Genesis 1 Unveiled: Rest, Identity, and the Deep Story of Creation | The FORGE I - Week 1 | S7 E1

THE FORGE starts August 11 at 6:45 AM. 

In this insightful episode, Cartwright Morris and Bo Morgan explore the profound spiritual and cultural lessons embedded in Genesis 1. They uncover how understanding the original audience, cultural context, and repeated phrases can transform your view of God's creation, His character, and your identity in Him.

• The significance of Genesis 1's poetic structure and its rhythmic repetition ("And it was good" and "Evening and morning")
• How Genesis was originally written for the Israelites emerging from Egyptian slavery, shaping their understanding of worth, identity, and creation
• The importance of viewing Genesis through an Eastern, Hebrew lens versus Western interpretations
• How God's act of creation demonstrates intentional order from chaos, reflecting His nature
• The deep connection between rest at the start of each day and our identity, worth, and performance
• Understanding the Spirit's hovering over the waters as God's power to bring order out of chaos
• The concept that human value is rooted in being created in God's image, not in what we produce or accomplish
• How Jesus' teaching confirms the Old Testament’s unified message of God's love, purpose, and pursuit of us
• Practical advice for studying Genesis, including finding mentors and engaging with Messianic Jewish scholars

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to Genesis 1’s depth and purpose
00:32 - Recognizing Genesis as ancient poetry for an ancient audience
01:02 - Origins of the biblical story: from slavery to liberation
02:23 - The importance of understanding Hebrew culture and Eastern thought

03:24 - Repeated phrases: "It is good" and "Evening and morning" 

04:43 - The significance of God's order from chaos in creation
06:02 - Rest as the foundation of identity and performance
07:14 - The story of Moses, the Israelites, and God's identity message
08:37 - Seeing ourselves in God's image, not in the works we do
10:03 - The harmony of the Old and New Testaments through Jesus’ teaching
11:12 - How Jesus interprets Scripture and the importance of studying Hebrew texts
12:52 - The power of discovering God's story through deeper study
14:43 - Practical steps: mentorship, commentaries, Messianic scholars
15:48 - Embracing mystery and appreciating the Hebrew poetic structure
17:42 - God's initiative: trusting in His story and rest in His sovereignty
19:36 - The gospel woven from Genesis 1 onward and its implications for our lives
22:42 - Living out our identity rooted in God's creation, not in performance
25:10 - The purpose of Genesis as a story of creation, rest, and trust
28:09 - The danger of working to earn God's love versus resting in His grace
30:44 - Chaos to order: God's work in our lives and the broader universe
34:20 - Jesus’ affirmation of Scripture as His foundation
36:23 - Encouragement to approach Scripture with humility and curiosity
38:25 - The ongoing journey of understanding God's deep, unified story
39:07 - Closing thoughts: preparation for studying Genesis deeper and beyond

Resources & Links:

• The Bible Project — For visual Bible summaries and deep dives into Hebrew culture
• Twelve Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson — Influences on understanding chaos and order
• Genesis in Hebrew — Original text and translations
• Commentaries on Genesis — For detailed biblical insights

Connect with Cartwright Morris: 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

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Transcript

0:00

that's what God's saying right here to his people in Genesis one. no, you're worthy not because of what you do, but because of Who made you because who I am trust me that I know what I'm doing more than you. the story you're in. Trust that everything I'm using is for your good. So the medal doesn't shape itself, right? We are the workmanship of God. So August eleventh that week, that's a Tuesday. We have I have a Tuesday morning group. I have a virtual group on Tuesday, and then I have a Thursday morning group.~ the in-person groups we meet at the Center for Executive Leadership here in Birmingham, Alabama. And yeah, we're going starting with Genesis 1. You can go to MinorForge.com backslash theforge and schedule a call with me.~ or you're able to really just grab a spot on there. I will see a notification. You can do it through my scheduling link. Don't come alone. Bring a friend, coworker, bring a guy from your office who's may look like he got it all together on LinkedIn, especially that guy, right?~ and we'll see you in the room. we are being forged by the challenge, built for purpose, but ultimately to know him. So that's you. See you August Tuesday August 11th, 645 a.m. or 7 a.m. on Thursday, August 13th. Morning. here we are. Middle Forged.