She Reads Her Bible (For Real)

“She reads her Bible”… but what does that actually mean?

In this episode, we’re talking about biblical literacy—what it is, why it matters, and how to move from simply reading Scripture to actually understanding it. Because highlighting a few verses and calling it a day isn’t the goal—transformation is.

We’re breaking down what it looks like to know the Word in context, how to grow in confidence when you open your Bible, and why biblical literacy is essential if you want to discern God’s voice in a world full of noise.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, confused, or unsure where to start—this conversation is for you. You don’t have to guess your way through Scripture. You can know it, live it, and be rooted in it.

It’s time to stop skimming and start studying—because she doesn’t just read her Bible… she knows it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the Living with Grace and Stars podcast. We are your co-hosts, Katie and Sierra. And today's topic we are so excited about because we are talking about biblical literacy and why we think it's important.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah, I am so excited about this topic. This is something you and I have been talking about for a long time. Um I think this is an idea that I really just maybe didn't have a term for for a while. And then I saw a video on Instagram about it and I was like, oh my gosh, this is the thing. This is the key. This makes sense. This makes sense. So before we can even talk about why biblical literacy is important, you and I wanted to talk about what does it even mean to have biblical literacy? What does that mean to go to have a good foundation of the Bible? So biblical literacy to me, Sierra, is the ability to read, to understand, and to navigate the Bible. So it's having really a foundational knowledge of scripture instead of just kind of like a surface level understanding. I think it's taking your knowledge of scripture to a different level, to a deeper level, and then applying it to your life from there.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yes, it's like that, it's like what we talked about in the past, like having that deep knowledge of him, having that deep relationship, it's very personal, personal with the Lord. Because you can you can have outside sources telling you who God is, but if you're not getting that foundation yourself, you're just you're just getting other people's personal view of the Lord. Yeah. Um and it's very helpful to to really know him through your eyes because you're he's walking along with you in life. So if I only know of God through previous pastors or previous people that I've talked to or stories I've read, if I only know him through those, then I personally don't feel like I will have like a true comfort of a father, that true love of a father that we we want from him.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, I agree. I think that that idea of a father, of that relational component that we get when we know scripture, when we have good biblical literacy, when we're good students of the word, is it gives us the familiarity that we have in relationship. When we're good students of the word, when we have good biblical literacy, it ties right into that idea that you were just talking about about the relational component, the father, um, the friend, you know, the shepherd that's leading us and guiding us. It's because we have a closeness, we have that knowledge and that understanding of who God is and what his character is. And if you don't have good biblical literacy, if you only study scripture on a very surface level, you're just reading to read a passage and then move on, then you miss out on that closeness. You miss out on the the depth of that relationship. It's the same thing with our friendship, you know, the closer we are, the more we know about each other, the more you know, you something can happen, and you'll be like, oh, I know what Katie's reaction is gonna be. We always laugh that we can't look at each other when we're in social situations because we'll make a fool of ourselves because everyone will know what we're thinking. Or we won't be able to not make a face if the other one's looking. So we don't look at each other, we've made that a habit. But it's that familiarity, it's that closeness that we have, that knowledge that we have of the other person that I know, like, oh, Sears got something to say about this. Um, and her face is gonna say it all if I look at her right now. But it's not enough to tell you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I can just know to avert my eyes from you. But it's that, it's that closeness and friendship that we know each other better, and I think that's really what is at the root of biblical literacy. It's that closeness with the Lord, it's that knowing him better, knowing his character that gives us a good understanding that deeper relationship, that deeper um fellowship with him, and helps us to be better students of the word to have better biblical literacy.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, it's kind of like it's also like the house that's built on stay on sand. Yeah. How it's very unstable. Yeah. Well, that's your superficial relationship. If you don't have, like you said, that foundation. Yeah. Um I don't build houses, so well cement, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yes, concrete. Okay, concrete. Concrete and cement are the same thing. Are they? One is like the dry components. Cement? I don't know. I don't want to look like a-but to get into chemistry. I don't want to look like a fool on this podcast. One is the dry component. I'm fairly confident. Okay. If you go to Home Depot, you're buying bags of cement. 50, 80 pound, no, 50 or 80 pound bags of cement. I think it's cement. And concrete is the dry version. If you're listening to this and you build houses and foundations, don't judge me.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And don't give me a lesson because I'm not gonna listen to you. So that's it's fine. Next time you'll go to Home Depot, he's gonna be like, so this is Yeah, exactly. But it's having that stability in that relationship, having that foundation. Because with that foundation, your your love for the Lord, your understanding for him just grows deeper. There the house is built stronger. Yeah. It'll endure in in storms, in trials of life. Um and it won't falter. Yeah. So having that foundation laid out in a book that he's already written. He gave us his love in a book in stories and and seeing the red line drawn out through all of the stories and seeing his love for his people then, seeing his love for people now, and knowing that his love never changes. Like he's the same yesterday and today. Yeah. Like it just I just love that so much, knowing that he he's constant through all of time.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, we live in a world that is ever changing, and we need something that is constant, we need something that doesn't change. So to have this deep understanding, this picture of who God is, this book that He has graciously given us to guide us, um, that re that reminds us that He is constant, He is unchanging. I think in Hebrews it says He is the same yesterday and today and forever. And that's so contradictory to the rest of the world, that's so foreign to us that we want that. We are longing for something that's not changing, that is constant, that we can build our lives around. And and we have it. We have Christ, we have the Lord, and He has graciously given us His word that helps us to know Him better and to be able to walk with Him. So having this good foundation of biblical literacy also gives us this kind of contextual knowledge of scripture, right? Because I think so often, and this is something I've only learned in the last few years, and it really was a challenge for me when I started leading Bible studies, um, because so many women's Bible studies are not really geared at digging into the word. They're geared more towards, um, I think you said earlier, like your emotions, different things that are going on in your life, or I don't know. I feel like a lot of Christian literature plays on women's emotions instead of teaching women how to study the word.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

