A Man’s Hunger for the Word

Dannah Gresh: You know, stereotypes can be hurtful. And there are a lot of stereotypes about men. I mean, think about it: there are stereotypes about how they act.

Man: I’m a man’s man. I shoot guns, and I hunt. I watch football, play some pretty aggressive video games. I have power tools and a tractor, split my own firewood with my bare hands.

Dannah: (chuckling) Okay, I hope that guy doesn’t actually exist. But there are also stereotypes about what they eat.

Man: Real men do not eat quiche.

Man: Let me tell you something. The only meat I’m going to cook is what I kill myself.

Man: Real men eat their steaks still mooing—none of this medium-well nonsense.

Dannah: (chuckling) Well, my son is a pretty manly-man, and he likes quiche. What about this stereotype: what they read.

Woman: Well, my husband reads . . . I don’t know . . . “Streams of the Fields,” maybe?

Man: It’s Field and Stream; Guns and Ammo; Road and Track.

Woman: The Bible? Nah. He’s a guy. He’s not interested in spiritual stuff.

Dannah: Well, whether those stereotypes are true of your man or not, today we’re hoping to help you help him be a better reader of the Bible. Stay tuned.

This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for June 14, 2024. I’m Dannah Gresh.

So, the way I see it, there are two problems with stereotypes—probably more. But one is that they’re not necessarily true. Your husband or your dad or your brother or your son could be the opposite of all the things we talked about just a moment ago . . . and it wouldn’t make him any less of a man. (That needs to be said.)

The other problem with negative stereotypes is, well, stereotypes exist for a reason. They’re generalizations that have come about because they are true in some cases.

Today we’re going to disprove the stereotype that men can’t be interested in spiritual things or reading their Bibles. And to start off, here’s Nancy talking about two men in her life who don’t fall into that stereotype at all.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: As I look back over my years of knowing and walking with the Lord, there are two gifts that I could not be more grateful for. The first is to have grown up in the home of a dad who started each day in the Word and on his knees. He modeled that. Before we were even awake, we knew that he had been with the Lord, seeking the Lord. 

He read through the Bible many, many, many times over the years as he was praying for us. I just thought that was normal and natural. What a protection and a gift that was to our family and to my life.

But then to marry a number of years ago Robert Wolgemuth—a man who had the same habit, who would start each day on his knees, in the Word, seeking the Lord. He’s the one who first told me this little saying: “The throne before the phone.” He practices that, and it’s had a huge impact in my own life.

It’s a great joy now thinking about having a dad and a husband who value God’s Word, who love it, who cherish it, who read it, who study it, and thinking what an impact that makes on families, on relationships, and in churches.

Now, to see that the Lord has enabled Robert Wolgemuth to be the general editor of a new Bible—the Men’s Daily Bible. I’ve watched him working on this over the years that we’ve been married in the Christian Standard Bible translation, and now it’s come to life. It is. It’s beautiful, and I’m just soaking in it, enjoying it—even though I’m not a man. But as Robert’s wife, I’m so thankful for the different features.

Of course, it has the whole Scripture text. But then, woven through the Scripture are 260 articles called “Insight for the Day.” These are stories, illustrations, metaphors of Robert just soaking in the Scripture and saying, “This is like . . .” It’s kind of the way Jesus taught. “This is like . . .” and He would tell parables or stories. So Robert tells a lot of stories out of his own journey to illustrate what we’re reading in the Scripture.

And then there are shorter pieces called “Insight for the Moment.” This one is called “An Insight on Jesus’ Humanity.” It’s just things to help you think about and process the text.

Fifty men contributed articles to this Bible that are called “Insight for Life.” They’re through the Bible. Here’s one by Shane Bernard, and others, names that you will recognize, some you won’t, but men who walk with God and who love His Word.

Robert and these men have put together this Bible as a gift for men who want to soak in the Word of God. They really designed it not for seminarians or for scholars, but for, kind of, everyday guys—some of whom may not be that familiar with Scripture, some of whom may feel like, “This is a huge book. Where do I start? This is kind of daunting.”

