by Jen | Jan 27, 2026 | DISO studies, Introduction, Psalm 23
Hello! Thank you for joining me for this eight-week study of the 23rd Psalm.
This is the first study in my new series called “God, Who?” focusing on names of God found in His Word. By studying these names, I’m looking forward to seeing how God has revealed Himself over time to certain people and what that reflects about His unchanging character.
I’m starting with Psalm 23 because it has special meaning for me: I heard Psalm 23:4 spoken over me the day I was turned away from suicide and put my faith in Jesus. But I was so biblically illiterate, I had no idea my life had been supernaturally protected. All I knew for sure was that something prevented me from picking up the loaded gun, and my soul immediately praised and thanked God. Moreover, from that point on, life was different.
Let’s Study Psalm 23!
This week, I’ll begin by praying and surveying Psalm 23. If you want to study on your own with me, here’s what I recommend you have ready:
- A copy of Psalm 23.
I like to refer often to the text I’m studying and sometimes make notes on it, so I copy the passage from blueletterbible.org, paste it into a word processing program like Google Docs or MS Word, change the formatting to suit my preferences, and print it out. If you want to use the ESV translation, here’s a pdf of my Scripture study sheet.
- A study journal.
We’ll spend the next seven weeks immersed in and learning about Psalm 23. And the work we’ll do each week builds on what came before, so plan to record at least some highlights from your work over the coming weeks. I’m old-school and like the pen-and-paper method for journaling my studies, but it’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. If you don’t have time to write out or type your notes, consider dictating them into a notes app or recording audio files instead.
Or, you may decide to just read the entries posted here, and that’s great, too. You’ll get familiar with the process and see how the Spirit speaks to my situation. Either way, I appreciate you checking in with me, even if you can’t dig into Psalm 23 yourself this time.
Dig-In Challenges
So, here’s how I’ll be studying this week:
- PRAY: I’ll be creating a prayer with which I’ll start each of my weekly study sessions. If you’ve studied with me before, you know I usually just adapt a previous prayer. Though I’ve pretty much memorized my prayer, I still write it in my study journal as a reminder to pray each time I start studying.
- SURVEY: Then I’ll read Psalm 23, noting anything that makes me say, “huh?” (as in, “I wonder what that means?”) or “wow” (as in, “that is so awesome!”). I’ll record these and later ask the Spirit to direct me to the one I should dig into right now.
If you’d like more information about these steps, check out this printable summary of the process I’ll be using here. Or, you can always reach out to me with your questions through my contact page or at [email protected].
I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover in this process with you, and I hope you’ll keep checking in with me each week!
GO TO WEEK 2 >
by Jen | Dec 2, 2025 | DISO studies, Galatians 5, Introduction
Hello! I’m so glad you’re joining me for this eight-week study of Galatians Chapter 5.
This is the final study in my current Restoration series of a dozen or so previously examined passages. The original studies are no longer available online. Rather than repost those earlier versions I created using previous iterations of my study method, I’m redoing them here with the current DISO process. I’ve loved having those earlier posts for comparison as I work through familiar passages, but when this study ends in eight weeks, I feel the Spirit leading me into passages I haven’t yet explored. So, stay tuned for new adventures in Bible study! In the meantime, though…
Let’s Study Galatians 5!
This week, I’ll begin by praying and surveying Galatians 5. If you want to study on your own with me, here’s what I recommend you have ready:
- A copy of Galatians 5, plus access to the entire letter to the Galatians.
I like to refer often to the text I’m studying and sometimes make notes on it, so I copy the passage from blueletterbible.org, paste it into a word processing program like Google Docs or MS Word, change the formatting to suit my preferences, and print it out. If you want to use the ESV translation, here’s a pdf of my Scripture study sheet with lots of room for doodles and notes.
- A study journal.
We’ll spend the next seven weeks immersed in and learning about Galatians 5. And the work we’ll do each week builds on what came before, so plan to record at least some highlights from your work over the coming weeks. I’m old-school and like the pen-and-paper method for journaling my studies, but it’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. If you can’t or don’t want to write your notes, consider dictating them into a notes app or recording audio files instead.
