April 28, 2025 • 30 mins
If you've ever had Scripture twisted to keep you silent, ashamed, or stuck in an abusive relationship, you are not alone. In this episode of Hey Tabi, licensed trauma therapist Tabitha Westbrook breaks down why biblical literacy is a critical part of healing after abuse, coercive control, and spiritual harm.
You'll learn:
📖 What true biblical literacy is (and why it's different from memorizing random verses)
❌ How abusers misuse Scripture to manipulate and control survivors
✝ Why understanding the Bible for yourself can be a powerful tool for reclaiming your voice and your faith
🙌🏼 How to try out different Bible translations to find the version that feels safest and least triggering for your healing journey
If you’ve struggled with spiritual abuse, religious trauma, or confusion about God's heart for you, this episode will equip you to take your first gentle steps back toward truth, safety, and hope.
🎧 If this episode resonated with you, please like, subscribe, and share to help others who need this information!
🎧 Subscribe to Hey Tabi for more expert conversations on trauma, faith, and healing.
📩 Connect with Tabitha:
💻 Tabitha's Website - www.tabithawestbrook.com
📲 Tabitha's Instagram - www.instagram.com/tabithathecounselor
🎙️ Podcast Homepage - https://heytabi.buzzsprout.com
💻 The Journey & The Process Website - www.thejourneyandtheprocess.com
📲 The Journey & The Process Instagram - www.instagram.com/_tjatp
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel & watch podcast episodes there
👍 If this episode resonated with you, please like, subscribe, and share to help others who need this information!
🚨 Disclaimer: This podcast is not therapy and is intended for educational purposes only. If you're in crisis or need therapy, please reach out to a licensed mental health professional.
Need to know how to find a great therapist? Read this...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tabitha Westbrook (00:00):
If you've ever had scripture twisted
against you to keep you silent,obedient or ashamed, you're not
alone.
Today we're talking about howreclaiming biblical literacy
isn't just about knowing yourBible.
It's about reclaiming yourfreedom, your faith and your
future.
Welcome to hey Tabby, thepodcast where we talk about the
hard things out loud, with ouractual lips.
(00:22):
We'll cover all kinds of topicsacross the mental health
spectrum, including how itintersects with the Christian
faith.
Nothing is off limits here andwe are not.
Take two verses and call me inthe morning.
I'm Tabitha Westbrook and I'm alicensed trauma therapist.
But I'm not your traumatherapist.
I'm an expert in domestic abuseand coercive control and how
complex trauma impacts ourhealth and well-being.
(00:43):
Our focus here is knowledge andhealing.
Trauma doesn't have to eat yourlunch forever.
There is hope.
Now let's get going.
Welcome to this week's episodeof hey Tabby.
I'm super glad that you're hereand hopefully you are settling
in to the fact that we are goingto talk about the Bible today
(01:05):
pretty directly, and I wanted todo this because one of the
things I've been finding as Iwork with people is that they
had scripture weaponized againstthem and then it makes it
really hard to enter back inwith the Bible.
When abusers use scripture as aweapon against someone, it can
really mess up theirrelationship with God and their
(01:26):
relationship with the Bible, andit can be really hard to pick
the Bible up again and to evenhold it in your hands, for
example, and, honestly, theBible was never meant to be a
weapon that was used against you, and knowing what it actually
says, like in full, can actuallychange everything.
I'm going to give you a littlebit of one of my own stories of
(01:49):
harm that used scripture as aweapon.
So I was in a situation with avery serious, really abusive
pastor.
This individual controlled,honestly, almost all aspects of
my life.
There were so many things thatthey had input in that they
really shouldn't have, but Ididn't know that at the time.
One of the things, however, oneof the good things that came
(02:10):
out of this was he had dared meto read the Bible cover to cover
.
At the time this is 25 yearsago now I had not done that,
even though I'm a pastor'sdaughter.
I grew up in the church.
I knew a ton of scripture.
I had never read from Genesisto Revelation, and so he dared
(02:32):
me to do that, and I will takemany dares if they are not
illegal or immoral, and so Isaid, okay, yes, I will.
And that actually proved to bethe thing that ended up getting
me out from under thisindividual's influence.
So I was dared to read it insix months.
And this is back in the day,right 25 years ago.
We didn't have apps, we didn'thave any of those things.
So it was this little card thatyou got that unfolded, and it
(02:55):
had all of the reading plans,and so I just doubled them up so
that I could finish them injust under six months, and I
remember having a pinkhighlighter.
I wish I still had that pieceof paper with all of this on it,
but I would highlight thescriptures as I read them.
And I finished on New Year'sEve of that year and handed it
over to him and said, see, I didit Now, though he was
(03:18):
coercively controlling.
I ended up making this a habitof my life and I have read the
Bible cover to cover everysingle year since then, and so
I'm on my 25th reading of that,and I'm not saying this to say
that I am cool or special orsuper holy or any of that.
I'm saying that it actuallytotally was what got me out of
(03:40):
abuse with this individual, andlet me explain, because I knew
scripture so well.
There was a point at which Godopened my eyes to the things
that were going on, and we'lltalk more about that in a minute
.
So, first of all, I use theterm biblical literacy, and I
want to make sure that youunderstand what I mean.
So, when I say biblicalliteracy, what I mean here is
(04:03):
understanding the true context,the meaning and the purpose of
scripture.
So I'm looking at it as a whole.
I'm studying the Bible well.
I'm understanding the nuancesthat are in it to the best of my
ability.
Now, look, we're not going tobe able to understand everything
.
I mean, have you read Ezekiel?
It's a lot, and I know, though,that the more that I do it and
(04:26):
the more that I study the wordof God, the more I'm going to be
brought into understanding bythe Holy Spirit.
Now, this is not aboutmemorizing verses, though I do
have a significant amount ofscripture memorized now, and I
think that is a wonderfulpractice to have if that is
something that you feel the Lorddrawing you into.
What I really mean is just thetrue understanding.
(04:47):
It's about knowing the heart ofGod in the scriptures.
The scriptures point us to himand I think sometimes we get
told in church that it's like anowner's manual, you know, like
if your carburetor goes out, youlike flip to the carburetor
section of the Bible and fix itor something.
But that's not really what itis.
What it does is it shows us theLord, and then it bears weight
(05:09):
in our lives and shows us how togo back to God, or it shows us
God's heart for us.
There's so much there, but it'sreally a picture of God and his
relationship with us and that'sthe most important aspect of it
.
And when we don't have goodbiblical literacy, it makes it
easier for abusers to weaponizescripture.
(05:31):
I think back to the Reformationand Martin Luther when he
finally read the scriptures forhimself, going wait a second.
This is getting distorted Now.
He was not a perfect man by anymeans, but he is the person who
nailed to the door of thechurch the 99 theses and what
started the ProtestantReformation.
