July 4, 2025 • 30 mins
"Have you ever wondered how some performers memorize large parts of the Bible? Today, Pastor Teddy pulls back the curtain on his unique scripture memorization process and spiritual practice that transformed his faith and ministry."
The journey begins with a confession - Pastor Teddy, a.k.a. Fred Kenney, Jr., didn't read through the entire Bible until his early thirties. When he finally attempted it, he found himself completely lost in the complex prophetic books like Ezekiel. That's when divine intervention led him to discover audio Bible recordings, creating a breakthrough in his comprehension. By engaging scripture through both reading and listening simultaneously, passages that once seemed impenetrable suddenly began making sense.
Pastor Teddy shares how this discovery evolved into a life-changing habit - listening to scripture constantly during daily activities, sleeping with Bible recordings playing through the night, and eventually creating his own audio versions. "I went through the entire Bible in the month of January," he reveals, describing how this immersive approach welded biblical narratives into his mind and heart. This practice became the foundation for his theatrical ministry, enabling him to perform extensive biblical stories from memory.
The highlight comes when Pastor Teddy shares a sample of his preparation for an upcoming Daniel play - a first-person narration as if Daniel himself were telling his story from inside the lions' den. This innovative approach brings scripture to vivid life, offering listeners a fresh perspective on familiar texts and demonstrating how creative engagement with God's Word can deepen understanding.
Whether you're struggling to comprehend difficult biblical passages, looking to strengthen your scripture memory, or simply seeking a fresh approach to engaging with ancient texts, this episode offers practical insights that will transform your relationship with the Bible. Listen now and discover how hearing God's Word might open spiritual doorways that reading alone cannot reach.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lord, you know you will now listen to Play for the
Word.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the best.
And King Nebuchadnezzar fellupon his face and paid homage to
me and commanded that anoffering, an incense, be offered
up to me.
The king answered and said tome Truly your God is God of gods
(00:26):
and Lord of lords and arevealer of mysteries, For you
have been able to reveal thismystery.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Amen, amen.
Well, welcome to all of you toPlays on Word Radio.
Oh yeah, and to those of youthat are non-American citizens,
happy Independence Day to you,because you're independent in
Christ.
How about that?
When I was a youth pastor, thekids always used to kind of
laugh and not make fun, but kindof make fun of me, because I
(02:00):
would always find some kind ofway to work whatever we were
talking about back to ChristSomehow.
A bird flying over pees onsomebody, and I would, you know?
Well, you know, some peoplesprinkle with baptism, but the
Spirit descended on Jesus in theform of a dove at his baptism,
(02:22):
in the form of a dove at hisbaptism, and they were like they
would actually look for how'she going to try to work this
back to Christ?
How's he going to work this in?
So anyway, today we havesomething Speaking of working
things back to Christ.
We have something veryimportant for you today.
I think you guys some of you,at least I know for a fact will
(02:45):
be excited about.
We have been promising to bringthe Dan play and start
scheduling it.
That day is not here yet.
We're still working on it.
We're still working on the Danplay.
But I wanted to take you guysbehind the curtain or behind the
scenes a little bit, because alot of times after a play I have
(03:09):
people come up to me and sayhow did you, how do you, how do
you memorize all this stuff?
How can you commit the wholething to memory?
Well, one of the one of theways I got to give God credit
all the credit, first andforemost, goes to the Lord for
giving me a hard drive in mybrain that remembers the
scripture.
But one of the tools that hechallenged me to employ is
(03:34):
listening to the Bible, and thereason was because I was when I
first decided to read throughthe entire Bible.
I didn't do that until I was 30.
And I didn't read through theentire Bible.
No, I might have been 33,somewhere in my early 30s, and I
took a long time to do it.
And I was reading through theBible and I remember getting to
(03:56):
Ezekiel and just beingcompletely lost in space.
I didn't know what was.
I was like man, and so I'm read.
I was.
I was, uh, working at cablevision at the time as a head end
technician.
I was in the office and I'mreading, um, of course, on my
lunch break and my uh, coffeebreaks and my time off.
(04:18):
You know you want to do thebest work you can for the
employee people that employ you.
But I was work you can for thepeople that employ you.
But I was reading and Iremember getting to, oh man, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20 chapters,and I was like Lord, my eyes are
crossing over the words but Ihave no clue what's going down
(04:40):
here, man, I don't know what'shappening.
I just here, man, I don't knowwhat's happening, I just.
I was lost as it gets and theLord challenged me.
I didn't hear an audible voice,but what he put on my heart, he
directed me to the.
I was on Bible Gateway.
For some reason I was cause, Iwas reading out of my Bible.
(05:00):
But I went to Bible Gateway tolook at another translation or
whatever.
And I just started looking thatway and I'm on my computer and
I saw the speaker icon, thislittle speaker.
It was next to the chapter andverse and it was like the Lord
really pointed my eyes to thatand it caught me.
(05:21):
So I pressed the speaker iconto that and it caught me, so I.
So I pressed the speaker iconand next thing, you know max
mclean.
He read through the entirebible.
It was an audio bible and theymatched it up with the chapters
and I was like, wait, what thiswas early on too.
I mean, this is 25 years agoand max is his version of the
(05:44):
the bible, I think it was.
I think it was only in the NIV.
At the time it was brand new,he had just released it, so I
don't know how he got it up onBible Gateway so quick, but it
was up there and it was amassive blessing to me because I
was able to read.
I still didn't understand what Iwas reading, but I was able to
read.
It went in through my eyes andwent in through my ears.
(06:06):
It helped me to focus.
So I was getting the Biblethrough my eyes and getting it
through my ears and it helped meto focus, get through it.
And then I was, later on, as Igot to other books, things
started to make more and moresense because I had flown over
(06:26):
that area, didn't understand it.
It's like a town you drivethrough and you know you've
never been through that town.
You drive through it but youknow you might notice a couple
of things.
You don't understand itcompletely, but then later on
you're like, oh, that's right,that's right, we saw that shop
or that factory or we saw thatback in that other town.
(06:46):
Now it makes sense.
You didn't understand it at thetime, so I got through the
scripture and I never lookedback.
I ended up purchasing the entireBible.
He had it on.
Listen to this.
He had it on 66 CDs.
Imagine that being shipped toyour house.
It was a.
It was a little booklet withthe pouches, sixty six of them
(07:11):
CDs.
Of course this was before MP3s.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
This is going back.
Oh man, of course, before Maxthere was Alexander Scorby and
my cousin Nick Dr Nicholas Kenny.
He turned me on to Scorby.
Because I turned him on to Max,I let him borrow the Romans CD.
(07:31):
I said, man, check this out, orI might've booted it and made a
copy.
I don't remember.
I don't recommend that becausewe want to be law-abiding
Christians, okay, but anyway, hewent fishing.
He brought a boombox with him,went fishing with his boy, his
buddy.
They went fishing and they putthe CD in and it like
(07:53):
supercharged his faith man.
He called me up.
He was like yo man yo, we playedit back like five or six times,
man, just listening to thescripture.
Oh, man, you got to love it.
So and then he went out andbought the MP.
Then Max dropped the MP3version, I think.
Uh, by that point I think hedropped an MP3 version.
(08:15):
But when he did drop the MP3version, my cousin got that and
he was like all amped up.
So, um, yeah, the, the Bible,the audio Bible and the Bible on
CD.
When I got the Bible on CD, Ithen couldn't stop listening to
(08:36):
the Bible.
I was like man, let me listento this thing first, rather than
listening to music on the radioor the news, talk radio or
anything like that, let melisten to this talk, man.
And it was just a majorblessing in my life.
My faith was growing, I wasimmersed into the word, I was
getting washed by the word,daily, hourly, and one year
(09:00):
early on, I think, right afterwhen I got the CDs, I went
through the entire Bible in themonth of January, from Genesis
through to Revelation, theentire Bible.
Man, and that was.
It was life changing, it wastransformative, if you can.
(09:22):
Some people don't like listeningto the Bible.
They don't.
They don't really get it inthrough the ear gate.
I get it in through the eargate and the eye gate I.
I like to read it, I like to.
I absorb it through reading.
I absorb it through listeningand if you do, if you can get to
that point where, if you Ithink anybody can absorb through
listening just takes a littlefocus, that's all.
(09:44):
But it absolutely will changeand transform you.
The Word of God will transformyou and I am living proof of
that.
The Word of God transformed me.
Not only that, many of thesestories that you see us perform
are in part because the HolySpirit used that tool to weld it
(10:09):
into my mind, into my being, sothat these stories,
particularly the narratives, Ican tell the stories because
I've looped them over and over.
I slept with the Bible.
I put it on loop.
Actually, last night I did thesame thing last night.
Of course, we're new technologypeople now, so I streamed it
(10:32):
with my Bluetooth headset and Ihave the app.
So I've got all and I've got abunch of different narrators
besides Max, although Max isstill my my go-to guy.
Max McLean, still my go-to guy.
If I need to, if I need to sleepto the Bible, man, I, I put
that on and it's just somethingabout his fake English accent,
(10:56):
which is awesome Because I'veactually heard him speak.
I actually talked to him, notto ADD here, but I called him.
He was on the Bible Answer manprogram back in 2003 or 4,
something like that, and Icalled the program because I was
(11:18):
so excited about the Bible onCD and the product that he was
selling or he was, you know,promoting, and I called him up
and I was just so grateful andso thankful and I talked to him
but he wasn't using his Englishaccent and I made a little joke
with him.
I said, man, you know, I can'thear the Bible without the
English accent.
Now, anyway, so, keeping inthat tradition this is a long
(11:41):
intro keeping in that traditionone of the ways that I prep for
the play is by listening to theBible.
Whether I'm cutting the grassor, you know, doing yard work,
housework, whatever, I'll putthe Bible on and listen to it.
But one of the things I do nowis I make my own audio Bible.
(12:04):
I'm an audio guy, I'm anengineer, you know, I can record
, I've got a full-blown prostudio and so I'm going to let
you guys in on a little bit ofmy Dan prep.
One of the things I did andyou'll notice and you'll be
blessed by this, I think, if youlike the book of Daniel is I
(12:24):
read the book, but I do.
I had a little.
There's a little bit of a twiston it because I read it as if
it's first person, as if it'sDaniel telling his story.
Now, the Dan play is not goingto be exactly word for word.
This it is going to bescripture, but there's going to
be some tie-in stuff, like we dowith the plays, with plays on
(12:46):
word.
It's like 98% scripture.
That little 2% is justconnector type stuff and I don't
want to say filler, butbasically connector context type
stuff.
There's a couple of littlehumorous jokes and you know
that's where we get pyramiddepot and stuff like that.
Uh, in the plays, in theGenesis Joe play, we we
(13:09):
referenced pyramid depot.
Obviously that's not in thescripture.
It might be in your dollarstore Bibles but it's not in.
You know it's not in theScripture.
But we're going to.
I want you to check this out anddo me a favor, email me, send
me a text, something, let meknow what you think good, bad or
ugly but I think you're goingto be blessed by this, because
I'm pretty sure you've neverheard the book of Daniel from
(13:33):
Daniel.
Check it out, chapter one,right where I expected to be in
this den with you, hungry lions.
Since we're going to be here awhile, I might as well tell you
how I got here.
Since we're going to be here awhile, I might as well tell you
(13:54):
how I got here, back when I wasjust a young boy in the land of
Judah, the land of my birth.
In the third year of KingJehoiakim, king Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon came up against Judah, jerusalem, and besieged it,
and the Lord gave King Jehoiakiminto the hands of King
(14:16):
Nebuchadnezzar, along with someof the articles and vessels of
the temple of God, and KingNebuchadnezzar took them and put
them in the temple of his Godin Babylon.
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz,the chief of his court
officials, his eunuchs, to bringsome of the Israelites from the
(14:38):
royal family and the nobilitythey were to be young men
without blemish, handsome,skilled in all wisdom, endowed
with knowledge, understanding,learning and competent to stand
in the king's palace.
He was to teach them thelanguage and literature of the
Chaldeans, the Babylonians, andthe king assigned a daily amount
(15:03):
of food and wine from theking's table to these youths and
they were to be trained forthree years and after that they
were to enter the king's service.
And I was among these youthsfrom Judah, along with my
friends Hananiah, mishael andAzariah.
(15:24):
Now, hananiah, his name, meansGod is gracious, mishael means
who is what God is, and Azariahmeans God will help.
Now the chief official gave usnew names.
(15:47):
To me, he gave the nameBelteshazzar.
To me, he gave the name Bel.
To Shazar, and that means mayBel protect his life.
I mean that's Bel, a false god,not my god.
To Hananiah, he gave the nameShadrach, which means the
(16:14):
command of Eku, the detestablemoon god of the Sumerians.
To Mishael, which means who iswhat God is, he gave him the
name Meshach, that means who iswhat Eku is.
And to Azariah, he gave thename Abed-Nego, which means
servant of Nebo.
This was very difficult for usto deal with.
(16:37):
We were given new names.
We were in a new land and wewere given new names of false
gods, not our god, the true god.
This was extremely difficultfor us.
We were in danger of beingdefiled from this new world,
(17:00):
these new names we were givenand this food from the king's
table.
Well, I resolved to not defilemyself with the royal food and
wine and I asked the chiefofficial.
I went to not defile myselfwith the royal food and wine and
I asked the chief official.
I went up to him and I saidPlease don't let me defile
myself with this food and wine.
(17:24):
Now God caused the official toshow favor and sympathy to me.
But the official said to me I'mafraid of my lord, the king,
who has assigned your food anddrink.
Why should he see you lookingworse than the other young men
your age?
The king would then have myhead because of you.
Then the chief officialappointed a guard over me
(17:45):
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah.
So I said to the guard I said,please test your servants for
ten days.
Give us nothing but vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then compare our appearancewith that of the young men who
eat the royal food and treatyour servants in accordance with
what you see.
So he agreed and tested us forten days.
(18:10):
At the end of the ten days, itwas seen that we were better in
appearance and fatter in fleshthan all the youth who ate the
king's food.
So the steward took away ourfood and the wine we were to
drink and gave us vegetables.
As for us, god gave us learningand skill in all literature and
(18:32):
wisdom, and he gave meunderstanding in all visions and
dreams.
At the end of the time, whenthe king had commanded that we
should be brought in, the chiefof the eunuchs brought us in
before Nebuchadnezzar and theking spoke with us, nezer.
And the king spoke with us.
(18:53):
And among all of the youths,there was none found like me
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah.
Therefore, we stood before theking and in every matter of
wisdom and understanding aboutwhich the king inquired of us,
he found us ten times betterthan all the magicians and
(19:15):
enchanters that were in all ofhis kingdom.
And I, daniel, was there untilthe first year of King Cyrus,
chapter 2.
In the second year of the reignof Nebuchadnezzar.
(19:36):
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.
His spirit was troubled and hissleep left him.
Then the king commanded thatthe magicians, the enchanters,
the sorcerers and the Chaldeansbe summoned to tell the king his
dreams.
So they came and stood beforethe king and the king said to
them I had a dream and my spiritis troubled to know the dream.
(19:59):
Then the Chaldeans said to theking in Aramaic O king live
forever.
Tell your servants the dreamand we will show the
interpretation.
The king answered and said tothe Chaldeans the word from me
is firm.
If you do not make known to methe dream and its interpretation
(20:20):
, you shall be torn limb fromlimb and your houses shall be
laid in ruins.
But if you show me the dreamand its interpretation, you
shall receive gifts from me andrewards and great honor.
They answered a second time andsaid to him Let the king tell
(20:45):
his servants a dream and we willshow its interpretation.
The king answered and said wewill show its interpretation.
