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
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