Introducing a New Bible Study: Discovering God's Word

In this episode, I introduce you to my Bible study Discovering God's Word: A 6-Week Introduction to the Transformational Bible Study Method with the GOSPEL of MARK. I answer the question why you (or your Bible study group) will want to study this unique two-in-one study—a study on how to study the Bible and a study on the Gospel of Mark.

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Discovering God's Word: A 6-Week Introduction to the Transformational Bible Study Method with the GOSPEL of MARK

Embracing Joy: An 8-Week Transformational Bible Study of Habakkuk

Ease into the Bible: How to Wade into the Water of God's Word with Confidence

Transcript

Welcome to Discovering God’s Word: A 6-Week Introduction to the Transformational Bible Study Method with the GOSPEL of MARK published by Our Daily Bread Publishing and released on July 1, 2025. I’m the author, Jean Wilund. 

In this episode, I’m going to share an overview of exactly what we cover and study in Discovering God’s Word.

I’ll answer the question why you or your Bible study group would want to study Discovering God’s Word.

This study is quite unique because it’s two studies in one. 

It’s a study on how to study the Bible and a study of the gospel of Mark. 

In other words, it’s a study on how to study the Bible by studying the gospel of Mark. 

If you’ve read my Bible study Embracing Joy: An 8-Week Transformational Bible Study of Habakkuk or my what I would call a Bible primer, Ease into the Bible: How to Wade into the Water of God’s Word with Confidence, if you’ve read either of those books, then you’re already familiar with my simple three-step Transformational Bible Study method.

But Discovering God’s Word takes us even deeper into understanding this method and we use it to study the whole gospel of Mark. 

In Embracing Joy, I mostly did the work for you of interpreting the book of Habakkuk.  

In Discovering God’s Word, we do the work together as we study the gospel of Mark. 

As we dive into these three simple steps of Intent, Truth, and Transformation, we look deeper into topics such as the dangers of making assumptions as we study. (This is one of the first mistakes most of us make when we study the Bible.)

We also look at the importance of knowing the context of the passages. They always say, “Context is king!” Well, it really is. 

Some of the context that we cover — the historical context. What was the original audience’s past and their current history—their current life? What had they gone through and what were they going through that would impact how they received the message God was sending them. 

Then we look at the cultural context. What was the original audience’s culture like? That strongly influences how they received God’s message. 

The biblical context—in other words, how the passage fits into the surrounding verses, the whole chapter that the passage is in, the whole book, the other books the author may have written, and the entire Bible.

And the grammatical context, such as things like genre. (Genre is categories of writing styles, for example, narrative, parables, epistles, prophecy). But also, grammatical context includes literary devices. Those are writing techniques such as idioms and a technique that the Hebrew writers especially loved called parallelism, which I also love. 

And then of course, in grammatical context we have to look at grammar—subject, verbs, nouns, and the very overlooked prepositions and conjunctions. You would be surprised at how these help us correctly interpret a passage. It makes reading the Bible so much easier when we get it.

We also discuss things like structure and how the structure of the passage guides us logically into a correct interpretation. 

We’ll look at types, and patterns, and many other important aspects of effective Bible study that help us see the Truthsthat God has revealed in His Word about Himself and how these Truths lead us to true transformation. We’re going to look deeply into those.

The purpose of Bible study—and the inevitable result of effective Bible study—is not filling our heads with more information but leading us into true transformation. 

Now, if you think with all this talk of genre and structure and prepositions, that this study is going to be boring, I assure you, it is anything but boring. 

My promise to you is that Bible study done right is exhilarating.

Yes, it’s takes work and time, but what in life that we truly love doesn’t take work and time—except maybe watching our favorite movie, although that does take time, and a lot of people did do a lot of work to make the movie. 

But seriously, studying the Bible is about coming to know and love the Lord our God. Developing a lifelong loving relationship with anyone takes work and time.

Bible study is not about becoming a better person, a better Christian. It is about coming to know, love, and trust the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

And there is nothing more exhilarating than knowing and trusting—truly trusting—God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

This kind of knowing banishes our fears and fill us with peace and joy to overflowing. It fills us with true contentment no matter our situation.

Okay. So now, back to what you’ll find in the study—Discovering God’s Word.

In each lesson, I’ll introduce a different aspect of effective Bible study, which we will then use to study the gospel of Mark. 

By the end of Discovering God’s Word, we will have gone through the entire book of Mark.

And while each lesson is focused on how to study the Bible and then applying what we’re learning about Bible study, we truly study the gospel of Mark for transformation. 

We will see through using these methods, how God’s Word through Mark when properly understood will transform our lives if we truly believe what God has said. 

Maybe you already feel confident in how to study the Bible. Is this study for you? Yes! 

Discovering God’s Word will still bless you because you’ll get to refresh what you already know about effective Bible study techniques. You can use this book to lead a group of others into knowing how to study the Bible effectively by studying the gospel of Mark, and you’ll personally dive into God’s Word for true transformation brought to you by the Holy Spirit through the gospel of Mark. 

This study will help you and your Bible study group discover and easy 3-step way to engage the Bible more deeply and study it more effectively, 

Turn the “task” of your quiet time into an invigorating encounter with God through His Word, 

Develop a deeper hunger to know and follow Christ as you walk with Him through the gospel of Mark, 

And it will help you fall more in love with God and His Word because 

Discovering God’s Word will transform your Bible study skills. 

The gospel of Mark will transform your life. 

Discovering God’s Word is available on Amazon, Our Daily Bread Publishing, Christianbooks.com and other book sellers. Order it for yourself and your Bible study group today.

I’m Jean Wilund, but It’s All About Him!