WWUTT 725 Q&A Changing Graphics, the Naked Man, Ephesians Commentaries, and Conversations with God?

Why are all of the what graphics changing? Who was the young man that ran away naked in Mark 14?

What are some good commentaries on Ephesians? And is prayer a conversation with God? The answers to these questions and others when we

Understand the Text. This is

When we Understand the Text an online Bible ministry equipping the household of God, His Church to be a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Find all our videos online at www .wtt .com And here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. So here in the United States, we just finished up 4th of July Independence Day.

Or as I saw somebody jokingly refer to it as on Twitter, happy treason day.

From across the pond. Yes. Thank you, Brits. So I hope everybody kept their digits intact.

You didn't blow your hand off at all playing with fireworks. No emergencies. We thought our son was going to blow us up at one point.

I kept backing everybody up. I think this was the first year. He's 7 years old this year.

So this was the first year he had courage to go out on his own and light firecrackers without any guidance.

The other times you have to practically push him there the first few times. Come on, dude.

Come on, man. This is part of the rite of passage. And you're even doing it with him and everything. It's like being a guy.

You got to light something on fire, man. Here we go. So this year

I wasn't even prepared for it. It wasn't even like, okay, how am I going to excite my son into lighting stuff on fire that shoots up in the air and blows up.

Right, because he hates the noise. He does. And then this year we had noise -canceling headphones for our middle two.

So he wanted to light the big fountain that we got. And there's a member of our church whose son works at one of those big fireworks warehouses that you pass by on the interstate.

Right. He works at a place like that. And so he always gets free fireworks. So he had a bunch that he gave to us to use.

This is like the least I've had to spend on fireworks ever. That's so cool. It was great. So one of them looked like a giant

Saturn missile box. Well, you didn't have to spend. I didn't have to spend anything if I didn't want to.

But we went ahead and got some extra smaller stuff for the kids. Anyway, that's good. We had a hard time. Right. Right, right, right.

I never had to buy any fireworks. You want to. You want to.

You want to buy some fireworks. Just a little bit. So anyway, one of the things that he gave me was this giant thing.

It looked like a big Saturn missile box. Like a cube. Yeah, it was a big cube. So I set it out there in the middle just to kind of have it out of the way.

So it didn't accidentally get lit on fire, you know. While we're playing with sparklers and all that, yeah.

So Zeej really wants to light it, but I told him he had to wait for you to get there. Right, because I was lagging behind a little bit.

Yeah, and so we set it out there in the middle where we're shooting all the rest of the fireworks off. Just kind of had it set off.

But it was over to the side a little bit. Yeah. I mean, still in the middle, but over to the side of where you were shooting off fireworks.

And so when you came, I lit a sparkler for him. And man, I heard him. Daddy, daddy, daddy, light me a sparkler.

I want a sparkler. I was like, whoa, this kid. Where was the soda involved in this?

He was just hyper. So I lit the sparkler for him. And then we turn around. I think we were helping Aria light her sparkler.

I think so, yeah. And I know you saw a spider in the little orange cone. And I was trying to light the spider on fire with the punk.

Leave the things alone. Yes, it was really creepy. Suddenly we turn around and there's

Zeej over the big fountain lighting it. Oh yeah, with his sparkler. With his sparkler.

With his sparkler. And we're yelling. We're like, Zeej, no, get away. Get away. Run away. And then he lights it and he jumps.

I think we scared him. I think we did too. It wasn't that he lit the thing.

It was that we were yelling at him. Yes. We're like, go, go. And so Becky's just kind of speechless.

And I said, I don't even know if that's sitting right side up. I don't know what's about to happen here.

And I just keep backing everybody up. Continually backing away. Back up. Back up.

Because, I mean, it's kind of like pouring out this spark. Yeah, it started shooting just white flames up in the air.

But not that high of one at first. Because I was convinced it was upside down. Oh, it was all pretty low to the ground.

Yeah, I was convinced it might have been upside down. Now I could tell after a while. Once it started going,

I was like, okay, it's fine. Yeah, but at first it was like, ugh. Is this going to be shooting at us? I don't even know what's going to happen here.

I don't know what's going on. I didn't buy this thing. I don't know what it is. It's always comforting.

And it wasn't until after last night that I saw that video that's been circulating all over Twitter. Put it in reverse,

Terry! Back up, Terry! I so would have been yelling that. If you haven't seen that video, you have to listen to it.

Listen. I had it on mute the first time I saw it. I was like, I don't care. Oh, yeah, you don't get any joy out of that.

And then I listened to it later and I was like, oh, okay, now I get it. Now I get it.

And I get it now. Anyway, so back to Zeke. Well, anyway, so it was just a fountain of sparks in the air.

And like I said, once it got going, then I was, okay, this isn't, no death -defying feats have been attempted here.

We're all okay. That was the closest we got to any kind of bodily injury.

And even then, it was more the concern than what actually happened. Praise the Lord. Yeah, rest of the time was just shooting some sparks into the air.

And it's always great watching everybody, all the rest of the houses that are around us. Oh, my goodness. You've just got fireworks going everywhere.

Junction City just goes berserk around this time. And they don't have like just the itty -bitty ones.

They have like kaboom. And every which way you look, there is a kaboom in the sky. It sounds like a war zone in Junction City.

