Heart Change: Applying Scripture | The EASY Bible Study Method Pt. 4

Taylor returns for a conversation about the final step of the EASY Bible Study Method, Yearn For A Heart Change. She and Mentor Mama discuss how to bridge the gap between head and heart, what God has been showing them in their personal studies, and how to apply even difficult or unfamiliar passages of Scripture.

Scriptures referenced:

• James 1:22
• Proverbs 4:23
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Proverbs 3:5-6
• James 1:5
• Acts 7:60
• Matthew 16:24

Resources:
The EASY Bible Study Method: A Guide to Understanding, Applying, and Delighting in God's Word

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Chapters

• 0:00 Yearning for Real Change in Bible Study
• 9:16 Moving from Head Knowledge to Heart Change
• 17:23 Practical Examples of Biblical Transformation
• 25:12 Navigating Different Bible Genres for Application
• 33:33 Final Encouragement for Lasting Heart Change

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. We are so happy that you are joining us as we wrap up our four-part series on studying the Bible.

Ellen Krause: 1:46

Have you ever read your Bible, closed it and thought why am I still the same? You long for transformation, real heart change, but it feels like your time in the Word isn't sinking in. If that's you, you're not alone. In today's episode, we're delving into the deep ache that so many of us feel, the yearning for God's word to actually change us inwardly and outwardly, not just inform us. We are going to unpack what's getting in the way and how to move from just reading scripture to being truly renewed by it. So if you're hungry for more than head knowledge, if you want your heart to be more like Christ's, this episode is exactly what you need. Welcome, taylor.

Taylor Mitchell: 2:42

Welcome. It's so good to be here. I've loved having this series on our channel where Ashley and I have been kind of more involved in talking about Bible study, and obviously the easy Bible study method is very special to us because this is something that Ashley created oh my goodness, five years ago now and yeah, it's just absolutely crazy to think about how God planted that seed so long ago and it's impacted a lot of people and helping them be able to really read the Bible in a systematic way, an easy way, really.

Ellen Krause: 3:22

Absolutely, and the more we hear about people who have read about it, who know about the Easy Bible Study Method they really are their lives are changed. So that's what we want to talk about here today, and I want to first look at inward transformation. The way we seek heart change is through applying what we've learned from the text to our life. So, taylor, why do you think we need to start with the heart?

Taylor Mitchell: 3:57

For those of you that are just joining us new. This week we are in the last letter of the EASY acronym E-A-S-Y, and this one stands for yearning for heart change. Obviously, and a really important step to wanting to apply the text to our lives is by taking everything you've learned when you're reading the Bible from head knowledge to your heart. And I know for a lot of us there can be a disconnect when it comes to reading your Bible, depending on the busyness of your life, or even if you're in an academic setting like I was in Bible college for so long Sometimes reading the Bible can feel very much so, just an activity that you do with your head, and this should not be something we want to get in the habit of. Right, because God does really desire for our heart to be changed and transformed by what we read, and I love that. You asked that question of why is it so important to start with your heart. And that's because change always starts from the inside out, right.

Taylor Mitchell: 5:08

Scripture tells us God looks at our heart. He's desiring to see that the things that we are learning about him and the way that the spirit is moving is moving in such a way that we are allowing it to penetrate deeper than just our minds. I think we can all say we know people I mean maybe even ourselves at some points or another in our lives who really they hear the word and it doesn't change them. And we actually did a study in our community not too long ago on James. And James has a warning, you know. He says be doers of the word and not hearers only Because God truly is looking to see that what we read turns into application for us.

Taylor Mitchell: 5:55

And I know I'm rambling and rambling and rambling here, but I believe that when you're reading your Bible, some of those first steps of finding the context and assessing the main idea and seeking God's character can look a little bit more logical.

Taylor Mitchell: 6:13

And then, when you are kind of really soaking in all that you've learned there, you want to move from a space of learning information to letting it go deeper into your soul, asking those questions about how the text should be changing the way that you live your life. And in order to really do that well, you need to be able to have some self-reflection and some what's the word I'm thinking of? You need to be aware of what's going on in your heart and your mind and what's going on in your life. Self-awareness, that's what I'm thinking of. You need to be self-aware about what's going on in your heart and your mind and bring that to the Lord in prayer, and I think that that's the first step when it comes to yearning for a heart change is bringing the Lord exactly where you are and asking where the text or what you're reading can intersect in that. Do you have any thoughts?

Ellen Krause: 7:12

You know I was looking up some verses on the heart and scripture itself helps us to understand what is meant by that and I just wanted to mention a couple of those. Proverbs 4.23 says Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. That's one example. Jeremiah 29.13 says you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart right.

