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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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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We are a busy and distracted people.
We are a busy people. We take our families to worship with our church, parent, work a job, take care of the house, chauffeur our kids to their practices and recitals, and try to squeeze in time for fellowship.
We are a distracted people. Between our daily responsibilities and our massive to-do lists, we barely have time to squeeze in a Stranger Things binge-watch on Netflix. In our precious few moments of unscheduled time, we catch up on social media, reading, or video gaming.
If you’re like most busy families I know, the highest priorities for your week go on a calendar. Sometimes they are bolded or starred or underlined. But if that important event doesn’t make it on the family calendar, it probably won’t happen.
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“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”
C.S. Lewis, quoted in R. L. Green and W. Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Biography (New York, 1974), page 115.
One of the most prolific authors and theologians of the 21st century, C. S. Lewis once wrote that we ought to study with pipe in teeth and pencil in hand. Now, I think pipes are gross, so if you’ll allow, I’ll modify the quote a bit.
“The best way to study is with coffee in one hand and a pen in the other” – Dr. Andrew White. There you go!
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A few years back I spent a couple months working with a company that installed hardwood floors. I was totally unqualified for the position. The owner of the company gave me a job because I really needed one and he was a nice guy. But it quickly became apparent that I had no experience in manual, skilled labor. If I were to guess, the first clue was when I showed up on the first day with zero tools in hand. To the praise of God’s glorious grace, the Lord provided me a job for which I was better suited after just a few months.
Last week, my pastor preached a fabulous sermon from Ezra 7:10 on being devoted to the Word of God. In response, we asked our Community Groups to commit to make a plan to begin studying God’s Word. I quickly learned that many Christians are intimidated with the idea of becoming a serious student of Scripture and may not know where to start. That is what this blog series is all about. I want to help put tools in your bag to become skilled in the labor of Bible study.
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Andrew White 