Dangerous Faith

#92: Dangerous Life – Answering Common Objections to Reading the Bible

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Nate Williams and the Dangerous Life Team answer common objections believers have for reading their Bibles.

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Zeke Adams:

you really need to change out your chair?

Nate Williams:

I do need to change into a different chair and welcome back to the danger this is the dangerous faith podcast well the overall podcast is dangerous faith. But how are people gonna know what?

Zeke Adams:

dangerous life is, if you always say dangerous faith well that'd be like Michael Knowles coming on the Michael Knowles Show and saying welcome to Daily Wire Plus when it's really the Michael Knowles Show.

Nate Williams:

All right. So the family of episodes is Dangerous. Faith Podcast yeah like the Daily Wire. But depending on what's going on, they'll recognize it by what they click on.

Zeke Adams:

Facts don't care about your feelings, so in our general group.

Nate Williams:

That's dangerous life. When I'm by myself, it just stays dangerous faith. And then last week we had a Grow With Clo episode making the case for marriage. So I think they'll figure it out in some way, shape or form.

Zeke Adams:

So my life is dangerous, but not my faith.

Nate Williams:

Yes, With me. We have Zeke and Chloe and we're going to talk about reading our Bibles, and what are reasons that we use excuses, if we're being fully honest, to not read our Bible? So I guess, Zeke, you teach fairly often, so I'm going to ask you a very Sunday school type question why do we read our Bibles? Why should that matter? Why do we do it?

Zeke Adams:

read our Bibles. Why should that matter? Why do we do it? To grow closer to God and to increase our faith. I mean, you have several examples like John writes his book and he tells us why he writes it. He says that you may have confidence in your faith and so that you'll come to believe in Jesus Christ. So obviously that's a starting point is to learn more about Christ and to begin to follow him.

Zeke Adams:

But also this is a I don't like putting it this way, but I mean at the same time, like if we didn't have it. Like imagine if someone said man, it would be so nice if we had what God actually thought. Like what if we had God's thoughts on a situation or a matter or a thing? We'd all want that. Yet we have that in the Bible and yet we don't use it a lot of the time.

Nate Williams:

That's true, but and Chloe, obviously you're free to chime in whenever you'd like but one thing I'll hear sometimes is that, well, I feel close to God when I'm out in nature hunting, fishing, walking, hiking. Do we really need the Bible, can't we just see how good and great God is through nature? We'll get into busyness and those kinds of things. But what if I just would rather do that? Why?

Zeke Adams:

would you? I mean that's a good point, I mean that's a great way to experience God is to. I mean, I think it's Romans or Hebrews, one of the two that tells us that no one's without excuse, because, like everything in nature points towards God, towards their being a creator. So I mean, why would you want to limit any form of or any way that you can experience God more and have him more active in your life? So, yeah, go out in nature, spend time with God, but also spend time in his word, where he's actually literally spoken to you.

Nate Williams:

Yeah.

Zeke Adams:

Why not both, that's true.

Chloe Adams:

Yeah, and kind of like why I want to read the Bible would be like it's nourishment for my soul. And like, if you think of like our bodies like our bodies need food for nourishment, but our soul also needs nourishment. Like I like to even liken it to like eating a meal, Like we went through fasting in our church a couple weeks ago and like it just reminded me how much I think about food and eating a meal and what am I going to eat and all that. But in the same way, like my soul needs God so much more than my body even needs food.

Chloe Adams:

And so that's something I like to think about, especially in the morning, when I first get up and eating breakfast. I'm like Lord, as I eat this meal and you fill my body, like I pray that you also just fill my soul today and nourish me with your word.

Zeke Adams:

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, like I said, there's multiple ways and to limit one of them would be unhealthy, to just do one and not do any of the others. So if you want some examples, Bible reading, like you said, out in nature, spending time in God's creation because it's good, he said it's good. Prayer is one of them. Speaking directly to God, not just reading from his word. Fellowship, I think, with other believers is another good one. I could go on and on, but there's all these different ways. So anyone who says I don't need the Bible, you're kind of saying that God. Then why did God need to write it all if you don't need the Bible?

Nate Williams:

Yeah, yeah, that's true and I think those are good points. Now, what if someone tells you the Bible it's a big book or, more accurately, a collection of books. Seems complicated, obviously thousands of years ago and different cultures, different times. How do I like? I don't know where to start. I don't know Old Testament, new Testament, it just seems intimidating and I don't know what to do when it comes to how to choose a book or a passage.

