52 Weeks in the Word | Trillia Newbell

Our busy lives get in the way of pursuing a relationship with Jesus.

We're just busy, and if we're going to push something aside, the unfortunate reality is if we don't see our desperate need for God, we're not going to run to Him in His Word. Welcome to Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the New York Times bestseller "The 5 Love Languages" . Today, if you've always wanted to read through the entire Bible in a year, you have a friend in Trillia Newbell. She's written 52 weeks in the Word, a companion for reading through the Bible in a year. And maybe you have tried this in the past and you got bogged down in Leviticus or Deuteronomy. Don't miss the conversation with Trillia straight ahead.

You can find out about our featured resource at buildingrelationships.us. And Gary, reading the Bible, the entirety of the Bible. Tell us of your journey. What comes to mind? Well, the first thing I think about is my mother. She was in her early 80s, and her pastor challenged them to read the Bible through the whole year. Well, she finished it by the middle of April. And I said, mama, why did you read it so fast? And she said, well, I got to work in my garden.

She said, I knew I wouldn't have time. But I have read the whole Bible through like that. What I do now in my personal devotional time is I read a chapter every morning, and I just go through the whole Bible, which you can't do.

It'll take longer than a year to do that. But I take one version of the Bible, and I just start at Genesis, and that's my devotional time, Genesis 1, then Genesis 2, and right on through the whole Bible. So it takes you a long time to get through that. But I'm reading it as a time just to listen to God and talk to God, just a little personal time. I call it sit down and listen time with God. But what we're going to talk about today I'm really excited about, because it is a plan, not just to read the Bible in a year, but also to dig into it and study it and hear God's voice and see your life change.

And so, yeah, this is going to be a good discussion. I'm going to love talking with Trillia Newbell. She is the author of several books, including A Great Cloud of Witnesses, If God is for Us, Fear and Faith, and several children's books as well. When she isn't writing, she's encouraging and supporting other writers as an acquisitions director at Moody Publishers. Trillia is married to her best friend, Thurn, and they live with their two children near Nashville, Tennessee. Today's resource featured at buildingrelationships.us is 52 Weeks in the Word, a companion for reading through the Bible in a year.

Again, go to buildingrelationships.us. Well, Trillia, welcome to Building Relationships. And let's hear a little bit about your story first. Who is Trillia Newbell? Well, it's an honor to be here and to talk to you guys and to talk about 52 Weeks in the Word.

Who is Trillia is such a funny question. I'm like, who am I? I became a Christian at the age of 22, and so I'm really grateful that someone shared the gospel with me. I was a young adult and heading to graduate school when I submitted my life to the Lord. I am also, besides a Christian and lover of Jesus and follower of him, I'm a wife of Thurn, which you all already mentioned, and a mother to two beautiful teenagers, which I love.

And I write and speak. So my journey really did start at the age of 22. And from there I realized I didn't know anything at all and wanted to know God, wanted to know this person that I just gave my life to. And so I started reading the Word and grabbed all sorts of theology books and just read, read, read, read, read. And one of the things that I've learned on my journey is that I'm never gonna stop learning. And that is why I'm just really excited about this book, but also grateful for his Word. I will not exhaust growing in understanding or understanding the knowledge of him, who he is. And so that's, it's a joy. Well we're excited that you're here and glad you put the time into writing this book, because I agree with you. You know, it's exciting to see people read the Scriptures, listening to the voice of God. And you're right, when we become a true Christian, there's a hunger. There's a desire.

Let me learn, let me learn. And of course, reading through the Scriptures is a part of that process. Have you seen people whose lives have really been changed deeply through the power of reading the Bible? Yes.

Well, I'll start with my own. I really didn't understand. I didn't understand the gospel until I read Ephesians 2, for example, for By Grace You've Been Saved Through Faith and This Is Not Your Own Doing, but a gift of God so that no one can boast. So I wouldn't know that fully. Of course, someone shared that with me. But then when I read it and I saw, Oh, this is God-breathed.

This is true. This is unchanging truth. That is, it transformed everything. It helped me understand things like there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I understand who God's character, His faithfulness, understand that God draws near to the brokenhearted. So for me, it's been transformative to get in God's word and be grounded in the truth, especially when there's so many lies in the culture and lies in the world that are telling you something different.

