Hi! My name is Caitlyn, and I’m studying the Bible, using the SOAP method invented (or at least popularized) by Wayne Cordeiro. I started with the book of Ephesians, then worked my way through Leviticus and Colossians, and now I’m in Isaiah. For theologically-dense books like Ephesians and Colossians I move by about five verses a day, and for books with more elaboration on each idea like Leviticus and Isaiah I read about half a chapter a day.
Each post will have four parts:
S – Scripture. Cordeiro suggests using a plan to read the Bible in a year, which means reading about three chapters a day. I find that a bit daunting and not very conducive to my personal learning style, so I read less. Once I’ve read the day’s passage, I’ll pick one verse (or half-verse, or whatever makes sense to me – remember that the verse divisions in our Bibles are somewhat arbitrary) and write it here. I mostly use the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) but I’ll mix things up when I feel like it.
O – Observation. This is what the verse means, in the context it is written, as best as I can figure out. What God is telling me with this passage, sort of thing.
A – Application. How the verse applies to us, what special meaning it holds. This tends to be my weakness – I’m a pretty abstract thinker and won’t always have a practical application.
P – Prayer. Fairly self-explanatory, I think.
This used to be a daily-ish devotional blog. Now it’s more of a whenever-I-think-of-it devotional blog. I don’t really like interrupting the flow with apologies and explanations, so I typically won’t.
You are welcome to read, comment, follow along and post your own SOAP in the comments, whatever blesses you. My main goal in posting this is to provide some accountability for myself.
A couple of notes:
I call my husband Hero on the internet. Actually, I call him that in real life too, but it isn’t his name. We have four daughters, who are six, three, and infant twins.
I am a Messianic Jew, and I habitually use Yeshua instead of Jesus. I mean the same person, and I will not be upset or offended if you stick to using Jesus. I do not believe that “Yeshua” is inherently more powerful or holier than “Jesus” – He is Himself, and what I call Him is irrelevant. (You may also notice that I typically capitalize “Him” when speaking of God but not “you” when speaking to Him. There is no good reason for this. I just don’t like capital Y.)
This is my personal study and is not meant to be authoritative or final or anything like that. I do a pretty good job of thinking things through, but please don’t assume that something I say is the absolute truth or even my full and final thoughts on the matter. Where you are is probably not where I am.
On a related note, I am not very interested in debate, especially over the internet. I can support my beliefs, but debate takes a lot of energy for me and I don’t usually engage in it. Feel free to post thoughtful comments politely disagreeing with me, but be aware that I probably won’t answer. Impolite comments will get deleted, as will politically charged comments. Again, this is not about my confidence in my own beliefs or abilities. It’s about my desire to appropriately manage my energy and priorities.
Truth By Bits 
Dearest Caitlyn, Thank you for sharing these wonderful thoughts with me. You are so embued with God’s love that I am truly amazed. I hope you will continue with this blog and look forward to the next posting. Very, very much love, Amma
I discovered your wordpress and find it interesting to read. I’m not Jewish or Christian but am interested in learning more about them. I am curious on why your starting with Colossians. Is there an importance to starting there or am I missing something?
I’m glad you find it interesting! Feel free to comment on anything the strikes you as true or crazy or confusing; I’m always interested in other points of view.
My choice of books doesn’t have a ton of reasoning behind it. The first book I did was actually Ephesians. I was finding that when I was praying for people who were spiritually oppressed, some of their oppression would sometimes try to cling to me, and I would be moody or insecure until we figured out what had happened and prayed to break it. (That usually didn’t take very long, but it was unpleasant nonetheless.) I knew that studying the Bible more and consistently would strengthen my spiritual “armor” so that wouldn’t happen as often, and that’s why I started this blog. Ephesians 6 has a famous passage called “The Armor of God,” so I thought that would be a good book to start with. As I finished each book, I felt like God was bringing the next book to my attention, so I simply let Him choose.
Selecting the next book isn’t something that I feel the need to put much thought or effort into, since there aren’t any wrong choices. People frequently recommend alternating between Old Covenant and New Covenant books, and at the very least I expect to alternate between the different genres (history, epistles, prophecy, etc). I probably will avoid the more depressing books (Lamentations and Job, mostly) – but then, I would have expected to avoid Leviticus, but God pushed me towards it and really blessed me through it, so you never know.