Show Notes
In this special Christmas episode of Peaceable and Kind, Derek Vreeland celebrates the joy of the season and welcomes back the very first return guest in the podcast’s history: author, pastor, and Bible teacher Tim Wildsmith. Tim joins the podcast to talk about his brand-new book, Daily Scripture Guidebook: A 52-Week Journey Through the Bible.
Derek begins by reminding listeners that Christmas is a season—not just a single day. The twelve days of Christmas stretch all the way to Epiphany on January 6, and this is a time for feasting, joy, and gratitude. So grab your Christmas cookies and keep celebrating!
From there, Derek introduces Tim Wildsmith, well known for his popular YouTube Bible-review channel (now with over 266,000 subscribers), but also a gifted pastor, professor, musician, and thoughtful communicator. Tim currently serves as the Interim Pastor at Crievewood Baptist Church in Nashville, where he lives with his wife, Becca.
Tim first appeared back in Episode 45 to discuss his debut book Bible Translations for Everyone. Today he returns to share the heart, structure, and vision behind his new year-long guidebook for reading Scripture with depth, clarity, and joy.
Throughout the conversation, Derek and Tim explore how the Daily Scripture Guidebook helps readers move through the Bible at a sustainable pace, with weekly overviews, word studies, and space for journaling. They also talk about the emotional and spiritual challenges many people face when attempting to read the Bible consistently—and how Tim’s book (and companion podcast) aims to make daily Scripture engagement more meaningful and accessible.
Key Topics in This Episode
How a yearlong rhythm fosters consistency, formation, and daily time with Jesus
Helping readers overcome common Bible-reading struggles
Navigating both Old and New Testaments
Building a habit of reflection and journaling
Introducing the companion podcast: “Daily Scripture with Tim Wildsmith”
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Daily Scripture Guidebook: A 52-Week Journey Through the Bible by Tim Wildsmith
Bible Translations for Everyone by Tim Wildsmith
The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene Peterson
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome back. To another episode of Peaceable and Kind. I’m your host, Derek Vreeland, and Merry Christmas! We have been waiting in anticipation to celebrate the birth of Jesus and now Christmas. Christmas time is here. And I do hope that you are enjoying Christmas this year. Whether you are traveling or you’re at home, I hope that you can find ways To fully enter into the joy of Christmas. And one of the ways to enjoy Christmas is to recognize that Christmas is not just one day. But it is a 12-day celebration. The old Christmas carol is true. There are indeed 12 days of Christmas. So keep your drummers drumming and your lords leaping all the way to January 6th, which is Epiphany. I’ve told my wife who loves to decorate our house for Christmas. I said we have to keep all the Christmas decorations up until January sixth because we are celebrating Christmas not just today, not just on one day but for twelve days. So enjoy yourself. I give you permission to eat Christmas cookies every day for the next 12 days. Now, I know people on January 1st want to go back to the gym. Forget about that. Lent is coming, right? Lent is the time for fasting, but it’s Christmas tide. It’s the Christmas season. It’s time for rejoicing and celebrating and feasting. So I do hope that you enjoy the Christmas season and that you draw near to Jesus as we celebrate his birth. And speaking of celebration, we have something special on this episode to celebrate Because we have an author with us who is not new to Peaceable and Kind. Today, we have the first ever return guest with us Tim Wildsmith is back on the podcast to talk about his new book, Daily Scripture Guidebook, A 52-week journey through the Bible. Many of you know Tim from his YouTube channel, which at the time of this recording has over 266,000 subscribers. Of which I am one. I watched his uh daily um he’s going through uh the twelve days of Christmas in a in a giveaway. And just this morning before I recorded, we jumped on here to record, I was watching Tim on YouTube. But Tim is not just a YouTuber He’s not just on YouTube reviewing Bibles on the internet. He’s also a pastor, currently serving as the interim pastor at Crevewood Baptist Church in Nashville. He is an author, he is a professor, a pastor, a musician, and he and his wife Becca live in Nashville. We talked about his first book, Bible Translations for Everyone. Way back on episode 45 in April this year. And today, we get to talk about his new book, Tim. Welcome back to Peaceable and Kind
Derek Vreeland: Thank you so much, Derek. I am honored to be the first ever returned guest and what a what a great welcome. I appreciate all of that. Do you want me to start with a good Christmas story?