Chloe Adams:

I would say the answer is simple. I mean, you can start anywhere, literally anywhere, and I think that we have so much resources right now that that can help you with your Bible reading. Like if you just go on the Bible app, just the regular Bible app, they even have like beginner's Bible plans, like how do you read the Bible, and they tell you step-by-step how to do each and every one of those things. But yeah, you can really. You can just start anywhere, because the Bible is the whole Bible is written by God, so like it's going to all be good for you, you know.

Zeke Adams:

Yeah, I mean I was going to make the same point of like resources, like that's. Like you might could have used that excuse like pre-internet a little bit, not really, but a little bit more. But now, like, you have access to all the resources that every preacher, theologian, everything pretty much. You might have to go buy something, but you have access to it. It's not without reach, it's still within reach. But also, if you're wanting an actual place to start, one that I think is super helpful for beginners who are just getting started in the Bible is the Bible Project. They make fantastic videos on.

Zeke Adams:

Just the thing I like about them is it's really hard to find a resource that doesn't teach one specific. What do I call it Theology? Not that it's bad, because obviously we all believe in a certain theology, but there is an overarching story to the Bible that you can kind of weave along without getting into the nitty-gritty into it. I think they do a good job of balancing that between staying biblical and faithful but not getting into the weeds. For someone who doesn't know all these different facets, it's a Bible project.

Zeke Adams:

And.

Nate Williams:

I guess. I guess, other than the Bible project, what might be other websites, podcasts, YouTube channels that you like to go to to learn?

Chloe Adams:

I sadly Well yeah this one.

Chloe Adams:

I sadly have not gotten to go through the whole thing, but the Bible Recap by Tara Lee Cobble. She has, so it's a whole book that goes through the entire Bible chronologically and she has a podcast to go with it too, and you can even join like her Patreon or whatever and get even more resources, and she provides so many different, you know, like map drawings and just resources to help you. I would say that's a great book if you're wanting to go through the entire Bible, like at your own pace gotquestionsorg is a good one, that's really helpful for now.

Zeke Adams:

I mean, if you're a Catholic, you're probably not going to like it, but if you're a Catholic?

Zeke Adams:

you're not listening to this anyways, most likely, but I mean not that honestly. You could read plenty of stuff on there and agree with as Catholic. But yeah, they're going to be plenty of doctrines that we disagree with. But just for general, protestant questions got questions is a good one. And then Blue constant questions got questions is a good one. And then blue letter bibles got commentaries and helps you kind of start digging into it. Once you get into the more the I call it intermediate because let's be honest, like when you first start reading the bible you're not going to know a ton about it and like how it works. But once you've kind of the bible project does this too. They did a whole series on like how to read certain books, not just like when I say certain books, not like how to read genesis, but like how to read certain literature. So like the bible's made up of a bunch of different literature. So you got poems, you got historic narratives, you got um, what are the other ones I'm forgetting?

Nate Williams:

one there's, uh, the wisdom books.

Zeke Adams:

Yeah, wisdom literature letters, gospels, uh kind of biographies, if you will, of jesus I mean you don't, you're not going to read a historic narrative of like what actually happened, the same as you would a poem.

Zeke Adams:

Like we don't do that today and we don't. The Bible is not going to do that, so it kind of goes along and have like how do you read different ones? And there's plenty of resources. If you looked up like, is Genesis considered like historic or whatever, and you're going to notice a little bit of everything in them for the most part.

Nate Williams:

So that's true. Now we can go on to some other reasons, or oh, you want to share something?

Chloe Adams:

Chloe, I just wanted to add something in real quick. Um, I know for me, sometimes I can feel overwhelmed because there are so many resources out there like books, podcasts, videos, movies, like all of these different things, and that's such a gift to have those things, but it is a lot. So how would I like if I was a beginner Christian? How would I know what to trust and what to use if there are so many?

Zeke Adams:

That's a good question we should come out with like an article of like trusted sources that we can put up to be continued, Zeke you can be our pope.

Zeke Adams:

I mean, if you go with the ones that we've said so far, most of those are pretty good beginner friendly resources. Obviously, Christianity isn't meant to be a solo mission. So get plugged in at a church, start joining whatever their version of like my church does Sunday school or Wednesday night classes or some kind of. They should have some form of community aspect within that church, regardless of the denomination. That you can get plugged into and start talking to older, wiser Christians who have been doing this for a long time. I guarantee you they probably have resources. They will just give you that they've probably been using for decades and they're like, hey, if you're serious about this, you can have it, I'll go get a new one. That's been my experience, At least. I've asked one guy who who I worked with, who's been doing it for a long time. I was like what do you use for a commentary? And he just gave me his commentary. I'm like, oh okay, yeah, that works.

Nate Williams:

I don't have to worry about going and finding it.

