Through It
Through It is a Christian podcast hosted by Ariana and Kimberly - two women who love Jesus and have been through it. Join them for real, faith-filled conversations on how to talk through it, walk through it, pray through it, and get through it.
Through It
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This week on Through It, Ariana + Kimberly are diving into Priscilla Shirer’s 5 P’s of studying the Bible. Come hang out with us as we tangent our way through practical ways to study the Word with a little more structure, a lot of conversation, and a quick word from Ariana's dad.
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Hey Ma.
SPEAKER_00Hi Dad.
SPEAKER_07Hi Ryan. Hi. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm good.
unknownI'm good.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm here with Kimberly. You're on Through It. You're officially on the Through It podcast.
SPEAKER_07Hi, Kimberly. How are you?
SPEAKER_00Good. I'm great. How's the puppy?
SPEAKER_07A monster. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00He sent me pictures of him yesterday. This dog is two months old. It's giant.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Thank you. Jordan will dog nap him if you ever leave him alone with him. That's like the exact kind of dog that he wants. Really?
SPEAKER_00Something that big.
SPEAKER_04One of the many, actually. But yeah, he wants basically a pony.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's this dog already looks like a pony. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And he's only gonna get bigger. I know it's monstrous now.
SPEAKER_00110 pounds. Weight crazy. Not not yet, but he will be. Yeah. Probably even more. Oh my gosh. I don't know what he's gonna do with 140 pound dog.
SPEAKER_07If he got to be 140 pounds, I wouldn't care.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. That's like a a whole class D bikini competitor. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A whole class D.
SPEAKER_04Maybe even a figure, girl.
SPEAKER_00That seems figured to me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What are you doing, Dad?
SPEAKER_07I was just out here at my boss's house giving a hand on his chicken coop real quick.
SPEAKER_05Chicken coop.
SPEAKER_07Um, I had to come out because I ordered, you know, the backseat things for the dogs.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Have you seen those? I I had it delivered out here because uh I didn't want it to get delivered to the shop.
SPEAKER_00Well then now you've got it and it's all set up.
SPEAKER_07No, I'm gonna go back and set it up. I've got an appointment to get Luca groom or bathed and nails done.
SPEAKER_04That's a full-time job. Be careful.
SPEAKER_07Here we go. Now I'm better.
SPEAKER_00What do you what do you want the podcast to know?
SPEAKER_07What do you want the podcast to know how much? I love the fact that you girls are doing this.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Dan. Thank you.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I just it it really does my heart. Good to hear my daughter talk like this.
SPEAKER_04Oh thanks, Dan. Thanks for listening in on the podcast. I think that's pretty cool too. My dad doesn't listen.
SPEAKER_07I always listen. I try to get listened every Tuesday. But if I can't, you know, I can when I'm driving. If I can't, you know, I when I'm driving, I'll put it on. When I'm driving, I'll put it on and and uh you know, driving the big ring. See you later, Shannon. I I love it. Like I think that was fun. Aren't really good.
SPEAKER_04I feel like right now that we're on the radio and that we just had a caller ring in.
SPEAKER_05The vibe right now.
SPEAKER_07It's just awesome to listen to you guys talk and and you know, I tell everybody, everybody I know about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_07You know, yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_00Do you tell them about Jesus too?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, well, I try to live it. You know, I try to show my example, and then you know what's what's funny is I have a really good friends down at Havas who they're they're so awesome. But they're not saved. So that's where I'm going the next time I go down, I'm gonna sit down and you know because you know we usually do barbecues and have a couple of beers and two guys stuff and then the wives are there too. But I gotta tell them, you know what I mean? Because I want my friends to hang out forever.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You gotta tell him.
SPEAKER_04Maybe even tell him to listen to the person.
SPEAKER_07One of my best friends, Jake, one uh one of 'em, he's he's I wanna say he doesn't believe in anything. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00He doesn't that would be atheist.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, okay. But I'm gonna have a more He's one of my closer friends of the group.
SPEAKER_04How do you start that conversation? Is it wrong to tell people to listen and say not mention it's about Jesus?
SPEAKER_07No. I'm gonna get him to do the sinner's prayer.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna get like you're gonna trick him into it or you're gonna lead him into it?
SPEAKER_07Lead him into it.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_07Lead him into it. I mean, uh you know, it's just like like kind of I know you don't believe in this, but if you know, I mean you're just what do you call it? Uh what do you call it when you just uh Oh, I can't remember the word.
SPEAKER_00It's like that that um Padre Pio movie with Shia LaBeouf where he's screaming, say Christ is Lord. Shut up, say Christ is warned.
unknownJust humor me. Uh uh, you know, say just humor me and say this with me.
SPEAKER_00I don't think it works that way then. Just say this out loud just in case. Well, you can try.
SPEAKER_07You know, I mean, uh just humor me. You know, I mean I know you don't he doesn't believe, but I do strongly.
SPEAKER_00So you're you'll like let your faith go for before him.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yeah, and they know how I feel and how I've been living, you know. Um everything I'm not responsible for any any of this happening, but you know what I mean? It's all been blessings from God. You know, and and he's blessed me every day. Every day it is a blessing, you know. My kids, my granddaughter getting here. You know, because I'm I love bragging on my kids. My grandkids, you know. I love bragging on them because what I've ever wanted is for them to be better than me. You know, growing up being an an addict for so long and my kids seeing me be an addict and still not being a part of that world. You know? Um you worry about Sins of the Father kind of thing where they follow in your footsteps. It's like none of my children, none of them follow in my footsteps.
SPEAKER_00And you got a lot of them.
SPEAKER_07And it's that's that's such a blessing right there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Watching how Ariana has done everything herself.
SPEAKER_00I mean herself.
SPEAKER_07I mean like going to school, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_07You know, you're moving to Washington, then going to New York, and then coming back. Yeah, I know God's hands on all of it, and it's his plan. You know, we live according to his plan, and and that's all I ever say. This is all God's plan. I I don't fight it, I go with it.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Dad. That was so great.
SPEAKER_04We'll be praying for your friend Jake.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, Jake, John, Kevin, Jordan, and their wives, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And we'll be praying for you for God to give you the words too, as you help lead them.
SPEAKER_07Absolutely. Absolutely, you know. It's important to me. Um you know, it's important. And it should be. And then my daughter Elizabeth giving her turned around. That's another prayer every day.
SPEAKER_00Oh, he wants to break. He wants to break. He said, Amen. All right, Dad. We got a we got only a couple more. We have a finite amount of time, but I love you so much. Thank you for chatting with us. All right, bye.
SPEAKER_04Bye. Funny man. I love that.
SPEAKER_00Getting all choked up and emotional talking about you. That's so sweet. I just love that he has no um an understanding that it's public. He's just out here using everybody's names, including my sister.
SPEAKER_04I felt like such an old lady just now because you guys can't see on the podcast, but I'm sure you know she had her phone up on speaker and she's holding it up to the mic. And I keep, I'm like, I caught myself leaning into my mic to talk to your dad.