But that's also not saying that we should be emotionless. Right, yeah, I agree with you while studying the word. Um, but if you're just looking for a Bible verse to calm yourself during a struggle or to give yourself some guidance on a decision, you're missing so much. You're missing so much more of what the Bible says.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, not that those things are bad. We should turn to scripture when we're in in the midst of a situation. But that's not really that biblical literacy that we're talking about. That biblical literacy is taking that to a different level, it's having that contextual knowledge of scripture. That what does this say for the original audience? Like we have to start there, I think. And that is not something I was taught growing up in church. Same. Which kind of feels mind-blowing. Like maybe I should have known this.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Because it's almost like you're still getting the same story, but you're getting it from two different points of views now. Because you have to look at a point of view of the people then, yes, and the point of view of people now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

And we so often want to go to like, how do I apply this to me right now? Mm-hmm. Let me go through this passage and what does this say about my specific situation right now? But if we're good students of the word, that's we're really missing the extra, the extra layer, layer. What did it say to the original audience? What does it say for the church across all of time? And then you finally get to that third level that's like, okay, now what does it say for me and right now? And it's not that it changes, it's not that the meaning changes, but it's living and active. It's it was applicable then, it was applicable to the church across all time, and it's still applicable to me, applicable to me now. It's the same truth, it's not changing. No, but God is so gracious to give us something that still applies to our lives now.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

And I think there's there's an argument that I see kind of constantly on social media about why are there so many different versions of the Bible? If it's one quote unquote one big story, why are there so many versions of it? But people are forgetting that language changes. Yeah. Um, the original audience didn't use the words that we use today. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah, English is not the original translation of the Bible, right? They're not writing in English. But if you look at from a historical standpoint, we have more copies of scripture, more original copies, more handscribed copies than we do any other literary book in all of history. So take Homer's The Odyssey, the Iliad, take all of those huge historical novels that we have lots of copies of, but we have more original copies of scripture than we do that. And this is from different writers over thousands of years, different scribes that have written it down. We still have more of the Bible, and it all agrees. The things that might not agree completely do have to do with like the different time period, or whatever is different in this manuscript is not actually anything that changes the context or what the writer was actually saying. Exactly. And that's where you have to know the context, you have to know um what who was the author and what who were they talking to, first of all, and what was he saying there, and what was going on in that time period that he was writing to. You know, we miss out on that, and I just wasn't taught that a lot as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

