Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations
with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through
the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing
fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith
in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the
context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives.
Welcome to a random inserted episode because everybody in the world got sick around us.
It's so true. Love in Context. Ben and his two kids are sick. My wife, my daughter, I'm
not sick. My wife is sick. Oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Your wife and your two kids are sick.
My wife and daughter are sick. My assistant at work is sick. Yeah. I think her kids are
sick. So there is a bug going through, but not to worry podcast family. We are not sick.
Not yet. Not yet anyways. Yeah. Um, so we're going to do a little bit of a different episode
where we've talked about a lot of resources. And so I want to go through and I want to
just talk about some of our main resources that we use on a regular basis and why they're
beneficial for people and then just kind of have a conversation about a few of them. So
the rest of this episode is going to be, it's probably not going to be as long. Uh, we will be returning
next week and it will not be Kyle Quinn because of a scheduling conflict. It will actually
be your wife is going to come and talk about, uh, the spiritual gift of tongues. Yeah. Yep.
And then we'll be finishing out that series with pastor Sarah after that one week talking
about healing ministry and what is healing and deliverance look like. It's going to be
great. So, uh, so I want to start with probably some of we've referenced, it feels like a
thousand points times at this point, right? Uh, that's Baymaw discipleship.com, right?
Dot org.com. I think it's.com. Um, Baymaw discipleship. So that is the Baymaw podcast
with Marty Solomon. Yes. Um, so I have known Marty for a lot of years. He, he and I actually
were at the same church though, not at the same time. I left a church, uh, when I was
in college and he came in at the same time. So if you were like, Oh, you didn't know each
other. Well, yeah, we missed each other by like four months and met like five years later.
Yeah. Um, but, uh, Marty is first of all, a really good man, loves the Lord, uh, is
passionate about the text. He's passionate about people wrestling with the text, passionate
about people diving in and learning more. He definitely engages the Bible from an intellectual
perspective. Yes. And that's not a bad thing. So how is the Baymaw podcast really helpful
for you? They are going, everything that they're going to talk about from the Baymaw podcast
is trying to understand the Bible from the Jewish perspective, right? Um, understanding
that we of course are Westerners and we're going to understand it from the Western perspective.
They say, how do we make sure that we understand that this Bible was written by written to
and written for Eastern listeners? Right. And, uh, so you understand of course, like
when we went through tour series, why we referenced them a lot of times, because placing the text
in context matters. Absolutely. And so, um, there, there's, their podcast is different
than ours because ours is, you know, of course conversationally based and it's meant to really
understand like, yes, in context, but how do we live that out today? Yes. There's as
much more informational, it's much more informational, more academic, which by the way, if you've
been listening and you're like, man, I love this podcast, but I wish I had something that
was more informational. That's a great podcast for you. And we can't recommend them enough.
Um, you know, we think that having real conversations was really important, but their conversations
are really good there too. Yeah. Um, they're just more intellectual and more about the
text itself. Yeah. The first time I listened to Baymaw, it was like, it was one of the
things where I was like, this is so good. And that I went back and re listened. Right.
Right. And I didn't, and like, I'm not typically one to do that. I'm like one and done. I listened
to her like, all right, I did it. It's done off my list. And, but that one, I was like,
okay, we're going to go back. We're going to listen to that episode again. Cause Marty
impacts some really, really cool things throughout his podcast. Yeah. And I, I highly recommend
there's the first five seasons. Um, they call them cap. They're, they're capstone. They
may be sessions. I can't remember if they call them sessions or seasons. Um, the first
five seasons are meant to be taken as their core for lack of a better word curriculum.
