A Thematic Approach

Understanding the Bible Thematically by Chris Bruno (via Crossway)

Understanding the Bible Thematically from Crossway on Vimeo.

There are two ways to do biblical theology.

You can trace the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in one continuous narrative. In my first book, The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses, I was trying to trace that big story by looking at sixteen key “trees” in the overall forest that is the story of the Bible.

In The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words, I'm taking a second approach to biblical theology—a thematic approach. Instead of looking at the whole story in one shot, I'm looking at sixteen key themes and tracing how each theme develops throughout the message of the Bible.

For example, the theme of covenant: you can see throughout Scripture that God makes covenants. He makes a covenant with Adam and Eve in the garden, he makes a covenant with Abraham, he makes a covenant with Moses and Israel, he makes a covenant with David, and he makes promises and establishes a new covenant in and through Jesus. We can trace that one theme throughout the Bible.

In this book I've chosen sixteen themes in order to take a thematic approach to biblical theology.

---

Can Bible Study Be Too Spiritual?

Why yes it can.  Why Your Bible Study Is Too Spiritual by Eric Parker at Radical

We've all been in that Bible study where we seem to be having a good discussion, people are engaged, the comments are insightful, and then Bob speaks up. Now we all love Bob (bless his soul), but Bob somehow always manages to provide some off-the-wall interpretation about the passage that everyone immediately knows is not quite right. But the question is, how do you know that Bob's comments are not quite right?

What I want to do in a series of posts is address some of the approaches to Bible study that David Platt identifies as dangerous in this podcast. This is vitally important, because one of the defining characteristics of everybody's "Bob" is that he doesn't know that he is the proverbial "Bob." Which means, you could be Bob!

THE SPIRITUAL APPROACH

One reason Bob may be consistently coming up with strange interpretations to the passages you are studying could be because he unknowingly employs the "spiritual approach" to Bible study. This approach usually involves looking for some deep and hidden spiritual meaning. Some will think, or even say things that make it sound like they’re going to find something new that Christians, for 2,000 years, have totally missed.
This view tends to be more informed by elements of mysticism that implicitly, and for many, unknowingly stress bringing earth to heaven. This view of life is such that God is just waiting to interact with people at the spiritual/emotional level (maybe in unintelligible ways), which then makes our goal to be somehow finding a way to tap into his spiritual plain of being. By way of analogy, then, the Bible and the world become like a house with innumerable rooms, closets, cabinets, and chests just waiting to be opened in order to find some profound hidden treasure that someone has yet to find.

Now, this isn’t completely wrong. Scripture repeatedly uses the language of “seeking”, “finding”, “hidden”, or “revealed” in reference to our relation to God. It is not as though we just read one verse, or even all of Scripture, and suddenly obtain clear and unmediated access to all there is to know or experience of God. We could read the Bible our whole lives, and never exhaust the significance of its truths.

TWO FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES

However, there are two fundamental differences between the spiritual approach, on the one hand, and the approach to Bible study that ought to flow from a right theology of God's revelation. The first is subtle, but it is this: Scripture says that rather than us bringing earth to heaven, God has brought heaven down to earth. Which is to say that he has revealed himself, not fully, but truly and sufficiently in Holy Scripture for salvation. Now God has revealed himself in creation, but only enough to condemn us when we reject him due to our sinful condition (Rom. 1:19-20; 3:23).

This means that I don’t have to listen to the wind, read the stars, or make out the shape of the tea leaves in my cup in order to know God’s will for my life, or to encounter him experientially. God’s Word, working in tandem with his Spirit, is sufficient to make known to me what God desires for me to know and feel about him.

Another implication of the sufficiency of the Word and Spirit is that God is not playing a spiritual game with us in which he is waiting on us to make the next move. Rather, he very much desires for us to know him intimately, so much so that he sent the full and final revelation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ to take on flesh and live among men, so that through his substitutionary atonement on the cross, people from all nations could one day know and experience God without mediation.

His desire for us to know him intimately leads to the second fundamental difference: instead of revealing himself in strange and unintelligible ways, he revealed himself to and through real people with real personalities, real lives, real culture, and real experiences. What this means is that God took the world of experience that the biblical authors had, the things that they would have known, and revealed himself to them so that who he is and what he desires would be abundantly clear!

The difficulty we encounter in the twenty-first century is that we are in the twenty-first century! There exists between us and the biblical writers a gap consisting of culture, language, customs, religion, and on top of all of that, a minimum of 2,000 years. Given this reality, it can be hard to sit down with your Bible and get all that you could get from any given passage in just one sitting. Thankfully scholars who have translated the Bible for us have significantly closed the gap just by virtue of putting the Bible into English, Spanish, German, etc. And don't forget that God is more than capable of communicating to us across the centuries, even in our limited understanding and our cultural distance. Yet there still remains a good bit of work to do in order to understand what has clearly been revealed, because there are still layers of history and culture between us and them.

One implication of this is that while we as individuals may come to the Bible and "uncover" or "discover" something new every time, it is not very often that what we have seen for the very first time has actually been seen for the very first time in the wider context of historic orthodox Christian theology. At the same time, however, this does not mean that all of the Bible's significance, or its implications for faith, life, and practice have been explored or exhausted.

Another implication of this time/cultural gap is that everything we see in Scripture doesn't have to have some "deeper" meaning. Sometimes, certain elements are recorded in Scripture simply because they really happened, or because they are laden with cultural significance that sheds light on the spiritual significance of the passage, without being in itself the spiritual hidden gem.

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE ... SPIRITUAL

Ultimately, we are not trying to be less spiritual when we approach the Bible. Reading and praying through the Bible is pointless if it is not a spiritual act. However, we want to approach the Scriptures understanding how they were inspired, what they are as texts written for God's people, and what they define for us as spiritual. If we do this, then we will find that Scripture will come alive to us, not with random little details that we mistake for the point of the passage, but with what God intended for us to see all along, namely, the glory of Christ.

Plow and Trowel

Interesting piece on Bible Study - Plow and Trowel Bible Studies:

What is a Plow Bible Study?

“Plow work moves through large portions of Scripture more quickly, looking for specific themes. You could think of it as building a Biblical theology about a certain topic. It is not just a verse picked out here and there; plow study helps you get a fuller understanding of what God says about a specific topic. The key is to prayerfully look for something or Someone as you read. Plow work, though less intense than trowel work, still takes a lot of time. If you aren’t a seasoned studier, this may be the type of study you want to start on first. It is simple and straight-forward.

