The Road Traveled
A Christian based podcast geared to men to be able to take the bible and make it applicable to each man's life on the road he travels.
The Road Traveled
Ep: 2 Finding Your Way: The B.I.B.L.E as Life's Roadmap
Aaron and Allen explore the concept of the Bible as our essential roadmap through life, drawing a compelling parallel between following physical maps and navigating our faith journey. Through a humorous yet poignant story about a scenic drive in Sedona with reluctant in-laws, Allen illustrates how having directions doesn't guarantee a smooth journey—there will still be potholes, dangerous edges, and unexpected challenges. Similarly, while scripture provides our spiritual directions, we must learn to read it properly and apply its wisdom to navigate life successfully.
The hosts dive deep into Jesus's teaching about the narrow gate in Matthew 7, examining what it truly means to follow Christ daily. This isn't about casual belief or church attendance but requires genuine commitment to "deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me." The conversation tackles the practical challenges of self-discipline, resisting worldly temptations, and avoiding the trap of looking back longingly at what we've left behind.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is the question Allen poses: "What do you have to lose by following Christ?" His analysis reveals the win-win nature of authentic faith—whether viewed spiritually or practically, living by biblical principles leads to becoming a better person, positively influencing others, and leaving the world better than you found it.
The episode also touches on how our understanding of scripture evolves throughout our lifetime, with the same passages revealing new insights as we gain experience and spiritual maturity. This is beautifully illustrated through the story of Aaron's 82-year-old father who discovered deeper biblical understanding by hand-copying scripture after decades of study.
Whether you're seeking direction, questioning your path, or looking to deepen your understanding of scripture, this episode offers practical wisdom for using the Bible as your personal guidebook on the journey through the narrow gate. Take the next step on your road today.
Welcome to the Road Traveled, a Christian podcast for men where real faith meets real life. Through honest conversations and personal stories, we help you apply God's Word to your everyday journey by sharing the road we've traveled, whether you're walking through challenge, change or calling. This is your road and you don't have to travel it alone. Now let's take the next step with your hosts, aaron Degler and Alan Hugator.
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Thanks for taking a little time to join us today. Today we have just an exciting topic we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk a little bit about the bible, but more so about what does the word bible mean to us? And so we're going to share a little bit today. Um share a great story with you today, just a a great way to talk about the bible, and um hope you just join in, follow us along and just remember that um, we just kind of go along with. We're on this journey with you. We stumble and fumble, just as many of us do. What we say and do is not always perfect, but we are doing it the best we can and we want to share those thoughts and ideas with you today as we go forward. So Alan and I are here today I'm Aaron Alan's here and we will just share a little bit with you today, and we're going to open first. Alan's going to open with a little scripture and to get us started on today's show.
Speaker 3:Okay On our walk with the Lord. The only way to truly walk with him and to find the path is through scripture, and that's how you build your relationship with him. That's how you're able to walk with him on the path. I'll start off here. In Matthew 7, 13 and 14. It says enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad. That leads to destruction and there are many who will enter through it. And in Matthew 7 and 14, for the gate is small and the way is narrow. That leads to life and there are few who find it. So the narrow gate is small and only a few will find it.
Speaker 3:That brings concern to me. Am I on the path to the narrow gate? Is my life, am I living it the way that will allow me to go through that narrow gate? Or am I just with the masses, like, oh it, it's not a big deal? Yeah, there's Jesus. Yeah, I know there's a Bible. Yeah, I go to church. I sit there and try to stay awake, or I'm there because I got my nice shirt on today. But truly, are you really walking the way God wants us to represent Him? Are we representing the Lord in our life. Are we just walking along with the masses?
Speaker 3:Well, I don't want Aaron to think I'm that kind of guy that I won't go do this, I'd think this way or we'd do this, or that. I don't want everybody to think I'm a Bible thumper and all of this, all this kind of lope along. But I believe in God. I mean, I go to church, you know, and I'm not knocking church. Hey, a lot of people you know don't go to church, don't believe at all, but it's not always the ones that don't believe at all. That's on the wrong path. I think that's what he's getting at here. The gate is wide and that's where the masses are going to end up going through it and that's the way to destruction. So if we're not on the right path, which leads to the narrow gate, it takes a little bit of self-discipline. We talked about that earlier. We'll talk about that again.
Speaker 2:I think it's kind of like when our kids said, well, you know they get in trouble, and well, so, and so did it and said, well, they're gonna. If they're gonna jump off a cliff, are you gonna follow along and jump off the cliff too? Oh, no, no, and it's, and it's about um, peer pressure. How's that?