The king answered and said Iknow with certainty you are
trying to gain time because yousee that the word from me is
firm.
If you do not make the dreamknown to me, there is but one
sentence for you you have agreedto speak lying and corrupt
(21:08):
words before me till the timeschange.
Therefore, tell me the dreamand I shall know that you can
show me its interpretation.
The Chaldeans answered the kingand said there is not a man on
earth who can meet the king'sdemand.
(21:28):
No king, however great andmighty, has ever asked such a
thing of any magician orenchanter or astrologer.
What the king asks is toodifficult.
No one can reveal it to theking except the gods, and they
do not live among men.
Because of this, the king wasangry and very furious and he
(21:53):
commanded that all the wise menof Babylon be destroyed.
So the decree went out and thewise men were about to be killed
and they sought me and mycompanions to kill us.
Then I replied with wisdom andtact to Ariok, the captain of
the king's guard, who had goneout to kill all the wise men of
(22:15):
Babylon.
I declared to Ariok, the king'scaptain.
I said why is the decree of theking so urgent?
Then Ariok made known thematter to me and I went in and
requested to the king to appointa time that I might show the
interpretation to the king.
(22:35):
Then I went to my house and Imade this matter known to
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah,my companions, and I told them
to seek mercy from the God ofheaven concerning this mystery
so that we would not bedestroyed with the rest of the
wise men from Babylon.
(22:56):
Then the mystery was revealed tome in a vision of the night and
I blessed the God of heaven.
I said blessed be the name ofGod forever and ever, to whom
belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons.
He removes kings and sets upkings.
(23:16):
He gives wisdom to the wise andknowledge to those who have
understanding.
He reveals deep and hiddenthings.
He knows what is in thedarkness and the light dwells
with him.
To you, o God of my father'seye, give thanks and praise, for
(23:38):
you have given me wisdom andmight, and you have now made
known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us
the king's matter.
Therefore, I went to Ariok tous the king's matter.
Therefore, I went to Ariok, towhom the king appointed to
destroy all the wise men ofBabylon, and I said to him I
(24:00):
said Do not destroy the wise menof Babylon.
Bring me in before the king andI will show the king the
interpretation Now.
Then Ariok brought me in beforethe king in haste and he said to
him I have found among theexiles from Judah a man who will
make known to the king theinterpretation.
I was being called by my newname, belteshazzar, and the king
(24:25):
said to me Are you able to makeknown to me the dream that I
have seen and its interpretation?
I answered the king and said nowise men, enchanters, magicians
or astrologers can show to theking the mystery that the king
has asked, but there is a God inheaven who reveals mysteries,
(24:50):
and he has made known to KingNebuchadnezzar what will be in
latter days.
Your dream and the visions ofyour head as you lay in bed are
these To you, o King, as you layin bed, came thoughts of what
would be after this, and he whoreveals mysteries made known to
(25:11):
you what is to be.
But as for me, this mystery hasbeen revealed to me, not
because of any wisdom that Ihave, more than all the living,
but in order that theinterpretation may be made known
to the king and that you mayknow the thoughts of your mind.
(25:31):
You saw, o king, and behold agreat image.
This image, mighty and ofexceeding brightness, stood
before you and its appearancewas frightening.
The head of this image was offine gold, its chest and arms of
silver, its middle and thighsof bronze, its legs of iron, its
(25:58):
feet partly of iron and partlyof clay.
As you looked, a stone was cutout by no human hand and it
struck the image on its feet ofiron and clay and broke them
into pieces.
Then the iron, the clay, thebronze, the silver and the gold
all together were broken inpieces and became like chaff of
(26:19):
the summer threshing floors, andthe wind carried them away so
that not a trace of them couldbe found.
But the stone that struck theimage became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream.
Now we will tell the king itsinterpretation.
(26:43):
You, o king, the king of kings,to whom the God of heaven has
given the kingdom, the power andthe might and the glory, and
into whose hand he has given,wherever they dwell, the
children of man, the beast ofthe field and the birds of the
(27:03):
heavens, making you rule overthem.
You are the head of gold.
Another kingdom, inferior toyou, shall arise after you, and
yet a third kingdom of bronzewhich shall rule over all the
earth.
And there shall be a fourthkingdom, strong as iron, because
iron breaks to pieces andshatters all things, and like
(27:28):
iron that crushes, it shallbreak and crush all these.
As you saw, the feet and toes,partly of potter's clay and
partly of iron.
It shall be a divided kingdom,but some of the firmness of the
iron shall be in it.
Just as you saw, iron mixeswith the soft clay and the toes
(27:50):
of the feet were partly iron andpartly clay.
So the kingdom shall be partlystrong and partly brittle.
As you saw, the iron mixed withsoft clay, so they will mix
with one another in marriage,but they will not hold together,
just as iron does not mix withclay.
And in the days of those kings,the God of heaven will set up a
(28:12):
kingdom that shall never bedestroyed, nor shall the kingdom
be left to another people.
It shall break in pieces allthese kingdoms and bring them to
an end, and it shall standforever.
Just as you saw, a stone wascut from a mountain by no human
hand and that it broke in piecesthe iron, the bronze, the clay,
(28:36):
the silver and the gold.
A great God has made known tothe king what shall be after
this.
The dream is certain and theinterpretation is sure.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fellupon his face and paid homage to
(28:58):
me and commanded that anoffering and incense be offered
up to me.
