This content introduces the "Bible in a Year" podcast, hosted by Father Mike Schmitz and featuring Jeff Cavins, which aims to guide listeners through the entire Bible chronologically using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline method. The podcast's primary goal is to help individuals develop a deeper, more personal relationship with God's word, fostering transformation and a clearer understanding of salvation history.
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[Music]
hi my name is father mike schmitz and i
want to welcome you to the bible in a
year podcast with me today is mr none
other than
the illustrious the
um inimitable
the incomparable
the infamous
mr jeff cavins hey good to be with you
josh i'm so grateful um for actually
we're gonna as we kick off like this
this this podcast this bible in here
podcast um one of the things that i think
think
needs to be said before anything else is
that um this bible linear podcast is following
following
uh basically a um
um
template that you designed that you came
upon when it came to the great adventure
bible timeline which has probably i
don't want to just start this whole
thing off by by going over the top but
for me i've said this many times i've
told this to anyone who asks or anyone
who will listen uh that that great
adventure bible timeline was the most significant
significant
um most significant tool that i've ever
encountered that ever um i've ever used
that has gotten me more uh
there's nothing has been better to get
me more deeply into the bible than the
great adventure bible timeline
and i'm just really grateful not only
for you and for that but also that here
you are now as we begin this catholic
bible or the bible in the year podcast um
um
that we get to use this thing that has
changed my life maybe more than any
other study i've ever done in my entire
life so thank you that's that's uh i
appreciate that very much and uh you and
i have known each other for quite a
while and it's it's a lot of fun getting
together because we talk about the word
of god constantly and we're always
sharing insights and and
and
myself included you mentioned uh you
know the tool as far as your own life
mine too people come up so often and
they say wow that really changed my life
you know the bible timeline i said well
not as much as mine
you know i had no idea
and we can talk about that a little bit
later but i had no idea that when i was
25 years old that a 48-hour period was
going to define the rest of my life and
i was going to live in it and that but
you know it speaks of the story really
not us but the story of salvation
history and that's that's what you're
going to be bringing people through so
it's going to be exciting yeah i'm i'm i'm
i'm
overwhelmingly excited about it for not
only for like anyone who's going to be
listening to this and going to be
journeying with us but um for even the
people that i know that are in my life
so i have um a sister and a
brother-in-law i have a couple sisters
and brothers in law but um one in
particular who got the great adventure
bible um maybe i guess maybe three or
four months ago now and uh maybe a
little longer than that i think it was april
april
who knows time just all
happens but uh she not only got the
great adventure bible but she also was
like hey what's a good bible study i'm
like okay the greatest bible timeline
you need to do it so she and her husband
started it and i was over at their house
a couple days ago and i picked up her
great adventure bible and i saw that
that ribbon was still
somewhere in the book of genesis and i'm
like oh i'm so grateful because
the the podcast is going to help people
who are trying to get through who just
like you know you kind of bottom out
sometimes you just kind of get
the log jam becomes so much that uh it's
like oh how do i break through to the
next book and keep on moving because
that's one of the things that i found
when it came to reading the bible and
when it came to doing the great
adventure bible timeline is that
sometimes it was like oh shoot i can't
sit down right now or i'm not finding
the time or making the time to sit down
and reading through the next section
that the whole idea behind the podcast
is like okay no you just get to let the
word of god like kind of wash over you
in a different way um
and to be able to not just get through
it that's not the the point but the to
allow it to get through to you really uh
by the word of god being proclaimed so
so not only for the people who'll be
listening but also for my family members
who um you know all of us at times can
struggle to like let's keep on going
let's keep on moving through the word of
god and let it keep changing us um and
let it keep shaping our lens
well in a nutshell father um
it's probably good to share with uh
those who are joining us in a nutshell
what are you going to be doing uh over
the over the entire year and then be fun
to go kind of deep into that and look at
the you know the bible in our lives as
catholics and also in our lives
individually you know personally what
does the word of god mean to us and and
i'm curious what it what it's meant to
you and uh i know it's meant
the whole world to me yeah you know what
well the idea behind the whole thing was um
um was
was
so what i found myself doing is i found
myself listening to a lot of we've we
you and i have talked about this in you
know just in
various phone calls over the last six
months but one of the things i found
myself doing was
i was taking in all this uh input i was
listening to a lot of different voices
when it came to different podcasts and
youtube videos people who are teachers
who i think like you have something good
to say you have something wise to say
that is uh enlightening and is
informative and it's actually forming me
but what i found was that there were
times when i would listen to these some
of these people who again i'm grateful for
for
but i wasn't thinking with the mind of christ
christ
and so then what i would do is i would
listen to scripture because i love audio
books and so one of the audiobooks i
have is the bible and
i found that when i would listen to the bible
bible
i wouldn't just get more information i
would just be reminded of a story or
introduced to a new story that maybe i
had forgotten or whatever the thing is
our new element but it was that my lens
my world view was being shaped
um and i don't know if you i'm sure
you've heard the story saying ignatius
of loyola when he had broken his his leg
and he was convalescing in i think his
sister-in-law's house or something like this
this
and he used to read romance novels or
stories of like the glory of knights and
whatnot and he'd also read stories of