Nate Williams:

There you go, and what Zeke said is very true Get plugged into a local church, Be mentored or discipled by a pastor, an elder, et cetera, someone there and learn and grow from them, and then, in addition to that, you'll find several stabilizing resources out there. So if you look at church history over the first several hundreds of years there were different councils and creeds. Several hundreds of years there were different councils and creeds. So, for example, there's the Apostles' Creed. That goes back pretty early, you know first or second century, and it has major beliefs outlined in it I believe in God, the Father. And then go down to the next paragraph I believe in Jesus Christ. And then the third paragraph, I believe in the Holy Spirit. And the creed goes on to give other details, for sure, but it can kind of be a guiding statement. So creeds and councils are important there as well, to kind of keep you balanced a little bit, because, left to our own devices, you see various cults out there Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses. Left to your own devices, you can come up with a whole bunch of stuff. So these are just things to study and learn.

Nate Williams:

Zeke made several great points. One other website I'll point out that's pretty good, started by Tim Keller and that is the Gospel Coalition. I can't say I agree with absolutely everything on there, but you could say that with anything. I look at stuff I've written in the past and I'm like I don't even agree with myself, and this is years later. So that's not really a criticism. It just means people think differently.

Zeke Adams:

What would be some. Sorry to cut you off, but let's say someone is literally fresh. Again, I'm not sure how they found us before they found all this other stuff but let's say, somehow they were. Or maybe there is someone listening who does meet someone who's completely fresh at it. What would be some guidelines that you would give to look out for? What are some? For example, trinity?

Zeke Adams:

That's not going to be something that's going to be obvious if you've never heard of Christianity, but that would be something that you want to find a church that teaches that. So what are the two, three or four whatever things to look out for if you're completely fresh and looking for a church to get plugged in?

Nate Williams:

I think, to be a Christian you have several core doctrines. So one is obviously the existence of God. That's kind of a duh statement. An atheist cannot be a Christian because then atheist does not believe God exists. And so then you want a Bible. Believing church, the word of God is uh, inerrant, infallible, authoritative. And so, uh, when, when you contradict the Bible, you say a, the Bible says B? Um, you follow the Bible because, again, the Bible's authoritative over you. And then if you get those two things, God and Bible, most of the time, because the Trinity is a natural outworking, of what you read in the Bible.

Nate Williams:

Most churches that hold to a strong view of Scripture will also be Trinitarian. To a strong view of scripture will also be Trinitarian. That's not the case with all churches, but most of the time you're saying well, what if you don't even let's say, aren't even absolutely sure of all aspects of your theology? You mentioned the Trinity specifically. What should you look for? I would say a good, bible-believing, bible-living church. That would be my indicator.

Zeke Adams:

I guess I was just trying to say how do you, as a new person, how do you avoid false teachers and that word gets thrown around a lot to people who it doesn't even apply to, which kind of proves my point that for a new believer it could. I could see it being kind of hard of. I wouldn't want someone to start going to a Jehovah's Witness because they call themselves Christians, but we wouldn't call them Christians or a Mormon church or something like that, not because we have ill will, but because they just don't believe Christian doctrines.

Nate Williams:

Ultimately and this gets a little bit, you know this can be a little scary you have to be mentored and discipled by a mature believer and so you are a little bit at the mercy of that individual. So if that individual has poor judgment, that may then affect you. But you need mentorship, discipleship from a pastor, an elder, a church leader or just a mature believer, and then, obviously, through prayer, through study, don't believe everything you hear right away. So, for example, let's say you hear this funny word called the Trinity and you're like what is this? I've never heard this before. Study research, look into it.

Nate Williams:

Plenty of good YouTube channels and people have talked about it Exactly so yes, in the beginning it is intimidating, but you don't have to believe the first thing you come across. Keep looking into it and, through prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I think you'll end up in a good place if you allow him to guide you. And so those are great questions, zeke Anything else with this. Before we move back to kind of reasons and excuses we have All right, here's one that I come across being in young adult ministry and youth group ministry the Bible's boring. I go to Leviticus, I go to these big old Old Testament prophecy books like Jeremiah, isaiah, and parts of it just seem repetitive and just kind of slow and I just don't want to read those things any. Any thoughts there? Understood? Yeah, understandable understandable.

Zeke Adams:

Well, I mean especially. I mean at least understandable when it comes to, like the leviticus yeah like I get that.

Zeke Adams:

But I mean I think, uh, you receive those. Uh, uh, dang it, never mind, that doesn't apply. Cut that okay, all right. Um, but I was gonna look with leviticus, like I think it's one of those things that at first glance it is really boring and seems repetitive. But, like, once you start to learn more about it, you'll start to see how, like you know, god had a reason for allowing a book like that to be created and written down. And obviously I won't go into like all the books like that, but like, and that's where, if you look at studies, majority of Bible reading plans stop. So when we get through Genesis, because it's a lot of narrative, a lot of things are going on, it's exciting, it's cool. And you get to Deuteronomy or no, my bad Exodus, yeah, exodus. And then same thing, a lot of cool things are going on, a little bit repetitive towards the middle of Exodus. And then you get to Leviticus, you're like, oh gosh, I can't do this.