Taylor Mitchell: 7:51

We see that God is he's emotionally available. We talked about this in the seeking God podcast episode that we did last week, but that's a really key thing to understand about God and about who you are made in the image of, is somebody who is emotional in the best, most connective way possible. He is a God that is emotionally available to all our needs and he created us with the ability to connect with him. That in itself is very profound, but it's also extremely important to know in regards to meeting him in his word. We believe that scripture is God-breathed. We believe that this is his way of revealing himself to us. If you want to learn and know more about God, connect with him in his word. This is where he is speaking to us through so many genres and books and things. That takes you on a journey and an adventure, but, like you said, these stories are meant to connect with us in our heart.

Ellen Krause: 8:59

Absolutely, and when we take the time to sit in God's word, we start to get an understanding about things that maybe need to be challenged or reshaped in our lives. Do you have any recent examples of this Tay, something that you've read in God's word and recognized that you need to take action?

Taylor Mitchell: 9:27

That is a great question. Well, first of all, I just want to say that there's a lot of different questions that we can ask ourselves when we're wanting to apply God's word to our life. In any passage that you read and I'm going to say a few right now, but there's a lot more in our Easy Bible Study book that you can use as a tool to help you dig deeper into the application portion of your Bible study. But first question that you can ask yourself is in what ways is the Holy Spirit convicting me that my heart needs to look more like God's? Another one is how does my current way of thinking need to be challenged? Three what emotions am I feeling? Fear, anxiety, bitterness. That has maybe come out as I was reading God's word that needs to be acknowledged and surrendered. Those are a few I will say.

Taylor Mitchell: 10:20

Actually, mentor Mama, something that I was challenged by that you told me recently is that I need to watch my tongue, okay, and that sometimes I'm a grumbler, I'm a complainer. Sometimes I've actually noticed that about myself, maybe more so in this wedding season that I feel like the overflow of my mouth has been a lot of complaining, stress. And I will say and I won't get too deep into this, but part of the process of this wedding planning has been working with vendors and people along the way that are supposed to help us, and there's been a few tricky relationships that I've had to navigate, and one of them in particular has brought a lot of grumbling and complaining out of me Gossip, if I can just like be quite frank and honest. I mean, I don't even know this person really on a deep level, but they've made it so difficult for me to have more peace in this process of wedding planning and that's brought a lot of bitterness out in me and a lot of ugliness, and I've had to really, really challenge myself to trust that God is sovereign over everything and to also trust that God's model for my life and how he wants my heart to look, which really should be gracious and understanding and forgiving. That needs to be a priority, and if I'm really truly trusting God that his way is best, then that means that I should be able to reflect in my heart and find grace for these people that maybe do make my life a little bit more difficult, and I'm sure we can all relate to that in one way or another.

Taylor Mitchell: 12:12

Life isn't full of easy people to get along with at all by any means, and are we able to look in our heart and say, can I be gracious towards this person when I really just want to go the opposite direction and feel upset and angry and let my bitterness come out? I was really hoping for me that the wedding period of all these details and all this stuff would not be stressful, but it is. I don't want to look back in these moments and be like man. I really let that stress ruin the process for me. I don't want that. But anyways, I think that that's one area for me. What about you? Mentor Mama?

Ellen Krause: 12:50

I think that you've also learned, though, through this process, that there's two sides to every story, and sometimes being gracious includes not fully understanding what that other person is perhaps going through, that they're not communicating, and so that's been a, that's so true.

Ellen Krause: 13:11

Definitely a learning process and I know for me it's. A lot of times the anxiety comes back to trust and I feel like that was one thing that my dad was so good at reminding me as a younger person. And he was a big man, 6'4". People called him the gentle giant and I can almost feel like his hand on my shoulder when I would have anxiety, saying just trust, just trust, it's going to be okay.

Taylor Mitchell: 13:50

I love that. Actually, that reminds me of a passage in Proverbs that our church was doing for VBS this summer, and that is Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. And what's so beautiful about that verse in regards to what we're talking about and what you're saying here is that trust is an application that we can put into our lives. From what we read in the text, how many passages of scripture do we read where we see the main person of the story is going through a difficult time? I mean, look in the Old Testament, look in the New Testament. I want to say probably 90% of the stories that you read in the Bible are of trials, that people are going through difficulties where they are given an opportunity to trust God. We see stories where they do trust God. We see stories where they run away from God but come back. We see stories where they flat out you know, just choose not to walk with the Lord. And what we have the opportunity to do is, when we read those stories, especially in the yearning for heart change section of our quiet time is to ask the Holy Spirit how can I learn about this trust and apply it to my life? How can my heart look more like Jesus? And I'm thinking even of this Proverbs passage trust in the Lord with all your heart. How easy would it be to just read through that proverb and be like all right, amen, done. Thank you. That was so good and easy to read today, Quiet time over, Instead of sitting and reflecting and chewing on it.

