Ep 447 ｜ Christianity： Religion or Relationship？ ｜ Q&A
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Summary
In this episode of Relatable, I answer a question about why I believe in God. I talk about why God has given us the faith to believe in Him, and why it is important to have questions about our faith.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Today we have another Q&A episode. You guys asked me a lot
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of great questions. In case you're new to the podcast, these are pre-recorded maternity episodes
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because whenever this episode is coming out, as I'm recording it, I don't know when it's coming
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out. I have either had a baby or I'm about to have a baby. I don't know. So I stopped recording new
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episodes at 38 weeks. And then after that, all of these pre-recorded episodes have come out,
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which includes topical episodes. They include these Q&As and they include a lot of really
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wonderful interviews. So stick around. There's a lot of good content that has come out in these
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maternity episodes and will continue to come out. A lot of really good conversations. Today,
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I'm going to answer a few of your questions, political, theological, personal. And we'll see
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how many we get through. Typically, we only get through a few. But this first question that I am
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going to answer is a big one. And that is, why do I believe in God? So I believe that I believe in
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God primarily, fundamentally, because of Ephesians 1, 4 through 5, that in love,
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he predestined us for adoption as sons for the sake of our redemption, for the sake of his glory to
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graciously share in his inheritance. Ephesians 2 also talks about how we are dead in our sin,
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that we are sons and daughters of disobedience, that we are under the influence of Satan,
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whom the passage calls the prince of the power of the air, who is now, the passage says, at work
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continually at work in those who do not know Christ. But then that chapter says, but God being
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rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together in Christ by
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grace. You have been saved through faith, 8 through 9 or 8 through 10 says, but this is not your own
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doing. It is a gift of the Lord. It's not something that I can boast in or take credit for. And so
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ultimately, I believe that God calls people and you hear his voice. And Jesus also says that the flock
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knows the shepherd's voice. When you know the shepherd's voice, you can't help but follow the
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shepherd that God has given you through grace, the faith to believe in and to trust. And so I can't
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take any intellectual credit. I can't take any moral credit. I can't take any spiritual credit
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for believing in God because I believe that that belief is actually bestowed upon us. Now God has
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given us the critical faculties to be able to understand not everything about God, but to be
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able to, through both special and general revelation, understand his ways and understand his
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existence. And so when I say that I believe that God has graciously given me and millions of people
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the faith to believe in him and to believe in Christ for salvation, that's not to say that
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I've never thought about it, that I've never asked questions because God has given us an intellect.
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He's given us the ability to critically think. He's given us the capacity to have doubts and to ask
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really difficult questions and to wrestle through different parts of our faith. Now, this is different
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than deconstructing your faith. Deconstruction, faith deconstruction is this postmodern, morally
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relativistic idea that shuns the idea of absolute truth and starts to break apart the different
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parts of Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, that don't fit into what we feel or don't fit into
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popular cultural dogma. And what is almost always left when someone deconstructs their faith is not
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stronger faith, not better theology, but this random mosaic of secular ideas and religious ideas
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from other religions, from Christianity, but conveniently almost always fits into
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mainstream leftist ideology on most ideas and most moral and political issues. There's just not a
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biblical basis for that kind of process. That's different than asking questions. And here's the
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difference. Typically, when I see people deconstruct their faith, they ask questions and then they allow
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their doubts to be satiated by other people or affirmed by other people who have had those doubts,
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but haven't actually sought the answers to those doubts and those questions in the Bible. So when
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we have questions about Christianity, which I think we should, because God has given us ability to have
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those questions, when we don't understand something in the Bible, which again, I think is part of our human
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nature because we're finite, because we're fallible, God is infinite. So we're never going to understand
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everything perfectly in this life. And I'm not saying that, you know, we become infallible one
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day, but in this life, like we are bound by the constraints of the limitations of our intellect and
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the limitations of the access of, you know, to understanding that we have as human beings. So when we have
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these doubts, it's important to go deeper into the truth and deeper into scripture and closer to God
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to get the answers to those questions. And through prayer and through the study of his word, the
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clarity that he gives us through scripture as a lamp to our feet and the light to our path to ask and
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then try to answer and grapple with these questions. When we go to outside, you know, secular sources that
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are only going to affirm our doubts and tell us that we're out of step with mainstream society, of course,
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what you're going to end up with is some kind of postmodern agnosticism that you slap the label of
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Christianity on, but no longer holds to any core tenets of Christianity and rejects the gospel as
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truth. So while I say that it is important to ask questions and wrestle with our doubts, it's important
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also how we do that. Are we going to people who have been faithful Christians for longer than we have?