the saints and life of jesus and he said
that after he read those stories of
those nights he said
during while i was reading them i felt
like charged it up i wouldn't wanted to
live like that but afterwards i had like
a sugar crash it's kind of like this
disappointment he experienced versus
reading the life of christ
he was lifted up but then afterwards it
he was sustained it was like the sense
of like this was something
not just inspiring not just uh powerful
but it was something that was good and
true and beautiful that had lasting
effect and that's what i found was i
found that when i listened to scripture
that it had this lasting effect in me
that um
because it had shaped my lens of looking
at the world um it reminded me of like
just here's an example
um i was reading uh the book of judges
and you know that that sense of
the last line of
in those days there was no king in
israel and everyone did what was right
in their own eyes
in that sense of man the lawlessness
kind of a sense or people who are
striving after the lord but then
unfaithful to him and this how god
continued to work with their brokenness
was one of the things that just again it
get kept
reminding me as a touch point it kept
shaping how i was um
living through like i don't know
pandemic times and living through just
like trying to be with others in in the
midst of their
brokenness and their crises of their
lives and it just
again it wasn't just like i got a a
nugget of here's a nugget of truth or
here's a little kernel of something good
it was more like
again my lens or the way i was looking
at the world and really interpreting
what i was going through living through was
was
being shaped it was being like fashioned
and so that was a that was a really big
conviction of like i think we need to do
this from a real
solidly catholic perspective and i don't
think of a more powerful perspective
than to go through it via the great
adventure babel timeline well it's going
to be so exciting because
you know in the great adventure uh bible
timeline it's basically
taking the entire bible and uh i've got
my office is filled with bibles i've got
the great adventure bible here but it's
taking the bible that is some would
argue it's the most complex book in the
world you know it's going way back into
creation all the way to revelation
and it it's for some people it's very
difficult to read they don't know how to
read it and what what you're going to be
doing and i'm going to assist in any way
that i can
is that you're going to take people
through that entire journey from genesis
to revelation
not just reading it like it is in the
bible but you're going to read it in
chronological order so that they basically
basically
get the story and i think that that's
what's going to make this so different
and so unique is that for a year people
are going to soak themselves in god's
word and and really get a hold of the
story not just the stories which you and
i could talk about the stories day and
night but it's the story and that story
is really going to illuminate people's
lives and give them direction in their
life and correction and
it's going to give them hope and a
foundation on which they can they can
really trust trust the lord and let's
admit it
most catholics that we know of not not
i'm not talking about people who would
follow you on social media or people who
have gone through the great adventure
but catholics in general in the country
um they don't have that real personal
relationship with the word of god and i
think you're going to be bringing that
to them well i think that you nailed it
when he said that one of the things the
great adventure timeline does and i
think this podcast is is shooting for is
to get the story not just the stories
and and i i love that because um so we
were talking before we started recording
about like our original our first bibles
um and i went to get my first bible and i
i
saw next to it my actual kind of first
bible with my first bible is this one um
it's the picture bible which is
like a comic book bible it's uh it's
awesome it is this like every page is
here's the underlying jacket
jacket
so i have underlined highlighted notes
but if this was this was i mean i got
this for my first holy communion so when
i was in second grade still have it and
i lent it to my little sister when her
first holy communion and then lent to my
little brother took it back after he got
done with it and now what i do for all
of my nieces and nephews is there is a
new version of this called the action
bible that they know their parents know
that uncle father mike is going to give
them an action bible for this all this
to all the second graders when they get
it because part of it is um like you said
said
it can be so daunting for us um as as
anyone as christians as specifically as
catholics like i don't because i don't
want to get it wrong i think one of the
things that as catholics we have is um
going for us and kind of going against
us is we don't want to get it wrong we
don't want to read it and misinterpret
it we don't want to read it and
misunderstand it and so uh it's kind of
like there's a hesitation and so what
i've always wanted to do with my niece's
nephews is get them started um by having
something that's accessible and then the
really cool thing is um my oldest nephew
i think he was the first one that i ever
gave the action bible to um
he went to one of our camps and at one
for in junior high so sixth grade and in
uh at camp we said you know all campers
what we want you to do is want you to get
get
um your bible your actual bible and read
10 15 minutes a day
and max is his name max just he started
doing it he i mean he would have it in
the car when his parents were driving
him to this and that and he'd just read
the bible um i remember being so struck
by a couple things one was years later
he's a senior this year so a couple
years ago one of his cousins one of my nieces
nieces
second grade
got the action bible and then her
parents got her um like a pack of trivia
cards based off the action bible just
kind of like and and it was
things like this the first question was
um who am i and it had a list of
uh identifiers and the first identifier
of this person guess who i am was uh son
of cush
and max here he is as a probably at that
point maybe 15 or 14 year old maybe 15
year old he was like oh king saul
i'm like what
oh my gosh how did you know that he's
camp to read it 10 to 15 minutes a day
so of course i do and i was just like
man oh man and even just last weekend i
was talking with him and
and
the way that even just starting at sixth
grade and now he's in 12th grade those
six years of regular not perfect but
regular exposing himself to scripture he
