Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
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!
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.
Kevin DeYoung posted a great article last week on leading small groups. His tips are:
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!
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:
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!
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.
At the Resurgence, Ryan Kearns recently gave some ideas on “What to Do When You Don’t Like the Bible”:
These are great ideas. Check it out!
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.
Two 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?
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.
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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.
I enjoyed yesterday’s panel discussion on leading with influence. The video is available here, or you can view it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRCGyU4gY-I
John Piper is preparing to launch his “Look at the Book” initiative to teach people how to study the Bible. If this first video is an accurate sign of what’s to come, then we’re in for quite a treat.
If you have any question about what it looks like to sit down with nothing but the text of Scripture and simply observe, interpret, and apply—I could not recommend this 10-minute video any more highly.
http://vimeo.com/101339957
My goal on this site is to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible. I pursue that aim through a few practices:
All three practices fit into a larger model for teaching people how to study the Bible. But as each post comes and goes, and we focus on very specific skills, we can easily lose sight of the model.
That’s why I occasionally write brief posts like this by way of reminder.
And that’s also why I created a table of contents page for my series on Proverbs 1-9. It’s gone so long that the forest has been long since overgrown with trees. This table of contents will let you know all the main topics I’ve hit so far, and it will let you know what remains before the series finishes. I didn’t link to every post but only to the first post for each segment of text. From that post, you should be able to click through to the next post and the next if you’d like to read through a particular section.
I’ll activate the last few links as I finish those posts over the next few months. Please let me know if you have any ideas for making this page more useful!
