August 13, 2025 • 61 mins
The journey of reading the Bible begins with understanding your motivation and making practical steps to build a consistent habit rather than trying to tackle it like a novel.
• Reading the Bible requires commitment and an understanding of why you want to start this journey
• The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) are the best starting place rather than beginning in Genesis
• Motivation matters—reading to build a relationship with God rather than obligation will sustain your practice
• Making time requires intentionality—start small with a few days a week and gradually build the habit
• The Bible isn't meant to be read once but returned to repeatedly as it speaks differently in various life stages
• Consider practical approaches like devotionals, study Bibles with footnotes, or audio versions while commuting
• Young people are exactly who should be in Bible study as they are the future strength of the church
• Community enhances Bible reading through accountability and shared insights
• Personal struggles often strengthen faith rather than weakening it
• Your relationship with God, like any relationship, requires time, communication, and commitment
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
we're on.
I should say, roger won't be.
Here we are again yes, we'rehere another week.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We're not going away people, we're not going away
nope, and I skipped last weekbecause my kids were in went
away.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
I did my kids were in from massachusetts and my dad
lost his keys and couldn't findhim to get to the farm and that
was his farm day.
So we all loaded up in the carand we all went to the farm,
spent the day down there.
It was really nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I always like being like I was talking to you about
it, like being at your.
You know where your roots are.
Yes, like where you grew up at.
You know that's my happy place.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
It's nice that you can still go there.
Yeah, I think, cordon, he did,you know, because his wife's
definitely likes concrete underher feet.
You know, she's been down thereone other time and she lasted
at the creek bank creek bank for30 minutes we call it the creek
so she made it 30 minutes andwent to the car.
So he and she left and we spent, but this time we all rode
together.
She couldn't get away, but Ithink she enjoyed it.
She did.
She was even in the water.
(01:12):
She fished, didn't catchanything, but we had a good time
I'll never forget the firsttime I went camping with them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I'm like where we get our bath, where we're get in
the creek, in the creek, thatclean water.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
That clean water runs right in off a pine honey,
that's the best my hair everfeels is when I wash my hair in
that creek water, it runs rightinto the ohio river yeah, okay,
so the creek runs into the ohioriver got it okay.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yep, it actually is a very clean yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So nothing like I know a lot of people hate the
smell of like lakes and but Ilove it, I just love it.
I'm like, oh, it just makes mefeel like, yeah, like I, I.
It just makes me feel like Ican smell it in my hair again
when I was down at my grandpa'slake or something.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, I don't know.
We know with us on that boatout there and when you get a
dead fish floating and it stinksyeah, flies around it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yeah, there's no fishy smell down here, yeah a
little bit of competition, butyou know what our dock would
turn their motor on, so it shoesit over.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And that dock all their boats turn their motors on
so it comes back our way.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's just somebody get a net and get that thing out
of there a little bit ofcompetition there yeah yeah
Speaker 2 (02:30):
it's funny, though, if you grow up around that kind
of thing, I mean as long as it'snot a really pungent smell
right it's still kind ofpleasant to you when you smell
it like if you haven't beenaround it for a while like
you're talking about, and thenyou know, because I I go fishing
once a year with my cousin andwe do it on good friday because
that's what our dads did.
(02:50):
They both passed away so we keepthe tradition going.
So when I'm out there one yearon the lake, you know just
certain, yeah, certain smells,certain sights, all those things
bring me right back to being akid, because that's where we
spent our summer was on thepontoon boat out at the lake.
We didn't go on these lavishvacations right?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
no, we didn't either.
Our vacations were camping yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So yeah, all those things you know, bring it right
back when yeah when I'm outthere yep, so yeah so yeah, in
some ways it's not.
It's not a pleasant smell, butno, but it's.
Yeah, something about.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I think smells too.
It's almost like the wholething where, oh how can't, like
I can't you know memorize Idon't know just like, say, your
science homework, but I canmemorize this whole song, like I
feel like that's kind of thesame thing with smells, like it
just takes you right back tothat, those memories.
I don't know Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I love when we're out there on the boat to leave that
back door open, so this yeah,screen door yeah, and that air
coming in through the night andyes, getting up in the morning
that this, yes, coming up off ofthe water is so beautiful even
just like the smell of a fire,like I I don't know yeah yeah,
those kind of intertwine with meanyway.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So yeah, yeah for those of us joining us.
That is not our topic.
No, no it was only.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're not talking about smells yeah, no, it's only
four minutes.
Speaking of, sometimes there'sI don't know if you guys knew
this, but there's a few hundredor thousand people in the world
that can like sense what yousmell.
Like they'll hear you andthey're like oh, it sounds like
you smell like what?
Yeah, I don't know.
(04:32):
The one podcast was liketalking about it.
I'm like what there is sometechnical term for it, but like,
well, give me an example okay,like, if you are okay, I'll try
to think of the one girl on thepodcast and she's kind of more
like earthy tone, like she'slike.
She named her kids Forest andOliver Gotcha, so they said she
(04:57):
smelled like One of those thingsyou hang from your no Mirror of
your car.
The Dots, the Dots candies, um,one of those things you hang
from your no, actually of yourcar.
The dots, the dots, um candies,and I'm like what.
And there was something else.
I'm like okay, I don't know, Idon't think that really goes
hand in hand.
But the other one did, though,because she's kind of more oh, I
(05:21):
shouldn't say goth, she's notgoth at all, but she kind of
gives you the more um, I don'tknow, just like a dark, like
dark humor, and but she has likeshe tastes like dark licorice
to these people when they hearher.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'm like okay I can kind of see that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
But the first one, I was like,no, I don't see that one, but
yeah, there's, there's a wordfor it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I don't know what it is, but yeah so you're saying
that these people associatepeople's language with smells?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
yes, like yeah like that's the instantly but I don't
, like, I don't think theyassociate, like I think they
actually taste it when they'rehearing that.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Okay, you know what I mean that's wild yeah well,
that could be really bad, I knowright like what if you what if
your like wife or husband, liketastes, like something?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
you can't stand the taste we're going real deep
hopefully they figured that outbefore they got married yeah
yeah, like, uh.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, like uh doug and patty mayonnaise doug from
nickelodeon yes, because we needpatty mayonnaise.
Well, he just, yeah, mayonnaise.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, couldn't imagine I gotta, I gotta figure
out the name of that, becauseyeah, we went this far with yeah
right and that people areprobably the people listening.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Insane.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
well, yeah, because I was like my brain went that
somebody smelled something andthey could tell you what you
were smelling.
That's what I thought she wastalking about.
I'm thinking well, wait aminute, what kind of podcast
you're watching?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
okay, the rare taste that lets people sorry.
The rare trait that lets peopletaste sounds synaesthesia
s-y-n-e-s-t-h-e-s-i-a.
It's a neurological trait, hmmnever heard of it it says um a
(07:23):
neurological trait or conditionthat results in a joining or
merging of senses that aren'tnormally connected.
So yeah, seneznia, that almostsounds like a country.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, do we have that ?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
on our board.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Have we updated our board?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I've the smart um on my way here.
I was like I need to see.
Actually I was going.
I wanted to update it onsaturday when we were here but
michael was like busy doingthings and I was trying to find
the red.
You know the pins, pins, andI'm like you know what this is
another, a song for another time, because, yeah, we do need to
look at that, get an update downin that area.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We need to yeah, um.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
So do we know how many countries or I can tell
that we're in?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
yeah, I was.
We just need to have a state ofthe show episode yeah, yeah,
okay stats.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
so we are Okay stats, so we are All time.
But I want to know where we'reat.
Okay locations, All Okay.
(08:44):
So we have had almost 2,000downloads.
We're at 1996.
Actually, 1997.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
This is total for all time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know what?
No, there's more.
That was only in North America,and then in South America we
have one download.
In Europe we have 65.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
South America is a tough crowd.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Asia 173.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Somebody go on vacation and download it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Africa, 10.
And is it Oceania?
Sure, Do you know what I'mtalking about?
Yeah, 13.
So there's currently 288 cities.
Nice, singapore, has passed ourum canadian friends, really.
(09:34):
Yeah, they have 99 downloadswow yeah, whereas our canadian
friends only have 27 now.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
We really are reaching out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I mean, that's actually 288 cities, that's
almost 300.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That's not bad for this yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
For what we're doing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
We're doing our job.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Small little community church, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And we haven't spent any money to promote it.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
No, and we go down a lot of rabbit holes.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
We do and they still listen, right.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Probably why they listen.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yes, you're probably right.
Who are we kidding?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah.
What will they say next?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, all right.
Well, what's the topic, nick?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
All right.
So once again, my wife Margieinspired this one, so we went
into the new Barnes Noblebookstore up there in Canton.
It's where, oh, it's up thereby the right behind Canes.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Oh wait, shai was telling me yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, so it's in that little strip mall there yes.
So we had a little time to ourmovie.
So we went into the bookstoreand we're walking around and my
wife got to the Bible section.
She's like you know, I reallywant to get into the Bible but I
just don't know how to start.
Like, how do you start readingthe Bible?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Can I?
I'm sorry, Go ahead.
This whole summer we've kind ofbeen like eight to 15, 16
downloads, the past twodownloads or past two episodes
we've had.
24 was two weeks ago and 28 waslast week's.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So that's awesome.
Wow, maybe the heat's helpingus out a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Where typically we were between 25 and 35 before
summer.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So but yeah, very good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So she was saying she wanted.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So there's that question.
You know, I want to startreading the Bible, but I don't
know how, I don't know where tostart.
I think that's a pretty commonquestion, Pretty big challenge
that people have Now somebodylike me.
You know I had an advantageearly on because I love to read,
I love the written word.
To begin with, it doesn'tmatter what I'm reading.
I get a lot of joy out ofreading Number two.
(11:52):
I really love history.
So there's two in the bag rightthere.
So, yeah, so there's two in thebag right there.
Um, so for somebody like me, itcomes, it comes easy to me to
be curious, to want to learnyeah, you know, to want to get
into the written word and youknow she's going through them
all.
And it's funny because and youcan tell what drives a lot of
(12:12):
sales with these new bibles it's, it's usually how it's packaged
.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
If you've got a really nice pretty cover maybe
it's made out of leather.
It's got flowers all over it.
They've done wonders withmarketing as far as producing
Bibles, which isn't a bad thing,I think, whatever it takes to
get somebody started.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Right?
Well, like my granddaughter,when we went to that Bible store
up there, there was threeBibles to choose from, like I
told you, but there was one thatwas very artistic.
Lily loves to draw, she lovesto color, she loves to do stuff
with her colored pencils andthere was an artistic like.
Every page had something thatshe could literally, as she
(12:53):
reads, color in the artwork.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Like the adult coloring book, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So you have all these different bibles, you know,
with all these different, uh,enticements, I guess, um, to get
you to actually just pick it up, to get you to open it and
hopefully walk out of the storewith it.
And for me, I think, as aperson you know, you got to ask
yourself a couple questions.
I think number one always hasto be well, what's your motive
(13:28):
behind it?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Are you doing it because somebody told you that
you need to?
Are you doing it because you'retrying to find yourself?
Or are you doing it becauseyou're trying to find yourself,
or are you doing it becauseyou're trying to find God?
I definitely don't think youshould be going into this
thinking.
I'm going to enjoy it, as youwould say a novel.
If you're going into it forkickback and enjoy it.
(13:55):
You're probably not going to besatisfied.
You're not going to go too farwith it.
So I think it does come down tothose questions is what is your
goal?
What do you want to get out ofit?
Are you looking for arelationship with God?
Do you want to get to know God?
And are you willing let's faceit are you willing to put the
time in to get to know himBecause it is the written word
(14:18):
of God?
So it is not.
You know, it's not like readinga classic novel, it's not like
reading Moby Dick or you knowanything new today.
It's you know, yes, there's alot of different versions.
You know, the New LivingTranslations is probably best
for younger people or people inour generation, rather than
(14:39):
trying to read.
You know the king james versionwhich I remember that's the
first bible that I bought on myown was the king james version,
and that's what I startedreading yeah but again for me, I
think I had a little bit ofadvantage.
I didn't mind that so muchbecause I didn't mind reading
right, you know I didn't feellike that was a waste of time
and I didn't so much feel likeit was hard work, but a lot of
(15:00):
people that would be really hardto actually get into and stay
focused from day to day.