~ We are really excited because it's got some new things coming. I think I may call this the next season. Maybe season seven of Middle Forged. Yeah. There's a lot of change. Thank you all for whoever stayed with us. know, mom, appreciate it. Yeah, my mom too. It's cool because, I mean, we started in, what, end of December. Yeah. Twenty twenty five. This whole really like first seven months has been figuring out and refining. as we go. think we've done it like 22, 23 episodes. OG, NBC, Thursday night. Yeah. Yeah. And really what that means is I got 23 free one-on-one sessions with you. You just don't get it yet, man. but what the new thing we're doing is is have you know One day this hit me in the face and probably too many people around me thought, well, duh, this is obvious. Is how do I continue to kind of I'm trying to think of a better word than synergize, synergize, like I'm I'm d George W. Bush, synergy synergy, s synergizing.~ that's my tr I did my trump impression my hands while I did George W. Bush. Both at the same time.~ but Yeah, how do you really make everything I'm doing kind of be in correlation where it's really is like how do I help these these y these men in their twenties and thirties? Like how my room Yeah. And so I I will lead a weekly Bible study and this fall taking a group of men through ~ on Tuesday mornings and Thursday mornings through the book of Genesis, sixteen weeks weeks. so much content, so much that we have to learn from the book of Genesis. I just took a group of guys through Galatians, and a lot of what Paul talked about was, ~ Keller kind of pointed this out, is a lot of his frustration with these people that were kind of leading the Galatians astray was you were putting using the the law of Moses to put them under the law. Where Paul saw the law of Moses, meaning the book of Genesis, Exodus, right? as the stories that led us lead us to Christ. It's so powerful about the book of Genesis. I'm really excited and we're going to talk about Genesis one today. But all right, so using this podcast will kind of create teasers, we'll help you kind of understand more of the story, but also help you bring some application and reflection. But you'll kinda you'll get the meat in the groups. If you're part of the study now, you'll get more most of the meat, but hopefully you're learning from these discussions discussions to help you in the group as know, you can refer a friend and also eventually, you know, hopefully that's what you know Jesus called us, go make disciples. hopefully I'm I'm in encouraging you men to then lead a group a group of other men to go through this stuff and it's really empowering. So ~ Lots of fun content putting that I'm really excited about.~ so I've kind of like, all right, what's the story? So we'll kind of open up the story a little bit. You ready to start? Ready get this going? Let there be light. Let there be light, baby. So heat the metal. The story. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm talking about. We're gonna do the the four kind of rhythms of going through the Minaforge content is like heat the metal. the metal, let's embrace the hammer, let's submit to the forge. and then let's sharpen that edge. Those are the four rhythms that I want. Even in one-on-one sessions, I want to get to some level of any one of those four. But today, we're going to heat the metal and hopefully get to the reflection piece or even the action stuff. So let's start with the story. So I think when you read Genesis 1, before you even start, we always observe the text. One is, who is the audience. If you're reading just one, who's the audience? Because it's a it's a different it's really strange how different it is from the rest of the book. It's it's you know, a lot of people it's poetry. And Moses wrote Genesis, right? Yep. So Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Leviticus. Okay. Leviticus, sorry, I kind of that's out of order, but those are the five. That is the Torah. So as much as we as believers talk about talk about the Bible, the Bible, right? It's all text when we say it. would say their Bible is the Torah. Yeah. They f they know the stories of Judges, Samuel, the the the prophets. Jesus talked about the law, the prophets. All those so they're they they read the sixty-six the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, but they what they hold the religion to is the Torah, the first five. the first five. So they would hold that above the other.~ do my math in my head. Thirty-four books. books. So it's interesting. They would say those 34 point to the five. Anyway, so one is who's the audience? is God speaking to Moses for him? And then two, what the repeated phrases?'Cause that's r that's probably one of the bigger ones, right?