Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Welcome to The Bible Guys. My name is Chris.

Jeff:
And I’m Jeff. And we’re glad to be here.

Chris:
Yes. And everybody can be a Bible guy or a Bible girl. Bible gal. Bible gal. Does it have to be that way? Guy and gal? Could it be guy and girl?

Jeff:
Sure it can, Chris. Whatever you want it to be. I was just offering an alternative term.

Chris:
It’s usually ladies and then a couple gentlemen. And then if it’s guy, yeah, you’re probably right. It’s probably guy and gal. Anyway, we are going to open up with a very interesting segment because we are committed to bring you the best news.

Jeff:
Only the finest news from the finest sources that you can trust.

Chris:
Yes. And so, by the way, this source is a satire source, and we consider it just as trustworthy as any other news source that is out there currently.

Jeff:
That’s right. Called the Babylon Bee. Maybe you’ve heard of them before. So here’s the headline today. It’s 40-year-old man pulls hamstring while thinking about going for a run. It’s hilarious. Hendersonville, Tennessee. A local 40-year-old man was forced to put his fitness aspirations on hold indefinitely today after he pulled his hamstring while thinking about going for a run. The incident reportedly occurred as the man sat motionless on the couch and thought about how he needed to get into better shape. Though he had not engaged in any physical activity, the mere thought of going for a run resulted in a sudden and debilitating injury. You know, I should start working out. I should go for a run today. Oh! The man’s wife heard him say. She went to the living room where she reportedly found him crumpled in a heap on the floor in front of the couch. Emergency personnel were called to the scene where they determined the man to be in critical condition before rushing him to the hospital for medical intervention. He was in rough shape, the attending physician said. At his advanced age, it appears the mere thought of exercise was enough to cause a devastating tear to his hamstring. I don’t think he’ll be doing any running or anything physically active for that matter for a significant amount of time. He is 40 after all. A man at his age should not be putting himself through such exertion. At publishing time, the man had returned to the comfort of his home under the care of his wife and was back on the couch adhering to his doctor’s prescribed treatment of eating chips and watching Tombstone.

Chris:
That’s so good. Now, by the way, this is way funnier for a man who’s over 40. Yes. Because we know that that’s just around the time where- Everything starts breaking. Everybody starts experiencing the hard reality that your body isn’t going to do what you think it does.

Jeff:
That’s right.

Chris:
And it really does. I mean, everybody has that experience. By the way, can I just share this? I was in Florida, and I was down there with a good friend of mine, Kevin, and he’s a pastor down there, and he said, hey, let’s go play tackle football. And so I’m like, great. And then he throws the ball. And I said, hit me, go long. I’m known to be a fast runner. I was a safety, wide receiver. And I’m like, just hit me, I’m just gonna sprint. And he’s like, all right. So hut, I run down and I have this guy beat by at least, I’m not even kidding, 20 yards, right? He bombs it. And I bet you it’s a 30 yard bomb probably, which for us, that’s pretty good. And I catch it. And I’m thinking, oh my goodness, all I have to do is just run straight to the end zone. and nobody’s even near me. And as I’m running, my body just said, you’re going to fall down. Yeah, I know. I’ve done that too. And it says, you’re just going to fall. And I just literally just fell. For no reason. And then they come back and say, Chris, did you hit something? Did you step in a hole? I’m like, no, no, my body just collapsed. And then it happened again. where I was running again and I had the ball and I was ready to break away and my body just said, you’re going to fall. And it just fell. And I thought to myself, what is happening? And you know what it was? I turned 40.

Jeff:
I was in my mid forties when I discovered that we had a softball team I was playing on. And I used to be that guy that hit it into the right field corner and score, right? So I was always looking for extra bases. I’ve never got up to bat thinking I’m going to hit a single, ever. Never in my life. Not from the time I was five years old in t-ball until I was 45. Always going for doubles and triples and always stretching it. And I came flying around first base, I look over my shoulder, it is in the right field corner, And then suddenly I’m on the ground and I could not, it’s like my legs just quit going. So it was, you know, I had my happy feet. They were going really, really, really, really, really fast. And all of a sudden I’m not going anywhere. Bang, I’m on the ground and I just wiped out. And so then I couldn’t get back up in time. I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Right. My brain was like, this isn’t what was supposed to be happening. Right. So when I got back to first base anyways, when I got back to the dugout after that inning, one of the guys in his 50s went, is that the first time this happened to you? And I said, what? And he said, your brain was saying you’re running and your body said, no, we’re not.

