Hello! In January of this year, I made a commitment to begin reading the Bible daily. It’s been a wonderful experience, and every Saturday here, I will share a blog post about what I am learning.  If you would like to read more of my posts on the Bible, please check out the Bible Study category of posts. If this type of content isn’t what you are looking for, no worries, I will be back to talking about marketing and business news and topics throughout the week!

Before I dive into today’s topic, I wanted to clarify something. These posts I am writing on what I am learning from reading the Bible are my thoughts and opinions. Just because I think a certain way does NOT mean I am 100% right, in fact I’m sure my thoughts will no doubt change and grow the more I learn. Think of what I write as more of a ‘conversation starter’ or ‘here’s what I think’ versus ‘here’s the way it is’. I want these posts to be accessible to people who are curious about the Bible, and wanting to learn more. Because I am too!

Now, here’s what I want to talk about today. As I’ve been reading the Bible, one of the themes that continually comes up is the concept of God granting wisdom, or even depriving people of knowledge. For example, when the angels visited Lot in Sodom, the townsfolk came to his house and demanded to see them. The angels temporarily made the townspeople blind so they could not find the door to enter the house. In Exodus, God granted wisdom to Bezalel so that he would understand how to build the tabernacle to God’s exact specifications. In the story of the Tower of Babel, God made the people to speak in different languages so they couldn’t communicate as easily.

When Jesus taught, he often used parables. At one point, His disciplines ask Him why He speaks in parables, which leads to this fascinating exchange in Matthew 13:10-17:

¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

¹¹ He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’^[a]

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”  What a powerful verse! The entire passage above seems to suggest that if we are faithful to God and open our hearts to Him, He will reward us with wisdom and knowledge. And if we take that gift and apply it to our lives in a way that brings Him glory, we will then be given additional gifts. “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance.”

Every day before I start to read the Bible, I say a short prayer asking God to please help me understand His word, and also the message He has for ME in His word. What I’m finding is that dots are connecting as I read the Scripture in a way that suggests to me that it’s more than me simply ‘figuring stuff out’, it’s divine intervention. As if God is saying ‘you are now ready to learn this…’

It almost makes me wonder if this would apply to every area of my life? What if God is waiting to give me all the wisdom I need to reach my full potential as a person, as a Christian, as a brother, as a son? He’s simply waiting on me to show Him that I am ready to receive the gifts He wants to give me? Almost like a father who can’t wait to buy a car for his son and share in the joy of working on it together with his son. But he knows he can’t do that until the son shows him that he’s learned how to drive the car properly, and is ready to be a responsible car owner.

What if God has endless gifts that He is ready to give us, as soon as we show Him that we are ready to receive them? That’s the thought I am carrying as I read scripture, I ask for the wisdom to understand what I am reading, and also that I will know how to apply what I learn in the way that God desires.  So that I can continue to grow, and be worthy of additional gifts.

This year, I made a promise to myself to read the Bible every single day. I started in January and am continuing to read scripture daily. It’s been a wonderful experience, and each Saturday I wanted to share some of my thoughts as I have been reading the Bible. I will return back to my business and marketing posts on Monday.

In graduate school I had a marketing instructor named Dr Jobe. What I liked about Dr Jobe was that he had real world experience, and he was happy to help his students prepare for the next stage of their lives and career.

One day after class I was walking to my car and Dr Jobe was parked along the way and he chatted with me about what my plans were after grad school, etc. He was a consultant (this was back when consultants actually consulted with companies), and he said that when he met with a client for the first time, he would talk to them about expectations. He said he would ask them “Are you ok with learning that YOU may be the problem?”

Are you ok with learning that you are accountable for your own behavior? It’s so easy to find the fault in others, but when it comes to us, often we don’t want to admit we have work to do as well. We can often easily find the blame in the actions of others, but not as easily in ourselves.  We are often quick to blame others, and even quicker to offer excuses for our behavior.

One of the overarching themes of the Bible is accountability. We are all accountable for our own actions. And by design, man will sin, it is inevitable. And the Bible is clear, that the wages of sin, is death. This is why Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was necessary. His death claimed our sin. Our sins are a debt that we cannot afford and which we cannot carry into Heaven.

But in allowing Himself to be crucified, Jesus paid our debt for us.  He covered our sin. If we agree to give our life to Jesus, He will pay our debt for us, and we can then go to Heaven.

However, we still have to be accountable for our actions. Especially moreso if we are Christians who have given our lives to Jesus. The writings of Paul to the churches makes this clear: As Christians, we have to be accountable for our actions and our behavior. In fact, our behavior is held to an even higher standard because of the path we have chosen.

