← Don't Miss This Study
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- [00:02]
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Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Don't Miss this podcast. A come follow me study with Emily Bel Freeman and David Butler.
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We fill this show up with all the things we think you don't want to miss in the Scriptures every week. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the show.
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Why the Bible?
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Why was the Bible worth that sacrifice?
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Why do we care so much to have this book?
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It's because the world is dark and dreary.
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The words of this book are going to give you something to look forward to, of promises that God is giving and fulfilling and of the ones that he has yet to fulfill.
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This will show you where to walk if you are lost and if you are confused, and if you don't even know why you would want to walk with Jesus. This book will guide you in your walk with Him.
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It gave unto all an exceeding cause.
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Of out of all the things that bring us joy in this life, of all the things that make us happy, out of all the riches in the entire world, there's nothing that brings us more joy, more happiness, more richness in our life than the words preached of this book.
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Hi, I'm Dave Butler.
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I'm Grace Freeman.
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Welcome to Don't Miss this, our weekly scripture study class. You guys, we are on level 19 excitement.
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This is the best day ever for.
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Starting the Old Testament. We are not faking.
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C
Wait, I did just get. Why did I just, like, get butterflies when you said that? Why am I actually excited?
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A
Because we're not faking. When we say this book is generally, I mean generally. Generally it's fantastic, but genuinely just a. I love studying the Old Testament. I genuinely love studying this book. Our goal is for everybody who's listening or watching to fall in love with this book. And it can be intimidating to people because it is an ancient book of scripture. I remember walking into one of my favorite churches in Jerusalem. It's called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And you go to this church and it is been built and rebuilt and torn down again and again and again, so many, multiple times. And there's a staircase that I love to go to where people have carved crosses. Christian pilgrims who traveled from who knows where crosses into the wall. And I just love to just rub my hand across those and to feel like I'm in this long line of followers of Jesus. The. The. A person who's taking me through that church once said, these crosses are over a thousand years old. And as I walked through that church and as I walked through old churches, I love to visit churches all over the world. This line always comes to my mind. You've been God for a long time, and if you haven't heard that song, it's such a fantastic song, too. You can look that up. But I walk into these places and I think, how many prayers have been said and how many worries and petitions have these walls heard? And I come into this place and I feel like I'm in my 40s. So, you know, I'm getting there. But when someone says, these are a thousand years old, it reminds me how long God has been God. And that is one of the great values of having this ancient book of scripture. It's a record, it's a testament of who God is and how he's been for hundreds and thousands of years. The book, the story that it covers is 4,000 years old. It's going to cross at least 40 different authors and 66 books. And as we pick up this book and begin to read it and open up, the beginning words I actually love. This is a giveaway to next week or a couple weeks episode from now. Genesis 1 starts with the words in the beginning, God. And that is true that he was there on page one, and he's going to be there on. On page. I don't even know how many pages the Old Testament is. Right. Page 1000. And that's so beautiful to me to open up a book that reminds us throughout all of these lifetimes and all of these stories, God has been there. And this is who he has been and who he is today.
- [04:33]
C
Well. And you start realizing that God's story is so much bigger than you expect it to be.
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A
Yeah.
