Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I'm well. How are you? 

Scott: I'm good. It snowed on me, though. Not right on me, but on our area. Steve: That's snow good. 

Scott: [laughs] 

Steve: My son, John, makes spitting faces when I tell him it's going to snow. He  doesn't like snow, but I finally figured out why, because he thinks he's going to miss  work. I try to explain to him that I have a four‑wheel drive, and I have a key to the  warehouse, and we can make this happen, and he still doesn't take it in. He continues  to curse snow. 

Anyway, we have a new idea today, and I hope people will embrace it. I'm going to  give our listeners three weeks to gird their loins. This is for people who have never  read the Old Testament, and I'm sure it will be edifying even to those that have read  it. 

Our plan is for 2026, beginning in January, we're going to talk about the Bible reading  that we have read the previous seven days. I don't want to do it first and then let the  people read the seven days because that way, they have me in their head. I hope that our listeners will download the Bible reading chart, which you can find at  Building Faith Families website. Down at the bottom of the page, it says Bible  Resources. If you click on that, there's a PDF of an Old Testament Bible reading chart.  I hope that people will download that. If you can't find it, email us. You have a couple weeks to prepare for this. I have placed the Psalms with the New  Testament on a separate chart. Perhaps in '27, we'll go through the Psalms and the  New Testament, but we're going to start with the Old Testament in ‘26. It's been on my heart that we need to read the Bible. I just got back from an Iron  Sharpens Iron men's conference, and I did a workshop on reading the Bible. I asked the men, "Why are you in this workshop? Why haven't you read the Bible?" I  wanted to hear from them. A lot of the responses were, "We don't understand what's  going on, and we don't understand even how to pronounce some of the names. We're  not seeing some of these trends that those of us that have read the Bible many times  were familiar with." 

I thought, OK, I want to encourage people to read the Bible. Instead of just saying,  "Read it," I'm going to walk with them in the process. We're going to start in Genesis  chapter one on January 1st, and we're going to read through the Bible together, and  we're going to talk about it. If people want to send me questions ahead of time, I  would love it. That's our plan. What do you think of that, Scott? 

Scott: Sounds great. We're not recording you reading through the whole Bible,  though, right? 

Steve: No. 

Scott: Good. That would be a lot of recording. :-) 

Steve: In the first seven days, we'll have read 19 chapters of Genesis. If people will  read two or three chapters a day, by the end of seven days, they'll have read 19  chapters, and we're going to discuss those 19 chapters. We can cover a lot in 20, 25  minutes of the text and help to see some trends. 

We may have to even make several of these as video casts so that you can see the  timelines, but I'll also have these available as PDFs if people want to download them. Scott: Nice. 

Steve: OK. Let's pray. Father, here we are. We're about to set off on a new journey,  and I pray that you will bless all of those that are listening. Give us all ears to hear  what you're saying to us, but I pray that you'll give us a heart for the word. I pray that  we will not just do it because it's beneficial, but we'll do it because we love it. Give us a love for the truth. Help us to love the truth like Jesus loved the truth. Help  us to love it like you love it. Help us to have a godly attitude towards the scripture. We  know that we're going to be contested on this, and so we resist the devil, and we pray  that the good Holy Spirit will give us a good push to get us started and carry us along  as we do. In Jesus name, amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: Amen. Today, we're going to start with some of the benefits, some of the perks  of reading God's word. John 5:39. "You search the scriptures because you think that  in them, you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about Me." Powerful  passage. 

Jesus is telling them, "Yes, the scripture is important, but you've got to get the point.  The scriptures bear witness about Me." All the way from Genesis to Revelation is  Jesus, but I don't believe we can understand that by ourselves. We need help to do it  because this is a spiritual book, and this is what scripture says. 

John 6:33, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." In John 4:24, "God  is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:11-13, "No one comprehends the thoughts of God except  the Spirit of God. We receive not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from  God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 

"We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit,  interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual." When you put this together,  the scriptures point to Jesus. The scriptures, though, are spiritual words. They're  spiritual thoughts. They're spiritual truths. They're spirit and truth. Spirit and life. The Holy Spirit is going to be our guide in this whole process. We're going to lean  hard on the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the word of God because it is not just  an academic exercise. It's not simply black and white letters on white paper. It's not  print on your computer screen. The words of God are spiritual words. Paul also says in 2 Timothy 3, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable." The  word inspired means it's in-Spirited. It's from the Spirit, Who is the author. Peter brings this out when he's talking in 2 Peter 1:21, "No prophecy was ever  produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by  the Holy Spirit." Right up front, we're going to declare two things. The word of God  points us to Jesus. As we read the word, we're going to understand more about Jesus. If you've been listening to these podcasts, you know we’re just finishing up our series  on the Rock. Then a couple podcasts that we just did after that on Jesus as the bread.  The more I have chewed on that and meditated on the fact that Jesus is the rock, I  have sensed something in my heart changing. 

