688: 10 Ways To Change The Way You Read Your Bible

0:00Welcome, men to the pursuit of manliness podcasts where we are vigorously equipping men to pursue biblical manliness. My name is Jared Samuels. I'm the host of the podcast and men is always elected to begin by thanking you for either watching or listening to today's podcast episode. I believe if this podcast episode goes in order the way that I think these are going to go in order, you will have three maybe days left to register for the men's retreat. Now I want to say a few things about that. We have I think 16, 18 something I got spots by the time I'm recording this left for the giveaway. When you come to the retreat and check in we have a mug. I don't have it with me. That we're going to give you as a thank you for making it to the retreat. You'll get a couple meals. You get some worship sessions teaching times to hang out with other guys. We don't provide housing but you can camp. You can camp in an RV. You can camp on the ground. You can have a deer blind. You can camp in your car. Hotels, Airbnb's, whatever it is that you want to do. It is a great weekend.

1:02And I say all the time I really believe the caliber of man that comes to this retreat continues to increase. And I was having this conversation with a good friend yesterday who has been I think to all the retreats and he agreed with that. He agreed that boy there is a change in the conversation of things that are taking place and it's not that we've brought in a bunch of bells and whistles or anything like that. As a matter of fact we don't do that. I use the phrase blue collar. I know it's confusing to some people but it is what you see is what you get. We're not going to try to have you need a payment plan to come to this thing. I'm not going to try to woo you. Wow you with blue check mark guys or anything like that. I mean I'm going to preach the word. We're going to have good worship through singing. In one of the sessions we probably have a time of communion. Sometimes we do like a maybe a call to action depending on this. I don't know. I don't have anything yet. I do know I believe what I'm going to teach through. And I used to feel like you know this is what I want to say. Like I had the things I wanted to say. You know but now my prayer is what do we need to hear? You know it's not about what

2:08Jared wants to say. I get an opportunity to say plenty of things like this podcast. You know daily videos. Plenty of me out there. You heard me say that before. What do we need to hear Lord? And I feel like the Lord has led me to a chapter that I'm going to work through walk through in the next couple weeks few weeks and then we'll probably go through that at the retreat. I say probably because the Lord can't change. Sometimes I'm wrong. I do want to say this again with the retreat. Now I'm going to get on to today's conversation. Once the retreat registration closes which is Sunday September 6th. I am for the most part going to take a P O M social media sabbatical. You say why are you telling me that? Well I'm not going to be posting the daily garage videos of those things on there. I'm not going to the regular posts and things. I'm going to take a break. I'm saying that because it is inevitable that on that Monday September 7th there will be a guy who will DM me, direct message me and say hey man I just found the podcast which by the way thank you for just finding the podcast. We got new listeners all the

3:11time which just blows my mind. I just found the podcast. I realized registration closed yesterday. Is there any way I can get in? Brother I won't be checking those messages. I haven't really been checking email hardly. I'm going to take a break from that to get ready for the retreat to spend those three weeks getting everything squared away when it comes to tribe. The retreat, the tribe guys get hikes and there's a lot of moving pieces there. I'll just take a break. I will post on my own page but again I'm not a DM checker very much. If you're listening to this or watching this and saying oh man it's September 7th 8th and I'm just finding out about this. I was too late to get to the retreat. What I would encourage you to do is go to our close Facebook group and see if anyone has an extra ticket. If they do ask them can you have it? You work with them and all that stuff and we'll get it squared away. Better than that. I would say sign up for tribe. Tribe is a great place to get the retreat experience but you get it for six months. So sign up for tribe. That registration will be opening up in the next couple weeks. What I'm talking about today is something

4:12I shared with the guys in the herd the other night. For the guys in the herd you're portion of this podcast. Your bonus content again is sent directly to you through email. You're going to get kind of a brief synopsis of some of the things that were shared after what I shared. I should get on with this. Essentially I shared on that call that I am currently in a season and it's been a brief season. It just kind of dawned on me the other day. Now I'm in a brief season where I feel a little bit stuck when it comes to reading the Bible. I use the word with my wife bored. I'm feeling bored when it comes to reading the Bible. Now that doesn't mean I stopped reading the Bible. That doesn't mean I'm trying to say anything blasphemous about the Bible. What I'm saying is I'm kind of stuck in a rhythm and something needs to change. So what I'm going to share with you on this episode are at least 10 things. I'm going to give you 10. I'm going to try to hold the 10. I know I got some more but 10 things that I would say are pieces of advice that I've shared with other people.

