I believe God is always speaking. If we pay attention. I think we'll be amazed at the ways we hear God speak. Sometimes it's through other people. Sometimes it's, uh, Through movies. Which sounds weird, but I remember years ago, Sitting in the movie theater, watching the Stephen King remake of Carrie. Which is pretty like, I don't know, it's not where you'd expect to find God's speaking, but I remember going on a Sunday night sitting in the back of the theater and towards the end, just tears rolling down my face as I S just God was speaking through that film. Just. About his grace and about his mercy. And it was powerful. Sometimes it's through other books. Uh, one of the main ways God speaks as a course through scripture. One of the things over the last several years that has sort of hit me in. In a hot way. I think it's sort of the unlearning of a Bible study. Um, so I, again, I grew up in church. And a pretty legalistic. Religious sort of background. And one of the things we did right on. On a regular basis was too. Um, To study the Bible, which. Which is interesting. I think the intention is for sure. Good it's to know the scripture to understand it. But it's often very much to, um, you know, from like a doctrinal stance to like, Understand or my nuggets of truth that we could use to almost weaponize in our favor. So less about hearing really the voice of God, the heart of God, more of like reinforcing. Our beliefs and our understanding. And I think also just perhaps the, the whole, maybe it's just the phrase, that's a little triggering to me, but like study Bible study. Right. So I can spend time with God, which is interesting because God's always spending time with you. He's here right now. Every second of the day. And again, like we said earlier, he speaks in a million ways through nature, through sounds through music, through movies, through books, through people. Through dreams. God's always speaking to for paying attention. He's always. Always trying to get our attention. I believe. But one of the things about the word study that kind of triggers me is like, imagine your spouse. Like if you just set aside time and you said, you know, this is my spouse study time. I'm just going to get in there. I'm going to go through your bio biography. I want to know the dates and the things and all the facts. And I want to check the box. It just feels very clinical, like a very. Uh, very. I don't know, a very distant approach. To to wanting to spend time. Um, and hear from, from God. So. Again, that word Bible study. I'm sort of been out on that over the last couple of years. I think if I get invited to a Bible study, I'm probably out. But that's not to say, like, I love scripture. I love the truth that it reveals. I love that Jesus has woven through it from the beginning to the end. It's all pointing to him, his rescue plan, his kingdom, his grace, the beautiful story of Jesus. I love scripture. I think what I've discovered is I don't like the way our Western minds. Our modern Western approach to scripture of like mining it. Stripping it. Categorizing it. Chunking it out digging in deep. Like I just. I don't know. I don't know. There's something about it. That just feels a little bit off to me, but what I discovered. Probably about 15 years ago now I was introduced to this practice called Lexio Divina. And that's an ancient. Ancient practice, really a monastic old practice of sort of like praying and listening and spending time with God through scripture. And. It's it's Latin. Lexio Divina is Latin for divine reading. And so it's this, it's this sort of approach to scripture where instead of trying to strip it and mine it for, for what's in there. So you can sort of have this. Um, I feel illogical or doctrinal truth. It's more about listening on a personal heart level. Right to what God is saying to you. Now, what are you saying to anybody else? That's the, really the magic of it that I love. What has God seen to you? Not what he's saying to a different group, not what are you saying to. The Republican's or what he's saying to the Democrats or whatever, fill in the blank. What is God saying to you? And this is totally different. It's almost like you're. Almost like you're praying the Bible, not studying the Bible. Um, It's sort of a smash up between reading and listening and praying, I guess it would be like if you sort of. Went to coffee with Jesus. That's sort of what you would do. You'd listen, you talk. You think. Sort of what we do with Lectio Divina. It's an ancient way to interact with scripture and it's. Goes back in my research. I think it started in the year 500 or 600. So it's, you know, thousands of years old, it's a monastic practice that the monks would use. And it's about really. The approach is really about slowing down and being present. And instead of like chunking it out. You know, I've, I've some friends I've done the Bible in a year and you do, you know, this plan where every day you read chapters and chapters and chapters of the old Testament, new Testament. And. I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all, but sometimes it's like too much is too much, you know, we've all been there too much is too much. You can't, there's a point where our brains can't even take in anymore. Um, and this is so different than that. So Lectio Divina is not about reading a chapter or even, even a paragraph. I mean, you could, but really shorter is better. It's a verse or two. Maybe three, if you have to add one in there, but it's just taking this small nugget of scripture. One or two versus. And you're just spending some time with it. You're just approaching it in silence and, and being meditative, thinking about it, letting it speak to you, listening for what God has in it. And you repeat it a few times and that's it. I mean, the whole thing takes 10 or 15 minutes. But what I've discovered it is so rich and so beautiful and so wonderful. It's this. It's just a way that I love to interact with scripture in a way I can really be present. Get myself present to hear what God's saying to me. Um, again, it's not concerned with theological or doctrinal truths. Um, it's about just listening. It's about listening to what God has for you. Uh, and I think