SPEAKER_05I'm like, I feel like I'm on the radio. Like, he can't hear you talking through the mic, Kim. He's on the phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That was funny. Thanks for thanks for humoring us with that, Kim. That's sweet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's a fan. Thanks for listening, John, because you're probably gonna listen to this episode.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So hello again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, anyways, that was my dad, guys. He's a cool man. He's um got a good story. He was uh an addict for um years, 15 years, maybe more than that. And I mean, God fully delivered him from his addiction, just stopped cold turkey.
SPEAKER_04Do you remember how old you were?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember the day that he got clean. It was the day my sister was born. I was um, I believe I was 12. And yeah, he um both of my sister's parents, so we don't, we have a different mom. We've different moms. Um her mom is also was is, I don't know if she still uses or what her deal was, but she was an addict also. And I remember even getting to the hospital the day after she was born, the day she I don't remember. I was with my dad that weekend that she was born, and her mom saying, like, oh yeah, you know, the baby won't eat, so they're testing everybody, they're they're drug testing everybody, and I'm like, you can test everybody, we're clean, and I'm like, even at 12, looking at her, like, lady, I know you're not clean. Yeah, I know that baby was born. Mm-hmm. I know, but I he said after she was born, he saw her and was like, I can't do this anymore.
SPEAKER_04Wow. And then you said he quit cold turkey.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Holy moly. No rehab, no meetings, do you literally him going through like withdrawals and stuff?
SPEAKER_00I don't know if you withdraw from methamphetamine.
SPEAKER_04Interesting.
SPEAKER_00I don't think you do, actually. Interesting. I think you you may it's not like an opioid where like your body depends on it. I think it's more of a craving. I could be totally wrong. I've never done it, obviously. But um, and he would tell us. Yeah. But I know. I guess I've never and he was so functioning. I knew what was going on, but you know how you can look at somebody today and be like, that person's on drugs. Yeah. I don't think you could do that to my dad.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't think ever, like he was thinner, but he didn't ever have a look, you know, where like a lot of people were like pick at their skin or like their teeth fall out or things. Like, he was real functioning. He looked like a normal person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not much different than he does today, honestly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I know because I've met your dad, and I would have never assumed that about his past.
SPEAKER_00Really? No, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_04At least that specific drug, yeah, you know. So anyway, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you, Jesus. He's a great dad. Yeah. Um, so we've had some pretty cool episodes recently, if I if I do say so myself, and I want to toot our own horns. But I just have had a lot of fun uh recording and talking about discipleship and then evangelism. And then um, this week Kim had the best idea of putting together just some resources on social media, what our favorite resources are to study the word. Um, because we, I mean, we talk about that constantly of like, you know, we're huge advocates, not even advocates. I don't even know what you would say, but like get read your Bible, read your Bible. Yeah. But so let's say maybe you have, you've started, but you don't really know where to go or what to do. We've posted some good um resources in several different mediums too. Right. If you're if you can, if you learn from reading, if you learn from doing, if you learn from listening. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And it's not a super comprehensive list either. It's just like a handful of our favorites that came to mind first. Because even like after posting it, I'm like, gosh, there's so many other books too.
SPEAKER_00But I even thought of this morning tomb like we didn't put the bait of Satan.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know. All the John Bavera books, even like some of the devotionals that I've really enjoyed. Yeah. And like just studies, yeah. Um, there's a lot. So the point is sometimes there's so many options, you don't know where to start. It's like the Cheesecake Factory menus, just so many options you don't even know what to order. Yeah. But this is a starting point. So if you guys haven't looked at the post yet on our Instagram, some books, some websites, some podcasts, just some Bible tools um that have helped us along the way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I think that's that can be a major difference, you know, like if especially if you feel like you're reading the Bible and you're kind of like, I don't really understand. Um, instead of maybe getting, you know, a simpler translation, which I'm not it is helpful, you know, but um figure out why you don't understand it and then stay there.
SPEAKER_04This reminds me too of like we talked about, because yes, you could get what some may say an easier translation to understand, but in instead of trying to bypass that, because let's be honest, no one is gonna fully understand this cover to cover.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, that's like a student for life, seed planter for life, as we've talked about. But like you said, Ari, let's maybe sit on what you don't understand and kind of just dig deeper into that. And so, even for things like um paraphrased translations of the Bible, yes, it it reads a little easier in terms of like helping you comprehend maybe the um, I don't know, general context of it. But you you kind of miss, you do, you you miss a lot. And not to say that choosing a easier translation is lowering the bar at all, but in the way when you think about public school curriculum, like we recently talked to a friend, it's they have lowered the standard for schools because students are not rising to the occasion, and so now the bar is lower and it has just continued to get lower and lower.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so they're essentially cooking the books for intelligence, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And and now, like in the church setting, are we lowering the standard even like with our own devotional time or are we rising to the occasion and are we going to go? Um, are we looking for other resources? Are we talked about discipleship? Are we getting discipled? Are we meeting together to talk about it? Like, how much time are you really sitting on the fact that you don't understand?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00And even taking those different translations and like I have two, I have a paraphrase in front of me, and then I have a um a word for word. And I use both when I study, but something I I tend to see, and this is just from my own observation, so I this isn't like a a forever or a like a firm statement, but I tend to see that the um the paraphrases, and maybe even sometimes the thought for thought will take out things that are a little bit more harsh. So like It'll soften it. Yeah, and we read Matthew 8 earlier this week and um verse 12, and this is just I'm just gonna read it so you all can hear it, says, um, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The paraphrase doesn't say that. It doesn't say weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think it says like unsettling or like discomfort or something. And I yeah, uh being able to see both of those things is um, I I wouldn't say don't study your paraphrase, but I would say if you're going to use that, have a word-for-word Bible, and I guess backtracking, we're talking about the different translations of the Bible. Um, and there's you can have a word-for-word translation, a thought-for-thought, or a paraphrase. And the point I'm making is that I typically see those more harsher things or what we perceive in in our human brains and in this time as being quote unquote harsh, more intense, they it softened up in the paraphrase. And I don't think that that's doing anything good for the body of Christ. No, I agree.
SPEAKER_04And for the sake of just giving, using that exact example, so you said in our word-for-word translation, here in that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so I'm just pulling up a paraphrased version, um message being one of them. It says, Then those who grew up in the faith but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened. I'm like, that almost sounds completely different. It definitely incites a different feeling from being out in the cold versus um, we'll be weep weeping and gnashing of teeth. Because now I'm like out in the cold, I'm like, we could tolerate cold.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. There's not a lot of uh urgency.
SPEAKER_04There isn't where you're like, we'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There's no tolerating that. This is life or death. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00So something to think about, everybody, is like you're also on this journey of like being disciple, the lifelong disciple of Jesus, being discipled and partly first and foremost, to um be closer to our creator and our heavenly father, but also to evangelize, right? We can't be out, you know, just evangelizing things we don't know or understand. So I um several months ago came across a video when I started reading the Bible. I was like, what do I do? How do I do this? Yeah, how do I do this? So I actually found a cool video that um Priscilla Shire had made called The Five P's of Studying Your Bible. So I thought it would be fun if we could share with the group and then if we have time to put this is we talk a lot. So if we have time, we can like get into a specific verse and do it together.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, kind of an example of how it plays out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm excited for this.