Narrator: I would love to hear a really good Christmas story
Derek Vreeland: You were talking about the twelve days of Christmas and the liturgical calendar, and I remembered um for the Orthodox Church, Christmas is actually January 7th every year. And almost three years ago, January seventh, twenty twenty-three, I was in Bethlehem on January seventh, Orthodox Christmas. So I got to be in Bethlehem with the entire city decorated for Christmas. I have photos of the Church of the Nativity with a huge Christmas tree outside of it and bows and lights everywhere and We did not know when we got there that day w we had been told, but we did not know that it was going to be decorated. So it was really cool. The the one day that I’ve spent in Bethlehem It was decorated kind of like my house is right now for Christmas.
Narrator: Really, really fun. That is awesome. Wow. You you’re gonna have to text or email me pictures. I’d love to see that. Yeah, I for sure I’m a Christmas fan and um I you know we start decorating our house even before Thanksgiving. You know, some people get some people, Tim, get that bah humbug spirit. about Christmas and I I I believe enough in deliverance ministry to want to cast that out of people. Like Christmas is a gift. We should enjoy it and enjoy it as long as you want. Yeah, it’s great
Derek Vreeland: That’s right. My wife’s birthday is in early November and that is the day that sh her gift to herself is that she starts listening to Christmas music. And sh this year we were going to be traveling the next week. So she said, We’re decorating the house for Christmas in early November. And I said, Yes, ma’am, you are the boss.
Narrator: All right. Well, hey, what a good husband. Tim Congratulations on the new book, Daily Scripture Guidebook. Um, I was happy to uh and very honored to endorse it. Here’s what I say. uh about your book because I haven’t I haven’t read this since I wrote it. Here’s here’s what I say. Uh the truth revealed in Scripture never changes, but sometimes we need to change how we read and reflect on Scripture. Tim Wildsmith’s guidebook is like a breath of fresh air for serious followers of Jesus who are looking for a new and engaging way to read the Bible. The suggested readings offered in this book from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms and Proverbs are a perfect mix of passages. To stay grounded in biblical history and spend time with Jesus every day, Tim is a helpful guide for those who want to live in the story the Bible is telling. And I yeah, I don’t remember writing that, but I did. Those are those are my words.
Derek Vreeland: I I love it. Not not only did you write it, but it made it into the book. You’re right there. Right when you opened the book, we got a bunch of endorsements in there. You made it in there. I I love that they used that one.
Narrator: Thank you so much. No, honored uh to do that. Let’s talk a little bit about the structure of the book because this is not a normal book. Um you wrote the Bi Bible Translations for Everyone. That’s a normal book. This isn’t a normal book, this is a guidebook. Let’s talk a little bit about the structure because you’ve written this to lead people through the Bible in a year. So talk about the structure of it and then we’ll we’ll dive in.