5:15So I'm going to take my own advice. These are things that I'm trying to do and I will continue to try to do. But I'm sharing it with you because I know there are times where we can feel stuck. We can feel like we're not growing or we can feel like we're just checking boxes. And let me say it is always right to do right. I'm not going to justify. I'm going to stop reading the Bible for a number of days so I miss it. No, I wouldn't do that because we're not guaranteed any time at all. I'm going to continue to get into the Word of God and I'm going to continue to seek out what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me and apply it. I'm going to do that. But there are some things that are very pragmatic that I can do in my life and I will try to implement them in my life. A number one. Again, these are things if you feel stuck or you feel like you're checking boxes or you feel like and I just I'm stagnant in this. You know you're supposed to do this and I think all things that

6:17are good, Satan has a way of giving us guilt. The things that are good like fellowship and prayer and fasting and giving ties offerings service to the Lord. Those things Satan always has a way of taking things that are good and giving us a guilt complex to the point where we stop doing them because we say, well what's the point? I'm never going to be as good as that person or I'm always going to feel guilty about that or I didn't pray long enough or I didn't I broke my fast sooner than I said I was going to do or you know again the Bible I'm never going to understand this. I've heard people say I got to read it you know X number of times before I understand anything there's worse things to read several times in the Bible okay. So let me go through the list the first thing I need to do I'm giving counsel to myself but hey if it can benefit you in any form or fashion that's great. I'm not saying you have to do all ten of these maybe there's one or two that you you hear or see me say and you think yeah I'm going to grab that I'm going to take hold

7:20that number one is pray maybe I just need to stop for a moment and pray for me when I'm getting up I'm getting up about the same time my wife is she's getting ready I got a little bit of time downstairs I got my I don't like clock a little bit I know I need to get my son up at a certain time I know there's many people moving about so for me I'm kind of getting down there and I get coffee going I don't drink coffee right away I'm going to wait 30 minutes to an hour I want to get all the everything going but I kind of just open the Bible and start reading what I need to do is pray it's it's like you go back to first see me on chapter three speak Lord for your servant is listening one of the things I am guilty of is not slowing down I get a little rammy I get a little ram bunches I get the cart before the horse I tend to you know I think of an idea I think of something I'm going to do it now we're going to do it right now I learned that years ago never

8:21implement a new idea on your day off or on vacation because if it's your day off or on vacation your your mental space is totally different your margin for error and time is totally different now you want to implement a new idea do it while you're working see if you can work it in see put it in your normal rhythm you always have all these grand ideas with your kids like in the summer this school year we're going to start doing this and then you get into the school year so pray the point of that is just slow down recognizing that this time that I'm devoting to the Lord is for the Lord it's not necessarily for me it's me giving something back I'm giving of myself back to the Lord it's offering the first fruits of my life back to God so what I don't want to do is sit down open a Bible up and going all right God give me something good something I can text out the nephews today something I can send to my accountability group something I can post online that makes me look

9:24you know like I'm really anchored down into this now I need to just sit and I need to talk to the Lord that's a discipline that's a personal discipline that I need to implement and that is devoting the first it doesn't have to be a lot but first something to the Lord in prayer speak Lord for your servant is listening I am prepared to hear I am prepared to listen I am prepared to consider now I don't know how much time you have devoted for your personal worship time but it needs to be enough my needs to be enough that I am willing to put a comma in there and pause and pray my second thing would be is to be honest again we're talking about if you're finding some boredom or you're in a season of stuck or you're in this check the box is that be honest and I don't mean be honest like I'm looking to the Bible I'm so bored this book this book so boring it's not boring at all it's

