Shifting Perspectives - Biblical Conversations about topics that Matter - Episode 15

Welcome to Shifting Perspectives,

biblical conversations about topics that

matter. Let's get to

it. Hey everybody, welcome back. And as

we have been talking, you know, last

week we talked about this uh this

understanding of all the different

translations are out there. How do we

get to them? What works? what you know

what should we use and I think that gave

us a great springboard into how to study

the Bible and that's a really really

really deep conversation isn't it that

is that is huge that's one of the most

you know people whenever it can be a

little overwhelming whenever you first

pick up the Bible and you've got your

version like we talked about and now

what do I do with it how am I going to

study so so let's do this before we get

into the minutia of all the things of

studying the Bible because there are a

lot of there are a lot of different

things and a lot of different opinions

out there. Scott, why don't you tell us

what your number one first thing you

first get this right and let the rest of

the chips kind of fall. What's that

first thing that you would tell people

about studying the Bible? So when you're

talking about the Bible, you're talking

about God's holy inspired word, true and

perfect in in its form. So there are all

kinds of external study guides and and

and these things that are out there, but

ultimately the responsibility to us is

to open it and read it. That's right.

For me, I mean, I'm going back to my to

my past. Um the first time that I took

that complete journey through the Bible,

I read the entire Bible, it took me well

over a year to do it. I didn't do it

just to read it. I tried to comprehend.

And then my second time through it was

um in and I'll say they're they're

they're two sides of the same coin is to

listen to it because learning visually

when you're reading the words is

different than the auditory piece of it

whenever you're hearing those words. And

I remember for me the the best example

I've got was I listened to um I believe

it was the Gospel of Mark as Christ was

going through his last week, which is

ideally perfect because we're getting

ready to walk into the Easter season.

But it was like the Pharisees did this

and Christ did this and they did this

and Christ did this. You were reading it

so much faster. You could almost hear

the crowds and the congregations and the

background and you could almost get that

feeling of Christ being, you know, three

steps ahead of them going, I already

know what you're going to do tomorrow.

So, you know, and and you know, he just

kept trying to lead them to that point

of guys, you need to repent. You need to

understand what's going to happen. And

and they didn't. So, for me, it's that

it's that two-sided piece, but it all

involves actually getting into God's

word because you don't ever want to

trust anything other than God's word,

right? That's my opinion. What about

yours? Well, you know, I can I

springboard on that for just a minute?

Um, you you mentioned reading it and

then you also mentioned listening to it.

Um, let me add a third to that

particular piece and that's read it with

a with a physical Bible. Um, there are,

you know, countless online ones. I know

we've got apps. Everybody's got a

smartphone these days, and that kind of

turns into our go-to, but there's a

there's a thing that we call tactile

memory. And what tactile memory is is it

basically connects what you're doing in

your brain with your activities. And so

when you have a physical Bible in your

hand and you have the feel of the of the

leather and you have the the feel of the

paper as it is as you're flipping

through it, that activates your memory

in a different way than a screen will

do. And so when you add those three

things, reading it, listening to it, um

you can listen to it through an app on

your phone. I think that's great.

YouTube actually has whole entire I'd

say probably the whole Bible but but

whole entire books of the Bible that are

recorded and are audio. Audible is an

app that has an audio Bible. Um but use

a physical Bible, read it, listen to it.

And here's a great thing that you can do

as well and it'll help you pace yourself

is you can read it while you're

listening to it. And you know, often

times we'll say, you know, follow along

with me as I read this this text. And we

do that on Sunday mornings as part of

our congregation before we before we

bring the message, is we will read the

text that we're in. And the introdu

invitation is join me in reading this

passage and you'll hear it and you'll

read it and that will help set the stage

for the message. So I think those are

those are three things that are really

first. And so if if if I can say what my

first would be tied to that, um I would

say my first is is that you really have

to be intentional. Um use a reading

plan. Yes. One of the things that we do

here at Corinth Baptist Church is every

year in January, we put out for our

congregation a year's Bible reading

plan. And we actually put out two. We

put one out that's for the year and we

put one out that's for a month that is

more of a devotional worship um in the

Psalms. You know, Psalm is kind of the

nickname of it is how they used to

worship. That was their prayer book and

how they worshiped. And so we can read

through the Psalms. Um but but there's

lots of different Bible reading plans

out there. You know, the Bible says, and

we say that a lot because we want to

live by what the Bible says. Absolutely.

So, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 and

verse 15 in the in your favorite

translation, the Old King James, um it

says, "Study to show thyself approved

unto God, a workman that needeth not to

be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of

truth." Um in the New King James, that

word study, which this is what we're

talking about, studying the Bible,

right? In the New King James, it it

translates that word to study to be

diligent. That's important. Um what's

you know what's the old adage? There's

there's several different old adages

that we could say. One is um failure to

plan is planning to fail 100%. If you're

going to be wanting to study the Bible,

you have to start with intentionality.

And intentionality reveals itself in a

plan. And without that, we're planning

to fail. The other thing that you could

say that's an old adage is

um you know um if you don't aim you'll

always hit your target. You'll hit the

target every time. And so that's what a

Bible reading plan does. So, so you can

say two things is is one the plan gives

us the intentionality and it also gives

us the aim so that we can hit what our

goal is which ultimately is to study the

Bible and to spend time in God's word.

