Transcript

American Family Radio thanks sponsor Preborn for supporting pro life advocacy

Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello

 : and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And we are going to jump right into the word of God.

Social media influencers are shaping how we think and how we interpret truth

Today we are living in a world that is so saturated with voices, we have more content now than we ever had available at our fingertips in the history of the entire world. And one thing I've been talking about here on the show, if you're a regular listener, you know that I've been talking about social media influencers and how we need to be very mindful. They're not inherently bad. Here is a platform right here program where we are trying to influence you for good. These things are not inherently bad, but we need to be very mindful about the way that influencers are shaping how we think, how we parent, how we eat, how we rest, and increasingly how we interpret truth. Now, in a culture driven by algorithms and attention, formation is happening constantly. We are constantly being formed by what we see, what we hear, what we read. And from a holistic health perspective, this really matters a lot because what we consume, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, spiritually, what we intake, it directly impacts our wellbeing. So if we are constantly eating the junk food that the algorithm is giving to us, that for you page, not intentionally curating those voices that are trustworthy that are edifying us, this is going to be impactful. So we talk often about nutrition, movement, sleep, but what about spiritual intake and what is forming our worldview, our identity, our sense of purpose? Because here's the reality. If we are not in intentional about what we're consuming, we are going to be unintentionally shaped by culture. And it's happening without even realizing it right now that shaping is accelerating. Research from groups like Barna showed that a significant portion of Christians engage scripture very infrequently while simultaneously consuming hours and hours, up to nine hours, depending on what age group you're looking at nine ah, hours of digital content each day. But at the same time, studies consistently show that younger generations increasingly form their world views and their deeply held beliefs through social media, not through traditional discipleship or church teaching or most importantly, directly reading the Word of God. And that means many people are being discipled not by Scripture itself, but just this filtered, kind of fragmented and sometimes if we're really honest and we need to be honest and inaccurate interpretations of Scripture. I've talked about this before, almost like there's Christianity brands that are emerging. This is the brand that interprets the scripture this way. This is the brand that interprets the scripture that way. And in an era of viral sermons and Instagram theology and Christian, Christian celebrity culture, these differing interpretations of God's word aren't just floating out there harmlessly. They're spreading rapidly, often without context, accountability or depth or meaning to an application to your personal life.

Hermeneutics is simply the way we interpret Scripture

And this is where we're going to talk about today. A word that might sound academic, but it's actually essential. We're going to talk about something called hermeneutics. Now, many of you out there are most more schooled than I in this. And you're like, yes. And many of you said, say, say that again, what now? Hermeneutics is simply the way we interpret Scripture. It's the set of guard rails that helps us read the Bible as it was intended, grounded in context, historical context, the full story of go looking at the word meaning. It's not just being pulled apart into quotes or shaped by personal opinion. Like, here's my personal opinion and here's a, you know, attacked on Bible verse at the end to support what I said. And as my guest today is going to explain, it keeps us aligned with what the text actually says and prevents misunderstanding or misuse. And more than ever, families need to be intentional about this because without good interpretation, even sincere faith can become misguided and misinformed.

Many people avoid scripture because they feel overwhelmed or bored

And we are feeling, as Christians today, we feel this quiet tension. Like we want to love Scripture, but maybe we feel just overwhelmed. Maybe we just feel disconnected. Maybe, maybe some of you even feel bored. Now, I never have that problem. But it is a real problem. It absolutely is a real problem. And I'm not going to say that I've never had that in my life. And my guest today is going to help us see that many people avoid scripture. Not out of rebellion, not out of, I do not want to read God's Word. It's just, it's just, you Just don't feel fully connect to the message, the application, the power.

Faith Womack is the founder of Bible Nerd Ministries

So today the question is, what if the Bible isn't boring? What if you just never been shown how to engage it? And what if in a world full of influencers, God's word was the primary influence in your life? Today we are joined by Faith Womack. She is a Bible teacher, she's a content creator. She's known as the Bible nerd across social media. I couldn't love that more. She's the founder of, Bible Nerd Ministries, and she's reached millions through her teaching, helping people rediscover the depth, the clarity, clarity, the beauty of scripture. And her book, no More Boring Bible Study is designed to help readers move from confusion and disconnection to confidence and excitement in studying God's Word. Don't you want that? I know I do. And her passion is really personal because she grew up in a context where scripture was misused, and she now helps others to learn to read it faithfully and accurately. Faith, so excited about this conversation. Thanks so much for dropping by and joining us today.

Faith Womack: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Faith, why don't we start out with just an introduction? Just tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe some of your background, where you did have you grew up in a, in a heritage of faith. But you did see scripture misused. How did that bring you to us today with this message about Bible study?

