Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #79： How to Fall in Love with the Bible

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Real Christianity. Today we are talking about how to fall in love with the Bible. 0.79

00:00:04.780 All right, guys, it's a new year. It's 2020. I feel like this episode should have launched last

00:00:09.500 week on New Year's Day. But hey, you know what? We can only be the best planners that we can be.

00:00:16.220 So we want to talk about, yeah, the Bible and falling in love with God's Word. But before we

00:00:21.080 get started, a couple of things. One is if you're just a new listener to the show, welcome. If you're

00:00:26.480 a regular listener to the show and you haven't left a review yet, I mean, I think 4,500 people

00:00:31.380 have, but if you haven't left a review, it's a huge, it's a huge deal. The way that the algorithm

00:00:38.960 works for iTunes is that the amount of reviews that a show has really increases the exposure of

00:00:44.500 the show. And so it's a great way to do that. We also read the reviews. You don't even need to

00:00:48.400 write anything. You can just tap the stars, make it really simple for you. The other thing I want

00:00:53.200 to talk about is ultimate marriage so it's a new year and a lot of couples are enrolling in the

00:01:00.480 ultimate marriage program to have a biblical marriage and it's a six-week program veronica

00:01:05.800 and i kind of co-teach i do the majority of it but um but veronica is present yeah i'm there in a

00:01:13.420 few and it comes with like um what is it called marriage challenge checklist um questions to go

00:01:18.840 over with your spouse you can do it just you and your spouse or you can also do it as a group yeah

00:01:24.800 you could do a small group so if there's three or four couples that want to get together and do that

00:01:27.800 it's a really great program if you want to build a biblical marriage in 2020 consider checking it

00:01:33.320 out just go to ultimate marriage.com and it's also all that money goes to our ministry so it's

00:01:41.000 it's a companion ministry of relearn church and so just wanted to let you know that that's a thing

00:01:47.560 Okay, so if you haven't noticed, there's a large portion of the Western Church that is biblically and doctrinally illiterate.

00:01:58.680 Yeah, I've heard you say the quote many times in the show that only 11% of church-going Christians have read the entire Bible. 0.55

00:02:06.920 And for a very long time, I was actually one of them until last year.

00:02:11.700 It was actually a little bit longer than last year, about a year and a half ago.

00:02:14.140 um i had heard that statistic several times before and i was convicted by it but i was also

00:02:20.840 intimidated by it you see the entire bible and you're just like okay well i'll get to that

00:02:25.840 eventually yeah um and then but at the same time i think right around the time i started hearing

00:02:30.620 that statistic um really good friend and mentor of mine lisa jacobson over at club 31 women and

00:02:36.360 faithful life podcast um she had actually challenged a smaller group of i don't know 1.00

00:02:41.920 maybe 10, 12 of us ladies, um, to read through the Bible in a year. And so hearing that stat,

00:02:48.760 and then on top of her challenge to this woman, I highly respect and love, uh, challenged me to

00:02:54.440 read the Bible. I was like, okay, you know, if not now, or if not, you know, later, just do it now,

00:03:01.600 basically. Um, and so I started reading it and you know, it, I was, my goal was a year,

00:03:09.060 but it took me probably closer to a year and a half. Cause that's when we've had, you know,

00:03:11.760 a lot of trials trials and sicknesses and things like that so there were definitely several weeks

00:03:17.020 where I just took a break um but I did complete it I don't know probably a month ago a month and

00:03:22.580 a month and a half ago yeah a month ago yeah um and it was awesome yeah so she's I have a wife who

00:03:28.020 has finished reading the entire bible and you know she's obviously read several other books multiple

00:03:32.820 times but it was really cool just to see that you got that done yeah and then there was also times

00:03:37.620 during that year and a half season where I was not going off of my plan. I was just like, I just

00:03:44.080 want to read this because this is what's giving me life right now, even though I've already read it

00:03:47.680 or whatever it is. Yeah. There's some flexibility in your plan. Um, and during the show, there will

00:03:53.000 be an ad, uh, in the middle of the show that'll talk about our Bible reading plan that you can

00:03:57.220 download. Um, but it's not just reading, right? That's enough. That's one part of it. Um, reading

00:04:02.820 it I think is that the first step understanding it is kind of an additional step and you know

00:04:08.860 really grasping Christian doctrine and theology so that we're not deceived by the counterfeit

