Ep 17: What Bible Character Are You Most Like

We ask a deceptively hard question: which person in the Bible feels most like your own walk with God. We share why Peter and Moses resonate with us and how those stories help us stay focused on Jesus when life gets messy. 
• Peter as a picture of doubt, focus, failure, and restoration 
• Losing focus on Christ and watching things fall apart 
• Denying Jesus through actions and thoughts, not just words 
• God developing us over time through Scripture, prayer, and worship 
• Moses’ calling despite a broken past and fear of speaking 
• Aaron as a voice for others and a model for personal calling 
• Why Bible stories highlight weakness and growth on purpose 
• Impatience and control through Sarah’s example 
• Salvation resting on Jesus Christ rather than our works 
We encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, share the podcast if something that touches you and you might know others that it can affect and meet them on their road, and we ask you to share it with them.

Transcript

Welcome To The Road Travel

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to The Road Travel, a Christian podcast permitted, 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.

Which Bible Character Mirrors You

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Welcome back to the Road Travel. Thanks for taking the time to join us today. I'm your host, Aaron Degler, along with your host, Alan Hugator. We are excited to find you on whatever road you may be traveling, and you join us on our road as we share each episode a little bit about our experiences, how they have what we've learned from them, the knowledge we've gained from them. And we hope to impart that not always the right choices we made. We'll impart some of the wrong choices. Hopefully, that might change the choices you make, that we find you on the road that you're traveling, and that you join us. And each week we just share a little bit about our experiences through scripture, through conversation that Alan and I have, and some applicable ways that you can take those and apply those to your road travel, that you're you'll know that you're not alone on that road. So thank you again for joining us. And I'll let Alan kind of kick it off. I think the last episode we talked, Alan had had challenges with the questions. So I'll just let Alan kind of refresh us on what the challenge was.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Do you recall the question? I know you do, but hopefully any of the listeners will recall the question is what character in the Bible do you most relate yourself, your walk with that you've read from scripture? And I guess one way to start this is I'll share mine. There's probably a lot of them that would line up if you really look at it. There's a lot of characters because most of them fell short in some area and they went to God and God helped them through certain situations and things, and that's what we all do. So, but for some reason Peter stuck in my mind. Peter is apostle with Jesus, and when Jesus kind of first came to Simon at that moment, right? Simon, he was kind of leery of really was Jesus for real. And I could see that. But anyway, so I think part of it was out when they were fishing there, and then Jesus and they hadn't got any fish, and Jesus said, try the other side of the boat, and they pitch it over and they catch a bunch of fish, and he's going, now that wasn't coincidence, which there are some coincidences in this world, but most of them are divine intervention, whenever it's something like that. And so then he goes on. So I've had my doubts at times, okay. I'm trying to piece it together. Is the Bible for real? Is Jesus for real? And you know, you as you read and study and go, you realize and you put it together, yes, and I believe this. So, you know, and then also then the time out there in the when they seen Jesus walking on water and he asked Peter to step out. And Peter took a couple of steps. And some people say, Well, he lost faith then. I said, No, he lost focus. I've lost focus on Christ. I have numerous times lost my focus on Christ, and when I do, things fall apart. I don't have the firmness of the water as it was under his feet at that time. And he fell into the water, right? And I have too, because I've lost focus, which affects your faith, but you lose focus. So then you go on with Peter's walk with Christ, and he was again at that time Simon before he renamed him, but he was pretty high strung, pretty high-tempered. Well, that's the way I've been. Pretty high strung and ready to fly off, you know, and Jesus has to pull me back in, like he did Peter lots of times. Whoop, come back over here, come back in here now, stay with the focus, what we're trying to do here. And, you know, then when they come to arrest, Jesus will. You know, he grabbed his sword up, he was ready to die for him and and fought and cut the soldier's ear off. And Jesus, hey, settle down here. This is not what we're doing here, yada yada. I've been the same way. I want to get a little too ambitious, you know. And of course, before that, he even told him where he would deny him three times. And that was one reason I think that Peter stood up so strongly. I'll show you I want. And then you go a little further, and I know I'm missing a lot with it, but I'm just the highlights here of, you know, Peter goes and he does deny Christ three times before the rooster crowd. And in my walk, and then even as I get stronger, I know there's times that I'm not doing what's right. And that's when I've denied him because I'm not doing what he would have me do. Or maybe in the moment is everybody around's kind of cutting up and going on, I lost a little focus about where I should be with my thoughts or with my stand strong and my faith with him. So I have it wasn't wordly. You're denying Christ. No, I can stand true there, but in actions, maybe I come up short and I and I failed him numerous times, maybe more than three. Like he denied him. I've denied him at times, not by intent, but just with actions and thoughts that hey, I've denied him. So there are some of the ways that I see in his life and what he has struggled through. And then what does he do? He goes on and he goes out and he starts preaching the gospel throughout. And you know, he understands the the struggle and how strong you gotta be. And I should have studied this part, but was it him that talked about even though I try to do what I know is right, but I end up doing what I know is wrong, and you know, we do that, right? And I don't know the scripture right now, but it's in there. And it, you know, you try to do another episode. Yes, and we had to, yeah, another episode, and we do, and he struggled with that, and then he went on, and then of course he was crucified in the name of Jesus by standing strong in his faith. And I can't say I'm like that there, but I would love to build that kind of faith and relationship and not to to be that strong. So but and we've spoken of this, the intent of his heart all the way through was right. He was trying to learn and trying to develop that relationship with Jesus and with God as he went along his path. And it is a development on the road. It is a development on the path as we go through life. It don't just happen. It is constantly, that's the reason we stay in the scripture, that's reading we stay worshiping together, that's reading we we stay praying every day, is on that walk of life that we take. That's how we develop it. So you can say, well, you're nothing like Peter, and that's fine. But that's the way I seen myself. It's where I come up short at times and then yet went back to him and understood a lot more about it. Because he, as we spoke on another issue not long ago, sometimes we put us through these things for us to really realize hey, this is a learning process. This is a development process that God puts you through to get you to where he wants you to be.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