Or, you may decide to just read the entries posted here, and that’s great, too. You’ll get familiar with the process and see how the Spirit speaks to my situation. Either way, I appreciate you checking in with me, even if you can’t dig into Galatians 5 yourself this time.
Dig-In Challenges
So, here’s how I’ll be studying this week:
- PRAY: I’ll be creating a prayer with which I’ll start each of my weekly study sessions. If you’ve studied with me before, you know I usually just adapt a previous prayer. Though I’ve pretty much memorized my prayer, I still write it in my study journal as a reminder to pray each time I start studying.
- SURVEY: Then I’ll read Galatians 5, noting anything that makes me say, “huh?” (as in, “I wonder what that means?”) or “wow” (as in, “that is so awesome!”). I’ll record these and later ask the Spirit to direct me to the one I should dig into right now.
If you’d like more information about these steps, check out this printable summary of the process I’ll be using over the next eight weeks. Or, you can always reach out to me with your questions through my contact page or at [email protected]. I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover in this process with you, along with relevant snippets of my previous study from 2021, so I hope you’ll keep checking in with me each week!
GO TO WEEK 2 >
by Jen | Nov 25, 2025 | DISO studies, Romans 12
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Hi — Here are my responses to last week’s challenges!
Last Week’s Work
LESSON(S) LEARNED
As I thought about everything the Spirit showed me in Romans 12, I realized Paul was coaching the Roman church to behave like good relatives: to accept one another as equal members of the family under the authority of our heavenly Father. This is a challenge for me. I have only one vague memory of my earthly father and lots of experience competing with my older brother and sister for positive reinforcement from adults in our extended family. But the focus on think (v3) in this study helps me realize family can mean something different than my experiences. I’m chewing on a couple comments: there is no such thing as Lone Ranger Christianity (Jim Gerrish), and the Christian Church… is still the place where all earthly distinctions are gone (William Barclay). In other words, it doesn’t matter who we were before Jesus. Salvation means our old persona died with Christ, and our new selves born of water and the Spirit might look the same as we did, but we’re not. We are children of God, Jesus is our brother, and none of us is better or worse than anyone else in this family. The only appropriate response to that is to treat each other with love and respect.
CONVICTION
I keep hearing Sister Sledge from 1979 (yes, I remember back that far!) singing We Are Family. That’s the overarching lesson I think the Spirit is impressing upon me: that Christians are family, and our Father is supernaturally fair. We don’t need to compete for anything when we trust Him for everything.
CORRECTION
My correction verse is from a different study I recently finished with my church sisters: Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:11-13). I believe the Spirit is prompting me to see the discontent that arises when I compare myself to others. I can always find someone who is more or better than I am, and my enemy loves to point that out to sow division. Especially in God’s family.
ACTION PLAN
But if I think, I can stop my runaway brain the same way Paul did: learning the discipline of contentment. One key to this is found in Romans 12: being transformed by the renewal of [my] mind (v2). I plan to do that by (1) recognizing when I start comparing and (2) using Scripture or my personal experiences to remind myself it’s not a competition.
Our Next Study
Next week begins the last study in our Restoration series, Galatians 5:1-26. It’s a deep dive into the fruit of the Spirit. I hope you’ll join me!
by Jen | Nov 18, 2025 | DISO studies, Romans 12
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Welcome back! This week, I finished refining my understanding of Romans 12 verses 3 and 16, and here’s what I discovered:
Last Week’s Work
CROSS-REFERENCES
These references stood out this week:
- Micah 6:8 lists humility among the three most important tasks believers can accomplish!
- James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 both quote Proverbs 3:34, reinforcing the truth that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. As I reviewed several commentaries, it seemed what Paul is advocating here is balance: to be effective for the gospel, we must balance our self-evaluation—not too high so as to treat others poorly nor too low to beat ourselves up all the time.
