Knowing God's Word #8

Chapter 8: Outlines

Outlining a passage of Scripture may reveal patterns we might otherwise miss. Here's my outline of the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8):

Farmer went out to sow his seed

• Path -- trampled / eaten by birds
• Rock -- withered among thorns / grew and choked
• Good soil -- yielded a bountiful crop

The meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God

• Path -- Satan takes the word from them
• Rock -- no root among thorns / choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures
• Good soil -- noble and good hearts and persevere

Since I don't have access to a tab function, the above outline isn't exactly like I created it in WordPerfect, but you can still get the idea.

Usually, though, I prefer to write out an entire verse or passage, separating and indenting the lines as if creating a poem. This simple exercise helps me pay attention to the prepositions and conjunctions, nouns and verbs.

Knowing God's Word #7

Chapter 7: Back to the Basics

The colored pencils are back again! This time, we looked at the first twenty-four verses of Scripture's longest chapter, Psalm 119. Here's our color code:

Blue: right actions and attitudes
Orange: wrong actions and attitudes
Purple: what God does to/for those who obey Him
Green: what God does to/for those who resist Him
Yellow: the mentions of God's Word

The colors create a visual of this passage that aids our understanding of God's Word.