Yeah for sure.
And then my Bible.
Here it's a combination ofactual Bible study, bible
history, so I get a little bitof everything out of it.
So if I don't quite understandwhat I'm reading, then I have
(15:24):
all these footnotes, I have adictionary I can go to, I have
all these tools within the Bibleitself that I can go to that
will explain what I'm readingand give a little more insight
into it.
So I do get the history, I getthe context of it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And, and it also challenges me to look further
into other verses.
Yeah so all of those things.
You got to put all those thingstogether.
But, honestly, I think thefirst thing is you have to be
honest with yourself and saywhat is it that I'm looking to
get out of this when?
you start reading it withyourself and say what is it that
I'm looking to get out of this?
(16:01):
When you start reading it andthat has to be your goal,
because it is going to be it'sgoing to be a process.
It's not something like I said.
Many, many books in the Bible.
When you read it, you may go Idon't even understand what that
was about.
I couldn't even follow that.
I didn't.
I didn't understand a word.
I just read and you may have togo back and read it again.
(16:21):
You know, may you have to goback and look for context.
Um.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I think, like being honest with yourself, like what,
what is it that I want out ofit?
And also asking God to likehelp you, like stir fire in you,
wanting to read it and wantingto form that relationship.
If that's what you really want,go to him and ask him for that
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
ask him for that wisdom to understand.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And you also have to have something very practical,
which is the excuse most peoplehave is I just don't have the
time.
I have such a busy day.
I get up, I go to work, I comehome, I make dinner, I take care
of the kids, mow the lawn.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Mow the laundry yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Man or woman.
There's plenty of things thatwill get in your way, daily life
and, yes, all of those thingshave to be accomplished, not
arguing that at all.
But you do have to come torealization that you have to
make time.
Yes, you have to have thatpractical, you know idea that if
(17:30):
I'm going to do this I have tomake time.
It's not going to come to me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You know if you're waiting every day for a time in
your life to come along whereyou're not busy.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
There's always going to be something more shiny,
right, yeah, oh, absolutely,there's so many distractions to
begin with Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean, you know, but you're always your own
biggest distraction because youcan always think of something
you know that's easier.
You know that, uh, that, let'sface it, something you'd rather
do than you know sit down, openthe book, um, but it's hard.
Like I said, you do have toforce yourself to make time and
(18:10):
it may come down to explainingto the people you live with or
people closest to you that, yes,I know you all need a part of
me.
I know you all need somethingfrom me.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Y'all need my time but I need jesus, but I need
jesus you're gonna have to allowme, yeah, this time.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
you know, and and I think that's very important is
that you have to, you have to bewilling to say this is
something that I have to maketime to do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And that's hard if you're a new Christian, because
Satan doesn't by any means onceyou end that book Right right,
so he's throwing everydistraction at you, mm-hmm
mm-hmm, yeah, and even like, ifyou're like, say you, because
you don't have to do it in themornings, you know a?
lot of people look at it andthink, okay, let's do it in the
morning, but let's say you,let's say that's the only time
(19:04):
you can do it.
Like Nick, I truly feel that isthe only time you can do it.
You know what I mean.
And it's like, okay if you'renot a morning person, but that
is truly your only time you cando it.
Make it easier for yourself todo it, like you know, for the
night before.
Just say, you have a smoothieevery morning.
Get that stuff in the smoothieor in the little container and
(19:26):
then put it in your fridge.
That way, whenever you wake up,you just have to ding, ding,
put it on and you're done andlike, then you can drink your
smoothie while you're readingyour bible.
Like, make it easier for yourfuture self to do it.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That way you can actually have a chance to do it
and start out slow.
Yes, Don't give yourself thisbig like goal of I'm going to
read my Bible every day for anhour, seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Again, be practical.
Start out slow.
Just if you only do it threedays a week to start, it's
better than nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's better than nothing, yeah, and go from there
and then once you get rolling,then you may find like, okay, I
got that rolling.
Well, maybe I'll take it justan extra half hour at night.
Maybe I'll shut the TV off ahalf hour earlier before I go to
bed and just read a couplepassages, and sometimes that's
even better.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah Is, don't try to tackle verse upon, verse upon
verse maybe, I think, even ifyou just tackle a couple verses,
oh, absolutely, and let it justsoak in yeah, like what did I
just read?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
like yeah, and just just let it sit on your mind,
and then you may wake up withthoughts about it yeah and
sometimes those thoughts alone,then, will lead to further
development as far as okay, nowI understand that.
I hear what God's telling me todo and I think at that point God
will tell you where to go next,and that's the kind of mindset
(20:48):
you have to have is you arelooking for God.
That should be one of your maingoals of reading the Bible, not
because you feel like you haveto or you should.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Because you truly want a relationship with God and
there's no other place to getit.
Yeah, Because there truly isn't.
No, and you know that's a veryunique thing to say.
You're not going to find Godanywhere else, but in the
written word, you know.
I mean people can tell youabout.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
God Right, right.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
People can tell you about right god right.
People can tell you about jesus.
All those, things, but itdoesn't really do anything.
Yeah, until you, until you'veinvest your time to get into the
world right, and so oftenthat's when you hear from god
yeah, exactly he will workthrough those verses to get to
show you something
Speaker 4 (21:34):
yes yeah, and as a new Christian, it's like not
just opening up the basic novelor whatever you're reading.
When you open this up.
I didn't start in Genesis.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, yeah, please don't.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
No, don't start in the Old Testament.
Please go to the New Testament.
Maybe start in John or Mark andthe Gospels.
Yeah, start there, you know.
Yep, I Gospels.
Start there, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I like doing Luke because it's like the
chronological order.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Well, he was the historian, I believe, of the
disciples.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, he was very structured.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I think yes.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, like all four of those are similar, you know,
in case someone doesn't knowthat, and it's all four of them
is basically Jesus's time hereon this earth.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's his life, his teachings, his miracles.
Yes, tells us why he came.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, like starting like it's not like we said, it's
not like a normal novel because, first off, all these books are
different.
Like you got, you know, matthew, mark, luke and John that are
all pretty similar, talkingabout Jesus's life and
everything.
But then you've got Acts, whichis kind of like the church
history, revelation, which isend times, like it all has, you
(22:46):
know, romans or Proverbs, likekind of more inspirational and
like when you need something tolike lift you up.
But you're not just, it's notone sided, like you're getting
all of this from this one book,not one book, several books to
one your gospels, yes, where youare learning, you know from his
(23:07):
birth yes actually from hisconception all the way through
to the resurrection yep, eveneven after yeah, yeah, you know,
and yeah, that's the foundation.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Yeah, you have to start there.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Understand that before you can go back and touch
the Old Testament and see whereyou know so-and-so begat
so-and-so coverage for your sinright where there is now and if
you're a new christian and readthat, that's scary, yeah oh yeah
, absolutely yeah, that wasactually the one podcast don't
(23:43):
go into deuteronomy, no, no no,and the podcast that I was
talking about earlier, the onegirl was saying when she was
growing up she was a huge reader, kind of like I'm picturing
nick, you know like they were intheir teenage years just
reading the bible and she wasgoing to church at the time but
she had started from thebeginning and I think she got
through the whole test or thewhole Old Testament, but then
(24:05):
she's like like almosttraumatized.
She's like what am I reading,you know?
And it's like if someone wouldhave just sat down with her and
explained to her.
You know, this was before Jesusand you know, thank god we did
have jesus to come to kind ofhelp us with that right.
No, like yeah, I don't know,because you don't, you don't
(24:26):
want to start there.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
No, but I think proverbs after you've worked
through the gospel yes I thinkproverbs is good, because that
just tells you how you shouldlive life.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yes, I mean some of it, is you know confusing.
And Romans is kind of like thesame.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
See, I did the Gospels.
I can remember reading.
I did the Gospels and thenRomans, yes, and then I did
Proverbs and Psalms, yeah, andthen back to the New Testament
again, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I read somewhere Philippians, yeah, so yeah, I
read somewhere Philippians.
I think Philippians kind offocuses on life as a Christian,
but dealing with all thesetroubles because you know that's
going to happen, If's going tocome and you'll know it like
that's where you need to beheaded Right.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
And in Romans, you know, not only does it talk
about concepts of like sin andgrace and salvation, but it also
the importance of the unity oflove within the body of Christ
and how we need to show love.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And that we've all sinned and fall short.
Yes, all of us, and so we haveto show that love to everybody
Daily.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Even though we strive to live like Christ every day,
we still fall short, Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But in that you know the Bible is your stronghold
against that kind of repeatedbehavior.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yes, yes Right.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And that's sometimes, and that's also something that
comes in time with staying inthe Word.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's not a book that you read from page one to page.
How many pages does mine have?
So mine's like 2,500 pages, andit's pretty small print too.
So if I read it from page oneto 2,500 and never picked it up
again, I haven't accomplishedanything.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Right, exactly, yeah, just reading it through isn't
accomplishing anything If you'renot studying it, if you're not
because they I mean they call itthe living word.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It is the living word .
So you, you need to live in theword.
So, like I said, if you pick itup one time, read it and say,
yep, check the box, I've done it.
I either got it or I didn't getit.
Yeah, some parts were good,some parts were bad.
I really like that yeah thisparts could have been been
better.
If you read it like you wouldread any other book that you
would take out of a library orany other book that you would go
(26:58):
into Barnes Noble and pull offthe shelf and look at the cover
and say, oh, that's pretty, thatlooks kind of cool.
I'll take that home and read it.
You read it one time.
You forget about it.
That's not what you're doinghere that.
Forget about it.
That's not what you're doinghere.
That's something that you doall the time, so that those
words I mean how many times dowe say you know?
You can read that same part ofscripture 10 times.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And either all of a sudden, the light bulb will come
on yes, or it may have meantsomething to you five years ago
and you read it again and it hasit completely different.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Exactly, yes, absolutely yeah.
You know something?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
to you five years ago and you read it again and it
has it completely different,exactly yes, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
You know um well and not only that inspiration those,
as you read those verses andget them etched on your heart.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I mean you might not be able to, you know, quote them
yeah, right, right, but you,you've got the concept of what
that verse means.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, and it lives within your heart.
It lives within your heart, andthen that is your battle
against.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Satan.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
If you know you're right there.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Boom, boom, throw it right back at him.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, you know, people are always looking for
proof of God.
That's always somebody'schallenge to Christians.
Well, show me that he's real,prove to me that this isn't all
just made up, and written inthere.
Well, even if you quoteScripture to them, you can't
(28:26):
quite do that.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
The best answer would be well, look at my life, look
at where I have been Right andlook at where I am now.
Because, because I am in theword.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Exactly Because.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I do everything I can to follow the word Right, and
even though I'm not perfectnever gonna be but I make as
much effort as I can to stay inthe Word, to follow it, and
that's my proof.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
If it could change me , you know, to make me a and
manage our relationships and ourwork and our finances and our
morals.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, and that's all you have to say to put it on the
national bestseller list isjust give it a shot.
It's not going to hurt you, no,it's not going to hurt you, no.
So pick it up, read it.
If I guarantee you, you willsee a change in yourself, if you
give it enough time, if yougive it enough effort.
(29:39):
Don't give up.
Yeah, you will.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You will see changes and that's the proof of god.
That's what I was going to tryto lead into.
So once you do pick it up andstart reading it like, okay,
this isn't so bad, how do youkeep up on it?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Well, again, it's discipline.
It really is.
Because, no, again it's not.
I mean, I'm not saying I don'tenjoy reading.
I do enjoy reading it but, likeI said, I do have that
advantage of I'd like to read,but again, it's not like a
normal form of leisure.
It's not like watching TV orwatching a movie, or reading a
(30:13):
novel or any of the things thatwe do to relax.
That's not what we're talkingabout here.
That's not how you go into it.
If you're like, yeah, I readthat one chapter that time.
That was boring.
Yeah, you're right, it isboring.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
A lot of it is A lot of, it is not I struggle going.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
okay, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to read
through the book of John.
I struggle with that, but nowyou throw something at me that's
going to make me.
Hey, I like that, I'm going todig and dig and dig.
I really enjoyed yeah like theresearch part.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Even you know I'm the same way,beth.
Like I, I have a hard time,like, okay, I'm gonna sit here.
