Cultivating Bible Enthusiasm: From Intimidation or Boredom to Passionate Reading | Faith Womack

Let's dive into the joy and relevance of studying God's Word. Today, we have the pleasure of hosting Faith Womack from the online ministry How to Faith a Life. Join us as Faith shares her passion for making Bible study an exciting journey rather than a daunting task. In this episode, we discuss:

Discovering Bible Community:

• Faith recounts her journey into the world of Bible study on YouTube.
• How stumbling upon online Bible communities led to her unique approach.

The Intimidation Factor:

• Faith discusses why many find it challenging to pick up and read the Bible.
• Overcoming the intimidation of ancient stories, unfamiliar names, and cultural differences.

The Spiritual Battle and Bible Engagement:

• Faith delves into the spiritual battle surrounding Bible study.
• Highlighting the enemy's tactics to distract and discourage believers from engaging with the Word.

Practical Tips for Bible Study:

• Faith shares practical advice on building a consistent Bible study routine.

Join us in unlocking the joy of Scripture and discovering practical tips to enrich your personal Bible study journey.

Website: www.howtofaithalife.com
YouTube: How to Faith a Life
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Transcript

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Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

I'm Mentor Mama and today we are going to be talking about embracing the excitement and the relevance of Scripture today. If you've been around the Coffee and Bible Time community for long, you know how passionate we are about studying the Bible. Studying God's Word is so important for all of us, for growing in our knowledge and understanding God and His character.  

But what I'm excited to tell you about in this podcast is that we want to impress upon you that studying the Bible doesn't have to feel overwhelming or approached as a chore to be checked off of your daily to-do list. The Bible is actually so exciting and that can be reflected in your quiet time. So here with us today is Faith Womack from the online ministry, How to Faith a Life. And Faith shares this same passion for knowing the truth and the power behind God's word and sharing that knowledge with as many people as possible. So today she is going to be sharing with us how studying the Bible is anything but boring.  

Faith Womack is a wife to Rev. Joseph Womack and mother to two sweet boys. As a content creator, Faith aims to inspire Christians to get back into the Word of God by making hermeneutics exciting and accessible to the average layperson, as well as through creative Bible journaling. Through her presence on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, she has reached over 10 million people with the truth of the power of God's word, and she has created courses walking through specific books of the Bible, as well as courses on hermeneutics and theology. With so many students signed up for these classes every month, Faith aims to empower Christians not only to finally understand the Bible, but to also enjoy it. She is a graduate of Covenant College, having received a Bachelor of Biblical and theological studies, as well as her master's in theological studies from Erskine Seminary. It's such a joy to have you here today. Thanks for joining us, Faith.  

Faith Womack  

Thank you, Ellen. Thanks for having me.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

I'm so excited to have you on today because as Sisters in Christ, like you share just such the similar vision obviously that we do here at Coffee and Bible Time. And so I'm excited for our listeners to get to know you. Why don't you just start out by telling us a little bit about your background and why you chose to study theology?  

Faith Womack ) 

Yeah, oh, that's a good one. I started out in kind of like a culturally Christian family and my parents ultimately ended up getting divorced over differences in theology. My father thought he was hearing messages from the Lord that come to find out don't line up with Scripture, but he thought he was hearing messages from the Lord. I have no idea, I really don't. And my mom couldn't stand by that. Like she knew well, this doesn't line up with what is godly. And so ultimately they ended up getting a divorce and that was all like, while I was going through these formative years of high school and asking these hard questions like, well, but I thought divorce was bad. Like whose side do I take? Like, what do I think about this? And it really showed me how though I thought, like I had an intimate relationship with the Lord, I also had like a deep relationship with this word and it was very emotions based. And so when I went through this trial of my parents divorcing and asking all these hard questions, like, what does the Bible really say about X, Y, and Z? It really pushed me to be like, I need to understand his word and I want to love his word, and it made me realize how much I had been avoiding reading my Bible. And that now looking back, I see how the Lord was planning within me this fire to share with others, but at the time it was just like, wait, why is my Bible just sitting here unread?  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

You have an interesting background. And so here you have these two degrees in ministry and of all of the different ways you could have applied those degrees in ministry work, what inspired you to choose online teaching?  

