Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio. It's Carl and crew.
Helping you take your next step with Jesus. And we have had a day. If you did not hear Michael Ray Dolnick, he gave an acronym for how you approach the Word of God. This bears repeating. We had hundreds fly out the door. What is it, Ali? Specs.
It's when doing your Bible study, put on your specs. This is from Michael Riedel a statement. Is there a statement of truth? Is there a promise to claim? Is there an example to follow? Is there a command to obey? Is there a sin to avoid? So using those first letters of each of those statements is kind of an acronym specs statement of truth. Promise to claim example to follow command to obey sin to avoid.
Yeah. Good stuff. So you're like, all right I didn't write that down. We've got it for you. Tech specs s p e s. That's it. No k in there. S e s. We'll get that right out to you. What a great tool. Specs s p e c s to 800 555 7898 800 555 7898. This is good already. And we just got going on this Monday morning. My goodness. Okay. Coming up in this half hour. Guess what we've got. We have got some time in this half hour. A moody Bible commentary that we're going to give away. It's
not right now. So don't call in. But it's coming at you soon. But I've got a crazy question for you, and we're going to need you on the phone lines to answer this question. Here's the question. Give me three of the mandatory equipment tools that I had to carry on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Are we guessing?
Yep. The callers are going to guess. You guys can't guess because I've. I've shared this before. I think you probably got I think you've probably got them. So 1100 mile dog sled race across Alaska. I competed in it when I was 18. I know it's a little crazy. Have a hard time even imagining that I did it back in the day when I was 18, 1100 mile dog sled race. What kind of tools did they mandatorily make us carry on that race? If you get all three, you call in, you get all three. First one to
get them gets the Carl and Coop prize pack. So call in, give it a guess. Three mandatory pieces of equipment for the Iditarod. Uh, is Google now? No, no, I on this one. You gotta you gotta go the old fashioned way. You got to guess 805, 55, 78, 98. Give us a call. Three essential tools that were mandatory for me to carry on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. From Anchorage to Nome. There are probably seven. Okay. I'm just asking that you get three. What were they? 805. Five. Five. 78. 98.
There's method to this madness, right? Yes there is.
Yes there is.
We're taking your calls right now. Guess three of them. You get a Carl and Crew prize pack. First one to do it. I'm not going to keep giving them out all day long. We'd be here all day long. But grab three of them and you get a Carl and Crew prize pack. 805. Five. Five. 78. 98. 805 five. Five. 78. 98. Let's go mushing across Alaska here.
She was trying to earn her way to God, but God showed her she didn't have to. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
All right, we got a fun question for you here, and I'm going to fly blind. Ali. You bring them up, we got a question teed up and a prize pack on the line.
Carl ran the Iditarod. It was a how many miles? How many miles was that?
Oh, they called it 1100 mile race. Back in the day. You got lost. It might be more.
1100 ish miles in Alaska. Is a famous dog sledding race. Carl did that when he was 18. So he's asking you, what do you think are the three essential tools that were required? There were more than three. But if you could get three right, you'll get a Carl and Crew prize pack. Let's see who gets close. Let's go to LaVonne from Illinois. Give us your three guesses. Go ahead.
A warm coat, a good sled, and some faithful dogs.
Okay, Carl, how do we land there? Any.
Not. Not mandatory. Uh, that's funny you mention a coat. They should have made that mandatory, but I think that was self-evident. Kind of a deal. A sled was also self-evident. Good guess. Though, you got to have a good sled and dogs. I'm going to give you one on that because you actually have to finish the race with five. You can't go less than five if you get down to four. Boom, you're out of the race. But good. Go. I'm loving this. This is fun.
Let's try another one. Lori. First time caller from Florida. Give us the three that you think were mandatory.
Hi. Good morning guys. I think it is an ice pick. A rope and a fire starter.
