If you have followed the entire Bible Study Basics series so far, you have:
In the final installment of the series, we will take a brief look at some supplemental tools you can use to check your exegesis work.
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Last Sunday, Pastor Jake completed his sermon series on the Gospel of John. Toward the end of the book, in John 20:31, the author explained his reason for writing. John’s purpose is the same reason for which the Holy Spirit inspired all the Scriptures: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The whole point of the Bible is to show sinners that they should believe in Jesus and, by believing, find salvation in Christ alone.
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After worship last Sunday, I stopped to talk with a family with four darling little girls. The mom told me a cute story.
Every week, I post the songs we are planning to sing on Facebook as well as on our worship page. The reason for this is simple: I want our people to be ready to sing during corporate worship. I did not know this, but every week this family full of little girls “practices” the songs before coming to worship on Sunday morning (good job, Mama!). But one of the songs escaped their practice session this week. When the band played this song during the worship service, the oldest of the little girls looked at her mom and said, “We didn’t practice this one!”
What. A. Bummer.
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How about 2020 so far, huh? Yikes!
Every day, we find a new catastrophe or scandal in the news. I cannot remember, in my brief lifetime, a more polarizing and divisive time in this country. A scroll through my Facebook news feed is flat-out exhausting. Unsubstantiated opinions everywhere. Outrage and vitriol overflowing. It’s tempting to be overwhelmed by it all, isn’t it? And don’t even get me started on COVID-19, right? The information, guidelines, and data provided to the public seems to change every hour. The foundation of this sin-sick world is shifting sand.
Praise God that He never changes!
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The Babylon Bee is a famous faith-based satire website. They feature fake articles about current issues in culture and the church. Some of my favorite headlines are:
Some of the articles on the Bee are really funny. Some are not. But an unintended comical scenario happens occasionally when readers confuse satire for reality. The mistake is often followed by a rant on social media, which is then followed by a gentle explanation of the website’s nature. There’s even an article on the site about this common mishap. It can be embarrassing when you misinterpret genre (a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content).
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Is every word in the Bible true?
For most of us, this question elicits an immediate affirmative response. “Yes! God wrote it. Of course every word is true!” But the question can be complicated. (Bear with me).
Take the book of Job for example. Transcripted speeches full of bad advice from Job’s idiot friends make up a large portion of the book’s contents. So, is every word in Job true? The answer is yes, every word is true in context.
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In the last Bible Study Basics post, I argued if you do not prioritize Bible study by putting it on your busy calendar, you won’t get around to it. Just a few days after publishing, our worlds all became significantly less busy. Sports were cancelled, work went remote for many, and extracurriculars ceased. Now is your chance to really invest your time in developing good Bible study habits!
You’ve probably heard this famous proverb: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Some attribute the saying to Benjamin Franklin, others to Winston Churchill. Regardless of who came up with the thought, it remains accurate in a lot of situations. If you set about a task, but don’t have a clear plan for how you’ll accomplish it, your chances of success are slim. This is true for Bible study.
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Psalm 122:1 rings true for me this week: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!'”
Amen to that!
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Andrew White 