So wh- when did you decide you needed to write this book?

[chuckles] Yeah.

Well, it's been developing over quite some time, uh, but here's what, here's what I noticed and, and to, to, to cap onto what you're talking about, uh, and that is words.

Words, we don't really understand what words mean anymore.

So what you're talking about with Luther, if we go all the way back to the time of Jesus, one of the things that the Bible doesn't tell us but history does is, is that there were a great number of people claiming to be the Messiah.

when Jesus was coming.

So in the prophecy of Daniel, they all knew the time of the Messiah was coming, and they all kinda knew about that right time.

And I think, I hope people listening to this conversation will be scared for a minute, uh, enough to think, "M- maybe I have missed it," because I think a lot of people have missed it, and it breaks my heart that we have pastors that are not talking about this and that are not being honest with their flocks.

right

we live in a world of what's in it for me.

And so I'm the kind of guy that asks the question, well, wait a minute, you know, And I encourage people in the book as well to say, for some reason, God thought that these particular stories, if you will, or these particular passages should be written down and recorded for thousands of years for millions of people to read and for me to somehow be reading it right now.

And so I'm the kind of guy that says, Why is that? Yeah, right.

So rather than just passively reading because it's my daily task that I have to do, there's got to be more to it.

And so when you start to consider the relationship that God seeks to have with us, and you start to consider this relationship, And this is how the book gets its title, The Book of Us.

It is a book about us.

Mm-hmm.

What are some of the signs maybe that someone could see in their relationship with God that where they are shifting from their time of Bible reading being more, and even their devotional reading, maybe being more of a routine, as you mentioned, and shifting away from being in a relationship.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, our education system teaches us to read like textbook.

We take a look at the Bible, and you crack the cover of it, it starts to feel like a history lesson.

And so we go into that, oh, I'm in a history book, textbook mode, right? And this is an automatic thing that we do as human beings.

And the Bible has always been one of those books that we don't think we'll ever understand.

And so what do we do? We spend a lot of time memorizing passages.

What are some of these patterns that you're seeing that are really front and center in our current lives, our current modern way of living?

Here's Tim's story.

Growing up, As a child, as I look back now, even though I had no idea who God is or was at that time and had no exposure, I clearly see that he was with me, protecting me, guiding me as I went through some really rough times in a household that didn't have God, didn't worship God, didn't know God.

At about 17 years old, I started attending a youth group at a local church.

I was encouraged to be saved, and so I walked down the aisle in what I called the typical salvation experience and met with the pastor and went through the whole thing.

And really, at that point, as I look back now, what I found more was a family in that local church.

I don't know that I necessarily found salvation because entering into it as a non-believer, I didn't know what any of those words meant, repent and be saved and all of that.

I'd heard them in church, but I just assumed that one day I would find out.

But as I progressed through life, I went from hitting

Mm-hmm.

When you look at how the Israelites behaved towards God in the earliest of days, I, I, I mean, straight out of, straight out of, uh, you know, God pulling them away from the Egyptians, they're hanging out waiting for Moses to come down the hill, and when they do they make a golden calf.

Why? Because they want something tangible to worship.

And that's, that's the struggle we have.

We have, we need to look, touch, and feel.

Having a God that we can't touch with our hands is difficult for us to actually truly commit our entire lives to, so we have this tendency to create things.

That's like making your Bible an idol.

Mm-hmm