00:04:13.420 Christian movements that are emerging all around us yeah if you haven't seen this documentary yet

00:04:18.540 I'd recommend you go to Amazon Prime or Vimeo on demand and watch this documentary it's called

00:04:23.740 American Gospel and there's also a second part of there's you know the first documentary is

00:04:28.680 american gospel the second one is um i think it's american gospel christ crucified i think that's

00:04:33.900 the subtitle um and we really enjoyed it um you know there's some things in there that we don't

00:04:40.680 necessarily you know we're not like 100 for every single thing that they say um but we definitely

00:04:45.500 i would say agree with most of it yeah um and it was just really good eye-opening um

00:04:51.180 it actually gets me like kind of fired up and like angry at satan when i watch it because i'm

00:04:57.400 like all these people are being deceived um there's a lot of deception in the church yeah and

00:05:02.460 so um we also did an episode uh titled why all christians should delight in doctrine and theology

00:05:09.400 it's episode number 60 if you would like to go back and listen to that one later yeah and those

00:05:14.640 documentaries they're good um they're really great um just resources um you know and i actually got

00:05:21.580 to build a little bit of a relationship with the director brandon kimber uh of those documentaries

00:05:25.960 and he put a lot of work into it and oh for sure you can tell i mean the second one's i think three

00:05:31.480 hours long i think they're both about three hours long maybe two and a half hours the second one's

00:05:34.900 three hours long so they're long documentaries but they're really really good really fascinating

00:05:38.520 yeah so um so yeah good and that's episode number 60 that veronica talked about about

00:05:44.120 our doctrine of theology episode so i want to start with a question um what do we want to be

00:05:49.580 marked as or marked by as Christians? Like, what do we want to be known for? Do you want to be

00:05:56.680 known for your ordered family or your really healthy marriage? Sure, that's a good thing to

00:06:02.240 be known for. Do you want to be known as people who are responsible with their money and not

00:06:07.500 buried in debt? Absolutely. That's definitely something that we want to be known for. Do you

00:06:13.640 want others to know that you love people and that you're gentle or compassionate or generous

00:06:19.600 definitely that's definitely something that is a huge mark of a Christian but

00:06:24.540 I guess a follow-up question is that what is the source of ordered families ordered finances

00:06:32.140 and love and relationships and being generous the power of the Holy Spirit yeah God right God is

00:06:41.420 the source of these things and you know there's a lot of things that we can pursue in 2020 and

00:06:47.760 then there's a lot of things that we should pursue in 2020 um but i think as humans we have a habit

00:06:54.080 of putting things um in the wrong order or or out of order and um i watch christians all the time

00:07:02.800 they pursue marriage training they they buy um you know millions of dollars in you know christian

00:07:08.840 parenting books. They enroll in Dave Ramsey's, you know, curriculum for straightening out their

00:07:13.820 finances. They listen to thousands of podcasts and sermons. They watch documentaries. And why?

00:07:20.120 Well, because these things are helpful. Like they're all good things. They're all good things.

00:07:23.720 They're useful. They're helpful in the Christian life. And they're good for us. And so I'm not

00:07:29.620 bashing those things. But too often we pursue the fruit of the Christian life and often forget the

00:07:36.740 tree and um it's one of those things that you go i just really want this really great you know

00:07:43.200 parenting situation going over here a really great marriage um but we forget again the source

00:07:48.720 of that fruit is not the the fruit itself or the the branch even it's it's this the it's the tree

00:07:56.240 it's god himself and um you know we we immerse ourselves in the knowledge about the bible but

00:08:05.040 we don't immerse ourselves in the Bible. And this is a very common thing. I want to say that again,

00:08:09.820 we immerse ourselves in knowledge about the Bible, but we don't immerse ourselves in the Bible. And

00:08:15.640 we kind of pursue the logic of God, but we forget the Logos of God, which is the Word of God, which

00:08:23.700 is Jesus, right? And so I want to ask you a question. Actually, I'm going to have you ask

00:08:29.000 yourself this question is, am I reading or listening to teachings about the Bible more

00:08:36.440 than I'm reading the Bible itself? And so if that's the case, I want to share a story that

00:08:43.500 might motivate you. When we were at, you know, so we planted a church, I guess almost, April will be

00:08:51.520 two years. And, but prior to that, we were at a home fellowship, we plant house churches, and we

00:08:58.320 had a magnificently blessed season of our faith journey over at the previous fellowship that we're