Oh good guesses. Uh, I'm going to give you fire starter because. A cooker was mandatory back when I ran back in the day a lot of years ago now. So if you're googling online, there's a little different. Kind of an angle on this, but I know ice pick and rope are not in there, but, uh, we're getting close with an ice pick, so that's what I'm going to say for future callers here. But good go, Lori. Thanks all of you taking guesses. This is wonderful. All right. Let's keep rolling here.
Kiki, first time caller from Ohio. Give us your three.
Well, I said, um, a sled in some outerwear, like, in case you fall off. Um. Like, why you riding in some kind of something to stop your traction? Like some pokes or something. You know, those sticks or whatever. Like they protect you from falling.
Okay, okay.
Very reasonable.
Yeah. Very reasonable. Poles are used now. They're doing a lot of sled pulling. So you'll see ski poles that are used. Every musher uses them. So they push along rather than just kicking between the runners, which is what we did old school. But now a lot of sled pulls. So but none of those are required gear. Still looking for top 3 or 3 of the required gear. You got to have tools on board a sled when you're mushing the dome. Let's keep going. Ali.
Carol, first time caller from Florida. You get three guesses. Go ahead.
Okay. Uh, tent for like, a cover. If the wind picks up too much, you got to get in shelter and a flare in case you get lost. And some MRE for food.
Oh, this is good. Okay. Funny thing here, Carol. This is a hoot. They didn't care if we had food for the musher or not. But you had to have food for the dogs.
Wow.
Isn't that funny? And tint not required, uh, because most of us sleep in the sled bags on the Iditarod. I slept in my dog sled, and. But we're getting close with that one. Flair not required. Uh, meals for the dogs, though, was. We're getting closer. We're getting closer. All right, Ali, let's keep cooking here.
Hanna, first time caller from Kentucky. Let's see how you do with this one. Go ahead. Give us your three guesses.
Uh, chainsaw, a axe on snowshoes.
Oh, Hannah's got two of the three.
Whoa. Okay. Are you going to tell? Are you going to tell us which two?
I'm going to tell? Because otherwise we're going to be here all day. Um, so axe and snowshoes were required gear when I competed in the Iditarod. Yep. You had to have snowshoes. If you didn't have them, you're disqualified from the race. If you didn't have an axe, you're disqualified from the race. Got to have him on board all the time.
Okay, Hannah.
No, no, no chainsaw required on the race.
Hannah nailed two out of three. So we know that axe and snowshoes. So if you want to amend your answers. Axe, snowshoes and what? Let's give Steve, first time caller from Florida. Axe snowshoes. What do you think that last item is? Steve. First time caller from Florida. Go ahead. We've got axe and snowshoes. What do you think that third one is?
Uh, axe, snowshoe and shovel.
Are getting close. Steve, thank you for calling. Appreciate it. We got axe snowshoes, and there's. I've got seven things written down here that I had to carry on the Iditarod. Fill in the blank. One more. That's all we got to do. Ali.
Kyle from Florida. Go. Go ahead. We've got axe snowshoes. Give a guess at that final one.
A satellite phone or radio?
Yeah, it was illegal in my day. As a matter of fact, they just made it legal to have satellite phones, but we couldn't even have them back in the day. No phones, no radio, no communication. But good guess. These are great guesses. All right, Ali, let's keep cooking.
James, first time caller from Iowa acts snowshoes. Give a guess at that. A final third item.
How about just a pair of pliers?
Yeah, that's not it. That's a good guess. And I had pliers with me for sure. Boy, we're getting close here, guys.
Let's go to Heidi. First time caller from Ohio. Give us a guess.
Okay. My third item. Axe, snow shoes and a compass.
Compass?
No, that's a good idea. Guess. Really good. Guess. Really good. Guess. We're getting so close.
Okay, let's see if Carol, first time caller from Florida, can get that last one. Go. Go ahead. Carol, what's your guess?
Listening to it at the snow shoes and dog food.
You got it. Bingo. We'll give it to you right there. Carol from Florida. That was a group effort, guys.
Yeah.
