 about studying of the Bible. Now some interesting facts about the Bible. The Bible is the book and it was written in 1,600 years by 40 authors on three continents and in three languages. The Bible contains, now this is not the most accurate information because it depends on the translation, the Bible contains 773,692 words. It contains 31,173 verses. It also has 1,189 chapters. It has 3,36566,480 letters. 1,260 promises. Come on somebody. I'm just gonna take a moment and pause. There was a lot of numbers but can we just take a moment and thank God for 1,260 promises. It has a lot more commands though. 6,468 commands. Over 8,000 prophecies. And it has over 3,294 questions. So if you have questions, the Bible has questions as well. You're not the only one. The Bible doesn't just answer questions. The Bible actually asks questions. It has 1,845 references to Jesus' second coming. Just in the Old Testament 1,845 references to his coming. And in the New Testament it has 318 references to his second coming. The shortest verse is John 11,35 which is Jesus wept. The longest verse is Esther 8,9. The longest chapter is Psalm 119. And the shortest book in the Bible is 3 John. The longest book in the Bible is Psalms. The most used word in the Bible is Da. And the exact middle of the Bible is Psalm 118,8. I heard this quote by somebody that really touched me. We don't know who said it. It's anonymous but it's really powerful describing what the Bible is. This book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you on. It's the traveler's map. It's the pilgrim's staff. It's the pilot's compass. It's the soldier's sword. It's the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored. Heaven opened and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its great grand subject. Our good is its design and the glory of God is its end. It should fill your memory. It should rule your heart. It should guide your feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It's a mind of wealth, the paradise of glory, and the river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, and to the resurrected life in Christ. Yes, to glory itself for eternity. Come on, somebody. That is a great description what the Bible is. It's not like any other book. Somebody said, the Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, he sees the world beyond. But if he looks at the telescope, he does not see anything. That's how the Bible is, is that the Bible is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond. But the most people simply look at it and they only see a dead letter. Philip Brooks said that. See the Bible is the window into the supernatural realm. The Bible is the window into the realm of the Spirit, into the realm of who God is, into the realm of truth. The Bible doesn't just contain poetry, history, love, and love songs, and songs, limitations, and biographies of men. The Bible is actually a spiritual window that gives you an insight into another world. Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them. My friend, the power of the Bible, the Bible gives us actually five symbols to reveal its own power. Number one symbol of the Bible is it's the light. The light is the symbol of God's Word. God's Word brings illumination and revelation. It reveals truth about Jesus and this truth sets us free. The Word of God is also like water. The water is the symbol of the Word of God in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 and 27. The water brings cleansing and the Word of God can act in the same way in your life. If you remember how Jesus cleansed the feet of disciples when they were walking with him for three and a half years and on the last supper he got down and washed their feet. That's exactly what you do when you read the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ washes you with the Word, washes you with his water. He cleanses the feet of those that walk with him. The Word of God is also the seed. Its purpose is to bring growth and to bring fruitfulness into our life. The Word of God is also fire and hammer. Its purpose is to purge and break and we need to be both cleansed and broken by the power of God's Word. The Word of God is honey. Its purpose is to promote healing and turn bitterness into sweetness in our life. Come on somebody. How many of you are glad for the Bible? How many of you are happy and you are excited because God has given us his book and his revelation through the Bible? Drop number one in the chat if you are thankful to God for the Bible and if you are rewatching this right now and just joining I want to let you know that we are talking about the Bible. We welcome you and as we dive in deeper right now stay engaged with us. Here are five main benefits of reading the Bible. Number one is it reveals Jesus in John chapter 5 verse 39. Number two is it helps us to conquer sin in Psalm 119 verse 11. Number three is the Bible is the believer's sword that helps you to fight the devil in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 and Jesus exemplified that in the wilderness. Number four the Bible increases our faith in Romans chapter 10 verse 17 and number five it guarantees us successful life in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 and in Psalm 1 verse 1 2 and 3. Now I know it was monthful and we are dropping a lot of notes as well into the comments and as well we will have all of that in the description but let's go a little bit deeper. The Bible is your daily manna. If you remember Israel in the wilderness God fed them with manna and they ate that every single day for 40 years. Jesus tells us in the Lord's prayer give us this day our daily prayer our daily bread. Now of course the little translation is that give us you know bread to eat to nourish our bodies but there's also an application there where the Lord wants to give us spiritual bread to feed us every single day and that bread is his manna it's his word it's the Bible. I want to I want to show you 10 comparisons between the manna in the Old Testament and the Holy Bible that you and I have today. Number one the Bible is your daily manna it's bread from heaven and Exodus 16 4 numbers 11 and 9 and etc. pretty much tells us that the Word of God is God's special gift to us it's from heaven. Yes I know you may say well it's just a combination of books that's true manna was also some physical particles that was lying on the ground but it came from above it came from God so is the Bible the Bible is the Word of God and it's God's gift from heaven to you and I. Number two is manna it is a miracle bread. When you consider how the Bible was made the Bible is the miracle of God's preservation. So many dictators and so many people have swore that they will remove the Bible and put the last Christian on the museum and on the news and turned out to be the opposite where a lot of their houses were turned into Bible translation factories or into printing presses that print the Bible and so God is still advancing and his truth is advancing they tried to burn Bibles I came from former Soviet Union where it was illegal at the time to have the Bible you can die for having the Bible people died today for having the Bible and the Bible is the miracle of God's preservation number three what we see about the manna is that manna was the bread that God has given for Israel to eat the Bible is not given for our information it's given for our spiritual feeding the mistake that people make is they treat the Bible as just a book that you read instead of a food that you eat Jesus said men shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God the word of God is the food it's the fuel for the believer number four manna came to where people were the word of God is accessible to every person you don't have to go very far to get it most of you have it on your phone the word of God meets you where you're at if you are a baby it's your milk if you are mature it's your meat the same verse will apply for both God doesn't have one Bible for babies and the other Bible for spiritually mature as manna it was available for adults and children so is the word of God it's accessible to every person of every stage of spiritual growth come on somebody aren't you glad that God has given us his word for every single stage of our life number five the Bible is like manna that it has to be gathered daily exodus chapter 14 verse 16 verse 4 the Bible has to be gathered daily meaning you have to daily go into God's word the same way we eat daily the same way we sleep daily we have to daily spend time in the Bible we have to eat you don't have to see the Bible as something that you read see it as the food that you eat number six as manna and the Bible it was gathered in the morning you have to eat the