FamilyLife Today®

Faith Womack: We prioritize what we believe is valuable. 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.

Dave Wilson: Welcome to FamilyLife Today where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Dave Wilson.

Ann Wilson: And I'm Ann Wilson. You can find us at familylifetoday.com. This is FamilyLife Today.

Dave Wilson: All of the years we've done FamilyLife Today, I'm not sure we've had a woman named Faith in the studio.

Ann Wilson: That is a good name.

Dave Wilson: I'm not sure we have. Have we?

Ann Wilson: No.

Dave Wilson: Faith Womack is with us today.

Faith Womack: Woo-hoo! Thanks for having me.

Dave Wilson: Do you know a lot of people named Faith?

Faith Womack: No.

Dave Wilson: Is there a story behind your name?

Faith Womack: 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. 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 setting me apart. I see his hand of mercy in my life, really.

Dave Wilson: That's a powerful name. You are the Bible Nerd Woman, Faith Nerd Ministry Girl. I know I said "nerd" too many times.

Faith Womack: No, she named it herself. Actually, early on in making content, they started calling me the "Bible Nerd." So I said, "You know what? Let's own it. Yes, we are nerdy." We just fully embraced it, so I have to give that to my audience.

Dave Wilson: Tell us what Bible Nerd Ministries is.

Faith Womack: I started making content about seven, eight years ago. 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. I wanted to start a Bible study and nobody really seemed interested in it. So I said, "All right, I'll go online."

I sat down in front of my webcam at a really pixelated picture and just started talking to whomever out there wanted to talk about the things I was wrestling with. I'd had a miscarriage and 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.

They started calling me the Bible Nerd. I eventually went to seminary and shared what I was learning. From there, the ball kept rolling. 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. I look back now and I'm like, "That was God." Thank you, Lord, that I wasn't too afraid to step out in faith and just try something.

Ann Wilson: Faith, when you look at your Bible, this is a beautiful thing. I hope that you can zoom in on her Bible because this tells us everything. This is an appendage. This is a piece of you. This is something that really matters to you, and you can tell by the way it's worn and 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 breath in my lungs." But take us back to the beginning because for you, this has a real history.

Dave Wilson: You opened the book with an interesting perspective about why context matters and why correct interpretation matters. Tell that story.

Faith Womack: I 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. 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. 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 proclaimed to be truth. 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. There's probably a level of mental health concerns there, but he quit his job because God told him to. He stopped paying on the mortgage because God told him to. He believed that he wasn't called to work because of some random Proverbs he twisted. God called him to divorce his wife, things like that that aren't biblical or scriptural. I wasn't mature enough in my faith. I was probably 16, and I didn't know how to pinpoint exactly what he was twisting.

Ann Wilson: What did you think about that? Like, "Hey, I'm leaving your mom because God told me to." As a 16-year-old, what did you think?

Faith Womack: Full 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 extreme faith. Like, "Wow, you're willing to quit your job. You're willing to stop paying on your house."

Ann Wilson: So you were inspired in a way.

Faith Womack: It was extreme faith. At that point, I'd been walking with the Lord and doing morning and evening Bible studies but wasn't mature in my faith. So I still couldn't pinpoint why there was a disconnect. I kept praying, "God, please get him a job." It took a little bit of time, not very long, but eventually, I went to Covenant College and I studied biblical and theological studies.

Week one, they're doing orientation and just walking through the basics of basic doctrine and core beliefs. 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." I remember calling him up and being like, "Dad, I've got to talk to you about what I'm learning," and he would have none of it.

Ann Wilson: So you were excited. Like, "Dad, you're going to love this."

Faith Womack: Yes. This is eye-opening. This is life-changing. He wouldn't really have anything to do with it and in so many words basically just said, "I've decided what I believe scripture is telling me to do." That was really eye-opening for me and made me hunger more and more for what the Bible really says. What is truth? Can we just twist scripture if we really believe it's true? That took me on a lifelong journey. Eventually, I went to seminary and now share it with others because if we really believe it's true, we'll treat it like it is.

Ann Wilson: 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?

Faith Womack: For a long time I was afraid. In Christian culture, we often say to honor your mother and father, so you don't really ever stand up for things or disagree with them. There's a Bible verse in Exodus 20 where it's really a blessing if you honor your mother and father. He took that blessing and he turned it into a curse. He said, "Faith, you're cursed to die young because you're not respecting me. You've set some boundaries with me."

