Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 117

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. Happy Monday. As you guys know, it is Theology Monday. Now,

00:00:06.220 when I say theology, it sounds like we're talking about these kind of complicated issues every week,

00:00:11.860 but of course we're not. A lot of times we're refuting some kind of pseudo-Christian lie that

00:00:18.080 we've heard in the mainstream and going to God's Word and seeing what it actually says. Sometimes

00:00:22.920 we are talking about more complex subjects. Sometimes we're talking about more practical

00:00:27.940 subjects like biblical suffering, but in everything, we always go back to the Word of

00:00:32.320 God as our supreme authority. And that's really what I want to talk about today. Why reading the

00:00:37.720 Bible and knowing our Bible and knowing theology is so important. And that doesn't mean that we

00:00:45.360 have to have every question answered about our eschatology at all points. Of course, all of that

00:00:51.460 is very important, but it's a process. It takes time. And it all starts with knowing how to and

00:00:57.820 even why to read the Bible. This is a question that I get a lot, especially from people who are just

00:01:04.800 becoming Christians. They just don't know where to start. And if that's you, I just want you to know

00:01:09.300 that is the perfect place to be. That's a normal place to be. Anyone who has ever become a Christian,

00:01:14.940 especially people who were not raised in the church, have all asked that question. There is not

00:01:19.000 a single person who has become a Christian and said, oh, totally understand this Bible thing.

00:01:23.720 Totally get it. I've got no questions. It all makes perfect sense. No, we are finite human

00:01:30.480 beings. That means we are limited in our understanding. We only have so much of a

00:01:36.040 capacity to be able to understand complex subjects. But what I'm here to tell you is that you have a

00:01:41.240 much bigger and better capacity to understand the complexities of Scripture than you think.

00:01:47.660 Thankfully, with the power of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of God, there's so much that we get to

00:01:52.380 know through the Bible. So if you are intimidated when you are reading the Bible, normal. If you are

00:01:57.720 confused when you are reading the Bible, normal. If you are scared to open the Bible just because you

00:02:04.240 feel like you don't know anything and you don't want to ask stupid questions, normal. Okay? So just

00:02:08.580 take a deep breath. Understand that when you're listening to people who you're like, oh my gosh,

00:02:13.320 I'm never going to know as much as this person that I see on Instagram or my friend or my pastor,

00:02:18.540 you don't need to worry about that. You don't need to worry about that. What you need to worry about

00:02:24.160 is reading the Word of God as much and as well and as accurately as a human being possibly can.

00:02:31.780 And that is what we are. That's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about some

00:02:36.260 very basic things. We're also going to talk about a little bit more intricate or complicated things,

00:02:42.200 depending on how familiar you are with church and with kind of the Christian sphere. But I do think

00:02:49.140 for anyone, no matter where you are in your walk, I think that this will be a very important episode.

00:02:53.600 Even if you have been walking with God a lot longer than I have, you know the Bible a lot

00:02:57.780 better than I do. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there that that is true of. I still think

00:03:02.480 that this will be an edifying episode for everyone, especially if you have friends who are just now

00:03:08.040 learning the Bible for themselves. It's a very exciting time, by the way, if you are becoming

00:03:12.840 a Christian, it's so exciting to really discover God's Word for the first time. So I'm excited for

00:03:18.300 you and you should be excited for yourself too. And you should not feel at all bogged down or weighed

00:03:22.980 down by this task that you have before you of reading the Bible. This summer, we are going to cover

00:03:30.500 a lot of theological subjects that are on the more complex side that maybe you wouldn't tackle until

00:03:37.060 you've been following God for a little bit and you start, okay, you understand the gospel and it's

00:03:42.520 not that you move on from the gospel, but you realize that there's a lot there and there's a

00:03:46.480 lot to uncover and there's a lot to unpack that happens over time. The more that we study, the more

00:03:51.920 we know about God, the more that we know that we don't know until the questions just kind of multiply

00:03:58.600 the longer that you've known Him, which is great. That's a really fun and exciting thing,

00:04:02.600 I think, about following God and about reading His Word. So I wanted to kind of lay this foundation

00:04:07.980 before this summer when we get into those complicated issues about, you know, predestination

00:04:14.380 and tulip and Calvinism, all that good stuff, women in the church, these very controversial topics.