Yeah. And, uh, and I, I strongly encourage you, everything in the later seasons is built
on the previous seasons. So don't just find a topic you want and jump there because you're
going to miss the greater context that they're setting up. Start in episode one or actually
episode zero and go all the way. And then when you actually get to season four and you
get to the revelation, you're going to have some fun. There's a guy in our church and
his name is life and I'm putting him on the podcast right now. He would love the revelation
portion, but he doesn't get to run their life. You have to listen to the whole thing, the
whole thing to get there. You know, he's just going to run there. Oh, he's just going to
run there. He's a hundred percent going to run there. He's going to listen to this and
he's going to be like, yes, yes, I have. Lafe is, I love life. He's so funny. Yeah. Well,
he's such a good man. Um, yeah. So that is, um, that's, that's probably, that's going
to be my, my number one go to source. Um, Marty is, he'll tell you, he's not, um, the
most knowledgeable. He is a connector of resources. And so he's a lot of times pulling a lot of
resources together for you to be able to disseminate. Right. Um, once again, with all the resources
that we give you today, there's a phrase that has said, you got to be able to eat the meat
and spit out the bones, which means that every single person we recommend, there's probably
going to be something you disagree with them on. Yeah. Including us. I have yet to read
an author or listen to a speaker and 100% agree on what they say. Well, we were having
a, we were having a fire last week and you and I were just talking about some things
we just disagree on. That's okay. We just figure it out. Yeah. Right. Um, so, uh, with
all these resources is like, if you disagree with them, cool. Yeah. Doesn't mean you can't
listen. Right. Yeah. Uh, one of the resources I actually use a lot is just the you version
Bible app. Yeah. Um, for a couple of reasons. One, it allows you to look at lots of translations
really quickly. Yes. So, so I usually read out a new living translation, right? And you
version Bible app is available on Android and iPhone for free for free. Yep. And they
have, and so like, if I read something that I'm like, oh, and the new living, I'm like,
that was weird. It kind of worded kind of weird. And I want to see what other translations
say. I can jump over to NIV ESV, whatever, and see, see how they're wording it to do,
do really quick side by side translation comparisons, which really has helped me dive deeper into
the text. Right. Right. Um, I think that as you start reading the text more and more,
the more translations you can actually engage with, the more you can actually start to see
a full picture of, of the intent behind the writing. And I think, I think a good app to
couple with the you version app is going to be the blue letter Bible app. Yep. I use that
all the time to blue letter Bible app is we've referenced it a number of times here. It helps
you get to the root words of the Greek and the Hebrew. It's a, it's a fantastic app.
Yeah. What it will not do is it won't give you the exact word that's used. Correct. It's
going to give you roots on the words that are being used. So, so there might be a portion
of scripture where it'll give you the root of a word, but that won't be the exact word.
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's not on dissimilar from like English. When you, if you were to
get to the root of each word that we're actually using, it's technically not how it's said,
but all the roots of what we were said or is in the sentence. Yes. So you just need
to be aware of that. And so you, you actually just have to compile it as you're, as you're
putting the words together. But when you start getting into different translations and you're
like, I wonder why they translated it this way. Well, go to blue letter Bible, take a
look at the root and you're able to use that. Yeah. And the other thing that Bible app has
done, this is just a shameless plug. We're not sponsored by them in any way. It's correct.
Yet. The other thing that they have done is they actually created a kids app. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Which my daughter plays with all the time and it goes through the Bible stories.
It's interactive. It's like a full on Bible game, a kid's app that they've created. That's,
that's awesome. And it's fantastic. If there is one way to get kids more excited about
things is to make it into a game. Um, I always like, it's like when my son is like, he's
like, has to pick up the lever and I'm like, well, I'm going to get to it before you. And
he's like, I'm no, I'm going to go. You know, he starts running and picking things up. Yeah.
And you're like, okay, you win. I was like, Oh, you got to it before me. I'm so slow.
So, yeah. Um, so, uh, let's keep, keep on the Bible, like actually studying the text
apps, things that I really like. Um, there's another app that I really enjoy and I don't
think you have it. It's called dwell. Um, but it is, it isn't, is a way of listening
to the Bible and they have a bunch of different narrators. They have a lot of different translations
and you can also get yourself a number of different reading plans. Yeah. Um, one of
the things that we are huge on, on our podcast is knowing the word of God, um, whether that's
meditating, reading, listening, dwelling in the word of God. So that when God speaks,
you actually have a barometer to actually compare it to. Yeah. Right. I have used dwell
in the past. I don't anymore. Yeah. Um, nothing against them. I just, somebody decided to
text me. So I'm going to leave that in just so that they know. Um, I've used dwell in
the past and I think it's a great app. Um, yeah. They're not, they're not terrible. I
think you can actually get a lifelong subscription and it supports them and you just get the
updates, but it's a, it's a good way. But if you are looking for something that is on
the free side, you can actually have you version read to you as well. Yep. Yeah. So that's
actually a good way to do that as well. In addition, uh, this is by the way, I don't
know if you knew this, but your local libraries have, uh, you can get onto what's called Libby.
