Bible Study Made Easy with Ken and Tabatha Claytor

Hey , what's up everybody ?

We are having our 25th anniversary and vow renewal party and also gala , and all of the proceeds are going to go towards helping people overcome cancer . Tabitha is going to be celebrating three years being cancer-free . I mean , look at her hair y'all it's curly , it's back .

Okay , I know that there are a lot of you all that love God , but you just have problems with your Bible study . You don't know how to practically take God's word and dissect it for yourself , or to get something out of it every single day . And so today we want to help you understand the SOAP method , s-o-a-p .

We're going to break it down later on , but before we get there , sweetheart , absolutely .

You know , we started this podcast just last year and our prayer was God let us send people to us that we can help them grow in their relationship with you and also in the people that you've placed in their life , and so if that's been working for you , please let us know your testimony , your reviews that are positive .

It changes us , it helps us , it blesses us , and we would love to hear from you . But today is probably one of the most important topics , because if you don't know how to study God's word for yourself as a believer now , if you're not a believer yet , it's okay . Maybe you question the Bible , you don't understand the Bible .

We'll help with that a little bit today . But if you're a Christian , you got to give yourself to daily time with God . So let's just call it Devo time , devo time . Devo is short for devotional time and for a good Devo time . Devo is short for devotional time and for a good Devo time . This is what I do . I do every morning .

The first thing that I try to do not first like hey , I can't brush my teeth first or work out . Sometimes I work out and then do Devo . Sometimes I'll Devo , then do workout . Sometimes I'll mess it up altogether and then do Devo later on in the day . But for the most part , the majority of my life , I want to give God the first part of my day .

I believe that if I give God the first , the rest is best . Sometimes that doesn't work for you and you can give God lunchtime or you can give God the end of your day , but I personally have just found it works well for me to give God the first part of my day to Devo . So I always encourage people to do the first . 15 is what we call it .

So if you break up 15 minutes , it's five minutes of Bible study , the word , five minutes of worship and five minutes of prayer . I'll break those down in a little bit . Or maybe I'll break it down now .

Five minutes where you get a scripture , whether it's read a passage and then break it down , whether it's read a couple of verses , read a chapter , break it down , and then I will do a prayer . I pray for my family , pray for my church , pray for leadership , pray for our nation and worship . Just grab a song off YouTube . Grab a song off the album music .

Lift up my hands just like I'm in church , and that's my daily time .

You know , and I'll write that down , but from there I go into Bible study or the word or whatever God is instructing me Now ?

So it varies for me , and it has throughout my life , because I'm a mother of three children , and so in the morning sometimes it didn't work out for me , because I'm taking care of kids and I'm changing diapers and I'm feeding people and getting people to school in the morning , and to fit all of that in my day before I walk out the door is hard .

And so right now I'm on a rhythm where I wake up , I handle my business at house , I get the kids to school , I drop them off and then when I come into the office at 8am I go through my prayer time . So you actually come in an hour earlier than most people come in at nine and you're able to do your default time and that's my time with the Lord .

Yes , that's pretty cool , but before you had kids , was it hard for you then , and why Before ? I mean yeah , it was less difficult than with kids , honestly , like a lot less difficult because I had my own schedule and so I like to wake up early in the morning .

So it was a pleasure for me to wake up in the morning and handle my prayer time and things like that . But now I will say , when I first started the discipline of having a devotional time or the discipline of reading my Bible and praying , it was super hard . My flesh was so tired .

We had a little town home in Maryland and we had an office upstairs , two bedroom , one was an office , one was our bedroom and I would sit at that desk in the morning , early in the morning , and I'm telling you , with my Bible open it's not that the Bible was boring or anything I would just go to sleep and I would fall asleep and I'd wake up .

But I had a set time that I wanted . I was disciplining myself . I'm going to read the Bible for this amount of time and I would finish and I'd go off with my day . The next day I'd get up and stay up a little longer , but still fall asleep . And I kept doing it until I was disciplined and it became a pleasure .

I was like , oh , I'm reading the word , I'm taking notes , I'm doing all this stuff . But at first it was really really hard I don't know why to discipline myself to read the Bible .