Faith Womack: Yeah, I do have to say at the onset, my father is not Andrew Womack. but I grew up in a household that misused, scripture. My parents were very like baby Christians. And when they got married they said, let's raise our kids in the church. That seems like the right thing we should do. And so, I grew up in the church. You know, I grew up going to Sunday school and being discipled and all those beautiful things. however, when I got older, and in particular, my father misused scripture, as he did that even though I'd been raised in the church, I didn't feel equipped to discern how he was doing it and what exactly was wrong, why it was wrong. And, so when it came to going to college, I was like, you know what? I can't see anything worth taking loans out for other than studying the Word and trying to figure this thing out. You know, my dad claims it means this one thing. Other people mean it or say that it means something else. Like, what does it actually mean? And you see, I had grown up in a household where my dad said, God's Calling me to quit my job. God's calling us to live without electricity. God's calling you to not work faith. God's calling you to. Not to have a car, not to hang out with friends. Like, let's just hunker down. kind of like end of the world, hide in a cave kind of vibes. And, it was very confusing for me because, you know, he quit his job. He was willing to lose his house, lose all of his family. Eventually, my parents got a divorce. You know, it seemed holy to take such big risks in Jesus name. You know, I couldn't rightly discern what exactly he was doing and how it was wrong. And so when I went on to study, the Bible and then eventually went on to seminary, the more I learned things that, I thought all Christians need to know this stuff. I was raised in the church. I couldn't rightly figure out what he was doing, and if it was right or wrong. And I remember it was week one. I went to a great undergraduate liberal arts college, Covenant College. And, you know, I'm sitting there in chapel and they're talking about, how do we handle the Word and is it our anchor for life kind of stuff. And, I remember running back to my dorm room. This was so early on that he was driving home from dropping me off at college. And I call my dad up on my flip phone. I'm like, hey, I. I think we've been handling scripture wrong. I think you've been handling scripture wrong. And he would have nothing of it. but the more I studied, the more I learned, the more I saw there's so much life in the Word of God, and if we twist it and misuse it, we're cheapening it, and we actually don't really believe it's true if we're willing to misuse it. And so though my dad wasn't receptive to, truth and how to rightly handle the Word of God, I've made it. I feel like the Lord's kind of made it my life journey to equip the church. If we do believe it's true, let's handle it like truth and let's not misuse it. And so that's really what I'm on a life journey of doing, is trying to equip the church with tools and tricks on how to just get into the Word for it to finally make sense, for us to know we're faithfully interpreting it, not misusing it, and to also identify when others are misusing it. Because I know not everybody had a dad that took money from them, and took the house away and, you know, all these crazy, weird, probably mentally ill things. but we all have seen the word misused or twisted or people make the claim that someone's twisting it or misusing it. And I think all Christians need to be able to discern what does the Bible actually say? Not what does so and so say it says, but what does it actually say? So that's. That's my life calling.

 When people reject God's word, they present their own worldview

Dr. Jessica Peck: Wow, Faith, I'm so grateful for you sharing your story. So transparent, so transparently, because I know it's got to be tender. I mean, those kinds of stories never come without hurt or pain. And it's, you know, we, we tend to hear from you like on the other side of it and kind of having some clarity and being able to about it, man, I know there's people who are listening who have walked a similar road. And when I look at, you know, the when, when people just outright reject God's word and they present their own worldview, something that is completely antithetical to God's word in a way that's almost easier to take because you can see like, okay, this is like we're talking about, you know, extremes that are other religions that are really oppositional to the word of God. That's easy to kind of take and compare. But when you're talking about the twist of God's word, the manipulation, the deception that comes along with that, and spiritual abuse is really what we're talking about. We're talking about something that is really messy and tangled and difficult to untangle. But you're not alone in that because you look back to Genesis and that is exactly the most effective tactic that Satan debuts with in Genesis, right? When he asks Eve, did God really say. And he took God's word and he just put a little twist on it and a slight twist for his own, for his own purposes. And so we see this from the beginning of time. You saw this in your own home. How do you see culture misappropriating what we read? I mean, I'm just seeing this rise to a real, a real dumpster fire level. Honestly, what are you seeing as you're studying this, you know, more widely in culture?

