all right hello YouTube and Instagram great to see all right I see people signing in cluding the people in whose house I'm recording this so I'm downstairs recording and they're upstairs watching on Instagram hey Bernice if you want you can come downstairs you can watch down here all right welcome everybody to Instagram uh live that are tuning in on Instagram live great to see so many people signed in already 400 people already that's amazing Hearts going up like crazy welcome everybody Welcome Ash welcome Steven welcome welcome to Reen welcome Allison welcome chasing Hearts welcome Jason welcome Naomi welcome Js welcome James welcome Anton there's Bernice upstairs sending me emojis downstairs uh welcome Jamie welcome Nancy welcome CC welcome Gabby Abby there she is of course I knew you'd be here uh Dar Stokes welcome Jim welcome all right can everybody hear me all right happy sabbaths people are saying Thiago nice to see you brother all right can you if somebody could just let me know if you can hear that would be great all right so welcome to everybody on Instagram live welcome to those of you that are tuning in uh via YouTube we don't do this Live on YouTube but I will upload it I'll talk more about this a little in a little bit but we upload it to YouTube typically the next day okay people say they can hear me all right good good good good all right it's actually happening here we are yeah I I'm I'm giddy I've been looking forward to this not only all day uh running around uh a little bit like a crazy person double checking triple checking everything by the way I I know there's a setting on my phone and I couldn't remember what it was that allows me to be sure that nobody will call me or text me because for those of you that were with us for OT with da or D A with D.A sometimes when people call or text it shuts down my Instagram feed and I I can't remember what that setting was so if somebody could let me know not right now because I'm not paying that much attention but after the video is posted in the comments either on YouTube or on Instagram that would be really great all right man we're at 600 people already live on Instagram hello Cindy hello Lisa hello Cassandra hello Sarah I guess that would be all right this is so great oh Do Not Disturb is that all it is Hannah Hallelujah okay anyway hopefully nobody calls me or texts me tonight and this doesn't get shut off all right my name is David ashrick we are live for our first uh session of SC with D.A that steps to Christ which is our book that we're going to be reading through I've got it right here we're going to talk about this tonight tonight's basically a welcome and an introduction we've got some you know veteran followers of the with da series you've done D.A with D.A you've done OT with D.A but I'm a hundred percent sure that we have a bunch of new people too so we're gonna spend a little time doing sort of some housekeeping talking about how this works and I I had so many things that I wanted to say and I wanted to be sure I didn't forget anything that I I have notes here in front of me a couple pages of notes and uh so anyway welcome everybody I'm so glad you're here my name is David ashrick we're well over 600 people now that are signed in this is exciting and it's great to see the people interacting back and forth oh that's so great I absolutely love it great to see you Patrick all right some people giving me some advice hello Jonathan Drake oh wow so fun okay so somebody's asking about the name because I just called it SC with d a uh we'll get to the name in just a moment okay so anyway first of all the the I'm gonna use my pen here to check off all the things make sure I've said all the right things welcome and introduction okay so my name is Pastor David ashrik for those of you that uh know who I am um great to see you back so glad you're here for those of you that don't uh I'm a pastor I'm a teacher I'm a preacher I work with lightbearers Ministry I'll talk more about them in just a little bit and my passion is teaching and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and especially teaching people how to communicate the gospel to others in a persuasive Winsome and effective way so um yeah I've pastored I've been an evangelist and I'm an author so that's a little bit about me but you're not here to learn about me we're here to learn about Jesus our book is titled steps to Christ and so just a brief introduction if you don't know who I am over the course of the next couple weeks you'll have lots of opportunity to to interact with me to see what kind of a person I am and and see if if you like me I hope you like I like being liked okay we're at 700 people already on Instagram hey Robert let's see I got so many people talking all right I need to stop paying attention to that because I'll get distracted and start interacting with people all right I want to start after the welcome and introduction with a bunch of thank yous and I I really these are not just a list to check off these are people that in my heart I am so thankful for people that have made this possible and I want to start by thanking Jose and Bernice benabe they're the ones in whose house I currently am Violetta and I have been living here for the last month we celebrated Christmas together we tonight Violetta made homemade pizza uh with her own homemade pizza dough so we're eating together we're hanging out together we're doing exercises together we're playing board games together and so they have been so gracious Jose and Bernice who are upstairs right now as I'm recording this so first and foremost thank you to Jose and Bernice you've opened your home you've opened your hearts you've let us take over your beautiful basement we love you and thank you so much okay number two I want to thank light bearers I briefly mentioned them earlier but this is the ministry uh that I've been affiliated with for more than a decade now let's see all the way back in 2011 a Ministry that I was running called a rise merged with light bearers arise have been running since 2003 and light bearers since 10 years before that so light Bears has been doing its thing for about 30 years arise had been doing its thing for about 10. we've now merged and it's just such an honor to be partnering with people like Jeffrey Rosario Ty Gibson yamil Rosario you know some of these names Angelo Grosso has recently joined the team um I'm always confused if I should say Grosso or Grasso so Angelo if you're on here at some point let me know because I'm always afraid I'm mispronouncing your last name so a big thank you to light bearers they're the ones that helped me to do all of the things that I do the traveling the teaching the preaching uh the discipleship Journey with a rise which Begins by the way in just like a month the arise Australia program and I'm particularly excited about this year's arise Australia program because Violetta and I's youngest son jabel is enrolled in the program with about 50 other young people a rise is a is a Ministry A discipleship Ministry that started back in 2003 as I mentioned been going out for 20 years and in addition to the online program which you can learn more about uh at arise.online we run an uh an in-person on-campus program in Australia we've run it in the past in Michigan and in California and uh Australia and now and I think I said yeah California Michigan Oregon those are the locations in the United States and we've run it in Australia since 2013. so this is the 10-year anniversary of 10 years of our our 10-year anniversary in Australia my youngest son jabel is going to be there so it's light bears that makes all of this happen and if you're not already familiar with light bearers or a supporter and partner of light bearers please by all means learn more about this ministry it's a powerful Ministry I consider it and I don't just say this lightly an honor and a privilege to be affiliated with such an awesome Ministry filled with committed godly people and um okay that's libraries also thirdly I want to thank types and symbols uh for those of you that are aware types and symbols is a Christian graphic design and Publishing uh company slash Ministry because so much of what they do is is Ministry based they're the ones responsible for the uh dreaming and creating and Publishing of this updated modernized absolutely beautiful series titled the conflict beautiful uh and we've already read through Desire of Ages that's D.A with D.A I've got the shirt on I'll talk more