Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
Here’s to jumping back into things after the busy holiday weekend. I sure hope that each and every single one of you had the most wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. Our Christmas was simply wonderful, as my Aunt Carlene & Uncle Rick made their way down from La Grange, Kentucky to celebrate with us on Christmas Day. Most of the weekend was spent tumbling around on a cushioned fort that my folks got for the kids, as well as playing with some classic wooden train tracks my that my Aunt & Uncle got for the kids. We had way too much junk food, and my wife simply outdid herself this year with all the wonderful food that she prepared for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Today I start full recovery mode, trying to eat healthy and lose all of the weight that I found this Christmas season. I am also in full catch-up mode, as naturally I did hardly any work at all this past weekend and instead focused on family time. On my to-do list today was to sit down and catch up on all of my emails, which I had quite a few that were still unread that I wanted to address. Actually, I have more than a few – but the ones that are actually important that I need to read and respond to are probably 5 or 6. There are two kinds of people when it comes to notifications: those that have to check every single one, and those that allow them to stack up and stack up until they are out of control. I happen to be the latter when it comes to emails. As I opened up my Gmail account, I saw the little notification number next to the inbox which read the following: 14,155 unread emails. Some of you when you heard this can relate and probably have something similar going on in your inbox. Others of you probably just had an anxiety attack when you heard that number. It’s funny how polar opposite each of us are with this subject, isn’t it? You see for me, I couldn’t care less about all of those unread emails and notifications. I know what they are: a lot of times it’s just junk mail, or it’s a receipt or something that I don’t really even need to click on because I already know what it says. Clicking on it is just completely unneeded, because I don’t need to read it. Because of the search feature, I’m not worried about an email getting lost in the vast sea of unread emails, because I can easily find it with some key words. So as I go through my email, I just click on the ones that I know I actually need to read and let the rest just sit there and get forgotten. Of course at some point I’m going to run out of storage in my inbox, and that’s when I’m going to have to clean house and that will take days to do. But until then, I’ll just let that number continue to grow and grow as all the unneeded emails go unread. I know what I need to read, and that’s good enough for me.
Now, it’s one thing to do this with our email. Though some of you might think that I am a monster, it’s not wrong it’s just different. However, it’s a whole other issue when we do this with how we approach God’s Word. We are creatures of habit, and often times in our study we can find ourselves just going back to the same things over and over again. We will read and re-read our favorite books of the Bible, such as the Proverbs or one of the Gospels. However, when it comes to other parts of the Bible, we just skip right over them time and time again as it goes unread. For example: when is the last time that you read the book of Leviticus? What about Amos, Obadiah, or Zephaniah? Or even in the New Testament, what about 2 & 3 John or Jude? For many of us, it’s probably been a very long time – perhaps even year since we have picked up our Bibles and read these kinds of passages. But why is this the case? Why do we do this? I believe in part because we have forgotten some foundational truths. In 2 Timothy 3:14-17 we read the following, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Here Timothy is told to bring to memory the Scriptures that he was acquainted with from childhood. There was nothing that was withheld in his teaching, since all scripture is profitable for teaching and making one wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And therein lies the kicker: all Scripture is profitable. I believe that the reason we sometimes completely avoid some books more than others in the Bible is because we don’t believe them to be very profitable or beneficial. Afterall, how can Leviticus help me in my walk with Christ like the book of Romans? Well, maybe the fact that we can’t see how already demonstrates that we have much to grow in as students of God’s Word. Each book is rich with truths that point us to Jesus, strengthen our faith, and embolden our hope. Paul writes to the Romans and says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4) Anything that was been written and inspired by God is there for a purpose, not for us to merely skip over and ignore week in and week out. I want to challenge all of our listeners to do something with me as this new year begins. I want us all to go through the entire Bible in this next year. It doesn’t matter what Bible reading plan you use, whether it’s chronological, Old then New, multiple times, or whatever. Personally, I am going to be doing a reading plan that has me reading a little bit of the Old Testament & the New Testament every day. That way, I can see many of the connections between the covenants that perhaps I have not made before in the past. I’ll also be starting a Facebook group designed for us to discuss our daily reading on it, and I will link that group to our Set Your Mind Above Facebook page and will let you know when it’s live. No matter what plan you choose, the important part is to actually do it. Don’t skip anything, and don’t leave anything unread. God’s Word has been left for us in it’s entirety for our benefit and growth, every single word contained within it is exponentially important. So, in our discipleship for 2022, let’s not let our Biblical inbox stack up. By the end of this next year, let’s ensure that each and every Biblical truth has been read, contemplated, and written upon our hearts.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.