Bible Study Blueprint: How start studying the Bible

In this spiritual journey, we aren't racing to the last page; we're savoring each word, allowing the living communication from God to resonate within us, sometimes for weeks or even months on a single passage. I invite you to join me in this patient quest for understanding, as we seek to establish a Bible study routine that is anchored in the recognition of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Let this episode be your catalyst for a deeper engagement with scripture as we express our gratitude for your companionship and encourage you to share the transformative experience of God's Word.

Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Check out the YouTube channel Faithfullyliven youtube.com/@faithfullyliven

Do you want to read about how to live faithfully? Check out the blog http://lyfe102.org

Get a free Road Map to get started learning how to study the Bible https://mailchi.mp/88f9c9405da0/bible-study-road-map

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwayne, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. How to Study the Bible. So you might have wondered why study the Bible? Well, you know the Bible is not just a religious book. It's a treasure trove of stories, teachings and insights from God himself or us. The Bible can offer us guidance in our daily lives. So, whether you're a seasoned scholar or a complete beginner, I hope you would join us on this series as we uncover the wisdom and beauty of the Bible and offer you some practical guidance on how to begin your own journey of discovery. So I think it's important to know why we study the Bible. Alright, so the first reason to study the Bible is to know God.

Speaker 1: 1:16

The Bible is God's revelation of himself to us. The Bible reveals to us God's nature and his character. In the beginning we see God as the eternal Creator. God reveals this to us in Genesis 1-1, which says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We learn about God's grace when he promised to save your ingenesis three hours of the fall. And then in John 3, 16-17, it says for this is how God loved the world he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. So, you see, we not only learn of God the Father, but we also learn about God the Son, jesus Christ, who teaches us more about himself and his sacrifice for us. And before Christ has sent it into heaven, he tells and promises us about the Holy Spirit who would dwell in us. So you see, god is a big part of our lives as believers and it's important to know him. And God reveals himself to us through his word.

Speaker 1: 2:31

So the second reason for why we should study the Bible is to know God's word. The scriptures were inspired by God. It is God's message for us. Second, Timothy 3, 16-17 says all scriptures God breathe and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So you see, knowing God's word shows us who we are before a holy and righteous God for sinners who can be saved by grace to faith. So all throughout scripture we are learning of his saving grace and mercy for humanity. We can see this starting in Genesis all the way to Revelation. God speaks to us through his word. This is where we learn what he commands of us as believers. So you see, the Bible gives us the measuring stick by which we can distinguish truth from ever. God tells us what is truth and what is right and how it's different from the world and our culture around us. So studying the Bible gives us direction in life.

Speaker 1: 3:43

As a follower of Christ, we have a purpose. That purpose is to glorify God and to make him known. So, you see, the life of a believer is to be a selfless one. In 2 Corinthians it tells us since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who received his new life no longer lived for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So you can see, this is in 2 Corinthians, 5, 14a-15.

Speaker 1: 4:23

So Jesus tells us what we are supposed to do. We must love the Lord, the God, with all of our heart, with all of our soul and with all of our mind. It tells us that this is the first commandment, and the second one is equally important Love your neighbor as yourself. So, like I said before, the Christian life is the selfless one. We wish to love God and we wish to love others, and the Bible shows us how we're supposed to live this out. So, as we're studying the Bible, it teaches us how to live in this Christian life.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Another reason why we should study God's word is because we learn how to be pure and holy and live rightly before God as a believer in Christ. He has given us a new life, and second Corinthians says therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. We hold all things becoming new. We should live a different kind of life now that we're Christians, and when we read and study scripture, we learn how we can please God and then look more like him and then less like the world.

Speaker 1: 5:32

So Paul reminds us of this in Romans, he tells us. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I pray with you to give your body to God because of all that, all he has done for you, all he has done for you. Let them be living and holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know him, know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So you see that the Bible teaches us and equips us on how to live for Christ.

Speaker 1: 6:19

So the last reason why we should study the Bible because it provides comfort and hope. You see, the Bible is sufficient to speak to every human need, even our darkest ones. When we feel pain and secure, we feel confused or ashamed, or we feel betrayed by our friend. So, no matter the magnitude of our mess, god's word is alive and powerful to speak to those needs. All that we need to do is go to him, either by reading the scriptures or in prayer. First, john 5, 14 tells us, and we are confident, that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. So the Bible is meant to be the foundation and source of confidence for our prayers.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So now that we got the Y of why we need to study the Bible, let's go over some tips on how to study the Bible. So I'm gonna give you five tips here. So we know starting something new can be hard, especially when you don't know how or what to do. So starting your journey of studying the Bible is no different, you know. So let's take a dive and start right in. So first I am going to give you all five tips and then we're going to go into a little bit more detail with each of them.

Speaker 1: 7:52

So the first tip is going to be pray for understanding. Have a plan, use different translations, use resources to help you in your study and study in community. So the first step is going to be pray for understanding. Psalms 25-4-5 says Show me your ways, lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. So this might be an obvious one, but this is one thing sometimes we often tend to forget. We need the Holy Spirit to help guide us and teach us God's Word as we study it.

