SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Lift Boldly Podcast, brought to you by Celebration Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Jessica and Pastor Aaron is back once again.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking about really getting into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this significant in the Christian life?
SPEAKER_00: Well, most importantly, to know God's word and to get into God's Word is to get to know Him more.
SPEAKER_00: And so our best and primary way to get to know who God is and the salvation work of Jesus and all of that and why it was important from Old Testament to New Testament is that is being in his word and finding out more about who he is.
SPEAKER_01: So why is it important to know God more?
SPEAKER_00: Well, most importantly, and I can't I kind of reference this in the devotional, is to know God more is to love him more.
SPEAKER_00: And to and to know all that he's done throughout the ages for his people is to want to follow him more and not sin because you don't want to waste the work that he's done through our own selfishness and doing whatever we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to reading their Bible, unfortunately, a lot of Christians find reading the Bible kind of boring.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: Is the Bible boring?
SPEAKER_00: It is hard to read, especially if you're reading it as a textbook.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: If you begin to understand that it's a it's a story, it's a narrative, it's a historical narrative that tells the story of what God did through creation, what he did with the fall, and all the way through history, even just reading the Old Testament, it begins to make sense.
SPEAKER_00: That's a puzzle that piece fits into okay, in the New Testament, Jesus came, he lived this perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a plan the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: And so to be excited about reading through, to know that God's story was more than just a, oh, I've got to read this history book, this textbook.
SPEAKER_00: It's a historical narrative and and a part of just this greater, larger picture that He's trying to paint for us through His Word.
SPEAKER_00: But yes, I confess I've been a very bored Bible reader at some points until I realized and understood, man, this thing is for real.
SPEAKER_00: This is a narrative that I get to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01: So let's say that I want to start reading my Bible more, but I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Where should I start?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I always encourage, especially talking to our middle school and high school students, I always encourage them to start in a book like the book of Proverbs that has real-time applications to what they're going through each day.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I always say that the book of Proverbs has 31 chapters.
SPEAKER_00: There's 31 days usually in a month.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got one for each and every day, you just figure out what day it is, and you can read that one for the for the month.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 14, I had accepted Christ when I was six.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 14, I really began to grow leaps and bounds when I started reading a proverb a day.
SPEAKER_00: And that lent itself to me falling in love with reading God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, you branch out to other books and other parts of the New and Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But just that every day there was a chapter that went with the day, that was easy for me to remember.
SPEAKER_00: It was a great way to get started.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's an awesome starting point.
SPEAKER_01: So now let's say I regularly read my Bible every day.
SPEAKER_01: What's my next step in growing with God?
SPEAKER_00: So a simple reading of God's word is sufficient in most cases.
SPEAKER_00: And so when people sit down and read God's Word, especially believers who are guided along by the Holy Spirit, they're gonna they're gonna probably catch the sense in which it was intended.
SPEAKER_00: When you begin to grow in your faith, the training wheels begin to come off, and so you need to study it more deeply.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can you can look at Bible scripture and passages, look at the context, know what culture those books were being written about or written to, and you can you can begin to enjoy it in a whole deeper way.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible is this living document in that it doesn't ever change, but you can read it simply, and then as you grow, as you become more of an adult in your faith, as you grow, you can begin to get deeper and deeper in study.
SPEAKER_00: And um you can I always joke around about commentaries being so amazing because you get to stand on the shoulders of these spiritual giants who have gone before, um who probably didn't have 24-7 media and TV and internet, and they were just pouring into God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So that's another way, just taking those next steps to understand the Bible more deeply.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really good.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Aaron, thank you for teaching us the past few days.
SPEAKER_01: To all of our listeners, don't forget, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube so you can keep up with Live Boldly, our current sermon series, and explore everything else that's going on in our celebration family.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Aaron, would you pray for us today?
SPEAKER_00: Sure, and thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and thank you that you reveal yourself in fresh new ways every time we open it.
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive us for looking at your word sometimes as a boring piece of literature.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to know and be excited through your spirit to know that we are a part of this narrative, this story about you.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for it, and we thank you for revealing yourself through it primarily.
SPEAKER_00: We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Pastor Aaron.
SPEAKER_01: Be sure to tune in tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: We will hear a special challenge from Pastor David.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you then.