00:04:22.320 I wanted to kind of lay this foundation before we get into all of that. So my personal journey

00:04:28.340 with God, if you want to call it that, I'm not even sure if that's theologically accurate

00:04:33.300 terminology, but my relationship with God, I was raised in a Christian home. Both of my parents

00:04:39.220 were Christians. We went to a Southern Baptist church every Sunday, but my relationship with Him,

00:04:46.020 I didn't start taking the Bible seriously and reading the Bible for myself and being interested in

00:04:51.300 the Bible until I was probably a junior in high school. And I would even say the latter half

00:04:56.200 of my junior year. Now, if I go back and I read some of the journals that I had when I was like

00:05:01.200 eight or nine years old, I've always kept journals my entire life. I was, you know, like writing

00:05:05.520 scripture and prayers and things like that. So it was always something I knew about in Sunday

00:05:09.080 school class. I went to a Christian school. It was always something that I was from an academic

00:05:13.160 standpoint, intellectual standpoint, interested in. But it wasn't until the latter half of my junior

00:05:19.600 year, I was in a Bible class in high school that was very different than any Bible class that I had

00:05:26.060 taken. My teacher was extremely vulnerable and extremely real and authentic about sin and

00:05:32.280 struggles and learning God's word. I don't even know where this teacher is now or what he's really

00:05:37.260 like. I don't even really remember much of what we talked about, but he really trusted us to be able

00:05:42.820 to study scripture and to talk about it and to explore complicated subjects that we had never

00:05:47.660 explored before. And that really started piquing my interest. I remember reading Romans all the way

00:05:53.180 through for the first time my junior year. And I was like, wow, there's a lot here that I don't know

00:05:58.100 when I've, you know, been raised in the church. And then we read my senior year of high school.

00:06:03.260 We read this book called Reason for God by Tim Keller. And I started reading C.S. Lewis, Great

00:06:08.980 Divorce, Mere Christianity. And all of a sudden I realized, oh my gosh, there's so much about God,

00:06:14.780 so much about his word, his church that I don't know. And this stuff is fascinating to me,

00:06:20.000 even just from an intellectual perspective. I found it really fascinating. And then, so that

00:06:25.000 just became a passion of mine, studying God's word, probably starting my senior year of high school.

00:06:29.920 A few other things happened that brought me close to God and understanding the gospel for probably

00:06:35.120 the first time. I started listening to teachers. I started going to a church that was, you know,

00:06:40.160 my own church. I was able to drive. And so I didn't go to the same church as my parents anymore.

00:06:44.380 That had a huge, profound impact on me. And then I went to college with that same spirit. And then

00:06:50.940 my friends gave me an ESV study Bible that I still use every day now when I was a sophomore. And that

00:06:58.260 totally, I don't want to say that totally changed my life too, because I was already a Christian, but

00:07:01.880 that awakened an even deeper love, I guess, for studying scripture and realizing there was so much

00:07:09.340 that I didn't know. And then I've talked about before my senior year, I went through this really

00:07:16.000 hard season where I decided that I was going to have fun. As they say, I went through a hard breakup

00:07:24.120 and I reacted to that breakup in a very immature and ungodly way. I decided to fill my life with

00:07:30.980 things that I thought would make me happy. Really what I was seeking during this point in college was

00:07:35.980 wanting to be wanted. I felt rejected. And so a way to feel wanted and to feel whole when I was 21,

00:07:43.920 22 years old was drinking, was hooking up, was going out, was getting attention from friends,

00:07:50.300 things that a lot of people do all four years of college and even high school. I had a lot of

00:07:56.240 encouragement from people around me that this is what I was supposed to do. And that's not to blame

00:08:00.820 them at all. It was totally my responsibility, but it was fun. I was getting attention,

00:08:05.340 affirmation. It was awesome. But really I was miserable. I was also struggling with an eating

00:08:09.900 disorder. And I just remember this all ties back to what we're talking about. I just remember during

00:08:14.740 this time and mind you, I had been chaplain in my sorority. I had was genuinely passionate about the

00:08:21.180 word of God. And then I just decided after this breakup, no, no, no, no. I want to numb the pain how I

00:08:26.160 want to numb the pain. I'm going to live it up this last semester. And I remember trying to pretend

00:08:32.120 like I was following God at the same time. Like I remember trying to read the Bible. I remember

00:08:39.920 trying to keep up with what, you know, we call in Christianese our quiet times. I remember trying to

00:08:45.200 do that and not being able to, I remember trying to open my Bible, trying to journal. And I just

00:08:51.980 couldn't, it made me feel physically sick because I knew what I was doing was wrong. And it was totally

00:08:57.960 incongruent with the life that God had called me to. I felt convicted of my sin, but instead of

00:09:03.820 turning towards that conviction and repenting, I just pushed it down and I closed my Bible. And I

00:09:08.560 said, you know what, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do this anymore. This hurts too much.

00:09:12.460 It hurts too much to pray. It hurts too much to read the Bible. I'm just going to do what I want to

00:09:16.900 do. I'm going to numb my pain with alcohol, with guys, with over-exercise, with not eating enough.