And really the Catholic churchat the time was using its
(05:54):
knowledge of scriptures to lordit over others because they
couldn't read.
They didn't have access to theBible even if they could, and
the printing press reallychanged that right.
It gave us all access and eventhough different translations
are a whole thing and we'll talkabout that in a minute it
really does give us access tosee what God is saying to us.
(06:15):
Now I know that there is a lotof argument out there on whether
scripture is inerrant or notand I am just not going to get
into that today.
I'm going to tell you it'sreally helpful for healing and
it's really helpful for keepingyou from being spiritually
abused again.
So we're going to talk aboutthat and if you are a survivor,
you know things like submit canget really distorted.
(06:36):
Right, like wives, submit toyour husband, but it oftentimes
isn't quoted in context wherethey go back to the beginning of
Ephesians 5 and talk aboutsubmit to God, submit to each
other.
It doesn't talk about the otherverses geared to the husbands.
When we just take one sectionand if all we've ever been told,
as we've come up in the churchor in our marriage, this is what
(06:58):
the scripture says and you haveto do that and we've never
heard any of the things aroundit we are going to have the real
big chance of being led astray.
And I will say abusers like touse spiritual and biblical
illiteracy to make them seemmore important and make them
(07:18):
seem authoritative, and alsothen they use it to manipulate
and to coerce and to control.
And I will say this is fromSchoolhouse Rock back in the
like 80s and 90s.
Knowledge is power.
The more that we know the Biblefor ourselves, the more it is
going to be challenging to useit against us, and I think
(07:39):
that's really important,especially if you do go into
places and become advocates andthat sort of thing.
So I want to just again noticethat scripture often is used
against survivors.
You've heard me say it before,if you listen to this podcast,
that my definition of spiritualabuse is taking someone's good
and right devotion to God andusing it as a weapon against
(08:02):
them.
So a lot of times I will hearabout abusers that have maybe
gone to seminary or are pastors,elders, deacons you know
someone who's maybe read theBible but is using pieces of it.
I've had so many survivorswhose spouses are high up in
church structure, like pastorsor deacons or elders, saying,
(08:22):
well, they went to seminary, sothey must know how to interpret
it, and I'm like, notnecessarily they know how to
weaponize it.
If they're using it against you.
You don't have to go toseminary to figure out how to
interpret the Bible.
There actually is really greatstuff out there online, and I'll
give some resources for that injust a few minutes as well.
(08:42):
The misuse of scripture is oftenused to justify control, to
excuse abusive and coercivebehaviors and to silence
someone's suffering.
How many times have women heardjust suffer silently?
Have women heard just suffersilently?
You're suffering, like Jesus tokeep them in an abusive
situation?
That is not the heart of God byany stretch of the imagination.
(09:05):
Yet if we don't know forourselves that that is not what
the word says in those ways andthe stuff around those passages
that get pulled out of context,then we don't have a way to go.
Wait a second, it doesn't saythat and we end up taking it in
thinking, yeah, yeah, this, thismust be it.
I mean, they know they went toseminary.
(09:27):
There is a joke for folks whohave been around, folks that
been in seminary, that it isalso called cemetery, because
you go in there and your actualrelationship with God dies.
Now, look, that is a joke.
I have known wonderful men andwomen who've gone to seminary
and did not come out hating Godand thinking that he's not
(09:48):
really real, or just being sosick of reading scriptures or
anything like that.
There are some that do and manythat don't.
But obviously, when we misusethe word of God and we're using
it for our personal gain, we areway off, way off.
That should never be what we'redoing, and I know that if
you're like dude, I don't evenknow if I can pick up a Bible
(10:09):
right now, you're in goodcompany.
I totally get that.
I have lots of survivors that Iwork with who are like I picked
up the Bible and threw itacross the room, then felt
guilty about throwing it acrossthe room because it had been so
deeply distorted for them and itmade it really difficult to
even enter back in.
So this may not be the firstthing that you do in healing I
(10:30):
just want to say that but I dothink that this ultimately
really really helps you becauseyou do start to see the
character of God.
You see that he is a defenderof the oppressed, that he is
near to the brokenhearted.
You get to see that he is not afan of oppression at all.
In fact, he says real harshthings to people who lead the
(10:50):
sheep astray, and that issomething that, when we are in
those dark places, we can holdon to and say, oh, but I know
who he really is.
I know his heart and hischaracter.
We also really can lean in thathe doesn't condone abuse or
coercion or harm.
He came to end oppression andto set the captives free, and if
(11:14):
you've ever been in an abusive,coercively controlling
situation, you know that youfeel like a captive.
In fact, we call it when weteach advocacy class a captivity
crime.
It is very similar to being aprisoner of war and how it
impacts your body.
If you don't know what the Biblereally says, someone else will
always try to tell you who Godis, and the thing is they might
(11:37):
be wrong or flat out lying toyou.
Now I'm not saying you're goingto study the Bible and you're
going to get it perfectly andyou're going to go.
Yes, I know all the things.
That's just not how this works,let's be honest.
But we are going to have a muchbetter understanding.
There is so much that you canstudy in the Bible and learn and
know and grow in, and I thinkwhen we do that, when we avail
(11:57):
ourselves of that, we get tolearn really cool stuff about
God and go oh my gosh, man, Inever thought about it that way.
Or wow, lord, like this isreally cool.
And then sometimes we go.
That is a really weird storyand I don't know what to do with
that.
I just want to normalize all ofthat about the Bible.
One of the things that I seevery often in practice is that
(12:19):
particular versions of the Bibleget weaponized the most.
So I would say the ones I seethe most are the King James
Version, the New King JamesVersion and the English Standard
Version.
So the KJV, the NKJV and theESV are the ones I tend to see
most weaponized against others.
(12:40):
Now, you can have any versionweaponized against you by a
wicked person.
Anybody can pull a piece of ascripture out or one verse and
tell you things, but those arethe three translations that by
far I see have the biggestissues.
I will say and this is mypersonal opinion, you can come
to a different conclusion if youlike that the ESV in particular
(13:02):
really has missed the mark insome ways.
It's a more recent translation.
There are some things that aregendered in ways I don't think
that they should be, and so youcan go do that deep dive if
you're interested in that sortof thing.
I am least comfortable rightnow with that version.
I grew up on the King JamesVersion and the New King James
(13:23):
Version.
In fact, my very first Biblewas the New King James Version.
It was a Pink Precious MomentsBible.
I still have it.
I read it so much that Mark toRevelation fell out.
It just literally fell out andI had to shove it back in there
because I'd used it so much.
But there were so manyscriptures that were weaponized
against me in that version thatit at one point was extremely
(13:46):
difficult for me to read and tothink through without getting
extremely activated.
And that might be the case foryou with any number of versions.
So if it's been hard for you topick up a Bible in your house
or in your vehicle or whereverit is that you have that, then I
get that.