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Are we going to the Lord? Are we going to the gospel? Are we going to scripture? Are we going to
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godly mentors that have already asked these questions, have already wrestled through some of
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these doubts to give us godly wisdom? Or are we going to people that we know are just going to tell us
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that all of our doubts are right and that actually Christianity is just antiquated and is bigoted and
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we should just reject most of it. But hold on to some of it for some sense of nostalgia and some
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sense of comfort. And so I choose the former. And when I've chosen the former, when I've chosen to go
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to theologians who know more than me, who have lived longer than I have, when I choose to go to the Lord
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and ask him for wisdom that he promises to give, by the way, in the book of James, when I go into the
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word, when I go to godly older people and ask these questions, what I end up with is a kind of peace that
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surpasses understanding, even if I don't necessarily have clarity on every single doubt or question that
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I have. So all that to say, that's the process that I encourage you to take as well. If you have
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questions, it's okay to have questions and doubts. Tim Keller once said, faith without doubts is like a
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body without antibodies. I think it's important to think through the questions and the doubts that we
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have in accordance with scripture and what we already know to be true. So when I ask this question
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to myself, why do I believe in God? It's not only that I believe that he's graciously given me this
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faith. It's also that when I think through basic questions of where did this all come from and why
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are we here? And these are questions that every human being since the beginning of time has asked,
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which I think actually speaks to the biblical truth that eternity has been written on the human heart.
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That when I think through these questions, I find at the very least the necessity for some kind of
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transcendent divine existence, that it doesn't make sense to me that this world and everything that
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is in it could come from nothing. Like even if you believe in evolution, even if you believe in the
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big bang, even if you believe that billions and billions of years ago, this cosmic accident just
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occurred. And now we're all just living here, still wrestling with all these existential questions
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that human beings have for a very long time. How did it start? Where did it come from? How is it
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possible for things to just have existed from nothing? Like where did it start? And your brain can't even
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comprehend that. And there is this theory called the God of the gaps theory that a lot of people in
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particular on the left, but a lot of so-called scientists used to say, you know, as there's more
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scientific discovery, uh, there's less need for God. God is just this idea that's used to try to fill
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in the gaps of what we don't know. But as there are fewer and fewer gaps, smaller and smaller gaps,
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uh, then the need for belief in God will dissipate. It will kind of go away. Well, that's not true.
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Like we're still dealing with the most fundamental questions of human existence, of the existence of
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creation. Like those gaps are not getting smaller. Sure. There are a lot of things that we have
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discovered that I think actually just speak to the awesomeness and the bigness and the creativity and
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the intelligence of God. And hasn't actually diminished my belief or need for a belief in God, because
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we're still dealing with the most basic questions of where this all came from and why we're here and
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why apparently millions and millions of years later, according to some people, uh, we're still
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asking those questions. Shouldn't we have evolved to the point of no longer needing to ask those
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questions? If God really is just the God of the gaps that is getting smaller and smaller, why are we
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still asking those things? Why do human beings still long for something bigger than them? Even those
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who are atheists have that longing for an attachment to something that is bigger, this rise in the new
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age and, um, kind of, um, spirituality that people are, uh, that people are embracing today, even as they
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reject Christianity as superstitious shows that the human heart wants something transcendent. And so even
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as I'm just asking these like very, I would say general philosophical basic questions about human beings,
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human nature, human existence, I can't, I can't escape this nagging feeling that there is something or
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someone bigger than us that had to have started it simply because I believe that there's a source
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and like that there's a reason for, for these, uh, for these, uh, questions that we have for these
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curiosities that all human beings have wrestled with, that there's a source for all things seen and
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unseen. How do we explain all of this? How do we explain everything that exists if it all really
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came from nothing? And you've probably heard this phrase, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist,
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but truly how do you explain the beginning of everything? Um, and I know people have tried.
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I think that their arguments are very frail and there are plenty of questions that people can ask.
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Well, how can you believe God if X, how can you believe God if Y, but I have way more questions
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about how can you not believe God if Z, for example. Um, and I also, when I also think about
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human history and I think about all of the regimes, all of the governments, all of the people that have
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been characterized officially by atheism and how they have always led to repression.
