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Jet Fuel - Concord Conversations
Jet Fuel is a podcast from Concord Baptist Church designed to ignite your spiritual growth. Each episode dives deeper into the essential spiritual disciplines that fuel a vibrant, enduring faith. Whether you're just getting started or looking to grow stronger in your walk with Christ, Jet Fuel will equip and encourage you to live with purpose, passion, and power.
Jet Fuel - Concord Conversations
Bible Intake: Fueling Your Faith
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In this conversation, hosts Pastor Clint and Student Director Myles explore the vital importance of Bible intake for spiritual growth and how to develop sustainable habits that work across different seasons of life.
• The Bible is the foundation of our faith—God's inspired word and revelation to us.
• We often live in a "14 to 1 deficit," hearing far more negative messages than truth from Scripture.
• Finding a Bible reading method that works for your personality and schedule is crucial for consistency.
• Morning time with Scripture tends to work best for most people before the day gets busy.
• Multiple Bible formats (paper, digital, audio) can help maintain engagement in different seasons.
• Start with accessible portions (Gospel of John, Philippians) and readable translations if you're new to Bible reading.
• Accountability partners significantly increase consistency in Bible reading habits.
• Different translations serve different purposes—find one that helps you understand while remaining faithful to the text.
Challenge yourself to read the Bible cover to cover—if we believe Scripture and base our eternity on it, we should know the whole playbook.
Welcome to Jet Fuel Podcast
Speaker 1Welcome to the Jet Fuel podcast , a series of Concord conversations . In each episode , our lead pastor and a guest will sit down and dive a little deeper into what we learned as a church that week . These are honest , practical conversations to fuel your faith and help you live it out with purpose and consistency . Or in other words , this is Jet Fuel for your soul .
Speaker 2All right , well , welcome back . Here we are episode two of Jet Fuel , and I just want to say thank you all so much for jumping in with episode one . It was a lot of fun having Aaron , but today we got my man , miles , with us . Today , miles , you're our student director . You've been here two years now , which ?
Speaker 2is incredible , I mean totally bypassed in the average tenure of a youth pastor , right . And so , man , appreciate your commitment and things like that . But , miles , we've actually got a connection that predates us being here at Concord and it is the great state of Oklahoma . Born and raised , right , born and raised . For me , born and raised , well , we actually kind of just passed each
Miles: Student Director and Oklahoma Connection
Speaker 2other at a church . You were there in high school and then , after you went off to college , I came there , served on staff for a few years and then you went back and then when we got here we were looking for a student guy and God gave us you . So , really excited about that , I love to talk about Oklahoma because most people don't know much about Oklahoma , especially if you live here in Georgia . You just know it's in the middle , above the great state of Texas , right , Great is one way to describe it .
Speaker 3Yeah , you know .
Speaker 2But you know , in Oklahoma I tell people like well , what's it like there ? And I said it's the state where you can watch your dog run away for three days , like I mean it's just the most flat place I have ever seen in my life . But it is home for you , right .
Speaker 3It was a quick , humble reminder of when I flew here on my visit and I came back and I was like , wow , these mountains here in Georgia were incredible . And I fly back in Oklahoma and I'm like I'm pretty sure that's Kansas off on the horizon , so like it's that flat .
Speaker 2It really is . It's a big deal . So the big thing between Texas and Oklahoma is the Red River , and so there's the Red River rivalry , which is the big game between Texas , the university over there , and then Oklahoma , where you graduated from . But it was kind of funny the other day before worship on Sunday , we were talking to some of the band members and I was talking about all this stuff and we've been going through this Exodus series before the series we're in now and one of them said something I said , yeah , when Moses went through the Red River and it was just incredible .
Speaker 2And they were like dude , you got to get that Oklahoma out of you . It's not the Red River , it's the Red Sea . But that was just kind of ingrained in me , kind of ingrained in me . But today , what we're going to tackle just in our conversation is why the Bible is important , for it to be a part of our life , to constantly be intaking Scripture , and really the thing that we've heard all our life is you got a problem , read your Bible right , which kind of falls on deaf ears . But if you don't have a plan , you don't have an understanding of it . It really makes it pretty tough , and so I do think it's funny because we do a Bible reading plan as a church . So have you done our Bible reading plan with us ?
Speaker 3I've done a couple of months , a couple of months .
Speaker 2Okay , but .
Speaker 3I do my own , so it's not just I read a month or two . Okay , all right , I just want to make sure that
Why Bible Intake Is Important
Speaker 3you're leading our students .
Speaker 2I want to make sure you're spending time in the Word right , absolutely .
