"More Epic Than Lord of the Rings"

We love our "Epic Tales" don't we? All the time we spend watching, reading, and listening to them, and all the "bonus features" as well...Do we forget the most epic story ever given to us might be collecting dust on our coffee tables? 

In this episode we're "riffing" on the realization of the Gospel, God's plan to redeem His people, is the most epic story of all time...even more epic than The Lord of the Rings!

Transcript

welcome to the Churchosity podcast if you're looking for a place to have fun and edifying conversations about church culture then you have landed in the right spot

[Music] what's up everybody my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel still coming at you we're still here we're still here we took an unplanned Hiatus for another week once again I know I'm sorry guys we had some stuff come up and things were just a little busy so we didn't have time for you we're sorry well we did have Revelation episodes dropping yes and you do such a fantastic job of plugging those bonus sets I do I got to give you credit man thank you like seriously yeah I really love it it's so uh exciting yeah I mean I've never really deep dove into Revelation before and I was missing out well that's good to hear yeah it's really fun so be sure sure to check out those bonus steps on the Book of Revelation that we're doing Andy yes how the heck are you I'm doing good you're doing good yeah yeah yeah where are you doing good I don't know I got a lot of energy that's good yeah I've been eating better same yeah lots more fruits and vegetables fruits yep I think I might get on the scale tomorrow yeah yeah I think I think I might see uh what a couple weeks of doing this is done for me yeah I mean I feel better I've been drinking a lot of water too yeah you've been making me drink a lot of water too it's healthy if it doesn't have anything sugary or carbonation in it man it's just not meant for the human consumption I'm sorry or rather maybe those things are what's not made for human consumption exactly you just got to get used to it I will say this though that um fun fact what I haven't had red meat in like 2 weeks ooh and good for you I've had a couple servings of chicken and a couple servings of fish mhm and no pop very little Dairy that's good yeah yeah and I got to tell you my joints feel better yeah isn't that great yeah maybe we should have an episode about eating right but you know that's not really a church issue is it it's one of the things we don't talk about from the pulpit that's for sure yeah okay that whole uh gluttony conversation moving right along right exactly well we want to let all of our lovely listeners know that the month of May is gearing up to be a very exciting month for the Brady household it is yes we got stuff happening but we can't tell you what but we can't tell you what yet but that thing those things that we keep withholding from you and teasing all of you with uh we're going to soon have some information so uh I might drop a a tiny little morsel of the excitement in a couple of episodes but we'll have to wait and see have to wait and see yes that's my favorite phrase that we got to play it by ear play it by ear or that's possible or yeah well you could be right same is Last Words yeah well anyhow we're going to have some fun again on this episode are we having another riff episode yeah we're going to riff a little bit uh we're we're going to do something fun but before we dive into our conversation we really want to remind each and every one of you to please give us a rating and leave us a review because your ratings and your reviews not only help popularize church oity but they also make us a heck of a lot easier for other people to find us yeah and because I happen to know the person who runs Churchosity's website I want to make sure that we encourage all of you to check out the website Churchosity.com why I'm glad you asked because it's the home for all things Churchosity not just our episodes although you can listen to our episodes there including the bonus ones even MH we've also got blogs and we've got merch oh and a bunch of other fun things like a quick little survey that we would love all of you to take just maybe 5 minutes of your day if that if that and fill it out and here's the reason why folks yeah we want all of you to feel like church ocity is your community too and what better way to do that than to help us connect with you through things like this little survey it lets us know like maybe where you're listening from or or what types of topics or subjects or Bible books that you would like us to talk about on our show and you know what if we choose one of your suggested items to discuss you will get a shout out oo maybe not by name if you prefer but we will definitely recognize you by just simply saying this is a listener asked for episode that's right so how cool would that be that'd be so cool seriously though folks Churchosity.com give it a gander hang out for a while and enjoy Churchosity-dot-com you can tell we're Gen X oh we're so Gen X yeah this is going to be fun yeah well you know a few weeks ago yes dear uh in real time not when people are listening to this uhhuh Andy you and I were at our favorite place that we have business meetings yeah and we were discussing you know it was kind of like towards the end of our remarriage series we we were discussing like what types of stuff is the Lord kind of laying on our heart what kind of things are coming to mind that that we want to kind of go in a different direction or do differently or whatever right I thought that the uh remarriage episodes were pretty heavy a little bit so it' be kind of nice to do something light-hearted and fun so sure get into something heavy again yeah we got to balance it out right that's right that's right well one of the things that we got to talking about just like in passing was all of these like epic stories yeah epic books and movies like from our lifetime and even probably our parents' lifetime things like Star Wars yes or Titanic or Lord of the Rings mhm the Hobbit The Hobbit yes uh the Harry Potter books uh God forbid the Twilight series The Chronicles of Narnia Chronicles of Narnia uh Gone With the Wind yeah you know thing things that our culture things that in our culture uh whether whether you be gen Z Millennial Gen X Boomer whatever generation