Deacon James Davis - Developing a Lifelong Bible Reading Habit

Jacqui: 0:13

Greetings, fabulous listeners. Happy First Tuesday. You know what we do on First Tuesdays. That's the day we dive deep into the wisdom of God-ordained teachers, exploring their profound insights on reading God's Word. If you've missed any of our previous First Tuesday interviews, fear not, we have the links waiting for you in the show notes. Now hold on to your seats, because today's episode is a huge blessing. We've the honor of chatting with the incredible Deacon James Curtis Davis. Brace yourselves for the knowledge tsunami coming your way.

Jacqui: 0:57

Deacon Davis is an ordained Deacon at the First Baptist Church of Glena rden. This man is no stranger to the Word. He's been passionately teaching the Bible for over two decades. Oh, but that's not all. He's been professionally training for three decades. Talk about dedication. But wait, there's more. Deacon Davis, alongside his amazing wife, deaconess Julia Davis, found the Make the Vision Plain Ministries, where they're shaping the future of church leadership.

Jacqui: 1:31

Did I mention Deacon Davis is also a lawyer? Yes, his specialty is employment law. And if you think that's impressive, hold on tight. He's a published author too. He co-wrote a gem called Exceptional Living with Dr Johnny Parker. Now get this. Deacon and Deaconess Davis have been married for 45 years. They've got a set of twins, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a life well lived to me. So get ready to soak in the wisdom, experience the overflow of blessings and maybe catch a glimpse of the secrets to living that exceptional life. Stay tuned to this episode of the Bible Basics Podcast, as Deacon Davis pours the overflow of his blessings onto us. Well welcome everyone. I'm your host, Jacqui Adewole, and this is the Bible Basics Podcast, where weekly, we break down the Bible into understandable, bite-sized chunks. Welcome, Deacon Davis. Welcome to the Bible Basics Podcast.

Deacon Davis: 2:55

I am so happy to be here. Sister Jacqui, thank you for inviting me. I'm humbled and I'm honored to be a part of this podcast.

Jacqui: 3:04

Oh, my goodness, it's definitely my privilege. As I was saying to you earlier, when I started this, you were the first person I knew was going to have to be on this podcast. I took a class from you, I believe I want to say like 2019 or so, pre-COVID Church Doctrine. Okay, it was the most engaging class, primarily because of the style of teacher you are. When I look at your bio, we hear your bio. We know the reason for this is that you are the most experienced teacher that I know. You were able to make hard topics simple to understand. You were able to insert jokes here and there that kept students engaged and just basically draw us in. I knew I said, wow, this man should be doing his own podcast, but I'm going to have to get on my podcast.

Deacon Davis: 3:59

Okay.

Jacqui: 4:01

We're talking to people who may be new to reading the Bible, maybe even new to Christianity, or maybe not even in Christianity, just curious about the Bible. Our goal is to provide resources or encouragement so that people will begin to read it and enjoy it and connect with God through that. I just know you'll be great to help me along with that. I mentioned that you had 30 plus years of teaching experience. How do you even get into the field of teaching and Bible teaching?

Deacon Davis: 4:36

Okay, Well, I started in Bible teaching when I first joined the church back in 1995. What church would that be? That would be First Baptist Church of Glenarden, now First Baptist Church of Glenarden International. I started there as a bid facilitator, brothers, and discipleship facilitator. One of the things that I would do is we would go into prisons and I would put together a short lesson that every man in my group had to deliver to the men that were in prison, and after they finished laying the groundwork, then I would give an overall kind of lesson.

Deacon Davis: 5:27

From there. I started doing Vacation Bible. I took over for oh, I'm drawing a blank on his name right now, but I took over for a reverend who was called to teach his own church, to be a pastor at a church. And then the next thing I did was I wanted to teach Sunday school, and so I had completed the track for teaching at First Baptist and I went to Deacon Freddie Sanford, a late elder Sanford. He said would you mind starting a second Sunday school class? And so I started out with two students. One of them was my wife and the other was this faithful sister that just she came every single Sunday, and from two people it grew into over 120 people.

Jacqui: 6:19

Wow, wow, that's impressive.