Derek Vreeland: Thank you. Yeah. I was literally having a conversation with my wife a couple years ago saying, I don’t know what’s next after this Bible translations book. You know, kind of you you To the point you mentioned at the beginning when you were introducing me, I am a pastor and a Bible professor. I’m not just a YouTuber. I I released a uh a funny little humorous YouTube short recently that was a clip from the Nacho Libre movie where he was lamenting that people don’t think he knows that much about the Bible. And um And I remember saying to Becca, I I really want to find something that I can invest some time writing about that taps into more than just Bible translations or Bible reviews, but more of that pastoral side of things. Sure enough, a few weeks later My editor for the first book called me, his name’s Dale, he works at Zondervin, and he says, we have this new Bible coming out called the Daily Scripture Bible. And it uses this reading plan that’s unique. It’s a little bit of Old Testament, a little bit of New Testament, a little bit of Psalms and Proverbs every day. He said, and we’re releasing the Bible later this year, but we’ve been talking about what it would look like to have like a a companion to go along with it, like a devotional or something like that. And he said, and I mentioned you in a meeting and they were like, You mean the Bible review YouTube guy? And he goes, Yeah, but he’s a pastor. He’s a professor. So he basically he he said, hey, take this, this reading plan, take this Bible. Is there something here for you? And so I started thinking and praying about that. And I thought, oh, I I could take this three hundred and sixty-five day plan divided into 52 weeks. I could write some some some devotionals and so takes take content from my Bible class. I teach a class called Understanding the Bible where I walk freshman uh college students through the entire Bible in one semester. So I can I can mix in some things from my class, like historical and literary context of what we’re reading. I can take things from my pastoral ministry about applying God’s word to your life and and create this guidebook. that’ll take this reading plan, but then help people walk through and journey through it. So you’re not just reading the Bible, you’re hopefully connecting with it, applying it to your life. I keep saying I want to help people successfully say they’ve read the entire Bible. But not just to check it off their to-do list, to actually make it a a life-changing, uh transformative experience. And so that’s kind of how it all came together. And then the way we structured it was to to divide it into fifty-two weeks. So You basically pick up the book day one each week. You’ve got your reading plan for the week, and then you’ve got the content. I wrote something every week for the Old Testament readings, the New Testament readings, and the Psalms and Proverbs readings. Just to kind of help you, like I said, understand where you’re going. So it’s designed for you to read the book at the beginning of the week, and then the rest of the week you just read God’s Word.
Narrator: Yeah, so you have the daily readings in this guide book. So each week starts with that so a person can see, okay, this week, these are the passages from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. I’m reading. And then you have your very helpful introduction. And I I found that helpful in in perusing the book because when readers are reading from the Old Testament and the New Testament and they’re going back and forth. Uh new Bible readers can get a little confused at times. Like, where am I in the biblical story? I really think you did a really good job of of giving readers a little preview. Okay, so we’re gonna be in First Kings, here’s what’s happening, but we’re also gonna be in the New Testament, here’s what’s happening over there. And there are little check boxes for people who like that in the uh in the so that you can check off each day. I’m kind of a list maker, so that resonates with me. Same. But I I I wonder though what motivated you and maybe it was it was Zondervin and and their Bible Why go with a a one-year, twelve-month approach and not something maybe a little bit longer? And I’m asking because over the years, I have just been a complete failure. at reading the Bible in a year. And as as a pastor, you know, I I teach the Bible and I just I’m living in the scriptures, but there have been times where I’ve tried January 1 Uh and I just I can hardly make it through February. And then I see all those all those boxes unchecked and I feel like a failure. So how does your One, I guess, uh, why’d you go with a year? And then secondly, um what advice or guidance does this book offer people? who are a little bit like me, like wow, reading the Bible in the years sounds sounds daunting. So start first with the why 12 months and then and then what kind of guidance do you offer?