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C
And the fact that he's on every single page, the fact that there's more than one author who wants to, like, be a part of his story, the fact that there's more than one book about where he showed up for people, that, to me, is, like, gives me so much comfort and so much excitement to begin studying this book. And I think that's something that's so fascinating to me is that once you start realizing that there's 66 books, there's so many authors, there's so many years that this book spans, you start to realize this story is no small story. And this story is going to span across so many different experiences. And as you read it, you're gonna discover that there are wars and there are times of peace, there's exile, there are blessings, there's relationships. You are going to read stories of miracles. You're gonna read stories of disappointment. You are gonna read stories of figuring Things out and mistakes and repentance. The more pages you read through, the more unique stories that will, like, unfold and build your belief. And I think that, to me, that makes me love the Old Testament, honestly, probably more than anything else, because your eyes start to open to realize how many stories God is involved in. And I just like, there's that phrase we say all the time. It's like, it's not my first rodeo. Or it's like, not my. Or it is your first rodeo of whatever. Maybe you're being a rookie. But I just want to think in my life, like, sometimes I forget that it's not God's first rodeo. And I start going through these experiences and I'm feeling disappointed and I'm feeling like I didn't get what I wanted. Or maybe I'm going through a miracle or maybe I'm facing a battle that I don't feel like I can win. And the Old Testament to me just whispers, this isn't God's first rodeo. And the experiences that I go through, it gives me so much peace and so much comfort. And it makes me honestly, so excited to study this book for the next year. Because I want to realize this is not God's first rodeo. This is not his first time experiencing disappointment or scary things or things that feel too big and too hard to overcome on a. This is not his first rodeo. And as we go through life, we can realize God has been here before and God has won this. Like, he has won the story. He has shaped it. He has overcome what he needed to overcome. And I think that is something that when you read through the Old Testament, it almost feels like intimidating how many different stories there are, how many different timelines, how many different circumstances are going on. And I think we can look at that and we can think it's overwhelming or we can look at that and it can give us belief. And that's why I'm so excited about the timeline this year and is because I can't wait to put that up in my classroom and to put that up in my house and to have it be a constant reminder as we travel the stories of the Old Testament that God has been here before, he has experienced things before, and that means he will do it again.
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Yeah. If you don't know what Grace is talking about. So we have a printable for you. It's free. Go to your newsletter. It will be there. Go to the app. It's in there. If you don't get the newsletter, go to don'tmissthisstudy.com and sign up for the newsletter and then you will get it and you can download it. And you can download a couple of sizes, all the instructions are on there. And cut out little pieces that you can put on as we move through the year. If you're watching, I just showed you the pieces and I can show you the big. The big timeline too. This is the 24 by 36 size. I bet it doesn't even fit in the frame. Okay, it's fine. You can just hang that up. But as we go through, it will be a reminder of all of those stories and hopefully a reminder of the lessons of who God is. It will also help you just know where you are in the book. Sometimes it's just nice to know, you know, when a movie starts halfway through and it's a really dramatic scene and you don't know who any of the characters are and you're sort of like. And then it starts at the beginning. Like it's. You know what I mean? It starts like when Tom Cruise has been captured and then you're like, what's happening? How did you get here? And then it's just like, almost like, let me tell you how I got here. And it goes back to the beginning. When you have context of where you are in the storyline, it just helps the stories come alive so much. So we hope that that helps too. Because one of the things you'll find out about the Old Testament is it goes through the whole history and then it sort of starts over again. Because the thing about the Old Testament is it goes through the whole storyline and then it kind of goes back. Right? So the first part is chronological, mostly the first half. And then the second half, you kind of have to have the timeline of the first half to know where second half fits. And if you know where you're at in the story, it just helps you connect a little bit better with the stories and the characters and everything that is happening in there. So that hopefully is going to be a great help to you. In addition to like the different kinds of experiences that are in the Old Testament, I also love that it's a book that covers a whole bunch of different types of literature. So the authors of the Old Testament weren't robots. AI didn't write this book. You won't find any N dashes or what do they call those little dashes that are in there. It was written by people with a bunch of different personalities writing to different types of people and scenarios and situations. So the type of literature changes throughout the book. You have historical and narrative sections. You have law sections, you have poetry sections. You have wisdom literature. You have prophecies. You have a type of literature called apocalyptic literature that's like dreams and visions. The Book of Daniel is a lot like that book. So you're going to see that. And I really like that because it kind of shows just how God speaks through different personalities. And I bet there's different types of literature that impact you when you go to Audible or you go to the