Speaker 2But what's funny to me is we did the New Testament last year and it was really really popular , and we did six months . Well , this year we did the Old Testament , which the Old Testament is tough because it is where everybody fails right . Like you get in Genesis and you're like man the creation this is incredible and you get to the great heroes of the faith and Exodus . And then you get to Leviticus and Numbers and people are like , yeah , I'm out on that , right . But what was so funny the other day is I had a mom come to me and she was like hey , I need your help explaining some of the things in the Old Testament that our church had us read through .
Speaker 2And there's some pretty intense stuff in the Old Testament that you've got to walk through , but it's big , big stuff . And so let me start out with just this question you know , for you not only as a follower of Christ , but you as a leader within our church and things like that why is Bible intake such an important thing ? But it's also something that people kind of brush off of . Hey , just reading the Bible won't fix all my problems .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's interesting because number one , I mean that is the foundation of our faith , that is the inspired Word of God . The collection , all 66 books Old Testament , new Testament that is God's revelation to us , that is what he has gifted us to understand and know about Him . Right , and it's . I mean , you go through seasons and I'm sure we'll hit on this of talking about seasons to where your discipline in the Bible kind of runs dry . Am I just doing this repetitively ? Am I just doing this just because it's part of my schedule ? But it's something that you should remain committed to , because you continuously grow as a Christian , as a Christ follower , by staying committed to , because you continuously grow as a Christian , as a Christ follower , by staying committed to the Word , and so it's pivotal to our faith .
Speaker 2Well , you said something there that's super interesting and I think people will attach to is going . We talk about it being important all the time , but why is that ? And I mean just that core verse of 2 Timothy , 3 , 16 and 17, . You guys know this one right . I mean it's all scripture is breathed out by God , literally , when we're talking about the pages of this Bible , we're talking about the breath of God . We're talking about I mean , you want to know the heart of God , the truth of God . I mean it's really His breath and it says that it's profitable for teaching , reproof , correction and training in righteousness , that the man of God may be competent and equipped for every good work . It's really a foundational piece for us . But I think this I think one of the reasons we struggle with it is one understanding that it is the breath of God and it's important , but comparatively to what we intake most of the time , this is a small portion .
Speaker 2I had a special needs coordinator tell me one time , when she was talking about how they minister , that kids live in a 14 to 1 deficit . Have you heard this stat ? A 14 to 1 deficit , where they hear 14 negative things about themselves to every one positive , and so , even if you encourage someone , I mean , you're still in a 13 negative hole , right ? I think sometimes we do that with the Word of God . Sometimes , too , we've got social media , tv streaming work , friends , all this kind of stuff that pour into us , but that compared to what's actually true . Sometimes we live in a deficit , and that's why it's so important to be connected to the Word of God . I mean , is that something you've seen in ministry , even in your life as a young adult ?
Speaker 3absolutely yeah , for my own life . Specifically , I remember going through in college of working through the discipline of and a couple different helpful tips of that of , you know , being part of gen z . I'm like at the very end . I'm , I'm on the last little bit of it . Uh , I'm a cuss word as well . I'm at the end of mine . Yeah , I'm hanging on to that Gen Z title . But I remember waking up in college and just seeing all the notifications that I had , and so , even though I had some Bible app notifications on , there was Instagram , there was TikTok , there was Twitter , there was everything in between , and so you got to weed through of almost that 13 to 1 deficit .
Speaker 2Everybody's got their agenda and so we're fighting the agenda that's given to us . But we got to fight it with truth , right , and so many times when we say we got to get in your word , we're fighting falsehood that the world is spewing at us really , and especially for every generation . I mean we're not just talking about Gen Alpha or Gen Z , millennials , I mean we're going boomers all the way up of folks that need the Word of God . There was this question a guy asked me , so I know our testimonies are fairly similar . We didn't get saved like early , early on , but I got saved in college . You got saved at the end of high school when I was first being poured into by a guy at college . After I came to Christ , he asked me this question and I thought it was the simplest question ever . And he goes Clint , do you believe the Bible ? And I was like , well , of course I believe the Bible . I mean , wouldn't that be your answer ?
Speaker 1if somebody says do you believe the Bible ?
