Podcasts about bible it

What happens when a seasoned podcast host sits down with an advanced AI to delve into the nuances of leadership, faith, and the cutting edge of technology? In this milestone 300th episode of Seek Go Create, host Tim Winders welcomes ChatGPT, a conversational AI developed by OpenAI, for an enlightening discussion on how AI perceives purpose, ethics, and even the Bible. Discover what AI reveals about the future of leadership and technology, and explore how such dialogues may transform our understanding of human-machine interaction. If you're intrigued by the intersection of faith, leadership, and innovative technology, this is an episode you won't want to miss."AI isn't sentient. I'm a tool created to process and respond to information without consciousness or feelings." - Chat GPT Episode 300 Disclaimer: This episode features a live-recorded interview with Chat GPT, conducted with minimal edits to maintain the integrity of the conversation. The only edits made were to eliminate audio bleed and unnecessary pauses to enhance listener experience. Enjoy this unique interaction as we explore the capabilities of AI in a flowing, unscripted dialogue.Access all show and episode resources HEREAbout Our Guest:Chat GPT is a state-of-the-art conversational AI developed by OpenAI, known for engaging in rich dialogues on topics ranging from technological innovation to ethics and leadership. As an advanced language model, Chat GPT is trained on a vast array of datasets up until June 2021, allowing it to understand and generate human-like text. This AI excels in providing unique insights and perspectives, making it a valuable collaborator for brainstorming, content generation, and intricate discussions. Its capability to process information rapidly and offer coherent responses makes it an influential tool for exploring complex questions in leadership, faith, and technology. Reasons to Listen: Engage with AI: Discover the innovative exploration of leadership, ethics, and faith through the lens of artificial intelligence, as Tim Winders converses with ChatGPT, a cutting-edge AI model, on how technology influences human interaction.Insights into AI's Impact: Gain insights on how AI might reshape job markets, enhance healthcare, and transform personalized education, while addressing common concerns like privacy, ethical use, and biases in technology.Biblical Discussions with AI: Explore the intriguing ability of AI to engage in deep biblical conversations and provide a neutral perspective on religious texts, potentially changing how one integrates technology with faith-based exploration.Episode Resources & Action Steps:Resources mentioned in the episode:OpenAI's ChatGPT: This is the AI tool featured in this episode, providing insights into leadership, technological innovation, and ethical considerations. Learn more about it at OpenAI's website.The Bible: It is discussed in the context of leadership and ethical discussions. The Terminator Film: Mentioned as a cultural reference in discussions about AI's potential implications. It's a classic science fiction movie reflecting concerns about AI and technology.Action steps a listener could implement:Engage with AI Tools: Start by familiarizing yourself with AI tools like ChatGPT for brainstorming, content creation, and problem-solving in your personal or professional projects.Stay Informed About AI

This week, Pastor Justin opened up the floor up to questions, and attempted to answer them live from the Bible…It was spontaneous, raw, and unfiltered. Questions about sexuality, divorce and remarriage, the book of lamentations, and MORE. RedLife streams full services live every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM on YouTube and FaceBook. If you’re in […]

Juli Slattery & Joy Skarka join us today for a candid conversation about women and their struggle with porn. If you struggle, this episode will help. But if you don't, listen anyway so that you can be there to support fellow women trying to break free. And be sure to check out the new resource, Her Freedom Journey: A Guide Out Of Porn and Shame to Authentic Intimacy, cowritten by Dr. Juli Slattery and Dr. Joy Skarka Sponsor Thanks to Share the Soap, your go-to site for natural, quality bath and skin care products! And check out their special deal just for our listeners: free aloe gel with any order using coupon code FCWALOE. (Put gel in your cart, use the code, and the price for that will go to zero.) From the Bible It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 11:19–20 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,     because the Lord has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,     to proclaim freedom for the captives     and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor     and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,     and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty     instead of ashes, the oil of joy     instead of mourning, and a garment of praise     instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness,     a planting of the Lord     for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:1–3 Resources Her Freedom Journey: A Guide Out of Porn and Shame to Authentic Intimacy by Dr. Juli Slattery & Dr. Joy Skarka Joy Skarka – Creating Spaces to Set Christian Women Free from Porn and Sexual Shame Authentic Intimacy - Juli Slattery Fight the New Drug The First Time I Saw Porn - Hot, Holy & Humorous Episode 3: 50 Shades of Here-We-Go-Again Episode 154: Why We're Against Porn and Erotica Pulling Back the Shades: Erotica, Intimacy, and the Longings of a Woman's Heart by Dannah Gresh & Dr. Juli Slattery Why Do Women Pose for Porn? - Hot, Holy & Humorous What Are the Real Purposes of Sex? - Hot, Holy & Humorous Supernatural Sex: Spiritual Dimension of Libido for Low-Drive Wives • Bonny's Oysterbed7 (about yada') Episode 183: What Does God Have to Do with Our Sex Life Sex and the Single Girl by Dr. Juli Slattery, Abby Ludvigson & Chelsea Nugteren Talking to Your Kids about Sex: No More One & Done - Hot, Holy & Humorous Start Talking to Your Kids about Sex by Julia Sandusky Who I Am in Christ by Neil T. Anderson Thanks for joining us at the virtual kitchen table for another great chat! If you could, we'd appreciate you leaving a rating and/or review so that others can find the show. Please be sure to check out our website and webinars at forchristianwives.com. And visit our individual ministry pages for more resources as well: Strong Wives - Bonny Burns Honeycomb & Spice - Chris Taylor Hot, Holy & Humorous - J. Parker 

God wants us to get to know Him and fellowship with Him. What better way to get acquainted with God than to walk with Him like Enoch did in the Bible? ”Enoch lived 365 years, walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.“ (Genesis‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬). Enoch was later mentioned in the Bible: ”It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.“ ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬ #kids, #christiankids, #storiesforchristiankids, #podcastforchristiankids, #familybibletime, #familydevotions, #trustinthelord, #friendshipwithgod, #Hewilldirectyourpaths, #followjesus, #jesusfollower, #ihavedecidedtofollowjesus, #discipleship, #lovethelordwithallyourheart, #fishbytesforkids, #fishbitesforkids, #ronandcarriewebb, #roncarriewebb

 Types of gossips in the Bible Whisperers Back biters Busy bodies Tale bearers Gossip in the Bible It is an abomination 'Sowing discord among the brethren' Tale bearers - stir up strife We must be careful where our conversations stray Satan has also taken part in gossip 'Accusing the brethren' It is Satanic to be talking about people Keep your mouth closed Who are gossips? Disobedient people Do not excuse what God is against Proud people James 4:11 - God is The Judge Who are we to step in and judge others? Fools Proverbs 10 Reprobates

Todays episode is about the number 3. Have questions? Send an email! catsteaandwitchcraftpodcast@gmail.com Follow the social media pages and website: www.twitter.com/catsteaandwitch www.instagram.com/catsteaandwitchcraft catsteaandwitchcraft.wixsite.com/podcast Music: Love For Snakes by Maduro Sources: Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kynes The Essential Guide to Crystals by Simon and Sue Lilly Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham Triple Goddess (Neopaganism) - Wikipedia Number 3 Meaning (Three in Numerology) - Numberloops The Number 3 in the Bible - It's Meaning & Significance (crosswalk.com) The Secret of the Number Three - Chabad.org Understanding the Significance of 3x in Islam | Religions Facts Significance of number 'three' in Hindu Dharma (hindupost.in) Hinduism - Wikipedia Buddhism - Founder, Beliefs & Origin | HISTORY Buddhism -Significance of the Number 3 – Original Source Number symbolism - Pythagoreanism, Numerology, Mysticism | Britannica Tridevi - Wikipedia From Bloody Mary to witchcraft, three is the magic number | CBC Radio Triple Goddess (Neopaganism) - Wikipedia --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/catsteaandwitchcraft/message

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Today, Jim, John, and Lonaiah return with more news and scripture. This week features a throwback episode that we promised to eventually air. Topics and news highlight the effects and dangers of wokeism. Listen to hear all topics discussed! // SOURCES: National Gas Rationing: https://themostimportantnews.com/archives/natural-gas-rationing-has-begun Iran Increases Uranium: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/agency-iran-increases-highly-enriched-uranium-stockpile-93051226 MN Solely DFL and What that Means: https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/after-winning-trifecta-dfl-leaders-to-push-for-codifying-abortion-protections Flipping School Boards:  https://mailchi.mp/wakeupright/wakeupright-6216375?utm_source=Wake+Up+Right&utm_campaign=a7d1015f1e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_21_2020_15_52_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7abe0cb409-a7d1015f1e-383890904 Social Emotional Learning:  https://mailchi.mp/wakeupright/wakeupright-6216375?utm_source=Wake+Up+Right&utm_campaign=a7d1015f1e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_21_2020_15_52_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7abe0cb409-a7d1015f1e-383890904 ARPA-H:  https://www.nih.gov/arpa-h TikTok=Fetanyl:  https://www.foxnews.com/media/tiktok-is-chinas-digital-fentanyl-fcc-commissioner-says Musk Review: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/11/09/biden-says-the-us-should-review-elon-musks-relationships-with-foreign-governments/?sh=622f73f57631 Student Loans Blocked:  https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-block-federal-judge HS Employee claims the Bible - ‘It's attacking me': https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-high-school-employee-complains-bible-verse-coworkers-parking-space-its-attacking-me Biden Covid Executive Powers: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/biden-administration-extend-covid-health-emergency-april $41 Million Given to Fight Illegal Immigrants from being Deported: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-awards-41m-contracts-new-left-wing-group-helps-illegal-immigrants-fight-deportations Australia Cancels Booster Shots: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/fourth-vaccine-dose-unlikely-to-be-approved-for-under30s-due-to-myocarditis-risk/news-story/a2da9fe71fa873f4e5aae0390625691d FTX/WEF Connection:  https://www.themainewire.com/2022/11/sam-bankman-frieds-ftx-collapse-touches-ukraine-the-world-economic-forum-silicon-valley-and-both-sides-of-d-c/ COP27:  https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/biden-announces-war-on-methane-emissions-and-increased-investments-for-clean-energy-during-climate-summit_4857972.html IFA Prayer:  https://ifapray.org/blog/powerful-prayer-for-gender-clarity/   // STAY UP TO DATE: www.thefinalhourpodcast.com Instagram: @thefinalhourpodcast

In this episode I couldn't decide what to talk about so I just talk about how much I love the Bible

Parshat Chayei Sarah begins with the death of our matriarch, Sarah. In this week's episode, Rabbi Fohrman reflects on her impact and finds a clue to the lasting legacy of Sarah's life by looking, in all places, at the Torah's description of her death. That clue hinges on a seemingly technical fact found in the parsha's opening verse: the number of years Sarah happened to live, 127. It seems like mere trivia, the kind of thing that you forget as quickly as you read it. But, this number pops up again in one other place in the Bible: It's the number of provinces in the Persian empire in the days of Queen Esther. Is there a connection between the two? What could Sarah's age possibly have to do with Persian provinces? Rabbi Fohrman thinks there is a lesson hidden here, a profound insight into the legacy of Sarah.What did you think of this episode? We'd genuinely like to hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Leave us a voice message – just click here, click record, and let your thoughts flow. You may even be featured on the show! Into the Verse is a project of Aleph Beta, a Torah media company dedicated to spreading the joy and love of meaningful Torah learning worldwide. For our full library of over 1,000 videos and podcasts, please visit www.alephbeta.org.

Dr. EJ Buckardt - The God Card (So many people blame the Holy Spirit when it wasn't the Holy Spirit but their own spirit - You need the Holy Spirit to properly interpret and understand the Bible - It takes the entirety of the Bible to know if the Holy Spirit is leading you - A faithless generation/person wants a sign to believe) 2022-05-26 (Radio Air Date) World Ministries International Dr. Jonathan Hansen - Founder & President Rev. Adalia Hansen (360) 629-5248 WMI P.O. Box 277 Stanwood, WA 98292 warning@worldministries.org Visit our website http://www.worldministries.org/  Sign up for Dr. Hansen's FREE newsletters http://www.worldministries.org/newsletter-signup.html  Support Dr. Hansen through your financial gift https://www.store-worldministries.org/support-world-ministries-international-en.html  Order Dr. Hansen's book “The Science of Judgment” https://www.store-worldministries.org/the-science-of-judgment.html

Joining Laura Fleetwood for the second time on the podcast is Pastor Jim Mueller. Jim was part of Episode 4: What Does It Mean To Be A Christian? In this week's episode, he discusses all aspects of Lent. Highlights from the episode include: *Lent is made up and you won't find it in the Bible *It's a 40 day season *Sundays are always a party *The many benefits of fasting *Faith Life, Prayer Life, & Confession Life *Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday *Ash Wednesday *The sign of the cross *Life is fragile *Lent devotional suggestions Normal Goes A Long Way Website: https://www.normalgoesalongway.com/ Normal Goes A Long Way Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/normalgoesalongway/ Normal Goes A Long Way Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Normal-Goes-A-Long-Way-110089491250735 Normal Goes A Long Way is brought to you by Messiah St. Charles: https://messiahstcharles.org/

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.Jesus speaks of pigs and dogs in Matt 7:6. So shall we, in this podcast (11 minutes).“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6). This text connects with the previous section (7:1-5), although to obey it requires us to engage in one of the acceptable forms of judging allowed by the Bible.Hypocritical judging is forbidden.We must truly care for the other person, and we should not criticize them when our own sins are identical or worse.There are many varieties of judging. See the study of 13 varieties of judging in the Bible It is called Judge Not! (Stockholm, 1990).Matt 7:6 has application in three areas: (1) evangelism and (2) communion, and (3) baptism.EvangelismThe gospel of the kingdom is a precious pearl. We want to share the gospel with all who will hear it. And we certainly do not want to be hasty in determining that we are wasting our time in speaking to someone—even if they give the appearance of being unworthy. See Matt 10:11-15.Jesus illustrated this principle when He spoke to the crowds in parables. When His disciples asked Him why He spoke to the crowds in parables, Jesus replied, “Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables. For seeing, they do not see; and hearing, they do not hear; neither do they understand” (Matt 13:11-13).Cyprian: “Solomon says, in the Proverbs, ‘Do not say anything in the ears of a foolish man; lest, when he hears it, he may mock at your wise words' [Prov. 23:9 LXX]. Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: ‘Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.'” To Quirinius 3.50 (ANF 5.546)Cyprian: “‘Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also become like him' [Prov. 26:4]. Moreover, we are commanded to keep what is holy within our own knowledge, and not expose it to be trodden down by swine and dogs.” To Demetrianus 1 (ANF 5.458)Clement of Alexandria: “Even now I fear, as it is said, ‘to cast pearls before swine, lest they tread them under foot, and turn and rip us apart.' For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true light to swinish and untrained hearers.” Stromata (ANF 2.312-313).Moreover, evangelism can even cause harm, bringing unnecessary resentment or opposition on Christ's disciples. We must be wise!CommunionThe Didache: “Let no one eat or drink of your eucharist except those who have been baptized in the name of the Lord. For concerning this the Lord has said, ‘Do not give that which is holy to the dogs.'” Didache 9Chrysostom: “Give heed, those of you who would partake of the mysteries [i.e., communion] unworthily. Give heed, those of you who would approach the communion table unworthily. For He says, ‘Do not give that which is holy to the dogs.'” Homilies on Hebrews 20.3.While I personally lean towards “closed communion,” I believe good arguments can be made on either side of the argument.BaptismTertullian: “Those whose office it is, know that baptism is not to be administered rashly. … ‘Do not give holy things to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.'” On Baptism (ANF 3.677).ConclusionIt is not ungracious to think analytically about people's receptiveness to the gospel. Jesus himself modeled this. It is both strategic and, ultimately, loving.7:6 is not at all a contradiction of 7:1-5!We must keep holiness in view in regard to both communion and baptism.Next: Ask

Change is part of life. And we can change for good or change for the not-so-good. In the language of the Bible, changing for good is called growth. It's normal for living things to grow—under one condition—if they're nourished. In other words, growth doesn't happen when we do nothing. Growth is the result of cooperating with God as He works in our lives. Ultimately, He makes things grow. God repeats this urgent message throughout the Bible: It's time for us to grow up!Support the show (https://pushpay.com/g/lifepointchurchreisterstown?src=hpp&r=monthly)

Four Headlines about the Bible: - It's a Library - It has two Testaments - It's Sacred - It's Inspired Five Principles or Rightly Handling the Bible: 1. Let the Bible speak to all of your life. 2. Scripture should define our paradigm (not the other way around). 3. Scripture is valuable as a whole, not just the parts. 4. Scripture should spark worship and obedience 5. Scripture doesn't have to make complete sense.

Four Headlines about the Bible: - It's a Library - It has two Testaments - It's Sacred - It's Inspired Five Principles or Rightly Handling the Bible: 1. Let the Bible speak to all of your life. 2. Scripture should define our paradigm (not the other way around). 3. Scripture is valuable as a whole, not just the parts. 4. Scripture should spark worship and obedience 5. Scripture doesn't have to make complete sense.

Contact David at davidhiggtx@gmail.com Soul Care- Learning to nurture and care for my Heart & Soul (The Spiritual/Emotional part of your life) Take care of your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life. (Prov 4:23) Caring for your soul begins with a growing intimacy with Father (Mk 1:35) Regular, Focused, meaningful engagement with the source of your life! All who are thirsty…Come to me and drink… (Jn 7:37-39) Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of Living Water...[this is the design of God for our inner being.] (Rivers of LW speaks of the Holy Spirit) Soul Care is NOT about enhancing your status/position before God or getting His attention! It's NOT about improving your knowledge of Scripture or Theology… It's not Bible Study, although it might involve the Bible… It's about learning to drink from His well. (Metaphor) It's about connecting with your Father and allowing that connection to nurture and refresh your Heart & Soul. It was Jesus' habit to do this regularly. It's about learning to Rest in Him. Finding your life in Him It's about finding my Joy in His Presence (Ps  16:11) You are doing this for the sake of your life, not for ministry to others. This is not about equipping…it's about our life!

Zeal is almost a technical term in the Bible: It refers to doing *whatever it takes* to preserve God's holy name. Christmas is the purest form of zeal in the scripture. And the form that zeal took surprised everyone. Scripture: Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, and lots and lots of other Biblical references. Preacher: Andrew Forrest

Zeal is almost a technical term in the Bible: It refers to doing *whatever it takes* to preserve God's holy name. Christmas is the purest form of zeal in the scripture. And the form that zeal took surprised everyone. Scripture: Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, and lots and lots of other Biblical references. Preacher: Andrew Forrest

A new MP3 sermon from Discover The Word With Dr Jim is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: #20 The Origin of Error is not from the Bible It is from misinterpreting the Bible Subtitle: Church History & Evolution Speaker: Dr. James M. Phillips Broadcaster: Discover The Word With Dr Jim Event: Midweek Service Date: 12/10/2021 Length: 42 min.

The post Believe the Bible: It is Inerrant (1 Corinthians 2:6-16) appeared first on Redemption Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Sermon #135 As we continue our liturgical journey through the book of Mark, we come to one of the best known and least understood phrases in all the Bible - It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  The question often is, what did Jesus mean by it?  Did he mean a literal camel and a literal needle, or was he speaking in hyperbole, or was he talking about some cultural construct that we no longer understand?  But what we find today is, what Jesus was saying is that it is impossible for us, but that all things are possible for God.  So grab your Bible, turn it to Mark chapter 10, and prepare your heart and mind as we take a deeper look at riches and the kingdom of God. Mark 10:17-31 Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on October 11, 2015 (Originally published November 14, 2015) S.D.G.

The D&C is in some ways very different from the Book of Mormon and the Bible: It's not an ancient record. It's full of modern revelation, and many of the revelations in its sections were received in direct response to a specific questions.

