Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Matthias Media Home Group Leader’s Digest

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I recently subscribed to the Home Group Leaders digest from Matthias Media. This digest is a free monthly email with practical tips and encouragement to those who lead small group Bible studies.

The September edition was quite helpful on a number of topics:

  • How to follow up with people whose attendance has been spotty.
  • How to develop closeness in the group outside of the Bible study meeting.
  • Why it’s important not to ask questions that leave people feeling like they have to read your mind.

You can check out the newsletter online, or—even better—subscribe! In the subscription options, just check “The Home Group Leader’s Monthly Digest.”

6 Ways to Benefit from Reading Genealogies

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Writing for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Matthew Holst has some very helpful tips for one of the most difficult Bible genres for modern readers.

The genealogies in Scripture are so important that it may rightly be said that we cannot fully see the glory of the metanarrative (i.e. the storyline) of the Bible without them.

His 6 tips are:

  1. Read them.
  2. Pay attention to every word.
  3. Pay attention to every missing word.
  4. Consider how they remind us of life and death.
  5. Consider how they present to us two seeds.
  6. Consider how they present to us a faithful, promise-fulfilling, covenant-keeping God.

We get out of genealogies from what time we are willing to put in. If we are prepared to spend the time, do the work and be guided by the Spirit, we will be presented with potted-histories of God’s kindness to man. So we must read the genealogies of Scripture and study them. They, like every other part of Scripture, are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that you may be made perfect, equipped for every good work  (2 Timothy 3:16).

Check it out!

A Revival We Can Get Behind

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Last week, Tim Challies posted some reflections on a recent upsurge among evangelicals to help ordinary Christians become people of the Word. Within a matter of months, we saw the publication of my book, the publication of Kevin DeYoung’s new book, and the launch of John Piper’s “Look at the Book” conference and online video series.

Challies writes:

Nobody planned this unusual confluence of events, and I doubt that the teams that came up with these similar book and conference titles had anyone in common. I’m hoping this is an indication that God is on the move to exalt his Word even higher within the Church. That’s a revival I can get behind 100%.

Challies goes on to reproduce Tedd Tripp’s entire Foreword from my book.

If you’d like to see more, check it out!

How Long it Takes to Read the Bible

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Literary agent Steve Laube recently posted an infographic showing how long it takes to read about 60 classic and popular works of literature. The entire Bible takes less than 45 hours to read, less than either the Harry Potter series or the Game of Thrones series.

With just 30 minutes per day of solid Bible reading, you could still complete another read-through before the end of the year!

Check it out!

Can We Really Trust the Bible?

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This new book from Barry Cooper looks interesting. Here’s an excerpt of his Can I Really Trust the Bible? from the Good Book blog:

Writing was the natural way to preserve God’s words for present and future generations.

For example, the Ten Commandments are described as having been “inscribed by the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18), and when the stone tablets were smashed by Moses—in a fit of anger at Israel’s idolatry—God immediately took steps to replace them. Writing was the way God carefully protected his words so that they would not be lost, changed, distorted or forgotten. As he says to Moses at one point: “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered…” (Exodus 17:14).

Again, in the Bible’s final book, we read:

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” – Revelation 21:5

So there’s no reason to be suspicious of the Bible’s divine authority simply because it’s a book. Words don’t become less authoritative because they’re written rather than spoken.

In fact, when you think about it, the reverse is true. The most important statements human beings make—whether they be legally-binding contracts or lyrical expressions of love—are most often written down, at least when we intend them to be powerful and lasting. When God specifically instructs that his words be written down, things get serious.

Check it out!

DeYoung’s 5 Tips for Leading Small Groups

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Kevin DeYoung posted a great article last week on leading small groups. His tips are:

  1. Communicate early and often, and then follow through.
  2. Think through your questions ahead of time.
  3. Be mindful of group dynamics.
  4. Know how to handle conflict.
  5. Plan for prayer.

I wrote some similar things in my posts “How to Lead a Great Bible Study” and “5 Practices for Preparing Effective Bible Studies,” so I highly recommend the full article. Check it out!