(14:06):
It can be really difficultbecause it brings up all those
memories, especially if you wentto a church that is high
controlling as well.
Then you may have a milliondifferent feels on this and it's
very difficult.
But when you're ready, I want toencourage you to consider ways
to enter back in.
One is experimentation.
(14:27):
So I want to encourage you toexperiment with different
versions, and one of the coolestthings is that on our phones
these days we have like everyversion.
You can get it in multiplelanguages.
If you would like to read theBible in Spanish, you can do
that.
It's fantastic.
If you don't speak Spanish, itmight be hard to know what it
says, but you can do it in somany different ways.
So if you're like I don't wantto go out and buy 12 different
(14:50):
Bibles to figure out which one'snot going to activate all the
trauma responses, totally getthat.
But YouVersion, the Bible app,is really helpful.
If you're like, wait, that appalone triggers me because who
knows what's happened, I don'tknow your story Then pick
another app that has multipleversions of the Bible available
to you and try scriptures thatyou're familiar with in
(15:12):
different versions.
Now look all of them.
Translate Jesus wept as Jesuswept.
Right, I mean, it's going to bethe shortest verse in any
translation.
But try different passages indifferent translations.
So, for example, you might takea look at the New Living
Translation or the NLT in Psalm,let's say, 27.
(15:34):
And you might read Psalm 27 inthe New Living Translation, the
King James Version, the New KingJames Version living
translation, the King Jamesversion, the New King James
version, the ESV and theChristian Standard Bible, or CSV
, and see which ones feel thebest to your body and if any of
them, if you're like I can't,they're all too close, oh my
goodness gracious.
Then try, maybe the message.
So maybe take a look at Psalm27 in the message and see how
(15:57):
that reads, because the messageis done more story related.
It's definitely a thought forthought, not word for word
translation, and it has a bitmore of a poetic feel to it.
So a lot of times, survivors Iwork with are able to access the
message better and able tostart to read a little bit at a
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time in that version and andagain, you don't have to just go
, okay, I'm going to go read theentire word of God this year.
Enter in slowly, right?
I want you to be safe as you'redoing this.
I want you to consider what'shappening in your body and be
noticing it and don't do it outof duty, right?
God understands where you areand he wants to hang out with
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you, so he's not going to belike you know what?
You only spent five minutesreading the message today.
I don't know what we're goingto do with that.
He's going to be like hey, I'mhere, I get it.
You were really harmed and Ihate that that happened to you
and I want to help you heal.
That's really his heart towardyou.
Another one that I use all thetime is the Jesus Storybook
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Bible.
You heard that right and yes,that is a children's Bible, but
it's a really, really well donechildren's Bible.
It's my favorite one that I'veever had and yes, I do, in fact,
as a grown adult, have thatBible and we have them in our
offices because sometimes it isthe most accessible way for
someone to begin looking back atthe word of God.
(17:25):
Now, look, you're not going todo deep theological study from
the Jesus storybook Bible, butyou are going to start coming
back to the word of God and itdoes such a beautiful job of
showing how the Bible points toJesus and I think that that is a
good thing.
And it doesn't overly sanitize.
Now, it's not going to give youthe great detail on the flood
(17:47):
and like how really awful thatwas and all of that.
It's not.
You're not going to get all ofthose details or some of the
darker stories and when you'retrying to recover from trauma.
Sometimes that's really good,and so you can look at that and
read those things and just takeit for what it is right.
It's a really easy, verysegmented.
You can read one story, it's afew pages, and that is just a
(18:10):
great way to enter back in.
And one of my favorite lines ofall time comes from that one,
and it is that Jesus is makingall the sad things come untrue
Because when he comes back, itis going to heal all the broken,
and I think that that conceptis super important and it really
speaks to that throughout theentire book, and so I recommend
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definitely getting the JesusStorybook Bible.
And if you're like well, I can'treally carry around the
children's book, I hear youespecially if you're an adult
who doesn't have children, I cansee how that might feel a
little bit weird.
But I would encourage you maybeget a digital reading app.
Perhaps even your library hasit for download and that can be
another thing that you can do tostart orienting yourself back
(18:55):
to the word of God and buildingyour biblical literacy muscle,
and really it's okay totemporarily set it aside if it's
just having a hard time for youand you're like maybe I'm not
quite ready for it yet.
Another tip that I will giveyou on this as well is to find
something that helps you studythe Bible, and what I mean by
(19:15):
finding something, finding arhythm and something like Jen
Wilkins' books on studying theword of God can be really
helpful.
I think Jen presents the waythat you study the Bible in such
a clear and beautiful manner.
I am a big fan.
I think her theology overall isquite good.
I've listened to quite a bit ofher stuff and done a number of
(19:37):
her Bible studies at this pointand I found them to be very
solid.
I have found her to be a verycredible source, particularly
for women who have been harmed.
Now, I know that maybe noteveryone feels that way, but
that is just one example ofperhaps a place you could go.
So if you've never actuallyeven studied the Bible for
yourself because sometimesyou're not even allowed to do
(19:59):
that you know your spouse won'tlet you have your own Bible or
your abuser in your life willkeep you from having access to
these things.
I know that I went to a churchat one point that had a banned
reading list like there werebanned books and one of those
was Beth Moore.
We were not allowed to utilizeBeth Moore studies, which was
ridiculous, and I remember doingmy first Beth Moore study and
(20:22):
thinking, my goodness, I ambreaking every rule All the
rules are being broken here, butI found it to be extremely
biblical, extremelytheologically sound and have
done a number of them over theyears and I think you have to
find, maybe, what your style is.
I will say that Jen Wilkin tendsto use the ESV in a lot of the
(20:42):
studies.
So if that is a hardertranslation for you, you might
just want to be aware of thatgoing into it.
But her how to study the Biblework is really, really good and
you can always adapt somethingto the needs that you have.
So if you're like man Jen isusing the ESV to ask these
questions or enter into thisBible study, I'm going to use a
different one.
I'll look at it just so that Ikind of know where she's going.
(21:03):
But I'm going to look at maybethe CSV and the Christian
Standard Bible honestly isprobably the one that I use the
most right now.
That is the one that is mygo-to.
I also tend to gravitate forsome things for the New Living
Translation, depending on whatI'm doing, but on what I'm doing
.
But again, don't do what I dobecause it works for me.
(21:24):
Do what you need to do becauseit works for you.
And the point is to know God'sword and to know the heart of
God.
And we don't want to getdogmatic right.
Dogma got us here, rigid rulesgot us here, where someone said
this is what it is and they haveto do it this way and that is
not the heart of God.
I think that there actually areways to come to very different
conclusions.
(21:44):
Sometimes we used to call themopen and closed hand issues, and
maybe people still do.