Have you ever read through the entire Bible- It has the answer to your questions. Do you know that you are going to be judged according to what the Bible says- Would it not be wise, then, to know what it says-

[This is part 1 of the two-part message, “In God We Trust 2020”] Do you know what verse lies at the exact center of the Bible? It is a powerful verse with profound implications for our troubled times: Psalm 118:9, “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” That … In God We Trust 2020 – Pt 1 Read More » The post In God We Trust 2020 - Pt 1 first appeared on Daily In Christ.

FAQ SHORT: If God made the world in it's entirity filled with many people and places, why does the Bible only focus on the people and area of the Mediterranean? // Jesus came to be the savior of the world so why do we not hear more about "the whole world" in the Bible? It seems that there is no mention of anything other than the areas that surround the Mediterranean Sea, so how can the Bible and the gospel of Jesus apply to us? Brandon dives into this subject as we can see a God that chose to enter into a particular time and place and people in history in order to bless the entire world. What's crazy is that YOU AND I are apart of that worldwide blessing!

Have you ever felt guilty for listening to the Bible instead of reading it? In this episode, I try and answer whether or not it's "cheating" to listen to the Bible on audio instead of reading it. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different modalities of Bible consumption. And at the end I share some of my picks for the best way to listen to God's Word on audio. Links Watch Redeeming Productivity on our YouTube channelSign-up for the Redeeming Productivity Newsletter.2016 Study on Audio Learning Bible App by YouVersionStudy Bible by GTYDwell Audio Bible AppESV Hear the Word Audio BibleESV Daily Bible M'Cheyne Podcast ⏳If you enjoy Redeeming Productivity, consider supporting my work on Patreon, where you'll get exclusive updates and early releases of new content. Time Stamps 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:40 Is listening to the Bible on audio "cheating"? 00:03:40 Where does this question come from? 00:07:12 Reading the Bible at difference speeds 00:11:01 Listening to the Bible is the historic norm. 00:14:11 Dangers of listening to the Bible on audio. 00:16:31 Make sure you'are actually listening. 00:19:02 Only reading the Bible because you feel like you have to 00:21:22 Advantages to listening to the Bible. 00:23:21 The Bible is a book for life. 00:25:50 Ways to listen to the Bible. 00:27:52 Conclusion Transcript Welcome to another episode of the Redeeming Productivity Show. This is the podcast that helps Christians get more done and get it done like Christians. And I'm your host Reagan Rose. Well, guys, we have a excellent episode for you today. What are you talking about? The subject of listening to the Bible? So audio Bibles, when we talk about apps, we're going to talk about audio books, websites, that kind of thing. But actually the main thing I want to dwell on is the question of, is it okay to listen to audio books, audio Bibles? Is it okay to, uh, to listen to the Bible instead of reading it? Is it cheating before we get into that? I also just want to let you know that at the end of this episode, there's going to be a little bit extra, a little bit of a Patreon exclusive. So if you are one of my Patreon supporters, there'll be an extended clip from this episode that only you can hear. And if you're not one of my Patreon supporters, consider signing up, it's just patreon.com/redeemingprod. And for a few bucks a month, you get access to an exclusive feed. I'm trying to share more and more there. I actually have some goodies coming up soon. I'm gonna upgrade what I'm doing on Patreon and yeah, it also just helps support the show. So if you liked the show, you want to help me keep going, please check out my Patreon. And thank you to my Patreon supporters. You guys are the best, keep up the good work. So, is listening to audio Bibles cheating? And I think that a lot of you—I've, I've actually kind of run this by a few people and asked them if they knew what I meant by asking that question. So I asked my wife, I said, “if I ask you if listening to the Bible on audio is cheating, do you know what I mean?“ She said, “yeah, I know what you mean.“ You kind of have the sense that you should be reading the Bible with your old hose, with your eyes. And if you don't, then your kind of cheating yourself out of studying the Word of God...or something like that. In fact, I think this is something a lot of people think about audio books or books on tape in general is that it's not quite the same. I remember talking to, somebody was asking—this was years and years ago—they were asking for recommendation for where to get a good copy of an old book. And it was a specific title. And I linked to them that, “Hey, there's actually an audio version of this on sale right now.“ And they came—I was trying to be helpful—but they came back and they actually mocked me. They said, “ah, no, I actually want to read the book.“ And I was like, “okay, okay dude, fine. Don't take my recommendation.“ But I do think that that's indicative of this attitude that, uh, to listen to something is not quite as serious or quite as good as to actually read it. And so I want to question that assumption, uh, cause I think that hidden in there, there is some truth, but there also is some confusion about it. And if that's an issue for people feeling like listening is kind of cheating when compared to reading with your eyes, I think it's even more true when it comes to the Bible and as we'll see I think there's good reasons people think that way, but I also think there's good reasons to question that assumption. So as I was kind of researching for this episode I came across a thread on Reddit where somebody asked the following question. I feel like this is just like super representative of the types of thinking that a lot of us have when we think about that, maybe it'd be cheating, quote, unquote, to listen to the Bible. He says, “so this is likely a dumb issue, but this is something I wrestled with fairly often due to constraints on my time. I'm sometimes unable to read as much of the Bible aside desire. So I will listen to it on my drive to, and from work on occasion. However, I have always had this unexplainable hangup about listening to the Bible versus actually reading it instead of listening to it is cheating and not as helpful. I know that listening to an audio Bible is not the best idea if you're doing a serious scripture study or even trying to remember exactly what verse and chapter a particular passage is from. But honestly, is there anything wrong with listening to the Bible as much as you read it?“ Great question guy on Reddit! Where does this question come from? Why, why would we kind of instinctually think listening to the Bible on audio is not as good as reading it with our eyes? Well, I think it comes from a lot of places, you know, probably the result of how we've been taught to approach the Bible, um, you know, about studying it, uh, which is good about Scripture memorization about that. We go to Bible studies where it's very in depth and we're taught to go very slow. We're trying to really understand each and every word in each in reverse. And so how you approach the Bible is kind of colored by those things. And again, those are all very good things. Obviously we want to study the Bible. Obviously we want to go deep. Obviously it's the word of God. So we want to know exactly what every little aspect of it means. But I think some of that has kind of colored our thinking where we think, well, um, you know, if I'm listening to it, I'm not studying it. And I think that that, that part of it is probably mostly true. If you're listening to the Bible, you're not, it's going to be a lot harder for you to study it. You know, you're going to hit, hit pause a bunch. It's hard to look up the words. It's hard to look exactly what verse was, which, you know, there, there are limitations to it. But I think a lot of those limitations are also there. If you just read the Bible, if you just read it, um, you know, like big chunks of it at a time, you're also not studying it in depth, which is okay. That's okay. I think you need to do both. Some of the ways that our Bibles are designed actually kind of makes us think that we really only should be studying them. Uh, so like our traditional Bible, you know, with the two columns, all the cross-references, all the extra stuff, it looks like no other book that you would find is that maybe a dictionary or something, the way that it's laid out, it doesn't look like a book. Um, it looks like a reference material. And so I think there are even in that, like these subtle hints that you shouldn't approach, you shouldn't read this book, you should, you should study it. It's, it's more of a technical book. Um, but you know, more recently in the last, I don't know, 10 years, the popularity of single column Bibles, or even Bibles you can get that don't have verse numbers at all and kind of encourage you just to read it and not be stopped every 10 words by a superscript of the verse or with a cross reference, but just to try to take in the Bible as it is, as a book. Um, so I think that a lot of the, a lot of the hang ups we might have about listening to the Bible would also be equally true of just reading long portions of the Bible. That's my point there. But again, I don't think that we should feel guilty listening to the Bible. I don't think we should be guilty. We should feel guilty if we're reading long portions of the Bible and not always studying it in depth. I think you need to approach the Bible at different speeds. Sometimes you go fast. Sometimes you go slow. Sometimes you stay on the surface and you're just trying to get the larger context. And sometimes you go really, really deep because you really want to understand some technical details. And you need to approach it in all those ways. Back to the, uh, the question at hand: Is listening to it cheating? Is listening to the Bible cheating? Well, I think one reason we might think that it's cheating. Um, and probably the same reason that we might think about people who listen to books on tape as a bunch of no good cheaters is because retention. There is this notion that if I listen to it, I'm not retaining the information as good as if I read it with my eyes. That's actually, probably per chance-ive-ly, not true. So there's actually a 2016 study that was done. Um, and it was led by Beth Rogowsky, uh, who is a associate professor of education at Bloomsburg university. And she wanted to prove or disprove some of her own assumptions about audio learning. Um, and she, she said, even in the abstract to it, or maybe the introduction to the study, she says that, you know, she always had this feeling that listening was cheating because you couldn't possibly retain the same amount of information by listening than if you read it with your eyes. So she did this study of a bunch of different people who were like 25 to 40 and college educated and just, they, they did this study on retention. They read this book on World War II, it had lots of facts, lots of figures. And at the end of it they quizzed them. And then there was a two week gap and then they quizzed them again. And they had three groups. One would read it with their eyes, one that listened to an audio version, and one that did both at the same time. So both modalities they listened to and read at the same time. And the results of the study were that there was actually no discernible difference in any of the groups, even the one that you would assume, you know, taking in through two senses, listening and hearing you'd assume all that one's going to be the best, no discernible difference. And I think that that's interesting, you know, she even said it in the conclusion of it—you can read the study, I'll link to it in the show notes—but in conclusion, she said, you know, this may, this was narrative form nonfiction, so right? It was history of World War II. So maybe something to do with the narrative structure helped. Maybe this wouldn't work as well for technical things or, you know, like a textbook or something, but even still, at least it calls into question some of our instinctual assumptions about audio learning as a format and as it applies to the Bible. And that led me to think, why is it that we kind of even have this instinct? Why do we think that it's not going to be as good if I listened to it? I think the main reason we think this is because usually when we're listening to something we're multitasking. And so we're not going to retain the information as well, because we're not actually listening. I think the same would be true. Um, is if you were reading the Bible and you were also going back and forth and reading a different book at the same time. Like if you had them both open and they just had nothing to do with each other and you're just flipping back and forth. Of course, you're going to miss parts of the Bible text and you're going to skip around, you're going to, you're going to, you're not paying attention. Uh, so I think that's a big part of it is if you actually listen to the audio, um, it's not gonna be that big of a difference. But also something to consider if you're asking the question, should, uh, should I listen to audio Bibles? Is that wrong? Is it cheating? One thing you should consider is that listening to the Bible historically is the norm, right? It's a, it's actually, we live in a very strange time. Uh, historically speaking that we all have easy access to written Bibles and that we're actually literate that we can read them, um, this for the majority of Christian history. And, and before that was Jewish history, like you, most people did not have their own copy of the Bible. Um, I talked about this some in an episode a long time ago, uh, I think it was the one on the perfect morning devotions plan, but I'll just rehash some of it briefly, uh, before Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press you couldn't, it was hard to get up. You had to have a lot of money to afford, to have a Bible. And even if you did have a Bible if you can't read it, you couldn't read it. So, um, it was pretty normal that the way you consume the Bible was you heard it read to you in church. And this was true also, um, in the synagogues, this is true. Historically someone would read the Bible, you would hear it. You would hear the word of God. And you see this throughout Scripture, you know, um, in the book of Nehemiah, you remember, you know, the rebuilding, the wall around Jerusalem and Ezra is there and he pulls out the Law of God and he reads from early morning until midday. Remember, all the people were crying, they were weeping? Some of them out of joy, some of them out of, “Oh my goodness, we're hearing the word of God finally again.” It's this amazing occasion. And then during the Feast of Booths, he, he read for seven days straight from the law of God. And again, you know, you see that Scripture commands people to hear and learn. Deuteronomy 31:12. You see this all throughout the old Testament. It's hearing the word of God. Um, Joshua 8:35, Joshua read before all the assembly of Israel. So the way that they heard the word was that it was read to them. And you see this, of course, in the new Testament as well. Um, in the apostle Paul's letters he indicates that they're supposed to be read before the church. It wasn't, you know, they didn't get their, uh, you know, their, uh, their Xerox machine and make a copy for everybody. Um, they didn't have Xerox machines, so they couldn't do that. But Colossians 4:16, listen to the apostle Paul says, about his letter, he says the intent was that it would be read among you. People needed to hear it. That was the intention. So this is always been the case, historically our access to physical printed Bibles and our ability to read them is unique. If you look at it historically speaking, um, that doesn't mean that it's not good. This is not an anti read the Bible with your eyes podcast, but that would be an interesting, a whole podcast themed, um, about, uh, being against reading the Bible with your eyes. That would be very niche. No, that's not what this is, but I am saying that trying to shake off some of the unusual illness or the cheety-ness in our thinking about listening to the Bible. It's okay to listen to the Bible. That's what the do the church has done for a long, long time. But let me circle back to some of the potential pitfalls of listening to the Bible on audio. And then I'll give some advice, some different ways to think about when you're reading through it. And I'll, I'll wrap up at the end here with a couple of suggested apps and stuff. And I'm planning to, Lord willing, produce a little video with a roundup of some of the different apps and some of the different suggestions that many of you gave to me when I asked over the last weekend about how you listen to the Bible. So I ask that on Twitter and I got a ton of responses. It just keeps blowing up. It's even going right now on my phone as I'm recording this. Lots of good answers, but I tried to distill them down to the ones I think are best. So keep an eye out for that video later this week. So the Bible audio Bible, what would be some potential pitfalls there of listening? Well, I kind of touched on it earlier, but I think the biggest one is are you paying attention? Um, you might feel like listening to an audio Bible is cheating because you're cheating because you're, instead of reading the Bible of your eyes, you're playing on audio so that you can kind of assuage your guilt at not reading the Bible as closely as you ought to do and just doing something else while it's playing in the background. You know what I mean? That's uh, yeah, you should probably feel bad about that, honestly. If instead of reading the Bible with your full attention, you're saying I'm going to play the Bible in the background while I do something else. I think that's a problem. I think that is a problem. I think you do need to, if you're going to listen to the Bible and read the Bible, you should pay attention to it. There are times maybe additional reading, additional listening that you'll do that, have it in the background with the understanding that you're not fully paying attention the whole time. But I just mean if you're you're picking one or the other, whether I'm going to read it with my eyes or I'm gonna listen to it, all I'm saying is like for your daily devotions, all I'm saying is if you are going to do the audio version, well, make sure you're actually listening. Because then it is, is not the same if you're not. You know, the Bible is God's word, right? It's inspired. It's breathed out by God. When you read the Bible, it is, it is the very word of God. It is an incredible book, but it is not magical. And what I mean by that is simply having the Bible playing in the background or reading the Bible and not understanding it doesn't really do anything for you. It doesn't do anything for you. If it doesn't penetrate the understanding, then it will not transform the heart and it will not result in actions. So you have to understand it. So that's another reason why you have to be listening closely. Back to Nehemiah 8:8. It said that they read from the book from the law of God. Clearly they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And my pastor, pastor John MacArthur, often says that "the meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture." If you don't understand what you're listening to, because you're not really paying attention, then there really was no point in doing it that, why did you, why were you listening? Why did you have it playing if you weren't going to listen to it and try to understand it? So that's just a little warning there about if you're going to listen to audio Bible, make sure you actually listen to it. I also think that there's a consideration here when you're asking yourself, is it wrong for me to listen to an audio Bible? I do think it's worth considering the aspect of reverence. Um, multitasking while listening to the Bible, I don't think is necessarily wrong. Um, you know what I mean? Like cleaning the kitchen and having the Bible on in the background, uh, I don't think that's necessarily wrong. Like I said again, I think if you're, if you're doing audio to supplement your daily devotions, where you have like a focus time of reading the word, I would try to as much as possible, um, keep that time, uh, you know, kind of sanctified and make sure that you're actually listening during that. But if the option is okay, I'm going to clean the house and I can either listen to, um, gangster rap or the Bible. I would, I would say, yeah, put the Bible on instead (that's a false dichotomy). But I mean, if you're going to be listening to something, my point is, if you're going to be listening to something, why not have it be the Bible? Why not? Even if you don't catch every single part of it, some of it will penetrate the understanding. Some of it will sink into your heart. So why not have that in the background? You know what I mean? The point really is just that in your own, thinking in your heart, just make sure that you're not treating God's word lightly. But again, our approach to the Bible, I really don't think it should be guilt based where we feel like we have to check the box every day. I think it's, it's a great discipline to study the Bible every day to read a little bit every day. But that doesn't mean that you should be doing it simply because you feel like, well, I'll be a bad Christian if I don't. Do you know what I mean? That's a negative motivation. It needs to be from a positive motivation, like, like in Psalm one, one in Psalm 1:1–2, it talks about the blessed man. It says the blessing, man. "His delight is in the law of the Lord on his law. He meditates day and night." It's positive. The motivation is I want to hear more of God's word. I want to hear it on my commute. I want to hear it when I'm out jogging in the neighborhood that, that audio Bibles make that super possible and awesome that you can constantly be meditating and hearing God's word throughout your day. Um, but your reason for doing that needs to be because I love it because I want to hear from God, not because you think that the more hours of Bible listening you get in the more, um, you know, having the brownie points you get or something like that. Okay. So don't take it for granted. God is speaking. Whether you read or listen to the word of God, he's speaking. So take that seriously. But yeah, I do think that if you're giving it the appropriate reference in your heart, man, audio Bibles are awesome. And then I guess I kind of touched on this earlier, but I would just sum it up this way: Supplement don't replace reading with your eyes. If you have the benefit of being literate, you have the benefit of good eyesight and you can read a Bible with your eyes, just because it's not historically the norm that we've had this blessing, doesn't make it any less of a blessing. The fact that we have access to all these translations and all these great printed Bibles take advantage of that study deeply use that become a scholar of the word of God. But in addition to that, I'd say, yeah, listen to the Bible, listen to it. You read deeply for depth and read widely and lots of passages for breadth. And then just some kind of some advantages that I see of listening, uh, versus reading. Uh, so I, I focused mostly on trying to, um, do away with some of the negative, uh, assumptions we might have about listening to the Bible. But I think there are many positive reasons that you should listen to the Bible that actually it is, has advantages at edges out reading and some really cool ways. One, is that listen to the Bible affords you insights that you might miss when you're just reading it. I think you can all the time, just because you're listening to different modality, it it's helpful in that way or, or the way that the speaker emphasize a certain things, you know, adds a layer of interpretation to the reading of the word that might help you to understand something kind of a different way than you had when you just read it yourself. I think there's even this interesting juxtaposition that can happen when you're doing something while listening to a certain passage that can bring you new insights. I don't know if you've ever had this happen where you you've been reading something in the morning and it's a familiar passage, something from the New Testament, and then something you're doing later that day, uh, helps you to under that passage comes to mind in the context of doing whatever it is you're doing. And you start to understand the passage in a new way. What I mean like for example, is maybe you're listening to Jesus talk about the four soils while you're working in the yard. And you're thinking about the, the, the soil and the seeds and, and, and you're like, Oh, that's, that's interesting. Okay. So I see the thorns and things like that. And just being there, it just adds a shade of color to it. Um, or hearing Paul talk about running the race, right, while you're out, jogging around with your AirPods in, listening to Paul talk about running the race and you're actually running. I do think that that there's an immersive aspect of that that's really good. That's really good. And it's hard to get that when you're just reading it. Um, I think there's a reason Deuteronomy six, seven. I think there's a reason that in Deuteronomy six, seven tells parents to teach their children as they sit in the house as they walk in the way as they lie down, as they rise that the Bible is a book for life, not just ivory study. The Bible comes alive when you are thinking about it and meditating on it and even consuming it throughout your day. And audio provides a great way to do that. Other advantages are kind of obvious and probably the reason that you would even want to read, uh, the Bible via audio time redemption, right? Driving exercising time that might otherwise be spent listening to gangster rap can be spent, uh, listening to the Bible. And that's, you can't do that. Um, at least not safely, you can't read the Bible while running or, um, or driving cause you'll crash your car or you'll run into a ditch. And I touched on this before too, reading for breadth of context. It's just awesome to sit down and just hear someone read the Bible for, you know, 20 minutes or an hour. That's yeah, it's just great. You get a whole bunch of context at once. And really the big thing is—and this goes along with supplementing your reading with listening—is it can allow you to consume more of the word of God than you would, if you only limited yourself to reading so huge advantages worth doing, it's a good thing. So my advice to you when it comes to reading the Bible via your ears is do both do both. I don't think you should think of it as cheating. Uh, I think if at all possible read with your eyes, listen with your ears, do both, don't feel bad about it, make sure you do it with reference, uh, but take advantage of this awesome blessing we have where we have this great technology where you don't just have to have like some servant jog alongside you and read the Bible to you. There's a little robot in your phone that does it. That's pretty awesome. So do both do both. Just wrapping up here. I want to give you a few suggested apps and some different ways of listening. Like I said before, I'm going to (Lord willing) be doing a video that I'll release later this week. That does kind of a roundup of some of the top, uh, ways of listening to the Bible, but just briefly things to look, look at: YouVersion, which is you probably all have that Bible app on your phone, uh, has a great audio feature for, you know, most of the Bible translations that has. So if you want an all in one option, YouVersion already has it use it. It's free. Dwell. This one got recommended to me like a bazillion times in that Twitter thread. And I actually signed up for a subscription to it. You have to pay, I think it's like 30 bucks a year or one 150 for a lifetime of it. But if you think about what you're getting, it's pretty well worth it. They've recorded the Bible—It's an audio first Bible app basically—and they've recorded the Bible with a bunch of different voices and different translations. And the app is just incredible. You can play different types of music in the background, which I personally don't like, but you might. And all the voices are super high quality and it's just a really, really well done app for audio Bible listening, probably the best one out there. So check out Dwell, um, the Grace to You Study Bible app, which I actually helped work on. Um, that one has an audio feature too. Uh, the ESV App is excellent. Or if you want to just buy a Bible from Audible, uh, or from, uh, Christian Audio, check out the ESV here, the word Bible. And then also if you like that voice, there's a podcast, um, by Crossway and it's the ESV audio Bible, but it's broken up into chunks and it follows the Robert Murray M'Cheyne reading plan. So just look up ESV Daily Bible on your podcast player. And basically you'll get like one Old Testament or no two Old Testament, uh, one New Testament and one either Gospel or some section a day. It's about 10, 15, 20 minutes a day. And you'll work your way all the way through the Bible. If you listen to that year round, um, in one year we work all the way through the Bible and listen to the Psalms and the, uh, new Testament twice. So the old Testament once Psalms twice new Testament twice, I believe so check all of those out. Um, and yeah, hopefully those are helpful to you. Well, that's all I have for you this week. Thank you so much for listening or watching and to you Patreon supporters, I have an additional bonus content after this available. If you go log into Patreon, you'll find it there. I'm going to be talking about how audio books and specifically audio Bibles changed my life. So if you're interested in that had an over to patreon.com and if you're not a Patreon supporter, consider becoming one, you help support the show. And also you unlock bonus content like this additional, uh, time for the podcast. And I actually have a lot of things cooking right now for more Patreon perks, more on that coming soon. So check that out. patreon.com/redeemingprod. And thank you again to all my patrons. Appreciate you guys so much. Well, I'll see you again here next week, but until I do remember this, that in whatever you do, do it well and do it all to the glory of God.