The king answered and said tome truly, your God is God of
gods and Lord of lords and arevealer of mysteries, for you
have been able to reveal thismystery.
(29:19):
Then the king gave me greathigh honors and many great gifts
and made me ruler over thewhole province of Babylon and
the chief prefect over all thewise men of Babylon.
I made a request of the kingand he appointed Shadrach,
(29:42):
meshach and Abednego my friendsover the affairs of the province
of Babylon, and I remained atthe king's court.
Amen, that's all the time wehave.
We're going to finish this nextweek, y'all, or not finish it,
but keep going Until then.
The Lord bless you, keep you,make His face shine upon you and
be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up Hiscountenance upon you and give
(30:03):
you peace.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
This program was made possible by the Plays on Word
family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Lord, you know you will now listen to Play for the
Word.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the best.
And King Nebuchadnezzar fellupon his face and paid homage to
me and commanded that anoffering, an incense, be offered
up to me.
The king answered and said tome Truly your God is God of gods
(00:26):
and Lord of lords and arevealer of mysteries, For you
have been able to reveal thismystery.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Amen, amen.
Well, welcome to all of you toPlays on Word Radio.
Oh yeah, and to those of youthat are non-American citizens,
happy Independence Day to you,because you're independent in
Christ.
How about that?
When I was a youth pastor, thekids always used to kind of
laugh and not make fun, but kindof make fun of me, because I
(02:00):
would always find some kind ofway to work whatever we were
talking about back to ChristSomehow.
A bird flying over pees onsomebody, and I would, you know?
Well, you know, some peoplesprinkle with baptism, but the
Spirit descended on Jesus in theform of a dove at his baptism,
(02:22):
in the form of a dove at hisbaptism, and they were like they
would actually look for how'she going to try to work this
back to Christ?
How's he going to work this in?
So anyway, today we havesomething Speaking of working
things back to Christ.
We have something veryimportant for you today.
I think you guys some of you,at least I know for a fact will
(02:45):
be excited about.
We have been promising to bringthe Dan play and start
scheduling it.
That day is not here yet.
We're still working on it.
We're still working on the Danplay.
But I wanted to take you guysbehind the curtain or behind the
scenes a little bit, because alot of times after a play I have
(03:09):
people come up to me and sayhow did you, how do you, how do
you memorize all this stuff?
How can you commit the wholething to memory?
Well, one of the one of theways I got to give God credit
all the credit, first andforemost, goes to the Lord for
giving me a hard drive in mybrain that remembers the
scripture.
But one of the tools that hechallenged me to employ is
(03:34):
listening to the Bible, and thereason was because I was when I
first decided to read throughthe entire Bible.
I didn't do that until I was 30.
And I didn't read through theentire Bible.
No, I might have been 33,somewhere in my early 30s, and I
took a long time to do it.
And I was reading through theBible and I remember getting to
(03:56):
Ezekiel and just beingcompletely lost in space.
I didn't know what was.
I was like man, and so I'm read.
I was.
I was, uh, working at cablevision at the time as a head end
technician.
I was in the office and I'mreading, um, of course, on my
lunch break and my uh, coffeebreaks and my time off.
(04:18):
You know you want to do thebest work you can for the
employee people that employ you.
But I was work you can for thepeople that employ you.
But I was reading and Iremember getting to, oh man, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20 chapters,and I was like Lord, my eyes are
crossing over the words but Ihave no clue what's going down
(04:40):
here, man, I don't know what'shappening.
I just here, man, I don't knowwhat's happening, I just.
I was lost as it gets and theLord challenged me.
I didn't hear an audible voice,but what he put on my heart, he
directed me to the.
I was on Bible Gateway.
For some reason I was cause, Iwas reading out of my Bible.
(05:00):
But I went to Bible Gateway tolook at another translation or
whatever.
And I just started looking thatway and I'm on my computer and
I saw the speaker icon, thislittle speaker.
It was next to the chapter andverse and it was like the Lord
really pointed my eyes to thatand it caught me.
(05:21):
So I pressed the speaker iconto that and it caught me, so I.
So I pressed the speaker iconand next thing, you know max
mclean.
He read through the entirebible.
It was an audio bible and theymatched it up with the chapters
and I was like, wait, what thiswas early on too.
I mean, this is 25 years agoand max is his version of the
(05:44):
the bible, I think it was.
I think it was only in the NIV.
At the time it was brand new,he had just released it, so I
don't know how he got it up onBible Gateway so quick, but it
was up there and it was amassive blessing to me because I
was able to read.
I still didn't understand what Iwas reading, but I was able to
read.
It went in through my eyes andwent in through my ears.
(06:06):
It helped me to focus.
So I was getting the Biblethrough my eyes and getting it
through my ears and it helped meto focus, get through it.
And then I was, later on, as Igot to other books, things
started to make more and moresense because I had flown over
(06:26):
that area, didn't understand it.
It's like a town you drivethrough and you know you've
never been through that town.
You drive through it but youknow you might notice a couple
of things.
You don't understand itcompletely, but then later on
you're like, oh, that's right,that's right, we saw that shop
or that factory or we saw thatback in that other town.
(06:46):
Now it makes sense.
You didn't understand it at thetime, so I got through the
scripture and I never lookedback.
