Transcript

 

TCP Episode 016

Mon, Jan 16, 2023 4:16PM • 22:14

SPEAKERS

Linda McConnell and  Zack McConnell

 

Linda  00:00

Hey guys, we’re looking at new year’s resolutions. Does the Bible really matter for your growth in your life? Hey, welcome to today’s episode. And this is Linda and Zack McConnell with a Christian point. And we’re so happy you’re joining with us today and discussing how we can change your life by reading your Bible daily. And absolutely, the Bible is the living word. And Zach as we start the new year, we reflect we reevaluate, we look at ways to start new, and we think about how to grow in Christ as we look for new habits to form. So join us for this discussion on how God wants us to read the Bible daily on our Oh, at the Christian point.

 

Intro  00:41

Welcome to the Christian point podcast, where we’re all about growing your relationship with God. As lifelong Christian believers, your hosts Zack and Linden McConnell explore topics that affect your world. Together, they are relearning and redirecting our path as we walk through struggles hangups, sins and purpose. The Christian point is a lively discussion that will help equip you with tools provide focus and encouragement from a biblical perspective. Always remember, Christ is the point. Now here are your hosts, Zack and Belinda.

 

Linda  01:17

Today, I’m here in Texas, and we have sunny skies outside and I’m a bit behind. I’m still putting away Christmas decorations. I’m organizing the house after having family staying over. And it was hectic, it was fun at times trying. And there’s precious times too. And it makes me pause and reflect. And creating this podcast makes me think of what are new ways to grow. And this coming year will stay with us as we have this discussion on this reading the Bible daily really matter? And what growth comes from reading your Bible. So as we are answering that question on how and why to read the Bible. But before we do, I want to remind you if you haven’t already, you can subscribe right at the show. And that actually really helps us get the message out, you can leave us a review. And ZACK I pray this podcast continues to reach more and more people throughout the world. And that by our listeners sharing this podcast, it is amazing. All of the countries our podcast has been listened to that. Can you tell us about that?

 

Zack  02:21

It’s amazing in this short amount of time how this podcast has been listened to across the US up and down the east and west coast and Alaska. And in addition to that, we’ve been downloaded and listened to in 27 countries. Wow, including the United Arab Emirates, and Russia. Wow, that’s amazing.

 

Linda  02:43

Praise the Lord.

 

Zack  02:44

So you know, Linda, we’re going to be talking about how something that I personally feel is so important, because it’s in all my travels. And I’m discovering more and more how many believers don’t read the Word of God.

 

Linda  02:58

Oh, wow. Absolutely. So you can see some really weird interpretations of the Bible on Instagram, right?

 

Zack  03:06

Yeah, it’s kind of scary that you say that for devotion. Some people go to blogs, they’ll go to articles, they’ll follow someone on Instagram, but they won’t sit down and read the Bible themselves. And to be honest with you, Linda, that should be the number one book that every single person turns to, let’s say you run a red light. And you look at the offers officer and say, Well, I thought red might go, he’ll laugh at you. And he’ll give you a ticket for not even knowing the rules of the road. So the point is, there was a lot of effort, and a lot of God’s miraculous intervention that got the Scripture into our hands. And guys, that alone was America. Absolutely. There was a time when people didn’t have the Scriptures. And they were seeing nations crying out for Bibles. For example, in Iran, a man was watched very carefully by the secret police. And he said that he felt so isolated, because he couldn’t read the scriptures. And then a look at America where we’ve got what four or five Bibles in our houses, multiple versions at our fingertips, and yet, we’re not reading them, right. It’s really important with our listeners that we talk about reading the scripture. If you look at Jesus, one thing they said about Jesus over and over is how can this man be so educated? And he never formerly studied the scriptures? So obviously, in those first 30 years of his life, Jesus must have immersed themselves in the Word of God. In that time, it would have been the Torah and the prophets and the Psalms and Proverbs, books like that.

 

Linda  04:37

Absolutely. And yeah, Jesus went to the temple and he learned and he asked questions, and he interacted with the scholars.