Faith Womack  

Well, I kind of accidentally fell into it. I left Covenant College, which is a great college if you're looking for undergrad and learn so much there, but it's a tight knit community and you're up on top of a mountain and everybody knows everybody. And it's like a campus size of like a thousand students. And so I loved that, but we left that situation and went straight into ministry. And my husband was an assistant pastor and I was in a rural area and having a hard time making friends. And so that just naturally led to me kind of falling into like, oh, what is YouTube? And oh, there's like vloggers on YouTube and like kind of just taking up my time watching mommy vloggers online and learning about, we were trying to conceive and had some miscarriages. And so I kind of stumbled into that aspect of YouTube and didn't know anything about Bible YouTube or Bible study YouTube and kind of was like, but this looks fun. Like it feels like they were creating like real relationships online. I might as well just kind of put in my two cents as a Christian mom and started doing that. And I could not stop talking about my Bible studies and my faith. And that's really what I wanted to talk about. And so I started making these videos thinking like, well, of course nobody else has done that. That's weird to just like film yourself talking about a Bible study or talking about what you're learning about the Bible.  

And it kind of then after doing that for like a little while, I discovered, oh, there's like this whole world on YouTube of people doing Bible studies and sharing Bible study tests. I had no idea. So very much pivoted and dove headfirst into it. But I laugh looking back, you know, I remember trying to talk to a woman on the bread aisle in Walmart about my Bible studies and what I was learning about. She mentioned like she went to church and I was like, well, let me tell you then what I'm learning. Let's talk. And she like, she was so kind, but she said something along the lines of like, honey, I'm here grocery shopping. I don't have time to sit here and talk about Joel or whatever you want to talk about. And it just made me feel kind of like open my eyes to like, you know, there's a time and place and I need to find my time and place. And I'm so glad that the Lord led me to the internet because I've met lifelong friends through the internet, but it's just so crazy to me because I was not a YouTube person, didn't know about the world of YouTube or anything like that. And then look at me now. I'm a big old dork.   

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Well, you do classify yourself as a Bible nerd, right? I think that's so cute. Well, you know, Faith, with the Bible, you know, obviously it just was oozing out of you in Walmart and you couldn't wait to share it. Why do you think it's so hard for people then to pick up their Bible and start reading it?   

Faith Womack  

Yeah, I think it's intimidating. It's sitting there on our nightstands and it's old stories from a long time ago from a different culture, from people who we can barely pronounce their names. And we hear these sermons about it every Sunday. And if I'm honest with you, I think more often than not, I get intimidated by sermons when they refer to like a random story in about King Hezekiah or whatever. And you're like, I don't know exactly who that is and what was going on there and how I feel stupid, you know, or crazy and dumb. And we kind of like, even church culture can kind of feed into this idea of like, it's a huge, big thing that you can't understand. You need degrees to do it. You need to understand Greek and Hebrew. You got to have a whole library of resources. And I think it's also a really big spiritual battle. 

The word tells us it is our sword for battle. And so of course the enemy is going to give us every reason to not read it because that is our sword for battle. I think about when my boys are sword fighting, one of their favorite things to do in the season of life is dress up like their favorite characters, whether it's a Ninja turtle or I don't know, Captain America. And then instead of other weapons, they love the little cardboard swords that we make from boxes that they've painted or put stickers on. And they'll sword fight, but more often than not it ends up in one of them grabbing the other person's sword and throwing it across the Tory room or throwing it downstairs and you know trying to get the other person away from their sword right so you can't keep whacking them with your cardboard sword. And I was watching them one day and it occurred to me that is exactly what the enemy wants us as Christians to like what he wants to do to us is throw it as far away from us as possible. Get it off of our minds. I cannot tell you how many times I sit down to read my Bible and all of a sudden my kids break out in a fight. My phone starts ringing. I get all these email notifications. Like, of course, the enemy doesn't want us in the word of God because it is alive and active as Hebrews four talks about, because it is our sword for battle. It's one of the most important things we can do for the day. One of the most empowering things we can do. And so the enemy is very much threatened and would love to keep us away from it.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yeah, that's just so, so true. I can remember, you know, in my own life before I really started reading the Bible, and I felt exactly how you described, just intimidated. And I mean, for me back then, it was like the King James Version too. So there was a lot of these and vows and yeas. And it just, I mean, I felt so overwhelmed. So how do people go from this state digging in and learning to read their Bible.  

