Spiritual Discipline: Bible Study
The Spiritual Discipline of Studying the Bible.
TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning, Ladies. We're doing this a little different today. So just bear with me. Today we get to talk about one of the most important spiritual disciplines for any Christian believer, and that is studying the Bible. For the month of March, we're talking about and we're practicing even more than we already do. The practice of studying God's word.
Studying the Bible, as a spiritual discipline is an essential practice for any Christian believer who desires to grow in their faith and deepen their relationship with God. So there's a few core fundamentals of studying the Bible that I pulled together. And there's are five points. So let's get into it.
The first one is to approach the Bible with the right attitude, attitude check. The Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God. And this book is unlike any other books ever written. So we should approach it with a spirit of humility and reverence, recognizing its divine nature and the power that it has to transform our lives. Sometimes, the discipline of just reading the Bible can be a blessing, even if we don't feel like it. But not my point to is that we really need to work on and this is where the practice comes in, is studying the Bible systematically. That's a big word. So in other words, we want to have a plan and a purpose that, you know, just opening the Bible and pointing to a scripture and reading it, that works, too. But we want to kind of have a plan and a focus when we open the Word of God. And sometimes it's opening the Word of God and going, Lord, show me what you want me to read today. And that's a plan that is that is having a little more purpose and intentionality with reading this reading the Bible. Okay, so reading the Bible regularly. And focusing on focusing on scriptures, I know that there are seasons in life, where reading the Bible every day is just not possible. It's, it's really hard in certain seasons of life to sit down and have time to read the Word of God. And that's why we call it a practice and a discipline, it can be hard work. But then there are those beautiful seasons where you're in God's word every day, and it's just so rich, and he fills you up, and he gives you what you need for that day. That's without the practice. And that's, that's our what we want to aim for.
So my second point, is to study the Bible in community. We're already doing that here in One. And hopefully you're doing it on Sundays at church, and also other times throughout the week. But studying the Bible in community is a great opportunity to hear different insights, to ask questions, and to really dig in and find support and encouragement. And when learning things in the Bible, not everything is clear in the Word of God. And so we need other people to help us wrestle with some of these concepts and these ideas that the Lord presents to us that they don't feel natural, and other people can help us kind of work through that. One of the, the tools I'm going to tell you about is the YouVersion app. Most of you have probably heard of that. But they have great Bible study plans on there. Some are like three days, and some are three year plans. But you can find them by topics. Some of them are devotionals. I'm doing one right now where I'm reading through the Bible chronologically in a year. But the really cool feature that this app has is that you can read it with other people. So you can do a specific plan with someone else. Which is the community part of being able to I can't tell you how many times I've typed in the message board, “I don't get this scripture, why do we need to know this today?” And that's okay. And these beautiful women who I'm doing this with have given me insight and given me different perspectives. And it just really helped me wrap my head around some of the stuff that we're reading. So studying and community is is a good, good practice.
The fourth thing is to study the Bible with an open mind and heart. So to study effectively, we need to be open to what God is saying, this is His word. This is His book. And so even though it may challenge our assumptions, or make us feel a little uncomfortable, we need to let the Bible speak for itself rather than trying to fit our own theological or ideological frameworks around what we're reading. Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, very specifically say do not add to the Scriptures. So there's a big difference between interpreting and discernment. Adding to what the Bible is saying or taking away from what the Bible is saying. The key element of this, ladies, is that when you're studying the Bible, it's so important to invite the Holy Spirit in, invite the Holy Spirit to show up and show you what it is that you are learning what you're reading about that he would reveal to you and kind of remove that veil a little bit. And let you see what it is that he wants you to learn and to know.
The fifth thing is application, applying the Bible to our lives. The ultimate goal is to transform us, it's not about how often you do it, or how many books you've read, or how many times you've read through the Bible. This isn't this isn't a trophy award situation. This is to transform us to be more and more like Jesus every single day. And this, this is our instruction guide. This Book is our manual to living a godly life. This book helps us adopt new habits, it helps develop new attitudes, it helps us to change our behaviors. But the key one that I really love is that it honestly helps, helps me ask, what is it that's keeping me from being transformed by God's grace? That's a big question. And that's a really hard question. Because it's scary to ask that of God. But really, we want to be transformed by God's grace and His love and His mercy. And he can and he will do that. But this book, the Bible, when we study it, we see how he's done that in other people's lives.
[My dog is gonna start barking, here we go. Hopefully not.]
Okay, let's dig into the nitty-gritty of the types of methods that we can use while studying God's word. Some of these are maybe really new, or some of them are really old to you. But I feel like like no matter where you are in your walk of faith, that these are all good ways that we can study God's Word.
So the first one is by words or topical. So finding a topic or a word specifically, that you want to learn more about, or maybe it's really applicable to your life today. So you look up a word in the index in the back of your Bible that it has words back there, and there's scriptures, Old and New Testament, that reference that particular word or theme or topic. And so take a deep dive, go back. And that's a great resources, the index in the back of your Bible, and find the scriptures that talk about that, that word, and kind of maybe you can look up Hebrew or Latin meanings of the words, read other versions of the Bible, to see kind of, you know, a bigger picture of that particular topic.
