Episode 166. 12 Books of Christmas Day 3: He’s Where The Joy Is with Tara-Leigh Cobble
Unedited Transcript
Tara-Leigh, I am so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited to talk with you. This is going to be so fun. I am so excited to share about your new Bible study. He is where the joy is getting to know the captivating God of the Trinity as a part of our 12 books of Christmas series.
So I'm so excited. First of all, to talk a little bit Christmas with you, which is fun because we're recording this in advance. So we get to talk a little bit about Christmas a little early, so I'm just excited to have you. Me too. And it's, you know, when's a wrong time to talk about Christmas, honestly. I know.
I know. It's so fun. So before we jump into the study, I'd love to hear a little bit about what did Christmas look like for your family growing up? Wow, I'm the youngest of six. And so we, uh, it was chaos. It was just pure chaos, but in a good way. And all of our cousins would come in and. Um, we would just, we, we didn't do a lot of presence.
We do a little few presence here and there. And, um, the majority of my time, I just remember playing with my cousins, playing with my siblings. And one thing that was always central to our Christmas celebration is, uh, my dad would always sit us down and read the story. Jesus' birth. And so he would, he would read, and he would talk a little bit about that and we would make sure that that remained a central focus of the day, which yeah, I love that so much.
My grandfather still does that with our family on my mom's side. And that's such a special memory. I can look back over all the Christmases of my life and like his voice reading. Loop two is a part of that. And so I love that so much. Okay. Is there something that like has to be on your dinner table at Christmas that you just love so much that you look forward to?
Oh my goodness. Um, I, this is going to sound so contrary to everything everybody, uh, thinks probably, but I love pumpkin pie at Christmas. You go girl. I know. Amazing. Everybody likes it at Thanksgiving. I love it at Christmas and I would love it with a little, uh, vanilla bean ice cream on the side. Yeah.
Good. Oh, that's so good. That's so good. That makes me so excited. My mom always asks me, what's your thing. You know, I have several, one of my favorites is my mom's sweet potato casserole and, um, you know, people fall kind of in one of two camps with sweet potato casserole. They are either marshmallow people.
Or they are pecan brown, sugar, crumble people. And my mom made a very wise decision. I feel like a few years ago and she just decided, well, why do I have to choose when I could just kind of habit of it all on top? So that's what she does now. And it's so good. And, and, you know, there's just sort of, when you think about that meal, at least for me, and I feel so blessed, like I just have so many fun.
When I look back on that on the Christmas season, and I realize that's not the case for everybody, but when I look back. There's just this conglomeration of like Turkey, sweet potato casseroles, green beans, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, like all the things that you think about. And so when I think of that meal, I don't necessarily think of like one thing.
I think of just the taste of it all. I just love it because it means I'm spending time with family and I'm eating all my mom and my grandma. Favorite recipes. So it's, it's fun. I love it so much. Okay. Well, I have wanted to have you on the show for so long. I just feel so honored to get to chat with you about this new study, because I am walking through your, um, your Bible study this year, walking through the Bible chronologically for the first time.
Well, I won't say for the first time, here's what I will say clearly is I have tried to read through the entire Bible. Almost every year that I've walked with Jesus since I was 10 years old. And I've never been. And here's what I want you to know is it is late or when we are having this conversation and I have not quit.
And I just need to thank you. I love it. Oh, that makes me so happy. That's the best news I know. And I'm just so encouraged by you and so encouraged by your passion for the word of God. I started the book at the, obviously at the beginning of the year, it was a little after January when I started. And then I heard you speak at the spark conference in Dallas back a couple of months ago, and that tickled my heart so much.
And I got to hear a little more of your story, which I would love for you to share with our people because you were on a panel talking about using podcasting as a discipleship tool, which is like, basically. Your life, right? It's like a leading other people to the word of God through your work. And so, but there's a story behind that of you have God just really.
Depositing, just this passion for the word of God, but it kind of came out of a season of ministry for you. I loved that part of your story. And I would just love if you don't care to share that with listeners. Now, are you talking about the pastor who confronted me about having
all right. Well, yeah, so I had been in ministry. I'd been in full-time ministry. Um, started right out of college in full-time ministry and early on men. A pastor who, um, I became quick friends with. We had a lot of friends in common and, um, one day after a concert, he just asked me if I'd ever read through the whole Bible.
And I said, I'm sure I've pieced it together through the years because Rebecca, I grew up, we went to church three times a week. I went to private Christian school. My family owns a Christian bookstore. That was my first job was selling people Bibles. And so I told him, you know, I'm sure I've pieced it together.