They make it accessible. They give you tips and hints for where to start, how to understand. It’s just very practical. I think that men everywhere are going to be deeply, richly blessed and are going to find the joy that my dad did, that my husband has over all these years of walking with the Lord in the light of His Word day after day.

Dannah: And that’s our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, explaining the the Men’s Daily Bible.”

Now, she recorded that ahead of time, knowing she wasn’t going to be with us today. But here in the studio with me is the editor of the Men’s Daily Bible, none other than Nancy’s husband, Robert Wolgemuth. Welcome to Revive Our Hearts, Robert.

Robert Wolgemuth: Thank you, Dannah. I love being with a friend in the studio.

Dannah: I love being here with you, Robert. You are such an encourager.

Robert: Oh, thank you.

Dannah: And, happy Father’s Day, a bit early.

Robert: Thank you. That’s a highlight, to be able to celebrate Father’s Day. I know men are hard to buy for. (That’s intended to walk you into what we’re going to talk about here.)

Dannah: Yes. I think I’m going to be buying a lot of Men’s Daily Bibles for gifts this year.

Robert: (chuckling) Good. I love you. 

Dannah: I thought you already loved me. (chuckling)

Robert: I did. This is even more.

Dannah: Well, Robert, is it true that the woman who’s sitting there listening right now who doesn’t have a husband or maybe a father who loves the Word of God the way you have loved the Word, the way that Nancy’s father has loved the Word, is it true that she’s not alone?

Robert: No, that’s really true. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Number one: I think a lot of men are overwhelmed with the Bible. It’s a daunting book. Depending on the translation, if you have a study Bible, or whatever, it’s 1500 pages, and, let’s say, 700,000 words. So, a guy doesn’t know where to start, which is exactly why I tackled this project, the Men’s Daily Bible project.

In fact, here’s where it was born. You want to go back there?

Dannah: Yes, I do.

Robert: So, I’m going to take you to Cleveland, Ohio in a diner. It’s a great diner. Everything is in black and white. The waitress calls you “Honey.” She pours coffee from a great height—you know, she lifts the coffee carafe way up, and it doesn’t spill.

Dannah: Yes. I can picture her now. She’s chewing gum.

Robert: (chuckling) That’s right. She’s got a white apron on.

So I’m having breakfast with a really good friend. We’re both believers; we both love God’s Word. We decided that we were going to start our breakfast time with a little devotional. So he brought a Bible, and I brought a devotional book.

At the top of the devotion it had a text: read so and so, Ezekiel, whatever (I don’t know what it was). But anyway, so I said, “Okay, read this.” And he read the Bible verses. Then it was my turn, because the devotional book I was holding in my hand had that text, the Bible text, and then it had, oh, I don’t know, maybe a 400-word devotional.

So I’m reading this thing, Dannah, and as I’m reading, I’m thinking to myself, I have no idea what this author is trying to tell me. I mean, it sounds good. He’s a good writer. But I don’t know what he’s trying to tell me. I’m looking across the table at my friend, and he’s trying to smile and nod (not wanting to hurt my feelings that he doesn’t know what I’m talking about).

So I finished reading this devotional. I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life. He looked at me, and he said, “I have no idea what you just read.” 

And I said, “I am so relieved because I have no idea what I just read.” 

And in that moment, in Cleveland, Ohio, at a diner, this project was born.

I’m thinking to myself, What a shame. Two guys sit down. They love God’s Word. They’re not scholars. They’re just ordinary guys. But they want to spend time in God’s Word. They want to pray together. And here’s a book that they’re reading, and they don’t understand it. So I thought, I’m going to change that.

And so, the Men’s Daily Bible was born. It’s like a conversation . . . it is a conversation.

Dannah: Yes. That’s beautiful.

Robert: So it’s me writing. It’s the guy listening. That’s my favorite thing. When I write, I think of it as a conversation between me and the reader. So, that’s how this was born, the Men’s Daily Bible.

