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[0:00] Please turn to Luke chapter 10. This is where we are going to base our thoughts.! We have been looking at the main points of the Christian message and we have lingered on the subject,! because it is an important subject, of God's words and as they relate to us.

[0:22] And Steve led us past two Sunday mornings in a very comprehensive and thorough description of God's word and an understanding of its importance and I want simply to look at this question in a more, sort of in a practical way, how to benefit or be blessed in relation to God's word.

[0:49] So how to have the blessing and benefit of what Steve was so helpfully teaching about on the last couple of Sundays. And what I have is a picture and some principles and some practicalities.

[1:10] And I've got one picture and six principles and I think at the last count four practicalities. I kept on changing my mind and adding things in and we'll see whether it still was four.

[1:23] The picture is the picture of Luke 10 38 42. Let me remind you of what the picture is. It is a home. It is two sisters, Martha and Mary and it is Jesus as he visits the home.

[1:44] And it looks something like this. We have these three figures. We have Mary sitting down. We have Jesus who is speaking and we have Martha who is busy in the kitchen. That's the simple picture of it.

[2:02] And you can pick up on some of the dynamics of it in the way that Luke tells us. So Luke 10 39. So Martha, bless her, has opened her home to the Lord Jesus. So she's a hospitable woman and one who is on the side of Jesus. She opens her home to Jesus. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. There's Mary who sits at the Lord's feet listening, literally listening to his word. So picture that if you will. And now we have Martha who is busy in the kitchen. It says she was distracted by all the deaconian, all the deaconing work, all the practical service. There were potatoes to peel. There were tomatoes to chop. There were onions to slice up. There was a whole pile of washing up in the sink. There were probably bills to be paid.

[3:13] There was cleaning to be done. There was hoovering to be done. Just you name it. That's what on her list. And Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be done. So you get the picture.

[3:30] She's in the kitchen, beavering away and actually fuming away as well. And Mary is just, you know, what is she doing? She's not lifting her hand to do a stroke of work, but she's just sitting there listening, sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his word. You get the picture. You're beginning to get the picture. Martha comes along and says, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? I think you can perhaps pick up on the vibe of this.

[4:11] You might even have said that on some occasions yourself. Look at these people. I've cooked a wonderful meal. They've all swanned off to go to the park, leaving all the washing up to me. How unfair, how insensitive, how immature. And this is what Martha comes to say to Jesus. Look at my sister.

[4:33] She's not doing a stroke of work. Don't you care about this, Jesus? Don't you care my sister's left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to get off her bottom and do some work. Tell her to help me.

[4:50] And you're with me so far because you'd be probably thinking much the same thing. And so for it's a little bit surprising of what Jesus says. He says it very nicely, doesn't he? He says, he repeats her name, Martha. Martha. Okay, he doesn't say woman. He doesn't say you. He calls her by her name, Martha. Martha. Martha. You are anxious and troubled. You are worried and upset about many things.

[5:24] But there's the And you could list them. But Lord, there's the washing up. Lord, there's the onions haven't been done yet. Lord, there's the potatoes. Lord, there's the rubbish that hasn't been even taken.

[5:35] You are upset and worried about many things. But there is one thing that is needed. At this particular point, at this particular time, although there's many things you could think about, at this point there is one thing that is needed. And Mary has chosen Mary has chosen this. Mary has chosen the better deal, the better part. She's opted into this. She's chosen the better part. And I'm not going to tell her to get off her bottom and go and help you. This will not be taken away.

[6:30] Do you get the picture? That's the picture? That's it? It's a... You might like to think where you would be in the picture, I suppose. I know where I'd be.

[6:46] That's the picture. One picture. And I want to say that this is meant to be a picture of the discipleship that Jesus commends. It is to sit at the feet of Jesus and to listen to his word.

[7:06] And that he commends it. He says it's the better thing. It's the... She has chosen the better. At least it's good, it's actually better.

[7:17] It's a place of benefit. It's a place of blessing. I'm sure that is a legitimate inference from the fact Jesus says it's better. And that's the picture I'd like us to think about this morning. And that's the biblical input in a sense. And I'm saying that this is a picture of discipleship.

[7:40] And it's a picture of discipleship that is relevant to us today. In that if we are to be Christian disciples, we too are to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words.

[7:59] And I want to say that in our day and age, that translates into taking time to do God the honor of listening to what he says in his word.

[8:18] And his word is the Bible. This is the record of what God says. So I'm going to say that this for us one application of it, perhaps a main application of it is for us to sit at the feet of Jesus to hear his word by taking time to listen to what the Bible says.

[8:49] Now you might say but actually Phil, to be perfectly honest in the picture, in the story there's no Bible and Jesus was there so how do you make this equation between reading the Bible and this picture?

[9:07] And I'm going to say go and listen to what Steve said in the last two sermons because I think he made the point very clearly that the Bible is the word of God.

[9:18] If you want to know what God says what the Bible says is what God says. So we don't have Jesus physically here on earth with us but we have what the word of God says in the Bible and I'm going to just assume that that makes sense because it does make sense.

[9:38] So let's do some principles and then some practicalities. And when we come to the practicalities I would really be interested if you have some thoughts about how this works out in practice perhaps things that you have found helpful in reading the Bible or things that you have found difficult that we might be able to somebody might have an answer to.

[10:06] We'll see how time goes and we'll see how that progresses. Principles. Number one it's not the only thing ever commanded by Jesus. He doesn't always say don't do any work let somebody else do the work.

[10:20] He doesn't always say that. For example he says we're to wash one another's feet. So that's work. And in lots of places work is commended so we shouldn't say that you know the only thing ever to do is let somebody else do the difficult work.

[10:42] Certainly not. But I think what it's talking about is place and priority and proportion. There is a place there is a time there is a part of our lives in which we should just leave the washing up and the hoovering for a little while and stop and choose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words.

[11:11] My example was like brushing your teeth. I don't think this is a very good example but brushing your teeth you don't do that all the time do you? I mean you would be really really questionable if you spent 24 hours a day brushing your teeth but there is a time in which you need to brush your teeth and not to be distracted by something else but just something that you do for the sake of your general health and hygiene.

[11:39] there is a time in which we need to stop everything else and listen to Jesus. Second principle we're not talking about point scoring.

[11:53] We're not talking about earning and achieving and competing so that it would be totally we would totally miss the point if I said right how many people here have read the Bible for 20 minutes a day over the past week and we give them a round of applause and then how many people have read the Bible for between 20 and 30 minutes a day and then we give them more of a round of applause and how many people have read the Bible for more than 30 minutes a day and it's not a competition it's not a competition it's not reading the Bible is not something which earns us stars of merit it is not like that it can easily be get into that frame of mind but what it is is relationship it is the way we relate to Jesus who is he he's the Lord Jesus Christ he's our saviour how do you relate to a saviour like that you go and sit at his feet and listen to what he has to say and put your trust in him and if he tells you to do something you do it it's a relationship it's not point scoring it's a relationship the Lord in heaven says of

[13:17] Jesus Christ this is my beloved son listen to him so do him the honour of listening the same way that we would do Adam the honour we wanted to know what he thought about Dr.

[13:34] Hood to just stop and let him speak so stop and let Jesus speak and it is not a pointless magical exercise I was told by one of my friends who was Iranian that a member of his family was in the habit of reciting the Quran or learning the Quran in Arabic even though she spoke Farsi so to me that seems a pointless exercise if you don't understand it and we're not talking about reading a book just as magic so you recite a sum of verses and it has a magic effect no we're talking about listening to a person how you listen to somebody you don't do it with your mind half on something else and you think oh well at least I've listened for 15 minutes that was good right finish with that you actually listen you take an interest you get involved with what they're saying in case you were thinking that it's only that Christian devotion never gets into this sort of magical view

[14:44] I was visiting an abbey the other day as I do of course and the publicity video was saying that the brothers gather together for their lunch and they have the Bible read to them in Latin anybody here speak Latin well I sincerely hope that some of them did but it seems a pointless thing to me if you don't speak Latin that the Bible read to you in Latin so some things that it is not not the only thing ever commanded not point scoring and not magic but what it was was a deliberate choice a deliberate policy despite pressure to do something different please notice that the there was the pressure of the onions themselves saying please slice me

