March 17 - 23

Here are the scriptures for this week's podcast:

March 17 - 2 Peter 1: 2-11

March 18 - Isaiah 12: 1-6

March 19 - John 16: 25-33

March 20 - Psalm 145 : 1-13a

March 21 - Psalm 145: 13b-21

March 22 - Romans 1-9a, 13

March 23 - Ephesians 6: 10-18

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome to Flip Devotional the Podcast, where each week Martha Shannon, the author of Flip Devotional the Book, and Steve Shannon discuss the readings from the week. If you haven't gotten Flip Devotional the Book, you still can, but it costs more than it should. Um, so I suggest you get the ebook, which is available on Amazon. No, Barnes and Noble, maybe both. Sorry. Um and yeah, just enjoy chiming in with us each week on the podcast. Um, this week I want to do a shout out to Drumroll Italy. Someone from Italy.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Milan, Italy.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Milan, Italy, down there.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

An Olympian.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Our podcast, which is so exciting. Um, also Santa Clara, California, and Phoenix, Arizona. Those are our new locations that have shown up. Now, I know that you can listen to the podcast without downloading it. So there may be many more people who are listening to it. But the only way I know is if you download it and then it pops up for me and I can see where you are, which is kind of fun. Um, I I mean, I check it all the time because I just think that's kind of cool. Uh, we're hoping to add some more continents um in the future. So uh look out for that. And if you are joining with the companion, which are scriptures that are available on the Flip Devotional Facebook page. Um, so if you read Flip Devotional last year and you want something else or in addition to read, there are scriptures posted there. At this point, if you have been reading The Companion, you have read almost 560 verses of the Bible, which is is pretty cool. Yeah. That's that's a lot of Bible you're reading. And that's if you've read just the companion. So there you go. Woohoo! All right, you ready to jump in?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Ready. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

All right, March 17th. Now, I've decided since um some of you may have not gotten the book and may not be following along with the book, but you still want to um follow along in the podcast, that I would start giving the references of the scriptures because you may not know what they are. So the first one, March 17th is 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 2 through 11. And um to me, this is like a fabulous first passage to start out with. Um, some of the stuff that it says, woo, just so so good. The first line: grace and peace be yours, not just be yours, be yours in abundance. Then says his divine power has given us everything we need.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Everything.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Whew.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

It's everything we need for a godly life, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:59

And grace and peace in abundance.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah. That's more than we need.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

I, you know, shoo, you just if you just sat with that for a little bit and thought, do you feel like you have that? Do you feel like you have so much grace, so much peace?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

And if you're wondering how you get that, the rest of that sentence says, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

So that's why we read our Bible. That's why we read all these scriptures, that's why we learn about God, because that's where our grace and peace is going to come from. Yeah. And then we have everything we need. And then the last paragraph, or second last paragraph, says, for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. We've already said many times in this podcast that the one thing that we're supposed to do is love. That's it. We're supposed to love God and we're supposed to love others. So um one other part that I marked was um forget that they have been that we forget that we've been cleansed from our past sins. And that's really true. God is not the one that brings up past stuff and says, mmm, but remember you did that, but remember, we're the ones who do it to ourselves. Um I also noted um while I was reading this, and I don't know what to call it, Steve. It's your your little, I don't know, go-to thing. I'll say what it is, and then maybe you'll know how to identify it. You always say, God doesn't need you, but he wants you. And from this passage, he gives us all we need so we can do for him.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

So what is that called?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

A I don't know, adage, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

I I thought of that. Could be. I pronounced it differently, but okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

But yeah, but yeah, God doesn't. He wants us. He wants us. Um, and this really, this 11 verses tells us how to get there, right? I also like that it starts with faith and goes through and ends in love. Right? We hear a lot about faith, love, and hope. Starts with faith and then you progress, but the first step is faith, and then that goes, right? For this reason, faith to your faith, goodness to goodness things. So you add these things, but step one is faith. So, you know, and and and culminates in love. So we we sometimes I don't believe we perceive faith as step one. You know, that you want to have a relationship, you want to do stuff, but I don't know if always faith is where you start. But according to Peter, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah. Something I think is kind of interesting in between um well, one of these verses says, for if you possess these qualities, the one Steve was just talking about, starting with faith, ending in love, um, in increasing measure.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Increasing. So it's just an increase once, it's always increasing, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

