WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:05.039 How you doing? I'm Miles McPherson and welcome to the First Mile. Just after I 00:00:05.039 --> 00:00:09.270 got out of college, I moved to San Diego to play football and the first thing I 00:00:09.270 --> 00:00:10.650 did was buy a new car. 00:00:10.650 --> 00:00:14.410 I practically lived in that thing. As soon as I got some time off, 00:00:14.430 --> 00:00:18.660 I decided to drive all the way across country from San Diego to New York to 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:20.340 show it to my family and my boys. 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:24.660 Now this was long before GPS and because I didn't know how to get there, I needed 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:28.830 directions and a map. So I went to Triple-A and they gave me this. It's called 00:00:28.830 --> 00:00:30.029 a TripTik. 00:00:30.029 --> 00:00:35.010 This is a little booklet with a map on each page outlining my trip and sure 00:00:35.010 --> 00:00:39.850 enough 2,300 miles and two and a half days later, I was a driving maniac. 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:43.380 I was in front of my house in Long Island, New York. Now that you accepted 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:47.880 Christ as your Savior, the question is do you have a map to guide you on your 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:49.140 spiritual journey? 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:53.190 What is the road map for your spiritual journey? In other words, do you have 00:00:53.190 --> 00:00:56.760 directions on how to grow spiritually from where you are today to where you 00:00:56.760 --> 00:00:57.899 want to be tomorrow? 00:00:57.899 --> 00:01:01.590 From who you are today to who God wants you to be tomorrow? 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:04.799 How are you going to know how to react and deal with everything that's going to 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:09.990 come your way and do it in a way that pleases God? Like my trip to New York, God 00:01:09.990 --> 00:01:13.110 is going to take your life on a spiritual journey that you've never 00:01:13.110 --> 00:01:17.400 taken before and the map that he has given us is the Bible. Now even though 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:21.090 many people have a Bible, they don't know how to use it or how to get from it the 00:01:21.090 --> 00:01:24.479 directions they need for everyday life. So I want to briefly tell you three 00:01:24.479 --> 00:01:28.860 things about the Bible that you need to be aware of and then I'm going to give 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:32.369 you a tool to teach you how to read it and understand it. 00:01:32.369 --> 00:01:36.780 The Bible says in the book of Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, "For the word of God 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:43.380 is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the 00:01:43.380 --> 00:01:48.150 division of the soul and spirit of joints and marrow and is a discerner of 00:01:48.150 --> 00:01:49.829 the thoughts and intents of your heart." 00:01:49.829 --> 00:01:53.040 The first thing you need to know is God's Word is living. It's alive. It will 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.270 speak to you. 00:01:54.270 --> 00:01:58.500 It will interact with you. It will challenge you. Second, God's Word is 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:02.020 powerful. God's word can change the way you think, 00:02:02.189 --> 00:02:08.000 what you desire, how you see the world, it can transform your heart and third, 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.080 God's Word can discern and proceed what's really going on in your heart in 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.640 your mind. You cannot hide anything from it's truth. 00:02:15.770 --> 00:02:19.760 So when you read the Bible, it's important to know and expect it to read 00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:20.600 you. 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:25.070 and most importantly, transform you. Now the question is how do you understand it 00:02:25.070 --> 00:02:26.150 and how do you read it? 00:02:26.150 --> 00:02:31.130 I want to give you a free book called 21 Jump Start. This book is a gift to you 00:02:31.130 --> 00:02:34.640 and it's designed to help teach you not only the basics of your relationship 00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:39.920 with God, but also how to read and begin to understand the Bible. It is a devotional 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:43.850 through the book of John which conveniently has 21 chapters. If you 00:02:43.850 --> 00:02:47.540 do anything 21 days in a row, you will form a new habit. 00:02:47.540 --> 00:02:53.690 So today's challenge is to complete one chapter per day for 21 days. Basically 00:02:53.690 --> 00:02:58.760 finish the book, by reading one chapter a day and if you do that, you'll be forming one 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:02.630 of the most important habits of your life, reading and understanding the Bible. 00:03:02.630 --> 00:03:06.470 If you accept this challenge, follow the instructions at the end of this video, 00:03:06.470 --> 00:03:07.970 so we can be praying for you. 00:03:07.970 --> 00:03:12.140 In addition to your free copy of 21 Jump Start, the resource section has more 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:16.790 messages about the Bible, how to understand it and my free devotional app 00:03:16.790 --> 00:03:20.299 called, Miles-A-Minute where you're going to get a one-minute video every single day for 00:03:20.299 --> 00:03:24.799 a year and super bowl-winning quarterback, Drew Brees' testimony. 00:03:24.799 --> 00:03:27.499 So check it out and God bless you.