[16:13] I don't know if you can see an onion without feeling that you need to slice it and there was the peer pressure of her sister saying you lazy so and so you're just sitting here letting me do all the work which was pressure from the family and there's all sorts of pressure that say to us don't bother sitting and listening to Jesus don't bother doing it lots of other things that you could do lots of other things that you should do lots of other things that are there to be done and press in on us to squeeze out this moment this time of sitting and listening and it was a deliberate choice against the flow now there's various places in the Bible which recognize this for example the parable of the sower where the word was planted do you remember this but

[17:15] I used to be able to remember this text but it's gone from me now the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches and worry about things come in and choke the word and I think that is very familiar to all of us there's the word shall we sit and listen know the concern the cares of this world the pressures of this world the deceitfulness of riches and what did I say it was something like care about things I'm sorry desires desires for other things come in and choke the word the bible is very realistic about this but Mary chose this remember what Jesus said Mary has chosen what is better she made a deliberate choice let's see if I can remember this illustration it goes something like this you're given a great big box and you're given some rocks and some sand sand and some dust and you're told to get as much as you can in the box so one way to do it would be to put the dust in that's fairly easy and put the sand in and then what you'll find is that it's very difficult to get the rocks in because the space is already taken up so that doesn't work the way if you want to fill the box and get the rocks in you put the rocks in first put the rocks in first and then the sand and the dust fits in the spaces round you can actually get a lot in that way and it is a question in our lives of putting the rocks in first which bits do we say

[19:17] I absolutely need to have this in my life put that in first do I need to spend time listening to Jesus Christ and listening to his voice I do well plug that in first that's one of the fixed things I definitely do rather than something I try and fit in afterwards after everything else has squeezed it out do you see my point fifthly principle wise she was willing and reverent because I think sitting at somebody's feet is a place of willingness and reverence rather than grasping somebody by the lapels and threatening them which is not willing and not reverent but she wasn't doing that with Jesus was she she wasn't in confrontation with him she was in submission to him and I want to say that it's important the attitude that we bring to our time of listening to the voice of

[20:29] Jesus because if we're physically as it were sitting at his feet but mentally we're taking by the lapels and saying I'm not going to do anything you tell me I think it is very unlikely that it will be a fruitful conversation if we come to the Lord settled in our hearts that we're going to be disobedient if we come to the Lord settled in our hearts that we're going to do whatever we want no matter what he says if we come to the Lord in a position of consistent non-compliance I don't think we're fulfilling this picture it's a picture which you would find in other terms but the same sort of idea when Samuel heard a voice in the temple and Eli said to him that's the Lord speaking to you and

[21:31] Samuel said well what do I do and Eli says all you need to do is to say speak Lord your servant is listening it seems to me that that is the right sort of prayer the right sort of attitude if we are to exemplify this picture in our lives here's the time here I am here's God's word Lord I am receptive to what you say speak Lord your servant is listening and I've also put in there the text which says in the authorised version be doers of the word not hearers only so I don't think Mary was just listening so that she could write an essay she was listening so she could take it in and then live it out that seems to me to be the attitude that we see in the picture and that seems to me to be the attitude that we need to have in our as we put this into practice in our lives so I say we're not blessed if we're planning disobedience and if you say well I'm reading the bible but it doesn't do me any good if I may be so bold is it possibly because you are simultaneously saying you're sitting at the feet of

[23:00] Jesus but in practice you're grasping by the lapels and saying I don't want to do what you tell me Jesus told a parable about two men building houses building their lives in other words one man built his house but it had no foundation it was built on sand the other man built his house and it was built on rock when the storms came storms do come in our lives they beat on both houses the house built on sand fell down and didn't stand the test the house built on rock stood the test Jesus says these are like two people both hear my word I don't know whether you remember this from the parable but what he says is the one who does my word sorry who hears my word and does it is the man who builds his house on the rock the man who hears my word but doesn't do it is the man who builds his house on the sand the seriousness that is implied by sitting at the feet of