Chris:
Right. That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And that’s really the only way to describe it.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My body rebelled. So anyways, that’s what that’s about right there. So only the finest information. Sometimes we bring you real news and other times the special interest things that are useful to people. We thought, Hey, we just want to caution all the guys hitting 40 this year. Be careful not to tear your hamstring thinking about working out.

Chris:
Right. Thinking about working out. That’s so funny. Well, hey, today is the third day in our new series and get this, this makes the first series or the first one and the third one, we’re only reading one verse. Yes. So this is the second time we’re only covering one verse. So Genesis chapter two, verse number seven is what we’re doing today. That’s correct. I can’t find it. Can you?

Jeff:
I have it. Oh, I see. I see.

Chris:
It’s, it’s, it’s separated by this purple thing, I think.

Jeff:
Yeah. Hey, would you be mad if I went ahead and just read a few of these verses?

Chris:
Would I be mad? Yeah. Yeah. Am I allowed to get mad at more Bible?

Jeff:
Well, I don’t know. That was kind of a trick question, wasn’t it?

Chris:
Yeah. Right. I don’t think I can get mad.

Jeff:
You know, I think I’m going to read, I know we chose 2-7 and I did that, but the more I look at it, I just think, Hey, let’s cover this whole thing. There’s so many important elements for setting up the next piece for the next couple of days. And so let me just read it. So we’re going to read Genesis chapter two, verse four. It says, this is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. So this is like a rehash of Genesis chapter one. It says, When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing in the earth. For the Lord had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there was no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. And then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Another translation says a living soul. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed a tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed through the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure. Aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. The second branch is called the Gihon. flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch called the Tigris flowed east of the land of Asher. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates. Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it, but the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I’ll make a helper who’s just right for him. So the Lord God formed from the ground, all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. And he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. The man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock and all the birds of the sky and all the wild animals, but still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep while he slept. The Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib and he brought her to the man. At last the man exclaimed, this one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will called woman because she was taken from man. And this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife. And the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Okay. It could just cover so many elements for what’s coming up next. I felt like we should read that whole chunk.

Chris:
Yeah, well, tomorrow is supposed to focus on the verses you just read, 15 through 17, just to let you know. So, and that’s fine if we cover it twice or at least mention it twice.

Jeff:
Yeah. We’ll read it twice for context then. Yeah. I made that mistake.

Chris:
Yeah, it’s okay.

Jeff:
I’ve done that before, by the way, I’ve made a mistake.

Chris:
Yeah. I remember one time in 1981.

Jeff:
It was very uncomfortable last time too. Yeah.

Chris:
Genesis 2.7 is sort of the focus, you know, sort of the central focus for this one, where we’re basically talking about… He made us a living soul. Yeah, and then the Lord formed the man out of dust from the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils and the man became a living soul. Holy cow! Right? And he created everything else afterwards and And that’s just incredible. So as we talk about, you know, man being a living soul, I was always taught that there are three parts of a man. There are three parts of every person. There’s the body, there’s the spirit, and then there’s the soul. Were you taught the same thing?

Jeff:
Yes, I was. Break those down.

Chris:
Yeah, explain those. What are the difference between those three? Obviously we know the body.

Jeff:
The body is your physical body. Your soul is that thing that is alive in you, right? That your awareness, your living essence, whatever that is. Did you know that a body after it dies weighs less than before it dies? Isn’t that weird? Wow. Yeah, yeah. And who knows, maybe that’s part of the soul part. But it’s your consciousness, your awareness, who you are. You are a soul, is what the Bible says, right? And then there’s the Spirit. The Spirit is that which is able to communicate and connect to God, right? And so, in the same way that God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he made us in his image. And we have these three elements to how we are designed and we are made. And so in this instance, you know, the New Living Translation says, and the man became a living person, that person and soul, you can’t separate your personhood from your soul, right? And then your spirit is that which is able to commune and connect with God.

Chris:
Yeah, which is really interesting. So when a person dies, what part of them goes to heaven? Spirit or soul? Yes. That’s what I thought. Yeah, that’s what I thought you were going to say. I could have predicted you were going to say yes.

Jeff:
Well, here’s why. Man, this is… This is why I wanted to read that next piece too, because in a couple of days, we’re going to talk about sin. And he says yesterday, or I just read that passage just now. He says, if you sin, you will die. If you eat of this tree, you’re going to die. Yeah. But they didn’t die physically immediately. They died a long time later.