You know, I think when I firstbecame a Christian I was like
the small books you know I'mgoing through, I'm like how many
pages is this one?
okay, okay, let's do that one,you know, and yeah but because I
have a hard time of readingjust like a full you know um
(31:09):
book and but it's like maybe, ifyou know yourself, like maybe
you do need to pencil in thetime.
You know, I don't, I don'tnecessarily like carve out my
day, like I don't even use mydigital calendar on my phone
like I, but I know some peopleare like that.
So it's like if you are, maybeyou need to pencil in from 5 am
to 6 am or 5 am to 5 20.
(31:31):
You know that's where I'm gonnado that and I think like power
of writing things like kind ofhelps anyway, like I don't know,
oh, yeah, yeah and that's a bigthing too.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I I really do believe that, that if you take a short
verse and only read it, but trywriting it out yes, yes,
notebook.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yes, on a notebook.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And I think you'll find you'll remember that verse
better.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, oh, yeah, if you write it out, I agree, yeah,
yeah, so we can.
You know like we can dissectlike a topic, like we do, kind
of we could just sit and read achapter or a book.
There's like devotionals we cando.
Uh, what else is there?
(32:14):
Well, that podcast you canlisten to to help broaden your
thinking and well, I'm not helpyou understand, yes, kind of put
it.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Put it, get it down to earth.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, yeah, so that you can understand, yeah yeah,
well, I'm not much of a reader,so when I became a Christian I
bought it on disc, on CD, ohyeah.
So it was read to me, you know,I mean I would follow along,
but if I was in the car orwhatever, I would throw in my
disc and I would listen while Iwas traveling or whatever,
because I'm not the best reader.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I get tired when I read.
It just kind of puts me tosleep, no matter what I'm
reading.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Was it Morgan Freeman ?
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Right, I think it was .
No, I'm not sure who it was.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
But I wanted to bring that point up.
When you go back to askingyourself okay, why do I want to
start reading the Bible, why doI have this desire to do it?
Perhaps it's because you'velooked at yourself and realized,
yes, there are things that Iwant to change in my life, and
sometimes that is also one ofthe main things is you have to
(33:19):
be ready to change.
You have to be honest withyourself and say whatever it is,
I'm ready to change.
I'm ready to give my life tothe Lord.
I've had enough of this lifeand doing it on my own and
trying to figure it out.
I'm ready to give it over tothe Lord.
I'm ready for change, and onceyou accept that, then you may be
able to look at yourself andsay, well, yeah, the thing
(33:42):
dragging me down is anger.
You know the thing dragging medown is alcoholism.
You know the thing dragging medown is unforgiveness.
So then you can go okay, that'swhat I'm going to.
Open up the Bible and what.
Like you said, whether, usingyour devotional, a study Bible,
do whatever you need to do toattack that, whether if it's
(34:05):
unforgiveness, then look into it.
Just start trying to findeverything you can in the Bible
about forgiveness.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
And that's what I did when I started.
I would go back to say thedictionary or whatever, and look
up whatever emotion I wasfeeling that day, and you'll
find a lot of that in the bookof Psalms.
All of the emotions are in thebook of Psalms.
Right yeah, and it teaches ushow to approach God with our
honesty and vulnerability andour faith.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
And I've been one to say that I don't really care for
devotionals, but I said lastweek that I was kind of starting
one Like it kind of I don'tknow compares your time with
your toddler like what theycould possibly be going through,
like what they could possiblybe going through.
And there was something todaythat was like, oh, you know,
(34:54):
because there's so many spillsat this age or so many, you just
accidents and like, oh, youknow, oh, not again.
And it said, you know, wheneveryour child has spilled their
cereal for the umpteenth time,like what are you doing?
How are you going to react tothat?
Yeah, and you know, it saidthis scripture um luke 6, 45 a
(35:15):
good person produces good thingsfrom the treasury of a good
heart and an evil personproduces evil things from the
treasury of an evil heart.
So I'm like, wow.
And it also took one stepfurther, stating you know,
currently, with what he's goingthrough, like the attachment I
don't know, just like they'rereally learning about, hey,
(35:35):
should I?
What can I do with this personversus this person, and how will
they react?
and you know if, they're formingrelations yeah, and like they
want to have that securerelationship.
They don't want you to be soreactive that way and they was
kind of saying like you want tobe that secure relationship and
you don't want to have all thesemeltdowns yourself.
(35:56):
That way they're not scared todo things their own to learn you
know, exactly.
If they do have a problem, yeah,and that exactly, and then that
actually, like it kind of justlike, produces anxiety on them,
and then they are not wanting totry new things, therefore
they're not wanting to learn andgrow, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
(36:17):
what am I doing?
But you know it just like andthat was all from two sentences,
I think like I just, you know,it was like mind-boggling, so I
don't know, that's just a greatresource that you can.
Yeah, that's very.
All those devotionals andpatience.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I mean, patience is a big one, yeah, you know, yeah,
and all in all walks of life andall you know, and everything we
go through.
Patience is such a you know, uh, that's, that's a hard one for,
yeah, a lot of people and Ihave to wait and it kind of
compares like god.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
You know, god's so patient with us, yeah, yeah, why
can't we be patient with him?
And I'm like, oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Well, and even though a new Christian, they might not
understand everything thatthey're reading right off the
bat, yeah, and they're stillgetting in that book every day.
They're still building thatrelationship.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Right, right yeah.
And they're still getting inthat book every day.
They're still building thatrelationship.
Right Right yeah, like there'sno perfect way.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
One day it's just all going to come together yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, yeah.
And like right now, thatdevotional is helping me because
I'm you know, because it's ableto help me go through all these
changes with Cooper.
Well, one day Cooper's notgoing to be as little as he is
or, you know, he's going to befully grown, like you know he's
going to be fully grown rightlike that's, you know.
(37:37):
So right now it's connecting tome in that way, but you know
I'm going to have to find a newway.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, you know, sooner rather than later.
So, yeah, my grandmother alwayssaid they step on your toes
when they're little and theirhearts your hearts when they're
you're, they're grown yeah andthat's true.
Yeah, because when they'readults you can't fix their
problems no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
But sometimes in that parent-child relationship, even
with your relationship with god, you're going to have to
realize that sometimes thatrelationship is going to be
rocky yeah, it's like everyother loving relationship.
That it's not always, you knowit's not always going to be you
know, I always tell people Ilook, if you have a relationship
(38:15):
with God, relationship withJesus, and once in a while you
get mad at him, I'd say that'sokay, Because at least you're
putting your emotion towards theright person.
Yeah, yeah, Like almost becausewe all get mad at our father we
all get mad at our mothers butthat relationship is more
important than anything.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
So yeah, if you get in my opinion, if you throw your
anger at God once in a while,to me I was like that's okay,
and you might as well as long asyou always realize that, yep,
you are the son, you are thedaughter.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Right, right, that, yep, you are.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You are the son, you are the daughter right right, as
long as you understand thatrelationship, yes, I think he
would rather have you be mad athim once in a while, yeah than
to have no relationship at allright because he knows, if you
stick with it, if you trust him,you'll get over being upset
you'll get over.
You know um having thatimpatience to where you don't
understand why it's taking himso long right, you know, to to
(39:13):
do something in your life thatyou've been praying for.
So having that relationship,regardless of you know how it's
going all the time and how yousee it going and what you want
for your life, as long as you'restill directing it towards,
towards God, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, you'll be OK, you'll be okay, you'll be okay.
And the thing is, when you'reupset with him and he's not
answering a prayer quick enoughfor you or whatever, you might
as well tell him yeah because heknows anyway.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
He already knows.
He already knows.
You're not hiding anything fromhim.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
As soon as that thought crossed your mind he
already knows, so you might aswell just let him say why God or
why yeah right.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I think he will get just as much pleasure out of
that as when you give him creditfor something.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, because you're acknowledging him as we mature
as children of Christ.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
We'll give that praise and thanksgiving.
And he knows where you are inyour walk, even in the bad times
, right, right.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
He knows exactly where you are in your walk, so
he'll understand if you'reimpatient, if you're upset and
don't quite understand.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, he knows not, everybody's a seasoned veteran,
right, right and even though Iknow that maybe my prayer is not
being answered because he hasbetter plans.
It's sometimes frustratingbecause I think I, yeah, and I'm
bad about I want to fix thingsfirst, and then, when it all
(40:36):
goes haywire, I'm like god, here, here and then I hand it to him
really bad and he's like, ifyou just would have let me take
it from the beginning well,that's such an important thing
that the bible will teach you isthat?
Speaker 2 (40:47):
and no matter what situation you read in the bible,
no matter what part of historyguess what, god's always in
control, no matter who's tryingto upend the table no matter
who's trying to change thingsfor their will, to honor
themselves, it always goes rightback to him.
He's in control of everything.
So you have to develop thatpart of the relationship and
(41:10):
understand that he is in controlyeah and I have to let him, you
know, I have to let him controlevents in my life yeah, and
that's hard for me.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
I can't.
That is a hard one for me, eventhough I know and it doesn't
take prayer out of the equation.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
You should still pray for it every day even if you
feel like well, I didn't get ittoday, well, pray for it one
more time.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
But just go into it with that understanding that,
yep, I'm going to continue totrust you.
Trust is such a big part of itand that takes a long, long time
.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
But you're never going to get it if you're not in
the Word all the time.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
It's not that easy.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh, there's been many a times I went to that altar
and hear God, I'm giving it toyou, I'm giving it to you, it's
all yours.
Monday morning, I'm picking itup.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
You pick it right back up.
Oh heck, you're picking it upbefore you ever get back to your
seat.
Yeah, Been there, done that.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yep, I think even just having like this is good
that we are able to talk to eachother weekly, but not everyone
is, or not everyone commits to abible study or not, you know.
But I think community is soimportant because you get to
talk to people like the other.
(42:23):
I think it was on my lunchbreak last friday and I walked
over to miller's creamery indover and um was like I don't
know, I'd say someone in her mid40s, but she was like mentoring
someone like late teens, early20s, and I'm like you just don't
see that anymore and it was sonice to see it, you know,
(42:44):
I think that is very importantand I wasn't eavesdropping, but
it was.
I mean, they were right besideme, you know, and like they were
, they talked about not justabout life, before they got into
the Bible, you know, andthey're like, oh, you know,
let's, you know, I suppose weshould get into it, you know,
and they weren't like mad thatthey had to do it, they were
just like open hearted and, youknow, and it was, it was nice,
(43:05):
like yeah.
So I think a lot of peopleforget the power of community.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We had a uh kid that juststarted where I work.
He's going to work in the officeand he had to shadow everybody
over the course of the last twoweeks, so he shadowed me, I
think yeah this last monday and,uh, in my office, on my big
chalkboard, maggie, when she waslittle, had drew a big picture
and it's three crosses and ofcourse the middle one says Jesus
(43:38):
.
And then she has.
She drew me, her mom andherself at the bottom and I
never erased it.
It's been up there a long timeand I don't remember what he
said, but he made some referenceto God and asked me.
I forget the direct question heasked me, but his reply came
back he goes.
Well, he goes.
I'm not part of a Bible study.
(43:59):
He goes.
I'm just not old enough forthat yet and I'm like whoa, whoa
, whoa.
I was like have a seat.
And I was like I said you youngpeople are exactly the ones
that should be in Bible studyright now, yeah, yeah.
I said you, young people, becomethe strength of the church.
Right, you guys are the nextmovement.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I said never take that attitude that you have to
be so old to get into a Biblestudy, because it's not some
crungy.
Yeah uh, you know stale uh youknow activity right that people
just fall into when they getolder, because now they don't
have the energy, uh, to gowinter skiing or you know,
(44:43):
surfing nothing else to donothing else to do, and they're
too old, and so that's.
All that's left to do is go tochurch on Wednesday nights and
talk.
So I was like no, that is theexact, that's the wrong attitude
.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I have about that.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
And he was just kind of like whoa, he wasn't quite
ready for that answer.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
But that would be exciting for you that God has
dropped somebody, anotherChristian, within your office.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
He might not be- practicing Well, and he started
asking like so what church doyou belong to?
And he started asking questions.
But he was like yeah, he's kindof like, yeah, I'm kind of in
it, but kind of not in it.
And, like I said, he's justlike yeah, I'm not old enough
for that yet, and maybe weshould talk about that a little
(45:30):
bit.
Just the young people.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I think they do have For me.
