How Getting Historical and Cultural Context Can Help During Your Bible Study Time

This episode explains why getting historical and cultural context when we're studying the Bible can be helpful. There are detailed examples of each in this episode. The scriptures referenced in this episode are John 4:5 and John 4:30. Here's the transcript for this episode with the main points in bold:

Denea (00:00)Hello, hello, it's Denea, your host of the Faith-Filled Mom podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I hope that wherever you are today, number one, I hope you know that I really do appreciate you listening. Two, I hope and I pray that you are giving yourself some grace for the transition that you are going through right now or that you have just gone through. It at the time of this recording, daylight savings time just passed. And let me tell y'all, it threw me. It threw me. It's been on my calendar, right? Like on your phone, you know, the time now it resets automatically. But like, I don't know if it's just because as an autistic individual who also has ADHD, changing. Any type of change to my schedule or my routine, it typically takes me a little bit to get the hang of it, right? I feel like sometimes it's like I'm or I'm jumping to like double touch. I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to get the hang of it. I'm trying to wait for my turn to really, you know, get in and get the rhythm of it. But it just takes me a little bit sometimes. But it threw me. And so I am trying today. told myself, I felt this yesterday and I told myself today, it was like, Denea, this is a transition for you and you need to be extra patient with yourself. You need to be open to any type of changes or shifts you need to make in your schedule. And that is so hard. for me to do, to be open to changing, not just because it's change, but I think also there's something in me that, like I have to remind myself that it is okay if I readjust the expectations that I had for myself. Like it doesn't mean that I can't do it, it just means that I need to go about doing it a different way. And so whether you are neurotypical or whether you were. a neurodivergent, I hope that whatever transition you are going through, and remember a transition, like you get to define what a transition, a major change, a major transition, you get to define what that is. So before you start thinking, well, I don't really know if that's a big enough thing. I don't really know if that's a big enough change. Maybe I just need to get over it. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not doing that. We're not diminishing. We're not dismissing. You define whatever A transition is for you. Think of it and then think of ways that you can be just a little bit more patient with yourself. What are some ways that you can give yourself just a little bit more grace? Allow yourself to move at a different speed than what you had initially planned while you're going through this transition or while you're just recovering from a transition. Today's episode is all about how historical and cultural context can help us get more context when we are reading the Bible. I'm gonna pray a sin really quickly, real quick. God, thank you so much for your word. Yes, it was relevant back then and God, we are so happy that your word, it is still alive, it is still relevant, it is still active now. We invite you in Holy Spirit into this Bible studying time, make us sensitive to the promptings that you want to give us now. And even after this Bible study time ends, whatever promptings you want to give us to help us understand more of who God and Jesus are, help us to be sensitive to that. Help us to be sensitive to understanding this text. Let it plant a root. in us a seed that has strong healthy roots that produces fruit not just in us but in those around us and our families and our friends and the people that we walk past every day let it produce fruit in them too. God we love you in Jesus name amen. All right so when we're talking about interpretation which these past couple episodes that's reall