Yep. It's an online listening and most of them have some version of the Bible on there
that you can listen to as well. So if you are like, I want to listen to the Bible, but
I don't have the resources to pay for it. These are really good alternatives. Yes. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things I find that I'm doing more and more is just listening
to the text. Like, like, um, I try to, I try to get 10 to 12,000 steps in a day and um,
most of the time when I'm doing that, most of it's in his hip hop jazz class. Yeah, it
is. It is. It's hip hop Zumba class actually. Hip hop hip class. We're getting older. So
that's where your hips pop out and have chiropractors on standby as a pop them back in. Exactly.
Yeah. So, uh, is I'll, I'll just listen. Yeah. I try to get 10, 12, 10 to 12,000 steps in
a day and um, that's a great time just to have headphones in and just listen. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. No, I agree with you. That's it's, it's great. Um, listening to the text
and a lot of these, you gotta remember that prior to the printing press, a lot of these
texts would have been written text, right? And uh, so even like we've talked about in
the Hebrew, you would catch a lot of things when they're being spoken in Hebrew, uh, like
connecting ideas, especially throughout Torah because you are used to hearing and you're
like, whoa, whoa, wait a second. I've heard that before. Like that particular set of Hebrew
words. I've heard that particular set. Yeah. And uh, and one of the, one of the ways I
like to talk about this and this may is starting to be a dated reference, right? But uh, it's
when you can hear words and know that they're actually referencing something else. Um, it's
like, if I said, no, I am your father, you immediately know that I'm quoting star wars.
Yeah. Right. Because of the way that I said it, or if I had like a vocal, uh, like modulator
modulator or something like that. Um, there are things that we can, uh, something else
that they know that's what's just so you know, that's a lot of what we call idioms or, um,
cultural context, like understanding, like what did this actually mean to them? Yeah.
In fact, there's actually a really fun one in, um, talking about the Harrods and when
a Harrod the great passes away and he gives his estate to three of his kids. Um, one of
they go, they go to see the King goes to see one of the Harrods goes to see a Caesar to
petition for, you know, whatever he wants. Yeah. And like he leaves his, his people in
charge, but they don't want him to be in charge. So they send a delegation to Caesar. That's
like, Hey, we don't want him. Please don't let him be our King. Now, if you think that
sounds familiar, it's because Jesus tells a story about these, uh, this master, this
King that gives a bunch of people, Minas, right? And they didn't like the King. And
so they sent a delegation to tell the person who was in charge that they don't like this
King and they don't want him to rule over them. It turns out that Jesus actually knew
what was happening in modern culture. And he was taking a shot at something was actually
happening in popular culture. Right. So context matters. Uh, another resource that I use a
lot and I think you do as well as Bible project, Bible project, Tim Mackey. Yeah. Yeah. Great
job. Uh, his, um, a lot of the, a lot of their videos are just summaries are just really
great if you're just trying to wrap your head around like, okay, what is the book of, what's
the book of Ephesians about? What's the context behind it? I'm picking on Ephesians for some
reason. I don't know. It's good book to pick on, but, um, uh, he, they'll have these little
shorts on YouTube. I think it's on their website too, but yeah. So you can either check their
YouTube site out or you can go to Bible project.com or.org it's.com or.org and you can actually
access all of their material. Yeah. And, and they, they just do a fantastic job, um, explaining
those things. Yeah, there, there is a, so the way you use Bible project, there's a few
different ways that I think are super valuable. You were talking about the there's, so the
series is called read scripture. Yeah. And they'll go through and they'll actually draw
out what the overarching view of each book is in like seven to eight minute videos. Yeah.
That is one way of really like getting an understanding of a book before you go in and
read it. Right. So by the way, you may be hearing, you're like, Oh, I should use a lot
of these things in conjunction with each other. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really helpful. Absolutely.
Um, they also have like word studies where they talk about specific Hebrew words that
show up or Greek words that show up repeatedly throughout scripture. And they have a, they
have a video about that, like an eight or nine minute video. If you are someone who
tends to be a little more philosophical in nature, that's what I'm going to go with.
Check out their podcast because a lot of the content that they don't put in their videos,
they talk about on the podcast and they get a lot more into like the wondering theologian.