just knew so much we just it came out in
a normal conversation of just oh this
such and such about scripture and that's
the thing is like
that's the goal right that's one of the
things we we want is um for all
catholics not just those who've gone
through the great adventure and not just
those who um you know as you said social
media or here on our campus um but all
catholics to be able to say this is
accessible to me and i know it like it
gets in my bones
right so my question for you i'm gonna
throw this back to you is um
when did you
first let the word of god like when did
it first like
impact you and get in your bones
oh i know because i know exactly when it was
was um
um exactly
exactly
give me a moment here
i'll tell you exactly when it got ahold
of me and i got a picture of it i got a
picture of the time i got a picture
i it was uh 19
and um
and i it was my first communion
it was 1971 may 1st 1971
i was confirmed
and i received two bibles for my confirmation
confirmation
and my uh that night when i got home
absolute i'm telling you exactly what
happened here i i took that bible and i
just like whoa
the bible
and i put it on my end table
and i looked at it and i i thought
how do i read it i want to read this i
was just drawn to it
and so i came up with this amazing plan
and that is i would open it up in
genesis and i would read one verse a night
night
and then by the time i was old say 30
i will have read all of it well that
lasted about two weeks and the bible
still sat there all of those years and
here's a picture of me and my mother and
my bible the night of my confirmation i
don't know if you can see that oh yeah
but um so i actually got a picture of it and
and
from that point on
i i was always attracted to the bible
but i didn't actually read it and i
think part of it was that nobody
expected me to you know i was really
never invited to
and for sure nobody ever taught me how
to read the bible and i personally think
that's one of the biggest problems that
we face is that we don't teach our
children how to read the bible but then
it was when i was 18 years old i was a
college student and i was attracted to
emily who had become my my wife one day
and i went over to her house
and her mother was a real strong bible
christian and i went into the into the
kitchen and there was a bible opened up
and she sat there with this 18 year old
kid long hair down to here
and bell-bottomed jeans and everything
and she sat and she started talking to
me from the bible that god loved me and
that god had a plan for my life
and i'll tell you what i mean you're 18
years old you're not attracted to just
middle-aged women teaching religion you
know but it was it was that bible it was
her relationship with the bible that it
just drew me in and i wanted to know
this bible i wanted to know the god of
the bible this is my mother-in-law's
bible the bible she had that day
wow i i first met her she passed away
last year but this is alice's well-worn bible
bible
that uh she read to me and so this is
very very important and
you know you've got different bibles i'm
sure too and i've got this is my
grandfather's bible
and that's probably my most treasured
possession because it still has in it
the um the bulletin from the week he
died right in that place
and he underlined verses he wrote things
in the column and this is near to my
heart so yeah that's where the bible
really came out came alive to me
well how is your grandfather so he was a catholic
catholic
bible reader
no he wasn't actually and i didn't know
i you know when it came to my my dad's
side of the family i really didn't know
their faith that well until after they
had passed away and then all sudden we
realized wow he was deep into scripture and
and
and you know he could have just passed
away and without the bible i wouldn't
have known much but the bible left me a
legacy you know
that's the word legacy
what's that
that word legacy it's just been it's
been like kind of uh turning around in
my heart my mind lately and what you're
describing i just thinking of that with
both with your mother-in-law and your
grandfather here
yeah yeah the the touch points to me
were my my mother-in-law my grandfather
my confirmation night and uh and then at
18 years of age when i really got
serious about serving the lord the bible
really became the focus of my life and i
couldn't even return to my college
classes literally my parents were not
real happy about that but i would sit
outside the classroom with with
with this bible that i bought
and i just read it and read it and read
it and uh and it has really become
my life and you know for me the the
bible is
it is my life uh now i don't mean that
in the sense of the sacraments or not
you know or anything like that right but
you know when you're going through tough
times in your life like like um
now with so many people who are
struggling with uh you know worldwide
pandemic election results whatever it
might be you know of health problems
just literally walking into my living
room and seeing my bible
on the counter or on the on the coffee
table it just brings hope to me knowing
there's someone who doesn't change
you know there's there's someone i can i
can build my life on that is jesus
christ and he actually wrote me
letters you know to guide me and direct
me into
to comfort me and uh correct me and and
and show me who i am and what what his
plan is for my life and so
uh i've never left the bible and i get
excited every time someone picks one up
and says i'm getting it i'm getting it i
love it
that's awesome the um you mentioned your
you had your your first i had my picture
bible but at one point um
i had i knew i was in high school and it
was probably 1991 i think was what it
was uh so 30 plus years ago
or 30 less i don't know 29 i'm not sure
i'm not good at math
um let's read the bible uh
i had to ask my parents for christmas um
for a bible of my own like an adult
bible i remember specifically saying i
have an adult bible like a big kids
bible um and is this this new american
bible that has been uh i've duct taped
that this is like the i think the fourth
of duck taped together but just like
even i look back through this and i
think like here are not just my my
markings like just my notes inside the bible
bible
that um i'll go back to when i was in
high school and reading is particularly
you mentioned like when it came to um
like having that that
that word of hope that you don't you
know is inside um yeah you don't even
have to necessarily even pick it up
sometimes just to be like nope there it
is that's god's word to me um i remember
just how many times uh going to
confession even in high school and
having the priest say okay go home and
read psalm 51.