The second way that I want to tell you about is you can study versus chapters or books, or the whole Bible, it's totally up to you. But some, but breaking that down a little bit more. There's some different ways that you can do this. The first way is you can kind of nerd out a little bit with me. And you can find the verbs and the nouns in a passage. So let's take John 316, we all know that verse. So the verbs in that would be loved gave should not perish and have nouns would be God, world, whoever or only begotten Son. So these are just some ways that you can kind of break down some passages and help your English brain to kind of wrap itself around the meanings of these passages in these in these scriptures.
The third way is Bible journaling. I know this is a little bit controversial, for some people who believe we should not write in our Bibles. I am not one of those people, I have multiple Bibles, and one of them is my journaling Bible. And I draw and write all over it. And what this is, is you don't even have to be super creative to do this method of Bible journaling. But it's a great way to meditate on Scripture as you take a verse or a passage or chapter in the Bible, and you allow, visuals to come into your mind. So wheat or a sword or a lamb or a forest or whatever it is, that comes into your mind that represents that scripture and you draw it out, or even just writing out the Scripture and journaling the words. It helps you just focus in a little bit and spend time with God and meditating on that particular scripture.
Another way is to write out an outline of the chapter. I know a lot of Bibles already kind of break up scriptures into you know, they have titles between chapters and things like that. But do your own outline kind of read through a chapter of the Bible or a book of the Bible and make your own titles write your own kind of themes about what God's teaching you. Reading that passage, the big the biggest key to this is just pay attention to what jumps out at you. When you're reading scripture when you're reading through the Bible. Listen for what the Holy Spirit is prompting you on if it's a single word, or a phrase that keeps coming back to you pay attention to those things.
The last method I want to talk about is to write it out. Years ago decided I was going to write out Genesis. So what I did was I grabbed a notebook. And I literally wrote Genesis, and I got through Exodus, and went word for word. And that was my scripture time. That was my studying the scripture, and I learned some things. One being that the word of like spending time in the Word of God is never wasted. God will always meet us right where we are, when we step into His presence. The second thing is that I was being active in my study, by writing it out, I was using other senses, I was being I was being active in writing, and I was saying the scripture out loud. So I was hearing it. And I was speaking it, and I was writing it. And so it was just a great practice. And it was a discipline because it was, there were there were days that it felt really monotonous. And I would just promise myself that I would write, you know, 10 verses a day, and I got all the way through Exodus. But it was a great practice. So if you're kind of a, if you have maybe a squirrel brain like I do, that was a great way to just be really intentional and attentive to what you're reading in the Scripture.
Okay, one more method I want to share with you, this is the last one that I learned in college, and then I'm going to hand it over to Jessy. This one is a three step. This was developed by or I learned it through Kay Arthur, I, hopefully some of you know who she is. But it's called precepts, she has a whole website dedicated to this method of studying the Bible. And she goes really deep into, as far as like underlining certain words, circling certain words, putting marks in like, I'm just gonna give you a bird's eye view. Because I think this is a great way to study, I think it's a well rounded way to study and understand the Bible, because it lets you, it gives you critical thinking practice, it also gives you a better historical understanding. And it also leaves a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to guide you within your study. So basically comes down to three steps, you're basically going to pick a chapter or a book of the Bible, and you're going to read through it three times, the first time you read it, you're gathering the facts, you're only reading it with a with an eye of observation, you're investigating without adding any meaning to it. You're just, you're just reading what the text is telling you word for word, you can ask some questions like, Who did the author mention in it? What was the overall theme? Do you have any questions or any clarity? And was there anything that was a little confusing? Step two, is that you read it through again, and you read it through with the idea of interpretation. So what's the author trying to communicate? You're looking at the Scripture in the context, and you're believing what it says, and you're not you're not trying to twist or manipulate the words. But you're just reading through? Are there any historical or cultural references, you're kind of digging through a little bit deeper into the interpretation of like, what is the author saying, Who is he speaking to? Again? Have I made any assumptions about this scripture? Did I overlook anything? Okay, the last time you read through it the third time, is how does this apply to me? So then you're doing the application part. And it's important step, because this is where the head knowledge becomes heart knowledge, and we're applying it to our lives and what God can do in us. You're reviewing the facts that you've learned, you're listening for the Holy Spirit in this last time reading through? How can you relate there's a lot of relatable characters and situations in the Bible. And then the very last part, this is kind of a bonus. One is to summarize the Scripture. So basically, picture yourself you've just studied the Bible, you read through this, this part of Scripture three times, you're doing the observation, interpretation and application. So this last time you read through it, and you maybe are writing down, what did you learn, you're summarizing, what did God teach me in this? How would I tell somebody if I'm sitting in a coffee shop with a friend who's never heard the word of God? How would I explain this to her? So you're putting it into your own words based upon the study that you did? Understanding the historical context, you know, and what the Holy Spirit's taught you it's combining all of those things and studying the Word and giving you confidence to really share the gospel with others.
So ladies, I hope that you feel encouraged and confident to open the Word of God and study it for yourselves. I hope that you have a wonderful beautiful day and I will see you next month for our next spiritual discipline!