about that in a second and we've done the first half of OT with D.A all of these books are the results of the the dreaming and the visioning and the creating of types and symbols amazing people that do amazing work Mark Ivan and and Jen and and Libby and the whole team that are affiliated there and that work awesome work absolutely love them they launched the light life collection which I have here which is three books thoughts from the amount of blessing Christ object lessons and then our own steps to Christ that we're going to be doing in this series so and this is what it looks like on the side so I've got the gray set here which is my wife's and I've got the red set here which is mine she let me use it as a prop um so big shout out to types and symbols they're the ones that really hugely responsible for making this happen thank you Mark thank you Jen love you guys so much the books are incredible the journals are incredible I'll talk more about those in a little bit uh okay now also I want to thank all of you who who have made these uh with da challenges what they are so all of you that are uh tuned in right now to Instagram live those of you that are watching via YouTube whether you're watching right now as we're doing the challenge or maybe you're watching a month or a year or five years when from when we're actually recording this you're the ones that make this awesome the community and it's really cool the community that has emerged from these reading challenges not only what takes place online but like when I go travel now like when we do the arise intensives or I have a speaking appointment people will come up they'll be they'll be wearing their D.A with D.A or their OT with da shirts or hoodies and uh it's all as soon as I see somebody within with an OT or da with D.A shirt I just instant connection and it's like okay we got to get a picture and and at a couple of the intensives we've gotten everybody together I said okay on the last day uh where by the way maybe you don't know what I'm intensive is arise runs these intensives uh three or four times a year and we get between sort of 200 and 400 people together and we go through the story of scripture anyway at these intensives people will wear their shirts or their hoodies we get together we take a group photo so it's really cool the way that the the shirts and the challenges and the books have all made this really awesome community and it's shared experience shared experience together shared experience in the books that we're reading and so I I'm going to tell you more about the shirts in just a little bit but a big thank you to all of you who make this possible I also want to thank all of the guests that we have had on the programs in the past and I've got um some guests lined up even though it's really only a two or two and a half week challenge because it's such a short book steps to Christ I've got some guests line up lined up now Elise harbolt who's been with us both for OT with ta and Diego was going to be a surprise but in the welcome I blew it I just said her name out loud uh so she'll be with us tomorrow for chapter one and then she'll be with us on Sunday for chapter two so but thank you to all of the guests we've had many many guests and if I start naming them uh then I'm gonna forget people but thank you to all of the guests and thank you to the guests that have agreed to come for this one and I'm not going to tell you who they are until they literally are on set no hints nothing they're just gonna you're gonna see them when we go live okay but I've got at least three guests lined up and maybe I'm working on a fourth and maybe a fifth but we'll see definitely three maybe more so thank you to the guests and then finally to sort of round out the thank yous I've got to say and this has been and I've I've told this to my good friend Ty Gibson who's my co-speaker at light bearers that these reading challenges have been unquestionably one of the most satisfying things that I've done in my whole Ministry and I have received this is not an exaggeration and I am a little prone to exaggeration I admit that but this is not an exaggeration I have received literally hundreds of testimonies from people that that some of them are long some of them are short some of them are just a quick message on Instagram a text message an email a phone call a giant hug and my heart has just been it just overflows with not just the fact that people have said hey thank you for doing that but the kinds of things that I have heard I mean it's amazing like I've I've had people send me beautiful emails telling me that a friend had recommended oh maybe you should check out this D.A with D.A thing they were skeptical they got the book and they said after chapter one I was hooked and I would you know I was in tears and I did the whole Challenge and my whole life is different and I've heard stories of marriages being repaired I mean it's incredible people coming back to cheese Jesus people getting baptized I had one person wrote me a testimony said that they were an atheist and a friend of theirs had said look will you do a 100 day challenge reading through a religious book and just just just do it and see if you're still an atheist at the end this was D.A with the a The Desire of Ages the person wrote me a testimony and said not only am I no longer an atheist I love Jesus and I'm telling everybody about it and what's so fascinating about this is that these reading challenges are hardly sort of typical Evangelistic programs right like like we're just reading through religious books and going through the journaling and the rubric which we'll talk more about a little bit Hallelujah so a giant thank you to all of you who have given me your testimonies whether it be a text or direct message or email or phone or in person it is not an exaggeration to say there are hundreds hundreds of testimonies already that I've received and then when you go read through like the comments on whether it's Instagram or on YouTube I'm not even including those because there's testimonies there too so Hallelujah this little reading challenge idea that God put into my mind and I'll talk more about that in just a second has literally impacted the lives of thousands of people many thousands and I'm I'm just so thankful for the technology I'm so thankful for the enthusiasm and by all means share this with somebody else you know don't think oh they need to be a Christian oh they need to be a member of my denomination in order apparently not you know somebody had the courage and the the insight to just invite their atheist friend to participate in a 100-day religious Challenge and just see whoa I mean come on God will not be constrained by our ideas of what he can and cannot do all right so there's all the thank yous uh now I want to talk a little bit on my clicking checking off on my notes Here uh just a little bit about the background of the with D.A reading challenges so as I mentioned we started with D.A with D.A and and the way that came to be was I had just came come back to the United States of America from Australia I know some of you know this story but there's a lot of new people we're at almost 800 people now online but just very quickly um I had just received my copies well actually I had received them earlier but I had opened my copy of the conflict beautiful after having come back from Australia my family and I lived in Australia for seven years and when I came back it was still coveted and travel was restricted and there was a little bit of travel but there weren't many speaking appointments and I was just in my this is a true story it wasn't like some committee meeting or some great idea that David had I was praying and I was like Lord what should I do for my devotions now and the idea came into my mind to read The Desire of Ages a book that I'd read many times before but my favorite book I mean it would not be an exaggeration to say that apart from the Bible itself my very favorite book is the Desire of Ages my youngest son jabel just texted me probably an hour ago from Australia he's in church in Australia right now in the morning Sabbath morning and he said hey Dad what's your favorite book and I said the Bible and he said other than the Bible and I said the Desire of Ages so even though I'd read the book many times I just thought I want to read it again and then this was the thing that was amazing I got this idea to just turn on Instagram live and talk about what I was learning