and so just like that's this is the
bible that i got to know psalm 51 this
you know psalm of david in his
repentance and asking for forgiveness
and being forgiven lord wash me more and
more from my sin and it's just like the
bible almost falls open to that page in
so many ways because it's like even back
in high school uh these priests would
direct me to read the bible even after a
confession as that sense of like um not
just as your penance but also get back
to the lord's word let him speak
um through you words that you don't even
necessarily have in you um until and
that's the thing too is like right when
we we read the lord's word that he's
giving us words that we don't even have
sometimes um that if i could say
if i could pray a prayer of repentance
it would sound like this but um i don't
have those words and so i can
pray them
because god has given us the words it's
just so incredible
you know what some people do with their
bible which you're you're explaining it
in your bible right there you're going
back to high school and you can look in
there and you can actually see evidence of
of
where your heart has been you know yeah
and that that is that legacy that
when you
when you pass away someday let's say 100
years from now
that your nieces and nephews
are gonna want that
because that's where
uncle mike lived that's where father
mike lived and they're gonna want it you
know and i bought this bible my first
one right here i got a leather cover on
it now but in the blank pages at the
front and back here
i literally wrote down personal stuff
that was going on and
and
like for example listen to this
this is before we were engaged
emily and i agreed that god would show
us what he wanted us to do for our lives
and then i give the date when we were uh
engaged and then after that i talk about
um emma first week in july we found out
we're going to have a baby
wow this was big news for us it was just
unbelievable i wrote this in my bible
emily felt the first move of the baby
november 10th 1984 and i have on the
whole page all of the movements all the
way to when carly was born that's in my
bible i have so much like that in here
and then you know i spent so much time
in the bible just writing in
yeah you can see it's kind of messed up
these days though
and uh so i had to get my great
adventure bible and start on that uh now
as well well let's talk a little bit
about what what exactly we're gonna
we're gonna be doing i should say you
because you're gonna be on every single day
day
maybe the best thing is just as you know
speak of the structure of yeah of the
entire year which the great adventure
i'll just i'll kind of build that
structure and then you fill in what
you're going to do because i think it's
going to be exciting
if you're going to read through the
bible in chronological order you you
have to know how to do it because if you
go from genesis and then hope to go all
the way to revelation you're not going
to get it i i
trust me
nobody's going to get it if they just do
that they're gonna be like okay i'm
starting in january genesis february exodus
exodus
march uh leviticus i quit right
right
and so what we're gonna do is
is uh follow the the structure of the
bible timeline and that is we're going
to go through 12 periods in other words
the entire bible is divided up into 12
color-coded periods and that's what the
bible timeline chart is about
which people certainly can get and then
out of the 73 books of the bible were
we're picking the 14
14
narrative books that is the books that
actually take you through the entire
story so you've got genesis and you've
got exodus and and you've got uh numbers
and then you've got joshua judges first
and second samuels first and second
kings ezra nehemiah luke and axe
and uh with those are the 14 and you're
going to be reading through those
but then what about the other 59 books
books
well you're going to be and i think this
is brilliant you you're going to be
sprinkling those other 59 books
into those 14 books so they're going to
get a taste of i don't know what a
prophet sounds like you know in the
midst of kings
and i think that that's going to be a
lot of fun so that's kind of the
structure you take it from there yeah no
i and i thank you for that because it's
that was the whole uh you know it was
kind of the revolutionary part of this
there are i think a number of bible in
the year reading plans there are
probably even a number of bible in a
year podcasts that exist
but i don't know of any that a followed
the narrative books
and b
have like you said the sprinkling of
those other books and trying to have
them as much in context as possible
because i mean gosh if you think about uh
uh
like you said here are the prophets well
just to kind of dive in that's kind of
what we do at mass right we have the
lectionary and all of a sudden
in the first sunday of advent we're
here's isaiah 63 64. and then the second
sunday advent we have isaiah 40. like okay
okay
what what is the context for this and so
the idea behind this whole thing that we
wanted to do
was contextualize
the entire bible right to have that
here's part of the story here's now
here's isaiah speaking into this problem
that's going on with you know the the
kingdom of judah and that sense of like
being able to say
here's the
the call to repentance is now specific
to these people but also obviously uh
timeless in the sense that it's our call
as well so right off the bat if anyone's
downloaded the the bible in the year
reading plan
you can see that after day 11 uh we we
have you know genesis 1 through 11 or
day 5 genesis 1 through 11 um with some
psalms in there and proverbs and whatnot
and then we kick off uh here is the
story of the patriarchs or the era of
the patriarchs and you have um
genesis 12 and we start the beginning of
the book of job as well that's the kind
of like this okay this
this parallel track of not only the
unfolding of the patriarchs but also
here's the story of this man um
this man job who asks the most ancient
