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Talk 4. God speaks to us through the Bible So far we have seen that God speaks to all people through creation, that in Old Testament times God spoke to Israel through the prophets, and that now God has spoken finally and definitively by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We now turn our attention to another way that God speaks to us. He speaks through his written word, the Bible. In this talk we will consider why we should believe that God speaks to us through the Bible. In the following talks we'll look at how he does so.   Why believe that God speaks to us through the Bible How can we be sure that we can expect God to speak to us through the Bible? The Bible shows us the way of salvation The Bible tells us about Jesus Jesus made it clear that God speaks through Scripture The apostles taught that God speaks through Scripture Christian experience confirms that God speaks through the Bible.   The Bible shows us the way of salvation It's important to believe that God speaks to us through the Bible because it's the Bible that shows us the way of salvation. The Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).   Peter tells us that we … have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23) and Paul tells us that faith for salvation comes from hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).   If you're like me, your first experience of hearing God speak to you was when he spoke through the preaching of his word challenging you to repent and put your trust in Christ as your Saviour. He spoke to you through the Bible then, and he will continue to do so throughout your Christian life. And closely connected with the fact that the Bible shows us the way od salvation is the fact that it tells us about Jesus.     The Bible tells us about Jesus We saw in the last talk that God speaks to us through Jesus, showing us what God is like, teaching us what to believe, and demonstrating through his example how we should live. But how do we know all these things about Jesus? Because they are recorded in the Bible.   Admittedly, our first acquaintance with the facts about Jesus may not have come directly from the Bible, but from someone telling us about Jesus - maybe our parents, or a Sunday school teacher, a Christian minister, or a friend. But, of course, whoever it was who first told us about Jesus, they first got the information from the Bible.   So God speaks to us through Jesus who is his final word to the human race (Hebrews 1:1), and he speaks to us through the Bible which is his record of who Jesus is, and what he said and did. The Bible is all about Jesus. Even the Old Testament scriptures, written long before he came, are about him:   And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27).   So God speaks to us through Jesus and it is through the Bible that he tells us about him.   Jesus made it clear that God speaks through scripture Another good reason for believing that God speaks to us through the Bible is that Jesus himself believed this. With regard to the Old Testament, Jesus stated that the scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). The Sadducees were in error because they were ignorant of the scriptures (Mark 12:24). It was easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law (Luke 16:17).   As far as Jesus was concerned, when the Bible spoke, God spoke. For example, in Genesis 2:24 the Bible says: That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.   But in Matthew 19:4-5 Jesus says: Haven't you read… that at the beginning the Creator… said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?   So for Jesus, when the Bible speaks, God speaks. It is surely enough for us, as Jesus' disciples, to believe as he believed.   The New Testament, of course, had not been written at the time of Christ. But Jesus promised his disciples that the Holy Spirit would accurately remind them of his teachings and would lead them into further truth for which they were not yet ready:   But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26).   But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. …He will tell you what is yet to come (John 16:13).   In a later chapter we'll be talking about various ways that God speaks to us by his Spirit. But the primary way the Holy Spirit speaks to us is through the Bible.   The apostles taught that God speaks through scripture As we read the New Testament we discover that the first Christians believed that God spoke through the scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments.  Paul tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).   Peter tells us that he and the other apostles did not follow cleverly devised stories when they spoke about Jesus. They were eyewitnesses of his majesty. They heard the voice of God saying, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. But he then goes on to say:   We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:16-21).   This shows us that the Scriptures are completely reliable. The people who wrote them were speaking from God. The writings of the Scriptures are as much the voice of God as the experience Peter had when he heard God's voice in audible form.   What's more, the New Testament writers were aware of the inspiration that Jesus had promised. Their writings were not a product of their own wisdom or ability. They were conscious of direct guidance and authority from God. The things they wrote were the commandments of the Lord taught directly by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13, 14:37) and their writings were acknowledged as equal to those of the Old Testament.   Notice how, in 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes the New Testament alongside the Old Testament and evidently considers both as an integral part of scripture:   For the scripture says, Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain (Deuteronomy 25:4) and, The worker deserves his wages (Matthew 10:10).   The same attitude is adopted by Peter in 2 Peter 3:16, where he refers to all Paul's letters as part of the scriptures:   He (Paul) writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.   It is clear, then, that both Jesus and his early followers taught that the scriptures are the written word of God and that, therefore, as we read them he will speak to us. The message is simple. If you want God to speak to you, read the Bible!   Christian experience confirms that God speaks through the Bible I'm sure that countless millions of Christians can testify that God has spoken to them through the Bible. It may have been through reading the Bible, or someone else preaching from it, or through a verse of Scripture that has suddenly come to mind just when it was needed. Perhaps, like me, you've heard God speak to you in all of these ways. As we've just seen with regard to Peter's experience, the writings of the Scriptures are as much God's voice as when he heard it in audible form. But let me give you just one example from my personal experience of how God spoke to me and through me from two Bible passages in a very unusual situation.   Some years ago I was invited by the Christian Union of a college in Chester to conduct an evangelistic mission among the students. When I arrived just after lunch on the Monday, a member of staff conducted me to the bedroom they had allocated for me.  I hope you don't mind, he said, we're putting you in a room that was occupied until recently by a student we have had to expel from the college. He had been practising witchcraft.   I was rather surprised by this, to say the least, but I put a brave face on it and said, as casually as I could, Oh, that's fine. No problem! But when I entered the room, I confess I began to wonder what evil presence might be lurking there. The half-burnt candle on the windowsill didn't help. Had that been part of his devilish paraphernalia? Or had they just had a power-cut recently?   Then I remembered what Jesus had promised to his disciples as he sent them out on the task of world evangelisation: Surely, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).   I reminded myself of other Bible verses like         Behold I give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19)   and I began to take courage. I settled into my room and started to prepare myself for the meeting at which I had to speak that evening.   After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. Two men stood there. They had seen the light on in my room and wondered who it was that was in there.   Are you a new student? they asked. No, I replied, I've come to conduct a mission for the Christian Union. That's interesting, said one of them. It's strange they should put you in my old room. It was the man they had expelled for practising witchcraft! He had come back to visit his friend. Of course, I invited them to the meeting that evening and the ‘witch' said he might come. And sure enough, when the time for the meeting came, there he was sitting in the audience.   I preached the gospel and I would like to be able to say that the man gave his life to Christ, but he didn't. Instead, he came and argued with me! This went on for some time after the meeting had closed, and after about half an hour, feeling that we were getting nowhere by arguing, I decided to invite him to come to the meeting the next day.   I think you'll be particularly interested tomorrow, I said. The subject is Jesus the way to power. How real is the supernatural? Is it safe?   I don't think you know the first thing about the supernatural, he replied. What a challenge to a Pentecostal preacher!   Well, I don't know much about what you get up to when you practise your witchcraft, I said, but I will tell you one thing. When you come under the control of a familiar spirit, you can't say Jesus is Lord, can you?        I don't know who was more surprised, him or me! I had said this on the basis of my understanding of 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, but I was not prepared for the effect it had on this young man. He went visibly pale and said, How did you know that?        Taking courage by his reaction, I said:   Because the Bible, which is God's word tells me so. And I'll tell you something else it says. You may not acknowledge that Jesus is Lord now, but the day is coming when you will have to, whether you like it or not. For the Bible says that one day at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father        As I quoted these verses from Philippians 2:10-11 to him, he retreated out of the room! I went to bed at around 11pm and fell asleep straight away, sleeping soundly until about 7 the next morning. While the students were having their breakfast, I went down the corridor to the washroom to shave. While I was shaving, I saw in the mirror the face of the ‘witch'. He was standing right behind me.        Good morning, he said. Did you sleep well? Yes, thank you, I replied.  Are you sure?  Yes, perfectly sure. I went to bed around 11 and slept soundly until about 7.  Really? I can't understand that! Why? What's so unusual about having a good night's sleep? Well, you see, he confessed, I was so annoyed with what you said last night that I stayed up all night practising my witchcraft. I was trying to get a poltergeist into your room to disturb you. I've done it many times before and it's never failed. That's why they expelled me from the college. I can't understand why it didn't work this time. Oh, I said, ‘I wish you had told me. I could have told you not to waste your time. Don't you know that Christians are immune to such things?'        Later that day he was seen leaving the college with his bag packed. Leaving? said one of the Christians. Aren't you coming to the meeting today? No, he replied, that fellow knows too much about the supernatural.        Now how does all that relate to God speaking to us through the Bible? Please notice five things: The Bible passages I quoted were passages I had memorised. They came into my mind as the Holy Spirit reminded me of them. They were directly relevant to the situation. They brought glory to Jesus. They had a powerful effect on an unbeliever.   The word of God is powerful and the Holy Spirit who inspired it can use it to speak to us and through us as we allow him to. Christian experience really does confirm that God speaks through the Bible to Christians and non-Christians too.