It was a group effort.
So give us the whole list of the seven snow shoes. Food for the dogs.
Yeah, this might really surprise you, but it was mandatory to carry enough booties for a team between checkpoints. Dog booties so that if they if you were on ice or rough conditions, you could swap out booties and keep the dogs feet healthy. Wow. Um, axe food for dogs. Sleeping bag. That was Arctic approved. So you had to have a good sleeping bag on board. Obviously that should be self-explanatory, but for some guys, no joking. In Alaska, when I ran the Iditarod, not all these knuckleheads knew
that they had to have a sleeping bag. They thought they were going to go sleep. In fact, I had a buddy that refused to sleep in a sleeping bag because he thought he would sleep too long. So he slept in all of his Arctic gear on top of the sled bag. How crazy is.
That? Seems super dangerous.
It was dangerous. As a matter of fact, he told me he wouldn't do it again after he ran a 200 mile dog sled race and almost died. Okay. Um, a couple others. Uh, snowshoes, booties, axe, food for dogs, £2 of at least commercial feed for every dog in your team. When you left a checkpoint. Had to have that, uh, cooker was one thing that you had to have. Something that you could get over an open fire to cook that meal, and then another one back in the day.
I don't know if this was mandatory or not. I forgot I'm forgetting the rules from my day, but I carried a 44. That's a pistol. And you carry that? Uh, not for killing game or anything like that and then eating it, but for especially self-protection. If you have a moose. Moose hate in the winter in Alaska, they don't like getting. They love dog sled trails because it's a it's a machine track. Usually a lot of snow machines have gone over it. And so the moose love they don't like
waltzing through four feet of snow. So if you get in a really snowy area, those moose just congregate on the trail. So you come around the corner, here's a big old moose and you're like, out of the way, buddy. And there they are. They're like, I ain't getting in that deep snow. You can get in the deep snow. So it can be a standoff. And at times, very rarely. There's been occasions where moose will charge a team. Uh, I've had that happen before. Not on the Iditarod. Boy, moose charge a team.
I won't ask for that story, because I know that would take us down a trail. Pun intended.
It's it's tough because it can really be injurious to the musher and especially the dogs. But good guessing guys. We got some boom crews out there.
Yeah, man.
A lot of fun. Okay, coming up here in a moment. Back to resources for your spiritual life. Because running the Iditarod, probably not everyone's going to do it. But following Jesus, now we're talking coming up in a few minutes. We've got a moody Bible commentary on the line. Hang on.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Coming up here. We've got a great guest. We love this guy. Or what? Ellie?
Hey, expert doctor Drew Dickens with some hot off the press updates for you and some cool ways to leverage AI.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her. Super dei is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, he is coming at us hot. And if you don't catch up, we're going to be left in the dust. Does it scare you, Ali? What do you think about AI?
Um. You know, it fascinates me, but I do find it a little scary. Like the robots and the kind of the not knowing if something that you're hearing or reading was written by an actual person. Most likely it was written by I as a journalist. It scares me a little bit.
Yeah. I don't blame you. Uh, what do you say, Doctor Drew? Dickens. I expert before it was even popular.
So? So you bring in the scary guy, right? That's right. So, Ali. Ali is already scared enough. So you bring in drew, and let's get really.
Freak out a little bit more. What's going on? What's going on with I, in fact, back up a little bit. Give us your history. Wasn't there a time when you had written on. I did a doctoral dissertation and no one. You couldn't get a callback?