Faith Womack  

I think there's a level to which we need to have confidence in that like, I can do this. Like I can just read a chapter. Like I can just read a paragraph. It doesn't have to be this big thing. Like let me just start. Let me just do it. Like boldness and confidence to just start. But then there's also another aspect of where we need to give ourselves grace and understand our finitude. We are humans 2000 years later that have a limited amount of time, a limited limited amount of attention or energy. And we may not have all the resources, all the energy, all the mental capacity to break down the historical meanings behind these things or these writers or this audience. And so I encourage people just start easy and start small, but commit with a boldness and with a confidence. My favorite thing was like I'm a really like disciplined person. I love giving myself rules and tasks and checklists Like I've always been that way since a kid and when I really wanted to start getting into God's Word I told myself, okay every morning and every night I'm going to be in the Word of God and like I'm going to brush my teeth and get into bed I'm going to read God's Word before I fall asleep and then the morning I'm going to wake up and start my day in God's Word, but I'm not going to even get up and use the restroom before I've spent time in God's word. I can kid you not remember so many mornings where I was sitting there probably giving myself a UTI because I just wanted to read God's word before I started my day. But I knew if I'd left my bed and I had like a bookshelf as my night headboard, if I left my bed and left my books, I would never get back there and finish reading it. And so I encourage people, like I have things like that still to this day. Like I don't check my emails before I spent time in God's word. A lot of people are like, you know, I can't have my cup of coffee until I'm in God's Word, you know, whatever it is that like human ways and human means to get us into the Word of God and have us committed to it. I mean, I play these same kind of mind games with myself when it comes to going to the gym and going on a run. I have one show that I love to watch, but I'm not going to let myself watch it until I'm on that treadmill and then I can watch it, you know? So there's stuff like that where we can use those kinds of tricks or mind games to actually convince ourselves to get into the word. And then once you're there, you're like, oh, I'm so glad I was here. I'm so glad the Lord led me to this. But then also the whole grace thing and the finitude is start easy. We can read the gospels and they're very much written kind of the similar situation where we are, or the epistles, those are written after the cross, two believers awaiting heaven, the exact same situation as us. And so there's a lot less kind of situational information we need to understand those passages, you can kind of just sit down and read Galatians and it's super relevant to you. Or sit down and read James and it's very applicable to you. And so I send people to like the Gospels or to James. Galatians is another one I throw out there. Really applicable, like easy to just sit down and take some stuff away from it without having to know kings and history and all that kind of stuff.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yeah, yeah. Those are really great tips, Faith. I know for me and at Coffee and Bible Time here, one of the things that we've tried to do, the same as you, is provide an educational experience for our followers that makes it easier for them to understand the Bible. When you understand the theme of the Bible. When you do have some historical context and all these other things, all of it does start to fall in place. And I know you also, Faith, have come up with some similar types of courses and things. Tell us a little bit about your approach to using these types of knowledge to help people be excited about studying their Bible.  

