Reading vs. Studying the Bible: Why You Need Both
FULL TRANSCRIPT
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He's just a regular guy with a cool job that God loves for some reason. Welcome to The Steve Marston Show, a daily journey in learning how to live more like Jesus, conversations with those that God is working through, and dad jokes. It's the most unique show you'll hear today. Now, here's Steve. And we're underway. The Steve Marston Show is back. Thank you to all of you listening on our radio stations. We're live every day at 3 p.m.
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over the next few weeks and then even in next months and years as well. As we get started today, I wanted to talk about an X post. You know, X, it used to be Twitter. And one of the cool things about it is that it was, at least originally, meant to be very pithy. You you had to be able to write well to do an X post.
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because you only had a certain number of characters to use. to me, it always was more creative to be on that social media platform than on really any of the others. that's, be that as it may, I know it's changed a little bit now, but it's still pretty neat when people can really use a minimum amount of words to have an impact. And there's a person or a group that call themselves Talk Church.
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A great follow on X. If you hang out there, you should definitely follow them. And here's what they posted earlier today. It said, reading the Bible and studying the Bible are not the same thing. says reading gives you familiarity, which is always a hard word for me to say, and studying gives you depth. Try to do one, or try to do both, not just one. And I thought that was such a good post.
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And it made me think that really it should be both and, not two separate things. And I want to do a deep dive on that here for just a second as we move on through the show here. You know, all of us, I think, want to have January 1st roll around and us sign up on the Bible app or, you know, at least go somewhere and download a reading plan and...
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read the entire Bible within a year. That's always our goal. think most of you listening today would say that. I know it's been mine. And look, let me just be honest with you. Again, I try to be as transparent as I can in just about everything that we talk about here on the program. If I open up my Bible app on my phone, which I'm doing right now, and there's the Face ID, and I open up plans, and I hit the plan that I have.
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I am 199 days behind. I know. Don't judge me. Why am I so far behind? Because that I do both. I study the Bible and read the Bible. Because what happens a lot of times is you're reading through your Bible app and something pops in your head or a little phrase catches your attention and you go, man, I wonder...
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what that means or I would like to know more about that and instead of making a mental note to go back we just kind of blow right through it which I think is totally the wrong thing to do because God has kind of put that on your heart and not following up on it just misses out we miss out on a blessing from not doing that. Let me give you an example.
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I was reading in my Bible app just the other day and it talked about Mount Horeb. And I thought, Mount Horeb? And I know it was in parentheses there, it said the Mountain of God. So I thought, the Mountain of God? What do what that means? So I stopped what I was doing and I started doing some research on the Mountain of God. And when I was there, I found out that Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are the same Mount.
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And a lot of history in the Bible took place there. Like when you talk about Abraham, when he was going to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, remember? And they went up to the top of the mountain and Isaac asked, where's the sacrifice? And Abraham said, God will provide. Yeah, that's the mountain. It's also the same mountain where Moses...
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came across the burning bush when he was on the backside of the desert when he had run from Pharaoh and was just kind of living as a recluse. He came in contact with God there at Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai. When he was given the Ten Commandments, a lot later after leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, where did he go? He went to the mountain of God and God met with him there for 40 days. It's also the place
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where while Moses was up there communing with God, that the people down below gave all their golden earrings and things to Aaron, Moses' brother, and they made a golden calf to worship. And then, you fast forward a little bit later where I was reading in 1 Kings, and that's where Solomon built the first temple to God was there.
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Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai. It's the mountain of God. And that just opened up such clarity for me. So now I have that in the back of my mind. So anytime that is referenced, whether it be in the Old Testament or the New Testament, I've got some middle pictures and I know what the history is there. And we only get that
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when we stop and we break down something God has put onto our heart and brought to our attention. So the next time you're reading through your Bible app, don't blow through those opportunities because I'm telling you, it's amazing what you can learn and amazing what you can put into practice. Now, the downside of that is, the downside is you're going to be like me and you're going to look at your Bible app and you're going to be
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200 days behind, right? But it's so worth it. So I really think as much as I like this X-post from TalkChurch, I really think it's both. You need to read your Bible and to study your Bible. They are different things, but I think you should do them both at the same time. I'm just telling you as a friend to encourage you, don't miss those opportunities.
