Jesus' Birth Foretold

Dear Friends,
   We are about to begin an adventure in a special kind of Bible study. It is designed to help you discover God's Truth's for yourself. Once you have learned how to do it, you can study God’s Word whether there’s someone around to ask you questions or not.
   This type of Bible study is called an inductive Bible study. It’s a fancy word that means you look at the Bible very carefully so that you can discover what was written and then what it means. In other words you don’t just take someone else’s word for it or go ask someone who is an expert. It means you begin by trying to figure it out and then you talk about it with people who know.

   Who are some of the people who would know? Sometimes it is your parents or your grandparents. A lot of times it will be your Bible study teacher and you can always talk with your pastor.

   What if you have a question you can’t answer? First, pray. You will be surprised what God will help you see, if you ask him. If you are still having trouble, then ask one of the people who help you when you have a tough question.

Things You Will Need

Bible (Anyone that you read is the right one, but these studies were based on New International Version a.k.a. NIV... some used the New Adventure Bible)*

Pen or Pencil

Colored Pencils

This Blog

*When I, Fishlips, do a Bible study, I use the version recommended by the passage as well as 3 or more like the KJV (King James Version), RSV (Revised Standard Version), NASV (New American Standard Version) and sometimes the paraphrases like The Living Bible or The Message. I use the paraphrased versions as a comparison to actual translations. More often than not, the actual translations are clearer than the paraphrased version... not to mention that the inductive study method works much better with an actual translation than someone's paraphrased version to "make it pertinent to today's culture". (Besides, the Word of God doesn't change from year to year, but the culture around us does.) Hence, use an actual translation rather than a paraphrased version.

   So where do we begin? We begin at the beginning -- not the beginning of the Bible, but with God himself. We begin with prayer. Without prayer, we may learn some things, but we will not learn as much as we will if we ask God to help us. It is important to ask God to help you understand His Word. Let's pray.

Dear Father God,

        Thank you for this time to study your Word. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me. Holy Spirit, help me get ready to study God's Word by preparing my heart, my soul and my mind.  In Jesus' name  I pray.  Amen.

        We are going to be learning more about Jesus from Dr. Luke, a friend of the Apostle Paul and a guy who liked history.  Dr. Luke wrote 2 books of the Bible.  He wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.   We’re going to study selected lessons from Dr. Luke’s first book, the Gospel of Luke.  So let’s begin . . .

The first thing we need to do is look at Chapter 1, then we’ll read Luke 1:8-20. (Found in tomorrow's blog.)

      When we study anything, it needs to be done in smaller sections which is why we are looking at Chapter 1 according to it’s different lessons.  Luke 1 is divided into 6 different lessons and the introduction.  Look in your Bible, what is the main idea of each lesson? (Hint: The title of the lesson is the clue.)

      Lesson 1 – Verses 5-25: The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

      Lesson 2 – Verses 26-38: ___________________________

      Lesson 3 – Verses 39-45: ___________________________

      Lesson 4 – Verses 46-56: ___________________________

      Lesson 5 – Verses 57-66: ___________________________

      Lesson 6 – Verses 67-80: ___________________________

            Very good!  You now have an idea of what is in this chapter.

And with that, we will close for today. If you wish, you can read the entire first chapter. Tomorrow or the next day, we'll start looking at key words.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Fishlips

Introducing Fishlips & Friends

Dear Friends --
   For a couple of years Fishlips & Friends has been floating around, actually more like swimming, around in my head. The question has always been how to get him out of my head and onto paper (or in this case, swimming around on the web).
   First of all, why Fishlips & Friends? Because Fishlips is a really cool name. I've always wanted to be associated with it; & Friends because no one really thrives in solitude.
   So... I guess, I'm Fishlips and you're & Friends. And (yes, I know you're not supposed to start a sentence with a conjunction... my mother was an English teacher. However, I'm going to do it any way!) AND, we are going on a journey. The journey will be looking at Scripture, the Bible, God's Holy Word, using the inductive method of study.
   Inductive means to see what is there and not what one thinks is there. It is to understand a passage in the context that it was written by its author first, and then asking the 5 Ws and an H (who, what, where, when, why & how). Finally, the passage will then be applied to life today. For application, it is important to understand that I live in the United States. That fact alone, does affect my view of application.
   What gives me the right or authority to teach this method of study? Good question... the flippant answer is that this is my blog and I can write about anything I want. The more serious answer and, furthermore, the more correct answer is that I feel the Lord has put a call on my life to teach people, no matter their age, HOW to study their Bibles. I've been teaching this method for about 15 years.
   Many of us grew up doing someone else's Bible study, but not really learning HOW to study it. Many adults don't feel that they could study their Bibles without a pastor or some other leader taking them through it. However, there's no greater leader than the Holy Spirit. He is able to reveal truths to you whether you have an instructor around or not. Fishlips & Friends is here to teach you HOW to study, but the Holy Spirit will be making the revelations.
   There are many places where we could start our Bible study. However, since this is the season of Advent, we will start with the coming of Christ. But we will not start today. Today is just an introduction. Come back tomorrow, and we'll get started.

Sincerely,
Fishlips