And he said, start today. Read the whole thing, read it chronologically. He suggested, I told him I had a problem understanding it. And that, that was kind of why I'd never tackled the whole thing at once. And he said, read it chronologically, read it in the order that the story happened. And I had no idea that that's not how the Bible was laid out.
I mean, I thought it was laid out in chronological order. And so anyway, he pointed me to a chronological plan and I started that day. And, um, the first time that I read through it, I did not. Uh, it was real hard because I, I had been in all those spaces in church, in the bookstore, in Christian school, like all those spaces.
And I was seeing things I'd never seen. I was hearing things about God, I'd never heard. I was discovering things that it felt like. I kind of felt like God had been living a double life, except he wasn't the one, I was the one living the double life. I was the one in full-time ministry who hadn't read the Bible.
And so I was seeing all these things that were just really hard and that same pastor said, okay, uh, don't get up. Read it again, but this time look for God instead of for yourself, because the reason you're despairing is because you're looking for yourself, you're looking for what you deserve. You're looking for what rules you need to obey to please God, this time, look for his character.
Look for who he is, what he loves, what he hates, what motivates him to do what he does. And Rebecca, it, it was crazy that I read the same book. Um, and had a completely different response. I fell in love with him. It just shifted everything. So that's what ignited my passion for the word. Yeah. Yeah. I love that so much.
And you said something when you were speaking that, I mean, even two months later, I can remember almost like the direct quote of what you said you were like, I was encouraging people to follow a God that I didn't know. Like that I didn't intimately know through his word. And that really convicted me. I mean, I don't think there was like a dry when you were telling that part of your story, because I think we can all discuss some degree, relate to that if we are in a space of ministry and we are spending a lot of time maybe preparing to speak or preparing to write or do a podcast or, or whatever, it may be really to a small group, but.
But how much time are we actually spending for the sole purpose of knowing more about God? Like that just was one of the things I came away with. I went to a podcasting conference to learn more about podcasting and I left victim of my own on my own time with the Lord, which it was so good. That's why I loved your story so much because when people look at what God has done and is doing through you now, Like, that's so powerful to know, like you started with, okay, this confuses me.
Okay. I'm going to press into this Lord and like, I'm going to trust you to help me understand. And yeah, I just, I love that part of your story and fun fact, when I started reading through chronologically this year and I got your book. I, so you do this thing at the end of every day called today's God shot.
Right. So you, and it's, I love that piece of it. And especially when you're reading through the old Testament, I had gotten about halfway through Genesis and I was, I was reading one day and I was like, huh? I think yesterday, she ended by saying he is where the joyous. And so I flipped back and I was like, yeah, she did.
And I'll look at it the day before that. And I was like, oh yeah, she said it that day too. And then I flipped forward like a hundred pages and I was like, oh wait. Yeah, she's really about this. He is where the jewelry is. And then when I got back from the podcasting conference, I just remember it, like tickling my heart so much to see the title of your Bible study, because we've like walked this together for the last eight months.
And so I'm so excited about, about this new study that you have coming out called heat spread. The joy is getting to know the captivating God of the Trinity. And so, I mean, I can pray. I want to hear. I want to hear the God story behind, like where this came from. Oh my goodness. Well, first of all, the study came out of COVID and, um, I wrote six books during 2020, and, um, this one was the one that was, I, I was, I just was so excited about it, but I was so challenged by it in a real way, because I wanted to write a Bible study about the Trinity, but here's what I know.
That topic, intimidates people. It intimidates me. Yeah. And so when you hear that it's a study on a Trinity. If you are, you know, entry-level Christianity, you might be turned off by that kind of study and think it is too heady for you. It's too much heavy lifting. And so what I, what I do at the Bible recap and what I'm trying to do with this, this Bible study.
Take these people who are sort of like, you know, just there, maybe they've been in church, their whole lives. Maybe they are brand new Christians, but for whatever reason, they don't feel equipped to understand God and his word. And I want to show them that they can, because that was me. That was me. And I was the person who'd been in church my whole life, but like, didn't really understand and know who God was.
Just that he flipped the switch, the lights came on. I understand him. I beheld him. I loved him and I want that for people. And so what I wanted to do with this was just remind them that he's after their joy and he's where the joy is. And so if he's pursuing them to know him more, there is joy for them in that.