And so to have that grounding in God's truth has transformed my own personal life. But I've also seen it in the lives of people I've discipled. They've never read the word and they start reading the Gospels, for example.

Maybe they read Mark for the first time. And reading how Jesus walked and interacted with other people, it's really wonderful to see that light bulb go off about the character and nature of Christ. And of course, I've seen it in other people. I watched them disciple other people and how people have come to know the Lord and salvation through just reading the Bible. So yeah, the Bible transforms. It's powerful. The Gospel is powerful. And so I've seen it, I've experienced it, and I believe that God has something and His word won't return void, that He's going to be powerful. He will work powerfully through it. You know, I think the Bible is unlike any other book in the world, your books and mine, truly.

100%. Because it is the Word from God, and He is speaking to us and has been speaking through that book for many, many years. Well, you know, it was interesting to me that a recent study by Lifeway Resources noted that Americans are generally fond of the Bible, they respect the Bible, but they really don't read the Bible very much.

Why do you think that is? There's a saying I say, I'm in the South, and Gary, you are as well, and I have a saying that we can be culturally Christian, spiritually dead. So we can know a lot about Jesus without knowing Him. And so I think often what happens is that culturally, it's acceptable.

We go to church, at least where I am, and though of course the culture is changing, and that's not the norm as much increasingly, and so we can have Bibles in our home because it's what we do, what we've been used to having. It's almost like a, trophy is not the right word, but like a gift that we don't pick up. And so I think part of the reason is that we don't see our need for it, a need for Him ultimately.

Now that's me being pretty corrective. I think that that's part of it. I do think that another part is that we lack discipleship and that people, they maybe are used to being taught the word, but they aren't used to reading it for themselves, like grabbing the Bible and reading. I also think that it can just feel daunting. And I think we all can feel that at times, where you know that the Bible exists and that it's God's Word and that you should read it to know Him, but it just feels like overwhelming.

Where do I even begin? And so I do think that there's a few elements that are going on there, a few reasons that keep people from reading their Word. But I have to say, I do believe that one of the hardest things for us to overcome is that we're busy, and our busy lives get in the way of pursuing a relationship with Jesus. And so that, I think, is also a reason for our neglect.

We're just busy, and if we're going to push something aside, the unfortunate reality is if we don't see our desperate need for God, we're not going to run to Him, and we're not going to run to Him in His Word. Today on Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, we're talking with author Trillia Newbell. Our featured resource is her book, 52 Weeks in the Word, a companion for reading through the Bible in a year. You can find out more at buildingrelationships.us.

That's buildingrelationships.us. Trilla, what's the difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible, and what are the benefits of both of those? Yes, I absolutely love this question, because there is a difference, except for you can't study without reading. So you have to read the Bible. And one of the things that I realized, I write Bible studies. I want people to dive deep and study the Bible. But one of the things that I would get feedback from is that people would say, goodness, there's a whole lot of Bible reading in this study. And there was this overwhelming, oh, I have to read so much. Because I would encourage people, for example, I have a Bible study on Romans 8, and I would encourage them, hey, read all of Romans, and then let's study Romans 8 so that you can get the full context.

Which answers that question to some degree. Reading helps us understand the context. It helps us understand who God is. It helps us understand the storyline of scripture, and that's all connected. So we really want to read through the scriptures, and it's going to help us as we study.

Now studying, you're going to dive deep. You're going to observe. You're going to interpret, and you're going to apply. You're going to look at the scriptures and dig deeper. You're going to ask questions of the text and cross-reference and look for the context and the why behind it and who's the reader and what is it for? What's the intent of the writer for this particular context?

And then you're going to apply the word. So that's a deeper dive into the scriptures. Of course, when you're reading, you're going to be able to do some of those things because you're reading. The Lord, He may, by His Spirit, illuminate the scriptures to you, help you understand them and apply them to your life. Even through just reading, you're not trying to study.

But God does that because His word is powerful. But there are going to be also times when you're reading through a list of genealogies and you just read the names. So you're not necessarily connecting all those dots. Well, if you were studying it, you might then go look up the name and cross-reference and find out who this person is and how they're connected to Jesus, for example.

So those are the differences there. But it is of utmost importance that we do both. We really want to make sure that we get into the habit of reading the word and not just allowing someone to tell us what it means or only search out certain texts for study. I think if we're going to really gain an understanding of context, we've got to read broadly, read the word. I've seen this through the years, and perhaps you have too. People are challenged to read through the Bible, sometimes read through the Bible in a year. They start, but a few weeks or months into this, they miss a day. Then they feel guilty for missing a day. They try to make it up, you know, read two chapters or whatever more. But then after a while, they miss a few days and they feel guilty about it and they just kind of give up on the idea. So how do you avoid that happening?

Yeah, you're exactly right. You start reading and then you start feeling guilty and then you give up. Well, I want to start with the guilt. There's no reason to feel guilty. The question then is, what is motivating you to approach the word? So if it is to get to know the Lord, the Lord that you serve, to enjoy Him, to learn so that you can obey His commands, then you should feel joy anytime you get into the word.

If you miss a day, quote unquote, there is no law that says that you have to do... You're approaching the word potentially legalistically. In other words, you're trying to earn favor before the Lord when you read. And if that's what's motivating you, you're always going to feel guilty.

You're never going to measure up. But if you approach the Lord and His word knowing that it's a gift and it's by grace and that you can enjoy them, then that's going to help you in the beginning. So you want to be motivated by grace and a love for the Lord. Okay. So when you are, then you aren't going to feel guilty, which does lead you away from Him and not towards Him.

So then if you do miss a day, just start again. It doesn't matter. Because if you don't fight legalism by not getting in His word... No, you fight legalism by learning about His grace and get in there.

Go towards Him. And so that's what I would encourage someone is not to beat yourself up. This isn't a race. You're not going to win a... I mean, there are prizes in heaven, right? We're going to... Lots of rewards in heaven, but we're not going to... It's because Jesus, right?

So we're not going to be... Yeah, yeah. So if you find out in March you have missed... You've had this goal and you've missed it, ask the Lord for strength to start again and then start again. And trust Him that He's going to teach you through His word and you don't have to be condemned or guilty. Just start again.

Ask Him for strength. We can't do any... His word does say that apart from Him, we can do nothing. So with that in mind, we want to ask for the strength and grace to keep going.

The question is, how do you avoid getting stuck in Leviticus? If anybody's ever read it, they know what I'm talking about. Right, right. Well, you know, it's interesting.

I do think there's a few things. If you're reading Leviticus using 52 weeks in the word, so using my book, the plan that I have, you read it in one week and you're done. So, woo, that's good. So that's good news. You're done in a week and if you can just plow through, you'll be good. Okay. Another thing, joking aside, that is true.

You have a week and then you can get to move on. But I think when we approach God, the word, thinking about, okay, what can we learn about God through the word? I think that would help. Reading all the laws and all the things that you're going to be reading through, it really highlights the grace of God, Jesus. If you think of Jesus while you're reading through those things and thank Him, I think that's an interesting approach to reading through Leviticus.

If you think of God's kindness that He didn't hide His law, that He provided, that's a gift to them. That to me, I think is also an interesting way to approach it. So I do think that if you kind of come, even I think it would be interesting as you're reading to write down some of the odd things that maybe you could study later. Okay, well, why did He come in this? Why that?

What would this look like today? Those are just interesting ways to engage the text so it's not a passive reading. You're engaging and thinking through it. But with that said, there are times when you just have to plow through. There's lots of numbers or lots of odd sayings or things.

I'm thinking of other places in the scripture. You just have to keep reading. I think it's okay for you. I also need everyone to hear this. We all get bogged down at times.

It's okay. You can just ask the Lord, okay, I don't quite understand or I don't know what I'm reading, but can you help me? Can you illuminate this to me? You could also grab another tool and ask Study Bible or something to kind of help you understand what you're reading that will help you keep going. Yeah. Do you have a favorite book in the Bible? You know, that's such a great question.

That's hard also. I love the book of Hebrews, which is interesting even in light of the question about Leviticus, because we think about how Jesus is the better Adam, that Jesus fulfills law and all of the things that you would need to understand about the Old Testament to get Hebrews. I love the book and how it helps us to learn about enduring in the faith and keeping going. It's so rich and interesting. I love the book of Romans and just so gospel-centered and gospel-rich, and also you see so clearly your need for Jesus. And then I love Isaiah, which is interesting to me, but I keep talking about Jesus, but just the prophecy of Jesus is, I think, wonderful. And Psalms.

I don't know who doesn't love the book of Psalms, but it gives us real language for lament and worship and delight and praise and prayer. So there's lots in there. So that's more than one. But of course, John, who doesn't love that gospel?

Anyways, I don't know. It's hard to pick one. It's like your child. I do not have a favorite child and I can't. Yeah, you just can't pick one.

Well, I've got to ask you the same question then, Gary. Maybe there are different seasons in your life when one book of the Bible means a little more to you. How would you answer that question? Well, I'd probably spend more time in the Psalms than any other single book, just for my own personal... Because in the Psalms, the writers are expressing their own hearts and I can identify with it so well. If you're down, there's passages in there that just talk about being down.

You've got opposition in your life. So many Psalms are about that. So yeah, just personally, I spend more time there. But I think in terms of, in my mind, the most important, it would be any of the gospels, but one of the gospels, because it's focusing on the life of Christ, when God became man and walked among us and he reveals to us what God is like, clearly. So yeah, that's kind of where I stand on that.

Let me ask you this, Trulia. If a non-Christian said, I don't know anything about the Bible, but some of us have been telling me I should read it. Where do you suggest I start? What should I read first?

There's probably so many different answers to that question. I have heard people who say start in a gospel because you do learn about the life of Jesus and it's just a rich place to start. I also think, and I've heard of people who start in Genesis and read it like a book, read through the scriptures and how powerful that can be.

I think either would be fine. It would be interesting to know what you would think too, but I believe I started in, it may have been John, I would have started in a gospel, I think. But I just want to say this, I didn't do it alone.

And I think that's kind of key. Now, I do think that people, you hear of those radical stories where someone is in their hotel room, they grab the Bible and they read it and they become Christian. That is absolutely amazing and possible and the Lord does it all the time. But if someone isn't a Christian, but they are interested in learning more, what better way than to grab someone who is a Christian and ask them, hey, will you read this with me? I want to go through it. And I have done that and it's really powerful because it helps you understand what you believe too.

So I encourage that reading with someone. Truly, I've heard people say the gospel of Mark is a really great one to start with if you've never read the Bible because it's so quick, it's so fast, it's very action-oriented, you see a lot of action verbs, you learn what Jesus did. And from Mark's perspective, and I go back to the Sunday school class that I had when I was a teenager and there was a nursing professor at the local university who led these teenagers who didn't know a whole lot about the Bible. But we went through this little book on Ephesians and I can still remember reading that first chapter of Ephesians and saying, I didn't know the depth. You've got to think about what the implications are of the things that Paul is saying in Ephesians. That was one of the books that really opened my eyes to how deep you could go with scripture. I love that. Yes, I don't remember, first of all, what the language... Is it go?

I think Mark is something like go, or there's some repeated. But with Ephesians, you're a hundred percent right that Ephesians one is all about being in Christ. So what is it and all of the benefits of being in Christ in that. So I just think that Ephesians is a great book, a great book to start. And then, of course, Ephesians two is gospel. Yeah, I think I quoted it when we first started because that to me was so rich understanding Ephesians two, eight through ten, for by grace you've been saved through faith.

And I didn't quite get that. And then the rest of the chapter, understanding how we're then united as a people and then understanding how we should live it out and walk it out. So I could see how that would just be such a rich text to start in. Thanks for joining us today for Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the New York Times bestseller, "The 5 Love Languages" . You can find out more about your love language or our featured resource by going to buildingrelationships.us. You can listen to the stream or download the podcast right there and find the link to the book by author Trillion Newbell. Her book is 52 Weeks in the Word, a companion for reading through the Bible in a year. Find out more at buildingrelationships.us.

Just go to buildingrelationships.us. Trillion, we're talking about reading the Bible daily, ideally daily, reading through the Bible. And your book is designed to help a person do that. Are there habits that we can build into our lives that help us read the Bible on a regular basis? Yes.

Okay. So I am a creature of habit. In other words, if I start a habit, I typically stick with it. And if I break a habit, I also stick with it, like exercise right now.

So if one of the things that I have done is, and this is, this may sound a little over the top for someone, is it's my first thing. So I wake up if I'm in the morning, if it becomes my first thing, then it helps me. Now, not everyone's a morning person. Not everyone can get up at 5 AM and that be their first thing. A lot of people have kids, babies. I have teenagers now, so it's a little different.

My life looks different. But if that can be some kind of, it's in a part of your daily rhythm, maybe it's the first thing you do when you go to bed, or the last thing you do when you go to bed, or maybe it's your lunch break, whatever it is, that kind of daily rhythm where it's a part of your life, I think helps build a habit of going to it. And so that's mine. It's making it a part of my daily rhythm. Another thing, and this could be for someone who just needs, they need that prompt, you can put it in your schedule. You can literally put it in your calendar today.

This is what I'm going to read. And you get that calendar update and it's a reminder, oh, right now I'm going to read. Now, and I want to encourage people because I know it sounds very task oriented, but if your heart is, oh, I really long to be with the Lord and I just need that prompt, that reminder, be at peace with that. I think it's okay to have a prompt or something to help you as a way to remind you that this is your, you need him. And so if that's your way of reminding, then do it. It's totally fine.

So those are just two ways. Yeah. And I think for anyone that really says I'd like to do this, I like the idea. Put it again in the schedule. Just put it on your schedule. Put it in there.

All right. Now in this book, the book you've written, the one we're talking about today, you see yourself and actually call yourself an accountability partner with the reader. It's just not that they're just reading this book with God, but you're kind of walking with them through this. So how do you use this book as a guide? Yeah, it has a Bible reading plan in it and the Bible reading plan goes from Genesis to Revelation. It's a straight read through the Scriptures. So you don't hop around and it's not chronological. It's a straight read through.

So Genesis to Revelation. And each week you have what you're going to be reading that week. And every day you have your reading and you have places where you can write. That's how it helps kind of keep you accountable because you always have the prompt, this is what I'm supposed to read and then I can write. And then I have three questions to help you just so you can be thinking as you're reading.

But that's how it's accountability. It gives you what you need every single day. Also the good news is if, for example, you've just read that week long of Leviticus and your brain is tired and you really are like, I need something new and different. You can skip to a different week and maybe you decide, you know what, I really, really want to read a gospel for a couple of weeks or then you might jump to a different week. It's very user friendly in that way. But the goal is that you have something to help guide you and keep you in the Word. It also has charts and 52 reflections. And so I give reflections so that people can think through what they've read or it's a devotional or you can use it to help you for your rest day.

You can sit in it longer or do something like that. So I'm a cheerleader in accountability because I'm not teaching you throughout the whole – I am teaching. There's lots of teaching because of the 52 reflections, but it's not a daily where I'm teaching.

I'm more of a, keep going. You can do this. Here's some prompts to help you. Here's some space to write. Yeah.

Now let me get personal with you, Trillium. What's been your own experience of reading the Bible? You know, like through in a year or years or whatever. What is your journey in reading and studying the Bible looked like through the years? Yeah.

Well, it's looked differently during different seasons. There was a, if you want to get real personal, there was a season when I was struggling with miscarriages. And so I have had four miscarriages. And I remember after my second one, I couldn't get myself – I was so, so sad.

I couldn't get myself to – that daily reading rhythm wasn't something my brain could do. I was so sad. So I remember just in being and laying in bed, and the Lord was so kind to me that he reminded me of stuff that I had already read. So I remembered, oh, the Lord, He draws near to the brokenhearted. He understands. Right now He cares for me. I don't have to fear. He is with me.

He's holding me up by His righteous right hand. And so there were these texts that would come to mind. Well, that's because I had been pouring myself in. I had been reading. And so the Lord in His kindness was reminding me the stuff about His word and His character, though I wasn't reading.

Because it had been something that I had been diving in years prior. And so I will never forget that season, because I needed Him so badly. And He was near to my broken heart. But I wasn't pouring over scripture. I would read a text here and I'd read a text there. But most of it was just me on my face crying out.

And He would just remind me of His character. And so that was a season where I just was thankful that I had already prepared for that trial through reading. The fury trial did not surprise me. It just was painful. And so I had been reading through His word.

Okay. Then I've had seasons where I remember this one season where every day I woke up at 5 a.m. and I would just pour over for an hour. And it was wonderful. It was such a rich season of just being in His word. And you should not, I should say this loud and clear, do not approach the word thinking that you're going to come away with a spiritual high.

You just won't. There's going to be seasons like that. Well, that was my season. That was my spiritual high season. Most of the time, I do not have those, oh, I'm on a cloud nine season. But that was rich.

That was such a good season. So I have had everything in between. I have, of course, had times when it was difficult for me to get into the word because of busyness. So I would listen to the scriptures on walks or I would do something to help me stay in the word, so to speak.

But I wouldn't have had those hour long times of meditating and being there. So yeah, lots of different journeys and different seasons. But God has always been, He's been so faithful.

He's been so faithful to guide me and to be with me, which keeps me running to His word. Yeah. And one of the things I heard you saying is that because you have been walking this journey and reading the word, when you do get in times in which physically or emotionally you just are so depleted that you can't do that, you don't feel like reading, God brings back those passages that you've read before and uses them to speak to you.

Yeah. I remember my wife going through the cancer journey and she was, you know, at the place where she could hardly eat anything and hardly do anything at all. But there were some scriptures that she had put on the refrigerator years or months before. And she would read those scriptures, you know, just from the refrigerator and just really, really spoke to her, you know.

So God has a way of bringing us back when we're going through those hard times. Yeah. This is Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the New York Times bestseller, "The 5 Love Languages" . Trillion Newbell is our guest today, the author of our featured resource. It's titled 52 Weeks in the Word, a Companion for Reading Through the Bible in a Year. You can find out more at buildingrelationships.us.

Again, go to buildingrelationships.us. Trillion, obviously you have done a lot of study, you've been in the Word a long time to even be able to write this book. Now, as you were going through and reading the scriptures again and writing this book, is there a book in the Bible that kind of surprised you as you were writing your thoughts from that book? Yes.

And it's so funny. I was just sitting here thinking, I'm going to get, I'm like, was it Obadiah? I can't remember. It was a minor prophet and I'm like, I can't for the life of me. I'm like, I just, the name, which is really funny, and I hope that it also encourages people. Sometimes you forget what you've read.

Absolutely. But one of the things that surprised me, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't even, I think I can't remember which minor prophet it was, but they're in it in the text, the prophet, he is referring to the situation in such a way that I realized, oh, in order to fully get this, you need to know Genesis. And that to me, I think it was because I was reading and I found myself confused.

I was like, well, now wait a minute. What is he, is he talking about Israel? What is he talking about?

Who is he talking about? Is this the, I couldn't quite figure it out, but then you go back and you read about the families in Genesis and you realize, oh, that's what the prophet's referring to, which it was just a fresh reminder. These books in the Bible aren't these kind of disjointed, random texts kind of all put together, but there's a storyline. There's a connection and it all makes sense together. And so that to me, I think was not, it was a surprise, but it was also a good reminder. And I point that out and I write about it in the reflection, even though I'm really laughing at myself that I can't remember which one it was. I identify with that. Yeah. Like what was I reading?

I don't know. Was there someone in your life that really influenced you to love and study the Bible? You know, I think it probably was the gal who shared the gospel with me when I was 19.

So the gospel was shared with me when I was 19 and then it didn't become, I didn't give my life to Lord until age 22. And she would just continually meet with me and share the gospel again and then meet with me and share the gospel again. But she loved Jesus so much, so much. I remember thinking, wow, I want to know what she knows.

I want to know why she is so in love with Jesus. And so that to me, I think led me towards reading the Bible. But then there were two gals who I met with who became my accountability partners. At first I think one of them was kind of discipling me, but then as we grew in our love for each other, it was clear that, oh, we should be accountability partners.

And we all were accountability partners for years and years. But she also just loved God's word. And so it was these really young women who were eager to share their life with me and to share God with me, share the gospel with me, that led me to a hunger for Him.

I wanted to know Him. And so it's inspiring that we can do the ordinary thing. If we can do that for someone else, we can just do the ordinary thing of loving Jesus and getting in His word and talking about Him and see how it could really transform other people's lives. The Lord can use that example to draw people to Himself.

And that's what happened. I just was hungry because I saw these young women get in the word. Yeah. The example of others, power of that. How do you avoid, particularly if you're a young Christian, how do you avoid misinterpreting verses or taking them out of context and making them say things that really the verse was not saying? Yeah.

Okay. So I think that takes a lot of Bible reading and training and learning how to study. So if you're thinking about, okay, what is the context you're going to observe? Who would have been the first hearers or readers of this text?

Then I think that helps you. What was the writer's intent? That helps you not to take it out of context. There's this silly meme that says something like, I can do all things through a text taken out of context or something.

I can do all things through God who gives me strength and right. So we want to be real careful as we're reading. But one of the dangers in even what I'm saying is that it can also cause people to be afraid of just reading and getting it wrong. So read the text and then you can ask someone like a friend or commentary or a study Bible or other people who've studied Hebrew and Greek. Learn from other people.

There's so many tools out there that we can learn and grow. Of course, use the Bible to interpret the Bible. Cross-reference, ask quick questions of the text in the text.

But we're going to get it wrong sometimes. We just want to make sure that we're not adding to the scriptures, not adding to the gospel, but we're reading it as well as we can, handling the text as well as we can and asking good questions and using other resources if we need to. But the Bible can interpret the Bible. So doing the hard work of cross-referencing and looking at those little numbers in your Bible and trying to read, you know, go to what it's referencing, I think will help us as we're studying and reading the text. Julia, you alluded to this a little bit, but what happens when you study the Bible with other people? I know that in the common church setting today, there are lots of women's Bible studies, men's Bible studies.

What's the value of that? According to this podcast, I think I've referred to either people helping me or people showing me or reading this tool or all of these different things, because we really do need one another. And the scriptures say that. They're filled with how we need to encourage one another, not neglect meeting together as Hebrews 10 instructs. And so there's lots and lots of reasons why we can benefit. We'll benefit from other people's perspective. We'll benefit from other people's questions. And so I think that studying in a group, it only is going to sharpen each. We're going to sharpen each other. We're going to be able to help people apply the word. It's growing together and learning together is really rich. And I have been in the habit of doing it.

So there's lots of reasons why. But I do think one of the biggest ones is that we need each other. We need to encourage one another. And we were never meant to walk out this Christian walk alone. And so I think we want to keep that in mind as we're studying and fellowshipping with one another, that it's a benefit to learn with the body of Christ. You know, as I look back on my life, I really realize that I have grown most in my journey with Christ when I have been in a small Bible study group with other people. There's just something about that, that some are further along than I am, you know, and some have insights on particular things that I don't have.

And maybe that's why God set it up that way, said get together, get together as His children and discuss these issues. Well, Shoya, I want to thank you not only for being on our program today with us, because I think hopefully our listeners are going to get the idea. Here's a book that's going to help me individually in my journey. And for the time that you put into this thing, because this is a book that is well done. So thank you for what you've done. And I hope our listeners will reach out and get this book, because I think it's going to help you in your journey of walking through the whole of the Bible through the course of the year.

Thank you so much. What a motivating conversation today with Trillia Newbell. And if you want to find out about our featured resource, just go to the website buildingrelationships.us. The book is 52 Weeks in the Word, a companion for reading through the Bible in a year. Find out more at buildingrelationships.us. And next week, Nancy DeMoss Wiggemuth will tell us why the phrase heaven rules is important to believe. Don't miss the conversation in one week. A big thank you to our production team, Steve Wick and Janice Backing. Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman is a production of Moody Radio in association with Moody Publishers, a ministry at Moody Bible Institute. Thanks for listening.