Bible the best is when it's the priority in your life so many people love to postpone reading of the scriptures to later part of that day but the first you know they want to open the newspaper open the social media and I want to discourage you from that I want to encourage you to treat the Bible like Israel treated manna the first thing in the morning is they had to go and gather manna go in the morning and go through Leviticus go through numbers go through Genesis or John or Mark and gather your manna and gather your revelation gather your insight gather God's truth about your life it will feed you spiritually number seven as manna in the Bible it could not be stored for another day Exodus 16 20 so you have to understand is that yesterday's word is insufficient to meet the challenges of the new day we must have a fresh experiences in God's word to keep us daily alive spiritually we need fresh word every day from God an amazing part is it's available every day God puts the table and invites us to partake of that number eight manna is like the bible in the sense that that which was kept in the ark endured forever Exodus 16 verse 33 and verse 34 and Hebrews 9 verse 4 the word of God that you hide in your heart and make part of your life will stay with you forever David says your word I have hidden to my heart so that I will not sin against you that means that the word that you're just visiting is one thing but it's another thing when the word begins to live inside of you through meditation and through memorization and we're going to talk about that in just a moment number nine the manna is like the bible in a sense that it has to be eaten it had to be eaten throughout their wilderness wanderings exodus 16 and verse 35 as long as we are living on this planet we need heavenly manna come on somebody once we get to heaven the need for it will stop we will no longer need the bible we will no longer need faith because in heaven our faith will turn into sight we will hear the voice of our shepherd clear and real and we will no longer need the bible but while we are on this wilderness wandering my friend every day you need to go out and get yourself some manna and number 10 manna is like the word of god in a sense that sadly it is often despised by god's people numbers 11 verses 4 through 6 and numbers 21 verses 5 and 6 they experienced a miracle every single day but unfortunately it became a common place and they took it for granted they wanted something more exciting may we never take god's word for granted in our life may we never treat it as worthless may we never treat it as boring may we never get so question so quote unquote bored that we need something new that we lose the fascination we lose the attraction we lose the passion for god's pure holy word i do believe the devil right now is out to distract christians from being in the word of god do you remember when jesus shared the parable about the sower and he said the sower went out to sow the same sower the same seed but different result because of the soil and there was one soil that took the seed but the birds ate it and the bible says those who take the word they hear the word but they don't understand it the enemy comes in and takes it the devil cannot stop listen to me very carefully right now what i'm about to share is going to be super powerful the enemy cannot stop the word from producing fruit once it finds residence in your heart so what he does is he seeks to stop you and i from allowing that word to take residence inside of us once the word goes inside of my heart my life my daily schedule there's no devil demon curses generational curses nothing in this world can stop the bible says god's word doesn't return to him void nobody can stop the bible from being fruitful in your life so what the devil does is he takes everything he can the bird is after the bible come on somebody drop that in the chat the bird is after the bible the bird is the devil he will use distraction he will use social media he will use boredom he will use add on feel like reading the bible i'm super busy he will use everything and anything he can to harden your heart so that you will not have time to spend in the word of god why because if he can take your attention from the bible then he doesn't have to deal with consequences of the word of god changing you into a new person and the word of god destroying his kingdom and his works i posted a video today and something i want to mention to you again maybe you're battling with lack of desire for the bible lack of desire for reading the word of god the less you read the word of god the less you desire to read it the less we pray the less we desire to pray let me say it again and somebody needs to drop that in the chat the less we read the bible the less we want to read the bible the more we read the bible the more we want to read the bible that's the principle some of you maybe are saying i don't want to read the bible well if you are not reading the bible you will never want to read the bible you don't get desire for reading the bible at the altar you get desire for reading the bible by reading the bible desire comes from reading spiritual hunger does not work the same way the physical hunger works physical hunger works like this you eat you're not hungry if you don't eat you're hungry in the spiritual list the other way around you eat you're hungry you don't eat you get less hungry and then you stop being hungry completely that's why if you look at lives of people who are hungry for god you will you will see this common denominator they all eat and they all pray and you may say oh they pray because they want to pray not so they want to pray because they pray they want to read the bible because they read the bible it's the other way around the devil will lie to you so that you will take cues from your mood and your emotions and your flesh and so when you wake up and you don't feel like reading the bible you will say well that just simply means i don't want to read the bible no my friend your flesh does not want you to read the bible but the moment you go in and you read the bible out of discipline the delight will follow the desire will follow come on somebody the bird is after the bible meaning the devil wants to distract you because once you're in it your life will not be the same he knows that and he can stop the word of god from bearing fruit so he has to stop the word of god from taking root who that that's who he can stop the word of god from bearing fruit so he has to stop the word of god from taking root somebody dropped it in the chat right now somebody needs to write above you in the chat needs to know that right now the devil cannot stop the word of god from bearing fruit therefore he will try his best to stop the word of god from taking root he will use distraction he will use boredom he will use anything and everything in his arsenal to stop that but today the devil is going to fail because i believe the generation is rising up there's over 600 of you on youtube that are going to raise up and on all the platforms over 1200 of you that are going to make a decision to be in the bible this year that this will be the year of you living in the word of god like never before are you with me are you with me today drop number one if you're receiving and if this is being a blessing to your life in jesus name for those of you that are rewatching this for those of you in live stream i see that it's glitching a little bit hang in there everything is going to come back for those of you that are rewatching we welcome you again i want to remind you to hit thumbs up we want to remind you to stay tuned with us and let's continue i want to go a little bit further right now and before i talk about how to study the bible i would like to mention a little bit about how the bible came to be okay the bible has a lot to say about itself for example in second theme in chapter 3 verse 15 the bible says for all scripture is god inspired meaning god breathe into it in second peter 1 verse 20 and verse 21 it says that the men of god were carried along by the spirit of god as they wrote you know god spirit did not use them as robots but he inspired them okay so the bible is the word of god 100 but how did the bible came into existence or into being now the old testament around 250 bc jewish community already had an established old testament canon jewish synagogue has the same books as we have 29 books of the old testament but they are arranged and grouped differently josephus which is a historian jewish historian very well respected he said that the jewish canon is closed was closed already at the time of persian king artaxerces which was 400 years before the coming of christ now to group together the old