 

Zack  04:44

You know, if you look at the first major temptation, the Bible illustrates that in Matthew four and three, and it said during that time, the devil came down and said to him, if you’re the Son of God, tell the stones to become loaves of bread. Satan actually comes to Jesus and says, if you’re the Son of God Turn these stones into bread. And what’s Jesus’s response? In Matthew four for Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And that’s what, for my life that I’ve sat down to read the scriptures, in my daily walk, I’ll ask the Holy Spirit. So please teach me open my eyes and light my eyes so that I can see what the teacher is saying, you know, and it’s very important that we have the Holy Spirit’s involvement in Psalms 119 105. It says, it’s a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path. And yet without the power of the Holy Spirit, we can’t understand it. Otherwise, we’re just getting stories. We’re just getting roles, we’re getting regulations. And the Bible actually says, to read the word, with the spirits assistance, in First Corinthians 212, through 15, those without the Spirit can’t understand the word of God, Linda?

 

Linda  06:04

Absolutely. Well, then I also think of in Corinthians three, four through six. That leads me to the Apostle Paul’s statement in his letter to the church in Corinth, that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. So the Holy Spirit animates what we see written in the Word of God. And so you see, both. Before I read the Bible, I know I was taught at a young age in my Christian school growing up that every time I opened up my Bible, I would ask the Holy Spirit to give me the eyes to see what God would want to show me. And we read in Ephesians, 118, that the eyes of my heart that is my understanding, would be enlightened that I might know, not just study, but that I might know the hope to which he has called you.

 

Zack  06:51

Yeah, you know, knowledge, it puffs up knowledge can bring it to pride. So when you ask the Holy Spirit, it’s a way of actually humbling yourself to God, in under that mighty hand of God, you’ll understand what he is he is bringing forth to you. And you want humility, because because God teaches the humble, Scripture tells us that. And so that’s why I don’t understand, you know, don’t always trust myself to read the Bible without the help of this Holy Spirit. And when I asked him, I asked him in faith. Now, I want to get some statistics. I always love this part. Okay, guys, it’s this is actually crazy stats on Bible reading. So here’s the Center for Bible engagement. They did a poll of 40,000 Americas. And they found that when people engage with scripture four times a week, not every day, not even every day, we’re talking about just four times a week engage with scriptures. They were and here’s the numbers 74% less likely to gamble 74% number or the church, those that read the Scripture are 61% less likely to view nog Rafi Wow, yeah. 57% are less likely to get drunk. Wow. 68% less likely to have sex outside of marriage. 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness, wow, this is a big one. 228% more likely to share their faith with others. That’s huge. And double that 407% more likely to memorize Scripture. Oh, wow. You know, these are great benefits. And maybe people out there didn’t even know these benefits. But here’s the deal. I might not know all the benefits, but I need to know how to get started.

 

Linda  08:51

Absolutely. That is amazing. And I agree. I like to read my daily devotions. And a chapter in the Bible each morning in my quiet time that I put away. First thing I do in the morning, of course, I have coffee in hand. So I guess the first thing I do is really go get the coffee mate. She always has her coffee. Absolutely. And then by myself, I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me. And that gives me a real positive kickoff to my day, and it sets my priorities and my mind on God. And I pray for His blessings, to enlarge my territory and to let me do His will each and every day and to keep the evil forces away from me. And I pray for wisdom. And I pray for my family and our church and our state our nation. And I pray for God’s direction for that day. And Zach, can you share what your daily practice of getting into God’s word looks like for you?

 

Zack  09:44

Sure. You know, like I said before, I really like to get the Holy Spirit involved with my reading because of the level of understanding we can get when the Holy Spirit is leading us. So I’ll also use that same thing. I’ll just turn to the Holy Spirit and say where do you want me to go? Are you today? So I’ll hear him say in my heart, and I’ll be praying and I’ll just feel drawn to. Okay, let’s start in Genesis, or let’s read the book of Matthew, or one particular spot in the Bible comes open to. Okay. So aren’t you going through the whole Bible? Oh, yeah. But I do but but I like to ask the Holy Spirit, which book now, because I think it creates an anticipation to hear from him, as I’m reading. And I don’t like to be systematic, although I do highly recommend that. For young believers, it’s good to go from the beginning to the end. So when I read, I like to ask the Holy Spirit where you’re actually go, what book you really want to speak to me out of today. And right now I’m going through the book book of Psalms, and yesterday, I saw something. I’ve written the Bible for 50 years, and I saw something completely new. I saw something Saturday morning, I shared in Psalms 16, verse 11, because it spoke to me. And so the Holy Spirit spoke to spoke to me so clearly from that portion of Scripture. And so now I have this tremendous anticipation. And I get up in the morning, and I pray for singing I pray can be really connected to the Lord. And then I just can’t wait to get down and start reading the Bible. Now. This is a guy, you know, I’ve done this for a long time. And I remember one time hearing a preacher when I was a young man, and that preachers eventually went on to fall, you know, out of good standings and had some very big problems. But one of the biggest scandals that he had, I remember just before that, him saying that he found it very hard to read the Bible, because he’s been reading it over 40 years. And I thought to myself, Shouldn’t that be if the Holy Spirit’s our teacher, he’s not going to run out of insights. And we’re going to come to know God throughout all of eternity. And God is not so shallow that we read his book, and he gets into our hands. And this is how I know this book is inspired. Because I can read the same song, or the same chapter, the same verse so many times, but all of a sudden, I see something totally different in it, because it’s a living book in it applies to you each and every day. And so many times when you read it, it will give you a different lesson than you’ve got many times before, because it’s speaking to you with what you’re experiencing life in that very day and moment.