It does, which is crazy because there's so many people with PTSD around here. So Junction City and Fort Riley are neighbors with one another.

And I mean neighbors to the sense that there's really no difference between. We share the same zip code.

Yeah, yeah. So like most military bases, it's not necessarily town and military base right on top of one another.

You usually have to go a little bit of a distance to get to. Right, a little out of town jaunt.

But no, it's just all of a sudden you just cross the gate and you're in Fort Riley. That's kind of the way that it is with Junction City.

So because there's so much military personnel here, and that's really the heart of the city.

Like if Fort Riley were to close, Junction City would fold. There would not be much left.

There would not be a Junction City left. So because we have so much military personnel, the 4th of July just turns into a, it's huge.

Oh yeah, it's huge. There are fireworks everywhere. You really don't have to go downtown and watch the big display, which is huge.

It is, and it's amazing every year too. And we've only seen it from a distance. That's right. But you can still catch just as great a show.

You don't even have to buy anything. Just put the chairs out on the driveway and you can watch everybody else's fireworks. And you don't have to drive anywhere either, which is the safer thing to do.

That's right. A couple of years ago when we went out of town, we went and visited some family of yours in Salina.

We were driving into Junction City on I -70. Boy, that was cool.

Oh yeah, that was really awesome. You could see these flashes of fireworks going off all over the place.

It was cool. Yeah, even out in the country. It was awesome. Yep. That would be neat, actually, living out in the country and just looking at Junction City while everybody else is shooting their fireworks.

So that's how we celebrate 4th of July here in America. We try to blow ourselves up.

That's right. But anyway, so again, I hope everybody was safe. As Michelle Leslie had posted on her

Twitter, and I thought this was such a great point, the most patriotic thing you can do for your country is pray for it.

Amen. So be in prayer for our nation. All right, being Friday, we are taking questions from the listeners.

Were you going to talk about the graphics? Oh yeah, the graphics. So when we understand the text has changed, all of our graphics.

Yes. And it is everything on Facebook and on Twitter and on YouTube.

I don't think I've changed the YouTube banner yet. That might be the one I haven't done yet. Okay. But website. Anyway. Look for our pretty new pictures.

All of our pictures have changed. All the graphics have changed. And it's changed from the old thrown together different paintings of Bible stories.

Right. To now it is more carefully chosen pictures of Bible stories. Right. Still the classic art paintings that depict famous stories.

And you can tell when you look at the pictures what story is being portrayed there. So Adam and Eve being expelled from the

Garden of Eden. Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac and the angel stopping his knife.

Jonah being spit out of the fish. I love that picture. He's just being vomited out. Daniel in the lion's den.

That's one of them. There is Samson tearing a pillar down. One of my favorites too is

JL who's about to drive the stake in the guy's head. My favorite story ever.

I like that one. And of course there's the picture of David carrying Goliath's head on his shoulders.

So I love it. I know. I know you do. It's okay. You can love it.

I love the Bible. I just don't need to vividly see something. This replaces the previous graphics that we were using and those were just thrown together.

There really wasn't much thought put into which pictures were chosen for the opening crawl on the video and therefore what also made up the graphics for all of our headers and banners and things like that on our websites.

Right. The point was this and there's a what video that's coming out about this. I thought it was going to be done by today but you know there's always a thousand other things going on.

What? What? So the point is when we first did the introduction to when we understand the text and it was myself and a couple of other guys that were trying to like what would the beginning look like?

What would the intro look like? Right. And so we talked about how most of the popular artworks that you see depicting famous stories from the

Bible including stories of the life of Christ. All of those are kind of characters of those stories but it's not really the way it would have looked.

So it's always something fantastical and it didn't quite look that way or it's been influenced by European art.

Yeah, like the Hollywood of its day, you know. Right. And so we just picked a bunch of pictures and put it on the opening crawl and the when we understand the text logo

WWUTT is in a font called protest paint. Right. And so when it pops up on the screen the point is supposed to be that this is a protest against many of the common misunderstandings about the

Bible but the Bible doesn't say. Right. If you think the Bible looks like this well the pages of scripture actually tell us something different.

So that was supposed to be the point and it started the very first image on there and this is really the only one that I deliberately said this picture has to be on the opening crawl.

The very first picture is God touching Adam's hand. Right. From the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The one that was painted by Michelangelo. One of the most famous Bible story paintings of all time.

Right. And that's the one that made people the most upset because you've got a painting of God on the opening crawl and the second commandment says you will not make an image of anything that is in heaven above.

Right. Or the earth beneath. That's the one that frustrated people the most. They did not like that there were depictions of any person of the

Trinity in that opening graphic. And so we've changed the graphic and that's the reason why.

It's because we don't want to cause anybody to stumble. Right. Or cause anyone to have to violate their conscience by sharing this video even though I have a problem with the fact that it has depictions of the persons of the

Trinity in it. So that's the reason why the graphics have changed so that it's still portraying

Bible stories. It's just that now in those graphics there's not any pictures of God or Jesus in those images.

Now because I don't actually believe that is a violation of the second commandment because specifically the second commandment in context is that you would not bow down and worship them.

Right. And again all this explanation is coming out in the video. So I don't consider it a second commandment violation.