Faith Womack  

Yeah, well, I've come to see that like, I just am not going to enjoy reading the word of God if I'm not understanding it. And so, yeah, I have courses, they're different than y'all's. I love how y'all focused in on like the historicity of like the Old Testament and the New Testament. I was telling Ashley this the other day, I saw an ad for one of y'all's courses that y'all posted on Instagram. And I was like, this is so good. I have really hope my audience is taking their courses, you know, because there's so much good that y'all have provided. And in some ways I'm like, I should probably add that to mine. I really focused on like just like kind of the big picture, like the Bible is a story of God redeeming his people for his glory. Keep that at the forefront of our mind. And then working through like creation, fall, redemption, consummation, like some big kind of like place markers for the timeline of the Bible. And then really focused in literally. So the different types of literature in the Bible and how God uses wisdom, literature or historical narratives or he Gospels to take us through that storyline because we as humans, we are hardwired to respond to story. We love a good story, right? Like that's everything that we see on TV and books. That's literally what our life revolves around. I've noticed people love to see like me do a process in my videos because that's a story like beginning to end me doing something, right? And we as humans love a good story. We want to see ourselves in part of that story, and we want to have meaning and purpose and a lesson from that story. And that is exactly what God has done through the Bible of taking us into his story. And it's the story of God redeeming his people, us, for his glory. And praise him for that. And so I kind of focused on that kind of stuff. And then, of course, a lot of people love my scrappy, artistic approach to studying the Bible. And so I touched on things like that and how I high-end verse mapping and word studies and all of that. And so all of this is in my course, Bible Study Bootcamp, kind of like an introduction to some of the big stuff that I learned in Bible college and seminary that took my Bible studies to the next level. It's not necessarily a beginner course, like beginners in the Bible study world, but more so for the person that's been Bible studying, but kind of wants to take their Bible studies to the next level and feel confident in any passage of scripture. That's when I send people to my course, because I'm like that will do it. That's the stuff that I had to pay money to learn. And I kind of wish that Christians knew it, like not while taking on, you know, $30,000 in debt or whatever it is. Um, so yeah, that's Bible Study Bootcamp. 

Ellen (Mentor Mama) 

That's so cool. Your point about how stories just draws in just reminds me of how Jesus, with all the different parables, I mean, it really does immediately engage you in listening and trying to figure out what message he was trying to communicate. So yes, they are so powerful. I’m curious to know about this whole artistic side of you sharing your faith and tell us what it is that you do regarding that and how it can help people engage in their Bible study process as well.  

Faith Womack  

Yeah. So basically, anytime you're writing in your Bible or taking notes or even just adding art in your Bible, they call it Bible journaling. And I have always been a really scrappy person. I remember being in fourth grade and making a scrapbook. And I tell you all what, I did nothing with my life. Like, I went home and took a nap after school and that was my life. But, you know, I wanted to make a scrapbook. I've just always been a scrappy person. I love quilts and piecing things together out of like nothingness. I've just always loved doing things with my hand, making things. And so when it came to God's word, and really my husband gifted me a new Bible when I started seminary. And I was just like, I have, it's an interleaved Bible. So every other page is blank for notes. And I was like, I have this space. I might as well start taking my notes and seminary class while I listen to these lectures. And so I was doing that and you know, you're sitting there listening to your professor expand on the point and start to doodle or you start to make those notes a little bit prettier, you highlight it with a pretty, and so I just kind of like slowly inched my way into this world and I had no idea it would take over my life, but I'm so grateful that the Lord uses things like our creativity to make the mundane worshipful, right? I've always loved stationary. I've always loved pretty paper and highlighters and tapes and something so mundane or even shallow.   