Faith Womack: We talk about it in my book, but I find that a lot of people will want to put the Bible into a box and they'll treat it, it like a history textbook or like a science textbook. They'll treat it like just some proverbs. They'll want to put it into modern day boxes to try and like essentially box in Jesus, you know, he can only speak into science. And so this is how we're going to use the Bible to try and argue. Okay, scientifically speaking, the Bible's not reliable. You know, they'll try and get to scientific things. Or okay, this is why the Bible isn't historically reliable. Or okay, the Bible is just a history textbook and it's, it doesn't have any claim over my life. Or they'll take Jesus as just a proverb. You know, Jesus is just saying nice things and Jesus is just love and bunny rabbits and flowers and he doesn't ask anything of our lives. Or he's just there to prosper me. He's only there to make me money, to be my genie in a bottle that I send up a couple prayers and I get a couple million back. lots of people will take the Bible and take truth and put it into their selfish boxes. but, but the beautiful thing about truth is it doesn't say what do you need from me? Truth being absolute, demands something of us. And it's not that, the Bible really does fit into boxes. My book we break down how the Bible isn't just a story, it's not just a poem, it's not just a history textbook. And chapter after chapter I aim to show the reader how the Bible isn't the boxes that we often put it into. It's so much better, it's so much richer, it's so much more beautiful and therefore so much more interesting. And so it's actually really good news. That's not just a history textbook or science textbook or a poem or a story or movie. It's so much more than that. And that's actually really good news.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That is really good news. You know, I, just wrote an article for a magazine put out by American Family, Association and I wrote, I read a monthly article and the article that I wrote recently, was around Easter eggs and kind of this cultural zeiticus, you know, about truth. How truth is something elusive, it's something secret, it's something that's dedicated for the hidden seeker. And then that, that seeker finds this hidden truth and then interprets the meaning for the masses. And I think you're so right. Faith that we try to put God in a little box that fits that. Like we want God to fit our cultural narrative and so we seek out scriptures intentionally that affirm our beliefs, that affirm our worldview, that fit neatly into our life to justify maybe some of the choices we may, some of the worldviews that we have. And part of the uncomfortable truth is wrestling with God's character. And we see this concept of wrestling in the Bible. Jacob, wrestled so much that his hip was dislocated and put out of joint. And sometimes we can be put out of joint thinking, okay, how do we wrestle with that? But the one quote that I heard when I was a teenager that I've held onto that is not a scripture, but that is really deeply helpful to me, is that if God was small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And we are on a lifelong journey to seek and understand the character and nature of God. And the more that I have done that, faith, the more that I have found that God is even more beautiful, more amazing, more loving than I could ever imagine. When we come back, we're going to talk about understanding the Bible the way it was meant to be. Read more with Faith Womack on the other side of this break.

The work of Preborn Network clinics is more urgent than ever

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Dr. Jessica Peck: Just 28 sponsors one ultrasound, $140 helps rescue five babies. To donate, dial pound 250 and say baby. That's pound 250 baby. Or visit preborn.com/AFR, that's preborn.com/AFR Right now, more mothers need that moment of hope. Just $28 sponsors one ultrasound and $140 helps rescue five babies. Your generous, tax- deductible gift also helps provide mothers who choose life with loving support and care for up to two years. Please don't wait. Help surround mothers and babies with compassion, truth and hope today. To donate, dial, pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby or visit preborn.com/AFR- that's preborn.com/AFR there's been so many

Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac: times I got it so wrong and a couple that I got it just right I've seen the view from the top of the world and the sorrow by the bitter graveside I've seen some prayers get answered and I've heard my share of no's But there's never been a moment that you let me go I've been uptown I've been downtown in the spotlight I've been broke down

Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back friends. That is Nothin' Sweeter by TobyMac and today we're talking about the There is nothing sweeter than the love of God. And he loves you so much that he left the gift of His Word. We have God's Word available to us and I have spoken to so many Christians now who live in countries where reading God's Word is outlawed and they talk about how precious God's Word is to them. I've talked to people who have been just in such difficult, unimaginable trials and tragedy and they talk about the only source of comfort coming from God's Word. Today I'm talking to Faith Womack, author, author of no More Boring Bible Study why taking Scripture seriously is easier and more exciting than you think. And she shared her own personal story of her dad misusing scripture to justify behaviors that were harmful and worldview that was not true. And she shared that. And when we misunderstand God's Word, we can easily become disillusioned and disengaged. But if we have clarity about what God is is saying, that leads us to connection. And I'm telling you for me that has led to a hunger to study God's Word, to read it more, to understand it more. And so the question for us today is who or what is shaping your understanding of truth right now? Are you going directly to God's Word or are you outsourcing that to bite sized snack forms of influencers? Which can be really helpful. I hope that you are very discerning and intentional about connecting to people and platforms that really help you to engage and God's Word. Understand God's Word. There are plenty of great people out of the out there and faith is one of those because if culture is distorting how we read scripture, which is absolutely happening, then the next question becomes how do we read it rightly? And this is where hermeneutics comes in. Don't worry, we're going to break this down and make it really simple because many people approach the Bible today looking for quick answers, looking for a personal application, looking for a Special specific answer from the Lord on a life problem that they're having. But Scripture was never meant to be read in isolation and ah, from the context that it was written in, understanding the Bible requires both heart posture and the proper tools that we need to be able to understand it. It's one of the reasons why walking in community with faithful Christians is really important as we talk these things out, as we wrestle through the truth of God's word. So faith, let's dive in and talk about this, this big concept, hermeneutics. Some people may be really familiar. Other people, this is the first time they've heard this word and they're leaning in, saying, okay, wait, say that one more time and maybe slower and spell it. Why does hermeneutics matter? Why should everyday believers care about hermeneutics, not just seminary students or pastors?

