BIBLE STUDY… WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
I had a lot of confusion on Bible study, and for very long I thought it to be worthless, until I realized what it was really about…
So here it is… A four-part series on Bible study… And hopefully part 2, 3 & 4 inspires you to find a way to do Bible study, that helps you to become intimate with God…
In parts 2 and 3, I will be looking at practical Bible Study methods and part 4 will be what I call “Digging Deeper”, as we all get to a place where we struggle to understand what the Bible says…
In my field of study we frequently say we need to have a method to work by… I am in IT and without a method, we rush to inadequate conclusions, which can rarely solve a problem… This is why we need to apply a method to the Bible… The Bible out of context is like shooting randomly up in the air, hoping to hit something…
So here goes…
WHAT IS BIBLE STUDY?
Bible study seems to be a foreign concept and many would even say is a waste of time… But what is it really?
Let’s start in the beginning… It doesn’t matter what I believe or say about Bible study, seriously… You might not even listen to me in any case… But I will do what I can to tell you what it is… or rather what is should be… Like with many foundations, we all are confused about this concept…
WHAT MAKES THIS A FOUNDATION?
We say that we are in a RELATIONSHIP with God… So let’s look at relationship…
The core of a relationship is communication… This in turn will lead to trust…
Now I speak about communication in Bible study, yet many would think I am nuts… We can pray to God daily, in our native language or in our prayer language (If you do not know what this is, it is fine for now, I will write about this in the future). But God has a bigger idea on communication… His Spirit speaks to our spirit… and He many times will use the Bible… WHY? It is inspired by Him…
Thus studying the Bible is a foundation, because we learn about Him, we can grow in intimacy with Him, and it teaches us to trust Him even more…
BUT, WHAT EXACTLY IS BIBLE STUDY?
I was once negligent in Bible study
Now like I mentioned in the intro, I was once negligent in this, very… sometimes I went for months without it… Then I learned…
1) If we don’t like Bible study, WE ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG…
2) If we don’t get revelation, WE QUIT TO EASILY…
3) If we find revelation in one way, WE SHOULD NOT CLOSE EVERY OTHER WAYS…
Remember, God is God, and we do not dictate the terms in which He speaks to us…
God knows us better… Really, in the beginning I would get revelation by reading, this ended… He spoke to me aloud twice… Yet nothing came closer to understanding Him then when I wrote songs and writing blog posts… I was created to be creative and to create… Thus this is HOW HE WOULD PREFER TO TALK TO ME… before this I thought God was radio silent for a long time, then this revelation.
Now back to the topic at hand…
What we love is instrumental in how we do Bible study. For me, making music helps me to hear God clearer. Some may love singing, singing the scripture can also help… If you love to listen to music, put on some music while doing it… God tends to reveal more when we are ourselves… faking it doesn’t help… LET’S BE OURSELVES. If we don’t know who we are or what helps us, LET’S ASK God to show us… and experiment with how we do Bible study… He won’t disappoint…
In the beginning we may not know how to do it, and that is kind of normal, as we grow in Christ, we also grow in ourselves… And we can learn what makes Bible study better and easier for us…
God wants to reveal Himself to us for our life, and He wants to reveal Himself to us… He won’t force Himself upon us… and He waits on us…
Bible study in its core is to learn WHO God is and to grow closer to His heart. And in the process learn about ourselves and find who we are
WHY DO WE DO BIBLE STUDY?
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, (2 Timothy 3:16)
All scripture is inspired by God, THE BIBLE IS THE WAY IT IS TODAY, BECAUSE GOD INTENDED IT TO BE IT…
Now we hear a lot about books which were lost of the Bible, known as the apocryphal books… I will not suggest reading them as of yet… The Bible as we know it, was perfected by God… So start there… And dive in deep…
Bible study is done to unlock certain truths, many truths, about God, us, our lives and God’s perfect plan…
And more important, we do Bible study to understand the world we are living in… What we believe people need, and what people need are not necessarily the same thing… Most people need to know who God (The Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit) is… And they need the Holy Spirit…
Bible study is about?