[24:24] Jesus is borne out in saying if he tells me to do it I will put it into practice do you follow my point sixthly principle this is a policy supported by Jesus I think that's a great encouragement to us so you will have noted that Jesus didn't say come on Mary get off your bottom go and do some proper work he said Mary has chosen the better part it will not be taken away from her so Jesus supports her in doing this and I think it's a great encouragement to us that God supports us in taking time to listen to him and to sit at the feet of Jesus there are many texts that give us that I have chosen the James 4 8 which says draw near to

[25:27] God and he will draw near to you God supports and goes out to meet the believer who says I want to meet you I'm going to take this time to draw near to you and I can't remember where I quote this from was it might be Psalm!

[25:50] Psalm 1 yeah blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of scoffers is it and walk in the way of sinners but his delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates in it day and night there's a blessing pronounced to the one who does what we're talking about so those are six principles but where the rubber hits the road is practicalities and I want to take a little bit of time to think about practicalities in real life we find that I think many of us struggle in this area it's fine to say that's a beautiful picture and it is a beautiful picture and it's one that we want to aspire to and yet in practicality it's difficult it's much easier said than done so let me just bring out some practical points at least nearly all of us nearly all of us can have a bible in our own language that we can read

[27:10] I say nearly all of us because there are language groups that don't have a bible in their own language and I say that because not everybody can read but nearly all of us have a bible in our own language that we can read it wasn't always so so for many for a large proportion of the church's history there was not such a thing as printing it was not possible to have a bible in your own language and everybody to have their own copy but where are we now well where we're at is that it is possible so let's talk about what it is like now you can have a bible in your own language you can have a bible on your iphone or tablet and it will read it to you I've got quite an old tablet now but it has got a speech text to speech function pronounces some of the words in a funny way but the reality is I can bring it up on the tablet press the button and it reads it to me so that's and it's not difficult to get that it's not super huge technology

[28:26] I recommend the huddle from tesco they're going to bring in a new model the huddle tablet is 99 pounds in tesco super little device and I'm sure it would read the bible to you if you yep I'm fine with that ok so let's think so this is not principles this is what's a good idea I think it's a good idea to read something every day I think it's a good idea it is not commanded because for however many centuries people didn't have their own bible we have a bible so I think it's a good idea if we read something every day and you need some judicious choice what what bit of the bible shall I read perhaps need some help with that and you need sorry that's not what I meant to say we need to choose if we're going to do that that won't just happen by itself there will be pressures things and satan and actually our own selves because in some of these things we're our own worst enemies and

[29:40] Jesus knows that that's why he's a great king to defend us from our enemies and that includes defending us from ourselves and also I say I think it's a good idea to read something every day despite if you go through a time where you say I'm reading this but it's not going in it's not moving me to anything sometimes people call that spiritual dryness and it's an issue but I haven't got time to go into everything but I want to say I think it is still a good idea to read something every day to find a way in your particular life to read something every day secondly I think it's a good idea to use help from other believers I think it's a good idea to use help from other believers this is although reading the Bible personally is a one to one thing that's it was certainly not only told to read the

[30:44] Bible one to one in fact much of the exposure of God's people to the Bible is in groups so we're sitting now thinking about God's word or you might have a Bible study group or you might have a lunch time where you meet with other people to look at the Bible and that is really helpful on a personal level you might find a lot of help in some guidebook if you go to visit a guidebook and the guidebook would say when you are passing through the gates of Rome please don't forget to look up and see the statue on the right or something like that and a guidebook to the Bible says as you're reading through Mark please don't forget to look at the way Jesus says this and says that and a guidebook so do take a guide with you so don't just say he said read the

