FTGC-26b – Q&A – How Do You Get In The Word If You Struggle With Reading Or Can’t Read?

I’m trying to encourage you to spend seven days with God and His word, and through His word do what you see on the slide.

“Your words were found.” That means that you devote yourself to the reading of God’s word on a daily basis. “And I ate them.” That means you don’t just let your eyes pass over the words and just try and get it done in the typical American style, progress. In America the idea is, we got to finish, get through it, whether or not we get anything out of it. That’s not what the Lord wants. What the Lord wants is for us to eat His word, to meditate upon it. That’s why I encourage you to take the whole week and goes through both chapters, Matthew 1 and 2 each day. I have some ideas for you that I am going to share in just a minute. “And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing in my heart.” What happens? Stick with this study, you actually see the miracle of what God planned. He planned that when we find His word to be our daily bread, Matthew 4:4, when we do that He begins to do what you see on the slide, transform us. His word inside of us is the “joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Many people find joy in shopping, or find joy in their hobbies, or find joy in sports, or in music, or in money, or in substances, or in immorality, they just find joy somewhere. God said, you can find, look on the screen, joy and rejoicing in your heart through the word of God. How? Look at the ending of this verse. “For I’m called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Do you see? Bible study helps us to identify our connection with God.

Devotion, get in the word every day. Meditation, do everything you can to think on God’s word. I’m going to share some ideas. Writing notes down and recording them in your journal, underlining everything you can that jumps out as you’re reading the scriptures. Then, through that prayer of application each day, from what you find, the transformation as you identify with the Lord.

Here’s my idea, for a lot of you this is maybe new. I’m going to try and get my phone out of my pocket. What I’ve done personally, onto my smartphone I’ve downloaded the scriptures and I have them in iTunes. I’ve ripped the CDs and put the 72 CDs to have the whole Bible in here. That was where I began. Then, I began to get different versions of the Bible. This right here is my normal Bible. This is the New King James Bible. I started actually right here with the old King James. Then, I got a dramatize NIV, right here. Then, I supplement it over here with the ESV. Some of you are trying to take a screenshot, look in the description of today’s number 25 on YouTube. I have a link for you to all of these. I found out, I didn’t even know this, I actually bought the physical CDs and put them in the CD drive that’s no longer in my computer. I had to buy an external one and now, I found out that on Amazon you can actually download all this stuff. If you’re in whatever their club is, it’s free. Follow the link and look all this up. It’s very interesting.

What I’m saying to you is this, find a way to digest the scriptures, meditate on the scriptures. Here’s what I do. One thing I do is I read in the New King James following along with the NIV right there, Dramatize Bible. The dramatize means that they have different readers/noises. A woman is a woman’s voice, and a man is a man’s voice. If there’s a storm, you hear it. That’s what dramatized is. They’re like actors. I’m following along in my study Bible here and when I hear different words it’s like doing a word study, it’s how they translate the Bible. My main base is the Bible that I read every day, and which happens to be this one over here, the New King James.

Once I’ll read it, just read it silently, me looking at it. Then, the next time, the next day I will listen to it on the New King James over here, this Study Bible. The next day, I will read with my eyes, but listen to the ESV. Do you see how, what happens is, it’s like doing a word study. This translation in my Bible is a standard translation, but the New International emphasized some of the Hebrew words, or the old King James emphasize some of the cadence or the beautiful symmetry that’s in the English language to communicate. Each of these translations is a little different. What I’m saying to you is, whatever it takes. Listening and reading, or just reading, or just listening.

By the way, I’m doing this, especially because I did hear from one of you and she said, my 25 year old son is handicapped. He’s never read a word in his life. He has no ability to read. He listens to you and watches you all the time on YouTube. He tells me that he’s got to learn how to read, because you can only read the Bible. I’m sorry. Did you know that most people didn’t read the Bible in Bible times, they didn’t even have a copy. They only heard it being read to them. That’s why, right here, all of these choices. Amazon has all these versions that you can download right to your phone for free if you join whatever it is, their audio music club. I encourage you to get into the word. See what the slide says? “Your words were found.” Find them whether you’re reading, whether you have multiple paper Bibles, whether you have all these audio Bibles. Eat them, which means chew on them, and think about them, and let the Lord transform your life through His word. That’s my challenge to you and there are some resources.

Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, 52 Greatest Chapters In The Bible here

Looking To Study The Bible Like Dr. Barnett?

Dr. Barnett has curated an Amazon page with a large collection of resources he uses in his study of God’s Word. You can check it out here.