Stop Skimming: Start Understanding the Bible for Yourself | The EASY Bible Study Method Pt. 2

Ever feel like you read your Bible...but don't really understand it? In this episode, we explore the second step of the EASY Bible Study Method: Assess the Main Idea. Whether you have just 10 minutes or a full hour for Bible study, you’ll learn a simple, flexible approach to understanding Scripture that meets you right where you are: and grows with you over time. 

📖 Struggling with Bible study? We wrote a book for you. Check out The EASY Bible Study Method, a guide to both enrich and simplify your time in Scripture. Want to read an excerpt? Click here!

Want to study God's Word for yourself? Try our In-Depth Bible Study Academy
Click here to try a free mini-course!

Chapters

• 1:34 Introduction to The EASY Bible Study Method
• 4:12 Assessing the Main Idea
• 6:15 Step One: Paraphrase
• 9:07 Step Two: Exploring Context and Meaning
• 12:08 Step Three: Highlighting Key Themes
• 15:12 Encouragement for Beginners: Starting Simple
• 18:06 Tools to Enhance Understanding
• 21:02 Conclusion and Next Steps

Transcript

Ellen Krause: 1:10

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Today we're diving into step two of our four-part series on the easy Bible study method, and that's the letter A, which stands for assess the main idea.

Ellen Krause: 1:50

In this step. We're going to talk about how you need to slow down, break up the scriptures, paraphrase, ask thoughtful questions, all of these things to help us really move past the goal of just reading the Bible but to truly understanding it. The goal of just reading the Bible, but to truly understanding it and assessing the main idea helps us move past surface level reading into real discovery. When you take the time to assess the main idea, you begin to uncover the heart of the passage, what the author was really saying to the original audience and what God wants you to see today. So grab your Bible, your journal and, of course, your coffee and let's explore how this can transform the way you engage with scripture. Joining me today is Ashley, part of the Coffee and Bible Time team here. Thank you for joining.

Ashley Armijo: 2:50

Ash, thanks for having me again.

Ellen Krause: 2:54

Also my wonderful daughter, not gonna lie, I'm grateful for you. So, ashley, as we mentioned, this is the part of the study where we're going to start to digest the text. You've already spent time learning about the context. We have examined questions about the passage and now we're putting together the details. We're moving towards the big picture. So, for any of our listeners who maybe missed the first episode, need just a tiny refresh. What would you want them to know in a snapshot about entering into the story? That sets us up for being able to assess the main idea.

Ashley Armijo: 3:37

I would first want them to know that. So this is the easy Bible study method and it's a four-part Bible study system where you make Bible study super easy by going through the acronym EASY. So we already did E enter into the story, and that's really where you just slow down, read the text and ask context questions so who is the author, who is the audience, what's going on in this Bible passage? And really what you do is you enter into the story and you put yourself in the story and you read it slowly and intentionally, and it is a great way to just start your Bible study time because you're just kind of taking the pressure off and slowly entering into the text. So, yeah, that was a good podcast session and I would highly encourage anyone if you missed that one to go watch that first and then to come back to this one?

Ellen Krause: 4:37

Yes, definitely, all right. So, as we step into assessing the main idea, tell us what that really means.

Ashley Armijo: 4:45

So, as we assess the main idea, really what we're trying to do is figure out the meaning of the text and one thing we really like to emphasize and we learned this in Bible college and a lot of professors and theologians really emphasize this as well but just remembering that the Bible wasn't originally written to us, so you know the book, the gospel writer John wasn't thinking, oh, I'm going to write this to Ellen 2000 years from now. It's going to be specifically for her. It wasn't written to us. It was written by a specific author to a very specific audience.

Ashley Armijo: 5:24

But what's really encouraging about scripture is that, although it wasn't written to us, it's for us still. So it's still God-intended scripture to be for all believers in any generation, at any period of time. So we can still learn a lot and glean a lot and come closer to God through his word, even though we might not be the specific original audience of the text. But as you're reading it, it's important to keep in mind okay, there was an original author, there was original audience and what did he mean for them, what was their meaning? And then, once we find, okay, what did this mean for them, we can then kind of cross the bridge over. Okay, I figured out what this meant for them. Now what does that mean for us today?

Ellen Krause: 6:17

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. So what would be the first step then someone would take in this process?

Ashley Armijo: 6:26

So the first step we have in the easy Bible study method for this process is paraphrasing the passage. I've done this for years honestly, probably gosh, almost you know eight to ten years of doing this, where I'll read the passage and then I will simply summarize it in my own words. It in my own words, and I like starting here because a lot of times you can read through a passage kind of we talked about this last time mindlessly, and you can close your Bible and walk away and you never really understood, okay, what does this mean? And what does this mean for me today? You just close your Bible and walk away.

Ashley Armijo: 7:07

I'm guilty of doing that all the time, but a lot of times, if I slow down and read it and then I summarize it in my own words, it forces me to kind of take the text and think to myself okay, what does this mean and how can I summarize this into two sentences?

Ashley Armijo: 7:34

Summarize this into two sentences.