Dannah: Yes. What really speaks to me as a wife, as a mom, as a daughter is that here’s the editor of the Men’s Daily Bible, and he’s saying, “Yes, I’ve been overwhelmed by the Bible. I need help with that.”

But, back up with me even further, Robert. Did you always have, like Nancy’s talked with me before, your habit of being locked and loaded the night before with your protein bar, your coffee ready because you want to be up early. You want to be in the Word.

Robert: (laughing) Right.

Dannah: Was it always like that? Or was there a time when the Lord gave you that desire?

Robert: It hasn’t always been like that. In fact, one of the entries, one of the “Insight for the Day,” way toward the back of the Bible, is called, “The Throne.” And in that “Insight for the Day,” I make a confession. That “Insight” starts this way: “A lazy boy was born on my birthday. It’s true.”

So I fought being a lazy boy my whole life. Now, fortunately, I grew up with a father who had been a farmer, and farmers can’t afford to be lazy. They’ve got cows waiting to be milked, or whatever. But I fought laziness my whole life. In fact, I had an early morning paper route, and so I kind of got into the habit of getting up early, but I never liked it. Right?

You asked me if I’ve always been early morning, get the Bible out, get the coffee, whatever, whatever. Well, this “Insight for the Day,” and it’s on page 1444 in your Men’s Daily Bible, is called, “The Throne.”

I was married to a lady for almost forty-five years named Bobbie. In fact, you know this story. She knew Nancy, loved Nancy. She told two friends that she wants Robert to marry Nancy when she dies. (She was suffering from terminal cancer.) She did this daily. In fact, she was an early riser. I was an early riser. She actually was a little earlier than me. I would walk through the living room, and she’s sitting there on her red chair. She’s got her Bible open on her lap, and she’s taking notes.

I was on my way upstairs to my study. I was a writer. I was writing devotional books, and I was writing books for dads, Christian books, books on marriage. And I thought to myself, without really being conscious about it, I thought, Well, this daily thing in the Word is Bobbie’s thing, not my thing. Can you imagine?

Dannah: Yes, I can imagine.

Robert: That was me. That was me!

So, now, this is the morning I tell this story in this daily insight, called “The Throne.” This is the morning after we lowered Bobbie’s casket in the grave. This is early November, 2014. I walk by . . . guess what? That chair. That red chair.

And the Lord spoke to me. It wasn’t an audible voice, but it was close to that. He said, the Lord said to me, “You have been a lazy man. You have let your wife spend time in My Word, and you’ve decided that you didn’t need that.” And so I turned, and I sat down on that red chair, and my life has not been the same.

This isn’t boasting. This is confessing. Maybe I’ve missed five mornings in the last nine years that I haven’t sat down on a chair, opened God’s Word, and said, “Lord, speak to me. I’m busy. My mind is already starting to plan my day. I need time in Your Word. I need to know You’re here, listening to me, and that You’re speaking to me. I want this conversation to be real.”

Dannah: I love that.

Robert: So that’s what that “Insight for the Day” is about. That’s wrong; change my life.

Dannah: I think that is beautiful. I think that confession has healed a lot of hearts. I think there are a lot of women pleading and praying. I think maybe Bobbie spent a lot of time with her face just buried in the seat of that red chair, asking God to give you a desire for His Word.

Robert: I don’t know if that’s for sure, but I would not be surprised. There’s something about a woman who longs for her husband to follow Christ maybe more closely than he does. The last thing I think she needs to do is bug him.

Dannah: That’s a good tip.

Robert: Really, don’t do that. First of all, you’re setting an example, and then you’re encouraging him. You’re looking for moments. Let’s say you’re sitting at dinner, and depending on your family situation, you might have kids whining or whatever, making noise, but do your best to catch him and then encourage him.

A man is so much more motivated by his wife saying, “You know what would be really cool?” or “Do you know what I would really love?” And what you’re doing in just that moment, you’re proving your love for her by saying, “All right, I’ll do that. I can do that.”