Speaker 1: 8:38

So the second tip is to have a plan. So when you decide the time and what you're going to study the Bible, you want to know how you're going to study the Bible. There are a lot of ways to study the Bible. You can do character studies, you can study a book of the Bible, you can do topical studies, you can study inductively. Or, if you don't study the Bible, you could read a portion of the Bible, such as you could read Psalms or Proverbs, or you can do a Bible reading plan where you read through the whole Bible in one year, or you can listen to the Bible in one year. So it's good to have a plan on what you want to do and how you want to study the Bible.

Speaker 1: 9:20

So the third tip is going to be using different translations. There are a lot of translations of the Bible out there and each translation has a different way in which they have translated the Bible. They have thought-for-thought translations, they have word-for-word translations. They have a blending of these two forms of translation. The thing is to find a translation or translations that you could understand. If you heard of the U-verse Bible, blue Letter Bible, they have the different types of translations on these programs. I would encourage you to read different translations and to see which ones that you can understand, so you can lock into one or you can use a number of different ones as you're studying the Bible. Some of my favorites are the ESV, which is the English Standard Version, and the NLT, which is the New Living Translation.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So the fourth tip is going to be use resources when you're studying the Bible. So these resources are to be an aid to your study of the Bible. We don't want these resources to be the focal point. We always want the Bible to be the focal point of our study. So some resources that you can use. You can use the study Bible.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Study Bibles have Overview of what the book is about. It has commentary at the bottom of page footnotes to help you better understand the context. Often they give life applications pertaining to a particular passage or book of the Bible. You have Bible handbooks which give summaries of different books of the Bible. They provide a cultural and historical context for a particular book or passage. You also have commentaries which are helpful in interpreting different passages of scripture. Commentaries tend to go into a little bit more detailed. And then you also have different software resources out there, such as the Bible project, bible gateway, bible hub, bible study tools. These are all blue letter Bible. These are all helpful to you to aid you in the study of the Bible.

Speaker 1: 11:39

So the last tip is going to be study and community. So you can do this by joining a Sunday school adult fellowship, our small group, and where they are actively getting into the work, whether it's weekly or monthly. These groups are helpful because it encourages you to study your Bible, it provides accountability. Then it also strengthens your faith. It can also help you as you're studying the Bible, because you know, oftentimes when we study the Bible, some things or some spiritual insights we don't see and somebody else might see. So you can glean from what they're learning and they can glean from what you're learning. It helps build up the church, provide that fellowship and helps you be in a community with other believers. All right, so, lastly, I think it would be good to end with looking at the difference between reading and actually studying the Bible, because there is a difference between reading and actually studying the Bible, because there is a difference between the two. And I think it would be helpful to kind of round up this episode as far as some tips on how to get started and then just give you a better understanding of how Bible study is done and, like I say, the difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible and why it's important that we do both.

Speaker 1: 13:20

First, do you prefer reading or studying? What should you do with the Bible? Should you just read it or should you study it? So have you wondered what you should do? Should you just read the Bible or should you be focused more on studying the Bible? Which is better? The answer is both. So when you, you should be reading and studying the Bible. So when you read the Bible, you're gonna gain familiarity and a basic comprehension of the structure of the Bible and the story of Bible. So when you study the Bible, you're gonna gain a better understanding of its details. You're gonna overview of the text and learn to understand the meaning of the text too. All right, so let's kind of focus on why reading is important.

Speaker 1: 14:08

So I've heard people say that as believers, we should be reading through the Bible, continuing on a yearly basis or just continually. And, like I said earlier, when you're reading through the Bible, you're mainly focusing on gaining familiarity with the story of the Bible and understanding the character God. So as you keep reading through the Bible over and over again, you're learning about the different events and people within the Bible and where those Events and people land in the structure of the Bible. You know, on the other side of that, when you keep reading the Bible over and over again, you are going to notice things that you've never seen before. This happens to me all the time, which is why I just love reading to the Bible over and over again, because I see things that I didn't see before and it just opens my eyes. It's so amazing. All right, so we just shouldn't read the Bible. We should also be studying the Bible.

Speaker 1: 15:03

So studying the Bible is a little bit more in labor, labor intensive. Where are you gonna be trying to really really understand the meaning of the text? You know there's different ways to study the Bible. I have a playlist of the different methods on how to study the Bible. I've also put that in that link in the description.

Speaker 1: 15:20

So when you're studying the Bible, it can sometimes feel like research. You know You're studying a Bible and you're not just trying to scratch the surface. Like you're reading the Bible, you want to dig deep into the scriptures and try to figure out what it's trying to tell us. So when you're studying the Bible, it may take weeks or months on a particular Pacific passage that you're studying. So it's important that you take your time. You know, don't rush. This is not a race that we have to finish. You want to take your time to truly understand God's Word.

Speaker 1: 16:08

So, as we wrap up this episode, I just want to bring to your attention again, to remember, that the Bible is more than just a Religious or historical text. It's God's Word for us, it's, it's how we hear from God in our every day lives, right in the here and now. So I hope you are encouraged today on why it's important to study God's Word and then that you've gathered some practical tips to get started if you, if you're struggling to start having a regular Bible study or quiet time. So I pray that you would pick up this book, god's Word that he has given to us, and that you would start your own Exploration of his word and remember God is always good, he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you. I.