God has made worshipful and that I can't wait to pray using my new pen or I can't wait to, I don't know, use that pretty washy tape when I'm taping in some new notes into my Bible, whatever it is. And so I, not necessarily meaningfully, kind of entered into the Bible journaling world and was like, well, why don't we just like tape some flaps into our Bible? And people were like, what, you can do that? And I was like, I don't know, I think it would be fun. I'm going to do it. You know, I decided doing things that weren't like traditional Bible journaling. And people thankfully have responded really well to it. I look back at some of like the people who started the Bible journaling movement and the first kind of Bible journals. And I'm like, I do it so differently, but I think that goes to show that like the Lord can use anything in our lives. Um, and I'm like a lot more notes oriented. I want to write down stuff that I read in a commentary or in a Bible dictionary. And some people just want to color in and like kind of meditate on what they've just read and they like that kind of Bible journal. There's all different kinds of things, but my idea was basically like, how can I take my seminary notes and make them permanent in my Bible? And I guess part of it also stems from the fact that I took all of my notes in Bible college, so my undergrad degree, online on like Google Docs. And so it was all tied to my undergrad email and when I graduated, I lost them completely. I lost all the notes. I know, I know. It kills me when I think about it too long. And so I think there was a very real sense where I was like, I need to go analog with the most important stuff in my life. And I've always been that way. I love hardcover books. Like I love notes and writing my prayers and all that kind of stuff. But it kind of cemented for me that like, I wanted to like physically write down my seminary notes and not just type them all out and that was also kind of like the outwork of that. Like I want it permanent, I want it right there in my Bible. So the next time I'm reading Psalm, whatever, and we're studying it, like, you know, sitting in church and my pastor will be preaching on a passage, I'm like, ooh, I wonder if he's going to make the same point my seminary professor made or that one podcast made. Because I have all my notes there compiled from every podcast or sermon or lesson I've ever learned on that passage, it's right there. And it just takes my studies to the next level. There's some days nowadays where I'm reading through a random chapter of my Bible and I don't even have to pull out resources or anything to go deep because my notes right there take me deep and take me on all these rapid trails. So yeah, that's kind of the artistic craziness of me. But people look at my Bible and they're like, you're crazy girl, you're crazy.   

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

The same reaction from my Bible as well, that's for sure. Because I kind of like to do mixed media art. And it's kind of like, whatever I'm into at the time, like that's what I'm doing. So literally, like, I can, like you said, like, when you're in church, and you're looking up something, and I was like, Oh, boy, I want to be on this page. It might be watercolor, you know, it might be I was going crazy with washi tape or stickers or and then I did the same thing too, like just adding in like a little extra piece of paper, because I don't have the interleaved one, but I love to take notes as well. And I think this really brings such joy into the process of Bible reading when you can go back and if you were doing a Bible study and you made notes on it, like it just adds so much more depth and I love being like, you know, in a small group setting too, where people are trying to figure out and understand and you can kind of go through your notes and see if you've got anything here you can add. And it does, it makes the whole process just joyful.   

Faith Womack  

Oh yeah, at the very least, if it gets me into the word of God on a day where I don't want to, then it's worth it. You know, at the very least, it's the best investment. Like people talk about like the expensiveness of craft supplies and I agree, it's expensive, but like it's the best thing to craft in and like invest in, you know, in that sense. Like if it gets us into the word of God, then there should be like, we should be willing to do like anything to get into the word of God, right? Like it's definitely worth it. This is eternal work, to understand and worship and glory in our Father and his goodness and his good story and work, how could we not in some sense of a way, especially if you're creative, it's like, try it out. There's literally no downsides to it, I guess. People do worry about ruining their Bibles, but it's literally a book telling us that we are not perfect and we need a savior. So if you mess up a Bible, how much more so?  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Faith, I'm curious to know just how personally like all of this has changed your life in your own Bible reading.   

Faith Womack  

Hmm. I think, ooh, that's a big, like there's so many ways I could go to respond about this. Um, there's so much, like I, but the first thing that comes to mind and how this has changed me coming online with all of my stuff and sharing my Bible journaling journey and all of that is to see that what is true of what I need in my Bible study today may not be true two years from now, may not be true four years from now. And I'm always amazed. People will comment something like, hey, Faith, you should really try this. And at the time I'll be like, eh, I don't know. But two years later, I'm like, oh, I wish I listened to them sooner. I wish I read that book sooner, whatever it is. And I think we need to give ourselves that kind of grace in our Bible studies. And when it comes to studying God's word, we need to take it like a day at a time and not get discouraged or bogged down because I think the enemy loves to use that in our spiritual walks. But I think we also need to just keep that student attitude, not be like, I've got this, I've got it all figured out. I know everything there is to know about Joel. I know everything there is to know about Bible journaling. I know everything there is to know about Bible study resources, like never. And praise the Lord that we serve a God that is greater than our human capacity so we can live a life, a long life, and never scratch the bottom of the barrel of God's richness.  

