. right away. Seasons where I'm more in the word and seasons where I'm not.

This began in my early years when I was young. I used to enjoy reading the Bible, but as I got into those, oh, so sweet teenage years, my interests began to change a little bit. And that's when I noticed I was going a while without being in the word. And actually my life really showed that as well. And my heart got Pretty hard toward the Lord.

There were times where I would open his word and read it mostly because I felt guilty that I hadn't in so long. And I'd feel, I'd walk away feeling good. Maybe a sense that like, I checked that box and now God is pleased with me today at times. But I was really living for other pursuits. That's just the honest, hard truth.

I was actually prioritizing other things because I cared more about them. That's the cold hard facts. I didn't understand that at the time. I would have probably been mad at somebody if they pointed that out, but that just is the reality. Well, I went to camp one summer and after hearing a sermon about the importance of being a friend of God instead of being a friend of the world and the reality that you can't be both.

At the same time, I was really convicted, and I actually ended up trusting the Lord for salvation. And the hunger to be in God's word came back, like I had when I was a kid, and it began to grow and to develop, and the Lord would really use that to teach me a lot about himself, a lot about me, a lot of stuff that I didn't know.

But here's my story. Here's a little bit of a challenge I hit. I was going to a church, like you might be, where the old KJV, the King James Version of the Bible, was the, I was going to say preferred version, but let's be honest, it was assumed to be the only correct version by many around me. Well I didn't understand what it meant that thine this and thee that and thou whatever.

So, should it's thy, Open a different translation? I didn't know. I talked to a friend about it. They recommended the New Living Translation, the NLT. Went to my local Christian book retailer. That's right. Christian stores used to be bricks and mortar right in the old strip mall, probably next to the Hobby Lobby.

And I went in there and I found the NLT. I started reading it and scripture really came to life for me. I read a lot. And just devoured it and it had study notes and those study notes Answered a lot of questions that I had and reading the NLT was really a benefit now I'm a new believer and I start going to youth group a youth group where They always were praying for me that maybe one day i'd get saved and go there And when I did I brought in my NLT And a very well meaning Dear saint who was a leader in the youth group said to me.

Hey you may want to, not bring that version. You'll probably want to use the King James. I just have to tell you that was super deflating and discouraging. They didn't mean that they were trying to really help me, but it came across in my broken little heart, like, man, I was excited to be in the word.

And now I was really missing out on the ability to understand it because there was something wrong. And I felt like, because I brought that version of the Bible, maybe there was something wrong with me. Hey, you ever feel like that? Is this the right version for me to be reading? I've heard people say that the King James is the way.

Is that the only way? Is it like Jesus? There's no way to the Father but through Jesus and the KJV. Let me just take some of that pressure off for you here and say there are good translations and there are bad translations. That's the reality. There is not just one translation that you need to be reading from called the KJV.

I like to read from the English Standard Version these days. I find it useful. There are reasons that I'm not going to go into on this episode because that's not what this is about. But I think it's a reliable and useful, readable version. You're very fine to pick up the NIV. I don't see anything wrong with picking up the NLT.

And reading that, especially if you're gonna do it devotional. If you do have a healthy church in your town that you go to, and I hope you do. And if I don't, I hope you're, if you don't, I hope you're praying that the Lord would bring that. But if you have a healthy church in your community, or just the church that you're regularly attending, whatever version they have.

I would encourage you to get a copy of that, too, and take that with you when you go to church. And you've got one there that you can follow along with closely and

see if the things he's reading from the pulpit really match up with the copy of the Bible he says he's reading from. That's kind of important. You'll be most helped if you can find an older version of the NIV, the ESV, the NLT, the CSB, that's good too. There's a legacy Bible that came out from John MacArthur's church. That's a helpful translation. So get one of these You'll find that they're very readable, very practical. So that's one of the first steps and don't worry about When I go to church, am I carrying the right version all that kind of stuff?

Talk to your pastor talk to some other Christians there, but be encouraged that you need to have a a version of the scriptures that you can understand. And don't be afraid of study notes. Study notes, you're taking a little bit of a calculated risk because the person who's writing the notes could be written, writing from a flawed perspective.