Jesus and the Proverbs

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How do we se Jesus in the Proverbs? Simple. As J.A. Medders writes, “Wisdom is a ‘Who’ More than a ‘What.'”

The Proverbs are the practical righteousness of Christ, his life, played out in our sanctification. Wisdom isn’t a nebulous concept, or ancient advice for life. Wisdom is draped in Nazarene flesh. Wisdom is the Ancient of Days. And now, by the gospel of grace, Jesus is our wisdom, and our righteousness, and our sanctification.

Medders summarizes the connections in two concise ideas:

  • Jesus lived the Proverbs for us
  • Jesus lives the Proverbs through us

This has been my understanding all through my Proverbs series, and Medders makes it nice and easy. His full article is well worth reading.

Check it out!

You Can Lead with Influence

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Innovate 4 Jesus recently re-published my article “You Can Lead with Influence.”

When a teacher has influence, students seek a relationship outside of class and ask advice on topics outside of the curriculum. When a manager has influence, employees pitch in on projects without being asked. When a pastor has influence, Christians find any excuse to join his Sunday morning coffee hour conversations. When an older sibling has influence, the closeness lasts well into adulthood. In each case, we follow influential leaders, not because we have to, but because we want to.

An aspiring leader might start off with this vision for influence, but over time the rookie’s eagerness can fade into a fog of authority and experience. Experience assures the leader that entrenched behaviors can’t be broken, touchy people need more leeway, and elder meetings must be boring. Thus, forfeiting influence, the former idealist starts to rely on his own authority to get results.

Consider the difference between authority and influence in this simple illustration. An authoritative parent might compel his teenager to keep her curfew. But only an influential parent can trust his daughter won’t sneak out when he’s asleep.
The article goes on to explain from 1 Thessalonians how the recipe of influence has two key ingredients: humility and hope.
Check it out!

Read Mark Learn

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In April I attended Together for the Gospel and got a pile of free books. Since the free books numbered more than I could ever read, I gave many of them away.

Read Mark LearnTwo volumes on the stack almost got passed on to a more available master, but were snatched from the fire at the 11th hour. These were the two Read Mark Learn volumes—one on John, the other on Romans—published by Christian Focus in partnership with St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.

I almost passed over these treasures like an angel of death on the fourteenth day of the first month. My initial perusal revealed them to be a series of Bible studies, and, well, I need more Bible studies like Solomon needs more wives:

I find something more bitter than death: the woman [substitute “Bible study guide” for “woman” and you’ll catch my usual disillusionment] whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. (Eccl 7:26-28, ESV)

I read one short study from the volume on John’s Gospel just for kicks. And boy, am I glad I did.

I read another and another. After 5 of them, I couldn’t stop raving over them to my wife (you should have seen the spittle in my beard!). After only 2 or 3 more, I was ready to purchase a volume on every other book of the Bible. But I searched online and could find only John and Romans. I spoke with a representative from Westminster bookstore, and he could find only John and Romans. I went on the Christian Focus website, and still I could find only John and Romans.

The bad news is that they have volumes on only John and Romans. The good news, however, is that I finally found this page on St. Helen’s’s website, which has a long list of studies on many other (though not all) books of the Bible—all available for free. More bad news, though: John and Romans cost money. Sorry.

What is so good about these Bible studies?

  • They are short: only 10 pages or fewer per unit of text.
  • They consider context. The book’s historical context, the unit’s literary context, and the entire Bible’s gospel context.
  • They concisely trace out (and focus on) the author’s flow of thought.
  • They identify a main point for each section.
  • They connect every passage to Christ.
  • They get specific in application.

I’m not sure I can think of anything else I would ask for in a Bible study.

The only problem I can see with these studies is the threat of addiction. Just be careful not to read them until after you study the text for yourself. But if ever I was tempted to ignore my own standards for such things, now would be the time.

Check it out!

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Disclaimer: If you click the Amazon links in this post and buy stuff, you’ll support this blog at no extra cost to yourself. This may enable me to buy more copies of Read Mark Learn to give out to my friends.