10:24living and active and it's unbelievably convicting now maybe I'm in a section of the Bible that's not as instant fruit giving as some others but be honest when I say be honest like I was honest with the men in the herd forgive me on that call now at the risk of them looking at me going hey aren't you supposed to be the guy I'm just telling you this is where I'm and nobody said that by the way but but that's a thought that crosses your mind it's a thought that crosses my mind as a pastor if I'm honest with the congregation and say man this is where I'm struggling right now they might look at you and say you're supposed to be the guy that has it all together well I got bad news for you I don't I don't have it all together I'm going to try I'm I'm going to fit I'm going to try to figure this out a phrase I used to say off it is it will not be for a lack of effort it won't be because I just sat back on my hands well what's the point I'm not even going to try anymore I've been doing this thing for 26 years I guess I guess I'm just bored with it no I'm going to be honest I'm going to be honest with the men in the herd men in tribe people my church I'm honest with my wife I told my

11:31wife that the other day you know what she did she thanked me she said I appreciate you saying that because if if I you know if you're in a funk or you're kind of you know that then I know like this is what you're working through this is what you're trying to figure out so I tell her that in a kitchen you think oh man is she going to look at me like I you know no she thanked me for that and I was humbled by that you know thank you for being honest that this is where you're at spiritual right now so first two would be prey slowed down enough to prey number two would be to be honest and I'm going to be honest with the people my tribe the herd my wife the congregation my buddy Jason who was in my office as I'm having this conversation I'm going to be honest this is where I'm at I don't plan staying here I'm determined to get out of this but this is where I'm at and I'm going to be honest with God God I I'm not seeing a lot of life in this right now or I'm not getting the kindling that I feel like I should have maybe it's a season maybe you know

12:32we've had a lot of life changing our house maybe there's a season maybe there's something maybe there's a character that needs to be developed maybe there's a resiliency that needs to happen maybe there's some sort of process of enduring that needs to take place maybe I'm in the land between I'm not where I was and I'm not where I'm going to be but knowing that God can produce an incredible harvest in my life if I stay on that path left foot right foot so that's the first two I'm going to pray I'm going to be honest number three I'm going to get up a little bit earlier I will confess I like getting up earlier and I don't like getting up earlier I do enjoy sleeping but I like the benefits of getting up earlier so maybe you need to get up just a little bit earlier if you're a grown man and you still can't get up when when the alarm's going off that's a you thing right because you set that alarm the night before now I know some of you might be setting that alarm think a while I get to hit snooze three times what kind of sleep is that hitting snooze three

13:33times how about you hold yourself accountable and the night before you set the alarm for 5 30 AM and when 5 30 AM goes off you turn it off and you get up you've already won the first battle you have already held yourself accountable to what you said you were going to do the night before so maybe get up a little bit earlier I used to joke I used to joke that I wish Proverbs 8 17 says those who seek me in the late afternoon will find me it doesn't say that talks about those who seek me in the morning will find me well my morning I didn't I didn't like getting up that early and so I'd kind of get my things together I'd grab my coffee whatever I get going and I think well I'm going to read real quick before I do this or I'm gonna you know I'm gonna read when I get to the office or I'm gonna you know it was just it was it was okay there was no substance there it was all very surface level so maybe it's just simply getting up a little bit earlier and maybe say Jared I'm getting up as early as I can like you know I got guys it get up like ridiculous hours of night I respect that

14:37I'm not trying to out do you I'm not trying to top you okay but maybe you leave for work 10 minutes earlier I know you don't want to be there but leave for work 10 minutes earlier sit in the park in a lot and that 10 minutes you devote solely to the Lord not scrolling on your phone not answering text messages not checking the scores but for that whatever it is whatever you're getting so you got to the office earlier you got to the factory earlier you got to the job site earlier and 10 minutes you get out the Bible and you devote it solely to the Lord again we're talking about doing the things we need to do to get unstuck I don't want to stay stuck I don't want to keep spending my tires and hearing the sounds of the engine revving the tires going and I'm not moving anywhere I want to go I don't want to waste my life and I don't think you want to waste your life either number four change locations so for me a lot of times I may sit right here at this table the problem with this table is it gets very crowded with POM stuff retreat stuff different things I'm

15:41studying it's it's a catch-all and over here my wife has a desk and she's got things going on and there's stairs and there's there's a lot of life in this area so you say I'll go to the garage yeah and I'm not a wimp but I don't enjoy sitting in a 95 degree garage you know trying to get glean something from the Bible for I think I've become too climate controlled I I don't mind having a little air conditioning going or a little heat going on certain times of year absolutely but change locations maybe you go outside maybe you stand in the driveway maybe you sit on the deck or you sit in a camping chair in your driveway these are just some things I've done um maybe like for me I've driven to like a local state park or another park and and I'll get that little like table out that hangs on my steering wheel and I'll read my Bible there or maybe I'll get out and I get on a picnic table and just sit there and read it like change the scenery I right now I'm sitting in my what they call it chair and a half I love that chair and a half it's I got

