Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 27 - Let God Speak
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We explore the challenge of developing meaningful Bible reading habits and how to transform this practice from an obligation into a relationship-building experience with God.
• Quality over quantity is essential—focus on understanding rather than completing chapters
• Approach Bible reading as spending time with God rather than completing a task
• Finding your personal rhythm and dedicated space makes Bible reading sustainable
• Reading with others provides valuable different perspectives on the same passages
• Push back against cultural attention span issues with intentional Scripture habits
• Start in the New Testament (like Matthew) rather than attempting to read from Genesis
• Make Bible reading a daily priority—even 30 minutes consistently creates lasting habits
• Consider joining or starting a group reading plan for accountability and shared insights
Join us for worship on Sundays at the Rockdale American Legion Hall with coffee, donuts and fellowship at 10:00 AM, followed by service at 10:30 AM.
Welcome to Let's Connect
Speaker 1Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.
Speaker 2All right, welcome in to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I think I messed something up on my speakers. There we go. I'm your host, bill Whitmire, and I'm here, as always, with our pastor, ken Ansel. Hey, how are you today? I'm great, great. I'll tell you what, if you hear something funny. It's like I drove up and doom and gloom showed up because it's like getting ready to storm outside. So if you hear a little rumbling, it's good, we need it.
Speaker 2It's august. If you're listening to this real time, it's august and we need the rain. Um, talk to us later in the year we may not want so much rain, but we need it right now. But it's a beautiful day and um, this is number 27 on the podcast list, so we're past the halfway mark on a year and and we just really appreciate all the folks that have listened.
Speaker 2We've had really good listenership. I think we're right at about 100 and about 1,100 different downloads, meaning different individuals that have downloaded the program. It's well over that the number of downloads, but it's distinct individuals. It's right around 1,100 folks. So I pray that we touch people's lives and if you enjoy it, let us know. You can text us on whatever podcast service you're listening to and if you'd like for us to talk about something, let us know.
The Challenge of Bible Reading
Speaker 2We've had some folks reach out to us and say, hey, could you talk about this? And we'll do it. We don't have a problem with that. So in the last few weeks we've talked a lot about how we live our lives and what we do on the outside and when we're presenting ourselves with other people. And you brought something up earlier this week in a text message to me that really kind of hit home that maybe we need to discuss this. And I'll just start it off by saying you know it hit me when you said it, because reading the Bible is kind of the subject of today and for me, reading the Bible was not always the easiest thing. I mean I grew up I didn't really have to read much in school. I made great grades, had a great score on my SATs and ACTs. And then my parents made me go to college, made me I say made me because they did make me go to college and I proved them wrong after one year.
Speaker 2They let me join the Navy then, which is what I wanted to it's where I wanted to be in the first place, you know, and so but the one thing I did learn in college that year was if you don't know how to read, you're going to struggle mightily, yeah, and so while I was in the military, the way to get promoted is you have to take tests, so you better learn to read or you're never going to get a pay raise, you're never going to get promoted, and so I did.
Speaker 2But even then, when I began my walk with Christ, when I came back to Christ and I began my walk with Christ, I really tried to read the Bible earnestly, and every day, and when I would read a chapter, the first, fourth or a third of the chapter, I was all in it, and then I would reach this point where I was just reading word to word. I really wasn't, and I think a lot of folks struggle with that. So you know, I told you the way I overcame that was I started slowing down, I started underlining things that were important.
Speaker 2I started going back and I bought a study Bible and I just took my time. Sometimes I think we get caught up in the speed and reading the Bible is truly one of those quality over quantity time type deals. But as we go through I thought maybe we could discuss I don't know the strategies or the importance of actually reading that Bible.
Speaker 3Yeah, maybe we stop thinking about I need to read the Bibles and we say I need to spend time with God, because that's what we're doing when we read our Bibles we're spending time with God, we're getting to know Him. It's like, you know, when you dated your wife, right, you went out and spent time with her so you could get to know her and you fell in love with her. And people should be growing in their faith, growing in their knowledge, growing in their relationship with God as they spend time in His Word. I mean it's like His breath, you know, it's His grace on our lives. And, yeah, I think I don't know what the real struggles are. I'd like to know.