SPEAKER_00So if you all don't know who Priscilla Shire is, she's pretty great. She is a a lot of things. I know. I was like, what do I where do I start? Um she's a pastor, a teacher, an author, an actor, she's been in films. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04She comes from a family of um, like her dad's a pastor. Her dad, Tony Evans, um, actually has a commentary which is solid. Um, she has a brother that's a gospel artist, Anthony Evans, who's also amazing. So she knows your stuff.
SPEAKER_00Will you elaborate on what commentary means in case anybody listening doesn't know?
SPEAKER_04That's great. That's actually one of the resources that we listed on that post. It's Dr. Tony Evans commentary. And so, in the way that we're talking about if you don't have understanding on a particular verse or passage, to not just accept the fact that, like, oh, I don't understand. Skip going on. There's commentaries that will give um, so in this case, it's Dr. Tony Evans' perspective on what he thinks that verse means, but it's let's not get it confused with it's his opinion. It's not his opinion. Like it is true to the core of the message, and he just paints a broader picture to give you more context to help you understand exactly what that verse is talking about. So, in the way that commentary, it's a comment on that verse.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The way that there's commentary on sports. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04Sports commentator.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a biblical I learned something this today that I wanted to share with you. It's um, we've gone a little bit off topic from it, but I'll I'm gonna talk about it anyways. Yeah. Um, I was listening to Wes Huff, who, if you don't know, is a Christian. Apologist. He is so smart. Insane. It is crazy. It's crazy. And I was listening to him actually, he was on Joe Rogan. And this is a very old episode that I just I needed something to listen to. So I was playing it. And um something that stood out to me too that I thought was so interesting was he, I'm over an hour in, and it's an over two-hour interview or conversation. But the whole time, it's all facts. He's not bringing up like there's no like spirituality in it. And I think that is so interesting and just like knowing your audience, right? Like the verse in Matthew says, Don't throw your pearls to the swine. Um, but it's just being super, super factual. Like there's a lot of times when I talk about, I don't know, the thing, my faith or my relationship with the Lord, it can come out really spiritual because that's what my relationship is. And also, I don't know all the facts, but he said that when they found so when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was already a Bible in circulation that people were using. And um the the book of Isaiah specifically, the first um, the oldest manuscript they had at that time when the Dead Screes Dead Sea Scrolls were found, which I think was in like the 20s or 30s. I could be wrong there. Don't quote me.
SPEAKER_01I could be way off. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But um, it was the manuscript was from medieval times. So they found the Dead Sea Scrolls that I think he said were like something like at least a thousand years or two thousand years before that. And the book of Isaiah was fully intact, the full book.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And when they found it and they compared it to the book of Isaiah, they had the manuscript before. It was word for word. Yeah. Come on. Is that not amazing? That's insane. Yeah. Word for word, in a different language, in a different part of the world that is thousands of years apart. Yeah. And that's how accurate, that's how how well we can um that's how preserve how it is how it's been preserved over the years.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like how I guess like the it's the inspired word of God, right? Like, yes, it was written by men, but it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Yeah. And you can't, there is no game of telephone that goes through hundreds centuries or millennia that is word for word the same.
SPEAKER_04I know, like, let's think about that in the times where we've played the game of telephone just in our childhood, and maybe even as like in a work setting between adults. How many times that message gets messed up?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so now let's take into consideration what you just shared. The Dead Sea Scrolls, thousands of years old. Who knows, you know, exactly when, but like the fact that it was preserved word for word, yeah, is nearly impossible, yet it is exactly that's pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_00And it's it was written way before the manuscript that they had.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That they had found that they had used.
SPEAKER_04Before they like had canonized the Bible, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. So when thinking about studying the Bible and the um recipe, I guess, that Priscilla Shire laid out. It's the five Ps. Is that an alliteration? Yeah. It is. So an alliteration, so that you can help it helps you remember. And I actually have memorized this and used this often. It really, really helped me. I love that. Was there anything when you first started studying that helped you get into it?
SPEAKER_04Um, I think one thing that I even now try to remind myself, even this morning, I had this thought, of um trying to find God and the scripture.
SPEAKER_00Oh, rather than yourself. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_04So, like, what have you learned about God from reading? And then um, because it's so easy to try to just read for the sake of knowing. And it's so easy to try to just um, although we should seek knowledge and grow in that, but we're not reading just to gain a bunch of more information. I truly want to get to know God's character more.
SPEAKER_00Looking for God instead of yourself. Yeah. It's so that's such a human thing to do. Anytime you read any literature, anything, right? You're reading a book and you're getting invested into it, you put yourself into it and you try to see where my similarities are, how would I do this? But when you really start to flip the perspective of like, and we still do the other way.
SPEAKER_04We still do, yeah. And and it's not to say that that's wrong, but I think the order of it matters. Um, because in the way that, yes, the word is living and active, and it will minister to us in the way that we need to, but to not um forget that there's a specific, like there's a spike specific audience that this was written to. There's certain context.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_04Um, I heard these two questions that also gave me some perspective shift. It's not just about like, okay, what does this mean to you? Because if you ask yourself, what does this mean to you? I'm basically asking you your opinion. What does this mean? What does this mean to you? When it goes a little bit deeper than that, there's a specific reason, right? Um, but maybe ask yourself, what does this mean for you? So the difference of like, what does this mean to you? What does this mean for you will also shift how you um interpret as you read. Um, because what does this mean to you versus for? Like when I think about what does this mean for you, that is directly going to um make me be more self-reflective.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Definitely um be edifying just in that thought process alone. Like, how could I be better? Like, how could I live better for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04What does this mean for you? For you.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, versus like to you, which is where we all get caught up in I think it's this is also easy for us to do when we have to be intentional in shaking this off, but creating our own idea, perspective, shape, understanding of who God is, and then letting that try to guide you through life, which is idolatry. That's fake. That's not you, that's not your that's not the real God. It's just what your human brain decided. Right.
SPEAKER_04Which is also why, like, as we go through these five Ps, it is important because we end up, I mean, we do this a lot, end up just cherry picking verses and making it fit what you want it to fit.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04I mean, that's like a perfect example of people saying that God is love. So why would you X, Y, and Z?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's not, I heard this somewhere. It's not that love is God, that's different.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04If you read the Bible, you will learn what God's love actually is. God is love. Not love is God. Yeah. That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00That is a big thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Love is not God. God Himself is love.
SPEAKER_04Right. The essence of who he is, his love.
SPEAKER_00So you can't even possibly start to even really understand love unless you unless you know God. And how do you get to know him? Let's read. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that was great. I love that. Thank you. All right. So the first P of the five P's is position. So position your heart. Um, position your heart. Expect to hear from God. This to me, to me, the what I do, how I practice this is um yeah, I start with like a prayer. And it's typically different. It's not super long, but a prayer of um asking the Lord to bless this time, thanking the Lord for this time, thanking him for his word and how good he has been, and asking him to um correct any lies I know about him. That's great. That um the words are illuminated to me from the Holy Spirit, stop me where I meant to stop. Um, and sometimes it's early in the morning and I'm really tired and I'm just like, I'm here to be with you, Lord. Like, you know, please bless this time between the two of us. But it is the position, like you can go in, open the book, and have like a where's your heart postured? Where's your heart positioned? Are your eyes on God? Are your eyes on yourself? Are you in a cranky mood? Whatever it is. So position yourself before you begin to read, before you even start to study.