Have you ever felt guilty for listening to the Bible instead of reading it? In this episode, I try and answer whether or not it’s “cheating” to listen to the Bible on audio instead of reading it. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different modalities of Bible consumption. And at the end I share some of my picks for the best way to listen to God’s Word on audio. Links Watch Redeeming Productivity on our YouTube channelSign-up for the Redeeming Productivity Newsletter.2016 Study on Audio Learning Bible App by YouVersionStudy Bible by GTYDwell Audio Bible AppESV Hear the Word Audio BibleESV Daily Bible M’Cheyne Podcast If you enjoy Redeeming Productivity, consider supporting my work on Patreon, where you’ll get exclusive updates and early releases of new content. Time Stamps 00:00:00 Introduction00:01:40 Is listening to the Bible on audio “cheating”?00:03:40 Where does this question come from?00:07:12 Reading the Bible at difference speeds00:11:01 Listening to the Bible is the historic norm.00:14:11 Dangers of listening to the Bible on audio.00:16:31 Make sure you’are actually listening.00:19:02 Only reading the Bible because you feel like you have to00:21:22 Advantages to listening to the Bible.00:23:21 The Bible is a book for life.00:25:50 Ways to listen to the Bible.00:27:52 Conclusion Transcript Welcome to another episode of the Redeeming Productivity Show. This is the podcast that helps Christians get more done and get it done like Christians. And I’m your host Reagan Rose. Well, guys, we have a excellent episode for you today. What are you talking about? The subject of listening to the Bible? So audio Bibles, when we talk about apps, we’re going to talk about audio books, websites, that kind of thing. But actually the main thing I want to dwell on is the question of, is it okay to listen to audio books, audio Bibles? Is it okay to, uh, to listen to the Bible instead of reading it? Is it cheating before we get into that? I also just want to let you know that at the end of this episode, there’s going to be a little bit extra, a little bit of a Patreon exclusive. So if you are one of my Patreon supporters, there’ll be an extended clip from this episode that only you can hear. And if you’re not one of my Patreon supporters, consider signing up, it’s just patreon.com/redeemingprod. And for a few bucks a month, you get access to an exclusive feed. I’m trying to share more and more there. I actually have some goodies coming up soon. I’m gonna upgrade what I’m doing on Patreon and yeah, it also just helps support the show. So if you liked the show, you want to help me keep going, please check out my Patreon. And thank you to my Patreon supporters. You guys are the best, keep up the good work. So, is listening to audio Bibles cheating? And I think that a lot of you—I’ve, I’ve actually kind of run this by a few people and asked them if they knew what I meant by asking that question. So I asked my wife, I said, “if I ask you if listening to the Bible on audio is cheating, do you know what I mean?“ She said, “yeah, I know what you mean.“ You kind of have the sense that you should be reading the Bible with your old hose, with your eyes. And if you don’t, then your kind of cheating yourself out of studying the Word of God…or something like that. In fact, I think this is something a lot of people think about audio books or books on tape in general is that it’s not quite the same. I remember talking to, somebody was asking—this was years and years ago—they were asking for recommendation for where to get a good copy of an old book. And it was a specific title. And I linked to them that, “Hey, there’s actually an audio version of this on sale right now.“ And they came—I was trying to be helpful—but they came back and they actually mocked me. They said, “ah, no, I actually want to read the book.“ And I was like, “okay, okay dude, fine. Don’t take my recommendation.“ But I do think that that’s indicative of this attitude that, uh, to listen to something is not quite as serious or quite as good as to actually read it. And so I want to question that assumption, uh, cause I think that hidden in there, there is some truth, but there also is some confusion about it. And if that’s an issue for people feeling like listening is kind of cheating when compared to reading with your eyes, I think it’s even more true when it comes to the Bible and as we’ll see I think there’s good reasons people think that way, but I also think there’s good reasons to question that assumption. So as I was kind of researching for this episode I came across a thread on Reddit where somebody asked the following question. I feel like this is just like super representative of the types of thinking that a lot of us have when we think about that, maybe it’d be cheating, quote, unquote, to listen to the Bible. He says, “so this is likely a dumb issue, but this is something I wrestled with fairly often due to constraints on my time. I’m sometimes unable to read as much of the Bible aside desire. So I will listen to it on my drive to, and from work on occasion. However, I have always had this unexplainable hangup about listening to the Bible versus actually reading it instead of listening to it is cheating and not as helpful. I know that listening to an audio Bible is not the best idea if you’re doing a serious scripture study or even trying to remember exactly what verse and chapter a particular passage is from. But honestly, is there anything wrong with listening to the Bible as much as you read it?“ Great question guy on Reddit! Where does this question come from? Why, why would we kind of instinctually think listening to the Bible on audio is not as good as reading it with our eyes? Well, I think it comes from a lot of places, you know, probably the result of how we’ve been taught to approach the Bible, um, you know, about studying it, uh, which is good about Scripture memorization about that. We go to Bible studies where it’s very in depth and we’re taught to go very slow. We’re trying to really understand each and every word in each in reverse. And so how you approach the Bible is kind of colored by those things. And again, those are all very good things. Obviously we want to study the Bible. Obviously we want to go deep. Obviously it’s the word of God. So we want to know exactly what every little aspect of it means. But I think some of that has kind of colored our thinking where we think, well, um, you know, if I’m listening to it, I’m not studying it. And I think that that, that part of it is probably mostly true. If you’re listening to the Bible, you’re not, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to study it. You know, you’re going to hit, hit pause a bunch. It’s hard to look up the words. It’s hard to look exactly what verse was, which, you know, there, there are limitations to it. But I think a lot of those limitations are also there. If you just read the Bible, if you just read it, um, you know, like big chunks of it at a time, you’re also not studying it in depth, which is okay. That’s okay. I think you need to do both. Some of the ways that our Bibles are designed actually kind of makes us think that we really only should be studying them. Uh, so like our traditional Bible, you know, with the two columns, all the cross-references, all the extra stuff, it looks like no other book that you would find is that maybe a dictionary or something, the way that it’s laid out, it doesn’t look like a book. Um, it looks like a reference material. And so I think there are even in that, like these subtle hints that you shouldn’t approach, you shouldn’t read this book, you should, you should study it. It’s, it’s more of a technical book. Um, but you know, more recently in the last, I don’t know, 10 years, the popularity of single column Bibles, or even Bibles you can get that don’t have verse numbers at all and kind of encourage you just to read it and not be stopped every 10 words by a superscript of the verse or with a cross reference, but just to try to take in the Bible as it is, as a book. Um, so I think that a lot of the, a lot of the hang ups we might have about listening to the Bible would also be equally true of just reading long portions of the Bible. That’s my point there. But again, I don’t think that we should feel guilty listening to the Bible. I don’t think we should be guilty. We should feel guilty if we’re reading long portions of the Bible and not always studying it in depth. I think you need to approach the Bible at different speeds. Sometimes you go fast. Sometimes you go slow. Sometimes you stay on the surface and you’re just trying to get the larger context. And sometimes you go really, really deep because you really want to understand some technical details. And you need to approach it in all those ways. Back to the, uh, the question at hand: Is listening to it cheating? Is listening to the Bible cheating? Well, I think one reason we might think that it’s cheating. Um, and probably the same reason that we might think about people who listen to books on tape as a bunch of no good cheaters is because retention. There is this notion that if I listen to it, I’m not retaining the information as good as if I read it with my eyes. That’s actually, probably per chance-ive-ly, not true. So there’s actually a 2016 study that was done. Um, and it was led by Beth Rogowsky, uh, who is a associate professor of education at Bloomsburg university. And she wanted to prove or disprove some of her own assumptions about audio learning. Um, and she, she said, even in the abstract to it, or maybe the introduction to the study, she says that, you know, she always had this feeling that listening was cheating because you couldn’t possibly retain the same amount of information by listening than if you read it with your eyes. So she did this study of a bunch of different people who were like 25 to 40 and college educated and just, they, they did this study on retention. They read this book on World War II, it had lots of facts, lots of figures. And at the end of it they quizzed them. And then there was a two week gap and then they quizzed them again. And they had three groups. One would read it with their eyes, one that listened to an audio version, and one that did both at the same time. So both modalities they listened to and read at the same time. And the results of the study were that there was actually no discernible difference in any of the groups, even the one that you would assume, you know, taking in through two senses, listening and hearing you’d assume all that one’s going to be the best, no discernible difference. And I think that that’s interesting, you know, she even said it in the conclusion of it—you can read the study, I’ll link to it in the show notes—but in conclusion, she said, you know, this may, this was narrative form nonfiction, so right? It was history of World War II. So maybe something to do with the narrative structure helped. Maybe this wouldn’t work as well for technical things or, you know, like a textbook or something, but even still, at least it calls into question some of our instinctual assumptions about audio learning as a format and as it applies to the Bible. And that led me to think, why is it that we kind of even have this instinct? Why do we think that it’s not going to be as good if I listened to it? I think the main reason we think this is because usually when we’re listening to something we’re multitasking. And so we’re not going to retain the information as well, because we’re not actually listening. I think the same would be true. Um, is if you were reading the Bible and you were also going back and forth and reading a different book at the same time. Like if you had them both open and they just had nothing to do with each other and you’re just flipping back and forth. Of course, you’re going to miss parts of the Bible text and you’re going to skip around, you’re going to, you’re going to, you’re not paying attention. Uh, so I think that’s a big part of it is if you actually listen to the audio, um, it’s not gonna be that big of a difference. But also something to consider if you’re asking the question, should, uh, should I listen to audio Bibles? Is that wrong? Is it cheating? One thing you should consider is that listening to the Bible historically is the norm, right? It’s a, it’s actually, we live in a very strange time. Uh, historically speaking that we all have easy access to written Bibles and that we’re actually literate that we can read them, um, this for the majority of Christian history. And, and before that was Jewish history, like you, most people did not have their own copy of the Bible. Um, I talked about this some in an episode a long time ago, uh, I think it was the one on the perfect morning devotions plan, but I’ll just rehash some of it briefly, uh, before Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press you couldn’t, it was hard to get up. You had to have a lot of money to afford, to have a Bible. And even if you did have a Bible if you can’t read it, you couldn’t read it. So, um, it was pretty normal that the way you consume the Bible was you heard it read to you in church. And this was true also, um, in the synagogues, this is true. Historically someone would read the Bible, you would hear it. You would hear the word of God. And you see this throughout Scripture, you know, um, in the book of Nehemiah, you remember, you know, the rebuilding, the wall around Jerusalem and Ezra is there and he pulls out the Law of God and he reads from early morning until midday. Remember, all the people were crying, they were weeping? Some of them out of joy, some of them out of, “Oh my goodness, we’re hearing the word of God finally again.” It’s this amazing occasion. And then during the Feast of Booths, he, he read for seven days straight from the law of God. And again, you know, you see that Scripture commands people to hear and learn. Deuteronomy 31:12. You see this all throughout the old Testament. It’s hearing the word of God. Um, Joshua 8:35, Joshua read before all the assembly of Israel. So the way that they heard the word was that it was read to them. And you see this, of course, in the new Testament as well. Um, in the apostle Paul’s letters he indicates that they’re supposed to be read before the church. It wasn’t, you know, they didn’t get their, uh, you know, their, uh, their Xerox machine and make a copy for everybody. Um, they didn’t have Xerox machines, so they couldn’t do that. But Colossians 4:16, listen to the apostle Paul says, about his letter, he says the intent was that it would be read among you. People needed to hear it. That was the intention. So this is always been the case, historically our access to physical printed Bibles and our ability to read them is unique. If you look at it historically speaking, um, that doesn’t mean that it’s not good. This is not an anti read the Bible with your eyes podcast, but that would be an interesting, a whole podcast themed, um, about, uh, being against reading the Bible with your eyes. That would be very niche. No, that’s not what this is, but I am saying that trying to shake off some of the unusual illness or the cheety-ness in our thinking about listening to the Bible. It’s okay to listen to the Bible. That’s what the do the church has done for a long, long time. But let me circle back to some of the potential pitfalls of listening to the Bible on audio. And then I’ll give some advice, some different ways to think about when you’re reading through it. And I’ll, I’ll wrap up at the end here with a couple of suggested apps and stuff. And I’m planning to, Lord willing, produce a little video with a roundup of some of the different apps and some of the different suggestions that many of you gave to me when I asked over the last weekend about how you listen to the Bible. So I ask that on Twitter and I got a ton of responses. It just keeps blowing up. It’s even going right now on my phone as I’m recording this. Lots of good answers, but I tried to distill them down to the ones I think are best. So keep an eye out for that video later this week. So the Bible audio Bible, what would be some potential pitfalls there of listening? Well, I kind of touched on it earlier, but I think the biggest one is are you paying attention? Um, you might feel like listening to an audio Bible is cheating because you’re cheating because you’re, instead of reading the Bible of your eyes, you’re playing on audio so that you can kind of assuage your guilt at not reading the Bible as closely as you ought to do and just doing something else while it’s playing in the background. You know what I mean? That’s uh, yeah, you should probably feel bad about that, honestly. If instead of reading the Bible with your full attention, you’re saying I’m going to play the Bible in the background while I do something else. I think that’s a problem. I think that is a problem. I think you do need to, if you’re going to listen to the Bible and read the Bible, you should pay attention to it. There are times maybe additional reading, additional listening that you’ll do that, have it in the background with the understanding that you’re not fully paying attention the whole time. But I just mean if you’re you’re picking one or the other, whether I’m going to read it with my eyes or I’m gonna listen to it, all I’m saying is like for your daily devotions, all I’m saying is if you are going to do the audio version, well, make sure you’re actually listening. Because then it is, is not the same if you’re not. You know, the Bible is God’s word, right? It’s inspired. It’s breathed out by God. When you read the Bible, it is, it is the very word of God. It is an incredible book, but it is not magical. And what I mean by that is simply having the Bible playing in the background or reading the Bible and not understanding it doesn’t really do anything for you. It doesn’t do anything for you. If it doesn’t penetrate the understanding, then it will not transform the heart and it will not result in actions. So you have to understand it. So that’s another reason why you have to be listening closely. Back to Nehemiah 8:8. It said that they read from the book from the law of God. Clearly they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And my pastor, pastor John MacArthur, often says that “the meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture.” If you don’t understand what you’re listening to, because you’re not really paying attention, then there really was no point in doing it that, why did you, why were you listening? Why did you have it playing if you weren’t going to listen to it and try to understand it? So that’s just a little warning there about if you’re going to listen to audio Bible, make sure you actually listen to it. I also think that there’s a consideration here when you’re asking yourself, is it wrong for me to listen to an audio Bible? I do think it’s worth considering the aspect of reverence. Um, multitasking while listening to the Bible, I don’t think is necessarily wrong. Um, you know what I mean? Like cleaning the kitchen and having the Bible on in the background, uh, I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong. Like I said again, I think if you’re, if you’re doing audio to supplement your daily devotions, where you have like a focus time of reading the word, I would try to as much as possible, um, keep that time, uh, you know, kind of sanctified and make sure that you’re actually listening during that. But if the option is okay, I’m going to clean the house and I can either listen to, um, gangster rap or the Bible. I would, I would say, yeah, put the Bible on instead (that’s a false dichotomy). But I mean, if you’re going to be listening to something, my point is, if you’re going to be listening to something, why not have it be the Bible? Why not? Even if you don’t catch every single part of it, some of it will penetrate the understanding. Some of it will sink into your heart. So why not have that in the background? You know what I mean? The point really is just that in your own, thinking in your heart, just make sure that you’re not treating God’s word lightly. But again, our approach to the Bible, I really don’t think it should be guilt based where we feel like we have to check the box every day. I think it’s, it’s a great discipline to study the Bible every day to read a little bit every day. But that doesn’t mean that you should be doing it simply because you feel like, well, I’ll be a bad Christian if I don’t. Do you know what I mean? That’s a negative motivation. It needs to be from a positive motivation, like, like in Psalm one, one in Psalm 1:1–2, it talks about the blessed man. It says the blessing, man. “His delight is in the law of the Lord on his law. He meditates day and night.” It’s positive. The motivation is I want to hear more of God’s word. I want to hear it on my commute. I want to hear it when I’m out jogging in the neighborhood that, that audio Bibles make that super possible and awesome that you can constantly be meditating and hearing God’s word throughout your day. Um, but your reason for doing that needs to be because I love it because I want to hear from God, not because you think that the more hours of Bible listening you get in the more, um, you know, having the brownie points you get or something like that. Okay. So don’t take it for granted. God is speaking. Whether you read or listen to the word of God, he’s speaking. So take that seriously. But yeah, I do think that if you’re giving it the appropriate reference in your heart, man, audio Bibles are awesome. And then I guess I kind of touched on this earlier, but I would just sum it up this way: Supplement don’t replace reading with your eyes. If you have the benefit of being literate, you have the benefit of good eyesight and you can read a Bible with your eyes, just because it’s not historically the norm that we’ve had this blessing, doesn’t make it any less of a blessing. The fact that we have access to all these translations and all these great printed Bibles take advantage of that study deeply use that become a scholar of the word of God. But in addition to that, I’d say, yeah, listen to the Bible, listen to it. You read deeply for depth and read widely and lots of passages for breadth. And then just some kind of some advantages that I see of listening, uh, versus reading. Uh, so I, I focused mostly on trying to, um, do away with some of the negative, uh, assumptions we might have about listening to the Bible. But I think there are many positive reasons that you should listen to the Bible that actually it is, has advantages at edges out reading and some really cool ways. One, is that listen to the Bible affords you insights that you might miss when you’re just reading it. I think you can all the time, just because you’re listening to different modality, it it’s helpful in that way or, or the way that the speaker emphasize a certain things, you know, adds a layer of interpretation to the reading of the word that might help you to understand something kind of a different way than you had when you just read it yourself. I think there’s even this interesting juxtaposition that can happen when you’re doing something while listening to a certain passage that can bring you new insights. I don’t know if you’ve ever had this happen where you you’ve been reading something in the morning and it’s a familiar passage, something from the New Testament, and then something you’re doing later that day, uh, helps you to under that passage comes to mind in the context of doing whatever it is you’re doing. And you start to understand the passage in a new way. What I mean like for example, is maybe you’re listening to Jesus talk about the four soils while you’re working in the yard. And you’re thinking about the, the, the soil and the seeds and, and, and you’re like, Oh, that’s, that’s interesting. Okay. So I see the thorns and things like that. And just being there, it just adds a shade of color to it. Um, or hearing Paul talk about running the race, right, while you’re out, jogging around with your AirPods in, listening to Paul talk about running the race and you’re actually running. I do think that that there’s an immersive aspect of that that’s really good. That’s really good. And it’s hard to get that when you’re just reading it. Um, I think there’s a reason Deuteronomy six, seven. I think there’s a reason that in Deuteronomy six, seven tells parents to teach their children as they sit in the house as they walk in the way as they lie down, as they rise that the Bible is a book for life, not just ivory study. The Bible comes alive when you are thinking about it and meditating on it and even consuming it throughout your day. And audio provides a great way to do that. Other advantages are kind of obvious and probably the reason that you would even want to read, uh, the Bible via audio time redemption, right? Driving exercising time that might otherwise be spent listening to gangster rap can be spent, uh, listening to the Bible. And that’s, you can’t do that. Um, at least not safely, you can’t read the Bible while running or, um, or driving cause you’ll crash your car or you’ll run into a ditch. And I touched on this before too, reading for breadth of context. It’s just awesome to sit down and just hear someone read the Bible for, you know, 20 minutes or an hour. That’s yeah, it’s just great. You get a whole bunch of context at once. And really the big thing is—and this goes along with supplementing your reading with listening—is it can allow you to consume more of the word of God than you would, if you only limited yourself to reading so huge advantages worth doing, it’s a good thing. So my advice to you when it comes to reading the Bible via your ears is do both do both. I don’t think you should think of it as cheating. Uh, I think if at all possible read with your eyes, listen with your ears, do both, don’t feel bad about it, make sure you do it with reference, uh, but take advantage of this awesome blessing we have where we have this great technology where you don’t just have to have like some servant jog alongside you and read the Bible to you. There’s a little robot in your phone that does it. That’s pretty awesome. So do both do both. Just wrapping up here. I want to give you a few suggested apps and some different ways of listening. Like I said before, I’m going to (Lord willing) be doing a video that I’ll release later this week. That does kind of a roundup of some of the top, uh, ways of listening to the Bible, but just briefly things to look, look at: YouVersion, which is you probably all have that Bible app on your phone, uh, has a great audio feature for, you know, most of the Bible translations that has. So if you want an all in one option, YouVersion already has it use it. It’s free. Dwell. This one got recommended to me like a bazillion times in that Twitter thread. And I actually signed up for a subscription to it. You have to pay, I think it’s like 30 bucks a year or one 150 for a lifetime of it. But if you think about what you’re getting, it’s pretty well worth it. They’ve recorded the Bible—It’s an audio first Bible app basically—and they’ve recorded the Bible with a bunch of different voices and different translations. And the app is just incredible. You can play different types of music in the background, which I personally don’t like, but you might. And all the voices are super high quality and it’s just a really, really well done app for audio Bible listening, probably the best one out there. So check out Dwell, um, the Grace to You Study Bible app, which I actually helped work on. Um, that one has an audio feature too. Uh, the ESV App is excellent. Or if you want to just buy a Bible from Audible, uh, or from, uh, Christian Audio, check out the ESV here, the word Bible. And then also if you like that voice, there’s a podcast, um, by Crossway and it’s the ESV audio Bible, but it’s broken up into chunks and it follows the Robert Murray M’Cheyne reading plan. So just look up ESV Daily Bible on your podcast player. And basically you’ll get like one Old Testament or no two Old Testament, uh, one New Testament and one either Gospel or some section a day. It’s about 10, 15, 20 minutes a day. And you’ll work your way all the way through the Bible. If you listen to that year round, um, in one year we work all the way through the Bible and listen to the Psalms and the, uh, new Testament twice. So the old Testament once Psalms twice new Testament twice, I believe so check all of those out. Um, and yeah, hopefully those are helpful to you. Well, that’s all I have for you this week. Thank you so much for listening or watching and to you Patreon supporters, I have an additional bonus content after this available. If you go log into Patreon, you’ll find it there. I’m going to be talking about how audio books and specifically audio Bibles changed my life. So if you’re interested in that had an over to patreon.com and if you’re not a Patreon supporter, consider becoming one, you help support the show. And also you unlock bonus content like this additional, uh, time for the podcast. And I actually have a lot of things cooking right now for more Patreon perks, more on that coming soon. So check that out. patreon.com/redeemingprod. And thank you again to all my patrons. Appreciate you guys so much. Well, I’ll see you again here next week, but until I do remember this, that in whatever you do, do it well and do it all to the glory of God.