00:09:05.320 at. Not that we're not magnificently blessed now, but there was a lot of sowing. I'd say that season

00:09:11.080 was an acceleration in our relationship with the Lord. Yeah. And it was, there were, there was

00:09:17.300 people pouring into us and now we're the people pouring into others. But you know, this season was

00:09:25.320 so blessed and you want to know why um it's because it was a church filled with men and women

00:09:31.820 who loved the word of god and and i'm i'm not using that as a light statement i'm talking

00:09:37.960 infatuated um like it's all that they talked about we were a group of people uh righteously

00:09:46.520 obsessed with scripture yeah i remember um we would have you know date nights or get together

00:09:53.840 with friends over at someone's house um multiple couples pretty much weekly um and you know it

00:10:01.260 would we'd get there and almost immediately you guys would have these intense and really

00:10:06.240 fascinating discussions about theology until you know who knows what hour 11 o'clock at night or

00:10:10.700 whatever um i know you and aaron smith specifically or jeremy roloff when you guys would get together

00:10:16.200 you guys just end up going you know sitting in a corner you and all these guys and just having

00:10:20.840 these deep deep fruitful fun sometimes you know challenging challenging conversations um all on

00:10:28.500 theology and you know just last night we're at a new year's eve party and i'm sitting down and

00:10:34.800 one of the ladies i was sitting down talking to um a young woman who just gave birth to her first

00:10:39.600 baby and another woman came and sat next to me and she goes of course and kind of like points at

00:10:44.340 you and her husband and the guys and i was like oh yeah every single time like guaranteed they're

00:10:50.140 going to be having these deep conversations on theology. Um, and it's fun. Like, I mean,

00:10:55.240 I don't, we're, I'm so used to it. I don't even think twice about it anymore. Um, and

00:10:59.820 the ladies too, um, we weren't just having small talk. Um, we would be talking generally

00:11:06.100 about the parenting or homeschooling, hospitality. Um, and we had some really great older Bible

00:11:13.140 loving women that would just continue to pour into us. Um, and so our time together was

00:11:18.400 great fellowship, um, challenging one another. Also, you know, spurring one another on giving

00:11:25.000 advice and tips, biblical advice and tips on, on parenting or those, you know, different things,

00:11:29.960 hospitality, whatever I just mentioned. Um, and these women that these aren't untrained women, 1.00

00:11:36.560 these are women that labored and loved the word of God and genuinely enjoyed the scriptures and

00:11:43.040 genuinely would fulfill their calling as uh titus two tells them to do to teach the younger women

00:11:50.600 to love their husbands love their wives or not their wives love their husbands love their children

00:11:55.300 yeah there we go um beekeepers of the home whatever it was um and they took that seriously

00:12:00.400 and just side note if you're an older woman listening to this podcast if that's you it's

00:12:07.260 such a blessing to pour into the younger women the younger women especially in this generation

00:12:10.820 really need it. So if you are an older woman, um, who loves the word of God, I would just

00:12:15.520 encourage you to just make it known that you're willing and you will have women knocking at your

00:12:21.540 door. Oh yeah. That's basically, you know, at least our experience. I would always tell the

00:12:27.160 older women, I was like, if I could just be a fly on the wall, just if I could just like live in 0.99

00:12:30.840 your house for a week, just like a watch how you do life. Like I would do that. Don't put that 1.00

00:12:35.180 offer on the table because i will take it yeah and and again the fruitfulness the the of this

00:12:41.520 fellowship that we were a part of and the fruitfulness of the fellowship that we have

00:12:45.980 now as we're raising up and growing a new flock of god's people who are younger in the journey

00:12:54.460 but will one day have the same experience we're cultivating a love for god's word

00:13:03.040 and a love of god um and and it's it results in those fruits that we talked about before

00:13:11.980 and so charles spurgeon in relationship to the puritans uh who again were a group of people that

00:13:18.240 were very obsessed with scripture in a righteous way uh he said if you cut a puritan with a sword

00:13:23.880 they would bleed bibbling the idea that it would be like bible blood and and that's kind of what

00:13:30.640 I'm talking about there is that I'm not talking about cultural Christianity. I'm not talking 0.80

00:13:37.460 about churchianity either. I'm talking about biblical, devout, heartfelt, reverent Christianity.