But I have learned a few things over the years that I would add to that . First of all , make sure you have a version of the Bible that's easy for you to read . You know , I was reading the , I think , the New King James Version or the King James Version , and it was a little more difficult .

I mean , I understood it , but it was better when I had other interpretations with me . And so now when I read the Bible I have , I like to read from the New King James Version , but I have other versions as well . I also have online resources .

So we're like , if I'm reading the Bible and it says thou shalt not , and I don't understand , like what are they talking about , I can go and read Bible commentary and kind of figure out what the Bible's talking about , which makes it more interesting , which helps you stay alert and become really involved in what you're reading .

So I think there are some ways to make it easier .

What we're saying is that everybody has 15 minutes , but everybody has to find out what works for them . So I started with 60 minutes . I started with an hour and I remember being so sleepy . It was just like , for whatever reason , you start in spiritual matters and your flesh is like shut down . Yes , oh my god .

And I remember hearing a preacher say well , if you're trying to study the bible and you fall into sleep , stand in the bathtub and read it , because if you fall over you'll taste porcelain . And I think what he was saying is that you got to be so dogmatic that you got to do whatever you got to do to discipline your flesh .

But I remember , didn't I stand in the bathtub and read the Bible ? I feel like I did that . I don't know if you did or not . Baby Goodness , I wouldn't recommend you do that .

So , for example , I was depressed and I needed to be healed . So then I went and I got a back in the day we didn't have the internet to help us the way that we do now I had a big book . I actually prefer the book nowadays anyway .

So I'll open this big Strong's Concordance and I would look up the word healed and then I would go to the Bible and read every scripture in the Bible that talked about healing , and then I would highlight it and underline it and I would take notes and I wouldn't just leave it there . Then I would apply that to my life . It's personal to me .

Okay , I know that God can heal me because he healed this person . I know that God can heal me because he said that by the stripes of Jesus I'm healed . And so I took it and then I could stay up all day studying stuff that's important to me .

And I just feel like when it comes to Bible study and Bible meditation , people quit too easy because they don't understand that the flesh is an unwilling participant in this whole spiritual journey . Okay , the flesh has to be crucified daily and the more you build up your spirit , man , the more you'll have authority not to give into the dictates of the flesh .

The flesh wants to do everything . I mean , you can watch Netflix eight hours straight . You can't read the Bible for eight minutes . Your flesh is strong and you got to crucify one and starve one to feed the other . Whichever one you want to be stronger , starve one , feed the other , starve your flesh , feed your spirit .

But most people , they buffet their flesh , they feed their flesh and they starve their spirit . Don't do that , don't do that .

Like there'll be a day that I miss here and there , but I can feel it , but for the most part , when I get on a plane , I want to be listening to a message , and when I'm in my car , many times I listen to a podcast . It's just that self-feeding . And so I want to look at a little bit of what the Bible says here .

Second Timothy , chapter three , verse 16 . It says that all scriptures , god breathed and profitable for teaching , for reproof , for correction and for training in righteousness . That the man of God may be complete , equipped for every good work . What sticks out to you ?

And so you know as me , as a believer and considering myself a woman of God , a child of God , a daughter of God , I want to be equipped for the work and the assignment that God has called me to do . The work is a wife , the work is a mother , the work is a minister , and I find that in the word of God .

Just like you get nourishment from food , you get nourishment for your soul from the word of God . Jesus is the word of God , made flesh In the beginning was the word . The word was with God and the word was God , and so what Satan wants to do is to discredit the Bible , because it's your one offensive weapon .

If he can take the sword of the spirit , which is the word of God , according to Ephesians 6 , I believe , then you can't win . If he takes the sword , the one thing that can cut him coming and going is the two-edged sword of the word of God . So we have to believe in the Bible .

We have to understand that , even if man which God , wrote the Bible through a man , but he is the author of the word of God and God knows how to get something in our hands that has not been tainted or changed . If it's been changed , it's been changed into his perfect will .

Our God is sovereign and able to get us exactly what we need to get , how we need to get it , and so all scripture is breathed out by God . So this is what I would conclude the Bible is God breath , god-inspired , and I can put my trust in it . Don't let the devil discredit it . Give it all the credit in the world .