Faith Womack: Well, frankly, it's because we all do it. Hermeneutics is the study of how we read and interpret and eventually apply the Bible in our life. So it's how we read and interpret truth, truth. and so everyone is dealing with the Bible, whether they're an atheist or Joe Schmo on the road that hasn't read it in five years, or you and I that spend a little bit of time every morning in it. we're all dealing with the Bible, interpreting it whether we read it or not. We're making choices about if we believe it's trustworthy, if we believe it's true, and how to handle it. an easy example is, some more, and I say this in a theological sense, not a political sense, but more liberal Christians might take passages where Jesus or have taken passages where Jesus kisses disciples on the cheek to argue that that is a gay kiss, that that is a romantic kiss, and that is an interpretation of a first century greeting which we often understand to be not romantic, to be friendly. that is interpretation though, and we need to understand how do we interpret Scripture, and make sure we do it faithfully to what's actually there, not reading into it our modern ideas of what a kiss is, because modern ideas of a kisses very romantic, right? So we have to ask ourselves, how are we handling scripture? I start my book off acknowledging I believe it's true and that taints the way I look at it. I am going to believe that it is not trying to fool me and the way that I handle it is going to be reading it with that bias. An atheist would read it, as an ancient document that was trying to, convince somebody to believe in A person that they do not believe is the savior of the world. I'm going to read it on the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm going to read it as something that is truth and I want to handle it truthfully because of that. So I'm actually probably going to be more faithful to the original context than someone that doesn't believe it's true, because I believe it's true. I want to ask is this cultural? Is this, contextualized by the day and age, or by the author, by the church that he's writing to, by the Jewish audiences, etc? And then I'm going to ask, you know, how am I supposed to discern? You know, you and I, we're just normal people with normal day lives. We've got laundry sitting in the dryer right now that I need to fold. You know, I don't have all day to read the scholars or to study the, the understandings behind this Greek or Hebrew word. And many of us never even get the time to study those languages. So how do you and I do that? And that is the study of hermeneutics. Many praise the Lord because of this. Like many, many, many scholars have come before us. This is a whole world of study. And we are the most equipped generation than ever before to reap the harvests of the rich bount of so many scholars. We don't have to know Greek and Hebrew to study Greek and Hebrew words that many of us will never be able to pronounce. I mean, no one really knows how to pronounce those words anyway. But, we get to reap the benefits of all of this great information online, all these great resources. And so we get to ask ourselves, what's going on here in this text and what's the most faithful reading of it? How do I make sure I'm reading it as faithful as possible. But it's kind of like a science. I mean, I'm talking to a doctor here. You know science better than anybody. Study, it's the study, right? It's a journey you're always, pursuing. Ah, I, I, I actually am not medical, so I don't know exactly how science is a study. But, you know, it's, it's something that, we are constantly growing in and that we are constantly being humbled in and praise the Lord for that. We never, you know, read the Bible in a year and say, okay, I checked that off, I'm done with my studies. I'm no longer a student of the Word. No, we are students of The Word for the rest of our life. And praise the Lord for that. Because. Because it's so good. It's life giving, it's life changing. And, the more I found, the more I asked these questions about how do I read the Bible, how do I, really feast on it, you know, look at what's going on there. And, and what does it mean for my life today? The more it changed my life and the more I fell in love with it. And so I gotta be honest, anybody that's a little bit intimidated by this scholarly stuff and the big word of hermeneutics, it's actually a process of falling in love with the Bible, of realizing there's so much more than we ever expected out of it, and that it's this beautiful, feast that the Lord has invited us on, a lifelong feast of feasting on the Word. And so we can praise the Lord for that. It actually becomes really worshipful really quickly.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you know, faith, I may have a doctoral degree, but my degree is a doctor of Nursing practice. And the closest I came to studying Greek was maybe the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet on hypertension, high blood pressure. So, you know, so really, context matters there. One of the favorite things that my pastor says that I hold on to is that, that we have to remember that we are reading an Eastern book with Western eyes. And we do put that Western filter on it where we don't have that cultural context. And it's been so fascinating to learn about the context of the Bible. And one of the things that we see a lot, that, lack of application of hermeneutics, it leads to misinterpretation. And there are some scriptures, faith that I really commonly see. And what I see, the theme, this is just my observation, but when people don't apply hermeneutics, when they don't think about, like, what is the context of the Bible and really try to say, okay, I'm not trying to fit retrofit this scripture to my life. I'm trying to retrofit my life to this scripture. I think that's an important thing. There are things like fragments of scripture. The two that I've seen most commonly are judge not, lest you be judged. Like, just that's it. Like, just that's it. That's the mandate. And the other one is be anxious for nothing. I see that used a lot in the context of mental health and not looking at the whole context of, you know, where that was coming from, what comes after that? Looking at things like, there's a Comma there. That's not the end of the sentence. That's not a period. That's not the end of the book.

