Today I have a simple question. Yet it's the kind of question that can reveal the depth or lack of spiritual maturity. A few different influences have brought me to this question, and I just wanted to take a moment to share with you.
I wrote more about that here on my blog, feel free to check it out: https://bmarshall.substack.com/p/what-have-you-learned-about-god-today?r=29v9vb
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[00:00:04] Hello and welcome to The Audio Bible Podcast today. Today I just have a thought for you, and really it's more of a question than a thought. And that question is, what have you learned about God today? What have you been learning? And really this question comes from two different places. First, one of the places it comes from is that I asked this question of someone,
[00:00:29] and somebody who is older than me, somebody who's further along in their faith than me, and somebody who I kind of assumed would have a strong answer to this question. And they didn't. And so I was a little bit struck by that, a little bit surprised by that. And then it got me to thinking, okay, what have I been learning? What have I been growing in? How have I been growing in my faith and my understanding of who God is?
[00:00:55] So that was kind of percolating and processing in my mind and heart. And then I've been reading a book called Slow Theology by A.J. Swoboda and Nije K. Gupta. And on page 101, they write, The Christian life is one marked by a fearless, never-ending, and passionate pursuit of the knowledge of God.
[00:01:26] And I was like, yes, that's exactly it. I think that's my surprise and perhaps disappointment in this person that I'd been talking to that didn't have an answer for it. And I was like, hey, are you not learning about God? Am I not learning about God? Like, hey, I'm a pastor. I've been a pastor for, I guess I was a youth director first, but I've been a pastor for about 10 years or so.
[00:01:54] I've been in youth ministry for 12. And man, it is so true, though, what Swoboda and Gupta say, that the Christian life has been marked by a fearless, never-ending, and passionate pursuit of the knowledge of God. And we never end this pursuit. And so it's something that I want to keep challenging myself with and asking myself each day, what am I learning about God today?
[00:02:18] And I want to challenge you as well to not just listen to the scriptures, to not just listen to the Audio Bible, but to actually follow the scriptures, to actually dive deep into what the scriptures are saying, and to learn from them and learn about who God is, and to realize that we will never reach the end of our knowledge of God. We will never reach the end of who God is. We will never understand everything there is to know about Him. And so there's always more to learn.
[00:02:49] So let me ask you that question. What have you been learning about God today? For me, one of the things that I've been learning as we read through the Psalms in particular is the number of times that God is called a refuge. This place that you can go to and be safe and secure, a place where you can go to and be at rest.
[00:03:17] God is our refuge and strength. And so that's something that has stuck with me as we've been reading through the Psalms. And honestly, one project that I've thought about doing is going back to Psalm 1 and just working my way through to see how many times that reference is used. God, you are my refuge. A place that I go, I take refuge in you.
[00:03:45] It's used over and over and over. And this is who God is meant to be. He's meant to be a refuge in the storm, a refuge from the chaos of the world, a refuge that we can run into and be at rest and experience His peace. So that's something I've been learning lately about God and the scriptures. And I want to encourage you to share. Hey, what have you been learning about God today? Thanks for tuning in to the Audio Bible Podcast today.
[00:04:14] And we'll continue reading the scriptures and hopefully applying them to our lives and deepening in our knowledge of God each and every day together as we read the word of God aloud.