00:13:46.280 This authentic, genuine, nobody's watching me and nobody's going to know about this and I'm still

00:13:52.380 going to get in the word and go to the deep end of the pool with the Lord. That type of just hunger

00:14:00.180 and homesickness yeah god needs to be your source for functioning yes your source for living your

00:14:06.660 source for getting through your day even if you're having a really great season of life

00:14:10.360 having god at the center and being the source and going to the foot of the cross every single day

00:14:15.720 spending time with the lord um he has to be your source to get through a godly biblical christian

00:14:23.400 life and those other things are the fruits that come from that yes we don't chase the fruit without

00:14:28.680 with neglecting the tree basically and this isn't just for pastors either people kind of think

00:14:34.160 i don't i'm telling you churchianity has taught us a lot um it's taught us a lot that's wrong

00:14:40.580 it implies that there's a different set of expectations for devotion for pastors than

00:14:48.380 there are for the average christian i think there's a different set of expectations for

00:14:52.500 maybe biblical theological knowledge in terms of a uh being able to correct false doctrine

00:14:57.760 you know things that you see in the qualifications for an elder however the this the standard for

00:15:04.020 devotion the standard for integrity character the standard for um knowing and loving god's word i

00:15:10.620 think is universal to all christians love the lord your god with all your heart with all your mind

00:15:15.940 and with all with all your soul and with all your mind and so um i just say if you're not a pastor

00:15:22.740 doesn't mean that you don't get to labor in the word you know if you could you know an hour a day

00:15:29.400 um if you can't then you do what you do and you might be a mom in a season with three little kids

00:15:35.320 and you might only get 15 minutes and five of it is when you're going to the bathroom you know

00:15:40.740 that happens what are you doing in there reading the bible leave me alone um and so uh jesus

00:15:47.760 fingers under the door yeah exactly Jesus tells us in Matthew 4 4 he says it is written man shall

00:15:54.020 not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God and that means

00:15:58.480 that prioritizing sermons and devotionals and prayer books and theology podcasts above the word

00:16:06.260 of God is an incorrect posture for the Christian and just this quick side note really quick this

00:16:11.900 just makes me think about the persecuted church and all these people in these countries who don't

00:16:16.740 have bibles where it's illegal to have bibles you're not allowed to and the the underground

00:16:20.960 believers over there who are they would be so desperately hunger for the word of god i just

00:16:28.280 got done reading a book and this woman in this book she was a muslim and she would she was hiding

00:16:35.760 and like going secretively begging this christian man in her country to read his bible and every day 0.76

00:16:40.940 she would leave 20 minutes early and go to his work and just sit in the corner and just read and

00:16:45.080 she's just like i just had this hunger i was ravenous for the word of god and i put it away

00:16:49.300 and give it back to him and then go home and just like recite the scriptures like she had so much

00:16:54.380 scripture memorized yep because you just had this hunger for when you can't carry a bible around

00:16:58.620 with you so you have to have these things memorized and people will in the um in the

00:17:04.120 underground church they will take a page of the bible and they'll fold it up and keep it in their

00:17:09.020 pocket yeah and she had just mentioned um later on in the book that um she now lives in america

00:17:15.200 and she's like it's so it's so interesting being in america she goes because everyone here has the

00:17:20.460 freedom to read their bible and the freedom to go to church but they don't but they don't do it

00:17:25.080 and i was like dang that was so much complacency what was the name of that book defying jihad

00:17:30.880 yeah so um yeah so again it's okay to listen to sermons it's okay to listen to podcasts

00:17:36.020 just make sure that you're not prior prioritizing those above the word of God. I know it's easy

00:17:40.440 to listen to a podcast. You can also listen to the audio Bible. That's the thing too. Um,

00:17:44.500 you got it a lot lately, actually. Yeah, I actually heard you today doing that. And, um,

00:17:49.860 and why, why do we need to read the word of God? Uh, and, and, and prioritize the word of God over

00:17:55.520 sermons. Um, and I'm going to use the phrase that, that the guy that discipled me, Matt Jacobson,

00:18:02.800 He said, we can't know our Bible by simply allowing somebody else to tell us what's in it.

00:18:09.200 Okay?

00:18:09.960 We can't know our Bible by simply allowing somebody else to tell us what's in it.

00:18:14.380 And that means, you know, you don't want to have your understanding of biblical knowledge from somebody else because it might be wrong.

00:18:24.220 And so you want to have your own biblical knowledge that you can measure against what they're saying

00:18:29.060 so that you can discern if they're teaching false doctrine or not.

