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The Bible Breakdown
BB Xtra: Marking Up Your Bible
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today is a Bible Breakdown Extra, and I love these so much. We just got through reading through an entire apologetics Bible about 12 ways to prove Christianity is true, and what we like to do is on these. We have the 15th of every month, which is when we kind of have a catch-up day in the middle, the 15th of every month, which is when we kind of have a catch-up day in the middle, and then on the 30th of the month, we have a Bible breakdown extra where we can take a moment and instead of working in it, we work on it, and that is as we're reading God's Word.
Speaker 1:Reading the Bible takes skill to get deeper and deeper and deeper. Now you can read God's Word on the surface and get something out of it for the rest of your life, and it'd be awesome. But if you want to know more about God's word, we have to learn how to skillfully read God's word, and so that's what these are for is learning about all of this, and I'm really excited about something today. I would encourage you to listen to this, but then, when this is over with, go to our YouTube channel at the Bible Breakdown. You can search that on YouTube and eventually somewhere down there you will find my face, because this is going to be one you're going to need to see the screen for, because one of the things that I get asked a lot first of all is Pastor, is it okay if I write things in my Bible and I say yes, because the pages are not holy, it's what's written that's holy, and so the pages itself. I mean it's wonderful and you need to take care of your Bible, but absolutely write in it, write down the notes and things that you love. But then after a while, I will see how people have just been marking randomly in their Bible and, as they have been marking randomly, they begin to realize wait a minute, it would probably be a good idea if there was a rhyme or reason to some of this right, and one of the things they actually will teach you if you do a thing called inductive Bible study is they will teach you how to purposely look at the Bible and look for things like look to try to notice you know different things as you are reading to kind of keep your attention going, and different ways of marking the Bible. And so what I want to do today is I want to give you some ideas on how you could possibly write in your Bible in a way that is helpful. So I want to change my screen here real quick to something that I hope kind of makes sense by the time we're done with it. But if you're looking at the screen with me, you see it is Philippians, chapter one on the left-hand side, and on the right-hand side are some ideas.
Speaker 1:So this is what we're doing is when we're reading through the Bible, we're kind of going through it and we're reading through. If we're not careful, we'll read through the Bible and we'll miss stuff. We'll miss what we're trying to read because we're just used to reading it. So we want to read it a little bit deeper, and so what we can do is we can go through the reading of the Bible and we can mark certain things, certain ways that just cause us to pay attention, like, for instance, the first verse. If you're reading here, it says this letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. Now we read through that and we just keep on going. But what we can do first of all is we can use symbols and we can also use colors, which is not always so easy for me, but you can use colors to help things stand out.
Speaker 1:So, for instance, one of the things that I like to do is, if you see, here on the right-hand side, I will look and I'll try to notice things that catch my eye, and it causes me to read the Bible more slowly. It also causes me to pay attention to what I'm reading. So, for instance, all the pronouns, what I will do is I will just simply underline them, because there's a lot of them and my handwriting is I have a lot of. Okay, I just underline the pronouns so that I just notice something's got. So look, in verse one it says so Paul and Timothy. So it's underlined the slaves of Christ Jesus. But we're not going to do that one right now. Keep going from.
Speaker 1:You know, god's holy people who are in Philippi belong to Christ Jesus, including church leaders. Holy people who are in Philippi belong to Christ Jesus, including church leaders. We'll get to that, may God our Father. We'll get to that in just a moment. Jesus, christ, lord, grace, peace, all that. So you see the first two verses. I have went and I've underlined the pronouns, and so I'm going to keep going really quickly. And if you want to get out your Bible with me as well, then you can actually go through this one as just an example and go through the first chapter, at least the first 10 verses of the first chapter, and you can underline all the different pronouns that you see. So pronouns, just names, that kind of stuff. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Once you've got that done, the next thing I will do is I want to notice every time God, jesus, father, holy Spirit has been mentioned. Okay, so what I will do is is the next thing I'll do is I'll go and look for God, and what this is causing me to do is to slow down in my reading and, if you notice, I got to read it again this time so I can see the names of God. Now, what I do for the names of God is because God is a trinity Father, son and Spirit. What I will do is where there is an O, I'm going to put a triangle right there. You see that how I did a triangle right here, so I'm looking right here. I will put a triangle right there to remind me hey, we're talking about God right now.
Speaker 1:So if you see, in verse one, I am writing to all of God's holy people. It's a triangle, and including and then verse two God writing to all of God's holy people. It's a triangle, and then verse 2, god, our Father, and I'm going to look at verse 3. There's God again. So, once again, though, when I'm doing this, I'm going to be reading it, and as I'm reading it, as I'm coming across it, I'm going to see. Every time I see God, I'm going to do a triangle. It's just showing me that the Bible is mentioning God, and that is the triune Godhead, father, son and Spirit. Okay, and so I'm going to miss some of these, by the way, but my OCD is going to get on me if I don't stop.