I used to really have a low view of “plow study” because of the many people who would say they were reading through the Bible in a year but weren’t getting anything out of it. How many of you have read chapters of the Bible and you can’t remember what you read when you were finished? We can all relate to that! Even if you are reading through the Bible, which is a great practice by the way, look for something specific and have pen and paper in hand. It will keep your mind engaged. There are lots of different kinds of Bible reading plans, such as reading through the Bible chronologically. If you decide to do this, I would encourage you to read the introduction to the book you are getting ready to read through before digging in – you can find this in a good study Bible. Find a main theme to look for as you read. That is where the idea for pride and humility in Jeremiah came from.”

What is a Trowel Bible Study?

“Trowel work means taking a passage or verse of Scripture and settling in to dig for a long time.

The Inductive Study Method is an example of this kind of Bible study. Trowel work, though more intensive than plow work, is not complicated. But neither is it easy. The believer who seeks to dig out the treasure in God’s Word must understand that solid Bible study takes a lot of effort.”

What type of study should I do?

“Both types of Bible study are needed for a “balanced diet” in our Christian life. Even when we settle down to accurately interpret smaller portions of God’s Word, it is helpful for us to have the “big picture” view provided by plow work. In other words, the plow and the trowel work well together. As with any type of Bible study, trowel or plow work, the goal is to understand God’s Word. And whenever God opens our eyes to understand His Word, the result is long-term change – we become more like Christ.

In my own life, I like to have both types of study going on simultaneously. I’ll take several days a week to do my trowel study and several days a week to do the plow study. It helps me not get bogged down in one passage, it provides variety and keeps me from getting stale.

If you pursue this course of study, some days it will seem like just an exercise in grammar. You have to recognize the value in embracing the whole process. There will be times you just don’t get it. The answer to your question isn’t easily found, you don’t understand the passage. There will be times of frustration. We don’t face that very often in our culture- answers for just about everything are readily available. When I want to look up something I don’t know, I simply google it or look for a video on You Tube. We don’t like to “dwell in the ‘I don’t know’,” we don’t like feeling lost and confused. This kind of Bible study is totally counter-cultural. You Tube will not help you know God better. Google can’t help with this process. Sometimes you will have to fight for understanding. But that is not a bad thing. It is part of the learning process and it actually help to “make the moment of discovery stick.” As you agonize over a passage of Scripture and pray for God to give you understanding, all of it will come together. The “aha” moment will come. And I have to confess it is rather addictive. You will never forget the truth you have labored hard to understand! You will love the truth and you will feel it deeply, and you will want more of it! You will glow with the glory God has shown you.

So there will be days where your God and I time doesn’t leave you on an emotional high, where it feels like work and no glory, where you don’t feel like you have a sweet spiritual truth to carry with you…but embrace the process. Emotions can’t drive this train. They follow our faith-filled obedience.

All the work of deep digging in the Word is worth it when God illumines you to spiritual truth!”

"Gimme Three Steps..."

Continuing the theme this week - Interpreting the Bible in 3 Simple Steps by Vern Poythress.(via Crossway)

3 Kinds of Questions

In the simplest form, we sit down and read the Bible with a focus on the fact that God is present and speaks to us through what we read. We consider a three-step approach to studying the Bible. The three steps are observation, elucidation, and application.

Observation answers the question, “What does the text say?” Elucidation answers the question, “What does it mean?” Application answers the question, “What does it mean to me?”

Below is an example, based on 1 Samuel 22:1–2.

Observation
1. Where did David go?
2. Who joined him?
3. What kind of people were they?
4. What was David’s relation to the people with him?

Elucidation
1. Where did David come from and why?
2. What caused David to be in danger? (hint: see preceding context; see 1 Sam. 18:6–9)
3. Why might people be motivated to come and join David?
4. What does the passage show about people’s view of David?
5. What does it show about David taking responsibility?
6. What does it show about David’s leadership?
7. What was God’s plan for David’s future? (hint: see 1 Sam. 16:1–2, 13)
8. What do we see about community life around David?
9. How does the passage show God’s care for David and for the community?
10. What does the passage foreshadow about a future greater son of David? (hint: see Acts 2:30–31)

Application
1. How is Christ’s care for you reflected in David?
2. In what ways does the passage foreshadow your relation to Christ? Other people’s relation to Christ? What does the passage imply about how your relation to Christ should develop?
3. In what ways does David serve as an example for you?
4. In what ways do the people around David serve as an example for you?
5. What does the passage suggest about your relation to those in distress?
6. In what ways does the passage prefigure the church?
7. In what ways might the passage prefigure the relation of the church to outsiders, and what does it imply for your attitude toward outsiders?

Using the Questions

A person may study the Bible by himself for his personal benefit, or he may study in order to prepare for leading a group or giving a presentation or a sermon. For any of these goals, a person may ask himself the three types of questions, concerning observation, elucidation, and application.

To study a passage more fully, a person may prepare a worksheet, with four columns on a single sheet of paper or on a word processor. He then fills the far left-hand column with the text of the passage, spreading the passage out within the column so that it fills the whole column (or, for longer passages, a person can use the left-hand column of multiple pages). To the right of the far left-hand column are three other columns. These columns have space that will contain observations, elucidations, and applications, respectively. Then the student adds comments on the passage in the other three columns.

The Value of 3 Steps

Breaking the study of the Bible into three steps, rather than seeing it as all one process of interaction, has an advantage. We all have weaknesses and biases in how we look at Scripture. The three steps help people not to overlook one or more aspects of interpretation as they hurry to get to their favorite part.

One person loves application, and tends to leap into it without taking time to think through what the passage is really saying. Another person avoids application, and tends to think and think and think without ever acting on the message. By contrast, James tells us that we should make sure that we act on what we hear: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22; see also vv. 23–27). Still another person reads and reads, without asking himself about what it means or how it applies. He remains largely on the level of observation.

The division into three steps encourages people to look at the passage in several ways, and not to neglect aspects that they tend to minimize.

When Reading the Bible, Remember. (Part 2)

To continue the theme from yesterday, here's some more very good reminders for Bible readers - 9 Things Everyone Should Do When Reading the Bible by Bronwyn Lea (via Relevant)

Very few of us have the inclination or interest in diving into three years of seminary education in order to get a better handle on the Scriptures. However, every believer should long to get a better grip on the Bible. The good news is that it does not require a graduate education to do so.