Derek Vreeland: That’s great. Yeah. So I think A, it was just naturally the the reading plan they gave me was a 12-month reading plan. There’s a lot of different Bible reading plans out there, and I’ve tried several of them. Some have been successful. Some I haven’t to your point. It’s taken me longer. Um I like one year and I like every day. There’s some writing reading plans that say, you know, five days a week. And I put in that introduction you mentioned that if you can’t, if you know, hey Fridays are are are my my craziest day. You can always double up one day. You can double up on Thursday or double up on Saturday. You can kind of make it work for you. But I like the consistency of every day. And I like that spreading out your Bible reading over one year only asks you to spend about twelve to fifteen minutes a day reading God’s word, which hopefully I don’t know about you, Derek, but I know how much time I spend on my phone and and I know that I can find twelve to fifteen minutes a day. Of course. Now, twenty five to thirty minutes a day might be a little bit harder, but I I feel like it’s it’s manageable if we stay consistent. And that’s the big thing is Staying consistent, not getting too far behind. I joke in the book and I have joked online that, you know, Leviticus and Numbers are the place where most Bible in a reading Bible in a year reading plans come to die. And so one of the things I like about this book And this reading plan, I guess, A first, is that because you read a little bit of old, a little bit of new, and a little bit of Psalms and Proverbs every day Even when you’re working your way through some of those more challenging places in the Old Testament, you know, in seven minutes, I’m going to be reading about Jesus in the New Testament. Yeah. A few minutes after that, I’m going to be in the Psalms or Proverbs. And so I do think it helps you kind of keep going. And then the book is designed to answer some of those questions you might have, right? You’re like, why is Leviticus the way that it is? And I talk in the book, I actually learned this a few years ago about how at the very end they spend a big I actually think the Bible starts to get really Sorry to say this, Lord, boring. About halfway through Exodus because Exodus goes from being this really fascinating adventure story to descriptions and architectural drawings for the tabernacle. And it’s like the whole back half of Exodus is just very repetitive. And but at the end of Exodus, they finish the tabernacle and Moses is outside the tabernacle. But at the beginning of Numbers, Moses is inside the tabernacle. And so what happened? Well, that’s why the the writers of the Bible, the compilers of the Bible piece together Leviticus there in the center because it shows us the law. It shows us how we’re made right with God so that we can be in his presence and not be separated from him. And so I give you a little bit of that in the book and I give you things to, hey, look for this when you’re reading numbers today. Because you might skip this because it’s a little bit dense, like People don’t know they’re they’re listing out in numbers. Numbers begins with this really long census of the people of Israel. And that’s one of those places where people’s eyes tend to glaze over when they’re reading and they just kind of skim past it. Well, if you’re actually paying attention to the way that it’s structured, you realize that the order of their arrangement of the camps when they’re setting out to go on their journey through the wilderness is in the shape of a cross. Oh wow. Whoa, wait a second. There’s something in the text that’s foreshadowing Jesus in this really cool way. But you have to you have to know to look for that. Right. And so that’s what I’m hoping to do is is give you the things to be looking for as you’re reading so that it’s not just I read my Bible today, but I read it and I actually saw what God’s doing as we’re piecing all this together.
Narrator: I gotta jump into this podcast episode to let you know I have a new book that’s out. Incarnation. Eight lessons on how God meets us is available now. Go order it. Link is in the show notes. Yeah, that’s where I find the guidebook so helpful that if people will take a little time at the beginning of their week to read through your devotional because you talk about what’s happening in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And I love that you include New Testament readings every day because that’s always been my critique of read the Bible in a year. If you’re trying that, you don’t even get to Jesus until like August, September, October. And But you say in the introduction that this kind of reading, where it’s Old Testament and New Testament, you get to spend time with Jesus every day. And I have such a strong sort of Christocentric approach to my scripture reading that When I’m in the Old Testament, I’m looking for little hints like the way the tribes are laid out in the sign of the cross. I’m always looking for Jesus when I’m in the Old Testament. And so it’s helpful. That yes, you’re going to spend time in the Old Testament because it’s holy scripture given to us, but you’re also going to get New Testament, you’re going to get Gospels, Epistles, so helpful. And um again in your little introductions, you have some uh word studies that are in there. And um so just like Week five, so this will be right at the end of January, February for those that are that are reading along. Um, you’re in Exodus. The guidebook has us in Exodus. And you have this little word study, just to read a little bit from your book, in your word study you say, when you read the word salvation in Exodus 15, 2, The Hebrew word being translated is Yeshua. The ancient Greek translation of this word is Yesus. Which is where we get the name Jesus. Right in the middle of the incredible Exodus story, we find the first song in the Bible. And hidden within this song, we find a glimmer of the hope and salvation that is to come in Jesus. And so I love that you have that inclination that. And correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s it’s not Bible reading simply to get knowledge, though all of that is important. Historical context, I am here for all of it. But ultimately, we are reading the Bible to spend time with Jesus, right? Because we’re not, of course, Biblians, but we are Christians. Why is it so important to keep a Jesus focus as we’re reading through the scriptures?