Bible study is about growing closer to God…
Bible study is about filling our tanks, so that we can give to people from that which is overflowing… An overflowing relationship with Christ makes it so that we do not need to do much, since the overflow of Christ people sees will already give then the desire to follow Christ…
Well this reminds me of something that happened a couple of years ago… I help out a friend of mine with a lift one night. One of her friends were also with her… I pray for my friend, yet afterwards had to go quite fast. I gave both of them a hug and left… Not even 10 minutes later I received a message that the friend will need prayer… As it turns out, when I gave her a hug, the Holy Spirit touched her, without me having to say a word.
let us approach [God] with a true and sincere heart in unqualified assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
Bible study is a way to draw near to God, and a way to seek His Kingdom and His Righteousness… This is the first step… Our calling and much more will flow only from a relationship with Him… Not the other way round… More money won’t get us closer to God, yet being closer to God will show us how to use more money when it happens. This is only one thing, we can test everything…
HOW DO WE DO BIBLE STUDY?
Okay, as I mentioned, there should be a method to our madness, otherwise Bible study may end up quiet useless… And you might end up where I was, seeing no point to it…
Step 1: Get a METHOD
Get a method by which you are going to do Bible study…
Some examples you can look at:
1. Inductive Bible Study,
2. http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/bibleinsights/biblestudymethods.html
3. Rick Warrens Bible study methods (Loot.co.za, Amazon.com)
4. My follow-up posts
Why do I tell you this… I know the importance of a method… We can read the bible everyday, AND NEVER FIND A WORD FROM GOD FOR US, NO REVELATION… This leads to believing there is no point… Do not get me wrong, If reading it gives you revelation, go for it, I want to see everyone get revelation, and using a method may help…
On a side note, do not become restricted in the method. Use a method in the beginning. Later adjust it to bring in more aspects or different aspects that can help get more out of the Scripture.
Step 2: Get a TIME
Get a time where you can spend time with God ALONE…
Say you are a morning person, and get up an hour earlier and spend time with God, why… This is called Time with God for a reason… I prefer at night, since I normally struggle to wake up in the morning… Now I am not saying “Get up earlier”… Let’s continue… The time will be part of step 3… Time does not reflect a schedule we want to keep, but it reflects a lot more… our Relationship with Him.
Why alone? I say alone because we need TIME to meet Jesus… The One WE have a relationship with, in crowd we struggle to be ourselves, here WE CAN BE OURSELVES… LAUGH, CRY, FIGHT, GET MAD, this is OUR time with God, and NOTHING should distract it
Step 3: Get a PLACE
A place is important, we don’t want Bible study to feel like work, it should keep us calm, and rested and relaxed
Now as I said earlier, time is important with the place… The place should be somewhere which can keep us relaxed, I have found that nature is best for me, in a forest like garden or near a river… And other times I do it in my inner room. Daniel in the bible went to his inner room, while Jesus went up in the mountains… So place differs from person to person…
Step 4: THIS is now an APPOINTMENT
How do we do appointments?
Why do I make this important? Get rid of a distraction… IF IT NEED BE, TURN OF YOUR PHONE… SERIOUSLY… We don’t play on our phones with clients in business, or in a class when we are (or were) in school… P.S. Jesus did not own a mobile phone, yet Moses received 2 tablets (talking about the stone tablets) from God… Yet Moses said:
Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16)
Step 5: Get the EQUIPMENT READY
This sound very heavy, but it is important… If you are going to write, get paper and a pen… If you make notes in your bible, have your Bible…
What you need will be determined by the Method you use… If you choose a method get the right gear for the method…
Remember, we don’t dig for diamonds using a spoon…
Step 6: READ THE BIBLE ALOUD – PERIOD
I am not saying more than the scripture i will add…
Use a Bible that you would be comfortable with or which God says you should use… Do not use KJV (King James Version) if you do not understand the Old English for example.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)
Step 7: NEVER GIVE UP – PERIOD
So you are struggling? I would say this is good, the bigger the struggle the greater the revelation you will receive…
And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, (Romans 5:3)
I would say, if you read a chapter or a verse and get little or nothing, as if you have a wall on it.. Stay on the chapter UNTIL YOU HAVE BREAKTHROUGH…
Diamonds do not lay there for the taking, YOU HAVE TO DIG… miners do not quit on day 1… They dig for years before they stop, and many times gold or diamonds are not even found on day one…
Pearls do not just appear in a day, it takes months or even years for a real deal pearl to get created…
The Bible is exactly the same we won’t get everything on day one, we might have to come back to a verse in a month, and find more…
Step 8: It is dealt with on the CROSS
Why do I say this?