And. So I wanted to entice them in and invite them in by the promise of the God of joy on the other side of what they probably might be intimidated by otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. I love that so much. And when I read the subtitle, it made me really excited because you use a really strong word. You use the word captivating and walking through this process.
So I'm writing my first book right now. I know like, When you're brainstorming through titles and you're like wordsmithing it, like every word matters. Right. And so I want to know, like, why was the word captivating so important to you? I that's how I feel. Yeah. I, I feel captivated by him. I feel transfixed by who he is.
Yeah. I don't want to, um, move through a day or a moment of my day without my eyes on him. And, um, and so he has captured me. I feel just completely caught up in who he is and. All that has come with a deeper knowledge of him. You know, if you just know a little bit about someone, your ability to love them is, is, uh, limited.
And the more you know about a person, the more you can love them, you can, you can show love toward them. But as far as like the feeling of being captivated by them, the feeling of being drawn into them, knowledge feeds that. Um, and so, uh, I just, I want to help people know God more because the more they know about him, the more they will fall in love with him.
Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. It makes me think of this line that my husband and I both put in our wedding vows. So thinking back to just the picture of Christ and the church and marriage as a model of that, one thing that my husband and I would always say to each other kind of in realization of this, this idea of like the more we know somebody, right.
You know, it opens our capacity to love them. One thing that we tell each other often is I love you today more than I ever have, but the least that I ever will. And I think about that in my relationship with God, too, right? Like, God, I love you today more than ever have, but I know that it's the least that I will ever love you because tomorrow I'm going to learn something more about you.
That will lead me into a deeper love and a deeper. You know, being captivated by you. And so I love that so much. I think that's a really good way to, to kind of frame this, this study. And, you know, we mentioned it is a study about the doctrine of the Trinity and just how vital that is to our faith. And I'm curious, like, why do you think this is so important for us and something that you really felt compelled to speak truth into for believers, especially like right now, you know, I did a study on the Trinity a couple of years ago, that really helped.
Form things in my understanding of who God is in a way that, uh, was so fruitful in my life. And, but it was more of a study of comparing Trinitarian theology to other other religions. And so it didn't dig down a whole lot into just a study of Trinitarian theory. Just like, what do we believe? It was more like compare and contrast.
And so I, um, I picked up a few other studies about that to try to like understand it, but they were all really heady. They were all just very heavy lifting. And, um, and so what I, my job as a Bible teacher is to bridge the gap between those, those big topics. And because I had seen what a difference it made in my life and my relationship with God to understand.
The, the, the persons of the Trinity. I wanted other people to get that too. And so, um, I think one of the things that, you know, I started noticing that this was just a few years ago before I did the first study on the Trinity that I, someone else's study that I, I did their study. Um, I'd noticed that a lot of people, when they pray, would pray, dear Jesus.
And I had always grown up, you know, praying to the father and in scripture, the models that I see were to pray to the father. People praying to Jesus. That's that's interesting. I wonder what that's, what, what is the what's that about? Yeah. Um, should I be doing that? Um, should they be doing like, just sort of like analyzing that?
And so I wanted to dig deeper into that idea, like who do we pray to and why, what does scripture have to say about this and not just basing it on like, well, this is how I grew up or, well, that's what people I really respect are doing. And so maybe that's what I should do. So just wanted to sort of dig deeper on these things.
And when you. Pull back. All of the things that scripture says about the Trinity and you S you stack them on top of each other, because it, there's never like a section where it fully explains everything. It's really layered throughout both the old and new testaments. The father, son, and spirit are all throughout all of scripture.
So when you gather all those pieces together and you see the full teaching of scripture on the roles of the father, the rules of the sin, the rules of the spirit, and you see how they work together, it really. Fills out an understanding of God that you don't have otherwise when you're just pulling a verse here and pulling a verse there.
And so this is a very scripture heavy study because that's the only place I want to get my understanding of God. I only want to get my understanding of God from scripture. I don't want to get it from, well, this is the way I was raised, or this is what so-and-so says. I don't want to get it secondhand. I want to get it through his word.
Yeah. Yeah, that matters so much. That's so good. Well, I want to talk a little bit before. Okay. I, we have to talk Israel too. We're going to get there in a minute because before the pandemic, my husband and I, we're just, we're just going to get there in a minute. Okay. But I just mental note, um, if people want to start the Bible recap, what I love about.
This way that you've organized it in the way that you sort of run your ministry is like somebody could start today. Right. And like start in Genesis today and start reading their Bible through, from start to finish, which is what I did it wasn't January 1st when I started it, won't be December 31st when I finish, but I.