Ashley Armijo: 7:35

So if it's a big chunk of text, like, let's say, a whole chapter, what you can do is take it by little chunks and so, like maybe the first three verses of that chapter, I can say, oh, this is what this means, the next three this is what this means, the next three this is what this means, and then at the end I can put all of those little summaries together and say, oh, okay, this is kind of what the overall meaning of this text is, summarized in my own words.

Ashley Armijo: 8:01

And I like doing that because there are certain times when you're reading scripture passages where it's a lot and they've packed so much into one chapter and they go from topic to topic, to theme to theme, and so it's just like, okay, how can I break this down a little bit more simply so that I can understand it and maybe take it in smaller chunks and then process each chunk so I can get then the whole big picture of kind of what it's saying. So that's the first step we like to do, and it's super simple because I mean, all of us have done this in school growing up, where we've had to summarize books or whatever an English class or history class and so it's kind of something we've a lot of us have learned and, honestly, the teachers were so smart because even now as an adult, it forces your brain to think okay, because we just did the James chapter one in our community Bible study group and we did one verse at a time.

Ellen Krause: 9:06

That was really effective for me actually having to think like, okay, what is what is this verse trying to say in a way that I can understand. And the other side of that is later. I would do that first and then, after I would go through more steps to look at the verse in more depth, I would end up so many times with such a greater, deeper or even a different understanding than what I originally thought. So how do you tell us how you think that happens?

Ashley Armijo: 9:50

I think, the more that you study a passage, especially if you're opening the door to okay, like I just read this passage, holy Spirit, please open my eyes, please teach me. And then, as you study it deeper, if you're getting more into in-depth study, you're comparing it to other scripture passages you're learning about, you're looking into the deeper Greek or Hebrew translations of it, you're reading into scholars' points of views of the passage. And I think, after doing all that deeper study which, of course, in the Easy Bible Study Method, we have the option to dig deeper. So if you have more time and if you want to dig deeper, you absolutely can. But I think that the more time you spend in the passage, the more that you open your heart to God being able to reveal to you what that passage means. And so I mean even you can find out more about one word. So, like in passages about like, let's say, love, like you could do a word study on love throughout the entire Bible and you can learn all about just that one little word, right, and become like oh okay, god, this is what love means. It's selfless, it's. You know Christ showed his love when he sacrificed himself on the cross for us. You know, he gave his whole life to us. Oh, love might not always be a feeling, it's an action word, right, and that's just one word. You know what I mean.

Ashley Armijo: 11:15

So I love the easy Bible study method because you can just stick to it being very easy and simple. So, like, let's say, I'm doing the easy Bible study method and I'm on A assess the main idea and today I just don't have all the time to dig deeper. All I have to do is write down a quick summary and then I can go on to S seek God and his character, right, especially if I'm like, okay, I have 10 minutes right now while the baby's napping or something, but if I have extra time, I can really, within the section, there's so much more. You can make annotations in your Bible and pick out different themes, looking at different words, like we just talked about, and then you can really get into figuring out okay, what did this mean for the original audience? And then what does it mean for us today?

Ashley Armijo: 12:09

And in our Dig Deeper section it literally says look into commentaries, look into what scholars say about this, because scholars spend their entire life doing this as a living and that's why I love looking at their perspective and it's good to get multiple perspectives, but I just love looking at their perspective because it's like, okay, they went to school right, they got their undergrad degree, they got a lot of them got their master's, their PhDs, they know how to study the Bible inside and out, they know how to look at the historical context, they know how to figure out the interpretation of these passages. So if you're feeling stuck, I would say don't feel any guilt or shame looking into a commentary. I think that's a really good thing.

Ellen Krause: 12:58

Yeah, absolutely. What was kind of cool, ash, was last night in our community Bible study night. In our community Bible study the Coffee and Bible Time community we had the opportunity to watch the video that you made for the Bible Study Academy that was on highlighting and annotating, which is the dig deeper portion of assessing the main idea, and it was so incredible. The women in there were just blown away by all of the different things that you can highlight and annotate to help you understand the passage. I thought maybe you could just share a little bit about some of those things that if people do have more time, what does that look like?

Ashley Armijo: 13:53

Yeah. So I mean I would suggest going into the academy and looking at the course, but I'll give you a small little overview, honestly for me, because it can start to feel overwhelming when you get this whole long list of things you can annotate in the Bible, right? So I always start with, every time I read the Bible, highlighting God's character in purple, and so that is whenever God shows up in the passage, whether it's God the Father, god the Son or God the Spirit I'll have my purple highlighter with me and I will highlight that and and sometimes I'll make notes off into the side like this shows a lot more about Jesus's character or this is the Holy Spirit, specifically about a character quality about him. And I love doing that because then I can go back in my Bible and see all the times the purple showed up and really like that helps draw my attention to who God is in the passage. So that's the first thing I always do, but then other things I like to do is it depends what part of the Bible you're reading, but a lot of times in the narrative sections they will highlight a specific person, like I just did the easy Bible study method on Matthew 14, 22 through 33 about Jesus walking on water. But the specific person they highlighted is Peter. And so in in green, I highlighted Peter because I'm like OK, the author biblical author is obviously trying to show us Peter in this passage and highlight how, you know, he did have faith at the beginning to step out, but then he kind of looked around at the waves and sunk under. And so I really do think the biblical author wants us to see ourselves in that, like our weak faith. We have that weak faith too. We have that doubt, but who is right there to lift us out of that when we are sinking under Jesus, right? And so as I read through that passage, I'm also thinking, okay, what themes are standing out to me in this passage? Well, faith is a big theme. That's something I can circle and highlight and annotate. Doubt was a theme in that passage. There were so many.