You might read Leviticus 1:1-17 and want to change your life to start with sacrifice and burnt offering as they did in the Old Testament… Now the reason for Step 8 is so you condition your heart to God’s Truth, which says that it has been dealt with at the Cross. Thus, we do not have to have burnt offerings and sacrifice in the sense of the Old Testament anymore, BUT IN THE SENSE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT…
Before starting to implement something you read in the Bible, especially if you do not know what the purpose is of it, start by asking God (and, if you want, a spiritual leader) what the purpose was of the implementation…
Everything has a reason in the Bible… If something is not practiced as in the Bible, it means there is some or other way it is still being practice… God DOES NOT CHANGE, Nor does His Word…
MORE TO KNOW ABOUT BIBLE STUDY…
We all should do Bible study… When and where has been done above, but is this all…
NO… Here is something more for you…
There are some positives to a group dynamic to Bible study…
Let’s look at it in this way… When we were in school and university or college, didn’t we sometimes study together?
I did, it was me, with two friends… we actually joked that if we would write finals together, we would most assuredly get 100%… Why? I understood a third of the work perfectly, the other two the exact same… And because we helped each other, we all did well. I would explain if they struggled, and they would when I did…
This is the strength of a group dynamic… We all give a part of the message, and God normally won’t give a certain person the whole answer… thus we dig…
The who, where and when of this is also important…
WHO: Do this with friends WHO DO BELIEVE IN GOD…
WHERE: You can do this at a house or coffee shop, yet decide together. If a house, vary between the members, and share in the burden of expenses… if you all drink coffee, buy the coffee together…
WHEN: Or should it be “WHEN NOT”… Consider every person in the group… if in school and you have tests, do it over the weekend… The consideration should be on all the people… if in university and some of the members are young working adults, don’t choose a time when some would be excluded… Everyone should be considered…
AND WHAT IS THE BIBLE NOT FOR…
1) Do not try to prove something you want to be true
We all have some form of conviction. Our own conviction should does not mean that it is God’s truthand to prove that something is of God, just because of your conviction, does not mean you will. God’s Word is clear on many things, and WHEN HE SAYS SOMETHING (OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT), IT IS STILL VALID… If you don’t like what He said, because it isn’t what the world sells, don’t try to prove it is wrong…
I am going to use this example…
Old testament:
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You can read the complete 10 commandments in Exodus 20:1-21.
New Testament:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
You may say I am going to jump the gun, but here goes…
Old Testament gives 10… New gives one…. but how? We cannot love people without loving God… And if we love our neighbor we won’t steal or covet or bear false witness against them… THUS… The one is a summary of the one… ALL 10 still applies, yet we need to understand God’s heart to understand it…
REMEMBER:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)
My prayer to you: Lord, thank You for Your revelation and Your truth about the topic that is being researched. I ask that you will show them the YOUR TRUTH, and open their eyes to what YOU know and teach is true. And I thank You that their hearts will be open to adjusts their minds and hearts to accept YOUR truths. Amen.
2) Our revelation should not be seen as ultimate truth
God speaks to different people about different things and in different ways. As I mentioned, I would hear Him best while writing, while others may hear Him better in worship. Seasons play a huge role in how we hear God.
Now if someone’s revelation differs from yours, respect it, and learn from them… We do not and will never have all the answers…
For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.
And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3-8)
We are all different, and we all have a part to play…
There are two kinds of truth:
1) The TRUTH – non-negotiable commandments which applies to absolutely EVERYONE… This truth WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET….
2) Personal Truth (or better: Personal Promise) – an example would be – “you will have a long life – no conditions”. I know of someone with this promise in his life, yet according to the TRUTH (as in number 1) there are some conditions… (Ephesians 6:3, Exodus 20:12). Personal truths, which does not belong to you, may be forgotten.
My prayer to you: Lord, help us to understand another person’s truth, and not reject it. I ask that we would not degrade another person’s revelation, because it is different from us. Lord, give us wisdom to discern between that which is true from us, and which we can forget. And make it easy to forget the truths that do not apply to us. Amen
3) Don’t accept everyone’s truth as true, unless God has confirmed it
We all believe some form of truth, and some people may even be preaching a personal truth (a promise for the preacher and his/her family) as a corporate truth.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
As I have mentioned in previous posts… Every person, Ministry, preacher, etc might at some point teach a personal truth as corporate, and this might not even be true to the congregation… Thus test everything, EVEN THAT WHICH I SAY.
My prayer to you: Lord, give us the discernment to know when we are hearing Your Word truthfully, and always remind us to test what we hear. Thank you Lord for the revelation You are giving us, and give us a hunger to search more in-depth for that which we hear and read, so that we can find what YOU are telling us, and live in the truth YOU are showing us. Amen
This is now the end of the first part of this series, do wait for the next part of this… We will be going practical…
God bless
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