But I don't want you to have to feel like you are violating your conscience. Right. By watching or sharing those videos.

And so because I don't feel like it's a commandment of the or a violation of the second commandment all of the videos are not going to be changed.

There's over 200 videos. That's a lot. That would take a long time. So we hope that you're still okay with sharing the old videos even though those graphics are not going to change.

And we thank you with your patience with us and hope you'll show us grace in that you know we have changed those images.

And we won't be. Being more sensitive towards. Right. Being more sensitive toward that. I thought we were providing a good parody when we did the graphic in the first place.

And again the images that were chosen were just kind of thrown together. There really wasn't much thought that was put into which pictures we were picking and putting on there.

It's kind of like searching Bible image paintings. Oh here's David playing a harp. Right. Here's a picture of the what maybe the

Tower of Babel looked like. You know stuff like that. So that's what ends up on that opening graphic.

And it was never hugely crazy about it. But as I've been thinking about in the future how we're going to show when we understand the text to other people what's the impression that we want to leave.

Right. And now that I'm having to think about those kinds of things I'm realizing these pictures don't work. This is not a good idea to be a selling point of when we understand the text for lack of a better term.

We're not selling anything. But you know the whole. Still non -profit. The whole branding thing that you've got to think about whenever you do this kind of stuff.

So that's why that's changed. The face of it. Right. And one of the faces of it has a stake going through his head and another face is on David's shoulder being carried around.

Right. You know. Literally faces. Becky's favorite stuff. Yeah. Sure.

We'll go with it. So anyway. So you've noticed those changes. There's a video that's going to come out and it's going to be one of our when we understand the text videos explaining the change in the graphics and then after that after that video comes out

I'm going into a series and I'm not going to say what the series is going to be about but you'll figure it out.

Right. You'll see a series of videos coming that seem to all be kind of about the same thing and you'll know where all of that is going.

It's all it's all themed so to speak and and there's certain people that I'm talking to about what needs to be in this video.

What do I need to say here? So I'll just leave it at that because they're not done yet. All right.

I don't know how that's going to go either and somewhere in there. I'm going to go back to school in the fall.

So yeah, something like that and still still do this podcast too.

So as I was saying before Becky rudely interrupted me. Yes, I'm sorry. On Friday. No, I'm not. I'm not sorry.

Sorry. No, I'm not either. I talked with her about okay. Here's where we're going to talk about this and this first.

That's where we're going to go and so she's keeping me on track. I am on Friday. We take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

This first one was a question that I had pulled out for last week, but we kind of came up on 45 minutes.

Oh, yeah, and it was like a time to be done quickly. So this says Pastor Gabe and Becky greetings from Plymouth, Indiana.

We can scratch that off on our map now sweet first. Thank you for your ministry and all that you do to teach and defend sound doctrine and encourage believers in knowledge and understanding of the scriptures your

YouTube videos and especially your podcast have been a great encouragement to me and have played a significant role in growing my faith and deepening my theological knowledge.

Thank you for your faithfulness in serving God in this way now to the question. I was reading in the gospel of Mark chapter 14 and ran across a couple of verses that I know

I've read before but never really noticed until today versus 51 through 52 seem rather out of the blue and I don't understand the significance of this added little detail or the author's intention in adding it.

Why was the young man following Jesus? Why was he only wearing a sheet?

What does that have to do with anything at all? I would appreciate any explanation you could provide and I eagerly look forward to your reply blessings and joy to you and your family

Cassidy. So do you know the story that Cassidy is referencing? Actually, no.

All right, so this is in Mark chapter 14 and this is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Okay.

So after Jesus has been with his disciples in the upper room, you have the institution of the

Lord's Supper in verse 26. You have Jesus foretelling Peter's denial and then they go to the

Garden of Gethsemane to pray. And so after prayer there is the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus Judas came one of the twelve with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders now the betrayer

Judas right had given them a sign saying the one that I will kiss is the man sees him and lead him away under guard.

And when he came he went up to him at once and said Rabbi and kissed him and they laid hands on him and seized him.

But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the of the high priest and cut off his ear and we know that was that was

Peter Peter. So Jesus said to them. Have you come out against I'm sorry. I was doing that from memory and I'm not looking down at my page and I got lost and Jesus said to them.

Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me day after day.

I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me but let the scriptures be fulfilled and they all left him and fled and a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body and they seized him but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked and they led

Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together and on and on it goes.

Okay, so that's all right. I skipped over those verses because seriously, I don't remember that right like Cassidy said

I've read this before but suddenly it just popped out of me. Why is that even there? Yeah versus 51 and 52.

Now when you read this in the ESV Bible in the English Standard Version, those two verses are set by themselves.

So the ESV editors decided to give 51 and 52 kind of making it its own section.

Okay, and I've heard some people say that that's one of the problems they have with the ESV is the way that the editors have kind of paragraphed things.

They just don't like the the editing style of that. I understand that critique, but this one in particular is kind of set by itself a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body and they seized him but they but he left the linen cloth away and ran away naked.

So most scholars are in agreement that this young man is

John Mark. Okay, this is Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark. Okay, it's such a specific mention that it's likely autobiographical but he is modestly omitted his name and don't think the reason he omitted his name is because he ran away naked.