Exactly. In seminary, I started writing on just technology and theology. But then when I started working my doctorate, which was an eternity ago, six years, I couldn't get a return phone call about I. Nobody. That was pre-gapped. Uh, so now it's just just like, oh my gosh, we haven't. You and I, the three of us haven't talked in maybe a month or so. And now everything has changed again. Uh, Ali, you just mentioned not knowing whether something was written by
a person. I tell you what's been wild. There's been an ad for a company called Kalki, and the entire ad which would have normally taken an ad agency, I don't know, a year to have produced or whatever for untold millions of dollars. Uh, they did the entire thing in a day, created this ad in a day. And it's all generated by AI and costs. They're saying 97% less than what it would have cost an agency, and you can't tell it looks 100% real. It's just people
we won't get into what call she is. That's a whole other conversation. But, um, it's it's people on video talking and you can't tell. So forget whether it's been written or not. Now we have, uh, whether it's been seen or not or created by a person and is what I'm watching and hearing real Doctor Drew.
So give us what are the updates that we need to be aware of, just even since we've last spoken with you Since yesterday.
Uh, so really, to can you continue that theme Google uh, has been they kind of stumbled coming out of the gate a few years ago. And boy, ever since then they've just been knocking it out of the park and they came out with a platform called Veo Veo three. And it allows for the creation of hyper realistic AI generated video. And what's wild about this is you think back, you know, I couldn't just decide tomorrow to start a radio station might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to
build out a studio. And you think about, you know, all the costs associated with production and whatnot. Now everybody has access. Google Gemini AI has 280 million daily active users who have access to these tools. Where I can today create something fake, fake news, whatever you want to call it. I can create a video, post it on YouTube, have it seen by millions, and never leave my laptop.
And that's just the last couple of weeks and vo's driving, driving that industry like like we haven't seen any other technology.
Doctor Drew Dickens with us right now. AI expert and consulted for all things AI when he couldn't get a call back six years ago. Finish up his PhD. This is crazy. What you're sharing here. I'm. I'm staying pretty abreast with what's going on. The only indication I had that that stuff like this was happening. My son has a good high school buddy who had built a significant
company with graphic design and branding. He sold it a year ago because he's told my son he could see what's coming, and he he got rid of that company. He said, this is this company's dead in a year, and now it appears he might have been right. What is going on? What's going to happen to jobs in the area of just graphic design, let alone attorneys and everything else?
Yeah, it's an interesting point. Your your son and his friend bring up Because just last week, several, uh, AI leaders were saying that 2020 6th May be the year that we see $1 billion valued company with one employee. Now kind of kind of wrap your head around that, okay. So no air, no walking it down to legal, no talking to the, you know, whatever. It's one employee, one one guy, one kid sitting on a laptop. Well, we will have a company valued at over $1 billion by
this time next year. And it used to be robots. You know, Ali mentioned, you know, robots taking over the world. It used to be robots. I think where we're seeing most of the impact right now, most of the conversations on jobs being touched and again, to your son and his friend is software. Um, that's in that's a low hanging. That's a low bar, uh, because you can program.
All the code writers.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, uh, Zuckerberg meta came out with a quote, uh, two weeks or so ago now. Um, that already it's about 80% of their code. Meta. Facebook, Instagram. About 80% of their code is being written by AI. So it used to all be about that, but now it's getting into and again, not knowing what's been written by a person or not. So any anybody that's in content creation with writing. Yeah. With with producing like that boy study to become a plumber. That's the best advice
right now. Wow.
What's this do with you, Ali, when you hear this.
There is the element of fear, of the uncertainty. But I want to talk about the positive here and kind of shift away. I don't want to seem like we're trying to freak everybody out. Coming up, Doctor Drew Dickens, our special guest. He's an AI expert. Let's talk about AI and spirituality. He has a whole podcast on this. How can we leverage AI to the positive to help us get stronger in the Lord? Is that possible? Can I even say that? Let's ask that question coming up.
This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
With us right now. Doctor Drew Dickens, if you listen to a few moments ago, you could go, oh no, what is going to happen to me? My job, whatever the case may be. But what if it could be true, as it was with the printing press, that we can take something that appears to be, uh oh, maybe even a form of something nefarious or evil, but God can turn it for good. That's the point, right? Ali?
It is. Doctor Drew Dickens with us right now. How can we leverage AI to help us in our walk with the Lord? Is that possible? And to some people, even asking that question seems like some sort of a crime to even ask.