You know, when I was 13, like Ihad the advantage, my mom did
talk to me about God and weprayed every night.
That's what we did before wewent to bed, but that was kind
of simple.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Kind of thing.
So it meant a lot, but maybe onpaper it doesn't seem like it
would mean a lot.
But when I was 13, my mom gotsick.
It was like, up to that time Idon't think I'd ever had a bad
day in my life.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
You know?
Speaker 2 (46:04):
yeah, I'm sure I you know, brother and I would fight.
Yeah, I, you know, brother andI would fight.
And you know you didn't getwhat you wanted and this and
that.
I'm sure I got upset plenty oftimes.
But if you look at it again onpaper you're like that kid never
had a bad day in his life.
I had a great childhood.
But all that was completelyshattered when my mom got sick,
because you know she was the onethat hosted holiday dinners.
You know she was just a nucleusof everything.
(46:27):
So everything fell apart.
So for me, you know, I had tofind something to lean on, to
fall back on, and I do think toa certain extent, yeah, I was
lucky that my mom had brought meup that way and I had been to
church a little bit as a kid, soI had a little bit of
background.
But there was just somethinginstinctively in me that was
(46:48):
like I'm going to go up to themall and Walden Books and I'm
going to get a Bible.
And I bought it with my ownmoney, which for a 13 year old,
not every 13 year old is goingto spend their hard earned
allowance money or whatever itwas to get a Bible.
But I did that and I would juststart reading it and again it
was just aimless reading.
I didn't say, you know, likeall my Civil War books, I'm
(47:17):
going to start at page one andgo to the end, but it just
seemed like when I was feelingbad, I was feeling lonely.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
All those things that my mom could no longer provide
for.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
I found myself in it and that's exactly what we
should be doing.
So I understand sometimes, whenyou know God bless them that
there's young people out therethat have never had a bad day in
their life and they don't, sothey don't really feel any need
for something else you know tofall back on.
They just don't.
(47:41):
They don't instinctively feelthe need for God because, yeah,
their parents are holding themup.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Everything in their life is good.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So they don't quite understand that part of it.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
You know, and they're very fortunate for that.
But do you see?
Speaker 3 (47:55):
God's work in your life.
From that I mean from God knew,so he instilled that in your
mom to raise that, yeah, heinstilled that into you at a
young age.
So when you, when things wentbad, you had that foundation
built you knew where to go.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
yeah, and I can.
Even.
I'm always a type of personthat I believe, even when, like
on christmas morning.
I've always been the type ofperson that when I'm I'm, I am
an in the moment type of person,but at the same time, I have
this thing where I know thismoment's going to pass.
(48:35):
When I'm in it, like Christmasmorning, I would unwrap my
presents a little slower than mybrother and sister because I
wanted it to last, because evenin my mind I'd be like this is
going to pass, this is going toend.
So I could always see momentsin my life like I understood how
precious it is to be where I am, because it's not going to last
(48:56):
forever and I've always beenthat way.
There's certain things that Iconsistently think about and I'm
like, yep, you better enjoy itwhile it lasts, because if you
live long enough, you betterenjoy it while it lasts.
Because if you live long enough,then everything's going to come
to pass.
I've always been that way, andwhen I got into the Bible I
(49:29):
could tell myself, even at thatyoung age, I knew there was
going to be battles to be foughtwith it.
I didn't look at it as I don'tknow how to explain it.
I just knew that, as we say,once you open the Bible and
start reading it, it's like Iknew the enemy was going to come
after me.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
And he did.
And I've lost many of thosebattles yeah, I really have, but
I always keep fighting them.
That's the important thing.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Absolutely.
You fall down, you just pickyourself back up and go again,
because, as my mom said whateveryou do, don't forget about
Jesus.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
And I never did, even when I was mad at him, as we've
talked about, because I was.
Plenty of times I was angrywith him because I didn't
understand.
And it kept piling up, you know, first it was my mom, then I
had a divorce and my mom passedaway, and then my son, you know.
He got into an accident with abear, lost his finger, and I
could go on and on.
It just piled up, piled up,piled up, and it's like you know
(50:28):
, and sometimes you say that toyourself, like you know, when I
was 13, I went out of my way,pick up a Bible, start reading
it and I think, for as young asI am, I've been pretty faithful.
What the heck's going on here?
You know, why have I had somany things thrown in my face?
You know, if, if I've been sofaithful, sometimes you think,
(50:48):
well, why don't I have that lifethat person has to, where it
seems like they, they don't haveany problems, they have both of
their parents, they seem asthough they've never had a bad
day in their life, and I justkeep getting one after the other
, you know, and that's tough,yeah, but I had that grounding
from the beginning.
It almost seems like Iunderstood that I was accepting
(51:11):
battle more or less yes, yeah.
Sometimes that's what it's about.
You realize that the world welive in is you are accepting
battle with the enemy and it'ssomething that you are going to
have to go through for the restof your life.
Yes, and perhaps because yousee these other people who are
not accepting battle yeah,they're kind of flying by
(51:31):
because they're not in it Right?
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, they're not in it.
They're not all in.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
They're not all in.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, so devil don't have to worry about it yeah,
exactly.
So maybe that is why they'vegot three cars parked in the lot
and a really nice house.
And you know, like I said, boththeir parents lived till
they're 90.
And perhaps that's the reason.
I don't know, I can't say forsure, yeah, but for me I just
it's you know I've been my ownworst enemy at times.
(51:59):
I can be honest and say thatLike yep, all the things I can
look at God and be like yep,that one is completely on me.
It is not anything you did.
It is not anything you know.
It's just it's not.
I'll be honest, I'm like Idon't even know if that was the
enemy's fault.
I will say that was completelyon me.
But I take accountability forit and I'm ready to go on to the
(52:24):
next, you know, ready to go tothe next level.
Let's keep going.
You know I'm not going to throwthis away because life up to 45
has been at times just reallyrough and just doesn't really
make any sense.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
You know, nick, though like people looking on
the outside, just like you'relooking on the outside at
everyone else, they would neverknow that you've dealt with
those struggles.
You know, and that's the samewith me'm like it.
It because it bothered me too.
I'm like you know if, why, youknow, why is it that?
I because same with me, I I wasalways grew up in a church,
like always had that backbone,but I'm like, why do I keep
(52:55):
having all this stuff, like youknow, and it's like, well, god,
never told us it would be no,and his path is narrow.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
Yeah, yeah, and it's the path of destruction is wide.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, I mean, and it's you just don't there's, I
don't know, there's just itdoesn't matter what people think
.
You know and god knows what godknows.
You know that it's not fair,you know, but he's going to give
those to the toughest soldiersand you know, maybe, maybe, for
(53:27):
everything that you've gonethrough, like, maybe you will be
a mentor to someone who's goingthrough something similar.
Who knows?
Speaker 3 (53:32):
you know, you don't know the reason.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I believe everything you've been through is why
you're such an excellent exactly, yeah well, you know and I was,
and I do get, I do getsatisfaction out of sometimes
you think the enemy's got you,and then you still praise God
the next morning and you canfeel it Like he is so
disappointed and discouraged.
(53:54):
Yet again, I did my best andthis guy is still you know.
Speaker 4 (53:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
He's still kicking.
Yeah, he's not going to fallback, he's still gonna.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
he's not gonna fall back, he's still gonna move
forward and praise andthanksgiving and he's just like,
yeah.
So there is a lot ofsatisfaction in it when you get
that deep into it yeah, yeah,that you're like, yeah, because
when you get to know your enemypretty well by doing this all
the time, you know and that'sreally important that you do um,
but you do.
And so I can't help but say youdo get some satisfaction that,
(54:26):
no matter what happens, it'slike, well, jesus Christ is
still my Lord and Savior.
I don't know what to tell you.
You can try again tomorrow, butthat's the way it's going to be,
so you might as well bothersomebody else, but I accept
battle.
I'll keep going at it Becausewe've been doing this since I've
been 13.
So I'm a veteran now.
(54:47):
It's like I don't care.
You want to keep going, let'skeep going.
Speaker 4 (54:51):
And I think once you get through all of that, another
couple good books to read is 1and 2 Corinthians.
First Corinthians is going tofocus on correcting and
addressing immorality and guidesthe believer in proper conduct
and their spiritual gifts,marriages, worship.
And then Second Corinthianstells us what true ministry is,
(55:15):
and to be humble and to besincere and to have resilience.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah.
And maturity, yeah, yes, yepPlays a big part Maturity and
maturity.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yeah, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Yep Plays a big part of maturity is a big part of it,
yeah, but again, everything isearned?
I think yeah.
So you have again getting intothe words.
You have to earn it.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Right, yeah, and like we were talking about last week
, what kind of crown are yougoing to have if you don't earn
it?
You know, yeah, are you goingto even have a crown?
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Yeah, that made me really question, like wow okay,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
This is not the Generation Z participation.
You know school Metal.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Yeah, metal.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said, you can be saved
from the burning building.
Sure, right, but you know yeahso much more to earn than that I
.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
I just I don't want to go before the lord and not
have a crown to lay at his feet.
You know I don't want to and Idon't even know that that's in
there biblically, but that'swhat it's.
You know, I was taught.
Yeah, I don't want to go up andsay hi, thank you, I'm on my
way to the yeah thank you forsaying don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
Thank you for pulling me from that burning building.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah don't make eye contact right, that's not gonna
happen.
Speaker 1 (56:41):
but you know if you would be embarrassed and like
everyone else is laying thesecrowns at his feet, and here you
are, like where's my crowns?
You know, I did the bareminimum, guess we're living in
the basement.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Oh you weren't kidding.
Yeah, so there's a lot toconsider when somebody has asked
that question, it's not youknow.
It took us an hour to answer it.
Speaker 1 (57:08):
Yeah, but there's no perfect way, no Multiple ways,
absolutely it really is your ownpersonal relationship with him.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Yeah, and like I said , you got to be willing to say,
yeah, I'm going to start makingtime to do it.
It's like any otherrelationship you have, you have
to make time for it, yeah, andcommunication like communication
with a relationship yeah.
I mean just think, if you.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Your dialogue every day with him.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Just if you treated your spouse the way you treat
God.
Yeah, how do you think that'sgoing to work?
Speaker 3 (57:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
It won't work out too well for you.
Yeah, so yeah, it is a personalrelationship which is hard for
people to understand, and that'sthe only way we can get it is
through this book, and I think agood point to be made is that's
the way God wanted it.
He didn't want us looking overhere, over there underneath the
rug, you know.
No, we know exactly where tofind him.
This is it.
This is the only place you'regoing to find him Again.
(58:07):
A lot of things people think.
Why does God make things sodifficult?
Well, he really doesn't, it'sright here he said, yeah, it's
going to take that relationshipto understand it all and it's
going to take a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (58:20):
If you seek, you will find.
Speaker 3 (58:24):
But you have to do it , otherwise take your commitment
it's not a one-way street likeyeah, yeah yeah it just makes me
.
I don't know what, why Ithought of this.
But you know, people want toread different books.
In this book, in that book,they want to read about murders
or love stories with adultery,whatever.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
Open up the old testament, oh boy right, yeah,
it's all in there.
Yeah, it's all in there, yeah,yeah all of it yeah, you'll find
everything uh-huh yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
Sometimes, time and time again, yeah, and some with
the most uh people that um someof the top dogs yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (59:05):
You know that, yeah, some of the people that were
most influential in the Bibleare the ones that.
Yeah, well, they got acheckered past.
Speaker 3 (59:17):
Right, yeah, exactly, and they were chosen by God.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
Yeah, and they were chosen by God, despite all those
things, yeah, yeah and at anytime.
God could have said and theywere chosen by God, despite all
those things, yeah, yeah, and atany time God could have said
okay, you did this, we're done.
Speaker 3 (59:27):
Yeah, but he doesn't do that Once he's chosen you it
doesn't really matter what youdo.
God's love.
Speaker 4 (59:35):
Yes, his love, his grace, his mercy.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I thought they had left.
They have, they're going topractice do?
Speaker 1 (59:51):
we want to wrap up?
Speaker 2 (59:52):
we good anybody got anything else who's turn to pray
Roger?
Okay, go ahead, roger.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Roger.
That's why he wasn't here today.
All right, let me see if I canget this All right.
Dear Heavenly Father, lord, Ijust thank you for this time
that we had this evening.