Um, you know, not, not guessing, that's probably the wrong word. Um, philosophy philosophy of
scripture. So their, their podcast is really heavy. Yeah. It's really heavy. And a lot
of times they don't draw down to a specific conclusion. Correct. So there's a lot of,
it's really heavy and it's full of wonder. Yeah. So just know that going in now it's
incredibly valuable, but you have to know that about the podcast when you listen to
it, cause they're not going to necessarily resolve things for you. They'll say something
and then they, they might not come back to it. Yeah. I was listening to, they did a few
episodes on Noah. I was listening to those a little while back and there was a number
of spots where I was like, you did not conclude this. You did not conclude this or like draw
a conclusion from that. You just spoke what it was. They moved on. Yeah. And so they tend
to do that. Yeah. It is like for me, it's a lot of fun. Um, I've had other people who
listen to it and they're like, I get really lost. So whoever you are, that, that might
be a great place for you. And then if you're somebody who gets lost in, in the wonder conversation,
just stick to the videos. They're, they're pretty direct and they resolve themselves.
Yeah. Yeah. But they have a little bit of everything for everyone. In fact, they actually
have free classes on scriptural context that Tim Mackey does. And he teaches with an entire
class where he actually goes through and talks about a bunch of different things. The intro
to Genesis is really good. Really good. It's a, I think it's like 42 lessons. It's a lot.
Yeah. They're all like 18 minutes, but they're, they're really good. So I don't think we can
recommend those enough. So here's the thing. Don't try to do everything we're saying because
there's a lot of stuff. Yeah. And we should also, we should also preface that we've used
these resources over time. Yes. Like, like we did not go watch 40 plus video, 18 minute
videos in one sitting. I mean, I did it two and a half times speed and we, we always joke
about that because I listen at audible at two and a half times speed. Yes. Spencer's
mom. I do listen that quickly. Um, I, I heard the thing of that. Apparently nobody can listen
at that speed, but I think you also misled her. You said three times. I did say, yeah.
So it's only two and a half. I went and listened at two and a half. I was like, okay, I can
get the rough idea of what's going on. It was a little fast for me, but yeah. So, um,
by the way, if you, your brain does not think really quickly, do not listen to two and a
half. It's more important that you get the content. It's not a race for me. That is an
enjoyable pace. Right. For the longest time I did not realize I hated audio books because
I did not realize I could speed it up. Oh yeah. So you listened to it one time. And
I was just like, ah, but then you, then I realized I was like, oh, I can speed up to
like one and a half or two. Yeah. And then I was like, this is great. This is much better.
This is much better. Speaking of speeding up books, there's a guy we've referenced a
number of times by the name of John Mark Comer, cause he's also in Portland with Tim Mackey.
Um, he's in California now. Oh, he's in California now. Okay. I think he was in Portland for
a very long time doing ministry. Uh, John Mark Comer, we've referenced a lot of his
books. He has a book called the ruthless elimination of hurry. I'm going to throw a couple of his
book titles out cause ruthless elimination of hurry talks about living an unhurried life.
In other words, opening your life up for the wonder of God. Yeah. He's got a secret garden,
which talks about what does it mean to have a sacred vocation? What it, regardless of
what it is, man, it's such a good book. Yeah. My wife's reading it right now and she's like,
I had to go back and like, she's listening to it, but she's like, I had to go back and
re-listen to chapters. It's so good. Yeah. It's so good. Um, I actually think that a
lot of churches could really benefit by just preaching his content through that book. Yeah.
Um, he has lived no lies, which just talks about winning the war of your mind. Like,
are you going to believe in the truth or are you going to live the lie of the devil? Right.
Yeah. Um, the most recent, uh, practicing practicing the way, practicing the way. Yeah.
And uh, I, I can't recommend that book enough. I gave her five out of five. Yeah. There is
nothing for our purposes of conversation and, and Bayma and all the different places that
we reference. There wasn't anything new for me, but he packaged it so well. Yeah. Right.
And there's also there, I don't know who put it on, but somebody put it on, puts on the
John Mark Comer teaching podcast where they just compile a bunch of his sermons. Yeah.
And that you can find that on Apple or Spotify. Yeah. I listened to that a lot. John Mark
Comer. One of my favorite things about him is he's incredibly, um, humble about all of it. Um,
because he, he is a, a very hot commodity right now as far as speakers. Yeah. And he's
just incredibly humble in how he handles everything. And I just really appreciate that about him.