00:09:22.060 And I'm going to keep up this image that I think is going to make me happy and whole.

00:09:25.180 That didn't work. Uh, long story short, I ended up in the counselor's office a few months after I

00:09:31.500 graduated from college, her telling me, if you keep up your eating disorder, which at this point

00:09:36.560 had turned into binging and purging, you're going to die. And I, I, I just, I didn't know how to, I,

00:09:44.860 I, I think that probably was the thing that woke me up. And then I started reading God's word again.

00:09:50.220 And I started reading the Bible again and allowing my heart to be pricked and softened. I, you know,

00:09:56.740 after a while of sinning, you grow callous and you, uh, convince yourself that it's fine.

00:10:04.440 And you harden your heart as a way to not feel conviction. And that's what I had done. And so

00:10:09.920 I had to painfully go through this process of repentance, of allowing God's word to seep into

00:10:14.940 my heart and seep into my life and remind me just how needy I am, just how sinful I am, just how much

00:10:21.040 I desperately, uh, need God, that I'm not self-sufficient, that I can't do this on my own,

00:10:28.160 that the avenues that I pursued to find happiness actually were going to end in destruction

00:10:33.560 and devastation. And that's always what sin does. That's, that is the game that Satan has been playing

00:10:40.280 since the very beginning in the garden. When he said to Eve, did God really say, did God really

00:10:46.960 say? And he showed her the fruit and the fruit looked good. And instead of telling her the

00:10:51.900 consequences of this, he said, no, no, no, don't worry about it. God's just worried that you're

00:10:56.880 going to be more like him and you'll know the difference between good and evil. And that's what

00:11:01.040 you want. Well, that sounded enticing to Eve. And just like Satan does in all of our temptations

00:11:06.640 today, he doesn't talk about consequences. He talks about how good it's going to feel in the

00:11:10.840 moment. And, uh, Eve gave into that. I gave into that. And the consequences are always so much worse

00:11:20.320 than the fleeting pleasure that you get from sin. And I learned that the hard way I racked up a lot

00:11:25.820 of regrets in that probably eight month period of rebellion that I have that I wish that I could take

00:11:32.020 back all because I decided to, uh, walk away from the word of God. And because I wouldn't, I wouldn't

00:11:41.840 allow conviction. I pushed it down and I became callous and I followed my own way. So if there is

00:11:48.760 one reason, and we'll get to all the reasons, but if there is one reason to stay in God's word,

00:11:55.020 it is to remain, uh, it is to remain convicted of your sin, to remain in obedience to God and to

00:12:04.420 avoid the pain and devastation that inevitably comes along with following your sin and your flesh and

00:12:11.560 your desires. I can tell you from experience, it is not worth it. So listen to me when I say that you

00:12:18.480 might not know that about me. People who have been listening to this podcast from the very beginning

00:12:21.920 have heard me give the story before. Um, I have not always in every stage of my life been this on

00:12:30.160 fire for Christ, reading the Bible every day girl. No, I went through a period where I rebelled and I

00:12:36.040 am thankful for the grace of God and the wisdom that he gives us in his words. So that is why this

00:12:42.280 subject is so important to me because I want something different for you. And if you've already been

00:12:47.680 there, like I have know that there's grace for you and know that there is forgiveness for you and

00:12:52.500 there is wisdom for you and there is goodness for you found in the word of God. So, uh, let's talk

00:12:58.760 about, let's talk about the reasons why, uh, the reasons why we need to study scripture in addition to

00:13:05.080 the reasons that I just gave you. Um, so Psalm 119 is an amazing passage. We see how passionate, uh,

00:13:13.020 David is about God's law and about his promises, how eager David is, uh, to follow them and to hold

00:13:19.440 onto them. Uh, here are verses, uh, nine through 16 in this particular chapter. How can a young man

00:13:26.240 keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word with my whole heart. I seek you. Let me not

00:13:31.500 wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

00:13:36.820 Blessed are you. Oh Lord. Teach me your statutes with my lips. I declare all the rules of your mouth

00:13:42.020 in the way of your testimonies. I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your

00:13:47.760 precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your

00:13:53.080 word. Um, there are a lot of reasons to study the Bible and to rejoice in the intimacy that we gain,

00:14:00.540 uh, with God through studying the Bible. And the first and the foremost reason is to know God

00:14:05.740 is to know God and his ways. The Bible is filled with passages about God revealing himself

00:14:12.000 to his people, showing him his strength, his faithfulness, his goodness, uh, revealing his

00:14:17.300 will and his word. And in God's sovereignty, he has chosen to reveal himself to us through his

00:14:23.340 written word in the Bible. Uh, Psalm 25, four says, make me to know your ways. Oh Lord,

00:14:29.060 teach me your paths. Psalm 199, 25 says, I am your servant. Give me understanding that I may know

00:14:35.480 your testimonies. Jesus prays to the father in John 17, 17, uh, sanctify them in the truth.