it is there are these epic Tales right that people invest so much time that will never get back Y in deep diving into all of the ins and outs and angles and befores and afters and prequels and EP epilogues and pries you know and genealogies and mythologies and you know geographies like I mean histories thinking about like you couldn't go out and buy Lord of the Rings um trivia it's a game right well we do uh have the somewhere in a box somewhere we have the Blu-ray Trivial Pursuit Of The Lord of the Rings trilogy extended edition yeah so yes spend spent an extra little Penny on that and it's kind of cool cuz if you just you know there some people just love getting into the intricacies of all of the little details of some of these epic tales in fact you and I got really into the show Lost oh gosh I know I don't know if I would classify that show as as epic but to us it was epic it was epic in that there was so much to it like there were little Mysteries and there were little things that we were trying to figure out and solve and little Clues here and there that were dropped um I just you know we were always kind of thinking about the story line and how it was going and where it was going to end up and what this meant and what that meant we talked about it all the time yeah even like when I was at work I ended up having to spend money on a Bluetooth so that I could keep my phone in my pocket and not get caught by my manager being on the phone no because we just had to keep talking about the show and all the different theories that we had yeah I had like so many ideas like it would just come to me in the middle of the day yeah like oh you know what and all these years later still there will be times you remember that time when John Lock did such and such that you realize that was a setup for blah blah blah blah blah like we still do it the point is ladies and gentlemen and we're not here to say that this is wrong no or bad but yet many of us might be guilty of leaving on the Shelf leaving on the coffee table somewhere collecting dust the most epic tale ever written M and we may be guilty of investing little or no time at all in all of those histories and genealogies and Mysteries and backstories and whatever right and that epic tail is not a tale it's a true story right and we're involved in it and that would be the coolest part and that would be the story of God's plan to redeem his people right in other words the Bible from Genesis to Revelation right it is literally the most epic story ever written it is from cover to cover a love letter written to God's people in blood that was Signed Sealed Delivered on a wooden cross yeah some 2,000 years ago and every detail every number every name even the things between the letters in in the original languages everything is there by Supernatural design yeah and it's alive and it is active and it is true and it's real like real for your life it's God breathed yes all scripture is God breathed amen yeah so you know we just got to talk in you know we kind of fell down this Rabbit Hole of some of our favorite epic Tales or epic stories or epic movies or Epic shows and then it just kind of dawned on us you realize how much time we've invested in that series of books or that particular film or that TV show or you know like like uh s superhero comics and their conversion into being on the big screen like all of those conversations do you realize how much time and effort and energy we have put into these things hours and hours and hours and yet I struggle with remembering scripture references I know well I mean you know this isn't supposed to be a guilt trip no no no no no I'm I'm not guilt tripping at all I'm just I'm just saying you know when I you know when I say we that's me included I do think about that I I mean I it I do I am convicted about it a little bit I mean like I was mentioning earlier about my obsession with the last episodes I was really into it I mean as much as I ever get into anything really this was probably one thing that I was super into and it consumed my thoughts quite often and yet the scripture says we're supposed to set our minds on things above right you know we moth and rust do not destroy yeah yeah yeah and you know cont contemplating God's word and really the most epic tale ever told I mean we love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and all that kind of stuff and there were times when we went to the uh movie theater on the on opening day and we saw people dressed up in like elf outfits and orc outfits and things like that yeah cuz they want to participate and be a part of it like we don't do that they cosplay or roleplay and all that kind stuff and I'm like you know we are a part of the greatest epic story ever cuz we are saved and we belong to the Lord and the Bible is written to to us right and that should excite us mhm we should be I mean you know ideally we I think my disconnect when it came to studying the Bible was kind of looking at it and compartmentalizing it M like the Old Testament and the New Testament two separate things you know and as a Christian on this side of uh the cross we're focused a lot on the New Testament right and how we should live our life based on what the New Testament says and yeah yeah it's good to know those Old Testament stories but how does it connect but once I started looking at scripture um as a whole and noticed you know every page of scripture every story points to Christ amen and it's kind of amazing when the Bible starts opening itself up to you like that it's just it becomes something new and exciting and you're like wait a minute this is really fascinating yeah not to again shamelessly pluged the Revelation Series in our bonus episodes but I think that that's something that you and I are both learning about the scriptures as far as Jesus and the Plan of Redemption being on every page in the Bible because in order to better understand the Book of Revelation it takes you all over the Old Testament yeah and you can see how even in the Garden of Eden the Story begins not not just the story of the creation of everything but this the the story of the beginning of God's plan to redeem his people right so yeah I mean it totally reminds me of when the girls were in Catholic school and um my daughter came home from school one day and in religion class her religion teacher said that Adam and Eve was a

