Episode Transcript
[00:00:19] Okay, we are back and it is already February. Can you believe is shocking to me to know that we've already been through a month of 20, 26. Things are crazy all around us. And if you get caught up in it, you'll find that you just feel overwhelmed and you feel like, oh, my gosh, I don't, I don't. I need to escape. I need to escape.
[00:00:43] And, you know, last week I talked about. Or a couple weeks ago when I released a podcast episode, we talked about how important it is to.
[00:00:51] There's. There's this one thing you can't live without, and that is the word of God.
[00:00:56] There are so many voices competing right now for your attention and my attention and so much deception right now that the only way I believe that we're going to make it is to be people who know the Bible, the people who know God's voice, and they won't follow anything else and they won't be deceived by Satan. I believe one of the end times tactics, and this is biblical, is that deception will be so rampant that many will fall because of deception.
[00:01:27] So part of what I feel called to do is to help people and equip people to be prepared for that, to be able to stand and know the Bible so that when things come your way, teachings that are out there, predatory ministers, platform ministers or online people, whatever, I mean, a lot of these people are not good and God is exposing them. And so my goal and what I feel called to do in this season of my life is to help equip people, the body of Christ, to be able to recognize things and to be smart and to be wise and to not be walking in deception, but to be able to know God's voice. You know, it's all about. For the Satan, it's all about deception and distraction and destruction. Right? I mean, that's, that's his goal in life or in what he does is to either distract us or deceive us or destroy us.
[00:02:29] And we have to be smart, we have to be wise, and we have to be leaning into God's word. So today we're going to talk about studying the word of God and why it matters and why it matters that you have a method when you study the Bible. I was blessed in my, excuse me, my late 20s to be able to go back to college. I had started right out of high school and had to, had to quit, unfortunately, because of things going on in my marriage and financial strains. And it broke my heart to be honest with you. And at that Time when I quit, I was actually going to school for something boring like accounting or something. Sorry. If you're an accountant. Sorry, sorry.
[00:03:10] But, you know, with me, I have both sides of my brain. I can do that kind of stuff, but I can also do, like, creative stuff. So, you know, I just was under the impression and had been taught that, hey, creative stuff, you can't make money, which is kind of true in some ways, but. But you can. You can. You just have to know how to do it. And so I. I kind of pointed myself and steered myself toward an accounting or some type of business degree. And I had gotten into banking as well, so it just made sense to me, right, to be in that. In that career field and.
[00:03:40] But I had to quit. In my early 20s, I got pregnant with my daughter and I was sick a lot and just felt like I needed to put my. My family first and just focus on working. And then, you know, getting through my pregnancy, I had a lot of problems. And then having her and being a good mom. And I want. I didn't want to be an absent mom. So I dropped out of school. And it broke my heart, you know, because I've always wanted to. I've always wanted to go as far as I could with education. If you know me well, you know, I'm kind of a nerd, definitely. And so when I turned about, I think, 26, something like that, 20, 25, maybe, maybe. I don't know. It was around that age I had the opportunity to go back to school and finish it. It was only in associates, but at that time. But it, to me, it was huge. And I remember thinking I was going to go for music and then realizing that I was actually going to go for Bible. And at that time, the college that I live not too far from actually had a biblical degree plan. They don't have it anymore, I don't think. And I mean, crazy timing that when I, you know, in that time frame, I was. They actually had that degree. So I ended up getting a.
[00:04:51] Just an associate's in biblical studies, which I'm so, so grateful I did because I spent a good chunk of time about, I would say, eight years of my life devoted to really studying the Bible. And I was so hungry for it and. And I wanted to understand it so I could help other people understand it. I know a lot of people really are like, I don't really read the Bible because I don't understand it, which really breaks my heart because I really, truly believe that God speaks to us through his Word primarily That's why he left it for us and sent it through his prophets and anointed people that were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write it. So I felt like, you know, I wanted to really study even how to study the Bible. Like, because, you know, I mean, reading it is one thing, but really learning how to study the Bible is what's going to open your eyes and help you follow God's instructions and understand things and to not fall into deception.