No, definitely, and that's why like right now I really love my I'm using a NSV study bible. Um, and I really love that at the beginning of each each book they give you the the author, the setting, yeah, the time it was written. Um, I know that's about the same as setting, but like giving you like actual timeline time, yeah. Um and themes, and I love those breakdowns because I I can tell you right now, I cannot confidently give you exact authors, like exact settings of a lot of this of the books because I didn't learn that so much growing up and I I didn't I didn't have that full understanding of looking at that side of the scripture. I was just reading it and how it applied to me right now. Yeah, for sure. Um and so utilizing those, if you have a study bible, you utilizing those um beginning pages of kind of the I want to say like highlights, but kind of the the breakdown of what you're about to get into, yeah, gives you just more clarity of what you're reading. Yeah, because you're getting to see where who who was written to at that time, where was the author, like sometimes you're writing from prison, sometimes they're writing in the wilderness, like you're getting these different viewpoints, and but you're what I also love too is that you're getting the the love from the author to the Lord, like to still to be in prison and to still want people to turn to the Lord, yeah. It's just it's bad. I I cannot put myself into that place, yeah, because obviously I'm not trying to ever be in prison, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Right, yeah, because if you look at the context, Paul's letters and Paul talking about suffering completely changes when you realize that Paul is writing from prison. He's literally suffering and he's writing to you about suffering. Yes. He's not just writing as in like, hey, do this and do this. He's writing as like as a as a prisoner of the Lord, as your brother in chains, right? We know that Paul ends up most likely being martyred um in Rome during Nero when all these Christians are being killed. But we know that Paul is towards the end of his life, he's in prison and he's still writing to them about have joy in suffering. And here's how you endure well. And so when you look at the context of that, then one, you're like, man, my suffering doesn't feel so bad. Right? My minor inconvenience doesn't feel so bad when Paul's writing about suffering from prison. And I'm not saying suffering isn't bad. We all go through really hard seasons and really hard things, but knowing the context of where Paul's writing from changes the picture. Yes. Like all of a sudden, this author actually can give me good wisdom on this because he actually is walking it too. Yes. And as you were talking, I also the other story that I love that when you put the context on it, it changes everything. Is whenever they go back from exile, when some of the people start going back to rebuild, to rebuild the wall, to rebuild the temple. And if you look at that time frame, this is around the time frame that Esther is queen in Persia. And I just love that when it was when I finally realized that I was like, this is the biggest light bulb moment that no one ever told me about my whole life growing up. Because think about that. Think about the influence that Esther probably had on the king, on those in charge that were like, you know what? Some of you can go back. Some of you can go back and rebuild the wall, some of you can go back and rebuild the temple. In just the context of Esther's influence over that time period, if you don't know that all those events are happening around the same time, you miss that. You miss Esther's influence that she obviously had to have had in some way to let the people go back when they're in exile. Because at the time, who lets the people go back? No one lets their captives go back to rebuild their city. That's why having a good understanding of scripture matters. So that you don't miss that extra component. So, why do you feel like what are some reasons that having good biblical literacy matters today? Because we've talked a lot about what is biblical literacy, but why does it matter to us as women, to us as believers in 2026?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

