One of the key spiritual disciplines for the Christ Follower is Bible Study. My prayer for me is that I would have an unquenchable desire to know God more intimately by learning more and more about His word, what some people call His love letter to us, and that I could in some way encourage others to do the same.
In 2010, I enrolled in the Downline Institute. Downline Ministries is a local organization whose purpose is to strengthen and elevate Biblical discipleship in and through the local church. Downline hosts a nine-month-long intensive training program, the Downline Institute, that teaches its participants the Bible, Biblical discipleship, and Biblical manhood or womanhood. (I have no doubt I'll talk more about Downline in other posts). It was a GREAT experience and I learned a lot! I'd highly recommend it!
What immediately captured my attention early on in the course was when the founder, Dr. Kennon Vaughan, told the participants that at the end of the course we'd be able to "palm" our Bibles like Michael Jordan could palm a basketball. That we'd be that comfortable with the Word.
I'd always had a discomfort in my knowledge of the Bible (or better said, lack of knowledge) so this was exciting for me. The instruction started with a couple of sessions called Clarifying the Bible. The material, I think, was originally taken from a study written by Mitch Maher, lead pastor at Redeemer Community Church in Katy, Texas. I've since gone through that study as well.
One of the expectations of participating in Downline is that, since we'd be given a lifetime's supply of material to teach as a part of the course, that'd we'd spend a lifetime teaching it. We were to be disciple makers, not just smarter sinners. I've taught much of the material in various venues, and I hope to have other opportunities to teach what I learned. I'm not sure if this blog will ever be used to teach someone, but there's a chance. And even if presenting this material only benefits one person, it's worth the effort to post it.
And so, here goes. Beginning with this post and going through the next few posts, I present the material from Clarifying the Bible, purposely giving credit to both Downline and Mitch Maher.
Goal of Clarifying the Bible:
The goal of this material is to help the reader to increase their basic understanding of the Bible as a whole...and....to provide a high level understanding of both the Old and New Testaments.
Personal Story - For many years, my reading of and knowledge of the Bible was limited to the flannel board stories I heard year after year in VBS, some Psalms here and there, the creation story, the gospels. I knew where the other books were, or at least where the table of contents was, but I didn't spend a lot of time in them.
I know where J. Alexanders is, but I don’t spend a lot of time there.
I was uncomfortable. I could tell you where Daniel was in the Bible, but I couldn’t tell you where Daniel was in God’s story. Many books I couldn’t find at all.
You might be there too. Hopefully after the next few blog entries, if nothing else, you’ll be a little more comfortable with your Bible.
You’ll know when you pick up your Bible and read it where what you’re reading fits into the story as a whole. When someone talks about a verse or a book of the Bible, you’ll be able to place it in context.
Is that something that would be beneficial? I hope so.
I'm going to go pretty fast. Each blog entry will be about a 5 minute read.
Let’s go with the introduction.
Introduction
At New Hope Christian Church, where I am on staff, we believe the Bible is the inspired written Word of God and the authoritative rule for all matters of faith and practice for Christ Followers and the Church. We highly encourage our church family to maintain a practice of regularly reading God’s Word.
Many in our church family do maintain this practice, but many do not. Some do not because, to them, the Bible is intimidating or it is a mystery...
like it was with me...
or they don’t know where to start or when they do start they don’t know how it all fits together and it is therefore confusing.
Some adults at New Hope have even told us that they do not feel comfortable attending Bible Studies or small groups because they are embarrassed by the lack of basic knowledge they have about the Bible. What a Catch-22!! They don’t have basic Bible knowledge so they don’t attend the events and programs we offer that will help them get this knowledge.
Why is this Important?
Why do we put this emphasis and reading and knowing God’s word?
1. In the Bible, God has made Himself known to us. Our church's Vision is to be a people who know God and experience Him fully. Knowing the Bible helps us know God. Knowing the Bible will help us reach our Vision!
Stop and think about that for a moment. The God of the Universe, who created the Universe, has left us this handbook to tell us all about Him. His ways, His works, His will, His Love. It’s literally a love letter.
2. The Bible tells us how to live.
Not only do we get to know God better, but we can learn how He wants us to live this life that He gave us. It’s an owner’s manual.
3. We are commanded to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
Yet, so many of us don’t have a high level working knowledge of His Word, so how can we teach others?!
Right away we have this challenge before us that we’re supposed to be teaching God’s word yet we are limited.
And let’s pause just a minute. I'm not writing this blog entry just to give the reader something to read, or click on and ignore, and also not to just present things so that the reader will know them…what I want the reader to do is to make a commitment to share this knowledge with others…soon, regularly.
If you go continue reading from that perspective, knowing that you’ll soon be sharing this information and teaching others, I think you’ll look at it a little more closely.
That brings us to something I want to challenge you to do. Not only learn the material with the goal of teaching it, but also use this as an opportunity to hide God’s word in your heart through scripture memory.
Here's the first one I challenge you to memorize.
2 Timothy 2:2 – “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”
We study the Bible both to gain knowledge and to be able to pass it on to others. To do this, we need to understand it.
How do we start understanding it?
The Bible is, in a way, like a puzzle. You know, a jigsaw puzzle. During the period of time that because of the pandemic, many of us sheltered at home, a lot of people completed jigsaw puzzles.
When you are challenged with one, how do you start?
Look at the edges?
Look at the Big Picture?
In a way, that’s what we’re going to do…we’re going to look at the Big Picture and put the edges together so that filling in the middle is easier and the you see how the pieces fit together.
This will give you greater confidence as you study…and…when you teach the Bible.
Let’s Get Started:
2 Timothy 2:15 – “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
Over the next few blog entries I will cover 20 sentences which should help you understand the entire Bible.
Some will be simple, some complex.
The intent is to remove obstacles from your personal study of the Bible and to get you to a point where you know how the Bible fits together and how the books of the Bible fit into God’s plan. This will help you in your effort to follow the teaching of 2 Timothy 2:15.
Go to the next blog entry for Sentences 1 - 4.
Bible study is important.
Be disciplined.
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