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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Gary Schick and Ben Poole.
Ben Poole
So last week we started a topic on spiritual disciplines, that we find needing, for our lives to help us grow in our faith. Last week we talked about probably one of the most important ones, is our prayer life, and really investing in that communication with God. And a lot of people I think, may have different ideas on how God talks to us, and in the Old Testament, God would show up to certain individuals in certain miraculous ways. You think of Moses and the burning bush, you think of through the prophets, through a donkey. So many different ways that God has shown up. Then we see in the New Testament where God becomes man through His son, Jesus and speaks to the world and performs miracles. And so now we're looking at it from, and I'm not gonna say that God cannot speak audibly or show up in certain ways in certain people's lives, but it's not the norm anymore. And so really I look at the scriptures as, this is God speaking to us. Everything we need to know about God and the message He has for us, we can find in the scriptures. And so today, we just want to dive into that and the importance of reading our Bibles. And so Gary, what are some of your thoughts?
Gary Schick
Well, and you know, as you were just mentioning there and I was thinking, you know, if somebody says, "I feel like the Lord is telling me--," you know, whatever it is. One of the checks to know whether that might be true is, "Okay, is what is being said here in accordance with God's word? Because, you know, unlike us where we contradict ourselves sometimes, God's not like that, He's not gonna contradict Himself. He's not gonna say, "Jesus is Lord one day and Jesus is not the next," Jesus is Lord "period." And so, whatever you're hearing, and not to say that this is the final word on it either, but absolutely would have to be in conformity with what God is telling us in His word. Yeah, we're talking about, really, the way I like to think of it is, what are ways that a Christian's faith grows? G.R.O.W.S. We talked about it last week: Go to God in prayer, and so today read scripture. You know, Jesus, when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He answered Satan with scripture over and over again. I think the first answer He gave was right out of the book of Deuteronomy when He said, "Hey, uh, Satan was like, why don't you turn this stone into bread." And Jesus was like, "You know what? It is written, 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." One of my favorite verses of scripture, Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And actually throughout the scripture, the scripture just describes itself to us in so many ways. It describes itself as a lamp, as meat, honey, milk, a hammer, a sword, a fire. I mean, it's so many things. In the beginning of the book of Joshua they're about to enter the promised land. God says to him, and actually it was the You version verse of the day yesterday, Joshua 1:8. "Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. That you may be careful to do all that is written in it for then you'll make your way prosperous and then you'll have good success." Do you wanna succeed in life as a child of God? Then it starts with God's word, and my goodness, how blessed we are. You know, today we've got Bibles on the shelf. I mean, they're just all over the place, and if you don't have a physical copy, you can download it. There's Bible apps: I've got the You version, I've got the Bible gateway, I've got the Bible Hub app, I've got the Blue Letter Bible app, and they're all fantastic! But you know, none of it does us any good if we don't pick it up and read it. And so, I guess what I really want to encourage my listeners today is, how are you doing about being in the other side of the conversation? You're right, prayer is talking to God. And yes, it can include being silent in God's presence and trying to hear from God, but ultimately He really speaks powerfully to us through His word. And I'd like to encourage people to kind of do the macro reading and the micro reading. By macro, I mean look at the Bible in large chunks, you know? Take one of those Bible apps where you have the opportunity to actually listen to the word audibly, do the Bible in a year. By the way, if you're wanting to do the Bible in a year, here's how to do it. You don't even need to download something and check it all off. The Old Testament: if you listen to two chapters a day, Monday through Friday and four chapters a day on Saturday and Sunday, you will get through the Old Testament in just like a day or two under a year. The New Testament: one chapter a day, five days a week, exactly one year. So there it is: three chapters a day during the week, two Old Testament, one New Testament; and four chapters a day in the Old Testament on Saturday and Sunday, will get you through the Bible in one year. So that's a good way to just kind of be hearing the word in the big chunks. But I think it's also really important and valuable for us to kind of zero in on the word. And so I think it's also good to take in the word in some of the smaller chunks. You know, like maybe a chapter, or a paragraph, or a verse, or even just a few words, that you can really zero in on and dig into the word. If you've got a Cross Reference Bible and you're reading something, and there's something that intrigues you, those little extra letters that you see kind of above and around the words or in the margins, those are connecting scriptures. You know, commentary is great, other opinions are great, but the reformers had this idea that the best, explanation of the word was the word itself. And that's what all those scriptures in the footnotes and margins are about. Those are about other scriptures that take us to more about what the Bible says on those topics. And so letting the Bible unpack the Bible for you, yes, absolutely. If you've got footnotes, if you've got study notes, glean all that you can from it, mine it. You know, when I was in seminary, we used to have to go and buy tons of volumes to be able to dig and unpack the word. Today, like if you've got a good study Bible, like the ESV study Bible, or the NIV study Bible, or any of the study Bibles, those things are basically whole seminary libraries. You know, you can really dig in that way. And then I would just say, "Meditate on the word," that's what it says in Joshua. "Don't let this book of the Lord depart from your mouth, but meditate on it." And how does that happen? Well, to meditate on it, you've got to have it more than just outside in your hand, you've got to have it in you. And so I would encourage our listeners to be regularly memorizing just little bits of scripture, just little bits. It might be something that's soothing to you. Are you struggling with anxiety or having trouble sleeping at night? Maybe you need to just verse by verse, a few words at a time, memorize the shepherd Psalm. Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down green pastures, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul." And let the word restore your soul as you slowly memorize and meditate on it. Do you have access to another language? Did you learn Spanish when you were in high school? Do you know German? Read the word, meditate on the word in another language if you have access to it. Just to hear it from a different perspective use different translations, but get the word into you and let it speak to you. You know, I talked last week a little bit about praying through the Lord's Prayer, which by the way, that also is scripture that you can meditate on. But even if it's a verse like we were just talking about, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and light unto my path," pray the scripture back to God. You know, what are you telling me Lord? In Psalm 23, "Lord, you are my shepherd, what else am I wanting? Help me to just get my needs met right here by you today. Lord, lead me beside the calm waters, calm my soul. I feel like I'm going through the valley of the shadow right now. Lord, I look to you, you are my protector, you are my shield." And so, that's a way to take the scripture and pray it back to God. And then absolutely, as you pray it back to God, ask God to show you how to live it out. Because ultimately we wanna be people in the word, of the word, living by the word. So that we can just be blessed by God, through the word and shine forth His glory.