Ashley Armijo: 16:12

Another thing I highlighted in this passage and noted was certain emotions, because it said over and over again they were afraid, they were terrified, they cried out. You know, at the end it talked about how they were in awe, they were worshiping Jesus because of what they saw in him. So I noted the emotions because I mean, we're all human and we all experience those emotions that you know they've experienced. We all know what it's like to feel afraid and fear and and just seeing, okay, how did Peter react with that fear? And and just seeing, okay, how did Peter react with that fear, and how do I sometimes react with that? And how do I need to give that over to the Lord and trust and look at him directly rather than looking around at the waves around me. So I mean, those are just a few things.

Ellen Krause: 17:00

Obviously there's so much more, I mean in the annotation section of our academy.

Ashley Armijo: 17:06

We talk about, you know, looking at specific, what's it called grammar right?

Ellen Krause: 17:12

Yes, right, right, in addition to themes, you've got repeating words and comparisons and clauses that have consequences, and figures of speech. Yes, it just goes on and on and on. And figures of speech yes, it just goes on and on and on. So, yes, and we cover that as well in the book. In this assess the main idea, which is really, I would say, kind of the meat and potatoes.

Ashley Armijo: 17:46

Wouldn't you, ashley, of like all of the work that you're going to pour into understanding a passage? Yes, yes, it is into understanding a passage. Yes, yes, it is. If you really do the easy Bible study method, with all of the dig deepers with each letter, you will be getting into in-depth Bible study. That's what's so flexible about this method is I could really do it and just do a very simple 10, 15 minute Bible study. Or if I do all of the dig deepers, yes, I'm going to be doing an in-depth Bible study. So there's so much flexibility there and I really really like that.

Ellen Krause: 18:17

Yeah, well, as we wrap this part up, I just want to ask you what bit of encouragement would you give someone who's listening to this, who's, you know, maybe afraid to even start or feels like they don't have time to do Bible study? What would you encourage them with today?

Ashley Armijo: 18:45

I would say, if you're to this point of the podcast and you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, yes, there's a lot, and I think that's a normal feeling to have, Like someone in our Bible study community, even shared honestly. Hey, I'm overwhelmed by all of this and I told her. I said you know what? Thank you so much for sharing that, because I can guarantee you you are not the only one feeling that, and I think a lot of other women are like oh okay, good, I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed by all this.

Ashley Armijo: 19:18

You know, but I would say to the woman feeling overwhelmed or like it feels daunting, to just start very simple, right? So for E, when you enter into the story, simply do that. Just say you know what. I'm going to read this passage and I'm going to put myself in the passage and I'm going to read it slowly today. Okay, great, I did that.

Ashley Armijo: 19:42

Okay, now I'm going to go to A and all I'm going to do is read through it and write a small little two-sentence summary. Done, okay, now I'm going to go to S and I'm going to seek God and his character. All I'm going to do is grab my purple highlighter and highlight whenever God shows up, right, and then why I'm going to close my time in prayer. I'm going to close my time in prayer, so it can be that simple, and so I think that you should just take off any pressure of perfection or any pressure of I have to do it a perfect, certain way or I have to complete everything on the checklist. When we get into that type of mode of thinking, then we're missing the point of Bible study. So just come back to the heart. Okay, what is the heart of Bible study and why am I doing this? If it's to know Jesus more and deeper and to love him more than you're right on track. So yeah, I mean just ask the Lord. Lord, give me a pure heart and help me the Lord.

Ellen Krause: 20:48

Lord, give me a pure heart and help me, teach me, grow me. I love that you pointed that out, because one of my friends, who I just love Rachel, you know, in a busy mothering season in her life, I think was so wise and being realistic during the weekdays because she also is a teacher. Like she does do what you talked about, just very easy and things that she can get done in a limited amount of time. But then she also builds into her schedule maybe an hour on Saturday mornings that she's going to say OK, I'm going to take one hour of my week and I'm really going to devote it more to digging deeper. And so I would just say there's different seasons of life everyone's going through.

Ellen Krause: 21:37

Sometimes you have more time, less time Don't beat yourself up about that, but you can be intentional about finding a little bit of time here and there to do that. So thank you so much, ashley, for helping us understand why we need to jump in, how we can jump in, and we just hope and pray that for those of you that are listening, if you are interested at all in learning how to study the Bible for yourselves, please get a copy of our book, the Easy Bible Study Method, a four-step process that will literally hold you by the hand, walk you step by step through a process to make it easy to study and read your Bible. So thank you so much for joining us on our podcast today. We love you all. Have a blessed day, thank you.