Stick with the script. Those versions that I mentioned, and you're gonna likely find study notes that are really helpful and really good. And here's the kicker. Are you ready for this? When you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God took up residence in you. The Bible says that His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we're His.

Talks about the Spirit illuminating the truth. And just pray. Ask that the Lord would help the truth of his word to resonate with your spirit at the soul level so that you can be transformed Soul, mind, all of it for the glory of God. That's the point of reading the thing anyway And that's what we kind of got to get on to next.

It's not just the translation you're reading, which I struggled with It's how do I fit this into my schedule? Something else I struggled with At times I had jobs where I could spend long periods of time just reading the Bible. Other times I had really demanding schedules and it was really hard to find time to fit those things in.

 It's not just about understanding it and finding time. It's also wrestling with the Things going on in your heart and your mind about scripture. You might wonder is it really worth it? Is it really changing me? Can I really understand it? What am I really supposed to do with it? Where do I begin? All of those kinds of things.

If you want to know more about that in particular, you could go back to episode four, which is the second episode in the Rural Reset series that I did earlier. That whole series is meant to be kind of like a course for you to walk through, to go back to the foundation of your faith.

What are the essentials of the Christian faith and how do I just rest in those? I talked on that episode, episode number four, about what what it means to be in the Bible and why. What I'm doing in this episode that's a little bit different is helping us move away from taking that little snack of scripture and calling it good to really having a hunger for it and wanting to be in it more.

So it just talked a little bit about translation and how having the right kind of translation can really help you. And I want to spend the rest of the time first understanding what the Bible The Bible says about itself that should drive us to be in it, so why it's worth it. And then some tips for you to help you figure out how to fit it into your life.

So, here's the first thing. 2 Timothy 3. 16 and 17 says this, All scripture is breathed out by God, and it's profitable. So that's good to know. I'm gonna profit from reading something that God breathed out so that I could have. So God has spoken. He's spoken in a way that actually benefits me. I profit from this thing.

In what way? Well, it's profitable for teaching. So it instructs me, tells me the difference between right and wrong, tells me facts about where I came from and why I'm here, what I should do if somebody is unkind to me, how I should think about the resources God has entrusted to me, all that stuff teaches me.

Then, when I make mistakes, it does the next thing, reproof. It reproves me. It shows me where I'm doing things wrong. So if my kids don't have their room clean when I get home today, and I noticed that I'm going to be tempted in my heart to use a tone with those sweet little angels that may not be honoring to the Lord, because I've done that before, Lord and children, please forgive me.

I know what it's like to be reproved. It's showing me where I'm doing something wrong. And then there's correction, and correction's a little different, because it shows you how to do what's right, which the Bible also does. It might remind me, for instance, of this sacrifice of Christ, who died for me when I wasn't very obedient or lovely.

He sacrificed. He didn't yell at me. He died for me. Well, how can I use that principle to train my children? The Bible corrects me. And then, lastly, it's useful for, or profitable for training in righteousness. So, it's like an ongoing fitness program. You keep reading it, and it keeps helping you grow in righteousness, doing the right things instead of the wrong things.

And here's the outcome. Look, I don't know if you realize this, but you want to be complete. You want to be whole. It's those things in your life that leave you feeling incomplete or like something's missing that leave you uncomfortable. If you're feeling whole, you're not tempted to spend yourself into debt.

If you're feeling whole, you're not waking up in the middle of the night, wringing your hands about wrong things in your life and worried. If you're feeling whole, you're not tempted to give in to an addiction. If you're feeling whole, you're not going to put too much weight on a relationship in a way that it was not meant to withstand.

Feeling whole is really what we're pursuing. And God created us, not with this God shaped hole in our heart. God created us to find our all in Him. He is our all in all. He is our satisfaction. He is our comfort. He is our hope. He is our joy. He is all of that. And as the, the word comes to bear upon our lives, we become more whole.

We're lacking less. That's it. Wonderful, what a prophet. And we're equipped for every good work. So you're not going to walk into a situation ill equipped if you've been in the Word. So if you're confronted with some temptation, but you've been in the Word, you're very equipped to handle it, like Jesus did when He was tempted.