Um, I got to listen to him speak back in January and then he cracked a joke about how, how we're
all just, how he, he was like, yeah, you're all just a bunch of hippies with your hats
on and your coffee is thinking that you're actually doing good. And I'm sitting there
with my hat on and my coffee in my hand, my wife looks over at me and just starts dying.
Oh yeah. He called you out for sure. Like 100%. Like I'm sure he wasn't looking at me,
but I was like, 100% call. Oh, you got called out. It was, it was great. That is pretty
great. Yeah. Um, one of the things that I think is, is good for all of our listeners
on the podcast, because we have everyone from Pentecostal to reformed listeners, right?
Is John Mark Comer is going to be kind of right in the middle. Yeah. He's going to be
open to the movement of the spirit, but he's also going to be really heavy invested intellectually.
And for both of you that are on the outside spectrums, he's good for both of you because
he's going to help you consider some things that you may not be thinking about and, uh,
and open your, your life to some things that God wants to do in your life. Right. And that's
the big thing is I think a lot of times with a study and the things that we do, we tend
to do what we've done over and over again. And a lot of times God wants to open us to
other avenues of growth. Yeah. Right. Um, I think about like my son and your daughter
too is how many times do they want to go and do the things that they do really well? And
I'm like, okay, but you also have to do this. These things you're not so good at. They're
like, I don't want to, I'm not good at it. I'm like, cause you haven't done it. That's
why you're not good at it. You got to go spend some time and actually, and actually, you
don't try to do it. Well, we had a rule in our house growing up, um, where before you
were allowed to go buy coffee, like go, go to a coffee stand or Starbucks or whatever.
You had to be able to drink a full black cup of coffee. Right. That was the rule in our
house. Was that, was that, uh, just curious to pastor Nick, give your family that rule.
Uh, before you continue the story really quick, I want to share my favorite, uh, pastor Nick
quote that he made on a Sunday morning. He says, you don't like coffee. You like dessert.
It's so good. Oh, man. Everybody out of church. It was everybody. Um, but yeah. So, so the,
but the whole idea was behind it was like, Hey, this is what coffee is. Like we can dress
it up in a whole bunch of different packages, but this is what it is. Yeah. Right. And so
we need, there's an analogy in there for scripture too. Like this is what scripture is. We can
dress it up in all sorts of different packages. We're talking about different authors right
now and a lot of them do a really good job, uh, dressing up scripture in a certain way,
but we always need to go back to scripture. Yeah. Exactly. Cause that's what they're doing.
Yeah, exactly. Um, one more, one more, um, that I want to mention is a resource that
we use a lot, especially when, when we were in the Torah series, it's, uh, alaphbeta.org,
uh, specifically Rabbi David Foreman. Now we've talked about it a number of times, but
Rabbi David Foreman is, he is not a Christian. He is a Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Yes. Uh, he
does not believe that Jesus is Messiah. And so you need to know that when you go in now,
if you've actually read any of his teachings or listened to his teachings, you might be
surprised because often he is teaching and you're like, are you sure you don't believe
in Jesus? Yeah. Because the way that he talks about God is reflective of who Jesus is. Yes.
And, uh, so what we're not telling you is necessarily your theology from him, but more
to be able to get some fundamental ideas about how Hebrew works from him. Well, and his knowledge
of the Hebrew is incredible. Incredible. Yeah. Uh, I love it when he's teaching and he's
like, he's like, yeah, and this thing is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he rattles
off some Hebrew and he's like, and you'll probably, you, you heard the words that were
earlier mentioned. I was like, totally. Yeah, I definitely, I definitely heard that. Um,
and, and, uh, so he's got, uh, he's got a number of things. They, they have a podcast
too. Um, but on alaph.beta.org, they have a lot of videos and especially around the
festivals and like why they celebrate the festivals and how they connect to scripture.
That's a really good resource. Um, he also has a number of books. Um, he's got three
Parashah companions. Now, if you don't know what the Parashah is, uh, in Jewish synagogues,
they read through Torah every year. And so there's different portions and it's the Parashah
reading is the Torah portion that they read. So he wrote a companion piece that goes with
the Parashah reading for each portion of scripture. And there's one for Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus
at this point. And I just finished the Leviticus. It was so good. So good. Um, he also has three,
maybe four books I'm trying to think through now. Um, he's got one called the beast that
crashes through the door, which dives into Adam and Eve, but more specifically Cain and Abel.