in the Desire of Ages and to do it every day and then it just blew up I mean I literally didn't know if a dozen people would follow along I mean it's a big book I don't know if 50 people would follow along a hundred maybe and it just absolutely blew up and it was growing and then a community started to develop and then people said you need to do the rest of the conflict beautiful so then we did OT with D.A so we did D A with d a in early 2021 so basically January to April of excuse me February to June of 2021 that was D.A with D.A many of you that are here were participants in D.A with D.A if you were not a participant it's all on my YouTube channel you can go back and go right through it and there are still people I track the metrics on my YouTube channel there are people right now in fact I just had a person text me the other day and say I'm I'm gonna do the steps to Christ challenge but I'm on chapter 17 of the Desire of Ages I'm going through I can't quite do every day but I'm going through I'm working my way through slowly so Hallelujah then last year in 2022 from January to April we did the first half of OT with D.A right the Old Testament with David ashric and we read through Patriarchs and Prophets so the conflict beautiful is made up of five volumes Patriarchs and profits prophets and Kings that's the Old Testament then the Desire of Ages which is the Life of Christ right this sort of beautiful synthesis of Matthew Mark Luke and John and then uh an elucidation right an explication an unpacking of the gospels it's amazing it's as I said it's my favorite book we have not yet done acts the apostles which is basically the New Testament uh after a book of Acts onward through the Epistles and then finally the great controversy which is the book that I read personally back in 1995-96 that was responsible for my conversion so these books are very very near and dear to my heart and we've we've gone through two of them we're gonna go through the remaining three I'll get to more of that in just a second actually I'm gonna do that right now I wrote a note to myself here explain why the order is a little confused like why are we now doing steps to Christ and some of you know this story but some of you know okay we're over 800 people now Hallelujah on Instagram live um so basically here's what ended up happening the Lord just impressed me to do this D.A with D.A thing the title literally came to me in a moment d a withd i didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it it was an epiphany and I fully believe it was from the spirit of God and I was obedient to the spirit's unction and invitation and God has grown this into something bigger and more amazing than I could have ever imagined back in 2020. so or 2021 well actually yeah 2021 early 2021 so what happened was is that the da with D.A that's right in the middle of the conflict of the Aegis series and so we started with that and then we were like well what do we do now because people wanted to do more so do we go forward with Acts of the Apostles and then later sort of circle back and do the Old Testament I actually did a poll I said what should we do and we did a poll and we had I don't know five or six hundred people voted in the poll and the majority of people wanted to go back to the beginning and start from there okay so that's basically what we're doing we've gone back to paychecks and profits we've gone through that now you might be saying well wait a minute then why are we doing steps to Christ which is back into the life of Jesus and not prophets and Kings okay great question well here's the short answer and I could go into greater detail but the short answer is is that steps of Christ is short right it's only 13 chapters so this is going to be like a two two and a half week challenge while patriarch prophets in Kings it's like 60 chapters so if you're going to do this every day excuse me you need to have like a two-month period to pull it off well I don't have a two-month period in January or February and March because as soon as I'm done with this I've got to go visit Violet as parents and I've got a bunch of speaking appointments and then I'm right off to Australia for a rise as I've already talked about so there was no two-month block to do it at the beginning of the year but God willing there will be a two-month block toward the end of this year so basically what we're going to do is we're going to make our way through by the grace of God every single book in the conflict of the age of series I mean at this point we've got so much momentum we have so many participants the Lord has used it so powerfully that I'm just committed I'm in I hope you're in too it's going to be great but we're just going to work our way through uh at the pace that I can I mean back when there was covid and there wasn't a lot of travel and and speaking appointments it was easy but now I've got to fit it in around all of the other amazing things that light Bears is doing that rise is doing so yeah it's harder to find those spaces but we will find them and we'll make it happen you just have to stay tuned to Instagram Facebook YouTube so what we're doing now is we're going to work our way not only through the conflict beautiful but we're going to work our way through the the light and life collection which is steps of Christ Christ object lessons and Thoughts From the Mount of blessing and we'll use these much shorter books to sort of fill in the gaps when we can't find those longer periods right so that's why the order is a little bit confused I apologize I'll be totally honest with you it does play with my OCD a little bit I mean real talk when I talked to Mark cook about this from types and symbols we went back and forth what do we do do we do it like this do we do it like that and and he agreed with me you know he's a very artistic organized orderly person and we both would have preferred to have started from you know the very beginning but that's not how it happened and that's not what the spirit impressed me so here we are and we're going to do the order as best as we can but the good news is even though it plays with my desire to have things be linear and organized a little bit we're going to work our way through all of these books and it's going to be awesome and it's going to be amazing and it's going to take us I mean depending on my schedule at least a couple more years probably three more years or more and then I've already thought about um how I got so many other books when we're done with this I have some of my other favorite books that I just want to read together why not why not just do this for the rest of my life like these reading challenges they're so fun people are always sending me emails and texts and messages saying you know what books do you recommend what are your top 10 books what are your top 50 books what are your and so wouldn't it be fun to just read some of my favorite books with those that want to listen in and uh so I don't see us being limited only to uh books by Ellen White I love these books and they've been amazing they're transformative they're biblical they are saturated in in uh christ-centeredness but yeah going forward we've got a lot of books to read and as long as people are willing to tune in and listen and pray and journal we're gonna do it we're just gonna keep doing this because it's too much fun to not do it um oh also an earlier thank you I I can't say names here but there are two people you know who you are and they are people that made Financial contributions for me to be able to graduate from merely talking to my phone which is what we did in uh d a withda the first part of Da with D.A so um thank you to you know who you are I I know you wouldn't want me to say your names but thank you for making those financial contributions that have allowed me to purchase lights uh a camera lenses uh recording device all of that thank you we couldn't I mean we could do it but it would just be on the phone and this looks this looks so great okay um so got that okay now I've got people asking about the name what about the name what's the name gonna be well about oh I don't know maybe two weeks ago two or three weeks ago I said look you know what should we do what should we do with the name and people submitted names what do you think would be a good name for these reading challenges and I'll be honest with you I had a little bit of regret about asking because we got so many good names no exaggeration dozens of good names