I ended up purchasing the entireBible.
He had it on.
Listen to this.
He had it on 66 CDs.
Imagine that being shipped toyour house.
It was a.
It was a little booklet withthe pouches, sixty six of them
(07:11):
CDs.
Of course this was before MP3s.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
This is going back.
Oh man, of course, before Maxthere was Alexander Scorby and
my cousin Nick Dr Nicholas Kenny.
He turned me on to Scorby.
Because I turned him on to Max,I let him borrow the Romans CD.
(07:31):
I said, man, check this out, orI might've booted it and made a
copy.
I don't remember.
I don't recommend that becausewe want to be law-abiding
Christians, okay, but anyway, hewent fishing.
He brought a boombox with him,went fishing with his boy, his
buddy.
They went fishing and they putthe CD in and it like
(07:53):
supercharged his faith man.
He called me up.
He was like yo man yo, we playedit back like five or six times,
man, just listening to thescripture.
Oh, man, you got to love it.
So and then he went out andbought the MP.
Then Max dropped the MP3version, I think.
Uh, by that point I think hedropped an MP3 version.
(08:15):
But when he did drop the MP3version, my cousin got that and
he was like all amped up.
So, um, yeah, the, the Bible,the audio Bible and the Bible on
CD.
When I got the Bible on CD, Ithen couldn't stop listening to
(08:36):
the Bible.
I was like man, let me listento this thing first, rather than
listening to music on the radioor the news, talk radio or
anything like that, let melisten to this talk, man.
And it was just a majorblessing in my life.
My faith was growing, I wasimmersed into the word, I was
getting washed by the word,daily, hourly, and one year
(09:00):
early on, I think, right afterwhen I got the CDs, I went
through the entire Bible in themonth of January, from Genesis
through to Revelation, theentire Bible.
Man, and that was.
It was life changing, it wastransformative, if you can.
(09:22):
Some people don't like listeningto the Bible.
They don't.
They don't really get it inthrough the ear gate.
I get it in through the eargate and the eye gate I.
I like to read it, I like to.
I absorb it through reading.
I absorb it through listeningand if you do, if you can get to
that point where, if you Ithink anybody can absorb through
listening just takes a littlefocus, that's all.
(09:44):
But it absolutely will changeand transform you.
The Word of God will transformyou and I am living proof of
that.
The Word of God transformed me.
Not only that, many of thesestories that you see us perform
are in part because the HolySpirit used that tool to weld it
(10:09):
into my mind, into my being, sothat these stories,
particularly the narratives, Ican tell the stories because
I've looped them over and over.
I slept with the Bible.
I put it on loop.
Actually, last night I did thesame thing last night.
Of course, we're new technologypeople now, so I streamed it
(10:32):
with my Bluetooth headset and Ihave the app.
So I've got all and I've got abunch of different narrators
besides Max, although Max isstill my my go-to guy.
Max McLean, still my go-to guy.
If I need to, if I need to sleepto the Bible, man, I, I put
that on and it's just somethingabout his fake English accent,
(10:56):
which is awesome Because I'veactually heard him speak.
I actually talked to him, notto ADD here, but I called him.
He was on the Bible Answer manprogram back in 2003 or 4,
something like that, and Icalled the program because I was
(11:18):
so excited about the Bible onCD and the product that he was
selling or he was, you know,promoting, and I called him up
and I was just so grateful andso thankful and I talked to him
but he wasn't using his Englishaccent and I made a little joke
with him.
I said, man, you know, I can'thear the Bible without the
English accent.
Now, anyway, so, keeping inthat tradition this is a long
(11:41):
intro keeping in that traditionone of the ways that I prep for
the play is by listening to theBible.
Whether I'm cutting the grassor, you know, doing yard work,
housework, whatever, I'll putthe Bible on and listen to it.
But one of the things I do nowis I make my own audio Bible.
(12:04):
I'm an audio guy, I'm anengineer, you know, I can record
, I've got a full-blown prostudio and so I'm going to let
you guys in on a little bit ofmy Dan prep.
One of the things I did andyou'll notice and you'll be
blessed by this, I think, if youlike the book of Daniel is I
(12:24):
read the book, but I do.
I had a little.
There's a little bit of a twiston it because I read it as if
it's first person, as if it'sDaniel telling his story.
Now, the Dan play is not goingto be exactly word for word.
This it is going to bescripture, but there's going to
be some tie-in stuff, like we dowith the plays, with plays on
(12:46):
word.
It's like 98% scripture.
That little 2% is justconnector type stuff and I don't
want to say filler, butbasically connector context type
stuff.
There's a couple of littlehumorous jokes and you know
that's where we get pyramiddepot and stuff like that.
Uh, in the plays, in theGenesis Joe play, we we
(13:09):
referenced pyramid depot.
Obviously that's not in thescripture.
It might be in your dollarstore Bibles but it's not in.
You know it's not in theScripture.
But we're going to.
I want you to check this out anddo me a favor, email me, send
me a text, something, let meknow what you think good, bad or
ugly but I think you're goingto be blessed by this, because
I'm pretty sure you've neverheard the book of Daniel from
(13:33):
Daniel.
Check it out, chapter one,right where I expected to be in
this den with you, hungry lions.
Since we're going to be here awhile, I might as well tell you
how I got here.