SPEAKER_04I would even say, like, position your heart. I love that. So, yes, be surrendered, be expectant to hear from God, but even in a more literal way, sometimes also helps me too. So, like to physically position yourself. Like, I know that I it's easier for me to get in the mindset to be ready and to expect to hear from the Lord when I am in like the corner of my house where I like to have my devotional. Um, I also don't like to read laying down. That's just a personal preference. And so, like, I really have to physically position myself so that um I'm like really fully awake mentally too.
SPEAKER_00Totally. I think this is like a two-parter, like actually, like you said, literally position yourself. And I think it does help to try to have a specific place. Like we'll refer to it as like the our prayer closet. Sometimes it's a literal closet and sometimes it's not. Um, but there is a place where I know I'm doing my reading and my devotional time. And it's like my, I mean, it's just like right there on the couch. It's not even like a hidden place. Yeah, but that's where I feel the most positioned to hear.
SPEAKER_04It's almost like um that phrase forced adaptation. Like if you don't feel like it, well, then force yourself, position yourself so that you will eventually feel like it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, if you're like sleepy, laying down might not be the best position. I even like sometimes where um, like if I'm worshiping or praying and really just like interceding that I am standing up and even pacing, and that even put physically positions me to then position my heart.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But yeah. That is that's good too, because I when I'm alone and I pray, I'm moving around. I'm and I've ran into things. And because my eyes are closed, obviously. And I think that you know, especially if it's for a little while and you get kind of disoriented, I've run into the walls like more than once. So funny. I wish I could be a fan of wall for that. That's pretty funny. I know. I'm like, I fully believe that Jesus has a sense of humor and that sometimes he's looking at me and just like laughing. Yeah. Like, girl, what are you doing? But um, yeah, even in prayer, like if I'm alone, I'm gonna be moving around. I'm gonna be like walking around and doing like my body just naturally moves. And when we're at group, if I'm too, you know, I sit on your couch usually. So if I'm too like comfortable, I change my position. I sit up. And maybe from a point of respect, but also from a point of like, I know how prayer is powerful, and you're like, mm-hmm. I mean, you're going to war. So you get ready.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'm really gonna go way off of here as we're talking about the five piece, but you saying that part right now about like we're going to war. I know I shared like a little testimony during our Bible study that we had last week, but I want to point out the the warfare part because I was talking with a friend and I didn't even realize it. So I got to this certain point where I was feeling really convicted to pray for someone. And this someone is was a complete stranger. But um I was going back and forth in my own mind, and it felt like that it was just me, that I'm inconvenienced, I don't want to do it. Um, I'm in a rush, all these things. I don't know her. That's kind of like in the natural the thoughts that I was having. But the reality of it was that that was that was spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04The fact that the it was what the fact is is that the enemy was trying to keep me from praying for this person.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04And I didn't even realize it until after after the fact, because like we really are so used to being like, uh, I should do it. No, I shouldn't do it, uh, I should do it. Like, how many indecisive moments do we have during the day when let's, man, goodness gracious, like, let's be sliver minded. That's spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so I was really encouraged even to like have that revelation of like, wow, that was war. Thank you, Jesus, that I submitted to your will. And like what happened in the spirit when that happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And the ripple effects, I know we say that all the time, but there is like God is so detail oriented. And the more I get to know him and the more I see things, I know I'm only scratching the surface and how detailed he is. Yeah. But the most mundane, teeny tiny things that you thought didn't mean anything mean everything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, those are the treasures that we're collecting in heaven. Those little moments like that. And um for us to be positioned in a way like as we mature and grow in our faith, that we can pick up on those moments and have those realizations sooner than later. Yeah. Um, so even as we're talking about let's position ourselves to be in the word. Uh, you're not sleepy, by the way, friend. Um the enemy does not want you to have your devotional time that day is actually what it is. So the spiritual battle of it all.
SPEAKER_00Get up, move around. Yeah. Have the Bible, have whatever you're reading plain from your phone as you're holding the Bible and walking around. That'll keep you up. Yeah. Yeah. Say an extra prayer. I know. Right. Okay. The next P is pour over the passage and paraphrase the major principles. So read and reread the verse. Take the time, take time to understand each word. Look up what each word means, maybe in the original language, in English, in um, yeah, probably those in your current language and the original language. Um, and then I really love this part where she said, paraphrase it and write it down. So if you're looking at the verse and you're looking at every word and really trying to understand it, and there are things like, you know, for the because we will understand, but um really looking at if it was written, if it's Old Testament and written in Hebrew, or if it's New Testament and it was written in Greek, look up what each of those words mean in the original language. See if you get a better understanding or a better picture, and then to write it down in a paraphrase. So you're not writing it necessarily word for word. The first time I did this, it was Luke 1, verse 4 through 7, and I wrote it word for word. But you can paraphrase it in like, this is how, this is what I've understood from this. This is the general understanding of what this is, and then you have then read it, so you've ingested it, you've then sat on it, and then you've written it out, so you're gonna remember it better.
SPEAKER_04That's really, really great. Because a number of times, too, when you could read something, time goes by, and then you literally forgot everything that you've read and how frustrating that could be because yes, you do want to retain it. Um, but it's not just about like there's a time to memorize verses, right? Like I think part of um I love this so much too, because it's almost like it's giving you permission to do that, really, so that you could just absorb just the core message of the what the word is saying to you. But I remember as a kid, I don't know how this started, but I remember someone saying, don't ever miss quote scripture. Like it's a really as if like it's a really, really bad thing to do that. And I think there's it's there's truth to that. Like you should have reverence for the word. You shouldn't want to um don't add to it, don't take away from it. But I think it made me almost like nervous to like not ever recite it in case I get one of the words wrong.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. Yeah. And what just yeah, you staying silent instead of like I'm speaking to get it wrong.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But there is a um a time and a place like this P here, pour over the passage and paraphrase the major principles. Like you still need because what is it to to um recite a Bible verse word for word, but to not have understanding of it. So you still want to have understanding. You don't want to just like regurgitate it for the sake of memorizing a verse.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I mean, the the point of memorizing it is like it should be imprinted. Yeah. It's because you've you've understood what is being conveyed, what is being meant, where God's character is in that versus like we can you can misquote scripture all day, take the Bible out of context all day, and then you've got a completely different theology.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because you haven't really learned it. You just like we're good at memorizing things. That's really good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I want to maybe this is like a good time for us to put this into practice with like the point here where it says take time to understand each word. And so what happens with, I think sometimes we get so committed to whatever our devotional or even like uh Bible plan is that you want to just get through it. So you're like, okay, I have to read through Psalm 116, let me just go ahead and finish it. But when you get to a place of like not understanding something, um, to just camp out there. And so, like, I know for me when I did like the 360 Bible plan where you're like having to read over the whole Bible in a year, it took me like two and a half years because I had just so many points of like stopping, you know? And so I don't know, let's uh you want to pick a verse and maybe uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Should we just do 116 verse one? Yeah, since I'm there. So we we were um talking about Psalm 116 earlier, so that's where we are in our Bibles, and I do really love the first verse of this psalm. It's in the ESV. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. And it's that simple. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy, and so in in the in the English version, right, we might think, oh yeah, I know I've read that, I understand that, I know what that means. I love God because he hears me and he hears me ask for mercy. But you can get more granular, um, like I know that the two of us do like I don't want to say overcomplicating it. We're not overcomplicating it, we just love the word and we want to know everything. Like more. Yeah, we just want more of it. So, like even love, whereas like there's different types of love, right? And what love would I think that there's is there it's Greek that there's different types of love. And this would have been written in Hebrew, yeah, or Aramaic, yeah. And or Aramaic. Um but even like heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. How often do we plead for mercy? Probably not very often. How often do we plead? How often do we talk about mercy outside of like a biblical context? Probably not very often. So even like looking at like, what is even the English definition of this?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, even as we slow down looking at this verse, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. So we're talking about even understanding each word, and so it's not just this person that is rejoicing and professing, I love the Lord, but it completely changes the tone of the entire verse when you think about this person has pleas for mercy. Like clearly they're going through a difficulty of some sort. So, even just like if we hadn't had that word like please, P-L-E-A-S, um, the whole thing would be different. You know, I even so like as you said that like we we read through Psalm 116 earlier, um, in verse six, this was something that stood out to me. It says, The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. I'm like the simple. And then again, like in my own time, if there's a word that is highlighted to you to go into a concordance, to even go into we've listed out some tools again on that post. I'm gonna re just refer you guys to that. But I had to dig into even like what that word simple was. And I think one of the things was like a yielded heart.