like oh that would work that would work that would work that would work that would work I mean some really really good names in fact some names that I will probably employ in future projects I mean I mean it was really good and I kind of regretted like I shouldn't have asked because I thought you know there would be just one name that would stand out and it would be really obvious there's too many good ones so in consultation uh with Mark from types and symbols and even Ty Gibson has had a little bit of input on this um or talking to me about it and then with my wife the name that we've decided to go with and this is a little anti-climactic a little I I apologize for that it's kind of my own fault but we're just going to go with with D.A and that way it's just the whatever it is that we do whether we read another kind of book in the future or whatever it's just with D.A so they're the with d a challenges me being D.A David ashrick and it's already got good name recognition we've done d a withda we've done OT with da now we're doing SC with d a so what we'll probably do going forward is we will just use the hashtag withda rather than the specific you know D A with d a or OT with d a or SC with d a so so that's the name I think it's a good name it's simple it's easy and it's already got some pretty good name recognition and a big thank you to those of you that submitted names some of your names honestly were better than that name but I think that the whole idea of name recognition and continuity it I think this is the easiest thing to do and as I said it's a little anticlimactic apologies for that and thank you for submitting your names okay moving right along now let's talk about the schedule what's the schedule going to be okay basically what I'm going to try and do which I've not done very well I'm going to try to have the meetings that we do for this challenge at the same time every day and and the reason that's hard for me is that I have a little bit of that sort of ADHD spontaneity like it you know I like it when things are different when they're changing when they're shifting so to have a routine consistent schedule uh that's not really my DNA but I can do it for two weeks and So the plan is and I'm this is not a promise it's a plan to be clear there is a difference uh the plan will be to be here every night at 7 pm mountain time so this is our time this will be our time slot and um that's the plan so that's going to be the sort of daily schedule we'll be live on Instagram um God willing as long as all the technology works and okay live on Instagram and then uh as soon as the video is done I have to edit it and cut the front off and the back off and boost the sound and do all of those things and then upload it to YouTube that takes me a couple hours and so it'll be available on YouTube normally the next day and so the Instagram is really nice because it's live and you get the interaction but to be honest the video looks a lot more sharp and professional on YouTube so if you prefer the professional and the sound is better on YouTube as well but I just love the the interaction here I mean we've got over 800 people that are still tuned in and so great so live on Instagram every day 7 P.M Mountain Time bam I've already mentioned this but we have a number of guests lined up Elise will be with us tomorrow and Sunday can't wait she she actually this is how amazing Elise is she really wanted to do chapter two she loves chapter two and when I told her oh Elise she thought chapter two would be tomorrow she thought chapter one would be today I said at least but we're doing a we're doing an intro so chapter two won't be until Sunday and then she said oh okay I'll change my flight [Laughter] changed her flight I mean she's amazing I said look whatever the expense associated with changing your flight is I'm happy to pay it and happy for me it was only like thirty seven dollars so I'm more than happy to pay 37 to have a lease here because she's amazing she's recently graduated we'll talk more about that tomorrow and we have a little surprise in store Elise and I have a little surprise in store um and I'm not going to say any more about that because I'm terrible at keeping secrets right this is what I like to tell people about myself if you give me a bad news secret I will keep it until the day I die if you say this is this is really bad news and I don't want you to tell anybody I won't tell anybody okay but if you give me a good news secret like a surprise birthday party or some good it's very hard for me to keep good news to myself because I'm a gospel preacher I'm like it's in my DNA to not keep good news to myself I'm like you know those people that were healed by Jesus and he's like don't tell anybody but they had to they couldn't keep it to themselves I've got that that same inclination so anyway not gonna say anymore but we do have a little surprise for you and you'll learn more about that later um oh okay so we are going to have some giveaways we've we've done giveaways on every one of the reading challenges so far D.A with ta and OT with da we're going to do the same here we're going to be giving away two sets of the conflict beautiful with marbled edges bam two sets of the conflict beautiful with marbled edges that's the good ones the high-end ones Yes you heard that right and we're going to give away two sets of the conflict beautiful journals okay so yes we're gonna be doing a giveaway the giveaway is only for those who participate in this is on the honor System but who participate in all of the days you can get behind today but as long as you catch up you have to complete the challenge within the allotted time and I'll talk to you more about the giveaways at the end and we might even have some more things to give away I mean usually we end up giving away even more stuff than we said we were gonna so I've talked to Mark and we're gonna give away at least two marbled Edge sets of the conflict beautiful you're thinking to yourself I already have a set well good you can give one away I've given away so many sets of the conflict beautiful nieces nephews sons friends pastoral colleagues I hope you're doing the same okay also we're going to have shirts I've got my beautiful D.A with D.A shirt on here and Mark today sent me the mock-ups actually the the final product of the uh shirt that we're gonna do for this reading challenge and they are hot they look they look good and I'll tell you more about those tomorrow night so we are going to have shirts and I said Mark We're not gonna have hoodies this time around because the hoodies are a little bit more involved but I said Mark if there's any way we could also do long sleeve shirts I'm a big fan of long sleeve shirts as well so shirts coming they look beautiful we're gonna try a new supplier and so we're gonna get the cost down too so yeah we're excited about that so yes there will be shirts um I've already talked about that okay man we are motoring right along okay now after 30 minutes we get into I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the actual book steps to Christ and sort of everything that I've set up to this point is kind of just welcome and orientation and getting you ready for what's coming what we're going to talk about going forward from now on tonight is really about the booksteps to Christ how the journaling works I know many of you have been with us before but this is going to be uh new for some of you and it's good to remind ourselves right I myself need to be reminded of it so um we're going to be talking about this book here steps to Christ and I'm going to speak autobiographically about this book in just a moment and tell you what this book is meant to me I've already mentioned several times that this is the book that I have read more than any other book in terms of the number of times having read it through in my life and and I mean that's not super impressive or anything I mean you can see it's quite a small book it's only just over a hundred Pages let's see here it's about in the types and symbols version which is a little stretched out it's 165 pages and in the original pagination it's 126 pages so it's a small book I mean I've read this book before in a day right it's easy it's the kind of book you can just sit down on a long lazy sort of afternoon and read it so it's it's not impressive and I'm not pretending that it's impressive that I've read this book through so many times I didn't read the book through so many times for