That was a lightbulb moment for me. This man is willing to twist God's blessings into curses. This man does not honor scripture. That was kind of the final for me. I think it sent me, and praise the Lord for this, this is his mercy in my life, I think it sent me to my knees to continually recheck myself. Is this my pride? Is this my arrogance? Is this really scripturally based? Does he have any room to have a right standing to say that to me? It frankly made me fearful.

I was fearful of my life. Ironically, a few years later, my older sister did pass away early young in life. 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. A true fear of God will kind of put everything in its right place. 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.

It's only been confirmed more and more. When I set boundaries with my father, it was only confirmed more and more. I was then able to step far back enough to see, "Wow, look at all this scripture he's misused and this scripture." The Lord does not ever tell us to divorce our wife, 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. A lot of kids are looking to their parents to be their savior, to show them the ropes. Parents are stumbling through. You guys wrote a whole book about it. No perfect parent. I'm wrestling with it too as a parent. When we all have our eyes fixed on Christ as our Savior, that puts everything in its right place.

Ann Wilson: What would you say then to the parents if they don't know the answers? How should they communicate that to their kids?

Faith Womack: Say that. "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." Be that humble fellow follower of Christ. I think there's 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.

Ann Wilson: And have all the answers.

Faith Womack: Yes.

Dave Wilson: How's your relationship now with your dad?

Faith Womack: We actually still do not talk to this day. He's a bit of a hermit. He still hasn't held jobs or taken care of basic things in life. It's been sad to watch that happen and continually see him choose arrogance and, "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. 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.

So it's been a growing experience for me to learn how to follow the Lord. When I am called to step in and help, I can do that, but then I also honor boundaries in my marriage and my kids.

Dave Wilson: 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. 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. It came out of some ways or as a foundation there of pain and hurt.

Ann Wilson: For sure.

Dave Wilson: That's what God does. He takes it and turns it and says, "Okay, I'm going to use this."

Ann Wilson: He's so good. We know life is full of challenges and families today need biblical truth more than ever. As a FamilyLife partner, your monthly gift helps bring the truth into homes every single day through podcasts, events, and resources.

Dave Wilson: So let's make a lasting difference together. Become a partner today. Just go to familylifetoday.com and click the donate button.

Ann Wilson: And I love that you're a mom. You have two boys. Even as parents, when I look at the title of your book, "No More Boring Bible Study," every parent wants to make sure the Bible's not boring.

Dave Wilson: Exactly.

Ann Wilson: Because it's not boring, but we often make it boring to our kids. "No, not another Bible study with mom or dad." I think today could be like one, you're younger in terms of being married compared to us. Your boys are six and seven, did you say?

Faith Womack: Yes.

Ann Wilson: 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, "How can I get my kids to love the Bible?" So I think this is going to be a great conversation.

Dave Wilson: How do you study the Bible like you study and you've got a six and seven-year-old?

Ann Wilson: 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 babies, 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? In the bathroom with the door locked? Is that what they do?

Faith Womack: Some days. That's for real. I went to seminary with a nine-month-old. I was still nursing. I had a two-year-old and a nine-month-old.

Dave Wilson: Full-time?

Faith Womack: Yes, I rocked through it in two years by the Lord's grace. That shows the passion and the fervor. I had 16 hours a semester in two years. 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. I could not do that now. I dream about getting my doctorate, but I'm not getting up at 4:00 AM anymore.

I'll say this, the person listening is like, "I'm not getting up at four." You don't have to get up at four. But do you truly believe it's true? Because we prioritize what we believe is valuable. 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.

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. 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, if you're watching other podcasts, you could be listening to the audio Bible. 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.

Dave Wilson: We all make time for what is important to us. Have you guys seen the social media where they'll have these clips of like, if our Bibles were our phone? 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 lights. It's true. But if we really did see it as, this is God speaking to us. So did something happen like when you're in seminary with the Word or was it always there?

Faith Womack: I think it was my undergrad degree in biblical and theological studies. Every day I would leave our lectures. My husband was also taking 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 believe this is so cool. This is so cool."

That's when we really fell in love over the love for the Word and theology. It really just set me on a lifestyle of, I'm never going to have it mastered. There's always going to be more to study, more to learn. 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, there's constantly so many passages of scripture that will cut to the heart like Hebrews 4:12 talks about. It's so convicting, moving, inspiring, all the things, if only we will go to it hungry and looking.