Um, you want to do one

more? you know, well, I I guess before

we do one more, I'd like to add I'd like

to add back to it is, you know, one of

the things that that is easy and it's

just like, you know, we're we're in

April now and, you know, I think 95% of

the New Year's resolutions have been

broke by this time, you know, and it's

commitment. I mean, studying the Bible

is not easy. Uh, whenever you start

opening up and you start reading it,

studying the Bible is not always uh is

not always the easy thing to do. um you

may get into parts where it doesn't make

sense and say why am I reading this and

I will tell you from my own from my own

study is you need to push through those

times and continue to read and be as you

say diligent be committed to the

decision to read the Bible to study the

Bible and be ready to go forward because

at some point in time we realize all

those words all those pages all those

chapters and verses are important you

may not understand now that's part of

spiritual growth but you still go ahead

read through it and I think God blesses

the person that pushes through and reads

it not just for the fun neat I mean

everybody likes prophecy everybody likes

crucifixion week everybody likes those

things but it's those some of those more

obscure things that you push through it

and as you study it and you read it yes

we're going to talk about some other

things to do but man if you can be

committed to it and what it takes six

weeks to make a habit do it for six

weeks you developed a habit for me it

was lunchtime every day it was 20

minutes whether I covered a half a

chapter a chapter chapter or two

chapters, right? Sometimes I had to go

back and read the same thing three, four

times. Sometimes I still didn't

understand it the first time through,

but now as I go back and read those same

passages, like now I know what was

talking about. I know what was going on

in world events at the time. I know what

was happening. And we come back to that

and that's why it's study. It's God's

word. But then you get to build on that.

That's the foundation. And we get to use

all these other tools to build on it.

Yeah. Absolutely. and and and and and

along that same line, if if I could

encourage you today to think about what

I call the power of plurality, I may

say, "Well, that sounds really really

wonky. What's the power of plurality?"

Well, just like you and I are sitting

here having a conversation um with you

folks out there, if you can find

somebody who is reading with you, now

that doesn't necessarily mean you all

are doing it at this same time, but each

of you are saying, and that's part of

the reason why we do a churchwide Bible

reading plan is so that everybody is

kind of reading together. Um, and some

folks find that that, you know, that

they can follow that through pretty

consistently and some find that they

miss a day and they miss a couple of

days. But you know what's great is when

we're doing it together, we can help

each other be accountable to it and we

can sharpen one another. Uh you know,

Proverbs 27 says, "As iron sharpens

iron, so one man sharpens the

countenance of his friend." that that

sharpening that happens is is me being

able to say to you, man, I read this

passage of scripture today and you know,

I I I probably have read this, you know,

in my spiritual journey 30, 40 times,

that particular text, and today this

thing just leapt off the page at me that

I'd never seen before. And I get to

share that with you. And if you're

reading the same thing, you can say,

"Wow, you know, I didn't see that, but

this is what I saw." And all of a sudden

that power of plurality begins to

develop and begins to help us grow over

time. And that's why, you know, that's

kind of part of the reason we go back to

our spiritual maturity conversations,

right? And what what what did we say

that was the number one was was church

attendance. Why? Because it allows you

to walk with other people and it allows

them to speak into your life and it

allows you to speak into their life. And

you do life together. We do Bible study

together. M we do uh you know we do uh

verse byvere unpacking of the Bible in

our Sunday schools in our sermons in our

Wednesday nights in our why do we do

that so that we're all doing the same

thing hearing what the Lord is saying

through his word together and you can do

that at home just by maybe it's a

husband a wife what better way to

strengthen a marriage right I mean it's

it's important so maybe maybe it's you

and your your wife or you uh your wife

and if your husband uh you know maybe

it's sitting down with your kids and

saying you know um you know one time a

week I'm going to sit down before dinner

with with my kids and all of us are

going to read the same passage and the

power of plurality just begins to play

into your life. Yeah. And there's so

much out there. I mean what better way

to build a family bond? What better way

to build the community bond and the

church bond and you know studies as a

family studies a church you know pray

together study together grow together

and that's you know whenever you grow

together in Christ you know that's a

bond that that really blocks the enemy

out um he will still try to attack but

you've got that faith that foundation

you've got those weapons of war and and

defense to to stand those attacks and

you know it doesn't mean you're not

going to go through tough times but but

man it gives you a lot better foundation

to stand on as as you're facing them.

That's right. So, and so, so next week I

think we'll pick up on uh maybe a number

two. Um and and let's just really um I

don't want people to be drinking out of

a fire hose, right? Because because you

could just put a whole bunch of stuff

out there. Do this, do this, do this, do

this, do this, do this. Let's start

simple and let's just kind of build from

there. Um if I was a person who had no

experience in the Bible whatsoever,

where would I start? I think we've

covered that today. Next week we'll say,

well, you know, we we you know, we kind

of got this starting plan down. What's

some things that we can do now to help

with that? Yes. So, yeah, we will unpack

that next week. And and the big thing,

guys, is, you know, we want to say

thanks to each everyone that that's

that's sharing these videos, that are

watching these videos, that are are

coming to us and encouraging us to

continue to make these videos. It's I'm

humbled by by the number of of

interactions and shares and and comments

that I get up and down the street and

calls and texts and messages. So, um

continue that. But ultimately, this is

ministry. Uh this is ministry to enhance

the word of God and his presence in the

world. So, if you are seeing this,

please share this to your people

because, you know, as this is getting

bigger and bigger, we want to continue

to ask you to share it to those that may

need, whether it's specifically to them

or to your general feed. Um, you know,

if the gospel is important to you,

please uh put out there for others to

hear. Absolutely. And to add to that, we

want to provide what you feel like is a

gap um a need in your own life. So, if

you have questions about what we've

covered, post those questions in the

comments and we will take the time in

the, you know, in one of the upcoming

videos to take those comments and either

number one, address them in a video cuz

somebody else might be might be asking

the same questions most of the time is

the case. Um, or at least personally

reach out to you to help you find the

answer to the question that you have.

Yes, absolutely. And with that, um, we

will see you all next week as we

continue to talk about how to study the

Bible. Have a great week. You, too.