testament canon there was four main questions that was addressed they had to ask four questions to determine the canon of old testament is it arathor is it inspired by god meaning does the authors in the book use thus says the lord number two is it prophetic meaning was it written by a man of god who walked with god and was it accepted by the people of god now by the time jesus came already jesus confirms the truth that every word of the scripture was given by god and you see that in matthew chapter 5 verse 18 jesus also said that the scripture cannot be broken that's john chapter 10 verse 35 jesus affirmed the credibility of the old testament in general in john chapter 5 verse 39 and jesus repeatedly referred to the old testament recognizing that god himself was speaking in it matthew chapter 19 and verse 4 and matthew chapter 22 verse 29 so we can rest assured the old testament is the word of god because of so many references our lord jesus christ made to the old testament and referred to it as the word of god referred to it as the scripture and referred to it as god said in fact in 1947 the dead sea scrolls were found by the shepherd by a shepherd boy that gave massive reassurance of the accuracy of the bible especially the old testament now let's look at just for a second about the new testament how the new testament came into being jesus said that his disciples will be his witnesses acts chapter 1 verse 8 and then he also said that the holy spirit will teach them and remind them john chapter 14 verse 26 john chapter 16 verse 12 and john chapter 16 verse 13 so jesus pretty much was foreshadowing and was pretty much telling us in advance that there will be like a canon that will be written by his disciples and that's why jesus didn't write any books he said the holy spirit will come and help the disciples to remember what he said thus giving us a clue that disciples will be the carriers of jesus's message to the world and generations after them apostle peter refers to the writings of paul as the scripture if you go with me to second peter chapter 3 and verse 16 it says the following as also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also to the rest of the scripture scriptures so peter is talking about paul's writing and he's like some things that paul writes are kind of hard to understand he's like but there are people who are so unstable and they are untaught so what they do is they twist everything and they twist paul's writings as they do the rest of the scriptures it's interesting he puts paul's writings on the level of the scriptures that's crazy paul is also referring to the church in kalase in kalashan chapter 4 verse 16 and he's saying that the church should take his letters and share it with other churches so these letters to these churches were not just specifically to these churches they also had universal application to the churches even churches like ours the bible says that our church the church of jesus christ is built on foundations of apostles and prophets in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20 early fathers early fathers had an implicit recognition of the unique authority of the 27 books of the new testament the way they quoted it was acting like a functional canon someone said that if we were to remove all the writings of the new testament we can reconstruct it all from the quotes of the church fathers all of the new testament references were in their sermons that you if you remove all the new testament the church fathers early church fathers you can actually reconstruct the whole new testament just from the quotations of the early church fathers so that tells us that the early church they use the writings of apostles the letters of apostles as a functional canon and then later on by the fourth century the consuls of lausadia in 363 consul of hippo in 393 and the consul of cathridge in 397 created already more refined list of the new testament books in some sense these lists merely ratified the church's practice by identifying already a functioning that this these books are functioning already as inspired scriptures now they use three main questions to determine which of these books were to be allowed and not allowed the first one is is it consistent with undisputed apostolic message number two was it written by apostles or his closest associate and number three was it widespread accepted was it expected accepted by the whole church not just like a section or a particular county or a particular country but the whole church in general did it accept these writings why is it important to know these three questions that the early church fathers used to determine which script which scriptures were allowed to be used as a form of text to read from in the early church and to form and formulate our belief system and our conduct because for example the shepherd of harmus and the epistle of barnabas was highly accepted in the early church but it was not added to the canon because these two epistles they had very long distance from apostles and apostolic age as well as one clement and other books that actually kind of shared about how the church services should be ran they came closer to the apostolic message than others but they were not canonized because those that wrote it were not followers like apostles of Jesus Christ and they were not closely connected to the apostles so there were a lot of books that were still accepted but they were simply not part of the canon word canon means measuring stick and so they were not part of the canon so in other words the church did not determine but discovered which books were part of the canon and which books were part of the canon pretty much books by the writings of apostles and their closest associates why were apostles the chosen ones because Jesus chose them and he said that they will be his witnesses Jesus said my spirit will not only empower them but will also teach them everything I taught you and they will spread that message all around the world and therefore the writings of these followers of Jesus became the framework by which early church operated lived the refined their belief system and by which we live today some people say oh the gospel of thomas the gospel of this the gospel of that they were not followers of Jesus Christ who wrote those gospels and they were not connected to the apostles like Luke like Mark and like apostle Paul and therefore they were not accepted in the canon now something I want to mention before we study deeper into this is this helping anybody if this is helping somebody drop number one in the chat if this is helping you to understand a little bit more I'm going to go deeper into it in just a second but is this helping me drop number one in the chat if you're just joining in we are talking about the bible we're talking about the importance of studying the bible we're talking about how the bible came into being and we're also talking about how to read the word of god and we're going to go deeper in just a second but drop number one in the chat if you are just tuning in or if this is helping you now something I would like to mention is this if you are catholic I welcome you and I love you but catholic bible has more books than the protestant bible okay so in talking about the bible we I have to address this because some people don't realize where catholics get some of their ideas from there's this thing called apocrypha apocrypha the apocrypha refers to the 14 or 15 books of doubtful authenticity and authority that the roman catholic church decided that belonged to the bible sometime following the protestant reformation the catholic bible contains five books that are not included in the protestant bible in addition to a few chapters of daniels and ester these books are siraj wisdom to beat first maccabees and judith a catholic council of trend from 1545 to 1563 canonized these books and this canonization took place largely as a result of the protestant reformation indeed actually luther had crude uh had scrutinized and criticized the catholics of not having scriptural support for such a doctrines as praying for the dead so what catholic council did is they canonized these particular books that they call the apocrypha so that they can have a scriptural support for this and other distinctly catholic doctrines roman catholics argued that septuagint contained apocrypha now septuagint is the greek translation of the hebrew old testament so they said that well septuagint had apocrypha meaning they had extra books therefore it should be in the bible roman catholics also argued that the church fathers used apocrypha books in public worship and expect and pretty much treated them as the scripture but the history shows that a lot of church fathers did not