At seminary, I learned Greek, Hebrew and all manner of intimidating subjects ending in –etics, but some of the things that have stayed with me most clearly were not things from textbooks, but off-the-cuff comments from teachers who had walked with God far longer than I had. They were post-it sized truths, easily understandable and readily applicable.

Years after graduating, these are the things I still remember.

1. Read ‘King’ When You See ‘Christ’

Christ, or Messiah, means “anointed one,” and priests and kings were anointed. Substituting "King Jesus" for "Christ Jesus" when reading draws attention to the fact that Christ was not Jesus' last name, but in fact His title: one of great honor and esteem. Making that one switch alone breathes new life into reading the New Testament.

2. Read ‘You’ Differently

Almost all the "you" words in the New Testament are plural you's rather than singular you's. The Southern "y'all" expresses it beautifully: the epistles are written to believers corporately, not believers alone. This does not diminish personal responsibility at all, though. If anything, it heightens it: we pray together, believe together, suffer together, raise the armor of God together. All y'all.

3. If You See a ‘Therefore,’ Find Out What It’s There For

Therefore, take note in bibles where paragraphs are divided up with headings inserted by editors. If the paragraph begins with "therefore,” you might have to pick up a bit earlier to understand the context.

4. Realize That Not All ‘If’ Statements Are The Same

This was a watershed one for me: not all "ifs" are the same. Conditional “ifs” are not the same as causal “ifs.” Some IF statements are always tied to the THEN one (if you stand in the rain, then you will get wet). Others have more risk involved: the IF statement is necessary, but not sufficient, to bring about the THEN one (if you study for an exam, then you will pass).

This makes the world of difference in studying Romans 8: "If you are led by the spirit of God, you are children of God." I had always read that and been afraid I wasn't spirit-led enough to be considered God's child. It was a glory-hallelujah moment to realize this was the first type of if: "If you are led by the Spirit of God (and you ARE!), then you are also always and forever His child.” What a difference!

5. Recognize That Lamenting is OK

Yes, there is joy and peace and hope in Christ. But true believers still mourn and lament. There is space in the life of faith for complaining, tears, grit and depression. Just look at the Psalms.

6. Realize That Prophecy is More Often FORTH-Telling Than FORE-Telling

So often, our focus in approaching prophecy is to ask “what did they say about the future?” However, often the prophets weren’t talking about the future (foretelling), they were explaining and interpreting Israel’s history and current predicaments in light of their covenantal behavior (forth-telling), and had little to do with the future. Israel may have painfully aware that they had just suffered military defeat at the hands of the Babylonians, but it took the prophet’s words to explain from God’s perspective why this had happened and what lessons they were to learn from their experience. Poor old Jeremiah.

7. Become Familiar with the Idioms of Your King

Jesus' words were so often hard to understand: cryptic, in parables, couched in Hebrew idiom. He spoke of eyes being lamps and people being salt: language often so far removed from my understanding it was temping to skip over the gospels to the much more familiar epistles.

However, if we have called Jesus "King" and “Lord,” we dare not skip over His words just because they are hard. Commentaries and a little Internet research on the gospels go a long way towards filling in some of the cultural and linguistic blanks. As his followers and servants, it is our responsibility to keep on seeking understanding.

8. Remember What You Learned in English Class

The Bible is not an instruction manual. It's not a "how-to" book for life. It is a collection of 66 books of literature, and to interpret it correctly, you need to remember what you learned in English class about interpreting different genres of literature.

Biblical truth is found in poetry, but we must read it as poetry. It is found in narrative, but we must read those as stories. It is found in proverbs, and we must treat those as such. Just a quick moment to think “what book am I reading from? And what type of literature is this?” can make a world of difference. Truth be told, the Bible is not an easy read, but it is absolutely worth the effort.

9. Read to Study. But Also, Read to Refresh Your Heart

Amid the hours of serious Bible study, I treasured this advice. Sometimes, we read to study and understand and wrestle with the truth. But sometimes, we read to make our hearts happy. “Delight yourself in the Lord,” for “your words are sweeter to me than honey.”

When Reading the Bible, Remember (Part 1)

10 Things to Remember When Reading the Bible (adapted from Reading the Word of God in the Presence of God: A Handbook for Biblical Interpretation by Vern Poythress.)

1. The Bible is God’s own word.

That means that what the Bible says, God says.

2. God governs the whole world through his divine speech, which specifies and controls what happens (Heb. 1:3).

The Bible indicates that God speaks to govern the world, but we do not hear this speech; we only see its effects (for example, Ps. 33:6, 9; 147:15–18). The Bible, by contrast, is the word of God, designed by God to speak specifically to us as human beings. All divine speech, whether directed toward governing the world in general or directed toward us as human beings, has divine character. In particular, it displays God’s lordship in authority, control, and presence.

3. God speaks his words to us in covenants (Gen. 9:9; 15:18; 17:7; Ex. 19:5; etc.).

A “covenant” is a solemn, legally binding agreement between two parties. In this case, the two parties are God and human beings. In the Old Testament, God’s covenants with human beings show some affinities with ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties. These treaties show five elements, which also appear either explicitly or by implication in God’s covenants in the Old Testament: identification of the suzerain (Ex. 20:2); historical prologue (Ex. 20:2); stipulations (Ex. 20:3-17); sanctions (i.e., blessings and curses) (Ex. 20:7; see also v. 12); recording and passing on (Ex. 31:18; Deut. 31).

The identification of God proclaims his transcendent authority, and the stipulations as norms imply his authority over the people. The historical prologue shows how he has exercised his control in past history. The blessings and curses indicate how he will exercise his control in the future. His identification also proclaims his presence, and the recording and passing on of the covenantal words imply his continuing presence with the people.

4. All the Bible is the covenantal word of God.

That is, the idea of covenant offers us one perspective on the Bible. The New Testament proclaims the gospel concerning the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The apostle Paul characterizes his entire ministry as a ministry of the “new covenant” (2 Cor. 3:6). So all of Paul’s writings are covenantal words in a broad sense. At the Last Supper, Jesus inaugurated “the new covenant” (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). The other apostles and New Testament writers function to convey the words of the new covenant to us.
When the Bible uses the word new to describe the new covenant, it clearly presupposes an older one. The new covenant fulfills the Abrahamic covenant (Gal. 3:7–14) and the Davidic covenant (Acts 2:30–36), but the Mosaic covenant is principally in mind when the New Testament implies a covenant that is “old” (Heb. 8:8–13). The Mosaic covenant also contains, in Deuteronomy 31, explicit instructions for preserving canonical covenantal documents and explicit instructions about future prophets (Deut. 18:18–22). The entirety of the Old Testament consists in divinely authorized additions to the initial Mosaic deposit, so it fits into the covenantal structure inaugurated with Moses. The entire Old Testament is covenantal in character.