00:14:42.360 Your word is truth. So those who are in Christ gain intimacy with the God of the universe, uh,

00:14:48.820 by understanding him that, uh, the truth that he gives us in scripture, it is a privilege for us to

00:14:55.780 get to know the God of the universe through his word and, uh, the word that he purposely left for us.

00:15:01.800 There are a lot of other reasons that all kind of fall under that umbrella to read God's word.

00:15:07.920 Uh, and that is always going to be the main one to know God in his ways. And in knowing God in his

00:15:13.900 ways, uh, we gain a lot of other benefits. We gain wisdom and discernment for how to live, how to

00:15:19.720 navigate the rough waters of life. We're given direction. We are offered perspective for how to

00:15:25.520 see what's happening in the world. What's going to happen, uh, in the future, we're given a framework

00:15:30.620 for righteousness that applies to our own lives, but also applies to the public sphere, like the

00:15:36.640 government. We are able to better understand how to love and to serve other people. We are shown our

00:15:43.400 sin, our neediness of God. We are convicted of our wrongdoing. We are called to repentance.

00:15:49.260 Uh, we are comforted by the reminders of God's faithfulness. We are also able to distinguish

00:15:55.340 through God's word between what is true and what is false, false teaching and the true word of God.

00:16:00.820 Uh, reading the Bible as it draws us closer to God and gives us wisdom also sanctifies us as that

00:16:06.700 passage says that we read in John 17, meaning that as we conform to God's will, we become more like

00:16:12.960 Christ, more like who God has called us to be. Uh, as second Timothy three, 16 through 17 says,

00:16:19.500 all scriptures is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

00:16:25.760 and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.

00:16:32.960 So it's useful for teaching for reproof and for correction to train us to become righteous,

00:16:38.960 that we in God might be complete, that we might be ready, prepared, equipped for every good work

00:16:46.080 that he has prepared for us. As Ephesians two says, there are many people, unfortunately,

00:16:52.900 who will tell you that reading God's word is secondary or even tertiary, uh, in your relationship

00:16:58.900 with him, that knowing scripture, isn't really all that important compared to what these people would

00:17:04.120 call your personal relationship with him. They kind of separate these two things, uh, where they say

00:17:09.260 that God may say that he doesn't say, or God may say things to you that he doesn't say in his word.

00:17:14.580 He might reveal things to you that are just specific for you. He might give you feelings that you can't

00:17:20.860 actually find in the Bible. That's what these people will say. Uh, it's hogwash. It's total,

00:17:26.800 total deception. Uh, this is not to say that God won't convict you as you are praying or God won't

00:17:32.860 press something into your mind or heart, but every conviction, every connection, every direction he gives

00:17:39.160 will be in perfect alignment with what he says in scripture because he does not change. Uh, he will

00:17:46.100 not give you something that contradicts scripture or goes outside the bounds of scripture or is contrary,

00:17:51.540 uh, to his character. It's very sad to me, uh, when people say, when I hear people say that God's word

00:17:59.720 is limiting, that we need to go beyond it because what it tells me is that they have not spent very much

00:18:07.160 time studying it. Uh, anyone who says that God's word restricts, uh, their relationship with God or

00:18:13.120 puts limitations on their relationship with God has not read the word of God. I guarantee you they

00:18:18.360 don't know much about the word of God. Uh, chances are they read something at one point that they don't

00:18:23.300 like or didn't understand and they decided, okay, I don't, I don't really need this. This is too confusing

00:18:28.180 for me. Uh, this person tends to view scripture as a static collection of ancient writings that serve

00:18:34.740 as a very small supplement to your faith, but really shouldn't be used as the foundation for your

00:18:40.080 faith. Uh, but that is not a correct way to look at scripture as, uh, that verse in second Timothy that

00:18:45.940 we read says that God's word is breathed out by him and God, as we've said, does not change.