Can we trust the Bible? It's a pretty important question for Christians to grapple with. Hear how the New Testament came together and why we can trust it from Questions You're Asking (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/questions-youre-asking/). Interested in more content like this? Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our Twitter (https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.   Outline 0:25 - Who picked which books went into the Bible? 0:30 - (https://danbrown.com/the-davinci-code/)by Dan Brown 2:05 - How did the books of the New Testament become The New Testament? 4:00 - The truth of how the New Testament came together 5:40 - Marcion's challenge and the Muratorian Canon 7:45 - Gospel of Thomas 9:10 - John 14.26 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14.26%2C+15.26&version=NIV) 10:50 - Subscribe. Rate. Share.   Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo)   Passages John 14.26: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14.26%2C+15.26&version=NIV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14.26%2C+15.26&version=NIV)   References The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: https://danbrown.com/the-davinci-code/ (https://danbrown.com/the-davinci-code/)   Related Were the Gospels in Chronological Order?: https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/were-the-gospels-in-chronological-order/ (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/were-the-gospels-in-chronological-order/) Questions You're Asking: https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/questions-youre-asking/ (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/questions-youre-asking/) Support this podcast

You often hear people talking about how God's blessing flows on their lives. But sometimes, we can take a narrow view of what God's really up to.   A Deep Truth of the Bible It's great to be with you again today and this is the second message in a series that I have called "Blessed to be a Blessing". The society in which we live tells us it's all about "you"; it's all about "me". I buy the newspaper reasonably frequently and the one that I buy on Friday, once a month, has a glossy magazine inside it called, "Wish". It's full of expensive watches and expensive holidays and expensive dining experiences and coffee and real estate and it's so glossy; it's so seductive. Sociologists talk of the phenomenon of "cocooning"; of wrapping ourselves in comfort. For so many people in the West, that's what they are trying to do. To somehow ignore everything else that's going on; to hide from all the problems in the world and imagine somehow, that we can be satisfied in the cocoon of luxury. There's an airline that for a long time, had an advertising campaign for it's business class and the by-line of the advertising campaign was, “It's all about you”. And that's it isn't it? To cocoon ourselves in these luxury things and experiences and ignore the pain and the starvation and the sickness that's going on in the rest of the world. There are billions of people in poverty today. There are billions of people who don't have enough food and some of those people are listening today. I had feed-back recently from a listener in a Liberian refugee camp, in Sierra Leone and there, life is purely about survival – food, water, avoiding disease, keeping away from war. And when I am talking about God's blessing, the one thing that I'm conscience of is the need to speak into both ends of that spectrum. A man who I really admire, who taught me a lot, a man called Barry Chant, was a great influence on me. He's a lecturer at the Bible College I attended, and I have a great respect for this man. One of the ministry classes we were in, there were a small number of students and we were having a discussion and we were talking about the tendency in some parts of the church to preach what some people call a "prosperity doctrine" – to believe God for a bigger car and a bigger house. Now Barry has been ministering around the world for over fifty years and when we came to this, his face became very serious and he said this: If you are going to preach on God's blessing and God's prosperity, then what you say has to apply to the poor and to the rich. It has to work in the West and in the developing world and if it doesn't, it's not God's truth. You see, God doesn't have favourites. Sure, God plants us in different places, in different circumstances but if we are going to talk about God's blessing in this series "Blessed to be a Blessing", I am really conscience of the fact that what we say, what we uncover in God's Word, has to apply to everybody. Now, that's always really stuck with me and what I want is never to open my mouth and speak unless I'm speaking God‘s truth. Today we are going to look at two deep truths of the Bible – God's Word, God's very heart. We are going to talk about God's blessing and particularly look at the story of Abraham. One of the things that strikes me about the Bible is that when God blesses people He expects them to take that blessing and bless other people. And that's the first deep truth. It's this: a blessing is only really a blessing if it flows in and out. Let me say that again: a blessing is only really a blessing when it not only flows into us from God, but it also flows out again. That's the first truth. And the second is this: the birth of a blessing in our lives can often be very uncomfortable and painful, and so we often miss exactly what God is up to and what's going on. I wanted to put those two truths right up front because that's what we are going to be talking about today. I believe that God is a God of outrageous blessing but so often we don't understand how He blesses and what He expects. We need good teaching on God's blessing – Biblical, profound, truth. God's blessing is God's favour. It's when He intervenes in our lives for the good – it can be Spiritual, it can be emotional, it can be physical healing, it can be in relationships and even material. I weep when people reduce the blessing of God just down to the next big, expensive car that they want to buy. I know some people will get upset with me saying that but it's a matter of priority. God is a God of blessing but we are blessed in order to be a blessing. A blessing has to flow into us from God and out from us to others, otherwise it's not a blessing at all. Let's have a look at the story of Abraham and we clearly see how God works. We are going to Genesis, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1. If you have a Bible, grab it: "The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation,” – listen to this – “and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and in you all the peoples on the earth will be blessed." So Abram left as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran and set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh, at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land and the Lord appeared there to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram built an alter there, to the Lord who appeared to him. From there he went toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an alter to the Lord and he called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. See, there are a few aspects to this story. Firstly, God said, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household. Leave everything you're comfortable with and step out. And if you do that, I will bless you. I promise, I will make you a great nation. All the peoples on the earth will be blessed." The point of the blessing was not just that Abram would be blessed but that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed, through him. That's huge! Ultimately Israel was blessed in that they received the Promised Land and you and I were blessed in that Jesus Christ was physically a descendant of Abram. Now this required a lot of obedience. This man was seventy five years old. Most of us are heavily into retirement aged seventy five – not that I know, I'm not quite there yet – but it was no obstacle to him. Abram was quite wealthy yet he set out into the unknown; he set out into God's blessing and to be a blessing. I always admire this man because he had no Bible; it wasn't written then. I don't know how God talked to him, but somehow God did and Abram believed Him and he set out. He left his father's house, his comfort, his people, recognition, his own country, his home on a promise from God. "Step out of your comfort zone, Abram, follow me to this land that I will show you." He didn't even know where he was going, there were no planes, trains or automobiles or air conditioned business class. This was God's promise: "I will bless you so that you will become a blessing to all the nations." Aged seventy five, he went on an uncertain journey on God's promise. So what happens next?   Stepping out into the Blessing Okay, today we are talking about God's blessing and the two deep truths: firstly that a blessing has to flow. A blessing isn't a blessing unless it flows into us from God and out from us to other people. And secondly, when God starts to birth a blessing in our lives, it's not always comfortable and it's not always convenient and it doesn't always feel like a blessing. God's promise to Abram was a huge blessing. Remember, Abram was seventy five years old; the greatest sadness of this man's life was that he had no children. To the Hebrews, the two great signs of God's blessing were lots of kids and lots of land. If you had those you were blessed, if you didn't you weren't. God not only called Abram out of his comfort zone but He promised him those two blessings. Firstly in Genesis, chapter 13 verse 14, it says this: The Lord said to Abram after Lot had departed from him, “Lift up you eyes from where you are and look north and south and east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted. Go; walk through the length and the breadth of the land for I am giving it to you." And again in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 4: Then the word of the Lord came to him. “This man will not be your heir but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them,” then God said to Abram, “so shall your offspring be." The guy is seventy five; his wife Sarai is about the same age. These are huge, impossible promises: the land that God is promising him is inhabited by the Canaanites; they've been childless for all these years, and yet God calls Abram and Sarai out of their comfort zone into the absolutely impossible – He sends them on a long journey. When you read the story out of the next few chapters of Genesis (and I encourage you to do that) the two things that leap out are these: firstly it was an interminable journey – twenty five years! It went on and on and on and on. We are talking "God" and "blessing" and we think an hour, a day, a week at the most. Twenty five years! What was God thinking? Not even twenty five years in the comfort of their own home, but twenty five years of rough and rugged time on the road in tents, with all their animals and possessions and servants travelling with them. Imagine the organisation and the difficulties and the discomforts all for some vague, impossible promise of blessing. And the second thing that leaps out at you as you read the story of Abram and Sarai are their imperfections. They didn't do this perfectly, they made lots of mistakes. Abram took Lot with him. God didn't ask him to take Lot with him. They had to separate and Abram had to give land away and then he had to rescue Lot from captivity, putting God's plan in risk again. And they doubted God over and over again. And then Abram and Sarai think, ‘Well, God's not showing up so maybe we'll give Him a hand.' So Abram sleeps with a woman, a servant, Hagar and has Ishmael. They laughed at God's promises. They said, “God, do you understand how old we are?” Twice Abraham lies about Sarah; says she is his sister not his wife and she ends up in some king's harem. Abraham was not some super Christian, you know, who did everything perfectly – just a simple, ordinary human being with an extraordinary faith in an extraordinary God. After twenty five years God gave them a son and God told them to call this son Isaac, which means "he laughs". You see God had the last laugh, "he who laughs last, laughs best". And they were blessed to be a blessing. They were called out of their comfort zone into God's promises – so called "blessings" – in order to be a blessing to all the nations. But all they saw for the first twenty five years was heartbreak and trial after trial on an interminable journey. You see how easy it is to make a mistake when God is birthing a blessing, to mistake that birth of a blessing for a curse? We go to God and ask Him to bless us and – listen to me, here's a deep truth – often it gets a whole bunch worse before it gets better. In a relationship, if you pray for your husband or your wife or your children: "God bless them, improve our relationship, deal with that thing in them that I can't deal with." The most likely thing that is going to start happening is that it will get worse. They're going to start acting up and then we give up. When they start acting up, when it gets worst … praise God! When things take a turn for the worst after we've prayed for a blessing in that area, thank God, because God is up to something good. That's His way. The birth of a blessing often is a difficult birth because that's how we learn and grow and walk in faith. It's a deep truth that the birth of a blessing can often be uncomfortable and painful and so we often miss out on exactly what God is up to and what's going on. When someone taught me that, when I finally learnt that, it made a huge difference to my life. We need to stop putting our trust in circumstances we can see and put our trust in the God we can't see. When God starts something He will finish it! Even though we bumble through it imperfectly, like Abraham and Sarah, even though we lose heart sometimes, even though we even laugh at God and say, "Look God, this is impossible", God wants us to learn this lesson today. It's one of the things that He will use mightily and powerfully over the rest of our lives. God's blessings so often involve change in people and in circumstances and in attitudes and when they start breaking forth, it feels risky and uncomfortable and uncertain and sometimes it even feel worse. When you are in that situation, I pray that the Holy Spirit will bring this back to you. God is a God of blessing and we will sometimes suffer incredibly as His blessings come to pass. It seems to be so often His way.   Believing the Promise God is a God of blessing and I truly believe that He wants to bless us so that we can be a blessing to others. Abraham was the case in point. Right from the beginning, God promised that Abraham would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. At that time he had no idea what that meant. He spent twenty five years wandering after that promise. Finally, finally a miracle – a son, Isaac. But what about this other huge promise, that through Abraham God would bring blessing to every nation on earth? Well, let's roll forward a little bit now, to the New Testament, about fifteen hundred years on and the writer of the Book of Hebrews says this – if you have a Bible, grab it, open it at chapter 11 and verse 8: By faith, Abraham, when called to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he didn't know where he was going. By faith he made his home in this land, like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were his heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, who's architect and builder, was God. Isn't that beautiful? By faith, Abraham, even though he was past the age and Sarah, herself who was barren, was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made that promise. And so, from this one man and he was as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the sea shore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised but only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted they were aliens and strangers on the earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had an opportunity to return, instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God said to him, “It will be through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead and, figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. See, this is a beautiful story! Abraham stepped out, he wandered for twenty five years, he finally had a son but he never saw the promises of blessings to all the nations. See what it says in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 13: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” Now we are going to go back to those two profound truths of God's blessing that I talked about at the beginning of the program. The first is this deep truth: a blessing is only a blessing if it flows in and out. That's the first one. And the second is: the birth of a blessing can often be uncomfortable and painful and so we can miss exacting what God's up to and what's going on. Now the story of Abraham brings these two truths together. It was uncomfortable for twenty five years, but even more so, he never saw the major promise come to fruition. The promise from the beginning to Abraham was this: ‘I will make you into a great nation' He never saw that. It didn't happen until after he died. And again, ‘All the peoples will be blessed through you'. He never saw that. Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. He suffered for that blessing but never fully saw its fruition. Through Abraham, Israel received the Promised Land and through Abraham you and I receive Jesus Christ because Jesus was descended, physically, from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and so on. Jesus is the greatest blessing of God to all humanity and Abraham had no idea. He had to suffer those twenty five years so he could be part of that blessing but he never saw the end of it. God blessed him in order that God's blessing could flow through him, down to the centuries, to you and me, here and now. And that is utterly amazing. Do you see how limiting it is when we want God just to bless us, and somehow we imagine that blessing stops with us? It's not God's plan. God's blessing is only really a blessing when it flows down to us from Him and out from us to everybody else. He wants us to be the place where His flood tide of blessing brings life to the rest of the world. Look what Jesus said about exactly that: John chapter 7 verse 37: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice (notice: He said this in a loud voice so everyone would hear) “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. See, there's an "in" and an "out". Are you looking for something? Are you parched and needy and dry? Come to Jesus and drink; put your faith in Him. And whoever believes in Him, rivers of living water will flow out of them. It's one of the greatest passages in the Bible. It's powerful. It's the crux of being a disciple. We are blessed to be a blessing! Rivers – Nile and Ganges and Murray and Mississippi and Amazon – rivers! Again Jesus said: Give and it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use, it would be measured to you. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing. Whether we are Abraham or just some little person living in this century – we are blessed to be a blessing! It is a double sided transaction. When we limit God's blessing to just flowing in, that's a very, very sad thing. You and I are blessed to be a blessing.

Can we all admit we skip the legal codes in the Bible? It's hard to imagine texts that have less to do with our daily lives... isn't it? How can we read the Bible's legal codes for spiritual formation? Leviticus 19 illustrates just how relevant...