[00:05:54] So I want to start this series by saying something clearly, because I know how sensitive this topic can feel to some people.
[00:06:02] So I want to say really clearly here. This is not about making you suspicious of everyone, because we're talking about deception a lot. It's not about turning Bible study into something heavy or intimidating, because that's how a lot of people feel about it.
[00:06:16] And it's definitely not about fear.
[00:06:19] This is not about, hey, if you don't study the Bible every day, God's going to get you and you're going to be spanked. And when you get to heaven, you're not going to get anything because you didn't study the Bible all the time. That's not what we're saying here. It's about confidence.
[00:06:31] I believe in this moment in time, the Holy Spirit wants to equip us with confidence in the moment of time that we're in. He does not want us to walk in fear. And if we know the Word of God and we know him, then we can walk in confidence and face anything that comes our way.
[00:06:50] So it's about being able to open your Bible and not feel lost or dependent on someone else to tell you what it says all the time, or unsure whether what you're hearing is actually true. That's huge for women, right? Because I don't know about you, but I have been misled by my own emotions into thinking that what I was hearing was God, and it really wasn't. It was what I wanted.
[00:07:12] We can really lie to ourselves. And so really, when you learn how to study the Word of God and couple it with the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, it's harder for you to be deceived.
[00:07:24] It just makes it a better line of communication between you and the Lord. And you're also able to discern things quicker and better.
[00:07:33] So a lot of believers love God deeply. But if we're honest, we've been taught how to consume teaching far more than how to study. And you can see that play out because. Because it's almost like I hear people and the Only. And they're talking about, you know, what they learned at church that week, which is beautiful. But that's literally the only teaching that they're getting, because they are not. They're not doing their own studying on their own. And, you know, over time, that's going to create a quiet vulnerability, not because we're bad Christians, but because we're human.
[00:08:08] So what happens is we start to really depend on teachers instead of, like, getting our own manna, which I was just actually reading that this morning in Exodus about when God said, you know, he told the Israelites, you have to go get your own manna every morning, and you have to gather enough for you and your family, you know, and you couldn't borrow from somebody else. Like, you had to get your own manna. And I think it's interesting because, you know, the bread is, like, teaching. It's like the Word of God is like bread to us. Jesus talks about himself as bread, and he. He also is.
[00:08:45] He's also described as the Word of God in John.
[00:08:49] He was the Word made flesh.
[00:08:51] So it's interesting to me, you know, that's kind of a correlation that you could loosely make, is that we have to. We have to gather our own manna every day. We can't go to church on Sunday and expect that whatever the pastor gives us, which is beautiful. Good job, shepherd, for, you know, doing what God's called you to do. But you, as the congregation, as the rest of the body of Christ, have got to have some responsibility in feeding yourself as well. And. And, you know, I mean, yes, reading scripture is great, but when you start to really study scripture, you're gonna. You're gonna kind of satisfy that spiritual hunger you have for the Word of God. And it is there. It is there. You may be suppressing it and sowing more into your flesh. So your flesh is kind of having the upper hand right now.
[00:09:34] But if you yield to the spirit and you start to feed your spirit by studying the Word of God, you're going to find that you want more of it.
[00:09:43] It's a beautiful thing, really. So this series about learning how to handle God's Word with care, humility, and confidence without making it weird, complicated, or overly academic, because that can be, like, not cool either to get so academic that you're taking the Word of God into this really scientific, sterile environment, you know, dissecting it.
[00:10:05] We're not. We want to be affected by it. We want it to change us and not just be, like, completely disconnected from the experience.
[00:10:15] And so, you know, we look at Scripture and this is a, actually a calling. And this is something that Paul is telling Timothy in second Timothy 2:15. He says, study to show yourself approved unto God.