Psalms 119 and 105, . It says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path . A lamp to our feet , and what ?

It says I've stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you , and that takes intentional effort , that we have to store up the word in our heart .

And so just like , let's say , you was going on a long trip and you would store up snacks you know what I'm saying you would go shopping this is a horrible example , I just came up with it and you would , just you would try to store up snacks .

Like I know that these days are coming , or you're going camping , I'm going to store up food for later You're going to load up the backpack . You got to store up the word of God in your heart . Now for the battle that's coming in the future ?

And so once the storm comes , and now the lights are all out and you don't have any candles , well , it's too late . Now You're out , but you go to the store beforehand , you get your candles , you get your batteries , you charge up all your devices so that you don't need to recharge .

You get everything you need so that when the storm comes , you're already prepared , because once the storm comes , you're done .

Meditating on the word , speaking about the word . I want to try to instill this into our children . I've noticed just raising kids is that getting them to read , especially with the amount of technology that they have nowadays it's just tough .

But there's some place that a child has to now grow up to where they start to read the Bible for themselves and find joy in it as a lifestyle .

But it was because of what I didn't know about being a husband . It was what I didn't know about honoring you . It's what I didn't know about serving you and being faithful to you .

And there's a lot of people who have great things that God has placed in their life that will be destroyed if they don't get the knowledge they need Bible knowledge , Bible information about it . Okay , there's another scripture in Acts , chapter 17 , 10 through 11 .

It says that the brothers immediately sent Saul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived , they went to the Jewish synagogue . Now , these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the word with all eagerness and they examined the scriptures daily to see if the things were . so what sticks out to you about that posture ?

But go home and study it for yourself . Go home and look at the Bible yourself . The word shall be blessed .

. Oh , pastor said this scripture . He said that let me look it up in my Bible for myself , because nowadays we don't even bring our Bible , we just look at the screen .

And then on a Sunday , if you say a scripture , I want to go back to it because that was so good . I want to go back to it and then get my own revelation add on to what you said . And so now there's like a personal relationship that I have with this word . When I read the word I see my experiences , I see what God spoke to me .

I'll write my name in it . I do all kinds of stuff with my Bible because I understand that the word is God , that my relationship with the word reflects my relationship with God and I don't know that just adds to your experience . So talk to me .

And some of the perspective that I have , that I'm reading the Word like if I'm coming to your church , pastor Ken , and this is what the Lord has given you to instruct all of these churches that you're heading right now , I got to understand that this is something that's fresh on the body of Christ and so that word that you preach , I need to take this and

put this in my life . So , lord , how does this apply to my life ? Now ? I'm going to there's a test coming for that word that Pastor Ken gave me on Sunday .

I know that there's a test coming and I'm going to pass this test , lord , and I go and I take the scripture and I just make it personal to my life , and so I have a notebook and I have a Bible , I have highlighters . I'm artsy guys , I'm an art student , things like that .

So I have colored pencils , I have colored highlighters , I have colored markers , I have colored pens , I have it all and I kind of draw on my notes . I draw in my notebook and I write in the Bible as well , anything that the Lord has given me .

I will also listen to the preached word and preach messages based on topical Bibles , like the book of Ephesians , and I'll listen to a message that you preached on okay , this is a topical study , this is the book of Ephesians , and I can get that in me as well .

I also read books based on the scripture , like , okay , I've read this so many times , but here's a book about humility . You know what I'm going to read this book and it's telling me scripture , it's preaching me the Bible , but it's someone else breathing in it and giving their testimony and life experience and man , that'll light me up .

I'm just talking about they just don't like to read .

But when he had an encounter with God and accepted God as you know , jesus as his Savior , he got in the Word and started studying it and just pressed past that point and he's on fire . I mean , he's an amazing Bible preacher and he reads the word all the time , probably 10 times more than what I do .

You know what I mean , but he hated to read and that's all I can do is just share that testimony .

You know , for me , practically there's been seasons where I feel like I'm reading I've read this before , I've read this before , I've read this before . Sometimes I'll read a book and that'll help me .