~ so Bo, right off the bat, who do you think is the ~ who's the audience? It's gotta be it's the Jewish people, right? Yeah. So is it the Jewish people in Egypt? So okay. So that's where that's we're starting. They're they have left Egypt. Okay, so they've left Egypt. Right. And these people have come out of what? At in Egypt. Slavery. Four hundred years. So we so we think of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, right? This has been four hundred years past Jo the son of Jacob, Joseph, right? Four hundred years, man. So they don't they don't know God. Wait, so four hundred years before Joseph. Joseph. Okay, so from Joseph to Moses. So you think about the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus is like another four hundred years. Okay. years. Okay. Yeah, that's crazy. That's at least what? Six, seven generations, if not more. So this would, mean, from our perspective, this is 150 years before. United States was even... Yeah, 250 years ago. Yeah. So... this is like before even Washington. United States anything. is, you know, James Town. Yeah. Think about James Town, 1620. Yeah. Right? Yeah. That is literally 200 years ago. Right. to today is when Moses shows up. So there's a lot... That's how long they were enslaved. Different mentality, different focus. priorities, what your worth is based on, et cetera. Think Well, yeah, those people, it's all they knew, right? So like how all we know is living in the US in the same way, that's all they knew. So like bringing a new concept or new idea was probably a lot of resistance, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you also think... so literally your life your life, your work is continually based off of making buildings, stacking bricks. Yeah, that's right. You think about the pyramids, I've of the pyramids. A lot were built prior to before and they're still figuring out how to those things down. We'll have another episode for that. gosh, Lord help me.~ man, we're gonna have an aliens episode? Yeah, that's coming next week. But like so so they're building building, And you also think they're building stuff a lot of the Egyptians build these big stuff in the image of the Pharaoh. Yeah. So think about that context. So that's that you gotta have that context when you're reading ~ Genesis one. over it Yeah yeah but also like you think about the sphinx and ~ right. Like Mount okay. Now with modern technology this is a whole nother view of to your point, though, I think we were just, when reading any parts of Bible, we gotta accept some of them are mystery. This is God. the end of it, he is calling us closer through the mystery. think that's 100%. Yeah, I mean, like you're right.~ just a Just to put one comment on that, I mean, when I go back and read this stuff or talk about this stuff. It's like, okay, just give yourself freedom to not really understand it fully because it's not meant to be understood maybe, you know? So yeah, give yourself some grace. to, think people g do get hung up of like why Genesis one is a poem. Why is it in like that structured form? So that's what we're getting to. Like what are the repeated phrases or rhythms of Genesis one? And why did they do that? Right. So what do we re what do we Okay, what do you remember what the re f some of the repeated phrases are in Genesis one? Mm. It is good. It is good. That's one. After he ~ each day he day and then he would say, evening and then morning and then God saw that it was good. Okay. Right? So those are repeated phrases. Why? one, why does he have repeated phrases? You know, I mean there's always there's you know, I don't want to get in today and maybe in our groups we'll get into that, but I the actual seven days versus the you know, the literal seven days versus you know, metaphorically. part where you give yourself grace. Just like, Hey, I don't know. about that? Yeah, that's right. We know the earth is old. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, mean, there's, it is wilder to just split over that, but anyway. so but we're think why would God give this message to Moses for the first thing these people read or these first people story that they hear from God is this and they hear it that way. they hear it that way That's a really interesting talk.'Cause I mean this the first content ever for the Yeah. So when you think of something that has a rhythm, yeah. What does that help you do? repeat. Repeat it memorize it memorize it. Yeah, right. We forget so we're so in our Western world Yeah, yeah It's hilarious like they they love the West they love consuming some the West but they're so Eastern yeah, it's hilarious like you know, I was helping Instruct people how to basically lead rope courses. And when you got forty people in the air, what I tell you is mandatory. On Eastern Talk, most everything's just kind of relative. Yeah. I don't have to tie it that way. have to tie it that way. like you know people are funny thing here, you have to t tie how it's a right. But that's like a little bit of the