Chris:
Yeah. The death process started, even though it took 900 years.

Jeff:
Right. But they died spiritually immediately. And then the New Testament says, You were once, talking to Christians, you were once dead in your sins, but now you’re made alive in Christ. Well, they were physically alive, but they were spiritually dead, right? Physically alive, having a soul in their body, but they were spiritually dead, and then in Christ you made alive in Christ. So only those souls that have been made alive in Christ, he reawakened their spirit, are the ones that will go to heaven. So when you ask which goes to heaven, it’s your soul and your spirit. It’s a re-spirited soul that goes to heaven.

Chris:
And by the way, while we’re at it, let’s go ahead and toss in there that some people believe, or at least I’ve heard groups of scholars say, when the Bible mentions that we will have perfect bodies in heaven, some people say that it’s the physical remains, the dust, you know, because after all our bodies stay on earth and it’s ashes to ashes, dust to dust. So all the dust will somehow physically get to heaven and be formed into a new body. Or then some people would say, no, we’re given new bodies.

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, the resurrection mentioned in the New Testament, boy, we’re in a weird spot for Genesis chapter two. I know. But the resurrection in the New Testament is a physical resurrection. So the rapture is a physical rapture. But then he says he gives them a new body after that resurrection. And so it’s interesting, the first time it refers to the body as a body of flesh and bone. The other one is flesh and blood. So the first is flesh and blood. The second one is flesh and bone, is how he describes it. So I don’t know what that means, other than the fact that we know. Anyways, there’s a whole bunch of weird elements to that.

Chris:
It is a weird tangent for Genesis chapter 2.

Jeff:
Except for the fact that we’re talking about this idea of a living being.

Chris:
So it’s totally applicable because it’s the beginning of you and me.

Jeff:
It’s who you really are. Your body is not who you really are. Your body is your vehicle. It’s the vehicle you ride around in, and then someday that body, because of sin, that body’s going to run out of gas. It’s going to rust out. It’s going to stop working. But you don’t. You will live for eternity somewhere. And every single person you know is going to spend eternity somewhere. So the vehicle that you’re riding around in, your body, is important, but it’s not the most important thing. A lot of people worship their bodies, right? and others of us could work harder at taking care of the vehicle God gave us. But you, there’s more to you than just what people can see. And I think that most people know that deep inside, but don’t feel that a lot of times.

Chris:
Yeah, a lot of times they may not understand that. And so at this point of the game, there’s no sin. Sin hasn’t happened yet. So God created a perfect paradise. And so it is, uh, there, there’s no announcement, uh, about death yet. There’s no consequence of sin. So it was, uh, it’s no experience consequence.

Jeff:
He did warn them about the consequences of sin. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Chris:
No consequence, you know, applied. And so it is believed based on if you couple all the books of the Bible together and you thread the story together, it is believed that God’s intention or his desire or his, you know, purpose was to create Adam and Eve to live in paradise without sin forever.

Jeff:
And to populate the planet and to take care of what God made in relationship with him.

Chris:
So there’s a paradise that’s a physical planet and it is designed for repopulation and it is designed to be without sin. And yet at the same time, the possibility of sin exists because there’s free will.

Jeff:
There’s choice.

Chris:
There’s choice.

Jeff:
So then, you know, people ask, Hey, where is the Garden of Eden? And that’s why I wanted to read that piece, this, this perfect thing. We know where the Tigris is and we know that where the Euphrates is, and then he’s mentioning, yeah. And he’s mentioning the, um, the land of Cush. And he mentions the, um, the around Havila where the gold is found. Right. So it seems to be this Middle Eastern, North Africa chunk. is where the garden would have been, which is consistent with what we know about where life began anyways, which is interesting. So he puts them in this massive garden and he gives them this job, maintain the space and don’t eat from that tree. Those are the two big ones. But can we go back to that, that he made us in his image, the note for verse seven. Did you read this? This is amazing. It says, from the dust of the ground implies that there is nothing fancy about the chemical elements making up our bodies. The body is a lifeless shell until God brings it to life with his breath of life. When God removes his life-giving breath, our bodies once again return to dust. Our life and worth, therefore, come from God’s Spirit. Many boast of their achievements and abilities as though they were the originators of their own strengths. Others feel worthless because their abilities do not stand out. In reality, our worth comes not from our achievements, but from the God of the universe who chooses to give us the mysterious, miraculous gift of life. value life as he does. Isn’t that fabulous?

