Today's Personal Spiritual Disciplines EQUIP Seminar at LBC was the second in a nine-week series. I'll use this space to occasionally share resources that I mention in class, and links to things that I don't have time to cover during our time together. I encourage class attendees to leave comments if there are other resources that you'd like to share with the rest of the class.
Many of the notes listed here were derived from the Core Seminar materials available from Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
Today we covered the first of two lessons on Bible Intake, focusing on Hearing, Reading, and Studying the Bible. Next week, we'll look at Memorization, Meditation, Journalling, and Learning.
I. As a quick review, we talked about 2 reasons why the Bible is critical to our Christian life:
1. God gives us new life through Scripture (1 Peter 1:23)
2. God sustains us in the Christian life through Scripture (1 Peter 2:2, Deuteronomy 8:3)
II. We talked about 3 necessary conditions to be prepared to profit from our time in God's word:
1. We must revere Scripture, as God's Word: infallible, sufficient, and authoritative. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
2. We must have humility and a sincere dependence upon God (1 Corinthians 2:14)
3. Our hearts must be receptive to God's Word (Matthew 13:23; James 1:22-25)
I mentioned John Piper's "IOU'S", which I first heard about here:
- Incline my heart to your testimonies (Psalm 119:36)
- Open my eyes that I may behold the wondrous things out of your law (Psalm 119:18)
- Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11)
- Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love (Psalm 90:14)
This has provided a helpful pattern of prayer for me as I approach God's word to read and study.
III. We then talked about Hearing God's word. (Luke 11:28)
- LBC's weekly sermons can be heard here (Callaway) and here (Leonardtown).
- Bible Gateway has a great resource for listening to the Bible in a variety of translations and formats and readers, including Max McLean.
- The first key to success is to find or make the time in your day. Pick a time that you can be consistent with each day (first thing, lunch time, before bed, whatever works with your daily routine) It's likely you're going to have to carve this time out if you don't already have it.
- The second key to success is to have a plan. Here are some great options for reading plans...
- Bible.com has a huge variety of plans, including M'Cheynes, which is 4 chapters a day, taking your the OT once and NT and Psalms twice in a year.
- One-Year Chronological Bible
- Jason George's Root Down Plan (my Google-Docs version of this 17-month reading plan. This is the plan that helped me read through the entire Bible for the first time.)
- Remember, for even a "slow" reader (200 words per minute) it only takes about 11 minutes a day to read through the Bible in a year. (Follow the link to test your own reading speed.)
- Being familiar with the WHOLE bible is important when it comes to Bible Study, which we'll look at next.
V. Finally, we talked about Studying God's word (Ezra 7:10; Acts 17:11)
- I mentioned several websites that I've found helpful for online Bible study:
- Blue Letter Bible
- Study Light
- Lumina (connected with NET at www.bible.org)
- ESV online (serval add-ons available at reasonable prices. If you own a print ESV study bible, that content is available for free, with a code that came with your Bible)
- Bible Arc (a ministry of Bethlehem College and Seminary)
- Precept Austin
- Three software programs that are outstanding for Bible study:
- For Windows: Logos or Bible Works
- For Mac (or Windows): Accordance (I've used this for about 4 years and I love it!)
- Here's a good comparative review of the three programs.
- Here are the "Five helpful questions to ask when studying the Bible:"
1. What does the text say?
- Make careful observations of the text
- Notice details
2. What does the text mean?
- Use the grammatical-historical method (seek to understand the author's intent)
- Identify the genre of writing
- Understand the historical, cultural, and literary background
- Unpack the passage’s syntax (identify the grammatical elements)
- Outline the passage
- Understand what the words mean in context
- Pay attention to the context
- Locate the text in redemptive history
- Understand the text in light of the whole Bible
- Discern how the passage points us to Christ (eg. direct reference, type, predictive, preparatory, reflective—God’s nature / human nature, resultant)
- Use tools: study Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries / lexicons, concordances, etc.
3. What concerns caused the text to be written?
- Grasp the main message of a biblical passage
4. What do I share in common with the original audience or human author of the text?
- Understanding ourselves in light of Scripture
- Distill the timeless principles from the text
- Understand what the text teaches about God’s character and purposes, mankind, Christ, our response to Christ, our obedience, the church, the world, etc.
5. How should I now respond to the truths of the text?
- What, specifically, does God require of me?
- Where, i.e. in what specific situations, do I need to apply the truths of the text?
- How does the text encourage me to obey God?
- How does God enable me to respond to the truths of the text?
- How can I spur others on to respond to the truths of the text?
Some recommended books:
- Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney
- For the Love of God (2 vols) by D.A. Carson
- Search the Scriptures by Alan Stibbs
- Bible Speaks Today Commentary Series
- The Welwyn Commentary Series
- According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy
- Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
Many of the notes listed here were derived from the Core Seminar materials available from Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
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