Zeke Adams:

And then people give up. I've been prone to that a lot of times. But I would say that that's not the entire Bible and even if it was, I'm sure God would have a good reason for it. But you also have to think about once, you kind of learn, the historical background behind it of this was a culture that didn't have the printing press. Like most of what they remembered was correct me, if I'm wrong oral tradition. So like if you see something repeated five or six times, it was probably important and they needed to remember it. They didn't just have a way to easily write it down. So, yes, to say that, yes, I agree, some of it to us can seem repetitive, but I like to. Honestly, I kind of look forward to seeing things that are written down multiple times. But I like to, honestly, I kind of look forward to seeing things that are written down multiple times. Now I'm like that's important, that's something I need to highlight or circle and come back to, because there's probably a good reason for that to be repeated several times.

Nate Williams:

Yes.

Chloe Adams:

I totally agree. I think I kind of when I did go through some of the Bible recap book, I did go through leviticus and yeah, I was a little like, oh, I don't know leviticus, I gotta learn about all these laws. But I will say like the book helps so much. Like zeke said, learning like the historical context and even like using commentary helps it kind of come to life a little bit more, because you know more of the background and like and then you start to see why it's in the bible and how it comes to the whole picture of like god's story and that's really fascinating to me.

Zeke Adams:

So, yeah, maybe it's not one of the most exciting storytelling books, but I think it does help with like giving you a more well-rounded knowledge of the bible but I mean that's also like that's if the all the we're kind of focusing on leviticus but like we're kind of the question ignores all the books that modern culture gets a lot of their sayings from. There's so many. I wish I had one off the top of my head, but there's so many times where we say something and I'll say it. I'm like where's that come from? I go look it up. It's in Proverbs or something like that. I'm like that's been going around for thousands of years now and, like most of the time, the Bible doesn't get credit for the wisdom it gives. Stuff like that.

Nate Williams:

Yeah, those are good points and I do with this reason slash excuse that people use. One practical response you can have is sure, some of the books are more boring, but are you reading the more interesting ones? And so if they're using the Leviticus's?

Zeke Adams:

plural.

Nate Williams:

Leviticus of the world to say I'm not going to read the Bible because that book's boring. But then are you reading the Gospels? What about Genesis? What about the books that are more action packed and so it's kind of revealed to be a smokesc screen because odds are, they're not reading those books either?

Zeke Adams:

I would love to hear the people who have such criticisms against the Bible. I'd love to hear them just read through the gospels. Um, any of the gospels I it's amazing Like it's just action packed. Especially the gospel market doesn't slow down or take time to breathe.

Nate Williams:

Exactly, uh, immediately is a word Mark uses often there, chloe.

Chloe Adams:

Yeah, I just thought of one other thing. Something that's, I think, also helped me, is just praying before I read that God will just open my eyes to whatever he wants me to learn and see in him through that. Because if you go into the Bible thinking about what am I going to gain from this? What am I going to gain from this? What am I, how am I going to learn about myself? It just changes your perspective so much when you think about how does this, how does this teach me about God?

Chloe Adams:

Like what can I learn about God in this story? And, um, it kind of just shifts your whole perspective of you know if it's a boring book or whatever.

Nate Williams:

Yeah, yeah, good point there. So one we got to be careful not to be selfish readers what's in it for me, and so there is some maturity necessary there. I think I'll make a couple points on top of this.

Nate Williams:

God is not just the God of the exciting seasons of life. He's not just the God during the battles, the wars or the weddings, the funerals, just the major parts of life, the job promotions and all the rest of it. Yes, he's the God of those moments, but he's also the God of the boring moments too. He's the God of lists and schedules and all the different minutiae details, all the different things that we get bored from and bored about. He's the God of those things as well, because think about how many details when it comes to the universe that he had to take care of. And so when you have the boring seasons of life and I know students go through this with like, oh my gosh, just more classes, more tests God is the God of those times as well, not just when life's exciting, and we need to remember that, that he is God overall, including when we're bored.

Nate Williams:

And another thing I'll point out is boredom. This gets into parenting and teaching and just different things as well. Boredom is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the most creative moments in our life come from when we're bored. We have time to kind of take stock of the situation, think through potential things that could happen and then move from there. So boredom's not necessarily the end of the world, but our social media lives would tell us that.