"Freaky Stuff Fridays" Podcast Overview 3 Major Talking points: 1. Mini Anti-Reviews 2. 12 Monkeys Movie Review 3. Lord's Prayer and the BIBLE Intro: Hello and hope you're doing well whenever you're seeing this, hearing this, or reading this. I'm your host, That Girl, Jenna Curacoa. I go Live on Facebook and Youtube Monday through Saturday 2323 (11:23PM). I'm on Blog Spot, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest Recap From Yesterday's Podcast: Modern Day Slavery: Latina Farm Laborers and their safety and well being. 28% females "In this study, female farm workers reported greater stress and anxiety than women working outside the agricultural sector." At risk for trafficking and forced labor. Immigration Crisis at border: We have plenty of space and resources. Need to distribute them and provide shelter. Also need to be cautious as we examine what has taken place in other European Countries and Sweden. Spike in sexual assault due to Migrant Rape Crisis that no one wants to talk about. Today's Podcast Overview: Segment 1: Mini Anti Movie Reviews because, why not? Films to Anti-Review: Thank God It's Friday, Spanglish, Bolt, Hairspray, A Bug's Life, Inception Segment 2: Movie Review: 12 Monkeys. A Favorite of mine staring Bruce Willis. Time traveling from present to past in 1996 trying to find a cure from an infectious disease that forced mankind underground. Segment 3: The Lord's Prayer and The Bible: So tired of people saying the Bible is just written by man and is unreliable. Tune in Live or listen on Podcast for more details. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jenna-curacoa/support

Thanks for joining Jill Baughan today on Finding Joy ...No Matter What.   Connect with Jill: Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~  Website   Please subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and share with a friend.   The Message version of the Bible: So this is what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. 

