How to Study the Bible

A week ago I had the privilege of teaching a Pursuit Class (link) on the Scripture entitled “The Divine Autobiography”. The class went great (lasting 3 hours), had a great attendance for our first weeknight study, and I think that people are really reading their Bible (and understanding it!) on a regular basis now. I want to share some resources with you here that may or may not have been brought up in the class, so that you (regardless of whether you go to Harmony or not) will be equipped to read the Scriptures for yourself!

The Most Important Thing

There are two basic principles of Bible interpretation, that when fully followed, will ultimately lead to a correct interpretation of any text (though perhaps not on the first go-around, for soon to obvious reasons). Anytime we open the Scriptures, we should read the text with two things in mind:

1. The text we’re reading should line up with the rest of Scripture. This is much more difficult than it sounds because we don’t instantly know and remember all of Scripture. We could interpret a text one way, and then later read something that contradicts our interpretation. This requires that we review our opinion of the texts at hand. Something that really helps with this is to take good notes during in-depth study, and refer to them constantly. If two different sections of Scripture disagree, it’s not the text that is incorrect, it’s our awareness of how they dovetail together to provide the fullest picture of what’s going on. The Bible is a gloriously beautiful document, given to us by a sovereign and providential God, and we should approach it as such, with reverence, and a respect because it reveals God to us! What a marvelous thing.
2. The text we’re reading should reveal something of Jesus with respect to the Gospel. This is what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 talks about:we don’t read the Bible for information, we read the Bible fortransformation. Every time we open the Scriptures, they should speak to our souls, filling in a brighter picture of Christ, that we may know the Man we should be imitating. Every bit of Scripture should reveal something about Christ, that we may look more like Him and that we may have a greater appreciation for His redemptive work on Earth and throughout history.

Class Notes

You can download the PDF of the Class Notes here. It’s been adapted from our GCM document, which is a document I’m putting together to form our Membership class.

YouVersion

For those of you out there who are tech-savvy, I’d recommend YouVersion, which is an online Bible application allowing you access the Bible (and your notes, along with the notes of others) from pretty much anywhere you have internet access. I would also recommend installing the mobile app to youriPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone. Also, you can access YouVersion from a web-enable phone, netbook, or computer as well.  We use YouVersion Liveat Harmony Church to provide an interactive experience at our Sunday am gatherings, which includes having the text, my notes, a giving online button, prayer requests, Twitter, and polls right there at your fingertips…in the middle of our gathering.  I would suggest joining the Harmony Church Youversion Group to keep up with our gatherings!

Logos

I’ve recently converted to Bible software that I absolutely adore (that’s hard for me). It’s called Logos, it’s relatively expensive (but worth it, and they allow for payment plans), and it’s amazing. For any serious student, I’d highly recommend it. I’ll end up doing a full-blown review soon on it, but you can check it out here. If you decide to get any version of Logos, shoot me an email first (derek -at – harmonydc.com), and we can both get goodies through a refer-a-friend process. They also have a sweet iPhone client (check it out).