Although that might seem to be a good reason to not want to include your name.

It's just out of modesty. He did not want to draw attention to himself in writing this gospel.

Okay, Mark is essentially writing the gospel the way that Peter preached it. Mm -hmm.

And so he includes this in here because as he's recalling this part of the gospel that Peter preached.

This is where Mark knew that of himself. He ran away when Jesus got arrested. He knew that he ran away, right?

So he puts that in there as his own experience though. It may not have been part of what

Peter preached when he was when he was sharing the gospel. So Mark was from a very well -to -do family and in Acts chapter 12 when

Peter was freed from prison by an angel. He went to Mark's mother's house and it says that he was met at the gate by a servant girl named

Rhoda. So for the house to have an outside gate and because of the reference to Rhoda who is a servant girl.

It was obviously a large home and Mark's parents were very wealthy. The fact that the young man in Mark 14 51 through 52 these two verses was wearing a linen cloth, which

I want to clarify that's not a sheet. Okay. So it's not like the guy's just wandering around. He's like, boy, I don't have much on.

Let me just grab this sheet and throw it on. I couldn't explain why he would be wearing a bed sheet in public.

So it didn't make sense that it would be a bed sheet. A linen cloth is actually a sign of wealth. Okay. So if he's wearing a linen cloth to be like the equivalent of wearing a toga, which is just one piece of fabric that you wrap around yourself.

So you have this fabric that you wrap around and then you might have like some sort of a metal clasp or a seal that you would put in one spot.

And that would hold the corners of the fabric together so that it keeps it on you. And then, you know, that that that class might be ornamented or something rich to kind of show a sign of wealth.

Right. But but a linen cloth was a very valuable piece of fabric. It was just one. Well, it still is valuable today.

Right. You can't buy anything linen without it being up in price. Really expensive. So. So this was the case with Mark.

It's an indication of his wealth. And because it was just one kind of piece of fabric. Right. Then as a choice, as he's running away and somebody reaches out to grab him.

If that cloth comes unclasped. Well, it's just going to come off of him. Right. So he ran off naked.

That was that was what ended up happening to him. So the. So anyway, those who were less wealthy, they tended to wear tunics and cloaks.

So just this past week when we were reading, when we're finishing up Second Timothy and Second Timothy four, Paul said to Timothy to retrieve the cloak that I left at Troas.

Right. When you're on your way here to see me in Rome. And so the cloak was was kind of a single garment as well with a hole in it that would go your head would go through it.

And then it would just kind of sit over the top of you. But but people who were not as well to do, they tended to wear everything they owned.

Right. So there you didn't have drawers of stuff at home. Everything that you owned as far as your garments were concerned, you wore.

Right. Whereas this linen cloth that Mark has on was probably one of several linen cloths that he had.

And so he didn't have a cloak over that. It just was the linen cloth.

He wasn't underdressed. Right. He was richly dressed. That's the way Mark was dressed.

So why was Mark following Jesus? So we have it in verse 51. A young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth.

It's an unnamed young man. So why was he even following Jesus in the first place?

Well, likely Mark's family was interested in the teachings of Jesus and Mark represented the family as a follower.

We know that Mark's parents sympathized with the ministry of the apostles because of that story in Acts 12.

And many Christians were gathered in Mark's home for prayer when when Peter had been arrested and was thrown in prison.

Right. So Jesus had more followers than just the 12 disciples. We often think because we talked a little bit ago about the paintings, which is the way that we picture the

Bible stories. If it's in one of those famous paintings, then that has to be the way that it happened. Right. Or if it was in a

Charlton Heston movie, it occurred like that. Exactly. Exactly like that. So we often just think of Jesus walking around with 12 guys.

But remember that in Luke 10, Jesus sent out the 72 to minister in surrounding towns.

So there were more than just the 12. You had the inner core of Jesus' followers, which would have been the 12.

And then even from the 12, there were three more that were that were more personal to Jesus than the other nine.

Right. And that was Peter, James and John. James and John are referred to as the sons of thunder. So they got to go with Jesus up on the

Mount of Transfiguration and the rest of the disciples weren't there with them. Right. And clearly there is a personalness that Jesus has with Peter more so than the rest of the disciples.

Right. And there's a certain affection that he has for John, who is the youngest and is referred to as the beloved disciple that Jesus did not have with the other disciples.

But only the 12 were with him in the upper room at the Last Supper. So the other disciples were likely hanging out outside or they had another place that they went and did

Passover. Right. Although it wasn't instituted for them, the

Lord's Supper, that was just for the 12. And then they went from there. All of them went from there to the

Garden of Gethsemane. And it says in the Book of Matthew that they sang a hymn as they went. And it was likely something out of the

Egyptian Hallel, which is in the Psalms. Anyway. Okay. Don't want to go into a longer explanation than that.

But so when they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, there's several disciples there, more than just the 12.

And John Mark was one of them. But he's probably, you know, not as close to Jesus as the other disciples are.

And he's kind of far off. And when the mob comes to arrest Jesus, and we're told that it's a significant mob.

Right. Because Jesus is even looking at him going, well, why do you need all these guys? What's with the swords and the clubs?