accept apocrypha as the scripture roman catholics also they said that even saint agustin was a big you know uh proponent of the apocrypha meaning these extra books but if you read the story of saint agustin toward the end of his life he rejected this notion that the apocrypha is part of the canon the bible meaning these extra books that are part of the canon and not only he rejected that but he was vocal against it so this is few things you have to understand okay no new testament writer ever quoted from the apocrypha or gave slightest authority to these books as inspired by god out of 263 to 295 quotes in the new testament where they quote the old testament no mention of any books of the apocrypha now this this you have to catch this a little bit right now because this will help you to understand why we don't believe some things the catholics believe in practice okay the jewish council of jamini which met in 90 ad so 90 years before Jesus is coming they rejected apocrypha as the scripture in fact the nation of israel treated the books in the apocrypha with respect but they never accepted them as the true books as they treat the books in their canon okay why is the apocrypha not accepted as part of the canon by both the jews and the protestants because there's historical errors in the apocrypha secondly apocrypha contains unbiblical doctrines that do not belong in the bible for example the doctrine of praying for the dead petitioning saints in heaven for their prayers worshiping angels and giving alms for atonement of your sins are all in the apocrypha so this is where catholics get a lot of their scriptural support for some of these ceremonies that catholics do and believes that they hold and they actually come from the apocrypha the apocrypha was not accepted as the canon until martin luther you know stapled those theses on the door of the catholic church in germany and then what they did is they took these books that christians respected they just did not treat them as canon and they made them as canon since they needed a proof and validation for their errors beliefs and doctrines there is no claim in any book in apocrypha towards divine inspiration for example like thus says god any miracles nothing like that in the apocrypha so therefore we do not accept those books as the canon now you can read them they probably have really good information good stuff but we don't accept them as part of the canon the jewish people did not and if you look at the jewish bible now you don't see those books as part of their bible their old testament bible and therefore they're not to be accepted and therefore these ideas that we can pray to the saints give money so that our sins can be forgiven we don't accept that as christians because it contradicts with the rest of the bible and so my dear catholics i love you i pray for you but i disagree with you because there is no foundation in the scripture in the writings of apostles and in the old testament towards some of the practices that catholics have especially toward you know mary was a virgin all her life and you can pray to saints and you can give money so that your sins can be atone for or that there's a predatory i have a video that's coming out very soon about 10 differences between protestants and catholics you can check it out it will be educational and blessing to you now i want to jump in to seven things seven ways we must intake the word of god and we're diving in deeper a little bit if you are with me drop number one in the chat if you're just tuning in don't forget to hit thumbs up on youtube if you're just logging in on facebook as well click share click share click subscribe because this will help us with the algorithm thank you so much now seven ways you can intake the bible in your life so according to the bible society 87 percent of american households own a bible own the bible an average household has nine bibles but unfortunately not everybody reads them and only 11 percent read have read the bible from the beginning till end and some about 30 percent of americans have only read few passages and few stories a key discovery from the cbe research shows that somebody who engages the bible four or more times a week looks radically from someone who does not engage the bible in fact the lives of christians who do not engage the bible are the same as the life of unbelievers someone who engages the bible they say four times or more a week is 228 percent more likely to share their faith with others is 407 percent more likely to memorize the bible 49 percent less likely to view porn and 30 percent less likely to struggle with loneliness the first way you should intake the bible is read it come on somebody dropped that in the chat read it you have to read the bible now jesus says in matthew 19 verse 4 he says haven't you read he's asking the question haven't you read i think the lord is asking you right now too haven't you read why should you read the bible because the bible says that the scripture is god god breath god so he breathed therefore when you're reading it you're inhaling what god exhaled god in in the genesis the bible says that he created men out of dirt and then he breathed into into adam and adam became a living soul so when you read the bible god breathes into you as well because the bible is the contains the breath of god you inhale god's word when you read it's it's beautiful it's incredible now you may say which translation should i read now there are many translations and i'm going to talk about translations in just a moment the best translation is the one you will read and apply come on somebody drop that in the chat the best translation is the one you will read and apply the best translation is the one you will read so many people they fight over translations okay and we're gonna look at the translations in just a second but the best translation is the one that you will read read the one that's easier to understand for you read the one that you will actually apply okay that's it the second way you can intake the bible is you can listen to the bible Romans chapter 10 verse 17 it says that the faith comes from hearing and the hearing from the word of god so if you are not able to read for example let's say you're on a go maybe you're taking a transit a train a bus maybe you're in the public transportation or you're driving a car or perhaps you have some downtime you're cleaning the house or you're taking care of some things have you ever thought about listening to the bible reading is good listening is also really good because listening helps the bible says faith comes through listening so as you're listening your ear gates are engaged not only your eyes are engaged but your ears are engaged so you can listen to god's word you can download their apps you can listen the bible through their apps where you can buy the bible but most of it is for free now where you can have somebody read it for you number three is where you study the bible in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 the bible says to show yourself approved to god by rightly dividing the word of truth in John chapter 5 verse 39 Jesus says search the scriptures for the testify of me we'll talk about the study of the bible in just a second but you can study the bible studying of the bible is is different than just reading because you're digging deeper number four is you confess the bible Matthew chapter 4 verse 4 Jesus did that he spoke God's word to the devil you can speak God's word to your circumstances if you're getting attacked in your thoughts speaking God's word is one of the best counterattacks you can have because when you speak God's word the thoughts that are attacking you they get all confused and they die don't attack bad thoughts with good thoughts attack bad thoughts with God's word the devil when he comes to you with fiery darts open your mouth whether it's under your breath or out loud if there is nobody around and just say God's word speak God's word and the devil will flee he did it worked with Jesus it will work with you number five is meditate on it Psalm 1 verse 2 and Joshua 1 verse 8 and that speaks of not only speaking it studying it listening it and reading it but also thinking about it now there's a lot to say about meditation the way we meditate as Christians is different than the way new ages meditate or people who practice eastern religions the big difference is this they empty their mind we fill our mind their meditation is passive our meditation is aggressive we force thoughts by God's word we pretty much we do warfare with meditation our meditation is not that's not biblical meditation that's biblical is not you trying to empty everything blank everything out it's you trying to fill something it's