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Like when I think about communist China, when I think about the communist revolutions, when I think
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about the totalitarian regimes that have been, um, that especially dominated the 20th century and how
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they were all functioning or officially atheistic regimes. And I see how when godlessness takes over
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a society, freedoms also diminish and charity diminishes and unity diminishes. And it makes me
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wonder like, what is this thing about Christianity? What is this thing about a belief in God that makes
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people in societies better? Not perfect because sin is always going to exist, but better. Like what is it
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about Christianity that has stuck? People say that Jesus had, you know, that he was just a copycat.
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There were six other people like him. Why are we still basing our calendar on this guy?
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Like why have millions and millions of people just been tripping over this Jesus person? If he really
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is just a liar or a lunatic or just a good teacher, like any other good teachers who just got, as I heard
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a popular commentator say, killed for his troubles, um, by the Romans. If like, he's nothing more than just
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a guy, why are we still having some of the most heated and fundamental debates about him 2,000 years
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later and are still basing our calendar on his, on his, uh, on his existence? That's a little crazy.
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That's, that's, that's a little amazing. Like, why is it that people who have believed in this Jesus
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Christ? Why is it, has it been them that have started most of the hospitals in the country,
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most of the free societies that have existed? Again, not perfect societies because still marred
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by sin. Why have they started most of the universities? Like, what is it about belief
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in Christ that tends to dramatically change families and hearts and cultures? And again,
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yes, there are hypocrites inside the church. There are people who do bad things in the name of
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Christianity. Absolutely. Just as there are people who do bad things in the name of all kinds of other,
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uh, belief systems. But why has Christianity spread so much, so fast, had such a stronghold
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on the world in so many places? Why is it the number one persecuted religion in the world? Why are
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Christians constantly used as scapegoats in so many different forms of society and so many different
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parts of history? Asking those questions of why Christianity seems to just be the standout
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in its history, I think is a good question to ask in addition to those fundamental questions. Because
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it's not enough just to say, oh, it's just another mythological belief system that people have gotten
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hung up on over time. I don't think that, I don't think that answers the question at all. And maybe you ask
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those questions and you still don't come to the conclusion that it's all real. But I think it's
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at least important to ask, like, why, why do Christians make this crazy claim that other religions
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don't claim that their God became flesh and then was killed for their sins and then came back to life
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and conquered sin and death? And they actually think that he's coming back and that that is going to be
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what satisfies our innate desire for justice and the abolition of evil, that one day he's going to
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take care of all evil and wickedness that exists. That's another big question that human beings tend
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to wrestle with that secularism can't answer. Like, who's going to do something about all the bad?
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Who's going to do something about all the evil? Who's going to take care of the evildoers,
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the Unitarians that believe that everyone ends up in heaven? They've got Hitler there too.
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I'm sorry. That's just not going to settle with me. Of course, anyone who repents, anyone who God
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calls, anyone who believes in the name of the Lord, calls upon the name of the Lord by grace
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through faith, no matter what their sins are, we believe is in heaven. But I need to know that
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something's going to be done about the evil that exists. When I think about the evil, the wickedness,
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the abuse that occurs to the most vulnerable people in the world, I got to know that there
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is recompense coming. Like there is punishment coming for that. That the righteous people in
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the world, the meek people in the world will win in the end. And that someone is going to take care
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of the bad, take care of the sin, take care of the corruption. And one day that we can actually look
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forward to a day when all of those things will be no more. That hope I also think is innate.
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And Christianity has an answer for those things. Christianity has an answer for the existence of
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evil, that God's patience is actually storing up more and more wrath, that he is being patient and
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sitting back and waiting so more people come to salvation and he will destroy evil and evildoers
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forevermore. And so even that desire that we have for vengeance on the evildoer, that's even satisfied
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in the victory that Christianity represents in Christ Jesus. And so when I doubt, because I do,
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there are things all the time that make me say, now, why? Why would God let that happen? Or is this
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really true? Or how can I possibly believe this? Or what about this part of the Bible? I have those
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questions all the time. These are the things that I also think through. A book that I do recommend
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on this is Reason for God by Tim Keller. I've often recommended Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. He
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has a really great way of explaining things. But Reason for God by Tim Keller kind of goes through all
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of the skeptics' questions about Christianity. And whether or not you're dealing with doubts, I really
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recommend that book. Mere Christianity does a great job of doing this too. Mere Christianity probably had
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one of the biggest impacts on my faith and my understanding of Christianity. But those two
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books I think are really helpful. I love Screwtape Letters too. It's not necessarily an apologetics
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book, but it does give you a new and a different perspective and a creative perspective on faith
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and the kind of doubts that actually are a product of spiritual warfare in some sense. And it kind of
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gives you the tools to combat that. And so those are three resources that I recommend when you're
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asking these questions. Let's see. Next question is Whataburger or In-N-Out? Whataburger. My husband
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hates Whataburger, but I think it's pretty good. It just takes a long time. Takes a long time to get
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anything. I can't say that I go to Whataburger very much. In high school, we would go after like
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football games and get something that's called a honey butter chicken biscuits. Honey butter chicken
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biscuit at Whataburger is really good. It's not as good as the Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit. Chick-fil-A
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would do well to do a honey butter chicken biscuit because they could probably do better
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at it than Whataburger. But the honey butter chicken biscuit was something that we would get after
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football games, you know, back when you're in high school and like you don't have a metabolism and
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things like that don't matter. And you can eat two honey butter chicken biscuits and then just sit down
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for 12 hours and nothing happens to you. Today, if you look at a honey butter chicken biscuit
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and you're coming up on 30 like I am, then you gain 50 pounds in five minutes. So things change.