Derek Vreeland: I think if you look at I like to think of I I say this to my students in my class, I say this to this is one of the places where I think the historical and literary side of the Bible intersects with the religious and spiritual side of the Bible because um The arrival of Jesus, I would say the death and the resurrection of Jesus is positioned as the climax of this story, right? Right. Of human history. But also of of the the grand narrative of the gospel. One of the things I I talk about um of the grand narrative of scripture. One of the things I talk about many times in the book is this reading plane is Genesis through Mala, you go straight through the Old Testament in 52 weeks. Simultaneously you go straight through the New Testament in 52 weeks. Psalms and Proverbs. They’re not the the plan is not intentionally going, hey, we’re going to partner up this passage from the Old Testament with this passage from the New Testament. But so many times when I was going through this reading plan, I realized, oh What’s happening over here in Psalms or in Philippians is is calling back to what I read today in the Old Testament somewhere. And you see it’s woven together. And Derek, Nine times out of ten, the connection point is Jesus. That that scarlet thread that is woven through the Bible, right? Because We even there you talk about Exodus fifteen, there’s this foreshadowing of Jesus and the word salvation. Then you jump to to that’s the first song in the Bible, you jump to Revelation fifteen, that’s the last song in the Bible, and who are they singing to? They’re singing to Jesus. That’s right. So you’re seeing all of that. So yeah, that’s that for me, I’m with you. I I am a Christocentric guy, and I think You know, I I can hear the critics out there saying, well, you’re still spending time with Jesus even when you’re reading the Old Testament. I agree with you. But I also like that you’re directly with Jesus and his earliest followers who are trying to make sense of life in light of Jesus Yeah. Every single day of the year. As opposed to like you said, I know my friend Terry Lee Cobble has the Bible recap and they do like the ninety days through the New Testament at the end of the year, because that’s when they finally get to the New Testament, because they’re going through chronological Right. And so I do like something different out there where you can spend time with Jesus more directly every single day.
Narrator: Yeah. So good. And so also a part of this guidebook, because it’s not a normal book, it’s also a journal. And as a pastor, I’m always looking for resources to give uh people within my congregation resources that will help them grow in Christ, not just grow in their knowledge of Scripture, but grow as disciples of Jesus. And so I love that every uh reading every day, there’s a little there’s there’s lines, there’s blank space for people to jot down their thoughts. And I know not everyone is is really big on journaling, but For for me over the years, what I’ve done is I’ve jotted down my thoughts and notes within the scriptures themselves, in my Bible. I like to write in my Bibles. But often, um, of course I’m talking to the the Bible expert here. Some margins are a little smaller than others. And um but I have a little ha I have a little habit of whenever I’m in the Old Testament. And I I see something that just doesn’t resonate with Jesus, like when David is multiplying wives, and I’m like, oh, Dave, you don’t know how bad this is going to end up. I just I do a little sad face. And it’s just like, oh, King David, if you would know your your great, great, great, great grandson who’s coming, uh, you would not have done that. Or in the New Testament, whenever I come across a um an atonement or cross passage. I just draw a cross in the margin of my Bible. So do you have any personal habits or suggestions for how people can use the the reflection area in the guidebook?