They will keep you, so having these qualities will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

So it's not ineffective and unproductive in your work for Jesus, but in your knowledge of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

And maybe it will make you ineffective, unproductive in becoming closer to knowing him better, right? Knowledge of our Lord Jesus. If you look at people you know who are your close friends, you know things about them. Your knowledge of them is higher. So, you know, if you do these in increasing measure, which is not surprising that as you grow in your faith, it changes, right? So that's an increasing measure. Um, but you will you will remain effective and productive if you do that. If you don't, right? And I don't think God calls us to be ineffective or unproductive, whatever that may be. Whatever God wants us to do, He wants us to be effective and productive. So if you feel at times, you may not be, and we all do, maybe go back and read this. Go back and read March 17th again.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

And that, you know, but again, faith is step one. I think a lot of people, if you ask them, I'm not sure they say faith is step one.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Agreed. Yeah. All right. Very good. Thank you. All right, the next one is March 18th, and it's Isaiah 12, verses 1 through 6. Um, the thing I took away from this is that we are to talk about and tell what God has done. And I think it it shows up multiple times um in the Bible. Um, but this this passage says towards the end, it says, Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things. Let this be known to all the world. And I think if there's one thing that God wants from all of us is just that. Tell what he's done.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah. Yeah. And be a messenger.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, what a difference that could make in someone's life. And sometimes we wonder why we go through things, you know, why did something happen? Or and sometimes you can use something that happened to you to encourage someone else because they're going through the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

And because you went through it and made it, you can encourage them, say, well, this is what God did. And that's that encourages them to move on.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

So I I think that's we hear a lot of that Friday night at Celebrate Recovery.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

But yeah, I think it's encouraging, right? Tell them what he's done. Um I had down in mind trust but not be afraid, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

You know. So, and it's sometimes that's hard. I mean, sometimes it's easier to trust in the Lord, but you still might be afraid, you still might be anxious, right? But you know, I will trust and not be afraid. So part of that trust is is a confidence piece as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

You know. So and you know, Isaiah is a pretty big deal, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Anything else from that?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Um I also like the part where it said, the Lord is my strength and my defense uh is my strength in my defense, he has become my salvation.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, to me that wording is interesting. I I I don't really know what to do with that.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Um well, I think the strength in my defense, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Yes, but that he has become my salvation.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Um I think it means Isaiah has now seen the Lord as his salvation, as opposed to God becoming his salvation. He recognizes the Lord is his salvation. So it's not that God changed, it's just moved on from another one. But he now understands it as the Lord is my salvation, as opposed to, I mean, God knows it. It's kind of like I would say, mathematicians, I know two plus two is four. A mathematician knows two plus two is four, kind of in their heart. They feel it differently than in the brain. I think this for me is Isaiah is saying, okay, he has become my salvation in that I know he is my salvation. He's always been my salvation, but I understand it now that he has become that. And that happened, you know, he is my strength and my defense, and then I see the next step. That's what I take from it. It's not a message about God's change in any way, because God doesn't change, right? It's how we see the relationship with him.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah. All right. March 19th is John 16, uh verses 25 through 33. Um this one, uh, I put up at the top that during Jesus' last days, he wanted to be sure that his disciples understood what was going to happen. And so the the first line of this says, Though I've been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I'll no longer use this kind of language, but will tell you plainly about my father. So I I don't know, I just think it's sweet that as Jesus knew his time was coming to an end, that he was gonna take full advantage of the time he had with his disciples and to speak to them.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Plainly.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Yeah, so they understood because he knew, you know, pretty soon I'm not gonna be here to answer their questions or to explain everything to them. Um so yeah, so I'm gonna talk more plainly to them. Uh I love that he says, um, in that day you will ask in my name. I'm not saying that I will ask the father on your behalf. No, the father himself loves you because you have loved me. And I mean, to me, I I love that. The father himself loves you. It's like, oh, it's just I don't know. Yeah, it touches me.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Because we love Jesus, right? You know, so does the father love me if I don't love Jesus? But clearly, again, it's that relationship with Jesus. That's who he but because of that the father loved. And this uses my father or the father six times. You know, I mean, this could almost be, you know, the father verse.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Yeah, and at the end, um, he says, in this world you will have trouble, but but take heart, I have overcome the world. So again, something that we have said repeatedly bad things are gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Right. Yeah, there's no guarantee.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Your life is not yeah, guaranteed to be rosy, no problems, just surfing through, um just because.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