Deacon Davis: 6:21

People just told one another because there was no way to advertise it. So, people, it was word of mouth that it spread. And I can remember experiencing success teaching in Sunday school, vacation Bible, being a facilitator, and then I completed the requirements to become a full instructor in our Bible Institute and so since then I think that was in 2000, I have been teaching the Bible Institute. I've taught courses like, as you mentioned, Church Doctrine. Pastor asked me to develop a seminary level course on apologetics. I've got Christianity, cults and religion. I've taught courses like understanding people, gifts of the Holy Spirit, spirit control, temperaments.

Deacon Davis: 7:12

I'm probably leaving off something, but I've had a lot of experience and what I did at that point is I wanted to know, Lord, can I take this gift that you've given me of teaching? Can I take it outside of the church and make a living? And the answer was yes. So I wound up as a training consultant, working with different companies. They would do the marketing, I would show up and do the training, and so I developed all kinds of courses, that for the public and private sector, and then I just you know. So the answer I gave me was yes, you can make a living doing this.

Deacon Davis: 7:54

So for the past 30 years I have not worked a single day in my life because I'm doing what God equipped me to do. I can never be mediocre at it. I can be always be the best me that I can, and so that's how I got into it. And I love teaching. I think teaching should be engaging, and if it isn't, fun is not being done, okay, okay. So I try to always build in activities. For every 20 minutes that I speak, I want 30 minutes of activity, and that's whether I'm in the secular world or in communities of faith, and I've done some of the same kind of training I do in the secular world I've offered to churches.

Deacon Davis: 8:41

Surprisingly, a lot of churches contacted me about conflict resolution. And you're going, what we got? Conflict in the church, not in the church. That can't be conflict. But there were people were fighting and warring with one another, and then they needed to learn teamwork, how to work as part of a team, part of the pastor's team, part of the leadership team, part of the ministry team, and I'm just really blessed. Recently I did something for a newly consecrated pastor in from our church I won't name any names because I don't want to get into looking like I'm promoting somebody or anything like that, but his church received that training really well and I'm going back to do Possibly two, maybe three more sessions with them, since the response and the turnout was so good. We're going to keep that up.

Jacqui: 9:49

I love that. I love that. I agree that it needs to be engaging and in your classes, lisa, I've experienced certainly are that, and I'd like to say you can tell us now I can type it into our show notes, that you have a website or a website for your Christian based training and other training that anyone listening is free to go to. Do you want to share w hat that is is now?

Deacon Davis: 10:14

Yes, it's makethevisionplain. com Okay, and you know, there you'll find a list of the courses that I teach. You'll get some information about my background, and the ministry was founded by my wife and myself, and what we do is we come alongside pastors. We don't attempt to supplant their authority. We and, if anything, we, emphasize the fact that God has placed that person in that position of authority and our job is to follow him or her as they follow the Lord, and so what we do is we'll come alongside.

Deacon Davis: 10:57

If there are specific problems they're having in the church that pastors sometimes can't talk about, I'll talk about those for them, including showing people to the door who are not on board with the church's mission and vision, because you don't need people like that in leadership.

Deacon Davis: 11:16

You want everybody to be in lockstep and on the same page. Nothing more pleasant than unity. The Bible says how good it is for brothers to live in unity, and so we do that. And then we talk about team building, communication skills, because I really believe it's a mistake to put a person in leadership without training, without providing the training that they need. That's, whether you're in the secular world or communities of faith, you still need to train people on how to do certain things. We can't just assume that, because you can fog a mission, that you know how to lead people, and so the idea is to prevent something I call church hurt, where people get wounded by folks in the church and they're already beaten up and wounded and battered when they come to the church. So if they come and experience that in the church, where do they go from there? So the idea is for us to minimize church hurt to the extent that we can by providing skills based training to people that wanna be leaders or are already in leaders.

Jacqui: 12:32

That's okay, listeners. You heard it there. I would highly recommend this as a source of training. Now, many of our listeners, though, aren't pastors. They aren't leading a church or leading ministries. They are trying to tackle some of the basics. Yes, and that big basic is the Bible.