Derek Vreeland: Thanks. That’s a great question. Yeah, so so we’re piecing together this book, right? So I I take the reading plan, that’s where it starts, and then I write all of these these weekly devotionals for each passage. So there’s theoretically 52 weeks times three, what is that? A hundred and fifty-six devotionals, because there’s one for each Old Testament week, one for each New Testament week. So then I I wrote that and I thought I thought, okay, how can we make this even better for people. More like we’re not just giving you a reading plan and giving you some help. What like that’s where the checkboxes came from. We’re gonna start each chapter with the list of your readings and the check boxes because I know people like to And I thought, okay, well if we’re inviting people to write in this book with these checkboxes, then let’s give them some space at the end of each chapter where they can jot down a few notes. So even though you don’t have to read my book every day, you can open it every day because at the end of each chapter, it then it says day like so January 1st, it says, well it’s not dated. It just says day one. It lists the passage and then there’s some blank lines there Just a few lines. And my encouragement to people is to then write down either questions you have as you’re reading the text. Write down things that stand out to you. Write down a prayer that comes to mind based on what you read or a piece of gratitude in your heart. When I’m studying the Bible, you you shared the options, you do. I usually have two pens with me I use one pen when I have questions and I will underline or I’ll write in the margins of my Bible a question that comes up. I’ll use another pen a different color ink to highlight things that stand out to me and jot down my own thoughts or like devotional things. But then I I always know that I’m gonna go back at the end and try to find the answers to those questions that are in the first color ink. So those are the things I like to do, and I’m hoping that people will take the book and do that with it. So we’re actually doing a a companion podcast for this book and Every week my wife and I are gonna sit down. We’re gonna use the book itself. She’s already started working on it. She started reading the first few weeks, and she’s gonna take what she writes in those passages, in those lines places for us to have a dialogue, a little further conversation about questions that came up while she was reading and how we can kind of work through some of that together. We’re going to do that every week at on day seven of every week. We’re going to release that on YouTube as well as on podcasts so people can kind of check that out and listen along with us.
Narrator: Yeah, what a great resource to to offer that that podcast, because it’s a it’s gonna be a daily podcast. uh from what I heard. Daily Scripture with Tim Wildsmith, a Daily Podcast, where you’re reading the text. Is that what I understand?
Derek Vreeland: Yeah, I am currently I’ve been working my way through reading. It’s gonna be the NIV. The podcast is sponsored by the New International Version, and so I’m gonna be reading the entire NIV. with this reading plan. So you can go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or YouTube, wherever you get podcasts, and you can download Daily Scripture with Tim Wildsmith. There will be a new episode every day, which is not the content from the book, the devotional content. It’s just me reading the Bible. It’s every episode’s gonna be about 15 minutes long. There’s a quick intro, a quick outro, but the bulk of the episode is me reading the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms or Proverbs, passages. for the day. And then on the seventh day every week will be when we throw in that bonus conversation with my wife and I. And again, thinking, how do we make this easier for people? Okay. Some people are on the go. They love to listen to the Bible. I I listen to the Dwell Bible app a lot. And so we wanted to create an opportunity. And I also know there’s lots of studies out there that show reading something versus listening to it, your brain absorbs the information differently. And so I like to actually like when I’m preparing a sermon for my church, I obviously read the text several times and Look at the commentaries and all that stuff, but I also just listen to the passage over and over again because it starts to sink into me in a different way. So yeah, so there’s There’s the book. There’s the Bible that has the reading plan, and the Bible’s actually laid out in this order, so you don’t have to flip around back and forth. You just read straight through. There’s the book. to give you some devotional information, some historical information, some space to write things down. And then there’s the podcast that if you’d like to, you can listen to that on a daily basis to listen to God’s word.