Quality Over Quantity Approach
Speaker 3I guess that's what I'm hoping we can figure out or help others, like the rhythms, you know. I mean I've gotten to where I don't know what it is about dudes that like to hang out in the garage, right. So I've gotten to where me and Jennifer we sit at this table, we drink coffee, we pray together, and then she goes and does whatever she's going to do and I head out to the garage I got an old beat-up desk chair. It's no good and I sit out there with my Bible and continue to pray and spend time with the Lord there, so it's a rhythm right. And spend time with the Lord there, so it's a rhythm right. Is that part of our issue? Just finding these rhythms Like you're not going to just go, I'm going to read my Bible more and then it's just going to happen.
Speaker 2You're going to have to be intentional about it.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I really feel like it's what you're reading the Bible more than anything else. You read what you're reading the Bible more than anything else you read. You know it should be goal oriented into understanding more about your walk with Christ and and letting Christ talk to you through your Bible. John Piper wrote a book a long time ago and it's a I think it's a 40 day devotional and it's the very first day it's called. I think it's called talking to God or something like that. I'd have to find it again. But day one he talks about this morning God talked to me and he goes through the whole thing, everything that God told him that day. And then he said and where I was when I found this was right in, and he lists the Bible verses that he just quoted to us and you know you could have read those verses and maybe not gotten out of it. What he got out of it in that section, you know, and it made that book really, and I'll find out what it is.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's not like a game changer.
Speaker 2But it really hit me hard because it made me stop and think. You know, we a lot of times and I think a lot of people do this they read the Bible and they get big things out of it, but maybe they're not always getting the little things. And and so I know, for me I had to, like I just said a minute ago, quit worrying about the quantity. I used to say, you know, I'm going to read three chapters tonight. You may only read three verses that night, but those three verses may be huge. And so for me and then for some folks, depending on what version of the Bible, a good study Bible is just super important to help you kind of tackle that. But going back to what we were talking about just a little bit there, that ability to let God talk to you through that reading, that has to be your goal when you're reading the Bible. You're not going to get a ribbon when you're 56 years old, you're not going to get a ribbon when you're 56 years old.
Speaker 2you're not going to get a ribbon for reading the Bible like you did when you were in first grade and going back to Sunday school.
Speaker 1Did you get all your verses read?
Speaker 2But what you get is more important. You get the Lord talking to you.
Speaker 3Prayer should be part of spending time with the Lord. You know, reading the Bible, that's what we call it.
Speaker 2It should almost be that kind of a tone when you read it. It's the same tone you would take when you're praying. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, let the Spirit lead you.
Finding Your Rhythm and Routine
Speaker 3Quality quantity for sure. Hear the voice of the Lord, they say. If you want to hear from God, you know, read your Bible. If you want to hear Him speak audibly, then read it out loud. That's kind of a joke, but it makes sense.
Speaker 3And, yeah, realize that it's there for and and God wants you to have it, he wants you to hear from him, and and then we need to seek application, right, james 1, 22,. Just, don't be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word as well. And you know how does this fit with? Uh, you know there's some dysfunctional Christianity out there, and do we trace that back to people thinking God is not a loving God? You know he's out to get us or he's distant.
Speaker 2You know, I think we live in a world that people want things explained to them. They want to pull it up on a 15, 20-second video and have it explained to them. And the thing about getting into the Bible and looking for God's Word is that everybody needs to do it a little different that suits them and let God talk to them. You just said a second ago say it out loud. There are times when I'm reading the Bible and I'll read the same four or five verses over and it's just not clicking. Four or five verses over and it's just not clicking. But if I do say it out loud, then, hearing it spoken, you're like oh man, it takes on a whole different tone. And so you know we all have to have things brought to us in different manners. And when you're reading the Bible, that includes reading the Bible, and maybe that is you know. You read some and you stop and you say a prayer based on what you just read.