[00:10:27] Unto God. A workman that doesn't need to be ashamed, who can rightly divide the word of truth. He's telling this to Timothy, and I think it's interesting. And this is, this is probably going to be in a separate episode where I dive into this, but it's so, so I cannot tell you how important it is for us to understand and use context when we look at Scripture.
[00:10:50] You know, when you look at this scripture and you realize, okay, not just pluck this scripture out, detach from its context. Let's actually realize that Paul is talking to Timothy, whom he has left. And Timothy is handling ministry in this area. And so he's giving him instruction on how to, how to do this, how to be this person. Timothy, you have got to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that doesn't need to be ashamed that you can rightly divide the word of truth, that you actually understand the word of God and you're able to teach it, you're able to explain, explain it. I honestly believe every Christian has this mandate on their life. I mean, even if you're only teaching your kids, or maybe you are a teacher in a school, or maybe you're a teacher at Sunday school, or maybe you're like, you're just trying to talk to your friends about Jesus.
[00:11:37] You have to understand the Bible and it has to be done rightly. There is so much false teaching out there right now, it's disgusting. I just. I just really, really, really caution you to be really careful. Even be careful of me. Study for yourself. Don't follow anyone blindly.
[00:11:58] Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
[00:12:01] So here's, here's the measuring stick for that is the person that you're following. And that's okay to kind of be under someone's, you know, leadership. Like that's your shepherd or that's your pastor, or maybe you're in a mentorship type situation. God's using this person to teach you and to grow you. But they are not Jesus. They're followed, following Jesus. So you have to examine their life closely, actually examine their fruit. I don't care about their gifts. That means nothing to me. Anybody can be a charismatic, gifted leader, but not have the fruit to sustain it. And to me, that can actually do more damage than good in the body of Christ.
[00:12:37] That's why we're seeing so much exposure right now. With a lot of these platform ministers who are, they have rotten fruit.
[00:12:45] Are they gifted? Probably so. Or maybe they're just really good charlatans. I don't know. Are they charming, charismatic? Yeah, that's probably why they have such a crowd behind them. But they don't have the fruit. The fruit is rotten. And so we don't want to fall into that category of following someone who, with rotten fruit who is not following Christ.
[00:13:07] Right.
[00:13:09] So just throwing that out there, this is why we need, this is one of the reasons we need to be able to rightly divide the word of truth so that we, when we do hear other people, teachers speak or whatever, and they have a huge following, we need to be able to divide rightly. If what they're saying is true, that language matters in that scripture about rightly dividing.
[00:13:29] Notice that that Paul doesn't say, hey Timothy, you need to feel inspired. Hey Timothy, you need to sound convincing. He says study. He says study.
[00:13:39] He calls believers as a workman, someone who is handling something that matters. And he says there, there is a way to handle script scripture rightly. Which also means there's a way to handle it poorly.
[00:13:53] Okay, there's a way to handle it poorly. And I'm going to interject something really quick that we are so blessed because most of the people that listen to me are probably women. So just think about this. A few hundred years ago, a lot of women, a lot of people couldn't read, and especially women were not included in being educated, educated about the Bible. So whatever someone told you from a pulp pulpit or, or the priest or whoever, whomever it was, their husband, whatever you were taught, that's what you believed. They didn't have the ability like we do, to actually have probably their own Bible and actually read it for themselves. So you can imagine the amount. Just look at the Crusades, for example. I'm not even going to go there historically, but when you think about what happened in the Crusades and how ridiculous it was to be killing people, you know, in the name of Christ, it completely goes against the gospel. And it's things like that where people didn't understand the word of God and they were fighting and they were following someone else who was telling him, telling them, hey, this, this is what we're supposed to do. Had they known for themselves this is not what we're supposed to do. If they had their own relationship with God, if they had read their own Bible, they could see that that was not what scripture was saying that Jesus wanted us to do. Go around killing People who wouldn't become Christians.