Narrator: All sorts of resources to help people I love that because again, as a pastor, this is the kind of thing I’m looking for all of the time. Let’s go back a little bit to the reflection section. I appreciate that you invite people to ask their questions because I think there is a approach to scripture reading That says, well, because this is God’s word, this is divinely inspired, I just need to download it into my brain And but the Bible isn’t a a book. The Bible’s actually a library. It’s a collection of books with uh different genres, different writing styles, different human authors, all inspired by the Holy Spirit. But for serious Bible readers, there are lots of questions, at least When when I when I’ve talked to people in my congregation and they’re they’re they’re not concerned or bothered or questioned things, I’m like, are you actually reading this? Because if you are actually reading the text and I’ve been doing so for 35 years I’m still asking questions because because what will happen is people like, wait a minute, this feels weird. This doesn’t seem right. This Why is God saying this or doing this? And I think one approach is just to ignore those questions because you’re like, oh, this is Holy Scripture. I can’t question God. Well, hold on a second. Um I think we see in the scriptures, particularly the Psalms, it’s okay to ask your questions And I think that instead of because behind questions is often some doubt, and people are afraid of that, but I don’t think we grow in faith by hiding from our doubts. I think we grow in faith by wrestling with our doubts. And so asking questions is not saying, God, I don’t believe this or I don’t trust you. It’s just I haven’t, I haven’t fully understood it yet. And so I know for me, writing out those those questions is is helpful to to process that. So I appreciate that you’re inviting people to ask their questions because none of us are Bible experts, right? We’re all still learning and growing. So in reading the Bible in a year, I don’t think readers should uh make the assumption that they’re going to understand everything perfectly. Like hopefully for people, reading the Bible in a year creates that rhythm and habit so they want to continue to go back to Scripture again and again. I assume that you’ve wrestled with big questions. How have you grown in the faith by asking questions of the Bible?
Derek Vreeland: I I love that question and I love that sentiment. I remember as a young man reading uh A. W. Tozer’s book called The Knowledge of the Holy. And I’m not sure if this was where he was going with a chapter called God Incomprehensible, but I remember this this sense of like if you pursue God, if you study his word, you will never reach the end of him. You will never gain all of the knowledge. You will never fully understand. If you keep coming back, you you will there’s more for you. And I I say that at the end of the book. Once we go through the whole book, I then challenge readers. Start again tomorrow. It’s January first again. Like you will you will God will meet you somewhere new in this text over and over and over again. I think for me it was The answer to your question is I didn’t go to seminary until my thirties and I didn’t realize how many questions I had until I went to seminary and I found myself In a safe space to ask questions of the Bible because we were studying it in a more academic way. And I realized, oh We can ask questions and God is not afraid of our questions, right? I I see that all the time with these college students where I teach this class, where many of them are believers who have been brought up in this sense of like you can’t question the Bible. But many of them are not believers and so they want to question the Bible. And we have these really interesting discussions about what this means and how and like you said earlier the different genres of scripture just understanding how to read like the book of Daniel or the book of Revelation as Apocalypse was an ancient genre that the people who first read it would have been familiar with the approach to writing that way with all of the symbolism and the numerology and all of those things. Whereas that’s not nearly as common today. And so if you try to read those things, like you said, downloading it as meant to be interpreted completely literally that might lead you to a wrong understanding of those passages. Or I think it’s easy for people to recognize, oh, the Psalms are songs. They are poetry. That that flows a little bit differently than the narrative passages of scripture. But Um, you have to you have to work at that. It takes growth, it takes time, it takes patience with yourself. But I tell everybody you gotta get a great study bible because There’s gonna be things that these these texts were written thousands of years ago in another place, in another culture. They should not just easily make sense to you all the time. Right. Some of it is very easy to transpose one-to-one into modern day society. Some of it’s not. And that’s where a good study Bible or a commentary or something like that will help you go, oh There’s something cultural going on here that is why I’m struggling with it. But once I understand the way they would have understood it, then I can begin to apply it to my life in a more faithful way because I’m
Narrator: understanding the Bible in its own terms, right? Exactly right. And see that’s that’s Professor Wild Smith right there. That’s what I’m talking about. Let’s go.
Derek Vreeland: Yeah. Yeah. We we I love I I I tell my students in my class You can ask me questions. I’m not necessarily always gonna have the answers, but I love when somebody comes in and they’re like, okay, I read this thing that Isaiah said And I want to and I’m like, yes, that that’s the good stuff. Let’s let’s wrestle with this a little bit. Let’s ask the hard questions. I had a student say, We’re reading the book of Acts, right? We’re going through Acts. We’re studying Acts. We’re we’re doing it And and this is someone who’s not a Christian in my class, doesn’t claim Christ, says, I have a question. This is how this thing began. Then why aren’t all of the Christians around me today acting and living like this? And I was like, mic drop You just taught the whole class for me. That’s exactly what yeah, absolutely. That’s a great question.