I feel a bit like we're notvery charitable in the world
right now about talking aboutdiffering opinions and whatnot,
but like an open hand issuewould be tribulation.
It doesn't have a thing to dowith salvation.
Salvation is all the closedhand stuff how we get saved, who
(22:06):
Jesus is, all that stuff thatwe would say is closed hand.
Everybody should believeroughly the same thing about
that because it is orthodox tothe faith.
It's very clear in the Biblethat sort of thing.
The things like rapture andtribulation are not, and I know
that I grew up in a system thatwas what we would call pre-trib.
So rapture was going to happenbefore the tribulation began,
(22:29):
which would be like all the leftbehind books and all of that.
You're now getting a little bitof insight on the way that I
was raised.
And then some people weremid-trib we would be raptured in
the middle of the tribulationand some people were post-trib
we would be raptured in themiddle of the tribulation and
some people were post-trib wewould be not raptured.
I don't know what was supposedto happen at the end of the
tribulation, but everythinghappened after the tribulation
took place and Christians werestill around.
And, man, there are some hotdebates on that stuff.
(22:51):
I don't know if you've everdone a theological deep dive and
looked at the internet for someof that, but oh honey, it can
be a lot.
Now, that's not the purpose ofthis podcast, but those are
things that people can come todifferent conclusions and not be
wicked.
You can be pre-trib, mid-trib,post-trib, whatever, and still
(23:14):
be completely orthodox in yourfaith and not be a heretic.
And so I want to just say thatthere are different things and
that we can wrestle with thosethings, and as we learn to study
the Bible, things may change,and I'm going to use the
tribulation and rapture as anexample, because that is
something that has changed forme.
I'm pan-trib.
It'll all pan out in the end.
I used to be very solidlypre-trib before I did some study
(23:38):
on my own, and I can't come tothat place now in my own study
of the Bible.
Now that doesn't mean that Ihave gone liberal, become woke,
whatever it is that someonewants to say about it.
What it means is I readsomething and read it enough and
prayed over it that I can't saywith certainty anymore that
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pre-tribulation, rapture is athing and that is okay, there's
nothing wrong with that.
And so I want to just give youthat freedom that you might come
to some conclusions that maybeyou grew up in or raised in and
go, oh my gosh, I don't, I don'tknow that I can come to that
conclusion anymore.
(24:20):
One of them for me also was Godhates divorce which.
How many times do we hear that?
But if you go and you read thatentire passage in Malachi, you
actually find that God hates menwho are harming their wives and
putting them out and goinggetting a younger honey,
essentially from a nearby nation.
And if you read that entirety,you go, oh, oh.
(24:43):
It doesn't just say God hatesdivorce.
Oh, because you've now read itfor yourself and you've read it
in context and you know what itsays more fully.
And that's really, really thegift of having biblical literacy
.
I will be honest with you Idon't know that churches in
general some of them now, someare great.
Please don't hear me say either, when I'm talking about church
(25:07):
struggles, that I broad brushall churches.
I have amazing pastor friendsin my life.
I go to an actual church and Idon't think all pastors are
terrible by any stretch of theimagination or that most pastors
are trying to just do the wrongthing.
But I do think that in thechurch as a whole, in a lot of
places we don't have goodbiblical literacy, even in the
(25:29):
leadership, and that's a shameand that's another reason for
you to have it, because if youare trying to get out of a
situation that is coercivelycontrolling and scripture has
been weaponized against you totry to keep you there, this
gives you power, gives you thepower of god to go.
No, and if you are advocatingfor somebody, if you have
(25:51):
excellent biblical literacy, youhave a leg to stand on for
everybody that goes to the callto peace advocacy class and
hears me talk about scriptureand unpack certain things and
all of that stuff.
I have done that through studyand I'm not the only person that
can do stuff like that If wehave a number of our training
team that is right there with meon it.
(26:13):
And it has been such a gift,not only to me in my own life
but to survivors that I workwith, for me to be able to go no
, no, no, no, no that's that'sincorrectly espoused upon Like
we need to look at thisdifferently.
Let's look at it together incontext, and it is not abnormal
for me to pull out a Bible in asession and go let's look at
(26:33):
this together and let's look atthe whole thing.
And then let's go here and hereand here and cross-reference
different things, and it is sucha gift for you to be able to do
that yourself.
And again, this isn't anovernight thing.
I'm on my 25th year of readingthrough the whole Bible, so it
has taken me a long time to getto the place that I am, and you
can get to that over time aswell.
And again, you can go in littlebaby pieces.
(26:56):
You don't have to do thisovernight, but it is such an
important thing and such a bigpart of your healing because you
will see the heart of Godtoward you to be able to grow in
your biblical literacy.
So I want to just close this byinviting you to try just the
tiniest bit to see if you hear adifferent tone in God's voice
(27:20):
toward you.
Sometimes we are taught to readthe scriptures as if he's mad
at us, and he's not.
Why would he send his son todie for us if he was like just
perpetually upset?
Now does he get angry overwickedness?
Yes, I would say, the personGod is mad at is not the victim,
but it is the perpetrator,without question.
And so I want to invite you tomaybe look at a scripture that
(27:42):
you're familiar with in adifferent translation and maybe
hear the voice of the Lorddifferently in it.
And again, just start small.
It can be one verse, onechapter of Psalms, a simple
prayer that says God, pleasehelp me just even open my Bible,
because right now I would liketo throw it across the room.
One of my favorite scripturesis Psalm 34, 18, and that just
(28:04):
talks about the Lord being closeto the brokenhearted.
He is near the crushed inspirit.
So maybe take a look at that intwo, three translations that
are unfamiliar to you and writeit down in each of those
translations and then just letit sit with you and journal
about your experience.
And you can even journal aboutyour experience in terms of what
(28:27):
was it like to pick up theBible, what was it like to open
up the Bible app, what was itlike to pick a different
translation?
Because, man, the first time Ilooked at the NIV, the New
International Version, I thoughtI was going straight to Hades
because I had been soindoctrinated that I was going
to go to hell for reading thewrong translation of the Bible,
because it wasn't the real one.
The church I went to at thetime called it the nearly
(28:49):
inspired version, goodnessgracious.
And yes, some translations arebetter than others.
But come on and so notice whathappens in your body when you
pick up a translation that maybeis new to you or foreign to you
, and let that sit with you.
And it is okay.
If you're like there's a lot ofactivation, I'm going to stop
(29:10):
for now.
Come back to it, but give it atry and see what happens with
you and see how it lands andover time you just make it
bigger.
Right, read two verses or asecond chapter, and it doesn't
have to be intense.
Just little bits at a time andstart to see the Lord's heart
for you and start to knowscripture for yourself in a
(29:32):
different way, and that willmake you very, very hard to
control scripture ever again.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode of hey Tabby.
I really hope that it washelpful.
I hope that you take a coupleof these things and give them a
try.