Speaker 3:it's peer pressure and then how do we feel that as adults?
Speaker 2:also, don don't we? How do we combat that? Yeah, we, because we hopefully teach our kids what's right and wrong, um, what's morally right, what's morally wrong, um, that's, you know, they're guided by their moral compass. But then, as parents, where should we get that from? You know, and hopefully we're, hopefully we're teaching them about um. You know, I've talked about the bible before and you had um. You know, if we say bible as b period I, period, b period l, period, e, period, um, it stands for something and I had never you shared with me about what those letters mean and I had never heard about it, but it makes me think about it all the time. And so what does this?
Speaker 3:Well, this is the Bible, the B is this is the basic instructions before leaving earth. This is a map. I'll tell you a story. It was with my in-laws. They wanted to go and this was in their latter years and they weren't able to get around. Well, but Kim and I took them out to Sedona, arizona. So we get them through the airport and we go out there and we're driving along.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we finally get there through everything and get them unloaded. We get to our room and get done. So I go downstairs to the front desk and there's some maps there and whatnot. So I go to the person that was there and I said hey, is there a scenic route that we can take that I can entertain my in-laws here with? And he said yeah, he said you go up here and you take this road here, and he got a little map out and he showed me how to go. Well, I was said yeah, he said you go up here and you take this road here, and he got a little map out and he showed me how to go. Well, I was all fixed. So I go tell kim. I said we got it made, so we get around next morning, we get, get them fed and we get them load up in the rental vehicle and we take off and I turn down this road. I said I got a little over there. I want to show you. And so we go down it. And it's a gravel road, well, it's not the smoothest. So we, we go to driving along and mother-in-law she's right behind me and the wife's on the other side back there and my father-in-law's sitting there and we're going along and it wasn't just no time. Oh, this sure is a rough road we're on. Yes, ma'am, it is, but it's real pretty.
Speaker 3:When we get up here where we're going Wasn't long and oh, kind of bouncing around, chug over too, you know, and Kim's out and you're hitting all the chug. I said, no, kim, I'm trying to. Well, you're about to make me sick back here, you know. And we go along our little further and then follow. He said, hey, old gravel here, we're going to cut these tires, we're going to have a flat out here. I said, joe B, don't worry about it, it's okay, we're. We're going up and we find a place and we stop, get out, look around, everybody kind of chilled out. We get back in the vehicle, we go a little further and it wasn't no time.
Speaker 3:It was already nagging at me again about the way I drove Hit another chug hole. Well then, I just grabbed ahold of the steering wheel and I tried to find every chug hoe on the road. I was bouncing around there pretty hard and it was getting on my nerves. My wife was getting a little sharper with her tongue Come along this corner up there and I could see a long ways out there. I slowed down and them two in the back seat were just chirping away at each other. We pulled up there and there was no guardrail or anything and it fell off. I mean, it was deep. I got right against that edge with that tar. I was kind of nervous myself and I pulled up there and I stopped and I said Betty. I said Betty what I said look out there. Isn't that picturesque, isn't that beautiful? Oh yeah, that's real nice, alan. She didn't see no guardrail, nothing. I said you know that's picturesque. Why don't you just step out and let me take your picture?
Speaker 3:And oh, you've got us right here.
Speaker 3:You're going to kill us, you know, and anyway, we're going around and go up and whiz up by Flagstaff with pine trees and come back down and when it was all over, well, this map had taken us on a nice journey and they liked it, and that's what brought me back to all the maps in this world take you somewhere, right? But this one here is our map to salvation of eternal life in heaven. It has got examples that other people have pitfalls, the rough road, the cliffs that you can fall off, of, the comments that you get from other people that I was getting. That put me in a bad frame of mind, but this has more than you could ever imagine, that we can study this our whole life and still not gather everything. I can't.
Speaker 3:Somebody might have been able to, but it has all the pitfalls of this life on earth. This is our map, the same as I took a little small map up on that journey, but this is our map. This is the guide that God has given us B-I-B-L-E Basic instructions before leaving earth. This is our instructions on how to live our life, how to help others through our life, how to influence our life, how to help others through our life, how to influence our family and lead them also to salvation. And again it has support in it. It has examples of failures. Most of all it shows God's love, everything from the start to the end, shows God's love.