I was in the temple. You didn't arrest me there. Suddenly, you need this whole horde to come after me? And so John Mark is kind of looking at this from afar.

He's afraid because just as Jesus prophesied, when the shepherd is struck, the sheep are going to scatter.

And so Mark, he's standing off. Somebody decides to seize him as well or say, hey, who are you?

Why are you hanging out down here? Why are you hiding? They reach out and grab him, and he runs away and leaves his cloak behind.

So anyway, so that's who scholars, for the most part, believe is being referenced here in Mark 14, 51, and 52.

But really, realistically, I guess, for them not to know who

Mark is from the cloak he was wearing and the pretties or whatever to keep it classed, for them not to know.

Because wealthy people are well -known. Recognized and well -known, right. But he wasn't the head of his household.

True. So being just a member from the house that kind of represented that household as a follower of Jesus. Right.

Jesus had. Well, I'm just saying that there has to be a lot of people there and a lot of people that are.

Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like who's who? Who's who in this whole thing? Are you part of the mob? Are you part of his followers?

So wealthy people tend to be a little more well -known. And then. So he's kind of hiding.

Yeah. And they don't recognize him right away. I don't want anybody to see me. Yeah. That could have been one of the reasons as well.

So anyway, I hope that this explanation has shed a little bit of light and not any clothing on the story for you.

Oh, dear. And thanks again. Thank you again for your email, Cassidy.

It was wonderful to hear from you. Next question. Pastor Gabe. What? From Plymouth.

From Plymouth. What was I saying? Pastor Gabe. Jordan. Pastor Gabe.

That's me. We are about to start a study in my small group on Ephesians. Do you have any videos or podcasts or Ephesians that I can add to our study?

There are a few videos. So I can. Some of them that I've done out of the book of Ephesians.

I don't think we've done. Have we done Ephesians 5, 22, wives submit to your husbands?

I don't think we have. I know I've talked to you about doing it, but. No, I don't. I don't remember doing that one.

I remember doing the women are quiet in church. Yeah, I remember that one.

Yeah. I thought we were going to do a wives submit to your husband. I mean, we haven't done that one yet. Okay. But I have done.

So Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. I think there's a video on that. Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

Certainly. So you're looking up the what video that is entitled by grace, you are saved through faith.

And it talks about Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Wait, you didn't end that with a question mark. By grace, you are saved through faith.

There you go. That's better. Every what video title, it's automatically implied as a question.

I don't have to. I don't have to do the little. Oh, okay. It's implied. Okay. Just imagine a question mark there.

One of the earliest ones that I did was God has already chosen who's going to be saved.

And that goes through Ephesians 1, verses 4 through 6, I believe.

So all of the video is kind of launched off of those passages. Okay. So I know those in particular come from Ephesians.

You can look those up. When it comes to commentaries, I've not listened to any podcast or commentaries on Ephesians.

And in this podcast, I've not yet gotten to the book of Ephesians. I think, where am I going to go from here?

Let's see. We finished 2 Timothy. I'm going to do Titus and Philemon. And then I think I'm going to go to 1

Corinthians after that. Okay. We'll see. I'm not for sure where I'm going to go next. But I may not go to a

Pauline epistle at all. I may go to something different. But we'll see. There you go. Anyway. You'll be surprised.

So I've not listened to any podcasts or commentaries on Ephesians. And that's in terms of listening.

So I can't tell you any audio that you can look up. But as far as books go, I must insist on R .C.

Sproul's book, The Purpose of God. It is not a word -for -word commentary. But it hits all the key points and serves as a great primer before you get started.

There you go. And in good R .C. Sproul fashion, he hits all of the most controversial topics. Oh, yeah. So you're talking like predestination, wives submit to your husbands, which we talked about.

Then after that, you have slaves submit to your earthly masters. So Sproul hits all of the controversial points.

I would say anybody before they start studying Ephesians should read that book.

It's called The Purpose of God. There you go. And you think about some of those titles that sort of fit a series for Sproul.

Holiness of God. Oh, what was the other one? I'm looking over at my shelf, but I know it's not in there.

It's in my backpack. Oh, well, I was looking at your shelf, too. Looking for them. The Callingness of God.

What was the name of the book? I can't remember. Chosen by God. That's what it is. Yeah. And then you have The Purpose of God.

So anyway, it kind of goes through that series of titles from Sproul. Also, John Calvin's Sermons on Ephesians.

I've not read all of them, but those are very good. Also, Sinclair Ferguson's book,

Let's Study Ephesians. Those are good. And when in doubt, Matthew Henry's commentary is always easy to reference.

And you can even find that on Bible Gateway. They've got a link straight to Matthew Henry's commentary on anything that you're reading in the

Bible. Okay, next question. This one comes from Joshua. He says, Hey, Pastor Gabe and Becky, I cannot tell you in enough words what your ministry and the ministries of Todd Freelit -Retched,

Ligonier Ministries, et cetera, what they have meant to me. When I came from my childhood church, there were several doctrines that I had misunderstandings about and several scriptures that I took out of context.

Joshua, we've all been there. Oh, yes. I was thinking the same thing, Gabe. I was like, oh, my goodness.

I have been there. Oh, yes. I even have the opportunity now to share these right understandings with my church congregation.