Since we're going to be here awhile, I might as well tell you
(13:54):
how I got here, back when I wasjust a young boy in the land of
Judah, the land of my birth.
In the third year of KingJehoiakim, king Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon came up against Judah, jerusalem, and besieged it,
and the Lord gave King Jehoiakiminto the hands of King
(14:16):
Nebuchadnezzar, along with someof the articles and vessels of
the temple of God, and KingNebuchadnezzar took them and put
them in the temple of his Godin Babylon.
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz,the chief of his court
officials, his eunuchs, to bringsome of the Israelites from the
(14:38):
royal family and the nobilitythey were to be young men
without blemish, handsome,skilled in all wisdom, endowed
with knowledge, understanding,learning and competent to stand
in the king's palace.
He was to teach them thelanguage and literature of the
Chaldeans, the Babylonians, andthe king assigned a daily amount
(15:03):
of food and wine from theking's table to these youths and
they were to be trained forthree years and after that they
were to enter the king's service.
And I was among these youthsfrom Judah, along with my
friends Hananiah, mishael andAzariah.
(15:24):
Now, hananiah, his name, meansGod is gracious, mishael means
who is what God is, and Azariahmeans God will help.
Now the chief official gave usnew names.
(15:47):
To me, he gave the nameBelteshazzar.
To me, he gave the name Bel.
To Shazar, and that means mayBel protect his life.
I mean that's Bel, a false god,not my god.
To Hananiah, he gave the nameShadrach, which means the
(16:14):
command of Eku, the detestablemoon god of the Sumerians.
To Mishael, which means who iswhat God is, he gave him the
name Meshach, that means who iswhat Eku is.
And to Azariah, he gave thename Abed-Nego, which means
servant of Nebo.
This was very difficult for usto deal with.
(16:37):
We were given new names.
We were in a new land and wewere given new names of false
gods, not our god, the true god.
This was extremely difficultfor us.
We were in danger of beingdefiled from this new world,
(17:00):
these new names we were givenand this food from the king's
table.
Well, I resolved to not defilemyself with the royal food and
wine and I asked the chiefofficial.
I went to not defile myselfwith the royal food and wine and
I asked the chief official.
I went up to him and I saidPlease don't let me defile
myself with this food and wine.
(17:24):
Now God caused the official toshow favor and sympathy to me.
But the official said to me I'mafraid of my lord, the king,
who has assigned your food anddrink.
Why should he see you lookingworse than the other young men
your age?
The king would then have myhead because of you.
Then the chief officialappointed a guard over me
(17:45):
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah.
So I said to the guard I said,please test your servants for
ten days.
Give us nothing but vegetablesto eat and water to drink.
Then compare our appearancewith that of the young men who
eat the royal food and treatyour servants in accordance with
what you see.
So he agreed and tested us forten days.
(18:10):
At the end of the ten days, itwas seen that we were better in
appearance and fatter in fleshthan all the youth who ate the
king's food.
So the steward took away ourfood and the wine we were to
drink and gave us vegetables.
As for us, god gave us learningand skill in all literature and
(18:32):
wisdom, and he gave meunderstanding in all visions and
dreams.
At the end of the time, whenthe king had commanded that we
should be brought in, the chiefof the eunuchs brought us in
before Nebuchadnezzar and theking spoke with us, nezer.
And the king spoke with us.
(18:53):
And among all of the youths,there was none found like me
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah.
Therefore, we stood before theking and in every matter of
wisdom and understanding aboutwhich the king inquired of us,
he found us ten times betterthan all the magicians and
(19:15):
enchanters that were in all ofhis kingdom.
And I, daniel, was there untilthe first year of King Cyrus,
chapter 2.
In the second year of the reignof Nebuchadnezzar.
(19:36):
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.
His spirit was troubled and hissleep left him.
Then the king commanded thatthe magicians, the enchanters,
the sorcerers and the Chaldeansbe summoned to tell the king his
dreams.
So they came and stood beforethe king and the king said to
them I had a dream and my spiritis troubled to know the dream.
(19:59):
Then the Chaldeans said to theking in Aramaic O king live
forever.
Tell your servants the dreamand we will show the
interpretation.
The king answered and said tothe Chaldeans the word from me
is firm.
If you do not make known to methe dream and its interpretation
(20:20):
, you shall be torn limb fromlimb and your houses shall be
laid in ruins.
But if you show me the dreamand its interpretation, you
shall receive gifts from me andrewards and great honor.
They answered a second time andsaid to him Let the king tell
(20:45):
his servants a dream and we willshow its interpretation.
The king answered and said wewill show its interpretation.
The king answered and said Iknow with certainty you are
trying to gain time because yousee that the word from me is
firm.
If you do not make the dreamknown to me, there is but one
sentence for you you have agreedto speak lying and corrupt
(21:08):
words before me till the timeschange.
Therefore, tell me the dreamand I shall know that you can
show me its interpretation.
The Chaldeans answered the kingand said there is not a man on
earth who can meet the king'sdemand.
(21:28):
No king, however great andmighty, has ever asked such a
thing of any magician orenchanter or astrologer.
What the king asks is toodifficult.
No one can reveal it to theking except the gods, and they
do not live among men.
Because of this, the king wasangry and very furious and he
(21:53):
commanded that all the wise menof Babylon be destroyed.
So the decree went out and thewise men were about to be killed
and they sought me and mycompanions to kill us.