Zeke Adams:

Is that why I have all my best thoughts in the shower? Yes, I knew it.

Nate Williams:

There we go. Best thoughts in the shower and best singing in the shower, right, zeke? Yeah, chloe does, I don't All right, but anyway, just some thoughts there about boredom. It's okay to be bored, life's not about you. And so, ultimately, how do these passages bring glory to God? Leviticus all about sacrifices. Well, we're sinners, god forgives us. Isaiah, jeremiah, their prophecies and things going on. Well, we're sinners, we're trying to return to the Lord. Just, it all goes back to God, and so we do. It does take a little bit of maturity to see those things, but we do what we can. But anyways, any thoughts on that? Or keep on with more reasons and excuses?

Zeke Adams:

Keep on going, keep on going All right.

Nate Williams:

Not that any of us are ever busy between the three of us, but that's something that's commonly cited. I'm just too busy to read. I got too much going on and I'm working, I'm in school. I just I just I got too much going on and I'm working, I'm in school. I just I. Just I got to do other things. Any thoughts with that common reason?

Chloe Adams:

Yeah, I'll say that's something that I struggle with a lot.

Chloe Adams:

Yeah, me too I'm very, very, very deeply convicted almost every day that I don't spend enough time in the word. And I don't, because I am in school full time and I've got so many things I need to do. It's just it's hard to, I guess, get that lie out of my head, that the enemy tells me that, like you don't have time for this, you don't need to do this. So sometimes, yeah, it does feel like I have to force myself to sit down and read the Bible. But something that I think has helped me in this really busy season of life and you might not learn like this and that's okay, but it's helped me is listening to an audio Bible. I like to listen to that in the morning while I'm getting ready, for a few minutes just to kind of like get my day going on the right, what's the word?

Chloe Adams:

Note track yeah sure Both of those Get my day going. And then you know, sometimes in the car, like if I don't know what to listen to, I'll just turn on Psalms or Proverbs, like just something, just anything is good for me. And I even did that with James. I listened to James every single night for, I would say, about six months and if someone gave me the first couple words of every sentence I could probably finish it Like that's just how much it helped me to well memorize Scripture but also just hide it in my heart for those times when the enemy is telling me lies and I could just pull that out and be like no, look at this, like this is the truth me lies and I can just pull that out and be

Zeke Adams:

like no, look at this like this is the truth. Yeah, that's definitely one that I have even less excuses for, but I tend to struggle with on a regular basis and there's no easy way about it. It's just like whenever I'm doing it, well, it's more of I just have to remember like, yeah, I'm tired, yeah I'm sleepy, yeah I want to go to bed, but if I haven't done it that day, and it's just like you know what, I'm going to take time. If it's just reading one chapter, I'll just read a quick chapter.

Zeke Adams:

I wish I had some kind of life hack. I mean, listen to it. That's a good idea too. But I mean I'm not saying that's bad.

Zeke Adams:

That I think we've kind of learned is listening to it and reading it, while I don't. I think it kind of goes back to the other thing of like we were talking about before, like why would you limit God to just one way of learning about him? And I think sometimes for me it's helpful to listen, because when I read I'm the type of person that I'll get stuck on one word. I'm like, oh wait, what does that word mean? And then I'm an hour later I haven't got past the first verse or something like that.

Zeke Adams:

So like, sometimes listening is helpful because like it helps me to actually listen to the whole thing, kind of listen, kind of pick up on some themes that I wouldn't have if I took it really, really slow. So I think they're both good, but for me it's just I gotta make myself do it a lot of the it and it doesn't. It comes naturally, and then on the day set it doesn't. I just have to say, well, I've spent. If I look back at my day, I'm like you know what? I've given my time and attention to all these other things. The least I can do is give god five or ten minutes yeah, yeah.

Chloe Adams:

I think something that's convicted me even more is, you know, when you get that whole like screen time notification at the end of the week.

Zeke Adams:

I just turned it off.

Chloe Adams:

You averaged in months, like you know, it could be four or five hours screen time. And then I look at you know some of that's like YouTube, like stuff I listen to in the car, whatever Most of that is. But like, if I ever see like that my social media was really up that week, I'm like that's a missed opportunity. I could have had to, like read the Bible. So like, even if you just have like I don't know, say you're going to a doctor's appointment or something and you're waiting in the waiting room, even if you're just waiting for five minutes, like just pull up the Bible app on your phone, read some scripture, you know, like there's no there's really is no excuse for not reading the Bible.