And that's why you end up on top of it. Like, I mean, we're built off of thousands and thousands of years of church fathers and their research. And we still can't scratch the bottom of the barrel. Like praise the Lord for that. That is an eternal God, you know.   

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we've been blessed at the church that I go to that it's very close to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. And so we've had many professors attend our church. And what you just said is so true. There was Dr. Grant Osborne, he has written so many commentaries, and he's no longer with us now. But I just see how the depth of his knowledge, like reading his commentary, I mean, I think till the day we die, we'll be peeling back this, you know, the layers of this onion on any one aspect of the Bible, let alone, you know, the whole Bible.  

Faith Womack  

Yeah, yeah, totally. I feel like there's something to be said of like in heaven. We're still going to be studying our Bibles. We're going to be going, wow, so this was also fulfilling this? Oh, we didn't catch that. You know, whatever it is.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yeah, yeah, for sure. What do you wish more people knew about reading and understanding the Bible?  

Faith Womack  

I wish more people knew how accessible it can be. Like I'm amazed by how many people, I was talking to a pastor a couple of weeks ago and they didn't know just like the usefulness of a Bible dictionary and that they could use Bible dictionary like on the regular. They're like, oh, I don't have any of those. And I'm thinking, I was like, wait, this will super help you and like speed up the researching process of your sermons and all that kind of stuff. So I wish more people knew like the basics of Bible study skills, because there seems to be a big gap. Like now that the Gideons have done such good work to get like the Bibles out to everybody, so many of us have like many Bibles and or at least access to Bibles. But now we just don't have to read them and we don't have to study them. And I wish more people knew the basics, like how to use a Bible dictionary. I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory, like a normal dictionary, but like that exists and that will super help you in your Bible studies to look up what was a Samaritan, you know, and your Bible study will take it deeper and will make all these connections for you. I wish more people knew about commentaries and commentaries aren't bad. We can use them. They can help us, you know? I wish more people knew about how to like verse map versus word study. And that's more of a learning curve, but these are skills that I think not enough, I say lay people and I don't use that like as a discouraging term. I use it as like normal people. I wish more normal people knew how to do a word study from the Bible and knew how to do it well, because too often it's just the teachers or the preachers that know how to do those things. And then it's like, oh, you know, our pastor knows so much. And it's like, well, we can know that stuff too. Like the pastor isn't just supposed to have like the secret knowledge and how to read the Bible. It really should be everybody. And that's kind of like my heart, passion and mission. I don't think I can live long enough to do it enough, but it's just to make like the basic Bible study skills more accessible because biblical illiteracy is like, I would say it's not killing the church because that's impossible, but hurting the church. It's weakening the church and that people know, oh, I ought to believe this, but we don't know where it comes from in the Bible and how we got there and all of that. So our theology is weak theology and our apologetics is weak, our everything. I mean, it comes into like, this seeps into family and family circles and how we disciple our kids. I'm amazed by the questions my five-year-old asks last night. I kid you not, literally last night, I'm putting them to bed. And this is a rabbit trail and a rabbit trail. But I was putting my boys to bed and I had been reading them a story about God's light to shining out of them. It's some children's book. And my son goes, wait a minute, mommy. So we shine God's light and the enemy is darkness, because that's the metaphor in the book. And he said, so where did the first snake come from? Like the serpent in the garden, where did he come from? And I was like, okay, so scholars have been debating this for centuries, but let's get into it in three minutes because your bedtime is like already passed and we got to get into this five year olds worldview. You know, like, but that, I mean, that is just, even I felt not well equipped to answer that on the fly. You know? So, how much more so the average person without degrees. And that didn't grow up in the church and is a new believer in there. You know, like I think about that single mom because there's so many times where like we do our catechisms driving our boys to school and my son will ask crazy off the ball questions like that. I'm putting my makeup on in the mirror and the husband's driving the car and I'm like, honey, can you take that line? I just like have two brain cells this morning, you know? And it's like, we need more like actual, here's how to read the Bible. Here's how to understand the Bible. Here's basics of theology, all of that kind of stuff. That's what I wish more Christians knew. And I'm sorry it took forever to answer that question.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Oh, no, that's fabulous. I love that story. Sounds like you're raising some little mini theologians there. Oh, that's so cute. Well, Faith, as we start to kind of wrap up this, tell me like, you know, from everything that you have worked on so far, maybe tell us what are your dreams about the future? and how you hope to continue sharing the gospel message.  

