A simple guide for a deeper understanding of the Scripture.
With A Bible, a notebook and a few simple tools, you can learn to deepen your devotional time, your teaching, or your personal Bible study.
If you have questions or comments you may post them at Koinonia Fellowship Board
Every Day is the goal of devotional time in the Word and prayer. But what are you to do with that time? Start with prayer for insight into Gods Word and his will. Confess your desire to know Him through His word. Then, open your Bible to the passage you are working through. Sharpen your pencil in preparation for sharpening your mind and have your notebook or journal ready.
Who?The Scripture is filled with people. People inspired by God write it. It is to people. It is about people relating to other people. Therefore, the first thing that I want you to do is discover who the people are that are being talked about in a passage.
Make a list of the people in your chosen passage. Start small with a passage of about four to six verses. Larger lists will be fine once you get the hang of this, but for now, force yourself to stick with a small range of verses.
Write down the names of every character, major and minor with the verse reference. Every time you come to a reference to that person or character, put the verse reference on the line next to their name. Pay attention to pronouns. Each character, or group will get their own line. You will notice that some of your characters are not listed by name but by group or action, such as Sanhedrin, or the crowd. Be sure to list these as well.
There will be so much information you will want to list but at this point try to stick to the discipline of simply listing the names of the characters and people groups in your passage. The rest of the information will be gathered in the days ahead. For now it is enough to simply become familiar with who the passage is talking about.
Where? On the second day of your study you will examine the setting that forms the background to the passage. An inexpensive Bible dictionary can be helpful when examining place.
Does the story take place in a boat, a synagogue, on the beach, a home?
Where is the real estate the place is located on? The city of Jerusalem? The countryside of Galilee? A gentile city such as Rome or Athens?
Once you know where the story takes place, get out your Bible Dictionary and look up that place to find out a brief bit of its history. What else has happened Biblically in this place. What sort of reputation does it have? What sorts of people have come from this place?
Note all of this information in your journal. Nothing is accidentally mentioned in the Bible.
When? The answer to this question has to do with time and sequence. Time and sequence are very important to understanding Scripture.
When does the story take place? What has happened just before this story? What will happen next?
With in your chosen passage, what happens first? Then what? What happens next? As you pray and meditate over this passage can you begin to see the importance of the sequence of the events? Jot all these observations down in your journal.
Sometimes the answer to when takes place with in the span of only a few hours rather then over days or weeks. Track these important records of time. Also look for words that give clues as to when the story takes place. Is the Sabbath mentioned? How would that affect the events of the story? Is a particular time of day mentioned? Do a little research in your Bible dictionary or other study aids you may have to learn about the importance or significance of that time.
I have come to realize that the time I spend looking for the answer to this question under the guidance of the Holy Spirit becomes very important to my understanding of the passage.
What? I want to describe what by first telling you what you are not looking for. Finding the answer to what does not, in this case, come from asking the question, What does that mean? or What is that? There is a place for these kind of questions. This will be covered in the how and why area.
What is looking for objects and sometimes concepts. It is a bit easier to find this category if you think of your passage of scripture the way you think of the game show Jeopardy. For instance, if your lesson was to come from Acts ch. 9 and was about God asking Ananias to go to the evil Saul, after reading verse 17 you might ask, What did Ananias do to Saul? In your what category you would put, laying on of hands since that is the concrete action taken by the disciple. If you are wondering what prompted Ananias to take that action then the question would go in the how/why category since that is not as concrete an action.
If you are teaching a Sunday school class, it might help to think of your passage in much the same way you would think of a skit or play. The answer to who? provides your characters, both the main and supporting players. The answers to when? and where? give you setting and back ground. The answers to what? provides you with the props and actions in the story. It is true that Scripture is not some grand play, but your job as a teacher is to accurately tell the story in order to bring understanding of the will and the work of God in your students lives.
Why?
is the most subjective question in your devotions guide. This is a place for you to present to God you questions. You must be ready for God to answer you at any time once you present your question to Him. I like to write my questions down as I come to them as well as ask God in Prayer about them. He has yet to let me down, an answer will come. Leave space on your question page to record the answer, and perhaps how it came.
Wherefore... is the place for your conclusions. You have just spent a good amount of time going through a portion of the word of God. You have looked at the people of the passage, their relationships and actions. You noted the objects and their importance, the time and sequence, where the passage fits in the bigger picture in Scripture. You will have observed the place or setting of the story and any significance it holds to the event you are considering. You have asked your questions of God expecting His answer. Now it is time to think through what you have discovered.
If you are doing personal devotions I want you to consider what God expects of you as a result of this study. List it out, pray it over. Walk it.
If your study time has been in preparation for a class then not only do I want you to make a heading on paper of what God expects of you as a result of this study, but also a second heading, What God expects my class to know and how they should respond The reason for the two headings is because the two wherefores will not necessarily be the same for you the teacher as it is for your class, especially if they are children.
Prayerfully develop the outline for your class as you seek to live out the truth of the passage in your own life.
Thank you, whoever you are. This page is a result of an article I found close to 20 years ago in a box of old CEF magazines given to me by some saint who had the foresight to not toss them into the trash. You changed my devotional life and my classes. I do not even know your name. God does, and that will need to be enough until that day.
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Learning to Learn
How do they do it? If you have ever wondered what to do with your personal time in the Word of God, you are not alone. So many people want a book or a teacher to guide them because they feel so helpless on their own. I know, I have also felt this way at different times in my spiritual life.
I would like to offer you the help that I found to this problem. It is not original with me. I first came across it in a CEF magazine that came to me in a box of old magazines given by someone who knew there was treasure in those glossy pages that should not be trashed. I suspect that the idea is not new to the author. Journalists and students writing reports use this method. Kay Author has brought it to an art form with her Precept Ministries. It is a matter of reading with a purpose. The purpose being an understanding of the Word of God.
This is not a five-minute jump in and then run with the rest of your day. This takes a bit of time. In fact the more time you have to give to this type of study, the more you will get out of it. So get you Bible, have your pencil ready by your notebook. Now is as good of time as any to begin.
Quote "If I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any;
if I can speak in a casual way even of a child's misdoings,
then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Amy Carmichael
If
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