myth okay and I was like oh really um okay so I marched up to the school and had a one-on-one with the principal I'm like look I'm not saying that I mean I'm sending my kid to a Catholic school because I want them to learn you know religious principles and such and I was not expecting them to come home with that kind of information and I said you know whether or not you believe in the Adam and Eve story it's a part of our Holy Bible and it's there for a reason that story is there because it paints a picture of how we need a savior amen and Jesus Christ is the last Adam mhm that's right and I said that's why that story is so important and if your religion teacher doesn't know that that's a problem if your religion teacher doesn't believe that that's a problem exactly I'm like I think I mean yeah I'm just glad they don't we we took them out of that school yeah well and and one of the other reasons one of the many other reasons why the creation story is so important is because in Genesis 3 m when judgment is pronounced on Adam and Eve and the serpent yeah oh yes when when God comes to the garden and he finds Adam and Eve they have covered their nakedness with fig leaves just as a side note if you do a bible study on fig trees and figs in the Bible you'll be pretty fascinated on the symbolism there so what's the first thing that God does he removes the works that they did to cover their shame mhm and replaces it with what coats of animal skin yes by the shedding of blood yeah by the shedding of innocent blood their sins were covered right there in Genesis chapter 3 is a picture of the cross that is the cross that is and then of course you have you know the judgments you know the the seed of the woman in the seed of the serpent that's the first Messianic title of Jesus and then We're Off to the Races I know and it's just you know it's baffling to me because you know I grew up in going to church and I grew up going to Sunday school and I have been around the Bible my entire life but it wasn't until I was really probably in my early 30s maybe my late 20s where I just developed this passion to study the scripture wow and yet in our conversation the other day Andy yeah I realized how much more time I could be spending in the scriptures yeah because you know I have I like to joke and say that I have 52 years of useless information bouncing around on my brain just in case I ever get called upon to be on the show Jeopardy right especially when it comes to like my generation's pop culture movies and music and you know Etc yeah but there are things about some of these other epic Tales you know like Lord of the Rings like I I was one of those kids that was forced to read those books oh in school okay it wasn't until I'd seen the actual movies as an adult that I wanted to go back and read the books and then I discover that there are other works by tolken and now I want to read those books and I want to understand the backstory and the origin and you know how all of these things tie together same thing with like the Harry Potter stories and the differences between the movies and the books and like deep diving into those characters and understanding what the whole story about Harry Potter actually is it's not about witchcraft it's about a neglected child that gets Redemption yeah and you know who doesn't want a story like that especially as kids right mhm so my point is is that you know these things because they suck Us in with the entertainment aspect I I often wonder if that might be the difference yeah because there are so many folks who might say that the Bible's boring they might say that the entertainment Factor isn't there there's nothing that draws me in and I would say shame on you to all of that well there are versions of the Bible you can read that are not so uh hard to understand yeah but I'm not even talking about that you I mean that that is true that is very very true the the the trouble with that though could be that you lose some of some of or most of the intended meaning and and you fall you might fall into uh some sort of a distraction where Mankind's meaning has been inserted true versus what the intent of the Holy Spirit was behind said passage that you're studying now the point the point that I'm making is that there are so many things especially if you like get into the language when you start to pick apart the Hebrew and the Greek and the Aramaic and you see these things in scripture these subtleties these things that if you just read in the English you just kind of glance over it and Skip on by but if you go back and unpack it you can see you will discover that not only are there times in the scripture where there are paradoxes and there are analogies and metaphor fors and you name it there's comedy also yeah a lot there are I mean the I firmly believe that God has a sense of humor and the Holy Spirit inspired these men and women to write the scriptures in their original languages and one of the things intended Behind These writings is humor a little bit Yeah Yeah like like I'll just give you one example okay you know the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel where the prophets of Baal are there and and they're having like this competition and you know who's God is you know my God's better than your God kind of a thing right we got Spirit yes we do we got Spirit how you okay ex and so Elijah tells the prophets of Baal you know to build this huge Altar and you know uh you know do your thing say all of your chance and do all of this and do all of that and so they do it day and night and and they you know bail doesn't come but all doesn't come now in the English Elijah starts kind of goating them he starts kind of you know poking and prodding at them with his words and in the English one of the things he says is maybe he's away or maybe he's busy and that's why he's not answering yeah but in the in the Hebrew what he's actually saying to them is maybe he's out taking a leak