16:42I can put all my books and stuff next to me and and and that's where I sit most of the time I got my lamp next to me I got everything I need right there but maybe I need to change locations maybe I need to go stand the driveway maybe I need to go stand over here again or sit somewhere different or whatever but changing locations you think about the different places that Jesus went he went to the mountain he went to the garden I guess Semini uh he you know he would draw to withdraw to like lonely places like he would go get away so I think it's good to change your scenery if you have a place and you say I can you know kind of shut the door and kind of drop anchor and it's working for you may keep doing it again I'm just going back to if you feel stuck if you feel like you're sort of getting bored with your personal worship time there's some things we can do so again we're gonna pray we're gonna be honest we're gonna get up earlier or get to the office or or factory or wherever earlier and then we're going to change locations I'm going to have my

17:42personal worship time somewhere different you you may just try one or two of these things and see if if anything changes um the next one be eliminate distractions I'm a firm believer in reading the printed copy of the Bible you say I read it right off my phone I wouldn't do that but if it's all you got do it I wouldn't do it because you know as well as I do you got alarms you got notifications you got texting I mean I have a commentary on my Bible that oh my phone I really enjoy and I try not to use it in the morning when I'm doing my personal worship because I know I know that number was this now it's this I wonder if I got another email I wonder if that guy finally missed me back I wonder if there's somebody asking me on a Monday if it's too late to sign for the retreat I should probably at least take a look at that it's too easy we are too easily distracted turn the TV off turn the noise off look I know depending on your season of life for some this is easier than others you're an empty nest or this might be really easy for you you got a new born it's not easy at all you know depending on what you're doing it's easier or or more challenging to

18:47eliminate distractions but I would say try to eliminate distractions there's a reason why you're your church service for most of you not all of you for most of you has your children somewhere else in a building it's not that you're not supposed to do your job it's that okay what can we do to help adults learn let's try to eliminate distractions eliminate distractions don't don't allow them to be excuses now it's inevitable again if I'm sitting in chair and a half I'm out in a garage whatever my wife's gonna ask me a question my phone's gonna go off something's gonna happen look that's not the end of the world what I'm saying is I don't want to be the cause of my laziness for why I'm so easily distracted when it comes to personal worship time and then it's too many afternoon I'm going well I don't even know what I read I'm just I'm just it's mindlessness at this point no I need to own this part so I'm gonna try to eliminate distractions the next one would be to change or start a bible plan change your bible plan or start a bible plan I've tried all different things I've read chronological I've read straight from left to right I've read you know I'm gonna read the same

19:49thing every day for a while I read like the book of Philippians every day for a certain period of time you know it just depends right now in tribe we're in second kings some of those second kings are very exciting a lot of good stuff and some of them you're like wow we just got to get through this this week um that I'm also reading some Psalms right now I'm kind of anchored down in Psalm 96 and kind of just there John one I'm posting some things on my own page just you know just holding myself accountable just some thoughts on John one I'm reading like a verse or two a day not you know not much right now but um change your bible plan if you can there are guys who get in tribe I just blows my mind but they get in tribe and they never read the bible plan I'm like well that's a lot of what we're talking about here they they kind of have side quests that's fine just getting the word just getting the word maybe if your if your preacher is going through like right now at our church we're going through Joshua so reading Joshua on a regular basis might be a good idea you know I'll read Joshua I don't know how many times a week just to get ready get my mind right you know so what whatever your thing is change your plan start a plan there's a good Gillian plans

20:52out there I don't know if that's a number but there's a lot of them and so whatever you're interested in I would do that I would try to find a plan that works and that would move me into my next one seek substance over distance every once in a while I will hear someone who will say why I just read the New Testament in the last eight weeks and I think shoot I haven't read the New Testament eight weeks I'm gonna get almost Matthew one here we go the genealogy of Jesus you think I'm gonna I got I gotta do this look man not everything everyone's doing do you need to do you do need need to do things the biblical you you need to have a personal worship time but there's a couple things on this list I think I'm gonna share losing them um like adding a hymnal I heard a guy say that one time and I was like yeah I need to do that so a lot of days I do it not all the days I'll go periods of time I don't have any hymnal's but I'll play him and I'll look it up on Spotify or maybe YouTube or something and I'll let it play