00:18:52.080 Therefore his word does not change. It is applicable today right now. It is static in the sense that it

00:18:58.940 doesn't change depending on our mood or on our culture or a trend, but it's also dynamic in the

00:19:04.960 sense that it is not stuck in the past, but is ever applicable to the right now. Uh, now you may say,

00:19:11.140 well, Allie, what about, what about all the people who can't read the Bible or who maybe don't have a

00:19:17.900 Bible with them, but they are Christians. Can they not have a relationship with God? And to that,

00:19:23.400 I would say, of course they can. God in his sovereignty can, he has the power to accommodate

00:19:28.260 himself to anyone and draw, uh, someone's heart to himself through whatever means necessary. But,

00:19:34.180 but again, this means, uh, or these means that he, uh, uses in this revelation of who he is in his

00:19:41.240 gospel will not and cannot be incongruent to what he word or with what his word says. Uh, Jesus says

00:19:50.080 his word is truth. God's word is truth. Second Timothy says his word is useful, is profitable

00:19:56.800 for everything. And it is breathed out by God. Psalm 119 speaks to how vital God's word is in our lives.

00:20:04.380 Uh, there is a branch of Christianity, uh, that really wants to wed Eastern mysticism with Christianity

00:20:12.620 and, uh, reject the importance of knowing the Bible. So they seek to have, you know, certain kinds

00:20:18.440 of energies or feelings to have special revelations that they claim are from God, uh, that are not

00:20:25.020 actually found in the Bible. You'll hear them using all of this kind of like new age terminology that God

00:20:31.060 wants to give you some kind of special gift just for you in the moment. What? Like, can you tell me

00:20:37.780 where you find that in scripture? Uh, beware of this be wary. Uh, this doesn't negate the power of

00:20:45.640 the Holy spirit. I'm not negating the power of the Holy spirit. On the contrary, uh, the Holy spirit

00:20:50.080 works in our hearts through the truth revealed in God's word to empower us, to encourage us, to convict us,

00:20:56.940 to draw us, uh, to God himself through Christ. Uh, Ephesians calls, uh, the Holy spirit, the guarantee

00:21:03.280 of our inheritance. Uh, that word for guarantee can also be translated as a down payment. So it is a

00:21:09.980 guarantee of our salvation. The Holy spirit is very important, but again, this is not some ethereal

00:21:15.760 feeling by which we can justify contradicting the word of God. Um, here's what happens when we try to

00:21:23.440 separate the Holy spirit from God's word, we end up mistaking our feelings for the Holy spirit.

00:21:30.140 So let me repeat that. When we try to separate the Holy spirit from God's word, we end up mistaking

00:21:35.780 our feelings for the Holy spirit. Uh, so we begin following our personal convictions and we say that

00:21:42.900 we are following God. I remember a conversation that I had with a friend in college, and this was before

00:21:48.860 my own rebellious period where I basically did the same thing, but I remember her telling me that she

00:21:55.300 didn't feel bad for dating this guy who wasn't a Christian because she didn't feel convicted about

00:21:59.860 it. So that must mean, of course, she thought that the Holy spirit is telling her that this is okay. I,

00:22:06.720 like I said, I've done this too. Uh, that's what happens when we think that the Holy spirit is separate

00:22:12.240 from or different than who God has revealed himself to be in his word. And that the Holy spirit must just

00:22:17.980 have different desires than what God has outlined in his word. And that's my friends leads us to sin.

00:22:25.480 Uh, we follow our hearts, which the Bible tells us are desperately wicked. They are not worth following.

00:22:33.240 Uh, that's, that's what happens. So that's what happens when we try to say that the spirit or our

00:22:41.220 feelings, um, are more important or lead us rather than what scripture says. So the word of God

00:22:47.580 is crucial. I've said it before, and I will say it again. It is impossible to know God intimately

00:22:53.880 without knowing God accurately. It is impossible to know God intimately without knowing God

00:23:00.920 accurately. Now, this does not mean that we know everything about him at all times. That's impossible

00:23:06.380 for us. Uh, this doesn't mean that we can't have any confusion or have any misunderstandings. We do

00:23:11.940 because we're finite, but if we follow a God whose character is reflective of our own imagination,

00:23:17.760 rather than reflective of who he says he is in scripture, then we do not follow God at all.

00:23:24.360 Uh, we follow ourselves and we justify this self-worship with a form of pseudo Christianity

00:23:30.500 that does not equal salvation. So reading, studying, and knowing our Bibles so that we can know God

00:23:40.600 and who he truly is, is vital. Now there are many right ways to read the Bible, and there are many

00:23:49.740 wrong ways to read the Bible. Uh, and within the right ways to read it, there are different approaches

00:23:55.180 that are taken based on preference. So not everyone has to read the Bible the exact same way for it to

00:24:01.540 be correct. As long as how you are reading the Bible falls under the umbrella of the correct approach,

00:24:06.360 and there is a correct approach. So some of you might say, no, Ali, you're being legalistic. There

00:24:12.640 is no wrong way to read the Bible. Who are you to tell me how to read the Bible? Well, if you want to

00:24:18.700 know how bad theology happens, how people become completely lost and confused with their own brand

00:24:24.020 of Christianity that doesn't even reflect the gospel revealed to us in scripture, it is this,

00:24:29.120 a poor reading of the text, a poor reading of the Bible. So here are just a few of the ways

00:24:35.260 that people read the Bible incorrectly. Uh, number one, this is probably the biggest one.