You know, I'm reminded of the verse in John 18 where Jesus is asked by Pilate, what is truth? And that is a question I think more. There's so many easy kind of toss away answers. Well, God is truth, the Bible is truth, Jesus is truth, and all those
are true. But I think it's an important opportunity. It's an important time that each of us sit down and ask ourselves that question in a very serious way, because it's going to be challenged, whether it's jobs, whether it's video generation, whether it's, you know, watching the news and whether that's real or not. I think this, more than any other time, is an important opportunity to sit down and ask ourselves, what is truth? So when I say Scripture is true, God is true. What does that mean
for me? Because that's going to be challenged. We're going to see videos of speakers of biblical speakers saying things that aren't true. And as we enter in times we know that from Scripture, from revelation that we're going to hear falsehoods. And so any any more time than this, it's going to be critical for us to sit down and evaluate our time with the Lord, our time in Scripture, where we're going to for resources like Moody, what are these teachers on air that I can trust? And that
group is going to get smaller. And I think we each need to take the initiative to decide where I'm going for truth. But our ears are going to be tickled. They're going to be so many intriguing, alluring kind of things to look at, to listen to. Um, but what's the source of it? We're going to need to stop and ask ourselves that question. And through that, we grow closer to the Lord. And by the gifting of the Holy Spirit, we can grow closer to God through this opportunity.
In fact, what an exciting opportunity for us to more intentionally decide what is truth to me.
Doctor Drew Dickens, our guest right now a expert and born for such a time as this. You know, it's fascinating. I was wanting to study Jeremiah 49, the prophecy of Elam, and that is the Elamites, which is modern day Iran. And as I was studying that, it's just amazing what God did for me. I did a deep dive on I said, give me three different positions on this because I knew there was were three already fulfilled 600 BC dual fulfillment. Future fulfillment. Who are the theologians? What do
they believe? What are they postulate and why? And what's their basic arguments? No joking. It spit it out in two seconds. Yeah, and then I cross-referenced to make sure I'm not getting gobbledygook. And it's absolutely scoured the internet for some of the best theologians. And I got six different positions, clearly articulated in ways that I never could have done in four hours with my library.
Yeah, exactly. Yes.
So there's things to leverage here, practically for anyone who's broken and humbled before the Lord, that we can use AI in powerful ways to fast track even learning. Right.
Well, and you mentioned grok, and I know you're a fan of grok, and that's great. That's Elon Musk's, uh, I exi used to be Twitter. Uh, his model probably has the lowest guardrails. Uh, so it's going to give you a lot more information. And boy, kudos to you for stopping and double checking and cross-referencing those outputs. Perplexity is another language model that I would encourage everybody to take a look at. It provides citations. It sort of
looks like Wikipedia at the end. There's almost a bibliography at the end of it at the end of their output. So it can it will tell you where it came from. ChatGPT of course, everybody's familiar with. So there are a lot of different language models out there for people to use, and all of them kind of have their specialty, if you will. And there are a lot of different versions. Not to get overwhelming with that, but any of those are a great place to start. And again, just the
speed of you being able to chase a rabbit. You know how fun is that? When you when you're reading through Scripture and you see a reference to another verse, maybe in the Old Testament you're reading the new and you're like, wow, where did that come from? And all of a sudden you find yourself in, you know, third Hezekiah two eight or whatever, and you're like, wow, I
did not I did not know that. And what an exciting opportunity just to just to get neck deep in the Word of God and allow it to have that tool to help you explore.
Doctor drew, you spoke in a recent episode about how I guided you through grief in the loss of a family member. Can you tell? Tell us a little bit about what you shared in that episode?
And by the way, in case any of your listeners are trying to look up third Hezekiah two eight, that's not a real passage. I just made that up just to illustrate the point. But but yes, it was about a month or so ago, and a friend passed away and I started to write a text. We've all done this and just found ourselves unable to find the words. Right? Um, and it says says that in Scripture about to interpret the groanings of our heart, you know, to the spirit.