I think it it's good to have it because there's social media I'm gonna be real, every social media makes everybody feel like they can voice their opinion. For sure. And they can voice their interpretation of the word, and that's great if it's coming from the true biblical backing, like but there's a lot of misconstrued in the Bible or of the Bible that people are um saying, and it can make you feel so wonderful when you hear um a certain preacher, when you hear a certain influencer, it can make you just feel giddy in the heart. I don't know. Yeah, but if you are not truly reading the word and having and developing that biblical literacy, you can be so manipulated.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, I I think that's where you see it with like the prosperity gospel, you see it with Christian nationalism, you see these these movements that people want to get behind because they give them something to kind of rally around and they sound good. They sound like, yeah, that's something I want, that's something I'm gonna go fight for, that's something, that's something I believe in. And it sounds good, but is it actually scripture? Is it actually true? Or am I actually just being fed a bunch of bull? Yeah. That's actually not scripture, that's not what God said, that doesn't actually match God's character. So yeah, it's it's absolutely important. I think probably even more than any other time in history because we do have social media, we have constant news outlets, we have constant access to a lot of information. I would argue way more than we actually need. Wholeheartedly. Yeah. But that's why we have to know what scripture says. Because people are profiting off of prosperity gospel, of Christian nuptialism. We see a lot of things going on culturally right now that I would say are probably pretty dangerous to a lot of people because they don't have a good foundation of what scripture actually says. And so they are so easily swayed by these things that sound good and sound like something they want to kind of go after. Yes. So I did something fun, Sierra, and I'm gonna read them to you because I think there's a lot of things out there that probably sound they sound good, but are they actually in the Bible? Very common phrases that often are mistaken for being scripture when they're not. I love this. Okay, so the first one is God helps those who help themselves. Right? It's often cited as a Bible verse, but it's actually not in the Bible at all, right? It's actually contrary to the gospel, right? The antithesis of the gospel, right? Because we were sinners and couldn't help ourselves at all. We had no hope, so Christ came and did that for us. I just it makes me laugh. But I would argue there's probably a lot of people that thought that was in the Bible. Okay, cleanliness is next to godliness. The amount of times I've heard that, not the Bible. Actually, probably John Wesley, who was an 18th-century theologian. John Wesley. So a man that loved the Lord. Oh yeah, but not Bible, right? This one is what I love, right? Money is the root of all evil. Have you heard that a lot? Yes, yeah, me too. But talk to Dave Ramsey, he will remind you that this is not biblical truth, that the Bible actually says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. So, not money itself, but the love of money. So, this is a personal favorite here of when I hear this phrase, I want to cringe. This too shall pass. Isn't that what you want whenever you're in the middle of oh like a terrible situation or something? That's one of those things that sounds good though, right? Like it's okay, Sierra. This too shall pass. You'll get through it, you'll get through it.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

That's actually not in the Bible, and you don't get through it, you can't get through it alone. Exactly. Or they'll say, I love when they add uh they'll pass like a kidney stone, but it'll pass some like Wow, that makes me feel great. Exactly. Like I'm so thrilled for this.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Okay. What about this one?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Spare the rod and spoil the child. You see, I've thought for a long time that was from the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

It's actually not. It is not a direct quote, but it is a paraphrase of Proverbs 13, 24 that does say something similar about discipline, but it does not say spare the rod, spoil a child.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

I feel like these next two are very well, really, probably these last four are very applicable in culture today. God will not give you more than you can handle. Where in the Bible does that say? Please tell me. It doesn't. I think people often use this to comfort others of like, it's okay, God's not gonna give you more than you can handle. But actually, that's false. Right? God provides a way out of temptation for us when we're facing temptation. But I can think of actually a lot of times that I felt like God gave me more than I can handle, could handle. Oh yeah. Because he did, because it's not my strength, it's his strength. Wholeheartedly. So not in the Bible. To thine own self be true. I've never actually heard that one. Really? I feel like this is such a fits the culture of like the kind of boss babe, you do you, your truth, my truth. It's not from that, but I feel like it kind of fits that. Yeah. So I feel like that's kind of where it maybe gets popularized. It's actually from Shakespeare's Hamlet, not from the Bible. Hey, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