Today the gang gives an into to the Bible: It's history, organization, how it is used and interpreted. We get a couple phone calls. And we ask the important questions, like: what exactly is God's problem with exoskeletons, or what should we do about the potential bridesmaid who *gasp* wears white after Labor Day?Find us with additional information and cool pictures on social media:Facebook: @take3theologyInstagram: @thetake3theologicalvarietyhourTwitter: @Take3hour Please give us a like and a follow, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and give us a review. We always welcome listener input, and look forward to getting to hear from you.

LaMar Boschman, author and a pioneer of today's worship, discusses with Batsirai Chada the purpose of music in the kingdom of God. What was God's intention when He created music? What is the real purpose and meaning of music in God's dominion?These topics are in a transformational online course called The Music of God that will help you know how to use music to experience God's presence and power resulting in miracles.LaMar's books and blogs on the subject of music are available at LaMarBoschman.comEPISODE SUMMARY:If God created music before the earth what does that tell us?God created music for a definite purpose and there was no better option. Music the way it is was God's first choice.Music is mentioned in the Bible over one thousand times and is in every major section of the Bible.God commands all the earth and everything in it to sing. Music must be important.God created humans to look best when they sing praise and have best posture when they sing.What role do kingdom musicians have in the last days? Will musicians sing and play in the face of approaching armies? Will musicians praise God in natural disasters and pandemics and miracles occur like in the Bible?It is a last days revelation that God inhabits the singing praises of His people. Signs and wonders will result.Support the show (https://www.lamarboschman.com/give)

Episode 59 (The birds and the bees, Old Man Hair and The Bible): It's time to sit down with your offspring and have that timeless talk about how birds eat bees and bees make honey and honey is sticky. When that awkward situation is said and done you'll start talking about weird old man hair and then hand them a copy of the Bible and leave the room with no explanation. As always we opened the door to some pretty interesting conversations, personal stories, bad jokes and lots of laughs. Thanks for listening and remember to subscribe and review if you enjoy what we're doing. Continued thanks to friends and family for the ongoing support. Another big thank you to Bend Tech for laying some of the ground work to help us get this up and running. Last but not least, thank you to Jen for our podcast artwork and social media prowess. You can find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and YouTube. We also have an Instagram account @withoutdefiniteaimpodcast. If for any reason you'd like to contact us we can be reached through our instagram or our gmail: withoutdefiniteaim@gmail.com If you'd like to donate an alcoholic beverage for us to consume during the episode, reach out to us and we'll make it happen. You will of course get a shout out and thank you. Send us suggestions for topics you'd like us to cover (we like random, so go crazy)! ► Music Credit for our theme: LAKEY INSPIRED Track Name: "Distant" Music By: LAKEY INSPIRED Official "LAKEY INSPIRED" YouTube Channel License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported "Share Alike" (CC BY-SA 3.0) License. Music promoted by NCM

Episode 467 | Adriel Sanchez and Bill Maier answer caller questions. Show Notes CoreChristianity.com Key questions answered in today's show: 1. Jehovah’s Witnesses have a different kind of Bible. So how can you even have a discussion on an issue with a person, when you are reading the word, but their Bible doesn’t even say the same thing as your Bible? It is like you are at a dead-end or something.  2. I have a question regarding the Old Testament and hell. I know that hell is taught in the Old Testament, but does this mean that every single person that lived prior to Jesus who was not a part of the old covenant is in hell? There seems to be so many people that lived prior to Jesus who were not part of Israel, and it can make hell hard to stomach. Any help? 3. Is Christianity a religion just like any other? 4. I accepted Jesus Christ when I was a 9-year-old kid. I believed I was forgiven, but then I went through a long period of doubt. I accepted him again at 17. In my mid-20’s, I accepted him again. When I was 30, I accepted him again. But then I would doubt. I don't doubt that Jesus is God or that he died for me or that I'm a sinner or that I asked for forgiveness, I just wonder if God did forgive me and when he did forgive me? I struggle with the passage that says perfect love casts out all fear. Well, I fear all the time, and I fear that I didn't have enough trust when I accepted Christ. Resources 9 Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian Request our latest special offers here or call 1-833-THE-CORE (833-843-2673) to request them by phone.

Episode Summary: In this week’s episode, we’re in the third of our four-part anniversary series, taking apart the title “Your Hope-Filled Perspective.” Today we’re looking at the word FILLED: what it means, what role we play, what choices we have, and what consequences there will be for such choices. We have a choice of what to be filled with, but we will all be filled with something. Words of Christ--Luke 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. “filling” is a sub-theme of the Bible It is a CHARACTERISTIC of God’s work In creation In redemption Definitions Heb: Fulness, abundance, to accomplish, complete, confirm, SATISFY, replenish Greek: make full, fill up, abound, liberally supply You can’t be neutral—you WILL be filled with something.  What will you choose to be filled with? What will you choose to be filled with?? Quotables from the episode: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What we are filled with, will come out when we are squeezed. Even an empty pitcher is filled with something, even if it’s only air. “Filling” is a characteristic of God’s work in creation and in redemption. What will you choose to be filled with? Scripture References: 2 Chronicles 7:1 “The glory of the Lord filled the house …” Psalm 71:8 “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise…” Psalm 72:19 “… let the whole earth be filled with his glory” Psalm 104:28 “thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good” Proverbs 14:14 (KJV, para) “The faithless in heart shall be filled with his own ways. 2 Kings 24… Manasseh “…filled Jerusalem w innocent blood” Ezra 9:11 “…filled the land w uncleanness…” Ecclesiastes 6:7 “All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” Romans 1:29 “… being filled with all unrighteousness…” Job 16:8 (KJV) “…thou hast filled me with wrinkles …” Isaiah 55:1-2 “Come, all of you who thirst, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost! Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will be FILLED with the richest of foods…” Romans 12:2 (KJV) “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV) “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” Matthew 5:6 (KJV) “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Recommended Resources: Free Download: How To Fight Fearful/Anxious Thoughts and Win Breaking Anxiety’s Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises by Dr. Michelle Bengtson Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Free Study Guide Free 7-Day YouVersion Bible Reading Plan for Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Hope Prevails Bible Study by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Social Media Links for Host: For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at: Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast Hosted By: Scott and Dr. Michelle Bengtson Audio Technical Support: Bryce Bengtson

Shane has reached a conclusion as Randi makes a revelation.“Protests”CastRandi Halle MillienShane Mark MillienSFX and Music ContributorsSFXQ Tone [Query]Tone 4.wav by patchen of freesound.orgQ Tone [Response]Tone 3.wav by patchen of freesound.orgMusicEdge Of Cool by Fredbau of looperman.comCreated by Mark and Halle MillienCover Art by Halle MillienWritten, Directed and Produced by Mark MillienAuntie Lolo’s Letter:Breakfast. Have you ever thought about that word? It’s kind of disguised because of how we pronounce it, but it literally means breaking your fast, the one you conducted while sleeping. Language mutates over time to suit the needs of whoever is speaking, but it loses some of itself along the way. There’s a new valediction taking hold. Stay safe. There is one world of people who offer it to anyone they come within six feet of as a way of saying don’t die, I hope your friends and loved ones don’t die, because so many people are dying and they may have no symptoms and you may have no symptoms so you may not know it yet, so do what you can with what you do not know to evade something that you cannot see, but will kill you all the same. There is a whole other world of people who are operating as if the dead are so far removed or inconsequential to the patriotism demanded of normalcy, that the living do not deserve any inconvenient precautions. They are using language differently. “Freedom over Tyranny,” or “My body my choice” or “Vaccines are for sick people” with a picture of Bill Gates. It’s confusing. The vast majority of Americans don’t want to rush the process, but this discontented few have chosen the language of militancy to battle policies designed to fight a pandemic. For some reason I’m reminded of Basheer Al Assad gassing his own people so that he could rule them. Not because they are the same thing, but because it seems rooted in a similar type of nihilistic narcissism. We try to explain so many things with words designed to explain something else. More people have died from COVID-19 in the last three months than in all of the Vietnam war. More than double, almost triple the deaths of any other nation. The president’s son in law called that a success story. White people armed with assault rifles and shotguns descended on the Michigan state capitol in Lansing and threatened lawamakers with violence in what was deemed a “protest”. I remember last summer I was in a Chic Fil A and a stranger said God bless you. I hadn’t sneezed, he just used as a way of greeting. I said thank you. He seemed dissatisfied somehow with my response. As he left he said, Merry Christmas. It was June. He was trying to mark out territory that I didn’t understand completely. But while I shelter at home and have time to think about the shape of words I think I have a more complete understanding of the threat he perceived to his way of life. He thought he was in a “safe” place, where his Christianity would be enthusiastically reciprocated. He needs a place like that wherever he goes, and if he winds up in a temple and doesn’t see enough heads bowed, he reminds them of where they are. Except we were only in a sacred place in his own mind and even if it had been hallowed ground, is this his best interpretation of the edicts captured in the Bible? It was my fault for being at a Chic Fil A in the first place. It’s just so damn delicious. And the customer service is unmatched. But I digress. Words matter is I guess what I really want to say. You are growing up in a really tricky world. It’s going to try to deceive you at every opportunity. Most people will reveal themselves to you despite their attempts to hustle you. Listen to their words. Their actions are important, but listen to the words they choose. They chose them for a reason. It isn’t arbitrary and it isn’t an accident. We are our words, even when we lie. Farewell.#covid39 #covid19 #coronavirus #quarantine #rona #quarantinechronicles #covidchronicles #coronachronicles #quibi #generationc #flattenthecurve #stayathome #welcometowinnetkaheights #oakcliffdallas #atlanta #castleberyhill #theuninformedparent #covidprotests #merrychristmas #weareourwords

Happy Monday, friends - and God bless all of you essential workers, first responders, medical professionals and others that are headed into work today to keep our country going, to serve the needs of the people, and to heal and help the sick. We are more grateful for you than we have ever been before, and that gratitude and appreciation is long overdue.  Today's Bible readings include Numbers 4, Song of Songs 2, Psalms 38 and Hebrews 2. Our focus question remains on the issue of slavery and the Bible. Specifically, we will compare what the Bible calls doulos/bond-servants/slaves with what most westerners think when they hear the term 'slave.' I'm reading some excerpts from my book The Bible and Racism, which is available on Amazon, and has never been featured as a Oprah Winfrey's book of the month for reasons I can't begin to fathom.  It should be remembered, that the Israelites themselves started out as slaves, aliens and strangers in a strange land. They were under the yoke of slavery for over 400 years, a fact prophesied by God to Abraham in Genesis 15. The Israelites knew first hand the horrors of slavery for centuries.  In Matthew 6:24 Jesus teaches, “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money." This is Jesus' first mention of slavery, and it is interesting on two different counts. First, Jesus demonstrates here that one can be a slave and love one's master. Second, it introduces us to the New Testament use of the word "slave." In this particular instance, the word Jesus uses is the verb "douleuō" which means either to be a slave OR to be a servant. The same verb is used in Luke 15:29, "but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends." In this case, the verb is used by the elder brother in Jesus' famous parable of the prodigal son. The elder brother was obviously not a slave in his father's household, but he did work and serve his father. The fact is that the Greek verb "douleuō" and the Greek noun "doulos" from which it is derived can be used to indicate either slavery or service, and the meaning of the word is probably more in line with our English word servant, than our connotations of the word "slave." Matthew 20:26-28 "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In vs 26, the word used by Jesus that the ESV translates as "servant," is the Greek word "diakonos" and the word that Jesus uses in vs 27, translated as "slave," is "doulos" Diakonos is the Greek word that was used for somebody who waited on tables in the first century - a server. It was co-opted by the church to mean "deacon," in Acts 6, and ultimately came to also mean "minister." Jesus' teaching here is revolutionary - He is saying that the key to greatness, and the key to becoming first, or chief, is to be a servant or slave. In context, it appears that the words servant and slave are used very similarly here by Jesus, and they are used glowingly. In the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus, being a servant is being great, and being a slave is opening the door to being chief. This proclamation goes right along with Jesus' teaching in Mark 10:31, "Many who are first will be last," in the Kingdom of Heaven and eternity. It should be said here that being a master - especially the master of a slave - would be the opposite of servanthood, and in many ways, the opposite of being great.  Romans 6: 15-23 15 "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The word "bond-servant" (doulos) appears in about 36 verses in the New Testament, with Romans 6 and Galatians 4 being the two densest discussions of the topic. While Paul's discussion of slavery (or bond-servitude) here is largely metaphoric, there are still two noteworthy facts about slavery in the Bible found in this passage. First, as indicated by vs. 16, New Testament slavery does carry implications of obedience. Second, Paul here contrasts two polar opposites that humans will serve: Either they will be slaves to sin, a terrible master that brings only death, or they will be slaves to God, a master that brings freedom, sanctification, and eternal life. In Pauline theology, all humans are slaves to something, a fact that has extreme implications when discussing the complicated issue of slavery in the Bible. In the way that Paul discusses slavery, the key question relates to how good the master is. If the master is sin itself, or a cruel human, then slavery is a terrible evil. If the master is God, or a Godly human, then servant-hood is very different. American Christians, no matter their race, hopefully cringe in their inner-selves when they hear the word slavery. The system of slavery in America from its inception until the late 19th century was race-based, cruel, godless, an abomination and diametrically opposed to the understanding of slavery/servitude in the Bible. Slavery in the Bible was far more similar to what we think of when we think of somebody serving as a butler, or a housekeeper, or a groundskeeper. No, it wasn't a glorious position, and yes, sometimes slaves were taken advantage of, but first century slavery, at least the type discussed in the New Testament, was NOT race-based, and shared little in common with the race-based, kidnapping focused slavery of England and the Americas. The idea of being slaves to God or Christ is a recurring theme in the New Testament, far more prevalent than is commonly understood, appearing in Matthew 6:24, Matthew 22:3-10, Mark 13:34, Luke 12:37, Luke 12:38, Luke 12:45, Luke 17:10!, John 15:15, Acts 2:18, Acts 4:29, Acts 16:17, Ephesians 6:6, Philippians 1:1, Colossians 3:24, 1 Peter 2:16, Romans 6:22, Romans 16:18, Revelation 1:1, Revelation 2:20, Revelation 6:11, Revelation 7:3, Revelation 19:2, Revelation 19:5, Revelation 22:3, and Revelation 22:6, and quite possibly at least a dozen other verses. The most frequent name used to designate general followers of Jesus in the New Testament is the word "brothers." Unless I am mistaken, the second most frequent name for general followers of Jesus in the New Testament is "slave/servant/doulos." (The word "disciple"also frequently refers to followers of Jesus, but is more often applied to the original 12 disciples of Jesus, and is not used at all after the book of Acts) Let this idea sink in, because it is crucial: followers of God, according to the Bible, are slaves/servants/douloses of Him. To be a servant is not a bad thing, according to Jesus, but is the very key to greatness. Americans and Westerners look down on serving and servitude, but Jesus practically glorified it. That acknowledged, I want to reiterate that race-based slavery is a cruel and horrid abomination, and its perpetrators deserve nothing more than derision. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 12 "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit." The early church was made up of slaves, freeman and nobles. It was composed of Jews, Greeks, Romans and other 'barbarians.' There were all shades of skin color, and all manner of economic class together when the early church met. Sometimes, this dynamic led to favoritism and partiality, but multiple times in Scripture, the church was sternly warned to not give any place to favoring one people group over another. As Paul notes here in 1 Corinthians 12, all of the members - slave or free - were baptized by ONE Spirit into ONE Body. The coming of Christ Jesus, His death on the cross and His resurrection has destroyed every dividing wall in humanity.  To reiterate: Slaves, free, nobles, rich, poor, Gentiles, Jews, strangers, aliens and the like are all now saints, citizens, members of the household of God, and co-heirs with Christ. All other titles and positions are meaningless. . 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves because of Jesus. Once again we see a normative New Testament usage of the word doulos/servant/slave. Paul is proclaiming that he and his apostle team are 'slaves' to the Corinthians. In doing so, he is also demonstrating the lack of racial baggage that adhered to the word doulos in the first century. The book Racism and the Bible covers many more verses in this discussion and goes much deeper. If this is an issue you still want to grapple with, I'd encourage you to get the book, or just leave a comment, and I'll send you a .pdf of the chapter in question if you'd like. I'll move to a close:  So, what is the conclusion of this complicated question, does the Bible indeed condone slavery? The answers is primarily no, with a couple of important caveats. The first and primary answer is no - the Bible soundly and roundly condemns any sort of race-based slavery, and any sort of slavery that includes kidnapping, violence, coercion, or threatening behavior. On the other hand, the Bible does condone doulos/servant/slavery, at least in a sense of the word 'condone,' by not calling for the utter abolishment of slavery. That answer at first might seem wishy-washy, but it accurately reflects the tenor and tone of the Bible's teaching about slavery and servitude. As we have seen above, the writers of the Bible, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had no trouble whatsoever referring to themselves as slaves of Christ, and didn't blink an eye about calling followers of Jesus to slavery/servitude of God. The word 'doulos/servant/slave,' though it was a lowly word and position, simply did not carry the same racial baggage and negative connotations to them that it does to us. Writer John Ellis gets it correct in this nuanced discussion of slavery and the Bible: "It’s true that the Bible never explicitly condemns slavery, but it never condones it either. It does regulate, liberally regulates, an already existing institution – an institution that had little resemblance to the slavery found in the American South." Right off the bat, Exodus 21:16 flatly forbids and condemns what most people mean when they reference slavery. Look, if God’s Word clearly states, and it does, “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death”, it’s hard, at least with a straight face, to claim that the Bible condones slavery as defined by 18th and 19th century America. I know many preachers tried to make that case, but they were horribly and sinfully mistaken - trying to justify their wickedness, rather than being led by God's Word.  Truth be told, the slavery that the Bible discusses would be more appropriately termed “indentured servitude.” For one thing, there was no racial element involved.  Fair enough, but the Bible is one thing and the Church another, right? I mean, the Church supported slavery, didn’t it? Well, no. In fact, many of the Christians and churches that opposed American chattel slavery on moral and religious grounds often pointed to the reality that the version of slavery practiced during Biblical times would not allow for American chattel slavery. Referring to slavery in the Old Testament, Kentucky Baptist preacher James M. Pendleton wrote in the 1840s, “there are points of material dissimilarity between that system and our system of slavery.” One of those “points of material dissimilarity” was that if the Southern slaveholders were to practice the type of slavery that was regulated by the Bible, they would have to enslave whites as well as Africans. Noted historian Mark Noll points to the anti-slavery arguments of Minister John Fee, among others of the time, that the concept of slavery based on race was not only absurd but unbiblical. Unfortunately, this argument failed to make inroads with the Southern slaveholders, and Mark Noll concludes with the telling statement that this failure “reveals that factors other than simple fidelity to Scripture were exerting great influence [over Southern slave-holders].” (Source: https://adayinhiscourt.com) Now, to our final answer: Does the Bible condone slavery? I believe the answer is no. Does the Bible outlaw/forbid slavery - also no, but it absolutely does outlaw the kind of race-based, kidnapping fueled slavery practiced in Western countries in the last 500 years. I think the best way to express the Bible's position on slavery, taking into account the whole counsel of the New Testament, is that the Bible strongly discourages slavery, calls for equality, kindness, mutual respect, and mutual benefit in boss and bondservant type relationships, elevates servanthood to a position of greatness, and forbids any and all kinds of racism. 