of questions if god is good then why do
i suffer if god is good then um
why am i going through what i'm going
through and so it's just this remarkable
i think it's really cool and also when
we get that get to exodus that's when we
begin leviticus which would be then kind
of this again simultaneously as we
unfold the law
in leviticus we also are hearing the
story of god setting his people free in
exodus and saying okay i need to give
you some structure
to your lives says as i begin to build
you up into uh
a new people um and just add me really
excited about that how that all will
fit together so uh we'll be reading
every day as i said
something from the narrative books until
we get yeah halfway into the year give
or take we're gonna uh be
really living with the profits because
there's more profits than there are
narrative books um and uh but up until
then we have like some narrative and
then we have those i don't want to say
ancillary books or supplementary because
they're all still
right verifiably the words all the word
of god exactly um
with some commentary and not a ton of
commentary uh in the sense of it's not
necessarily a study every day but it's
meant to kind of pull out some nuggets
every day of just here's something that
might be difficult to understand or here
is something that just it's worth
reflecting on or it's worth like let's
just underline and highlight um
this phrase or this idea in this
particular section that god is trying to
communicate to us and so it's meant to
be in some ways a guided tour
as well as uh
is just proclamation and that's one of
the things i love about um
the idea of the podcast is here is the
word of god proclaimed out loud
and i think in so many ways that uh i
know for myself i learn best uh through
my ears and um especially the word of
god what i found is it gets to my heart
uh more quickly when it goes through my
ears i don't know why but maybe it's
because the word god scripture says
faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the word of god you know that's why so
yeah well what what do you think what's
your hope what's your hope for all you
know we have so many friends around the
world that are on this journey with us
what do you hope they will get out of
this i mean this is a year
it's a few minutes a day but it's a year
we're we're promising some things one is
we're going to go through the whole bible
bible
we're going to go through the whole
story uh you're going to get some
commentary but what do you hope for them
personally in this journey
yeah no i i thanks a great question um
because my hope originally was this this
vision of changing one's vision like
really was that was was allowing oneself
to be like shaped fashioned by the word
of god um so
that was it i mean that was that was my first
first
that's all i can see this as as just
like we're allowing god himself to
fashion us with his word so we're
looking at the world differently but
then i was thinking more and more about
it and thinking you know there's a
certain rootedness as well that i just
would love for more and more catholics
to become
more deeply grounded
not just in not quite just in the word
of god but in god's will itself
i think a lot of times not only do we
struggle to know how to read the bible i
think a lot of us struggle with knowing
how to pray
and so not just here's a fashion my
worldview but also this is now allow me
to find myself in my my rootedness and
hearing god's word proclaimed and then
meditating on god's word like really
truly to be able to um
turn that transition this not just just
from information but to real
transformation by the power of prayer so
i'm meditating on god's word and it's
actually changing not only the way i see
the world that's the the vision stuff
but it's changing how i now
relate with the lord like i really talk
to god in a new way because his heart
has been revealed to me by what he's
done um through these narrative books
what he's done through his word what
he's done through his prophets and then
thirdly um i
i have the sense i'm becoming more and
more convicted
as we get closer and closer to this uh
kind of the
the startup kickoff date is
okay the community that i believe this
will form online i think the the online
community of people going through that
you've experienced this when it comes to
the great adventure well all of your
bible studies absolutely
i just got a picture just yesterday from
a group in china
really studying yeah that's phenomenal
and so like that sense of like they're
probably together um but there's a
certain element i think of all the
people who will be listening that
that there's a sense of like okay i'm
not doing this alone um here i am here i
am on you know day 63 um i'm going to
continue not only because i'm getting
formed and i'm getting
more deeply related to the lord
but also because i am not alone
and that i my my hope is that there's a
community that uh of people that are
praying with each other and praying for
each other as we're listening to the
word of god and journeying through the
word of god um
yeah that's that's my my third hope so
those are three things that vision that
rootedness and prayer and then uh that
there's a community of people that comes
out of this that's
willing and able to support each other
in prayer and intercession and um yeah
brotherhood and sisterhood
i do have a hope i guess myself too i
would piggyback on what you're saying there
there
you know i over the last i don't know
five years or so the lord has really
impressed on me
that i'm not just a christian not not
like that's bad or anything but i'm not
just a christian
i'm a disciple of jesus i'm committed
you know he said come follow me i'm
chosen you know you're chosen
and i'm chosen not to just study i'm
chosen to follow him to to pick up his
world view and to do to do
his word to to accomplish his kingdom
and what his will is and one thing i've
learned father and i know you have too
is that
you know jesus said do not be afraid
more than anything else combined