any sort of you know Prestige not that there would be any Prestige attached to that but because the book's so incredible right because the book is so beautiful and because the book has been so instrumental in my own Walk With Jesus and I love this book I I I've been actually looking forward to re-reading it re-experiencing it with the with D.A community and man there are some gems of gems of gems in this book I'll just use an illustration so one of the uh Instagram a couple of the Instagram accounts that I follow I like to follow these um people that go into the Outback of Australia or Arizona or Mexico or other places and they find crystals they find gems they find geodes and they'll often sort of bring the the camera with them so that you feel like you're discovering and when they're reaching in with their you know muddy hands and there's water and often sort of flowing through and these caves or you know some little Dugout that they've gotten they're they're reaching in there's just this sense of expectancy like oh what's it going to be you know and they're pulling it out and then they'll where if it's a Geo they'll you know crack it open or if it's crystals you see it then they hose it down I mean it's just like this the revelation of finding these amazing things that are tucked away they're there they're there but you've got to find them and and then you pull them out and you wash them and you look at them from different angles and they glisten and they glow and they're beautiful and exactly that's how I feel about the Bible that's how I feel about the Desire of Ages that's how I feel about books like steps to Christ I know what's in there I I've read these books over and over again I I mean right now I'm rereading through the Psalms also as part of my devotions this morning I read Psalm 52. I've read these Psalms I've read through scripture I've read The Desire of Ages I've read Patriarchs and Prophets I've read steps to Christ but every time you read these books over years cumulatively the book is a different book because you're a different person and you find gems you might think how can this gem be here I've been in this cave before I've dug around here before and I didn't find this Gem and here it is this beautiful purple geode or this beautiful clear crystal or this amethyst that's what we're going to be doing over the course of the next two weeks it's going to be amazing I know some of the things that we're going to see in this book and I can't wait to share them with you and I can't wait for Jesus by his Spirit to share them with me but there are things in this book even a book that I've read over and over and over again that I don't know what we're going to discover there's going to be new things because I'm a new person I haven't read this book now for I haven't read it through for almost two years so I'm a different person I turned 50 last year so I'm a new person I'm a different person I'm a growing person so there are things in here that I will see and discover and learn that I had not seen before that I had not noticed before and so this book I would say has been one of the top five most influential books instrumental books in my own spiritual journey my own Walk With Jesus the book is perfectly titled steps to Christ and I I have just the the slightest little wish about the title I like the title I think it's a good title but I could wish and we'll talk about this as the as the challenge goes on I actually think steps with Christ steps with Christ actually better captures what's in the book or you could even say steps in Christ right because because we come to Jesus right at the very beginning of the book so in some ways the title steps to Christ communicates or Intimates that that Jesus is over there and we're in a state through 13 chapters of approaching him and he remains distant from us he remains aloof that's not true and nothing in the actual content of the book suggests that but the title to me subtly suggests that and so in my own Mind's Eye when I think about steps to Christ I hear steps with Christ because I'm with Jesus and and you're with Jesus you're a follower of Jesus you're a Believer you love him you love his word you're infilled with his spirit so yes there is a sense and I receive this in which we can come closer to Jesus amen of course we can come closer to him and we'll see there's one of my favorite gems in the book talks about that very idea so yes there is a sense in which Jesus as our example Jesus as our as our guide we become by his Spirit able to more and more closely approximate Jesus as the model man Jesus as the second Adam amen amen and amen but this is also true in our steps to Christ in his exemplary capacity there are always steps with Christ in his saving and substitutionary capacity right and so I love the title of the book but I could wish that it was maybe steps with Christ or steps in Christ so what I decided to do is I went back to not the types and symbols version but one of the older versions and I reread this morning the forward to one of the original the book was written or published originally in 1892 so it's an old book it's a very old book but I went back and read a forward from one of the older uh copies of it one of the old older publications of it and it's it's not too long it's just about a page and I'm gonna read it because I think it's good it sort of orients us to the book and uh it touches on several really important points about sort of the history of the book and um the author Ellen White who she was what she did why the book was written and so I'm going to read that right now with a little bit of commentary and so here we go it says few books attain a distribution reckoned in millions or exert so great and influence and uplift the uplifting of humanity as has steps to Christ in countless editions this little volume has been printed in more than 70 Languages by the way that's well over a hundred languages now bringing inspiration to hundreds and thousands of men and women throughout the world even those who dwell in the remote corners of the Earth from the appearance of the first edition in 1892 the Publishers have been called upon to add printing to printing to meet the immediate and sustained demand from the reading public amen it's a popular book and it's popular because it's a great book it's been read literally by millions upon millions of people and these new additions that have been created by uh types and symbols make it all the more attractive all the more accessible all the more modern and readable and understandable and so that's the thing about these Timeless books we pay attention to them because they have a Timeless quality there is a Transcendence and and a truthfulness in these books that is just as meaningful and beautiful today in 2023 as it was when it was first published in 1892. okay continuing on a little bit about the author the forward continues the author of this work Ellen White born in 1827 died in 1915 was a religious speaker and writer well known on three continents that would be Europe North America and Australia it continues she spent her early life in New England in the United States and then her travels and labors led her to the rapidly expanding Central and Western areas of the United States the years 1885 to 1887 she devoted to work in the leading countries of Europe where she often addressed large audiences and continued her writing subsequently she spent nine active years in Australia and New Zealand from her pen have come 45 volumes 45 books large and small in the fields of theology Education Health and the home and practical Christianity several with a distribution exceeding the million copy Mark and again this is an old old forward and then it says of these steps to Christ is the most popular and most widely read amen uh one of the reasons it's the most widely read let's be honest is just because it's short right it's much easier to read 126 page book than it is to read an 800 page book but it's not just that it's short it's not just that it's succinct it's that it's powerful it's Timeless there's a Transcendence and a Sublimity in this book as we will see there are so many gems so many caves so many Nooks so many crannies in this book again I've read this book more than any other book in my life in terms of total number of times through and it's because I myself in my ongoing Journey with Jesus my steps with Christ I find myself going back to the Sublimity to the clarity to the Grandeur