I love Hamlet.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

That's actually where it's from. That's funny. Yep. This one makes me cringe because it's so prosperity gospel driven. When praises go up, blessings come down. Y'all can't see it, but I'm totally rolling my eyes. That one makes me cringe because I'm like, man, if if I could sum up the prosperity gospel in one line, it would be that. Yes. Like, if you do these things, then you're gonna have a million dollars in your bank account. All those blessings are just gonna rain on down. That's not true. It's not in the Bible.

unknown 24:25

No.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Actually, scripture shows that people who follow the Lord faithfully often face more suffering. And so, and then the last one: all good things come to those who wait. Oh, that one just that makes me cringe. I agree. I think it sounds like a proverb, like it's it kind of reads poetically like that, but it's not, it's not in the Bible. And also, I'm like, for anyone that has like gone through suffering, who did not have earthly healing from whatever, who maybe did not like has fertility issues and God didn't give them a baby, or someone that is single and wants to be married, and like that never happened. Um, this is like so false, and that doesn't comfort them at all.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

And that could and saying those things as a Christian to someone could actually lead those people away from the Lord because if I sat here waiting for the man that the Lord has for me and he never comes because I've been sitting here waiting and not actively going out and and trying, you know, if I sit here this whole time and he never comes and it would make me it would make me angry. I would I would not understand why I would want to love someone and follow someone that's not giving me what I've I'm waiting for. Yes, exactly. My hands out and open. Why are you not giving it to me?

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, like it changes your view of the Lord. Yeah. Someone said that in Bible study on Wednesday night of like when we say we have to be really careful as believers on the things we say and like promising people things or you know, using those phrases. If you just trust God more, if you just pray a little bit harder, or if you just follow your heart, follow your heart, if you stress a little less, then maybe the Lord will give you a baby, right? Like those are dumb things that people say because they sound good and they sound like oh, you'll get that thing that you want, that thing that's coming. No one wants to be like it's just not gonna happen. No, but that's why we have to know what scripture says because I have to be able to put every situation in life through the lens of scripture and say, what does scripture actually say about this? What is God's character in this? Does God give everybody in the Bible everything that they want? No, He doesn't. Those believers face very hard times. Some of them are killed, some of them, you know, whatever. They go on to like endure great suffering. We read about the prophets the other day, you know, like some of those who are burned alive and who are beheaded and like all these terrible things. And like that's what scripture says, but no one is naming and proclaiming that, right? No one is talking about that side of things. But we have to have we have to know because we do it, we do a disservice to people if we're telling them things that actually aren't true, that aren't biblical, and then we're creating this like kind of I don't know, space between us and the Lord, like you said, of being mad and being angry because the Lord didn't actually give me what I wanted. And I thought, oh, good things come to those who wait patiently, right? So I do think that's why it's important that we know what the Bible says while we have good biblical literacy.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Yes. And another good thing about having or another thing about having um biblical literacy is is when if you are knowing the word and you're growing that relationship with the Lord, then you're also knowing if you are being led correctly by your pastor. Yeah, that's such a good point. Because sadly, there there is false teaching out there. I mean, our pastor just recently went through a a very long uh series about several weeks we talked about false teaching. Yes, yeah, and so I mean that just emphasizes how important it is to know what the Bible says because you go to church to constantly be reminded of the word and the goodness of the Lord through your pastor's teaching, and he's your shepherd, and you want to make sure that your shepherd is leading you to the promised land.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah, exactly. That's such a good point. There's so many, so many stories out there of like these big these big falls, right? Of like these pastors, teachers, churches that have kind of led all of these people for so long, and then you find out, like, oh, actually, everything they were saying was not true. It was all for personal gain. This wasn't to drive draw people to the Lord, like you said, um, and how crushing that can be for so many people. And I think it's so easy to see kind of the I don't want to say mob mentality, but like we can look at human nature and see how quickly people rally around something. And so it's easy to see how people are so easily led astray by something that sounds good, but it's just a little off.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Right. And if you're building a house and it looks good, but it's just a little off of square, off of true, like it's not going to be sturdy, it's not going to be stable. No, nothing's gonna line up like it should, right? And that's the same thing in our lives. If something sounds a little bit, it sounds good, but it's actually just a little bit off, then we have a problem. And I think that's why, like I love what you said, it helps us to know if we're being led correctly. We should be, I don't want to say critical of our pastors, but like we should also be making sure that what they're saying from the pulpit is true, that they aren't leading us astray, they aren't leading us falsely.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