oh no maybe he's out relieving himself oh

jeez now I'm sorry W that's but but as a guy in the west oh my gosh as a Christian man from the West yeah that's hilarious to me yeah so I just think that that when it comes to the scriptures man all of your bases are covered mhm and on top of all of that it is the most epic story ever written and all of those books in the Old Testament make up a portion of the story of God's Redemption for his people yeah and I just I challenge anybody to come at me with a tale a story especially a real life story more epic than that that's the truth I don't know about you Andy no definitely not I can't think anything that's the word of God is kind of hard to beat hello true yeah there is an online uh website that I want to plug there's a couple first of all the Blue Letter Bible I love that website so what's really fun about it is um you can go on there you can pick whatever version of the Bible you want to read and then you can look up the concordance and everything is just at your fingertips it's just so easy to flip back and forth between different scriptures and you know you can really learn a lot yeah it's an excellent tool it is and the other website that I absolutely love is um the Bible project yes so the Bible project is done by uh some people up in Portland Oregon and what's so cool about that is if you are a visual kind of person like I am they've done a lot of different things one of the things that I love the most is that they've Illustrated the different books of the Bible and explaining what the Bible those books are about yeah summaries like little summaries and it's Illustrated and it's just so good it's like live illustration like like they're drawing the pictures while they're explaining like the gist of what they're talking about yeah it's wonderful and I just I really love it and um yeah you should check it out it's the Bible project or actually it's just Bible project.com yeah and uh that was one of my favorite tools that I was given when I was in seminary MH that's that's how we discovered it was during one of my old testament classes it was like given to me as an extra help and oh my goodness I've used I've used that website for Sunday school and youth group and we've watched like it's it's amazing so yeah blueletterbible.org Bible project.org yeah definitely and it's fun because if you don't know where to start I'm hoping that you love the Bible but you know if you're not super excited about studying the Bible or reading the Bible I would go to the Bible project and just play around and see um check on you know what different books the Bible are about and just you know learned I mean it's such a rich resource there's so much on there now they also break up things in the Bible to like topics M um portions of scripture subject matter it it's really a great tool yeah yeah I agree fantastic and especially if you're artistic yes I mean you won't be able to take your eyes off your screen yeah seriously it's really great it's good for all ages yes I would agree mhm 100% cuz I think when uh when we first started watching those videos I think that at least the girls were still pretty young and we were showing them those videos and they just grown so much since then yeah and I think that even even our second to the youngest was like we don't even get this good of religion in our religion class so yeah good good good supports and helps for sure yeah definitely you know I I don't know there's a lot of methods and ways to study the Bible I don't have a particular method it just seems that I just need to read the Bible every day whatever that looks like and it's kind of interesting because like we say the the word of God is living and active that it just seems that every single day wherever I'm reading I'll read like a chapter or two just wherever um it'll apply to my life somehow during the day it I'll be reminded of it I'll be like oh my gosh I just read that this morning and you know it just also just sets your thoughts on the things above you know it's a good way to start your day for sure yeah yeah focusing on um the Lord and realizing you know I need to be in his word cuz I need to let those words richly dwell within me and how am I going to do that if I'm not read in it that'll preach yeah like I I do know that The Chronicles of Narnia especially lion witch in the wardrobe like CS Lewis intentionally created metaphors for the gospel MH in in his stories and a lot of people have over over the decades have tried to say the same thing with tolken and the Lord of the Rings oh and first of all it's not true the Lord of the Rings is not a metaphorical biblical work at all there are some phrases from