And then what before the minor leagues, it's really what like farm teams, developmental teams, and it's it's to get you better, move you up, get you better. And really that's no different. It's it's really developing us. And if we look at a lot of men in the Bible, a lot of men and women in the Bible. Um none of them are perfect.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

No, he used a lot of there's only one in the Bible it was, right?

Aaron On Moses And His Calling

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Yeah. I mean, he used a lot of messed up people. When you know, you asked me this question a few weeks ago, and the answer I still wasn't sure, but the more I think about it, and I I probably don't have quite the in-depth answer than you you do. But but it just is it I've always thought this, and it always keeps coming back to me. But God called Moses. Well, you know, Moses was a a killer. He had murdered, he was a murderer. Moses was a murderer. And right? Yes, yes, okay. That's all right myself. Um, and and but yet God still called him, and he's like, But God, you know, I can't speak. I I don't have the words, I have trouble of speech, and so God told Moses to call upon his brother Aaron. And my parents named me Aaron after Aaron in the Bible. And I never thought about that. So you speak well, so well, and and and and I never thought much about that, and as been developed, started podcasting, you know, five, six years ago, started speaking a number of years ago, started posting different groups, different conversations. Uh again, being developed. I think being developed into who God is calling me to be. I mean, just as Aaron did, Aaron was able to speak for Moses. God would tell Moses what needed to be said, and he would pass that along, and that Aaron would have the same voice as if it was Moses, the same authority. And so Aaron spoke for him. And as I've been developed through the years, as I am currently developing, I believe that that is one of my callings is to speak for those that can't speak, that don't have the voice, that don't have the maybe it's the right words to say, the right understanding, but had the thought, but just don't have the words to say. I'm currently working on getting nonprofit going because I want to be able, I want to have an organization that speaks for those that can't speak for themselves, that can help themselves, they can't help themselves. And I feel that that's my calling, just as Aaron was to share what the important message that God had given to Moses. Moses wasn't able to verbally get it, but he was able to give that authority to Aaron to share that word, to share the importance, to share God's message. And I believe that is what God has developed. I mean, you would have asked me 10 years ago, I said no way. My parents were were missionaries, they were Christians, they just they just like Aaron in the Bible, so they named me after Aaron. But I really think that name was laid on my parents' heart for a reason. And all the things as I've been developed is sometimes our road travel looks messy and yucky. I think about all those other men in the Bible, and I think there's a reason for that. There's a reason for my mess so I can have a message, and I can be that voice, and I can be that understanding for others. But as Aaron understood Moses and why he wanted him to speak for him, I can understand others and be able to speak on their behalf in a tone that sounds just like them, just as Moses was called to do by God and and and God laid told him to go little talk to Aaron.

Why This Question Changes You

SPEAKER_01 11:54

So why do you think this question was asked? It came out of a book that I'm in a Bible study with. And so, you know, why would you want to try to refer yourself or compare uh the relation, you know, the the likeness to someone in the Bible? And part of it is to understand exactly what you said is to show that, hey, these guys had weaknesses, but what did they do? They worked through them. God loved them so much, he allows us to work through our weaknesses. When we come up short, when Peter came up short, Jesus was there to help him. Even after Jesus was gone, the Holy Spirit that he left with us is here to help us through our times.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Sometimes that's we need that because then we'll rely on him more.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

I mean, I I mean I think we're all guilty. If we're rolling the money, we have no no worry about money. But then when that gets tight, then we start to worry, ooh, I need to worry about that, or I need to I need to figure some things out. But the same thing if we don't have any developmental issues coming along, we don't have, I mean, we think it's all good. And I prayed once two weeks ago, that should be good enough.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Oh yeah. Without struggles, you'd think you were doing it. And you're and you're not. Yes. And so the world's full of struggles. You'll never get them all, you'll never get them all cured, you'll never get them all taken care of, you'll never overcome them all. You'll always have some kind of struggles. I think they do become less or less important, maybe. We don't take them quite as deeply, as sincerely as some of them as we used to, because we realize that wasn't as big a struggle as I thought it was, as we get closer to God and turn them over to Him, let Him handle that deal. You know. But I feel like that's part of the reason that this question was asked, is for you to take a look at this character of the Bible, this person in the Bible, a true story, what they were challenged with, and how they handled it, whether it be exactly with God's will, or later he showed them how it could be turned to the benefit of learning experience for them, as we go through lots of learning experiences every day, if you will accept it that way, then how much stronger does that make you as a person, as a servant of the Lord, as an example for others, how much stronger you have become. And you've done that only with God's will.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

And I think that's why it does there's so many stories like that in the Bible. They want to say they're human, they're just like you. They have just the thoughts you did, the actions you did, all the things, and look what I could still do with their lives. Time and time again, from every all the I mean.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Well, there's a number of stories for a reason because everyone, it wasn't just one situation with Job, or it wasn't one situation with one of the apostles. You can look at each one of the apostles and where they were weak.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

And I think we can find ourselves in all of us can find ourselves somewhere in one of those stories.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and and you find yourself in a lot of those stories, with various, because that's what I was doing. I was going, well, this character I can kind of relate there, relate here, relate here. You know, I talked to Kim about it, and she even brought up said, Well, would you be like the thief on the cross? You had all these problems, you weren't a believer, and then when you listened to him, then you changed over and give it all to him and wanted to join in with him. So I said, Well, yeah, we could all relate to that. I think everyone can pretty well. But I was different than Ad because I had been exposed to Jesus Christ. I didn't just know about him at the last moment. So, anyway, that's really nice. But again, so many of them you can relate to their challenge.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

I mean, I mean, to Sarah, Sarah and Abraham. Sarah got tired of waiting on a baby. Hey, go sleep in with my husband. I'm tired of waiting. Let me take control of this. And that didn't work out so well.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

And and when we sometimes when we get tired of waiting on God and we take in the control, that's an example. It doesn't turn out so well.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Because God's timing is perfect. But we're, I mean, I can relate to Sarah. I'm like, I mean, I had that problem this week. I don't feel like waiting. Let me take control of God. And it didn't turn out too good for me.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Right. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

And and and uh, you know, they didn't have those stories in the Bible because we can look at the those different stories and go, I can tell you how that's gonna turn out. But they didn't know that, they didn't have social media say, you know, Joe down the street, that happened to him. I better not do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

You know, they didn't know. Or just think they didn't have the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah, they didn't have the Bible.