Speaker 1:All right, and after I do that, well, obviously, because Paul is writing about Jesus, he is going to be talking about Christ Jesus, jesus, christ, over and over again. So when I'm doing Christ Jesus, now, what I'm going to do is I want to circle. That's the one that I've picked. I'm going to circle every time that it's talking about Jesus. The name of Jesus is important to me, so I'm going to do that Also with Christ. It's just a thing that I've come up with. Is Christ is the message or the ministry of Jesus. So watch what I will do here.
Speaker 1:Let's see if I can enlarge this. You can see. Okay, yeah, that's kind of cool, is I'm going to underline it? But when I get to the T, I'm going to do that. So it's underline T, which is the journey to the cross. Okay, now, that's just my thing, that's just what I'm doing, but that's what that means to me. So I'm going to do it again. As I'm talking about that.
Speaker 1:Christ is the journey of Jesus to the cross, just something that I do that helps me keep up with what's going on, right? So now I come back to this. I didn't even know I could enlarge this, so now I'm having fun. Okay, so I see Christ, jesus, christ Jesus Now, jesus, christ, jesus. Now remember, I'm just doing this with you, but we're reading it over again Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Of course, I'm going to take more care to write it a little bit better than that, and then I'm just going to go through here and, as I'm reading it again, I'm reading Christ, and then I'm going to see Christ again and Jesus, and what you're doing as you're reading this is, first of all, the next time you go through this and, of course, be as careful as you can because you don't want to be messy, because you're going to keep reading this. But as you go through this, the next time you read it, you're going to notice every time Christ is there, and so it's going to perk your interest every time. Hey look, there's Christ, and it's going to be a marker for you to understand. Now the next thing is is let's look at by the way, I don't have it on here, but I also will take the word Lord, which is a symbol of the authority of Christ, and so I'm going to put that right there, which is my way of doing a crown, and it is a terrible crown, but you see, there you go, there's a better crown because it is a symbol of the authority of Christ, and I noticed that because I saw Lord and I've been doing this long enough immediately I wanted to put a crown above it. So I'm going to go through here again and, if you want to pause and do this with yours in chapter 1. Okay, I think there's just one Lord. Maybe another one? All right, let's keep going.
Speaker 1:Now, for joy, I'm going to put three marks like that, which is like light shining out, for joy over the why. Love, I put a heart in the middle of it. Glory, same thing. And then salvation. I'm going to put a cross right there. And then, for a church, I take the you and I make it into a little house. These are just things I do in mine so that I can notice when I'm coming across it. So now, watch what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:When I read through this, I see the word church, so then I put a house right there, father. Now, for me, father is one where I'm going to put a box on it, by the way, because I put a circle for Jesus, so a box for a rectangle for Father, and then I'm going to go through here Every time I think of you. I give thanks to my God when I pray and I know some people who make praying hands I am nowhere near good enough artists for that request for you with joy. Those markers there for you have been my partners in spreading the good news. Now I don't have that, but that's a marker for me, so I'm going to put, I'm going to underline that every time since the first time you heard it until now.
Speaker 1:I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it's finally finished. I love that he's. He's making a promise there, so it is right that I should feel about you special place in my hearts and, uh, you, you share a special place of favor and just reading through here, I don't see anything there, unless you want to mark something like for truth or whatever. There's love. So I put a heart there for love and then, okay, I'm going to finish it up, verse 9, your love again, and then keep going, for I want to understand verse 11. You may always be filled with the fruit of your salvation. Remember we put a cross right there for salvation. Righteous character moves life. Bring much glory and praise to God.
Speaker 1:Now, if you see, now, if we're looking at this, there's all kinds of marks that's going on here, right. Well, now, when you first start doing this and you're going to need to come up with your own little key here of what you want to do but once you start doing this, the goal is not just to mark up your Bible, the goal is. So the next time I go through this, it's going to cause me to pay attention for different reasons. Like every time I see a rectangle, I know that it's going to be talking about the Father. Every time I see a circle, I'm going to know it's talking about Jesus. When I see this line with a cross, I know it's talking about the Christ, and I'll have different ones for different things.
Speaker 1:Another thing you can do is colors. Now, I'm not good at this because I'm colorblind, but I know a lot of people that if you look at their Bibles, it looks like just, you know it looks like you know a rainbow of different colors, and so you've got. You got yellow, you've got Whatever that is, and then you've got these. Okay, now, I don't know what these colors are, but a lot of people use them, and here's one of the things I love about it is you can make different colors mean different things. Like, for instance, I know people who, every time they do yellow, it just means something that caught their attention, something worth looking at. Again, caught their attention when they do. Now imagine with me that this is blue. Okay, I don't know what color it is, imagine it's blue. Some people, blue is also the symbol of royalty, so every time they see blue, they know that it's royalty, and so the only thing they will do in blue will be the names of God. And so, for instance, if we were to go back over here which we'll do in a second we'll do that, and then for this one I think it's green People will do things such as anytime God makes a promise, they will put that in that color.
Speaker 1:Therefore, whenever they're going back and they're looking again, they will notice there's something to be drawn attention to, the name of God or a promise. So let's try that real quick. We'll go through here and every time that there is a the name of God or, excuse me, something worth bringing attention to, rather, we'll do it in yellow. Now, for me, the fact that Paul calls himself a slave of God is very interesting, so I'm going to put, I'm going to put that, I'm going to, I'm going to highlight that. That's just going to bring my attention every time. The put that. I'm going to highlight that. That's just going to bring my attention every time.