When I see Jesus Who was broken for us, the bread of God, it touches me. All  scripture points to Jesus, but it's spiritual words authored by the Holy Spirit himself.  We need the help of the Holy Spirit to understand the words because He wrote it  through men. Men spake from God, being moved upon by the Holy Spirit. Scripture will not pass away. Matthew 24:35. "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but  my words will not pass away." Just recently, I noticed this verse in Psalm 119:89,  "Forever, O Jehovah, Your Word is firmly fixed in the heavens." 

That's a new one to me, but that's because I read the Bible every year, and as I'm  reading through it, I continue to get new insights. Every Word of God is food. Good  food. 

When Jesus was sword fighting with the devil and the devil was twisting scripture and  trying to get him to yield to temptation. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus says, "Man shall not live  by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." He didn't come up with that. He was quoting Deuteronomy 8, which is interesting  because it shows that Jesus knew the Bible. Deuteronomy, I'm going to read the first  three verses just to give you the context.

"The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that  you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Jehovah swore to give  to your fathers. 

"You shall remember the whole way that Jehovah your God has led you these 40 years  in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your  heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 

"He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not  know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not  live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of  Jehovah." 

Those words were so close, so written on Jesus' mind, heart, and spirit that He was  able, at a moment's notice, when tempted, turn around and declare to the devil the  truth. Jesus knew the book. Jesus, as we know, was the Word made flesh. He was the  living word, but He knew the book, and we'll see that later. 

There's several passages that Jesus quoted from the first testament. The words of God  are doable. Deuteronomy 30:11, and then skipping to the 14th. "This commandment  that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. The word is  very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it." My heading is the words of God are doable. They are not overwhelming, and  obedience and faith are the two linchpins of the Christian life. It's one thing to read  the Bible. It's one thing to believe it, its another thing to obey it and do it. As we walk in the light, as He is in the light, God will give us more light. The truth, the  scripture, makes us clean. I've observed this in my own experience, that I might not  learn something new about God's word, about God's ways, or about Jesus every time I  read the Bible, but I benefit from exposing myself, if I can put it that way, to the word  of God. 

Opening up my arms, opening up my heart, opening up my spirit, and letting the  word of God have free course in my heart. In John 15:3, Jesus says, "Already you are  clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." 

Interesting thought that we're cleansed by the word. We're cleansed by truth. In  Ephesians 5, Paul echoes these thoughts. 

"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her  that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the  word, so that He might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or  wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish." Jesus gave Himself up for the church, us, the bride, that He might make her holy,  sanctify her, and He cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. Just as He told the disciples, "You are clean because of the word that I have spoken." I do not  fully comprehend that, but I believe it, and I accept it because it's God's word. The more I walk in it and embrace it, it's starting to click a little bit differently. This is  one of these things that I find in reading the scripture, that there are certain doctrines  that the church has been promoting for generations, and we're comfortable with them  because we're used to hearing from them. 

We read about it in the liturgy. We hear it from the pulpit. Forgiveness, justification,  etc. I haven't heard much on the cleansing of the word, but yet it's in there. I don't  know fully the implications of it or even all the applications of it, but I embrace it. The truth makes us clean. It's an essential part of us that we need to be clean, and the  way to be clean is to read, embrace, and take in God's word. Then I'm going to stop  for today with God's commands are good for us. I don't know how else to put it. Nine times, just in Deuteronomy, there's an expression that it might go well with  them. I'll read one. Deuteronomy 5:29. God is talking to His people. I'm going to try  to add the emphasis. Here's what it says. "Oh, that they had such a heart as this  always to fear Me and to keep all My commandments that it might go well with them  and with their descendants forever." 