Speaker 3:We have God's love, but he also has asked us to follow him, which is through the narrow gate which will require us to give some things up in this world. It will require us to give some things up to get through that gate.
Speaker 2:You know, I'll find it here you go ahead and, just like you were driving Mother and father-in-law and Kim, you're driving them on the scenic route. We don't get driven, we're not in the passenger seat and God's not driving us around, but he's given us the map to lead us in the direction it says.
Speaker 3:Let me read a scripture to go along with that. In Luke 9 and 23, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says and he was saying to them all if anyone wishes not just to them, but if anyone wishes to come after me, which would mean to follow him he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Not get out front like we do the cattle and try to drive them somewhere, then get aggravated because they don't know where we're trying to drive them and what good grass is there or nothing driving them. It asks us to follow Jesus, which means to follow his example, Not just believe in him, but follow his example. But if anyone wishes to come after and follow me, he must deny himself.
Speaker 3:And that is of all the things that are wrong, that you may desire, these earthly things. Maybe it's fame and fortune. You may need to give that up. It may be materialistic things. I'm going to say the word lust, but it ain't all about the sexual side. It's lust for this or lust for that. It's for putting it in front of him. You've got to deny yourself. That's the self-discipline that's there. That is a struggle for all of us. All of us, Not anyone, don't have some desires for themselves. Everyone has had that. The people and the examples that he has said in this book. You know of David and Daniel, and all of them had earthly desires that they had to conquer and overcome to follow him. You know.
Speaker 2:And it's easy to look at those examples and go, well, you know you, dumb, dumb, why did you keep doing that over and over again? I mean, and we have those same things. They don't look like necessarily what they did, and we have those same things. They don't look like necessarily what they did, but we have those same struggles, the same things that sometimes we have to look at ourselves and go, well, dumb, dumb, why do you keep doing that over and over?
Speaker 3:That's why it says and take up his cross daily. Take up and accept that he died for our sins daily. You know, have your prayer daily and throughout the day think of him and follow me. So you've got to take up that cross daily and accept it daily. And if you don't stay in the word daily, it's easy to get off of the path you will fall into the. There's two paths. One of them has got a wide gate.
Speaker 2:It's easy to get through and just like I'm sure when you ask for that map, I'm sure he's drawn, drawn out numerous maps to that same location, but I bet some of them didn't hit the potholes. No, I bet some of them hit more than just the potholes. That's a. Some of them probably got a tire off the edge, and it's a good example that that, just because we have the map, doesn't mean we all interpret it the same. Um, and you might interpreted that map then differently than you would now. Absolutely, because now, if you went that same route now, you interpret it different because you know there's potholes there, you know there's no guardrails there, Exactly, I would have took the inside instead of putting myself on the line, yeah, and I got a little aggravated.
Speaker 3:That put myself and put me and my family in jeopardy, right.
Speaker 1:What if that?
Speaker 3:hat slipped over the edge. You know Now if she jumped out there. Oh, no I didn't, but you know I could. I should have been hanging in closer to the side of the mountain than we was going around. Exactly right, but by knowing and when you read this, you have to really read and study to understand. It's like I should have studied the map and the more journey I would make on a path and the more I, as you said, the more I study the map, the better job of driving I could do.
Speaker 2:My dad he was. He actually moved to Texas when I was four because my dad came to Bowie to go to BBTI, which is Bible Baptist Translators Institute, which is to translate the Bible into all languages that haven't been translated before. But there was a missionary there at the time. An older guy said he had written the Bible, he had copied the Bible, and he said he understood it like he had never understood it before. And he was an older man, he was probably in his, probably 70s, and my dad was like, well, that's just nuts. I mean, who has time to copy the Bible? I'm never going to do that. My dad at the time was probably in his mid 40s. Yeah, it's probably in his early 40s. Now, as a young, 40 year old man, you know, some listening might think, well, that's kind of old. But now we think that's a young man, but who's got time for that? And now my dad has just turned 82. And for the last four years my dad was a missionary in Mexico BBTI. For a number of years he started his own church.
Speaker 2:A lot of different things, a good understanding of the bible. In the last four years he's taken upon himself to start copying the bible and he's gone through all the new testament. I'm working on the old testament. He's done some of the books numerous times, but he told me just recently he said as much as I've prayed and read the bible and done studies. He said I've never understood the bible like I do now.
Speaker 2:By copying down those words he said and, and I thought he said 40 years later, as he's doing it, he has a better understanding. And it goes to you know, we read the map differently because we have different experiences down that road and we learn what looks like danger, what may look like danger but is safe. That road looks like I'm going to have faith to go get close to that edge road looks like I'm gonna have faith to go get close to that edge. Um, so I think the road map is interpreted different throughout our life, just like the bible is. You know, how do how do we read scripture and reach the same scripture a hundred, a thousand times and for some reason, at 62 and a half years old, you look at and go, wow, I've never seen that before. That hits me, I needed that. Why is that?
Speaker 3:Don't ask me, I don't know, but it just it finally sinks into what he was telling you at that moment. As you say, dylan, just like, just imagine driving down the highway and you see this real nice billboard there that says pull over here and have a nice cool drink. Okay, that sounds pretty inviting an alcoholic drink, that's a nice cool drink. Or pull over here and do this. The devil has all kinds of. What I'm referring to is has all kinds of signs along our path, along our road. That is enticing for us just to look. Well, I'm just going to step over here and do this one time. I'm just going to step over here and before you know it, you get plumb off path and you're plumb lost. Now there is a way back, but you've got to be back into this book and you've got to be back into Jesus for him to help bring you back on the path. So if you're not on the path right now, that's okay. It's not okay, but we understand, we all have been off the path at times, wasn't it, david, that?
Speaker 2:heard this beautiful voice, saw this beautiful lady, and what kind of trouble did that get him in? That's not an accident. That's in there. No, not an accident, that's in there, no, god knows. And there's, and there's, dozens other examples. Yes, he knows what temptations and that was what we're going to face. Doesn't matter. Is it year 2025 or is it 101 ad?
Speaker 3:yep, yep, the story whenever, lot, they were leaving that town. Can't even think of it right now. Solomon Gilmore yeah, and she turned. He warned do not look back.
Speaker 3:And when she looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt right. But when you turn and you look back, that means you haven't truly given up. You're yearning for something that's behind you. So when you have some addictions, to whatever I mean I used to chew tobacco I still have her hankering every once in a while. I've been off her for 12 years, 14 years, but I don't look back, I don't pick up another pack of tobacco Because I don't want to go back there. So when we had a sinful way in our life, remember that she turned and looked just to say well, that was a wonderful life, that I was living there, or whatever reason. She turned back to look. She was missing. She was going to be sad of something there, and yet God had given them a chance to leave. All they had to do was not look back and to go his path.
Speaker 2:I think it was that Ray Stevens song don't look, ethel too late, too late.
Speaker 3:That's what happened to Ethel there, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But you're right, it's looking back for longingly. What am I going to miss?
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And that was the reason it was not. You want to keep walking forward because that's the best path for you, not what's behind you.
Speaker 3:What are you going to miss? You said I'll give you a little story again. One time I was thinking, and I'm kind of I buy and sell cattle and I'm kind of a little bit of an investor so I weigh the odds. Okay, if I think this deal looks pretty good and it's got a 90% odds, you know I'm going to do it. You know I mean I know I can be 100% right with my little bit of money at the bank on the interest, but you know my return's not big enough, mm-hmm, not big enough.
Speaker 3:So I told mom one time. I said what, in being a Christian, is my question Do you have to lose by turning to Jesus and becoming a follower of him? What do you have to lose If you follow Christ? You're a better person on this earth. You're showing love to a fellow man. You're setting an example with morals. That will help raise your children with morals. It will make them better people. We sure want our children to be better than us. We've had failures. We don't want them to go through them. Our parents didn't want us to go through them. But we're better people because we love our neighbor, as God asked, commanded. Actually we're raising our children with more morals. We're helping others to come to know him, where they will have these things that we are getting. And at the end of time, when we pass away.
Speaker 3:Now, I'm a believer that we have eternal life. The Bible tells us that. So we're going to win, right, right. So there's nothing to lose along that way. If, at the end of time, I don't believe this, but at the end of time, if there is no afterlife, there was no God, no, nothing.
Speaker 3:This was a book. If that would be the case, and I don't believe that, I'm going to make that clear. But if there's not and we just turn to dust and there's nothing after that, but have we still not won? While we were living here, we were better people. Our kids are better people. People loved us and didn't despise us or hate us. For that reason, because we loved everyone, all of these things together, tell me why it wouldn't be to our advantage. It wouldn't be a win situation Either way, a win-win, whether there is a God at the end, or eternal life or not. Follow this book and there's no way to lose. I believe you got a great prize at the end, the grand prize of all. We all hit the jackpot, if you will, but that was just my analogy one day. So what do you have to lose to be a Christian and a follower?