 

Linda  12:28

Absolutely. I totally agree. And maybe before we just didn’t see that, or we didn’t understand it, but it’s always been there. And the last time you read it, or maybe you just didn’t see it, because you just weren’t ready to see.

 

Zack  12:42

That’s right. And you might not have been ready to see what he was going to give to you later, right.

 

Linda  12:46

And I remember so many times saying, I don’t know how I’ve read this so many times, and I’ve missed this, like, this is so significant. And I didn’t even know how I missed it. And then all of a sudden, you’re like, Wait, how did I miss that? And then you go back and you look at it and you go, Wait, is that really? Yeah, that’s true. And it’s so alive is speaks something different, and it emphasizes something different?

 

Zack  13:13

Yeah. And I do have a goal, to get through as many chapters so I can but I never make that goal, the priority or the requirement. The priority for me is to connect with what God is saying in that book. And in that scripture, and I want to connect with the Holy Spirit. So I have literally had times into where I’ve spent 35 minutes on about five or six scriptures, I just couldn’t get off them. Because the Holy Spirit was speaking to me, illuminating things to me. You know, it’s almost like your mind starts going along into another tangent or another direction, and you start bringing in other scripture you’ve read, and you pull it all together. So it means something that is so much more to you than maybe when you’ve read it before.

 

Linda  13:55

Absolutely. So now we’ve talked about some of that practice. And now another question that comes to mind is, what does it mean to meditate on God’s Word? We have two different approaches on this. You know, one of the greatest, easiest ways for me to get to sleep at night is I just start thinking about a scripture and applying it to my life or to a situation that I’ve been thinking about, and then I bring it up that you’ve fallen asleep at EPS, I accidentally wake you up.

 

Zack  14:24

Yeah, she’s really good at waking me up. So that’s what it means to meditate.

 

Linda  14:30

It means to roll over it, you actually think about it’s like chewing food, you don’t swallow your food, food until you’ve chewed it. So when you meditate on the Scripture, you rehearse it to yourself, and you go over and over again and then you start opening in your heart and in your mind in your thinking about ways that you never did before. Okay, how does this apply to me? How does this apply to my family? How does this apply to those that are around me and close to me? How does this apply to making more effective reaching other people. And you start thinking about that scripture in a lot of these different questions. And you just roll it over and over speaking it to yourself thinking it to yourself. You just sit there and maybe two or three words, get you on that verse and just keep rolling it over and over in your mind. Well, what happens is, and I believe this goes to your head, and then it goes to your heart. And then I believe that when Jesus looks at Satan, and says that scripture was burning in his heart, now it’s the living word, right? But it’s burning in him so strong that it comes out of his heart, not out of his head. And they’ve got this in their head, but it’s really not part of them. And that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to make that scripture part of us part of our life. And so meditation is what it takes, become the word in the flesh, and you then live it go for it.

 

Linda  15:51

Absolutely. Well, at times, I do it a bit differently. I’d look at interactions. So if it’s an interaction, like Sarah and Abraham, for example, when the angels come and ask, where is your wife, Sarah? And he says, well, she’s in the tent, and she’s laughing inside at a promise to Abraham. But why did Sarah laugh? So it’s so fascinating to me that Sara is the one that laughed. But then if you go back to Genesis 17, and you see that God told Abraham that he was going to give Sarah a son. And so is this the first time she’s heard about this? So I’ll try to say, I’m going to pretend like I’m an observer in the tent with Sarah. And I’m listening into this conversation that’s happening outside the tent, and I’m watching a woman hide in a tent because she’s so connected with disappointment. And I meditate by being a part of it.