Speaker 2How does all this affect your daily life too, you know, and so when you brought that up this functional Christianity, you know. We've talked before on this podcast about Bible verses that are taken out of context, and when you just know those key verses, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me, or God who strengthens me, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Those are important verses, but when you know them versus when you know them in context, it makes a huge difference. And a lot of folks know them but maybe don't always know them in context. And there's times when I read something and I'll see it on social media or something, and I'm like man, what? And I'll have to go back and open my Bible and look at that because it sounds good. But what did God mean by that?
Reading with Others Enhances Understanding
Speaker 3What was the context of that? Yeah, follow those, connect those dots. Yeah, I would say you know, some of this is just do it, man, just get in it and dig around and let that spirit speak to you. You know, I think there's people that I mean they just go back to. I mean you tell me, do we just stay in the areas that are easy to comprehend or that we like? You know a lot of people like the Gospel of John, a lot of people like James. Philippians, man's got to. You know, Philippians isn't your favorite, stay after class and let's talk. But you know, just because it's so, you know, positive, you know, and full of the thought of being a joyful Christ follower. But maybe people need to branch out. You think a little bit more Like the Old Testament's hard sometimes. Or people like those Old Testament stories. You know because we learn them.
Speaker 3If you grew up in the church, you learn them in Sunday school and people like David and Goliath, and they know about David and Bathsheba, so those are familiar and maybe because it's hard to understand, they don't branch out and they need to do more of that and also rely on the Spirit.
Speaker 2Yeah, the Old Testament can be. You know, I remember one year I decided I'm going to read one chapter of Psalms every day and just go through and that's half a year right there.
Speaker 2And it really hit home. So then the next thing I said and you're going to laugh at this and the next thing I said was I'm going to do this with Ecclesiastes now. Woo boy, was that a big load. And it wasn't until I took some classes at seminary that I realized.
Speaker 2And now Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. I mean, there's so much to it. It puts so much in perspective of what life on earth versus life with God is like, what it should be and how it should be. But when you talk about that, though, and you talk about one thing that we haven't really talked about yet is, you know, get with a partner. You know, I know that when the COVID thing hit and it was so big, I remember one day the nurse was at work and she just texted me and she said could you look up some stuff on anxiety in the Bible? And you know, doing home health, she was doing home health at the time while she was, while she was working on her master's and are finishing up her master's, and she was really having some serious anxiety because, you know, at home health, there were times when she had to go into other people's homes and and, and we had friends that had COVID issues and and and, and we didn't know a whole lot about it.
Speaker 2This is right at the beginning, you know, as a matter of fact, we had gone to see our kids in Seattle and we landed in Austin and the very next day they shut down all the airports you know, and so, and we had two kids in Seattle, we had, you know, some in South Texas.
Speaker 2We have a daughter that lives in London and so, yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you are. Are you now seriously at the end of end of time, yeah, yeah. And so she asked me and this is probably the first time that we ever did this and so I did that and I looked up. You know pretty much everything there's anxiety, there's anxiousness, there's anxious, there's and's, and, and we went through and we hit every one of them in the bible that night and, um, I was amazed at how much I actually learned by having not just myself sitting there reading this, but having that second set of ears, second set of eyes and that second brain looking at the same written word, and some of the times came up with a whole different idea of what it was.
Speaker 2And I mean it was pretty biblically sound, I would say. But it's just. You know, you may read something and think this doesn't make any sense at all. But that second person comes in there and says oh yeah did you think about this?
Speaker 2Or well, this is what I got out of it. And you're like wow, I don't know how many times in Bible study I've read something that we're supposed to read that night. And this Monday we had 13 guys there and one of them will say something and you're like it's like I should have pink, you know, yeah yeah, well, iron sharpens, iron, you know, yeah, one you know, two's better than one.