Like, I know that I will finish it, which is, I hope such an encouragement to you because again, I've tried so many times. And so, um, for somebody who is listening today and they're like, okay, yeah, deli, like I've tried to, and I really want to do this, walk them through how they can get involved in your career.
Oh, I love that. First of all, whoever you are out there listener, whether you are an audio learner, whether you prefer to read, um, maybe English is your second language and you speak Spanish. That's your primary language, whatever the case may be. We've tried to cover as many bases as we possibly can. And all the information is laid out for you@thebiblerecap.com forward slash start.
So if somebody wants to. Um, if they're an audio learner and they want to listen to the audio Bible, and then they want to listen to the podcast, we've got them set up for that. If they want to read their physical Bible and then listen to the podcast, they can do that. Um, we've got a print out plan that they can use.
They can use the, the plan on the Bible app. Um, and then of course, there's the book. If they are a person who you use the book, it sounds like. And, um, and so if they. Just a tactile experience of using the book. There's that? And like I said, we have it in Spanish. We have it in American sign language and, uh, we're potentially working on future languages for that as well.
Um, but we've just tried to make it a, um, Uh, a really malleable experience to suit every person's preferences and needs. However they learn best. You want to just remove the obstacles that get in the way of people engaging with the word. And so just the Bible recap.com forward slash start gives you lays out all the options for you.
Amazing. Okay. I love that so much. I love that you have set it up for different people in how they learn. I think that's awesome because even, even for me, I, I love podcasts. I am a podcaster, however, I disengage sometimes when I listened to something versus when I'm actually holding it in my hands. And so that's totally my personal preference.
I have friends who are the opposite. And so I love that you haven't set up for both people. I think that really matters. Um, and just makes it easy for people. So I love that. Make sure you go check it out. Okay. Why did you not just get back from it? I did I think a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Okay. So how many times have you been since the, I mean, I know the is not over whatever our new normal is, all the things, but what was going back like after, I mean, how long was it kind of between trips?
Oh, my goodness. Well, this was my 16th trip and, um, I went twice during, since the pandemic kit I went for a month in may and June, um, for a photography trip, we're doing a book about Israel. That's coming out in a cup in a year or so, um, which I'm excited about. Um, but then also I took a tour group back, which is what I usually do.
I usually lead tours there a few times a year. And our first tour group, since the pandemic hit and. It was amazing. I mean, it was there, there, you know, some hoops you have to jump through to make it better at this point, but everybody was more than willing to jump through those hoops and everything just went off seamlessly.
And it was amazing because, because of all those hoops and because of all the limitations, all the tourist sites were empty. So we were, wow. The only people like it was amazing. I got to sit down and read my Bible by myself in the garden tomb. Like that never happened nearly that. So yeah, it was just, it was incredible.
I was like, I'm journaling in the empty tomb right now. This is kind of crazy. Um, so we loved it. We loved that opportunity and. You know, we're hoping to take three more trips by the end of 2021. Um, so we'll, we'll, we'll, we're pregnant. Those all go off seamlessly. Just like this last one did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got to come Sunday. Okay. I want to go to Israel so bad with you. I think that would be the most fun thing of my life. I was telling my husband the other day, I, every once in a while, when I'll see somebody leading a trip to Israel, send it to him. Cause we, okay. So let me back up. We went in 2019, we had just gotten married that may we went in November and first of all, to go to Israel, the year that you get married was like the coolest experience to experience that with my husband and I.
I can honestly say, I know everybody says this, but like, I will never ever read my Bible the same. It totally gives, it just gives so much color to everything. Yeah. We thought we knew about scripture or that we had pictured how things maybe would play out. And that makes me so curious, like you, as a person who takes people to Israel, What is that like for you to watch people experience that that has to be so fun.
That's my favorite part, right. You know, I've, I did four trips to learn before I started leading tours and, um, And I was the one having like all these mind explosions of just like, this is incredible. Oh my goodness. What? I didn't know that, like now this all makes sense. And you know, I'm hard pressed to open my Bible and not be able to visualize what I'm reading, which is amazing.
Um, but the first time I planned a trip, it was so hard to back out. Like I wanted to give up before, like by the time we hit the ground in Israel, I was like, I'm never doing this again. Fast forward to the end of day, one of touring. And I was like, I'm doing this forever because I got to watch people, those same experiences that I had, where they like started to understand scripture and started to come alive to them.