Oh, that's awesome. Thank you for your ministry that God has placed on your heart to do. And I'm thankful for what he will continue to do through you.

I was listening to last week's episode when you were discussing about phasing out the meet and greet in the middle of the service.

Remember that? Yes, I do. So we start with a psalm. We do the opening song. Sometimes there's a prayer right after that, but not always.

And then we just go straight to, hey, turn around and greet your neighbor. Right. And then we go from there into announcements.

And I was saying that that's kind of a rude interruption. We've done it because it was being done when

I first came on. I didn't have any reason to eliminate it, but it does feel like an interruption in the service.

And so I think it'd be great to not do it anymore. Right. The joke that I made last week, though, is that the introverts don't like it.

Yeah. So we already know introverts. You don't like the whole turn around and greet your neighbor thing.

That's right. So he goes on. He says, I completely understood where you were coming from. We used to do it at the church.

I pastor, but I always felt like that it was out of place. In fact, as I was visiting one of my oldest parishioners in the nursing home, that's what she expressed to me.

She told me, when you begin to worship and place your focus on God, that's where it should be, and it should not be interrupted midway through.

I have definitely enjoyed gleaning the wisdom from the more mature believers in the faith.

Oh, amen. We love that, too. We do. They are hugely valuable to our ministry.

So precious. At least up to this point, I've not done anything because the young guys said we should do it.

Right. I would almost say the older generation has precedence. What do they say first before we go to the young guys?

So anyway, next paragraph. I know I've gone on a long tangent, but my question to you is what catechisms you would recommend reading with my family.

I have a 17 -month -old daughter that I have read one chapter of the Bible to every day since she was born.

Just made it up to the Psalms in case you wanted to know how long it takes to get there reading one chapter a day.

Whoa. I've not ever done that. I've done, like, the Bible studies where you're reading two to three or even four chapters a day.

Right. I don't think I've ever done one chapter a day. So that's interesting. It takes at least 17 months to get to Psalms if you're reading just a chapter a day.

As she gets older, I really want to instill in her these doctrinal truths at a young age. I have a

Reformation study Bible with the shorter and longer Westminster catechisms, but I wanted to see if you had any other ones that you suggest or use yourself.

Thank you from your fellow brother and South Carolinian in the faith, Joshua. Why are you saying wahoo?

You're from Kansas. I know, because I like South Carolina because you're from there. Okay. I can give you that. She buys me all of my

South Carolina gear whenever I want to do Gamecock shirts. Me or my folks. That's right.

You or your parents. We like to support. So the catechism that I use is really just Keech's Catechism, and that's the one

I've been most frequent to, easy to find, and I can bring it up on my phone, and there I have it right there.

So Keech's Catechism is very similar to the shorter Westminster Catechism. So either of those catechisms are really good to use with helping your kids understand basic points of scripture.

Becky bought the Truth and Grace books from Founders Ministry, and we have those upstairs, and those are workbooks.

Your daughter will definitely be a little bit older before you get into those books, though. It starts at age two. Oh, does it really?

It does. Okay. It starts at age two, and three -year -olds have some work to do as soon as they're able to repeat your words.

And that's when you start. And I know that as they get older, it even puts entire chapters of the

Bible in there for them to memorize. Oh, it's awesome. And they do hymns, and they do prayers, and it's awesome.

The prayers that you find in the Bible, kind of prayers. Yes. Edited by Tom Ascol, and he did a terrific job.

So check that out. Foundersministry .org, I think, is the website. Those Truth and Grace books are really good.

But again, if you're just looking for something quick to go to, Keech's Catechism really is an easy grab.

And if you do go with the younger, there's part of it in the front and part of it midway through.

So it's a little confusing. It kind of tripped up my friend a little bit as she was looking through it.

So just so you know, they're both part of the book. It's only the one book. But it refers to checking out the

Boys and Girls Catechism. Oh, I see. And you just flip through to the middle of the book. Does that make sense? Okay, so they're not all on one page.

It's kind of sporadic. Right. Right. Okay. Because I don't know why. But it does.

And I don't know why it's set up that way. But the new book, the older one that you had got, that I didn't get online because it was the one they crafted.

Oh, those are the ones they had. They were on the table at G3. So that's where I got those from.

Then when you bought those online, that happened to be like the older edition. Yeah, it was. And so the newer edition has it all together for the older because that's the ones that you grabbed.

But you got that off of Amazon, didn't you? Not that one, no. Oh, you got it from their website? No. Wait, what?

The older ones. The ones that you got online, the older ones. For the younger kids. For the younger kids.

Oh, I see. That's what I'm saying. I'm so sorry. The older ones are updated. Right. The older one that you got was updated.

The one for the older is updated. I don't know how to say this. I could show you pictures, but that doesn't really help.

But the ones for the younger kids, I'm sure they're all updated now, though. They could be. If you go to foundersministry .org. But I did go on Amazon to get those.

Right. And it was the older edition. So it was the older edition. For the younger kids. On the founder's website, it's all the updated stuff.

That's a mouthful. I'm sorry. I hope all of this has made sense to you. Anyway, they have it all arranged by age group.

It will tell you on the book. Yes. Which age you're getting it for. Just investigate the whole book before you start.

That's all I got to say. We're not going to get hired by Founders Ministry to sell their stuff. Oh, no. Yes. So bad.