Some translations say that it would go well with you and your kids. This is why God  gives us His commandments, so that it will go well with us. That expression, go well,  appears nine times in Deuteronomy. A little different phrasing, but the same concept. Deuteronomy 10:12-13. "Now, Israel, what does Jehovah your God require of you but  to fear Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve Jehovah your  God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and  statutes of Jehovah, which I am commanding you today for your good." This is our dad. Our God wants nothing except the best for His children. He gave us  His commandments and statutes that it might go well with us. Not only are we going  to learn more about Jesus, not only are we got to be in the Spirit to understand the  things of the Spirit, we're connecting with the eternal words that are fixed. We're eating true food. Man lives by every word. We're finding that it's doable. It  makes us clean, that it might go well with us. I hope that these will inspire, stimulate  us so that we can start girding our loins. By the time we come to January 1st, we're  going to open up the book, and we're going to read. 

We're going to read therein all the days of our life that it might go well with us and  with our children forever. All right, Scott. Sermon's over. What do you think? Scott: Those go along really well with one of my favorite ones, which is Joshua 1:8.  Did you touch on that one? 

Steve: Nope.

Scott: Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and  night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be  prosperous and successful." Who doesn't want to be prosperous and successful? Steve: Yep. 

Scott: That's how you do it. 

Steve: How long have you been doing it? 

Scott: Oh, mercy. Going through the whole Bible every year, I actually did that for  about 15 years. I've been a little slower this last year. I'm still in the Old Testament, so  I'm probably going to do the Old Testament this year. I might get through the whole  thing, I may not, but we'll see. 

Steve: Stop beating yourself up. 15 times, you've read the whole Bible. Scott: Yeah. 

Steve: Do you wish you hadn't? 

Scott: No. It's been awesome. 

Steve: Sometimes when I'm eating my lunch by myself at home, if I'm not somewhere,  I'll put my phone in front of me and I'll watch sports clips or stuff like that. If I have the wherewithal to just put on a chapter of scripture, and I put my phone up  at an angle so I can see it, and I can push the button and he can read it while I'm  eating, boy, I'm always glad that I do because it's another chapter. It's so much more beneficial than watching somebody hit a home run or make a  touchdown because it's God's Word. I am convinced that it is the best single habit that  I ever formed with God's help when I started reading my Bible September 20th, 1976,  and I've continued with God's help. 

It's a tremendous habit. I don't even know sometimes how much I know because it's  just a part of me because I read it, and I read it, and I talk about it, meditate on it, and  it's become a part of the fabric of my being. 

Scott: I had spent years just in the word somewhat pretty much every day, but doing  the whole Bible through in a year, that's not a commandment. It's nowhere in the Bible  that you have to read the whole thing every year. That's when I started getting a sense  for the whole story. 

Yes, I still get confused on which king was when. I glaze over sometimes when I'm in  the kings or Leviticus or whatever. Some of the prophets, man, they say the same  things over and over. 

Yes, it can get dry sometimes in there, but when you've gone through it a bunch of  times, you start to see the whole theme throughout the Bible. You see things that you've never seen before, and it is a beautiful thing. Take our word for it. It's worth  doing. 

Steve: One of the things that I picked up from talking to these men this last weekend  was some of the fellows had the most success reading through the Bible were those  that were part of a church where the whole church was reading the Bible through. Steve: They followed the same schedule, and knowing that they were not alone, but  they were doing it together. Then in their small groups, they would talk about what  they had read that week. 

Scott: Nice. 

Steve: I think this is a time for us to band together because that was my experience.  The church that I was a part of read the Bible every year, and they just assumed that  everybody did it. There wasn't a lot said from the pulpit on it, but I was a part of  something when I was reading the Bible. I wasn't doing this by myself. That's what we're going to try to do. We're going to try to create a community where  we read the Bible, and we talk about it each week, and we're going to move through  scriptures together as a team. When one member follows, the other picks him up. Scott: Right. If there's anybody listening who does get motivated by a little kick in the  pants, if you don't get motivated by that, don't listen to what I'm about to say. If you  do, I'll give you just a little one. How long have you been a Christian if you haven't  read the Bible? How do you even know what you believe? 

I'm so shocked at people way older than me that say they've never read the Bible all  the way through. I'm like, "What are you waiting for? Get on the stick." You're running  out of time. You might want to read the whole thing before you meet Jesus  face‑to‑face. 

Steve: We have good cop, bad cop. Scott's the bad cop. 

Scott: There you go. 

Steve: Let's pray. Father, thank you for just the words that we read today. It's  encouraged me, and I've read these words many, many times. I pray that you will help  us. Spirit of God, we need to be spiritual people. We need to apprehend things  spiritually, but we also just need some good old gird our loins and take steps. We ask  you to help us to do that. In Jesus name, amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.