[00:15:19] So God cares how we handle this Word. There's a right way and there's a wrong way. So you can love God sincerely and still misunderstand Scripture if you're not careful. Sincerity doesn't automatically equal accuracy.
[00:15:34] Right. And that's not a condemnation. It's just reality. It's just reality. We could get all caught up in feelings as women and feel like that this is what the Bible should say, or we make it say that we pull our scripture out of context and this is what. Because we feel like it's true.
[00:15:52] Our feelings are not always true and accurate. They are just an indicator light like, like on your car. You know, if you, if the thermostat, if the car gets overheated, it's going to flash up and tell you it's hot. That doesn't mean that. I don't know that. That's just an indicator to tell you what's going on internally. And that's what. A lot of times what emotions do. They're just telling us what's going on. So feelings could be true and they could not be true. They could be indicating something that is true, or they could indicate something that's false or that needs to be dealt with. Something that we believe that's not true. Right.
[00:16:30] So what I love about Scripture, it's one of the things that I love, is that scripture honors discernment, not blind agreement. You don't blindly agree with someone just because they're very compelling, they're very emotional, they're passionate when they speak. I see a lot of people wrapped up, and I used to be one of those people wrapped up in only going to, or listening to pastors or going to churches or whatever where the pastor is so passionate. Nothing wrong with being passionate, but like, what was being spoken wasn't true. It wasn't the word of God. It was just more someone who super skilled at being persuasive and had a gift to speak.
[00:17:10] And that's not. That's not okay because that could. That's an indoctrination of deception. And it's really scary.
[00:17:19] We don't want to blindly agree with someone just because it feels good. In Acts 17, we're told about the Bereans. It says they received the Word with all readiness of mind.
[00:17:30] And look, listen to this. Search the scriptures daily to see whether those things were so.
[00:17:37] So in Acts 17, you have, you know, the apostles doing their thing. They come in and they, they teach them. And I, you know, apparently the brands at this point, have access to the Scriptures, and they're going back in there like, okay, I'm going to search the scripture daily to see whether, you know, this is true or not. What. What I'm being told. So this is beautiful. I love this. I love it because it shows balance.
[00:17:58] They were open, they were hungry, and they listened eagerly. But they didn't stop there. They checked with what they heard against Scripture, right? Not because they were rebellious or skeptical, but because scripture, not a speaker, was their authority. Scripture is our authority, not a speaker that tells us something important. Healthy faith listens and verifies.
[00:18:24] That's such a good statement. Let me say it again. Healthy faith listens and verifies the information that what you told me is true. Don't just blindly take someone's information and make that the gospel. I have seen so many people build an entire doctrine on a false statement that a leader gave because they were passionate and caught up in the moment. And it felt true, but it wasn't scriptural. I've had to go back and even look at my own belief system and realize that some of the things I grew up believing are not true.
[00:18:56] And you know what?
[00:18:57] Believing those lies oftentimes end up in situations that hurt me really badly. And then I would blame God, but then God would have to reveal to me, well, you believe something about me that wasn't true or I didn't say I was going to do this. That was some other person speaking for me that I did not say that. You know, so here's the thing we need to remember. Questioning teaching is not a lack of faith. When it's done humbly, and in many cases, it's actually obedience. I mean, like, we just read this scripture about the Bereans. They heard it, but they also verified it.
[00:19:30] So, and here's another thought for us to bring into context here. God is not hiding truth from us. I love what Psalm 119 says. The entrance of your words gives a light. It gives understanding to the simple. And I love that phrase, the simple. He gives us understanding to the simple, because, my goodness, we sheep can. We're simple. We might want to think we're complex, but we're really simple. That doesn't mean unintelligent. It means humble, teachable, willing to learn.
[00:19:58] So if you stay humble, if you stay humble and teachable and willing to learn, you're gonna gain understanding with the Lord and you're gonna understand His Word and what he's saying to you, what he's telling you to do. God does not Reserve understanding for scholars or professionals. Thank God, right? If only this elite group of people, because that's. That's the way it was presented hundreds of years ago, was there was just an elite group of people who understood God's word and they taught everybody else.