I think having a good study Bible with good commentary is really good for me as well , Because it's not that the commentary is the authorized word of God , but it is different scholars perspective on the commentary and I don't take it like , oh , this is fact . I take it like , oh , that's a cool perspective . What do I take ? What do I ?

You know what I'm saying , but reading other people's perspective . So one of the Bibles that I have that really blessed me that's about $150 Bible , but I tell anybody to get it is the Dakes annotated study Bible . Oh yeah .

I use BibleGatewaycom a lot and I put in what does the Bible say about something , and it always gives me . I can't think of what the website is .

So strong concordance where you can go back and look at the Hebrew meaning of the words in the Old Testament and the Greek meanings of the words in the New Testament , and when you put all of those tools together it brings new life into your study and so that's like how to really get deep in it .

But from a simple standpoint , many times I'll just read a chapter a day and I'll do my soap and I want to go over what soap is , but I'll read a chapter a day . So I just was reading first Chronicles the chapter a day and when I started reading first Chronicles , I didn't know what it was talking about .

I mean , my God , it was all these different Kings and their lineage and stuff . And then I went over into Ezra , now over in Proverbs , and I'm excited about it because I feel like I'm in a season where I need wisdom . And God is downloading wisdom , so I just read Proverbs 3 today . And it's just cool to just kind of I've read it numerous times .

When I say numerous , I'm talking about like 20 , 30 , 40 times reading through Proverbs . But now I'm looking for things that I didn't see before . I want to look at different translations . I want to choose slowly and say God , for me right now , what does this apply to my life ? How does this apply to my life ?

So that's important to me and also me finding a place where I feel like I connect with God . Like right now I have an office and it's a little cold and it's a little dark , and so I have to always kind of readjust my atmosphere .

So for you , I see you go down by the fireplace and you put on candles and you get coffee yes , get my teacup and you create this whole environment for your time with God , and I need to get there because I do need a space . Can you help me get there ?

So I would really encourage anybody who's new to Bible study to start in the gospels . One gospel that's easy to start with is John's gospel Matthew Mark Luke , john Read a chapter of John a day , write your soap down . This is the scripture . John , chapter one . And then what do you observe ?

So read through it and write down what you observe , underline what you observe , highlight what you observe . Then , for A application from what you observed , how do you practically apply it to your life today ? Then for P write out a little prayer for you to put it to your life . If you do that every day , that's how you study the Bible .

Then you go to John 2 , scripture is John 2 . Observation what I get out of John 2 , application and prayer . John , chapter 3 , okay , so I would look at John and then you can go back to Matthew Mark Luke , matthew Mark Luke are synoptic gospels . That's meaning that it's kind of the same stories from a different perspective .

Some gospels will leave out a story . Other gospel will put in a story . That's how you know it's authentic , because if you put four people in a room , we're not all going to look at the same story the same way . Sometimes I'll leave out a story where she'll tell the story okay , and that's what Matthew , mark and Luke is .

John kind of stands on his own a little bit , but that's what we call the gospels . You say , pastor , where else could I start reading the Bible ? Proverbs is not a bad place to start as well . Scripture right S , proverbs 1 . This is what I'm doing right now Observation , application and prayer .

And so , also for those of you who are part of our Better Marriage Bootcamp , we have this Better Marriage Devotional . Okay , and I've been going through this myself , and what we have here is 90 days of devotional material . 90 days . Day one if your foundation is faulty , your marriage cannot stand . Day two believe that better is possible .

Day three approach challenges with a different perspective . And so what we've done with this devotional , and even if you don't get hours , you can get on Amazon and get you a good Bible devotional . Good devotionals will have some teaching up front , then have a scripture , then you can do your soap with it .

Okay , so let me give you what I did on yesterday , all right . So the topic was belief that better is possible , and then we wrote a little bit of verbiage about better as possible , and then at the end it had Philippians 4.13 . That says I can do all things through Christ , who strengthens me .

And in my observation I began to write down the observation , the application , and then they had a prayer already written for me , or we have a prayer already written for you . And in my observation I put make this personal I , not others , but me .

