There is quite alot of religious material available for reading (not counting the Bible) which can be a good thing or it can be a not so good thing.
Some things that I read are true to the teachings of the Bible and some are not which brings me to this thought ...
Do we really know what the Bible says or do we know what others say the Bible says? There is a difference ... a very important difference!
patsy
She Hath Done What She Could
Showing posts with label Bible Studying Methods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible Studying Methods. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2017
Monday, January 2, 2017
Bible Study
I have a brand new planner for 2017 and worked some more today on 'making it mine.' 'Making it mine' includes writing quotes and Scriptures in the margins and various other places.
I finished the study on The Power of the Tongue last week and had made some notes from it on another sheet of paper. That piece of paper caught my eye this morning ... it had a Scripture on it from the study ... it was a good reminder to me to think before I speak ...
He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23.
I wrote it in my planner where I will see it everyday this week and when I need to look back on these dates for any reason in the future.
Little reminders from God's Word that help me in my daily walk are always welcome!
patsy
She Hath Done What She Could
I finished the study on The Power of the Tongue last week and had made some notes from it on another sheet of paper. That piece of paper caught my eye this morning ... it had a Scripture on it from the study ... it was a good reminder to me to think before I speak ...
He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23.
I wrote it in my planner where I will see it everyday this week and when I need to look back on these dates for any reason in the future.
Little reminders from God's Word that help me in my daily walk are always welcome!
patsy
She Hath Done What She Could
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Bible Study
For 2017 I’d like to do something a bit different. I want to journal my day to day walk with
God, one entry for each day … all year long ... or as close to every day as I can.
In and around this journaling I will also add articles and Bible studies that I write.
My goal for journaling my day to day walk with God is to
share and hopefully inspire you in your walk with God. In turn, I hope you will share what your walk
with God looks like as well.
Walking with God is not just a Sunday thing, it’s an
everyday thing and it’s my prayer that by the end of 2017 we can see what this
looks like in real, everyday life.
Here’s day 1 of 365 …
Today, being Sunday, is our time to come together with
fellow Christians and worship God (Hebrews 10:25). This morning our preacher gave us an
inspiring lesson on setting spiritual goals for 2017, what a timely topic!
One thing he said that really stuck with me regarding
reading and studying God’s Word was that instead of making the resolution to
read the Bible through in one year… if that was too daunting for anyone… make the resolution to just read the Bible
every day. Any amount … just read!
I checked my spiritual goals list for 2017 and sure enough
the goal of ‘daily Bible reading and studying’ was on it. I’m thankful that the preacher reminded us
that some is better than none and it’s better to set small manageable goals
than to set big goals that you’re not going to be able to follow through with.
Patsy
Patsy
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Reading and Studying God's Word
by patsy norwood (c) 2003 -2016
~ All Rights Reserved
The Bible is not only God’s Word, it is also our instruction manual. By reading and studying our instruction manual, we will learn how to live our lives as God would have us to. This sounds fairly simple on the surface, but let me assure you that it will take time and effort. Gleaning from God’s word is not as quick and easy as driving up to a fast food restaurant and ordering a burger. We must spend time studying and meditating in It.
A question I often hear is “how do you study?” Believe it or not this is not a silly question and I’m going to share with you some things I have done and some things that I have had recommended to me.
Copy verses or a book of the Bible. You’ll be surprised how much one can learn from simple copying.
Word Study. The purpose of doing a word study is to understand the meaning of a word/words in the context of what we are reading. Sometimes this is crucial to get the proper meaning and interpretation of what we are studying. You will need a good concordance and a Bible dictionary for this.
Outline a book of the Bible. I dare you to do this. You will truly be blessed by what you learn.
Dissecting a book, chapter, or passage from the Bible. Ask the who, what, when, why, where, and how questions.
Memorize a passage. My memory is not what it used to be so I need help when it comes to memorizing. One thing that helps me is to write the passage over and over again. Little by little I can write the complete passage without having to peek in the Bible for help.
Character Study. Pick out one person from the Bible and write down everything you learn about him/her from the Scriptures. Be very observant of what the Bible does and does not say about this person.
Topical Study. Choose a topic and look up every passage on the subject. When you put all your information together you may be surprised at what you learn.
Practical Application. After you’ve finished your reading ask yourself these questions, “What does this mean for my life and how can I apply it to my life?” This one is a ‘biggie’, without the application, what we read is just a story.
Prepare to Teach A Lesson. This will definitely send you searching and studying the Bible. The teacher is most certainly the one who learns the most from this method.
Purchase a prepared study. There are several good ‘fill in the blank’ Bible study books on the market that require you to get in your Bible and search out the correct answer.
Object Studies. Select objects found in the Bible and do a study on them. Find out how they were used during Biblical times and why. You’ll be surprised how much insight this will give you.
The Bible is not only God’s Word, it is also our instruction manual. By reading and studying our instruction manual, we will learn how to live our lives as God would have us to. This sounds fairly simple on the surface, but let me assure you that it will take time and effort. Gleaning from God’s word is not as quick and easy as driving up to a fast food restaurant and ordering a burger. We must spend time studying and meditating in It.
