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.

In January, I decided to start reading the Bible.  Every day. And it’s been an amazing experience, and I will be sharing some takeaways from my reading here every Saturday.

Growing up, most kids have a favorite superhero they are drawn to. For me, it was also Batman and Spiderman. I know, a lot of kids love Superman.  Who doesn’t want to fly and have super strength?

But for me, it was always Spidey and The Dark Knight. And for the same reason; I could relate to them.

First, you had mild-mannered Peter Parker. The nerd in school that got bullied, till one day he was exposed to a radioactive spider and developed the ability to climb walls like a spider and had super-human strength. Ok, I couldn’t relate to any of that, but he also was able to use his brain and create web-shooters and the super strong and sticky substance that would become his signature webbing.

Then look at Batman. He had NO super-powers, unless you count being obsessive complusive as a superpower. He was a ‘normal’ guy that due to the murder of his parents, became obsessed with fighting crime. So he trained relentlessly. He became a master of hand to hand combat. He developed his detective skills till he was on par with the best sleuths in the world. Yeah, he was insanely rich and could buy any toy he wanted.  But the point was, in theory….anyone could be Batman.

That made him relatable. Superman could fly around the world at the speed of light.  That was cool, but made him completely unrelatable to me. But Batman, Batman showed what was possible.  Probably? No, but possible.  And that made him appealing.

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of reframing a negative as a positive.  Or finding potential in a place that doesn’t seem likely. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to write Think Like a Rock Star, I wanted to help businesses think differently about their customers. Don’t think of them as a burden or just a number. Understand that your customers can be, the best drivers of your business. You just have to tap into and release their potential.  Which starts by understanding that this potential exists.

“So Mack, what in the blessed moon does this have to do with the Bible???”

Glad you asked.

Last week I wrote about how the Bible encourages faith from Christians as a way to destroy worry. I think that for many of us, worry and a fear of taking risks can go hand in hand. For years I would tell others “I need to know that when I do THIS, that THIS will happen. When I find that, I can devote all my energy into THIS in order to get THAT.”

I finally realized that was just a fancy way of saying “I don’t like to take risks”.

When I started reading the Bible, I believed that God would be in line with this thinking. I assumed that the Bible would teach that we shouldn’t take risks, that we should hand the problem over to God and let Him take the risks for us.

Instead, the Bible teaches the opposite. It repeatedly says that Christians should live courageously, and view doing so as a tribute to God:

Joshua 1: 9 : “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 

Additionally, I found a passage in I believe one of the letters Paul wrote to one of the churches (I am kicking myself for not marking it because now I can’t find the exact verses), but he was imploring the people of this church to be courageous. He went on to say that as Christians, we should live courageously, so that our behavior can be an example for others to follow.

In my mind, this has totally reframed risk-taking for me. Before, I viewed being risk adverse as being smart.  You can’t lose what you don’t put on the table.

But in God’s eyes, taking risks is a sign of trust. And in much the same way that worry and faith cannot exist in the same space, I guess you could say that fear and courage cannot exist in the same space either. Or at least, courage will be the master of fear.

God doesn’t want us to be fearful because fearful behavior is distrustful behavior.  He wants us to take risks, because that shows that we trust that God will give us the wisdom to choose the right path and then we need to have the faith to walk it.

 

I wanted to say thank you SO much for the positive reaction to last week’s post on Your Faith is a Thief. I received positive comments here and in private and even on social media. I’m very happy to see that. I know that posts about the Bible on a blog devoted to marketing and business isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I have been thrilled with the response the first post has gotten. Thank you so much, if you enjoy these posts where I share what I am learning from reading the Bible, please check back here every Saturday for a new one!

 

Disclaimer: This post will be about the Bible. Earlier this year, I started reading the Bible daily, and I want to start sharing some of my thoughts and takeaways here each Saturday. If this isn’t a topic you are interested in, I understand completely, and hope to see you back here on Monday when Monday’s Marketing Minute returns.  If you do enjoy this post, I will be covering similar topics every Saturday from now on.  Thanks for reading!

So, now that the fine print is out of the way: In January I made a decision to start reading the Bible every day. I had never read the Bible cover to cover, I’d read bits and pieces over the years, often during my sporadic church attendance, but there were many books that I had never even touched.