Salvation Is Through Jesus Alone

SPEAKER_01 17:06

You know, the Bible didn't exist until after the full Bible. They had the Old Testament earlier, but most of them characters didn't have it because they was part of the Bible that was put together. The old scrolls and a lot of them we don't know, we never really will see, but still that's where we should have, even though we didn't see, but very few people actually seen Jesus. But we should have a lot more advantage than the folks that never had the Bible, never seen the Bible, never read the Bible. We've seen all these examples. We've seen how they failed. We've seen what the results were by sinning. It showed us in these characters, and it showed us also by having love for God and fellow man and have and doing what God's will was, and the personal reward, not only that personal reward, but the reward from God is everlasting life with Him. We see all that, we read it, we know it, and yet what? We fall short.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

We start to sink.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

It's not us, it's not first person, it's not I, it's He, Jesus Christ. It's through Him with His and what His sacrifice was that our true hope remain is in. We can't live up to that. We can only accept it and love it and try to work toward it. But it's only through Him that we will make it into heaven. So we have to believe in Him.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Because whoever believeth in me, so we've ever done a lasting life.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Our works is because we're trying to bring others to know the goodness of Jesus and what He done for us. Again, it's third person what He done. Not I done this, I done that. If I end up in heaven, go I done this and I done that and I done this, and God said, I don't know you. But if you accept Jesus and what he is, not just what he was, but what he is, a living God. We've spoken to that before, but he is a living God, and only through him and what he done and what he shared with us, he shared God with us, God's character and how God's love is. Put more emphasis on it with him here than before. And that's how he brought freedom.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

It's just up to us to be able to acknowledge that and pass them into our life and be a part of our life. And I think that's a great challenge to if you haven't ever thought about it, to who would you feel like you were more like in the Bible? Um if you don't know them, maybe Google it. Chat GPK, there were the men in the Bible who are the troubled men of the Bible. Uh pretty much or troubled people in the Bible. Um you're gonna get a lot of them. You're gonna get a lot of them.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Um there's a lot of characters in there when you really go to digging. Yeah. You know, when you're reading it, you don't realize there's so many characters, but there's lots of them. And you can relate somewhere, somehow, to situations, and then take that as a positive and build from it.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

You can say, That's my person. Uh I'm I'm I know him, I know her.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

But I've asked a good many people that question, and everybody kind of, ooh, I'll have to think on that one. Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Um from all religions, all experience with religion, knowing the stories, you know, we often don't think about who now who would I and that's I think that's a great question. When you asked me, I thought it was a great question. I never thought about it.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

I hadn't either. Right.

Listener Challenge And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_02 21:05

I think it's great. So that's our challenge to you is simply who would you maybe relate to in the Bible? Search it, see who who that is, and then ask others and and share that and and see what can you do.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Well the Bible explains how they took on the challenge that maybe you're facing also. And how they them through their faith in Jesus was able to come over. Well, join me as I close for us. Dear Father in heaven, Lord, we come to you, Lord, with a grateful heart that you sent your son and his sacrifice, and we realize that only through him, Lord, may we have the hope of eternal life. And as we turn our lives over, Lord, may we surrender to you to where we can. Truly walk in the path. Lord, as we go through this life here on earth, I ask that you build a hedge protection around every listener, Lord, and keep them safe on their journeys as they walk down the road of life. Come to you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. And in his holy name we ask these thanks. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Amen. And thank you, each again, for joining us on the road travel. We encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, share the podcast if something that touches you and you might know others that it can affect and meet them on their road, and we ask you to share it with them. Spread the word about the road travel so we can help as many as possible and share the word and share our experiences on our road travel. And our hope is that we've helped you along your road by sharing our road travel, and we look forward to seeing you down the road.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

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.