it's beautiful and it's been powerful for me. So what I wanted to do today is just. Um, just share a little bit that I want to take us through the process of Lectio Divina. You can join in as you're listening, you can just listen, you can pause or here. Or delete. If you need to be done, if this is a not interesting to you, but I think if you've not tried this. Uh, I think it's something that you would find maybe. Very interesting and very rich, a new way to kind of hear God speak to. Um, I have a new way to kind of spend time with Jesus. That is so low pressure. That is so authentic. He knows Jesus has that scripture of like, if you're going to pray, if you're going to don't do it on the street corner, don't do it in church. Don't do it at the Bible study. Just get away in your anything. I think he says like a closet. Lock yourself up in a closet by herself. Just be there as honestly, and truly as you can, authentically, as you can in Cod will start to come and be present and you'll hear you'll. The focus will shift from you to God. And that's sorta what luck deals. We're really good at it. Like shifting the focus from you and your preconceived notions of. Whatever, and just letting a scripture at a time, just sort of penetrate and speak and soak in to it. And so what I want to do is just go through it. Well, how you do it is really easy. I'll just break it down and then we'll do it together. And, um, Yeah. And then it's something that you can take and do on your own, but really again, short is better. Keep it brief. Right. And so what we do is we take a passage, a verse or two, you can pick anything I like to pick usually. You can, you can pick anything, a scripture, really. You could open it up and, and do like the random thing where you just pick a page and point to something. But really, I like to probably stick to. Um, maybe. The gospels. So that's the books of Matthew, mark, Luke and John that's Jesus and his life and his teaching and his miracles. It's like the recording of his time. And so to me, that's super powerful. Um, but you can pick anything. And today I'm going to do, I'm going to, I'm going to choose a scripture from Romans chapter eight. But basically what you do is it's like we read a scripture. Which you were on it slowly, carefully. It's almost like incentive, like. Digesting it. Um, and moving through it, like typical Bible study, it's more of like savoring it. It's really about slowing down and just saver. Each word. It's very different approach. It's like, instead of like shoving down. Um, McDonald's or burger king, or talk about really quickly at your lunch because you're hungry and it's you just got to get food in you. It's less about that. It's more of like a really delicate, beautiful dessert, almost like a. Imagine like a tiramisu, something just has these layers of just decadence and goodness. And you just, you don't want to rush through that, man. Just let it sit in your, on your tongue for a minute. Just. Enjoy the taste of it. Savor it. And what starts to happen to scripture for me at least. I can only share my experience, but the scripture begins to speak to us in a new and fresh way, in a very personal way, which I love. So step one is this there's four steps to step one. As you get comfortable and you just sort of prepare your mind and your heart, you get somewhere comfortable. Maybe it's a hammock. Maybe you're walking, maybe it's in your car. Maybe you're laying down. Maybe it's a comfy chair. And you just quiet yourself for a minute. Literally just spent about a minute or two. In silence, just. Preparing right. Just sort of like setting the scene, setting the table. Quiet in your mind. Uh, we call this meditation, which sometimes freaks Christians out, which I don't understand, but it's like quiet in your mind. Just call them yourself, catching your breath. Take some deep breaths, be quiet and still that's step one. Pretty easy. Right. So you do that for a minute or so. Step two is you read the scripture. You can do this in a group as well. I love doing Lectio in a group. You can do it by yourself, but basically you just read the scripture for the first time. And you listen for a word or phrase. That kind of stands out to that point. That, that sort of gets your attention. Right. And then step two, as you ponder, you meditate as you read the scripture again. You just let it sort of sink in. You think about it. You let it sit in your mind. You kind of are listening for. Things that kind of rise up inside of you like emotions or memories or thoughts that might come up. You just sort of ponder and meditate, sort of just again, sitting with that scripture. And then he'd read it for a third time. And the last time what you're looking for is how do you respond? How does God want you to respond to that word or phrase to whatever is brought to your attention? How does Jesus want you to respond? So let's do that together. I think, um, I think it would be a good just to, just to try it and you can use this as a template. And again, you know, this is, again, that's a good word for it's a template you can modify as to your liking. There's no really right or wrong way to do this. Oh, the thing I like about is just the history. It's like, it's been around a long time. It's like stuff that's been around a long time. There's some staying power to it for a reason. Right? It works. One of my favorite cocktails is the old fashion. And I did a little bit of research on its side. This is a side note. But the old fashion has been around for almost 200 years and it's super simple. It's like three simple ingredients. But it's called the old fashioned. Cause it's the way they made it a long time ago. People would ask, I want the old fashioned way. But it's been around for 200 years because it's stellar. It's like, you don't always have to reinvent. Right. Some of the ancient stuff is the good stuff. So. All right. Let's bang into this. I'm going to read the scripture. Before I do. Let's just go ahead and find a spot. That is comfortable. And just start to clear our heads. I'm going to be quiet for a minute, so you're not going to hear me, but you just take a minute and sort of just collect your thoughts to catch your breath. Be still. Quiet your mind. All right, let's do that. All right. I'm going to read the scripture the first time. And as I do again, listen for her word or a phrase that stands out to you for any reason. Right. Or just guide us, lead us. Just get our attention to where it needs to be. That's what I asked. So just listen. And just the, the other thing is, as you listen for what Jesus is saying, always, always remember whatever he's going to say to you is going to be kind. That's really important piece of it. That's who he is. So the scripture I'm going to share is Romans chapter eight, verse one and two. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah. That fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ being here for us no longer. Have to live under a continuous low line black cloud. A new power is in operation. The spirit of life in Christ. Like a strong wind. Has magnificently cleared the air. Freeing you from a faded lifetime of brutal Tyrony at the hands of sin. And death. So listen for a word or phrase. Uh, stands out to you. And this is where you would just bring it up. You would just chew out on yourself. There's usually a word or a phrase that kind of catches you for me as I'm listening to this. I think it was that sentence, a new power. Uh, new powers in operation. Like a new way. God's doing something new. It's not how it used to work at something brand new. So we're going to read it again. And this time just ponder. You meditate, just think about. That phrase that stood out to you. Think about the context of the scripture as whole, just let it just sink in, be aware of any emotions or thoughts that might come on. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah. That fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ being here for us. No longer have to live under a continuous low line black cloud. And new power is in operation. The spirit of life in Christ. Like a strong wind. Has magnificently cleared the air. Free new. From a faded lifetime of brutal Tyrony. At the hands of sin and death. Again, just think about a word, a phrase. How does that sit with you? What, what thoughts come up as you think about it? To me again, another phrase that just sort of stands out as like a strong wind. I love that. Has magnificently cleared the air. Thank you, Lauren. It's good stuff. Or we're going to read it one more time. And again, these gaps I'm rushing through this a little bit, just for the sake of the podcast, but these gaps, you can sit with it for maybe three or four minutes, right? You can just chunk it out. So it takes 10, 15, 20 minutes in total. Um, at adapt to your schedule, I'm consonant. Not worried about how much time it takes is really just listening to our heart. He's he's he knows our heart. If we're in it for two minutes. Uh, authentically trying to hear his voice, man. That's beautiful to him. So don't worry about the timeframe we're going to read a one more time. This time, as you listened to the scripture. The last step is kind of thinking about now that I've heard it, I've heard the scripture. Uh, there's a phrase or a word that's kind of in my mind, in my heart. How does Jesus want us to respond to that? How does he want us to respond? Maybe it's sitting with it. Maybe it's being comforted. Maybe it's reaching out to somebody. Maybe it's forgiving somebody. Maybe it's letting go of some things. Maybe it's. I don't know, whatever it might be. That's your job to figure out, just listen, God, how do you want me to respond to this? So let's do it again. One more time. With the arrival of Jesus. The Messiah. That fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ being here for us. No longer have to live under a continuous, low lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The spirit of life in Christ. Like a strong wind. Has magnificently cleared the air. Freeing you from a faded lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin. And death. I love that. Usually at this point, I'd sit with it for a little longer. I just think meditate. Think how God's asking me to respond. That's our part, right? That's how we step in to engage scripture. And then I'll just. Just be gratitude, just be thankful, just be grateful for who God is and what he's doing in this time. We've got to spend together and it can keep it real. I think that's the biggest thing I can think as we. We don't mind or study scripture. So to speak to me, scripture is, is, is Jesus's heart, right? It's God revealed to us. It's a, it's a very powerful way for him to speak. So. The best thing we can do is authentically approach it. Let it read us as much as we read it. And that's what I find really beautiful about. Lexio Divina. Uh, I hope this has been helpful for you. I hope, hope that you try it. If there's a new to you. I hope that you just take a, take a minute, make this process already your own. Do a little more research. On it, if you want, but man, give us a try, find a scripture, a verse or two. I go through the four steps. One, just steal yourself to listen for a word or phrase three ponder meditate on that word or phrase as you read the scripture again. And then finally, the last reading of the scripture is this God. Jesus. How do you want me to respond? Thank you again. For the feedback on this podcast, has it been a really fun journey for me to share? Uh, you know, I got emails and texts and calls. I just appreciate the questions. Um, the thoughts, the feedback that I've gotten, um, and. If there's anything that is maybe interesting to you that you would like to, to ask or think about, or just maybe hear us chat about, um, I would love for you to get in touch so you can do that. Um, By just sending an email to alsoBrooks@gmail.com. A L S oh, Brooks alsoBrooks@gmail.com. Um, and then the other thing is this, if this has been interesting, if this is something that you like, this is just a favor, but from what I learned on the internet, if you give review in apple podcast, um, If you give a good review that helps us spread, helps more people find it. So if that's something that you'd be open to, it would be, it'd be a cool thing to do. And if not, of course, as always no pressure, but thank you guys so much for listening and until next time, peace.