[31:45] Bible Leviticus that sounds interesting I'll try reading that I think you'd find it quite difficult to read Leviticus without help so Bible reading notes are quite helpful don't help everybody and you can find that a particular set of Bible reading notes is helpful for a while and then you feel that they're not so helpful if you have found anything particularly helpful hold that thought and we'll pass the microphone around in a minute and you can tell us I think it's a good idea to have a consistent routine now don't make it into a legalistic snare because we're not talking in the area of command Jesus says you must read the Bible between 7 o'clock and 7 15 in the morning the Bible doesn't contain such a command we're not talking about a legalistic snare we're talking about something which is a good idea to have a consistent routine your routine may not it may not be easy to do this if you're at home with small children it would be really difficult to do this but you might have time every lunch time shall we say to go off in a quiet corner and read your

[33:12] Bible you might find if you're an evening person that when you go to bed you could go to bed quarter of an hour earlier twenty minutes earlier and read your Bible at bedtime you might be I think it's an excellent idea to read the Bible at meal time and we've by God's grace been able to do that in our family with one meal of every day and I've found that really helpful you might be a morning person and you might say I'm going to begin my day by reading my Bible and praying to the Lord you might that might not work for you but I think in terms of good idea it's a good idea to have a consistent routine and if I may say if you've never really tackled that if you've got yourself in the place where you say

[34:12] I'm a Christian but you know I never read the Bible at all then I think there's some work for you to do and trying to say well here's a consistent routine you know I go to work every morning I'm ten minutes on the train people don't talk to one another on the train that's the time that I'm going to read my Bible or something like that I think that would be an excellent idea but what I do say is that it is vital to relate to God through his word however we do it in practice there's something non negotiable there's something absolutely vital about relating to God through his word because that's the relationship that we have and I'm including prayer so as we read we say you know that's great that bit thank you Lord for what you said to that woman thank you

[35:15] Lord for what you did for that chap so it provokes thanksgiving or perhaps repentance where we read something we say Lord please don't let me do that Lord I've thought about that those thoughts have been in my mind I'm so sorry about that and I ask you to help me to live better repentance as we read faith as we read here perhaps is a promise and I might ask myself there's the promise Phil you're a Christian are you going to believe that to respond in faith and to respond in obedience this is what it says this particular passage I I I I I'm learning this it tells me to do something and the question am I going to do it well hopefully I will right to relate to

[36:17] God to relate to God through his word including as we pray as we believe and as we obey so those are my four practicalities and I think there is more to be said!

[36:31] so let's take five minutes and see if people have any helpful things to say so we've got a microphone over here which Zanna's got we've still got a microphone over there have we right so I don't I'm not asking anybody to embarrass themselves I think it would be reasonably fair to say that most people find that it is not always easy to get that time and it's something you have to work at and sometimes we're better at it than others sometimes we completely mess things up so let's assume that that's more or less the case anybody like to say anything that they found helpful anybody like to yes okay so faith what can you tell us about as I've got a small child I find it quite hard and I do get quite lost with the Bible like not taking morning that I just read on my phone with my cup of coffee and

[37:33] I've also found meeting with Maria on a Thursday and using a book that basically spells out this is what this means and this is what this means I find that helpful because I do read through the Bible by myself and then I get about two chapters in and I don't really get that so I have to put it down and wait until I go and see mum and I think what you're saying is it is very helpful to use those tools that are available to you thank you very much thank you very much so one thing being little digestible chunks that somebody perhaps has digested for you so and found just a sentence that you can put into your head and keep keep there and the other thing being help from other people meeting with Maria or asking your mum yeah thank you very much indeed yeah anybody else got anything helpful to say Zach yeah there are two things that I found very useful actually as a

[38:38] Christian the first one is that I found out that if you read three chapters a day you'll get through the whole Bible in a year so I did that and there was a lot of it that I didn't understand and I think if anyone reads through the whole Bible there'll be a lot that you don't understand because it is God's word and he says a lot in that book much more than you think he says just by looking at how many pages it's got and it was well worth it by the way I recommend doing it the other thing is a principle that I think they sort of wrote down in the Reformation it might have been some other time but scripture interprets scripture so you'll be more rewarded the more knowledge you have of scripture because different bits of it help you to understand other parts of it so heavier readers of scripture will get more out of it because they'll understand more of it because they know more of it so I recommend to go for it it'll help you to grow read Psalm 1 it'll give you a picture of what it's like thank you very much