do not be afraid and i ask well what's
her to be afraid of if i'm going to be
following you i mean everything's taken
care of it's going to be great every day
why would i be afraid
and the answer is is because if you
follow jesus as a disciple you
you
um you are going to go and meet people
you never thought you would meet
you're going to be in situations you
never thought you would be in and you're
going to do things and say things that
you never
it's not my gift and one thing i've
learned father is that in the kingdom of
god to be a disciple doesn't have a lot
to do with giftedness it has to do with
passion and relationship
and so
for me to get in deep into scripture
is to really
get close to
jesus our lord and to find out what do
you want me to do and then to know i've
got the power to do it and so my hope is
that there will be thousands and
thousands of people who will go beyond
reading and listening and they'll do it
and and we'll see we'll see a movement
in the world of people are saying you
know what i want to enter this story i
don't want to just read about i want in
which is through the sacraments i want
in i want to be empowered
i want to start living the great
adventure in my life that's really i
guess what you know my hope is on top of
what you're saying well that's that's
incredible because because it is that
sense of here is the story but i'm
finding my story in the story and i'm
finding myself so it's not it's not in
just an ancient book well full of wisdom
um but it is speaking to me right now
and calling me to do to act in a certain
way right now right that sense of i
think again we both have experienced
that when it comes to um i know that
when i first started reading the bible a
lot of what i was looking for was
answers i was looking for answer not
just in to some of the big questions of
life i was looking for answers of like
what should i do what can i do right now
god are you calling me this way or that
way um and i wanted to play the bible
roulette you know where it's just like
flip open the book and i put my finger
down the page and it's like go be a
priest now or don't go up be a priest
marry karen you know like that this
sense of like
that i didn't find that
to ever be to be the case um what about
but in that uh
over the course of time realizing
just because i wasn't getting an answer
to that specific question
in the specific way that i wanted
every time i went back to the word of god
god
god was calling me forward not just like
here's another thing to know but here is
my voice and and gosh and that you
you've taught me so much about this but
in so many ways you know jesus says uh
i know my sheep and they know me and
they recognize my voice and they do not
recognize the voice of strangers but
they do recognize my voice and the more
and more i think that we
expose ourselves to god's word the more
and more we know like oh this is the
voice of god versus no that is the voice
of a counterfeit or that's the voice of
the destroyer or the thief the liar um
and yeah i think so many so many of us
can be really held hostage by those
false voices i think too many of us
maybe are held hostage by those those
the voice of the the thief who countless
to steal kill and destroy and uh too few
of us know how to really really truly identify
identify
uh the voice of our lord the voice of
the shepherd um
who calls us to you know obviously
repentance but calls us to freedom calls
us to life and reminds us like you yeah
like your mother-in-law had said jeff
here is what god wants to say about you
about how he sees you and his love for you
you
absolutely kind of shifting gears a
little bit you and i have talked about
for those of you joining us father mike
and i have a lot in common about things
about bibles and about
writing in our bibles and along this
journey we're going to we're going to
introduce some new ideas i think you
know pop them in i'm not going to tell
you what they all are right now but we
do have some surprises but they're bad
that's going to be big big surprises
but i i've got to ask you
uh and then i'll i'll reveal
the brand of pencils i use do you write
in your bible so
so i
i
i prefer to
underline and to bracket in my bible um
okay i will i will write in the front
and i'll write in the back so you
mentioned how you have uh um some some
dates some some key uh moments in your
life um right i have on some of the
pages intro pages i have things like uh
some things that the lord spoke to me
through his words for other people that
i just like here is here is this uh
ah these images and they're almost a
little bit too uh
too close i don't know if i could say
them out loud and so um so i do write
but i don't necessarily always write
little notes in the margin but you i
know you do
but you underline verses
means something to you or you're
teaching from them yep absolutely and i
have so many oh gosh and also i like
because of you as well highlighter um so
i have different colors of highlighter
when it comes to like here's breaking
down some ideas i mean there are so many
areas in here um every one of the
gospels is just marked with
pink and blue and yellow and
it's great that i've been using i've
been using and we'll share this as we go
along but i've been using this brand here
here
uh called karan dash it's a swiss brand
and i like it yeah i use i use colored
pencils i'll show you the colored
pencils here there you go
i use colored pencils to highlight in my
bible and i use
i use pens to write in the column and so
forth but it's it's very personal isn't
it i mean
you're underlining things that pop or
and i think that as people go through
this year with you
um they're going to be hearing it it's a
podcast but we do encourage people to
get the bible
and to to take a moment that day maybe
highlight something that really meant
something to you you can even have color
schemes which we'll talk about later but
you know green can be growths uh red can
be no stop sin you know yeah you can
come up with it's a lot of fun actually