00:18:33.440 1 John 4, verse 1 says,

00:18:36.820 Beloved, test the spirits to see if they are of God.

00:18:41.040 And what do you test them against?

00:18:42.520 Well, you test them against the Word of God.

00:18:44.740 And so this means that we, as Christians, in 2020,

00:18:49.260 need to develop an appetite for the Word of God

00:18:52.700 and not just for books and media about the Word of God.

00:18:56.620 yeah so i'll give you an example from our own life um so for example when our kids get sick

00:19:03.720 we tend to let them watch more movies than we generally would because we've got three little

00:19:08.940 kids they're all sick snowing or cold outside can't really do much um and after you know about

00:19:15.720 a week of watching movies or tv it's obvious that we've nurtured um a and an appetite and a hunger

00:19:25.200 for a tv and movies um that same result occurs when you dedicate yourself to reading and studying

00:19:32.780 scripture every day um you build an appetite for it by the power of the holy spirit within you

00:19:38.280 you begin to crave more and more scripture yeah and it it's maybe not as easy as like uh you know

00:19:46.260 because the flesh likes tv yeah but but the spirit actually if you walk in the spirit you're not

00:19:53.180 going to fulfill the desires of the flesh and actually by doing we understand and there's this

00:19:57.480 there it is very true is that the more i jump into scripture the more i want more scripture

00:20:04.940 and so because it becomes more and more fascinating and it's it's a living word of god

00:20:11.460 and you're like well this is connected to this and that and so you almost like want to keep reading

00:20:15.840 it to put more and more of the puzzle together yeah and what's happening is that you're putting

00:20:19.520 together a mosaic and this is what the lord is doing actually is that every time you you you read

00:20:26.680 the word of god and you start to make this connection this constellation of connections and

00:20:30.860 and this mosaic of seeing the grand picture of theology and the gospel and you start to go oh

00:20:38.100 wow look wow i'm starting to understand this i oh wow i didn't realize that the deuteronomy was

00:20:42.860 connected to this idea and and look that the gospel look jesus is represented in the old

00:20:47.340 testament here and and wow paul was actually saying something that that um that connects with

00:20:52.840 what david said and and you start having these really beautiful revelations and you realize that

00:20:59.480 man this book is amazing and and why um is it amazing because it's it's unlike any other book

00:21:06.680 it's it's not a book it's it's a living book it's all it's the holy bible um hebrews 4 12 says for

00:21:14.880 For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

00:21:27.320 And so the word of God has power.

00:21:30.400 And if reading it doesn't cause you to crave more of it, then either you're not seeking to understand it, meaning that you're just kind of glossing and not caring.

00:21:42.380 or you're not allowing it access to your heart.

00:21:46.840 You're reading it almost in a discipline

00:21:48.940 and not out of a relationship to understand.

00:21:53.520 And so the only proper response of the reading of God's word

00:21:56.500 is to want more of God's word.

00:21:58.900 And your flesh is not going to love this, okay?

00:22:02.480 There's nothing in your flesh that's going to go,

00:22:05.460 man, I am excited to read the word of God

00:22:08.460 because the word of God is part of the instrument 0.97

00:22:10.900 that kills your flesh.

00:22:12.380 um so so don't be shocked when you're more when you're first starting out yeah so don't be don't

00:22:18.320 be shocked when your flesh your spirit will crave it but your flesh might go i don't want to read

00:22:23.440 right now um galatians says that the the that the um the desires of the spirit war against the flesh

00:22:32.340 and the desires of the flesh war against the spirit the two are opposed to one another to

00:22:37.360 keep you from doing the things that you wish. And so just realize that and don't be shocked when

00:22:44.900 your flesh doesn't want to do a spiritual thing. And so if you don't currently want the Word of

00:22:53.200 God, and I mean like thirst for it, long for it, yearn for it, you should want to diagnose why.

00:23:00.640 And I remember being there. I remember not having that desire and not having that appetite

00:23:06.300 for the Word of God.

00:23:08.500 I remember that all I would do

00:23:10.500 is read my daily scripture

00:23:11.900 on the Bible app.

00:23:14.040 That was my quiet time

00:23:15.420 is prayer in the car

00:23:16.600 and reading the daily scripture

00:23:17.720 for the day.

00:23:18.260 That was how low I had gone

00:23:21.700 on the totem pole

00:23:22.960 of having a relationship

00:23:24.900 with God's Word.