library. Do people still go to libraries? I don't know. When you buy a book on Amazon, you're drawn to a certain type of literature and you're going to find that throughout the Old Testament. It's a long enough and big enough book that it's going to cover different types of literature as well. And that's. I kind of want to bring up two things. One, let's talk about our tippin that we have for this week. It's one that you're going to put inside. And if you don't know what the tippins are, they're these thin scripture like pieces of paper that sort of give you background information, maps, fun facts, things that organize a fun fact that seems so exciting. Every fact is going to be fun, right? But this one is the structure of the Old Testament. And you can slide this right into your spot where your table of contents is, and it will divide out and show you a couple of the different types of literature and how they're divided. It's going to help you understand how to read those. You're going to read a narrative section of the Old Testament differently than you're going to read poetry, right? So it will kind of divide up. This is the different types of books that you're going to find in the Old Testament. But it was making me think about something else that's going to help you. So we have this. So slide that in. That's going to help you. But as you go through and study the Old Testament, one other tip tip that you might want is you might want to study a different translation of the Old Testament. So you might be using the King James translation of the Bible, which is fantastic. Other translations of the Bible are really going to help your study. There's different ways to translate. There's a. There's translations that go word for word. There's translations that kind of go idea to idea. So different translators are going to give you different nuances to what the ancient text was the intention of those original authors. So you have the King James version of the Bible, which is fantastic. It's really poetic, it's really pretty. It's a, it's like a, you know, a piece of art almost that translation. Since the King James translation, which happened in the 1600s, more and more manuscripts have been found over time, which has helped to create an even more accurate, in some instances or different translation. We understand Hebrew. The original writing of it was in Hebrew and then there were Greek translations and Latin translations. So there's so much with ancient language. Ancient languages are so rich that a single word can be nuanced so many different ways. A couple of Bibles that I have found really helpful that you might find really helpful as well. The esv, the English Standard Version is a fantastic Bible. The NIV is probably the most wide widely used Bibles across Protestant Christianity and the nlv, the New Living, whatever that one is. New Living Version is a, also a, I think a fantastic Bible to, to pick up. You can download apps where they are free to use or you can get a paper copy of them. And I think that's going to really help. When we're in an, an ancient text written in an ancient language, we're trying to get to what is the idea, what was the intention, what was the feeling, what was the inspiration that the original author was writing? And we're going to help you out here on the podcast and with the all of the study resources that we have for you. But another translation of the Bible also might be super helpful, I would say.
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C
Especially with teenagers, a different translation is one of the best pieces of advice or tips that I would give. Not even if you don't like, even just the way you talk about it. I think different translations give you different insights. I even for teaching seminary this year just got like a teen study Bible and that's where I'm going to go. It'll give you ideas for lessons, it'll help you understand it better, but also it kind of helps with relevance. And already most teenagers hate reading. And then you put them like the King James Version in front of their faces and they're like, I don't even know how to begin to read that. If you give them both and you're like, okay, start with this translation. It'll give you the overall idea. And then go to the King James Version and then you might be like, oh, this says that, but way more beautifully. And I can understand it because I already know what it's trying to talk about. So I think that's just like a really good tip if you're dealing with teenagers or youth that are like, I don't even care about the scriptures. Well, they might also just not know how to read them. So that's like kind of like a hack.
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Yeah. And I think there's something really interesting at the end of the day, what do we want? We want people in the scriptures. We want people to be reading these stories, the stories about God and, and his interactions with people. And that. That's what we want. Right. If you look in the. In the handbook, it actually says we try to use the same Bible in church, you know, so everyone can kind of stay on the same page and consistency. But it says, but use other Bible translations for your own study and for te. And all of my kids will read from another version of the Bible because they want to. They want to actually understand it.
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Yeah.
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I was like, I don't want them to just read. My goal isn't for them to have time in the Bible. I mean, that's great. It's better than time on Netflix, I guess. But I actually want them to understand what is happening in those stories as well. So if you're hesitant and you're like, oh, we just kind of wanted to let you know some of those things about that also, you might want to know this. This is interesting that the original Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament were written in common language. There was like a. Like a different. There were different levels of language. And the King James was translated into kind of this Elizabethan English, which used to be common and it isn't anymore.
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Yeah.
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Unfortunately, now I will not read Psalm 23 in another version. Yeah. Like, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I will read that in the King James every single time. So it's poetic, it's beautiful. But there is something that might be a great help to you in understanding. Remember, at the end of the day, we want to understand and read the stories of God. We want to hear his. His promises. You are going to find your story in this book. There are so many different situations, so many different literature types, so many different authors. You're gonna find your. The book is old. It is the. An Old Testament, the First Testament of God. The first lessons about God, the first witness of what he is like. The book is old, but it is not irrelevant. And we think and are going to help you find those lessons that are meaningful and relevant and applicable for you. So one of the things that we're going to use to kind of guide our study this year is we're going to look for a couple of things each week and we're going to go over some of those. One is we are going to focus and study some of the names, particularly the names of God. Something you want to understand about the ancient use of names is it was often a description of the character or something to help you understand the story, right? And the names, different names of God, they teach us something about who he is. We talked about that in our Christmas lesson at the end of last year. And one of the names that we are going to find all throughout the book is the name of Jehovah. Now, that is a name that first appears in Exodus, chapter six. And this is Moses going to the Lord and saying, when I go to the children of Israel and tell them, the Lord sent me or God sent me, what name should I use? And the name that was given to him was actually a sentence. And the sentence in Hebrew was I am, that I am. And if you translate that phrase, I am, into Hebrew, it would be Jehovah. Now, that's the English version of what the ancient Hebrew was, but it would be Jehovah. So that name Jehovah, actually translated from Hebrew means I am. So this name I am is actually because, remember, Hebrew can be translated so many different ways. That phrase that it comes from, I am, that I am, can be translated in several different variations. And there are two that I love most. One of them is one ways to translate the name Jehovah is I am who I will always be. Don't you love that? This idea of who God was in the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus and the book of Ruth and the book of Esther is who he will always be. The God you find in that story is who he will always be. It's a promise name that you. You can count on me. Who I was in the past is who I will always be. Another way to translate that phrase, I am, that I am is I. I will be what tomorrow demands. Who loves that? If it's a red sea tomorrow, if it's a lion's den tomorrow, whatever tomorrow's situation is, I will be there and I will be enough for that situation. Don't you love that? So there is this idea of there's so much about the names that can teach us so many different applicable lessons. So that's one thing that we're gonna look for every single week is names.
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C
The second thing we are going to look for is the promises. And I am so excited about that, mostly because me and one of my friends were talking the other day about the difference between self confidence and the difference between God confidence and how those are both vitally important. Realizing what you are capable individually and being proud of that and confident. And I know I can do this and I'm going to do it. But there's also another level of realizing that there's someone even greater than you who you can look and say, you know what? I know who God is and I know what he's capable of. And I believe in him. When he says he's going to do something, he really will. And to me, that is the story of the Old Testament is a God who is going to say, I know what I'm capable of. I will promise you I will do it. And you can bank on those promises. You can have full 100% confidence in me. And to me, that is something to hold onto. I spent like a little bit of this past year making these, like little tearaway, like, it's like little sticky note things for a good news brand. And we decided to call them God Will. And I like spent like a week and a half just going through as many chapters of the Old Testament as I possibly can looking for all of the things God promises to do. And I thought it was gonna be really hard and overwhelming because this is like a hefty book. And I sat there and I was like, that's gonna be a lot. And like, what if I'm really gonna have to dig? And like, what if they're gonna be hard to find? And it was one of the easiest things I've ever looked for in scripture ever. And it just felt like page after page after page after page was God promising his people. He said, this is how I will show up for you. Have confidence in me. And I cannot wait to spend week after week after week adding and collecting the promises that God makes to his covenant people. Because those are promises that were not just for the people whose stories are in this book, but promises that we can still hold onto today. And we don't wanna just like think of those like once a week and just like kind of move on from them, but we actually want to collect and cherish them. Because I don't wanna lose those promises if there are things that God has still promised me. I want to hold onto them, I wanna treasure them. And I wanna know em well enough that in the moments where I face battles, in the moments where I see my giants and face my red seas, I want to know what God has promised me and what he's done in the past. And so if that is something that is exciting to you and you wanna keep a track of that. We are also going to keep track of all of those in the app. So just like a continual list of all of the promises that God is making.
- [22:46]
A
Yeah. All awesome resources in our app. If you don't have that app, it's so awesome. Especially for your nightly study. I mean nightly, what do you call that? Devotional scripture study with your kids right before prayer. We have some great things in there, but one of the awesome things is we're gonna collect that. But we wanna challenge you to collect and look for the promises that are found from God in the Old Testament. A couple of this was in 2020 when President Nelson gave this promise. He says, as you study or challenge, I should say, as you study your scriptures during the next six months, I encourage you to make list of all that the Lord has promised he will do for Covenant Israel. I think you will be astounded. Ponder these promises, talk about them with your family and friends, then live and watch for these promises to be fulfilled in your own life. Y'. All. That has been something that has made scripture study come alive for me and turn it into a worshipful experience. I begin by learning the character of God and who he is in scripture. And then I start to watch for that same God and those same promises to show up in my regular day to day life. It's. It's funny for me to even say that because for the writers of the Old Testament, that was their regular day to day life. It has become scripture, it's become this elevated book, which it is in so many ways. But for them, that was their real life story. This was their journal. This is what they were experiencing day in and day out. And they recorded the way that God showed up for them. And I love even, even this week I texted a friend who knows the Old Testament well and I said to her, don't forget what the Lord said to Jehoshaphat. We, we're going to come to that story and you are going to know it. But this is, this is like saying, I have a secret and they're not telling you. Let me just tell you the line, you guys, because I don't want to be that guy. But the Lord says to Jehoshaphat, in a situation that was far too big for him, he says to him, I just spaced the line for just a second. But he says to him, the battle is not yours, it is the Lord's. And was telling him the same thing he said to Moses, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. These Promises are ours to claim also. So we want to find them so that they could be strengths to us. Because who God was is who he'll always be. Remember another thing that we're going to find that is fantastic about this, Jehovah is the. Is the Savior before he was born. Jehovah is Jesus Christ before he came into this world. He is the God of the Old Testament. We are going to see him everywhere because he's the main character of the book. We're also going to see types and shadows of him. Now, a type, if you've ever used an old school typewriter before. Grace and I both have old school typewriters, so this is like second language to us. But let me, let me fill you in, man. So a typewriter has letters, right? And they, like, when you push the button on the typewriter, they swing up and they like, imprint into the. What do you say? Paper. Into the paper, right? That is called a type. When you see like a T imprinted in the paper, that's not the actual T, it's the impression that the real life metal T made in the paper. So that's what we say when we mean a type. It's not actually him, but it's an impression of him. Or a shadow is not actually you. You know, it's like. Oh, it's like a kind of a picture of you. I think types and shadows in the Old Testament are really neat because they just teach you different ways of understanding and learning who Jesus Christ was. Right. And there's something about symbolism and pictures that just. That just gives you, I don't know, just a different angle, a new way of seeing it. Right, Go ahead. What were you gonna say?
- [26:47]
C
And even just realizing that he is the story, that's what it is to me is that you start realizing you might be learning about different people and you might be reading different people's stories, but you are reading his story. All of it is his.
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A
Yeah. So there's objects in there, there's people that will teach us lessons about, you know, who, who he is. I just like. Like the lamb, for example. Like all throughout the Old Testament is, are these stories of this lamb that is sacrificed to help save and rescue people. And, and there's something about the fact that it's a lamb. When I say Jesus Christ sacrificed for me, I'm just like, oh, you know, I. I feel something. But when I can picture this innocent, sweet little lamb who gives his life so that I can live. In the night of the Passover, I have a new Tenderness towards Jesus. And it just the types and shadows will really help us draw out feelings, emotions and understanding of Jesus.
- [27:47]
C
Throughout the book, the last thing that we are going to look for are stories of deliverance. And we hear that word deliverance, and we automatically, I think, think about Jesus in scripture. But what's so interesting to me is that when I hear the word deliver or delivery, that is not what comes to my mind first. What comes to my mind is the packages getting dropped off on my front porch. And I was like thinking in my head, that's so funny that we use the same words and they mean such different things.