You know, I really felt that wehad a great topic and we stayed
on track, and I just pray thatthis, you know, touches
someone's heart, whether that'stonight, tomorrow, 10 years from
(01:00:26):
now.
Lord, just just reallyemphasize you know just how we
do.
Things could be different thanwhat's going to work with them.
I just pray that whatever theyend up getting from this, it is
you, is from you and not from us, and I pray for travel.
Mercies in your name, amen,amen.
we're on.
I should say, roger won't be.
Here we are again yes, we'rehere another week.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We're not going away people, we're not going away
nope, and I skipped last weekbecause my kids were in went
away.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
I did my kids were in from massachusetts and my dad
lost his keys and couldn't findhim to get to the farm and that
was his farm day.
So we all loaded up in the carand we all went to the farm,
spent the day down there.
It was really nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I always like being like I was talking to you about
it, like being at your.
You know where your roots are.
Yes, like where you grew up at.
You know that's my happy place.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
It's nice that you can still go there.
Yeah, I think, cordon, he did,you know, because his wife's
definitely likes concrete underher feet.
You know, she's been down thereone other time and she lasted
at the creek bank creek bank for30 minutes we call it the creek
so she made it 30 minutes andwent to the car.
So he and she left and we spent, but this time we all rode
together.
She couldn't get away, but Ithink she enjoyed it.
She did.
She was even in the water.
(01:12):
She fished, didn't catchanything, but we had a good time
I'll never forget the firsttime I went camping with them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I'm like where we get our bath, where we're get in
the creek, in the creek, thatclean water.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
That clean water runs right in off a pine honey,
that's the best my hair everfeels is when I wash my hair in
that creek water, it runs rightinto the ohio river yeah, okay,
so the creek runs into the ohioriver got it okay.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yep, it actually is a very clean yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So nothing like I know a lot of people hate the
smell of like lakes and but Ilove it, I just love it.
I'm like, oh, it just makes mefeel like, yeah, like I, I.
It just makes me feel like Ican smell it in my hair again
when I was down at my grandpa'slake or something.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, I don't know.
We know with us on that boatout there and when you get a
dead fish floating and it stinksyeah, flies around it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yeah, there's no fishy smell down here, yeah a
little bit of competition, butyou know what our dock would
turn their motor on, so it shoesit over.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And that dock all their boats turn their motors on
so it comes back our way.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's just somebody get a net and get that thing out
of there a little bit ofcompetition there yeah yeah
Speaker 2 (02:30):
it's funny, though, if you grow up around that kind
of thing, I mean as long as it'snot a really pungent smell
right it's still kind ofpleasant to you when you smell
it like if you haven't beenaround it for a while like
you're talking about, and thenyou know, because I I go fishing
once a year with my cousin andwe do it on good friday because
that's what our dads did.
(02:50):
They both passed away so we keepthe tradition going.
So when I'm out there one yearon the lake, you know just
certain, yeah, certain smells,certain sights, all those things
bring me right back to being akid, because that's where we
spent our summer was on thepontoon boat out at the lake.
We didn't go on these lavishvacations right?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
no, we didn't either.
Our vacations were camping yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So yeah, all those things you know, bring it right
back when yeah when I'm outthere yep, so yeah so yeah, in
some ways it's not.
It's not a pleasant smell, butno, but it's.
Yeah, something about.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I think smells too.
It's almost like the wholething where, oh how can't, like
I can't you know memorize Idon't know just like, say, your
science homework, but I canmemorize this whole song, like I
feel like that's kind of thesame thing with smells, like it
just takes you right back tothat, those memories.
I don't know Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I love when we're out there on the boat to leave that
back door open, so this yeah,screen door yeah, and that air
coming in through the night andyes, getting up in the morning
that this, yes, coming up off ofthe water is so beautiful even
just like the smell of a fire,like I I don't know yeah yeah,
those kind of intertwine with meanyway.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So yeah, yeah for those of us joining us.
That is not our topic.
No, no it was only.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're not talking about smells yeah, no, it's only
four minutes.
Speaking of, sometimes there'sI don't know if you guys knew
this, but there's a few hundredor thousand people in the world
that can like sense what yousmell.
Like they'll hear you andthey're like oh, it sounds like
you smell like what?
Yeah, I don't know.
(04:32):
The one podcast was liketalking about it.
I'm like what there is sometechnical term for it, but like,
well, give me an example okay,like, if you are okay, I'll try
to think of the one girl on thepodcast and she's kind of more
like earthy tone, like she'slike.
She named her kids Forest andOliver Gotcha, so they said she
(04:57):
smelled like One of those thingsyou hang from your no Mirror of
your car.
The Dots, the Dots candies, um,one of those things you hang
from your no, actually of yourcar.
The dots, the dots, um candies,and I'm like what.
And there was something else.
I'm like okay, I don't know, Idon't think that really goes
hand in hand.
But the other one did, though,because she's kind of more oh, I
(05:21):
shouldn't say goth, she's notgoth at all, but she kind of
gives you the more um, I don'tknow, just like a dark, like
dark humor, and but she has likeshe tastes like dark licorice
to these people when they hearher.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I'm like okay I can kind of see that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
But the first one, I was like,no, I don't see that one, but
yeah, there's, there's a wordfor it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I don't know what it is, but yeah so you're saying
that these people associatepeople's language with smells?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
yes, like yeah like that's the instantly but I don't
, like, I don't think theyassociate, like I think they
actually taste it when they'rehearing that.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Okay, you know what I mean that's wild yeah well,
that could be really bad, I knowright like what if you what if
your like wife or husband, liketastes, like something?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
you can't stand the taste we're going real deep
hopefully they figured that outbefore they got married yeah
yeah, like, uh.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, like uh doug and patty mayonnaise doug from
nickelodeon yes, because we needpatty mayonnaise.
Well, he just, yeah, mayonnaise.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, couldn't imagine I gotta, I gotta figure
out the name of that, becauseyeah, we went this far with yeah
right and that people areprobably the people listening.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Insane.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
well, yeah, because I was like my brain went that
somebody smelled something andthey could tell you what you
were smelling.
That's what I thought she wastalking about.
I'm thinking well, wait aminute, what kind of podcast
you're watching?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
okay, the rare taste that lets people sorry.
The rare trait that lets peopletaste sounds synaesthesia
s-y-n-e-s-t-h-e-s-i-a.
It's a neurological trait, hmmnever heard of it it says um a
(07:23):
neurological trait or conditionthat results in a joining or
merging of senses that aren'tnormally connected.
So yeah, seneznia, that almostsounds like a country.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, do we have that ?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
on our board.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Have we updated our board?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I've the smart um on my way here.
I was like I need to see.
Actually I was going.
I wanted to update it onsaturday when we were here but
michael was like busy doingthings and I was trying to find
the red.
You know the pins, pins, andI'm like you know what this is
another, a song for another time, because, yeah, we do need to
look at that, get an update downin that area.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We need to yeah, um.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
So do we know how many countries or I can tell
that we're in?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
yeah, I was.
We just need to have a state ofthe show episode yeah, yeah,
okay stats.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
so we are Okay stats, so we are All time.
But I want to know where we'reat.
Okay locations, All Okay.
(08:44):
So we have had almost 2,000downloads.
We're at 1996.
Actually, 1997.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
This is total for all time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know what?
No, there's more.
That was only in North America,and then in South America we
have one download.
In Europe we have 65.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
South America is a tough crowd.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Asia 173.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Somebody go on vacation and download it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Africa, 10.
And is it Oceania?
Sure, Do you know what I'mtalking about?
Yeah, 13.
So there's currently 288 cities.
Nice, singapore, has passed ourum canadian friends, really.
(09:34):
Yeah, they have 99 downloadswow yeah, whereas our canadian
friends only have 27 now.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
We really are reaching out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I mean, that's actually 288 cities, that's
almost 300.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That's not bad for this yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
For what we're doing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
We're doing our job.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Small little community church, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And we haven't spent any money to promote it.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
No, and we go down a lot of rabbit holes.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
We do and they still listen, right.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Probably why they listen.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yes, you're probably right.
Who are we kidding?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah.
What will they say next?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, all right.
Well, what's the topic, nick?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
All right.
So once again, my wife Margieinspired this one, so we went
into the new Barnes Noblebookstore up there in Canton.
It's where, oh, it's up thereby the right behind Canes.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Oh wait, shai was telling me yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, so it's in that little strip mall there yes.
So we had a little time to ourmovie.
So we went into the bookstoreand we're walking around and my
wife got to the Bible section.
She's like you know, I reallywant to get into the Bible but I
just don't know how to start.
Like, how do you start readingthe Bible?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Can I?
I'm sorry, Go ahead.
This whole summer we've kind ofbeen like eight to 15, 16
downloads, the past twodownloads or past two episodes
we've had.
24 was two weeks ago and 28 waslast week's.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So that's awesome.
Wow, maybe the heat's helpingus out a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Where typically we were between 25 and 35 before
summer.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So but yeah, very good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So she was saying she wanted.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So there's that question.
You know, I want to startreading the Bible, but I don't
know how, I don't know where tostart.
I think that's a pretty commonquestion, Pretty big challenge
that people have Now somebodylike me.
You know I had an advantageearly on because I love to read,
I love the written word.
To begin with, it doesn'tmatter what I'm reading.
I get a lot of joy out ofreading Number two.
(11:52):
I really love history.
So there's two in the bag rightthere.
So, yeah, so there's two in thebag right there.
Um, so for somebody like me, itcomes, it comes easy to me to
be curious, to want to learnyeah, you know, to want to get
into the written word and youknow she's going through them
all.
And it's funny because and youcan tell what drives a lot of
(12:12):
sales with these new bibles it's, it's usually how it's packaged
.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
If you've got a really nice pretty cover maybe
it's made out of leather.
It's got flowers all over it.
They've done wonders withmarketing as far as producing
Bibles, which isn't a bad thing,I think, whatever it takes to
get somebody started.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Right?
Well, like my granddaughter,when we went to that Bible store
up there, there was threeBibles to choose from, like I
told you, but there was one thatwas very artistic.
Lily loves to draw, she lovesto color, she loves to do stuff
with her colored pencils andthere was an artistic like.
Every page had something thatshe could literally, as she
(12:53):
reads, color in the artwork.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Like the adult coloring book, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So you have all these different bibles, you know,
with all these different, uh,enticements, I guess, um, to get
you to actually just pick it up, to get you to open it and
hopefully walk out of the storewith it.
And for me, I think, as aperson you know, you got to ask
yourself a couple questions.
I think number one always hasto be well, what's your motive
(13:28):
behind it?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Are you doing it because somebody told you that
you need to?
Are you doing it because you'retrying to find yourself?
Or are you doing it becauseyou're trying to find yourself,
or are you doing it becauseyou're trying to find God?
I definitely don't think youshould be going into this
thinking.
I'm going to enjoy it, as youwould say a novel.
If you're going into it forkickback and enjoy it.
(13:55):
You're probably not going to besatisfied.
You're not going to go too farwith it.
So I think it does come down tothose questions is what is your
goal?
What do you want to get out ofit?
Are you looking for arelationship with God?
Do you want to get to know God?
And are you willing let's faceit are you willing to put the
time in to get to know himBecause it is the written word
(14:18):
of God?
So it is not.
You know, it's not like readinga classic novel, it's not like
reading Moby Dick or you knowanything new today.
It's you know, yes, there's alot of different versions.
You know, the New LivingTranslations is probably best
for younger people or people inour generation, rather than
(14:39):
trying to read.
You know the king james versionwhich I remember that's the
first bible that I bought on myown was the king james version,
and that's what I startedreading yeah but again for me, I
think I had a little bit ofadvantage.
I didn't mind that so muchbecause I didn't mind reading
right, you know I didn't feellike that was a waste of time
and I didn't so much feel likeit was hard work, but a lot of
(15:00):
people that would be really hardto actually get into and stay
focused from day to day.
Yeah for sure.
And then my Bible.
Here it's a combination ofactual Bible study, bible
history, so I get a little bitof everything out of it.
So if I don't quite understandwhat I'm reading, then I have
(15:24):
all these footnotes, I have adictionary I can go to, I have
all these tools within the Bibleitself that I can go to that
will explain what I'm readingand give a little more insight
into it.
So I do get the history, I getthe context of it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And, and it also challenges me to look further
into other verses.