And it's just fascinating read. It's going to probably wreck your brain a little bit.
Yeah. He's got one called the queen you thought you knew, which centers on the story of Esther.
That was a great book. Um, I got Tara to read that for when we, when we preached on Perham.
And, uh, and then he's got one called the Exodus, you almost passed over.
Now, what I like about Rabbi David Foreman is because he is a Orthodox Jewish rabbi,
their, their way of teaching is to ask a bunch of questions about the text and then spend the next
60 to 80 pages answering those questions. And so his stuff is a lot easier to read
because it's based around this conversation and questions about the text. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
a couple other authors that we've mentioned a lot, uh, one is, or that we've referenced a lot,
one is Francis Chan. Um, he's got a lot of great writings out there from, I mean, crazy love,
forgotten God, um, erasing hell. There's a lot of really good writings that he's put out. Uh,
one of the things that we've always mentioned about Francis was that, um, there's been times
where he's taught one thing in his life and then he's come back and said, you know, I used to teach
this that I found that that's not actually true. Right. And so I'm sorry, forgive me.
And to have someone who's in that level of authority of public speaking and teaching
the word to say that is huge. Yeah. Right. It should, I mean, it should be common stay.
Let's just put it that way. But, um, so we've referenced him a lot. Um,
I think that one of the best things you can take away from Francis Chan is his absolute
passion for Jesus and loving people. Absolutely. Like if there is one thing that you want to get
from Francis Chan, it's that, uh, cause there are, there are tons of people who disagree with his
theological take on X, Y, or Z. It doesn't matter. If you look at the guy, he loves Jesus
and he's not gonna, he's not gonna, he's not gonna hold back on his enthusiasm for the gospel.
Mm hmm. And he, back when he was a pastor in California, he put out a great series,
a video series called basics. Um, and it just goes over through the base, some of the fundamentals
of Christianity. Um, and so, uh, that's a really good video series. Each video is, I think, 50
minutes long and there's seven of them. Like it's pretty short and easy to get through. Um,
uh, another resource I've used a lot is right now media. Yep. So right now media is great.
And almost everybody that we've mentioned, they also have YouTube channels. You can access like
videos and teachings. Um, there's a reason why we started, you know, granted I did start with Baymaw,
but, uh, there's a reason we started with a lot of the biblical content upfront. You should be
spending the bulk of your time understanding the Bible and words in the Bible. And that's where
places like Bible project Baymaw and, and the Bible itself come in really handy is that you actually
need to, what is the Bible actually saying? Yeah. Cause then when you listen to teachers, you're
able to remember what I said about meat and bones, you're able to take it and be like, oh,
you're able to take it and be like, man, that's a really good application of that scripture.
And then sometimes they'll say things, you know, like, that's not really what that scripture is
talking about, but it is a biblical concept. Yeah. There's a lot of times where I've sat
under pastors and they've made a statement and it is a biblical statement, but they use the wrong
scripture, right? That's not really what the particular scripture was talking about. And, uh,
and so what I, what I have in that moment is this fantastic five letter word, it's called grace.
In other words, I understand that God is speaking through them. And as is the case to most of my
life, God is working in spite of them and in spite of me in the midst of what we're doing.
Isn't that one of the beautiful things about scripture too? Yeah. Like it's so brilliantly
done that, um, there's times where you can be making a very biblical point, use the wrong
passage, and then you're like, okay, but it's okay because the point that's being made is very
biblical. Um, and so even though that passage might not be talking exactly about that.
So that is on the intellectual side of things. Um, I want to talk about two different sides of
things. I want to talk about the meditative side of things, and I want to be really careful because
I think immediately when I say meditative, people think new age, and that's not really what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about learning how to be quiet and talk with God. So the complicated
contemplative prayer, uh, people who are going to teach you a lot about prayers. So there are a lot
of different resources on that. Um, I'm not going to give a specific recommendation because I think
there's a lot of people who teach on different aspects of prayer. The biggest thing is learning
how to listen and respond to the voice of God. Yes. And there are some apps that I do like because
there is guided prayer times on the app. Um, I'm trying to remember the one off the top of my head,
but it's not coming right now. Um, but there are a number of apps where they, where it's like a
prayer app where they'll have some like just gentle music playing in the background. You can put on
your headphones and be quiet. And if it's something about like releasing anger, every three or four
minutes, we'll say, you know, ask God to bring somebody to mind who you hold a grudge against.