[00:20:26] Well, that. That makes for really abusive situations and people misusing the gospel for their own advantage.
[00:20:33] But what I love is that he gives light to those who actually open his Word with attention.
[00:20:39] Intention too.
[00:20:40] Patience, like intentionality and patience. I want to understand this for myself. What is he saying to me? I'm the one that has to stand before him.
[00:20:49] No one else is going to stand in my stead before the Lord to answer to him. I'm going to answer, and I want to know that what I've been believing and saying and walking in was actually truth.
[00:21:01] So you don't need a seminary degree to understand Scripture, but you do need to time. You do need time. And that's probably the place where most people are like, you know what? I don't have time.
[00:21:13] Right.
[00:21:15] Well, not having time is a lie from the enemy, and it can really get you into trouble because you know it could cost you even more time because you are deceived and you are walking in some level of deception. And by not spending the time to learn the Word, you could end up in places you should have never been. And now you've got to go back and make up for lost time. And God has to reroute you. So you. You don't have time to not study. You. You have got to build it in. We have to build this into our life.
[00:21:48] You need a willingness to slow down. And. And I think that is some level of humility. But it's also the fear of God to say, I'm going to slow down enough that I have time to study the Word of God and it's gonna be my priority. It's not an afterthought. It's not like, oh my gosh, let me squeeze in five seconds this morning. No, it's like, no part of my routine is okay every day at this time. This is what works for me mostly is it's in the morning. It's my coffee. It's my moment with Jesus. Sometimes I'm alone, sometimes my husband's there, or sometimes I also pick it back up during the day just. Just to look at some verses that I feel the Lord is leading me to.
[00:22:29] So there's got to be a willingness to slow down. Because God isn't hiding truth from you, but he also. He's not rushing it.
[00:22:37] That's our problem with our culture is we're a rush. Hurry culture.
[00:22:43] Understanding Scripture has always involved explanation.
[00:22:48] There's a moment in Nehemiah which I love, the book of Nehemiah, where the people are hearing the law read aloud and it says they read from the book of the law of God clearly. And they gave the sense so that people understood the reading.
[00:23:05] Notice what's happening there. The Word is read, it's explained, and understanding is the goal. The this idea that explanation, context and understanding matter isn't modern. It's biblical. God never, ever intended his Word to be mysterious in a way that keeps people dependent.
[00:23:25] He intended it to be understood.
[00:23:28] Yeah. I mean, yeah, mysterious in a way that keeps people dependent on someone else, rather. Let's put it that way. Let me throw that in there. Because we do need to be dependent on God and His Word, but he intended it to be understood as well. So it's not just like, I just want you to know my Word just because I want you to know My Word. But it's so that we can have understanding and we could walk circumspectly. We could walk in the light. We could walk as he is walking in the light.
[00:23:55] Now I want to talk about historically, why this is so important.
[00:23:59] Because when Scripture is not studied carefully, and please hear me on this, because this is pretty much the whole reason I'm making this episode and I'm going to be doing a series on this, actually.
[00:24:09] When Scripture is not studied carefully or when people stop engaging it for themselves, that's where problems begin.
[00:24:16] One of the most important things to understand is this most deception does not begin with no Bible, but it begins with a misused Bible.
[00:24:26] So what you have are people who don't leave the Bible out, but they just misuse the Bible, they twist it to their own advantage. And some of these people may not realize they're doing it right, but there are some who absolutely know they're doing it. They're being used by Satan. It's the whole wheat and the tares thing. You know, Jesus is giving the parable about the wheat and the tares, about the seeds being sown. And he says, at the end of the age, that's when the angels will come and separate the wheat from the tares. Because if they had done it sooner, it would have also killed the wheat. So God allowed. Even from the beginning of the church, even before that, even way back before the church, before, before Jesus came, there was deception. You had false prophets. Right? Deception has been here since Satan stepped foot into the garden. And it's still happening. So this is not anything new that we're dealing with. So I want people to understand that. I want us all to understand this is not new deception in the church. False prophets that has been going on since the beginning of time. But what it is, is that we see it more because it's in of front front of us. It's on social media, it's on YouTube, it's on Facebook. We see it everywhere. And we're rarely seeing the ones who are godly, the ones who do follow Christ, the ones that are real shepherds. We're not hearing about them, we're just hearing about the false ones.