Thus both the New Testament and the Old Testament can be viewed as covenantal in a broad sense. Indeed, the traditional names, in which they are called “Testaments,” signify their covenantal character (“testament” is a near synonym for “covenant” in later theological usage, which builds on Heb. 9:15–16).

5. The Bible is a single book, with God as its author.

It does of course have multiple human authors. But its unity according to the divine author implies that we should see it as a single unified message, and should use each passage and each book to help us in understanding others. Because God is faithful to his own character, he is consistent with himself. We should therefore interpret each passage of the Bible in harmony with the rest of the Bible.

6. The Bible is God-centered.

It not only has God as its author, but in a fundamental way it speaks about God as its principal subject. It does so even in historical passages that do not directly mention God, because the history it recounts is history governed by God.

7. The Bible is Christ-centered.

Covenants mediate God’s presence to us, and at the heart of the covenants is Christ, who is the one mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5). Christ, as the coming servant of the Lord, is virtually identified with the covenant in Isaiah 42:6 and 49:8. In Luke 24, Jesus teaches the apostles that all of the Old Testament Scriptures are about him and his work (Luke 24:25–27, 44–49).

Understanding how the Old Testament speaks about Christ is challenging, but in view of Jesus’s teaching it cannot be evaded. Fortunately, we have the New Testament to aid us. It contains not only teachings that help us to understand the Old Testament as a whole, but many quotations from the Old Testament that illustrate Jesus’s claims in Luke 24.

8. The Bible is oriented to the history of redemption.

God caused the Bible’s individual books to be written over a period of centuries. God’s later speech builds on earlier speech, and further unfolds the significance of his plan for history. God’s redemption takes place in history. Christianity is not merely a religious philosophy, a set of general truths about God and the world. At its heart is the gospel, the good news that Christ has come and has lived and died and has risen from the dead, and now lives to intercede for us. God has worked out our salvation by coming in the person of Christ and acting in time and space. The message of what he has done now goes out to the nations (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8).

9. Christ’s first and second coming are central to history.

God’s work of redemption came to a climax in the work of Christ on earth, especially in his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Christ now reigns at the right hand of the Father (Eph. 1:20–21). We look forward to the future consummation of redemption when Christ returns.

10. God’s work of redemption interweaves word and deed.

We see this interweaving even during his work of creation:

Word: God said, “Let there be light.”
Deed: And there was light.
Word: And God saw that the light was good [similar to verbal evaluation]. (Gen. 1:3–4)
Word: “Let us make man in our image . . .”
Deed: So God created man in his own image, . . .
Word: And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply . . .” (Gen. 1:26–28) 

Likewise, Jesus’s words interpret his deeds and vice versa:

If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. (John 10:37–38)

In the book of Acts, the miracles and the growth of the church help unbelievers to grasp the implications of apostolic preaching, and vice versa:

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. (Acts 8:5–7)

How To Read A Psalm

I have often said that Christians don't fathom the spiritual depth and importance of the Psalms. Here's a little help - How To Read A Psalm via Bible Study Tools

When I have preached on a psalm in a church, some people have mentioned to me that they were familiar with a verse from the psalm but they had not thought about the passage’s overall message. I have often wondered if believers have a good reading strategy for getting the most out of a psalm. With this post, I will point out a reading strategy that focuses on the three-part structure of a psalm (this post is adapted from Ryken’s Words of Delight, 197–201).

First,  the subject is generally contained in the first few verses of a psalm. A psalmist may be responding to a thought, emotion, or a situation. The theme may be stated in different ways. In Psalms 1 the theme is found in the first two verses. The psalmist presents his thoughts from the Law about the blessedness of a godly man. In Psalms 23:1 David’s theme is his theological thoughts about God’s rich provisions for him. In Psalms 11:1-2 David’s theme involves a situation where his trust in the LORD helped him through an apparent assassination attempt. In Psalms 124:1-2 the psalmist presents a situation reflecting God’s deliverance of Israel from an enemy. The controlling themes in lyric poems are found in the early verses.

Second, the development of the subject is the major part of the poem’s structure. The various authors of the psalms generally develop their subject in four ways. The first way is by using contrast. In Psalms 1 the psalmist sets up a contrast between the righteous and the wicked. This contrast emphasizes the blessedness of the godly. David’s trust in the LORD to handle his trial in Psalms 11 is contrasted with the advice to flee from Jerusalem. The second method of developing the subject is through listing items that are associated with the subject. Praise hymns generally catalog God’s characteristics and actions. Another example of this is found in a psalm of confidence, Psalms 23.  In this familiar example, David’s subject of God’s rich provisions for him (Psalms 23:1) is itemized by a number of God’s provisions such as rest, restoration, moral direction, and protection (Psalms 23:2-6). The third manner is by the use of relationship. The subject in Psalms 19 is the majesty of God (Psalms 19:1). David initially shows how nature reflects God’s majesty and then moves to a related item, God’s majesty as reflected in His Word (Psalms 19:7-14). The fourth way is through repetition. The theme in Psalms 133 is the blessedness of Israelites who are united in worship. The psalmist uses various images to develop his theme.

Third, a  psalm is rounded off by its conclusion. This may be in the form of a summation as in Psalms 1:6, “For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” It may also be in the form of prayer as in Psalms 19:14 or an exhortation as in Psalms 32:11.

Reading a psalm in light of its threefold structure gives us a strategy to better understand a psalm’s overall message. And, as we comprehend each psalm’s overall message, may God grant that they guide us in our worship of him.

A Common Red Herring

The Red Herring of Biblical Application by David Mathis via Crossway Books

Aringa Rossa

In Dan Brown’s (in)famous The Da Vinci Code, Bishop Aringarosa is the intentional distraction. Throughout the story, he is carefully presented as a suspicious character, but in the end, we discover he is Brown’s pawn to tempt his readers toward wrong conclusions. The bishop was tricked by the real villain. However, perhaps it came as little surprise to those who know Italian, and their literary devices: aringa rossa is Italian for “red herring.”