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hmm, like I feel like I need to say it. I feel like I need to say Whataburger is better than In-N-Out
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because I'm from Texas. But honestly, In-N-Out has way better service. Smaller hamburgers,
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but way better service. It's a Christian owned company and it has very Chick-fil-A like service.
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That's another thing. Christian owned companies almost always have really good work ethic and really
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good customer relations. So it's a little bit difficult. Whataburger does not have good service.
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They have terrible service. Those people hate their lives. But the people who work at Chick-fil-A
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and the people who work at In-N-Out, they do a good job. And so I might have to go. I might actually
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have to go with In-N-Out strictly for the customer service, but better food, I think, at Whataburger.
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Next question. What have you enjoyed most about this pregnancy? Well, it's gone by a lot more quickly
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than my last pregnancy. I haven't been as in as much like physical pain this pregnancy. And if
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you've never been pregnant and you're like, Oh my gosh, what's wrong with you? Why do you have
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physical pain when you're pregnant? Hardy har har. There's a lot of physical pain that comes with
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pregnancy and not anything like I haven't ever had any. Thankfully, thank the Lord, haven't had any
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kind of complications or anything like that or any kind of trouble with my pregnancies. It's just the
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normal aches and pains like hip pain, back pain, all of that kind of stuff, restless leg syndrome
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when you're trying to fall asleep. There's a lot of physical ailments that come with pregnancy.
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I'm not complaining. I like I am so thankful for my ability to bear children. I'm so thankful for my
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children. I'm so thankful for the gift of being pregnant. Right now, as I'm speaking, though, I'm
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about I'm almost 38 weeks. And this is the point if you've been pregnant where you're like,
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Oh my gosh, I have been pregnant for 68 years. And you are just kind of over all of the symptoms
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that come with it. And plus, like you start to really like swell at this stage. There's a lot
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of discomfort that comes with it. It's not complaining about pregnancy, though. It is.
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It's the just anticipating and the wanting the baby to actually be here that you're feeling
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at this point. So I don't want it to seem like I'm a negative Nancy about pregnancy. It's just at
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this point, you're like, Oh my gosh, I really want the baby to actually be here and no longer be
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pregnant because you're carrying around like this human being that is now large in your stomach.
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And it's just it's just a lot. So I would say my favorite part of this pregnancy is that
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it's gone by quickly. And that I have been I've had a little bit more comfort. I'll give you some
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advice if you are pregnant. I highly recommend a chiropractor. I did a chiropractor my last
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pregnancy, but not until like 36 weeks. That was too late. I've done a chiropractor this time
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from about I don't know, it might have even been like 25 weeks like it was or maybe 28 weeks. It
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was pretty early on that I started going to the chiropractor. I also got a physical therapist
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this pregnancy to kind of help me, you know, with different stretches and different movements and
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things like that to try to alleviate the pain and get ready for labor and all of that.
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And so I think now as I'm saying this, I don't know if that stuff is going to help me in labor,
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but I do know that it has helped me, I think, with being more comfortable and not being in quite as
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much pain. So I do I recommend those two things if you can swing it. And if you're pregnant, especially
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if this is like a second pregnancy, a lot of people say they're more miserable and their subsequent
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pregnancies after their first. I recommend a chiropractor. I recommend a PT if you feel like
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you need one. A pelvic floor therapist, a lot of women really benefit from that in their pregnancy
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and especially in postpartum. I've also been, you know, you're just more active too when you have
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a toddler rather than your first pregnancy when you're not chasing after another child. And so that
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can either help things or hurt things. I think for me it's actually helped things. So yeah, I guess
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those have been kind of my favorite parts of this pregnancy at this point. Ready for ready to have
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the child's earth side though. Lots of food questions. Salty or sweets? What's your favorite
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of each? So the first thing that comes to mind when I see the word salty is pretzels. I don't like
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pretzels. Like I've never liked pretzels. I just think that they're gross. So I don't know why that
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comes to mind. That's not my favorite thing. I love chips and guacamole if that counts as
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as salty. Something that's sweet. I love peanut butter. So anything like Reese's or something like
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that I really like. But I also really like like cream cheese type thing. So I love cheesecake.