If you do, please be sure toreach out and let me know how it
went for you.
You can follow me over onInstagram at Tabitha the
(29:54):
counselor.
That's T-A-B-I-T-H-A thecounselor.
All one word, because Instagramright, and let me know what was
it like for you.
How was that experience for you?
I would love to see what youfind out for yourself.
If you liked this episode andyou found it helpful, please be
sure to like it and to subscribe.
It helps people who need itfind it and I look forward to
(30:17):
seeing you next time on our nextepisode of hey Tabby.
Thanks for joining me fortoday's episode of hey Tabby.
If you're looking for aresource that I mentioned in the
show and you want to check outthe show notes, head on over to
tabithawestbrookcom, forwardslash.
Hey, tabby, that'sH-E-Y-T-A-B-I and you can grab
(30:38):
it there.
I look forward to seeing younext time.
If you've ever had scripture twisted
against you to keep you silent,obedient or ashamed, you're not
alone.
Today we're talking about howreclaiming biblical literacy
isn't just about knowing yourBible.
It's about reclaiming yourfreedom, your faith and your
future.
Welcome to hey Tabby, thepodcast where we talk about the
hard things out loud, with ouractual lips.
(00:22):
We'll cover all kinds of topicsacross the mental health
spectrum, including how itintersects with the Christian
faith.
Nothing is off limits here andwe are not.
Take two verses and call me inthe morning.
I'm Tabitha Westbrook and I'm alicensed trauma therapist.
But I'm not your traumatherapist.
I'm an expert in domestic abuseand coercive control and how
complex trauma impacts ourhealth and well-being.
(00:43):
Our focus here is knowledge andhealing.
Trauma doesn't have to eat yourlunch forever.
There is hope.
Now let's get going.
Welcome to this week's episodeof hey Tabby.
I'm super glad that you're hereand hopefully you are settling
in to the fact that we are goingto talk about the Bible today
(01:05):
pretty directly, and I wanted todo this because one of the
things I've been finding as Iwork with people is that they
had scripture weaponized againstthem and then it makes it
really hard to enter back inwith the Bible.
When abusers use scripture as aweapon against someone, it can
really mess up theirrelationship with God and their
(01:26):
relationship with the Bible, andit can be really hard to pick
the Bible up again and to evenhold it in your hands, for
example, and, honestly, theBible was never meant to be a
weapon that was used against you, and knowing what it actually
says, like in full, can actuallychange everything.
I'm going to give you a littlebit of one of my own stories of
(01:49):
harm that used scripture as aweapon.
So I was in a situation with avery serious, really abusive
pastor.
This individual controlled,honestly, almost all aspects of
my life.
There were so many things thatthey had input in that they
really shouldn't have, but Ididn't know that at the time.
One of the things, however, oneof the good things that came
(02:10):
out of this was he had dared meto read the Bible cover to cover
.
At the time this is 25 yearsago now I had not done that,
even though I'm a pastor'sdaughter.
I grew up in the church.
I knew a ton of scripture.
I had never read from Genesisto Revelation, and so he dared
(02:32):
me to do that, and I will takemany dares if they are not
illegal or immoral, and so Isaid, okay, yes, I will.
And that actually proved to bethe thing that ended up getting
me out from under thisindividual's influence.
So I was dared to read it insix months.
And this is back in the day,right 25 years ago.
We didn't have apps, we didn'thave any of those things.
So it was this little card thatyou got that unfolded, and it
(02:55):
had all of the reading plans,and so I just doubled them up so
that I could finish them injust under six months, and I
remember having a pinkhighlighter.
I wish I still had that pieceof paper with all of this on it,
but I would highlight thescriptures as I read them.
And I finished on New Year'sEve of that year and handed it
over to him and said, see, I didit Now, though he was
(03:18):
coercively controlling.
I ended up making this a habitof my life and I have read the
Bible cover to cover everysingle year since then, and so
I'm on my 25th reading of that,and I'm not saying this to say
that I am cool or special orsuper holy or any of that.
I'm saying that it actuallytotally was what got me out of
(03:40):
abuse with this individual, andlet me explain, because I knew
scripture so well.
There was a point at which Godopened my eyes to the things
that were going on, and we'lltalk more about that in a minute
.
So, first of all, I use theterm biblical literacy, and I
want to make sure that youunderstand what I mean.
So, when I say biblicalliteracy, what I mean here is
(04:03):
understanding the true context,the meaning and the purpose of
scripture.
So I'm looking at it as a whole.
I'm studying the Bible well.
I'm understanding the nuancesthat are in it to the best of my
ability.
Now, look, we're not going tobe able to understand everything
.
I mean, have you read Ezekiel?
It's a lot, and I know, though,that the more that I do it and
(04:26):
the more that I study the wordof God, the more I'm going to be
brought into understanding bythe Holy Spirit.
Now, this is not aboutmemorizing verses, though I do
have a significant amount ofscripture memorized now, and I
think that is a wonderfulpractice to have if that is
something that you feel the Lorddrawing you into.
What I really mean is just thetrue understanding.
(04:47):
It's about knowing the heart ofGod in the scriptures.
The scriptures point us to himand I think sometimes we get
told in church that it's like anowner's manual, you know, like
if your carburetor goes out, youlike flip to the carburetor
section of the Bible and fix itor something.
But that's not really what itis.
What it does is it shows us theLord, and then it bears weight
(05:09):
in our lives and shows us how togo back to God, or it shows us
God's heart for us.
There's so much there, but it'sreally a picture of God and his
relationship with us and that'sthe most important aspect of it
.
And when we don't have goodbiblical literacy, it makes it
easier for abusers to weaponizescripture.
(05:31):
I think back to the Reformationand Martin Luther when he
finally read the scriptures forhimself, going wait a second.
This is getting distorted Now.
He was not a perfect man by anymeans, but he is the person who
nailed to the door of thechurch the 99 theses and what
started the ProtestantReformation.
And really the Catholic churchat the time was using its
(05:54):
knowledge of scriptures to lordit over others because they
couldn't read.
They didn't have access to theBible even if they could, and
the printing press reallychanged that right.
It gave us all access and eventhough different translations
are a whole thing and we'll talkabout that in a minute it
really does give us access tosee what God is saying to us.
(06:15):
Now I know that there is a lotof argument out there on whether
scripture is inerrant or notand I am just not going to get
into that today.
I'm going to tell you it'sreally helpful for healing and
it's really helpful for keepingyou from being spiritually
abused again.
So we're going to talk aboutthat and if you are a survivor,
you know things like submit canget really distorted.
(06:36):
Right, like wives, submit toyour husband, but it oftentimes
isn't quoted in context wherethey go back to the beginning of
Ephesians 5 and talk aboutsubmit to God, submit to each
other.
It doesn't talk about the otherverses geared to the husbands.