00:24:39.660 They decontextualize the verses, uh, taking a verse out of context in order to apply it to a

00:24:45.400 situation or an idea in a way that suits what you want this verse to mean. Uh, so a few great examples

00:24:51.160 of this that most of us have probably heard. If we grew up in the church, you've heard Philippians

00:24:54.920 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Psalm 37, 4, uh, delight yourself in

00:25:00.060 the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans I have

00:25:05.080 for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a

00:25:08.340 future. Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest you be judged. These are all awesome verses. I'm not,

00:25:13.040 I'm not at all hating on these verses. They're awesome verses, but so often they're taken out

00:25:17.920 of context to mean something that they don't mean. And the list really goes on and on of verses that

00:25:22.580 people will extract from the surrounding verses and say, this verse means what I want it to mean in

00:25:28.400 this situation. And typically the reason people do this, and we've all done this at some point in our

00:25:33.260 lives. But the reason people decontextualize verses is to make them feel better, to stroke their

00:25:39.160 own ego, to justify a decision they've made or to win an argument, uh, rather than asking the question,

00:25:45.660 what does this mean? So many people find themselves asking, what does this verse mean to me? Well,

00:25:52.100 that's not how the word of God works. Scripture means something, not something to you or to me.

00:25:58.300 It means something, uh, now how we apply and take comfort in what a Bible verse means might vary

00:26:05.020 depending on our circumstances, but we do not change the meaning of the text to fit into what we

00:26:09.880 want. And we will get into how to discern the meaning of the text, uh, in just a minute. So

00:26:15.700 another way that people read the Bible incorrectly goes along with the first, and that is to insert

00:26:21.540 themselves into the text, uh, where they do not belong. This again, goes back to the question that

00:26:26.380 people erroneously often ask themselves when they're reading the Bible. And that is, that is what does

00:26:31.420 this passage mean to me? They ask, how can I insert myself into this story? And again, this is typically

00:26:37.300 about ego, about getting something from God that they want about justifying an idea or a decision

00:26:43.080 that they've made. So you'd see this a lot in a story like David and Goliath that I'm going to smite

00:26:48.900 this giant before me, just like David did. Well, no, you're not necessarily because you're not David in this

00:26:55.760 story. Uh, it might not work out like that. The better way to look at this passage is to ask

00:27:01.800 ourselves, what does this mean? And what does this say about the Holy God of the universe? Uh, if you

00:27:08.220 constantly insert yourself into the Bible and into the stories of biblical characters as a way of

00:27:13.380 determining how your life is going to work out, you are going to end up severely disappointed and you are

00:27:18.920 going to find yourself questioning the faithfulness of God. Well, the problem is not with God. It is with

00:27:24.700 you. Similar to the prosperity gospel. When things don't work out, uh, when things don't, when God

00:27:32.560 doesn't provide for us, how we think that we deserved, once we pray more and do more and earn

00:27:37.360 more, and God still doesn't deliver in the way that we want him to, we end up very disappointed in our

00:27:42.200 faith falters. Well, that's because that's not what the word of God says. It's the same thing when you try to

00:27:46.820 insert yourself into a story where you do not exist. Uh, another way that people read the Bible

00:27:52.180 incorrectly goes along with the first as well. And that is opening the Bible to a random passage and assuming

00:27:58.300 that whatever verse you landed on is a sign from God. No, I remember in middle school, the first time

00:28:03.900 that I heard a pastor say that this was wrong. And I was like, Oh shoot. Like my 12 year old self

00:28:08.240 probably thought that it was like, that's exactly what I was supposed to do to read the Bible. But I remember

00:28:12.660 him saying this and it's still true today. That is called mysticism. Uh, that is called putting the Lord,

00:28:18.260 your God to the test, which we are not called to do or which we are actually specifically told not to

00:28:23.400 do. Now you can of course pray for wisdom as you read the Bible. And we'll talk about that. We should

00:28:27.980 be praying for wisdom, uh, but opening up to a random verse, putting your finger on it and assuming

00:28:32.220 that that is God's special word for you for today is not a correct way to read the Bible. Um, so here is

00:28:38.280 how we read the Bible. This is the systematic way to read the Bible. The most important thing. And like I

00:28:44.960 said, there are preferences within this that are, um, that are personal, but they fall under a proper

00:28:53.620 reading of the text. Uh, context, context is key. You want to know the context of what you're reading.