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take those deep dives and especially now in this day and age that we live in with all the resources we have on the internet my gosh it's so easy to find everything that's on your heart. Alright back with more in a minute.
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The Steve Marston Show rolls on. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. And I am really happy that you're joining us today.
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decide whether they are myths or not. Well, we kind of do the same thing here because there are a lot of things that people, even Christians, kind of assume are in the Bible, but maybe that's not as accurate as what it should be. So we want to make sure we're rightly handling God's Word. So we came up with this little thing that's not in the Bible. And what we want to talk about today is the whole turn the other cheek business.
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Now obviously that phrase is in the Bible, so what do we mean? Well, let's talk about the definition of turning the other cheek and what it means versus what it doesn't mean. Because I think a lot of people look at Jesus, especially in the outside world, but some in the church world too, and say, well, turning the other cheek means we don't stand up against wrongdoing. We allow...
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ourselves to be slapped on one side of the face and instead of maybe doing something about it, we turn the other cheek. And that's what we're supposedly taught by Jesus to do. Okay, well that's not exactly in the Bible, alright? So let's break it down. Let's really talk about what he's meaning here. Because this goes back to the Sermon on the Mount, which is the greatest sermon ever preached. It's found in Matthew's
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chapters 5, 6, and 7. And when you look at the context, because listen, context is king whenever you're trying to understand what the Bible says, Jesus is telling the people gathered that you've heard it said, meaning in the Old Testament from the religious leaders who are the quote unquote experts, you've heard them say that
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there's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Which, look, that's legitimate. That's from the Old Testament. The Bible does say that. But the context of eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is justice. Meaning, let the punishment fit the crime. It's basically saying, we want to do an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, not giving the death penalty for jaywalking. Does that make sense?
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Let the punishment fit the crime is what the original meaning from the law of Moses was talking about. And Jesus says, now you have heard it said, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. But what Jesus says then is, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek as well. Now, what does that mean? What he's talking about is retaliation.
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He's saying, if someone insults you, don't insult them back. If someone embarrasses you, don't embarrass them back. Because that's our human nature, right? We feel that wronged and we want to lash back out and retaliate in the same way that they have hurt us. But turning the other cheek isn't pretending that good is evil. It's refusing to let someone else determine your response.
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That's what it really gets down to. Because I mean, just think about it. Jesus himself wasn't passive about wrongdoing. I mean, you know, when you look at the scripture and you look all throughout it, you'll see him confronting these religious leaders especially, because they were the ones who set themselves up as the standard as which to follow after, but yet they made it so hard on the people to...
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reach God to be able to do everything just right, and yet they put those heavy burdens on the people, but their hearts themselves was so far from God. They were just doing the works. It was all a sham. It was all an act. It was all just going through the motions. Their heart wasn't the motivation for it. It was just, oh, I'm going to be
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a good person, I'm going to do what the law says and I'm going to continue to live my life however I want to." And Jesus stood firm against them. He always called them out. In fact, one time he called a group of Pharisees whitewashed sepulchers, which sepulcher is the same thing as a tomb. Basically, you're so nice and pretty and
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look the part on the outside, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones. Yeesh. Yeah. So Jesus didn't let, you know, things that were unjust go by. He taught us to confront sin, especially when you look a little bit later on in Matthew, he talks about how we need to be there
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and make sure that we confront our brothers, for instance, who, you know, when we see them going astray and not leading the life that they should be leading, we need to make sure our house is in order before we do that, but we are to confront them over it. So here's the key distinction that boils it all down, okay? Jesus said Christians should stand up for themselves and confront wrongdoing. What he taught was,
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not to retaliate or seek personal vengeance. They're not the same thing. What you're doing is wrong. You can't treat me this way. This needs to stop. I'm going to establish a boundary. All of those things are healthy. All of those things are what Jesus would teach us to do in these situations. However, what he's not telling us to do is to just let things go by
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turning the other cheek and allowing ourselves to be violated or used in an abusive way. Does that make sense? So when we start thinking about what it really means to turn the other cheek, we've got to be able to explain it correctly and clearly, not only to those on the outside of the Christian bubble, but those on the inside as well. More of the Steve Marsden show coming up back after this.