When we just take one sectionand if all we've ever been told,
as we've come up in the churchor in our marriage, this is what
(06:58):
the scripture says and you haveto do that and we've never
heard any of the things aroundit we are going to have the real
big chance of being led astray.
And I will say abusers like touse spiritual and biblical
illiteracy to make them seemmore important and make them
(07:18):
seem authoritative, and alsothen they use it to manipulate
and to coerce and to control.
And I will say this is fromSchoolhouse Rock back in the
like 80s and 90s.
Knowledge is power.
The more that we know the Biblefor ourselves, the more it is
going to be challenging to useit against us, and I think
(07:39):
that's really important,especially if you do go into
places and become advocates andthat sort of thing.
So I want to just again noticethat scripture often is used
against survivors.
You've heard me say it before,if you listen to this podcast,
that my definition of spiritualabuse is taking someone's good
and right devotion to God andusing it as a weapon against
(08:02):
them.
So a lot of times I will hearabout abusers that have maybe
gone to seminary or are pastors,elders, deacons you know
someone who's maybe read theBible but is using pieces of it.
I've had so many survivorswhose spouses are high up in
church structure, like pastorsor deacons or elders, saying,
(08:22):
well, they went to seminary, sothey must know how to interpret
it, and I'm like, notnecessarily they know how to
weaponize it.
If they're using it against you.
You don't have to go toseminary to figure out how to
interpret the Bible.
There actually is really greatstuff out there online, and I'll
give some resources for that injust a few minutes as well.
(08:42):
The misuse of scripture is oftenused to justify control, to
excuse abusive and coercivebehaviors and to silence
someone's suffering.
How many times have women heardjust suffer silently?
Have women heard just suffersilently?
You're suffering, like Jesus tokeep them in an abusive
situation?
That is not the heart of God byany stretch of the imagination.
(09:05):
Yet if we don't know forourselves that that is not what
the word says in those ways andthe stuff around those passages
that get pulled out of context,then we don't have a way to go.
Wait a second, it doesn't saythat and we end up taking it in
thinking, yeah, yeah, this, thismust be it.
I mean, they know they went toseminary.
(09:27):
There is a joke for folks whohave been around, folks that
been in seminary, that it isalso called cemetery, because
you go in there and your actualrelationship with God dies.
Now, look, that is a joke.
I have known wonderful men andwomen who've gone to seminary
and did not come out hating Godand thinking that he's not
(09:48):
really real, or just being sosick of reading scriptures or
anything like that.
There are some that do and manythat don't.
But obviously, when we misusethe word of God and we're using
it for our personal gain, we areway off, way off.
That should never be what we'redoing, and I know that if
you're like dude, I don't evenknow if I can pick up a Bible
(10:09):
right now, you're in goodcompany.
I totally get that.
I have lots of survivors that Iwork with who are like I picked
up the Bible and threw itacross the room, then felt
guilty about throwing it acrossthe room because it had been so
deeply distorted for them and itmade it really difficult to
even enter back in.
So this may not be the firstthing that you do in healing I
(10:30):
just want to say that but I dothink that this ultimately
really really helps you becauseyou do start to see the
character of God.
You see that he is a defenderof the oppressed, that he is
near to the brokenhearted.
You get to see that he is not afan of oppression at all.
In fact, he says real harshthings to people who lead the
(10:50):
sheep astray, and that issomething that, when we are in
those dark places, we can holdon to and say, oh, but I know
who he really is.
I know his heart and hischaracter.
We also really can lean in thathe doesn't condone abuse or
coercion or harm.
He came to end oppression andto set the captives free, and if
(11:14):
you've ever been in an abusive,coercively controlling
situation, you know that youfeel like a captive.
In fact, we call it when weteach advocacy class a captivity
crime.
It is very similar to being aprisoner of war and how it
impacts your body.
If you don't know what the Biblereally says, someone else will
always try to tell you who Godis, and the thing is they might
(11:37):
be wrong or flat out lying toyou.
Now I'm not saying you're goingto study the Bible and you're
going to get it perfectly andyou're going to go.
Yes, I know all the things.
That's just not how this works,let's be honest.
But we are going to have a muchbetter understanding.
There is so much that you canstudy in the Bible and learn and
know and grow in, and I thinkwhen we do that, when we avail
(11:57):
ourselves of that, we get tolearn really cool stuff about
God and go oh my gosh, man, Inever thought about it that way.
Or wow, lord, like this isreally cool.
And then sometimes we go.
That is a really weird storyand I don't know what to do with
that.
I just want to normalize all ofthat about the Bible.
One of the things that I seevery often in practice is that
(12:19):
particular versions of the Bibleget weaponized the most.
So I would say the ones I seethe most are the King James
Version, the New King JamesVersion and the English Standard
Version.
So the KJV, the NKJV and theESV are the ones I tend to see
most weaponized against others.
(12:40):
Now, you can have any versionweaponized against you by a
wicked person.
Anybody can pull a piece of ascripture out or one verse and
tell you things, but those arethe three translations that by
far I see have the biggestissues.
I will say and this is mypersonal opinion, you can come
to a different conclusion if youlike that the ESV in particular
(13:02):
really has missed the mark insome ways.
It's a more recent translation.
There are some things that aregendered in ways I don't think
that they should be, and so youcan go do that deep dive if
you're interested in that sortof thing.
I am least comfortable rightnow with that version.
I grew up on the King JamesVersion and the New King James
(13:23):
Version.
In fact, my very first Biblewas the New King James Version.
It was a Pink Precious MomentsBible.
I still have it.
I read it so much that Mark toRevelation fell out.
It just literally fell out andI had to shove it back in there
because I'd used it so much.
But there were so manyscriptures that were weaponized
against me in that version thatit at one point was extremely
(13:46):
difficult for me to read and tothink through without getting
extremely activated.
And that might be the case foryou with any number of versions.
So if it's been hard for you topick up a Bible in your house
or in your vehicle or whereverit is that you have that, then I
get that.
(14:06):
It can be really difficultbecause it brings up all those
memories, especially if you wentto a church that is high
controlling as well.
Then you may have a milliondifferent feels on this and it's
very difficult.
But when you're ready, I want toencourage you to consider ways
to enter back in.
One is experimentation.
(14:27):
So I want to encourage you toexperiment with different
versions, and one of the coolestthings is that on our phones
these days we have like everyversion.
You can get it in multiplelanguages.
If you would like to read theBible in Spanish, you can do
that.
It's fantastic.
If you don't speak Spanish, itmight be hard to know what it
says, but you can do it in somany different ways.
So if you're like I don't wantto go out and buy 12 different
(14:50):
Bibles to figure out which one'snot going to activate all the
trauma responses, totally getthat.
But YouVersion, the Bible app,is really helpful.