SPEAKER_00Oh. Mm hmm. That's kind that's pretty enlightening. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's a whole new meaning. Right.
SPEAKER_00Cause if you think about simple in terms of how we would use it today, it would be like somebody dim. Maybe somebody like sick.
SPEAKER_04It's unintelligent. It's a little insulting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh-huh. But okay, unintelligent. That was another one of those things, like basically a less learned. But isn't that the root of our um blessed are the poor in spirit? Yeah. Like to be all of us are are compared to God, simple and less learned. We know nothing.
SPEAKER_00And apart from Him in general, we're simple. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. How earlier you're like, I felt like an ant. Like, I mean, we really are like an ant, a grain of sand. Yeah. Compared to him. So, but but here it says the Lord preserves the simple. You know, and so he like preserves them. Like he, in the way that we are so uh, we're just children to him. We're so simple to him. He protects the simple, he preserves the simple. He actually blesses the ones that are poor in spirit. Like it just goes so much deeper than that. Even, I mean, like we're just we're just going over this because we just want to paint an example of how each and each word can change. Even in verse 10, it's I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. So we we talked earlier about even using different versions. I'm reading out of the ESV, but there's another version where it says, I believed, so I spoke. So putting the word so there actually totally changed the meaning of the verse to me. Although it essentially says the same thing. It says, I believed even when, but it said, I believed so I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. And that literally flipped the verse for me where this became my favorite verse in this entire chapter.
SPEAKER_00So if you had to paraphrase verse 10, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. How would you paraphrase that?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. I would pray paraphrase it by saying, Because I know who my God is and I believe in his character and he is who he says he is, I'm gonna call out to him when I am in pain.
SPEAKER_00Amazing. And that's that's not like that much longer. You're not doing you're not adding a ton of stuff. This is, I think when you're doing this for your personal study and like you're writing things down, right? It's just like write down your paraphrased understanding of it.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00It's re-enforcing that in your brain.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And the and the feeling also, right? Right. So you remember that feeling. Yeah. So let's just stick with verse 10 then. All right, guys, we're all over the place verse wise. No, that's we're in Psalm 16, verse 10. Good. So the third, we've done position, first P, second, pour over the passage and paraphrase the major principles. Third P, pull out the spiritual principles. So, what do we mean by that? Ask yourself, what are you meant to learn from this verse? What is God saying? What does it teach about God's character? So, even you it these these all go together. So, even in just what you were saying with verse 10, in you know how good God is, you believed, so you know he's gonna hear you when you speak out. So, what is what is this saying about God's character?
SPEAKER_04It's kind of referring back to the first part of the chapter in Psalm 116, where um the writer is saying that he inclined his ear to me. So when it comes to God's character, it's telling me that like he is someone that we could trust, he is someone that we can count on, he is consistent and he is able. When you think about who do you go to when you need help for something, that person has to be equipped to even be able to help you. So, like if I have an injury, let's say a really bad injury, am I gonna go to a plumber? No, he's not equipped. Yeah. I'm gonna go to a doctor. I'm gonna go to the phone.
SPEAKER_00And probably a doctor that you've been to before and you have seen do good work. Right. Right. And because we have seen, we have lived one, we have proof here in the word, but we have proof by our lives and seeing how God has worked in our lives that we know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Even that first part of verse 10 where it says, I believed. Well, let's even just sit on that. I believe because he's believable. Yeah. Like I I believe because I know him. Like I believe, like you said, because I've seen his good works throughout time with how he has shown up.
SPEAKER_00So like then, I believed because he's believable. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But and that is why it's like, so I spoke. And then if you look here, it if you guys are looking at the first when it says, I believed even when I spoke, comma, open quotation, I am greatly afflicted, end quotation. So this person is speaking, he's letting us know what he said to God, even as he's speaking to us in this prayer. So it's like he he spoke aloud and told God directly, I am greatly affect afflicted. And so to even like speak aloud to the person that you trust, because he's the one that can do it.
SPEAKER_00This I'm we might be all over the place this episode. Sorry, this is my fault.
SPEAKER_04The lack of preparation. No, this is good.
SPEAKER_00Um, so I looked in the concordance, and um a concordance is like kind of like a map of the what the original language means to the English. So afflicted in the way that it was um defined in Hebrew says to be bowed down. And when you think afflicted, you think like ill or hurting, right? But also to say like to be bowed down. I believed even when I spoke. I'm bowed down. So like in interesting, in a like acknowledgement of the authority and the lordship.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's interesting because now I'm thinking as you're bringing a new layer of meaning into that. Because when I first heard the word afflicted, I think of like I'm in anguish, I'm anguish, I'm in pain. But to even think about like when you're in pain, you do get to a point of being so lowly, yeah like you hit rock bottom, like they say. Yeah. But how beautiful is that when you get to that lowly place now, you're at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Yes, you're bowed down, yeah, completely surrendered, yielded.
SPEAKER_04This is so good.
SPEAKER_00This is studying the Bible. Yeah, we're doing this live, but not live, literally in real time. Yeah, yeah. Um, so pull out the spiritual principles. What does this teach us about God's character? Um, the spiritual principles being that that believed just keeps ringing in my head. Like believed because he's believable, believed because I have seen, I have heard, I have felt, and I know. Yes. And I think that point getting to that point of believing may look different for everybody. Yeah. In if it's a supernatural encounter, if some people are really evidenced into believing, like if you've seen um a case for Christ, Lee Strobel, he was really evidenced into believing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And some other some people do that. They need that, you know, it's very factual, or other people need like a very personal encounter of like a spiritual moment that you can't articulate where you actually meet the Holy Spirit. Anyways, all of that to say, like, what this tells me of God's character is that He's believable. Yeah. It's I'm gonna keep quoting you on that.