A question I often hear is “how do you study?” Believe it or not this is not a silly question and I’m going to share with you some things I have done and some things that I have had recommended to me.
Copy verses or a book of the Bible. You’ll be surprised how much one can learn from simple copying.
Word Study. The purpose of doing a word study is to understand the meaning of a word/words in the context of what we are reading. Sometimes this is crucial to get the proper meaning and interpretation of what we are studying. You will need a good concordance and a Bible dictionary for this.
Outline a book of the Bible. I dare you to do this. You will truly be blessed by what you learn.
Dissecting a book, chapter, or passage from the Bible. Ask the who, what, when, why, where, and how questions.
Memorize a passage. My memory is not what it used to be so I need help when it comes to memorizing. One thing that helps me is to write the passage over and over again. Little by little I can write the complete passage without having to peek in the Bible for help.
Character Study. Pick out one person from the Bible and write down everything you learn about him/her from the Scriptures. Be very observant of what the Bible does and does not say about this person.
Topical Study. Choose a topic and look up every passage on the subject. When you put all your information together you may be surprised at what you learn.
Practical Application. After you’ve finished your reading ask yourself these questions, “What does this mean for my life and how can I apply it to my life?” This one is a ‘biggie’, without the application, what we read is just a story.
Prepare to Teach A Lesson. This will definitely send you searching and studying the Bible. The teacher is most certainly the one who learns the most from this method.
Purchase a prepared study. There are several good ‘fill in the blank’ Bible study books on the market that require you to get in your Bible and search out the correct answer.
Object Studies. Select objects found in the Bible and do a study on them. Find out how they were used during Biblical times and why. You’ll be surprised how much insight this will give you.
Geographical/Area Studies. Knowing
the ‘lay of the land” and its surrounding area helps us to better understand
some of the things we read in God’s word so pick an area, a body of water, a
mountain, etc and find out all you can about it.
Okay, now you’ve made the commitment to spend more time in God’s Word and in your Christian walk, but life seems to get in the way. You start each day with good intentions, but before you know it the day is over and you haven’t even opened your Bible, much less thought about your Christian walk. You fall into bed determined to do better tomorrow. Tomorrow is a repeat of the day before and before long several days have gone by. The only time you have touched your Bible is when you picked it up to take to church with you. Discouragement begins to set in and your commitment seems like an impossible task. What is a person to do? Ladies, we cannot give up, we must persevere! Giving up is what Satan wants us to do. We must beat him at his own game and come up with ways to get our “spiritual food” on a daily basis.
Here again I have some ideas....
Since most of us spend a large amount of time in our automobiles, get your hands on some CD’s or thumb drives of sermons, lessons or the Bible and listen to them while you travel.
If you are fortunate enough not to have to spend a lot of time traveling you can apply the above concept to your activities at home, instead of having the TV on put in one of these CD's or thumb drives. You’ll be surprised how much more quickly housework or for that matter any task goes when you have a song in your heart or are listening to a meaningful sermon or lesson.
How about all the time you spend waiting in doctor’s offices or at children’s activities, take advantage of this “down time” to give yourself some “spiritual food” by reading your Bible, an inspirational book or magazine.
For those that exercise on a regular basis listen to some spiritual encouragement as you exercise. You will not only be giving your body a workout, but you will also be feeding your soul as well.
Hebrew 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Not only will we be encouraged from worshiping and studying with others, but we will also be with others who are trying to “persevere in the Lord.” There is strength in numbers!
I don’t know about your house, but at my house the bathrooms are great places to have reading material. This would be a good place for those Bibles, inspirational books and magazines we talked about earlier.
Speaking of the bathroom, what about the bath or shower? This is a really good place for praying sessions and/or times of just singing unto the Lord while we are cleaning our bodies.
I would be remiss if I did not include here something about our desire to find time for our ‘spiritual food.’ Half the battle is “wanting” to find a way to spend time learning of God. If we do not have the desire to know God it does not matter how many ideas are presented to us. Everything takes effort, even knowing God. The old adage “where there is a will, there is a way” certainly applies here. Ladies, we must “seize the moment” when it comes to getting our “spiritual food.” We must put some thought into it and if necessary, get creative. We must not let Satan rob us of the opportunity to feed our soul spiritually and to learn of God.
Just as those who work outside the home have to get up and go to work in order to earn a paycheck, and just as we have to continually work in our homes in order to maintain some sort of order, and just as we have to make our husbands a priority in order to have good marriages, we have to spend time in God’s word in order to learn of Him and reap His blessings.
When we put ‘nothing’ out that’s exactly what we get in return. Zero efforts equals zero results, and in the case of studying God’s word zero results can lead to eternal consequences.