Faith Womack  

Well, Ellen, this is dreaming big. And I don't know if the Lord does this. It's totally fine if he doesn't. But I pray one day to be involved in study Bibles and Bible journaling, Bibles being printed that are more, that are cheaper and that have more things in them, more space to take notes that support you in wanting to take notes that have more notes in them. Cause right now not, I don't know if there's like really many at all, journey Bibles that have study notes in them. And that's a real loss because like, what are we taking notes on then if there's not study notes, you know? So, you know, that's in the works in sort, but not really. And I just pray for the opportunity to, you know, have a small hand in the church getting more resources like that long-term picture. But obviously the Lord's using you guys to do that as well and to get those Bible study resources and skills out there. And I praise Him for that. 

Our brother Alan Parr online is doing the same kind of things, getting resources out there to help people. And so I just praise him that it's not just like us alone, you know, like the Lord is using so many different means and so many different people and so many different publishers and so many different things in the works. And so I'm just more so excited to see God's kingdom work that he's doing. That's so much bigger than just YouTube even than just podcasting and study Bible printing and all of that. But like, man, what is he doing secretly in China right now? Because I know they just did like a misprint, you know, messed up Bible and they rewrote it, you know, and like, how is he going to use that to grow his kingdom? Because I know he's going to use that in despite of their evil intentions, you know? So that's what I get excited about. And I just pray that there's never a day that my videos don't do good for the kingdom.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yeah.  

Faith Womack  

And I'm sure you guys have that same kind of heart where you worry, you worry about evil people kind of misusing it or whatever. But I'm thankful that the Lord can use things even like YouTube to spread the word of His good goodness and His good story and hopefully educate us into better knowing Him and enjoying His word.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I love your goals. Thanks for sharing those with us. I think it's just encouraging to everyone to see a passionate person such as yourself who has invested so much of your education in learning all of this information. And it's exciting to see where people like you want to go next. Where is God leading? And I know he's just working in and through you in such a mighty way, Faith. How can people find out more information about you and your ministry?  

Faith Womack  

I am at, How to Faith a Life. And that's super dorky. It's a play on words from the Fray’s song, How to Save a Life. I literally Googled what is a pun around the word faith and Google apparently in 2016 or whatever it was, doesn't know what a pun is. And so that's all that they came up with. And so I was like, that'll work. I'm trying to save lives here spiritually. So we'll do that. 

But How to Faith a Life on that on everything, even howtofaithalife.com will have links to my courses and things like that. But I post a bunch, mostly free stuff online. I have a Patreon where there's kind of like smaller group stuff and more in-depth Bible studies, but How to Faith a Life is the name everywhere.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Fabulous. Well, we will make sure we include those links in our show notes. Before we go, I have to ask you some of our favorite Bible study tool questions. What Bible will you already mentioned it? Tell us a little bit more about your Bible that you use and what translation is it?  