A red herring is something that distracts, whether intentionally or not, from the real purpose and goal. It can be a logical fallacy or a literary device. Either way, a red herrings misleads the audience, or the argument, but presenting itself as plausible, yet does prove to be what it seems.

I find the same can be said of the common Bible-reading advice that we make sure to take away specific points of application every day. It sounds plausible, but in the end it can be an important distraction.

What Is “Application”?

The common advice is appealing because we all want to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). Who wants to feel the failure or share in the shame of being pegged like one “who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror . . . and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:23–24)? It would seem, at first glance, that Bible application is an essential spiritual discipline to consciously pursue every time we encounter God’s Word—but that depends on how we define “application.”

The key question we need to answer is what effect should regular Bible intake have on our hearts and lives—and how does it happen?

God’s Word Is for You

For starters, let’s be clear that aiming to apply God’s words to our lives is grounded in the good instinct that the Bible is for us. Optimism about life application makes good on these amazing claims that all the Scriptures are for Christians:

• “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
• “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. . . . [T]hey were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11).
• “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

The whole Bible is for the whole church. We have good Scriptural warrant to come to God’s words expecting them to be understandable and applicable. We should make good on Puritan preacher Thomas Watson’s counsel,

Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think thus: “God means my sins;” when it presseth any duty, “God intends me in this.” Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it be applied. (quoted by Donald S. Whitney in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life)

Yes, take every word as spoken to yourself, with this essential anchor in place: seek to understand first how God’s words fell on the original hearers, and how it relates to Jesus’s person and work, and then bring them home to yourself. Expect application to your life as God speaks to us today through the Spirit-illumined understanding of what the inspired human author said to his original readers in the biblical text.

Specific Applications for Every Day?

So then, is it right to think of “application” as an everyday means of God’s grace? Is this a spiritual discipline to be pursued with every Bible encounter? The answer is yes and no, depending on what we mean by application.

Good teachers have claimed that every encounter with God’s Word should include at least one specific application to our lives—some particular addition, however small, to our daily to-do list. There is a wise intention in this: pressing ourselves not just to be hearers of God’s Word, but doers. But such a simplistic approach to application overlooks the more complex nature of the Christian life—and how true and lasting change happens in a less straightforward way than we may be prone to think.

It’s important to acknowledge that the vast majority of our lives are lived spontaneously. More than 99% of our daily decisions about this and that happen without any immediate reflection. We just act. Our lives flow from the kind of person we are—the kind of person we have become—rather than some succession of timeouts for reflection.

And this is precisely the line along which the apostle prays for his converts. He asks not that God give us simple obedience to a clear to-do list of commands, but that he give us wisdom to discern his will as we encounter life’s many choices coming at us without pause. Paul prays:

• that we would be “transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
• that our love may “abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent” (Philippians 1:9–10).
• that we “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9–10).

Rather than dictating specific actions, he wants to see us formed into the kind of persons who are able to “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10).

God’s Word Is for Seeing

And so, as John Piper says, “A godly life is lived out of an astonished heart—a heart that is astonished at grace. We go to the Bible to be astonished, to be amazed at God and Christ and the cross and grace and the gospel.” The kind of application most important to pursue in encountering God’s Word is such astonishment. Press the Scriptures to your soul. Pray for the awakening of your affections. Bring the Bible home to your heart.

As we’re freshly captivated by the grandeur of our God and his gospel, we become what we behold: “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And so we come away from our Bible intake with a more satisfied soul. Which imparts a flavor and demeanor to our lives and decision-making that affects everything.

Meditating on God’s words shapes our soul. Sometimes it yields immediate and specific points of applications—embrace them when they come. But be careful not to let the drive for specific actions alter the focus of our devotions from astonishment and seeking, as George Mueller did, “to have my soul happy in the Lord.” Coming to the Scriptures to see can make for a drastically different approach than primarily coming to do.

The Bible is gloriously for us, but it is not mainly about us. We come most deeply because of who we will see, not for what we must do. “Become a kind of person,” counsels Piper, “don’t amass a long list.”

The Blessing of Bringing It Home

This is the pathway to flourishing we catch a glimpse of in the old covenant in Joshua 1:8—meditation, then application, then blessing:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

When Bible reading first aims at astonishment (meditation and worship), it works first on our hearts and changes our person, which then prepares us for application, and application to God’s blessing: “your way [will be] prosperous, and then you will have good success.” So applying God’s words to our lives is not only an effect of his grace to us, but also a means of his ongoing grace.

Jesus says in John 13:17, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” So also James 1:25 promises that someone who is not a hearer only but “a doer who acts . . . will be blessed in his doing.”

When we bring God’s words home to our hearts, and then apply them to our lives through an amazed and changed heart, it is a great means of his grace to us. He loves to bless the true application of his Word—first to our inner life, and then later to our external lives.

Top Bible Reading Plans From 2015

Each yeatr about this time I post about Bible reading plans, as an encouragement to my readers to read the Bible through in the new year. Bible Study Tools published this list of Top 10 Bible Reading Plans of 2015. Maybe one of these will work for you in 2016.

It's essential for all of us as believers to spend time in the Word, and we are overjoyed that so many people were able to do so through the Bible reading plans found at BibleStudyTools.com. We offer more than 15 different established Bible reading plans on both our website and mobile app, making it easier than ever to stay engaged with Scripture every day.

So, what plans were you using in 2015? Here are the 10 most popular Bible reading plans! Any of these would be perfect to work through in 2016, too!

10. 71 Days in Isaiah (71 days)
Carefully work your way through Isaiah in 71 days to experience the full impact of the prophet's words.

9. New Testament in 90 Days (90 days)
Read straight through the New Testament in 90 days.

8. Prof. Horner’s Reading System (365 days)
A unique and challenging system where you read 10 chapters a day.

7. Ninety-Day Challenge (90 days)
Read the Bible all the way through in only 90 days. It's a challenge well worth taking.

6. Old Testament and New Testament (365 days)
Read one passage from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament each day.

5. Thematic (365 days)
This Bible reading schedule is thematic or connective in nature. The goal is to make as many associations as possible between the different parts of Scripture while still reading individual books of the Bible from start to finish.

4. Chronological New Testament (92 days)
In only 3 months you can read the New Testament in the order that the events happened.