And I think it's also good to have that relationship with your pastor that if you have any doubts and but you know that he is he's given you the biblical truth, yeah, that you're able to go and talk with him and get that better understanding, or there's people in your congregation that you can go talk to and get a better understanding. Um utilize those people that the Lord has given you to help you also have a better understanding in an area in the Bible where you're just like, I don't, I don't understand. Yeah. And I don't know about you, but first time reading through the Bible, I don't understand. Yeah. I mean, there's some things I'm like, okay, I get it, but like there's a lot I didn't get.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah, I agree. And I think the more you dive into it, the more you're like, I don't know if I understand this fully. So, you know, I go talk to the people that maybe do that, have a better understanding. Um, like you said, your pastor, the people in your congregation, your community groups, you know, whatever it is, it's that out that's it's that additional influence, that additional kind of support that we have through the local church, um, through a local body of believers to kind of keep us accountable and make sure too, like, okay, Katie, this really is what this says, or actually, Katie, I think this is wrong. This isn't actually what this says. You know, we need that accountability as believers to make sure we're also continuing to stay on the right track as far as what it says. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I love that. I'm always going to be such a huge supporter and advocate for the local church because I think it it feeds so much of our daily life and our walks with the Lord and is a very vital resource to our relationship with the Lord and our understanding of scripture and kind of how we grow in that.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah. So, what are some maybe specific ways to grow in in biblical literacy to kind of cultivate that this idea that we've been talking about?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

I think finding Bible studies that have that theological viewpoint. Yeah. Um, I mean, when I hear the word theology, like it's it's it at first it was a little intimidating. Yeah. I remember going to a a conference, or not a conference, it was like a a day thing where it was like theology and doxology. And I'm like, I don't know what this is. Yeah. And this person is speaking all these words. I don't understand what's happening here. Um, but now that I understand what those words mean, I want to find those Bible studies that help break down passages more than just how does this make you feel? Yeah. How how can this um be used for whatever situation I'm going through? I want to know what the Lord was saying to those people then. I want to know what he's saying now. I want to know the authors, yeah. Um, I want to know the themes. Like, I want to know more aspects versus just that passage. And so finding those studies, like, I know one of our favorites is Jen Wilkins. Love her. She she has a true passion of biblical literacy, more geared towards women, but I think men can still read it and do the studies because it's not she's not coming from an emotional. Yeah, it's a book. It's yes. Here's a book of scripture and let's study it. Let's dive in and then let's find other passages that tie into this or learn stories in in the future of the Bible and see how they tie back to this. Like seeing that red light. Yeah. Um, studies like hers really have helped just have that broader understanding of what that passage is.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Yeah, I agree. I think that's probably when my kind of idea of biblical literacy changed or really began to grow of what does it actually mean to study the Bible, not just to read it, but to actually study it, was doing some of her Jen Wilkins' studies. Um, you know, I've done several of them, and it does every time I'm challenged, they're hard to do, not in a bad way, but in a like, I really have to work for this because she's not giving me the answers, right? No, there's no answer key in the back. There's no spoon feeding. Like you, we are working for it. We are digging into the text, and that's so important. Like it was so hard at first, but now that's like the only kind of Bible study I want to do. I want to take a book of scripture or a passage of scripture and dive into that. I don't really want you to give me a Bible study that's just applicable to this is gonna sound bad, but like moms or women in waiting or a Bible study for those dealing with infertility. Like, I don't really want those things anymore. Not that they're bad. I'm not knocking those. I'm not saying don't do them because I do think that at some point there can be comfort and the Lord can still use those things to to minister to our hearts. But like what I want is meat. I don't want milk, you know. Paul talks about like you're not babies anymore, like stop drinking milk and grow up and eat meat. And that's what I want. I want a book of scripture that I can dive into. That's how you cultivate good biblical literacy, is actually studying the word and not like topical, yeah, whatever. I'm not digging topical all the time, right? They can have their place, but it's not my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