If you're like, wait, that appalone triggers me because who
knows what's happened, I don'tknow your story Then pick
another app that has multipleversions of the Bible available
to you and try scriptures thatyou're familiar with in
(15:12):
different versions.
Now look all of them.
Translate Jesus wept as Jesuswept.
Right, I mean, it's going to bethe shortest verse in any
translation.
But try different passages indifferent translations.
So, for example, you might takea look at the New Living
Translation or the NLT in Psalm,let's say, 27.
(15:34):
And you might read Psalm 27 inthe New Living Translation, the
King James Version, the New KingJames Version living
translation, the King Jamesversion, the New King James
version, the ESV and theChristian Standard Bible, or CSV
, and see which ones feel thebest to your body and if any of
them, if you're like I can't,they're all too close, oh my
goodness gracious.
Then try, maybe the message.
So maybe take a look at Psalm27 in the message and see how
(15:57):
that reads, because the messageis done more story related.
It's definitely a thought forthought, not word for word
translation, and it has a bitmore of a poetic feel to it.
So a lot of times, survivors Iwork with are able to access the
message better and able tostart to read a little bit at a
(16:20):
time in that version and andagain, you don't have to just go
, okay, I'm going to go read theentire word of God this year.
Enter in slowly, right?
I want you to be safe as you'redoing this.
I want you to consider what'shappening in your body and be
noticing it and don't do it outof duty, right?
God understands where you areand he wants to hang out with
(16:42):
you, so he's not going to belike you know what?
You only spent five minutesreading the message today.
I don't know what we're goingto do with that.
He's going to be like hey, I'mhere, I get it.
You were really harmed and Ihate that that happened to you
and I want to help you heal.
That's really his heart towardyou.
Another one that I use all thetime is the Jesus Storybook
(17:03):
Bible.
You heard that right and yes,that is a children's Bible, but
it's a really, really well donechildren's Bible.
It's my favorite one that I'veever had and yes, I do, in fact,
as a grown adult, have thatBible and we have them in our
offices because sometimes it isthe most accessible way for
someone to begin looking back atthe word of God.
(17:25):
Now, look, you're not going todo deep theological study from
the Jesus storybook Bible, butyou are going to start coming
back to the word of God and itdoes such a beautiful job of
showing how the Bible points toJesus and I think that that is a
good thing.
And it doesn't overly sanitize.
Now, it's not going to give youthe great detail on the flood
(17:47):
and like how really awful thatwas and all of that.
It's not.
You're not going to get all ofthose details or some of the
darker stories and when you'retrying to recover from trauma.
Sometimes that's really good,and so you can look at that and
read those things and just takeit for what it is right.
It's a really easy, verysegmented.
You can read one story, it's afew pages, and that is just a
(18:10):
great way to enter back in.
And one of my favorite lines ofall time comes from that one,
and it is that Jesus is makingall the sad things come untrue
Because when he comes back, itis going to heal all the broken,
and I think that that conceptis super important and it really
speaks to that throughout theentire book, and so I recommend
(18:32):
definitely getting the JesusStorybook Bible.
And if you're like well, I can'treally carry around the
children's book, I hear youespecially if you're an adult
who doesn't have children, I cansee how that might feel a
little bit weird.
But I would encourage you maybeget a digital reading app.
Perhaps even your library hasit for download and that can be
another thing that you can do tostart orienting yourself back
(18:55):
to the word of God and buildingyour biblical literacy muscle,
and really it's okay totemporarily set it aside if it's
just having a hard time for youand you're like maybe I'm not
quite ready for it yet.
Another tip that I will giveyou on this as well is to find
something that helps you studythe Bible, and what I mean by
(19:15):
finding something, finding arhythm and something like Jen
Wilkins' books on studying theword of God can be really
helpful.
I think Jen presents the waythat you study the Bible in such
a clear and beautiful manner.
I am a big fan.
I think her theology overall isquite good.
I've listened to quite a bit ofher stuff and done a number of
(19:37):
her Bible studies at this pointand I found them to be very
solid.
I have found her to be a verycredible source, particularly
for women who have been harmed.
Now, I know that maybe noteveryone feels that way, but
that is just one example ofperhaps a place you could go.
So if you've never actuallyeven studied the Bible for
yourself because sometimesyou're not even allowed to do
(19:59):
that you know your spouse won'tlet you have your own Bible or
your abuser in your life willkeep you from having access to
these things.
I know that I went to a churchat one point that had a banned
reading list like there werebanned books and one of those
was Beth Moore.
We were not allowed to utilizeBeth Moore studies, which was
ridiculous, and I remember doingmy first Beth Moore study and
(20:22):
thinking, my goodness, I ambreaking every rule All the
rules are being broken here, butI found it to be extremely
biblical, extremelytheologically sound and have
done a number of them over theyears and I think you have to
find, maybe, what your style is.
I will say that Jen Wilkin tendsto use the ESV in a lot of the
(20:42):
studies.
So if that is a hardertranslation for you, you might
just want to be aware of thatgoing into it.
But her how to study the Biblework is really, really good and
you can always adapt somethingto the needs that you have.
So if you're like man Jen isusing the ESV to ask these
questions or enter into thisBible study, I'm going to use a
different one.
I'll look at it just so that Ikind of know where she's going.
(21:03):
But I'm going to look at maybethe CSV and the Christian
Standard Bible honestly isprobably the one that I use the
most right now.
That is the one that is mygo-to.
I also tend to gravitate forsome things for the New Living
Translation, depending on whatI'm doing, but on what I'm doing
.
But again, don't do what I dobecause it works for me.
(21:24):
Do what you need to do becauseit works for you.
And the point is to know God'sword and to know the heart of
God.
And we don't want to getdogmatic right.
Dogma got us here, rigid rulesgot us here, where someone said
this is what it is and they haveto do it this way and that is
not the heart of God.
I think that there actually areways to come to very different
conclusions.
(21:44):
Sometimes we used to call themopen and closed hand issues, and
maybe people still do.
I feel a bit like we're notvery charitable in the world
right now about talking aboutdiffering opinions and whatnot,
but like an open hand issuewould be tribulation.
It doesn't have a thing to dowith salvation.
Salvation is all the closedhand stuff how we get saved, who
(22:06):
Jesus is, all that stuff thatwe would say is closed hand.
Everybody should believeroughly the same thing about
that because it is orthodox tothe faith.
It's very clear in the Biblethat sort of thing.
The things like rapture andtribulation are not, and I know
that I grew up in a system thatwas what we would call pre-trib.
So rapture was going to happenbefore the tribulation began,
(22:29):
which would be like all the leftbehind books and all of that.
You're now getting a little bitof insight on the way that I
was raised.
And then some people weremid-trib we would be raptured in
the middle of the tribulationand some people were post-trib
we would be raptured in themiddle of the tribulation and
some people were post-trib wewould be not raptured.