Sorry. All right. Last question. Yes. Last question we got here. This is from Carlo in Aurora, Illinois.

Hey, Pastor Gabe. I've been watching your What YouTube videos for a while now. But I did not know that you had a podcast.

Woo -hoo. I have a long commute from Aurora to downtown Chicago. Whoa. So good biblical podcasts are appreciated.

Man, I can't imagine that that traffic jam would be like. Now, of all of the major cities that I have driven through,

I have not done Chicago in a rush hour. That's one city I can say that I've done. New York City.

I don't think this is a goal. Is it a goal for you? I just like it for bragging rights.

Everybody complains about traffic in their city. I can say I've done New York City in rush hour. Getting on and off Long Island in rush hour.

Try that one. Oh, yeah. That was even going right by the square. Yep. Times Square.

Times Square. That was awesome. It was so beautiful. Yeah. We didn't go by Times Square. We went right through the middle of it. We did. It was just nothing but pedestrians everywhere.

It was. So Boston. And trucks everywhere, too. Like big semi trucks everywhere.

Yeah. That was weird. Like a mixture of pedestrians and semi trucks. Hey, they got to get their goods in the middle of New York somehow.

In Kansas, you have back roads for the big trucks. I mean, we have space. That's true.

We're a little more spread out here. But anyway, Atlanta. I don't know how many times

I've done Atlanta because that's where my folks live. Yes. You name the major city, I've done rush hour there. I've not done

Chicago, though. Or Miami. I've never done. No, I haven't done Miami. I've never been to Miami at all. And you're just talking

East Coast, not West. No, I did Los Angeles rush hour. I wasn't driving. You haven't really traveled that much

West. In the states West of Kansas. Yeah. I've been to several major cities. Have you really?

Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Portland. I've not been anywhere in Washington State.

I've not been to. I've not been driving through Salt Lake City, but I have been to Salt Lake City.

Okay. So I've never driven through the city. But yeah, major cities West of here too. Albuquerque.

I'll give that to you. I took a wrong tune in Albuquerque. Been through Albuquerque. Anyway, so there's our tangent on city traffic.

Yeah, there we go. Here's my question. What is the best way to address the common misconception that prayer is a conversation with God?

It implies that we are to expect God to talk back to us in the same way a human would during a conversation.

But I can't find a single Bible verse that mentions prayer in this way. Becky just threw her hand up for some reason.

What was that about? Nope. Not going to say it. Sorry. Was there somebody you were having this conversation with recently or something?

It was an encounter with somebody saying this, but it was not the right time or place to address said conversation.

Okay. Right. So I wasn't able to tell the person. Somebody talking about having a conversation with God through prayer. Yes. Yeah.

Anyway. I don't mind prayer being described as having a conversation with God.

I don't mind that on a certain level. If it is understood that prayer is the way we communicate with God.

Correct. And the Bible is how God communicates with us. Exactly. In return.

Now, I'm even okay with somebody saying God was speaking to me during prayer. As long as their understanding of that is that the word of God was filling your heart and mind as you were praying.

Specifically the Bible. So passages of scripture that we are supposed to fill our minds with.

That we might conform our mind to the mind of Christ. How do you know what to pray? Well, you pray what has been given to us in the scriptures.

You pray according to how we've been taught to pray. As Jesus taught us how to pray. The examples that we have all throughout the

Psalms. And you have really short prayers in the Psalms that are even two verses long. Right. And you have really long prayers like Psalm 119.

So you have the whole gamut of everything that is given to us there in scripture. If you have filled your mind and your heart up with the word of God.

It's going to affect the way that you pray. It will shape the way that you pray. You may even find yourself praying

God's words back to him. Right. Which is exactly the way that that should go.

As I've heard R .C. Sproul say that prayer is for God's glory first.

And then it's for our benefit second. So you pray for God to change your mind.

Right. That your mind might be changed and conformed to God even when you are praying to the

Lord. So if you're considering it a conversation in the sense that you're talking with God. And God is talking to you in that his word, the

Bible, is coming to your mind and heart. Because you've read that and he's filled your mind and heart up with the word of God.

Then yeah, I'm okay with it being a description of a conversation. As long as that's your understanding of it.

But when it comes to. Typically that's not the understanding of it. That's usually not the case.

Right. If somebody says they're having a conversation with God. They believe that they're praying to God. And whatever thoughts are coming into their head as they're praying.

Must automatically be God talking to me. Right. Because I'm praying. And you have to be very cautious about whenever somebody uses that kind of language.

Yes. To make sure what they're saying is one way or the other. So that would be a good way to approach it whenever somebody says prayer is a conversation with God.

Right. So the question being, what's the best way to address the common misconception? If you have somebody use that phrase.

They say, I was having a conversation with God. You can say, okay, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by having a conversation with God?

And if they go on to explain that, well, God's talking to me, you know, something. Uh -huh. Then you say, well, where do you find that in scripture?

Where does it say in the Bible that a conversation with God. We have conversations with God through prayer.

Uh -huh. And then maybe try to guide them into the understanding that in prayer we talk to God.

In Bible study he talks to us. Right. So that's our communique with God. Uh -huh.