Speaker 2:Because you either have the grand prize going to heaven or, if that's not the case and, like you said, hypothetically there is nothing there, we just turn to dust, which neither one of us believe. But you still left the earth a better place, um, and and just like any. You know, we, we've all put those um things together, those projects from walmart, ikea, all those places. We, we put those together and they have instructions, directions, and all of them have examples, have a diagram of this goes with this goes with that. And what happens? If you follow that, step by step by step, you complete the project. You complete it shows, it looks just like it looked on the box. And the same thing is true with the BIBLE, the Bible. We follow those instructions. Those examples are the diagrams. This is what Went wrong.
Speaker 2:I mean there's way more things in the Bible that went wrong than went right. Absolutely, I mean we can go. There's countless men and women that messed up Time and time again. Look at those goofy Israelites. They couldn't get around for nothing. And we look at them and go, come on. But we do that on a daily basis, daily basis, and we think, well, I'm not. I'm smarter than those Israelites. They kept saying God save us, he'd save them. Oh, we can do it on our own, god save us. Oh, we can do it on our own and we go. That's goofy, but when times are good, god, I got this, don't worry about me.
Speaker 3:And when times get rough, it's like God, save me. That's when most people turn to. God is when they're in need. They think they're in control. I've done it. I still fall into that trap. We were raised to think that way through our society. I've got this. You've got this. As a man, You're supposed to handle this. Be tough yeah, We've talked on that before.
Speaker 3:But yes, it's easy to fall into that you just got to read the instructions, and there's a lot of different manuals that say it a little bit different, but all say the same thing they all say you have the king james, you have the new, the standard version, english version.
Speaker 2:The important part is find one that you understand. Sure, I grew up on the king james version and man, that confuses me sometimes. I need something a little simpler. I'm not that bright, I need some words that I can understand. Some people think if you ain't using the King James Version.
Speaker 3:you know that they've altered it. In my opinion not, but that's my opinion. I hope that don't affect nobody that's listening or watching to this because you may be right. Listening or watching to this because you may be right. When I'm trying to understand that I feel like I'm in Shakespeare's court and I don't understand half of what's being said sometimes. If it brings a better understanding of his word, then I don't think you're altering anything.
Speaker 2:There's a simple U-Version Bible app. It's the largest Bible app in the world, I think it's close to a billion downloads. You go to it, you download it and it has every version you can imagine, every language. You can imagine Studies. It goes in depth Into the instruction manual of the Bible. It's no longer, it's at the tip of our fingers.
Speaker 3:Again, we're not promoting neither way, any of these in particular.
Speaker 2:It's what works best, what works for you, for you, what you understand.
Speaker 3:I hear of some copies that's been coming out lately that's left out some scripture and I do not agree with that. I don't agree with that at all.
Speaker 2:And if you do a little research, there's typically a few of the top ones that everybody agrees on. Usually, out of three or four you can find one that's pretty understandable, but the B-I-B-L-E Pretty understandable.
Speaker 3:But the B-I-B-L-E Again, it's basic instructions before leaving earth. So that's your whole life, right, yeah, before leaving earth, because we're all leaving earth, yep.
Speaker 2:There's no way around death, and the thing is that we change throughout life. Our instruction manual will not change. It's a living word, but it will always be the same. We can always come back to it and go. Now let me see when do I need to get plugged back in. Where did I leave off? Where am I going next? It's our roadmap for life. Any final thoughts or anything? Alan, no.
Speaker 3:Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Y'all join me. Our great Heavenly Father, we pause at this time and this day. Lord, we just thank you so much for this guide that you've given us, for the B-I-B-L-E, for the instruction manual, for your word, and it tells us all about all of your love. Lord, we thank you so much for that. We thank you for your son and crucifixion. He went through for our sins. And as we study this Bible, lord, we ask that you help us get an understanding of your true love. Lord, I ask that you be with the listeners that are listening here with us and that maybe that one little thing that we've said here today will help bring them closer, closer to you on our walk toward that narrow gate. We come to you in the name. Toward that narrow gate, we come to you in the name of our Savior, jesus Christ's name, amen, amen.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for joining us today. We're looking forward to seeing you right here next time.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to the Road Travel where real faith meets real life. Remember every step matters, even the hard ones. So keep walking your road with courage, conviction and Christ leading the way. Until next time, your hosts, aaron and Alan, say we'll see you down the road.