You’re longing for him to get into a habit so that this time in God’s Word becomes its own reward. He’s motivated because when he does this in the morning, it satiates a thirst that he’s had, and he says to himself, “I’m going to do that again.” And then the next day he says, “I’m going to do that again.”

That’s what you dream about. He’s coming to his senses. He’s the prodigal in a faraway land, and he comes to his senses, and he says to himself, “This is something I can do. This is something I need to do.”

So, we’ve created the Men’s Daily Bible for that reason.

Dannah: Well, let me stop you right there because what I think is really important that you’re saying is, “Don’t bug him, and let the reward of being in the Word be what motivates him.” Are you telling me that I’m not my husband’s Holy Spirit? Is that what you’re telling me, Robert?

Robert: (laughing) Yes. I don’t think this is new news to you, Dannah. I don’t think it’s new news.

Dannah: Okay, but sometimes I try. I really do.

Robert: Yes, good luck. A failed attempt.

So this Bible, this daily Bible, is a conversation between me and the reader. Here’s a really cool thing: I’m asking this guy to be my friend in the morning, and I’m talking to him. I’m going to encourage the guy who’s reading this to treat this like an appointment. So, if I set a breakfast appointment with a friend—and I do this often—I don’t miss that appointment because I have a friend who’s waiting for me.

The idea here is the guy gets this idea that I am his friend, that I’ve written this Daily Insight, and I want to share this with him. It’s a conversation And he, because he’s a grownup, he has good manners, he’s going to try not to miss this appointment.

In fact, I bumped into a guy yesterday, and he thanked me for the Men’s DailyBible. I wanted to hug him right on the spot. It was in a public place, and I thought he might be embarrassed. But he said, “I read the ‘Insight for the Day’ this morning, and I feel like I spent the morning with you.”

And I said, “Oh, Tom! Thank you. That is exactly what I was praying for, that you and I would have this time together as friends, and I would help you open God’s Word, and God’s Word would speak to you like I can’t possibly speak to you. The Holy Spirit will communicate clearly by way of His Word. You’re going to say to yourself, You know what? I’m going to do that again.”

On a scale of one to ten, that’s a ten right there.

Dannah: The reward of the Word really is the Word.

Robert: It is.

Dannah: You talk about making an appointment. For me, as a young mom, working part-time in the family business, I needed that appointment or it got squeezed out. So that’s a great tip for women as well as men. Schedule it. Keep that appointment. Keep it as you would a lunch date with a friend or your husband.

You know, Robert, a verse I’m thinking about, because I’m going back to the whole “Don’t bug him” thing. I’m thinking about that Bible verse in 1 Peter 3:1 that says that even if some husbands don’t obey the Word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

So, this is talking about being devoted to your husband so that you don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to bug them. But your conduct can win them. Talk about that.

Robert: That’s incredible! That’s wonderful. You know, even though you and I believe that we’ve been given a mandate in God’s Word to be the leaders in our home, the truth is that a loyal follower . . . I told Nancy when we were dating I loved being a shepherd to my wife, but I told her I was in love with her because my wife was in heaven.

So even though I am the leader because the Lord gave me that responsibility, I’m strongly influenced . . . My wife has a huge impact on me as I watch her. As I see her spending time in God’s Word, I’m being influenced by her time in God’s Word, by loving me better, by loving me more, by serving me as my wife. I’m thinking to myself, I want to be like that.

That’s the way a house is supposed to work. That’s the way a marriage works. It’s a dance. (I wish I could dance. I can’t.) It’s a dance where the Lord gives me the responsibility to be the leader, but I’m paying careful attention to my wife and how she speaks, how she acts, how she responds to a crisis. I’m saying to myself, “You know what? I want to be more like that.”

Dannah: So what are some things that she does to encourage you in your faith journey and being in the Word? What does Nancy do for you?

Robert: Well, often at dinner she’ll tell me what she has worked on during the day. Now, my wife is a professional Bible teacher. So making a comparison to another wife who has no outside responsibility except her family or who works a job as well, comparing Nancy to that isn’t necessarily fair. But I’ll bet if Nancy worked a different job, or we had kids at home or our grandkids, whatever, she would still find herself: A) being in the Word, and B) talking about what God has said to her.