00:29:01.180 If you have never read the Bible, I always advise starting out with the book of John. Uh, it is one of

00:29:08.320 the gospels, uh, it's one of the gospels and in it are extremely clear passages about who Jesus is and

00:29:14.580 his work on the cross. And then I would read the epistles. And again, in all of this, you're

00:29:19.380 looking, well, I'll get to the context thing later. I shouldn't have said that first. I'll get to the

00:29:23.100 context thing later, but so start with John. That's what I would start with. Then I would read through

00:29:27.200 the epistles. I would read through Romans, uh, the Corinthians, you know, all of the epistles. You can

00:29:32.120 just go in order. Uh, these will tell you what it looks like to live a godly life according to God's

00:29:39.800 own word. If you go to the old Testament, you start in Genesis. Genesis is one of my favorite

00:29:45.940 books of the Bible. It's just genuinely interesting. When you read through Genesis,

00:29:49.660 you will find things that you just didn't know were there. It's just a good story

00:29:53.680 that is true by the way. Um, so I recommend going slowly, especially in the new Testament.

00:30:00.460 This is not a race. This is not about quantity of study always, but about quality. Uh, it is about

00:30:06.600 understanding. So first, before you read, you pray to God for wisdom. You pray for understanding.

00:30:12.680 You pray that you would be able to grasp the text and then you would comprehend what is being said.

00:30:18.420 Then you read, uh, it's okay. If there are things as you read that you don't understand,

00:30:22.840 you mark them. No question that you have, especially when you're starting out, um, is stupid.

00:30:27.840 Ask the question. There's no one judging you. You're not getting graded on this personally. If

00:30:33.740 you're starting in John, for example, I would read a whole chapter, just read the whole chapter

00:30:38.260 through. You don't have to worry about if there are things that trip you up, read the whole chapter,

00:30:42.340 then go back and take one to three verses and really study them. That's what I do because I like

00:30:48.260 studying in small chunks better than the large chunks because I just get distracted. It gets too

00:30:53.360 overwhelming and then you just get frustrated. So take a really small trunk, even if it's just one

00:30:58.060 verse, but you can take, you know, three verses, however much you can handle and really study what

00:31:03.680 they mean. So of those few verses, the questions to ask yourself. And of course, if you're staying

00:31:08.180 in one book for a long period of time, you don't have to ask these particular questions every time,

00:31:13.180 but here are questions to ask yourself as you're starting out, who is writing this? When is it being

00:31:18.720 written? To whom is it being written? And why is it being written? So it's also important to ask,

00:31:25.180 like, is a literary device being used? Is this a metaphor? Um, is this a particular reference that I

00:31:30.940 don't understand because it's a cultural reference? Um, if you have a study Bible,

00:31:35.660 I personally recommend the ESV study Bible. I find it to be extremely reliable and thorough and good.

00:31:41.900 I like the ESV version of the Bible as well. Um, so I would purchase, if you don't have an ESV study

00:31:48.460 Bible, I would highly recommend it. It is going to contain these answers for you of who is writing

00:31:53.460 this. Why are they writing this? What's the context, the historical context, the cultural context

00:31:58.280 at the beginning of every book, it's going to answer those historical questions for you.

00:32:01.480 So you don't have to go to the library and figure that out or even Google it. It's going to give

00:32:06.100 you that context, which is really important. And then you're going to ask, okay, what does this verse

00:32:11.380 say? Something that I like to do, and this is where the preference comes in. I like to write out the

00:32:16.980 verse and then, or write out the verses and pick out the words that are most significant or words that

00:32:22.680 I'm not really sure what they mean. And then I, so I pick however many words, like five of the main

00:32:28.880 words that are in this. And then next to them, I write synonyms that I know are synonyms to this

00:32:33.840 word. Now, this is not me saying this is my inerrant interpretation of the Bible, but for me,

00:32:38.880 a finite individual who is trying to understand scripture, it helps me if I can say, okay, this

00:32:44.480 also means this. Okay. Now this is starting to make sense to me. I see what he is saying.

00:32:49.820 It also helps if you have like an original Greek and Hebrew Bible. I do. It has references in the

00:32:56.800 back of the Bible that'll tell you the original Greek for particular words. And so you can really

00:33:01.500 see what the original word was and what the definition of that word is and what the original

00:33:07.080 translation is. If you want to do that, obviously that's not always, some people would say that that's

00:33:12.820 necessary every time. I'm not sure that it's necessary every time, as long as you are not just

00:33:17.360 using your subjective interpretation. So you'll ask, what does it say? And then you'll ask, what does

00:33:23.440 this mean? Or what does this reveal about the character of God? And then there is an application

00:33:29.580 part of this. Does this say something about sin? Does this say something about something I need to

00:33:35.120 be doing? Do I have something to repent from? Do I have something to start doing, to change, to stop

00:33:40.280 doing? How do I use this to be more obedient to God? So how do I understand God more? How do I apply

00:33:47.960 this to my life so I am more obedient to God? And what does this say about God? And also, what does

00:33:56.400 this say about God in reference to me? And that is not pleasing yourself in the center of the text,

00:34:00.220 but that is applying the truth of God's word to your life and to your heart.