Faith Womack  

Yeah, so my church and denomination at large typically uses the ESV. And so that is the Bible I have, just for cohesiveness in the midst of like church and lessons and things like that. I like to stick with what my church preaches from. And this is the Interleaved by Crossway. It is sold out everywhere though. My subscribers went and bought it everywhere. So it's like, if you can find it, it's like 200 bucks. So don't do that. We got it for like 15 or $30 at a used bookstore or like secondhand, didn't get sold in the real bookstores kind of store. And it got rebound by Crew and Co. So that's why it looks different. It has my logo on it, but that's my Bible. Love it. I tell everybody to get an interleaved Bible if they can, because it has so much study notes or room for study notes.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Yes, yes, definitely. That's the one Ashley has as well, and it is loaded. Yes, it's loaded, loaded with notes. That's a great Bible. Okay. How about you talked about your journaling that you love to do. Tell us like what supplies you like to use to enhance your Bible study experience.  

Faith Womack  
Oh no, you just unlocked the nerd in me. I could go on and on and on. I don't want to take all your day. Okay, I love me like the classics, washi tapes and highlighters and stuff like that. But I especially have been really getting into clear stamps and die cuts. This just makes my notes a little bit more creative. And I notice when, like I love drawing boxes around my notes or making them look like they're taped into my Bible. I always use like faux tape, like you can see right there. However, you know, it's very home drawn, you know, like it is what it is, but it's actually pretty quick to grab a clear stamp and maybe, you know, use a little square or a frilly little wreath or whatever and take my notes within that. It's faster and it looks cuter and it just kind of goes into that multimedia thing.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Oh, cute.  

Faith Womack  

Um, die cuts are a way to cut paper out in a very specific design. And so that also elevates your notes and I get dorky and nerdy with that. So I recently just got, I'll show you this. I think it will be in my video on Friday, but I recently just got some die cuts and stamps that are stained glass. And so like the pastor wife within me is like, love this for everything that I scrap book about church stuff. But then also within my church notes. I can't wait to use these. I use these in my prayer journal this morning. So stuff like that, that just kind of elevates my notes and makes them that much more beautiful. I also noticed that when my notes are prettier, I'm naturally just like the human in me is just going to read them a lot more than if they're ugly. It's not silly, but I will. I'll read them and I'll study them more so than the ugly notes. I'm like, oh, I don't want to reread those, those are ugly or there was misspellings or whatever it is. So, you know, the Lord even uses die cuts and stamps, as dorky as that is.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Oh my goodness. Okay. I've totally used stamps, but never die cuts. That's such a great tip. Okay. All right. We will, I'm going to have you tell us what those are and we will also link those below. Lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?  

Faith Womack 

I love me some Bible Hub. It's free, it's easy. They've got a page on literally every verse of the Bible. I love how they have the inter-linear Bible right there really quickly. Cause I used to go and grab my inter-linear Bible every time I wanted to look at the Greek lined up with the English or the Hebrew lined up with the English. And that's just a little inconvenient to every time I have to stand up and grab your Bible and look it up and flip through your book and blah, blah. But nowadays I just type it into Bible Hub and it pops up within 10 seconds and you've got it right there and then it's linked to the Strong's concordance number. And so you can look up all the other times that word was used. And so I'm a big promoter of Bible Hub. But there's a lot of different websites just like it. I just like Bible Hub. I'm comfortable on that platform. It seems intuitive to me.  

But it's not the prettiest one and not everybody loves it, but I love it!  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Hey, it works. It is. It's a great app, and it does have so much wonderful information. So we will put a link for those of you that are listening so you can check that out as well. Well, Faith, it's just been such a joy to have you here today. Just want to thank you for all that you do, the content that you're putting out that is just helping reach people for Christ and helping them to understand their Bibles, get excited about their Bible study time. And so if you are listening to this, make sure you head over to Faith's, howtofaithalife.com and check out all of her valuable biblical tools. So thank you Faith for being here today.  

Faith Womack  

Yeah, thanks for having me.  

Ellen (Mentor Mama)  

Alright everyone, we love you all and appreciate you listening so much. Have a blessed day.