So, most of the time over dinner we talk about what the Lord said to you today by way of His Word.

Dannah: Well, Robert, there are a lot of women listening that have husbands in the Word, and they want to encourage them. And there are women who don’t, and hopefully something we’ve shared today will encourage them and give them some practical ideas about how to encourage their husbands and make their husbands feel more confident about approaching the presence of God and the Word of God.

I wonder if you’d pray for that woman, the one who is struggling.

Robert: Oh, I would love to do that. And let me just say one more thing: a man loves to have a picture in his mind of something greater than himself.

One of the reasons I love watching golf on TV or going to a professional golf tournament is I stand there and my mouth is hanging open with awe and wonder that a guy can hit a ball, a golf ball, 320 yards. I could do that, but it’s not going to wind up where I want it to go.

So, what I want to do is give men a picture of where they’re headed as a godly man, as a godly husband, as a godly father.

So, you remember back in the book of Genesis, reference is made to the patriarchs–Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And the “In sight for the Day,” it’s actually on page 22, is from Genesis 17. And it’s called, “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and You.”

And the big idea, the picture that I’m hoping to paint in this guy’s mind, like watching a professional golfer hit the ball 300 yards, is that you are a patriarch, that someday your family, your children, your wife, your grandchildren, whatever, will remember how you lived. They’ll remember what you looked like, what you loved to have for dinner, how you spent your free time, all of that.

You’re a patriarch. It may not feel like that now, but this is supposed to give a guy a picture of what a godly man looks like, what a patriarch looks like. You can be this. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be this.

So this “Insight for the Day,” it’s actually found on page 22 in the Men’s Daily Bible will give a man a picture, a snapshot of what it might be like to live like a man who’s going to be a patriarch someday.

I love that idea, giving a man a picture, a vision of what his life could be down the road—maybe when he’s gone, maybe he’s dead, but his children, his grandchildren are remembering him. The goal here is to give a guy tools to use that will help him to be the man that God created him to be in the first place.

So, Lord Jesus, here we are. We’re bringing whoever is listening right now to the sound of my voice. If it’s a wife, a mom, a granddaughter, a sister, and she’s praying for a man in her life, and her hope, her prayer is that You will give, by way of Your Holy Spirit, this man an appetite for Your Word. We pray that it will be satisfying enough that someday he will be driven to Your Word, not out of guilt, but out of hunger to hear Your voice, to know Your Word, and to follow You carefully day after day.

That’s our prayer. So, Lord Jesus, we thank You, and we pray for these women that we’re speaking to right now, that You would empower them. Give them a loving opportunity to give this Bible perhaps to a man in their life that will inspire him to follow You, to love You, to know You, to obey Your voice. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: If you’d like more information, or to get a copy, or many copies of the Men’s Daily Bible, you’ll find a link to that Bible in the transcript of today’s episode. Just click on the link for all the details. Go to ReviveOurHearts.com.

Here’s Nancy with one more little thought about the Men’s Daily Bible. She recognizes that our audience here on Revive Our Hearts is primarily women.

Nancy: This Bible is not for us, women. Well, the Bible is, but the notes in it are designed for men. So here’s what I think would be such a great gift is for women to give this Bible to the men in their lives, to their husband, their sons, their dads, their in-laws. There are people they know who are interested in the Lord or wish they were interested in the Lord, but who want to get to know God’s Word better. To say, “I’m so grateful for you and for your role in my life, and I think this Men’s Daily Bible will be an encouragement to you.”

So as you give that gift to them, you’ll find that you’re getting the gift of these men seeking the Lord, getting to know Him, lingering in His Word. And their lives being changed as a result, and then our lives being impacted through the overflow.

So, the Men’s Daily Bible, make sure you get that for the men in your life. And what a blessing it’s going to be, not only to them, but to you as well.

Dannah: Again, you’ll find out how you can order the Men’s Daily Bible, when you click on the link in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

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