[00:25:52] But.
[00:25:54] And that can get heavy and weighty on us. But most deception doesn't begin without a Bible. It begins with a misused Bible. And so you don't want to be falling into that category of deceived people because you're following someone who has misused the Bible.
[00:26:09] Second Peter actually warns about this directly. It says that some people twist scripture to their own destruction, not because Scripture is unclear, but because it's mishandled historically.
[00:26:20] This is exactly how many cults and unhealthy movements have formed.
[00:26:25] Not by rejecting the Bible, but by isolating verses, by removing context, by elevating one person's interpretation above Scripture itself, and often by subtly discouraging people from studying the Bible on their own. I've seen people like this. They'll say things like, oh, I have special revelation from the Lord about this.
[00:26:45] Oh, you have special revelation that is not in the Bible. You have something that I don't have as a believer. You. What? What do you mean? You have something special revelation from the Lord? Because if it's truly from the Lord, then we're probably all going to have this revelation at some point. Or we're going to sense that what you're saying is true. Or we're going to say, you know what? I have that moment too. Like, personal revelation is one thing. Okay, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like, yeah, you're reading scripture and all of a sudden you have this revelation. Like for me, about the wheat and the tares. Recently, I just, I had a moment where really understood that scripture. And I think maybe before I'd never really thought about it. So it was a personal revelation. It didn't change anything about my doctrine.
[00:27:31] It didn't elevate something above Christ.
[00:27:36] So when I say, when someone's talking about they have some kind of revelation from The Holy Spirit in that moment. And they're trying to teach everybody else, but it's not clear.
[00:27:47] And it's weird. It's. I'm talking about. I've been hearing this lately, people saying that they go, there's. There's a person out there who goes. Who says she goes to heaven periodically and she sees Christmas up there. There's a whole town that's about Christmas. There's, you know, there's different areas of it that are just amazing. And gumdrops and lollipops and I mean, and people, like, follow her. People follow her. She has a pretty big ministry and she's a quote unquote prophet. And this is terrifying to me because she has special revelation.
[00:28:23] And I really think that when we start going down that road, we're getting away from Jesus. We're getting away from the cornerstone of our faith, which is Christ.
[00:28:32] He must be at the center of everything. When he is removed from the center and someone else is put there, they're propping themselves up. And that is a false gospel and is doomed to failure. And the people that are caught up in it or trapped up in it are going to also probably fall into destruction. Or at least at the very minimum, they're gonna go through some rough stuff trying to figure out what in the heck happened to them. There could be fallout from it.
[00:29:01] So if you, you know, the last episode I talked about, specifically a person that has been exposed. There's a bunch of them, but people following him, and their lives were destroyed. They gave a bunch of money away, they moved, they took certain jobs, they got married, they. And he was just a false prophet. And their lives have been so uprooted and destroyed in certain ways, they've had to rebuild it because they did what this false prophet told them to do, like propping himself up in the place of Christ, you know, so that's how cults and unhealthy movements have formed.
[00:29:37] They elevate one person's interpretation above Scripture itself.
[00:29:41] And often by subtly discouraging people from saying the Bible on their own. So they're like, no, what I'm saying is the truth. It's the gospel. You don't really need to look at this, you know, over and over in history, the pattern looks the same. Now here's the pattern. A charismatic leader claims special insight, right? Scripture is quoted selectively.