Speaker 2I mean even as a non-believer or a young believer , you would say , yeah , I believe the Bible . And he goes do you believe everything in the Bible ? And I was like , yeah , I believe everything . Then he said have you ever read the whole thing ? And I had grown up in church my whole life , miles . Like I had grown up the whole time in church but I had never gone cover to cover
Developing Consistent Scripture Reading Habits
Speaker 2. And then he goes well , how do you know there's something in there that you don't agree with ? How can you say you believe in something you've never read , like you're basing your life and eternity on this . And , dude , it ticked me off Like I was mad . I felt so like just vulnerable , just like filleted , for him to go do you believe this ? And I'm going who would not believe the Bible ? And then he's like well , have you ever read the whole thing ?
Speaker 3You got that fire and that zeal You're like I'll do anything . And then it's like , okay , if you're going to do anything , do you believe all of it ? And we're like , yeah , so yeah , I had a mentor do a very similar question for me early on in my faith .
Speaker 2Well , I wonder how many . If we were to ask people how many people have read it , cover to cover , I mean , what the percentage would be ? I mean because when we talk about being followers of Christ , as we're pouring into people like you , have to go well , have we read the whole counsel of God's word ? You know , even in our teaching , sometimes we can get in places that we like in scripture and don't teach the whole counsel . And that's why we're kind of renewed going , we're doing a lot of Old Testament this year and trying to walk through some of these things . But , man , that's a real confronting question of hey , have we ever actually read the whole Bible Absolutely ? And so let me ask you a question .
Speaker 2Let's switch to something really practical . What are some of the things that people can do to develop good habits of intake ? We start fighting that deficit of what the world is telling us and not just doing it out of duty , but understanding . Our faith is attached to the truth of Scripture . We find out who we are , what our purpose is , some of the things that maybe have worked for you or that you have been taught or teach other people on how to make god's word really a part of your life that is consistent but also desired so I've got several things and interject as you need or move on if I'm taking it too .
Speaker 1I will .
Speaker 2There's no doubt about that . Everybody knows that I'll interrupt .
Speaker 3The first kind of preface for that I would say is what works for one person is not guaranteed to work for another . Okay , for instance , if and this is you can fall into a bunch of TikTok , clickbaits kind of anything of that sort Say , hey , if you want to grow in your walk with the Lord , you need to do this to study scripture . Okay , I've tried a couple of those . They don't work for me . And so what I've had to go through I kind of thought of this earlier .
Speaker 3I was like what is the best reference for this ? I think it's like kind of shopping around for a new recliner chair . You sit in a couple and you're like , hey , this one's all right , but I don't know if I can sit in with this one for a couple hours or a couple seasons . You've got to find that right one that you can hit your stride in . That you're always looking forward to coming back to engage in so finding what works best for you . So you kind of have to try around for what works . And so for me , what worked for me my first couple years in college growing in my faith was I had an alarm set at 555 .
Speaker 2Is there something significant about 5.55 ?
Speaker 3There actually was , so I had a pot of coffee that was going to start brewing at 5.50 . It got done right at six o'clock , 5.55 . It gave me five minutes to kind of roll out of bed .
Speaker 2Stop taking a year out of Keurig man . I mean that takes like 30 seconds .
Speaker 3Not in college , but I had an 8 am every single day and so I could get up and start at six o'clock . I would do my Bible intake , I would journal , I would pray , would do whatever I needed to for that hour . Seven o'clock hit , I'd go shower , get ready , go to school . So that was like why that time ?
Speaker 2period worked for me yeah you had like a real schedule .
Speaker 3I had a real schedule , yes , Then what I found was when I graduated and kind of went into adult life , that schedule didn't work out for me anymore and so I had to try something different . When I moved from Oklahoma , what I had was consistent then and I moved here to Georgia and I had a new roommate , new living situation , had to do something different again , and so it can be early in the morning or it can be later in the evening . For me personally it works in the morning , yeah and I think that's for most people .
Speaker 2Some people are like hey , I'm not a morning person , but I'm telling you it is so much easier when you do it in the morning , because our days fill up and we never know what's going to happen and we really want to start off with that time . And so I think it is a good principle to say that , like you said , it's not mandatory , but , man , I would encourage you , even if you're not a morning person man , to get up and spend that time . There's time that I said , hey , you should always reach for your Bible before you reach for your phone when you wake up . And one of our actually senior adults at our Yonah Campus , yonah Community Church he reminded me of that when I was over there the other day or when we were texting , and he said something about he didn't return right away and he was like well , my pastor told me I need to reach for my Bible before my phone and so that's good .
Speaker 2Well , let's talk about this . So you know I'm a paper Bible guy . What are some of the things that different generations can do ? How do you go about getting intake of the Word If you've maybe got a schedule ? You know Bible iPad app , man study Bibles , audio Bibles . What are some of the options out there for people that maybe don't have that set schedule ? They travel or they've got early morning practice or workouts ? What are some options that people have to consume more of Scripture ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I think the audio Bible is an incredible resource .