Eastern, it's more ~ relational, it's more present, time is more of a concept. Where in the West, it's like mm mm, especially in America, like we you know, yeah, like if you're five minutes, you're you're here five minutes ever say you are late. Yeah where there it's like be an hour late. And it's like, ~ I was gonna get here. Yeah. Yeah. But so but anyway, that's just to kind of give y'all a glimpse of like it's just different a perspective and it's so much deeper. Like So one is I especially want to, especially if we're in the first one, is I want you to think about is guys listening, is we read the Bible as Westerners of give me what I need, give me the information so then I can apply it. Yeah. I can get I can get something out of it. And I can then use it. Tell me what Right. You know. Give me yeah, tell me where where to jump. Give me set the board so I can jump. so I can jump. Where what Easterner is like, let's just continue to tell the story and the more we tell it, the more we discover. It's living in that discovery. It's like chewing on the meat. It's like, hey, I gotta kinda find the bones a little bit, spit out and continue to chew the meat. It's like that, it's that process of thinking. It's like they are more about discovery than information. Okay. So thinking that way. So anyway, I mean I've you know, there's I feel like I've read this read this just once thousands of times since I was a kid. And you're still not like, man, wow. So one, yeah. So let's think about that. So one is Western. We take for granted. the printing press that came around in the 1600s. And by I you know, we probably all of us, even if you grew up in a non-Christian, you probably had a Bible in your house. I think I grew up with five or six in the house. Right? I think I've got three or four in this room. Yeah so but they didn't have that. They had, you know, maybe some scrolls Ozus wrote down on. He had the tablets, whatever, that were probably tucked away somewhere. somewhere. So you had to do it, know, relationally. had to do it over the campfire. You had to do it, you know, there in the desert talking about it. Like, how do I remember this stuff? So there's a rhythm to it. It's like God wanting you to remember. Interesting. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Didn't think about? That's crazy. So much of this was passed down. Like, in a lot of it, you think about every jump to even, ~ was Moses was... gosh, I can't remember exactly when Moses I think he was like thirty five hundred BC? No, is he five hundred years before David? David was like three three thousand B C. Anyway, that may be not right. I'm I'm sorry. I'm kinda my numbers are getting thrown off today. But anyway, it wasn't really until Daniel, thousands of years later in Babylon, that he actually started writing a lot of this down where there was multiple copies. Okay. So that's another point. So to I'm I'm throwing a lot at you, I'm trying not to do this every week, but this is there's so much for the first one. time to talk about it because they weren't staring at their phones. You know what mean? Watching Netflix. And they're walking. Yeah, and they're walking. They're walking everywhere, right? That's so true. And you can't walk and listen to a podcast or listen to music. You got to talk about something. Yeah, That's interesting. So we think about, right, let's back up. You've got four of your slaves' worth and values based off of building bricks. Yeah. That's it. for that. If you can't do that, then you're dead. Yeah. Literally dead. You either you're you know you're not just dead to me, you're dead. All right. And then two, we have some repeated phrases can you know connected to that. First, so the the obvious one, well I'm not obvious one because it it took me it took me years to hear until someone explained it to me. Why was it when God said, there was evening, and there was morning? As Westerners, what what when does the day start? Six AM? Six AM when the sun comes up, when there's morning. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Think about that. So he put evening and morning. In the Jewish tradition, when does when does the Sabbath start? Sabbath start? Sun down. Sun down on Friday. Yeah, sun down on Friday. Shabbat is right. It's their day of rest is Saturday. It starts Friday evening and sundown. Yeah. That's when it starts. would that that why does that make sense? Why would that have anything to do with anything? I don't know. You start your day from stopping from rest. Evening is when you especially you think of an agricultural community a culture. Like the sun goes down, you stop working. Yeah. You start your day from that. You don't work towards that. Like we as Westerners, I grind it out and then I just done. Day's done. Right? The day ends in the evening. No, the day starts in the evening. Interesting. That's when I stop, reflect, say grace, say thank you, give for my many blessings. blessings Right. my day from rest. What does that have to do with my identity and performance? Does that anything to do with my identity and performance, Bo? No. I think it has everything to do.