Am I using that word right? I know. So the exchange that we have with our

Lord God comes that way. We pray. He speaks to us through his word.

This is his revealed will is the word of God. So anyway, I hope that helps you in how you approach that.

Like you said, you can't find a single Bible verse that mentions prayer in this way. Uh -huh. So when somebody talks about things like that, kind of, you know, spin the conversation in that direction.

Well, where do you get that from the Bible? What has God said in the Bible about that? But understand that their feelings are all involved in this.

Oh, yeah. Whenever they're talking about the wrong kind of conversation with God. And so, because it's all feelings based.

Uh -huh. Oh, God told me that it was okay to feel this way. I felt this. I felt this. It must have come from God. Yeah.

So understand that their feelings are going to get hurt when you do correct them on it.

Yes. And that's okay. And this is why approaching these kinds of things needs to be done with the utmost care.

Exactly. And without, like, angry confrontation. Exactly.

Don't let voices get raised. If their voice gets raised, just, you know, maybe try to calm them down a little bit. I'm just,

I'm helping you to understand this. Right. Because what we have in an understanding of who

God is, is given to us in the Bible. And we can't go beyond that. Right. There isn't anything else that God uses to reveal himself other than the pages of Scripture.

Uh -huh. And if somebody comes back and says, well, yeah, but he revealed himself to so -and -so in this way, then your question is, okay, if you know that God has revealed himself to Moses through a burning bush, how do you know that?

Because it says so in the Bible. Right. Does he still talk to us like that? No. The Bible says he doesn't.

Hebrews 1 .1. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

In many ways. Right. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son.

Uh -huh. And it's through Jesus Christ and his word delivered first by him in his earthly ministry and carried on by his apostles who wrote for us the

New Testament. Right. That's how we know what God has said. It is according to his word. So shepherd somebody in that according to what the

Bible says. Uh -huh. I feel like John 1 .1 in the beginning was the word. Was the word. And the word.

Which you're teaching the kids in Latin. Was God. Yeah. And the word was with God. So Christ is described as the word.

Yes. So we know the word of God through Jesus Christ. Again, this is his revealed will, what we have here in the pages of scripture.

So always kind of try to come back to the Bible with that. And very gently but persevering.

With gentleness. Right. That was the word I was looking for earlier. Gentleness. Yeah. Doing it with gentleness. Like Becky said, their feelings are going to get hurt.

Oh, yeah. And so you have to be the bastion of common sense and decency in the conversation.

Right. Your confidence is in God's word. Theirs is not. Right. And so that's why they're losing their cool.

Right. Because you are confronting a desire that they have in the flesh. Uh -huh.

That because I had this thought, it must be from God. And they're trying to justify their reasoning that way. And God just loves me so much.

He talks to me. Yeah. Right. I have personal conversations with God. Right. And so then you're taking that away from them.

And he walks with me. And he talks with me. I come to the garden alone. Not a big fan of that hymn.

But anyway. And why did you just get it in everybody's head? Because it got into my head. And you have to suffer with me.

You're welcome, apparently. That's right. All right. Let us conclude with prayer. Yes, please. Our Lord God, we are so blessed to be able to talk to you in this way.

And what a gift and a blessing this is that you have asked that we would speak to you. And that you have promised us that you would hear from us.

That you would hear our prayers and answer them. As David prayed in the Psalms, if I had cherished sin in my heart, you would not have heard my prayer.

And so I pray that when we come to you and we address you as God and we revere your name as holy.

That you would seek our hearts and convict us of any sin. We might come to you with a repentant heart so that you can wash us clean.

And that we would continue to pursue holiness in your name. That when we utter the name of God, we're not doing so in a blasphemous way.

But in a reverent way. Knowing that it is through Christ we have been given this privilege to be able to address you as our father.

And knowing that you have received us as sons and daughters because of the righteousness of your son,

Jesus Christ. And so I pray that in this confidence that we have, which is not a confidence we have in ourselves.

It's not a confidence in our flesh. It is a confidence that we have in Christ. In this confidence, we would approach one another with gentleness and with respect.

And we would help one another to understand what you have said according to your word.

That we would encourage and admonish one another as Paul instructs in Colossians 3 .16.

Letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Teaching and admonishing and encouraging one another with all wisdom.

Singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in our hearts unto God. May we continue to teach one another how to do this as we all pursue sanctification together as your church.

I pray for those who we've received questions from today. And I thank you for their desire to want to know more about what your word says and understand these things clearly.

And be with us as we continue to encourage our brothers and sisters in the faith. As well as going out with the gospel to those who do not know.

And have yet to have their eyes open to the truth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In whose name we pray, Amen. Amen. This is

When We Understand The Text. An online Bible ministry equipping the household of God, His church, to be a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Find all our videos online at www .utt .com. Now here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. So, last week.

Yes. Man, I don't remember what I was going to start with. Really?

Really, I don't even know how I was going to start this. Well, I took you by surprise. I just blanked.

I was like, okay. Well, we need to write that down on the calendar because you don't do that very often.

I was like, wow, that was great. That was a good intro. I know. And now I'm supposed to say something. And it was just blank.

I didn't have anything. Well, there we go. It was gone. Obviously, you quit working. Powering down.

Okay, take five. How many times have we done this?