And I think some of those can plant a seed and make you want to, okay, I hear this or I see this passage, but it may make you want to just dive more into it. So then it may just open that that door of opportunity of finding ways to dive more into what this was saying. Why did the Lord put this in there? Yeah, why did the Lord put these names? Because I mean, there's been millions of people over those times. So why did why did I specifically need to know about this person?

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, I think we we continue to cultivate good biblical literacy by what you've said is that red that red line throughout scripture, looking at the big picture. What is the big picture of scripture? Like we have creation and we have the fall, and then really from there on we see God's plans for redemption all the way through, right? And so I think that when we look at that, when we look at the big picture of scripture, that's all about Christ, it's all about God's redemption, God's restoration of his people and who he is, then it it helps us to better understand him, like we've talked about. It helps us to continue growing in our knowledge of him and cultivating that. And then to have good biblical literacy, you also have to regular regularly read your Bible. Like that sounds silly to say, but we have to regularly be spending time in the Word. Because I can promise you that a five minutes of reading a passage just to like mark it off my daily Bible reading does not grow my biblical literacy. No, it does not help me to have a deeper understanding of what the text says. So we have to have regular reading, we have to spend time with the word, with the text to know it.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

No, I agree. Just um just that five minutes five minutes I'm sorry, five minutes is not enough time. No, it's not in I know in the in this day and age that busyness is such a big big problem. Um so big, we're gonna talk about it. If you're only spending five minutes a day with your creator, yeah, your father, your savior, like if you're only spending five minutes, you're not grasping even an ounce of what of who he is and his will, his promise. Like you're not you're not getting anything from that. And so we need to spend more time in his word and in the understanding of who he is. I think if like there was a time where I would always put a Bible verse on a sticky note, yeah, and I put it on my mirror and I wanted to note study, I wanted to memorize that Bible verse. Yeah. So I can be ready to like give to people. Yeah, you know? Yeah. And one that comes to mind is uh 1 Peter um 5 7, and it helped a lot in times, and it's cast your anxieties onto him because he cares for you. But recently I was reminded of the passage beforehand where it says humble yourselves. Yeah and I was like, oh like I didn't I didn't have the full concept of that. Like we need to humble ourselves, yeah. We needed to put down this this sense of pride in that we can take care of things and give our anxieties to him. And so if I had just gone with that Bible verse, yeah, I would you miss you miss parts of what he wants you to know. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