- Philippians 4:11-13 and 1 Timothy 6:6-9, which both mention Christian contentment: finding satisfaction no matter what our situation. I believe humility helps us achieve and maintain contentment
OTHER TRANSLATIONS
Regarding verse 3, I felt drawn to the NLT version, which I believe practically summarizes my whole study:
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
As much as these mindset commands were directed to Jews, Gentiles, and Romans of all social strata, I see it applicable to us in contemporary congregations, too. And verse 16 provides some examples of what it looks like when we sincerely think that way: in the AMP version, we’re told to live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty [conceited, self-important, exclusive], but associate with humble people [those with a realistic self-view]. Do not overestimate yourself.
COMMENTARY
Confession: I spent entirely too much time in commentaries this week because I didn’t have a single, clearly defined goal there. Predictably, I just wandered through them, sampling everything, which meant I came away with too much to write about. From that excess, I pulled these ideas:
- Seeing faith as a gift of God helps me realize my self-worth doesn’t have to depend on worldly conditions that can change (my job, my health, my wealth, my social status, etc.) but, as Barnes put it, on our attachment to God, and the influence of faith on our minds.
- I also appreciated Bonifay’s perspective in Contending for the Faith, which indicates we
… must be “fair-minded” in [our] judgment of things, determining [our] proper relationship with God and [our] fellow [believers]. Each Christian must learn to make an [sic] humble but fair-minded and sober assessment of his spiritual gifts and ethical obligations. Then [we] must use them to the glory of God’s name and not [our] own.
- And we should [measure ourselves] by the objective standard God has given in the gospel, which forces [us] to think on things in which [we are] on the same level with fellow Christians rather than those things in which [we] may be either superior or inferior to them. Each Christian must recognize his dependence on and submission to Christ.
- Finally, when examining v3, I loved the sense of community envisioned by Gerrish (Light of Israel Bible Commentary) We are living sacrifices together; we are transformed together; we are the Body of Christ together; and we make up the holy temple of God together. There is no such thing as “Lone Ranger” Christianity.
Here are a few of my findings for verse 16:
- Again from Gerrish: harmony is possible in the church when believers gain a proper perspective of themselves in Christ.
- Price (Living by Faith Commentary of Romans and 1 Corinthians) defines harmony as having the same attitude towards one another. We view each other with the same level of importance and we are dependent upon the other members in the body.
- I also liked Calvin’s (Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible) suggestion to give honor to others, not [ourselves]. Tall order, huh?!
- Finally, I had to include this observation from Barclay (Barclay’s Daily Study Bible): [In the Roman Empire] the Christian Church was the only place where master and slave sat side by side. It is still the place where all earthly distinctions are gone, for with God there is no respect of persons. I reviewed several commentaries this past week. From my notes, these observations stood out:
Dig-In Challenges
This coming week, let’s wrap up our study of Luke 15:11-32 and align with what we’ve discovered here:
- PRAY: Read the prayer created in Step 1.
- ALIGN: Review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned in this study.
- ALIGN: Then, considering those “lessons learned,” think about how the Spirit has convicted us through this study. In other words, where has He shown us misalignment between what we’ve discovered and how we practice our faith?
- ALIGN: Next, let’s look to God’s Word for guidance to correct that misalignment. This is often—but not always—a verse from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
- ALIGN: And finally, reflect on how we can change thoughts or actions to align more closely with what we’ve discovered here. To make this work, I commit to change something and do my best to act on that commitment every day for at least three weeks.
If you haven’t been able to work through everything with me in the last seven weeks, I encourage you to read through my previous posts in this series and ask the Holy Spirit to work with you on steps 3-5 above. I know the Lord will bless your efforts to understand and apply His Word!
GO TO WEEK 8 >
by Jen | Nov 11, 2025 | DISO studies, Romans 12
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Hi! This is Veteran’s Day in the US, when we honor our service members and their families, who also sacrifice for our defense. Your hard work and dedication make us the great nation we are, and I thank you and pray that God blesses you abundantly. Amen!