I mean, there's sin in the world, the world is the world. Things are gonna happen. Yeah, even Jesus said things are gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

And where we can take comfort is he has overcome the world and he is with us.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

So we we can take that with us.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah. Also in the second paragraph, the disciples say, now we can see all things, and you don't even need to have anyone else ask you questions. This makes us believe you came from God. So that's the turning point, right? And it's here that Jesus' disciples. It wasn't just Peter or it wasn't John, it was the disciples. Now we know you came from God because you speak plainly. But right away Jesus tells them, Do you believe? At one point you'll scatter. In my notes, I wrote down, When do we scatter and leave Jesus alone? Everybody says, I'm not alone. The Father's with me. But when do we scatter and leave Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah. Um I just want to mention the companion verse for this one because it's a it's a parable, um, but one that that kind of connects with this. It's Mark 12, verses 1 through 12. And it's the story of um a man who had a vineyard, and um he rented the vineyard out, and when it was harvest time, he sent a servant to collect what belonged to him. And the the tenants uh took the servants and um sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Beat him or something.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yes, yes. And so the owner sent another one and they did the same thing, and then he sends his son, thinking, oh, because it's my son, they'll respect him and they'll listen to him. Uh, but they didn't. They were like, oh, this is the son. If we kill him, then we'll have all of this, because he'll have no one else to send, and so they kill him. And um to me, because I know the rest of the story, it's just so obvious, you know, that he's talking about himself. Right. Um, God sent his son.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

He's the guy that owns the vineyard.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

After he sent all these prophets and people along the way that were trying to point the way to God, and people they just didn't listen to them. They didn't.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And one of those was Isaiah, who we read a couple days ago.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Yes. Um, but then they kill him, and and we know that's what happened. Of course, when that parable was told, it hadn't happened. So the disciples and the people who are hearing it are kind of dumbfounded, like, okay, what is he talking about? This I you know, I'm sure it's like this is so weird.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Who's gonna do that?

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Yeah. But like I said, for us, we know. the the story and um yeah I don't know I just wanted to share that's good stuff it does l you know it relates really well but the father we don't talk much about the father right um I mean I I've said before I like the old testament I like the stories in the old testament um I like the new testament too but I feel like there are people who don't read the old testament right they they don't understand it they don't think it applies to them they don't you know whatever um but uh for me it's I don't know it's just where so much comes from and that's well it's what Jesus said and and that was all the father I was trying to think what where was I going? Yes and the New Testament is all Jesus yeah and uh you know our our daughter when she was little said um I like Jesus I don't like God because God was the you know sent a flood and killed everyone on the earth and um he did all these other things that sound scary and Jesus was the I love you everything's gonna be okay guy yeah yeah and I feel like a lot of adults are like that Moses into the promised land yeah in some ways I mean you got to see it which I don't know if that's better or more I often thought that's not as good.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

I know but it's like you can't have the steak but let's you want to take a look at it you want to smell it?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah no I don't want to just smell it yes okay March 20th is a psalm. Correct actually March 20th and 21st together is Psalm 145. So it's it was too long to put in one but it just seemed like you couldn't split it up I mean you couldn't you know only do half of it.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