And then you just pause and you listen and then gives you time to really place that person in the
forefront of your head and then watch you through the process of forgiving that person, releasing
them, blessing them in the name of Jesus. This is a very, very important thing. Um,
this is, this is all part of like self care spiritually as well. Yeah. Right. Um, I've
talked in the past on the podcast and you have as well about our church trauma. Part of getting
past your church trauma is learning how to forgive and love people well. Yeah. And you say, oh, but
what if they don't learn their lesson? It's not about them. It's about you. It's about me. Yeah.
Are we going to be the kind of people who lay down our life on behalf of those around us?
Uh, last night in caregiver, we were, we, uh, had a video when they were talking about, uh, cause
there, uh, it was a Ray Vanderlin video where they're walking through the Holy land and they're
talking about this structure that was built for the crusades. And, uh, a lot of people don't like
understand exactly how brutal the crusades were to Jewish and Muslim people.
You can't forget your history,
but if we, if we're not going to learn how to like lay down our life, like, so people had taken the
message of Jesus and they had started to enforce it at sword point. Yeah. Now you might say they
would do it at gunpoint, but the message of Jesus was this. He conquered the entire world by laying
his life down on a cross. Yeah. The Jews and the Romans did not kill Jesus. He's very clear with
that. He could have left at any point. Jesus laid his life down so that through his death, burial,
and resurrection, we would actually have access to the kingdom of God. Yeah. So that we today,
as we suffer well, as we live, as we lay our lives down on behalf of other people, we do that so that
the kingdom will come into different places. Yeah. Our, our suffering is not in vain. Yeah. It's to
bring the kingdom of God into the dark places and it's not forever. There's like this whole eternity
of awesomeness. Yeah. This life is a blip and a vapor. So I think part of learning how to like sit
and like rid ourselves of anger, rid ourselves of all these, it's a very valuable resource and time
for us. It doesn't feel like you're doing much and that probably means you're doing it right. Yeah.
That was a hard practice for me to develop. Yeah. Um, I don't know if you guys have noticed
listening to us on the podcast. I like to talk a lot and think a lot and intellectualize.
And think a lot and intellectualize learning how to stop and listen and forgive and have compassion.
But it's huge. It's huge. It's huge. Yeah. Um, a lot of times in the church, we don't focus on that
side of things as much. Yeah. The stopping, the slowing down, the praying, uh, coming back to the
idea of meditation. You read through the Psalms, the Psalms are constantly talking about meditating
on the word or meditating in the Lord. Be still and now be still and now everything might be
falling apart around you, but be still and now I lift my eyes to the heavens. Right. Right. This
is like the idea of a meditative comp was already used contemplative contemplative prayer. I was
like, compilative. If I was like, that's not a word, that's not a word contemplative prayer.
But the idea behind that is very much rooted in Jewish history and culture. Yeah. Um, we're talking
about people who were dedicated to that. Yeah. To the meditation of the word, not just the,
not just the, okay, I read it, right. It was meditating on it, knowing it, letting it,
letting God, uh, change who you are inside and out. There is a, there's a book for the intellectual
who'd like to, to kind of walk through this practicing the presence. No, brother Lawrence.
Do you remember what his book is called? Nope. I think it's called practicing the presence,
but if you look up brother Lawrence, you'll find it. It's, it's one that people reference all the
time. Um, and he was a, um, a monk and his, his thing about, uh, living in the presence,
I probably said the title wrong and that's okay. Look up the correct title. It'll probably be in
the show notes when I actually put this in, I'll put the right title in. Yeah. But just learning
how to like syncing up your life with God is the most important thing you can do. And you know,
yes, your intellectual like studying the Bible is going to help you know God, but you actually have
to spend time with God. It's the relationship portion, which brings my, my, my last piece in
you also for resources and in learning how to develop spiritually, intellectually, uh,
discipleship wise, you need to know how to worship. Yes. Um, I thought it was really interesting. Uh,
one of our pastors here made a statement. He says, why do we worship last Sunday morning?