and the language and sometimes I'll find myself even while preaching or teaching language because the book has become such a part of my sort of spiritual DNA language from the book will just come out of me it will just I'll say oh I'm quoting from steps of Christ I'm inadvertently quoting from steps to Christ and so when they say steps to Christ is the most popular and widely read there's good reason for that and if you've never read this book before straight through you are in for a giant tree and I cannot wait all right a couple more paragraphs here the uh Publishers write this the title of the book tells its mission it points the reader to Jesus Christ as the only one who is able to meet the needs of the Soul Hallelujah Hallelujah it directs the feet of the doubting and halting to the pathway of Peace Love It it leads the Seeker after righteousness and wholeness of character step by step along the Christian the way of Christian Living to that experience where they can know the fullness of blessing which is found in the complete surrender of self it reveals the secret of Victory as it unfolds in Simplicity the saving grace and the keeping power of the great friend capital F of all mankind and that friend of course is Jesus I love the language here of the friend of all mankind because that's what Jesus is and I love the language here of the pathway of peace when I say that I've gone back to this book over and over again in my let's see I was baptized in 96 so 27 years am I doing my math right there in my 27 years of Walking With Jesus one of the many reasons that I've gone back to this book again and again as I've mentioned I used to read this book every year every year I just would read this book every year at least every year once every year but then I just mentioned it's been a couple years since I've read it straight through recently which is why I'm so excited about this challenge it's like I've been away from a place that I love right of because of the the the the the situation in my life or the circumstances I've not been able to go to a place that I love and I can't wait to go back there to see it with new eyes to smell the smells to see the sights to experience what I know is there but it's going to be new and fresh anyway the reason is is that this book brings me great peace and I mean that's just it I just find so much peace so much Assurance so much biblical Simplicity and Beauty in this book so I love the language here it directs the feat of the doubting and halting to the pathway of peace and you if you come with us on this two-week Journey you are going to experience this exactly this pathway of peace and I cannot wait okay final paragraph here Jacob of old when oppressed with fear that his sin had cut him off from God lay down to rest and he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on earth and the top of it reached to the heaven the connection between Earth and Heaven was thus revealed to him and words of comfort and hope were spoken to The Wanderer by him who stood at the top of the shadowy stairs that the heavenly vision may be repeated to many as they read this story of the way of life is the sincere wish of the Publishers and I love what they've done here I absolutely love what they've done here because they have tied in the story of Jacob which if you're following along with uh storyline or light bearers or you follow me on social media you know that I have just recently preached a brand new seven part series on Jacob and the series is going to air starting not tomorrow but I think it's next Sabbath I think next Sabbath so while we're in the middle of the SC with d a challenge the the new series The Jacob series will air that series is titled Jacob the faking breaking and making of a man and wow are you in for a treat I mean the the study that I put into that the time that I put into that the insights the gospel insights that God gave me one of the most incredible insights and this is what the Publishers are drawing on here in the introduction is this whole Genesis 28 Jacob's Ladder or Jacob's staircase or ramp depending on the translation it was an ascending right it was a connection something went from Earth to heaven and I don't want to steal my thunder here too much because you'll hear this in the series but I will just say this in the flow of and I just wrote a devotional on this for light beer is actually two days ago in the flow of the the Book of Genesis the the staircase that Jacob saw was the reversal of the Tower of Babel now just very briefly and you can watch the series and I go into great detail in the actual series but but Babel back in Genesis 11 was a human attempt human effort human ambition to go from the earth up to God to the very Gate of Heaven so from down to up by our energies our efforts our ambition you might call it salvation by architecture okay but Jacob's staircase Jacob's Ladder is the opposite of that it's the total inversion of that because this is not something that was erected from Earth up to the presence of God this is something that God lowered down from Heaven to Earth so yes Heaven and Earth are connected but not by human effort not by human ambition not by human Enterprise or architecture but God condescends to lower himself Down to Earth itself and that ladder represents none other than Jesus himself so this gets back to the point I was making earlier about and by the way Jesus said that expressly to Nathaniel in John chapter one I'm not going to say any more about that because I go into much more detail in the Jacob series you'll have to hear that when it comes out but I will say this this gets back to what I was talking about steps to Christ and steps with Christ Jesus is the means by which we are connected to heaven and he is the goal to which we tend we are we are drawn to him we turn to him like the flower to the Sun so we walk in him we walk to him we walk by him okay all right so I I wanted to read that introduction because it introduces us a little bit to the book a little bit to Ellen White and um we're motoring right along here I've already talked about my own personal experience with steps to Christ and I I did mention briefly and I'll just say a little bit more it was this book right here the last book in the conflict of the Aegis series or what types and symbols called calls the conflict beautiful was this book right here the great controversy that I read when I was 23 years old studying pre-med at the University of Wyoming this book was given to me by some friends in a vegetarian restaurant they said you've got to read this book and I I read that wow when I open it up it's I've never opened this volume up I don't think and it's got it's creaking and cracking I don't know if you can hear that but brand new book because I've read this book before but I haven't yet read it in the types and symbols version anyway this is the book so people will sometimes ask me why do you have such an affinity for such a love for the writings of Ellen White well this is easily answered for me number one it was her book great controversy and then the next book I read was Patriarchs and Prophets and then the next book I read was steps to Christ and then the next book I read after that was the Desire of Ages these four books like literally just riveted me just locked me in to a love of God the beauty of Jesus the importance of the Old Testament the Fulfillment of the Old Testament by Jesus I mean I could go on and on and I've read these books over and over again so for me personally and and this might sound a little funny but but follow me on this I don't read these books because of who wrote them yes Ellen White wrote them and I believe God gave her a special prophetic Insight I do believe that but but listen to me carefully here I don't read these books because of who wrote them I read them because of the content and and you're looking at somebody here who reads widely in theological works both ancient and modern like I spend tons of time reading books on theology it's what I do I don't really read non-uh I don't really read fiction books I can't even remember the last fiction book I read right like the books I read are theological books they are they are exegetical books they're historical books these are the things that move me and I can say this man I am so thankful for the content of these books here because I have found them to be so christ-centered so biblically robust so well communicated and articulated that I find myself going