And you couldn't do it six months apart.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Right right so we have two days of Psalms all and you're the author you can do what you want 145 by golly that's right. So in this Psalm five times it says they tell and we again we've talked before about if something shows up multiple times in the same passage like Steve said father was how many times in that other one? Five or six yeah um then that means something. Yeah so it goes okay let's pay attention to this so they and and this goes back to a couple of days ago where we said tell of the things that he's done and that's what this passage is saying it says they tell right of your mighty acts they speak of the glorious splendor they tell of the power of your awesome works they celebrate your abundant goodness. They exalt they praise they extol I mean it's and you know these are action verbs right yeah and I didn't even include those in the the they tell count yeah but they're all still they're doing the same thing. Right and it it says to pay attention to God's attributes. So the second paragraph says the Lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger I like that. Yeah doesn't say he doesn't get angry. No he gets angry but he's slow to get there and he's rich in love and if you're rich you have more than you need so he has a lot of love right and the Lord is good to all good to all has compassion on all he has made yeah why would you not want to follow a God like that yeah yeah and have a relationship with him right yeah he has compassion on all that he has made and that you know ties back to parables like the parable of the um lost coin the lost sheep the prodigal son it doesn't matter how much he has if if there's one that's struggling out there he has compassion on them and he wants them he wants them to come back to him and and he wants to love on them and give them all the grace and peace in abundance but the one thing they have to do is to come to him. Right so if we go to March 21st and we finish Psalm 145 um up in my notes it says the word all is used ten times in this passage so in the part before we had they tell they tell they tell and now there's the word all and I'm I I don't often do this but I'm just gonna read this.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Yeah because it it adds content to the alls.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Yeah and and yeah so just just listen to this and and just take it in says the Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does the Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down the eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time you open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him to all who call on him in truth he fulfills the desires of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them the Lord watches over all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy my mouth will speak in praise of the Lord let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever so sweet and you know that there's one part that is like I almost hate to say it but it's the truth all the wicked he will destroy. Yeah I mean we don't want to think about that but if you're going to continue to not follow God and be against him yeah he gives you lots of chances and and he's there to pull you in and he never changes. So you you know up front what you're getting yeah yeah yeah and the more you know about him it just confirms reinforces all of that you know so yeah I have eleven alls ten are good alls and one's a bad all so funny but the Lord is near to all who call on him so right now he's near us right and a person lives who listened in Milan or Santa Clara Frankfurt Germany Frankfurt Germany God's is there right God is near to each of them so good I liked it all right I know I'm not a big fan of Psalms I know March 22nd is Romans 15 1 through 9 and verse 13.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

And Romans is a letter Paul wrote to both the Christians and the Jews in Rome. That's how we get the name Romans. Okay go on um but it's again this is part of what he did but he was telling them but but for me um each of us should please our neighbors for their good and build them up build up your neighbors sometimes that's really hard because you know again we don't pick our neighbors right then he talks about I had the endurance taught in scriptures the encouragement that they provide that we might have hope. So hope comes up again hope's another thing we're talking about but the scriptures right will give you the encourage from hope. So again read your Bible because that's the scriptures that's the source right um also has uh oh endurance encouragement and provide and later on we do the same God does it for us right and we do it for others that we are to teach them endurance encouragement and hope so and I have here another reference oh hope joy and peace you know at the very end may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him but the God of hope joy and peace you know be interesting to know how many times hope joy and peace are grouped together could probably Google that someone could Google that that would be interesting. Yeah may the God who gives you endurance and encouragement give you the same attitudes of mind towards each other that Jesus had accept one another as Jesus accepted you know I mean is that the whole gospel right really it's it's it's God does it for us Jesus did it for us we need to reflect that to others I've looked at again I've read it several times it's not the others that we find easy or it's not the others we like right not the others we want to hang out with it's each other and to serve them.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Yeah since Christ became a servant and we're and in of all people who had the right to not be a servant it was him so we should be a servant to others with the whole point being to draw them to God. Yeah so it gives them sort of endurance encouragement so they had the same attitude what Jesus Christ had for us right pretty clear yeah especially for Paul yeah he so often confuses me but all right our last scripture for this week is Ephesians 6 10 through 18 this is kind of a classic i yes it's yeah yeah this is talking about the the armor of God now remember ephesians is in the New Testament right soya beans is it soya beans go eat popcorn go eat popcorn so if you can't find so it's the eat part yes if you can't find it in your Bible and you don't have a table of contents well you know go eat popcorn you you want to look like you know where you're going thumb towards the back of the New Testament if you find a G E P or C then you can get to the the E. All right Armor of God uh is a classic is a classic um it's funny it's one I feel like they use with children a lot.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yes because it's it's there's things you can do you can have an you know we've seen them all you could draw a little picture oh you get the plastic breastplate the plastic you know belt the whole little thing you know it's probably could be a Halloween costume oh yes yes so um there's the belt the breastplate the sandals the shield the helmet and the sword yeah so the belt is the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness um this is the feet fitted yeah it's okay but what are they fitted with readiness readiness I don't think when I've and I've read it before never not this you know not preparing thinking about it so I'm ready to talk about it but readiness never came up as it did this time meaning we are to be prepared ready to act right our feet are ready to move you know and I guess it's like a soldier but it's also like an athlete you know that their feet are in a position that allows them to go right left front back whatever it may be but of all these and obviously truth is good the righteousness the shield of faith the helmet of salvation like the salvation's on your head right and the sword of the spirit the word of God right but readiness so we have to be prepared with all these things and once we have them we still have to be ready to whatever may be to act essentially it's the first time it became that evident to me right as it says feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Mm-hmm yeah I thought that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