I don't know what was supposedto happen at the end of the
tribulation, but everythinghappened after the tribulation
took place and Christians werestill around.
And, man, there are some hotdebates on that stuff.
(22:51):
I don't know if you've everdone a theological deep dive and
looked at the internet for someof that, but oh honey, it can
be a lot.
Now, that's not the purpose ofthis podcast, but those are
things that people can come todifferent conclusions and not be
wicked.
You can be pre-trib, mid-trib,post-trib, whatever, and still
(23:14):
be completely orthodox in yourfaith and not be a heretic.
And so I want to just say thatthere are different things and
that we can wrestle with thosethings, and as we learn to study
the Bible, things may change,and I'm going to use the
tribulation and rapture as anexample, because that is
something that has changed forme.
I'm pan-trib.
It'll all pan out in the end.
I used to be very solidlypre-trib before I did some study
(23:38):
on my own, and I can't come tothat place now in my own study
of the Bible.
Now that doesn't mean that Ihave gone liberal, become woke,
whatever it is that someonewants to say about it.
What it means is I readsomething and read it enough and
prayed over it that I can't saywith certainty anymore that
(23:59):
pre-tribulation, rapture is athing and that is okay, there's
nothing wrong with that.
And so I want to just give youthat freedom that you might come
to some conclusions that maybeyou grew up in or raised in and
go, oh my gosh, I don't, I don'tknow that I can come to that
conclusion anymore.
(24:20):
One of them for me also was Godhates divorce which.
How many times do we hear that?
But if you go and you read thatentire passage in Malachi, you
actually find that God hates menwho are harming their wives and
putting them out and goinggetting a younger honey,
essentially from a nearby nation.
And if you read that entirety,you go, oh, oh.
(24:43):
It doesn't just say God hatesdivorce.
Oh, because you've now read itfor yourself and you've read it
in context and you know what itsays more fully.
And that's really, really thegift of having biblical literacy
.
I will be honest with you Idon't know that churches in
general some of them now, someare great.
Please don't hear me say either, when I'm talking about church
(25:07):
struggles, that I broad brushall churches.
I have amazing pastor friendsin my life.
I go to an actual church and Idon't think all pastors are
terrible by any stretch of theimagination or that most pastors
are trying to just do the wrongthing.
But I do think that in thechurch as a whole, in a lot of
places we don't have goodbiblical literacy, even in the
(25:29):
leadership, and that's a shameand that's another reason for
you to have it, because if youare trying to get out of a
situation that is coercivelycontrolling and scripture has
been weaponized against you totry to keep you there, this
gives you power, gives you thepower of god to go.
No, and if you are advocatingfor somebody, if you have
(25:51):
excellent biblical literacy, youhave a leg to stand on for
everybody that goes to the callto peace advocacy class and
hears me talk about scriptureand unpack certain things and
all of that stuff.
I have done that through studyand I'm not the only person that
can do stuff like that If wehave a number of our training
team that is right there with meon it.
(26:13):
And it has been such a gift,not only to me in my own life
but to survivors that I workwith, for me to be able to go no
, no, no, no, no that's that'sincorrectly espoused upon Like
we need to look at thisdifferently.
Let's look at it together incontext, and it is not abnormal
for me to pull out a Bible in asession and go let's look at
(26:33):
this together and let's look atthe whole thing.
And then let's go here and hereand here and cross-reference
different things, and it is sucha gift for you to be able to do
that yourself.
And again, this isn't anovernight thing.
I'm on my 25th year of readingthrough the whole Bible, so it
has taken me a long time to getto the place that I am, and you
can get to that over time aswell.
And again, you can go in littlebaby pieces.
(26:56):
You don't have to do thisovernight, but it is such an
important thing and such a bigpart of your healing because you
will see the heart of Godtoward you to be able to grow in
your biblical literacy.
So I want to just close this byinviting you to try just the
tiniest bit to see if you hear adifferent tone in God's voice
(27:20):
toward you.
Sometimes we are taught to readthe scriptures as if he's mad
at us, and he's not.
Why would he send his son todie for us if he was like just
perpetually upset?
Now does he get angry overwickedness?
Yes, I would say, the personGod is mad at is not the victim,
but it is the perpetrator,without question.
And so I want to invite you tomaybe look at a scripture that
(27:42):
you're familiar with in adifferent translation and maybe
hear the voice of the Lorddifferently in it.
And again, just start small.
It can be one verse, onechapter of Psalms, a simple
prayer that says God, pleasehelp me just even open my Bible,
because right now I would liketo throw it across the room.
One of my favorite scripturesis Psalm 34, 18, and that just
(28:04):
talks about the Lord being closeto the brokenhearted.
He is near the crushed inspirit.
So maybe take a look at that intwo, three translations that
are unfamiliar to you and writeit down in each of those
translations and then just letit sit with you and journal
about your experience.
And you can even journal aboutyour experience in terms of what
(28:27):
was it like to pick up theBible, what was it like to open
up the Bible app, what was itlike to pick a different
translation?
Because, man, the first time Ilooked at the NIV, the New
International Version, I thoughtI was going straight to Hades
because I had been soindoctrinated that I was going
to go to hell for reading thewrong translation of the Bible,
because it wasn't the real one.
The church I went to at thetime called it the nearly
(28:49):
inspired version, goodnessgracious.
And yes, some translations arebetter than others.
But come on and so notice whathappens in your body when you
pick up a translation that maybeis new to you or foreign to you
, and let that sit with you.
And it is okay.
If you're like there's a lot ofactivation, I'm going to stop
(29:10):
for now.
Come back to it, but give it atry and see what happens with
you and see how it lands andover time you just make it
bigger.
Right, read two verses or asecond chapter, and it doesn't
have to be intense.
Just little bits at a time andstart to see the Lord's heart
for you and start to knowscripture for yourself in a
(29:32):
different way, and that willmake you very, very hard to
control scripture ever again.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode of hey Tabby.
I really hope that it washelpful.
I hope that you take a coupleof these things and give them a
try.
If you do, please be sure toreach out and let me know how it
went for you.
You can follow me over onInstagram at Tabitha the
(29:54):
counselor.
That's T-A-B-I-T-H-A thecounselor.
All one word, because Instagramright, and let me know what was
it like for you.
How was that experience for you?
I would love to see what youfind out for yourself.
If you liked this episode andyou found it helpful, please be
sure to like it and to subscribe.
It helps people who need itfind it and I look forward to
(30:17):
seeing you next time on our nextepisode of hey Tabby.
Thanks for joining me fortoday's episode of hey Tabby.
If you're looking for aresource that I mentioned in the
show and you want to check outthe show notes, head on over to
tabithawestbrookcom, forwardslash.
Hey, tabby, that'sH-E-Y-T-A-B-I and you can grab
(30:38):
it there.
I look forward to seeing younext time.
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