[00:30:00] So they don't. They don't read the context. They don't let scripture interpret scripture. They don't ask questions about who, what, when, where, why, and how, when they're reading, which is one of the methods of studying Scripture. But what they do is they selectively pull out scriptures to basically achieve their agenda and the context is minimized or dismissed. And people are told, you won't understand this unless I explain it to you. So basically what they're saying, let me dumb this down because you're not smart enough to figure this out on your own. Only I am. I am the Enlightened One. I am the Chosen One.
[00:30:37] So that's not discernment, that's dependence that becomes. They create a situation where their little followers are dependent upon them and that gives them the power to control them. That gives them the power to continue to take their money and their resources and to be propped up in this position of being the only one that can hear God or the special one. I have, I have a news flash for you. None of us are special but Jesus.
[00:31:07] None of us are special but Jesus.
[00:31:11] Now, are we all special in our own way to God? Of course. Does God let us know that? Of course.
[00:31:16] He's in love with us. He absolutely loves us. We're special to him. We're his children. But Jesus is the prized possession of heaven and he's the only one that deserves it, to be honest with you. And so when anyone is trying to arm wrestle God or Jesus to be in his position of authority, in his position of his greatness and his glory, that stuff is so vile and evil. And that is how cults start, even in the early church. So leaders warned against this. And you can look at this all through Paul's letters. They caution believers about teachings that claim secret meanings, hidden knowledge, or secret spiritual superiority. Especially when those teachings contradicted what the apostles taught publicly and plainly. You can see Paul talking about this a lot.
[00:32:06] Their response wasn't fear, it wasn't control. It was grounded teaching and shared scripture. So why does this matter today?
[00:32:15] This isn't just about extreme groups or obvious cults, right? It's not the same dynamic can happen quietly. And it's kind of more quiet today. It can happen more quietly when believers rely on sound bites instead of scripture. You know, they build theology from isolated verses. They confuse emotional impact with truth, or they outsource discernment entirely. Like they let some kind of online celebrity pastor be the voice of God for them. Right? Hebrews says that maturity comes from training our senses through use, through practice. And discernment isn't automatic, it's learned well, unless God gives you the gift of discernment.
[00:32:57] And I pray we all have it. And that is a gift. But even in a gift, you have to develop your gift, right?
[00:33:03] You know, if you feel like you have the gift of, I don't know, hospitality, you know, the first time you do it, you might be a little awkward and weird at it, but you get better and better and better, right? You just get better. And that's the same thing. Thing. I think the goal of the Bible study isn't suspicion, it's stability. So we're not trying to run around, be suspicious of everybody. We're trying to be stabilized.
[00:33:23] We're trying to be smart.
[00:33:25] God doesn't want us to be easily manipulated and controlled.
[00:33:30] Jesus said that continuing in his word leads to truth and truth leads to freedom.
[00:33:37] That continuing part matters. It implies engagement and not passivity.
[00:33:43] So I want to say this gently because this is important. Learning how to study the Bible is not about control.
[00:33:50] It's not about gatekeeping truth. And it's not about becoming overly critical. It's about freedom.
[00:33:57] It's about being anchored when emotions are high, steady when teaching is persuasive, but could be false grounded when life is confusing. Don't you want that? Don't you want to be anchored when your emotions are out of control? Don't you want to be steady when someone teaches you something persuasive but it's not true? Don't you want to be grounded when your life is confusing to you? That is freedom, my friend. And every, every major deception in church history didn't start when people threw away their Bibles. It started when people stopped reading them. Careful.
[00:34:33] I hope that you are getting stirred up about reading your Bible this week because you need it. I need it. We all need it. It is the word of God, is that daily manna that we need. I want to give you some simple practices for this week and it's not overwhelming.
[00:34:48] I want to give you just a short, easy way to think about Bible study. It could be this simple, y'. All. It doesn't have to be complex. I'm not asking you to go to Bible school and write a 35 page thesis paper, right?