Deacon Davis: 12:53

Basic instructions before leaving earth is what I call that. That is our owner's manual, that is our guide for direction and for wisdom. Now, a lot of people can't handle reading the Bible If you're not saved. That's a big obstacle to understanding the Bible, and even if you are saved. So for those who aren't saved, the first thing I would say is get into a relationship with Jesus Christ, because one of the gifts that you get is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will guide you and instruct you as you read the Bible.

Deacon Davis: 13:33

Now, if you're a new Christian and you're trying to wonder, well, why can't I understand the Bible? Well, you need to understand a couple of things. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and a lot of times, trying to translate Hebrew and Aramaic into English, you move something in the translation. It's hard to understand. And then the New Testament is written in Greek, and if you are not a Greek scholar, well, you may not understand some of those things. So some of the tools that you need to really understand the Bible is things like a concordance. You need a Bible dictionary.

Jacqui: 14:20

Tell us what a concordance is.

Deacon Davis: 14:22

Yes, a concordance lists every single word that's used in the Bible and it will give you the first half of that concordance, will tell you what the Hebrew and Aramaic words mean in English, and then the second half of it will explain to you what those words in Greek mean. So that's something that you need as a concordance. A good Bible dictionary, a Webster's dictionary you could use. A good study Bible that has a lot of notes. In fact, we're going to give to anybody who listens to this podcast a free gift of the tools on how to study the Bible. So once you get to the point where you're saying, I really do want to understand what God is saying to me. I want to be able to do what pleases him. Well, that means you need to read his word, because his word contains his will, and so I don't recommend starting at Genesis. If you're a brand new person, I would recommend you start at the Gospel of John.

Jacqui: 15:34

Why, why would you?

Deacon Davis: 15:35

want to do that? Well, because John explains who Jesus is. He talks about his deity. It talks about him preexisting. You see, his birth was not his beginning. He's always been there. He's eternal. He became a man in order to die on that cross for our sins, because, think about it, god is a spirit. Well, you can't kill a spirit. A spirit can die. So he had to take on human flesh in order to pay our sin debt.

Deacon Davis: 16:11

And so I recommend starting there, getting to know who Jesus is, knowing that he is God, and then you can get all kinds of Bible plans, reading plans. I highly recommend those. With my prayer partners, we started at the book of Genesis and we're now finishing up the Psalms, so we're about to head into Proverbs. And so if you want to know the heart of God, you study the Psalms. If you want to know the wisdom of God, you study the Proverbs. And a good reading plan will probably give you a little bit of Old Testament and a little bit of New Testament, not the way I'm doing it with my prayer partners. We wanted to read from cover to cover.

Deacon Davis: 17:01

So because, see, here's the problem that I see often with people is when you get to books like First Chronicles, chapter 1, the first 11 books are all names of people that have been long dead and have no meaning to you, and when you can't pronounce the names, you don't know what the names mean, you get discouraged and you won't continue to try. Now here's the secret, though In First Chronicles, those names have meaning and what you have. Your job then becomes one of being sort of a detective. Ok, let me find out what these names mean, what their meanings are, and then you'll find little nuggets like the prayer of J-Bez is embedded in First Chronicles, and if you take the time to do the detective work, you use the tools to study the Bible, customs and manners of biblical people, the complete expository Bible that takes major topic areas and breaks it down for you.

Deacon Davis: 18:13

But all of that again is in the free gift that you'll get today for watching and downloading this podcast. It's a gift to you from Jackie and I, and it'll be useful to you in terms of trying to make sense of the Bible so that you can do it with us. Say it to the Lord. You can't do it if you don't understand what he's saying. So the first part begins with understanding and then the most important part in terms of studying the Bible. You start with prayer. You ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through the Scripture and to help you to understand what the message is. What is the takeaway that God wants you to get from having read a particular passage? You be surprised how you can get major revelation by asking the Holy Spirit to guide you as you go through the Scripture.

Jacqui: 19:13

I love that. That's wisdom there. That is absolutely wisdom. So you talked about these tools that we might use for studying. Can you differentiate, for us, reading the Bible and studying the Bible?