00:23:26.840 And I remember asking,

00:23:30.040 why can I be content

00:23:31.100 with a little bit of the Bible?

00:23:33.600 Why can I go days

00:23:35.140 without hearing from

00:23:35.920 the word of God why don't I prioritize or pursue the scriptures more well if you walk in the spirit

00:23:44.020 you're not going to fulfill the desires of the flesh I mean that's just a basic thing the difficulty

00:23:47.920 of obedience doesn't change the duty of obedience right we're called to we're called to pursue

00:23:55.700 scripture and and that's second Timothy 2 15 be diligent to show yourself to prove to God a worker

00:24:03.820 who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth so we're called to this but I

00:24:08.440 remember the breakthrough as well I remember the breakthrough I actually remember calling Matt

00:24:12.960 and telling him something happened I finally am getting to a point where I read the word of God

00:24:20.500 and it makes sense I'm not saying that I understand the whole thing I'm not saying that I could even

00:24:25.200 write commentaries on all these things but all of a sudden something happened after several months

00:24:31.020 maybe in a year of deep pursuant of the word of God, I just, it started to make sense. The

00:24:36.720 mosaic came together at such a level that I was kind of the momentum started happening

00:24:43.720 and started moving forward and everything started to click. Yeah. So, um, we're talking about falling

00:24:50.960 in love with the word of God today. Um, but you had made an important, important point prior,

00:24:55.420 uh to the show that i want you to share um which is is the goal really to fall in love with the

00:25:01.960 bible yeah so this is a good question and no that's not the goal is to fall in love with the bible

00:25:07.160 um we're not coming to the bible to simply know the bible there are literally atheists that do

00:25:13.660 this they come to the bible to know the bible we're coming to the bible to know god and we're

00:25:19.700 not bibliologists. That's a thing. Okay, we're Christians. And God has revealed himself through

00:25:28.920 the written word of God. And the purpose of life is to know God and make him known. That's the

00:25:36.240 purpose of life. If you don't know that, write it down. The purpose of life is to know God

00:25:40.360 and make him known. And so we're coming to the Bible because it's our central way to become

00:25:45.820 familiar with our creator and we cannot fulfill our purpose of making him known if we do not know

00:25:55.200 him and so this is why we were made to to know god and by knowing god you will know yourself

00:26:01.620 and you're going to know the world that you live in and so it's a really great um it's an important

00:26:07.600 part of um the bible's not the bible is the means to the end and we're called to know scripture too

00:26:15.900 But it's not the goal is to know the Bible.

00:26:18.900 The goal is to know God, but you do that through the lens of the Bible.

00:26:23.400 We're using some Spurgeon quotes today, so I'm going to jump on another Spurgeon quote.

00:26:26.820 I love how poetic he is.

00:26:28.200 He said, some people like to read many chapters a day.

00:26:32.180 I would not dissuade them from that practice,

00:26:34.800 but I would rather lay my soul a soak in a half dozen verses all day

00:26:40.200 than rinse my hand in several chapters.

00:26:43.580 Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture

00:26:45.880 and to let it be sucked up into your very soul

00:26:48.900 until it saturates your heart.

00:26:51.660 Set your heart upon God's Word.

00:26:53.720 Let your whole nature be plunged into it 0.70

00:26:56.640 as a cloth into a bucket of red dye.

00:27:00.220 I just love that.

00:27:01.760 You just think about that.

00:27:02.720 Ugh, just letting it soak in every part of your body.

00:27:07.240 I did that with John chapter 3 a couple days ago.

00:27:10.900 Secondly, we're also not coming to the Bible as a duty.

00:27:15.640 It is, I should say, as mere duty.

00:27:19.340 Because we are called to do it.

00:27:22.260 But it's not, we don't want to make this just something that we're doing because we're commanded to do it.

00:27:30.660 We're coming to the Bible because we love God.

00:27:33.380 And I'll give you an example.

00:27:35.300 We don't read love letters from our spouse because of duty.

00:27:39.980 um we read them because of our love and infatuation for them okay imagine like if you got if you're

00:27:47.340 like you know a fiance and you're getting married and your fiance is sending you love letters

00:27:54.740 like every day and you don't want to read them like that's that's like you're going oh i gotta

00:28:01.860 go read this stinking love letter that's not the right posture to have you go okay something

00:28:07.020 You shouldn't be getting married. 0.99

00:28:08.080 Yes, you shouldn't be getting married.