Speaker 3Yeah, side note, we had gone up to uh, kansas and covet was just kind of stepping out and for a visit, and when we came back it was tough to find a public restroom oh yeah, everything is shut down.
Pushing Back Against Cultural Distractions
Speaker 3I mean there's no place to go eat, but just find a place to powder your nose, you know, with something, but yeah, you, you, uh, that was free, but yeah, you talk about. You know, everybody wants to see a YouTube video, right, a 10 second fix or whatever you said was good. You know we've got to push back against the culture, right, we? We are the light of the world, we are salt, we're a city on a hill. We are in the world, but we're not of the world. We're citizens of the kingdom. Right, there's two kingdoms going on the worldly kingdom and then God's kingdom, and we're citizens of that. And so we're to be different and we've got to push back against the culture. I was just talking about this with a young guy from church yesterday. Like, my attention span is next to nothing now.
Speaker 3And I can blame, you know, the culture. I can blame whatever I mean. I have to take responsibility at the end of the day, but I do think it's because of the culture we live in. Like man, jennifer, we might start a movie and like, if it doesn't hook me, I mean she gets upset. I'm like we're turning it, you know, like I mean. I mean I'm only in like a minute and a half. I'm with you.
Speaker 2There's not a long buy-in period with me either.
Speaker 3So you know we've got to push back and realize that that is a product of our, of our culture. And you know we may start to read and it needs to become a habit. Maybe, like you said, I don't know what the science is there, but we're even. I think we'd rather watch the Chosen or this David thing, but I'm not a big fan of those and I don't want to get anybody mad, but there's a lot that's just fabricated to make that flow. I mean even the Ten Commandments, right with Charlton.
Speaker 3Heston, I mean that's the classic Heston. I mean you know that's the classic right, but I mean you think it all went down just like you know.
Speaker 2I mean that's a classic. But what? Two years later he made Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 1Oh, that is a classic.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, no, no you're right yeah.
Speaker 3Well, yeah, let me just say this. So you know you talk about accountability. And then I kind of brought up what we used to call back in the day. If you grew up in the church, you know you needed three to thrive. You needed Sunday morning, sunday night and Wednesday night, and those were times of corporate Bible study that you know. Hebrews says don't forsake the gathering, as some are doing, because when we gather we spur one another on to love and good works and we spur one another on to, I would hope, to dig deeper in Scripture, dig deeper into our faith life and we don't have those big three, right?
Speaker 3Sunday nights are pretty much gone. You know we have Bible studies during the week. Women meet on Wednesday night and I'm not saying bringing those back. I mean 50s aren't coming back, right, but some people are ready if they do. But yeah, we've got to be. Maybe the landscape is so that we can be more creative, like you're saying with Melissa. Maybe the door is wide open and we think maybe it's partially shut.
Speaker 2I think so. People nowadays, like you're saying, attention spans are shorter and people want results faster. Oh yeah, that's a good point, and I remember and I imagine you've heard this too is that anything you want to become an expert on? If you'll spend an hour a day on it, in a year's time to be?
Speaker 3an expert on it. Yeah, and uh I don't know if I can hang that up keep going, but it takes time.
Speaker 2You know it takes a lot of time I remember uh, you know when my brother started drawing. You know he's a professional artist and he makes a lot good, a good living doing that.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's cool when he started drawing.
Speaker 2all of us, all of my brothers and I, we all have artistic talent, but no one sat and drew like he did. Wow, and you know? Now he draws video games.
Speaker 1Yeah, and everybody said you can't make a living doing that, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2Bible. I'll just be honest with you. You can start. When I started really getting into the Bible and spending time daily in the Bible, it seemed like it took quite a while before it really started to settle into my heart.
Speaker 3Yeah, you're making a great point.
Speaker 2And then I remember the first time somebody said something to me and it popped in my head man, I read about that.