3. Classic (365 days)
Read 3 passages each day, starting with Genesis, Psalms, and Luke. From the original Bible Study Tools reading plan.

2. Book Order (365 days)
Read 3 passages each day, starting with Genesis, Psalms, and Luke. From the original Bible Study Tools reading plan.

1. Chronological (365 days)
Read the Bible in the order that the events happened.

Tips on Reading the Bible Daily

1. Start reading the Bible today -- there is no better time, and there's no reason to wait.

2. Set aside a specific time each day. Set your schedule and then stick to it. Mornings are great, but feel free to use any time that works consistently for you.

3. Read the Bible for the sake of learning, not simply to accomplish your next reading. Say a short prayer to God before you begin, asking the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and understanding, then be refreshed by the words you read!

Strategic Bible Reading

Need a better approach for daily Bible reading? How about Five Strategies For Daily Bible Reading by Gavin Ortlund//;

I’ve always been amazed by Jesus’ response to Satan’s first temptation: “if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3). I picture Jesus there, looking at the stones. His ribs are poking out, and his body is worn away after 40 days of fasting. But even in extreme hunger, Jesus prioritizes spiritual food above our physical food: “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

In other words, Jesus’ response is not simply a rejection of Satan’s offer, but a reorientation of his condition. I might expect Jesus to say, “man shall not disobey the Lord even when he dies of hunger.” Instead, he says, in effect, “even now, as my body wastes away, even here my deepest need is not bread but the Word of God.”

One of the issues that comes up most often frequently when I am discipling others in the church is the struggle to do daily Bible reading. And it doesn’t necessarily get easier for those of us who are in ministry or study the Bible in an academic context—in fact, I think many pastors face the temptation of their teaching ministry from the Bible to crowd out, or altogether replace, their own personal devotional reading of Scripture. But if Christ claims that daily Bible reading is more important to us than daily food, we can’t neglect our own nourishment, even while seeking to feed others.

As I have tried to help guys struggling in this area, and also remain vigilant and creative and fresh in my own Bible intake, I’ve come up with a couple basic ideas that some have found helpful.

1) Plan a regular time and place into your daily schedule

I have found that amid the pace of life, Bible reading (like so many other things) tends to eclipsed unless it is structured into our daily schedule. I used to try to do it first thing when I wake up, but there is a glaring problem with this strategy: I drink coffee. This means that my brain is not at its best when I first wake up. Also, having kids who wake up at different times makes my morning routine less predictable. So I have switched to taking the first few minutes when I first walk into my office. I wait to turn on the computer, and I close the door. If I know there will be a lot of people wanting to talk, I go to the park or a quiet spot in the sanctuary.

Some people have personalities or schedules (or both) that are not conducive to daily time sitting down and reading. So one piece of advice I have given to people in this circumstance is to get the Bible on audio on your iPhone, and then listen to it on your drive to work, or when you go to the gym. But one way or another, it really helps to have a set time each day that is set apart for it. This helps ensure it will actually happen, and also creates a sense of rhythm and regularity to it.

2) Do it with someone else

I don’t mean actually reading the Bible with someone else in the room with you (though that can work, too). I mean have someone else who is on the same schedule as you, and whom you see somewhat regularly in the course of life so you can check in about how it is going, and what you are learning.

Over the past several years, when younger guys confess that they struggle with doing “quiet times” regularly, I have started to plan out my own devotional schedules and then going through it with them. It has been an awesome experience: not only does it provide some built-in accountability, but it also gives the opportunity to dialogue and engage about what you are learning. It is much more motivating to read carefully when you know you are going to have a conversation with someone about what you are reading, and it is also opens up doors to see new things in the text you never would have seen on your own.
I have started doing devotions guides for our church, organized around our sermon schedule, to widen out this experience to the entire church. It is really helpful when many different people are engaging with the same biblical texts and topics: it generates a lot of synergy and conversation.

3) If you are new to it or bad at it, keep it simple and short

Sometimes people struggle with doing daily devotional Bible reading because they work it up in their mind as more than it needs to be, just like people avoid going to the gym because they feel intimidated and out of place because of all the super healthy there. I have found that some people feel liberated by the reminder that it does not need to be super long, or super in-depth and scholarly. If you struggle to do daily Bible reading, and you’re trying to get better, don’t start with commentaries or huge chunks of text. Start with simplicity, and then build from that point.

For example, just reading and praying about one verse for five minutes each day is way better than doing nothing, and it’s a good starting place to build from. Just like 20 minutes on the treadmill three times a week is not going to put you in league with any Olympic athletes, but it can still make a huge difference in your health. A little is much better than none, and it gives you a place to build from.

4) Have a system for summarizing and remembering what you learn

Bryan Chapell talks about the “3:00 AM test” for sermons: imagine someone wakes you up at 3:00 AM and asks you what the sermon is about. Can you remember? If not, the sermon is probably half-baked.

When I stop halfway through the day and I cannot remember what I did for devotions that morning, I know I am rushing through my devotions too quickly, over breakfast or on the run or something, and not really digesting God’s Word. For me, it is especially easy with longer narrative texts to simply move on with my day and forget what I have read, so I have found I have to find a system to summarize and remember what I learn from it. I find it often helps to write down a brief summary of something God teaches you, and then repeat it and pray about it throughout the day.

Right now I am reading through I and II Kings, and I read a chapter a day. Because it is not always obvious how to summarize each chapter, I write down one brief sentence that encapsulates something I’ve learned from the text. So for I Kings 1 it was, “God chooses leaders contrary to human wisdom.” Not the most profound or deep idea, and not the only thing in the text. But its something that stood out to me from the process of Solomon being chosen over Adonijah. It gives me something tangible to hang onto later in the day when I think back on the story. And then I will see it again the next day to take me into I Kings 2, so it also helps build continuity from one day to the next.

5) Implement a structure for prayer and application

It is not always easy to know how to apply various passages of Scripture to the gospel, and to ourselves. For example, if your morning schedule puts you on the old prophet at Bethel in I Kings 13, you mind wonder how in the world this story fits in with the larger biblical narrative, or what is going to come at you in your day.

There are lots of ways to try to integrate each individual text into the larger context of redemptive history, and systematically in relation to the gospel, and in the finer points, this is a complicated task that no one ever stops growing in. But I believe every Christian can make real progress by bringing a basic gospel structure to each biblical passage. For example, here are two questions that can be a very helpful launching point, and which I once again draw loosely from Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching:

1. what does this passage reveal about human nature that needs redemption?
2. what does this passage reveal about God’s nature that provides redemption?