00:28:09.200 Something's up here.

00:28:09.800 You don't love this person. 0.99

00:28:12.720 And so, yeah, basically, a Christian who doesn't crave the written word 0.69

00:28:16.480 is like a young man who doesn't enjoy reading the love letters of his fiancée.

00:28:20.740 And so A.W. Tozer said a great quote.

00:28:22.300 He says, to have found God and still pursue him is true love.

00:28:28.320 I think you said this before.

00:28:30.840 You don't want this to be about behavior modification.

00:28:33.400 You want this to be about spiritual regeneration.

00:28:37.020 Meaning we're not hoping that you can form some type of new Bible reading habit in 2020.

00:28:44.160 Sure, there's discipline required for all parts of the Christian life, especially when you're just starting out.

00:28:50.340 But what we're talking about here is about getting before God daily, rededicating yourself to him and begging him through the power of the Holy Spirit to implant a hunger within you for the word of God.

00:29:04.720 Let him be the author of that.

00:29:06.080 Yeah. And, um, we want God, yeah, to be the driver there. Um, we want him to fill you with

00:29:13.260 the Holy spirit and illuminate the scriptures for you. Yeah. And this is really important is that,

00:29:18.500 you know, our, our challenge to you is yes, to get before God and do that. And, and I would say

00:29:26.060 even right now, um, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, whenever you're listening to this, maybe right now

00:29:31.920 at the end of this podcast, I would say go, if you can,

00:29:36.540 spend 15 minutes in a quiet room, dead quiet.

00:29:40.600 Veronica actually reads her Bible most days in her closet,

00:29:44.200 literally in her closet.

00:29:46.440 War room style, baby.

00:29:47.620 Yeah, war room style, exactly.

00:29:49.040 So what you need to do is find a quiet place, lock the door,

00:29:53.880 and lay on your face.

00:29:57.460 The word worship means prostrate.

00:29:59.720 That means to be laying face down.

00:30:01.920 And so, like, if you were to see God, you wouldn't be standing.

00:30:05.960 I promise you that.

00:30:07.740 You'd fall to your face very quick.

00:30:10.480 Lay on the floor and pray that God can take you to this deeper place.

00:30:17.560 Pray that God would reveal himself to you in a new way.

00:30:21.420 Pray that the Lord will implant that hunger for the word of God in you so that you can pursue.

00:30:29.060 And you want to have this kind of unquenchable desire to know him.

00:30:34.140 That's what we're asking you to pray with.

00:30:36.380 So I'm going to close with Psalm 1.

00:30:40.680 It's a really great psalm.

00:30:42.500 And there's a really important verse in there that I'll highlight.

00:30:47.800 But again, we just challenge you to get before the word.

00:30:50.920 Or get before the Lord in prayer about the word.

00:30:54.320 because it really is the beginning, the source of all that other fruit that you do want in your life.

00:31:00.620 And so I'm going to read Psalm 1. It's very short.

00:31:03.700 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

00:31:07.400 And that word man is anthropos.

00:31:10.880 Actually, this is in the Hebrew, so it's going to be in the Hebrew word.

00:31:13.960 It doesn't mean just men. It's men and women.

00:31:18.280 So blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

00:31:21.740 nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law

00:31:29.420 of the lord so that's his delight and in his law god's law he meditates day and day and night

00:31:37.860 so just think about that you're just thinking about it all the time it's soaking up all the

00:31:42.900 time he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season

00:31:50.920 So, you know, seasons come and they sometimes take some time to grow some fruit.

00:32:21.800 So hopefully that was helpful, guys.

00:32:23.300 We thank you for joining us today on the Real Christianity podcast.

00:32:26.860 If you guys have it and would like to leave a review,

00:32:30.700 those reviews actually, when you write out a review,

00:32:33.800 you don't have to, you can just tap the stars.

00:32:35.520 But if you actually write something, they're really helpful.

00:32:38.760 We actually collect some of those and use them

00:32:41.000 to share with our donors that support our ministry

00:32:46.180 because it's really motivating to see what the Lord's doing

00:32:49.480 through the show in your life.

00:32:50.500 So feel free to write something, even extensive, if you'd like to, and we would love to read it.

00:32:57.260 On that note, we will see you guys next week.

00:32:59.900 See ya.

Dale Partridge - January 08, 2020

Real Christianity #79： How to Fall in Love with the Bible

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