So when I read I can do all things , that's what jumped out to me , like I can not just Tabitha , not just Daniela , not just my mom , my dad . I can do all things . Not can not just Tabitha , not just Daniela , not just my mom , my dad . I can do all things , not some things , but all things , meaning that if it's in my life , I can take it .

And then I put Christ strengthens me , not just my ability , not my work ethic , not my grind , but strife , but Christ , his ability . It strengthens me . And then I put application . I said can my marriage get better ? And I put heck , yeah , there's no marriage that can't get better .

And then , out of the overflow and this is where revelation kicks in I said get a vision to look at her , which is Tabitha she's just now hearing this with attraction , adoration and acceptance . I'm going to do a whole podcast on the three A's of focus . God gave me this in devotion time , y'all . Number one is acceptance . Devotion time y'all .

Number one is acceptance . Can you accept your spouse for how they are right now ? Many times we try to change them into something else . The first step to attraction is focus on accepting them how they currently are . Number two is adoration . Many times we look at the things that we don't like and we dwell and you focus too much on those .

What would happen if you focused on the things that you do like and learn to adore them for what you do like ? And then the third step would be Attraction . Okay , focus on what you are attracted to them with . Don't look at the things that you're not Attractive because you're focusing on that too much .

Focus on and actually step one and two leads to step three . If you can accept someone and adore them , you're going to be more attracted to them . And if you can focus on these three things , you'll see the attraction . People say well , I feel like I'm not attracted to him any longer . Well , you need to first accept them .

You need to adore him and find out what you are attracted , because whatever you're focused on will expand . Begin to focus on those three things . You say , pastor , did you get that out of Philippians 4.13 ? Yes , because when you just study the Word of God and you do your S-O-A-P , holy Spirit then uses that to give you revelation for your life .

And then the prayer , and I'll read you the prayer . Listen to this . The prayer at the end was this Heavenly Father , thank you for the assurance that , through Christ , we can navigate the complexities of marriage , instilling us a deep belief that better is possible and that , with your strength , we can overcome any obstacle .

May our marriage be a testament of the transform , transformative power of your grace . In Jesus name , we pray . A man , you got to get hold of this , all right . So this right here . If you want this , this goes along with our better marriage bootcamp that we do .

We want to give it to you for free If you sign up for the bootcamp and this will help you walk with God every single day . If not , you can get on Amazon and just Google great Bible devotionals and you can find a devotional out there that will simplify your Bible study .

But I'm telling you you get it in the word of God for yourself is everything , anything you want to add to that soap method . That's good . Yeah , do you soap ?

We have a goal here to help lead 1 million people to a better marriage , 1 million couples to a better marriage . We've developed what you just heard about , which is called our Better Marriage Boot Camp .

It's an online boot camp that really is not a replacement for counseling , because we're not counselors , we are pastors number one , but we'll just be called your marriage mentors , your marriage coaches . We've been married 25 years . We've learned a lot about what not to do , and we've put it all into this boot camp .

We've learned more about what not to do than what to do . This bootcamp , we've learned more about what not to do than what to do . We give you the ups , the downs , the good , the bad and the ugly in a 12-part journey where we'll walk with you for 90 days to help your marriage get better .

What we've learned is that great marriages it requires a great investment when it comes to personal counseling . Right now , the average counseling costs between $100 to $400 an hour or per session . 30% of people who go through marriage counseling . They still don't work out in their relationship . So we need another product .

We need another way to save those 30% of people . If you're looking for something that's at home , on demand , if you're looking for something that's more potent , if you're looking for something that is more cost effective than paying $200 , $300 per hour , month after month , you want to give our 90-day bootcamp a try .

A lot of programs like this will cost between $700 to $1,200 . We've wanted to make this affordable . Our bootcamp is only $395 . And with it you get our family meeting outline . With it you get 12 sessions that you must hear . With it you get our coaching as we give com . We would love to be your marriage coaches .

If you're new to our podcast , hit the subscribe button . Every Thursday , 3 pm , Eastern Standard Time . We're going to bring you some content that we bring . We pray we'll bring value to you , your marriage , your family , your children , your relationship with God , and so come be a part of our family . All right , guys , until we see you again next week .

We love you , guys . We'll see you soon , Peace .