Chris:
It’s a fabulous, fabulous note. So there’s nothing special about our bodies. It’s just dust until God breathes life into it.

Jeff:
Right. And then when that breath is taken away, we go back to dust.

Chris:
It’s a great thought.

Jeff:
So while he leaves his breath in you, you have purpose. Yeah. That’s the only reason why he’s leaving his breath in you. Right? Contrast that with people who reject a God. There is zero purpose for your life. Right. It’s just random. There’s zero value for your life. This is one of the reasons why, quite honestly, you can point out all of the things that have been done in the name of religion, the wars that have been fought, all those things. There’s some bad things. Let’s contrast those bad behaviors with the atrocities committed by atheist regimes. like Stalin and Lenin, like Mao, like Pol Pot. We can just go on down the line. You’re talking hundreds of millions of people have been murdered in the name of atheism only because there is no value for human life. They were just obliterating human life. And then we’ve killed millions upon millions of babies. We’ve done so many things as humans, and it’s because of a lack of an understanding of the intrinsic value of a life.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s incredible.

Jeff:
Yeah. Wow. So anyways, I wanted to mention that. So I was talking about the Garden of Eden and then remembered, oh, hey, I wanted to point out that verse there.

Chris:
Because we read ahead, I’m tempted to talk about marriage. Are we covering marriage and all that?

Jeff:
That is tomorrow.

Chris:
Okay, good. Okay. Okay. So we’ll get to it. So the idea that God gives us life and gives us purpose, not only do we realize that we have purpose because God gave us life and put his breath into us, but also every individual is created for sort of a different purpose. They’re gifted. with different gifts. And so one of the things that we teach in our church is we teach this cute little acronym called SHAPE, right? And so S stands for spiritual gifts, H stands for heart, A is ability, P is personality, and E is experience. And so if you figure out and you piece together your SHAPE, your spiritual gifts, what is a spiritual gift? Well, God makes people differently. And so my highest spiritual gift is faith. That’s my strongest. My wife’s highest spiritual gift is giving. Right? Giving. Can I just say that out loud? Can I complain about that? Yes, go ahead. She gives away everything. So much. So much. And so, uh, yeah. So, I mean, she’s the type of person where if we’re driving down, have you ever seen the people on the side of the road? Right. She’s like, she’s like, whatever you have. And I’m like, I have $300 in my wallet. She’s like, give it to me. I’m like, no, God better speak loud enough for me to hear him.

Jeff:
Yeah. If it’s going to be 300 bucks, we better both hear it out loud. Right.

Chris:
Now that doesn’t really happen that often, right? I remember one story I told, it was $60, I think is what is what actually the most we’ve ever given, right? And I’m like, and that was in the nineties though. $60 might as well have been $150, right? Back in the nineties. But anyway, the point is, is we’re all different. And so, you know, God gives each person a different gift. And then what’s so beautiful about it is, is that later on, we’ll fast forward and, you know, to the day we’re living in, the age of the church, Jesus creates the church, calls us to live together as believers, and then says, we’re all gifted differently. And we’re all lived, we live to fill our purpose. And so in the kingdom of God and the movement of God, when we discover how we’re wired, and when we discover that we’re wired a certain way for a reason, it helps us find our niche. You know, this is how God made me. This is what excites me. This is how I’m going to, you know, move the kingdom forward. And I think that that’s important to understand that not only did God create us with purpose, but, you know, clearly Adam had a job that his children did not. Right? So Adam was given the responsibility of the garden to take care of it and all these kinds of things. And yes, the others inherited it, but they didn’t have the same responsibilities as Adam did. So I think that all of us have a different purpose and we have to find that and lean into it.

Jeff:
Yeah. And while you’re on that journey, that can be frustrating for some people. Yeah. Oh man, you know, looking for this very precise purpose in life. And that’s a part of the excitement of living for years and years and years is discovering and unraveling what your purpose is. But don’t be frustrated by that journey. Instead, understand when they came to Jesus and said, what’s the most important thing we need to know?

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
Love God, love people. Those are your two core purposes, is love God and love people. So while you’re trying to unpack the specifics of that, just demonstrate your love for God every day, demonstrate your love for people around you every day, and you’re fulfilling a lot of God’s purpose for your life there. That’s great.

Chris:
Well, hey, that looks like it’s our time. And so we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.