21:55and that's a way that I kind of just I'm gonna be here um I have the sing hymnal from I think it's the getties I don't know Alster Begg was selling it last year at Christmas I bought it uh it's a great hymnal because right now I can john one I can go back and I could look up hymns that are connected to john one like right now it's verse 14 and they got like 14 hymns that would reference that same concept in john one 14 so I'm just every day listening to a different one so my point was you don't have to do what everyone else is doing seek substance over distance I read the book of Joshua in two days great did you get anything out of it I've seen guys that do audiobooks that way great you you're kicking through audiobooks that's wonderful is your life changing is your community changing have you made any massive decisions in your life that are gonna move you forward or you just are we just consuming I did that for years I would read books and I would just put them on the shelf as like a trophy and another was changing seek substance if you need to camp out on a verse or two for a while do that do it for a long period of time Lord let me really get this

22:58in my heart a buddy of mine uh Christopher and Michigan was saying that like you'll get a verse for tuning just kind of stays there for a while and and this is a guy that hungers and thirst for righteousness and so as he's saying that it kind of affirmed what I felt like the Lord was trying to teach me Jared maybe you just need to slow down and and drop anchor on a couple verses that doesn't mean I can't read a bunch but that's where I'm gonna stay I'm gonna seek substance over surface level distance we don't get a prize for knowing all the facts about Jesus we don't get a prize for who read the most this year we don't get a prize for who can Bible bowl each other the prize is victory in Jesus and eternity secured with him so the fact that we get to know him and make him known as Psalm chapter 96 verse two talks about a stole tell tell of his wonder wonderful deeds among the people among the heathens among the people that don't know him that's what we get to do that's the prize knowing Christ and making him known so substance over distance another thing I would

24:00recommend would be to take notes take some notes again I would recommend not doing it on your computer or phone but if that's what you do that's fine your iPad whatever hopefully you hear the heart behind what I'm trying to say the point is when I write things down I think about them differently than if I type them out or if I do talk to text like I'm telling you this podcast off notes in a journal and I have some of you guys know me know I have notebooks for different things I have one that I've wrote stuff down in every day what I'm reading whatever it is and so when I write stuff down I think about it differently then when I type it out I did a talk to text today to somebody it's great I hope it went well I hope it was no errors in it you know I do a copy paste whatever on verses to send to people it's differently write them down but now I do I write them down but I try to take something and this is what got me in trouble I try to take something that I could share with someone else and this is what I'm going to explain what I was doing was I was trying to find a verse from what I was doing reading that day that I could share with you know my daughter at college

25:05my buddies kid at college I got others that are out of town out of state wherever and I was the younger people that I was trying to take something from my personal worship and send to them well if I'm in second Kings 7 there there's not a verse in there that is comforting to someone who's you know at college going through some stuff like that's that's tough so I almost started to cherry pick I'm like all right let's go Philippians well got second Timothy here there's gotta be something in here and what that was causing me to do was to sort of use the Bible as like I don't know like a free sample like it was just a free sample I got here's something to eat nothing wrong with what I was doing I don't think I wasn't my intention was it to manipulate those people or look holier than now I wanted to send a form of encouragement but again allowing the Lord to work on me to change up what I'm reading that will change the way I communicate that doesn't mean I can't pull verses and things that I already know from heart the Holy Spirit does a great job of bringing all things to her members but again I'm trying to encourage them but that's what started to expose the

26:07fact I'm getting bored with this and I'm starting to be more surface level than I should be so I would write things down I would try to send them to other people if possible somehow communicate them okay that would move me to the next one you got to get in biblical community biblical community there's a lot of good fellowship in Christian circles that doesn't mean it's necessarily biblical I'm not saying it's unbiblical I'll give you an example there was a group of people at our church last night that a certain group and they were serving and cleaning and moving and doing and man I'm grateful for it but that's not necessarily biblical community when I mean my biblical me I mean you open the book you read it you talk about you study it you pray about it you move on okay acts of service 100% doing things for others absolutely taking care of the bride of Christ absolutely widows and orphans all that stuff you got it but I mean you got to be in community where you are discussing the Bible biblically that might mean you need to join a group I gotta