~ yeah. Think about that. What do we we work for our performance for our identity? What I do, my effort, my what value I have to bring, that is my identity. What I by how I perform, right? Yeah. Yeah So you have a culture? Four years grained in your brain of my value is only about what I can do building bricks. Yeah Now I have a God who's telling me start from rest of Think about that. And then we go to the next repeated phrase. And God saw that it was good. It was good. It was good. It was good. And so when we have a bad performance, what do we do? We do the opposite, mate. I was terrible. I'm awful. I'm not good. But he already said from creation, everything he made, he declared, and it is good. Does God lie? No. God is true. That's so interesting. Yeah. So it's it's it's really taking the way we do things today and flipping on it on its head. Mm-hmm. head. Yeah, I'll show which is so interesting because like you and I have talked so many times about like in your relationship with God like how you strive for and this has been my story like I instill my story you have the you have the instinct to strive and try to perform for God's love and all the way back in Genesis 1 he was teaching against that same principle Right. Is that kind of what you're saying? Yeah, that's insane And we can go into the whole, like even from a theological standpoint. I don't want to go there, but like the Trinity is mentioned twice in the in Genesis one. Just so we have God talking about in his relationships. He creates us He didn't create us out of need he created us out of want we didn't even go that direction Yeah, well sticking through over doing it's like yeah, so then he goes and then he says all that and then he Said and he makes everything he creates this massive structure beautiful thing to inhabit. And he fit, you know, he they say the first three days he built the structure, the universe, the earth, the sun, the moon. Right. And then the next three days he fills it. it with you know plants wal you know seas animals right and then he makes us and something's different about us and I'm gonna make them in my own image. Think about Pharaoh. Go back to Pharaoh and they're they're like they're used to seeing they're having to build the image of something else. Yeah someone else like this type of someone who thinks they're a deity and here's this God the universe who I can't see but he I want I made in him his image. I'm his image bearer. Not some stone, not some brick that you put, but me living. The story's completely different when you see it through their perspective on that. A hundred percent. You have to read Genesis from the Eastern Israelite coming out of slavery. Yeah. And they spent hundreds of years working and building for someone else. And God's just saying, No, you are part of me. part of me. created you from... your worth is not what you do, but who you are. And who you are is made because you are mine. You are my creation. That's your value. That's your worth. Would that's your identity.~ my gosh. Yeah. I'm a slave. Yeah. What are you talking about? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, that's great. that is crazy inviting you into relationship. That's why it was such a struggle for them 'cause they'd never really been in that type of relationship before. Yeah. That's why they kept saying, Well at least we knew what we were eating tomorrow. We knew what's going on tomorrow. Back in Egypt, maybe we should go back there. It's like God's like, I know you don't understand, but I just need you to trust me. And that's the whole message. Genesis itself. It's how do you trust the story that God has you? And this is what I'm kinda calling to. It's like if you're listening how do I trust the story that God has me in? Because me in? Because there are these people in the desert, if you know the story of the Exodus, like, you know, they wander for 40 years complaining and not trusting the story because they got the slavery mindset. Like, I got to know what's happening tomorrow. trust me. Because I have a land of flowing open hunting for you. And that's not gonna be easy either. You know. But there's something about so like Genesis one, you have to take it from that perspective. from that perspective. There's an identity piece, but it's also like ultimately it's not. It's a story of creation, but it's about rest. Learning how to rest. Rest in who God is, who I am, who he made me to be. And at of the day, going back to what we've talked about several times though in this podcast is like, do I think my effort is bigger than God's effort and what he has done is more important. more important. Cause that's what we do. That's what we do. That I have to work, grow, make a certain amount, have this title, be involved in this group to feel worthy, to feel loved, to feel. And it's like that we're basically saying what you just didn't cross this Yeah And that's what God's saying right here to this people in Genesis 1 No, you're worthy not because of what you do because Who made you? who I am in your mind. I mean the first time I heard that Yeah. Yeah. Like the I mean the gospel's woven in from the beginning. from the beginning. Yeah. I mean, how do you, you know, it's just, it's what I struggle with every day.