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How to Study Bible
【Bible, Study of】Have you ever seen a straight
river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it
“meandering.” Why are rivers crooked? Because the natural tendency of a river
is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked,
and they always run downhill.
Some
people are like rivers. They are too lazy and immature to put forth much effort
into walking with God. For them it’s easier to watch T.V. than to pray and
easier to read their newspaper than their Bible.
【Bible, Study of】The only way to keep a broken
vessel full is by keeping the faucet turned on.
【Bible, Study of】Consider the difference between
a strong and a weak cup of tea. The same ingredients—water and tea—are used for
both. The difference is that the strong cup of tea results form ‘the tea
leaves’ immersion in the water longer, allowing the water more time to get into
the tea and the tea into the water. The longer the steeping process, the
stronger the cup of tea.
In
the same way, the length of time we spend in God’s Word determines how deeply
we get into it and it gets into us. Just like the tea, the longer we are in the
Word, the “stronger” we become.
【Bible, Study of】The Bible is so deep that
theologians can never touch the bottom, yet so shallow that babes cannot drown.
【Bible, Study of】There are only two ways you can
study the Bible:
1.
Studying it with your mind made up.
2.
Studying it to let it make up your mind.
【Bible, Study of】There is a basic difference
between an explorer and a tourist. The tourist travels quickly, stopping only
to observe the highly noticeable or publicized points of interest. The
explorer, on the other hand, take his time to search out all that he can find.
Too
many of us read the Bible like a tourist and then complain that our devotional
times are fruitless. It is necessary that we take time to explore the Bible.
Notable nooks and crannies will appear as we get beneath the surface.
【Bible, Study of】A U.S. Army officer told of the
contrast in his pupils during two different eras of teaching at the artillery
training school at
One
reason that Bible study seems to be irrelevant to many Christians is that they
have no interaction with non-Christians, no vital ministry to growing
believers, and no personal and internal struggle for godliness, all of which
are factors that bring the truths of the Bible to apply to life.
【Bible, Study of】There is a story about a teenage
boy who was deeply interested in scientific subjects, especially astronomy. So
his father bought him a very expensive telescope. Since the young fellow had
studied the principles of optics, he found the instrument to be most
intriguing. He took it apart, examined the lenses, and made detailed
calculations on the distance of its point of focus. The youth became so
absorbed in gaining a technical knowledge of the telescope itself that he never
got around to looking at the stars. He knew a lot about that fine instrument,
but he missed seeing the wonders of the heavens.
As
Christians, to know all the facts and figures contained in the Bible is not the
end for which God has given us this Book. The purpose is that we might see God
and know him.
【Bible, Study of】The story is told of a small
fishing village where, for many years, a flock of sea gulls fed on the scraps
the fishermen left. All was fine and good for the sea gulls did not follow the
fishermen and--because they had lived off the scraps of the fishermen and had
never learned to feed themselves--the entire flock of birds died.
Believers
who feed only on what others teach them are like these foolish sea gulls?
【Bible, Study of】Mortimer J. Adler, in 《How t Read a Book》, has observed that the one time
people read for all they are worth is when they are in love and are reading a
love letter. They read every word three ways. They read between the lines and
in the margins. They read the whole in terms of the parts, and each part in
terms of the whole. They grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to
insinuation and implication. They perceive the color of words, the order of
phrases, and the weight of sentences. They may even take the punctuation into
account. Then, if never before or after, they read carefully and in depth.
So
shout believers read the “love letter” that the Eternal Lover of our souls has
given to us so that we may better know him and his purposes.
【Bible, Study of】“Don’t keep forever on the
public road, going only where others have gone. Leave the beaten track
occasionally and drive into the woods. You will be certain to see something you
have never seen before. It will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. Follow
it up, explore all around. One discovery will lead to another and, before you
know it, you will have something worth thinking about” ―― Alexander Graham Bell
【Bible, Study of】In an interview, Billy Graham
was asked this question: “If you had to live your life over again, what would
you do differently?”
His
answer: “One of my great regrets is that I have not studied enough. I wish I
had studied more and preached less. People have pressured me into speaking to
groups when I should have been studying and preparing. Donald Barnhouse said
that if he knew the Lord was coming three years, he would spend two of them
studying and one preaching. I’m trying to make it up.”
【Bible, Study of】A story is told of a devout
father whose son was studying for the ministry. The son decided to go to Europe
for an advanced degree, and the father worried that his simple faith would be
spoiled by sophisticated, unbelieving professors. “Don’t let them take Jonah
away from you,” he admonished, figuring the swallowed-by-a-great-fish story
might be the first part of the Bible to go.
Two
oyears later when the son returned, the father asked, “Do you still have Jonah
in your Bible?”
The
son laughed. “Jonah! That story isn’t even in your Bible!”
The
father replied, “It certainly is! What do you mean?”
Again
the son laughed and insisted, “It’s not in your Bible. Go ahead, show it to
me.”
The
old man fumbled through his Bible, looking for the Book of Jonah, but he
couldn’t find it. At last he checked the table of contents for the proper page.
When he turned there, he discovered the three pages comprising Jonah had been
carefully cut from his Bible.
“I
did it before I went away,” said the son. “What’s the difference whether I lose
the Book of Jonah through studying under non-believers or you lose it through
neglect?”
【Bible, Study of】In one of his lust-So Stories,
Rudyard Kipling pulled together all of the interrogative pronouns of the
English language in a bit of poetic doggerel, and these probing pronouns will
open up any subject thoroughly:
I
keep six hones serving men
(They
taught me all I knew);
Their
names are What and Why and When
And
How and Where and Who.