Then I replied with wisdom andtact to Ariok, the captain of
the king's guard, who had goneout to kill all the wise men of
(22:15):
Babylon.
I declared to Ariok, the king'scaptain.
I said why is the decree of theking so urgent?
Then Ariok made known thematter to me and I went in and
requested to the king to appointa time that I might show the
interpretation to the king.
(22:35):
Then I went to my house and Imade this matter known to
Hananiah, mishael and Azariah,my companions, and I told them
to seek mercy from the God ofheaven concerning this mystery
so that we would not bedestroyed with the rest of the
wise men from Babylon.
(22:56):
Then the mystery was revealed tome in a vision of the night and
I blessed the God of heaven.
I said blessed be the name ofGod forever and ever, to whom
belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons.
He removes kings and sets upkings.
(23:16):
He gives wisdom to the wise andknowledge to those who have
understanding.
He reveals deep and hiddenthings.
He knows what is in thedarkness and the light dwells
with him.
To you, o God of my father'seye, give thanks and praise, for
(23:38):
you have given me wisdom andmight, and you have now made
known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us
the king's matter.
Therefore, I went to Ariok tous the king's matter.
Therefore, I went to Ariok, towhom the king appointed to
destroy all the wise men ofBabylon, and I said to him I
(24:00):
said Do not destroy the wise menof Babylon.
Bring me in before the king andI will show the king the
interpretation Now.
Then Ariok brought me in beforethe king in haste and he said to
him I have found among theexiles from Judah a man who will
make known to the king theinterpretation.
I was being called by my newname, belteshazzar, and the king
(24:25):
said to me Are you able to makeknown to me the dream that I
have seen and its interpretation?
I answered the king and said nowise men, enchanters, magicians
or astrologers can show to theking the mystery that the king
has asked, but there is a God inheaven who reveals mysteries,
(24:50):
and he has made known to KingNebuchadnezzar what will be in
latter days.
Your dream and the visions ofyour head as you lay in bed are
these To you, o King, as you layin bed, came thoughts of what
would be after this, and he whoreveals mysteries made known to
(25:11):
you what is to be.
But as for me, this mystery hasbeen revealed to me, not
because of any wisdom that Ihave, more than all the living,
but in order that theinterpretation may be made known
to the king and that you mayknow the thoughts of your mind.
(25:31):
You saw, o king, and behold agreat image.
This image, mighty and ofexceeding brightness, stood
before you and its appearancewas frightening.
The head of this image was offine gold, its chest and arms of
silver, its middle and thighsof bronze, its legs of iron, its
(25:58):
feet partly of iron and partlyof clay.
As you looked, a stone was cutout by no human hand and it
struck the image on its feet ofiron and clay and broke them
into pieces.
Then the iron, the clay, thebronze, the silver and the gold
all together were broken inpieces and became like chaff of
(26:19):
the summer threshing floors, andthe wind carried them away so
that not a trace of them couldbe found.
But the stone that struck theimage became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.
This was the dream.
Now we will tell the king itsinterpretation.
(26:43):
You, o king, the king of kings,to whom the God of heaven has
given the kingdom, the power andthe might and the glory, and
into whose hand he has given,wherever they dwell, the
children of man, the beast ofthe field and the birds of the
(27:03):
heavens, making you rule overthem.
You are the head of gold.
Another kingdom, inferior toyou, shall arise after you, and
yet a third kingdom of bronzewhich shall rule over all the
earth.
And there shall be a fourthkingdom, strong as iron, because
iron breaks to pieces andshatters all things, and like
(27:28):
iron that crushes, it shallbreak and crush all these.
As you saw, the feet and toes,partly of potter's clay and
partly of iron.
It shall be a divided kingdom,but some of the firmness of the
iron shall be in it.
Just as you saw, iron mixeswith the soft clay and the toes
(27:50):
of the feet were partly iron andpartly clay.
So the kingdom shall be partlystrong and partly brittle.
As you saw, the iron mixed withsoft clay, so they will mix
with one another in marriage,but they will not hold together,
just as iron does not mix withclay.
And in the days of those kings,the God of heaven will set up a
(28:12):
kingdom that shall never bedestroyed, nor shall the kingdom
be left to another people.
It shall break in pieces allthese kingdoms and bring them to
an end, and it shall standforever.
Just as you saw, a stone wascut from a mountain by no human
hand and that it broke in piecesthe iron, the bronze, the clay,
(28:36):
the silver and the gold.
A great God has made known tothe king what shall be after
this.
The dream is certain and theinterpretation is sure.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fellupon his face and paid homage to
(28:58):
me and commanded that anoffering and incense be offered
up to me.
The king answered and said tome truly, your God is God of
gods and Lord of lords and arevealer of mysteries, for you
have been able to reveal thismystery.
(29:19):
Then the king gave me greathigh honors and many great gifts
and made me ruler over thewhole province of Babylon and
the chief prefect over all thewise men of Babylon.
I made a request of the kingand he appointed Shadrach,
(29:42):
meshach and Abednego my friendsover the affairs of the province
of Babylon, and I remained atthe king's court.
Amen, that's all the time wehave.
We're going to finish this nextweek, y'all, or not finish it,
but keep going Until then.
The Lord bless you, keep you,make His face shine upon you and
be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up Hiscountenance upon you and give
(30:03):
you peace.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
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