Episode Details

Your Questions, Answered | Bible Study 101 Q&A

You sent in questions during the Bible Study 101 series, and this episode is Rachael working through a handful of them. Where does a brand new believer start reading? Which Bible should you buy when you're standing in the store with no idea what NIV or NLT even means? Is the SOAP method the same thing as looking for God first? Can women be pastors?

Listen in to get Rachael's answers to these questions and more!

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Chapters

0:00 Why we're doing a Q&A episode

0:39 How SpeakPipe works and why some messages didn't get a reply

2:03 What SpeakPipe is for, and what it isn't for

4:27 Where should someone brand new to faith start reading?

7:22 Which Bible should I buy, and does translation matter?

10:11 Is the SOAP method the same as looking for God first?

12:35 Can you tell us the chapters ahead of time?

13:57 The Hearing Jesus for Kids show, and a question from a kid

17:53 The rescue of 136 children, and what Rachael is praying about now

27:22 Can women be pastors?

33:01 How to send in your question

33:38 Prayer

Where should a new Christian start reading the Bible?

Start with a Gospel or with Genesis, and don't overthink it. Rachael points new believers toward John, since it focuses on who Jesus is, or Genesis, which sets the stage for the rest of Scripture and lays out our spiritual DNA. She also makes the case that the Bible Study 101 series itself is a good starting place, because learning how to read is what makes everything after it stick. Luke and Acts are coming this fall, and those two books were written as part one and part two of the same work, so that's another natural entry point.

The honest answer underneath all of it is that no part of God's word comes back empty. He can use any of it in any season. If you're stuck choosing, pray about it and pick one.

What Bible should I buy, and does the translation matter?

Get a study Bible, whatever translation you land on. That's the part that matters most. A study Bible gives you notes on the verses, plus an introduction before each book that tells you who wrote it, when, and who was originally reading it. When you're new, that context does more for your understanding than the translation choice does.

For translation, the New Living Translation and the NIV tend to be the easiest to read. But Rachael's real advice is to go into a local Christian bookstore, open several of them, look up a verse you already know like John 3:16, and see which one sounds like language you can follow. It's a personal decision, and holding them in your hands tells you more than a review will.

Is the SOAP method the same as looking for God first?

Close, and the instinct behind the question is right. SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer, and yes, observation comes before application in that method. So the order is the same idea.

The distinction Rachael draws is what you're observing. Looking for God first means the observation step isn't just noticing details in the text, it's specifically asking who God is in this passage, what He's doing, and what His character looks like, before you ask what it means for you. Rachael teaches the color method rather than SOAP, which she wrote about in She Hears, and she walks through it in the episodes right after this one.

Can women be pastors?

Rachael's answer is yes, and she grounds it in the text rather than in tradition or denomination. Jesus called, equippe