Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Keri Folmar lives in a transient community, where she constantly loses her best ministry partners and must replace them. She’s found 4 primary characteristics to look for in new women’s Bible study leaders.
Folmar accompanies each point with both explanation and real-life examples.
It’s hip and cool for bloggers to post their top 10 posts of the year. And we want to be hip and cool. Our hearts tell us to do it, and the Bible says to “walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes” (Eccl 11:9). So here goes.
Last week, we gave you the top 10 posts from those written in 2018. Now, we list the top 10 posts from the full KW archive. If lots of other people are reading these posts, you probably should be, too.
This year’s Top 10 has 3 new posts that haven’t been “top 10” before. Only one of those was written this year; the other two from the archive saw a surge in pageviews.
This 2016 post made its way onto the Top 10 list for the first time this year. In the post, Ryan gives a few recommendations for audio Bibles. And though Ryan doesn’t prefer dramatized audio Bibles, Peter has been delighted with, and cheerfully recommends, NIV Live.
Making it onto the Top 10 list for the first time, this post outlines from Proverbs 6:12-15 a few signs to help recognize divisive people. This post comes from Peter’s 2013 series of studies through the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.
This post was part of Peter’s 2013 series analyzing every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Other posts listed the most quoted chapters and most quoted verses. But this one on the most quoted books got a lot of pageviews in 2018.. This post was #5 on this list last year.
This is the only post written in 2018 to be among the Top 10 of all posts. These Bible studies from Ryan will help you to make the most of the season of Lent by walking through one of the gospel accounts of Christ’s passion week.
This post was also part of Peter’s 2013 series analyzing every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Good to know not only what’s said, but also what’s not said. This post was #4 on this list last year.
In another post I explain, in the abstract, 5 practices for preparing effective Bible studies. In this post, I describe what it looks like for me to employ those practices. This post is up from the #9 slot last year.
We put this one into the top menu so people could find it easily. It pretty much explains why this blog exists, so we’re glad it gets a lot of pageviews. This one is down from #2 last year.
See the previous post, unless you want less of a detailed explanation and more of a summary. Then see this post instead. This post was #1 last year before being supplanted by a young, angry man.
This was the most-viewed post in 2014, but then dropped off the list until resurfacing as #8 last year. I’m delighted to see a continued resurgence in appeal for such an important topic.
The popularity of this 2015 post continues to surprise. Elihu is that mysterious 4th friend in the book of Job. If you even knew he existed, chances are you’ve skipped his speeches entirely. This post is Peter’s attempt to explain his role in the drama of the play of Job. This post was #3 most viewed in 2017, but in 2018 it had almost twice as many views as #2.
It’s that time of the year again, when all the coolest bloggers bring their Top 10 lists out of the woodwork. “Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after” (Eccl 1:10-11).
This post lists the top 10 viewed posts this year, from among the posts we wrote this year. Next week, we’ll list the top 10 viewed posts from the full KW archive. May these lists give you much to consider and delight in as the holidays fill you with peace on earth and good will toward men.
Six of the ten posts on this year’s list come from Ryan’s keyboard. This first entry looks at a quotable quote from two of Jesus’ sermons to show that he sometimes used the same phrases to mean different things. “Words and phrases have little to no meaning when lifted from their context.”
We spent much time this year seeking to persuade readers that context matters. This is not the only such post to have landed with readers (if the pageview statistics can be interpreted as interest), and if we made the list longer, entries 11 through 15 would also be of the same ilk. This post shows that what is brief in Exodus is expanded in Deuteronomy: God Almighty gave these commands to his children out of love.
This is the first entry on the list from Peter, in which he argues that the New Testament authors are quoting not sentences but passages. Therefore, we ought to look up the Old Testament quotes and understand their context before we’ll understand how the New Testament author uses that text to make or illustrate his point.
Ryan laments the fact that 21% of the Bible typically doesn’t get 21% of our attention. And as a result, 79% of the Bible is at least 21% misunderstood because the prophetic background is too unfamiliar and thus goes unconsidered. But there is hope. And to find the hope, you have to read the prophets.