Speaker 1:The fact that he calls leaders and deacons, making the distinction, is a big deal to me. Grace and peace is a big deal to me, and every time I think of you. In other words, he's saying, he's thinking about these and so you see, kind of I'm going to go through here and it's worthy of me bringing my attention to every single time. I love that he's saying that they have a special place in his heart. I love that. I love that he really cares about them so much and these different things that he's doing. So I love that.
Speaker 1:The next one is the color of the names of God. So you look through it every time I'm reading through here and I see the name of God. I'm going to mark these down so that the next time I'm reading through I will know it'll be able to catch my eye immediately that there's the name of God. There's the name of God, and once you train yourself to notice that, you can find yourself going okay, I just saw the name of God. What was he saying about it? And so it causes you to slow down as you're reading.
Speaker 1:Another one is a promise of God. I love where it says that I know that God, who began a good work in you, will continue to finish it until it is finally finished on the day that Christ returns. I love that so much. I love how he says may you always be filled with the fruit of salvation, the righteous characters produced by God. A promise of God. And so now you can see and we've got one more we'll do in a second but now you can see what happens when I'm reading this.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when I'm reading this and I'm going through, just by glancing at the page, I can tell you that the name of God is mentioned throughout here, and so I can see where God's name is mentioned. I can look immediately and can tell you that there are some things my eyes are going to be drawn to, that he calls himself a slave of God, that he's including the leaders and deacons, that he's talking about grace and peace, all these things. And then maybe my favorite is not just the names of God. So I can see God is all over this. But then my eyes immediately look at the promises. I can say there's a promise of God on this page, and sometimes I'm reading God's word. I just want to be reminded about what God has to say to me. So I'll go straight to that color and it's the color I can notice, and I will look at that and I will just read the promise of God, and it can be powerful sometimes. Okay, one other thing, and then we'll be done, for today I don't want to overload you too much, but you see, down here at the bottom I've got M001 and M002.
Speaker 1:All right, well, there was a guy named Jonathan Edwards. He was around during the early part of the United States and he was an amazing, amazing pastor and theologian and he's brilliant. And he came up with a system because what he noticed is he had his bible, but a lot of times he didn't know, he didn't have room to put the different notes that he was thinking about. And you ever had a time when maybe you're listening to a preacher and he's saying something about being a slave of god and and you're wanting to write down? You know, a slave, you know, is someone who submits to their master and you're trying to write that down and it's just getting. You know, you're getting through here and now all of a sudden it's full. Okay, so you don't have any more room. Well, the problem is is now, after that, you want to write something down about Timothy? Timothy was and you don't have any more room, right? Well, he was finding this same problem because, over and over again, he had no room.
Speaker 1:So what he did was he came up with a system and his system he called them his miscellaneous, like miscellaneous, because there were no rhyme or reason other than he found something in his Bible and he made a note. So that's what the M would stand for is you would have an M and then you start with number one. So that's what the M would stand for he would have an M and then he'd start with number one. And so if he had where he wanted to write a note about the slave of God, what he would do is he got a different notebook out and he would start at entry and he would have Philippians 1, verse 1. And then he would write out whatever it is. He wanted to say you know, slave, someone who gives themselves completely to their master, you know whatever it is, and it was just Paul's way of saying God has complete control over my life, right when we're connected. He would then take that number and he would put it right there over it. So then M001.
Speaker 1:And then let's say the next one he wanted to write about grace and peace. And so he would make a note in his notebook about grace and peace, and then he would go over there and go M002. And so, instead of having to have all of those notes, he had a separate notebook that he would do that, and over the course of his life he had thousands of these notes and so every time he wanted to think, he wondered if he'd ever thought about something, about grace and peace. He would see M002 and he knew he could go back over there and he could find it. And it became a way for him to keep up with his different notes. And can I say for you, it could be a way for you to keep up with notes as well.
Speaker 1:So why in the world would we do this? The reason why is because many times as we're reading the Bible, things will catch our attention and we want to dig deeper into it. But many times as we start to do that, we begin to kind of lose why we liked it and what was going on. But as we do it like this, we're able to have a little bit more of a system, so that as we're going through the Bible we just don't see scribbles everywhere. But we would have an order, and one of my favorites is that color coding system, especially when you have some that you have for certain things, like I have a color that is just for when the New Testament references an Old Testament verse, and I will have that in a certain color. And so when I'm reading along, I immediately realize, hey, this is the Old Testament. You know, if it's a promise, I have it as a promise. The names of God, I have it in a certain color and it really is helpful. And therefore, when we're reading the Bible, we begin to develop our own system for how we're reading it, and so we're able to read it more deeply.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Able to read it more deeply? Okay, all right. I hope that was helpful to you. If you have any questions about this, please let me know down in the comments below, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow where we get back to the Bible breakdown. Okay, I love you, I'll see you tomorrow.