Yeah so all of those things.
You got to put all those thingstogether.
But, honestly, I think thefirst thing is you have to be
honest with yourself and saywhat is it that I'm looking to
get out of this when?
you start reading it withyourself and say what is it that
I'm looking to get out of this?
(16:01):
When you start reading it andthat has to be your goal,
because it is going to be it'sgoing to be a process.
It's not something like I said.
Many, many books in the Bible.
When you read it, you may go Idon't even understand what that
was about.
I couldn't even follow that.
I didn't.
I didn't understand a word.
I just read and you may have togo back and read it again.
(16:21):
You know, may you have to goback and look for context.
Um.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I think, like being honest with yourself, like what,
what is it that I want out ofit?
And also asking God to likehelp you, like stir fire in you,
wanting to read it and wantingto form that relationship.
If that's what you really want,go to him and ask him for that
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
ask him for that wisdom to understand.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And you also have to have something very practical,
which is the excuse most peoplehave is I just don't have the
time.
I have such a busy day.
I get up, I go to work, I comehome, I make dinner, I take care
of the kids, mow the lawn.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Mow the laundry yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Man or woman.
There's plenty of things thatwill get in your way, daily life
and, yes, all of those thingshave to be accomplished, not
arguing that at all.
But you do have to come torealization that you have to
make time.
Yes, you have to have thatpractical, you know idea that if
(17:30):
I'm going to do this I have tomake time.
It's not going to come to me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You know if you're waiting every day for a time in
your life to come along whereyou're not busy.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
There's always going to be something more shiny,
right, yeah, oh, absolutely,there's so many distractions to
begin with Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I mean, you know, but you're always your own
biggest distraction because youcan always think of something
you know that's easier.
You know that, uh, that, let'sface it, something you'd rather
do than you know sit down, openthe book, um, but it's hard.
Like I said, you do have toforce yourself to make time and
(18:10):
it may come down to explainingto the people you live with or
people closest to you that, yes,I know you all need a part of
me.
I know you all need somethingfrom me.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Y'all need my time but I need jesus, but I need
jesus you're gonna have to allowme, yeah, this time.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
you know, and and I think that's very important is
that you have to, you have to bewilling to say this is
something that I have to maketime to do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And that's hard if you're a new Christian, because
Satan doesn't by any means onceyou end that book Right right,
so he's throwing everydistraction at you, mm-hmm
mm-hmm, yeah, and even like, ifyou're like, say you, because
you don't have to do it in themornings, you know a?
lot of people look at it andthink, okay, let's do it in the
morning, but let's say you,let's say that's the only time
(19:04):
you can do it.
Like Nick, I truly feel that isthe only time you can do it.
You know what I mean.
And it's like, okay if you'renot a morning person, but that
is truly your only time you cando it.
Make it easier for yourself todo it, like you know, for the
night before.
Just say, you have a smoothieevery morning.
Get that stuff in the smoothieor in the little container and
(19:26):
then put it in your fridge.
That way, whenever you wake up,you just have to ding, ding,
put it on and you're done andlike, then you can drink your
smoothie while you're readingyour bible.
Like, make it easier for yourfuture self to do it.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That way you can actually have a chance to do it
and start out slow.
Yes, Don't give yourself thisbig like goal of I'm going to
read my Bible every day for anhour, seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Again, be practical.
Start out slow.
Just if you only do it threedays a week to start, it's
better than nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's better than nothing, yeah, and go from there
and then once you get rolling,then you may find like, okay, I
got that rolling.
Well, maybe I'll take it justan extra half hour at night.
Maybe I'll shut the TV off ahalf hour earlier before I go to
bed and just read a couplepassages, and sometimes that's
even better.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah Is, don't try to tackle verse upon, verse upon
verse maybe, I think, even ifyou just tackle a couple verses,
oh, absolutely, and let it justsoak in yeah, like what did I
just read?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
like yeah, and just just let it sit on your mind,
and then you may wake up withthoughts about it yeah and
sometimes those thoughts alone,then, will lead to further
development as far as okay, nowI understand that.
I hear what God's telling me todo and I think at that point God
will tell you where to go next,and that's the kind of mindset
(20:48):
you have to have is you arelooking for God.
That should be one of your maingoals of reading the Bible, not
because you feel like you haveto or you should.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Because you truly want a relationship with God and
there's no other place to getit.
Yeah, Because there truly isn't.
No, and you know that's a veryunique thing to say.
You're not going to find Godanywhere else, but in the
written word, you know.
I mean people can tell youabout.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
God Right, right.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
People can tell you about right god right.
People can tell you about jesus.
All those, things, but itdoesn't really do anything.
Yeah, until you, until you'veinvest your time to get into the
world right, and so oftenthat's when you hear from god
yeah, exactly he will workthrough those verses to get to
show you something
Speaker 4 (21:34):
yes yeah, and as a new Christian, it's like not
just opening up the basic novelor whatever you're reading.
When you open this up.
I didn't start in Genesis.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, yeah, please don't.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
No, don't start in the Old Testament.
Please go to the New Testament.
Maybe start in John or Mark andthe Gospels.
Yeah, start there, you know.
Yep, I Gospels.
Start there, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I like doing Luke because it's like the
chronological order.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Well, he was the historian, I believe, of the
disciples.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, he was very structured.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I think yes.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, like all four of those are similar, you know,
in case someone doesn't knowthat, and it's all four of them
is basically Jesus's time hereon this earth.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's his life, his teachings, his miracles.
Yes, tells us why he came.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, like starting like it's not like we said, it's
not like a normal novel because, first off, all these books are
different.
Like you got, you know, matthew, mark, luke and John that are
all pretty similar, talkingabout Jesus's life and
everything.
But then you've got Acts, whichis kind of like the church
history, revelation, which isend times, like it all has, you
(22:46):
know, romans or Proverbs, likekind of more inspirational and
like when you need something tolike lift you up.
But you're not just, it's notone sided, like you're getting
all of this from this one book,not one book, several books to
one your gospels, yes, where youare learning, you know from his
(23:07):
birth yes actually from hisconception all the way through
to the resurrection yep, eveneven after yeah, yeah, you know,
and yeah, that's the foundation.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Yeah, you have to start there.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Understand that before you can go back and touch
the Old Testament and see whereyou know so-and-so begat
so-and-so coverage for your sinright where there is now and if
you're a new christian and readthat, that's scary, yeah oh yeah
, absolutely yeah, that wasactually the one podcast don't
(23:43):
go into deuteronomy, no, no no,and the podcast that I was
talking about earlier, the onegirl was saying when she was
growing up she was a huge reader, kind of like I'm picturing
nick, you know like they were intheir teenage years just
reading the bible and she wasgoing to church at the time but
she had started from thebeginning and I think she got
through the whole test or thewhole Old Testament, but then
(24:05):
she's like like almosttraumatized.
She's like what am I reading,you know?
And it's like if someone wouldhave just sat down with her and
explained to her.
You know, this was before Jesusand you know, thank god we did
have jesus to come to kind ofhelp us with that right.
No, like yeah, I don't know,because you don't, you don't
(24:26):
want to start there.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
No, but I think proverbs after you've worked
through the gospel yes I thinkproverbs is good, because that
just tells you how you shouldlive life.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yes, I mean some of it, is you know confusing.
And Romans is kind of like thesame.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
See, I did the Gospels.
I can remember reading.
I did the Gospels and thenRomans, yes, and then I did
Proverbs and Psalms, yeah, andthen back to the New Testament
again, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I read somewhere Philippians, yeah, so yeah, I
read somewhere Philippians.
I think Philippians kind offocuses on life as a Christian,
but dealing with all thesetroubles because you know that's
going to happen, If's going tocome and you'll know it like
that's where you need to beheaded Right.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
And in Romans, you know, not only does it talk
about concepts of like sin andgrace and salvation, but it also
the importance of the unity oflove within the body of Christ
and how we need to show love.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And that we've all sinned and fall short.
Yes, all of us, and so we haveto show that love to everybody
Daily.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Even though we strive to live like Christ every day,
we still fall short, Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But in that you know the Bible is your stronghold
against that kind of repeatedbehavior.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yes, yes Right.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And that's sometimes, and that's also something that
comes in time with staying inthe Word.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's not a book that you read from page one to page.
How many pages does mine have?
So mine's like 2,500 pages, andit's pretty small print too.
So if I read it from page oneto 2,500 and never picked it up
again, I haven't accomplishedanything.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Right, exactly, yeah, just reading it through isn't
accomplishing anything If you'renot studying it, if you're not
because they I mean they call itthe living word.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It is the living word .
So you, you need to live in theword.
So, like I said, if you pick itup one time, read it and say,
yep, check the box, I've done it.
I either got it or I didn't getit.
Yeah, some parts were good,some parts were bad.
I really like that yeah thisparts could have been been
better.
If you read it like you wouldread any other book that you
would take out of a library orany other book that you would go
(26:58):
into Barnes Noble and pull offthe shelf and look at the cover
and say, oh, that's pretty, thatlooks kind of cool.
I'll take that home and read it.
You read it one time.
You forget about it.
That's not what you're doinghere that.
Forget about it.
That's not what you're doinghere.
That's something that you doall the time, so that those
words I mean how many times dowe say you know?
You can read that same part ofscripture 10 times.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
And either all of a sudden, the light bulb will come
on yes, or it may have meantsomething to you five years ago
and you read it again and it hasit completely different.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Exactly, yes, absolutely yeah.
You know something?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
to you five years ago and you read it again and it
has it completely different,exactly yes, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
You know um well and not only that inspiration those,
as you read those verses andget them etched on your heart.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I mean you might not be able to, you know, quote them
yeah, right, right, but you,you've got the concept of what
that verse means.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, and it lives within your heart.
It lives within your heart, andthen that is your battle
against.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Satan.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
If you know you're right there.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Boom, boom, throw it right back at him.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, you know, people are always looking for
proof of God.
That's always somebody'schallenge to Christians.
Well, show me that he's real,prove to me that this isn't all
just made up, and written inthere.
Well, even if you quoteScripture to them, you can't
(28:26):
quite do that.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
The best answer would be well, look at my life, look
at where I have been Right andlook at where I am now.
Because, because I am in theword.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Exactly Because.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I do everything I can to follow the word Right, and
even though I'm not perfectnever gonna be but I make as
much effort as I can to stay inthe Word, to follow it, and
that's my proof.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
If it could change me , you know, to make me a and
manage our relationships and ourwork and our finances and our
morals.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, and that's all you have to say to put it on the
national bestseller list isjust give it a shot.
It's not going to hurt you, no,it's not going to hurt you, no.
So pick it up, read it.
If I guarantee you, you willsee a change in yourself, if you
give it enough time, if yougive it enough effort.
(29:39):
Don't give up.
Yeah, you will.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You will see changes and that's the proof of god.
That's what I was going to tryto lead into.
So once you do pick it up andstart reading it like, okay,
this isn't so bad, how do youkeep up on it?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Well, again, it's discipline.
It really is.
Because, no, again it's not.
I mean, I'm not saying I don'tenjoy reading.
I do enjoy reading it but, likeI said, I do have that
advantage of I'd like to read,but again, it's not like a
normal form of leisure.
It's not like watching TV orwatching a movie, or reading a
(30:13):
novel or any of the things thatwe do to relax.
That's not what we're talkingabout here.
That's not how you go into it.
If you're like, yeah, I readthat one chapter that time.
That was boring.
Yeah, you're right, it isboring.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
A lot of it is A lot of, it is not I struggle going.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
okay, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to read
through the book of John.
I struggle with that, but nowyou throw something at me that's
going to make me.
Hey, I like that, I'm going todig and dig and dig.
I really enjoyed yeah like theresearch part.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Even you know I'm the same way,beth.
Like I, I have a hard time,like, okay, I'm gonna sit here.
You know, I think when I firstbecame a Christian I was like
the small books you know I'mgoing through, I'm like how many
pages is this one?
okay, okay, let's do that one,you know, and yeah but because I
have a hard time of readingjust like a full you know um
(31:09):
book and but it's like maybe, ifyou know yourself, like maybe
you do need to pencil in thetime.
You know, I don't, I don'tnecessarily like carve out my
day, like I don't even use mydigital calendar on my phone
like I, but I know some peopleare like that.
So it's like if you are, maybeyou need to pencil in from 5 am
to 6 am or 5 am to 5 20.
