Knowing God's Word #12

Chapter 12: Why Bother?

Why study Scripture?

• "We study something that is living and powerful."
• "We grapple with eternal truths."
• "We delve into the divine Word of God."
• "We study God's unchanging Word so that it can change us."

And yet . . . 1 Corinthians 13:2 reminds us:

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith
so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

A paraphrase:

If I could speak for God and could unravel any enigma
and knew all there was to know and have perfect trust,
enough to do the miraculous, but cared nothing for others,

I will have missed the whole point!

God's purpose for His Word and what it does in our lives:

• Psalm 19:8, 11
• Psalm 119:9, 111
• Isaiah 55:11
• John 17:17
• Acts 20:32
• Romans 15:4

Digging Deeper

• Follow a Scripture reading program
• Choose another section, topic, book, or theme for actual study
• Keep a notebook or journal of your discoveries

Knowing God's Word #11

Chapter 11: Soaking

Soak in God's Word through study and meditation.

David invites the Lord to listen to him in Psalm 5:1: Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.

David sought God's favor in Psalm 19:14: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be pleassing in your sight.

Paul encourages us to focus on whatever is excellent and praiseworthy in Philippians 4:8.

This week, we're encouraged to memorize and meditate on a Scripture passage "until it penetrates your heart and soul."

I chose Jonah 2:8: Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Everytime I read this simple verse, my heart lurches at its sadness so I want to dig deeper into it.

What passage are your hiding in your heart?

Knowing God's Word #10

Chapter 10: Themes

Even though the Bible was written by multiple authors over several centuries, the theme of Redemption runs like a scarlet thread from Genesis through Revelation. Other themes weave through the Scriptures, themes of love, atonement, and sacrifice.

The same resources used for word studies can aid us in our search for the themes we wish to study.

Knowing God's Word #9

Chapter 9: Word Studies

Word studies help ensure we know a word's meaning and how it is used throughout Scripture. Online resources such as Bible Gateway, Vine's Expository Dictionary, and Strong's Concordance make it so easy to find out what the meaning of a word and all the places it's found in Scripture.

One of the questions in this chapter asked us to do a word study for "approved" in 2 Timothy 2:15.  First I go to Strong's Concordance and enter the verse's citation in the search box. This takes me to a page that shows the verse and assigns each word or phrase a number.

The number for "approved" is 1384. I click on the number and land on another page that shows the Greek word, it's transliteration, definitions, and the other passages where the same Greek word, dokimos, appears.

The info on dokimos provides fascinating insight on our mundane word "approved." Check it out!

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.

Knowing God's Word #6

Chapter 6: Pitfalls

When studying Scripture, we need to guard against distorting the truth of God's Word. Neither should we substitute our opinion for truth.

We avoid such pitfalls through careful study of Scripture. Sure, that takes some effort. After all, even Peter said that some of Paul's writings were hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15-16)!

But we have excellent translations, commentaries, and other resources to help us in our studies.

And we're promised that our prayers for wisdom and discernment will not go unanswered.

Knowing God's Word #5

Chapter 5: Dare to Compare

Break out the colored pencils!

In this chapter, we colored-coded the phrases of 1 Peter 1:25 in four different versions. The visual comparisons made it easy to see how different versions translate the same verse.

Which translation is the best?

Generally speaking, scholarly study requires a "formal equivalent" translation, one that translates the original languages practically word-for-word into English. Two popular translations are the New King James Version and the New American Standard Bible.

A "dynamic equivalent" translation, like the New International Version, translates phrase-by-phrase. The NIV is immensely popular because it's easier to read and understand than the NKJV.

Paraphrases, such as The Living Bible, simplify the English language for readers. Even though paraphrases may be easy to understand, they shouldn't be relied upon for theological study.

Knowing God's Word #4

Chapter 4: We Have a Teacher

When we met last week, we dug into Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary for Hebrews 5:12-14. More importantly, we talked about Jesus' promise to send us a Teacher, a Counselor, who guides us into all truth.

We begin our Christian walk as newbies, spiritual babes needing to learn the basics. But as we grow and mature, we long for solid food. "We start with the input of truth, exercising the principle of readiness for learning. We gradually implement the principle of practice for retention of truth. Consistent and persistent practice of truth results in growth to maturity" (p. 45).

Through our Hearts Above spiritual journey, we are learning new study tools so that we can gain a better understanding of Biblical teachings as we are guided by the Holy Spirit.

Knowing God's Word #3

Chapter 3: Reading vs. Studying

We explored Acts 17:10-12 on our spiritual journey this week, particularly verse 11: "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

The Greek word for "noble," eugenes, appears only four times in the New Testament: Acts 17:11; 24:3; 26:25; and 1 Corinthians 1:26.

But the English word "noble" is also found in some translations of Philippians 4:8 -- "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, . . ."

So we pulled out the Greek New Testament and the Strong's Concordance (with a lot of laughing) and found this Greek word is actually "venerable" or "honorable."

To get the most out of Acts 17:11, we also looked up "received," "readiness," and "searched." From our study of the Greek definitions, we know that the Bereans were highly esteemed people who deliberately accepted Paul's message with mental eagerness and scrutinized the Scriptures to find out the Truth for themselves.

May we be as deliberate, as eager, and as discerning in our own studies.

Knowing God's Word #2

Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade

Resources, resources, and more resources. On our spiritual journey this week, we used study and topical Bibles, concordances, commentaries, and expository dictionaries to delve into the deeper meaning of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Online references helped those of us who don't have access to all these types of reference works. We especially benefitted from Bible Gateway and Vine's Expository Dictionary.

The middle of our hostess's dining room table was piled with all kinds of references including favorites such as Strong's Concordance and Haley's Bible Handbook. We got to flip through an archaeological Bible and the brand new Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts.

We're blessed to live in an age of multiple and easily-accessible resources to enhance and deepen our study of God's Word.

What's one of your favorites?

Knowing God's Word #1

Chapter 1: Will This Be on the Test?

On our spiritual journey for the next twelve weeks or so, we're studying Knowing God's Word, a Women of Faith Study Guide (foreward by Luci Swindoll). Through studying this book, we will:

• understand the reason we need to learn Scripture by heart and recall it every day;
• learn what's important in life and what isn't;
• be encouraged to have goals that are not only right, but also righteous (p. vi).

Chapter One Memorable Quote:

Bibles are "so commonplace, so readily available, that I think we sometimes forget just what we hold in our hands" (p 13).

Very First Bible Study Tool -- Cross References!

John 1:1

• John 17:5
• 1 John 1:1
• Revelation 19:13

John 1:3

• Colossians 1:16-17
• Hebrews 11:3
• 2 Peter 3:5
• Psalm 33:6

Ponder & Pray (p. 18)

• a heart prepared to learn
• God's leading as we read the Scriptures
• an inquisitive nature
• to learn, not an accumulation of facts, but how to change our hearts