And I found myself just typing, deleting, typing, deleting. And I thought, okay, well, I'll have I write this text to one of my closest friends about his wife passing away, about how wrong is that? Did it. Um, and it was phenomenal. And I just couldn't send it, you know, it was like, you know, there's some things that should be messy and should be hard. I makes everything easier. And that's going to be, I think, part of the allure,
the tickling of the ear. It's going to be tempting to take the short road, take take the wide gate, not the narrow one. And I didn't send it, but it was interesting to see what a great job it did. And for me to realize, you know what? I do need to do some of this the hard way. I do need to get in there with pen and paper, and do the hard work of studying and working through the words. So that was a good lesson for me.
That is so beautiful. Well, we've got a link for you, boom crew, because some of you are listening to this going, all right, I might have a little bit of knees knocking here, but I'm ready to plug in a keyword. What do you say, Ali?
Well, if you want more, we've got some resources for you. Doctor Drew Dickens, our guest. We're going to link you to the podcast and encouraging article and also a book he has out, whispers of the spirit A 40 Day Guide to Intimate Prayer. Lots there. Just text the word drew to 805 555 7898. Text drew to 800 555 7898.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's curling crew on Moody Radio.
Well, this whole week we're going to be giving you transformational resources. And I'm loving what we're doing here this week because we're going to give you some tools that are going to be dynamite all week long. Boy, some of the stuff that we have lined up for this week is epic. But I called the young man yesterday, called a young man, Doctor Michael Ray Melnick.
Yes.
And I said, Michael, could you come on air and share with us the most transformational tool that God has used in your life to grow spiritually? He said, I'd be happy to do that. And I do not know what it is. So I'm looking forward to it. And I also wanted him to weigh in a little bit about what's going on in Israel today, so we're going to get that for you. It's an important thing, though, to keep Kingdom focused. I did a quick deep dive
over the last 2000 years. There's been a lot of things to derail us, but whether it's Augustine with City of God, whether it's the disciples that were in a Greco-Roman culture, boy, they didn't lose their focus on kingdom stuff. It is so easy to look at political landscape, cultural landscape, geopolitical stuff and get so derailed, is it not, Ali?
You can get stuck in anger. You can get stuck in fear and uncertainty. I mean, there's a lot of different emotions you can be feeling if you spend a lot of time taking in the news. And we absolutely need to stay informed with what's happening in the world. But we do not have to give way to anger or fear or any of the other complex emotions that we may be feeling.
Amen. That is so true. This is Tyrion. Honestly, we just need Jesus. Coming up, Doctor Michael Riedel down the answer in the question. What's the most transformational tool God has used in your life to grow spiritually?
You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Talking transformational resources all week long. I've got a transformational resource, Ali.
Oh. What's that?
I've got Michael Redlick on speed dial. And you know what? He's a great sport. He picks up for me all the time. He goes, what's up? And I go, all right. Yesterday it was Jeremiah 4932 to the end of the chapter. Ilam, Iran. And we had a great discussion. Let's get this young man in here. Michael, what's the most transformational tool God has used in your life to grow you up with Jesus?
Well, it's good to be with you. I'd like to say it was you, but, uh. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, okay.
Listen, the top 100 list, you're the. Yeah, you're you're big there. You're you're tall. Uh, hey, no one's ever called me young in a long time, so I.
Thought, I'm just feeling the joy of the Lord. And I thought I'd spread it around this morning. Michael.
Thank you, thank you. Hey, uh, I'd say, you know, you guessed it. Uh, I never told you when we talked about this yesterday, but you guessed. And it's the word of God. It's the Bible. I think that's the most transformational tool in my walk with the Lord. Uh, but it's it's not just reading it. It's reading it
for life. Change is what I think. Uh, I learned mainly, and I was always told I had to do that, but it was Howard Hendricks, a professor I had in seminary that taught us how to read it for life change. And it it really has made a difference.