to to do it and to share it with other
people of what you know how you're
getting into the word of god and what
that you know the word of god is just so
powerful that you could read it and i
could read it and 500 of our of our
friends that are going to be joining us
or thousands of them would read the same text
text
but they're going to hear it differently
you know god may speak to them in a
different way than he speaks to us and
that's just the beauty of and it speaks
of the depth of god's word
and i think that by the time people are
done with this year
their life's going to be different i
really do because of the power of the of
the word of god this is one of my
favorite verses
and it's i mean it's no stranger to you
obviously ii timothy 3 16
it says all scripture is inspired 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
and i think that that verse really kind
of encapsul encapsulizes what what
you're going to be doing is that
the scripture is inspired talk to
you might want to mention a little bit
about inspiration because this isn't
just another book i mean what makes this
book so different you know
yeah well no i'm glad you asked that
question before that though i do want to
emphasize what you just said which is um
so i when i'm reading i'm reading from
the great adventure bible and uh one of
the things that can happen is i can hear
it and then like oh that was really good
but if i don't have a way of capturing
it then
it can elude me the next day and i'm
like oh yeah i remember this but i so
what i need to do is even as i'm hearing
i need to go back and say okay that like
you said here's the underline here's the
highlighting um here's even that
notation because uh
it's one of those things we are
we can take in a lot of stuff but at
some point the
the sieve gets a little leaky yeah and uh
uh
and so
i need to go back and and
say that was this i need to have a like
an actual tangible record of even what i
heard which i think is just so good well
your bible becomes kind of a kind of a a spiritual
spiritual
diary in a sense you know i mean you can
go through it and and you can see where
you've been well it's almost like one of
those um
like map my run type apps
where you know you take the phone with
you and you go on a bike ride you want
to run whatever and then it says this is
where you were and it's kind of good to
be able to look back it's like i know
where i was but like no this is the
route i took
and oh on this corner that's right
that's that big hill right there and
this is there's something about it that
you have a record of where you've been
that um that then we have a greater
sense of where we're going and what god
is doing as opposed to not having any
record just our memories and and how
many times does scripture talk about
like remember remember remember what the
lord has done remember how he delivered
your ancestors from slavery remember
these things because why
because we forget god has to tell us to
remember so often because we forget so
often um
yeah so it's just that's uh
i think that having that that written
recorded record is
so so you're going to be doing this
every single day it's going to be a
podcast people know about podcasts
basically and that is that on your on
your smartphone you're going to carry
this around with you
um i think everyone's going to have a
different time to listen to it you know
some people are going to be listening on
the way to work some people on the way home
home um
um
you know different different different
uh times but i think it's also a good
thing to share with other people you
know of join me you know yeah just to
get you get your friends hey let's do it
together let's do this together and
maybe at work or um
um
or in the morning whatever we can get
together and we can we can talk about it
once a week or or whatever or if you're
at work you know or at a church the
staff could even talk about it together
like that it might be a a point of
contact well even as you noted like i
mean there are there are so many times
where i'll listen to um people who are
like coaching when it comes to parishes
and they one of the things that happens
in some of these coaching seminars or
these like great parishes like amazing
parish being one of those things they
talk about how often
staffs on parishes don't necessarily
talk about their faith they don't
actually talk about their relationship
with the lord they are just doing the
business of running a parish or serving
their parishioners
and so this could be one of those
really like what do you call like
easy access like low barrier of entry
kind of ways for like having that
discussion of saying like on the way to
work i listened to the podcast at you
know 1.5 speed and
i got through the whole thing in 10 15
minutes or whatever the thing it takes
um because there's an opportunity there
uh i've actually you know when you
mentioned that on the way to work that
was the thing i remember talking with
this man named todd and todd owns a
crossfit gym um in baxter he used to
before he moved down to florida with his
family and uh
he was saying he's like hey i joined
the gym uh with my my sister and
brother-in-law they were there and they
said hey come along with us and so i'm
talking to todd and at one point
he talked about his commute to work at
you know four in the morning to be there
before the 5 am class i said what do you
do on that drive you're like oh no no
that's the favorite part of my favorite
part of the day is my drive-in i was
like how come he's like cause i listen
to the bible
really and he's like yeah i just i just love
love
that that's that's part of my devotions
every morning as i'm driving um to
my gym and i'm listening to god's word
and it just shapes the rest of my day
and even him saying that
sparked our conversation about i mean he
knew i was a priest and everything but
but it gave like permission to be able
to talk about the deeper things because
he had been shaped that morning by god's
word and just he was living inside of