Ben Poole
Right. Such good information there. I was thinking of a different aspect to this for myself, that's been really important in my life. I grew up in the church and when I went to Bible college, since I grew up in church, I obviously knew what all the Bible's about. And I was quickly shown how ignorant I was of the scriptures. So, through my studies in school, but also my own personal time in God's word, I've grown to need God's word. There have been things in my life, or even in my wife and I's life, where the truth of the fact that we are in a spiritual war has come into a very physical sense in our lives at times. One of which was, I took a call to be the pastor of a church, and shortly after we accepted that call, we found out we were pregnant the same day we found out we were having a miscarriage.
Gary Schick
Oh my goodness.
Ben Poole
And so we knew, even in the hospital sitting there waiting on doctors and stuff, talking to each other about, "We know this is an attack from Satan, trying to hold us back from doing what God has called us to do. And it really began to ring true in Ephesians 6, where Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. All of the armor is for defense, to protect us. Except our sword, it is our offense, the sword is the word of God. Just like you talked about Jesus in the wilderness, He was having a spiritual battle. And what did He use to fight the devil? He used the scripture.
Gary Schick
That He had in His heart that He had memorized.
Ben Poole
He had hidden it in His heart and knew the word of God, and that is something that, you know, with our kids at home, we have them do memory verses. And they're actually getting pretty good at getting larger chunks of scripture down at a time. It's really awesome to watch. And it helps us as parents to be in the word with them and to guide them in this and help them understand what the words means. Because this is gonna go with them into the rest of their lives, and realizing when those attacks come, not if when, they will have that scripture hidden in their hearts to guide them through. And I know that for myself. In certain situations we've gone through, had I not had scripture in my heart, where would I be today? I wouldn't be in a good place, I know that. So it's not something that we should feel like, "Well, I need to read today and I need to do my daily reading." We have the privilege to hear the word of God, to us. Not just because it's there and we should, but because He loves us. And the message, as much as it was for people, you know, the gospels and the letters 2000 years ago for the people that were hearing it, even for the first time, as much as it was for them, it is for us as well. And that we can grow in our walk with Christ. And so we would just encourage you, if you need help on finding resources, there are so many. You look on, especially You version, they have got such a wide array of options to study God's word.
Gary Schick
Yeah, and listen to their devotion every morning, first thing.
Ben Poole
And it's something that we have been truly blessed with and would just encourage you to not see the scriptures and reading them, as a burden, maybe. You know, I kind of grew up that way that I didn't really want to read it, cause I was told to read it. But now I have a deep love for the scriptures, because it affects my life. Affects my wife and my kids and what I do with my life and in my everyday things. It really affects me on a spiritual and physical level, and it is one of the greatest gifts that God could ever give us. Is to have His word given to us so that we can come to know Him.
Gary Schick
And you know, I mentioned about memorizing and meditating stuff that's soothing like the 23rd Psalm. But also taking to heart that which challenges us and helps us with struggle points. You know like, are dealing with anger issues? There's tons of verses on anger, memorize that. You know, "A fool gives full vent to his wrath, but a wise man keeps himself under control," you know? If you've got that on your tongue, it might keep something else from rolling off your tongue that you're gonna be sorry for. You know, verses that challenge us and grow us. I tell you what, if this is kind of a new concept for you, why not start with the fruit of the spirit? "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control." If you take that and pray that back to God and meditate on it through your day, it can change your perspective on life. You know, the word is powerful. To transform us, to disciple us, to grow us, but it comes by hearing and believing and ingesting it. Letting it become part of who we are as we grow up in Christ. And it's a forever process. None of us ever have reached a point where we've gotten all we can take in. Anymore than, "Sorry, I've had enough to eat in my lifetime. I don't need---," but I'll tell you what, there's the point, what are we ingesting? You know, just as it makes a difference what we ingest into our bodies, food wise, spiritually we're constantly ingesting what we're seeing, what we're hearing, what we're watching. Make sure you've got a healthy diet of God's word to keep you balanced, healthy and growing strong in the Lord.
