The Birth of Thinking Biblically

About 2006, I was teaching Sunday School and managing the entire Sunday School department at my church.  I was enjoying it, but I wanted to break into writing.  I needed an outlet for my writing, because it is terribly boring to write if no one will get to read it. 

I got an idea.  Every week our church passes out a bulletin to let everyone know the order of service and the things that are going on in the church.  At the time, the bulletin usually had 1 to 4 additional half sheets of paper tucked in with additional information. 

My idea was to write a short devotion to print on one of these pages each week.  I went to the pastor to get permission.  I set up my word processor to have two half sheets side-by-side.  I put a verse or two at the top of the page, and then I discussed the meaning of the passage for the rest of the space. 

I needed a name to put at the top of the page.  I thought about what I was trying to accomplish by teaching through the written word.  I came up with two words.

Thinking Biblically

I started writing each week and sending the finished product to the church secretary to be copied and put in the bulletin.  There was one problem.  No one knew where it came from because I decided not to put my name on it. 

Thinking Biblically was well received, but some of the people thought the pastor was writing it, and others thought it was taken from a book.  Probably nobody guessed that Chris Hepner was writing them. 

After a few weeks, the pastor came to me and said, “You have to put your name the bulletin devotions.”  He quickly got tired of people coming to him asking about their source.  I gladly obliged. 

I did that for seven years before moving on to other endeavors.

 

Later when I decided to get into online ministry, it took me two seconds to think of a name. 

Thinking Biblically perfectly encapsulates what I want my students to do.  Through our past experiences, we have all been trained to think in different ways.  My wife is a nurse.  When she watches hospital shows, she yells about all the things they get wrong.  Why?  Because she’s spent 18 years in the hospital doing it the right way.  She sees things that the rest of us miss because she thinks like a nurse. 

I walk into any fast food restaurant, see employees standing around, and think “They need to reduce their labor costs.”  You may have guessed that I used to manage a restaurant.  I was trained to think about these things.

We are followers of Christ.  We should do the things that Christ calls us to do.  The most basic way we know what God wants is to know the book he has given us.  Therefore, every believer needs to be learning what the Bible says, and how to apply it to their everyday lives. 

Unfortunately, most believers don’t know how to do this because they’ve never been shown.  That’s where Thinking Biblically comes in.  It is my mission in life to show believers how to interact with the Word of God, so they know what God wants them to do. 

I want to help you with this.

 

 

Not by giving you more information to memorize, but by helping you learn a new way to think.

Because that’s really the issue. Most Christians are not lacking access to the Bible. We have more translations, tools, and resources than any generation before us. The problem is not access—it’s understanding. And even more than that, it’s application.

We read the Bible, but we don’t always know what to do with what we read.

Thinking biblically means learning how to approach Scripture the right way. It means asking the right questions.

Who is speaking?

Who are they speaking to?

What is the context?

What does this passage teach about God?

What does it reveal about people?

And most importantly—how should this change the way I live today?

This is not just for pastors, teachers, or “serious” Christians. This is for every believer.

God did not give us His Word so that only a few experts could understand it. He gave it to all of us so that all of us could know Him, follow Him, and live lives that honor Him.

Imagine what would happen if you began to think biblically in your everyday life.

When you face a decision, you wouldn’t just ask, “What do I feel?” or “What do others think?” You would ask, “What does God say?”

When you go through a trial, you wouldn’t be shaken as easily, because you would recognize how God uses suffering for growth.

When you interact with others, your responses would be shaped more by truth than by emotion.

This kind of thinking doesn’t happen overnight. It is built over time—through consistent time in God’s Word, careful study, and intentional application.

That’s what Thinking Biblically is all about.

It’s about helping you move from simply reading the Bible to actually understanding it…
From understanding it to applying it…
And from applying it to being transformed by it.

My goal is simple: to show you how you can open your Bible on your own and know what it says, what it means, and what to do with it.

Because when you learn to think biblically, you don’t just gain knowledge—you gain direction, confidence, and a deeper relationship with God.

So wherever you are right now—whether you feel confident in your Bible reading or completely overwhelmed—I want to invite you to take the next step.

Open your Bible.
Slow down.
Ask good questions.
And begin the process of learning to think biblically.

It will change the way you see everything.