scripture that he borrowed cuz tolken was Catholic there are some phrases from scripture that he borrowed to create lines for people to say but um I I just remember like when the Lord of the Rings movies like I'm sure it was when the Fellowship of the Ring first one that came out was out in the theaters if you went to a Christian bookstore oh yeah the Jesus junk as I like to call it that the trinkets the Trinkets and stuff that were trying to basically equate the Lord of the Rings stories books movies what have you with the Bible it was very depressing to be honest with you now that's not to say that these epic Tales like Star Wars and you know whatever they might be that's not to say that they don't contain biblical principles that you can apply to your life and certainly don't hear me say that spending time watching and reading and looking at all of the behindth scen stuff is bad or wrong I'm not saying that what what I am what I think that what we're trying to communicate here is remember your Bibles mhm we need to remember the scriptures we need to remember this the the greatest epic tale ever written that it's about our Redemption it's about our sanctification it's about our glorification MH from cover to cover and just imagine you know and I I I've been thinking about this a lot in preparation for recording this episode imagine if like one tenth of the time that I have ever invested in deep diving into you know mythology of Superman oh my if I could get one tenth of that time back which I never will and pour that into the hyos and culture of the scriptures yeah I'd be farther along in my understanding of God's word than I am now right you know and it's I mean it's not a competition don't hear me say it's a competition you know who's when we get it's not like when we get to the Pearly Gates you know we're going to be quizzed on you know how many hours a day did you study your Bible it's not a matter of quantity that's a fig Leaf yeah oh yes that'll preach it's not a matter of quantity of verses right it's a matter of quality of time that's true time is something that on this side of Eternity Runs Out mhm so try to strike a bound balance I would say because we are in this world even though we're not of this world and there are things in this world that that we're free to enjoy you know God puts the fence around the playground and says have at it kids and you know reading books and watching movies and watching tele you know like those are things that are meant to be enjoyed but like the Apostle Paul told us you know that everything is permissible but not all things are profitable and so we would want to to strive myself included for moderation that's right yeah and find you know I'm going to try to my hardest cuz I'm feeling convicted now I feel like I'm preaching to myself I'm going to try my hardest to recognize when I'm taking oneth too much time and maybe that'll grow into more as it goes but I'm going to try to recognize when I need to take one tenth of the time I'm pouring into something and crack open the scriptures and spend that time with the Lord because the reality of it is folks yeah all of those things are entertaining and they bring us joy I'm not going to lie no they really do fun all these different spin-off Star Wars shows whether they're animated or not I love them yeah but in God's economy the quality of of time spent with Jesus far surpasses the greatest Jedi night duel that you could ever read about or watch on screen I'm just saying I'm just saying it's true so I know that this has just been one brief conversation Andy yeah but I think that uh we pretty much have built our case the the greatest most epic tale of all time mhm is from Genesis to Revelation amen and that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast please don't forget to give us a rating and also don't forget to leave us a review on our next episode we'll be having a very interesting conversation about the greatest commandment over to you Andy be sure to check out our website church.com and there you can follow us on all the socials become a Churchosity patreon or you can drop us a message and give us your feedback because we'd really love to hear from you and don't forget to spread the word about Churchosity podcast by just simply telling a friend to tell a friend what we're doing here yeah let them be a part of the conversation too but always remember that the goal of our instruction Is Love from a pure heart and from a good conscience and a sincere Faith so we thank you all once again for listening and we look forward to catching all of you on the next episode of Churchosity podcast peace

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