you trying to battle lies and accusations and arguments and strongholds and biblical meditation is a visit with God it's a visitation and new age meditation is honestly an open door to the demonic number six is you can memorize the bible so not only you can meditate in the bible but you can also memorize the bible now for those of you that are on youtube you are able to see as well right now the right beside right here actually the bible memory app now there's many ways you can memorize the bible and then some bible study tools for those of you on tiktok and an instagram head over to youtube you'll be able to see that one of my ways to memorize the bible is through an app called bible memory app now it's not free i think it's like nine dollars or something but it's one time you pay for it and so they're not paying me to promote this okay so but you can download this app it's worth trust me it's worth 10 bucks and input versus and instead of trying to you know like oh i'm gonna cut off my time on social media i'm going to just completely walk away from social media that's not the point the point is not to remove something bad the point is to replace something good with good and one of the best ways is to take your free time and memorize the bible now bill weas is the one that like he speaks bible like i call him bible man so he usually he told me that the way to memorize the bible is to write the verses down yourself he said the app is not the best one the best option but i know that a lot of our millennials and young people who are watching me right now you should just just download the app and then one verse a week one verse a week like memorize main verses like the you know second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 John 3 16 you know memorize verses these key verses about you know Philippians where it talks about the filling your mind you know think on these things and so memorize the Lord's prayer the Lord is my shepherd you know Psalm 91 memorize those like the core key most inspirational most quoted verses in the bible and just begin to do it one verse a week and it will bless you it will help you to retain God's word in your mind now number seven what you should do with the bible so we mentioned read we mentioned listen to it we mentioned that we should meditate on it we should memorize it we mentioned also we should study it we should confess it and the last one and this is a hard one we have to obey it guys all of the studying of the bible and i'm going to talk about that in just a moment more is pointless if we don't obey it Jesus said in John 14 verse 23 he says if you love me obey my commandments it's interesting Jesus did not say if you love me read the bible i was looking through scriptures today to find where Jesus or the apostles told believers to read the scriptures listen to the scriptures like as a direct instruction i couldn't find any like the scriptures i quoted they're important and i'm not taking scriptures out of context but i'm really sharing of what they mean but if you look at the new testament and you'll be very honest you will see there is less emphasis in the new testament concerning us knowing the bible reading the bible and there is more emphasis on us obeying the bible Jesus compared a man who builds his house on a sand to who not to somebody who doesn't know who doesn't hear read or memorize but to somebody who doesn't do it Jesus says when you go into all the world make disciples of all nations he says teach them to what to obey he doesn't say teach them to read it's interesting this is what we do now we go into all the world we make disciples and we teach them to read the bible but Jesus had a different approach it's contrary i know that like some of you are like it's almost like i'm contradicting right now the very thing that i was sharing but i'm not i'm saying is the reading of the bible is a means to obedience studying of the bible is a means to obedience memorizing of the bible is a means to obedience meditating on the bible is a means to obedience joshua 1 aids says the following let the book of the law not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe according to do according to all that is written in it so he's saying to joshua i want you to meditate speak it why so that you can do what it says not so that you can be smart not so you can fight online not so that you can be know it all but so you can do what it says and then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success so then this bible will make a change on your life so because it will bring transformation it will go from information revelation transformation through it through application so information revelation and then it will be transformation in your life through what through application and as i'm studying more of the bible as i'm reading more of the bible and i'm going to share with you in the conclusion my five tips of understanding and studying the bible as i'm studying more honestly i am convicted more and more even as i'm sharing this with you that it's possible to get to know the bible but not to know god it's possible it's possible to fill your head with knowledge and not to have an intimacy with god it's possible it's possible to know more about the bible and not do anything about it and that's a warning to all of us guys and i'm going to finish with that again in just a moment so let's dive in for the last part which is how to study the bible you may say Vlad it's been one hour and we're supposed to talk about how to study the bible where i was preparing you so that all laying all these foundations and if this has been a blessing to you drop number one in the chat for those of you that are rewatching you are welcome for those of you that are just tuning in hey help me to hit 1000 thumbs up on youtube right now by hitting that thumbs up if you are just tuning in and share it also on facebook just share it one more time you can delete it later this will mean a lot to us and it will help with the algorithm now in the conclusion how to study your bible there's a basic approach to studying of the bible and that's more of a devotional and anybody can put it to practice like tonight you can do it right now and i didn't coin this phrase this is coined by somebody else i think it's by a four-square movement it's called the soap approach the soap approach stands for scripture observation application and prayer so write this down soap is scripture observation application and prayer so you read the scripture you observe what the scripture says you ask the scripture what does it mean for you because scripture has one interpretation but many applications and then you pray about what the scripture says okay so that's kind of like a basic way of approaching the idea of studying the bible now let's dive in a little bit deeper number one if you want to get more out of your bible the most important thing is not the right translation not greek and hebrew not your pencil or your or this which does not you know bleed into the next page that's not the most important i'm going to tell you what's the most important thing number one invite the holy spirit as you read the bible i know this is simple i know i'm speaking to the choir right now but you have no idea how much this means and you have no idea how much it will affect your bible study if you take a moment and pause and just invite the holy spirit now you may say well the holy spirit lives in me i don't need to do that yes he does live in you but you do need to do that why because you need to become more aware that he wants to help you the holy spirit was sent to help us teach and to help us understand the truth he's the author of the bible and when you invite him and you say holy spirit help me as i read it's good to read bible in english and greek hebrew it's the best to read it in the holy spirit so invite the holy spirit and just pray a simple prayer say holy spirit you wrote this help me to understand this holy spirit guide my study right now guide my reading unveil to me your truth reveal to me jesus reveal to me what i need to know and you'll be surprised where your bible study will go that's number one number two pay attention to the context of what you're reading there is two ways to approach the bible the first one is exegesis and the second one is icegesis exegesis is when you're drawing meaning from the text icegesis is when you are imposing meaning onto the text okay the meaning of what you're reading is determined by the author not by the reader so it's determined by the author it's discovered by the reader that means that when the author was writing he had some meaning behind what he was writing and this meaning you have to discover but you don't decide that meaning