That is not all you need to do, but it is often a good starting point for prayer and application. Suddenly, when I’m in I Kings 13, for example, when I’m starting to see new insights about the crookedness of sin, and the binding nature of God’s word. I start thinking about how much of my own inconstancy and fickleness I see in the characters of this story. I remember from yesterday’s reading the promise that “a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name” (13:2). I feel the weight of the relative darkness of this time in history, the desperate need of God’s people for a king and savior—ultimately, a greater Josiah. I reflect on all that has happened in redemptive history since this passage.

I find myself more aware of how deeply I need Christ. I think about where the world now would be if Bethlehem had never happened. I think about all that Hebrews says about what Christ has fulfilled, all that has already happened in redemptive history. I take time to thank him, and ask that he would help me see more of his direction and providential leading in my life, as the greater High Priest and King who is now saving and leading God’s people.
Even in I Kings 13, and in every other little corner of the Bible, however obscure, there is some unique contribution to the revelation of the gospel. There is no wasted space in the Bible. In fact, if we take Jesus at his word, “every word … comes from the mouth of God”—and is more important to us than our daily food.

For All It's Worth

How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth by Corum Hughes  at Haven Today:

The Bible is not the easiest book to read. In fact, it can be extremely difficult for someone new to its contents.

For example, if we read, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11) by itself, we will just see a motivational Bible verse. We would miss the significance behind the promise God makes to His people as they are conquered, captured, and thrown into exile.

If we take the time to look carefully at the Bible, that's when we begin to understand what God is really saying to us through His Word.

Here is a concise step-by-step guide to reading the Bible for all its worth:

1. Understand the Context

Who wrote it? When? Who was the intended audience? Build a bridge from Biblical times to the 21st Century so that you can understand what the author is saying and why. You can do this by consulting a good Study Bible, or by researching what experts have said about the passage you are currently reading.

2. Read Carefully

Howard Hendrix once said that we must read the Bible like we are reading a love letter: word-by-word, and over-and-over again. If you read the book of John as carefully as you read your note from Susie down the street, you’ll have a better understanding of who Jesus is than you ever have before.

3. Make Connections

Right now, you are reading an article on the All About Jesus blog. The whole reason we have this name is because we have come to understand that all of Scripture points to Jesus. Use John 1:1-18 as your framework to understand how God interacts with His people throughout salvation history.

"In the beginning was the Word [The Word refers to Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3)

Now go read Genesis 1 with this passage in mind.

4. Discover the Meaning

You are now prepared to begin drawing out what the text means. Use what you learned about the author, the time period, the audience, and the context of the verses to find out what God is saying to His people. This will also propel you down the path of understanding what it means for us today.

5. Find out Why it Matters

This is the part of the process where all the things you learned moves from your head to your heart. 1 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." We need to discover how the truths of the Old and New Testaments apply to our daily life.

6. Read it Again

If you don’t quite understand what you’re reading, read it again. If it's still unclear, read it again. Sooner or later, the pieces will fall into place, and you’ll know more about that passage of Scripture than anything you’ve ever read before.

How To Use A Study Bible

How to Use A Study Bible by Andy Nesalli (via Desiring God):

A study Bible is a book that includes the full text of the Bible plus additional features that help readers better understand and apply the Bible. How should you use a study Bible? Here are some suggestions for what to do and not do.

1. Don’t use poor study Bibles.

In general, it’s better to use an all-purpose study Bible rather than a niche study Bible, such as one that targets cat lovers or sixteen-year-olds who like skateboarding and grunge music. So as a general rule, if the title of the study Bible is something like The Winnie the Pooh / Thomas Kinkade Study Bible, take a pass.

2. Use quality study Bibles.

I just finished about five years of work on a study Bible that recently released: the NIV Zondervan Study Bible. (Don Carson is the general editor.) As I helped to edit this study Bible, I consulted many other study Bibles. In my view, these were the four best study Bibles at the time: ESV Study Bible, NIV Study Bible (which is remaining in print), HCSB Study Bible, and NLT Study Bible. Now I think that the top two study Bibles available are the ESV Study Bible and the NIV Zondervan Study Bible.

3. Don’t use the notes as a crutch or shortcut instead of wrestling with the text itself.
There is no substitute for the primary text. One hour carefully reading and meditating on the Bible itself is worth ten hours of reading study Bible notes.

4. Don’t combine the authority of the God-breathed text with the notes.
God inspired the Bible. He didn’t inspire the commentary on the Bible.

5. Use a study Bible in the same way that you would responsibly use other resources that help you better understand and apply the Bible.

There are five theological disciplines, and a good study Bible helps you with all of them — especially the first.

1. Exegesis.

Exegesis draws the meaning out of a text (that’s good!), and “eisegesis” reads a meaning into a text (that’s bad!). In other words, exegesis interprets a text by analyzing what the author intended to communicate. Exegesis is simply careful reading. The text means what the text’s author meant. Exegetes are concerned primarily with interpreting a text; that is, discovering what the author meant. What does this involve?

• Genre. Establish rules for interpreting a passage’s style of literature.
• Textual Criticism. Establish the original wording.
• Translation. Translate the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek text, and compare other translations.
• Greek Grammar. Understand how sentences communicate with words, phrases, and clauses.
• Argument Diagram. Trace the logical argument by arcing, bracketing, or phrasing.
• Historical-Cultural Context. Understand the situation in which the author composed the literature and any historical-cultural details that the author mentions or probably assumes.
• Literary Context. Understand the role a passage plays in its whole book.
• Word Studies. Unpack key words, phrases, and concepts.

A good study Bible takes all of this into account and highlights what is most significant for understanding books of the Bible and particular passages. The introductions to each book of the Bible explain the broad literary context and relevant historical-cultural context, and the study notes explain individual parts in that larger context.

When the text is the Bible, we must never stop with exegesis: We must also do theology — biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology.

2. Biblical Theology.

Make organic connections with the whole canon on its own terms, across the storyline of the Bible, especially regarding how the Old and New Testaments integrate and climax in Christ. (I try to show how Harry Potter illustrates biblical theology in the four-minute video below.) This is a main distinctive of the NIV Zondervan Study Bible.