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That's probably my favorite dessert or anything with like cream cheese icing. That's probably my
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favorite. I've also been really just craving sugar these past few weeks, which is not good for you.
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It's not good for you. But just being perfectly honest.
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Oh, this is a good question. Is Christianity a religion or a relationship? So we've actually
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done a podcast on this and we'll try to link it in the description. It's I think I've answered this
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question. I'm not saying that you should have already known this because this is an old podcast
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episode. But I think the title is like religion or relationship or something like that, because I
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hear this a lot that it's not a religion. But the book of James says that pure religion is serving
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the orphans and serving the widows. And so I don't think it's actually accurate to say that Christianity
00:26:13.000
isn't a religion. The word religion gets a bad rap. It is kind of people think it's synonymous
00:26:20.760
with legalism, but it's not like if the Bible tells us that there is a pure religion that comes
00:26:26.900
from a pure heart and sincere love that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, which is our down payment,
00:26:34.100
which is our helper as Christians, as people who follow Christ, then I would say that there is a way
00:26:43.700
to regard religion as pure and holy and good and as Christianity as that kind of religion.
00:26:50.460
Do not allow the world's definition of words to define how you define Christianity. And so the world
00:26:57.820
has a problem with this word religion. The Bible doesn't have a problem with this word religion.
00:27:03.100
Christians shouldn't have a problem with this word religion. It depends on how you're defining it.
00:27:07.260
And the book of James defines it for us. And so it's okay for us to say, yes, Christianity is a
00:27:14.680
religion, but it is more than just a religion. It's not just a list of rules. It's not just a list
00:27:20.740
of regulations or restrictions. It is a relationship with the God of the universe that has been made
00:27:26.880
possible through the death and the resurrection of his only son, that Jesus is our intercessor,
00:27:34.640
that through him, we have access with confidence because of our faith with him or in him. And so
00:27:40.940
we as naturally unholy people have been made holy, have been made righteous by grace through faith in
00:27:48.540
Christ. And therefore we are spotless. Our slate is clean. We have been completely forgiven of all of
00:27:55.100
our imperfections and sins. And we can come before with confidence, uh, the throne of the Holy God,
00:28:01.900
the creator and the sustainer of the universe. We have a relationship with him. We get to call him
00:28:07.280
father. He calls us his children. That's an amazing miracle that I don't see displayed,
00:28:13.420
um, in other religions. And so, yes, it is something I would say more than traditionally what
00:28:19.320
we understand religion to be. It is a relationship with a Holy God. That's not possible because of
00:28:24.980
anything we bring to the table, but because of what God did for us through Christ. So again,
00:28:32.040
don't allow the world's negative connotations of something or negative definitions of something
00:28:37.240
to change our definitions or our perspectives of something. I see the church do this a lot when it
00:28:44.760
comes to justice or when it comes to the definition of sin or holiness, trying to appease the world
00:28:50.020
and make Christianity more palatable, more secular, more cultural. Um, so that, I don't know,
00:28:57.240
you avoid cancellation or you make people comfortable. That's not what we're called to do.
00:29:01.500
Things are what they are according to scripture. And if that causes people discomfort, we actually
00:29:07.660
believe that that's natural in a sense and good because we don't worship the same God. And so why
00:29:14.180
should you be comfortable or why should you, uh, agree with all of my definitions of everything if
00:29:20.420
mine is informed by my belief in God and your definitions are informed by your disbelief in God
00:29:25.480
or your belief in another so-called God? Um, and so, uh, and so, yes, I hope that, I hope that answers
00:29:33.420
your question, both a religion and, uh, a relationship. Okay. I think we've got time for
00:29:39.420
one or two more questions. Let's see. Someone says, how do we do proper exegesis and not eisegesis?