He handled it with Scripture. If you're feeling down and you're in a depressive kind of season in your life, but you've got the Word, it's not going to sink your battleship. You're going to be able to move forward with hope, even though you're feeling kind of funky. in the moment. If you're given an opportunity to share the gospel with a friend or a family member or a neighbor, and you've been in the Word, you're gonna know, I can do this with God's help and I can't shrink away.

You're equipped for every good work through the Word of God. Being in God's Word has no downside. There's a cost to it, but not really because you gain so much. It's actually an investment that may cost you in the moment, some time. It may cost you in the moment, giving up some things that are competing interests.

It may cost you in the moment, having to lay down some behaviors that you kind of enjoy still, but you see in the word of God that they're not okay. It may cost you in that sense, but what you gain by being in God's word is so much greater. Really the cost is nothing. It's peanuts. So being in God's word is worth it.

His word tells us that, and it shows us that, and it transforms us to prove that it's true. And so you're going to have to make some small sacrifices if you're going to fit more than just the verse of the day into your life. So you've got some barriers you need to think about. Overcoming. I think the most significant is this barrier.

Eh, I don't have time. Hey, I feel that. I feel like the hamster wheel goes faster and faster and faster and pretty soon I'm gonna stumble and fall and Ride the wheel around seven or eight times before it throws me out the side into my little water dish. That's what it feels like sometimes. But if you start to think about it and don't just generalize, Oh, I feel so busy, or I have so many responsibilities, and you honestly sit down and start to prioritize. There are some things you do that are not necessary that you could replace with Bible reading.

Here's a controversial one. You ready for it? Breakfast. Yup. I said it. Those bacon and eggs that are calling your name, that cup of yogurt, And the bagel, they all can wait. You actually don't need those to survive. Cause you know what I know about you? Same thing I know about myself. You're going to find your way to the lunch table and to the dinner table as well.

Knock out breakfast. Maybe you're like, Hey, I already have a hot shot. I knocked out breakfast years ago so I could go work out. Well, Paul would say physical activity is of some benefit. It's true. And you need to do that. But being in God's word is more important than working out. It's more important than eating your breakfast.

It's more important than that extra 30 minutes of sleep. What do you think you're going to get out of that 30 minutes of sleep anyway? You're still going to be stinking tired when you get up. Just be stinking tired 30 minutes earlier and spend some meaningful time in God's word. If it's not breakfast, skip lunch.

You know, why, why go to the trouble nourished, but not spiritually nourished? It just doesn't make sense. There's probably a TV show. That you like to unwind to. Hey, that's cool. I like that too. Not at the cost of being in the Word. Relaxing to, I don't know, what, the office? That little bit of humor with Michael Scott?

Is that really going to benefit you as much as hearing from the treasure that is God's Word? So it's like, do you want to eat some Doritos? Or would you like a nice big juicy steak? Now, if you're not a foodie, you're not with me on that analogy, but you get what I'm saying. Don't exchange trivial little piddly junk.

That's going to do nothing for you for a real nourishing meal. It's just not worth it. There's some things you don't want to exchange, like don't ignore your family. You're not going to get to that point. You are not actually so busy that you can't find something less important that you can replace with the most important thing, being in the Word of God and pursuing Him by studying His Word.

Another one, you know, feeling like, well, I just don't get it. I read it. You know, I'm really, I'm like, I don't know where to start. I just pop open the Bible. Go back to that episode 4 and you'll hear some things about how you can read the Bible. And in a meaningful way with Proverbs and Gospels and this kind of thing.

You don't have to do the, you know, randomly open and hope it's a verse that applies to you that day, or hope that the people that make the Bible app picked a good verse of the day usually those are meaningful. Well, you know why? Because the whole Bible is. If you like that little nugget, there's tons more where that came from.

And all you need to do is Observe what is there, so you read it, and you should maybe read a book in context, so go through the Gospel of John, what does it say, ask yourself that, just simply, what does it say, and then you're going to it next with a little interpretation, okay, what does that mean, says this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

You keep on going, and you're like, what does that mean? Oh, this, if it was with God, and it was God, and it's now here, and John the Baptist was talking about it, that must be Jesus. You know, you're interpreting, and then you're applying, why does it say Jesus came as the word? What? Oh, he reveals things to me that I need to know.