~ a hundred percent. It's from the very beginning. And you got to think about that audience. It's yeah. you don't say it's completely in alignment with what, you know, what they're being taught back then to what. know, we go through every single thing. got to be this. You got to like you just said, you got to make this. You got to provide for your family. You have to hit your sales targets. You got to do all these things. You have to and it's like, no, just be still for a second and just know who you are. Trust me that I know what I'm doing. Yeah, that's right. Trust the story you're in. Trust that like, yeah, everything I'm using is for your good. That's this is wild, like you just like more and more you unpack that story. And there's so many things that we could dive into in Genesis one. But I just kinda wanted to start there to kind of throw everybody out there. You have to really start reframing how you read this book. this book Genesis or even the Old Testament or even the New Testament, right? One getting in the thought of the audience, but two it's like alright. What is what is the repeated phrases? What is? wanting in the story to point people to? To know, like to really, what is like the deep, interwoven message that he's really trying to get out? And I think more and more you come back to it, it's like, man, God is really pursuing us. us. He's wanting us to know something really deep and intimate about ourselves. It could change our existence and how we think and how we process and how we live right and then it started from Genesis 1. that's another one thing I love to teach from in Genesis one too, is think about is in the effort piece too that we f forget about is like so many times, I mean, I live this way. It's like, man. way, the relationship with God. Yeah. You know, I gotta be the one that really put in it's like if I'm not living up to that, then my Christian life's a failure. Or I'm not. But what do we read from the beginning in Genesis 1? In the beginning, God created. Yeah. He started the action. He's the initiator.

We could then jump all the way to John 3: 26:12

16. For God so loved the world. solo. He loves, he created, he is the subject of the sentence. We put ourselves the subject of the sentence and forget, like he's the one who's initiated this. He is the one who invited us into that intimate relationship that he shares with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Right? You didn't have to. No. He didn't do it out of need. He did it out of want. And that's like that's where you as believers, how do we wrap our heads around that? around that? And so like when we talk about, especially in our twenties, where so much has come to service about who the heck am I? You know, what's my purpose? What's my calling in life? What you know, what where what's the job where I'm gonna like actually get excited about doing it every day, but also make a lot of money and provide for my family and do all the things I want to do and not feel like such a loser when I find out a friend is going on a week vacation to ex. You know? Like That kind of stuff. Yeah. And how or he's buy they're buying a million dollar house down the road and I'm still stuck in an apartment. Yeah. Like that that stuff that you feel like, man. I ha how do I can f like all right, this is and that's where God puts up from the beginning, puts up that mirror and is like, Who do you see? Do you see me? Or do you see the slave? you see the slayer? God's just trying to grind it out and this idea is totally wrapped up solely in what he does. his in his work in his work. and who likes him, right? Yeah. Who thinks he's a cool person. Yeah. It's like, nope. That's not it. But people that the believers, the people that know follow Jesus and know this deeply are a force. a force They are a force to be recommended we've seen it throughout history These are not though not the passive not the ones who were say one thing and do another the ones that truly believe this That's really good Yeah. Any other thoughts, Bo? No, I don't think so. don't think so. I'm about to chew on that for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna need about a week in a dark room by myself. One of those Aaron Rodgers dark rooms. Seriously, man, that's so cool. Gosh. I