guys listen to me very carefully so many people they bring their own ideas into the scripture and they they read into the bible what the bible doesn't say this especially happens right now with people who want to you know claim that the bible is in support of certain compromising that they have and they would take a scripture pull it out of context rip it off and attach it to whatever they want to attach it wipe so that they could change they're changing the bible to justify their life instead of letting the bible change their life and that's icegesis that's you reading into a text instead of exegesis where you are letting the text read and speak the bible has one interpretation everything you read has only one interpretation but many applications but before you jump into applications you should learn what is that little and what is that interpretation for example taking things out of context is very dangerous i'm gonna share with you a story about abraham lincoln president lincoln was once misquoted as saying that he would rather live in russia than in america why would president make such a remark was this really something that the great emancipator abraham lincoln said he actually did say it but it was quoted out of context he said this i shall prefer immigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty to russia for instance now lincoln wrote these words while expressing regret about the dangerous trend he saw in america he feared that many wanted to change all men were created equal to all men were created equal except non whites if that were to happen lincoln suggested that he would rather be more comfortable in the land where the government did not pretend to stand for liberty see the context makes all the difference for it tells us exactly what lincoln meant to say i wonder how many people do exactly the same thing with the bible they take things out of context and they wanted to mean what they think it means and they built theories and doctrines around it we have to have integrity and let the scripture translate the scripture in trippett the scripture acts 17 acts chapter 17 and verse 11 the bible says that people stayed in the world and they were studying daily to see is it true what does the bible say most of the bible is not complicated if the plain sense makes sense seek no other sense or you will end up with complete nonsense somebody said meaning if you're reading and like it makes sense it's very plain it means what it says and it says what it means you don't need to look and put anything into it okay i like what martin luther said and how he studied the bible he says i study my bible as i gather apples he says first i shake the whole tree until the ripest may fall and then i shake each limb and when i have shaken each limb i shake each branch and every twig then i look under every leaf so he's like i shake every tree i shake the whole tree i shake every branch i shake every twig and then i look under every leaf and he's like that's what i do with the bible he said i pause at every verse of the bible and i shake it as if it were a tree that perhaps some fruit will fall on it so what i want to say is this as you're reading the bible let it speak to you instead of you imposing on what you want it to mean you don't read the bible to find justification to what you believe read the bible to find what the bible teaches because people who don't believe the holy spirit heals today the lord does miracles today will read everything and twist it just so they it could fit their agenda we don't do that with the bible scripture interprets scripture let the scripture speak for itself the best way i like to do it is to read the entire chapter instead of just few verses that i've read and pull them out of context like i can do all things through christ who strengthens me like such a famous verse okay but if you read in the context paul is not talking about a basketball that he makes millions of dollars he's talking about suffering actually he's talking about the good and the bad that he can go through through christ you know taking communion in a worthy manner i cannot tell you how many times i've seen this verse being used before communion to make everybody feel guilty for anything they've ever done and make us feel like we're not worthy as though the bible says that you're taking communion as an unworthy person but if you study in the context you will see that paul is addressing Corinthian church and the abuse that was happening with the rich people came earlier they ate their communion and the poor people had nothing to bring and so they came and they felt embarrassed and then paul says hey it's an unworthy manner in the which you eat the communion not discerning the body and then he says at the end he's like now wait for each other so he's not talking about being an unworthy person he's talking about an unworthy way people took communion which was they ate communion and the other people did not have any communion and so when you read it in the context and you understand why he said what he said and you let that be the interpretation instead of bringing into it what you grow up with your tradition or what the pastor has taught or other people has have said then what happens is that then you're rightly dividing the word of truth when you are when you're doing exegesis of the bible instead of isegesis of the bible it's huge and it takes a little bit of practice like i remember when i started to reread everything about tribulation like how i grew up believing that you know we are not going to go through tribulation we're all going to get trip upstairs you know quickly no suffering and everything and then i started to read through the gospels and through the teachings of Jesus and i said okay what if nobody ever taught that i will not go through tribulation and i absolutely zero teaching would i come to that conclusion reading the bible reading the teachings of jesus and the teachings of the apostles never never there's not one instance that you will get clear like specific um inclination toward the fact that christians will not go through uh tribulation at the opposite and these meanings we bring into those verses that many people use to justify that we will not go through tribulation like we're bringing stuff into those verses that's not what those verses mean and if you read the whole context you will see that the bible translates the bible the bible in trip is the bible and so when i was confronted with that and i said you know what i need to put aside my tradition and i don't want to go through tribulation don't get me wrong i'm not i'm not suffering from a modern complex again i don't want to suffer i want to go upstairs as soon as possible so my my position is this i pray for pre-trip but i prepare for post-trip why because in the bible i seem to see and i keep on stumbling on this thing you will suffer you will go through tribulation and even though the wrath of god is poured out god still protects us right in the middle of it but he doesn't rescue us from it he will rescue us through it now do i hope that i'm wrong 100 and i could be wrong but reading the bible with letting the bible speak to us instead of how we grew up and bringing certain even legalism or the bible says don't do this well does it or is this just the way we grew up with and it's just the ways wise way of living but don't say the bible said it if the bible is silent about it and don't find some verse in the old testament that's buried between so many other weird verses that apply specifically to the nation of israel to justify what you and i are preaching we have to be very honest and have integrity and one of the best ways to do that is to do proper exegesis now number three is compare if what you're reading compared with other translations now no translation is perfect because the bible was written in greek and greek has five million words english translation english dictionary has about a million words i mean for greek word love there's five words in greek and one word in english so no translation will ever be perfect we know the bible was written in hebrou but then the substitute through substituent it was translated into greek and then there was a little bit of aramaic that was also that it was written in now there is three types of bible translations there's the paraphrase translation like living bible or the message bible or the passion bible and those are good for devotional there's thought for thought which is also good for devotional like niv or nlt those are good as well and then there's the deeper translation or deeper study bible it's the word for word king james new king james also s e s v and as well as nasb translations and so these translations they help you to understand