Deacon Davis: 19:27

Oh yes, you see, most of us read the Bible on Sunday. Okay, if we carry an old paper Bible, like I do, or we'll do it electronically, but we're just reading a couple of passages. Now, when I study, that's a different mindset. I'm not looking for no quick fix. I'm not looking for the Scripture that the pastor is going to just preach from. But there are some principles to studying God's Word. First you use the tools and then there's a principle where you read five verses above the key verse that you're studying and you read five below. And the reason for that five by five rule is so that you can read in context, because many people, when you lift the Scripture out of context, you get the wrong meaning. You start coming up with meanings that in 2,000 years nobody else has ever come up with. So you don't want to be in that posture.

Deacon Davis: 20:30

And the tools help you to understand the commentaries. They're not the Bible, they don't replace the Bible, but the commentary is like Matthew Henry's commentaries on the old and New Testament, can help provide that additional context that you need, as well as understanding customs and manners of biblical people. They did things that we don't do. They were largely agricultural. They weren't industrial people like us. So many times, jesus would use what people commonly understood, which was agriculture. That's why so many of his parables deal with a seed or a field being planted and sown and so forth, because the people at that time would have understood that. But people in our time and age, we don't understand that idea of sowing and reaping unless we live on a farm. And so that's how we get the context is by utilizing the tools, asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and again, read five verses above, five verses below.

Deacon Davis: 21:45

You may have to go. Let's say, I'm picking Romans, chapter 10, and the verse that I'm focused on is verse 13. I may need to read the entirety of that chapter to understand the context of what the Apostle Paul is saying. He's the one that wrote Romans, by the way. So that's how I get the context. And then again, when you use the tools, you explore in your commentary and your concordance what those words mean, then you're in position to understand. Oh OK, a light just went off. I get it. Now I hear what God is saying to me.

Jacqui: 22:32

Let's talk about how we make this a habit, or make it even get started with some level of consistency in reading and or studying.

Deacon Davis: 22:44

OK, and we've already made the distinction between just reading, where you read the scripture Hopefully you understand it. But studying goes beyond that. That's where the tools come in. You do a lot more detective work to find out the meaning of words, the meaning of people, places and things in the Bible, and that's that takes you to a whole another level when you're studying. And then there's meditating on the word, chewing on that word. Like a cow has two stomachs and it takes in the grass, it eats it, it chews it, it mulls it over and then it goes into the second stomach and that same process begins. So now you have Bible reading by the study and Bible meditation. The place to start is to be intentional, to say Lord, I want to do what pleases you, I need to understand your word. I don't know how to come in or go out, is the Old Testament prophets would say so, Lord, I need your help and I need your guidance and direction in how to understand your word and how to meditate on it. And so it starts with being intentional, saying that look, each day I'm going to read at least one script and I'm going to begin to memorize scripture. That's a whole other discipline, but you got reading, you got studying, you got meditation and then you've got scripture memorization. Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. So when we are at that stage and we're intentional about it and we're going to read some scripture each day, whether it's first thing in the morning or the last thing at night, I personally don't recognize or recommend doing it at night because the enemy will cause you to go to sleep. I know he'll cause me, especially if I've eaten a good meal and I'm relaxing. So for me it's early in the morning.

Deacon Davis: 24:55

My prayer partners one of them we made it 6 30 in the morning, and the other one we gather at 7.

Deacon Davis: 25:03

And we spend about an hour reading scripture and then pray for one another and praying about pretty much everything, from the war in Israel and people that are being killed to what's going on here in America with fentanyl overdoses, the crime, et cetera.

Deacon Davis: 25:23

So we pray about those things that concern us. But most importantly, all of us are grandfathers, so we pray for our grandchildren, like Job did. Every morning we get up, we got to lift up our grandchildren and great grandchildren so that if they have offended God, which we know, they have that at least somebody is praying for them, and our goal is for them to see us older men who are willing to bow our knees in prayer, and how important prayer is to us, so that when our great grandchildren grow up they'll say you know, pop, pop, always pray for us. We're going to do the same thing for our children, and my prayer right now is that my grandchildren to the sixth and seventh generation would all come to know Jesus Christ, and so that's the legacy that I'd like to leave is that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and those who haven't even been born yet, will know that Grandpa was a praying man.