[39:43] Zach and that's a very helpful point about reading the Bible all the way through if you're a new Christian you might not even have considered that but he's absolutely right if you take the number of pages in your Bible divide by 365 read that number of pages a day you actually read the whole Bible in a year and even though you don't understand all of it you'll begin to pick up on things and the more you know the more it makes sense because it begins to connect together so thank you very much for that Zach Jack may I pick on you you're a man of experience can you tell us what you have found helpful I'm sure you must have found something helpful give your microphone for you thanks I find that I if I try and read the Bible at night time I nod off because I fall asleep very easily but I'm nice and bright in the morning so I try and read my

[40:52] Bible in the morning it's just whatever your body clock is like I think you should follow that but I think it does help sometimes to be a bit of a dipper so that if you find it difficult to do it at a specific time then it's a good idea to just do it when you've got a little gap when you've got a slot thank you very much thank you very much indeed we need a microphone over here it's going to come this way Zanna's going to I love it when I'm consistent and when I'm reading a word but I'm not consistent I go through phases of reading the word every day it's on that's okay yeah

[41:56] I go through phases where I'm reading the word every day and I'm loving it and getting so much from it and giving so much to others through it and then I go through the phase where I don't pick up the word and I feel dreadful but it's like I almost I know it's a choice but I'm pathetic at making those choices yeah well sometimes it's just us isn't it we're not the people that we want to be and we we have to live with us because we're us but I think there's the aspiration isn't it we want to just encourage one another to keep going even if we trip up in this just to pick ourselves up and keep on going yeah thank you Ray yeah I mean I go back to the early 60s and I remember

[42:56] I had that problem I tend to be like Jack I find it easier to read it at night I tend to do it bedtimes and certainly I was not reading the bible every day and I remember up on the hills of Derbyshire we were on a house party Christian house party and I doubt that I would read the bible every day and sometimes it goes as I call it it goes in one eye and out the other but unless you read the bible god doesn't speak to you because you're not listening so if you get to the end of the day and you haven't then make sure even if it's just a verse just to read it even if it doesn't mean anything it might come back to you later yeah I've done reading through the bible in a year we did that when John was here I found a copy in my sorting out I've just read through from beginning to end I've used commentaries

[43:57] Matthew Henry Matthew Paul several times currently I use Geneva bible notes and also this time last year I started a morning reading as well so yeah just read when you can as much or as less as you can if you miss a day then try and catch up over the next couple of days yeah thank you very much thank you very much Wes wanted to say something Xana could you take the mic back to Wes hello yeah it's on I think I think yeah I used to read the hard copy devotion you know orderly bread and I often missed out you know some days and then it breaks the pattern and I stopped reading the bible and then when I started to discover that there was something like online you know using the internet when they have this put it on the internet and I started to use it and I make an effort to basically do it by you know we got

[45:13] I got a habit to check my emails and stuff like that so I make an effort to say right before I check my emails I want to read check my Gmail you know God's what God wants to say to me Gmail you know I put this way not email Gmail and then I have been doing this for many many years and the problem comes when as what Philip said earlier that it could be become very legalistic I remember speaking to Chris the other day and I know I've done my devotion every day and when you know I spoke with Chris Fry and I discovered oh what did I read this morning I can't recall so sometimes we just read and that's the problem when we read we don't sit down and take time to take it in and that is another extreme one extreme sometimes can break the pattern one extreme it can be just by reading it not meditating yeah that's what I'm going to say thank you very much

[46:29] Dan do you want to say something yeah I've found three things very useful for myself the very first time I got a Bible I decided to get a study Bible which was a new living translation NIV it wasn't a theological study it was very much a relational one asking you questions about how that passage and text from that time relates to your life today because many people would often think I want to read the Bible because times have changed this isn't relevant to my life today but often you come to realize it's true that times have changed but people are still the same temptations as they had 2,000 years ago so I found that very helpful also every day with Jesus the daily devotionals I find it's a great way to start my day because it gets me centered on God and his word and as it says in Psalm 1 to meditate on his word day and night and the other thing I found very helpful was in small group study times you get together in a small group once a week and you would just unpack the