00:29:48.480
So I'm not a preacher, I'm not a pastor. And so there are a lot of really wonderful resources on
00:29:54.540
this. Um, however, however, uh, I think just a simple answer is making sure that if we are reading
00:30:02.840
our Bibles, we are reading the text and we are asking ourselves some questions like,
00:30:08.760
who wrote this, who was it written to? What was the context? Like what was going on historically
00:30:14.820
at the time? What does the rest of scripture say about this? If we see a verse that's confusing
00:30:22.140
or we need more clarity on the rest of scripture can very often inform us of, um, and inform us of the,
00:30:32.040
of the, of the clarity that we need and can offer answers to our confusion. Um, and so when we're
00:30:41.320
reading the Bible, we ask those questions and then we ask, what does this mean? Not does,
00:30:46.300
not what does this want? What do I want this to mean? Or how can I make this about me? How can I
00:30:52.940
center myself in the biblical narrative? How can I make myself the star of the show? Um,
00:30:57.980
how can I make this specifically about this specific situation that I want it to be about?
00:31:05.900
Those are not the questions that we answer. We ask, what does this actually mean? And yes,
00:31:10.180
that will have some kind of personal application. It may tell you a sin that you need to repent of
00:31:16.460
something that you need to pray about something that you need to pray for. It might call you to
00:31:20.880
obedience in a certain answer that applies to a particular situation that you're in. It might speak
00:31:25.340
to a particular worry or particular concern or particular fear that you have. Um, yes,
00:31:30.820
we can draw those personal applications from the Bible, but we are not super imposing our meaning or
00:31:38.040
our desires or ourselves onto the text to get it to mean what we want it to mean. It also means that
00:31:44.860
we don't use the Bible as a magic eight ball. And so we're not saying, okay, like whatever this
00:31:50.080
verse is, is my life verse or whatever this verse is, is, um, is what I'm supposed to do today or what
00:31:57.980
I'm supposed to speak to. Now, I'm not saying that God can never, can never use that, but that is a
00:32:04.980
form of mysticism. That's not actually how we are told to read the Bible or to seek God. That is,
00:32:10.840
again, this kind of relying on some mysterious superstitious, uh, force that is going to
00:32:21.240
guide us to just the right answer. We just don't need that. Like we don't need that. That is what a
00:32:26.220
magic eight ball is for. That is what superstition is for, but that's not, uh, that's not how we have
00:32:33.420
to read the Bible. Like we can just read the Bible plainly in order, um, asking God for wisdom and he
00:32:41.160
will give us wisdom through his Holy spirit and through his word by asking those questions.
00:32:47.160
What does this text say? What's the, what's the original meaning of these, of these words? What is
00:32:53.440
the context? What does the rest of scripture say? And what does this actually mean now? Is there any
00:32:58.180
application that I can take from the scripture into my life? And ultimately always believing and
00:33:03.800
holding onto the fact that if we disagree with scripture, scripture's right. Um, and, uh, again,
00:33:11.340
systematic theology by Wayne Grudem can help you answer a lot of these questions. I love the ESV study Bible.
00:33:16.840
It's kind of expensive, um, but it's totally worth it. I had mine for 10 years. I now use the John
00:33:21.980
MacArthur study Bible. Um, and I really like it as well. The ESV study Bible is just a little bit more
00:33:28.660
comprehensive. It has a ton of, um, has a ton of really good resources in it and a lot of good
00:33:35.080
answers to a lot of questions that you might have. I also have a Greek and Hebrew study Bible. And so,
00:33:41.840
um, if I want to know the original word or the, um, original word used for a particular phrase that I
00:33:49.160
see translated, then I can use that. And I go into the back and I say, okay, this is the original
00:33:54.020
Greek or this is the original Hebrew. Here's what it means. Here's where it's used in the rest of the
00:33:58.420
Bible. This helps me understand what this verse is actually saying and what the author actually
00:34:02.160
meant. You don't have to do that every time you read the Bible, but it's helpful in general to
00:34:08.280
answer a lot of the questions that, uh, that you have, and you don't have to understand everything
00:34:13.560
you read by the way, when you read the Bible, I don't, there are passages that I've read a thousand
00:34:17.720
times and I find something new. Um, and that's okay. Like that's beautiful. That's a part of
00:34:22.500
sanctification. That's a part of like the joy and the mystery and the pursuit of, uh, of the Lord and
00:34:29.480
of his word. And it's a lifelong endeavor. And God gives us the grace and the perseverance and the
00:34:34.860
wisdom to be able to do that to his glory. All right. I think that's all that we have time for
00:34:39.020
today. Thank you guys so much for your questions. We'll be back here soon.