Taylor Mitchell: 15:40

I love that Ashley uses the word chew a lot. When you're reading scripture, it is kind of like a chewing. You want to just sit and enjoy it and savor it. Sometimes, I think in an instance like this, where it says trust in the Lord with all your heart, when you're leaving your quiet time, you should be asking yourself when am I not trusting you, lord? And just let the holy spirit tell you where you're not trusting him. You might think I'm I'm pretty good on that. I think we all struggle with trust in one way or another and ask the holy spirit to reveal that. And yeah, james tells us that we should ask God for wisdom and he gives generously to all, without reproach or turning you away. So if you want wisdom and how to apply God's word to your life. I feel that this is no different.

Ellen Krause: 16:29

So one of the things that we have to do is untangle our emotions from what root issues that we may be going on and then using God's word as counsel or guidance or application to what needs to be changed about that, about that. How can journaling help us acknowledge those, surrender them and see how God's scripture can then help us change where we need to.

Taylor Mitchell: 17:04

That's a great question. Actually, when you were saying that, it brought to mind for me just how tricky it can be with human emotions. Those of you that know me. I was trying to get my master's degree in counseling, so I'm all for emotions okay, and that journey for me ended quickly because my school shutting down, wah wah. But still, as I think about emotions, emotions are valid, they're important tools, they're indicators for us to see something deeper is going on, like you said, mentor Mama.

Taylor Mitchell: 17:41

But sometimes we place those emotions a bit on a pedestal. Sometimes, when we have really strong emotions or feelings or a pull in us in a certain direction ideologically, we can sometimes want to view the Bible through that lens, and that is the primary way that we view scripture is through our own ideas, through our own emotions, through our own beliefs and morals. And where journaling can be a great tool is it allows you to express how you're feeling to the Lord, acknowledging those emotions, which is really key, really important. If you are feeling something, you need to acknowledge it. Okay, you can't just keep burying that puppy under the dirt. That thing will resurface over and over and over again, and for some of us, the more we dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig. Somebody comes along and steps on a landmine and it blows up. So it is really good to acknowledge those and not let them fester and simmer. But journaling is a great way to acknowledge those feelings while also keeping your heart and your mind open to reading scripture the way God intended us to interpret it. And that's why those first steps of the easy Bible study method are so important, especially entering into the story, because the Bible is written by human authors to original audiences that, I mean, shocker to.

Taylor Mitchell: 20:11

Ironically, a lot of us isn't us in 21st century. It was to somebody else that there are total eternal truths that we can take away? Absolutely, don't get me wrong. But sometimes we take in our own emotions, our own ideas, our own beliefs, our own even you know political ideologies, and we put it into the text rather than reading out and extracting the idea that the original author wanted us to get. So it is true, mentor Mama, that it's important to see the emotions that we have. I mean it can turn into an entangled web. We have to acknowledge them, but we can't bring it too much into the text because dangerous things can happen there in terms of interpretation that just they aren't accurate anymore, and I know that that's a sensitive subject today, because we do have different camps of people who interpret scripture, have different camps of people who interpret scripture, honestly, vastly different in certain areas, because of beliefs that we want to bring into the text or vice versa.

Ellen Krause: 21:16

That is so true for sure. You know, this morning, tay, when I was doing my quiet time, I was reading Acts, chapter 7, about the story of Stephen, the stoning of Stephen, and this really reminded me of, first of all, like if you're carrying bitterness and I'm thinking about myself here like there are certain things that have happened in my life that I can be bitter about, but this morning, when I was reading this passage about Stephen and he is literally being stoned to death and at the very end his last dying words were he fell on his knees and cried out Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

Taylor Mitchell: 22:16

Wow.

Ellen Krause: 22:19

It just really struck me as that's what I need to apply, no matter how grievous someone has sinned against me. That's what Jesus did for us, and that's how I need to apply it to my life as well, and so I felt convicted reading that.

Taylor Mitchell: 22:43

Yeah, I was going to say that's why it's so important to read God's word, because hearing about I mean especially in the early church you see people live so radically, so counterculturally, to the point where you cannot walk away from reading those passages without in some way feeling convicted that your heart or your actions need to change.