Jacqui: 26:33

What a legacy to leave behind. I like that you talked about your prayers, that you and your prayer partner have, and that they are relevant to things that are going on now. What do you say to people who wonder is the Bible itself relevant to what's going on now? Is it relevant to my life today?

Deacon Davis: 26:53

Yes, that's an excellent question, because the Bible was written 2,000 years ago, and so it's easy to claim or to think that it's no longer relevant to what's going on today, but you can find verses in Scripture that speak to the very things that are going on today. For example, in my apologetics class, I talked to them about how do you witness to an atheist, and one of the things we say to an atheist is well, you know, if I'm wrong about Jesus Christ, I will have lost nothing, but if you're wrong, what will you have lost? And that gets them to think you know, do I really want to spend 90% of my time trying to prove something that I say doesn't exist? And so it makes a difference in how you approach different people with it.

Deacon Davis: 27:55

When we talk to people who are of different faiths, one of the things that we see in a lot of these cults in particular is that they are workspace and we don't work to get saved. We work because we are saved, but they are trying to do things that they want to keep the law. The Jew wants to keep the law, the Muslim wants to go to Mecca and keep the five pillars of Islam and the Jehovah Witnesses. They just simply don't know if they're going to have. So one of the questions that we can ask all three groups and any other group is if you were to die to an atheist, what assurance do you have that you would spend eternity in heaven? If they're honest, they're going to tell you they don't have any assurance and that opens the door. Would you like to be assured that when you die, you're going to go to heaven? Because I can tell you about a man named Jesus who can make all of this happen for you, and all it takes is a simple prayer.

Jacqui: 29:06

That's beautiful, wow. Thank you so much, deacon Davis, for that. And, above and beyond, what I've asked for and expected may helping people to understand the relevancy of God's Word that's key.

Deacon Davis: 29:23

It speaks to your situation. There is nothing new under the sun, the Bible says, and that's why one of the reasons God's Word is a living Word it's not something that was written way back then. It's just a book of history. No, it's not. And one of the things that atheists have trouble with is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. How do you account for that? If there is no God, how is it that Micah, speaking 500 years, could predict where Jesus would be born? How is it that Isaiah, speaking 700 years before Jesus was born, could say that he would be born to a virgin? So there's a lot of Old Testament prophecy that we saw fulfilled in the Old Testament, and if it wasn't, then it was fulfilled in the New Testament. And there are still some prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. We see what's going on with Israel. Well, ezekiel 38 tells us that there's 10 nations that are going to come against Israel and try to destroy it, but once again, god is going to step in and defend and protect His special people. Amen, amen.

Deacon Davis: 30:40

So the Bible can help you to understand the times that you're going through. It can help you understand what a marriage looks like. You know a marriage is supposed to be a representation of Christ's relationship with His church. The Bible can speak to how to raise children properly. It speaks to how to handle your finances. You should always know the state of your flocks, proverbs tells us so. If you want wisdom, it's contained in the Bible. If you want guidance and direction in troubled times like we live in today, the Bible has a lot of answers. It's just up to us to stop being lazy and slothful and go ahead and dive into God's word.

Jacqui: 31:27

That's it. Go ahead and dive into God's word. That should be the tagline for the Bible Basics Podcast. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Now you know what. We have a little bit of time left.

Deacon Davis: 31:43

We have to end our time test. You told me about that, so go ahead A quick round of this or that.

Jacqui: 31:50

Okay, now would you prefer, or rather, be present at Jesus' birth or at the resurrection?

Deacon Davis: 32:03

Those are both great questions and those are both great miracles of God. I think I would want to be present at his resurrection because that would take away any doubt that he rose from the grave. Now we honor the fact that Jesus was born. I mean, we, you know, we're getting ready to celebrate Christmas, even though there's nothing to suggest he was born on December 25th. But the central part of Christianity revolves around Jesus' resurrection. If we take that out of Christianity, there is no Christianity. So I'd rather be present to be able to testify. I saw my Lord get up out of the grave. I saw him after he had been beaten and crucified. I got to see him, I ate with him, I drank with him, talked with him, touched his side, touched his feet, touched his hands. You know, I think I'd rather have that.