Nate Williams:

We have it on our phone, which we carry everywhere and this brings up your sponsor brick, brick, yes, uh one thing I've looked into is uh, we're not going to turn this into a commercial not really, unless unless they want to sponsor us, but brick was something I came across. It was whether it's an Instagram ad or something. It was just a way of turning parts of your phone off, like, let's say, instagram, facebook, whatever and then, at a different time of the day, you can turn it back on. I don't want to get into the details, but just seemed really interesting and so go check that out, brick for your phone.

Zeke Adams:

Don't check it out until they call us and give us money.

Nate Williams:

Yes, Don't check it out until they call us and give us money. Yes, don't check it out until they sponsor us, but but anyways, that could be something you're uh, that might interest you. But yeah, with time, the most convicting thing that's been said to me about time, because we always say, oh, I wish there were more hours in the day. No, you don't, because you would just fill that up with other stuff. It's never about time, it's about priorities. You have enough time, your priorities are out of order. And that's been convicting to me because you know that's I work, you know a fair amount and we got other things going on. And that's the excuse I go to is I'm tired and I don't have time.

Nate Williams:

And God, look at all the things I'm doing for you See, that's a big one. Look at all I'm serving, I'm teaching, I'm helping, whatever. And I imagine the analogy a little bit. It's not really an analogy, it's the way it is. It's like a child with his father and the child says, oh, I'm doing all these things, aren't you proud of me? Aren't you happy for me? And the father's like that's all good and wonderful, but I wanna spend time with you and so we can go to God at the end of the day and say look at all the people I've helped and all the things I've done and God's like, but I really don't know you.

Nate Williams:

Now he knows us, but it would be the reverse you it's like, but I really don't know you. Now he knows us, but it would be the reverse you really don't know me. And so again, it's never about time, it's about priorities, chloe.

Chloe Adams:

Yeah, I just have a question for both of y'all that I think I've talked to Zeke some about this.

Chloe Adams:

But, like you know, since I am a full-time student, how like I just struggle with I have to do this certain amount of studying this day or every day to in order for me to do well on this test. Um, and then I'm like okay, and then I get like anxiety when I don't study. You know, um, if I go stop to do like, if I was to stop in the middle of my studying to go read the Bible, I feel like I wouldn't be able to focus because I'm just thinking about how much I have to study and like, yeah, I know, like I can pray for, you know, the Lord to limit distractions, but sometimes that only goes so far for me. And then I'm like, well, I'll just do it at the end of the day when I'm done with my studying and I have a clear conscience. But then I am done studying and it's 10 o'clock and I'm exhausted and if I go to read the Bible, I'm like falling asleep, so what?

Nate Williams:

would y'all suggest for that kind of scenario? Now, a couple things like I do sympathize, that is, you have a desire to read the word, but then you're also got a lot of studying to do. I think a Bible study is worth more than you get out of it, and so, for example, sometimes after a good Bible study we feel convicted or encouraged, we feel refreshed and renewed and we're like wow that was worth it because you see some of the benefits right away.

Nate Williams:

But then, on the flip side, you have some off days, you have a quiet time, you're distracted. You got a lot going on in your mind.

Nate Williams:

You don't quote unquote get as much out of the Bible study. I don't know if God makes that distinction to where he says, chloe, you had a quiet time today, but you were really anxious over your studying. You just wasted your time, chloe. Why'd you even bother? I think it's more than how you feel as you do it or what you get out of it. It's that you were trying to be faithful and so, as you I know. If you break up the studying and you have a quiet time at some point in the day before the very end, when you're exhausted, you might be partially distracted, you might feel that anxiety and, besides the discipline of it hey, do your best and work on that it also might just be the fact that you were thinking of God in those moments, and that's what matters.

Zeke Adams:

I'm going to agree with what Nate said and also make it more personal, because I also know that Chloe, as she's already mentioned, has pretty much memorized the book of James. So, on the other hand, it's also like not as if you're doing nothing. You're doing nothing, it's not like you're saying, oh well, I just don't have any time at all, ever. But you just admitted that in the mornings you'll try to listen to it, or you don't have something else to do. You'll try to listen, or you also lead a Bible study at your school. And then you've also memorized the book of James. You said you listen to the entire book. Most people don't get more than a chapter a day and you listen to the entire book a day.

Nate Williams:

That's a great point Also. Yeah, I didn't even think about the length of the quiet time. If it's a devotional for a couple minutes and a prayer, that's okay.

Chloe Adams:

I think I just struggle so much because I am very type A and I think, oh, if I don't sit down and have a 15-minute devotion with a 10-minute prayer time, I'm like it wasn't worth it.

Nate Williams:

I'm doing terrible, I'm like I'm a terrible Christian.

Chloe Adams:

I got nothing out of that, but you know, I know that's not true. That's just the enemy trying to tell me.

Nate Williams:

It's the way your brain. Yeah, I understand.