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A
And then I like to set free is one way to say deliver. And to bring a package is another.
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C
Way is the other way. And I just like kind of sat there for a second and I was thinking and I was like, yeah, but why the same word? And then all of a sudden I started realizing is when all those packages, those dumb little packages, I'm just like spending all my money on to get online, my online shopping problem. All those packages are getting delivered. I cannot do that on my own. I need someone to bring me what I need. I need there to be a middleman to bring me what I need. And those are stories of deliverance. They are way more serious than my like Amazon two day prime delivery. Okay? But I just think there are moments when we face things that we say, I need something and I cannot get it on my own. I need this right now for my circumstances in my story. I need something and I am not going to be capable of bringing that into my life. And that is the moment the deliverer looks at us and says, I will bring delivery. I will bring you something that you need that will be exactly what you are looking for. To be saved, to be delivered, to be rescued. I am capable. You can't do this on your own, but I am capable of being exactly what you need, bringing that into your life. And that, that looks different for every single person, the delivery is going to look different. Some people are going to need help in a battle. Some people are gonna be needing help in illness. Some people are going to be needing repentance and forgiveness and grace and mercy. And we are going to read these stories of deliverance, each story requiring something different, but each story requiring more than anything else, the deliverer. And that is what I can't wait to look for in this.
- [29:55]
A
Every single week, we're gonna open up our journal page that we, you know, for that particular week, and you're gonna find a couple of Things in there. You're going to see names that are in there and what they mean. You're going to see symbols that you're gonna look for in that chapter and you're going to see one of the lessons of the. Of deliverance. So we're gonna open up that page every time when we get into those chapters and just put our minds and hearts in that direction. We also put in that journal key truths to look for and application questions like reflection questions that are gonna help you take what seemingly might be ancient, irrelevant stories and show you how applicable they are and just help them come alive. So this is really going to help. This journal is really going to help to. To do that. I came across this story several years ago reading a book about William Tyndale, who is one of the translators of the Bible into English. And you have to know that anciently, before some of these Bibles, around the time of the King James Bible were translated, it was elite and considered gross and degrading to read and study the Bible in English, which was a common language. It felt like we were degrading God's words to this, to this common street language. And there's a story I read of a city called Coventry. And in the records of the city, it tells the story of six fathers and one mother who it gives their jobs, shoemakers and hat makers, and a widow who taught their children the Lord's Prayer in English. And they brought their children to the town square and they. And they had the parents tied up to the stake and they had the children recite the Lord's Prayer in English. And when they could do it, it convicted the parents of breaking this law of their crime, teaching the Bible to their children in English. And all of them became martyrs and were burned at the stake for this heinous crime of teaching their children the words of the Bible. And they knew that that was the consequence for teaching them the Bible. But they did it anyways. And the mother had the pages of the Bible in English sewn into her dress and they smuggled the words and they secretly under. Under the dark of night, taught their children the language, the stories and the scriptures in the Bible. And it makes you think when you hear that story, what is it that they. First of all, it makes me think, I don't know how they would respond to know that I carry around the entire Bible in my pocket, number one, on an app. Multiple translations, by the way, and in, in here. But I also wonder the question, what did they know about the Bible that they thought was Risk worth risking their life for. What is it about these words that we're about to get into this year that they thought was so important that they would put their lives on the line in order to teach it to their children? And there's lots of answers that we can say, but we want to go to the introduction of the King James Bible to pull out a couple of lines that we find in there that answer the question, why the Bible? Why do we care so much to have this book? Why do we care so much to have these words in front of us? To teach them to each other, our kids, and to share them with each other, as President Nelson said in that invitation. So we both have a couple we found. And that might be a great way to study just this page that no one ever reads, by the way.
- [33:48]
C
True. I didn't even know it existed, to be honest.
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A
Yeah. With the question in mind, why? Why the Bible? Okay, let's just jump into them. Grace, do you want to go first?
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C
Yes.
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A
Okay.
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C
Okay.
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A
Why the Bible?
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C
Why the Bible? You. Within the first paragraph of this little introduction to the Old Testament, it's the.