Jacqui: 33:03

That sounds great. That sounds great. Okay, I have some other opportunities here. Okay, how about would you rather lead over 600,000 men out of Egypt or lead 300 men into battle in a valley?

Deacon Davis: 33:21

Now, that's a tough choice too, because handling 6000 complaining whining people, I don't know that I'd have the temperament for that. And then leading 300 men in battle, well, somebody could get hurt, and you know I'm not trying to get hurt, but I think I would go with the 300 men in battle rather than 600,000 complaining, whining people.

Jacqui: 33:52

I think you would. I think you would have been able to handle the 600,000. You would have reigned the men. Okay Well, I appreciate that. Okay Well, here's a nicer thing, or easier thing. How would you prefer to be best friends, but with Peter or Paul?

Deacon Davis: 34:12

That's another good question. Well, paul was kind of like me. His temperament was a caloric, which means that he thrives on hardships, and you know he loved the fact that he was beaten, snaked it stoned, left for dead, hip wreck. I mean he took pride in those things and he was like you know me. I don't know that might and the desire for punishment is that great.

Deacon Davis: 34:42

Peter, on the other hand, was a little bit of a thug and he cut off a guy's ear in the garden and Jesus had to tell him man, put your sword away. If you swing the sword you're gonna die by the sword. And I'm supposed to die, peter, but not here in this garden. So I think I want to hang out with Peter because he was a bit crazy, he was impulsive, he was a sanguine. In terms of temperament, that means he was always talking. I remember God even had to tell him to shut up when they were on the top of the mountain and Jesus was transfigured. He said this is my son, hear him. In other words, peter, shut up. I think Peter would be the one I would want to hang out with most.

Jacqui: 35:28

It's good. I know that Deaconess Julia Davis is an amazing cook, but would you rather eat like Daniel he was into healthy veggies or Elijah and the widow who went out and made bread for him, and they eat bread every day, which you prefer?

Deacon Davis: 35:53

Well see, bread and water sounds too much like prison to me. So I think I would go with Daniel and eat the vegetables. You can season them up, you can get full, but bread and water? They talk about bread and the bread and water of affliction, and we know that at one point in American history that's all you got in prison was bread and water. So now I think I would rather have some veggies. Okay, I'm with you on that completely, and here's the last one.

Jacqui: 36:24

Would you rather witness the parting of the Red Sea, with Jesus walking on water? God parting the Red Sea.

Deacon Davis: 36:33

That is a tough one, because they're both great miracles of God. But going with something more contemporary, I think I'd rather see Jesus walking on the water, because it's one thing to park the water, it's another thing to turn that water into a highway, and so I think, for that reason, I would rather have Jesus walking on the water towards me.

Jacqui: 37:05

Also, you don't want to be hanging out with those 600,000 men who are crossing the Red Sea.

Deacon Davis: 37:11

There's no thank you. They drove Pastor Moses crazy to the point where he didn't get down to the promised land. So no, I think I'd rather go fight a battle with the 300 guys.

Jacqui: 37:25

That sounds great. That sounds great. Thank you so much, Deacon. This was amazing. Not only was it just full of wisdom, helpful hints, it was enjoyable.

Deacon Davis: 37:36

Well, thank you for that.

Jacqui: 37:38

And I think the listeners are gonna enjoy it as well.

Deacon Davis: 37:41

Okay, Well, I want to say thank you for having me on, and I do pray that this podcast will bless some people. In fact, that's my prayer that I'll pray right now. Father, we thank you for our time together here today. Thank you, lord, for what our ears have heard and our hearts have received. We pray, lord, that this podcast will reach as many people as you would desire it to. We pray that it would bless them, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray and give thanks. Amen.

Jacqui: 38:15

Amen. Thank you and listeners, don't forget, if you want the resource that Deacon Davis has prepared for us, containing tools and techniques for studying God's word, just send us an email at info@ bible-basics. org. Thank you for tuning in. If this has been beneficial to you, please share it with others, subscribe or follow, and all of you Apple Podcast listeners, drop us a review and we see you next time.