00:34:03.920 Um, I also write out the questions that I have. I will have a lot of questions when I'm reading the

00:34:09.300 Bible, even passages that I've read a million times. I have questions about them. So if it seems

00:34:14.080 to me like a passage that I'm reading contradicts something else that I've read, um, I look at the

00:34:18.900 footnotes and I say, okay, am I getting this wrong? What does this person say? Footnotes are not inerrant,

00:34:22.880 by the way. They're not inerrant. They are not themselves the word of God, but they can be good

00:34:26.940 direction from people who have been studying this longer than we have. So I look at the footnotes. I go to the

00:34:32.100 verse that seems to contradict it. So for example, if you are in Romans and you're reading that we are

00:34:37.640 justified by faith and not by works, but you remember that you read in James that we're justified

00:34:41.980 by works and not by faith alone, then you might have a question about the contradiction, uh, about

00:34:46.960 the contradiction there. So I'd go to James as well. And I would read the footnotes there. And then I

00:34:52.460 would say, okay, how do I reconcile these things? I can't throw one verse out in favor of the other.

00:34:57.120 That's not good theology. Um, I look to scripture. I look to God's word to reconcile what I feel like

00:35:05.880 is a contradiction. And I always fall back on my own misunderstanding and my finite nature rather

00:35:12.640 than on an untrustworthiness of God's word. And so truth can be reconciled with more truth,

00:35:19.000 not with your feelings, not by throwing one thing out in favor of the other, not saying that you are

00:35:23.760 sovereign and God must have just made some kind of confusing error. No, I go back on, okay, I must

00:35:29.560 not understand this. I need to pray for wisdom. I need to go more deeply into God's word to understand

00:35:35.340 how to reconcile these two things, to realize that they're both true and they cannot contradict each

00:35:40.140 other. Um, then you pray again, you pray for wisdom, for obedience, to be conformed to the likeness

00:35:45.440 of Christ. Uh, you thank God for his word. You ask for God's will to be done. You ask for provision.

00:35:50.700 You ask for strength to resist sin. Do this for 20 to 30 minutes every day of the week that you can.

00:35:58.500 Um, also there is a resource that I use systematic theology by Wayne Grudem. It's a really good book

00:36:04.480 too. And again, commentaries are not inerrant. They are not themselves the word of God, but

00:36:08.840 these people have taken a lot of time to study God's word and to tell you what God's word says

00:36:13.000 about certain subjects that you might be confused about. So when I have questions about, um, eschatology,

00:36:18.580 when I have questions about predestination, when I have questions about prayer, whatever it is,

00:36:22.360 systematic theology by Wayne Grudem is a really good resource for that. That'll say, okay, well,

00:36:26.380 here's what God's word says about this. Um, it's also a really good way, uh, not systematic theology,

00:36:33.140 but just the word of God. It's a really, it's a really good idea. In fact, I would say it's necessary

00:36:39.380 when you're listening to teachers of God's word, or when you're listening to pastors that you like,

00:36:43.240 um, to ask yourself, okay, does this align with what God's word says? And it's also good to ask

00:36:50.860 yourself, does what this pastor or teacher is telling me, does it give me glory or man glory,

00:36:56.380 or does it give God glory? Does it rely on God's sovereignty, his provision, or does this seem to

00:37:02.400 glorify me and to rely on me? And if that's the case, go to the word of God and see what the word of

00:37:08.360 God says, because like I've said many times, um, one way to, I think, ask yourself about your own

00:37:15.920 theology is do, am I believing things that glorify myself rather than glorify God? Am I becoming less

00:37:22.960 and God becoming more, or is it the opposite? So that's it. I hope that's a good primer for you

00:37:28.680 guys for understanding the word of God. Of course, as always, there are so many more things that we

00:37:32.680 could talk about. If you've got any questions about that or, uh, pointers or corrections, of course,

00:37:37.780 feel free to email me. If you love this podcast, I would love for you to, uh, give me a five-star

00:37:43.340 review on iTunes. It means a lot to me. I read those reviews and be sure to subscribe to the

00:37:49.600 Allie Beth Stuckey channel on YouTube if you haven't already. And I will see you guys on Wednesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 27, 2019

Ep 117 ｜ Reading the Bible

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