SPEAKER_04I even like though what you said with how some people really need the facts, some people are really met in a more spiritual way, but like God meets you in the like exactly where you are, and that's sometimes a prayer that I pray, like, God, can you show up for them in a way where they can receive it? Like, yeah, He'll speak to you in the way where you can understand it most clearly.
SPEAKER_00And in how we were talking about that, people learn differently and they have different styles of learning that make them um uh be able to retain knowledge. If myself, I am an auditory learner. So if people are talking to me, if I'm listening to something, I can get it, I can, I can digest it, I can understand it, and I can speak it back out. But if I were to sit alone in silence, just reading a uh reading a book, I would get it, but it wouldn't be as much. I wouldn't learn it as well. I actually love that because I'm the opposite. You have to read it to see it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I have to see it. I'm very visual and I need it. I it I learn best when I'm like by myself and it's completely quiet.
SPEAKER_00Interesting.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I can't have I I have a harder time when it's super quiet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I have when I do this, I have the Bible plain and then I have the Bible open.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then I'll pause it and do a little like a little study or something, or where I need to, or go back to whatever I'm doing. But yeah, that God will meet you where you're at because He one, He designed you, He gave you that specific learning style for an intention, an intentional reason. So interesting. He'll find you where you're at.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Like I have had a time where my prayer closet was very literal, it was in my closet. And I even think now where I have a really cool space in our master bedroom, there's like a separate like nook that I've made my devotional space. But the number of times I've looked over my closet and been like, I might just move back to the closet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because I just like being locked in a room quiet, no distractions. I need like I wish honestly I could be someone that was more auditory and just to have things going in the background.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because the way my life is set up, guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, when you have a six-year-old, it's hard for it to be totally quiet. Yeah. I tried to do a like to have a literal closet too in my own closet. And I get in there and I'm like, I can't breathe.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, less air in here the better.
SPEAKER_00That's why I'm running into walls because I'm out walking around in my whole house.
SPEAKER_04I can't just sit and kneel. Even with that though, do you pray always, always with your eyes closed?
SPEAKER_00Not always.
SPEAKER_04Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00No, like this morning I prayed with my eyes open.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00And uh, but there's a time and a place. It it kind of is like what I'm in need of and what's going on. I feel like if I'm really going to, like we want to say, go to war, like it is, I mean almost all of my prayers are intentional. But when I feel full of the spirit, my eyes are closed. Yeah. When I feel beaten down, when I feel afflicted, my eyes are open. Okay. Interesting.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I would say, yeah, there's I agree, there's a time and a place for it. But I think when I'm usually by myself, usually I'm like almost the opposite of what you're saying. Like when I am feeling afflicted, my eyes are closed. Or if I just really need to buckle down because of the distractions, I'll close my eyes. But if I'm like actually by myself and I'm truly just having my own like deep devotional secret place time, my eyes are open. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's interesting.
SPEAKER_04I love that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I tangent, side note. I saw a video of Bryce Crawford praying for somebody recently. And he, I think he was at like a like a pride event or something. And he's praying for this man. And he tells him, like, they're so close. And he's like, Can I put my hand on your shoulder? And he says yes. So he puts his hand on his shoulder, and the man is looking at him and doesn't close his eyes. And Bryce closes his eyes. Uh-huh. And then at some point opens his eyes and they're like making challenges. They're so close. Like their noses are probably like six inches, maybe less far apart from each other. And then they open, like he opens eyes and they're eyelash eyelash.
SPEAKER_05I was like, oh talk about going to war. Yeah. Like I'm gonna look straight through into your soul. Um, what's I gotta say?
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, no, I had this thought actually just the other day. I'm like, maybe when I pray for strangers, I should have my eyes open. That's a very vulnerable position to be like that close with someone with your eyes closed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I've thought about that.
SPEAKER_04Again, time and a place. There's time and a place. There's some, I mean, like most times I will say my eyes are closed. Mostly because I'm like, okay, Lord, I want to like hear you. Um, but yeah, time in a place of like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I forgot. I feel like I get really powerful prayers in the car. Yeah. And um my eyes have to be open. Uh so we've gotten to okay, the five P's. First P, position. Second P, pour over the message and paraphrase. Third P, pull out the spiritual principles. Fifth, fourth P, excuse me. Pose the question. Okay, I love this. Turn the principle that you just drew out, the spiritual principle, into a question for yourself. Are you living this way? Is there something you need to repent for or walk away from? And write down your answer from the Holy Spirit. That's great.
SPEAKER_04I love the um the turning it to yourself and asking, are you living this way? Because I do think that is one of the keys to reading scripture. And earlier when we're like, what does this mean for you? Or it's not that you're just reading for knowledge, but you're reading it so you can actually apply it to your life so that you may live righteously, have your eyes open to things so that we can continue to honor God and our walk, versus like you're just reading for knowledge for the sake of spinning it back at someone. You don't really get a chance to fully meditate on it. I think that's part of what meditating on the word is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's not just reading it for knowledge, but it's reading it so that it could seep into every pore of and cell of your being. And then in order to do that, you have to be self-reflective in to some degree.
SPEAKER_00You have to. Yeah. I think that if you're not self-reflective, you're not really, I mean, I am not God.
SPEAKER_04It's easy to become fair like a Pharisee, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what I that's exactly what I was getting at. Like, what are you doing? Yeah if you're not self-reflected. Right. Are you actually rooted? Where where's your where's your heart postured? Where are your eyes fixed? Because I would believe that when your eyes are fixed on Jesus, you're gonna feel that humility, right? The fruit of the spirit that would make you want to be self-reflective in that way. But if you have that kind of hardening that you can't ever I used to do this where I would read scripture or hear a sermon, and I would almost always be like, Oh, this would be so good for this person to hear.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This would be so good for that person. Oh, my so-and-so needs to hear this word. Yeah. And like, girl, you need this. Right. Take a bath. You need it. Did you say take a bath? Yeah, I'm sturdy.
unknownThat's good.
SPEAKER_05No, I think that probably most of us do that, honestly.
SPEAKER_04Um, okay, referring back to this testimony that I had shared. I don't mean to be so elusive either with this. I mean, like, I just, if you see me, you could ask me about it. But so thinking about praying for this person, and I'm literally like, God, I pray I'm like just a few feet away from them, praying for them to myself without them knowing. Like, Lord, I pray that they can encounter you, Jesus. I pray that they can know the truth. Like, I pray that they, they, they, they, they send someone. And then you want to show on their inside about him.
SPEAKER_05Uh, that's for you, girl. Like, you go walk over there and yeah, that's for you.
SPEAKER_04But we're just like, oh, someone else should. No, that's that's uh that's a word for yourself.
SPEAKER_00I'm so glad you spoke about that because I think we all need to hear that. That was a big I needed to hear that too, because I pray that so often too for people I'm close to. And I'm like, Lord, can you just let them encounter you? Show yourself to them, show yourself to them. And I'm like, hi, like, yeah, what'd you have for dinner? Like, those are our conversations rather than like send someone to pray for them, please. Yeah. Uh you hello. I literally have here I am tattooed on the hand. Here I am. So posing the question from verse 10, Psalm 116, verse 10, posing the question, are you living this way? And is there something you need to repent for? I I think this speaks pretty loudly to me. Like, um, and you tell me if you feel differently. Like, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. Um, am I living this way? Am I going to God? Am I believing even when I'm when I feel greatly afflicted? Am I speaking to God? You know, like am I taking it there first? What what would you say? I agree.