 

Zack  16:46

Okay, I love that. So let’s do another example. So you’re thinking, one of the 12, sitting on the boat, watching Peter in the water and thinking, Okay, look what he’s doing. And then all of a sudden, he starts thinking and thinking, and you witness his reaction?

 

Linda  17:04

Yeah. And it’s not just an observation. I’m there. I’m like, what would I be feeling? And what would it all look like? And so, with this great question, how do you make space for time with God on busy days?

 

Zack  17:18

Yeah, that’s a good question. That’s a really good question, Linda. You know, I’ve had times when I get up early, and packed the day that I’m going to be traveling, I’m not really sure how I’m going to get everything in. And it’s very important to carve out time, if possible. So if I’m getting up at 4am, to catch a flight, or to work on a project, I’m going to make sure the first thing I do is when I get on that flight, or get up in the morning, is to open up my Bible and just start reading on that flight, or in those moments before my workday begins.

 

Zack  17:49

Absolutely. Or you can listen to your Bible on CD in your car, or wherever you are. And I have the Bible app downloaded. And I can use it whenever it’s convenient. You know, I’ve got this great Bible app, it’s really amazing. And I’ll get in my car, and I’ll have the Bible app on and I’ll just pick one of the Gospels. And I listen to it for a while from driving. And I can listen to it while I’m walking through an airport, I can listen to it, when I’m outside. It’s when you know, when we’re younger, you and I would stay up later, and would end up in bed around 11 to 12 o’clock. And one day, I thought, you know, this is cutting into my time in the morning, and I can’t do this anymore. So now and you and I make a practice to make sure by 1030, we’re in bed, and that gives me the ability to have that time in the morning. So I’d say to some of you just make sure you go to bed 1530 minutes earlier. And then you can get up 15 or 30 minutes earlier to get in the Word of God. And in the apps. Now you have so many versions and translations available to you. And there’s a way to find one that speaks to you.

 

Linda  18:57

Absolutely. Or you can even listen to it as you’re going to bed at night. I mean, there’s so many ways to increase your Bible reading time.

 

Zack  19:05

You know, I’ll say this. I love reading the Bible in the morning because it sets my mind on the right course for the day.

 

Linda  19:12

Absolutely. So that’s really the point. The point is just do it right, just like Nike says do it. Absolutely. And we can stop and pause for a second about that point. And this is the person that God put the stars there every star in its orbit with his fingers and called everyone by name. And this is the one that measured the width of the universe with the span of his hand. And this is the one that weighed every drop of water on the planet in the palm of his hand. And this is the kingdom of our entire universe. I want to read that book. So what you’re saying is he has written a love letter to me. He has written a letter saying how much he desires me and how much he longs for me they are part of his family at I am like, what? What can be more fun? I mean, if you weren’t had the Queen of England or the President of the United States wrote you a letter and put it in the mail, which you go, Oh, this is not fun. But I’ll read this. And then you’ll just sit there for a few weeks and not read it. No. This is the king of the universe writing a letter to me. And I’m like, what could be more fun than that?

 

Linda  20:32

That’s super fun. So making it fun to me is making it as a conversation, and a solution. So I want to thank you for tuning in today, guys, and we just want to you to rate and review our podcast, subscribe, ask us questions. What do you want to talk about? We’d love that. When do y’all need all those things? It actually helps us to get the message app, and you can reach out to your friends and see who’s interested in a Bible study. You could start it with three friends as a start. You can text them, call them whatever to spread, and create a real hunger to read the Bible.

 

Linda  21:10

Absolutely. Well, guys, thanks for listening to the Christian point. And let us know your thoughts by leaving a review. And you can subscribe and share these episodes, episodes on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And while you’re there, be sure to check out our other podcasts. A lot of people do that too. You can also connect with us by visiting our website, the Christian point.com. And until next time, remember Christ is the point and we hope for you to have blessings to you for this new year. And we hope you read your Bible.

 

Zack  21:41

Have a great day guys and remember, read your Bible. Absolutely.

 

Exit  21:45

Thanks for listening to the Christian point. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, or visit us on the web at the Christian point.com. If you enjoyed the show, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, always remember Christ is the point