(31:31):
You know that's where I'm gonnado that and I think like power
of writing things like kind ofhelps anyway, like I don't know,
oh, yeah, yeah and that's a bigthing too.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I I really do believe that, that if you take a short
verse and only read it, but trywriting it out yes, yes,
notebook.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yes, on a notebook.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And I think you'll find you'll remember that verse
better.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, oh, yeah, if you write it out, I agree, yeah,
yeah, so we can.
You know like we can dissectlike a topic, like we do, kind
of we could just sit and read achapter or a book.
There's like devotionals we cando.
Uh, what else is there?
(32:14):
Well, that podcast you canlisten to to help broaden your
thinking and well, I'm not helpyou understand, yes, kind of put
it.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Put it, get it down to earth.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, yeah, so that you can understand, yeah yeah,
well, I'm not much of a reader,so when I became a Christian I
bought it on disc, on CD, ohyeah.
So it was read to me, you know,I mean I would follow along,
but if I was in the car orwhatever, I would throw in my
disc and I would listen while Iwas traveling or whatever,
because I'm not the best reader.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I get tired when I read.
It just kind of puts me tosleep, no matter what I'm
reading.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Was it Morgan Freeman ?
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Right, I think it was .
No, I'm not sure who it was.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
But I wanted to bring that point up.
When you go back to askingyourself okay, why do I want to
start reading the Bible, why doI have this desire to do it?
Perhaps it's because you'velooked at yourself and realized,
yes, there are things that Iwant to change in my life, and
sometimes that is also one ofthe main things is you have to
(33:19):
be ready to change.
You have to be honest withyourself and say whatever it is,
I'm ready to change.
I'm ready to give my life tothe Lord.
I've had enough of this lifeand doing it on my own and
trying to figure it out.
I'm ready to give it over tothe Lord.
I'm ready for change, and onceyou accept that, then you may be
able to look at yourself andsay, well, yeah, the thing
(33:42):
dragging me down is anger.
You know the thing dragging medown is alcoholism.
You know the thing dragging medown is unforgiveness.
So then you can go okay, that'swhat I'm going to.
Open up the Bible and what.
Like you said, whether, usingyour devotional, a study Bible,
do whatever you need to do toattack that, whether if it's
(34:05):
unforgiveness, then look into it.
Just start trying to findeverything you can in the Bible
about forgiveness.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
And that's what I did when I started.
I would go back to say thedictionary or whatever, and look
up whatever emotion I wasfeeling that day, and you'll
find a lot of that in the bookof Psalms.
All of the emotions are in thebook of Psalms.
Right yeah, and it teaches ushow to approach God with our
honesty and vulnerability andour faith.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
And I've been one to say that I don't really care for
devotionals, but I said lastweek that I was kind of starting
one Like it kind of I don'tknow compares your time with
your toddler like what theycould possibly be going through,
like what they could possiblybe going through.
And there was something todaythat was like, oh, you know,
(34:54):
because there's so many spillsat this age or so many, you just
accidents and like, oh, youknow, oh, not again.
And it said, you know, wheneveryour child has spilled their
cereal for the umpteenth time,like what are you doing?
How are you going to react tothat?
Yeah, and you know, it saidthis scripture um luke 6, 45 a
(35:15):
good person produces good thingsfrom the treasury of a good
heart and an evil personproduces evil things from the
treasury of an evil heart.
So I'm like, wow.
And it also took one stepfurther, stating you know,
currently, with what he's goingthrough, like the attachment I
don't know, just like they'rereally learning about, hey,
(35:35):
should I?
What can I do with this personversus this person, and how will
they react?
and you know if, they're formingrelations yeah, and like they
want to have that securerelationship.
They don't want you to be soreactive that way and they was
kind of saying like you want tobe that secure relationship and
you don't want to have all thesemeltdowns yourself.
(35:56):
That way they're not scared todo things their own to learn you
know, exactly.
If they do have a problem, yeah,and that exactly, and then that
actually, like it kind of justlike, produces anxiety on them,
and then they are not wanting totry new things, therefore
they're not wanting to learn andgrow, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
(36:17):
what am I doing?
But you know it just like andthat was all from two sentences,
I think like I just, you know,it was like mind-boggling, so I
don't know, that's just a greatresource that you can.
Yeah, that's very.
All those devotionals andpatience.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I mean, patience is a big one, yeah, you know, yeah,
and all in all walks of life andall you know, and everything we
go through.
Patience is such a you know, uh, that's, that's a hard one for,
yeah, a lot of people and Ihave to wait and it kind of
compares like god.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
You know, god's so patient with us, yeah, yeah, why
can't we be patient with him?
And I'm like, oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Well, and even though a new Christian, they might not
understand everything thatthey're reading right off the
bat, yeah, and they're stillgetting in that book every day.
They're still building thatrelationship.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Right, right yeah.
And they're still getting inthat book every day.
They're still building thatrelationship.
Right Right yeah, like there'sno perfect way.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
One day it's just all going to come together yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, yeah.
And like right now, thatdevotional is helping me because
I'm you know, because it's ableto help me go through all these
changes with Cooper.
Well, one day Cooper's notgoing to be as little as he is
or, you know, he's going to befully grown, like you know he's
going to be fully grown rightlike that's, you know.
(37:37):
So right now it's connecting tome in that way, but you know
I'm going to have to find a newway.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, you know, sooner rather than later.
So, yeah, my grandmother alwayssaid they step on your toes
when they're little and theirhearts your hearts when they're
you're, they're grown yeah andthat's true.
Yeah, because when they'readults you can't fix their
problems no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
But sometimes in that parent-child relationship, even
with your relationship with god, you're going to have to
realize that sometimes thatrelationship is going to be
rocky yeah, it's like everyother loving relationship.
That it's not always, you knowit's not always going to be you
know, I always tell people Ilook, if you have a relationship
(38:15):
with God, relationship withJesus, and once in a while you
get mad at him, I'd say that'sokay, Because at least you're
putting your emotion towards theright person.
Yeah, yeah, Like almost becausewe all get mad at our father we
all get mad at our mothers butthat relationship is more
important than anything.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
So yeah, if you get in my opinion, if you throw your
anger at God once in a while,to me I was like that's okay,
and you might as well as long asyou always realize that, yep,
you are the son, you are thedaughter.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Right, right, that, yep, you are.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You are the son, you are the daughter right right, as
long as you understand thatrelationship, yes, I think he
would rather have you be mad athim once in a while, yeah than
to have no relationship at allright because he knows, if you
stick with it, if you trust him,you'll get over being upset
you'll get over.
You know um having thatimpatience to where you don't
understand why it's taking himso long right, you know, to to
(39:13):
do something in your life thatyou've been praying for.
So having that relationship,regardless of you know how it's
going all the time and how yousee it going and what you want
for your life, as long as you'restill directing it towards,
towards God, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, you'll be OK, you'll be okay, you'll be okay.
And the thing is, when you'reupset with him and he's not
answering a prayer quick enoughfor you or whatever, you might
as well tell him yeah because heknows anyway.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
He already knows.
He already knows.
You're not hiding anything fromhim.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
As soon as that thought crossed your mind he
already knows, so you might aswell just let him say why God or
why yeah right.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I think he will get just as much pleasure out of
that as when you give him creditfor something.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, because you're acknowledging him as we mature
as children of Christ.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
We'll give that praise and thanksgiving.
And he knows where you are inyour walk, even in the bad times
, right, right.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
He knows exactly where you are in your walk, so
he'll understand if you'reimpatient, if you're upset and
don't quite understand.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, he knows not, everybody's a seasoned veteran,
right, right and even though Iknow that maybe my prayer is not
being answered because he hasbetter plans.
It's sometimes frustratingbecause I think I, yeah, and I'm
bad about I want to fix thingsfirst, and then, when it all
(40:36):
goes haywire, I'm like god, here, here and then I hand it to him
really bad and he's like, ifyou just would have let me take
it from the beginning well,that's such an important thing
that the bible will teach you isthat?
Speaker 2 (40:47):
and no matter what situation you read in the bible,
no matter what part of historyguess what, god's always in
control, no matter who's tryingto upend the table no matter
who's trying to change thingsfor their will, to honor
themselves, it always goes rightback to him.
He's in control of everything.
So you have to develop thatpart of the relationship and
(41:10):
understand that he is in controlyeah and I have to let him, you
know, I have to let him controlevents in my life yeah, and
that's hard for me.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
I can't.
That is a hard one for me, eventhough I know and it doesn't
take prayer out of the equation.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
You should still pray for it every day even if you
feel like well, I didn't get ittoday, well, pray for it one
more time.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
But just go into it with that understanding that,
yep, I'm going to continue totrust you.
Trust is such a big part of itand that takes a long, long time
.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
But you're never going to get it if you're not in
the Word all the time.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
It's not that easy.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh, there's been many a times I went to that altar
and hear God, I'm giving it toyou, I'm giving it to you, it's
all yours.
Monday morning, I'm picking itup.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
You pick it right back up.
Oh heck, you're picking it upbefore you ever get back to your
seat.
Yeah, Been there, done that.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yep, I think even just having like this is good
that we are able to talk to eachother weekly, but not everyone
is, or not everyone commits to abible study or not, you know.
But I think community is soimportant because you get to
talk to people like the other.
(42:23):
I think it was on my lunchbreak last friday and I walked
over to miller's creamery indover and um was like I don't
know, I'd say someone in her mid40s, but she was like mentoring
someone like late teens, early20s, and I'm like you just don't
see that anymore and it was sonice to see it, you know,
(42:44):
I think that is very importantand I wasn't eavesdropping, but
it was.
I mean, they were right besideme, you know, and like they were
, they talked about not justabout life, before they got into
the Bible, you know, andthey're like, oh, you know,
let's, you know, I suppose weshould get into it, you know,
and they weren't like mad thatthey had to do it, they were
just like open hearted and, youknow, and it was, it was nice,
(43:05):
like yeah.
So I think a lot of peopleforget the power of community.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We had a uh kid that juststarted where I work.
He's going to work in the officeand he had to shadow everybody
over the course of the last twoweeks, so he shadowed me, I
think yeah this last monday and,uh, in my office, on my big
chalkboard, maggie, when she waslittle, had drew a big picture
and it's three crosses and ofcourse the middle one says Jesus
(43:38):
.
And then she has.
She drew me, her mom andherself at the bottom and I
never erased it.
It's been up there a long timeand I don't remember what he
said, but he made some referenceto God and asked me.
I forget the direct question heasked me, but his reply came
back he goes.
Well, he goes.
I'm not part of a Bible study.
(43:59):
He goes.
I'm just not old enough forthat yet and I'm like whoa, whoa
, whoa.
I was like have a seat.
And I was like I said you youngpeople are exactly the ones
that should be in Bible studyright now, yeah, yeah.
I said you, young people, becomethe strength of the church.
Right, you guys are the nextmovement.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I said never take that attitude that you have to
be so old to get into a Biblestudy, because it's not some
crungy.
Yeah uh, you know stale uh youknow activity right that people
just fall into when they getolder, because now they don't
have the energy, uh, to gowinter skiing or you know,
(44:43):
surfing nothing else to donothing else to do, and they're
too old, and so that's.
All that's left to do is go tochurch on Wednesday nights and
talk.
So I was like no, that is theexact, that's the wrong attitude
.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I have about that.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
And he was just kind of like whoa, he wasn't quite
ready for that answer.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
But that would be exciting for you that God has
dropped somebody, anotherChristian, within your office.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
He might not be- practicing Well, and he started
asking like so what church doyou belong to?
And he started asking questions.
But he was like yeah, he's kindof like, yeah, I'm kind of in
it, but kind of not in it.
And, like I said, he's justlike yeah, I'm not old enough
for that yet, and maybe weshould talk about that a little
(45:30):
bit.
Just the young people.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I think they do have For me.
You know, when I was 13, like Ihad the advantage, my mom did
talk to me about God and weprayed every night.
That's what we did before wewent to bed, but that was kind
of simple.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Kind of thing.
So it meant a lot, but maybe onpaper it doesn't seem like it
would mean a lot.
But when I was 13, my mom gotsick.
It was like, up to that time Idon't think I'd ever had a bad
day in my life.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
You know?
Speaker 2 (46:04):
yeah, I'm sure I you know, brother and I would fight.