Taylor Mitchell: 23:09

And it's scary how, the longer you don't spend in God's word I'm speaking from experience the more justified you feel in having bitterness, holding grudges, withholding forgiveness, staying angry at people. You kind of get this puffed up sort of pride that you, you think you're a good person and you know we're, we're all in need of god's forgiveness. We can't be withholding anything and we certainly can't be the judge of other people too. But I'm telling you, the longer I spend out of god's word, the more bold I should not bold in a good way, but bold in a bad way I am to think that I can have certain perks that Christ did not call believers to have and he calls believers to pick up their cross and to live like him. That means radical forgiveness and love and, of course, all the fruits of the spirit that we, let's be honest, don't hone if we're not reading God's word.

Ellen Krause: 24:15

Right, which is really the outward application of applying the text once you've sort of gone through this inner heart assessment, if you will, and then living it out is really the hard part. I want to just make sure that we touch briefly on when a passage doesn't give a clear command, but it can point to other godly characteristics. So when we read a text like that, how can we identify and adopt those implied?

Taylor Mitchell: 24:59

behaviors, because, like, okay, actually shameless plug. But I really recommend that for those of you that are wanting to dig really deep into God's word. Please, please, please, check out our academy courses that we have online. You can have access to all of them if you join our community monthly, or you can buy them individually and do it that way, but there are so many layers to creating just an incredible Bible study routine and just scratching the surface.

Taylor Mitchell: 25:38

Talking about genre, there are a lot of different genres of books of the Bible that you're reading. Some of them make for really, really easy to apply passages. I mean, you can whip through chapter after chapter in, let's say, proverbs or something in a wisdom literature book and you're going to be like, wow, I could apply this, I could apply this, I could stop doing this, I could stop doing that. The Holy Spirit could partner with me in this. And then you're going to have other books. I mean I am particularly thinking in the Old Testament not really a shocker there history and context into how people lived very differently than us and maybe lived in ways that aren't really applicable to us. One thing I think of is the lineage passages. We've all been there where we've gone to the Old Testament. We think we're about to just whip through a book and then, lo and behold, there's several pages worth of name after name after name that you cannot pronounce to save your life and you think to yourself you know what? I don't really know how the Bible can apply to me because this, just it just feels not really helpful to our life. Okay, feels not really helpful to our life.

Taylor Mitchell: 27:08

Okay, for those of you that are maybe confused, when you are reading those more historical books, you can, like Mentor Mama said, still learn a lot about God and his character and how he treats people that constantly wander away from him and constantly turn their back on him. You can learn a lot about the grace and forgiveness and love of God. In those Old Testament books. You can also really learn to see how God has worked through history and time to bring about the greatest story of redemption of all time in Jesus Christ.

Taylor Mitchell: 27:39

And some of those books don't have a one, two, three application step for you to go about your day and how to talk to your boss at work. There are other passages in scripture that can really help you with those things. But don't feel like you're doing something wrong. If you're reading through scripture and you're like I just feel like I don't really know what to bring out of this. That's normal and you can still know that you're honoring the Lord and reading those passages and learning about how he's worked through history, can still know that you're honoring the Lord and reading those passages and learning about how he's worked through history, etc. Do you have any thoughts you want to add to this?

Ellen Krause: 28:14

yeah, you know, the one thing that I was going to add to that, and I can say this, is because I was in a mom's group where we did bible studies every single year for over 20 years, and something that you learn when you take the time to actually do a Bible study and I'm just thinking of Matthew, for example, and the genealogy that you referred to when you actually dissect it. I remember learning back in the day when I didn't know that much about the Bible, and then in that genealogy where you're learning that Rahab was an ancestor, that Ruth was an ancestor, and then when you learn about the character-.

Taylor Mitchell: 29:10

Ancestor to Jesus. For those that are curious about who their ancestors are.

Ellen Krause: 29:16

Yes, sorry about that. I shouldn't have made that assumption. But when you then learn about the characteristics of these women and who they were and why they're in the genealogy, then there's something there that you're starting to grasp that you can glean some implicit applications from.

Taylor Mitchell: 29:44

Right and I'm going to sit here and tell you right now that for the average Jehovah reader, you may not get those without studying a Bible study or having some sort of tool or a commentary. And the reason why that is is because when you're first reading the Bible for the first time, you're going to be getting one layer, one layer of goodness. Okay, every time you read the Bible after that you are going to keep peeling back the layers, that is, the knowledge found in scripture. The more you keep reading, the more you get out of it. I mean, you could be reading the Bible third, fourth, fifth, sixth time and you're like I didn't get that my first, second, third time.