mean, it's not. we so easily mean, we so easily like I do, like whenever I read the Bible, I immediately go to the New Testament. It's like, I relate to this more. It kind of gives me more to think on and dissect, but it's there's so much there. It just seems like you maybe have to dig a little deeper or like do a little more research. And like you said, understanding the other perspectives and understanding the time and that's unbelievable. Yeah. It's really. got another one for you. So this so if if you're like Bo right now and you just need time to chew on this and this is this is another thing that's really powerful about Genesis one. about Jens' performance. Is we read the spirit and the earth was formless and empty and the spirit hovered over the waters, right? We read that in the first couple of s verses. Formless and void. Some people say this is formless and void. Like it's like, What does that mean? It's like something but what what we see here is really powerful and I think you know, even Jordan Peterson understood this when he wrote his book, ~ twelve rules for Rules for, I can't even remember the name of the book, but he talks about this a lot. there's something God is really great at bringing order out of chaos. That's where we originally meet God, where these people meet and really try to outside of the you know the plagues in Egypt, they they have a reference, but here's some like the first words God they really connect with is the earth was formless and void. In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth and the Earth was formless and void and the spirit hovered over the water. So there's a Trinity in there too. But he's hovering over the meaning like he took something that was chaotic, unknown, formless and void in a dark room, and brought order. So think about your life, think about what's going on in you, and you feel there is chaotic. chaotic There's so much unknown there's so much things that you can't really put together and understand in place and you're frustrated God is really good at bringing Yeah. He's not afraid of that. We we live we live in the place of God is waiting for us. God is in a system of order and he's waiting for us to join the system. Yeah. And fit in that order. in that order. God lives outside the systems of man. He cr and he sees the chaos constantly and he loves bringing order if we're willing to partner with him. to. In that. So anyway. And we can get into more of that analysis too, which is fascinating. Yeah. Man, I'm Yeah. So good. Yeah. It's really Jen's one is rich. And I there's th I hadn't gotten to half of it. I mean there's even more. whole like Christian life I've just kind of written it off like that it really makes sense~ I mean there yeah, I think it has been a more modern day thing where we we dismiss the Old Testament.~ the guy of the Old Testament. It's it's in Hebrew. So just the New Testament is Aramaic translate and Greek. Greek. And a lot of Western thought comes from Greek. In Greek language, we have a better translation into, so there's a little bit of kind of thoughts and ideas, more ideology and theology. And so we can kind of track with that. you get in the Old Testament and it's Hebrew. Right. And it is very much more Eastern. It's in its ancient Hebrew. It's not even like the like modern day Hebrew has been kinda like It's been kind of like. And so it's like, man, it doesn't go left to right, it goes right to left. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like, yeah, I mean, there people who spend decades studying the Hebrew language and Hebrew text and are still figuring out. like, give yourself grace. Yeah. But too, like. really rich. There's something good. Because what we forget also, people out there that want to dismiss the old testament. the Old Testament, what book did Jesus teach? The Torah. The Old Testament, the law of the prophets. Yeah. The Torah. When, man, this jacks me out. Luke, I can't always read the record, but I think it's Luke 24. He meets the two guys on the road who are basically leaving Jerusalem, found out that Jesus resurrected, and like, ~ don't believe it. Yeah. I'm just gonna go back to my own place and figure it out. And they meet a stranger on the road. And he starts, and it says, and he starts explaining to him them the history of the Bible, the scriptures. They use the word scriptures. What are the scriptures at this point when Jesus had just been resurrected? The old testament. And he starts explaining to the laws and the prophets of how this was being foretold that he was going to be raised from the dead. Right? This is being foretold for 39 books. books. And He Jesus is teaching them through the the scriptures, the law and the prophets. He is teaching them and it gets to the point where he then they break bread and he vanishes. And they turn to one another and go, When he was explaining the scriptures, did