Narrator: I love it. I love it. Yeah. So I think the space that you create in this guide book for people to reflect. I think if they can use that as an opportunity to ask their questions and and we’re going to give people permission to do that. Like ask your questions of the Bible. Because that’s how we really do grow in the Christian faith. My oldest son, when he went off to college, was in a campus ministry that I will leave unnamed. And in this campus ministry, um, he I think he ended up playing in the worship team. He he plays bass and I think he’s doing worship team, but then they had small group Bible studies for for men and for women, and he was in a in a good Bible study and they were they had just gotten started and he starts asking questions and the the the campus I think it was the campus ministry director leading his Bible study had said, well we we don’t do that here. We’re just here to memorize scripture. Now, memorizing scripture is a helpful spiritual practice that I certainly believe in But I think for college students, we need to create safe space for them to ask their questions. And I really think The church needs to do that. I try to do that in the Bible studies I lead at my church. Because I’m just like you in the classroom when people ask me, Uh sometimes like I don’t know. Um let me do some work on that and I’ll get back to you. But I think the daily scripture guidebook is going to be a helpful resource for people. So if you’re listening to this episode, you need to go get a copy of Daily Scripture Guidebook. There’s also the daily scripture. Get it in the NIV. I encourage people when they begin a new Bible reading plan to Uh pick a new translation. I think that that’s helpful. It brings some freshness. So if you’re not familiar with the NIV, if you haven’t used the NIV, I’ve heard you, Tim, talk about your love for the NIV. I think that was the Bible that you had as a as a as a student or college student. Yeah. So for you I hope with it. Yeah. And so I I did my seminary work at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa And uh Roy Hayden was our Old Testament uh professor and Dr. Hayden was on the NIV committee and the New Living Translation Committee. So I ended up using uh the NIV all through seminary and into my first pastorate Um, until Tom Wright said some things he didn’t like about the NIV and I I put it down for the ESV. But there’s there’s no bad Bible translation, is there, Tim? People just gotta find the translation that’s right for them.
Derek Vreeland: That’s right. That’s what my first book is all about. And the second book is hopefully I I changed the tagline for my channel to find a Bible that’s right for you to find a Bible that’s right for you and apply it to your life. And that’s what the the goal is. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet. Um I’ve done a few different podcast interviews, so I can’t keep it all straight, but I don’t think I told you this. The the book is not dated. You can start whenever. But the podcast does drop on January 1st, and we are inviting people, my wife and I are inviting people to read the Bible with us by following along with my book and this reading plan. And so Um you can do that with any Bible you want. You can do the NIV Daily Scripture Bible. Obviously my book would be great to get a get a copy of that ordered now and join us the first week of January because we’re going to go through this together. We’re going to on my social media, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all that stuff. We’re gonna be kind of celebrating this whole reading the Bible thing. I’m actually doing it with my church too. My entire church is gonna be reading the Bible with us. I’ve talked to a couple different pastors who said Our church is getting your book and we’re going to do it together in 2026. And I’m like, that’s awesome. So I’m excited. I’m excited about this.
Narrator: I love it. All right. So if you’re listening, you have just about six or seven days. If you want to jump in and get started and read. The scripture January 1st, 2026. So go get Tim’s new book, subscribe to his YouTube channel, go to the podcast networks, Apple, Spotify, wherever. Subscribe to Daily Scripture with Tim Wilde Smith. And you can reach out to Tim through his website or through all the many social media channels. Tim, thank you so much for joining me for this episode.
Derek Vreeland: Thanks so much, Derek. Great to see you again.
Narrator: Good to see you. All right, friends, that’s all that we have for today. Remember Stick close to the scriptures and as you’re reading the scriptures, look for Jesus. That’s all we have for today. Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.