How do you see this misinterpretation of scriptures impacting people's faith?

How do you see this, this misinterpretation of scriptures impacting people's faith and how should we be aware of it and what can we do about it?

Dr. Jessica Peck: It.

Faith Womack: Well, we are very transactional creatures. Our culture in this day and time, it's. We want fortune cookie Jesus, we want a single Bible verse and for us to magically get like fed from it and then go throughout our day and it magically open doors and close doors and all the things to guide us through to prosperity or whatever we're trying to get from him. We like Jesus that we can consume from. I. I love the imagery. I think it was Nancy Lee, Lee Demos, or now Wogamuth who used the imagery. First of a vending machine. You put in a couple prayers and you get something back from Jes. We love that kind of Jesus. And so that's often what it ends up being with the judge, not lets you be judge or be anxious for nothing. We're taking one Bible verse and we're saying, okay, this means I can't be anxious and we move on with our life. Or this means I can't make judgments and we move on with our life. And it's like, well, what's going on before and after that text? Where else does Paul use that word, anxious? Where else does scripture talk about anxiety? where are we? Where have we been in the biblical storyline and where are we going? That's another big problem is a lot of people don't understand the biblical big meta narrative of the Bible, the big overarching story or movement of the Bible. Where's, where's it been and where is it going? Because we find ourselves frankly, right in the middle of it. I argue in my book, we go from creation to then fall redemption with Jesus on the cross. And we're looking forward to consummation, which is a legal term for when everything in the contract has been taken care of, everything has been fulfilled. So we're looking forward to heaven. And as, as sojourners on this earth, running the race that's set before us, looking forward to heaven. We look back and we see all that we're missing from Eden. We see all the curses of the fall, from the fall, we see the power of the cross of redemption, and all of those things shape the way we live forward, looking to heaven. And so, we just need to understand that the Bible isn't something that, that's a fortune cookie. It's rather something to rewire our entire brain. It should be, like you mentioned, something that wires our identity, our sense of calling and mission and purpose, our sense of how we interact with our church, our communities, our families. because we're not individual agents in a vacuum, living for ourselves. That's, that's essentially putting ourselves on the throne of our lives. Rather, we are rubbing up against other image bearers every single day. And we're broken and hurting each other and we're longing for our Savior, longing for closeness with a redeemer, like what we lost in, Eden. And we're looking forward to heaven and in this now, and not yet in this weird in between before heaven. what we really need is truth to guide our steps. And the truth that the Lord provides isn't, just little parables and a fortune cookie. Rather, it's, a whole rewiring of who we are. Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor in spirit, you know, just turning this world upside down, down. And it's actually so incredibly beautiful. But you got to read it in context. You got to understand where it's coming from and where it's going.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm so glad you mentioned that, the whole arc of scripture, because again, you know, sometimes I'll, see people oversimplifying, like Old Testament or NewSong Testament, like there's this just stark chasm there that can't be crossed. But it really is a narrative. There's an arc that goes from Genesis to Revelation. And both the Old Testament and NewSong Testament do happen under that ark that you just talked about. From creation to the fall, to Jesus death on the cross to, you know, one day the hope of heaven that is there. And you know what I see in that arc? Another thing besides the misinterpretation of scriptures within that narrative. I see the misattribution of Scripture within that narrative. And I get, I'm worried faith. I'll be honest, I'm a little worried because we are taking scriptures in such bite sized pieces and we look at things like social media and scripture, scriptures that are there. We don't know what version of the Bible that is, what interpretation that is, or even if that is in fact a Bible verse. It could be written incorrectly, you know, and I see people misattributing, common phrases or misattributing Bible verses. Let me give you two examples of this that I commonly see. So I'll see somebody say something like, well, you know, God helps them, who helps themselves. It's like actually that's not, that's not in the Bible. That's not a scripture or a, kind of twisting of a scripture saying, for example, like I, I've seen this actually a lot when I go to restaurants or fast food or counter service. They'll ha, the, the workers will have this on the tip jar that says money is the root of all evil. I'd be glad to get, you know, you can give me some of yours to alleviate your own burden. Some, you know, form of that when really the scripture is the love of, of money is the root of all evil. So, what do you say to people who are, you know, we're increasingly tempted to not go to our own Bible. That's why I'm a big fan of a paper Bible. I think my listeners know that. But how do we, you know, go back to the Bible and make sure we know that we know we're verifying the information that we're getting and that we're learning God's word and we can recognize some of those misattributions?