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The Steve Marsden Show continues. Discipleship has never been more fun. Welcome back. It's always good to have this guy on the program because he just brings a spark. He brings that energy, brings that life. His name is Jason Curry. He's the author of an incredible book called Finish Empty. If you don't have a copy of this book, I highly encourage you to go to finishempty.com, get you a copy of it, and then follow him on social media. He's a
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great follow, especially on X if you hang out there. He just does a fantastic job. Jason Mann, welcome back. It's good to have you. Man, I appreciate being here and thank you for the intro Steve. That made my day right there. Well, you're welcome. I assume the check's in the mail. That's right. That's right. As long as it'll clear, as long as it'll clear, be good. That's right. Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. So glad to be here. Now, as we're taping this, you're
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always on social media putting out, just think, incredibly good content. And as we're taping this, it was just a couple of hours ago, you titled a post that said, the battle for excellence is fought in your calendar. Now, I'll just be honest with you, myself included, I think most people think our calendar, man, that's our taskmaster. That's not something we want to find excellence in. That's the thing that just drives us crazy because we've got to run from one place to the next.
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How do we find excellence and how do we make sure it's found there? Yeah, well, I think it's a really simple but not easy answer. I think most people look at their day and think, what do I have to do? And that's driven by responsibility. And those are good things. They're not negative things. And responsibilities, obviously, help us pay the bills and things like that. But then there's this word, priority.
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And those are things that we need to do that most of the time people aren't making us do. And that's usually really the separator in life. Like no one's making you have your quiet time. No one's making you have date night with your spouse. No one's making you rest. No one's making you read. No one's making you go to Bible study. And so the things that really, really, really lead us to live with excellence, most of the time are not requirements. And so...
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If we just do what everybody else is doing, then we kind of end up like everybody else. And there's a wonderful verse in Ephesians, Ephesians 5, 15 and 17. Paul challenged the church at Ephesus to pay attention to how they walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And then he says, making the most of the time. And so I really don't think that we're going to drift to a life that's impactful or
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or drift to a life where we're in a deeper walk with Christ, we need to schedule those things, we need to guard those things, and kind of push back best we can. I mean, I'm saying this with grace, I'm not saying it mean. Push back best we can to the urgent things that scream they're important, but they're not, they're just urgent. You know, I actually saw on social media from Bobby Bones, of all people, you know, the radio guy, the country music big DJ guy, he said,
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that he was talking along these same lines. He was saying how when he and his wife were first starting dating, he would actually put in the phone and schedule time. And it was something that she looked at as a negative, like, he's got to schedule a time to go in. Whereas in his mind, it was totally different. This was important. This was a priority. So I'm putting you in my phone, which... Yeah.
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You got to be really, you know, well communicating in that as well. But I just thought that was fascinating that yeah, people do that where it's sure you're putting it in your phone, not as a negative, but as a positive. Yeah. I think sometimes we think if it's on our calendar, it's automatically a have to instead of when we start scheduling things that are get to's and want to's and need to's.
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And so I think that that's maybe just a perspective on it and a conversation where you go, I want to put this in first and then guard it. I will say this, for gosh, the last 10, 15 years, Courtney and I, my wife have always gone on a trip away together, just the two of us, once a year. And we just kind of set that out as a priority.
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And that always went on my schedule first. And if someone tried to book me, it would say private event. And I'm just say, Hey, I'm not available. And, uh, and so there's been times Steve, where you really have to make a decision, um, when someone will call and maybe it's impactful or maybe something that, is rewarding financially. And you have to decide in that moment, Hey, this really matters most. And, uh, I schedule, uh, everything.