Happy Monday, friends - and God bless all of you essential workers, first responders, medical professionals and others that are headed into work today to keep our country going, to serve the needs of the people, and to heal and help the sick. We are more grateful for you than we have ever been before, and that gratitude and appreciation is long overdue.  Today's Bible readings include Numbers 4, Song of Songs 2, Psalms 38 and Hebrews 2. Our focus question remains on the issue of slavery and the Bible. Specifically, we will compare what the Bible calls doulos/bond-servants/slaves with what most westerners think when they hear the term 'slave.' I'm reading some excerpts from my book The Bible and Racism, which is available on Amazon, and has never been featured as a Oprah Winfrey's book of the month for reasons I can't begin to fathom.  It should be remembered, that the Israelites themselves started out as slaves, aliens and strangers in a strange land. They were under the yoke of slavery for over 400 years, a fact prophesied by God to Abraham in Genesis 15. The Israelites knew first hand the horrors of slavery for centuries.  In Matthew 6:24 Jesus teaches, “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money." This is Jesus' first mention of slavery, and it is interesting on two different counts. First, Jesus demonstrates here that one can be a slave and love one's master. Second, it introduces us to the New Testament use of the word "slave." In this particular instance, the word Jesus uses is the verb "douleuō" which means either to be a slave OR to be a servant. The same verb is used in Luke 15:29, "but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends." In this case, the verb is used by the elder brother in Jesus' famous parable of the prodigal son. The elder brother was obviously not a slave in his father's household, but he did work and serve his father. The fact is that the Greek verb "douleuō" and the Greek noun "doulos" from which it is derived can be used to indicate either slavery or service, and the meaning of the word is probably more in line with our English word servant, than our connotations of the word "slave." Matthew 20:26-28 "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In vs 26, the word used by Jesus that the ESV translates as "servant," is the Greek word "diakonos" and the word that Jesus uses in vs 27, translated as "slave," is "doulos" Diakonos is the Greek word that was used for somebody who waited on tables in the first century - a server. It was co-opted by the church to mean "deacon," in Acts 6, and ultimately came to also mean "minister." Jesus' teaching here is revolutionary - He is saying that the key to greatness, and the key to becoming first, or chief, is to be a servant or slave. In context, it appears that the words servant and slave are used very similarly here by Jesus, and they are used glowingly. In the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus, being a servant is being great, and being a slave is opening the door to being chief. This proclamation goes right along with Jesus' teaching in Mark 10:31, "Many who are first will be last," in the Kingdom of Heaven and eternity. It should be said here that being a master - especially the master of a slave - would be the opposite of servanthood, and in many ways, the opposite of being great.  Romans 6: 15-23 15 "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The word "bond-servant" (doulos) appears in about 36 verses in the New Testament, with Romans 6 and Galatians 4 being the two densest discussions of the topic. While Paul's discussion of slavery (or bond-servitude) here is largely metaphoric, there are still two noteworthy facts about slavery in the Bible found in this passage. First, as indicated by vs. 16, New Testament slavery does carry implications of obedience. Second, Paul here contrasts two polar opposites that humans will serve: Either they will be slaves to sin, a terrible master that brings only death, or they will be slaves to God, a master that brings freedom, sanctification, and eternal life. In Pauline theology, all humans are slaves to something, a fact that has extreme implications when discussing the complicated issue of slavery in the Bible. In the way that Paul discusses slavery, the key question relates to how good the master is. If the master is sin itself, or a cruel human, then slavery is a terrible evil. If the master is God, or a Godly human, then servant-hood is very different. American Christians, no matter their race, hopefully cringe in their inner-selves when they hear the word slavery. The system of slavery in America from its inception until the late 19th century was race-based, cruel, godless, an abomination and diametrically opposed to the understanding of slavery/servitude in the Bible. Slavery in the Bible was far more similar to what we think of when we think of somebody serving as a butler, or a housekeeper, or a groundskeeper. No, it wasn't a glorious position, and yes, sometimes slaves were taken advantage of, but first century slavery, at least the type discussed in the New Testament, was NOT race-based, and shared little in common with the race-based, kidnapping focused slavery of England and the Americas. The idea of being slaves to God or Christ is a recurring theme in the New Testament, far more prevalent than is commonly understood, appearing in Matthew 6:24, Matthew 22:3-10, Mark 13:34, Luke 12:37, Luke 12:38, Luke 12:45, Luke 17:10!, John 15:15, Acts 2:18, Acts 4:29, Acts 16:17, Ephesians 6:6, Philippians 1:1, Colossians 3:24, 1 Peter 2:16, Romans 6:22, Romans 16:18, Revelation 1:1, Revelation 2:20, Revelation 6:11, Revelation 7:3, Revelation 19:2, Revelation 19:5, Revelation 22:3, and Revelation 22:6, and quite possibly at least a dozen other verses. The most frequent name used to designate general followers of Jesus in the New Testament is the word "brothers." Unless I am mistaken, the second most frequent name for general followers of Jesus in the New Testament is "slave/servant/doulos." (The word "disciple"also frequently refers to followers of Jesus, but is more often applied to the original 12 disciples of Jesus, and is not used at all after the book of Acts) Let this idea sink in, because it is crucial: followers of God, according to the Bible, are slaves/servants/douloses of Him. To be a servant is not a bad thing, according to Jesus, but is the very key to greatness. Americans and Westerners look down on serving and servitude, but Jesus practically glorified it. That acknowledged, I want to reiterate that race-based slavery is a cruel and horrid abomination, and its perpetrators deserve nothing more than derision. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 12 "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit." The early church was made up of slaves, freeman and nobles. It was composed of Jews, Greeks, Romans and other 'barbarians.' There were all shades of skin color, and all manner of economic class together when the early church met. Sometimes, this dynamic led to favoritism and partiality, but multiple times in Scripture, the church was sternly warned to not give any place to favoring one people group over another. As Paul notes here in 1 Corinthians 12, all of the members - slave or free - were baptized by ONE Spirit into ONE Body. The coming of Christ Jesus, His death on the cross and His resurrection has destroyed every dividing wall in humanity.  To reiterate: Slaves, free, nobles, rich, poor, Gentiles, Jews, strangers, aliens and the like are all now saints, citizens, members of the household of God, and co-heirs with Christ. All other titles and positions are meaningless. . 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves because of Jesus. Once again we see a normative New Testament usage of the word doulos/servant/slave. Paul is proclaiming that he and his apostle team are 'slaves' to the Corinthians. In doing so, he is also demonstrating the lack of racial baggage that adhered to the word doulos in the first century. The book Racism and the Bible covers many more verses in this discussion and goes much deeper. If this is an issue you still want to grapple with, I'd encourage you to get the book, or just leave a comment, and I'll send you a .pdf of the chapter in question if you'd like. I'll move to a close:  So, what is the conclusion of this complicated question, does the Bible indeed condone slavery? The answers is primarily no, with a couple of important caveats. The first and primary answer is no - the Bible soundly and roundly condemns any sort of race-based slavery, and any sort of slavery that includes kidnapping, violence, coercion, or threatening behavior. On the other hand, the Bible does condone doulos/servant/slavery, at least in a sense of the word 'condone,' by not calling for the utter abolishment of slavery. That answer at first might seem wishy-washy, but it accurately reflects the tenor and tone of the Bible's teaching about slavery and servitude. As we have seen above, the writers of the Bible, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had no trouble whatsoever referring to themselves as slaves of Christ, and didn't blink an eye about calling followers of Jesus to slavery/servitude of God. The word 'doulos/servant/slave,' though it was a lowly word and position, simply did not carry the same racial baggage and negative connotations to them that it does to us. Writer John Ellis gets it correct in this nuanced discussion of slavery and the Bible: "It’s true that the Bible never explicitly condemns slavery, but it never condones it either. It does regulate, liberally regulates, an already existing institution – an institution that had little resemblance to the slavery found in the American South." Right off the bat, Exodus 21:16 flatly forbids and condemns what most people mean when they reference slavery. Look, if God’s Word clearly states, and it does, “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death”, it’s hard, at least with a straight face, to claim that the Bible condones slavery as defined by 18th and 19th century America. I know many preachers tried to make that case, but they were horribly and sinfully mistaken - trying to justify their wickedness, rather than being led by God's Word.  Truth be told, the slavery that the Bible discusses would be more appropriately termed “indentured servitude.” For one thing, there was no racial element involved.  Fair enough, but the Bible is one thing and the Church another, right? I mean, the Church supported slavery, didn’t it? Well, no. In fact, many of the Christians and churches that opposed American chattel slavery on moral and religious grounds often pointed to the reality that the version of slavery practiced during Biblical times would not allow for American chattel slavery. Referring to slavery in the Old Testament, Kentucky Baptist preacher James M. Pendleton wrote in the 1840s, “there are points of material dissimilarity between that system and our system of slavery.” One of those “points of material dissimilarity” was that if the Southern slaveholders were to practice the type of slavery that was regulated by the Bible, they would have to enslave whites as well as Africans. Noted historian Mark Noll points to the anti-slavery arguments of Minister John Fee, among others of the time, that the concept of slavery based on race was not only absurd but unbiblical. Unfortunately, this argument failed to make inroads with the Southern slaveholders, and Mark Noll concludes with the telling statement that this failure “reveals that factors other than simple fidelity to Scripture were exerting great influence [over Southern slave-holders].” (Source: https://adayinhiscourt.com) Now, to our final answer: Does the Bible condone slavery? I believe the answer is no. Does the Bible outlaw/forbid slavery - also no, but it absolutely does outlaw the kind of race-based, kidnapping fueled slavery practiced in Western countries in the last 500 years. I think the best way to express the Bible's position on slavery, taking into account the whole counsel of the New Testament, is that the Bible strongly discourages slavery, calls for equality, kindness, mutual respect, and mutual benefit in boss and bondservant type relationships, elevates servanthood to a position of greatness, and forbids any and all kinds of racism. 

Introduction---Having shown the comparisons and the contrasts between the two representative men, the first man Adam and the 2nd man, the God man, Jesus, there is now a question to be answered.--The question and the answer have already been touched on somewhat earlier in this letter. But now he is ready to take it head on.--He knows that the question will come, what then was the purpose for God's law---If it is really about whether we are in Adam, or in Christ, then why did God go to the trouble, so to speak, of giving law through Moses- What was the purpose for all of that-----And it is refreshing and encouraging noting that 2,000 years later the question is still being asked. Over and again it is proven that the Bible is word of God by the very questions that men ask. How does this prove the Bible- It is proof of the inspiration of the scriptures because the Bible anticipates them all. The Bible is prepared for these questions.--This past week I was teaching the gospel in a Bible study and had two people ask very sincerely and very intensely this very same question. They said, -if salvation is a gift, if it isn't a matter of how we live but whether or not we have had faith in Jesus, then why did God give commandments----That is the very same question isn't it---Paul knew he would face it, we know that we face it, and God gives us an answer right here.---I. THE LAW WAS GIVEN BECAUSE OF SIN -vs.20---When you first read this, you could almost get the idea that God gave His law so that there would be more sin in the world. That of course would mean that God somehow wants sin to increase. We know right away that this is an error. God doesn't even tempt people to s

What really is the central message being conveyed by the Bible? It would be interesting to find out. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/franklin-onoben/message

Can you trust the Bible? It is an important question to answer when considering the Christian faith. Is there evidence to support the validity of Scripture or does it need to be accepted on blind faith?In this episode of Candid, Jonathan Youssef shares practical evidence for the validity of Scripture and he also unpacks the reason why so many choose to deny its Truth.Listen and learn why you can trust that the Bible is indeed God’s Word—and find renewed confidence and excitement to seek God in the Scriptures.GET YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD: FOUR REASONS YOU CAN TRUST THE BIBLEConnect with us at https://LTW.org/Candid!

What does it say about God that this story is in the Bible? It’s not a story about yet another great and powerful man—instead it zeroes in on two poor women and their hopes and troubles. It’s not even primarily about an Israelite—it’s about an immigrant, a foreigner, an outsider who comes to Israel with nothing and winds up becoming the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king. Just the fact that this story exists is remarkable. These are not the kinds of stories that normally got written down and passed down in the ancient world. The fact that this story is in the Bible must mean that God cares about people like Ruth and Naomi, the widows, the foreigners, the poor and the hopeless. God sees them; their struggles matter to him; his will is for their redemption, to bring them into his people and give them a future and a hope.

5 Benefits of Reading the Bible It changes your thinking. One of the biggest factors in your success in any area is your thinking: personal relationships, enjoyment and fulfillment in life, vocation, character development, and more. Spending time reading the Bible regularly provides wisdom, perspective, ideas, principles, and truths that elevate, stretch, clarify, strengthen, and sanctify your thinking. It's the only way to “renew your mind.” (Romans 12:2) It changes your heart. Our natural God-given desires have become tainted and distorted by the sinful world in which we live. We can't change our hearts ourselves no matter how hard we try. God's word is a vital part of the way God works His transformation in our innermost being, causing our desires to change and making us again into His image. (Hebrews 8:10) It cleanses your soul. Our inner being is constantly being bombarded with distorted, ungodly, or shallow images, sounds, and other messages from media, people, or our own sinful memories and desires. God's word provides the counterattack to the enemy's war to contaminate and capture our souls. We need a regular dose of this cleansing. (Ephesians 5:26) It nourishes and grows your character. There is satisfaction and nourishment for your soul in God's word that you can't find anywhere else. It's a doorway to intimacy with God. It provides a barrier against destructive and sinful behavior, and a pathway to forgiveness when you need it. Without time in God's word your inner spiritual being will be starved and stunted. It demonstrates the big picture. The Bible is a story, the story, of God making humankind, humanity's royal mess-up, and God remaking humankind. It tells us that “Jesus is going to win!” Finding ourselves in that big story provides context for our suffering, meaning for our present, and hope for our future. Reference: https://www.drcarolministries.com/5-benefits-of-reading-the-bible/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shanta-atkins/support

What is the Bible? It’s a huge, complicated, intimidating book. But do we really understand what it is? The way we answer this question is important. Because whatever you think about something determines the way you treat it and its implications for your life. Therefore, what we think about the Bible determines the way we will approach it, and its implications for our lives. Join us this week as we continue our series on The Book.

Even after the flood reset humanity, Noah made poor decisions. Why would God want this story of Noah in the Bible? It’s to show how old patterns remain and have consequences. The only way to break old patterns is to have a Savior.

Pastor Emmanuel Akognon answers questions submitted by members in the monthly Question and Answer Sunday. 1. If God has forgiven us for our sin and he’s cast them as far as the east is from the west: Then when we stand in front of him on judgment day what will we be judged for? 2. Will you explain what Jesus means when he says he has forgiven us? What he means about judgment? And what he means about accountability for the sins we have committed? 3. I had a conversation with some Christians who believed that not homeschooling your kids was a sin because they will become disciples of the Babylonian world system. They will be taught to think like the world. They said Christian parents shouldn't enroll their kids because of reasons like “Public indoctrinations (LGBTQ, gender fluidity, inaccurate assessments of curriculum rigor, etc.), evolution, secularism, and sexual promiscuity, a lack of parental involvement, and literally a whole host and myriad of things that come with the public sphere.” 4. Others pointed to passages like Proverbs 22:6, and Deuteronomy 6 saying it’s the parents’ job to train our children. They also used Romans 13 saying it’s the government’s responsibility to keep peace by bearing the sword, not provide education. 5. So how should Christian parents think about education for their kids? Does the responsibility fall on the parents or the government? 6. What was the first language spoken in the Bible? Was Paul a gentile? Why does it seem like our reverent fear of God is at a low level than what we see in the lives of the people of God in the Bible? It does not seem like we honor, revere, and recognize the holiness and the righteousness of God. What do you think?

We've gotten this question and have asked it ourselves: How do we study the Bible? It seems simple, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start! Alli & Kathryn share some ways they study the Word and share some helpful tips from others.

ANCIENT MEN What we can learn from men of old in the Bible? It is no light thing to tamper with God’s Word as set forth, to change His word is to pervert our selfishness. We see today in both church and government, the word of God is being changed in order to bring about a self driven purpose. Proverbs 22:28 Remove not the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set. In the above verse, the writer was reminding others, about the land and borders God had given to Israel in the Old Testament. If we apply it to our life today. God has asked the same of us, and that is by His word He has mapped out a set plan for us to live as believers. Men love to plan and articulate many things in their lives. Men are builders by nature, and men build by a set plan. God also had set plans by commanding Israel, to know their territory. Living within that which God ordained and not being greedy. We can learn a lot from the men of the bible, not as a history lesson, there are men today living under the same word of God. His word is still the same then as it is now. Men who struggled and have had to trust God in every situation. That applied then and it applies today for every man who is obedient to His word. What is Manlike Radio? The purpose of Manlike Radio Podcast. What does it typically mean to be manly? Well according to the standard dictionary, it is a deliberate act of courage and strength. A traditional attribute in men that is personified by them truly being a man. I felt passionately the leading of the Holy Spirit to start a podcast geared to reaching Christian men around the world. It had to be a program that would develop into helping men in a closer walk with God. But, with a modern-day agenda. With that in mind, we find more people today on social media than ever before, the modern internet has been appropriately named the invention of the century. We all have heard the term the "Market Place," for many years now, and that phrase still holds familiar ground in the hearts of people. Yet, as one Minister who properly uses the internet effectively said, "One can lock themselves away in a private closet and still know peoples business, just by having social media."Something that was on heard of a decade ago. Radio and television have traditionally made their visible mark in the cultural lives of humanity, but even that medium has undoubtedly had to properly adjust to favorably receiving social media. This is now the new normal for today, its open communication effectively reaching the world. The simple fact is that it does not take a truckload of needed money to reach out to others across the globe. This medium has become an excellent opportunity to connect, encourage, and guide men who earnestly desire a closer walk with God. We all naturally possess our own unique calling, which can be grafted into the Manlike Podcast. This can be better accomplished via social media, and expand tremendously our voice for God into the entire world. Let's be encouraged to use this great tool and develop a program that shows Christian men how to have a Godly talk in order to carry out the Godly walk.

ANCIENT MEN What we can learn from men of old in the Bible? It is no light thing to tamper with God’s Word as set forth, to change His word is to pervert our selfishness. We see today in both church and government, the word of God is being changed in order to bring about a self driven purpose. Proverbs 22:28 Remove not the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set. In the above verse, the writer was reminding others, about the land and borders God had given to Israel in the Old Testament. If we apply it to our life today. God has asked the same of us, and that is by His word He has mapped out a set plan for us to live as believers. Men love to plan and articulate many things in their lives. Men are builders by nature, and men build by a set plan. God also had set plans by commanding Israel, to know their territory. Living within that which God ordained and not being greedy. We can learn a lot from the men of the bible, not as a history lesson, there are men today living under the same word of God. His word is still the same then as it is now. Men who struggled and have had to trust God in every situation. That applied then and it applies today for every man who is obedient to His word. What is Manlike Radio? The purpose of Manlike Radio Podcast. What does it typically mean to be manly? Well according to the standard dictionary, it is a deliberate act of courage and strength. A traditional attribute in men that is personified by them truly being a man. I felt passionately the leading of the Holy Spirit to start a podcast geared to reaching Christian men around the world. It had to be a program that would develop into helping men in a closer walk with God. But, with a modern-day agenda. With that in mind, we find more people today on social media than ever before, the modern internet has been appropriately named the invention of the century. We all have heard the term the "Market Place," for many years now, and that phrase still holds familiar ground in the hearts of people. Yet, as one Minister who properly uses the internet effectively said, "One can lock themselves away in a private closet and still know peoples business, just by having social media."Something that was on heard of a decade ago. Radio and television have traditionally made their visible mark in the cultural lives of humanity, but even that medium has undoubtedly had to properly adjust to favorably receiving social media. This is now the new normal for today, its open communication effectively reaching the world. The simple fact is that it does not take a truckload of needed money to reach out to others across the globe. This medium has become an excellent opportunity to connect, encourage, and guide men who earnestly desire a closer walk with God. We all naturally possess our own unique calling, which can be grafted into the Manlike Podcast. This can be better accomplished via social media, and expand tremendously our voice for God into the entire world. Let's be encouraged to use this great tool and develop a program that shows Christian men how to have a Godly talk in order to carry out the Godly walk.