Speaker 2It's one of those and just to say that's like a Bible app that reads to you .
Speaker 3Yes , correct . Yeah , like you press play , hey . Chapter one Genesis one .
Speaker 2You got to get the right voice to read to you , right you ?
Speaker 3really do . Yeah , you got to get the right voice .
Speaker 2Yeah , either somebody famous or somebody with a good accent , right ?
Speaker 3Yes , make it entertaining . That goes back to what works well , what doesn't For me . I much prefer to have a paper
Bible Study Tools and Methods
Speaker 3copy . I'm a little bit like I'm on the cusp or on the very early end of Gen Z .
Speaker 2You brought an iPad today . That is true . I'm trying to fit into the Gen Z living in both worlds .
Speaker 3Yeah , for me , what works well , that keeps me engaged with scripture , is when I can sit down and I have a paper copy phone screen . Anything that can give me a notification smartwatch is across the room . I am centered in right there , I've got a pen , I've got a highlighter . That's what keeps me focused and engaged in the work , and it's your morning appointment with the Lord . That's my morning appointment , yes , and I love you said appointment too . Like you don't miss a doctor's appointment , you have an appointment time with the Lord , and so that's what works well for me .
Speaker 3However , I don't know if you've remembered this , the beginning of the year , when we were doing our days of prayer fast in January , you walked out .
Speaker 3I can't remember if you were going home to go walk the dog , but you saw me out walking across the street and you asked me about it and I was . We were in the middle of our fast , so I wasn't eating at the time , but I went on a walk during my lunch break Our staff's favorite time , yeah , our staff's favorite time of the year and I was actually listening to the audio Bible , which is something I normally don't do . However , I just had a different living situation . My normal routine in the morning had kind of gotten disrupted with new roommates and learning that new configuration Right , and so I kind of hit this rough strut of kind of apathy of like I would approach scripture and I feel like it wasn't really getting anything out of it . And so I was like you know what , I'm going to switch it up , I'm going to do it during lunch , I'm going to listen to the audio Bible . Like , switch it up , try to do something to re-engage and re-fire that passion to get into Scripture .
Speaker 2So I love that you say that , because you've talked a lot about different seasons in your life and I think for many of our folks that have walked with Christ for any length of time , they've experienced some seasons , and what worked in the last season may not You've said that over and over but you're talking about the fast of going . Hey , I had a little bit of a roommate scheduling conflict and we were fasting and so I just put my earbuds in and went for a walk during lunch . You know that that was a way that you could reconnect with scripture , and I love that because I think some of our people feel very tied to . I've got to get up first thing in the morning . I've got to sit at a table , I've got to get real straight , got to get my Bible and pen . That's the only way that I can approach scripture , but there's a lot of ways , you know . We're trying to get truth inside the mind and heart of our people . Absolutely .
Speaker 2One of the things that I think is important too , is how you approach Scripture . One of the tools I was taught very early on is you know , always pray before you approach Scripture . Sometimes we treat the Bible a little bit like you know , a verse a day keeps the devil away and we just find something and point to it and it's crazy , out of context , but really saying Lord , speak to me , open my eyes to see what you want . But that leads us to a plan . How does somebody who maybe has an irregular time or maybe , honestly , their Bible's got a little dust on it ? How would you help somebody start ? Where do you tell them to start ? Like , where do you tell them , let's say , you got somebody that's like man I used to study scripture . Life's just gotten busy and crazy and hectic . Where do I start ? I've never read the whole counsel of God , but I know the Old Testament's tough . Do you skip it ? How would you advise someone that's saying , all right ,
Where to Start Reading Scripture
Speaker 2I'm in , where do I start ? What advice would you give them ?
Speaker 3I love that because I literally walked through this with a student within the last two , three months . She had came to me after one of our Wednesday services and she said hey , I need help . Like , I cannot seem to get you talk about all the time . Get in your Bible , study your Bible , have your own personal time with the Lord . I've tried it . It's not working . I need help . And so I said , okay , let's figure this out for either someone who's new to scripture or maybe re-engaging with scripture for the first time in a long time . I started to ask a couple of questions . I said , okay , number one , what are you studying ? And she that , hey , right now , I've been told Revelation is this incredible book . It's crazy .
Speaker 2That's where she was starting . That's where she was starting . I said okay , that's intense .