Faith Womack: Well, we gotta be in it. First of all, you gotta ask yourself, do I believe it's true? And if I believe it's true, why aren't I reading it? Because if it's truth, I would be clinging to it more than I cling to the nightly news, more than I cling to my emails, more than I cling to anything else if I really believe it's true. So if I believe it's truth, why aren't I reading it? And then why aren't I reading it more? We often sit down, we read one little paragraph or we stick only in the New Testament. again, it's if it's truth, why aren't we reading it? And why aren't we reading it more? I mean you can sit down and read Matthew in an afternoon, easy. You can sit down and read James in like 5, 10, 15 minutes, depending on your reading speed. Like it is not long. but those books, if we believe they're true, are life changing. and that's just out of the NewSong Testament. I mean I am a high, I, I think it is really important for us to get more biblical literacy by, by just getting in the word. And yes, there are tough passages, I will be the first to admit it. but there is nothing that's truly boring. The more we dig, the more that is absolutely life changing. And that's where I named my book no More Boring. Bible study. Because the more you look at it, the more you realize, no, there is no boring Bible study if you're truly studying the Bible. But so many of us just want, like a little devotional, one little Bible verse, one little, you know, anecdote, or we just want Bible verses to sprinkle on things we don't actually want the Lord and his grip over our lives. but sit down, Challenge yourself. I'm going to read through the Gospels this summer. I'm going to read through the Gospels this afternoon. I mean, all doable things. but being in the Word is the first step to catching when things are being misused and then staying in the Word. hearing the Word preach. I think a lot of us also, hear very shallow sermons. I mean, 90 of the sermons I hear or see online are stories, not the Word.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, Know what? Hold on. I'm going to hold you right there, Faith, because I definitely want to dive into that and talk about that. When we come back with Faith Womack on no More Boring Bible Study, we'll talk about what she just said about what we're listening to, mainly stories and spring scriptures that are sprinkled on. We'll also ask her about some different translations of the Bible and how we make it come alive. We'll be right back with Faith Womack.

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Any More by CAIN: After the choices you made you're waiting for me to say I couldn't m love you anymore the enemy is lied to you but listen to me here's the truth I couldn't love you anymore and I do right now there's no way I would get to you my child Take a look at the cross then you'll know it for sure I couldn't love you I couldn't love you anymore Anymore anymore than I do right

Dr. Jessica Peck: now Anymore anymore m welcome back, friends. That is Anymore by Cain and did you catch the words to that song? The enemy has lied to you but listen to me here's the truth that's exactly what we're doing today. We're going to give you the truth that the Bible is not boring. And God loves you more than you could possibly ever imagine. And he has given us the gift of his word to engage. And that is a gift that all too often just stays on our shelf, unopened, unread. And we're missing out. I'm talking today to Faith Womack, author of no More Boring Bible Study. Why taking scripture seriously is easier and more exciting than you think. Faith has shared her own story of growing up in a home where Scripture was really used as a weapon and was misused and. And weaponized and not in the character of God. And she's talked about her lifelong journey to make the Bible accessible, to learn to how. How to study it and to know the truth of God's word. And she's bringing that to you today. We've talked about hermeneutics and looking at the guardrails, the context in which Scripture was. Was read, was written, and is meant to be read.

90% of what we see online is stories, Faith says

And Faith, right before the break, you just gave a pretty startling statistic that 90% of what we see online is stories. I'm gonna leave it to you and pick up right back where we left off.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Off.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.

Faith Womack: So I said 90% of the sermons I see and I come across online. Yeah, they're stories. Now, I. I get this stat because I did a challenge a couple years back, and I said, hey, send me your pastor's sermons. And I would love to film a video of how I would take notes off of those sermons and how I'd go deeper and take that into my weekly Bible study. And unfortunately, I was hit upside the head with the reality of. Of so much of my audience, so much of the capital C universal church is going to churches where that is not the word being preached. It's a bunch of stories. I would argue, and there's a very strong argument that every single sermon should come back to Christ. No matter where you are in the Bible, the whole Bible, whether it's Old Testament, looking forward to Christ, New Testament, unpacking the work, person and work of Christ, all of it should come back to Christ and his work on the cross and his atonement, and therefore result in a gospel presentation in some way or form. and. And what I found is most of the sermons I was sent, most of the sermons I've listened to from various other churches. I'm very privileged to be married to a pastor, and yet I still critique his sermons. So let's just be real here. I've got a high standard. but Most of them are, let's take a couple Bible verses, let's share a bunch of stories, let's get one or two little platitudes, maybe three points, three platitudes of life advice, end with another story and walk away with like a rephrase of the Bible verse. We never sat there and really pulled from what's actually in the text and, and do word studies for the most part. When we're looking at, especially the Western church, we're not really pulling from what's in the text. We're adding stories and life advice and little platitudes and, and, you know, making a palatable Jesus, not a true historic Jesus. What he says in context too, you know, and how risky it is over our lives, how costly it is over our, our lives. And so, I got to give it to. There's another pastor at our church. I mean, he just sat down the other week and he just read two chapters of the Word for his sermon. We're starting a new passage of Scripture. He said, we're just going to read it today, and I'll give some closing remarks and that's it. And I loved that. Like, that is all we need a lot of time is just to get in the Word, together. But even our sermons are milk. Even our sermons are watered down truth. And so I think there's a huge need and we're seeing that online with the church of we're just not discipled. We're what people call biblically illiterate. We don't even know how to read the Word. We don't know how to discern what is truth. And, we need those skills and tools to get into the Word. And so I like to encourage people, you know, the Bible is a story of God redeeming his people for his glory. So, Matt, no matter where you are in the Bible, it's always God redeeming. Look in whatever passage you're in, how is God redeeming here? And that will often be your takeaways, your application, a call for you to respond in worship, a call for you to live in prayer in response to who he is and what he's done. But just look at what is. Where's God in this passage and how is he redeeming and working? and that will transform your life no matter where you are in the Bible. But we, we over complicate things. We, we add three points and, and stories and little platitudes and have to throw in politics and all these silly things. When all we need is the truth of who God is and how he acts.

Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, faith. I really. I feel for pastors today. I think that their job is. Is really difficult. And especially since COVID when really the curtain pulled back and a lot of people felt pressured to put their sermons online. And we really have such a consumer mindset when it comes to going to church. I mean, we just do because we want it to make us feel good. We want to feel good that we went there. We want to check the box. We want the worship to speak to our soul. We want it to soothe us, we want it to uplift us. We want to have a message that, you know, we can take away, that's a little convicting, but not too convicting. And, you know, that little like, oh, take away. And my pastor said this, and that's great. And really the truth is, when we look at the spiritual disciplines, when we look at the apostles, when we look at someone like Paul, who really, you know, that the truth of the word of God is not, oh, become a Christian, and then your life becomes so much neater and easier and managed, you know, you can put in these little boxes and God is going to bless you. It's deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And there is no substitute for really digging into those spiritual disciplines. And so I want to encourage pastors maybe who are listening out there who maybe think, okay, I'm doing that. I'm preaching the word of God, and I am just getting roasted for it. You know, I get the emails or the letters or the, you know, phone calls that. That aren't kind. You know, it's hard. So if you have a. A pastor who is really doing a good job preaching the word of God, God encourage them. I just take, that little pause just to encourage you to encourage them. Because it is a tough time to be a pastor, I think, for sure.

There are people who go to church regularly but have biblical illiteracy

But, you know, I want to go back, faith, to this concept of biblical illiteracy. And this is really convicting. But I think there's a lot of people who go to church pretty regularly but who do have that biblical illiteracy. Because let's just talk about, like, even the different literary forms like poetry, narrative, apocalyptic writing, like all of those, even different genres of scripture or categories of scripture, when you start to understand that and really understand some of the specifics about the Bible and you become more literate, how does that change your engagement with the word of God and with your faith?

Faith Womack: M. That's a great question. I think what I have found is the more that I dig just a little bit deeper, just a little bit more into what's the history behind the text, how is this intended to be read or understood? The more that I find mind is it's worshipful, it's convicting. And I think almost. That almost falls a little flat because often we don't realize that what we want is, to be encouraged to worship. We think we want just an answer to our problems, a prayer request being answered, guidance, a door open, door closed, or whatever. That's what we often think we want. And so we go to God for what house should I buy, what man should I marry, which I should take. But in reality, what we are really longing for is Jesus. Jesus is everything we're searching, searching for. And when you go to scripture and you see how beautiful it is and how much more there is to be understood and feasted on, it just inherently sends you to your knees. And beautiful worship of. Praise you, Lord of.

Dr. Jessica Peck: This is who you are.

Faith Womack: This is who you've always been. This is how you act. And then that fills your soul. And you realize, yes, it's important to know, how do I live, what house do I man, what man do I marry? But praise the Lord that he's a God that works in, through. And despite that, he's a God that. That can redirect me. If he can redirect unfaithful Jonah, he can redirect me when I'm trying to be faithful. If he can provide for Ruth and Naomi in a famine, he can. He can provide for me in this famine. You know, you just realize the character of God, who he is and how he acts. That is the answers that we're often searching for. Not necessarily what do I have to do? It's the peace and the assurance and. And the comfort of who our God is that is often what we've sought for.

Dr. Jessica Peck: It's so true. And, you know, one of the. One of the toughest things is when somebody can walk up to you and say, you know, God told me to tell you this. And then they deliver something that is really hurtful, much like you described your dad doing. And I, you know, I'm talking about my pastor today, but I really appreciate my pastor because I think he models this well. And saying, you know, when somebody would give him some feedback like that, he'd say, that is not consistent with the character of a God, and I do not receive that from you. You know, and just saying that because he's confident he knows What God says. And the other thing that he told us, even this week, is talking about a verse like, train up. with a child, in a way, he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And he talked about how it's important to know that that comes from a genre of scripture, that is wisdom, that is not promissory, it is not a promise. And so sometimes I think, you know, when you don't have that. That level of biblical literacy, it can set you up for disappointment because you can think, oh, well, I trained up my child, I did everything I was supposed to do, and now they're walking away from the Lord. And God broke his promise. When, you know, recognizing that. Yes. That sometimes in a broken world, those things, you know, don't happen. We don't live in, like, the Truman show, you know, where everything is scripted and you do this and it's like this. I think that's really important. And so sometimes I think people, you know, when you just look at the Bible as a rule book or as a promise of blessing, like that vending machine you were talking about earlier, it really subtly and not so subtly shapes the way that you, that you have your faith. So, faith, if. If people are thinking, okay, well, maybe. Maybe I'm doing this. Maybe I need to learn more about reading God's Word. You know, I'm. I'm a welder, I'm a teacher. I'm a, you know, whatever. Like, I'm not a theologian. But you can start reading the Bible yourself. Where would you even suggest that people start?