the bible word for word so there's paraphrase there's thought for thought and then there's word for word and so for devotional reading it's good to probably read more of paraphrase and thought for thought and then as you are trying to study the bible begin to read more of word for word and then compare translations compare this translation with the other one so that you can have a deeper understanding number four to help you study the bible is get a study bible one of my favorite study bibles that i have used amplified bible is actually more word for word depending some people say it's more thought for thought but i believe the amplified is more word for word my favorite study bible that i've used it for so many years is actually the spirit filled bible i'm gonna bring back the bible graphics on i've used this bible for so many years it really blessed me spiritually and the reason why being is that it has a lot of like presentation from a more of a pentecostal charismatic perspective a lot of bible scholars and a lot of smart account the smart people where they leave different comments and food for thought all around jack hayford is like the main the main guy and so in the beginning they give you like an overview at the end they give you a lot of practical things as well so it's not just like theological has like a a lot of devotional components to it and then they have these different things of what a particular thing a particular theme means in the bible particular greek word means it's like this bible is like stained because i i wept i cried in it i mean this this has been my bible for so long and then in fact i it got torn torn out that i actually have somebody from california make a permanent binding for it so that they're giving a lifetime warranty actually that it will never fall apart again and so currently i don't read this bible anymore i read more of i read right now three different bible studies when i read my daily devotions i read the quest study bible i would recommend this one this really helps with a lot of questions i love this because it has like forever it's like questions so like you're reading it where did kane get his wife for example questions like why did david execute those who helped him with win the throne so it has a lot of question that's why it's called the quest bible so um i love to learn more about the bible and so just i love it when i finish reading my devotions i just open this one scroll through the two chapters that i have three chapters that i've read i look through the questions and i find them very encouraging and enlightening and also informational my other bible that i'm currently reading is the study bible oh okay i think i took the wrong one so but this was also very good i'm not currently doing this one the net bible i'm using this one only for studying of a particular topics so the net bible and then there's the faith life bible the faith life bible and so i dropped all of them into the qr code right here if you check this qr code right there um i mentioned there's faith life the spirit field the net bible the tony evans bible the date uh a study bible life application so there's there's different ones and let me know in the chat which study bible do you use or do you find most useful which study bible do you find most useful or most beneficial for you so drop that in the chat i would love to see that on your end and we do screenshot of the qr code yes you can do a screenshot of the qr code um tpt is useful okay i read the the passion translation the comment i love the commentary the passion translation as well esv study bible tony evans moody commentary those are really great um amplified nlt passion translation i find life application i'm actually having a life application come and i have the word keyword study i already ordered it so it's coming so what i do is i try to read every year through one study bible or this year it's three study bible simply kind of compare the notes at the end it really enriches my i'm a geek i love like stuff and information and um so it really blesses me and so i read uh i try to read through three right now as well now two softwares that i would recommend along with study guides like with the bible studies the two softwares that i will recommend my favorite one is the olive tree um olive tree bible app it's a little bit outdated um in the sense that they're not as frequently updating it as uh the other one but it's cheaper and on it you can download a lot of free commentaries you can download free dictionaries i bought a lot of stuff on it and so i love study bible in fact what i'm going to do right now and that is if um this is not going to cause me a problem is i'm going to actually give you just a little tour of what the study bible what the study bible does um what my what my study bible okay never mind i am not going to do that while i'm doing live stream because i'm gonna run into a problem oh yeah i can do that so this is pretty much right now i'm showing to you for those of you on youtube and if you are on um if you are on instagram i apologize but i am on on youtube showing uh the stuff i love the olive tree for this for few reasons one is that in olive tree bible you can actually make as you're seeing this right now so as i'm reading the bible i can actually have my notes on the side and these notes can be put into categories into folders and i'm like a also i love to organize stuff so like i have my sermons so the sermons that i preached are numbered there and then i have sermons i'm working on then i have trips that i take taken what i preach sermons my notes from other people that i took as well as um soap is where like my scripture observation application so like the different places that i'm reading an amazing part is that i can click on it and then these verses they show up right away straight from the notes as well as i'm reading as i'm reading the bible actually can have notes inserted into the bible as i'm reading and then as i scroll down i can see my notes from what i've taken them before i can highlight and so i really love this bible but unfortunately it's not as they don't update it as often as i wish they would um for example let me show you Matthew one so like you can highlight just the word you can highlight um different things and you can use different translations so you can use like pretty much a lot of translations are available you can use different commentaries you can use different cross cross references devotionals dictionaries outlines sermons i mean a lot of stuff and then as i'm reading i can see this little note oh wow i preached about this and so i can look at it i can change the note and it's really i guess for a preacher slash geek i love that but my other most favored one is logos i don't think i have logos on this computer because this is not my study computer and so i have it upstairs in my office and so so i would encourage you to let me put the chat back okay i would encourage you to check those out olive tree uversion is a very good bible to read from and and probably study is not necessarily probably the best but but definitely reading give me one second i just did something okay but reading is very good olive tree is my favorite and logos is also my favorite so check them out if you haven't before and they could be a blessing to you the last thing about studying of the bible is the biggest problem with bible study is not failure to understand but failure to apply the word of god the word of god we understand and so i want to mention that do not focus so much about which app which website the biggest challenge of studying the bible is not actually studying the bible is actually living it Pharisees knew the bible really well in fact when jesus when wisemen came and they said where is the king of jews born Pharisees like yeah i know but they never went to see him they knew the bible really well but they missed jesus they did not obey jesus and that's my biggest honestly warning personally not for you guys but mainly for me because i read i really fell in love recently in the last i would say a year half a year just really fell in love with the scriptures i really fell in love with the bible and it kind of scares me you may say why would that scare you because the first commandment is not thou shall love thy bible the first commandment is thou shall love the lord your god and you know jesus keeps keeps bringing back james you know talking about the mirror of god's word merely just looking at it instead of doing what it says it brings the fear of god back to remember that it's not about knowing the bible as much as about obeying the bible now we live in america where we have abundance of the scriptures we have abundance of teachings like