Chloe Adams:

It's literally just the enemy trying to say like, okay, you're getting nothing out of this, so just stop doing it completely. And that's something I've had to wrestle with, like being in school and studying so much is just trying to manage my time, and everybody's always like, oh, just like you know you listen to all these things. They're like just wake up a little bit earlier. But the thing is I wake up at 4 am to go to the gym and I don't really want to wake up at 3.50. That's already really hard, so I can't. It's not really like I guess I'm not really in like a things, even if it's just doing like a Bible app devotion on my phone for five minutes before I go into school that day or something like that, and it's still something I don't.

Zeke Adams:

And I think, from knowing you and having this conversation plenty of times, and I honestly think that there's a part of it that, like you said, you're top eight and you feel, and you feel like, oh well, I didn't do 25 minutes worth of this.

Zeke Adams:

Therefore, or maybe you did 25 minutes and I know you've said before that you feel like you, I didn't really get anything out of it but, honestly, like, in a sense, if it's not a healthy, I don't think that's a healthy way to look at it. I'm not saying you, I think you would agree with me. I feel like our feelings aren't what determines how much we got out of it, because I can tell you there's plenty of times where I've read something and I don't, I didn't remember anything, I read hardly, but then something would come up later that week or the next month or whatever. I'm like I actually remember reading that, like I didn't remember it in the moment, but like something came up, I was like so I guess, even whenever I wasn't doing well, I wasn't paying enough attention or I didn't feel like I got anything out of it in the moment, god was still able to use it. I mean, after all, he created everything out of nothing.

Chloe Adams:

So you know, I think he can create something out of our minimal effort. And I think I too sometimes will look at people like you and Nate and just you know, people who know a little bit more about, like, the knowledge of the Bible, like the characters.

Zeke Adams:

Zeke is very smart, he's the smartest.

Chloe Adams:

Actually Like the characters in the background and the details.

Nate Williams:

I said Zeke is very smart, and then you said he is the smartest actually. So, that works, yeah, go on, chloe, okay.

Zeke Adams:

I was saying that ironically.

Nate Williams:

Good job, nate, actually, so that works yeah go on, chloe okay, I was saying ironically good job. I thought I thought you were just switching it back.

Chloe Adams:

Never mind, I was like hold on, go on. I was just saying how, like you know, you guys are really good with like the knowledge and like the details and the characters. But for me, like I know to a certain extent some of those things, um, but I it's hard for me to remember like certain details. Like, if you were to ask me right now who some random Bible character is, I'd probably be like I don't know, just because I'm not very good at remembering those things. But I, even though that is true for me, like I still I feel like when I do the Bible studies, it shouldn't just be about me acquiring all this knowledge. You know, um, I do fall like guilty into thinking it should be, but, like I said in the very beginning of this podcast, it's nourished, meant for my soul, and it's me remembering God's promises and telling him his promises you know, not for him but for me and reminding myself that God is faithful, god is good and he's been like that the whole time ever since he created the world.

Zeke Adams:

I think that's kind of the mindset I'm getting out of and, to be fair, I don't know as much as you give me credit for. But like, even whenever I read stories like I'm going through Samuel right now, and there's just name after name I'm like one, I can't pronounce that and two, no clue who that is. And then I've been trying to actually learn who it is. But like I don't know and it's really. It would be really easy for me to say, okay, well, that was pointless, because I read about a bunch of people I don't know and I didn't memorize their names. I didn't know all this, I didn't do a deep dive into it, but that's kind of the in it to learn all the nitty gritty details. You're in it to read God's word and see what he has to say to you, not what you can figure out from him. You disagree.

Nate Williams:

No, I think that's right, chloe. So what we're leaning into sometimes is some potential legalism of I need to check these boxes, I need to make it this length of time, et cetera, et cetera. I think the guiding principle is a relationship Always comes back to a father spending time with his children, and so does it matter that the children knows things about their father.

Zeke Adams:

Yeah, yeah.

Nate Williams:

You know that's important, children, that we know things about God and what God's done. So the knowledge does matter, but what matters more is that the children want to spend time with the father.

Zeke Adams:

Even if the children don't get any, seemingly don't feel like they get anything out of it.

Nate Williams:

So the children, let's say, after a certain time spent together, might not feel like Zeke's saying they got anything out of it, but what mattered is that they were there. What mattered was that they were there. And so, yes, we want to grow in knowledge and learn more about the Bible. Those are all good things, but they're always secondary to spending time with our creator.

Zeke Adams:

I think that's we would probably agree this. There's a part of that that's in marriage, of like there's something about being able to be in a room with someone and not say anything and just spend time with them or, you know, just have basic conversation. That's not really about anything important, it's just spending time with the other person. You may not have actually grown or benefit from the time together, but in a sense, like it's just being able to be in that person's presence, and I think that's kind of what you're getting at exactly right.