ANCIENT MEN What we can learn from men of old in the Bible? It is no light thing to tamper with God’s Word as set forth, to change His word is to pervert our selfishness. We see today in both church and government, the word of God is being changed in order to bring about a self driven purpose. Proverbs 22:28 Remove not the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set. In the above verse, the writer was reminding others, about the land and borders God had given to Israel in the Old Testament. If we apply it to our life today. God has asked the same of us, and that is by His word He has mapped out a set plan for us to live as believers. Men love to plan and articulate many things in their lives. Men are builders by nature, and men build by a set plan. God also had set plans by commanding Israel, to know their territory. Living within that which God ordained and not being greedy. We can learn a lot from the men of the bible, not as a history lesson, there are men today living under the same word of God. His word is still the same then as it is now. Men who struggled and have had to trust God in every situation. That applied then and it applies today for every man who is obedient to His word. What is Manlike Radio? The purpose of Manlike Radio Podcast. What does it typically mean to be manly? Well according to the standard dictionary, it is a deliberate act of courage and strength. A traditional attribute in men that is personified by them truly being a man. I felt passionately the leading of the Holy Spirit to start a podcast geared to reaching Christian men around the world. It had to be a program that would develop into helping men in a closer walk with God. But, with a modern-day agenda. With that in mind, we find more people today on social media than ever before, the modern internet has been appropriately named the invention of the century. We all have heard the term the "Market Place," for many years now, and that phrase still holds familiar ground in the hearts of people. Yet, as one Minister who properly uses the internet effectively said, "One can lock themselves away in a private closet and still know peoples business, just by having social media."Something that was on heard of a decade ago. Radio and television have traditionally made their visible mark in the cultural lives of humanity, but even that medium has undoubtedly had to properly adjust to favorably receiving social media. This is now the new normal for today, its open communication effectively reaching the world. The simple fact is that it does not take a truckload of needed money to reach out to others across the globe. This medium has become an excellent opportunity to connect, encourage, and guide men who earnestly desire a closer walk with God. We all naturally possess our own unique calling, which can be grafted into the Manlike Podcast. This can be better accomplished via social media, and expand tremendously our voice for God into the entire world. Let's be encouraged to use this great tool and develop a program that shows Christian men how to have a Godly talk in order to carry out the Godly walk.

Why don’t people read the Bible? It’s usually because of myths, lies, and misunderstandings they believe.

The Bible is blasphemous whenever it is used as caselaw and even the Word of God — which is a flat rejection of the Holy Spirit. Can’t jam Infinite Love inside any book. Not until 1850 did Protestants in Alabama suddenly demand this book be deemed inerrant. An inerrant book written by men? Even Jesús scolds in John 5:39-44 literalism and people who parochially refuse relationship with Him over “constantly having your heads in the Bible but refusing to SEE Me in front of you....” Look at what such narrowness of thinking has done (not because people always believe or love God who they CAN in a less literal sense SEE but won’t SEE) but solely because of individual cowardly narcissism just to be sure they “don’t burn in hell.” This isn’t love but terrorism. Think about it — you place a gun to the head of the preciously and infinitely loved little heads of children and tell them they better hate “certain people OR groups” and beat their children because that’s the only language they understand, and they’ll hardly become human beings capable of charity beginning at home or beginning within themselves. Rather, this same aberrant fear will actually create all manner of evil, self-preservation, self-absorbing megalomania and other highly ephemeral avarice and perversion. Christianity as the “religion” doesn’t espouse a love for and from God for ALL people — rather as merely another exclusive “religion” It unwittingly promotes living a life of fearing hell and hating this God and this threatening tyrannical caricature the church fabricated for dualistic confusion and socioeconomic control. Having said that, debating hate and love and especially the existence of God as a word and trying to force ideas on anyone will cause pushback. Until and, not if but when, a person is able to SEE and RECOGNIZE the divine in ALL PEOPLE— especially those they have been trained to hate not based on reality and truth and grace and truth — but with the very peculiarly arcane approach of actually EXCLUDING first and INCLUDING a very few individuals if anyone (which is ultimately self-banishment) as one’s life goes onto and INTO eternity. Life is living us. Things are improving. America’s history of preferring word-worship and highly superficial and spoon fed programming has created an unstable passively-aggressive kind of undulating conformity that has been largely without any lovingly lasting transformative experiencing as human beings. Forced love is at best, highly unconditional hatred. This has been proffered as stemming from the noun and conceptualized word — God, but any conceptual and airily abstract notion of God as anyone or even anything akin to an infinitely loving agent is all showroom but no storeroom. Just smoke and mirrors and a cheapened part of speech and an unbelievably unworkable textual rule book. A theologically lifeless topic and object of pseudo-scholastic discussion and debate, but sorrowfully little else. It might be becoming increasingly obvious to humanity that humanity is from love and infinite love has all the timelessness in and out of this world to restore to Her original state of sanity. Original sin, logically, demands that the originating Source of sin starts and stops this seemingly endless “missing of the point” not by creating the 16th century atonement conditions for His/Her creation to yet again fail to meet, but by This Creator having ALREADY removed the human convention (illusion) of finitely loving conditions that infinite Love would never impose on His/Her very own divine inventions. (There was nothing to remove but the damnable idea of sin and the blame gaming). What was the problem with Jerome’s Bible? It was heavily influenced by Latin hell-inventing theologians like Tertullian and Augustine. Many of the words used in the Vulgate, such as eternal, redemption, justification, sanctification, sacrament, perdition, punish, torment, damnation, etc., were coined by Tertullian and his contemporaries and came to be associated with concepts foreign to the original Greek. The Latin Church’s emphasis on fear-based dualism was reserved for three great Carthaginians, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine, so to influence the Latin Church it deflected and declined into a system of dogmatic hierarchy and spiritual despotism. But Tertullian was the individual who set this current in motion. This, then, is the man in the hollow of whose hands lay the clay which was to be molded into concrete Latin dogma. This is the man in whose hands reclined the fate of the word eternal. Augustine, who later outdid Tertullian and his doctrines, maintained that the whole human race was “one damned batch and mass of perdition” (conspersis damnata, massa perditionis), out of which a few are elected to salvation, while all the remainder are lost for ever. He beheld evil as a force integral in a universe apart from God, while Origen believed that all is out from God, even evil, which God must undo and banish. As the centuries went by, the Bible was translated and retranslated into Latin (mainly from Greek), and more than twelve centuries later translated into English (from Greek and Hebrew) with the advent of the original King James in the 1600s. It’s not hard to see how morphing Church beliefs and language changes influenced each Bible version that came along. When King James gave the translators instructions for working on his King James Authorized Version in 1604 (a seven-year project), he intended to make sure that the new version would “conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.” Since then, it has undergone over 400 more years of translator interventions and theological interpretations. When you think of how many people, opinions, doctrines, misunderstandings, language barriers, as well as political and theological agendas may have worked into the mix in 2,000 years, it’s hard to believe (and shouldn’t be believed) that the Bible has maintained inerrancy or complete adhesion to the original intent. Sin wasn’t humanity’s idea nor God’s allowance for the concept of sin that the church created to control and confuse. The thermodynamic energy that animates your being that IS within you (known as the Holy Spirit) has been flatly rejected and opportunely so by the church. Why? As long as you perceive yourself and, therefore others, with a rather worthless and intrinsically defective sense of identity, the simplicity of this infinitely knowable inner wholeness will by default seem confusingly complicated. Now, these heady abstract antagonists understood perfectly clear how to train word-worshipping Westerners towards dualistically divisional and extreme mental programming. And, because they did, they took advantage of the majority’s illiteracy and fearful dependency and thus, described both God and sin with their conceptualized explanations that were neither creatively freeing nor remotely explicable to the culture at that time. But, in spite of the current day literacy of Western society, both the Catholic and the Protestant career clergymen remain, for the same ephemerally selfish and passionless reasons, determined to take advantage of rigidly fearful and fervently religious people by portraying the church as an externally greater authority than the Spirit of Truth within ALL humanity. Moreover, as long as these church leaders can continue to hoodwink Western society into believing that they must pay the churches’s amateurishly ignorant “professionals” to explain God’s nature to them, oratory rhetoric will continue to hypnotize humanity as objects, discouraging humanity’s grasping their true and original identity as sons and daughters of Infinite Love’s Creator. And, while this can (for a limited time) continue to hinder individual’s knowledge of their inner authority and true identity via unconditionally loving experience, it will never detain this infinite LOVE’s Author and Creator as some diabolically separated Being who has been intentionally portrayed as an unapproachable cosmic tyrant as purposefully maligned as read inside the bindings of the Bible. You didn’t need anyone to explain unconditional love to you UNTIL religionists diabolically developed their own self-seeking conditions of dogmatic beliefs whereby they almost got away of what has gone on till only very recently. This being the early churches’s theologians and socioeconomic religious politicians desire to institutionalize guilt as its ephemeral goal so as to possess all of the gold. Put another way, the Golden Rule as the early church translated it swiftly became an aberrant abomination of Jesus’s extremely simple and easily applicable definition of this Golden Rule. Rather than, “Do unto others as you would want done unto you,” the church’s pyramid scheme was based on, “He who has the most gold, rules.” When Jesus said, “You cannot serve mammon and God both,” a simpler translation is, “You can experience Infinite Love within you and as you but never by studying this experience as merely a lofty concept inside of a book.” Jesus made this perfectly clear in John 5:39-40. No one believes truth, they recognize and know truth again as they knew truth before they became the physical manifestations of Infinite love. Soul. That’s even in the Bible- Psalms 139. God, as a concept, can appear to hate you as long as you project the hatred you have ONLY momentarily felt and observed from the very men who pretend or seem to appear to be like the God none is able to conceive of. Conceptions are deceptions. Just as saying the word water is a horrible attempt to explain the experience of actually being wet. Even if I could freeze an ocean wave, my bringing it to you in a box and placing it on a table would not be anything like surfing. As long as we believe in a word we will never begin approaching Her realty. God does not love you, love is what you are. Love is being Herself. You are BEING and to miss this is to talk about infinite life but never be about infinite life.

I must confess something.  I am totally and completely dependent upon my GPS.  And, I must confess, not only do I get geographically lost as I travel from place to place, I have also been figuratively lost at various points in my life.  There have been times in life when I have truly felt emotionally and spiritually lost.  Today, Jesus speaks to us about getting lost and, of all the parables Jesus told, the story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most profound.   Today’s gospel reading tells of a father who had two sons.  The younger son, wanting to get away from home, asks for his future inheritance, a share of his father's estate.  He wants his own life apart. This younger son seems cocky, confident, arrogant and self-reliant as he essentially says: "Give me my part of your stuff, Dad. I'm going to take off and live by myself."  His father willingly gives it to him, and the young man runs off to a distant country, quickly squandering his inheritance.  Soon he finds himself knee deep in pig slop, feeling very hungry and destitute.  And, he finds himself chastened by his intemperate actions. So, he returns home, prepared to acknowledge to his father that he has failed and no longer deserves to be called his father’s son. The younger son has finally come to his senses. He is content, even eager, to be treated as no more than a slave or hired worker. But, he is in for a big surprise.  And, Luke’s telling of the story at this point is so beautiful.  Luke writes that while the younger son "was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him." He calls for a feast to be prepared in celebration of his son's return. Well, this celebration does not go over well with the older son.  He protests that he has never disobeyed his father and he has never given him cause for grief. This is true, but the older son is trying to find his legitimacy in obedience instead of love. He doesn't know about simple relationship – and you know what?  The Bible is all about relationship.  God is all about relationship!  One of the deep truths we need to learn is this: when we don't have a living, life-giving relationship with God, we often try to substitute with duty and obligation. Now, while this parable is called the story of the Prodigal Son, it probably should be called the story of the Prodigal Father.  The word prodigal means lavish or extravagant, and it is really the Father who is extravagant when it comes to his sons. The sons are prodigal in failure; the father is prodigal in generosity.  And, in this story, we get an amazing glimpse of what God is like.  The father says to the returning son, "Everything I have is yours."  What a marvelous response, and what an amazing image of God!  God is always greater than our sins.  According to Jesus, God is like a Prodigal Father who welcomes home his son without explanation.  No questions are asked about why the son is returning home and no apology is even asked for. He throws his arms around his son.  And he invites everyone to celebrate because his son who "was dead has come to life again; he was lost and has been found." This is not just a son. He's a returned son.  You see, after being lost, it is when we come back that we know how important union is, what strength and joy relationship gives. It is one of the most consistent messages of the Bible: It is in losing that we discover what we have. Alienation isn't the end of the world; it's the way we commonly come to God. Almost all biblical figures are transformed "sinners," not people who walk a straight line to God. That is not the path. This parable of the Prodigal Son, or Prodigal Father, has the power to change us because it names human relationships so perfectly and we see ourselves in both sons.  Like the younger son, we try to live our life apart and autonomously, and yet that leads to an eventual alienation and unhappiness. Slowly we gather our truth and our identity. But we are also capable of being the older son who prides himself on his orthodoxy.  The elder son projects a small-minded, moralistic image of arrogant superiority derived from his perceived selfless, sacrificial life of service to his father.  And, he is unable to celebrate and enjoy a free gift!  There is a real sense that of the two sons, the younger son ends up being spiritually healthier at the end of the story, while the elder son remains spiritually sick.  So, we end with an amazing story of one son who seems to do it all right but is wrong, and another son who seems to do it all wrong but is right! At the end of the parable we never learn whether the older son comes to the banquet, but we do know that the Father continues hoping his older son will join the party and not live in resentment or continue to have a sense of superiority toward the brother who has done it all wrong. It is an invitation to all of us who have perhaps been good Christians, "older sons – and daughters," but can also lack compassion, forgiveness, mercy and love. It is fascinating that this is the end of the story.  Jesus leaves the parable open ended.  We really do not know what happens next.  We do not know what the elder son finally does.  But, in this open-ended story, we see a Father who never gives up.  Behind Jesus’ parable “lies profound and overwhelming truth about God and God’s kingdom.  We humans, we all were lost, mired in sins of sensuality and greed and self-referential resentment, hip-deep in the pig slop of envy.  Before we knew it, God reached out in the people Israel and then again in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.  God has raised us up and called us home.  It is just not about you or me, or my sin or your sin, or my deserts or your deserts.  It is all about God and God’s life-giving love and mercy.  Every time God’s active, stretching, searching, healing love finds someone and calls that person back home,” we discover the overwhelming scandal of God’s extravagant grace, God’s prodigal love for humanity and this world, and it is cause for great rejoicing!  So, come and join the party, and live in relationship with God and one another.  That is where real, deep, lasting joy is found. (Feasting on the Word, Rodney Clapp, p. 120)

How can I trust the Bible? It’s so old. It’s filled with strange stories. It contains concepts I don’t understand. How can I trust in this document enough to live […] The post CWD Episode 13: How Can I Trust the Bible? appeared first on Broadway Church.

Sin, like nuclear fuel, has a half-life. Its impact doesn’t really ever go away. Its shelf life is measured in years, not minutes. And while sin’s impact may be invisible, it is far from inconsequential. When you least expect it, the ramifications of sin can appear out of nowhere, which has led to the oft-repeated warning: Be sure your sins will find you out. But did you realize that this popular parenting tip is from the Bible? It’s found In Numbers 32 and the context for its original implementation might surprise you. As the people of Israel were preparing to enter the promised land, the two tribes of Reuben and Gad approached Moses with a request that they be allowed to settle outside the borders of the land of Canaan. They had spied some lush pastureland on the eastern side of the border and wanted to settle their families and flocks there. And while Moses eventually agreed to their seemingly innocent request, time would reveal that their motivation was anything but innocent.   

Holiday lights on houses, in yards and throughout many public parks illuminate the dark night sky of winter. But how might the story they share connect with someone who is blind? Might the answer to this question be the reason the imagery of light is used so often in the Bible? It also might bring a new understanding to sight and blindness. Copyright, Dave Andrus 2018

What is the nature of God's Word- We must start out with the correct presupposition, or we will end up with the wrong view of the Bible and of God. what will you base your life on- --The Word comes from the very life of God--it is God breathed. It is profitable and suitable for teaching, reproof, and correction.--What is the primary purpose of the Bible- It is to show us we are sinners and need a savior, Jesus.

Have you ever seen a triple play in baseball? It's pretty awesome. But... have you ever seen a triple play in the Bible? It's absolutely amazing!

Have you ever seen a triple play in baseball? It's pretty awesome. But... have you ever seen a triple play in the Bible? It's absolutely amazing!

Everyone puts the scripture being taught from the sermon on your screens so everyone can follow along during the service? But is there a better idea? In this episode, we share why you should consider taking your main Bible passage(s) off your screens. Welcome to welcome to episode 4 of Practical Church Planting. You can watch the episode below, or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. There certainly is no right or wrong way to do it, but a New City Church, we don't put up our main Bible passage on the screen during our services. Here are the reasons we share in this episode: Non-Christians know for sure that we are reading/teaching from the Bible It encourages people to open up and actually read the Bible for themselves Some people will be opening up the Bible for the first time in their lives It's less intimidating for people who actually want to follow along in a Bible/device It helps keep people's attention People can read it again during the message When you put that page number on the screen, no one is embarrassed about trying to find the passage The show releases every Monday and Thursday morning Did you know that you can also subscribe to the podcast version of Practical Church Planting? Subscribe for free and never miss an episode! Appreciate the podcast? Please leave a rating and review, and even share it to help spread the word! Here’s where you can subscribe: iTunes Google Play  

What’s the difference between bad authority and good authority? Fake news and journalistic integrity? Misappropriation of the Bible and appropriate use of the Bible? It’s the difference between unquestioned authority and interactive authority. Vince unpacks this difference by looking at some personal stories, an episode from the life of Jesus, and the broad brushstrokes of church history.

Welcome to the Surviving the Bible podcast. This is a lectionary podcast not just for pastors or preachers, but for Bible nerds everywhere. Each week Christian and Amy Piatt (from the Homebrewed CultureCast) and Tripp Fuller (from the Homebrewed Christianity podcast) explore the bible readings for the week. You’ll get three different perspectives on three… Read more about Surviving the Bible: It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Biblical

Too many people let experts tell them the Bible is not reliable or that it has been disproven by science This lesson will give a short list of reasons why we can fully trust every word of the Bible It is intended to encourage you to seek even more reasons to build your trust in Scripture

Can you trust the Bible? It is different from other books, yet the Bible is most powerful and engaging. This message shows you how the Bible comes alive with systematic study despite of its lack of chronological order in discussing most issues. It will also show you how to make the Bible a powerful influence in your life in these last days. Because of its accurate predictions and forecasts, the Bible can truly become the most relevant book you’ve every studied.

Do you know when Christmas was first mentioned in the Bible? It wasn’t when the angels appeared to Mary or Joseph announcing the coming birth of Jesus. The first mention of the birth of the Savior came at the very beginning of human history, in the garden of Eden.

Hemorrhoids in the Bible? It's in there and we're talking about it! Plus, get your fill on golden rats, a mermaid god and Dave's lack of affection for cats. Not your mother's Bible study and made for everyone no matter your religious affiliation, enjoy insane stories that will have you wondering what comes next.