And what's what's the difference maker that he gave you?
Well, first of all, there's a book with his material that people should get. It's a moody publishers book. It's called living by the book. It's sort of the course Bible study methods I took with him. It's put into a book and that's that's just a great tool for people to use. But one of the things he mentioned, and I talk about this all the time on Open Line, my radio program on Saturday mornings is, uh, specs. Uh, always put your specs on when you read the Bible.
And what that refers to is putting, uh, glasses for life change. And so, uh, this is the acronym A sin to avoid a promise to claim an example to follow, a command to obey, or a statement to believe. Wow. That's.
I'd forgotten that. You're right. Yeah.
And, uh, when I read the Bible, I'm I'm I'm doing the observation interpretation application, just like I was taught. But that's what I'm looking for. Uh, I put my specs on, and I'm trying to not read it just for information gathering for, uh, you know, to know stuff, but to experience life change, and that's how I do it. And I was going to give you an example just the other day I was reading in Exodus, and it's
sort of like an example not to follow, to be honest. Uh, I was reading in Exodus six and it's there when, uh, under, uh, the Exodus six nine, it says, uh, God promised that he was going to bring the people of Israel out of their bondage and give them the land that, uh, that he promised them. And then it says, Moses told this to the Israelites. Verse nine. But they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor. And I thought, how often does God have comforting words
for us from His Word? Encouraging words. And because of difficulties, tough circumstances, tough situations. Do we not want to hear it? And and how do we make ourselves open in those tough times. And so then I wrote down, because Howard Hendricks always said, never read the Bible without a pen in your hand. How do we make ourselves open when we're broken? And I began to really contemplate and meditate on that from the Word of God. What is it that keeps us open to God's Word when we're broken?
And I and I came up with some steps that I would take to keep myself open, even during tough times. And that's that's what I mean by reading the Bible. I'm not just reading the Bible to fill my head. I want to change my heart. And and that's what I'm looking at.
Doctor Michael Riedel, our guest this morning. Coming up, we have seen a surge in Bible sales. We talked about this a little bit last year, 22% increase in sales of Bibles. So I'm going to ask Doctor Michael Riedel to this, to speak to that person who's getting a Bible for the very first time has no familiarity, has not been in a church, doesn't even know where to start. Do I open it and start at Genesis one and
read it all the way through? What would you say to the brand new Bible reader that coming up with Doctor Michael Riedel?
It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, when you've got people on TikTok documenting the purchase of their first Bible, you know, something shifted a little bit. 22% jump in Bible sales last year. Doctor Michael Riedel, our guest right now, I want you to speak to the person who is maybe purchasing or or opening a Bible for the very first time. What's the best tool to help them get a good start?
Well, I would say the first thing to do is get a Bible that you can read and understand. You know, some people think, oh, I need to get a Bible that has flowery language or is the classic authorized version, I'd say get yourself an understandable Bible. And the way to do that is pick up something like the New Living Translation. I also think the one that I was just reading from the Holman CSB. Very good translation. I
think there are other good translations. I'm not trying to say those are the only two, but those are easy to understand. They're in modern language and you'll you'll do much better with that. Second step is to not just start in Genesis because that'll be kind of interesting. But then you'll you'll get to Leviticus and you're like, oh man, I'm not going through with this. And yeah, and so or even the second half of Exodus, you may have a hard time. So what I would say is I read, uh,
from 3 or 4 different sections of the Bible every day. Uh, and so I read a gospel, an epistle, and I'll, I'll read from the historical books of the Old Testament, and then I'll read like Psalms, Proverbs, things like that. Uh, in the or prophets. And, and this way I'll take a couple of chapters from the historical books. A chapter from, uh, that Psalms, Proverbs, that area, and then a chapter from the New Testament, from the Gospels, and then a chapter
from the epistles. And I'll end up with about five chapters a day, at least as a minimum. And that will give me a good smattering of, of, of, uh, where the Bible is. And this way I'm not stuck in just one area. It gives you a broader perspective. Uh, I would say also, uh, get some basic tools for understanding the Bible. I would say get that book by Howard Hendricks, which is, uh, really terrific book called living by the book. And then lastly, uh, what I would
do is just keep reading. Be consistent. Don't think that that you need to be a genius to read the Bible, or you need some special skills. The most important skill you have is the ability to read. And so read the Bible. Uh, just regularly. And I'll give you my two rules of biblical interpretation. Ready? If you didn't. Well, in order to understand the Bible, we must read it. And then secondly, uh, if you didn't understand it the first time, read it again. And there we go.