And like people had a lot of different reasons, but the biggest thing is that when we worship,
we get caught up into joining this, the voices of a thousand generations, right? Um, this,
this whole idea from the book of revelation that they cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God
almighty who was and is and will be ever be right. And we're joining not only the people who worshiped
in the past, the people who worship present, but the people who worship that are not yet a part of
us. Uh, worship is powerful when you do it as a family, uh, church family and like a local family.
I think I shared the story once about, um, that family that lost their daughter and they couldn't
sing, but on that day, everybody's saying for them, right? Because, uh, we sing on behalf of
those that can't sing for themselves. And it's, it's joining our hearts and our minds, understanding
and lifting up that God is good and trusting in his goodness in the midst of our chaos.
Yeah. And so no Christian resource is really complete without this idea of worship. Yeah.
So true. Yeah. And worship. The other thing is a lot of times there's times where we don't want to.
Correct. Right. There's times where we don't want to, but we show up anyways. Yeah. And we met and
we worship. I have this, I have this thing. I don't really like to raise my arms and worship,
right? But I know that every time I do, God meets me as my arms arise. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Yeah. And I'll be, so I'm going to be, well, even if you're not okay with me being vulnerable,
if you're not okay with me being vulnerable, pause the podcast right now. Fast forward a little bit.
Yeah. Fast forward a little bit, like 30 seconds. Um, I get uncomfortable raising my hands because
of my weight. And like, I feel like I get exposed as like, you know, people being able to see like
my belly or whatever. And so my, when, when a lot of times when I'm like, okay, well, if I'm raising
my hands, I'm constantly thinking about that. I was like, but I do want to raise my hands because
I want to lift my hands up to God. Yeah. Right. And, uh, I had to silence that part of my life.
And you know, the thing is as soon as my hands are in the air, you know what I'm not thinking about?
All that stuff. All that stuff. Because I'm just lifted up to God over and over again. And more
than that is that that act of that prophetic act is what I'm going to call it where I'm giving up
everything. God meets me in the act. Yeah. I'm glad that that really yawning at me.
No, no, the yawning was the being up sick. Yeah. With sick kids. Yeah. Kids.
So this has been a little bit of a different episode. Um, but you know, I think it's a,
it's a good one for us. We haven't really talked about our resources a lot. Now there's tons of
books we didn't mention. We didn't talk about like Kenneth Bailey or, um, you know, John Orberg or
yeah, Dallas Willard. Like there's, there's so many authors and different people that you can
collect pieces from. Um, Lois Twerberg, Twerberg. Wow. It's a T V E R on her last name. So, um,
if Lois, if you're listening, I'm sorry for saying your name that way. I, cause she definitely
listens to our podcast. Um, you are welcome to come on and, and give us a print correct pronunciation,
but there's, there's a lot of, you know, even Ray Vanderlin mentioned, we were watching some
of his videos, uh, Brad gray, who does a wonderful job of walking the text.com.
We want to, we want to lift up all these people and, uh, and there might be some pieces, like,
like I said, don't try everything, but there's going to be some pieces where you might connect.
And as we went through all of these pieces, like God probably spoke to you on one of those that
he'd like you to start today. Yeah. And my, my encouragement and challenge would be just take
these resources at your own pace too. Correct. So if you are like, Hey, I'm going to start listening
to Baymont podcast, right? Just take it at your own pace. There's a lot in there, right? If you
need to go over, there's no shame in needing to go back and re-listen to it, slow the speed down
so you can understand a little better, whatever, whatever works for you. And there's no special
accomplishment for listening to it quickly unless that's just the part that connects with you.
The biggest thing in all reading, listening, worship, contemplative, everything is what is
going to draw you closer to God and what's going to work for you is not going to work for everybody.
And that's okay. We're different people and God wants to speak to us different ways. Yes.
All right. So we will be back next week with our normally scheduled episode, and we're going to be
talking about tongues. And so some of you have been waiting for that episode to decide if you
want to call us heretics or stop listening. That's going to be the one I thought we were
talking about cow tongues, dog tongues, whale tongues. I know. Do whales have tongues? I mean,
I'm assuming I don't know actually marine biologists that listens, please let us know.
Do whales have tongues? My suspicion is no. Yeah, probably not. I imagine they have some.
Orcas do. Yeah. Well, orcas are jerks. So, all right, until next week, we'll talk to you later.
So, Randy, that orcas are jerks. There's been actually more.
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love and Context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging
conversation and gained valuable insights into the powerful message of love within the Bible.
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