Dave Wilson: It's interesting. I can remember in seminary, I know you're going through the Book of Psalms. You're diving. I can remember sitting in seminary class and my professor, Scott Rice, said, "Okay, I'm going to walk you through Psalm 11 from a Hebrew text and teach you how to study it and then you're going to do this." I remember, literally 40-some years ago, Psalm 11 came alive like I'd 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, I mean, I still can remember it.

The Word when you understand it. I would say as a pastor, 90%, maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe not, you tell me. 90% of our churchgoing people have no idea how amazing the Word of God is. They've never experienced it like that. They read it, they hear it. Although most church people hear the Word of God for 30 minutes once a week and that's about it. So it's an important book to them, but they don't understand it is the Word of God. It is the truth. So we should know it that way. You're doing that online and people are 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.

Ann Wilson: How did you decide even with your book, what did you want people to know?

Faith Womack: I think we all want to read our Bibles. We all want to love the Bible and then it moves to, well, nothing's really going to get us into the Word unless we have that conviction of, this truly is true, this truly is valuable, this truly will change my life.

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. Then throughout the book, I talk about what it's not because a lot of us put the Bible in boxes. "Oh, it's just a poem. It's just a story. It's just wisdom." It's not really much more than that. 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.

Dave Wilson: To help parents, because I know parents are listening going, "Okay, I want to help my son or daughter, five-year-old, 10-year-old, 15-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, hermeneutics, exegesis, all that's in there. This is a layman's Hermeneutics 101, which is awesome. But if I'm a parent, I'm like, "Well, I'm never going to seminary." If I pick up Faith's book and read it, will that help me be able to teach this to my kids?

Faith Womack: Absolutely. I love that desire. So many people want to disciple their kids in the truth, but they don't know where to begin. 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, "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, all the time we're always talking about the Bible.

Ann Wilson: What's that sound like, Faith?

Faith Womack: Okay, so the other day at breakfast, my son wanted to wear a crucifix. I was like, "Okay, let's talk about the debate around icons and crucifixes and how some Christians wear a little Jesus on a cross and some don't want to have Jesus on that cross and why."

Dave Wilson: And a lot of non-Christians, same thing.

Faith Womack: Yes, that's very popular in Hollywood right now, especially crosses on things. My husband was able to chime in and be like, "Well, in church history..." They get to see that it's something we're wrestling with. We're asking questions about it. It'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?" Let's talk about that and give room for debate.

He may only be seven, but 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. "Hey, I'm welcomed into this debate. I'm welcomed to wrestle with theological conversations even just as a seven-year-old." I really try and focus on mirroring to him what adulthood as a Christian looks like. It means being in the Word every morning. It means 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 unto the Lord.

Ann Wilson: 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 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 you've 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?"

Faith Womack: I would encourage you, if you're not doing a Bible in the year plan, to start maybe in the Gospels. Just look at what is revealed about Christ. The four Gospels are written at four different angles. They're giving four different pictures of who Jesus is. 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.

If you make your way through the Gospels at whatever pace you can manage and just look at who God is and then point that out to your kids. Have them identify, "What do you notice about Jesus in this story? Oh, he touched the woman. Why would he?" 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.

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." 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. It's the story of God doing his good, beautiful, redemptive work. If you train up your kids on how to see that, identify that, and ask questions all around it, you 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.

Dave Wilson: I'm super inspired by Faith. Her book "No More Boring Bible Study" which you can get at familylifetoday.com, click on the show notes and buy the book there. I'm telling you what, I'm inspired too.

Ann Wilson: Me too.

Dave Wilson: We're in the Word every day but I don't know, there's something that happened today that says, "Let's go deeper."

Ann Wilson: Let's go deeper.

Dave Wilson: It's going to impact our marriage and your marriage. We've got another day with her tomorrow, so we'll be back with Faith tomorrow.

Ann Wilson: One of the greatest passions of my life is growing spiritually stronger, going deeper, learning more, connecting to Jesus more. 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. You can by going to familylifetoday.com/strongerfaith.

Dave Wilson: FamilyLife Today is a donor-supported production of FamilyLife, a Cru Ministry, celebrating 50 years of helping you pursue the relationships that matter most.