Speaker 3It's intense . And I said now , what translation are you reading ? And she goes well , I'm reading the KJV . I was like , wow , okay , all right , for someone who's 14 years old , there's nothing wrong with KJV , there's nothing . But I would say , if you are trying to approach Scripture and trying to get a healthy rhythm and routine established , start with something easy and then start with a translation that you can read . That's what I tell my students a lot .
Speaker 3What version of the Bible do you use ? I study in the ESV . I've been a Christian for about eight years now . When I first started it was NIV . Then I went to NLT . I've hit ESV . That's just how I personally study . That's how I engage with scripture . However , I teach in the NLT with students of biblical literacy .
Speaker 2It's a very easier language . Yes , it's a much easier language .
Speaker 3It's a little bit more of like a conversation rather than word-for-word translation but still true to Still truth , absolutely , and so that's what I recommended to her . I said , hey , use your phone , click on the NLT and let's start in the gospel of John . Let's do something simple the life of Jesus .
Speaker 2Starting with the story of Jesus .
Speaker 3Stories of Jesus , narratives anything like that . So , whether that is Jonah , that's Esther , that's the gospel of John , you can go through Philippians , very , something easy you can pick up and read Again , starting out . Three to five verses or maybe 10 verses start somewhere . Start with something easy that you can read through and begin to build that habit .
Speaker 2That's right , that's good . You know I love the ESV as well . That's what I preach out of this . Actually , I brought this Bible on purpose because this was given to me by a pastor a couple of churches ago and , man , it's just been weathered , it's been taught out of a lot and I remember I was an NAS guy at the time and then he gave me the spy one . It meant so much to me and I want to have it recovered , but I'm afraid I'm on a . You know , I don't know what to do . I kind of like the old , worn side of it . But you know , having a translation that you understand is a big thing , you know , and we want to be very true to the original text and so you don't want to get out with a paraphrase or something like that , unless you're using it as an extended study , research things like that .
Speaker 2Tell me maybe how accountability would play into Scripture . I mean , there's something like self you know will . But it's kind of like what we do with diets and working out Like you start out really strong and you got your goal and you got will . But it's kind of like what we do with diets and working out Like you start out really strong and you got your goal and you got your fitness and I'm going to eat good . And then you go out to eat and all of a sudden , man , it's hard to eat a salad at the pizza restaurant right , it is , it is , and then you know you've had a busy week at work or school and all of a sudden you're like , oh man , I need to work out , and you're like , oh , I could sleep in .
Speaker 2I'm assuming we take that mindset to scripture sometimes . So how would you encourage our church to involve other people to help them be accountable towards scripture ?
Speaker 3Sure , what worked well for me when I started out in my faith was my mentor . I said , hey , I need to get committed to growing in the word daily . And so he and I , for a year , year and a half , we would do Bible plans . Now I would take that plan and I would still read a paper copy of that was what worked well for me . That's how I engaged . However , he could see what I was reading whenever I was behind . We could see each other's notes
Accountability and Bible Reading Challenge
Speaker 3we were doing through different plans , and so I had him that was constantly holding me accountable for that . It turned into a group of my college buddies then not just one person , but it was multiple that were struggling with the same thing of hey , I can't get in my Bible enough , I need some accountability . So that ended up being a group of three to five of us , depending on the month , that were going through Bible plans . If there was a day missed , it was you got a text from Andrew or Mark whatever , a little positive peer pressure .
Speaker 3Yeah , a little positive . It was like , hey , man , I'm looking out for you and that was the thing we set up . We're like , hey , if we're going to miss a day , if we're going to both all of us enroll in these Bible plans , we're going to hold each other accountable . Like you are my brother in Christ , we're going to continue to work on this together , build each other up and so well , I love it .
Speaker 2I mean this conversation has been great because I think every spiritual discipline or every part of the basic training builds off of scripture . You know , I mean , when we talk about prayer and fasting and worship and evangelism and making disciples and all of these things , a lot of it come back to our foundation . Putting our steel and concrete in the ground has got to be the word of God , and so I just want to encourage you guys that are out there listening and just what you heard today of going . This is the breath of God . It is vital to your life . You got to find what works for you , but it all has to come back to spending time with the Lord , praying , asking him to reveal himself in scripture , and then using tools , you know , adapt it to your lifestyle , but let it be consistent , filling up , driving your life and bring people along with you .
Speaker 2And you know a big challenge . I mean . Let me just throw this out there read the Bible cover to cover , figure out a plan , get some people to go with you go . And if I believe scripture and I'm basing my eternity on it I want to be familiar with the whole playbook , the word of God and so , man , I hope this has been a great conversation for you and , man , I tell you , it's been jet fuel for me , absolutely .