SPEAKER_04I think that's a perfect way to turn it around on yourself. Um, and I think earlier I said in a different translation, it's it said I had mentioned that it said so instead of even when. I'm looking here. Um, it the word might have been so, but another word is therefore. So I believed therefore I have spoken.
SPEAKER_00I like that. What version is that?
SPEAKER_04This might be the King James. It's just the um, I am looking at the Hebrew translation for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so, yeah. But it translates more to therefore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I believed therefore I spoke. Am I living that way? I believed therefore I spoke. Are you uh like do you like?
SPEAKER_04Are you even calling out like when you are afflicted, are you also that person that is speaking to God?
SPEAKER_00When you're anxious, what's your first thought?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00When you're scared, what's your first thought?
SPEAKER_04What is your therefore?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04What is your next step?
SPEAKER_00Even when you win.
SPEAKER_04Right? I won therefore. Yeah. I cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00Yes. That's great. I think that's a yeah, a pretty good, like, simple way to do it. And then I mean, pray it. Talk to the Holy Spirit in that moment. You've already blessed this time when you positioned yourself, you know, literally and and figuratively, metaphorically, um, spiritually, I guess. So the Holy Spirit's already with you. Not that he like leaves, but write down what what your answer is. Am I living this way? You'll know in your heart, right? If you'll know in your heart, yeah, what the answer is and where it comes from. You could try to fool other people, but you know. Yeah. And God knows. Exactly. And um I think writing it down is huge. Yeah, equally important because I write a lot of my prayers. And I was going through my journal earlier to like just and truth be told, y'all, I can't read a lot of the writing. But I can pick out certain things and it reminds me of it'll trigger a memory. Yeah, like the memory of being brought out of Egypt. Yeah. And knowing what God has done.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And writing that down is going to again reinforce it. You've now heard it, you've thought it, you've read it, and you've wrote it.
SPEAKER_04I think that with the writing it down, it's important. One for the sake of processing. There's something different that happens when pen meets paper, but also for the sake of having a um almost like an altar of remembrance, and to even have something that something more tangible to cause you to remember. Um, I think when Vic was on, we even talked about so like how she had looked at pre previous journal entries and she was encouraging us to like go back and read some of what you've said. But even with talking with another friend, how um she has tangible things in her house to help her remember some of the good things that have happened. I even think I think I share this with you. My earliest childhood memory was from when I was about. And honestly, thinking about Kendrick at the age of two, that seems kind of impossible to have a memory that early. But I really am convinced that I have that memory because I even remember the emotion that I held in that memory. But it was because pretty much every day for like every year of my childhood, I looked at a photo that was hanging up on our wall in our home that was of that day. And so it marked me because it stayed fresh in my memory. And so with writing things down, with as we are um asking these questions to ourselves, it helps us to keep it just in remembrance, like very literally.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, I think that's awesome because they say you when you remember a memory, you're not remembering the actual memory, you're remembering the last time you had that memory.
SPEAKER_04That is so good. And I think that's exactly what was happening.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So every time when um you have this picture in your house, and even from a young age, it probably like you probably did have that memory too, but it reinforced it almost every single day.
SPEAKER_04It's like out of sight, out of mind. Well, it was never out of sight, so it's just stayed in mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It's like a sticky note in the form of a photo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Do you want to hear what this memory is actually?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04You guys, this is my very first memory that I have in my brain. And it's kind of funny. Um, and this also is a reflection of truly like how old I was. So it was during the summer. My brother and I, we lived in this one house, and this is how I also know kind of my age, because I was around the age two or three when we lived in this house in Korea. And I remember like it had a green gate. On the handle was like the shape of a lion and like a little ring where you'd pull the gate open. And then right when you walk into the gate, there's like this really steep hill. And me and my brother used to sit like on his skateboard. We would sit on one skateboard together on our butt and then like sit on that skateboard, roll down that hill, and crash into the gate. That was like our thing that we did. And then during the summer, we had this like inflatable little pool, which is tiny, but in my mind it was big. And it was like a shape of a blue whale. And then it would spew out water. And so I remember I had this like pink swimsuit on, had hardly any hair. Somehow my mom managed to get it into a ponytail and have like a memory of like, um, and then this is part of the photo, have a memory of me leaning over and putting like my mouth up to the water. I'm like soaking wet. And then I the stairs leading up into that house at the bottom of the stairs, instead of it being a railing, it was like, I don't know, six inch wide, just cement siding. And at the bottom it was flat so I can sit on it. And so I remember sitting on it and I'm my swimsuit's wet and I was sitting on it. And then this is my memory. Had the memory of like, um, did I just pee? Or is it because my swimsuit is wet?
SPEAKER_00That is actually a very intelligent thought for a toddler.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And then I'm like, oh, I peed. I need to go up. And then I remember running up the stairs. Isn't that funny? Yeah. It was like so early to the point, like I was still pretty much probably fresh out of being potty trained.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's so funny.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So and there is a picture of you with the pool, with the kitty pool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I actually have it on my phone. It's like probably one of my only childhood pictures that I still have.
SPEAKER_00I want to see this when we're done.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. But the memory, the photo is not of me having the thought, but my memory is like the emotion and the thought that I had on that specific day.
SPEAKER_00It's funny. I think that that's good brain exercise to start recalling things from your childhood. I've got like a weird, crazy memory where I remember a lot of things. But you know, people say, like, I hardly remember my childhood, or even my mom doesn't like hardly remembers my childhood. Or my just I think both of my parents. It's actually funny because yesterday when I talked to my dad, he was telling me since my um my niece was born yesterday and we were talking about that. Yeah, but he was recalling when the day I was born. Oh wow. And different things from that day and how much he hated the doctor. And I'm like, that's so fascinating that you remember that.
SPEAKER_04It was a strong feeling, that's why it stayed in his mind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because there, I mean, there's photos, I guess, but not from like the birthing process of like an infant after.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just your newborn. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00With a bow taped to my head because I was bald.
SPEAKER_05We were both bald babies. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So okay, pose the question. All right. Write down your answer. The whole point of that was the importance of writing it down. Yeah. The last P, and I thought this was so interesting. Plan obedience. Wow. So Priscilla said, we plan everything else in our lives. Plan how you'll abide going forward. This is the intentionality. Yeah. So I think that we we get into this place where we want it to be, especially if we come from like a place of like really, really genuine repentance. It's like, okay, now I'm never gonna do that right now. But it do is that setting yourself up for failure? I mean, some people can do that. Also, don't plan it too far off. Like, oh, I'm you know, I'm in I'm living in sexual immorality and I'm fornicating. So in two years, Lord, I'll be obedient after this two years. Don't do that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But if that is the case, right? Maybe you live with somebody you're not married to and you're sleeping with them, you know, planning to the the point of like, okay, I'm gonna have a conversation with them Sunday. And then after Sunday, I'll give them time to digest it. And then Tuesday, we'll have separate bedrooms. And then by the end of the month, maybe I don't know, you'll be in a different home, whatever it is. Or specifically to this verse, like, okay, Lord, I'm I heard you, I'm not going to you first. I'm trying to control things, and I'm not coming to you first with my um when I'm greatly afflicted. Yeah. I'm when I need to be bowing down. So come two days from now, whenever that is, I'm going to say on this date, today's the 18th. So on the 20th, I'm going from forward from that, I'm going to remember to go to God first.
