Hey y'all and welcome to Bible Study with Me. A category that I am starting because I want to build a firm foundation within my faith, one that wouldn't be affected too much by the outside world. Approaching a Bible study may seem like a pretty daunting task. But I truly believe that if we chose to follow God, that He intends for us to study his word. No matter where we are in our walk and growth in faith. And if you're anything like me, than you may have a hard time really understanding how the Bible related to your daily life. And that's why I created this category.
Why Study the Bible?
Studying the Bible is a lifelong adventure. One that contains simple, practical, and profound insights that help you grow your faith - in whatever that personally means to you. But it should never feel as though it is an academic task. It's about keeping in mind the overarching point that in studying the Bible, you are knowing God in your way.
Interpreting the Bible
The foundation to this all is interpretation. And biblical interpretation offers some basic principles that can help us to understand the Bible, but the most important thing is context. Meaning that when we are sitting here studying the Bible, we must also keep in mind the immediate context of the portion under study and all of the other possible forms of context it may fall into. Reading what comes before the chapter were on, what comes after it, and what the Bible says as a whole about it. Which leads into looking at many parallel passage to better understand a topic over fixating on a more obscure or difficult passage. And figuring out if the things being said are meant to be figurative or literal. The Bible is full of rich language that either illustrates the point or ends up spiritualizing the passage.
Bible Study Tips
- Ask some basic questions. Kicking it back to Elementary school with the who, what, when, where, why, and how to try to determine the main subject of the passage, who wrote it, who originally received it, and in what context it's in.
- Keep a journal. Use it for some devotional notes, theological questions. insights, and more. Just something that you can use to jot down the things in your mind as you come across them during the Bible study times. - Try to not jump around the books too often. Instead of reading isolated versus from different books, try to stay concentrates on longer passages or books. Or even select a broad theme to guide you.
- Purposefully set aside some time. Find what works for you...even if that's not daily. Whatever you can do, then do it. Just start somewhere and you'll see your passion grow over time. I like to do mine first thing in the morning to have time for myself and God.
- Prep for your Bible study. Have a special place that you are comfortable and enjoy being in. Then have all your materials ready - your Bible, Bible course, Bible dictionary, concordance, pen, and paper. That way you don't have to stop every few minutes to find something and can fully invest yourself into the Bible.
- Prepare your heart. Open yourself to God. Entering peacefully, without anything blocking your mindset, and ready to confess.
My Schedule
This will take me well over a year to complete and I am sure that I'll have to catch up on some chapter here and there during these uncertain time. But I am committed to working my way through the Old Testament and New Testament with all of you until we have completed it all! I will be doing it "the hard way" starting from page one and reading straight through, but you are welcome to mix in the reading.
So on Sundays I will be posting a whole chapter-chapter summary where I will be sharing all of my notes that include the story of the chapter, my insights from it, a visual representation from bibleproject.com and versus that go deeper into the concept entangled within each chapter. I created a reading plan with all of the books of the Bible and the chapter numbers. I don't want to put it directly within a month, date, or time frame for all of you, because my hope is that you will not at all feel condemned when you miss a day, week, or even a month. But that you get up and just keep going.
Some books will be shorter than other, easily flying through them, and others will be long, taking months to complete. And some of your seasons in life may be busy - trust me I get it - so if you are not able to join me on the journey, no worries. All of my posts will be up for as long as this blog lives, so you can always go back and complete it at your own convenience.
Comments