Making Bible Reading a Priority
Speaker 2And I knew something about that and then it fueled me pretty good, and so it takes a little time, but it's so worth it. But you have to we've talked about this before you've got to put that time aside and say you know what, even if it's 30 minutes, you know I'm going to spend 30 minutes a day reading my Bible and a little time in prayer each time and just start off there. You know, we can do that with so many other things in our lives that don't amount to anything, and there are a lot of things in our lives that don't amount to anything. Man, I love golf.
Speaker 3I'm terrible If you ever want somebody there for comic relief and not for hitting the ball yeah.
Speaker 2And I don't lose any balls because I don't hit them far enough to ever lose them. A lot of times I can just walk right up to the next one and pick it up. The point is, I love to play it, but if I didn't play another round of golf the rest of my life, it would have no significant impact on my life. If I didn't turn on the TV and watch another football game the rest of my life, it would have no significant impact on my life. If I didn't pick up my Bible and open it up daily and read some in it. It would have a huge impact on my life. We've talked about this before. If you've accepted Christ as your Savior and you've received His grace, you're living your eternal life right now.
Speaker 2And so if you're not going to open that Bible, that is something that will. I may never eat another donut the rest of my life and that's probably a good thing for me. But if I don't pick up my Bible and read it every day at least a little bit, that is a significant negative impact on my life. And so, while it might be a slog at first, it might be something, anything that you have to do. I think they say give it a month If you can do something for a month. Read the.
Speaker 2Bible 30 minutes every day for a month. And you know what? After a month it'll be a habit.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's that habit thing. Yeah, well, get some muscle memory going. And yeah, god is patient. You talk about slogging through it, trying to connect the dots. God is patient, but we need to engage right when you start. I mean, man, I would just—and anybody goes. How am I going to start reading the Bible and starting Genesis? I'm going to go all the way. Man, I would discourage that.
Speaker 2Or you get those plans where it's like you read from three different sections of the Bible every day and then you'll read the whole Bible in a year.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, man, I would start in Matthew. Yeah, I would start in the New Testament.
Speaker 2Talk to two if you don't, if you want, I mean, yeah, Matthew's a great place to start, but be advised, you're going to start off with a genealogy and those genealogies are important. They are important. You may not realize it at first, they are important.
Speaker 2But talk to two or three of the people that you know who are in the Bible daily, and ask them and then tell them I'd like to start something and where's a good place to start? Where would you start? And maybe start there and then, when you get there, ask them about it, talk to them.
Closing Prayer and Invitation
Speaker 3Well, you know, I read read this but I didn't quite understand this or or that. And don't be afraid to do that, because you need that in your life. Yeah, and I know it's time to go, but you know, we're with the youth, with the yard ministry, our teenage discipleship ministry. We're about to start a group chat and I know it's going to blow up everybody's phone and people might hate it, but uh, we're going to start a daily Bible reading together and start this group chat. So, yeah, now you're talking about using technology even maybe you know with what you're talking about.
Speaker 3So I think it's my turn. Okay, it's you this week. All right, let's pray and let's go. Gracious Heavenly Father, we love you so much. You amaze us. Your love amazes us, father. Your love amazes us. Father, thank you for the reminder, through your Holy Spirit, that none of us is good. The only thing good in us is you. And, father, we want to bring you glory, we want to shine out for you. We want people, we want to know you so that we can explain you and introduce you to other people. And so help us do that, help us be people of the word. The book matters, and so, father, let us give that book priority. We pray these things in your son's name, amen.
Speaker 2Amen, all right. Well, that is episode 27 of let's Connect. I want to thank everybody for listening and thank Ken for being here with me. Connect. I want to thank everybody for listening and thank Ken for being here with me and thank the Lord for another day just to be able to share his word with each of you. Like I said earlier, if you have any questions, you will have any topics you'd like us to cover. Whatever podcast service you're using, you can leave that information on there. There's a text function that will come back to us and we can help you out with that. If you're in the Rockdale area on Sunday, we'll be at the Rockdale American Legion Hall coffee, donuts, fellowship at 10, and then we'll start worship service at 1030. So come on by and join us Till next week.