So I decided to remedy that in January. I started out by reading Genesis, then immediately went to Revelation (which was probably not a smart idea). I then went back and read Exodus, then moved to the New Testament and read it all the way through.  I’ve just restarted reading Genesis again for the 2nd time.

I had some pretty big misconceptions about what the Bible is about.  If you haven’t read the Bible before, I don’t want to do spoilers, but it’s an amazing account of the entire world. I was expecting to be all but lectured to, and shown how far from the ideal Christian I fall. I assumed the Bible was basically a collection of case studies of the most amazing Christians who lived nearly sin-free lives, and that would be the ideal that I was expected to shoot for.

I could not have been more wrong. The Bible does indeed profile many of the Kings, Prophets and leaders that shaped Christianity. It does indeed give you Christian ideals to strive for. But the Bible makes it very clear that these leaders of Christianity are also VERY human and as such, they are VERY flawed. I was honestly stunned at some of the sinful behavior that these pillars of the Christian religion engaged in.  But these people also did amazing things for their God. The overarching theme of the Bible seems to be that God will forgive those that come to Him and accept Him and ask for forgiveness for their sins.

If you have put off reading the Bible because you are afraid that you will learn how ‘bad’ or sinful you are in comparison to ‘good’ Christians, let me just say that you may have some of the same misconceptions about the Bible that I did.  If you decide to read the Bible, I think you will be as pleasantly surprised as I have been so far.

Now, let me turn to what I want to talk about today. One of the themes that the Bible keeps hitting on is the need for all Christians to have faith in God. First in the Old Testament the need to act in faith was emphasized.  Then when I started reading the New Testament, Jesus constantly taught His followers to act in faith. People would constantly come to Jesus and ask Him to heal them, to remove their afflictions. He would ask them if they had faith that He could do this, and when they said they believed, He would heal them.  In one story, a Roman soldier came to Jesus and asked Him to heal someone. Jesus told the soldier to lead Him to this person. The soldier told Jesus that it wasn’t necessary for Him to follow the soldier home, Jesus could heal the person by simply wishing it into existence. Jesus marveled at the soldier’s faith, and told him to go home, that his companion had been healed.

Now as I was reading the Bible and saw how this point of having faith was repeated over and over again, a thought occurred to me. I thought, I can see how a cynic could read this and think “Well this is pretty self-serving, isn’t it? Of course God wants us to be faithful to Him! This is just God wanting people to worship Him for His glory!”

Which, of course, is correct. But that’s not the only reason why God stresses the need for faith. In fact, I don’t think it’s even the main reason why.

As I read on in the New Testament, I came to Christ’s famous Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus talks about why we should not worry:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

I love these verses so much! And chapter 6 of Matthew closes with verse 34: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

And as I was mentally digesting these verses I began to see the connection between faith and worry.  At that moment, the following thought popped into my head: “Worry and faith cannot exist in the same space.”

And there it was! God stresses faith from us because our faith destroys worry! Think of the damage that we do to ourselves by worrying about our lives. About our job, or family, or possessions. We worry about something that MIGHT happen.  Or that might NOT happen.

How much of it is necessary? Is ANY of this worry necessary?

Worry is the fear and dread of something that MIGHT happen. Faith is the belief that something WILL happen.

God tells us to avoid worry because He wants us to put our trust in Him to provide for us, but also because He knows the damage that worry causes us. He doesn’t want that for us.

As I’ve been reading the Bible, there have been numerous ‘lightbulb’ moments for me, but this was one of the biggest and I just had to share it with you. It totally helps me reframe how I view faith and why I need to eliminate worry.  It’s why I wrote ‘Faith is a thief’ as the title of this post. Faith steals your ability to worry!

If you want to start reading the Bible, here’s a fantastic reference I have been using that I think you will enjoy. The Bible Project has created animated videos that explain every book of the Bible, Old and New Testament. Each video is around 8-10 minutes, so they are really short. I like to watch the video for a book, then read the book.  Watching the video first really helps me get a sense of what the book is about, and it makes it much easier to read.  Here’s their video for Genesis. These are so good I binge-watched the entire Old Testament in just a couple of days!  I hope you will enjoy them as well.

Thanks for reading, if you enjoy this post, I will be sharing more of my thoughts on the Bible every Saturday. Have a wonderful weekend!