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Like if I'm going to watch a baseball game, if I want to take a nap, I try to get to a point where I go, hey, I want to guard what really matters and I want to look at my calendar and see things that I'm looking forward to and date night with your spouse is definitely one of those things. Absolutely. Jason Curry is our guest here on the Steve Marston show. He is the author of a book called Finish Empty and we're talking about the need for having your calendar.
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in good shape because it does set priorities. And really what we're talking about overall is guarding of our hearts and guarding of the things that are important because that's all over Scripture too, is making sure we guard what's important because I loved what you said just a few minutes ago and that is we're not going to drift in to a closer walk with Jesus. It's got to be something that we are intentional about and maybe even put it into our calendars.
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Yeah, the second part of that passage in Ephesians, Paul says, pay careful attention to how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the most of the time. And then he says this because the days are evil. And there's a lot of different ways that you can read that. But the application of it is simplistic. I want to invest my time in what matters and what lasts and what aligns.
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biblically and many times when you look back over your life the major stumble, the major fall, the major moment of sin in your life, it was a slow fade or drift to that. so Satan many times, if he can't just out of the gate make us completely and totally rebellious, he'll just make us busy or distracted. And all of a sudden it's been two weeks since I've had my quiet time, two weeks since I've been a small group.
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three weeks since I've been to church and my defense is down now and I don't see it and I'm much more susceptible to relationship conflict, I'm feeding less the flesh, less the eyes or pride of life. And so when you schedule in those times to grow, I believe it, someone online will correct me. I think it was Henry Blackaby that said, you're as deep in your walk with Christ as you want to be. He's not holding out on you. And so when we schedule that,
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time to learn to grow to get better. Oh man, everything begins to change. And so don't think of it as such a rigid thing. Think of it as, I want to do this. And so I want to guard against things that don't matter. See, I think that's so important in just all areas of our faith. think, tell me what you think about this, that our faith is such a mindset, that it's so much in between our ears that
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it really, we don't really realize it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think sometimes, especially for church people, you start with, I don't have to earn the love of God. But that doesn't mean that obedience doesn't matter or growth doesn't matter or holiness doesn't matter or becoming more like Jesus doesn't matter. But when we're doing those things, we're not working to convince God to love us.
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Right. We're obeying because we're loved. We're growing because we're loved. We're pursuing Him because He first pursued us. so that changes the way I approach, hey, I want to do these things. I want to schedule these things. I want to be a workman approved. I want to be a grown-up, mature in my faith. I don't want to be a milk drinker my whole life. I want to be able to grow into who God's called me to be. But it's not...
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so that God will love me. It's because He loves me. And grace changes that, Steve. It changes why we do what we do. It certainly does. And I can't imagine getting to the end of my days and standing before my Maker and Him saying, you know, I had all these plans for you and I had such an abundant, victorious life sketched out, and all you had to do was just be intentional about it.
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pursue after it, because I feel like so many in our church body are going to be that at the end. We're so happy with the crumbs when there's a table full of feast. You know, it's just full, overflowing of food and stuff that He wants for us, and we're just not taking advantage of it. No, and really at the heart of that, we've got to look deeply and see the spiritual warfare that's happening there.
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It's really Satan trying to keep us from time with the Father. It's a great little line that I can remember from my childhood. Dependency equals intimacy. And so when I spend time with God and put Him right at the front of my day and acknowledge what He knows that I can't do anything without Him and know that it's my time in the Word, it's my time in His presence, all that God is calling me to be and do and go
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is really an invitation for me to grow in my relationship with Him. And Satan's trying to keep you from that and trying to convince you that God's holding out on you. And it's just not true. It's just not. You're right. Jason Curry is our guest here on the Steve Marston show. He is a pastor. He's an author. He's also a corporate speaker. He's somebody that God has used in so many different ways.
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here over the last few years, and it's an honor to have him back here on the program. So let's talk a little bit more about your book, Finish Empty. It's doing so well. And I guess the last time that we talked, mean, even eclipsed even, think maybe your wildest dreams on it. It has, it has. And it really ventured into, know, anybody who's involved in the business world knows every now and then you get into a new vein or a new market and you go, I didn't even know this world was here.
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And, um, finish empty has opened the door for me to help school systems and educators and superintendents. And I spent most of August, um, traveling the state and, and traveling the South speaking to school systems and teachers and back to school events. And so the impact of that, many of those schools by finish empty, um, use them in their school, use them in their athletic program.
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And so it's really been a fun time for me because there are some venues that are not always apt to think a pastor is the first choice we want to be in here. so Finish Empty has been a way for me to walk into through doors that are normally not wide open for pastors and go in and invest. And really, you want to help.
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Like at the end of the day for the school system to go, oh my gosh, if we implement these leadership principles, we're gonna get better. And so that has changed drastically a little bit of the trajectory of Finish Empty and being involved in education. And I've been a student pastor my whole life, so at least most of my adult life. And so it's almost like, God has been orchestrating things perfectly to put me in the right position.
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to use my gifts for His glory. Isn't that just like God when you look back and you see, oh man, all of those other experiences, all of those things, even that I thought were obstacles and hardships have now led me to where I am now and prepared me so well. It is amazing. Jason Curry is here with us for just a couple of more minutes. Let's talk a little bit about the book in a little more detail. Let's drill down on what do you think of the whole
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book as a whole, what is the one key you would like people to kind of get from Finish Empty? Yeah, the distance between I'm glad I did and I wish I had. And you were just talking about this when you stand before God. And so we all know, even though it's not in front of our mind every day, but we all know we get one shot at life. And so many people we know tell the story again and again of I wish I had, I wish I could go back.
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I wish I'd have been involved in church more, I wish I'd have been more intentional with my spouse or my kids. And you don't have to live like that. You could live the story and go back to calendaring, scheduling today what matters most. And if I build a bunch of days like that, days become weeks and weeks, months and months, years, where I chase the things that matter most and I can look back and not say it was about perfection, but at least the direction.
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I can say, I'm glad I did those things. I didn't squander the opportunity, I redeemed the time. And so it's a different thought process and way to live. Hope is a wonderful thing, Steve, and I love hope. But man, it's not a good strategy for the day. I want to take intentional, purposeful, redeeming steps towards what matters most.
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And at the end of my life, if I do that, I think I'll look back and say, boy, I'm glad I did that. That is so good. I love that. And I love the book. I'm so impressed by it and so thankful for it. Again, it's called Finish Empty. You can find out more about it at finishempty.com. And as we just get ready to wrap up here, tell everybody where they can get a copy of it. And there's like workbooks and stuff available too now, right? Yep.
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Well, the book is a workbook. It's made for people to go through together. It's got questions at the end of every chapter. They go to finishempty.com. If they'll search finished empty really online anywhere, they'll find it. And then on the follow on social media, they can search Jason Curry. They'll find my page there. And I'd love to connect with them, love to help in any way I can. All right. And who's going to win the world series this year? The brewers look pretty good, don't they? They do. They actually do.
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What are they like something like 31 or 32 games above 500? Yeah, there's not brewers. Look, look, look pretty good. It'll be how about this for the cliche? It'll be who's healthy hitting and pitching well. There you go. There you go. Maybe we'll have you down and we'll break, break down all the MLB playoffs before too much. I'd love it, man. That'll be, that'll be a lot of fun. Okay. And if somebody's listening and said, man, I really like that guy, I'd love to have him come speak to our group, whether they're in.
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Arkansas or Texas or anywhere else that they're listening, how can they get a hold of you? Yeah, if they'll go to finish empty dot com or Jason Curry dot org and the Curry's spelled just like Steph Steph Curry. So Jason Curry dot org or finish empty dot com and I'd love to connect with them. Your brother from another mother, right? That's it. That's it. All right, Jason. Thanks so much, man. Really appreciate you joining us and we'll talk to you again real soon. Okay. All right. Thanks Steve. That's Jason Curry everybody.
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Always love talking with him. Always feel better when I get through with a conversation because he always brings such good things to the table and things that will make you think and things that will challenge your heart. just so impactful, so thankful for his friendship and what a good fella he really is. Check out all of his websites, follow him on social. All right, we've got to slide away. Another quick break and more of the Steve Marston show before you know it.
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Welcome back to Steve Marston Show rolling on. It's the Christian radio show and podcast that really matters because of our content.
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And speaking of our content, you know, we were talking in the first segment about the difference between Bible study and just reading the Bible. Well, we've got a free PDF that can help you. It's five tips for Bible study. It's just strategies that I've come across in my years of studying the Bible that I put into practice when I'm reading scripture. And I think it'll help you. And it's free for the asking. Just go to our website, SteveMarsdenShow.com.
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Click the free PDF and it will come to you as a direct link and you'll just download it right there. Boom, easy peasy. So if you're so inclined and you want to kind of take the next step in Bible study, this will be a big help for you. Again, SteveMarsdenShow.com. Let's get to some other stories that you may have missed from today. This one comes from our friends over at ChurchLeaders.com, which...
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By the way, a great follow on social media. They do a tremendous job. And this is one of those stories though, that the headline doesn't exactly match the story because when you read the headline, it's Kirk Cameron warns against Taylor Swift. You're oh man. Okay, because I know there's plenty of things that you can lay at Taylor Swift's feet that would be correct as far as the subject material she covers in
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her songs and on and on and on. And I get that. But there's also a part of me that's like, Taylor Swift is not a professing believer, so we shouldn't expect her to be writing songs like Bill Gaither or Tobey Mac. Is Bill Gaither too old of a reference? Tobey Mac, right? But I was pleasantly surprised by the body of this article because Kurt Cameron on his podcast was talking about
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Taylor Swift's influence and how it goes far beyond entertainment because of millions of young women are looking to her when forming their views about life and relationships. And that's true. He says, this is where my celebration turns to concern because when you're influencing millions and millions of young people, you're doing more than just entertaining them. You're actually discipling them is what Kirk Cameron said. You're showing them what is good. You're telling them what is true. You're telling them what's normal and desirable and worth pursuing.
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And then he said this, over the years, some of her songwriting and her performances have increasingly included themes and imageries and lyrics that celebrate or normalize sexual immorality, vulgarity, ideas of revenge, drunkenness, bitterness, rebellion, which of course are all against Bible morality. Again, that's true, but again, she's never said, hey, I'm someone that's following Jesus in my personal life.
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And then Kirk Cameron says this, which is, thought, so good, I don't want this to become Christians pointing at Taylor Swift and saying, oh look, that's a terrible influence over there on young people. No, that's not actually the gospel. I don't want Christians merely mocking her. I certainly don't want to do that. I want us to be praying for her. Imagine what could happen if a woman with that level of talent and discipline and creativity and wealth and business acumen and worldwide influence.
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surrendered all that she had to Jesus Christ and came home. That is what we should be doing. Really good stuff from Kirk Cameron. Another story that you may have missed, I found this interesting. This was a story, or a study I should say, about pastors because how many times have you heard about pastor burnout and the fact that pastors are leaving by the droves every single year? Well it turns out
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That's not exactly true. This is a story, again, over at ChurchLeaders.com by Stephanie Martin. And she opens the piece by saying, a quick question, how many pastors do you think leave full-time ministry each year? Now, without knowing the answer, I would have said 20%, 25 % maybe. But the number is actually 1.2%. She said, however,
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In the same survey, more than half the pastors said their role often feels overwhelming. And then another great majority says that their job demands regularly outpace their ability to keep up, meaning they're just constantly chasing their tail and they don't feel like they're ever getting anything accomplished. So the piece goes on to say, although pastors aren't walking away in substantial numbers, a majority of them
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aren't okay. For the same person, both facts are true at the same time and often for years." She said, if you lead a church or care about a pastor, know that pastor burnout is a very common thing, but that leaving is rare. Learn how a congregation can act before the resignation of a pastor forces the conversation. I think that's incredibly true. In fact, there's a guy that I know
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suffered from pastor burnout that we've had on the program before. We probably need to have him back soon. His name is Philip Miller. He's a full-time pastor and he went through exactly what we're talking about here. So the takeaway from this article is to look out for your pastor. Look for some warning signs that he is overwhelmed and that he is burned out. And make sure you take some steps as a church body to make sure that doesn't happen.