our hearts not burn? Mm-hmm. It's like if Jesus can teach through the old testament, so can we. They like I mean I get like it's hard to teach, but like Jesus explained the entire the entire books and their heart and they said they had they felt a fire inside of them and excitement. It's like, wow. Yeah. That is the stuff. Like so we gotta we gotta read those. We gotta and I I recommend you get a mentor, getting in a mentor somebody you trust, trusting a pastor. a pastor getting commentaries Don't yeah, like I'm not saying they're saying like let's just blindly jump into it Listen to podcasts or some great podcasts on it. I would say find a messianic Jew Those who don't know what that is. That means a Jew who believes you as a savior So basically somebody who know understands Hebrew a little bit better. Yeah, maybe it was you know, so anyway.~ anyway, that's kind of my Genesis one spiel and I hope I look forward to diving into that with these group of men in the fall. of men in the fall and also just anybody who's wanting to hear more. Yeah, because this is what we'll be doing for 16 weeks this fall. The week August 10th, yeah, my group's starting on the 11th, my group's starting on 13th, 7 a.m. Yeah. Maybe I'll have more today next time. Well I probably need to get prepared anymore, Bo, different. Really, man. I'm telling you, like I have to go read it now. It just, it all builds on one another. It doesn't live isolated from one another. The New Testament is the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the New Testament. God, And it's... We put it in compartment nine, it's two different gods. there's Jesus and there's Right, right, right. Same thing. Yeah. And it was all building to him coming. Anyway. That's so good. Thank you for that. Yeah man, well I'll I'll prepare you better next time. Anyway, that was great. All right. Anything else, Bill? No. That was awesome. Yeah, y'all check out the links in the show notes. also I've updated the website, so that's that's been fun. So y'all check that out. check that out. It kind of explains more of what we're doing and use this podcast for as well as my weekly groups. the spin-off into one on one mentoring because a lot of this stuff it just has to be chewed on. Yeah. And there's just multiple ways. It's like and I think what's great here working with the center is one is ~ you know, you can meet with me. I I like I specialize in in the young professional male experience. And so like w it's more catered to that. But hey, we ~ with the center we have connections where could connections where I could You know you could get mentored by a guy in his 50s and 60s is help you work through a lot of that. Yeah.~ but then also if you want to hear some of all the stuff we've talked about, maybe Yeah. my gosh.~ about you know i issues like that, just learning how to be a guy. be a guy in your 20s and 30s and follow Jesus and with pressures and the stuff that's going on.~ you know, being married, having kids, life changes, so completely evolving. so yeah, yeah. Well and I'd say so Genesis one was really packed. And so that th this one would be more Bible, but I I really you were really expecting expecting, because this is what the Bible does. doesn't hold. lives so much. We fit our story fits in the larger story for sure. yeah I'm really hoping expecting and we'll get into Genesis some of ours more of our stories coming Yeah, for sure. They're there for sure. I definitely the more I like thinking about this I was thinking back a couple episodes Yeah, yeah, because we did we've hit on this topic a bit bit. Yeah Yeah, well, it's just this is completely new like I'm like I mean it's really cool man like I've it's almost a piece that comes with it then it's like okay yeah you can read it now like it's not gonna bite you of people do I I've done that before. I put my you know. Heck yeah, man. That's so cool. Really cool. I'm really excited about this. It's gonna be good. Alright. Thank if you're a man in your twenties or thirties looking for a men's group, Bible study, to discuss and encounter stories that God uses in the book of Genesis to forge men, August eleventh at six forty five. at the Center for Executive Leadership here in Birmingham. Because in my twenties I really wish I had someone who could walk with me, give me permission to trust who God made me to be. I started this new series in the book of Genesis, Because I've seen God use them to forge men, including myself. And it'll help us see who we really are and who we're becoming. find out more about what what I'm doing with the Forge. if you're ready for this full experience please go to minorforge.com and check out the Forge program. it's a combination, a weekly group with the podcast and monthly one-on-one meetings designed exactly for men who want to grow who they are and where they're at. So hopefully see you August eleventh.