How we view this depends on our own perspective. We can see this as a detriment, as if we have more work to do! Or we can view it as a privilege, we have more expected of us, because we are capable of so much more because God is with us.

As I have been reading the Bible, one of the messages I keep going back to is the thought inside my head that ‘this has to lead to a change in behavior’. It’s not enough to simply be inspired by the Bible, I have to apply the teachings to my life, and let it lead to positive change. Whenever I speak at an event, I want to inspire the audience, but more importantly I want to inspire the audience to take action.  It’s one thing to have someone stop me in the hallway and tell me they loved my presentation. That’s very satisfying and humbling. But it’s quite another thing to get an email from someone who heard me talk a year ago, and they wanted to tell me about the changes they have made at their company as a result of what they learned from my presentation.

It’s the difference between being inspired, and being inspired to change. I think Christians have a responsibility to our chosen faith to be accountable for our actions. When we agree to give our lives to Christ, we have received a gift that we cannot possibly repay or deserve. But what we can do, is treasure that gift and be accountable for receiving it. By accepting the gift, we become accountable for it. We take on additional responsibilities. And we should do so willingly and happily.

When Dr. Jobe took time out of his day to talk to me after class, he was stepping into his role as a teacher, as an instructor. He was understanding that his gift came with a level of accountability, and that accountability didn’t end when his class ended. It was with him always, and as a result, he was able to continue to make an impact on his students, even after his ‘official’ work was done.

It’s the same with Christians. We have been given the greatest gift of all. And with that gift, comes amazing accountability that we must demand from ourselves, because it will be demanded of us. We shouldn’t view this as a burden, but instead as an incredible privilege that we willingly accept out of a sense of appreciation for what we have been given.

A second chance.

In early January, I committed to reading the Bible every day. Each Saturday, I will be sharing my thoughts and ideas and some of what I’ve learned from reading Scripture. If you enjoy these posts, please check back every Saturday! I will continue to discuss marketing, business and web3 during the week. Thanks for reading!

When I started reading the Bible daily, one of the thoughts in the back of my mind was “What is the scientific evidence for what is written in the Bible?” I would read and consider how a skeptic would react to the Bible, and they would likely dismiss it without some sort of scientific confirmation of the claims presented.

One of the thing that struck me early on was the number of times prophets accurately predicted the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. I knew it was mentioned in the Old Testament, but assumed it was only mentioned once or twice.  It turns out that several prophets predicted that Jesus would come, all hundreds of years before He was born!

I started reading Exodus, which is the 2nd book of the Old Testament, and it tells the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, back to the Promised Land. Part of that journey includes the crossing of the Red Sea, one of the most famous stories of the Bible.  Moses led the Israelites, likely two million of them, to the Red Sea, then Moses parted the Red Sea, so the Israelites could cross (on dry ground), then when the Israelites were safely across, the Red Sea collapsed and closed in to drown the Egyptians who were chasing them.

As I was reading this, I was suddenly moved to stop, and research to see if there is any scientific evidence for the parting of the Red Sea and the crossing by the Israelites.  It turns out, there is!

First, we have to decide what path Moses and the Israelites took to leave Egypt and cross the Red Sea.  Keeping in mind that was estimated to be a group of two million.  The only place in the region that is thought to permit a group of that size is a large beach area in Nuweiba, Egypt, at the Gulf of Aqaba. This is the location where it is believed that the Red Sea parting and crossing took place.

Here’s where it gets interesting: The modern name for the beach is Nuweiba, but its full name in ancient times was Nuwayba’ al Muzayyinah.  The translation for Nuwayba’ al Muzayyonah is “Waters of Moses Opening”!

In the late 70s, archaeologist Ron Wyatt did an expedition in this region, trying to find the Red Sea crossing point. His research also led him to believe that the point at which Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea was at the beach in Nuweiba. According to the Bible, the Egyptians chased Moses and the Israelites to the beach with thousands of soldiers, horses and chariots. So Wyatt was looking for remains of the soldiers, horses and chariots.

It turns out, he found all three at the crossing point! He found human bones as well as the bones of horses. And the biggest discovery of all, he found chariot wheels with a particular hub and spoke design that was used at the period when Moses is said to have parted the Red Sea.  Additionally, a separate expedition by another archaeologist later confirmed that there were also chariot wheels at the bottom of the crossing in Saudi Arabia, across from the beach at Nuweiba.

This website, Evidence For the Bible, has a treasure trove of information on the Red Sea parting and crossing.  Also, here’s a video from their site which goes into much greater detail of the expeditions into the sites. including some of the video that Ron Wyatt shot on the sea floor during his first expedition to the site.

Isn’t this fascinating? Please watch the video as it also contains a very interesting theory on the true location of Mount Sinai, which is the mountain where God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses.