Hey, why don't you tell everybody one of your favorite Bible verses?
Okay, I will because it's Psalm 119, 105. And that verse says, Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. I mean, what an awesome. Bible verse that reminds us how scripture lights the way in marriage and parenting and basically everything else. And we're super grateful to the Christian Standard Bible for supporting this podcast.
Yes, and just for their work in helping people read God's Word clearly and faithfully. To learn more, go to csbible.com. Uh We prioritize what we believe is valuable. And I think so often we're like, I ought to do this, I ought to do that. It would be nice to do Bible study, but we don't really think about the power of the word.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us it's alive and active. It's not just some old dead book that doesn't apply to us today. It's literally the light, the light to our path. It is the lifeline. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most.
I'm Dave Wilson. And I'm Ann Wilson, and you can find us at FamilyLifetoday.com. This is Family Life today. All right, of all the years we've done Family Life Today, I don't know if we've had a woman named Faith in the. We had a good name.
I'm not sure we have, have we? No.
Well, we probably have. Faith Womack is with us. Woohoo! Thanks for having me. I mean, do you know a lot of people named Faith?
No.
Is there a story behind your name? As I was told it. My mom and my dad were doubting that they could afford another baby and weren't so sure about it. I think my dad wanted a boy. They didn't have a name chosen.
And my dad, in a moment of weakness, was like, faith, because I need to have faith. I see that as the Lord from the very beginning, kind of setting me apart. And I see his hand of mercy in my life, really. Wow. I mean, that's a powerful name.
I mean, you love that name. You are the Bible nerd woman, faith, nerd, and ministry girl. Yeah. I don't say nerd too many times. No, she's the Bible nerd.
You named it yourself. Actually, early on in making content, they started calling me the Bible nerd. And so I said, you know what? Let's own it. You actually are nerdy.
And yeah, just fully embraced it.
So I got to give that to my audience. Tell us what Bible nerd ministries is.
So I started making content about seven, eight years ago, and I was really just lonely. I had just done biblical and theological studies as my undergrad degree and moved out. My husband's a pastor and we moved out to a new church and kind of wanted to start a Bible study. Nobody really seemed interested in it.
So I said, all right, I'll go online. And I sat down in front of my webcam, you know, at like really pixelated picture and just started talking to whomever out there wanted to talk about the things I was wrestling with. I had had a miscarriage, was praying through that. Slowly but surely, the Lord really brought me to some of the best people online that want to know God's word and wrestle with scripture and be faithful to scripture. And they started calling me the Bible nerd.
I eventually went to seminary and shared what I was learning. And from there, you know, just the ball kept rolling. And I feel so grateful that the Lord is able to work in through and despite me because I'm definitely not perfect, but through it, the Lord's just refined me and my love for the word and ability to communicate it well. And I look back now and like, that was God. And thank you, Lord, that I wasn't too afraid to step out in faith and just try something, you know?
Faith, when you look at your Bible. This is that you can zoom in on her Bible because this tells us everything. This is an appendager. This is a piece of you. This is something that really matters to you.
And you can tell by the way it's worn, it's marked up. I wish mine looked more like that because it's a testament that you believe this is God's word. I need it for everyday life. I need it to live by. It's my it's my breath, you know, in my lungs.
But take us back to the beginning because for you, this has a real Yeah, you open the book with an interesting perspective about why context matters. Like A correct interpretation matters. Yeah, tell that story. I kind of grew up in a family of a lot of cultural Christianity, not like regular attendance at church, or even wouldn't really be able to defend their faith. And I'm not taking really any knocks at my family, but I think there's a lot of barriers to that if you don't know what you believe and why.
My parents decided to go to church once they started having kids, and I was raised in some really good churches, but I wasn't discipled in the home. Part of that was because my parents weren't actually living out. What they proclaim to be truth. And growing up, really towards the end of my high school years, my father, in particular, made a really bad habit of taking scripture and twisting it to say what he wanted it to say. In particular, he took it to a lot of extremes.
And, you know, there's probably a level of mental health, you know, concerns there, but quit his job because God told him to stop paying on the mortgage because God told him to believe that he wasn't called to work because of some random proverb he twisted, or God called him to divorce his wife, you know, things like that that aren't biblical or scriptural. But I wasn't mature enough in my faith. I was probably 16. You know, I didn't know how to pinpoint exactly what he was twisting.
Well, what did you think about that? Like, hey, I'm, you know, full leaving your mom. Yeah. Because God told me to. As a 16-year-old.
What did you think? Four. honesty here. I could only see my mom as the wrong one because she physically walked out the door and moved in with her family. But also, it looked like really moving.
Like, wow, you're willing to quit your job? You're willing to stop paying on your house.
So, you were like inspired in a way. Yeah, it was extreme faith. I mean, at that point, I had been walking with the Lord and doing morning and evening Bible studies, but wasn't mature in my faith. And so I still couldn't pinpoint why there was a disconnect. I kept praying, God, please get him a job.
And it took a little bit of time, not very long, but eventually I went to Covenant College and I studied biblical and theological studies. In week one, they're doing orientation and just walking through the basics of, you know, basic doctrine, core, core beliefs. And I think they were talking about common grace, if I believe, but it doesn't really matter. I was like, oh man, this is so different than how my dad has talked about scripture and the way that we treat scripture. This is so different the way that they're talking about God's sovereignty, his control over all things than how my dad has described it to me.
And so I remember calling him up and be like, Dad, I got to talk to you about what I'm learning. And he would have none to do with it.
So you were excited, like, Dad, you're going to love this. Yes. Yeah. You know, this is, this is eye-opening. This is life-changing.
You know, he wouldn't really have anything to do with it. And in so many words, basically, just said, you know, I've decided what I believe scripture is telling me to. To do. And that was really eye-opening for me. And it made me hunger more and more for.
What does the Bible really say? And what is truth? And can we just twist scripture? How can we just twist scripture if we really believe it's true? And that took me on a lifelong journey.
Eventually went to seminary and now share it with others because, you know, if we really believe it's true, we'll treat it like it is. And part of that was through your pain.
So as you were discovering more and more theologically and biblically, How did that affect your relationship with your dad?
Well, for a long time, I was afraid. I was afraid. You know, in Christian culture, we often say, you know, honor your mother and father, so you don't really ever. Stand up for things or disagree with them. And there's a Bible verse, I believe it's from Exodus 20, where it's really a blessing.
You know, if you honor your mother and father, you'll live long. And he took that blessing and he turned it into a curse. And he said, Faith, you're cursed to die young because you're not respecting me. You've set some boundaries with me. And that was a light bulb moment for me.
This man is willing to twist God's blessings into curses. This man does not honor scripture. And that was kind of the final for me. I think it sent me, and praise the Lord for this. This is his mercy, my life.
I think it sent me to my knees, you know, to continually recheck myself. Is this my pride? Is this my arrogance? You know, is this really scripturally based? You know, does he have any room to have a right standing to say that to me?
And it did frankly make me fearful. I was fearful of my life. And ironically, a few years later, my older sister did pass away early, young in life. And, you know, there's a lot of. People can be so Scared of life and fearful of consequences or the result of their actions.
But when you are pursuing the Lord and living faithfully unto him, I think you don't have to fear anything but God. And a true fear of God will kind of put everything in its right place. And so for me, I knew there was a point when he used that blessing and turned it into a curse that kind of crossed the line for me. But it's only been confirmed more and more. You know, when I set boundaries, Like with my father, it was only confirmed more and more.
And I was then able to step far back enough to say, wow, look at all this scripture he's misused and this scripture. And, you know, the Lord does not, you know, tell us ever to divorce our wife, you know, things like that. I don't ever want that man to feel shamed or rejected by me like I felt from him. But I do have to speak for truth and I do have to stand for something that I think a lot of people deal with in different ways. You know, a lot of kids are looking to their parents to be their savior, to show them the ropes and parents are stumbling through.
You guys wrote a week ago. Yeah, no perfect parent. Yeah. Like y'all are wrestling with it too. I'm wrestling with it as a parent.
I think when we all have our eyes fixed on Christ as our savior, that puts everything in its right place. What would you say then to the parents if they don't know the answers? Like, how should they communicate that to their kids? Say that. You know, I don't have the answers, but I know the Lord does and he's the perfect place.
To go with our questions, let's go there and be that humble. Fellow follower of Christ. I think there is a level to which parents feel so afraid in their leadership of the family and their discipleship of the family that they feel like they have to take on a savior role that they were never intended to take on. They have all the answers. How's your relationship now with your dad?
We actually still do not talk to this day. He's a bit of a hermit, you know, still hasn't held jobs or. You know, taking care of basic things in life. And so it's been sad to watch that happen and continually see him choose like arrogance. And, you know, I want scripture to mean this for myself, but I can't step in and save my dad.
And that's been a really hard thing for me. I can't step in and save my mom either. And I believe that I'm a light in my family. I get to point people to scripture, but everybody has their problems. And my biggest weakness is I want to step in and try and take them away and solve them.
And I can't do that. Don't we all? Yeah. Yeah. I can't do that.
So. It's been a growing experience for me to learn how to follow the Lord. And when I'm called to step in and, you know, help or things like that, like I can do that, but then also honor boundaries and. You know, my marriage and my kids. You know, we've said this many times here that often the pain or struggle in our life becomes the foundation or platform for what we do.
And it's true in your case as well. There's a sense that some of that struggle is why you are so passionate. This word has to be understood correctly, taught correctly, applied correctly. It is truth. How do you get to the truth that's in there correctly?
It's who you are, and it's blessing the world. And it came out of, in some ways, there's a foundation there of pain and hurt. And that's what God does: He takes it and turns it and says, Okay, I'm going to use this. It's so good. We know life is full of challenges and families today need biblical truth more than ever.
And as a Family Life partner, your monthly gift helps bring the truth into homes every single day through podcasts, events, and resources.
So let's make a lasting difference together. Become a partner today. Just go to familylifetoday.com and click the donate button. And I love that you're a mom. You have two boys.
And so even as parents, when I look at the title of your book, No More Boring Bible Study. Every parent, make sure the Bible's not boring. Exactly. Because it's not boring, but we often make it boring. Our kids are like, no, not another Bible study.
Or dad. And so I think today could be like, one, you're younger in terms of being married compared to us. Kids, your boys are six and seven, did you say?
Some people are looking at your Bible as young moms, like, I don't even know how in the world you're making this happen. And the other thing is, and how can I get my kids to love the Bible?
So I think this is going to be a great conversation. Let's talk about that. How do you study the Bible like you study? And you've got a six, seven year old. And you've been doing it for a while based on your Bible.
So you had a two and three year old crawling around, probably pulling your hair, diapers. How does a mom? Or a younger family study the Bible when they're living in chaos. How does she read her Bible, let alone study it? No.
In the bathroom with the door locked. Is that what they do?
Some days. That's what we do. Yeah, I went to seminary with a nine-month-old.
So I was still, you know, nursing. And what would that be? A two-year-old and a nine-month-old? Yes. I mean, like full-time?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I rocked through it in two years. By the Lord's grace.
But that shows the passion and the fervor. I couldn't do it.
So you're like 16 hours a semester in two years. Yes. It shows you, though, like what you have fire and fervor for. When you pursue it, it doesn't matter how much sleep you miss. The endorphins or the excitement or just the love of it will just take you.
Like, I could not do that now, y'all. I could not. I dream about getting my doctorate, but man, I'm not getting up at 4 a.m. anyway. I'll say this.
The person listening isn't like, I'm not getting up at four. You don't have to get up at four. But when you truly, like, do you believe it's true? Because we prioritize what we believe is valuable. And I think so often we're like, I ought to.
To do this, I ought to do that. It would be nice to do Bible study, but we don't really think about the power of the word. Hebrews 4:12 tells us it's alive and active. It's not just some old dead book that doesn't apply to us today. It's literally the light.
It is the light to our path, it is the lifeline. For me, often what it looks like is. I am not afraid of morning cartoons. If my boys need 30 minutes of morning cartoons, that is when I'm getting my Bible study in.
Now, if it's a school morning, it might be audio Bible, or it might be after I've dropped the boys off at school. Other times, it's the evenings. Those are typically times where we have to ourselves, but there is no shame in what I call the toilet time. If you are scrolling, you have time as much as we hate to hear it. You know, if you're watching other podcasts, you could be listening to the audio Bible, you know, and there's so many pockets of time to make it work.
I think we find a lot of excuses of why we don't have time to read the Bible when we need to instead put all our energy into finding reasons why we should. We all make time for what is important to us. Have you guys seen the social media how they'll have these clips is like if our Bibles were our phone. Yeah. Yes.
And you're standing in line reading the Bible, you're in the bathroom reading the Bible. You wake up reading the Bible. You're in the car reading the Bible in between red light, you know? It's true. Yeah.
But if we really did see it as this is God is speaking to me.
So did something happen like when you're in seminary with the word or was it always there? I think it was my undergrad degree, biblical and theological studies. Every day I would leave our lectures. My husband was also taking, you know, the same classes as me. He's now a pastor.
And we would walk out of the lecture hall and we'd stand right there outside the door and I'd be like, I can't. I can't believe this is so cool. And this is so cool. You know, and that's what we really fell in love over the love for the word and theology. Really just set me on a lifestyle of, like, I'm never going to have it masters, right?
There's always going to be more to study, more to learn. And when we become apathetic to the word, I think it's because we're underestimating the word. We don't realize just how much there is that applies to us today, whether it's the exile or revelation or Exodus. Like, there's constantly so many passages of scripture that will. Cut it to the heart, like Hebrews 4:12 talks about.
It's so convicting, it's so moving, um, inspiring. All the things, if only we will go to it hungry and looking.
Well, it's interesting. I can remember in seminary, I know you're going through the book of Psalms. Yeah, so you're diving. I remember sitting in seminary class, and uh, our my professor, Scott Ray, said, Okay, I'm gonna walk you through Psalm 11. Uh, from a Hebrew text and teach you how to study it, and then you're going to do this.
I remember, I literally. Forty some years ago. Psalm 11 came alive like I never Seen or heard in my life. I'd read it many times, but as he dove in and word-studied and put together pieces and I mean, I still can remember it. The word when you understand it.
And I would say, as a pastor, 90, maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe not. You tell me. 90% of our church-going people have no idea. How amazing the Word of God is.
They've never experienced it like that. They read it, they hear it. They've never tasted it like it. Although most church people, most church people hear the Word of God for 30 minutes once a week. And that's about it.
You know, and so it's an important book to them, but not, they don't understand. It is the word of God. It is your second chapter. Is it true? Yes, it's the truth.
Yeah. And so we should know it that way.
So you're doing that online, and people are like getting what I got in a seminary class. Anytime they want, boom, click on it, let you teach them what it really means. Technology is so cool.
Well, how did you decide even with your book? What did you want people to know? You know, I think. We all want to read our Bibles. We all want to love the Bible, and then move to, well, You know, nothing's really going to get us into the word unless we have that conviction of this truly true, this truly is valuable, this truly will change my life.
And so, yeah, we move from, do we believe it's true to then if it's true, then this is how we therefore read it, hermeneutics. That's the study of how to read and then interpret and eventually apply it to our lives. And then throughout the book, I talk about what it's not because a lot of us put the Bible in. Boxes, you know, oh, it's just a poem, it's just a story, it's just wisdom, you know, it's not really much more than that. And so, my chapters are titled Not Just a Poem, Not Just a Story, Not Just a Movie, to try and show us how there's so much more in scripture than maybe what we come into it expecting.
To help parents, because I know parents are listening, going, Okay, I want to help my son or daughter. Five year old, ten year old, fifteen year old. understand the word correctly. How do I as a parent help Teach them this book. And understand it.
I know you talk about context, you talk about hermeneutics, exegesis, all that's in there. I'm like, this is a. Flamans, you know, Hermeneutics 101, which is awesome. But if I'm a parent, I'm like, well, I'm never going to seminary. Yeah.
If I pick up Facebook and read it, will that help me be able to teach this to my kids? Absolutely. And I love that desire.
So many people want to disciple their kids in the truth, but they don't know where to begin. And they're going to hate me saying this, but I'm not going to lie to them. It starts first with them loving the word. It starts first with them being anchored in the word. And then that trickles down to your kids.
Someone asked me earlier, you know, when do you Bible study with your kids? And I was like, honestly, all day is a Bible study. My kids don't know what it's like to be an adult that's not always talking about the Bible because that's what my husband and I do. Dinner and breakfast and driving to school and all the time around. What does that sound like, Faith?
Okay.
So the other day at breakfast, my son wanted to wear a crucifix. And I was like, okay, let's talk about the debate around icons and crucifixes and how some Christians wear, you know, a little Jesus on a cross and some don't want to have Jesus on that cross and why. And a lot of non-Christians. Yeah. Same thing.
Same. Yes. Yeah. That's very popular in Hollywood right now, especially crosses on things. And my husband was able to chime in and be like, well, and in church history, did it, did it, you know, and they get to see that it's something we're wrestling with.
We're asking questions about what's not just rules, but it's something that actually is life-giving to wrestle with.
Well, if Jesus was on the cross, do we want to always view him on the cross or is it just a cross and it's finished? You know, let's talk about that and give room for debate. And, you know, he may only be seven, but he gets it. He gets it a whole lot more than I think we want to think. We're like, oh, that's for seminary.
That's for the adults to debate. But in all reality, my seven-year-old was. Great with the conversation. He loved it. And he felt like we were treating him like an.
Older adult, or something like me. I'm welcomed into this debate. You know, I'm welcomed to wrestle with theological conversations, even just as a seven-year-old. I really try and focus on, you know, mirroring to him. This is what adulthood as a Christian looks like.
It means being in the word every morning. It means, you know, wrestling with scripture, asking questions, listening to sermons, going to church, even if we're late. That's just called being an adult. I don't think he will grow up and be someone that doesn't know what it looks like to not live until the children. I like that.
Well, your question is exactly. I just had someone DM me and they said, I'm very new in my faith. I have a seven, no, a six, four, and a one-year-old. The Bible's very new to me. I don't even know where to begin.
And I want my kids to know this.
So, where do I start? And then, how do I teach my kids? And it's you answered that a little bit in terms of it's every day, and you said it starts with you. Let's talk to our listener who's like, I want to read my Bible. Where do I start?
I would encourage you, if you're not doing a Bible in the year plan, To start, maybe in the Gospels and just look at what is revealed about Christ. The four Gospels are written at four different angles. You know, they're giving four different pictures of who Jesus is. You know, Matthew's writing to Jews to show them that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Mark's writing to Christians who are suffering, so he really highlights Christ's suffering.
John is so different than all the others, very theological. But if you make your way through the Gospels at a, Whatever pace you can manage, and just look at who God is, and then point that out to your kids. You know, have them identify: what do you notice about Jesus in this story? Oh, He touched the woman, you know, why would he, you know, ask the questions, teach them how to ask questions. You're not really going to teach them anything wrong because all you're doing is looking at God.
Good.
Now, if you come to scripture and you're always like, Well, this means therefore we have to do this, or we wear this kind of clothes, or if you're always looking for your takeaway from scripture, yeah, you might get weird moments where you twist scripture or maybe even apply it in weird ways. But if you're just going into scripture, looking at how God reveals Himself in Scripture, you can't really go wrong because it's the story of God redeeming His people for His glory, so it's the story of God doing His good, beautiful, redemptive work. And if you train up your kids on how to see that, identify that, and ask questions all around it. He can't really go wrong. And then you are mirroring to them what it looks like to grow in your walk with the Lord and to wrestle with scripture and study it.
So, again, I think we need to mirror what it looks like to be students of the word and not necessarily masters.
Okay, I'm super inspired by faith. Her book, No More Boring Bible Study. Yeah, which you can get at familylifetoday.com. Click on the show notes and buy the book there. But I'm telling you what, I'm inspired too.
Me too. I mean, we're in the word every day, but I don't know. There's something that happened today that says, you know, let's go deeper. Let's go deeper, and it's going to impact our marriage, can impact your marriage. And we got another day with her tomorrow, so we'll be back with faith tomorrow.
One of the greatest passions of my life is growing spiritually stronger, going deeper, learning more, connecting to Jesus more. And maybe you feel like that too. Like you just want more. You want to learn more. You want to grow and you want to go deeper.
And you can by going to familylife.com/slash stronger faith. Family Life Today is a donor-supported production of Family Life, a crew ministry, celebrating 50 years of helping you pursue the relationships that matter most. Yeah.