Yeah, I, you know, brother andI would fight.
And you know you didn't getwhat you wanted and this and
that.
I'm sure I got upset plenty oftimes.
But if you look at it again onpaper you're like that kid never
had a bad day in his life.
I had a great childhood.
But all that was completelyshattered when my mom got sick,
because you know she was the onethat hosted holiday dinners.
You know she was just a nucleusof everything.
(46:27):
So everything fell apart.
So for me, you know, I had tofind something to lean on, to
fall back on, and I do think toa certain extent, yeah, I was
lucky that my mom had brought meup that way and I had been to
church a little bit as a kid, soI had a little bit of
background.
But there was just somethinginstinctively in me that was
(46:48):
like I'm going to go up to themall and Walden Books and I'm
going to get a Bible.
And I bought it with my ownmoney, which for a 13 year old,
not every 13 year old is goingto spend their hard earned
allowance money or whatever itwas to get a Bible.
But I did that and I would juststart reading it and again it
was just aimless reading.
I didn't say, you know, likeall my Civil War books, I'm
(47:17):
going to start at page one andgo to the end, but it just
seemed like when I was feelingbad, I was feeling lonely.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
All those things that my mom could no longer provide
for.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
I found myself in it and that's exactly what we
should be doing.
So I understand sometimes, whenyou know God bless them that
there's young people out therethat have never had a bad day in
their life and they don't, sothey don't really feel any need
for something else you know tofall back on.
They just don't.
(47:41):
They don't instinctively feelthe need for God because, yeah,
their parents are holding themup.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Everything in their life is good.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
So they don't quite understand that part of it.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
You know, and they're very fortunate for that.
But do you see?
Speaker 3 (47:55):
God's work in your life.
From that I mean from God knew,so he instilled that in your
mom to raise that, yeah, heinstilled that into you at a
young age.
So when you, when things wentbad, you had that foundation
built you knew where to go.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
yeah, and I can.
Even.
I'm always a type of personthat I believe, even when, like
on christmas morning.
I've always been the type ofperson that when I'm I'm, I am
an in the moment type of person,but at the same time, I have
this thing where I know thismoment's going to pass.
(48:35):
When I'm in it, like Christmasmorning, I would unwrap my
presents a little slower than mybrother and sister because I
wanted it to last, because evenin my mind I'd be like this is
going to pass, this is going toend.
So I could always see momentsin my life like I understood how
precious it is to be where I am, because it's not going to last
(48:56):
forever and I've always beenthat way.
There's certain things that Iconsistently think about and I'm
like, yep, you better enjoy itwhile it lasts, because if you
live long enough, you betterenjoy it while it lasts.
Because if you live long enough,then everything's going to come
to pass.
I've always been that way, andwhen I got into the Bible I
(49:29):
could tell myself, even at thatyoung age, I knew there was
going to be battles to be foughtwith it.
I didn't look at it as I don'tknow how to explain it.
I just knew that, as we say,once you open the Bible and
start reading it, it's like Iknew the enemy was going to come
after me.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
And he did.
And I've lost many of thosebattles yeah, I really have, but
I always keep fighting them.
That's the important thing.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
Absolutely.
You fall down, you just pickyourself back up and go again,
because, as my mom said whateveryou do, don't forget about
Jesus.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
And I never did, even when I was mad at him, as we've
talked about, because I was.
Plenty of times I was angrywith him because I didn't
understand.
And it kept piling up, you know, first it was my mom, then I
had a divorce and my mom passedaway, and then my son, you know.
He got into an accident with abear, lost his finger, and I
could go on and on.
It just piled up, piled up,piled up, and it's like you know
(50:28):
, and sometimes you say that toyourself, like you know, when I
was 13, I went out of my way,pick up a Bible, start reading
it and I think, for as young asI am, I've been pretty faithful.
What the heck's going on here?
You know, why have I had somany things thrown in my face?
You know, if, if I've been sofaithful, sometimes you think,
(50:48):
well, why don't I have that lifethat person has to, where it
seems like they, they don't haveany problems, they have both of
their parents, they seem asthough they've never had a bad
day in their life, and I justkeep getting one after the other
, you know, and that's tough,yeah, but I had that grounding
from the beginning.
It almost seems like Iunderstood that I was accepting
(51:11):
battle more or less yes, yeah.
Sometimes that's what it's about.
You realize that the world welive in is you are accepting
battle with the enemy and it'ssomething that you are going to
have to go through for the restof your life.
Yes, and perhaps because yousee these other people who are
not accepting battle yeah,they're kind of flying by
(51:31):
because they're not in it Right?
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, they're not in it.
They're not all in.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
They're not all in.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, so devil don't have to worry about it yeah,
exactly.
So maybe that is why they'vegot three cars parked in the lot
and a really nice house.
And you know, like I said, boththeir parents lived till
they're 90.
And perhaps that's the reason.
I don't know, I can't say forsure, yeah, but for me I just
it's you know I've been my ownworst enemy at times.
(51:59):
I can be honest and say thatLike yep, all the things I can
look at God and be like yep,that one is completely on me.
It is not anything you did.
It is not anything you know.
It's just it's not.
I'll be honest, I'm like Idon't even know if that was the
enemy's fault.
I will say that was completelyon me.
But I take accountability forit and I'm ready to go on to the
(52:24):
next, you know, ready to go tothe next level.
Let's keep going.
You know I'm not going to throwthis away because life up to 45
has been at times just reallyrough and just doesn't really
make any sense.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
You know, nick, though like people looking on
the outside, just like you'relooking on the outside at
everyone else, they would neverknow that you've dealt with
those struggles.
You know, and that's the samewith me'm like it.
It because it bothered me too.
I'm like you know if, why, youknow, why is it that?
I because same with me, I I wasalways grew up in a church,
like always had that backbone,but I'm like, why do I keep
(52:55):
having all this stuff, like youknow, and it's like, well, god,
never told us it would be no,and his path is narrow.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
Yeah, yeah, and it's the path of destruction is wide.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, I mean, and it's you just don't there's, I
don't know, there's just itdoesn't matter what people think
.
You know and god knows what godknows.
You know that it's not fair,you know, but he's going to give
those to the toughest soldiersand you know, maybe, maybe, for
(53:27):
everything that you've gonethrough, like, maybe you will be
a mentor to someone who's goingthrough something similar.
Who knows?
Speaker 3 (53:32):
you know, you don't know the reason.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I believe everything you've been through is why
you're such an excellent exactly, yeah well, you know and I was,
and I do get, I do getsatisfaction out of sometimes
you think the enemy's got you,and then you still praise God
the next morning and you canfeel it Like he is so
disappointed and discouraged.
(53:54):
Yet again, I did my best andthis guy is still you know.
Speaker 4 (53:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
He's still kicking.
Yeah, he's not going to fallback, he's still gonna.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
he's not gonna fall back, he's still gonna move
forward and praise andthanksgiving and he's just like,
yeah.
So there is a lot ofsatisfaction in it when you get
that deep into it yeah, yeah,that you're like, yeah, because
when you get to know your enemypretty well by doing this all
the time, you know and that'sreally important that you do um,
but you do.
And so I can't help but say youdo get some satisfaction that,
(54:26):
no matter what happens, it'slike, well, jesus Christ is
still my Lord and Savior.
I don't know what to tell you.
You can try again tomorrow, butthat's the way it's going to be,
so you might as well bothersomebody else, but I accept
battle.
I'll keep going at it Becausewe've been doing this since I've
been 13.
So I'm a veteran now.
(54:47):
It's like I don't care.
You want to keep going, let'skeep going.
Speaker 4 (54:51):
And I think once you get through all of that, another
couple good books to read is 1and 2 Corinthians.
First Corinthians is going tofocus on correcting and
addressing immorality and guidesthe believer in proper conduct
and their spiritual gifts,marriages, worship.
And then Second Corinthianstells us what true ministry is,
(55:15):
and to be humble and to besincere and to have resilience.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah.
And maturity, yeah, yes, yepPlays a big part Maturity and
maturity.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yeah, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Yep Plays a big part of maturity is a big part of it,
yeah, but again, everything isearned?
I think yeah.
So you have again getting intothe words.
You have to earn it.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Right, yeah, and like we were talking about last week
, what kind of crown are yougoing to have if you don't earn
it?
You know, yeah, are you goingto even have a crown?
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Yeah, that made me really question, like wow okay,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
This is not the Generation Z participation.
You know school Metal.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Yeah, metal.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said, you can be saved
from the burning building.
Sure, right, but you know yeahso much more to earn than that I
.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
I just I don't want to go before the lord and not
have a crown to lay at his feet.
You know I don't want to and Idon't even know that that's in
there biblically, but that'swhat it's.
You know, I was taught.
Yeah, I don't want to go up andsay hi, thank you, I'm on my
way to the yeah thank you forsaying don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
Thank you for pulling me from that burning building.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah don't make eye contact right, that's not gonna
happen.
Speaker 1 (56:41):
but you know if you would be embarrassed and like
everyone else is laying thesecrowns at his feet, and here you
are, like where's my crowns?
You know, I did the bareminimum, guess we're living in
the basement.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Oh you weren't kidding.
Yeah, so there's a lot toconsider when somebody has asked
that question, it's not youknow.
It took us an hour to answer it.
Speaker 1 (57:08):
Yeah, but there's no perfect way, no Multiple ways,
absolutely it really is your ownpersonal relationship with him.
Speaker 2 (57:17):
Yeah, and like I said , you got to be willing to say,
yeah, I'm going to start makingtime to do it.
It's like any otherrelationship you have, you have
to make time for it, yeah, andcommunication like communication
with a relationship yeah.
I mean just think, if you.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Your dialogue every day with him.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
Just if you treated your spouse the way you treat
God.
Yeah, how do you think that'sgoing to work?
Speaker 3 (57:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
It won't work out too well for you.
Yeah, so yeah, it is a personalrelationship which is hard for
people to understand, and that'sthe only way we can get it is
through this book, and I think agood point to be made is that's
the way God wanted it.
He didn't want us looking overhere, over there underneath the
rug, you know.
No, we know exactly where tofind him.
This is it.
This is the only place you'regoing to find him Again.
(58:07):
A lot of things people think.
Why does God make things sodifficult?
Well, he really doesn't, it'sright here he said, yeah, it's
going to take that relationshipto understand it all and it's
going to take a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (58:20):
If you seek, you will find.
Speaker 3 (58:24):
But you have to do it , otherwise take your commitment
it's not a one-way street likeyeah, yeah yeah it just makes me
.
I don't know what, why Ithought of this.
But you know, people want toread different books.
In this book, in that book,they want to read about murders
or love stories with adultery,whatever.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
Open up the old testament, oh boy right, yeah,
it's all in there.
Yeah, it's all in there, yeah,yeah all of it yeah, you'll find
everything uh-huh yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
Sometimes, time and time again, yeah, and some with
the most uh people that um someof the top dogs yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (59:05):
You know that, yeah, some of the people that were
most influential in the Bibleare the ones that.
Yeah, well, they got acheckered past.
Speaker 3 (59:17):
Right, yeah, exactly, and they were chosen by God.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
Yeah, and they were chosen by God, despite all those
things, yeah, yeah and at anytime.
God could have said and theywere chosen by God, despite all
those things, yeah, yeah, and atany time God could have said
okay, you did this, we're done.
Speaker 3 (59:27):
Yeah, but he doesn't do that Once he's chosen you it
doesn't really matter what youdo.
God's love.
Speaker 4 (59:35):
Yes, his love, his grace, his mercy.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I thought they had left.
They have, they're going topractice do?
Speaker 1 (59:51):
we want to wrap up?
Speaker 2 (59:52):
we good anybody got anything else who's turn to pray
Roger?
Okay, go ahead, roger.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Roger.
That's why he wasn't here today.
All right, let me see if I canget this All right.
Dear Heavenly Father, lord, Ijust thank you for this time
that we had this evening.
You know, I really felt that wehad a great topic and we stayed
on track, and I just pray thatthis, you know, touches
someone's heart, whether that'stonight, tomorrow, 10 years from
(01:00:26):
now.
Lord, just just reallyemphasize you know just how we
do.
Things could be different thanwhat's going to work with them.
I just pray that whatever theyend up getting from this, it is
you, is from you and not from us, and I pray for travel.
Mercies in your name, amen,amen.
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