Last Week’s Work
WRITING TYPES
From Romans 1:1, this is a letter from Paul, the apostle. In 1:7, it’s addressed “… to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints… (emphasis mine).” Chapter 12 contains mostly instructional text, and I believe it should be interpreted literally.
LITERAL CONTEXT
Between his opening and our study text, Paul explains Jewish believers are no better than the Gentiles/Greeks: all have sinned (Romans 3:23, 10:12) and need Jesus, the Savior. He explained the effects of justification by faith and compared Adam’s sin to Jesus’s righteous sacrifice (Romans 5). He argued believers’ faith is evident by how they conduct themselves, though he acknowledged it’s challenging to allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 12 opens with Paul urging Roman believers to worship God through physical action and mental transformation and provides numerous examples of how this could play out in their lives.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
According to the ESV Global Study Bible, the apostle Paul wrote this book, likely from Corinth, Greece, about AD 57. Paul had been converted to Christianity while on the way to Damascus about 23 years earlier (Acts 9:1-19). He wrote this letter to build unity in the church in Rome, which was made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. Not only were the people ethnically and culturally different, but they also came from different socio-economic backgrounds. Other historical references I’ve studied indicate this could also cause division in the first-century church, since the prevailing social norm in Rome dictated people never associated with others outside their class.
INTERLINEAR RESEARCH
My dig into the Greek centered on the phrases to think so as to be soberminded (v3); live in harmony (v16), and associate with the lowly (v16). Here’s what I discovered from Biblehub.com:
- To think (G5426 phronein) … have an ongoing inner posture of humility (as opposed to a single humble act) …
- So as (G1519 eis) … with the target being…
- To be soberminded (G4993 sōphronein) … adoption of a God-controlled perspective on one’s personal importance…
- Live in harmony (G5426 phronein) NOTE: this is the same word used in v3! In this usage, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon indicates Paul means that the Romans should be of the same mind toward one another, which makes me think they were expected to treat one another as equals. What culture shock!
- Associate with the lowly (G4879 synapagomenoi G5011 tapeinois) … G4879 conveys a picture of being swept along with the group. The Topical Lexicon section says it underscores the power of corporate influence… to humble fellowship; and G5011 describes the person who depends on the Lord rather than self, according to the HELPS Word-Studies section of the website (emphasis in original). This reminded me of a passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he talks about how he could brag about his Judaism pedigree, but he counts it as a loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:3-11).
Dig-In Challenges
This week, let’s wrap up the second half of the Refine step by examining cross-references, other translations, and, if you want, checking out one or more commentaries on this passage.
- Pray, of course.
- REFINE: Then consult a concordance or online cross-reference study tool (I’ll be starting here) to find and read through the available cross-references for your focus verse(s) and log what the Spirit shows you.
NOTE: for your study, follow the above link, then use the Prev or Next buttons below the verse text to go to the verse(s) for your study.
- REFINE: Next, compare at least a few other translations of your focus verse(s) and write about what you find in your study journal. I’ll be comparing ESV, AMP, NIV, and GNT starting with this biblehub.com page. Compare your study verses with that link by entering them in the Enter Reference or Keyword box at the top of the page and clicking the spyglass icon there.
- REFINE: Last, I plan to check a few commentaries on Romans. If you already have a favorite study Bible or commentary, feel free to review it, too. If you don’t, I recommend these websites:
If you’re new to the Bible or Bible study, I’d start at bibleref.com, where you can find information about the whole book and this passage.
If you’re looking for something with more detail, try checking the commentary section of StudyLight.org. There, you can access verse-by-verse commentaries on Romans 12 by clicking the box for your focus verse, then clicking the name of the commentary listed immediately under the text of the verse you chose. I recommend you review more than one commentary and listen to the Spirit’s guidance on them.
Hope you’ll check in with me again next week!
GO TO WEEK 7 >