This conclusion to Ryan’s duology (see the next entry) rounds out the lower half of the list. There is a significant jump in pageviews between this and the next most viewed post. This post seeks to help you combat your Bible weariness and pursue continued intimacy with your compassionate Father. Remember: The problem lies not with the book but with us.
This and the next three posts on this list were very close to one another in pageviews. “Imagine that a friend of yours has just become a Christian. She knows of your faith and asks to meet with you. Your friend knows the Bible is an important book for Christians, and she wants to read it. But she has no familiarity with the Bible at all. What would you say to her?”
No, Peter isn’t planning to get a “Mom” tattoo. But he does believe that, were he to debate the issue, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” would be out of bounds. This post explains why.
Sometimes people fear studying or teaching through the book of Exodus because they fear they won’t know what to do with all the tabernacle details. And then what do you do when nearly every detail is repeated? What a marvelous opportunity to strengthen our observation skills!
“The Lord himself makes the interpretation clear to Ezekiel. There is no reason for us to be unclear on this ourselves. The dead bones coming back to life are a picture of the exiled people being brought back into the land of Israel, placed in their own land. A people without hope are resurrected to new hope.”
Last year, Ryan proposed a set of sample Bible studies for Advent. This year, he took on Lent. These studies each focus on one gospel’s account of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. These studies take you right to the text, building your confidence that you can study God’s word for yourself.
Jim Elliff makes an important point. To read Scripture rightly, we must be willing to allow each author, in each text, to make the point he wants to make. We must not be quick to harmonize its teaching with the rest of the Bible, lest we dilute or overturn the point at hand.
Elliff writes:
For instance, a man may read that he is to exert diligence in pursuing truths from God, but, on the other side his mind flies to passages that say God alone grants that understanding and unless God opens the heart, he is helpless to obtain any benefit from his diligence. So, the mind patches together a way both things are really one thing. But now you’ve ripped something away that the author intended to emphasize. He makes one point, but he purposely did not make the other point. He wasn’t writing a systematic theology, but was driving a truth home.
In some odd cases, the meaning of the first statement is turned on its head and all the potency is excised from the text by our propensity to blend all seemingly contrary thoughts together. As we read, we say, “Christ does not really mean we are to give up our possessions because in this place He says that some believers are wealthy.” So as we read we are denying the statement before we let it say anything to us. And, without intending to do so, we are telling ourselves and perhaps others that it would have been better if Jesus would have said something much more benign.
This does not mean that harmonizing, or creating a systematic theology is wrong; on the contrary, it is critical that we do this! But not at the expense of what the Holy Spirit aims to teach in a particular passage.
For further explanation from Elliff, check it out!
Trevin Wax makes an important point in his article “Routine Bible Reading Can Change Your Life.” Speaking of the perennial guilt many people feel when they consider trying once again to pursue a plan of regular Bible reading:
“Why do so many Christians start with a strong commitment and yet lose their way when reading the Bible? One reason may be that we have too high of an expectation of what we will feel every day when we read. We know this is God’s Word and that He speaks to us through this Book, and yet so many times, when we’re reading the assigned portion of Scripture for the day, it all feels so, well, ordinary…”
“I sympathize with Christians who feel this way. We’re right to approach the Bible with anticipation, to expect to hear from God in a powerful and personal way. But the way the Bible does its work on our hearts is often not through the lightning bolt, but through the gentle and quiet rhythms of daily submission, of opening up our lives before this open Book and asking God to change us. Change doesn’t always happen overnight. Growth doesn’t happen in an instant. Instead, it happens over time, as we eat and drink and exercise. The same is true of Scripture reading.”
He goes on to explain why these things are so. Check it out!
Mike Leake makes a great point at his blog: Some parts of your Bible are not inspired by God.
Leake primarily has the punctuation in mind, as the original manuscripts had no punctuation.
…if we believe that the only original manuscripts are fully inspired, authoritative, and without error it means we do not believe the verse divisions or punctuation in your Bible falls under that category. Those were not present in either the original Hebrew or the Greek. Those were added much later.
Leake gives an example where shifting a comma might adjust the way we read a verse. Such discussions are not contrary to a belief in the inspiration or inerrancy of Scripture. Things such as comma placement are translators’ decisions. If you compare different translations, you’ll often see a variety of choices on such matter.