And they were like, oh my goodness. And I'm just, I just have that teacher heart. That's just like, I love watching people learn and fall in love with the Lord and fall in love with his word. And so I just, I love that I get to do it. It just makes me so happy. Yeah. Yeah. Is there, I know this would be so hard to even choose and I'm afraid you're going to turn the question on me and I'm going to have to pick one to thank you.
Is there a place, like when you think about, you know, when you go back before the end of the year and you're like, man, this I've seen God just show up in the coolest ways here, or this is my favorite place. When I feel like God opens people's eyes. Like, do you have, I don't know. Do you have a favorite place that you take.
Yes. Yeah. My favorite place is, and tell me if you went there. Okay. It is it's called Mensa Christi. It's a little Rocky shoreline on the, the Northwest shore of the sea of Galilee. And they believe that would have been the site where Jesus would have called his disciples and that it would have been the place where he would have appeared to them on the shores.
In the pre-dawn hours before he like, you know, fed them breakfast after his resurrection, um, the shoreline there hasn't changed in, in 2000 years. And it's the only sort of natural port there. And it's right outside of, uh, right outside of Capernum, which is where a lot of the. Lived and where Jesus lived during some of his ministry.
And so it makes a lot of sense that that would be where it was. Um, and I've just had some really, um, really beautiful time with the Lord in that space. Um, and it's, you can walk right down to the water, um, roll up your pant legs and just step right in, um, Remarkable. It's my favorite place. What's what's your favorite place?
I am going to ask. I know. Okay. There's a couple of days that come to mind. So I've only been once, so you're just like drinking from a total fire hose the first time you experienced at all. And so there's like a few moments for me that really mattered. One of them. Thinking about like chronologically the whole trip.
I remember driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and reading like the Psalms of ascent, like on the way up to our hotel. And I just remember, like, we'd be crying and you're just like, what is happening to me? Like what I'm in Jerusalem? Like it just totally blew my mind. And I think I was just so excited to be there, but then the day where we kind of did.
Sea of Galilee Capernum Magdalena. Like those, that kind of, that kind of chunk. Those were just some of those memories where you're like, I'm actually, like my feet are standing in the very places where Jesus stood. Like it's just hard to even fathom. I dunno. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah. And then we did, I mean, a kind of, which I think is pretty traditional.
We did a day in Jerusalem where we did, you know, all the things like garden tomb, church of the holy Sepulchre, um, the upper room, all, you know, all the things. And, um, that day was. Was just awesome. I brought a journal with me and I actually was thinking about it the other night. I need to pull it out and reread it.
I would come back to the hotel every night and sort of like Chronicle the day, because you experience so much that even, you know, two days later I would think back I'm like, what did we do on Tuesday, sea of Galilee day? I don't even remember. So I was so thankful that. Chronicled it all. Because having been only once, I mean, you just, there's almost this like rapid fire thing that happens in your brain when you think about the trip, because you just, you see so much, so I can't wait to go back it's yeah.
I mean, my dad told me before my first ship, he said, your first ship is going to be good, but your second trip is going to be better. Yeah. Don't ruin my first trip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it really it's true. Yeah. We have said that a lot. My husband went and saw. Tag teamed with the, um, which I mean, I, I would imagine this is kind of what you do too.
He would sort of teach, I mean, the, you know, the tour guide would do her thing, but he would kind of step in and, and give more context here and there and that kind of thing. And there was so much of that, that he prepped for and things like that. And just, you know, Not knowing what to expect. There's just all of that.
The first time you go. And so we're really looking forward to hopefully go in before too much longer. So we'll see. But anyway, I just, it changed my life. It changes the way changed the way I read the Bible. And so I just wanted to take a minute and chat Israel with you because I knew our people would be excited about that as well that you laid trips.
That's so fun. So people will have to check that out. So if they do want to learn more about your trips, where can they go find that right now? Uh, well, um, right now we have two different websites that I'm going to point you to because one doesn't exist yet, but hopefully we'll, by the time this happens, they can go to my D group.org forward slash Israel, or hopefully we'll have Israel Luxe tours, which is Israel, UX tours.com launched by then.
So that's that. Awesome bill. I love that. Awesome. Okay. Well, I, uh, I've just been so excited about this conversation and we are going to hop on over to our Patrion community now to do a little rapid fire section with Charlie that I'm really excited about, but for now, I'm just so excited to point people to you, to the Bible, recap to this new study.
He's where the joy is. And it's been so fun to have you be a part of this Christmas series. So, Charlie, I just want to give you one more big, thank you for being with me today. Thanks for having me.