I love it. You know what? That's hope filled. That is so hope to anyone listening right now. I so appreciate that. I want to touch on this quickly. I called you yesterday about Jeremiah 49. You spoke of foreshadowing because this prophecy here by Jeremiah of Iran called Islam was not fully fulfilled in 600 BC. And it talks of the Lord will set up his throne in Elam and destroy the kings and officials, declares the Lord. But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam,
declares the Lord. Speak about. There's a there's a lot of discussion about how do I read prophecy? Foreshadowing is a phenomenal statement. Explain what you mean by that.
Well, Genesis 49, where it talks about in the latter days. Okay, that's talking about the end of days. So, uh, I see the restoration that's there in Genesis 49 as an end of days experience. Uh, but one of the things that we have seen, and this is pretty typical with biblical prophecy, and it's important to see this. It's not we don't see the fulfillment. We're not seeing partial fulfillment.
We're not seeing that. But what will happen over time is that they'll seem to be that the very same thing that the Bible is talking about kind of happens, uh, in a, in a historical setting and we say, is this the fulfillment? And it's not because it doesn't meet all the requirements. However, it gives us a picture, a A foreshadowing of what the fulfillment will be. And there was a guy named Charles Briggs who wrote about this
in a book about 100 years ago. And I was reading this book for my doctoral dissertation a long time ago, and I thought, he's exactly right. He's exactly right. So, for example, uh, the the desolation, the abomination of desolation by Titus and by Antiochus in, uh, in history foreshadows an abomination of desolation that the corruption of the temple. Yet in the future, when a future political ruler, false Messiah arises and does it now, what they did were
not partial fulfillments. What Titus, the Roman general, did what Antiochus, the Syrian king, did. They were not fulfillments, but they were foreshadowings of what that end of days event will look like.
Yeah, it's so fascinating. One more quick hit. I got one minute on this one. If you look at Israel, a lot of people question why are they God's chosen people when they are so secular and in many ways God less?
Well, there there are no more godless than any other nation. Even even.
Gentiles. Yeah.
Yeah, I think we have to keep it that way. Uh, God chose Israel according to Deuteronomy. Not because they were better or bigger, but because he loved them. Uh, he he said this, and it says it even in their opposition to the gospel in Romans 1128. It doesn't matter. It says that God still loves them, still chooses them. If you read Romans 1128, it's very clear. Despite their opposition to the gospel, that that choice remains faithful. That
it's dependent on God, not the people. And so, you know, people say it's biblical Israel and modern Israel the same. I would say biblical Israel, ancient biblical Israel, and modern Israel. They're both the nation state of the Jewish people. And so there is it's not exactly the same. Biblical was a theocracy. Today is a democracy, but it's still the nation state of the Jewish people. And so we have to see that connection and those promises that God made
to Israel. God's going to be faithful to them.
Michael Riedel, everybody, great young man. I'm going to keep calling you that. And thank you for ducking in here today. Really appreciate your contribution to the show. Michael. Thank you. We've got a resource for you right now, don't we, Ali?
Yeah, we have that. Michael mentioned that Bible study specs. If you want that broken down, those things to look for as you're reading the Bible, just text specs s p e c s specs like spectacles specs to 855 five 7898. Text specs to 855 five 7898.