And it's hard to do life if you don't have the full picture. Oh yeah. Like it's hard to have a good understanding of scripture if you don't have the full picture. And five minutes isn't long enough. Ten minutes ain't long enough either. So no one come at me and say, like, oh, I'm spending more than five minutes. But I'm talking like regular devoted time. It doesn't have to be a set time. We talked about this last time in like our being present in the word. But we do have to be present in the word. We have to devote time in in it to study it, to know it, to learn it, to be good students of it.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Because the more you the more you study and the more you learn of him, that theology then leads to such a great doxology, leads into such a praise of our Lord, yeah, and the gratitude and the the passion that he has for us, yeah, and the same passion that we should then return to him. Yeah. Um, but then it also personally, I mean, I feel like I'm coming from a viewpoint of I was in church as a kid um in teenager. I had a really great youth pastor that really did well preaching the Bible, but then I went to college and I kind of went down a different, uh not so good path. Yeah. Um, and I wasn't studying. And so coming back into the word, I guess you say, I feel like I have a fresh set of eyes, and I'm quote unquote relearning the Bible. Um, having a new fresh set of eyes looking at the Bible just gives me a fresh desire to know the word, to know it better. Yeah. Um, so when trials do come and the struggles and even the joys, like first and foremost, God is good. Yeah. And how do I stand confidently knowing God is good? Knowing the Bible. Yeah. Knowing his word. Knowing him.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Yeah. Yeah, it helps us to face everything. Mm-hmm. Like if we know the word, it literally is our guide. It is our our playbook, whatever. You know, it's the thing that helps us continue to go forward in life because we know who he is, and we know who he is because we know his character, we know his character because we know his word. Like it it deepens every part of our lives and every part of our relationship with him when we when we know the word, when we have a good understanding of it. Yes. And I think you know, memorizing scripture helps with that. It helps us to understand it better. But like you were saying, maybe don't just take these one little verses here and there. Not that we shouldn't memorize verses, we should, but really hiding it all in our heart. And maybe challenge yourself to learn more than one verse at a time. You know, back up a few. Let's look at the context of it and let's memorize a passage. Um, we remember a lot of dumb, useless facts. Yes. It would do our brains good to memorize more scripture in like bigger passages. So maybe doing that, that kind of helps to cultivate that biblical literacy. I think studying with others, we already kind of touched on that as far as you know, relying on people in your congregation, your church, your pastor, your community group, whoever it is. And then another thing I love to kind of cultivate that biblical literacy is kind of using a framework. You know, that I love Jen Wilkins. She has a pretty good framework that she lays out on these are kind of the steps we walk through as we look at passages. And then there's others too. Another one I use. Very regularly in a lot of Bible studies is that idea of God, man, Christ response. What does this passage say about God? First and foremost. What does this passage say about man? What does this passage say about Christ? And then what is my response to that? So often we just want, what does this apply to me? What do I do with this now? But like, let's look at those other three things first. And really, if you will take every passage and do that, it completely changes the way you study scripture. Absolutely. In my Monday night Bible study, we're doing the book, second book of Psalms right now, and talk about a book that I've read but not like actually read. That's one of them, apparently. But going through every psalm and answering those four questions as I read through, it is just mind-blowing to me the things that you pull out about God, about man, about how terrible we really are as human beings, right? About Christ and all of those things, and then how do we respond to that? It completely changes the way you read scripture whenever you whenever you actually study it.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

So I think that all of this goes into this idea of studying with our mind and our heart. And I think you had a quote that you wanted to read or share out of the Jen Wilken book, Women of the Word.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Yes, this book, um, if you haven't read it, it is such a beautiful um breakdown of studying what it looks like to study the Bible and have an understanding um of the Lord. And I really love that she said, if we want to feel a deeper love for God, we must learn to see Him more clearly clearly for who He is. And then she also mentions that the heart cannot love what the mind doesn't know. So if you're not reading the Bible, how do you expect your heart to love the Lord? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

And then how do you live that out? Yes. Like you don't live out something that you don't love. Exactly. I am a firm believer that we we do the things that we want to do, we do the things that we love, um, good or bad. But if I'm doing these things, like there is a part of me that wants to do those things, that loves those things. We can't love something that our mind doesn't know, and we can't live it out. So I absolutely love that. I think that kind of gets at the root of all this of biblical literacy. It's using our mind and our heart to study God's word, to study God's word well, to know him better, so that we can go and live that out. Yes. Yeah. So let's leave today with one more passage. You guys know that we love, obviously, I hope that after listening to this, you know that we love scripture, but we want to leave you every time with a bit of scripture. So Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him, and he will make your path straight. I love that verse for today because it's really what we're talking about. That this is not Katie's understanding of God's word. This is not Sierra's understanding of God's word. This is actually what God's word says. That we're trusting in him to lead us in that, to guide our ways as we submit to him to make our paths straight. Exactly. To be women that know his word, that love his word, and that live out his word. So this has been another episode of the Living with Grace and Sass podcast, where faith meets real life and best friend banter. Come join our next conversation, Bestie. Bye.