[00:35:01] This is what it can look like. Choose one. Short passage. 1.
[00:35:06] What do you want to choose? I mean, maybe like for me, I'm going to go back and look at the wheat and the tares passage, the parable of Jesus.
[00:35:12] Let's say I choose that.
[00:35:14] So I'm going to ask myself these three questions.
[00:35:17] What does this actually say?
[00:35:19] I'm going to summarize it by asking myself, what does this actually say? I'm going to put it into a couple of sentences.
[00:35:27] That's going to help me wrap my brain around it, right?
[00:35:31] What did it mean to the people who first heard it? This is so important. Gosh, I wish people would understand this.
[00:35:38] Okay, there's something called primary meaning, secondary meaning, and so forth.
[00:35:45] Anytime you read scripture, you have to realize that it was from a certain person to a certain group.
[00:35:52] What did it really. Who was it talking? And what did it mean to the people who first heard it?
[00:35:58] I need to understand the primary meaning of this text before I start trying to apply it in different areas.
[00:36:06] Just read it for what it really is.
[00:36:08] You know what I mean?
[00:36:09] So that's number two. Number three, what does obedience look like for me now? Okay, now let me apply this. This principle that I've just read to my life, okay? If it's about the wheat and the tares, Jesus was talking to his disciples and he was teaching them about how to spot false teaching. And he was telling them, you know, many antichrists are going to come. Many are going to come in my name. See that you don't fall for that. It's not me. I'm the only one. And I have to let this happen. This has to be done simultaneously. Both the wheat and the tares growing at the same time. Because if I try to take out the tares, the whole thing would fall. All of it would die.
[00:36:47] So he's telling them that. So how does that apply to me now? Well, if he told them that, then. Then it's still growing together, right? Because he hasn't come back because the angels haven't separated the wheat from the tares.
[00:37:00] So it's still happening is the point. So I also need to take heed to Jesus's words, and I need to be careful and I need to pay attention so that I don't fall for this, for this deception, or so that I recognize when there are tears in the midst, that kind of thing. Y', all, hopefully this is making sense to you. That's it. So three questions. Choose, you know, here's your homework. Choose one short passage. What does it actually say? What did it mean to the people who first heard it? And what does it. What does obedience look like for me now? And so that's it. There's no pressure, there's no performance. There's just attention.
[00:37:36] So I hope that you stick around with me. I'm going to be doing a few episodes in this series about this topic. I am so passionate about this. You all have no idea.
[00:37:45] I really, really really am a nerd when it comes to this stuff. I love Bible history, I love church history, I love the Bible, I love theology. I love taking scripture and breaking it down and you know, really understanding what he's saying. It's life changing and it's liberty and it is freedom, right? It's healing. So in the next episode, I'm going to give you a very simple, time tested way to study the scripture that anyone can do. Anyone. There's no special tools, there's no fancy language. There's just a framework that brings clarity and confidence to you. Because God's word is not fragile. Truth does not need protecting from honest study. And you are never meant to feel powerless when you open your Bible. You are not meant to feel power powerless. You were meant to feel empowered because it is the word of God. It is active, it is powerful and, and it's sharper than any two edged sword.
[00:38:36] So I hope that this helps you and I'm getting started up. Can't wait to do the next episode. Hey, would you drop me a line you know, @shannashannawilliams.com and tell me how you're doing with this? Did you enjoy this episode? What, what passage are you studying right now?
[00:38:56] You know, I also have resources there at my website, Shannon Williams.com you can can also get links to my blogs and as well as my music, but also my other podcast that runs called the Marriage Altar that my husband and I do together.
[00:39:12] And hey, if you like this, make sure you like and subscribe and share this episode with somebody who needs it. Maybe they just need to be reminded that the word of God is there for them and that God wants them to walk in and truth and clarity. Until next time. I will see you guys soon. Thanks. Bye.
[00:39:46] Hell.
[00:39:52] Clouds he's shifting the wind he's bringing new light.