And it's the gospel of peace and everything here is armor. But again it's you know maybe there is some peace and comfort if you're confident and if you're strong well but if there's not peace that's when you go to war.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah yeah so yeah but a feet fitted with readiness that comes through the gospel of peace but you're still so you're ready to act right and so the the sentence before kind of naming out all those things says put on the full armor of God so that when when the day of evil comes not if exactly you may be able and and I love this to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Yeah and then we have stand your ground to stand firm so when you think about putting armor on and I mean you kind of feel like you're ready to fight um you you think of moving forward of attacking of maybe taking the first step towards to being offensive. Yes yes thank you uh but this kind of makes it sound like you're gonna put all this stuff on so you're ready but you're just you're just gonna stand there and and I don't know be able to take it um hold the line maybe is another way okay to see it I think right so you don't have to necessarily attack but you have to protect you know where you're at and stay there right and you can stand firm so you're not kind of taking a few steps back you're you're gonna you know it's almost like draw the line in the sand this is it we're not going past this is where we're gonna stay so this allows you the full armor regard allows you to stand firm right so kind of like the linemen uh in football I mean they do move forward but they could stink just stand and keep people from coming any further. Yeah and really if you football know is that what they're called yeah yeah yeah the offensive linemen but you know sometimes they'll step back but they they stop at a point and they're standing firm there.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

And like protecting their quarterback and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

They're standing firm. Yeah that's that's you know and the best ones stand firm better than the rest. But this is you know but put the armor on so in the evil one, right? When evil comes you can stand firm. And it doesn't say again I mean it's cleverly it says the day of evil comes bad things could happen anytime any day right so you're good point that's the readiness.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

So whatever the evil and you can stand firm yeah you know where my you don't know where my brain is going more so than football is the famous wonderful game of Red Rover Red Rover. Yes I loved Red Rover Red Rover. I loved being the one that could break through those arms and and get through um so you were kind of evil but well no okay I'm just saying for the scripture here that okay so then maybe yes yeah um who have no idea what we're talking about it's because we had to quit playing that game because people's arms got broken and stuff apparently I never witnessed that no but what happened with Red Rover Red Rover?

SPEAKER_01 43:12

You would call out Red Rover and Rover in someone's name Steve come over and maybe five ten kids right and they would call your name and you would run at this point.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

And shoulder to shoulder a fence kind of and you would have to break through between their their arms yeah and um it was fun.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yeah and it was the weak that's what you ran at their arms so you could go through and I guess if you did that you went back to the other side.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

You got to take someone with you.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Okay that's right yeah yeah there you go so yeah so that was so the job was you call them out and that as they ran towards you you had to stand your ground everything had to stand you had to stand firm

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

So apparently Paul thought Red Rover was a good game.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

But you're right, you can't play it anymore. No, so many things are gone. Oh well. All right. So that is the end of this week. Um so hopefully calling out the scriptures help those who uh are not people to follow in the book. And um I'll put them in the podcast notes as well if you want to just look back and see the scripture references and look some of them up again. Um you can do that. And that's it for this week. So thanks for listening to this week's Flip Devotional The Podcast. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, share this with your friends and family so that they can listen too. And we will see you next week.