these but honestly that is not where we're gonna see the transformation and revival revival and transformation will come from us obeying the scriptures we understand obeying the scriptures we know it's good to know more it's good to study it's good and a lot of you guys shared awesome resources i see the comments amazing resources and all of these all of this is good but if we don't obey it if we don't live it then all of that is honestly gonna be a waste of time a waste of our behavior in fact knowledge will puff us up it's supposed to lead us to transformation but it will lead us to arrogance it did to Pharisees it could do the same to us so while i am a huge component this year dive into the word of god but don't dive so deep that you don't live it that you see scripture as a means to know the scripture instead of scripture as a means to know god and as a means to love him love your neighbor may i remind you jesus says go into all the world and make disciples teach them to obey he didn't say teach them to read memorize and study but teach them to obey every reading memorizing listening and studying of the scripture that does not lead to practical obedience will lead to hypocrisy will lead to legalism and religion the holy spirit was not given to you so you can speak and understand greek he was given to you so you can speak english kindly so you can minister to your family and so you can be a man and a woman of god that god wants you to be have this funny illustration and i'm gonna end on this imagine my wife telling me to feed jacko jacko is my dog our dog and imagine my wife going to grocery shopping and she tells me vlad i want you to feed jacko at 6 30 p.m and she comes back let's say at 8 p.m and she says vlad did you feed jacko and i would respond to her well i memorized what you said in fact i can speak it in three different languages feed jacko at 6 p.m i even gathered a small group on zoom and while you were gone we actually developed a plan of what it will look like to feed jacko we even shared stories when we shared when we fed jacko before so she would ask well that's great but did you actually feed him well i i recited it i wrote it down but did you feed him no see like that's kind of how sometimes it becomes when it comes to the word of god we can memorize it have bible study learn it in greek learn it in hebrew have study bibles have apps and all of that has this place i do not want to discourage you from none of that what i just want to encourage you with is that the end goal is knowing god and obeying the scriptures your success this year will be in your applying the bible not just knowing the bible i'm pretty sure that you know the guys who fell and i saw today a pastor and i followed him for a time on social media the mega church pastor and he announced that he had an affair and stepped down from ministry and a very heartbreaking very heartbreaking and i'm thinking you know he's a eloquent speaker amazing preacher he knows the word probably went to bible college but the shame and the problem that he brought on his family and on the ministry and even on the name of the lord it wasn't because he lacked bible knowledge as much as he lacked bible obedience and i think that we have to come back to that especially in america there's gazillion i mean probably thousands and millions of videos and how to study the bible websites are i mean i have logos bible software and i bought like one of the nicer packages i mean it has more commentaries that i have probably life to read wealth wealth of knowledge and information amazing but there are atheist professors who teach the bible in secular universities who are going to hell they don't obey the bible and so dear christians my desire is get into the word of god treat it less like a textbook and more like spiritual food and as you go and get more knowledge get more love and as you understand it more make sure that it does not get divorced from your obedience if your application is shrinking of the bible but your understanding is growing you have a problem if you know more but you love less you serve less you're not changed as a person you have a problem redirect your heart toward the lord look for him in the bible i love what jesus said he says search the scriptures for they testify of me we don't go to the bible to find ourselves we go there to find jesus we go there because he wants to transform us all scripture is inspired by god and it's good for reproof for rebuke for correction the scripture is living and powerful sharper than any to its sword dividing discerning and intense of the hearts the scripture is a telescope like we said it's the mirror it's the oil it's the hammer but its end goal is the salvation glorification of christ and the transformation of our life and that can only happen if i commit to its application more than to retain its information and find a deep revelation i know i just gave you a lot of asian but the big idea is this god wants you you and i to apply it more than he wants us to learn it and study it amen i hope this was a blessing to you i want to take a moment and if you're watching this right now and you fell off the wagon and maybe you you stopped reading the scriptures you stopped reading memorizing living i want to ask you to come back let's do it let's do it i'm not a big component now to read the bible through one year i used to read it through one year i read the bible from beginning to end and usually takes me year sometimes more because i used to see that as a something to finish and i'm a goal oriented person and the lord dealt with my heart it's personal my personal conviction i'm not saying every person has to subscribe to that to read the bible daily that's my goal and to linger in the bible to take time and to pray out of the bible and next week and weeks after that i'm going to talk about prayer i'm going to talk about fasting but that's my desire for you is that you don't make a goal to read through the year even though if you've never read the bible through from beginning till the end make a decision to read the bible from beginning through the end and make a decision to read the bible daily so come back to the lord come back to his word maybe you're watching right now and you actually walked away from jesus christ maybe all this social distancing covid and fears and everything has has gotten you out of the church out of community and you're watching or maybe you're rewatching and you secretly backslid and your heart is convicting you the lord is bringing you back there is no pit so deep that christ cannot reach you in he wants to forgive you of your sin he wants to bring you back i know this is weird because i'm here you're there and this is online but hey we watch movies we watch sports and those people are there and we're here and we still get entertained god can use this medium of media to bring your salvation right now all you gotta do is turn your face toward home come back to the lord repent of your sin walk away from the pig pin come back to your father come back to the cleansing flow of the blood of jesus come back to the community and if your church still doesn't meet find a church that does or join our church on sundays we would love to see you but the bible says that now is the time of salvation and as i've ministered the word of god to you i want to give you the opportunity to respond and to come back to jesus this is a time where because of the online many people spend more time on their phones and more more online than than before things are closed especially where i'm at right now it's snow day and the weather is really bad let me let me lead you into a prayer of repentance now may i remind you may i remind you that prayer of salvation or prayer of repentance doesn't save anybody only jesus saves but i like what my friend david diga says that but sinners pray and god saves them confess with your mouth believe with your heart repent of your sin place your trust in jesus let's pray together let's ask jesus right now to forgive you restore you even if you did something so horrible that you can't forgive yourself christianity is not about you forgiving you it's about jesus forgiving you pray with me lord jesus i'm a sinner please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your blood i believe you are the son of god i believe you came on this earth you live the perfect life and you died on the cross for me i receive you as my lord and as my savior i repent of my sin i turn away from my evil ways and i ask you come and live in me fill me with your holy spirit deliver me from my demons set me free i pray give me desire for your word give me passion for the scriptures and reveal your word as i read it change me as i read it in jesus name amen