To begin, let me first just hand you a very simply way to do Inductive Bible Study. It takes time and effort, but it is not very complicated. Then I will provide, for a you scholar types, a link to a much more complicated yet highly fruitful course of Bible Study. Finally, I will take you thought The Foundry School's Course on Regular Bible Study.
1.
Inductive Bible Study Method
1. Select a Passage (Usually 3-10 verses, dealing with the same topic.)
Why do you want to study this passage?
2. Observe the passage by asking questions
- Who is writing or speaking and to whom?
- What is the passage about?
- When does this take place?
- Where does this take place?
- Why does the author write what he does?
- What problems were the recipients facing? How does this passage ?
- How does this passage fit in with the context? (What goes before and after?)
Additional Questions to Ask:
- What are the commands?
- What are the promises?
- What are the cause/effect relationships?
- What are the repeated words and ideas?
- What do I learn about God?
- What do I learn about Jesus?
- What do I learn about the Holy Spirit?
- What do I learn about myself (or mankind)?
- Write out any additional observations including contrasts, lists, comparisons, etc.
3. What is the "big idea" of the passage-your theme?
This can most readily be identified from the commands and the repeated words and ideas. Often there will be one command in the passage with several motivations. In one phrase, sum up the main thought of the passage.
4. Ask the natural question that arises from the "big idea." This will usually be "how," "why," or "what."
5. Answer the question you have raised from the passage. Put your answers in the form of an outline. These answers form principles of life and ministry. A principle is defined as a timeless lesson in the way God works, how you should live or in thinking God's way. To develop each principle (each point in your outline), you will want to explain it (interpretation), illustrate it (from the Bible or personal examples of how this principle is worked out), and apply it.
Steps to interpreting the passage. Use as many of the following questions as you need, progressing downward.
1. What are the meanings of the words?
2. What does the immediate context suggest?
3. What does the broader context suggest?
4. What do cross-references suggest?
5. What is the cultural meaning? (That is, What did it mean to those to whom it was originally addressed?)
6. What do commentaries suggest?
6. Application
This is where you purpose to do what God has taught you in your time with Him. (Ref: James 1:21-25, Matthew 7:24-27) It is through applying the Word that God changes out lives. Application does not happen by osmosis but by intent. God enlightens us from the Word, we apply what we've learned with our wills, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to carry out these choices. It is usually best to concentrate on applying one principle at a time. The goal of all application is to glorify God by becoming more like Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for."
- Teaching. What did I learn?
- Reproof. Where do I fall short? Why do I fall short?
- Correction. What will I do about it?
- Training in righteousness. How can I make this principle a consistent part of my life?
2. http://www.eachnewday.com/HowToStudyTheBible/how_to_study_the_Bible.htm
3. The Foundry School's "Regular Bible Study"
Session 1:
Reading a devotional is NOT Regular Bible Study.
While I would never say not to read devotional writings such at "Our Daily Bread" or Oswald Chamber's works, this does not provide for your spiritual development like Regular Bile Study will.
If you consider Regular Bible study to be your "Daily" spiritual meal, then simply reading a devotional or a verse of the day is like having a Twinkie for breakfast and then nothing else until your next morning Twinkie. Worse yet, it is a Twinkie that someone else has already digested for you. Gross thought, I know, but I think it is fairly accurate. Eating what had already been chewed up is necessary for infants, but not for long and it should never be seen as the goal for mature dining practices. Can you imagine a 30 year old man still needing his mother to cut the crust off his sandwich and to mix his medicine into orange juice because it tastes bad. We would have serious concerns for the mental well being of such a man. Yet when it comes to our spiritual devotional life, this is largely the state of much of the church. Items such as "The One Minute Bible" or even "Chicken Soup for the Soul" are all that many Christians feed on regularly. Sadly, the second one is not even scripture based daily reading. Still worse, many saints are not even drawing on these resources. Instead, we are feasting at a table full of poison stews, nutrition-less sweets and contaminated glasses of water. Why is that we imagine that adding a morning chewed up Twinkie to our diet will fix our messed up habits that have done years worth of damage to our spiritual lives.
So, I think I've done a sufficient enough job of explaining what Regular Bile Study is NOT. But what is it? I want you to avoid the danger of diving into some insurmountable study regimen that taps you of all your time and energy and tying all your hope for eternity to the success of such and endeavor. Remember that Bible Study is just a tool for drawing us closer to Jesus Christ. However, stop and think about how much of your daily activity revolves around feeding your physical body. The healthiest among us do spend a lot of time planning out and making thoughtful choices about what and when they eat. But even the unhealthy among us still make conscious decisions to go and eat food regularly. Your spiritual development is just as important (if not more then) as your daily nutrition needs. Consider this, a thousand calorie breakfast is meant to get you through the first third of your day. You can expect to burn these calories off and use them as energy during that time period. In order to continue without reaching into your energy stores or even your muscle tissue, you will need to consume more calories for the second third of your day. This will need to be repeated for the final third. This is, as you may have figured out, what we call "three square meals a day."