Okay, now you’ve made the commitment to spend more time in God’s Word and in your Christian walk, but life seems to get in the way. You start each day with good intentions, but before you know it the day is over and you haven’t even opened your Bible, much less thought about your Christian walk. You fall into bed determined to do better tomorrow. Tomorrow is a repeat of the day before and before long several days have gone by. The only time you have touched your Bible is when you picked it up to take to church with you. Discouragement begins to set in and your commitment seems like an impossible task. What is a person to do? Ladies, we cannot give up, we must persevere! Giving up is what Satan wants us to do. We must beat him at his own game and come up with ways to get our “spiritual food” on a daily basis.
Here again I have some ideas....
Since most of us spend a large amount of time in our automobiles, get your hands on some CD’s or thumb drives of sermons, lessons or the Bible and listen to them while you travel.
If you are fortunate enough not to have to spend a lot of time traveling you can apply the above concept to your activities at home, instead of having the TV on put in one of these CD's or thumb drives. You’ll be surprised how much more quickly housework or for that matter any task goes when you have a song in your heart or are listening to a meaningful sermon or lesson.
How about all the time you spend waiting in doctor’s offices or at children’s activities, take advantage of this “down time” to give yourself some “spiritual food” by reading your Bible, an inspirational book or magazine.
For those that exercise on a regular basis listen to some spiritual encouragement as you exercise. You will not only be giving your body a workout, but you will also be feeding your soul as well.
Hebrew 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Not only will we be encouraged from worshiping and studying with others, but we will also be with others who are trying to “persevere in the Lord.” There is strength in numbers!
I don’t know about your house, but at my house the bathrooms are great places to have reading material. This would be a good place for those Bibles, inspirational books and magazines we talked about earlier.
Speaking of the bathroom, what about the bath or shower? This is a really good place for praying sessions and/or times of just singing unto the Lord while we are cleaning our bodies.
I would be remiss if I did not include here something about our desire to find time for our ‘spiritual food.’ Half the battle is “wanting” to find a way to spend time learning of God. If we do not have the desire to know God it does not matter how many ideas are presented to us. Everything takes effort, even knowing God. The old adage “where there is a will, there is a way” certainly applies here. Ladies, we must “seize the moment” when it comes to getting our “spiritual food.” We must put some thought into it and if necessary, get creative. We must not let Satan rob us of the opportunity to feed our soul spiritually and to learn of God.
Just as those who work outside the home have to get up and go to work in order to earn a paycheck, and just as we have to continually work in our homes in order to maintain some sort of order, and just as we have to make our husbands a priority in order to have good marriages, we have to spend time in God’s word in order to learn of Him and reap His blessings.
When we put ‘nothing’ out that’s exactly what we get in return. Zero efforts equals zero results, and in the case of studying God’s word zero results can lead to eternal consequences.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Having a Bible Reading and Studying Schedule
To combat this problem, I developed a weekly schedule and thought you might get some inspiration from seeing what I do.
Here's what my weekly Bible Study schedule currently looks like ...
Monday: I just started a new year long Bible study called "In the Shadows, A Digging Deep Bible Study of Types & Shadows by Cindy Colley. You can find it here. It's free! (I know this lady and she is sound in her Bible teaching.)
Tuesday: I work on the same study, "In the Shadows."
Wednesday: I'm currently 'doodling' my way through the book of John, so I work on this study on Wednesdays.
Thursday: I continue 'doodling' my way through the book of John.
Friday: I do Bible Marking of specific topics in my Bible on this day. These are great for finding out what God's Word says on specific topics. You can find several Bible marking studies here. (I know this lady too and she is sound in her Bible teaching.)
Saturday: I work on the Sunday School lesson I will teach to 10-12 year olds on Sunday morning.
Of course all of this is subject to change, while I find a schedule helpful it is not written in stone and sometimes I do something completely different.
Early mornings work best for me to do my Bible studying. It is about the only time of my day when the house and/or phone is quiet. It really doesn't matter what time of day one studies their Bible though, the important thing is to try to spend time in God's Word as often as possible. You will be greatly blessed by what you learn.
I hope this is helpful. Do you have a tip for reading and studying God's Word?
patsy
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Bible Studying Method: Write it Down!
There are many ways to study God's Word and I have used several of them over the course of my life as a Christian. Today, I want to talk to you about one that is so simple that anyone can do it.Here's what you need:
Your Bible (I prefer the following versions: NKJV and NASB)
A spiral notebook or composition book (This is the time of year ... there are lots of back to school sales going on now ... that I purchase them on sale for $.17 each for the spiral notebook and $.50 each for a composition book. I try to purchase enough to meet my writing needs for a year.)
Pen or Pencil (Again, they're on sale at this time of the year, so I stock up.)
Here's how I do it:
I choose a book of the Bible that I'm interested in studying/reading (The first one I did was the book of James.)I make a title page like this...
I choose a quiet time of my day (for me this is early morning before my husband gets up), open up my composition book and start copying verses from the book of the Bible I've chosen. I usually strive to write out approximately 5 - 10 verses at each sitting. I do not rush through this process but give myself time to think about what I'm writing.
You will be amazed at what you can glean from God's Word from using this simple Bible studying method.Have you tried this method? What are your thoughts?
patsy
she hath done what she could
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