How to Read the Bible: So that you understand it, and so that it does what it's supposed to do. Bite Sized Pieces + Big Chunks + Prayer + Holy Spirit = Life Transformation

We're continuing our series, How Did We Get the Bible- So far, we've established the reliability of the biblical manuscripts and their transmission down through the ages. But you've probably heard another question come up, namely, how do we know that the collection of books that make up the Scriptures are the ones God intended to include- Didn't some fourth century council arbitrarily take a vote or something- Well, Pastor Don Green will put all that speculation to rest, as he begins a message titled, Early Christians and the Biblical Canon. Don will give us four unique aspects of life in the early church that will help us understand how God sovereignly decreed the canon we have today. --TheTruthPulpit.com

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.

Is this the hardest passage in the Bible? So many change their whole view of scripture, because of what they see here. But do the verses here contradict what the rest of the Bible says? Join us as we walk through this passage and see what God is saying.

Continue reading and listening @ http://www.brendanflannagan.com/what-is-a-priest/ This month Pope Francis announced his decision to consider married men for ordination as a type of pseudo-priest for service to the Roman Catholic faithful. The Reason? The Roman Church suffers a lack of single men applying for ordination. In the US there are 2,500 Catholics per priest. In Brazil, the country of greatest need, there are 8,000 Catholics per priest. So, to solve the problem Francis opened this topic for discussion in the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He seems to be using the same method, as when he discussed the possibility of female deacons, saying, the Catholic faithful must ask, “What does this mean at that time [of the Bible]? What does it mean today?” He continued by encouraging the faithful to search the Scriptures, saying, “Don’t be afraid! That makes us free.” Today, in the 500th year of the reformation, we will ask the same question: “What is a Priest?” Interestingly enough, this call to search the Scriptures for the divine answers is identical to the call of Christ (John 5:39) and served to rally the Reformation, as many in the 15th and 16th century humanist movement cried “ad fontes” or back to the sources- a plea to return to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts composing our modern Bible. This is something we must remember: the Church did not decide the Scriptures, they were written long before, circulated among believers for hundreds of years before the church collected these known documents and placed them into the canon. If you desire to know more about the Bible, go to our past podcast- “What is the Bible?” So, let’s go back to the Scriptures- the fountainhead of meaning- and discover the purpose of the priesthood. Then, we may understand how such an institution fits into the modern church. The priesthood is first explicitly defined in the time of Moses. Men have offered sacrifices since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, but God first instituted the priesthood in relation to His covenant with Israel. In Leviticus 10:8-11, we read of the first ordination and the duty of the priests. The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations—and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.” Priests have two primary roles: they are called to offer sacrifices and teach the people. The sacrifice serves as the object lesson to the Scriptural teaching. Continue reading and listening @ http://www.brendanflannagan.com/what-is-a-priest/

Alexis made most of the decisions for her first birth out of fear. But for her second birth, she determined to trust God through the whole process and to listen to Him instead of fear. She trained her body to abide in His peace and joy throughout the pregnancy and believed Him for a supernatural, wonderful birth in His presence. Enjoy listening to her share about her beautiful, almost completely pain-free homebirth with Him that changed her and her family’s life forever! He is so good and faithful! You can connect with Alexis on Facebook by looking up Alexis Fedor (she lives in Redding). And here are the resources she recommends: Holy Spirit Labor Relaxation Album – (you get this for free when you take my Kingdom Childbirth Class mentioned below) -  An album full of Scriptures to soak to and relaxation exercises with the Holy Spirit to prepare you for a beautiful birth with God. Use it to prepare during pregnancy, and then listen to it during labor as well! Kingdom Childbirth Class – This is my birth class that Alexis took that set her free from fear and transformed her thinking about birth and how to invite God into the whole process. It’s a birth class that empowers you naturally and spiritually to birth your baby in God’s joy and presence! The Bible – So important to get God’s words and truth for your birth into your mind and heart! The Scripture Alexis was standing on is 1 Timothy 2:15 “But women will be saved through childbearing.” The word “saved” here is “sozo” which means: to be kept safe and sound, rescued from injury, peril, and disease, and restored to health and made whole.” So powerful that this is God’s promise to us through childbearing! And that’s exactly what she experienced! For a whole list of Scriptures like this to stand on for your birth, join the Kingdom Birth Class or get the Holy Spirit Labor Relaxation Album! I pray you're so blessed by this episode! Much Love, Kierra