27:08try I'd love to have you be a part of it but hey it's not it's not for everybody I'll tell you that it's not for everybody but you need to start one then open your house up open your back door up I know those people at scoff at online auto okay you start one you start one with whatever season of life you're in and you build from that and that will help you grow spiritually someone asked me recently about discipleship or how it affects you know some of these things I'm talking about and I told them years ago I was standing right over here in my house years ago there was something going on and I was busy and I our old field guides for tribe had so many things you had to fill out we had like an actual printed 90 pages front and back field guide that was sent out I mean trees were coming to my house sacrificing themselves saying it's inevitable you're going to need us anyways and I'm just chucking these field guides out all across the country it was chaos and I didn't want to do it that day I just didn't feel like doing it that day I'd done it for a few years and I'm like you know what it's kind of redundant I'm doing the same thing now I'm three years into this and I thought of a few specific people that were in tribe and I thought Jared

28:13they're doing it today you need to do it you see biblical community will move the needle on your heart to do the things that you may not feel like doing them but doing them because it's the right thing to do the people that I do life with the the the guys in the herd the men in tribe guys in my church whatever in many ways I consider them all ahead of me spiritually what I mean by that is every one of them I'm cleaning something from I don't surround myself with people that I'm trying to look down upon or people that I'm trying to feel better than or your JV I'm varsity every single guy that's coming to mind right now I think there's something about that guy there's something about his walk with Christ or something about you know how he lives out his faith that is a challenge to me in a good way that moves the needle my wife is the same way like that old adage you make me want to be a better man it's true like I never want to be less than for her oh I am less than some days and that's that's all me but because she continues to raise the standard her life it makes me want to

29:17raise the standard in my life and now I that I look at my kids and think man I can't be I can't be less than for them so get in biblical community if you can't find one start one if you can't find one click the link in the show notes we got a couple of men there again I would get you in tribe but that's that's just me the next one will be changing translations I think I'll end with this that changing translations I think that's 10 things right there so you know what I'm an ESV guy right here I got an NIV I have this I don't have there's only like one or two of these parallel classic commentary on the Psalms I can't remember what this is written in I think it's like New King James maybe I could be wrong it's Spurgeon Calvin and Henry at the church a moment ago I was reading out the CSB NLT with us NASB maybe I already said that I don't know my point is when I change translations it makes my eyeballs slow now reading from this Bible one that I've read from for years it's all marked up I know something yellow highlighted underlying is coming up

30:20next and so I kind of my mind is drifting that way changing translations especially grabbing Bibles that aren't marked up that aren't worn out that aren't broken in like a good old baseball glove really makes you slow down and so again I think this morning I got out my John MacArthur study Bible which is NASB I believe by the way if anyone owns that Bible I'm curious in second Kings if you have them I have I have second Kings 4 and it stops and then it goes back to first Kings like 17 it's a reprint it's wild I thought I had a broken Bible the other day I had turned the lights on better to see what was going on so if you have one I'd love to hear from you I digress change translations all right that's the point change translations that'll be good for you I'll slow you down it's a good thing let me fly through this list real quick as if I don't talk fast enough and then we'll get on with the herd pray be honest get up early change locations eliminate distractions change

31:20or start a Bible plan seek substance over distance take some notes and in taking notes find a way to share a thought or two with some other people get in biblical community where you're going to talk about the Bible and change translations so I got a few more that I want to share with the guys in the herd and these are really from our conversation the other night we have a monthly herd zoom call so I'm going to share some thoughts from that but guys again thank you for listening thank you for watching thank you for your your encouragement your feedback one last thing just popped in my mind man I appreciate you guys who leave a note for the show I don't know how you do that but I get notified for that I just want you to know if you leave a note for the show through however you're doing this I don't know is it I tune Spotify I don't know I can't reply back to it I appreciate you're getting to read it but I can't apply reply back to it I only get if you send me an email that's probably the best way to pursue mailing us gmail.com but again after retreat closes I'm going to take a break from that I'm not showing you I'll get back to it eventually but the podcast will

32:21continue the herd will continue all those things will continue you just won't have to see this every every day all the time so thanks for listening thanks for watching let's keep pursuing biblical mailing us