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A
One that starts to the most high and mighty prince.
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C
Yeah. In case you've never read this before in your life and you're a little.
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A
Bit like a full Bible page.
- [34:13]
C
Yeah. You didn't know that this is like a little hidden secret. Okay, everyone. And it goes through. And just within the first. Well, yeah, within the first paragraph, around the middle of the first paragraph, there's this moment that's gonna start to say this. Some thick and palpable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this land, and that it should. That men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk. And I read that, and immediately it felt like the answ. Why the Bible? Why do we need it? Why was the Bible worth that sacrifice? And it's because the world is dark and dreary, and there are clouds of darkness that are trying to take over the lives of people that we know and even ourselves. And it makes us stop and say, I don't know where to go. I don't know where to walk. I don't know what my life is supposed to look like. I am lost and I am wandering. And then all of a sudden, they said, and look, this is the answer. If you need guidance, if you need light, if you need assurance that the clouds will not overtake you, the words of this book will remove that. They will take away the clouds. They will take away the dreariness, they will take away the darkness. And they will show you where to walk. They will guide your life. And when I read that, I thought, how incredible is it that I didn't even know that this existed? And it made me instantly think of the youth theme for this year that is Walk with Me. And I thought, how powerful that this entire book is evident in an invitation of Jesus looking at people and saying, I want you to walk with me. And the very first intro to we get to the Old Testament is someone saying, this will show you where to walk if you are lost and if you are confused, and if you don't even know why you would want to walk with Jesus. This walk. This. This book will guide you in your walk with him.
- [36:04]
A
So awesome. All right. Mine comes. My first one comes from the end of that first paragraph. And it's just this line. It gave unto all an exceeding cause of comfort. And kind of similar to what you're talking about, bringing light in. And I just am thinking of a story I used to study, the Titanic. I was obsessed with it when I was younger. And there is a story of record of somebody as the ship was sinking, reciting the Psalm 23. And I just think about how interesting, in a time of great peril, that those words that have been locked away in his heart from this book are the ones that he turned to to give him comfort and peace in that, and that it still does that today.
- [36:51]
C
And one of my favorite parts is gonna be the very beginning of the second paragraph. And it just says, but among all our joys, there's one that filled our hearts more than the blessed continuance of the nothing. Wait, there was no one that more filled our hearts than the blessed continuance of the preaching of God's sacred word. And I love that they said, out of all the things that bring us joy in this life, of all the things that make us happy, out of all the riches in the entire world, there's nothing that brings us more joy, more happiness, more richness in our life than the words preached of this book.
- [37:26]
A
That's awesome. And then. And mine at the end of that paragraph is a promise of the eternal happiness which is above in heaven. The words of this book are gonna give you something to look forward to, of promises that God is giving and fulfilling and of the ones that he is yet to fulfill. And that's. And that's something that we find in here that's so beautiful. You can keep searching that page to give more answers to that question, why the Bible? And I think you'll just love it. Can I just do one more? It's how it starts. And it just says, great and manifold were the blessings of the Father of all mercies. Because above all, I think that is what we're going to find in this book, how great and how merciful and how good the Father of mercies is for all of us. Because the stories we find in here are going to be the same stories we can look for in. In our life. What we learn about him here is, is. Is the. Is the same. Today there was a story a friend of mine was telling me that she walked up to this man in a fruit stand in. She was somewhere in Africa and I can't remember the country right now. And he had a Bible that was worn and well used. And she said, oh my gosh, I love how much you love your Bible. Look at it. And he was like, oh, I do love this book. And she said, what is your favorite story? And his answer was God's. And that is going to be what we're going to find in every single page. This is the story of God, his relationship to his children, the covenant story, the promise story. And we're going to find how he is a God of great and manifold blessings then and today. Because who he was is who he will always be. So buckle up, get excited. We are going to love the study of this book. So we'll see you next week for Moses, chapter one. This audio was taken from a YouTube video from our YouTube channel. You can find us on YouTube at. Don't miss this.
- [39:35]
B
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- [39:45]
A
Thanks for listening by.