Studying Scripture Details
Oh, so many of you have told me that you are ready and excited to start studying God's Word! You have no idea how thrilled I am to hear it. [If you missed the Intro to Studying Scripture, please read it first.]
So here's Leslie's Guide to Studying Scripture.
[DISCLAIMER: This is a summary of many, many different things. Do not feel like you need to consider this a check-list of knowing God's Word. In fact, the ultimate goal is not to know God's Word; it's to KNOW GOD. ("Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but to come to it to meet the Lord. Make it to be a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord." --Norman Douty) If tomorrow morning you do one thing in Scripture, and you have an encounter with God, YOU DID IT. Success.]
Personally, I ALWAYS have a journal and I write EVERYTHING that I learn or hear in Scripture Study. I would encourage you to do the same.
There are many different kinds of Scripture Study and many different ways to do it. Here are some I love to do.
Book Study. Identify a book you want to really, really dig deeply into. [I would recommend starting with one of the following: Genesis, Joshua, 1 or 2 Samuel, Esther, Psalms, Jonah, Luke, John, Acts, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, James, 1, 2, or 3 John.} You may not actually get all the way through the book, but your intention is to know it as well as you know a close friend. A shorter version of this would be a theme study, such as studying what happened in Jesus' last week on earth during Holy Week or the circumstances surrounding His birth during Christmas.
Character Study. Instead of studying a book, you may instead want to study a prominent character in the Bible. Some people include David, Paul, Moses, Samuel, Jesus, John, Mary, or Peter. Your goal will be to study every scripture you can find--in whichever books their story is told or their letters are written--and analyze those.
Key Word Study. This would involve finding a huge theme that runs throughout Scripture and following its trail from Genesis to Revelation. This might include concepts such as covenant, tabernacle, holy, sacrifice, righteousness, blessings and curses, and more.
Now the key to any of these studies is this:
Start Panoramic and Zoom in.
Begin every study with a panoramic overview. This is a look at the big picture, as though you were standing on top of the Empire State Building, getting a bird's-eye view of New York City, knowing you'll be walking through the streets and shops for the next week.
A Book Study overview would include reading the headings throughout the book and writing a general timeline. If the book has less than five chapters, reading the entire book a few times. A Character study overview would involve finding where that person appears in Scripture. Your Key Word study overview would mean you get a resource so that you can know where that key word appears in the Bible.
For a Character Study or Key Word study, go to biblegateway.com and type in either the person's name or the key word. It will show you every single instance it appears. You may want to print the list to use as your study guide or you may want to write them in your journal if some of them don't apply.
Specifically, in your overview, you want to:
Red: HEART, love.
Blue: WATER, comfort, healing, heaven
Purple: ROYALTY, God, Jesus, Spirit
Yellow: SUNSHINE, hope, joy
Orange: TRAFFIC CONES, caution, warning
Green: ROAD SIGNS, commands
Your panoramic overview may take a day or a week depending on your topic. You can read through the book of James three times in 30 minutes; it might take you five days of digging to figure out all the passages that talk about King David. DO NOT RUSH. Your overview will get you focused and organized.
So after you've gotten the panoramic overview, ZOOM IN. Take in every detail, every specific thing, and every resource that helps you know and understand a very small portion of Scripture each day. As a general rule, you're going to do this one verse or one sentence per day. (Yes, I'm serious. I told you this was WALKING through Scripture, not RUNNING.)
What does it mean to zoom in? Here are some of the things:
Ask yourself:
Start with prayer.
End with prayer.
YOU CAN DO THIS. I promise.
No excuses. Start tomorrow. Do it EVERY DAY.
And please, please, PLEASE let me know if you have any questions. Also, please let me know what God says to you through His Word :)
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
@leslienotebook
So here's Leslie's Guide to Studying Scripture.
[DISCLAIMER: This is a summary of many, many different things. Do not feel like you need to consider this a check-list of knowing God's Word. In fact, the ultimate goal is not to know God's Word; it's to KNOW GOD. ("Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but to come to it to meet the Lord. Make it to be a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord." --Norman Douty) If tomorrow morning you do one thing in Scripture, and you have an encounter with God, YOU DID IT. Success.]
Personally, I ALWAYS have a journal and I write EVERYTHING that I learn or hear in Scripture Study. I would encourage you to do the same.
There are many different kinds of Scripture Study and many different ways to do it. Here are some I love to do.