Faith Womack: Start first with just new eyes on Scripture. Come back to the Word tomorrow, today, this evening, whatever. You don't have to wait for mornings with coffee. You can read it literally at a red light on the toilet, whatever. Just get into the Word and start asking, where do I see God in this passage? Where do I see him redeeming? How does he do it? See, you know, okay, I see his mercy here. I see his grace. I see his, provision. I see his hatred, hatred of sin, his hatred of evil, his provision, his direction, all those things. so who is God and how does he act? And then how can I worship him in response to that? What does that look like lived out in my life? Knowing that he is merciful, knowing that he hates sin, knowing that he will provide, direct. Etc. That will absolutely transform your reading of the text, no matter where you are. you know, that will absolutely transform, the story of Jonah, like I talked about earlier, you know. Oh, you see that Jonah was not wanting to put, to preach to Nineveh. He didn't want to see the repentance. But, he actually throws back at God, I knew you were merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He quotes Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7 back at God is some kind of dis. And it's like, is that supposed to be a diss? Jonah? That's not a diss. That's actually good news. That God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love that he forgives. And we can respond in worship of that. We can respond changed, living lives changed by that truth. you know, no matter where you are in the Bible, there's so many beautiful truths of who God is in the story of that. And so then you could start discovering what, what are the gospels? And how am I supposed to read them? They're propaganda. They're written that you might believe in Jesus. And that's really good news because it's written to Jews. Others are written to more gentile audiences of how, how, how are you we supposed to believe in Jesus? How are we supposed to understand who he is and what he's done? look at the epistles, why they're written to what audiences. And of course my book is a great guide to that. But, there's so many free resources online as well. But, just start asking these questions. How is the text supposed to be understood? Not what does this mean for my life? We often go to scripture that way. But how is this supposed to be understood? What does this reveal about God? That alone will transform your reading of God's word. And the more you go on this journey, the more you dig, the more you'll find it's just so beautiful, so life giving. And if it ever comes off as boring or hard to understand, that just means you need to dig a little bit more. Just ask those questions and the more you see, the more you'll feast and the more you'll be filled by the good news of Jesus Christ. And it will transform your life.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I, I completely agree. One of my favorite things to do these days is to, to document when I discover, when I hear those, those elements of the story that are unwinding of the curse. Right? We look at ways that the world are broken and the ways that God makes it new. And there's lots of examples of that in scripture. And even like some of the, some of the small things, like when Peter denies Jesus. It talks about him standing by a fire. And when Jesus restores Peter, it has the detail in scripture about him being by a fire. Like even recreating that environment in the restoration or, or the ark of the covenant, you know, having cherubim on the side and then Jesus empty tomb with two angels there. It's I, I, ah, love doing that. We only have like one minute left, faith.

The Bible starts with the curse coming because they ate of an apple

But do you have one of, maybe your favorite of those that we see of unwinding, of the curse?

Faith Womack: Yeah. I love how the Bible starts with the curse coming because they ate of an apple they're eating. I, see that a big temptation in my life. Let's just be real. I can always take a bite of chocolate. That's always a temptation. Temptation for me. Right. So the, the curse comes through a physical eating. And we see then how God provides over and over again. Whether it's manna in the wilderness, or food like quail from the sky, God continually provides for them. I love the story of Ruth and how they're in a famine and they leave, God's land. Elimelech is the man who leads them out of God's land because of a famine. He didn't trust God to provide, and they, then he just ends up dying in a foreign land out of hunger. but his wife returns back to the house of bread. Bethlehem. The house of bread is what it means. Bethlehem. And, the Lord does provide, and not just with bread, every single time. At the end of each chapter of Ruth. Y' all go check it out. At, at the end of every single chapter, Ruth comes back to Naomi with her hands full of bread, of grain, of harvest, until at the end of the book, she comes back with a baby. And that baby is in the bloodline of Christ, who stands up in John 6, I believe and says, I am the bread of life. Oh, and then we take communion.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I love that we communion. And then we're gonna feast at the table. We're, we're out of time. I wish that we could say more about that. But listen, the Lord bless you, keep you, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. I'll see you back here tomorrow.

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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.