Taylor Mitchell: 30:31

It continues to unveil itself in really beautiful ways and I went okay, I'm just going to say this I went to Bible school, my sister went to Bible school, my mom she's like she said she's done 20 years worth of, I would say, pretty in-depth Bible studies and sometimes I mean I'm not even gonna say sometimes, a lot of times we still look to scholars for help when studying God's word, we still look to commentaries, because these people have spent their entire adult career and life meticulously studying God's word to be able to get out of it exactly what God wants to share and what his heart is behind it.

Taylor Mitchell: 31:20

And for some of them, they love those genealogies right, and so they're going to spend hundreds of hours looking at those genealogies, making every connection possible, and they're going to deliver it to you in a semi-easy-to-read format for you to understand how you can also fall more in love with God through passages like that. I'll say another thing that I'm thinking of in terms of passages and I don't want to dwell on this too long, but passages that I think of that are not quite so easy to apply is the Old Testament passages on construction guidelines, because they do give you instructions on how to, for instance, make the Ark of the Covenant. It needs to be this long by this wide, by X, y, z and I know what you're about to say, mentor Mama. Even that you can glean things from, because didn't you do a study on the Ark?

Ellen Krause: 32:20

Well, not the Ark, the Tabernacle, which was incredible, one of my all-time favorite and and people.

Taylor Mitchell: 32:32

I'm telling you there are bible studies out there on on those things. So if you are curious about learning more about those designs that god has, then they are out there, I'm telling you.

Ellen Krause: 32:46

They sure are All right. Well, tay, as we sort of wrap this up, what would you say to encourage someone that to make it all the way through to get to this point? So, as you said, this is the last process in the Easy Bible Study method which is yearn for heart change. It's the application of what the scriptures are teaching us and how to apply it. How would you like to encourage someone today?

Taylor Mitchell: 33:23

You know what? It is easy to go through your Bible study and learn a lot and to not walk away with application. It is so easy to do that and I would encourage you, just as I'm encouraging myself, where every day that you do your Bible study, you don't ever get to an application part or you don't ever get time to self-reflect. I think for me, a lot of times, quiet times that look like that, are maybe I'm rushing and I'm like, all right, I'll just put on the audio Bible and I'll just have it on the background while I, you know, do my makeup or drive the car or do this or that, and really it's one ear and out the other.

Taylor Mitchell: 34:12

And I think I think about that James passage that talks about don't, don't just be a hearer of the word, be a doer of the word. That is really an amazing thing that we're missing out on if we don't. So my encouragement would be um, to pace yourself, know how much you can read when you're reading your Bible time, to be able to get to that, uh, more one-on-one moment with the Lord, of having him dissect your heart and reach in and make you more like Jesus, and for me sometimes that looks like reading just a couple of verses in my quiet time instead of maybe trying to fit in more than I can chew. And also we do have a lot of questions that we offer in our easy Bible study book that give you awesome ways to start application. I said some of them earlier, but just simple journaling prompts that you can ask yourself to easily get into the why section that is so important to Bible study.

Ellen Krause: 35:18

Absolutely Well. As Taylor mentioned, the Easy Bible Study Method book is out now and available to buy wherever books are sold. If you've been enjoying this series, you will honestly love the book. It's such a great tool for refreshing your time in scripture and it's perfect to either do individually, yourself or with a mentor. I specifically wrote the mentoring chapter in this book, and so we've designed it with questions that you can do with a mentor or also in a small group, so it's quite flexible in that way.

Taylor Mitchell: 35:59

We should add that Moody Publishers offers a 40% discount on bulk orders of 12 or more. So if your church or small group would be interested in learning to study the Bible together, that's a great offer to check out. Go to coffeeandbibletimecom to download a free excerpt of the book.

Ellen Krause: 36:19

Yes, all right. Well, we will make sure we have the links to those in our show notes. Well, friends, as we wrap up today's conversation and really this whole series, we want to leave you with this God isn't asking you to be perfect, impressive or even productive in your Bible study. He's inviting you to come closer to him. And so when we yearn for heart change, when we long for intimacy with the Lord, it's not about doing more. It's about seeing him more clearly. And when we see him rightly, everything in us starts to shift. So be encouraged, starts to shift, so be encouraged. Our prayer is that your time in scripture becomes a sacred space of love and transformation with God. Thank you so much for joining us. We are truly cheering you on as you fall more in love with Jesus. We'll see you next time on Coffee and Bible Time.