Book Study. Identify a book you want to really, really dig deeply into. [I would recommend starting with one of the following: Genesis, Joshua, 1 or 2 Samuel, Esther, Psalms, Jonah, Luke, John, Acts, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, James, 1, 2, or 3 John.} You may not actually get all the way through the book, but your intention is to know it as well as you know a close friend. A shorter version of this would be a theme study, such as studying what happened in Jesus' last week on earth during Holy Week or the circumstances surrounding His birth during Christmas.
Character Study. Instead of studying a book, you may instead want to study a prominent character in the Bible. Some people include David, Paul, Moses, Samuel, Jesus, John, Mary, or Peter. Your goal will be to study every scripture you can find--in whichever books their story is told or their letters are written--and analyze those.
Key Word Study. This would involve finding a huge theme that runs throughout Scripture and following its trail from Genesis to Revelation. This might include concepts such as covenant, tabernacle, holy, sacrifice, righteousness, blessings and curses, and more.
Now the key to any of these studies is this:
Start Panoramic and Zoom in.
Begin every study with a panoramic overview. This is a look at the big picture, as though you were standing on top of the Empire State Building, getting a bird's-eye view of New York City, knowing you'll be walking through the streets and shops for the next week.
A Book Study overview would include reading the headings throughout the book and writing a general timeline. If the book has less than five chapters, reading the entire book a few times. A Character study overview would involve finding where that person appears in Scripture. Your Key Word study overview would mean you get a resource so that you can know where that key word appears in the Bible.
For a Character Study or Key Word study, go to biblegateway.com and type in either the person's name or the key word. It will show you every single instance it appears. You may want to print the list to use as your study guide or you may want to write them in your journal if some of them don't apply.
Specifically, in your overview, you want to:
- Ask questions that you don't understand or that you wish you knew more about.
- Observe all that you didn't know or that stands out.
- Mark the key words. That includes any word you don't know or any word you want to know more about. It also includes any word that appears more than once in a chapter.
- I've started color-coding in my overview! I use colored pencils and underline the phrases depending on what king of Scripture it is:
Red: HEART, love.
Blue: WATER, comfort, healing, heaven
Purple: ROYALTY, God, Jesus, Spirit
Yellow: SUNSHINE, hope, joy
Orange: TRAFFIC CONES, caution, warning
Green: ROAD SIGNS, commands
Your panoramic overview may take a day or a week depending on your topic. You can read through the book of James three times in 30 minutes; it might take you five days of digging to figure out all the passages that talk about King David. DO NOT RUSH. Your overview will get you focused and organized.
So after you've gotten the panoramic overview, ZOOM IN. Take in every detail, every specific thing, and every resource that helps you know and understand a very small portion of Scripture each day. As a general rule, you're going to do this one verse or one sentence per day. (Yes, I'm serious. I told you this was WALKING through Scripture, not RUNNING.)
What does it mean to zoom in? Here are some of the things:
- Read it several times, preferably aloud. Write it if you're the type.
- Read what Bible Scholars say about this verse or sentence. If you have a Study Bible, read the notes at the bottom or the side of the page. If you don't have a Study Bible, I'd try to get one! Christianbook.com has them on sale regularly.
- If your Bible has cross-references (tiny, superscript letters near some words that correspond to stuff in the middle of the columns), look those up. You can use cross-references to see how Scripture confirms scripture and does not stand alone.
- Try your best to answer your questions from your overview.
- Define your key words. My favorite resource for this blueletterbible.org. Type in your passage and click on "Strong's" at the top. Once you do that, you'll see where you can click on words and get the definition of the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) word. It's addictive. You'll want to look up every single word in every single verse because IT IS SO RICH!
- Look up this passage in other translations to see how other Bibles word it. My favorite resource for this is biblegateway.com; you can type in a verse and then click "in all English translations" and it will show you just that. Use the formal-sounding ones (King James), the definition-based ones (Amplified), the contemporary-wording ones (New Living Translation), and the plain-spoken, somewhat current but still true to the original language ones (HCSB, NAS).
- Restate the passage using your understanding of the key words and other translations. Make it into word art, diagram the sentence, or turn it into a prayer.
Ask yourself:
- What do I learn about humanity/myself in this passage?
- What do I learn about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit in this passage?
- What does this passage teach me to do or not do?
- How might I apply this passage TODAY? (Be specific!)
- How can I mediate on this passage today? Is God calling me to start memorizing it?
Start with prayer.
End with prayer.
YOU CAN DO THIS. I promise.
No excuses. Start tomorrow. Do it EVERY DAY.
And please, please, PLEASE let me know if you have any questions. Also, please let me know what God says to you through His Word :)
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
@leslienotebook
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