Looking for some simple ideas for your own personal time in the Word or places to dig into the Word?
Here are a few ideas:
- Read through the Psalms in a month. Take whatever day of the month it is, read that Psalm, then add 30 (thirty) until you run out of Psalms. This gives you five Psalms a day for a month.
- Read through Proverbs in a month. Take whatever day of the month it is and read that chapter.
- Receive a daily reading in your email. Sign up on the WELS website at Through My Bible.
Questions to ask as I read:
- What does God tell me here?
- What makes me glad?
- What makes me sad?
- What do I want to pray for?
How can I get the most out of my Bible study?
Studying the Scriptures is a necessary practice for believers. The Scriptures are God’s means of revealing Himself and His ways to us (2 Timothy 3:15). The Scriptures are God’s means for teaching us to be mature productive adults (2 Timothy 3:16).
- Pick a place to study. (There are a variety of approaches: a whole Book, a Psalm, word studies, Parables)
- Read the passage through several times noting repeated words and unique phrases along the way
- Understand the context.
- The immediate context: Who is speaking? To whom? What is going on in the verses before or after? etc.
- The general context: the Book, the genre of Scripture it is found in, the author, related Scriptures
- The historical context
- Determine what the passage meant to the original reader. It can’t have a meaning today which it did not have for the original readers. You might check a Bible Commentary recommended by your pastor. A good set to have in your home is the “People’s Bible” available through www.nph.net
- Determine how the original applies to you, the present day reader. How does it apply…
- To my personal life
- To my relationship with others
- To my relationship with God
- Ask what changes the passage warrants. Prayerfully agree to sincerely live the truth of the passage
- Ask what the passage’s relationship is to Christ and his work. Is it Law or Gospel, prophecy, fulfillment, etc.?
- Make the truths you learn from the passage a prayer to God to help you grow in those truths
- Jot down what you learned in a journal or blog and return to it often to review or renew what you learned.
Would you like to get connected to a LIVE Bible Study? Check out www.treeoflifenc.org/studyopportunities.php. We offer several options for on-site studies at our church in Cary, North Carolina as well as periodically Bible Teleclasses. See the web or call for more information. Thanks!