back to them over and over and over again not out of obligation and again not because of who wrote them I would go back to them if I didn't even know who wrote them because the content and that's what I say to people if you're a little you know a little iffy a little unsure about Ellen White maybe you've heard some things or maybe you've had bad experiences I just say put all of that on the Shelf just just take Ellen White and and your ignorance about her or your concerns about her your suspicions about her just just suspend that momentarily you know for this two-week challenge or for the D.A with ta challenge or whatever it is and just just listen to the book itself and ask yourself questions like these is this increasing my love for God is this increasing my understanding of scripture is this increasing my understand understanding and appreciation of God's love for me the proof is in the pudding it's the content of the books that make them so spectacular not the author of the book and the author of the book Ellen White would be the first to say that where she here she would say no no no no no no it doesn't matter it's not read the book because the book is about Jesus the book is about Jesus the book is about Jesus all right um so I will be reading from the types and symbols version out of the new light and life collection you can get it in the light life collection which I strongly recommend you do either for yourself or as a gift number one they're absolutely stunningly beautiful they're amazing but also because you're supporting a committed sold out Christian design studio and Publishing House and you these are just exactly the kinds of people you should be supporting right like you know we live in the modern world and you know Amazon's gonna get some of your money and Walmart's gonna get some of your money and Costco's gonna get some of your money or whatever but make sure friends that that independent Christian businesses that are putting themselves out there to create great products whether it's music or publishing or or books that they're writing make sure or or counseling Ministries I mean there's a long list of these make sure those people get some of your money too support godly people that are making an impact in the world with their energies and their talents and their efforts so that's what I'm going to be reading through and I can't wait I've already talked about that and I've already talked about that just very quickly we're getting down here toward the end of our welcome and introduction I just want to say that I have had so many of the testimonies that have come into me I mentioned earlier about the hundreds literally no exaggeration hundreds of testimonies that have come into me those testimonies there are variations but they often sound the same and I was thinking about this today and I wrote them down one testimony I hear is this has so increased my understanding of and love for scripture going through Patriarchs and profits going through the Desire of Ages people are like man scripture is coming alive Jesus is coming alive and that's number two the other form that these testimonies take is people say man I love Jesus it was religion it was obligation it was Duty and responsibility but now it's Jesus I'm attracted to Jesus I've fallen in love with Jesus Jesus is real he's alive he's living in my heart I'm going to spend eternity with him come on now and then the other thing that I hear and these are all of course connected is I Now understand and believe for the first time some people will tell me for the first time in my life that God loves me that God loves me and friends I tell you I get a little teary and choked up when when I hear people say through the work that you were doing and through these books that we're reading I Now understand God doesn't hate me God isn't angry at me God hasn't disowned me God wasn't punishing me I see now those three most important words in all of human language God is love and friends that is going to be on display for us especially tomorrow in chapter one I mean chapter one is literally titled God's love for man that's the first title God's love for men by which you know she means humankind humankind and Elise will be with us tomorrow I can't wait all right um a little bit now about the journals I was really blessed to be able to partner with the uh Team there at types and symbols Mark and the others to create these amazing journals and this journal right here that I have in my hand is the journal for the light and life collection you don't have to have this journal of course in order to go through the light and life collection but it was made for that purpose and it's beautiful it's hand sewn it's got the lay flat binding and most important for our purposes here is it has the the rubric that we've been using since da with d a and that's the five part rubric the point the person the prayer the practice and the promise and we're going to follow that same rubric at the end of every chapter we'll ask ourselves the question what's the point of this chapter number one number two we'll say what do I learn about the person of God his goodness his character his Mercy his Justice number three how can I pray this chapter and I want to spend some special time going through steps to Christ spending a little extra time in prayer and maybe even giving prayer assignments right like like let's spend today or tomorrow as in reflecting upon what we've learned let's spend time praying about this and I'm really looking forward to that um then practice how do I practice this chapter what are the practical ways that I can put this chapter to work and then finally what's the promise that I can claim we're going to go through that rubric this journal has that rubric as well as amazing chapter introductions that were written by our guests tomorrow Elise harbold so if you already have one of these journals thank you uh for getting them they're amazing I think they're great I absolutely love them they're reasonably priced and uh if you don't have a journal get some kind of a notebook if you don't have the types and symbols Journal no problem get some kind of a notebook so that you can capture and that's what's so cool you can capture this experience right that's what's happened and by the way this one Journal has the whole light and life collection in it Christ object lessons thoughts from the amount of blessing and steps to Christ but now that I've journaled you know through um for example Patriarchs and profits in this journal it's just I've captured that that experience is now I'm a journaler I I don't know maybe you keep a journal or maybe you don't I mean I'm a I'm somebody who's kept a journal my whole life and uh my new way of keeping journals I keep it actually on an app I have no Financial connection to this app but it's a great app and I highly recommend it it's called day one and I've been keeping a journal on there it tells me what my streak is and my streak's like I don't know 1300 days I just keep a journal every single day and what I love about the day one app I wasn't going to say anything about this but it's just coming up to me now you can put in videos you can put in photos you can put in voice memos and then at the end of the year if you want you can just click click click click click make a few clicks and they'll send you a printed version of your journal with all the photos and it was epic but anyway I'm a big journaler and one of the reasons I like to journal is it helps me to capture an experience it helps me to capture a year it helps me to capture a feeling it helps me to capture and and that's what I love about these journals it helps us to capture these moments in time and it makes them all the more special um okay that's what I'm gonna say about journaling so we will be going through the rubric at the end of every chapter the point the person the prayer of the practice and the promise I've already talked about praying how we're going to spend a little extra time I think praying through these chapters and even maybe giving some prayer assignments praying together praying for one another there's a real opportunity especially in the live to tune in and see hey you know if somebody has a prayer need like a specific prayer meet prayer need rather throw it out there put it out there and put it in the comments too and if I see it we've prayed for people that have had serious illnesses we've prayed for circumstances and situations as a part of the OT with