him and i think that that is yeah one of
the goals
i have to admit that uh i listen to the
bible on my
phone as well or i might listen to a
favorite podcast you know on my phone
and and so sometimes i'm like i want to
hear i want to listen to the rest of
that honey do you need anything at the store
store
i need to get back in the car
can i go back in the car and listen to
it you know another great idea would be
and people are always looking for ideas
on how to incorporate scripture into
their life
is well what if what if a family has
they have two teenagers or three
teenagers or junior high kids and maybe
this could become a point during dinner
it's not going to be that long maybe
after dinner or dinner where you could
play this and uh
discuss a little bit as well i mean it's
not going to be that long and maybe
people could use it in creative ways
that way love to hear their ideas well
it's such a yeah that's the thing is
like i think this out of this community
are going to be a lot of ideas of what
what works what doesn't work what's
worked for some people and some families
which works for some individuals and i
think that that could be a
again i just i'm looking forward to the
community that's gonna be formed out of
this interceding on behalf of each other
but also
giving each other ideas of like here's
how i mean like you mentioned you can
share podcasts so here is a poignant
reading from scripture that they struck
someone they actually have the ability
to share share to their family members
share to friends share share to social
media and say this was something that
struck me today of god's word um
that uh has changed my day it's changed
my heart yeah and you've had such a big
impact on the young adults and uh and
teens and i know you have a big impact
on adults as well you you're just that
guy you have an impact on everybody but
how many people would would like to to
say well i wish i could ask you know
father mike a question right and in 365
days i would think you're probably going
to be addressing a lot of people's
questions and you know what they're
what they're asking in life and
sometimes they don't even know until
it's brought up like oh my gosh i've
been dealing with that in my you know in
my own life and
and it's it's going to become a
wonderful tool there
real quickly i just want to share a
little bit about the great adventure
bible because this is what you're going
to be using it is it's unlike any other
bible and kudos to ascension press i
mean they did a great job of of taking
the idea of reading the bible in
chronological order and putting the
bible timeline chart actually into the book
book
and so it's different in that and if i
this is on the side you can see it's
color coded
and the the bible the great adventure
bible takes the entire bible and divides
it into into 12 periods color-coded
give you a crude look at that
that's the chart
and then the and then on the back you've got
so it takes the entire bible and puts it
into 12 color-coded periods
and then
then it shows you the 14 books those are
the books that go through the entire
bible and then the other 59 fits
somewhere in there and that's kind of
the beauty of the bible there but it
also has in it a wonderful article on
how to interpret scripture and it also
has an article on how to pray scripture
or do lectio divina
and in an introduction on how to use the
bible so if if people don't have a bible
i really encourage you to get one that
you can live in that means
write in it some people they'll probably
say this to you too father and say oh i
could never write in my bible so i say
fine put that bible on the shelf go buy
it another one that you can write in
right fine let's give yourself
permission to do that
yeah and it's usually isn't it the first
time you write it that's the toughest
isn't it well yeah because you just
you want to keep it clean um
do you bullet journal i do i do a bullet
journal but i'm starting to do something
a little different yeah
but but in that you know i started doing
that a bunch of years ago probably also
from you um and
and
you know you see people's like their
layouts or their spreads and you're like
i need to make it perfect and then you
get to the place where you have to cross
stuff out like well i need a new journal
now because i had to cross stuff out it
doesn't look perfect but when you start
doing in your
writing in your bible and you're like oh
i misspelt this word i had to cross it
out and recorrect like oh it's okay like
it's completely fine to be able to mark
up your bible and not have it look uh
pristine because i mean also that's kind
of life in many many ways well you know
what i did
go ahead go ahead i'm going to show you
an example of that you'll go for it i
was going to change the subject okay so
i i i did that i i started with this
bible the first one i bought i
underlined so carefully you know and i
had my color system and everything and i
was only going to use this one
then i started getting this oh that's
such a cool verse and i what anybody got
a pen and i started writing with
everything and then i got i wanted to
highlight and i got a wet marker not
even knowing what happens when you put
wet marker on on bible paper and so in
first corinthians 13
i did it
now this is perfection yeah that looks
amazing and the problem with it was
it also highlighted chapters
14 and 15 on the other side and i'm like no
no
i've ruined it i've used it all i've
used it all these years and it's sort of
like you know when i bought a brand new
uh subaru and everything was just
perfect and then i came out from the
store one time and someone had dinged
the side of my subaru i mean yeah no
it's wrecked now
it's wrecked i'm gonna have to get a new one
one
that's life that's life you're gonna
make mistakes when you when you
highlight in your bible that's all part
of it it's you and it's life and just
jump in and do it yeah
one last thing before uh we might have
to end and our time right now but uh you mentioned