Now, I am not naive enough to think that you are going to develop a Study regimen that brings you to your religious knees three times a day for an hour at a time. While this would not harm you at all, I don't actually believe it is the best way to go about your spiritual nourishment. Remember that the physical world is often just a shadow of the spiritual world. I prefer (and I have discovered that it works well) to take large meals slowly. For instance, I will take a topic that I have an interest in or one that the holy Spirit has brought to my attention and focus on it for a month or even longer. Almost every spiritual practice is done over the long term and not with quick microwave efforts. I will gather several different resources (books on the subject by others, scripture references, even songs on the topic) and put them in my backpack. I carry pens and highlighters in their to mark up those books and bible verses that i have bookmarked. This is not so much in order to reference them later (although it has come in handy at times) as much as it serves to make a mental sign-post of importance. Underlining a sentence actually helps to imprint that thought into your memory. This preliminary work should only take about an hour out of your month.
Try starting with this supply list:
- Two Books on the subject you are studying.
-Pen and Highlighter
-A List of only 5 or so scripture portions on the subject.
-1 song that deals with the subject you are studying (usually easy to find on the internet and even buy for .99 cents which is pretty cheap for a Bible Study Course)
This is a snapshot of what I am carrying in my bag for my current study on "Generations".
Below, I have listed a series of typical opportunities to enter into study throughout my own day and I am sure you will find some that you can adopt also. But the main point is to look for any opportunity to snack on the Word.
1. Just to get it out of the way, "The Bathroom."- We spend a lot of valuable time in this place in which we could easily be reading one of our books or the scripture references we have gathered.
2. The Shower- Perhaps not the best place to do your reading (although they do make a waterproof bible now) it is easy enough to be playing one of those songs that speaks to your topic of study or spend that time praying that the Holy Spirit would be your teacher as you study these things.
3. Waiting for the kids to get to the car- While it may not be the eternity that it feels like, even two minutes is enough time to have a bite of scripture or read a paragraph from one of the books you have with you.
4. Prior to meetings- I often find myself waiting for 3-5 minutes at the beginning of almost every meeting I go to throughout any given day. I use that time to study.
5. Meals- While not every one of my meals is spent in solitude (and maybe none of yours will be) many of them are. I usually use this time to listen to those songs or to pray while i am eating because my mouth and eyes are usually too occupied for much more than that. If you are eating dinner with your family or friends, try introducing them to your topic and use that time as a discussion group or even listen to the song or songs you have chosen. They don't have to know that this is part of your Regular Bible Study, they might just think you are really good at coming up with topics for discussion.
6. Sabbath days- Most people have at least one good day of rest each week (some more). Use those days to meditate in prayer over what you have been studying that week. Just thinking about what you have read earlier in the scriptures is good solid study. Even if you are one of those work-a-holics, find some time on that day when you are pretending to take a day off and do this for about 20 minutes.
7. Bed- You may not be able to read with the lights off, but you can listen to that song and pray.
This is just a sample list and you may be able to come up with some even more creative ways to incorporate Study into your daily life. Feel free to share your ideas with us at emberfoundry@gmail.com
HOMEWORK: Try doing some form of this for your first session of Study for about a week. Then in the next session, we will tell you what to do with what you have studied.
Session 2:
Digesting what you have studied.
One of my favorite things about our annual Thanksgiving meal is the nap that follows. One of the reasons (or so the experts say) we get sleepy after a big meal is because our body diverts oxygen supplies to our digestive system in order to deal with all of the nutrients we have just consumed. Digestion is actually the most important part of every meal. The same is true with Study. Taking the time to formulate cohesive thoughts about what you have been studying for the past month or so is very important. However, it is probably the easiest and most natural part of the process. Your mind will naturally begin formulating thoughts and opinions about what you are reading. This is why it is very important to make prayer an integral part of your Study practice. The Holy Spirit will correct your misinterpretations and will guide you tot he truth on a matter if you will only listen.
Below, I have placed a helpful little chart for you to try and fill out based on what you have studied this past week. If you are of a mind, you can save this and categorize it as you add future studies. Or if you are like me, you can simply put it in a journal and forget about it until you go back through months or even years later and remember when you learned that.
Regular Bible Study Digestion Chart
Topic/Subject __________________________ Date of Study _____________________________
What I used to think about this subject: (it is sometime helpful to write this down prior to your study so you can refer back to it later and see the value of your Study) ___________________________________
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3 New Things I have learned about this subject:
1.___________________________________________________________________________
2.___________________________________________________________________________
3.___________________________________________________________________________
If I were to explain this subject to another person, I would say, ________________________________
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Here is an actual photo of one of my own journal entries that displays how rough this can actually look and still be of great benefit to you.
After doing this for a while, you will begin to see that a lifestyle of Regular Bible Study is really beneficial and you will be astounded at the Holy Spirit's ability to teach you as you devote yourself to learning. So it is not about taking a big chunk out of every day to pound Bible verses, Greek translations and theology into your skull. It is about making sure you have a constant inflow of Scripture and truth to digest and apply to your daily life.
YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE REGULAR BIBLE STUDY COURSE!!!