We also should keep in mind that verse divisions, red letters, paragraph breaks, footnotes, page formatting, and section headings are also translation or publication decisions, not components of the original manuscripts. If the context and train of thought of the text take you across some of these contrived boundaries, make sure you allow it to do so.
Writing at Stand to Reason, Greg Koukl addresses the common question of whether we ought to read the Bible literally. He demonstrates the complexity of the question, highlighting the fact that nobody reads anything literally 100% of the time. In the process he shows how important it is to grasp the author’s intentions. We must read a Bible text the way the author would have wanted us to read it.
Koukl addresses some common objections and then ends with practical tips on how to best understand metaphors.
His counsel is both sound and practical, and I commend it to you. Check it out!
HT: Ron Malone
In answering a question about how to train teenagers to study the Bible, John Piper highlights a critical goal:
…the goal of this teaching is a lifelong habit of mind and heart to approach the Scriptures in a certain way. In other words, being able to do a particular technique is not the goal. Trying to reproduce Piper lab experiences is not the goal. But the habits of mind and the habits of heart that you inculcate, or that you build into your children while working through those techniques — that’s the goal.
I would explain that goal to my children. I’d say, “That’s what we’re after here. I’m not trying to make a little John Piper out of you (or a little whatever out of you). I just want to build into you certain habits of mind and habits of heart so that you will approach the Scriptures fruitfully for the rest of your life.”
Piper describes the importance of creating a cultural setting where you can develop habitual skills with your teens. Then he proposes 7 skills to focus on:
The OIA method provides a simple way to package such skills so they sink in and are memorable. Then Piper concludes:
Keep in mind the aim is not to master a technique like arcing or lab with John Piper. That’s not the aim. The aim is lifelong habits of mind and heart that humbly and eagerly ask and answer questions from the Bible.
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. May the Lord give us and our teens grace to pursue and acquire such lifelong habits.
You might like to know we’re not the only ones who promote OIA Bible study. And we’re not the only ones who believe this method works not only for adults but also for children. Over at the Gospel Coalition, Shawna Duvall winsomely explains that “Inductive Bible Study is Not Just for Adults.” While I have a minor quibble with her use of the term “inductive,” she explains briefly and compellingly how to teach the OIA method to children.
And she gets this just right:
We’re a resource-rich generation with a trove of family-focused, theologically sound materials. But while such supplemental materials are valuable, many parents and caregivers still feel inadequate when it comes to simply opening the pages of Scripture with their children.
With our own kids, my husband and I have utilized a simple Bible study tool: observing, interpreting, and applying the text. This inductive method is already widely trusted and familiar in the church today. In our family, it provides a framework basic enough for our younger kids to grasp and yet is able to grow with them, even into adulthood.
I particularly appreciate the hand motions Duvall describes to help children remember the purpose of each step.
Everything on this site is here to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible. But from time to time, for the sake of balance, it is appropriate for us to remind you that there are extreme or extraordinary times when reading or studying the Bible is not the most important thing to do. In fact, there are times when doing it could be harmful or counterproductive.
David Murray, with help from puritan Richard Baxter, highlights one of those exceptional times: depression.
One of the strangest steps of faith I’ve ever taken as a pastor was telling a depressed Christian to stop reading the Bible. This Christian was in a terrible dark hole of depression and was tormenting herself every day by spending long periods ransacking the Scriptures for a verse that would cure her depression. She was frantic and desperate in her search and every day her “failure” only deepened her depression as she concluded that she must have been abandoned by God. It also left her mentally and even physically exhausted. Bible reading seemed to be harming rather than helping her.
I felt that her mind needed a rest and that she would never recover unless she stopped this daily self-torture. That’s when I said that she should stop reading the Bible for a short time to let her mind rest and to rebuild her emotional reserves. Then she would hopefully be able to read the Bible again with profit.
Murray goes on to quote Richard Baxter who counsels those with “melancholy” to refrain from “fixed, long, and deep meditations that will only hurt you” so that “you may later do what you cannot do now.”
I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, where we’re told that life as God’s creatures in a fallen world means there is a time for every matter under heaven. God has made this to be so, that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. There is, in fact, a time to stop reading the Bible. Please consider Murray’s and Baxter’s helpful insights.