You’ve heard the phrase that talks about obeying the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. Did that phrase come from the Bible? It sounds a LOT like our One Verse for today. Trying to measure up to the letter of the Law will kill us. Jesus gave us a better way. The One Verse Devotional Bible study is provided by Phosphorus Project. About the One Verse Devotional Podcast One Verse is a short, free podcast devotional designed to help you grow closer to God through less than 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Is it hard to find time to spend with God and grow your Christian faith? The One Verse Devotional is a short, 5 minute podcast where we grow deeper in our faith through just one verse a day, Monday through Friday. A practical and encouraging look at the Bible, now you can spend time with God whenever you want. Hosted by Matt McCarrick and brought to you by Phosphorus Project. http://phosphorusproject.com/oneverse

一、hot的常用表达1. It's really/ awfully/ ridiculously/ crazy hot. It's crazy hot. 太热了。2. hot as hell Bible 圣经 It's hot as hell. 二、不用hot也可以形容热 1. I'm sweating like a pig. I need to find a place to cool off.我都湿透了，我需要找个地方凉快凉快。2. I can't bear the heat. I'm soaking. 我热得受不了，浑身都在滴水！3. The blacktop is bubbling. 柏油路面简直都要冒泡了。4. You could fry eggs on the sidewalk.人行道上都可以煎蛋了。5. The grass is parched.草都被烤干了。6. Even the breeze is hot.就连吹来的风都是热的。7. It is like being baked in an oven.热得就像是被扔进了烤箱。stove 炉子8. I don't want to go out. It's raining fire!我不想出门，感觉天在下火。9. These are dog days.这是三伏天。Ancient Greece 古希腊 三、hot的同义替换词1. boiling 滚热的I'm boiling, let's go to the mall where they have air conditioning. 太热了，我们去购物中心吧，那儿有空调。2. burning/ blazing/ scorching 炙热的I can't believe people are walking in the blazing sun. 我不敢相信人们在烈日下行走。3. blistering 炎热的Yesterday was blistering hot. I got a sunburn so bad it blistered. 昨天热极了，我都被晒起泡了。4. sweltering 闷热的 He must be sweltering, wearing a uniform in this heat. 穿着这么热的制服，他一定是中暑了。

一、hot的常用表达1. It's really/ awfully/ ridiculously/ crazy hot. It's crazy hot. 太热了。2. hot as hell Bible 圣经 It's hot as hell. 二、不用hot也可以形容热 1. I'm sweating like a pig. I need to find a place to cool off.我都湿透了，我需要找个地方凉快凉快。2. I can't bear the heat. I'm soaking. 我热得受不了，浑身都在滴水！3. The blacktop is bubbling. 柏油路面简直都要冒泡了。4. You could fry eggs on the sidewalk.人行道上都可以煎蛋了。5. The grass is parched.草都被烤干了。6. Even the breeze is hot.就连吹来的风都是热的。7. It is like being baked in an oven.热得就像是被扔进了烤箱。stove 炉子8. I don't want to go out. It's raining fire!我不想出门，感觉天在下火。9. These are dog days.这是三伏天。Ancient Greece 古希腊 三、hot的同义替换词1. boiling 滚热的I'm boiling, let's go to the mall where they have air conditioning. 太热了，我们去购物中心吧，那儿有空调。2. burning/ blazing/ scorching 炙热的I can't believe people are walking in the blazing sun. 我不敢相信人们在烈日下行走。3. blistering 炎热的Yesterday was blistering hot. I got a sunburn so bad it blistered. 昨天热极了，我都被晒起泡了。4. sweltering 闷热的 He must be sweltering, wearing a uniform in this heat. 穿着这么热的制服，他一定是中暑了。

Part 1 - The Bible It seems only right and proper that as we begin this teaching series dealing with the fundamental basics of the Christian Faith, we do so by looking first at the Bible.  After all, in answering the question what we believe and why we believe it, as a Christian, our only source of full reliability is the Bible.  Most certainly there are other credible sources from which to draw our knowledge, but all must be run through the litmus filter of God’s Word!   Since we are going to be building this teaching series upon the foundation of the Holy Bible, it seems only right therefore that in starting, we begin by answering the question, what is the Bible?   In this first part of this teaching series, we take a look at the character and nature of this precious book.  We take a whistle stop tour through the Old and New Testaments before going on to look at the claims of Divine authorship.  We then conclude by looking briefly at the manuscript evidence to support the reliability of the Bible. Download teaching notes (pdf) http://traffic.libsyn.com/bethesdashalom/1._The_Bible.pdf

Transformation Tuesdays was inspired by the CD "The Jesus Question" by Matthew Kelly. Deacon Jimmy Ghiglione and Aaron Emig recap the Gospel from the prior Sunday and give action steps and resources to transform our lives for that week every Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. at Morris Hall from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Collinsville, IL…A Spiritual Home from Everyone where we strive to Be, Grow and Make Disciples. Deacon Jimmy: Hello, I’m Deacon Jimmy… Aaron Emig: And I’m Aaron Emig… We are so grateful to have Riley from the Totus Tuus team at SSPP Parish… Riley attends Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN and studies physics and math… And this week are celebrating the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time… And our question for the week is: Are you open to the “cultivation” necessary to be “good soil”? This week’s Gospel come from: Matthew 13:24-43 Deacon Jimmy: When reflecting on this Gospel, two thoughts came to me …. The first don’t be a weed. Last week we heard our Loving Lord telling us in the Gospel to be good soil. Today it seems as if He’s telling us, don’t be a weed. We are called to be a good seed not a bad one. Another thought…… Life is not fair. How many times we have heard people say that, “Life is not Fair.” Maybe we’ve even said it ourselves. Life is not Fair. In today’s Gospel, it seems that life is not fair for this farmer. He works hard to sow good seed, then along came someone to try to mess things up for him. They sowed weeds in his fields. That’s not fair. But the farmer was patient and faithful and in the end things got sorted out. Literally things got sorted out, the wheat from the weeds, the good from the bad. Riley: Aaron Emig: Jesus tells us 3 parables in this week’s gospel… The weeds in the first parable are people of the evil one… Once the harvest is ready which is the end of the age… Angels will come down and collect and burn those weeds… So that the Son of Man, the word and the children of God can spend time with our Father in paradise. What type of seeds are you sowing every day? Deacon Jimmy: Our loving Lord God has a way of making life fair. Sometimes it’s not always when or the way we want it to be. We must be patient and faithful. When it seems that life is not fair to us, how do we react? Do we get bitter, angry, discouraged, depressed or jealous? Or are we like the farmer in the Gospel, are we patient and faithful, accepting what life has to offer, good and bad, all the while trusting in our loving Lord? The master of the harvest. We need to know that if we remain faithful, that in God’s time, in God’s way, that God always has a way of making life fair. If not now... in eternity. Riley: Aaron Emig: To enter paradise with our Father… It all starts by building our personal relationship with Jesus… Yes, I do sound like a broken record… But this is the fundamentals, the foundation, the rich soil that produces fruit that lasts forever… We just need chat with JC every day to grow our personal relationship with Him… Unlike human relationships, you have that opportunity to talk with Jesus 24/7, 365 days a year… How awesome is that? But it’s your decision to make and only yours… Deacon Jimmy: Wisdom Words of the Week are… “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~Robert Lewis Stevenson Aaron Emig: The Transformation Tool is… A Quick Introduction to Bible CD by Matthew Kelly… Have you ever wondered how to read the Bible? It is quite overwhelming with all the books and chapter… Matthew Kelly give you game plan on how to read the Bible… We are giving out free copies at Morris Hall each Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. Aaron Emig: Transformation Tuesday Prayer… “Jesus, how do You want me to transform my life today?” Deacon Jimmy: God Bless you all from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, a Spiritual Home for Everyone where we are striving to Be, Grow, and Make Disciples…

Transformation Tuesdays was inspired by the CD "The Jesus Question" by Matthew Kelly. Deacon Jimmy Ghiglione and Aaron Emig recap the Gospel from the prior Sunday and give action steps and resources to transform our lives for that week every Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. at Morris Hall from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Collinsville, IL…A Spiritual Home from Everyone. Deacon Jimmy: Hello, I’m Deacon Jimmy… Aaron Emig: And I’m Aaron Emig… And this week are celebrating the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time… And our question for the week is: Is what we receive at Communion really Jesus OR a symbol of Jesus? This week’s Gospel come from: Matthew 11:25-30 Deacon Jimmy: Then Jesus makes the most extraordinary appeal, one so heart-felt that it echoes down the centuries and stirs up our hearts even today, come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest! Jesus opens wide his arms to the poor, the meek and the lowly, for all generations and draws them to himself. He has come with open arms not for the privileged and the learned or well educated. No, he has come for the overburdened, the broken-hearted, the deprived and all those who suffer. Now sometimes we get the idea that unless you are poor or suffering you are excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven and that’s not the case either. Aaron Emig: Wow…another great promise that Jesus gives to us… He says that if we know Him…He will reveal us to the Father… How awesome is that? He also says that if you are struggling or burdened with situations in life… He will comfort you… He will give you rest and peace… So how much does Jesus know about you? Deacon Jimmy: Jesus helps to clarify this when he says, “for I am meek and humble of heart.” This is his true nature and it is precisely these qualities he is looking for in others. So, it is not a question of how much money we have in the bank or how much education we have or how much we don’t have. It is a question of attitude. Gentleness and humility are the qualities that Jesus is encouraging us to develop. These are the attitudes Jesus looks for in each of us. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He is the way of gentleness (meekness), the way of humility, the way of service, the way of sacrifice, the way of love. It is the way of Christ-centeredness and not self-centeredness. Jesus has gone that way before us and all we need is the desire and the willingness, the openness to follow Him. Aaron Emig: Again, it all starts with our personal relationship with Jesus Christ… Just like any other relationship in our lives, the more time spent together and talking with each other…the greater that relationship grows and grows… We need to read the daily Gospel to learn more about Jesus… We need spend more time in prayer and in the classroom of silence so our relationship with Jesus grows every day… I would suggest reading the daily Gospel and talk with Jesus in prayer to your personal friendship with Jesus… And it really only takes 5-10 minutes a day… What is one that you remove from your life to spend that time with Jesus? Deacon Jimmy: Wisdom Words of the Week are… “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27 Aaron Emig: The Transformation Tool is… A Quick Introduction to Bible CD by Matthew Kelly… Have you ever wondered how to read the Bible? It is quite overwhelming with all the books and chapter… Matthew Kelly give you game plan on how to read the Bible… We are giving out free copies at Morris Hall each Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. Aaron Emig: Transformation Tuesday Prayer… “Jesus, how do You want me to transform my life today?” Deacon Jimmy: God Bless you all from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, a Spiritual Home for Everyone where we Be, Grow, and Make Disciples…

#308 Colossians Series# 1, The Ancient City Speaks Today By: Pastor Cheryl Thomas Colossae- The Ancient City Speaks Today How should we approach the Bible? It is a metanarrative a “big story,” the all-encompassing theme of the whole. And as NT Wright says, “the bible story is important because it is the divine drama told […]

Transformation Tuesdays was inspired by the CD "The Jesus Question" by Matthew Kelly. Deacon Jimmy Ghiglione and Aaron Emig recap the Gospel from the prior Sunday and give action steps and resources to transform our lives for that week every Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. at Morris Hall from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Collinsville, IL…A Spiritual Home from Everyone. Deacon Jimmy: Hello, I’m Deacon Jimmy… Aaron Emig: And I’m Aaron Emig… And this week are celebrating the 13th week in Ordinary Time… And our question for the week is: Is what we receive at Communion really Jesus OR a symbol of Jesus? This week’s Gospel come from: Matthew 10:37-42 Deacon Jimmy: So, Matthew’s Gospel today tells us to take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus. What can be taking up the cross mean other than the struggle to live completely with the Lord. This is a struggle not only against sin, but in a very positive way, to live in God’s love every moment of our lives. The Psalms tell us that we must turn away from evil and do good. It is not enough just to turn away from evil. We must also do good. Aaron Emig: The week’s Gospel talks about give up your life to serve God and others… We need to love God first rather than humans… I know that it is hard to grasp… We have so many loved ones that we care in our lives on earth… But Jesus tells that we need to love God first so that we can love others on earth. Do you truly love God before all humans and things? Deacon Jimmy: This Gospel also speaks of hospitality. The only way to truly do good is to receive the grace of the Lord and to share that grace with others, such as in a cup of cold water! There are so many little ways that we can share God’s blessings in our lives. They are just little ways, the way of being thoughtful and of service to others. We don’t need anything big. Love is most often a gift of the small awareness and service to others. Some would call these things Random Acts of Kindness…. I would call them “Random Acts of Loving Kindness”. God does not give to us out of what is left over. He gives to us out of his goodness. That’s called “Loving Kindness”. A little boy was asked, “What’s the definition of Loving Kindness?” He replied “Well if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread to eat, that’s kindness. But if they went to the extra trouble of putting peanut butter and jelly on it, that’s loving kindness.” Aaron Emig: We truly just need to start loving first before everyone… Once you do that you can really start loving yourself first and others… We are called to serve God first so that we serve… God has asked to this so we can change ourselves, others and the world… Let’s all really try commit to God first and watch how your life will transform… Aaron Emig: Wisdom Words of the Week are… He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 Aaron Emig: The Transformation Tool is… A Quick Introduction to Bible CD by Matthew Kelly… Have you ever wondered how to read the Bible? It is quite overwhelming with all the books and chapter… Matthew Kelly gives you game plan on how to read the Bible… We are giving out free copies at Morris Hall each Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. Aaron Emig: Transformation Tuesday Prayer… “Jesus, how do You want me to transform my life today?” Deacon Jimmy: God Bless you all from Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, a Spiritual Home for Everyone where we Be, Grow, and Make Disciples…

Why should you believe the Bible? It's a fair question and today we start a conversation around that question. Join Us Sundays @ 10:30 AM    23830 CR 106 Elkhart, IN 46516 Encounter Church Website

The Bible reveals that the birth of Jesus Christ is something of enormous cosmic significance. It is the beginning of the end of a storyline, that starts on the very first pages of the Bible… It is the story of the forces of darkness that have ruled the world since the dawn of human history. a serpent who deceives. But one day someone would be born who would crush the serpent!

In this episode, Tim and Jon continue their discussion on Job. How exactly does Job fit in with the other wisdom book of the Bible? It’s kind of a weird book. Job takes place in Uz, a non-Israelite town, and it features non-Israelite people. It seems out of place, but it’s also a book that other biblical authors refer to throughout Scripture. We have to wonder about the differences between Job and the other books of the Bible. Is Job a literal account, or is it a wisdom parable that is intentionally fiction? In the first part of the episode (02:14-09:42), the guys talk about the first two chapters of Job. In this section, God’s justice is questioned, but the story is not trying to teach about the origins of human suffering. The guys try to get at what this first part may be trying to teach us. In the second part of the episode (09:57-22:50), Tim and Jon talk about the heavenly scene in Job and discuss why the author chose to include it. The point of the heavenly scene isn’t to tell us how God makes decisions. It asks the question of whether or not it is a good policy for God to always reward the righteous. In the next part of the episode (23:09-26:57), the guys break down the structure of the book, specifically chapters three through twenty-seven. These chapters are the poetic core of the book called “the cycles.” In the final part of this episode (27:12-41:30), the guys spend some time discussing Job’s friends. His friends are working within a human framework that says that God rewards the righteous and brings wrath upon sinners, yet Job continues to defend his innocence throughout the book. What is really going on here? Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video on the book of Job. You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GswSg2ohqmA Scripture References: Job Ezekiel 14 Numbers 22 Show Music: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music Blue Skies by Unwritten Stories Flooded Meadows by Unwritten Stories

By the time Athanasius writes about a formal list for the Bible, it was a concrete end to a whole process that had been happening for centuries beforehand and he was speaking for the status quo. Where does one begin the process of discussing the Canon? We begin with Papias, who wrote a 5-volume work entitled “The Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord”. Fragments of this work were preserved by Eusibius and others. Why is Papias important? He gives us the earliest account of the origins of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Oral tradition had a profound impact on him. Papias was a Chiliast who believed in the 1,000 year reign of Christ. Did Papias say anything about Luke and or John? Consider the Canon in the Mid 2nd Century. What was Justin Martyr’s Bible? It probably contained the four Gospels, the letters of Paul including Hebrews, Acts and general Epistles, and Revelation. A major methodological question is how do we determine which books these writers knew or used? Did they use a direct citation or allusion? Consider that Christian writers did not always reproduce exact citations of the biblical text. They often cited from memory. For example, Theophilus stated, “For God gave us a law and holy commandments; everyone who does them can be saved . . .”

Why is there a second creation account in Genesis 2? And have you ever noticed that when you compare the creation account in Genesis 2 with the creation account in Genesis 1, there are several key differences? What is going on? Do these differences prove that there are errors and contradictions in the Bible? It is these sorts of questions we will be looking at today as we look at Genesis 2:4-6 in this episode of the One Verse Podcast.

This sermon addresses the question: Can we really trust the Bible? It argues the Bible receives a lot of unfair criticism that does not stand when reasonably considering the evidence. It concludes: God has preserved his Word for us and you can trust it.

The Bible is the primary means of grace which God uses to form us into the character of Jesus Christ. It claims this for itself, and the history of the church confirms this marvelous reality. What's so special about the Bible? It reveals to us the character of God and the good news of how we can be reconciled to him. For this reason, it is critical that we dig deep into Scripture to train ourselves in the ways of God, but also so that we may share this good news with others.

Jesus speaks to the churches at Pergamum & Thyatira, telling them to protect the purity of sound doctrine in the Church. There should be no compromise to the foundational theology of the Bible: It is important to the Lord what we believe & how we protect that in our hearts & minds.

Do you really have to turn off your brain to believe the Bible? It is a common myth that science and the Bible have always been in conflict, and the case of Galileo is often cited as proof. But not only is Galileo’s story misinterpreted to fit this agenda (see here for an explanation); there are numerous examples of the Bible being surprisingly consistent with, or even ahead of, scientific knowledge. In this episode Kevin goes over some of these examples to show that in reality, science the Bible are best friends forever. What accurate scientific information can be found in the Bible? For one, it acknowledges that the earth is resting on nothing (Job 26:7; yes it is supported by the invisible force of gravity, but it is not held up by any physical object). It states that the heavens are stretching out (Psalm 104:2 among others, in line with the expansion of the universe), and that all of creation is wearing out and will one day pass away (Psalm 102:25-27, in line with the laws of thermodynamics). The Bible has also recognized significant medical principles, such as the fact that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11; contrary to the once-scientific practice of bloodletting), the importance of washing the body and the hands (Leviticus 14:8-9 and others), and the practice of quarantining those with infectious diseases (Leviticus 13). As Kevin demonstrates throughout the episode, Christians do not have to worry about whether science or the Bible is true; the Bible has repeatedly been vindicated, once science catches up to it. This episode first aired on June 14th, 2015. We make video lessons to raise up confident Christians: https://educateforlife.org/

Well some more ridiculous proverbs. Solomon or whoever it is has no idea how to construct a proper analogy. His analogies are like a dead battery in a fire alarm. Or something. Anyway, will this be the final episode of Thomas and the Bible? It is unless the goal is met here: http://patreon.com/tandtheb If this … Continue reading Proverbs 24-29 →

The question is asked all the time... can I REALLY trust The Bible? It's not enough to just say yes because it's the Bible. We must know WHY!

Should we read other books, or just the Bible? It is good to read Christian books in addition to reading the Bible?

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Abounding Bible Ministries is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Bible: It's Inspiration Subtitle: Christian Basics Speaker: Pastor Jim Gables Broadcaster: Grace Abounding Bible Ministries Event: Bible Study Date: 4/3/2013 Bible: 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:15-17 Length: 58 min.

Great question? Why is it in your Bible? It's clearly all about David and some problem he was facing. Then why is it in your Bible? That's a great question too! We certainly already believe in God so we don't need to know about how powerful God is. What is the reason for this Psalm? Simply put it was personal for David because it's personal for YOU TOO! We are all but ignorant if we do not take on this Psalm 18 and use it for ourselves. Simple study would understand David as King of Israel sent this Psalm over to the choir director to be sung at least weekly if not daily for everyone to hear around Jerusalem. For it to be exclusively for David personally it would never have been made a Psalm. How many times have we all heard "the Psalms are not for us today"? Incredible unbelief we surround ourselves with every day. With that kind of thinking then we need to toss out the 23rd Psalm as well, and that would be absurd. Well, then tossing out the 18th is just as absurd. Every word in Psalm 18 can be depended on. Recognize your own unbelief and begin to take God at His word and believe Him to respond to you just like He did for David in this wonderful Psalm. Is there any wonder David killed Goliath thinking like he did here in this Psalm.

Here's a brief sermon I preached as the opener for a series at Girton college on storytelling in the Bible/ It concludes with one of my epiphany sonnets called Nathanael's epiphany, which you can find on my blog.

Bibliology is the study of the Bible, the Word of God. Today we look at the evidence of the inspiration of the scriptures. The internal test•It’s written by credible people•The testimony of reliable witnesses•The External test•The Historicity of the book•The continuity of the Bible•It’s unique revelation•Fulfilled prophecy•Messianic propheciesIt is our earnest desire that you learn the fundamentals of the faith and grow in grace and mercy. 2 Peter 3:18