D.A and D.A with D.A challenges and we'll continue to do that by the way I should also say you can send any prayer requests that you have to info lightbearers.org and we as a Ministry and we as a team pray over those prayer requests regularly in our staff meeting so I I would be remiss if I didn't mention you know if you have a very specific thing in addition to the withda community here send to info lightbearers.org and we will pray with you and for you okay last one here that I've got and then I'll let you go I thought this would go just over an hour and we're at about an hour and five minutes right now I want to talk a little bit about memorizing I'm a big believer in committing things to memory um especially things that are crucial to remember for me about things that are easy to forget so there are lots of things that I could memorize that would be valuable to memorize but you can't spend your whole life memorizing things so the things that I try to remember are the things that I have found in my walk with Jesus my spiritual journey that I'm prone to forget so I memorize things so they become a part of the sort of furniture of my intellectual life my mental life my emotional life and I'll use a good illustration of this several years ago many years ago I had been reading through the book of Romans I love the book of Romans and especially chapters 5 6 7 and 8. and I thought to myself you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna memorize these I'm going to memorize these four chapters of Romans Romans five to eight because there's so much goodness here there's so much gospel Beauty here there's such an abundance of Truth and of clarity and I just think I mean to me Romans chapter 8 is my favorite chapter in the New Testament and you can't really understand Romans chapter 8 in all of its fullness without the the the climax that builds to Romans chapter 8 so you in my view I'm going a little theological here but you've got to have chapter five because chapter five leads us right into chapter six and then you've got to have chapter seven because chapter six goes right into chapter seven and then then you get chapter eight and it's just amazing and it's incredible and chapter eight in isolation is amazing but chapter eight as the climax of chapters five six and seven and obviously one two three and four as well but especially for me as as I read Romans five six seven eight anyway the reason I share all this is this when I set out a long time ago to memorize this it was actually a lot easier than I would have thought and here's why I had spent so much time reading through Romans that when I actually started to memorize it the ideas were already there the words were already there the text was already there in me and so I want to do that same kind of thing maybe not for every chapter but there are some specific passages that meet David ashrick this is totally voluntary and this is you know doesn't have to be a part of your challenge you make this whatever you want it to be for you but I'm going to be identifying some passages and paragraphs in steps to Christ that that I personally will be committing to memory because there there are some gems in here that I need to keep with me right like there's going to be those gems that you sort of you put in the garage and you put in a box and you know they're there and they're valuable and you can go back and pull them out whenever you want but then then there are those gems that you keep with you in your purse in your backpack in your Satchel so that you can always pull them out just at any moment they're right there they're available they're accessible and when I mean available and accessible I mean like you're discouraged you're depressed you've just gotten some bad news you want to Rejoice you want to praise and just the language is there for you and for this reason I've memorized a number of the Psalms over the years because the language it's just it's just I want it there for me like I want it to be a part of who I am not just something I can go and pull my Bible off the shelf or take it off the nightstand and read it I want it in me and I wanted a part of a part of me so this will be a little new to our challenge here but I'm going to introduce some sections and paragraphs and passages that I personally will be committing to memory and if you would like to select your own passages that's a really great idea or if you'd like to follow along with me every day in the Instagram post that's the next day if there's been a passage in that chapter that I'm personally committing to memory I'll put it there and um I'm really looking forward to that all right everybody that's it that was our welcome and introduction I covered everything that I wanted to so glad you're here tuning in for the with da challenge steps to Christ I cannot wait we will be here tomorrow same time same place with Elise I can't wait I haven't seen her yet uh her flight came in today but uh she'll be here tomorrow it's going to be a great conversation a great interaction so you'll want to read chapter one sometime tomorrow right God's love for humankind you've got plenty of time to read it in fact you've got time to read it more than once and uh fill in your Journal if you'd like to do that or a lot of people just fill in the journal as we go through it together um but Elise will be with us tomorrow that Saturday and then also on Sunday night it's going to be a great challenge two two and a half weeks I've got some other guests lined up not going to say anything more about that or before I know what a secret will fall out of my mouth because I'm so bad at keeping those good news secrets with that I'm going to close with prayer and thank you all for tuning in to Instagram live we've been just over an hour here thank you to those of you that are tuned in Via YouTube I cannot wait and there is still time to invite somebody a family member a friend a son a daughter a brother a sister to participate in this challenge it's a short one it's an easy one and um the booksteps of Christ is available online it's free you can find a PDF no problem so invite somebody else to join along let's close with prayer and we'll see you tomorrow night same time same place whoo father I am fired up I've been looking forward to this for some time Lord I'd hoped we'd be able to do it earlier in January but that's okay here we are here we are we're still in January still the beginning of the year father 2023 when I say that I can't even believe that that's the Year we're in 2023 father for me at least it just feels surreal almost to talk about living in the 2000s but Father Here We Are and we want this year 2023 to be a year with you a year in you a year for you father a year by you a year that you craft that you help us to you co-write with us father you want you don't want to override our agency our free will you want us to cooperate with you father Jesus himself said without me you can do nothing but if you abide in me and I in you you will bear much fruit father we want 2023 to be a fruit bearing year and father what better way to bear fruit than early on in the year to put those roots down deep into the soil of your goodness your mercy your kindness your forgiveness your Justice and Grace and father that's what we're going to do as we read through over the next two plus weeks steps to Christ father we want roots and we want to go deep into that soil the soil of the revelation of yourself to us in scripture and in Christ father we want these to be steps to Christ but even more importantly steps with Christ and steps in Christ and so father we're excited this is the beginning of a new year and a new challenge and the prayer of my heart father for all of those that are tuning in whether this is their third with the a challenge or their very first is that this will be transformative that they will see you with new eyes that you will be high and lifted up and that your glory will fill take up all the room fill their life and father that there will be a pivot a crucial and inflection point a transformation point whereby this challenge in this book at this time just reorient and recalibrates us even more closely and powerfully to you and so father I'm I'm praying for your spirit for the infilling of your spirit bathe this whole project in your spirit we love you and thank you and we look forward to what you have in store for us as we take these steps with Christ and in Christ to Christ and in his name we pray amen