He is the word of God made visible. That's pretty amazing. I want to pay attention to that. And if Jesus came into the world, why did he do that? What do I need to know about the fact that Jesus came into the world? What does it say? Well, it talks about why he came, as you keep reading the book of John, and you learn, even through the book of John, how a person can be saved.

So you observe, you interpret, and then you apply. When you're applying, you're just saying, what do I need to believe, or do, or feel as a result of what I've just read? Here's a great example. Psalm 23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Okay, when you're anxious, when you're angry, when you're whatever, You're wanting something that you're not having.

And then you realize, okay, well wait, God is my shepherd. What does a shepherd do? Oh, a shepherd takes care of his sheep. A shepherd guards them. Read the rest of the psalm. You'll see what the shepherd does and it's pretty good. And by the way, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, you know whose pace you're going at?

Not yours, baby. You're going at the pace of the shepherd, who's leading you in great wisdom. So you read something like that and all of a sudden I've observed, I've interpreted, I've applied, and I want to trust Jesus to lead me through these things because of what I now know about him. So you can understand it.

You might have to go slow and here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to go, okay, I read my chapter today, I guess I'm done. Read that, think about what it means in the context. Think about what it says and how it applies to you today. Think about what it tells you about God, and then this will help you.

Pray through it as a response. Just pray through it. Read it, do your observation, your interpretation, your application, and then pray back those principles to the Lord. Lord, you are my shepherd. I'm feeling like I am, Like I'm wanting right now, but I know that you provide everything help me to see it Help me to see your provision as more important than me feeling like I have to step in and fix this situation Or if things don't change, I'm just gonna fall apart.

Help me to know that I can trust your pace that it's you that has the rod and the staff You're gonna goad me along and you're gonna protect me along the way I don't have to hold on to those things to protect myself. You start to pray back these things. You glorify God. I praise you because as the shepherd, you've picked me as one of your sheep.

You love me. You provide for me. You're tender with me. Thank you, Lord. You start praying through these things like that. This is how you cultivate a relationship with God while also learning about him and about yourself. So, maybe start small. Tomorrow, take 10 or 15 minutes. Do a few verses like that. Don't just read them and be done.

Don't just get to the end of the chapter to say you completed the chapter. Think about the observation, the interpret interpretation and the application, and then do it the next day and the next and the next, just take it a day at a time, have your little cup of coffee on there, whatever. Enjoy it. God is good.

He's provided his word as a prophet to us. It's a blessing. There's no loss in spending time in it. You're really nourishing your soul as you spend time in the word of God. And that is just so richly important and you will not regret it. So spend a little extra time walking through God's word,

praying through God's Word, and growing closer to your Savior this week. Well, how about we do a little recap, shall we? We talked about what it's like to find a version that's something you can understand, maybe something with study notes. We've looked at the fact that the Bible is profitable because it's breathed out by God and it's something we use to be taught, to be reproved.

I think I'm saying that word right. To be corrected and to be trained in righteousness so that we're complete, fully equipped. And we don't lack anything. We're equipped for every good work. That's a situation I want to find myself in. And that happens as I spend more time with the Lord in His Word. We talked about the OIA method, observation, interpretation, application, and we covered how you can How you must find some slots in your life where you can do this, where you're prioritizing what is actually most important over some other things that are also important, but just don't quite rise to the importance of being in God's Word.

The Bible is living, It's active, and God means to use it to transform your life, but you've got to be in it, and you can't just snack on it here or there. God has invited you to a real feast, and I'd say, as early as right now, you might as well come to the table. Thanks for listening. This episode has been a ministry of the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry.

If you'd like to know more about what it means to have healthy rural churches in every Rural place in this country like anywhere on the election map. That's red If you want to know more about what it means to have healthy rural churches, churches in the middle of nowhere, Head on over to brainerdinstitute.com. We've got some other resources there, articles, another podcast, and we'd love to connect with you over there. 

Hey, thanks for listening. Last little request if I could would you mind leaving an honest rating and review on whatever app you're using to hear my voice? Right now. I’d appreciate it and the algorithm might even honor you by helping get the word out about this podcast to more people.

Thanks for now Let's get back to life back to rurality.