SPEAKER_04That's really good. And then let's say that time comes when um, okay, you're upset and you didn't go to him right away. That's the beauty of also journaling and writing things down. Like, go ahead and write down, like, okay, I got upset. My first, my, my first action step was not going to him. Write that down. Next time it happens again. Okay, maybe you mess up again, you fall short again. Write that down again. And then over time, you do just start to recognize and you are able to catch yourself. And so we're not gonna get things perfect, especially with emotions, with how fickle we are as humans and how just up and down that we can be. But each time though, you I think it's so important to reflect and to recognize, give yourself the grace, but also like it's it's there's something about writing things down where it really does help you remember. And then next time it's like, before you know it, like, wow, I remembered like, okay, I needed to go to God first because I kept telling myself all these pastimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And then you remember it happens, and it's like, Lord, I'm bringing this to you. Help me right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think just re-emphasizing the importance of writing it down, of yes, it does, it's it, it's it reinforces it personally, but it just made me think like the Bible is not oral tradition. Right? Yeah. People were commanded to write it down, right? So that we could we could refer to these words. And in the same way, if you planned for my obedience is gonna start in two days, and you fail because you're gonna fail, and probably more times than you're proud of. But every time you open up your journal or you're going back through your journal, you can say, Okay, I planned my obedience there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And now don't now don't let yourself feel condemned because that's not from God, but you can use it as a you know, a point of repentance, and then if you maybe replan it, yeah, come up with another date.
SPEAKER_04Right. I like that you mentioned that even in the Bible, the number of times that we're told to write things down, or even the number of times that like profit prophets were commanded, like Moses on with the tablets, the Ten Commandments, he had to write it down, right?
SPEAKER_00It's one of my it's one of my favorite verses in Revelation when and it's not in the ESV translation. I can't remember what it is, but I think it's literally it's it's Jesus. It's not one of the angels speaking to John. And he says, Write this down. Oh yeah. And I just I just picture like just this is good. Write it down, write it down.
SPEAKER_04You know, I love that. So one of my one of my favorites, bro. It's like this is my favorite, this is my favorite, but truly, one of my favorite verses too is Habakkuk 2, 2 and 3. I'm gonna read it. It says, Um, and the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plan on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointment time, it hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it and it will surely come. It will not delay. And so write the vision and make it plan on tablets. Now I'm basically paraphrasing kind of what this is speaking to me. Write it down because there will be a time when it feels like uh it's slow, like you're waiting on this unanswered prayer. But if you could write it down, make it plain to see so that it is a vision during during those times of feeling weary and maybe heavy hearted, that you can see the vision and be refreshed and encouraged, and you could like kind of zero in on the target and run to it. Like the beautiful thing about writing it down. Yeah, keeping it fresh in your mind.
SPEAKER_00Write this down. This is good.
SPEAKER_04That's a good title right there.
SPEAKER_00All right, we did it. So just reiterating, I feel like I've said this way too many times, but I don't want you guys to forget the five P's of studying the Bible, position, pour over the passage and paraphrase the major principles, pull out the spiritual principles, pose the question, and plan obedience. That's great. And it doesn't, I don't want to say this like every single time you sit down to read the Bible, it should be like super formal and you should be so studious and do this every time. I'm not saying you have to do that every time. And you probably don't have to do it, you know, you don't have to do it with every single verse. I literally thought I was gonna do it with every verse. And when I started, I was like, this is impossible. But if I'm those those verses that stand out when I really want to study and understand things, this is how I break it down. And it's become very easy for me.
SPEAKER_04Maybe even like a point to do this specifically on a verse that you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_04That is like a really I mean this is think of this as a tool, right? This is a tool in your belt to help equip you understand God's word.
SPEAKER_00Any closing thoughts? Um no.
SPEAKER_04Um a tool in the belt of truth. Yes. No, no closing thoughts really. I I just I I think I just love this so much because we really do love to learn. And I say I love to learn because there are so many things I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's the point.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and you can uh not attack it, but you can come at it from a point of I don't understand, so I'm not even gonna try, or I'll never understand, or you can come at it from a place of I don't understand, so I'm going to seek to understand.
SPEAKER_04Loki, I like the attack it. Attack it because I think that is what we do. Like I maybe our personalities, yeah, but like, okay, this is the uncomfortable thing. This is the part I don't understand. We're coming full force for it till we get it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownAttack.
SPEAKER_00Attack. That's the second name for through it. Yeah. Attack through it. All right. I'm gonna give us a quick prayer and we can get back to I don't know. We'll probably talk more honestly, guys. All right, Lord Jesus, thank you so much, Father. Thank you for the sunshine today. Thank you for the the breath in our lungs and the um the continued space that you've given us, the opportunities that we have to speak about you, Lord. Um, thank you for the way that the body is diverse, and there are different members of the body that are here to help us understand your word in ways we didn't know we could do on our own. We thank you for the wisdom and the discernment of your Holy Spirit, Father, to um illuminate the words for us and allow us to understand um who you are and your character and how you really, really love us, Lord, how good you actually really are to the best we can. Um, I pray for everybody listening that that this was um helpful in in how they study their word, Lord, that it brings them closer to you. I pray that you um give them more discernment and wisdom from the Holy Spirit and illuminate the words to them um during their devotional time in ways that they didn't even think were possible, Father. Give them supernatural energy to be able to sit with you, give them supernatural wisdom and intelligence to uh believe and see and know in ways they haven't before. Um, and I pray that this just stirs all of everybody up, including myself and Kimberly Father, to just spend more time with you and learn more about you. Um even correct any lies that we uh we bel we might believe about you or think about you, Lord Jesus. Um in your name I say these prayers in your mighty holy name, Jesus. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_04Um, you know, I want to throw in an extra prayer. Yeah, because I just feel like Father God, I just anyone that's listening right now that is feeling anxious, um, that is feeling any level of anxiety or stress or just a weight on their heart, I just ask you, Holy Spirit, to lift that up right now, Father. I ask you, Lord Jesus, that um the spirit of peace could just flooding it, could come flooding into their lives. If there's someone listening right now that truly just feels burdened, Lord, we ask you in the name of Jesus just to lift it. And I just ask you for the spirit of peace could could just take over, Father God. Um, give us a heart that is fully surrendered. Give us a heart that could come to you immediately when we are feeling afflicted, Lord, that we may be people that truly believe, Father God. And even in our unbelief, Lord, that we can just speak the name of Jesus and that your name will um take over and conquer any fears, Lord. We cut off and we loose the fear, the anxiety, the unrest, the feeling of being unsettled, um, the feeling of the what-ifs and what could happen, Lord Jesus. We just cancel that anxiety in the name of Jesus. And I just ask you, Lord, that you meet us, um, that there could be a tangible sense of your love that just covers over us because you are able and you are dependable. And we thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.