[47:37] Bible together at a certain section ask questions challenge each other and it's always very good in a group discussion because when you by yourself trying to work things out you sometimes you miss an angle and somebody else would have an insight that you can afford of before so I found that very helpful thank you and it's worth pointing out that although the evangelical this is our sort of church's first thought is we do this on our own in the Bible listening to Jesus is something that we do we need one another in this so thank you very much for that I'd like to hear what Chris has to say because there's a microphone near him but Ross so I have used a good tool 365 I think it's called but you can come to me and talk to me afterwards if you're interested in it and that's all the sermons written by Spurgeon and there's four volumes and each each one is has every day of the year in dated and what the guy who compiled it has tried to do is actually take the sermon preached say 150 years ago and have it on the same date so say he say sermon say Spurgeon preached it on

[49:17] Sunday the 6th of January the guys tried to put that sermon on the 6th of January so that's you know just a byproduct really of what they're trying to do but that's useful but it's not exposition of scripture it is a sermon which might have a particular theme it might be an exposition of scripture where they're just talking about a certain passage but it might have a theme and then there'll be like a if you want to go a bit deeper and read a a section of scripture that'll be there as well so that's been useful and that's quite in depth and it I think it's relevant for today even though it was written 150 years ago the other thing that I that I get is something called Word at Work which is where you go to the Word at Work website and put your email in and you'll get an email once a day with a section of scripture and an exposition and then a prayer at the end and

[50:19] I don't do that every day but it's there in my inbox and if I need to refer to it it's there another good one is The Daily Light for the Daily Path which was written by a family in I think the early 20th century or late 19th century and that's really good that's again dated and so you've got like the 26th of July 27th of July so there's one one section for every day of the year and what they did is they have taken a theme and gone through the whole Bible together as a family and compiled scriptures around that theme and so yeah you can then kind of see how the Bibles weave together through that theme and that's been helpful and we've tried to do that after dinner time but it doesn't always work so there's there's a few things that are helpful thank you very much thank you is this on yeah word at work you recommended it to me and it's really good

[51:35] I can confirm that and yeah I mean it's just very systematic isn't it it goes through verse by verse by verse through the whole book and you know just chucks you don't have to sit there for half an hour it's a few minutes so it's good good to just have that reminder when you log on great yeah oh right I'll give it a go there's lots of different ways and again it's not a competition we're not you know we're not we're not trying to say I've got a better way than you've got a better way we're just trying to help one another and I think if if in our hearts we really do want to hear the Lord and to sit at his feet and listen to his word on a regular basis there's lots of ways to do it and I think the Lord will meet us in in almost whatever way we try if that's our intention and that's our prayer then the Lord is is saying yeah

[52:51] I'm not going to take that away from you that's my thought anyway Chris have you got a reaction there's a phrase there in body but not in spirit and I think it's quite I've known a lot of times of being there in body reading a passage of the Bible but not there in spirit so best times when I take a deep breath and remember who I'm coming to what you've reminded us of to want to have that obedient spirit it's it's rather awesome when we come with that desire to hear God's voice that he does speak thank you very much very quickly

[53:51] I find that I wouldn't read the Bible every day even though I come to chapel and I'm a born again Christian but with prayer I met some people who gave me a UCB book which is United Christian whatever broadcasters and when I read it they always have a passage everything that is in that word is from the Bible so there's nothing added or nothing subtracted so what I do I get a whole lot of books from UCB every three months and I distribute it to people and also I find that reading the Bible at least once a day or UCB it gives me ammunition to to fight against Satan for his temptations or whatever and also without that I couldn't have knowledge to speak to anybody including family who asked me questions so I find that when I read that every day I get more strength the day I don't read it

[54:52]  I feel very weak as though I'm very that's all I have to say thank you very much Colleen let's close by singing together number 815 which does definitely follow on this idea of seeking the Lord personally in a in a regular way take time to be holy speak much with your Lord remain in him always and feed on his word make friends with God's children help those who are weak forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek and it's not not a bad thing to be not a bad advice that he's asking us to sing and we're actually singing it to one another as good advice so let's close by singing 815 715 715 You