Nate Williams:

Marriage is a great analogy there. Um, that you can just have a what's called companionable silence. You're just together. Those are some of the riches richest moments.

Chloe Adams:

Uh, chloe, just to say one more thing, this just for any of the listeners um, I just have to remember to give myself grace, because I am so type A Zeke knows that I'm very like, I'm very just like it needs to be this certain way and I need to learn this thing and this thing and I could fall into legalism, like Nate said. And giving yourself grace is important too, because there's nothing that we could do to earn God's favor, but yeah, he gives it to us anyways, and we always talk so much about giving other people grace because God showed us grace, but I think that also includes giving ourselves grace too. Obviously, you don't want to, you know, give yourself so much grace that you stop just reading the Bible entirely, because you're like oh, you know, grace is free.

Chloe Adams:

You can abuse his grace. You can abuse it, yes, um there, you can abuse his grace, yes, but um, I think, especially if you are in a really busy or difficult season, I think it's okay to give yourself a little grace, yes and uh.

Nate Williams:

Sometimes it might be a few minutes checking with God Then. Other times you might be able to spend half the day out in nature just soaking in during your Bible, going by a I don't know a river and just chilling you know so so seasons will come and go.

Nate Williams:

The big thing is that you spend time with God. I think that matters more than any checkbox or checklist. But anyways, I guess the last thing and we'll get off after this question. But what if someone says I just it's not even busyness or intimidation, I just don't care to read my Bible. I don't, it's just not that big of a deal for me. I grew up in church, I kind of know in general the stories and instead it's apathy. I just don't think it's that important. Any any words for that.

Chloe Adams:

I mean I think it goes back to exactly what we said in the beginning about it being nourishment for your soul and kind of what I just said to like you're reminding yourself of God and his promises and his character. Um, so maybe if you think you know it all, you definitely don't Like there's no one that knows it all. Like we are called, I mean, we need to be lifelong learners and just always be ready to learn more from his word, whether we want to or not.

Zeke Adams:

I think also to give an analogy if we flip the tables and let's say the person said that, but if I said, okay, well, I know enough about you, I don't really want to spend time with you, but don't worry, I know enough about you, they would be like, well, that's not, you can't really be my friend If you just know stuff about me but you don't really spend time with me or know me. I mean, like I know plenty of stuff about celebrities but I don't know them.

Nate Williams:

Like I know just stuff about them. That's a great analogy.

Zeke Adams:

But I don't spend time with them. I'm not their friend. So if we're apathetic, then I think it's really a heart check to say like if God gave me words, if God personally wrote me letters which he did, essentially he did If God wrote me letters and I never read them, do I really care that much about God, or do I just? I don't know. I think there's more going on there to the point where you're going to have to do. It's not an easy answer.

Nate Williams:

Yes for sure. Zeke's hitting the nail on the head. You'd have to question the relationship. Do you know God? Do you love God? Because when you see what Christ has done for us, it's incredible. Paul writes about it in his letters and obviously you have the Gospels of Jesus that if you have a true saving relationship with Jesus, you won't stay the same. You can't stay the same. The grace is too just mind-blowingly amazing and there's going to be some response of thankfulness and gratitude. Romans 12, verse 1, talks about this that your rightful sacrifice is your life. You're giving back to God, and so if you don't care to read the Word or to pray, or to spend time with believers and grow in your faith and all those things that are relatively connected, you do have to check your heart. Do you know God? Do you love him? Do you have a relationship with God? Or did you just grow up in the church? Did you just maybe say a couple words adults wanted you to say when you were at summer camp? Whatever Just things?

Zeke Adams:

to think through. I think this kind of brings us full circle of you have the two different people. There's a difference between the person we began with of I want to read my Bible, but I have all these excuses, all this stuff going on, or I don't know much about it. I think there's a very like we were talking about a very big motivation slash, heart difference between someone saying I want to, but I have all these excuses, versus someone says I don't have excuses, I just don't want to.

Nate Williams:

I don't care. Yeah, Good, good thoughts, and so we walked through. We didn't go through every excuse, every reason that people give to not read their Bibles, but I think we walked through several of the big ones. If y'all have any thoughts about it or any you know any excuses you'd like to add, we could also do another episode on this later with more stuff to cover, but anyways, I've been with Zeke, Chloe and obviously my name is Nate Williams. This is the Dangerous Faith Podcast and Zeke the Dangerous Life version of the podcast, and until next time, we'll talk with you later.

Chloe Adams:

Thank you Do re mi fa so la. Ti do Do mi re fa mi so fa la.