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because it can very easily happen because again, according to this research, so many pastors are feeling the heat, feeling the burnout, but yet they don't walk away from the job. They keep on going and yet that is such a cycle in and of itself. So pray for your pastor every single day and again, be on the lookout, develop a relationship with him and try to look and see if you see any of these things and then take it to the leadership and say, hey look,
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I'm concerned we need to make sure that he's not burning out. We got to do and take steps to make sure the load is lightened for him. So that's something that's very real. Another story that you may have missed comes, this one's kind of encouraging, from Chris Pratt's son, Jack. Now, I think it's funny that he's named his boy Jack Pratt. He's 14 years old and he's outspoken about his faith.
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Now he has a famous mom, Anna Faris, and you may know her from some of those Scream movies I think she was in. I'm not a huge fan, don't have anything against her, but don't know a whole lot about her. But she doesn't have a religious upbringing, and it's been a hard sell for Jack to reach his mother about Jesus, which, okay, on the surface that just sounds so bad. That breaks my heart for the kid. But he is continually to...
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let his mom know about his faith and how that she can accept Christ. In fact, his mom Ann told Chelsea Handler, which again, why anybody would go on the Chelsea Handler show is just beyond me. But Jack asked her recently to accept Christ as her savior and she told him, would do anything for him including this, but it's gonna take a whole lot of conversations. So let's keep her in our prayers. That's a strong young man.
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Here at the Steve Marston Show, we're serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke too. The dad joke of the day comes from the home office in Lono, Arkansas. My wife asked me the other day if I had seen the dog bowl. I said no, I didn't even know we knew how.
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That's a pretty impressive pooch. I'd say. Welcome back. It's the Steve Marston show. As we continue, want to thank you again for being a part of today's festivities. And don't forget our podcast is available for you wherever you get your podcast. Just search for the Steve Marston show and as always, we would love for you to subscribe to it as well and make sure you know whenever we upload.
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new content which is on the daily. So go do that at Steve Marston Show wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Faith Between Our Ears is the Bible verse that we try to learn every single week. We take a new one and yesterday we started with a brand new verse and this one is so good. It comes from Proverbs and it's one of those compare and contrasts and it says,
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A deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. That's Proverbs 15, 4. Look at the word picture there, a tree of life. mean, think about it. That's what got Adam and Eve in the garden in trouble when they refused to obey God. The tree of life is what God wanted to protect them from eating after the sin, right? So gentle words are a tree of life.
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but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit." I think we've all been on the receiving end of how hard it is when people use their words to cut us down and to really make us feel as small and tiny as possible. So we're not to do that. We're to understand the power that is there in between our jaws, right? So let's learn this Bible verse. However it takes you to memorize it, let's do it because
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It's incredibly important for us to have God's Word right between our ears so that we know what it says when the culture, when those voices in our heads start telling us the opposite. Gentle words are a tree of life, a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. It's our Faith Between Our Ears verse for this week, Proverbs chapter 15 verse 4. Whether it takes you saying it out loud,
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over and over and over to memorize it or writing it out or a million other ways, whatever you can do to memorize, let's do it and we'll be better off for it. Okay, we like to end every show by giving you a call to action. We call it your next step. Well, I really think your next step after listening to today's podcast is to put into practice
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what we were talking about way at the start of the program, putting into practice Bible study against reading the Bible. Those are companion things. They're not something necessarily that's one or the other. But use your opportunity reading the Bible to do deep dives when you're so moved and something jumps out at you. We are out of time. If you missed anything,
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Check SteveMarsdenShow.com. Talk to you tomorrow on the radio and online anytime. Adios.