3. Historical Theology.

Survey and evaluate how significant exegetes and theologians have understood the Bible and theology.

4. Systematic Theology.

Discern how a passage theologically coheres with the whole Bible. This is a major strength of the ESV Study Bible.

5. Practical Theology.

Apply the text to yourself, the church, and the world.

Quality study Bibles are one of the most helpful all-around tools you can use to better understand and apply the Bible. So by all means use them (responsibly) as you focus primarily on the God-breathed text.

The Word Behind the Word

For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.

         – A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

HT: Trevin Wax

How To Reignite Your Bible Reading

Reignite Bible Reading That has Become Boring by David Murray. This is a great piece which I can agree with wholeheartedly.

We’ve all been there. Reading the Bible can become boring. Our eyes are on the page but our minds are everywhere else; because everywhere else is just so much more interesting. That black book without pictures just isn’t quite so exciting as the black device that can show us anything in the world in just a click. We may pick up our Bibles, open the pages, and scan the lines, but our hearts just aren’t in it. We force ourselves to read our chapter(s) or fill up our allotted time, but we really can’t wait to finish and get on to much more fascinating and enjoyable things.

It’s not good, is it? You know, it’s bad, but you don’t know what to do. Well, here are some ideas to help you re-ignite your Bible reading. If you have any strategies that have helped you, leave them in the comments box to help others too, will you?

1. Routine. If our Bible reading is not fixed for a particular time each day, and we’re just hoping a time slot appears, we’ll end up squeezing it into too small a space. Best to pick a time and get into a habit of reading each day at that time. If you are already in a good habit of reading at the same time each day, and your reading has become boring, the worst thing you can do is give up your routine and only “read as the Spirit moves.” You’ll hardly read at all then. Pick a time, and stick at it.

2. Sleep. No, not during your reading, but before it. Many times boredom sets in because we’re shattered with exhaustion and we just don’t have the energy to read in an interactive and profitable way. Get yourself a good 7-8 hours sleep each night and you’ll find that a much brighter mind will produce much brighter reading.

3. Ban the cellphone. If you check your phone before you check your Bible, the Bible is going to lose. The Internet and Social Media is crack cocaine for the brain. The Bible requires careful cutting, chewing, and digesting. The former is quick thrills; the latter is a slow roast. Check your Bible first and it won’t feel such a let down to your brain. And put your phone away as you read; even if it’s not pinging and buzzing, the brain sees it and is expecting it, causing further distraction.

4. Read a different version. Sometimes we’ve got too familiar with the words we’ve read many, many times. Why not read a different version alongside your favorite one, to jog your mind out of its normal ruts and make you see words and sentences in a fresh light.

5. Read more slowly (or quickly). If you are reading a chapter a day, slow down to just a few verses a day to make you think and meditate more (10 tips on meditation here). Or speed up for a time, reading more chapters more quickly in order to get a better overview of a book. Just change it up a bit. If you are in a difficult part of the Old Testament, add a few verses from the New each day.

6. Read a devotional first. Sometimes our hearts need to be warmed up. I usually sing or read part of a Psalm before reading my chapters in the Old and New Testament. You could read a daily devotional or sing a spiritual song to light up that cold heart.

7. Use a study Bible. I don’t advocate this as something to use all the time, because it’s important that we learn to think for ourselves when we read the Bible and not just have others think for us. Also, people can spend more time reading the notes than the Bible itself. But, now and again, for a few weeks at a time, you could use a study Bible or brief commentary to help you get excited about the Bible again.

8. Accountability. Ask your wife, husband, friend, to ask you about your Bible reading each day. If we know someone is going to ask us what we read and what we learned from our Bibles that day, that usually sharpens our concentration and therefore increases edification.

9. Need. If we don’t need something, we don’t value it. If I don’t see my need of the Bible, I won’t value it. I’ve always noticed that my periods of dull Bible reading usually coincide with dullness of soul. When I don’t see my sin, when I think I’m doing quite well really, then I don’t see the Bible as so essential to my life and well-being. But when I’m convicted of my sin and weakness, I then see the Bible as more necessary than my daily food and drink.

10. Remember who is speaking. Our listening depends on who is talking and what he or she is talking about. Before you start, remind yourself of who is speaking – God – and what He is speaking about – your eternal salvation.

11. Pray. Confess to God that you find reading the Bible boring. Ask him to show you if it’s because you are unconverted, and you need to be born again to get the spiritual sight and tastebuds to make you savor and relish His Word. Pray that He would open your eyes to see the beauty and wisdom of His Word. If you are a Christian, confess your coldness and deadness of heart, and ask for the Holy Spirit to enliven and inspire you again. Ask Him to show you if there is any sin that is keeping back His blessing.

12. Serve. If we’re only eating and not exercising, we’ll soon lose our appetite. But if we are serving God, seeking opportunities to bless His church, or witness to others, we exercise our souls, get hungry, see our need of strengthening and guidance, and we devour God’s Word more greedily.

How To Read The Bible

A good piece by Don Carson on How to Read the Bible and Do Theology Well:

It’s been said that the Bible is like a body of water in which a child may wade and an elephant may swim. The youngest Christian can read the Bible with profit, for the Bible’s basic message is simple. But we can never exhaust its depth. After decades of intense study, the most senior Bible scholars find that they’ve barely scratched the surface. Although we cannot know anything with the perfection of God’s knowledge (his knowledge is absolutely exhaustive!), yet because God has disclosed things, we can know those things truly.

Trying to make sense of parts of the Bible and of the Bible as a whole can be challenging. What kind of study should be involved when any serious reader of the Bible tries to make sense of the Bible as a whole? Appropriate study involves several basic interdependent disciplines, of which five are mentioned here: careful reading, biblical theology (BT), historical theology (HT), systematic theology (ST), and pastoral theology (PT). What follows looks at each of these individually and shows how they interrelate—and how they are more than merely intellectual exercises.

Careful Reading

“Exegesis” is the word often used for careful reading. Exegesis answers the questions, “What does this text actually say?” and “What did the author mean by what he said?” We discover this by applying sound principles of interpretation to the Bible.

Fundamental to reading the Bible well is good reading. Good readers pay careful attention to words and their meanings and to the ways sentences, paragraphs, and longer units are put together. They observe that the Bible is a book that includes many different styles of literature—stories, laws, proverbs, poetry, prophecy, history, parables, letters, apocalyptic, and much more. Good readers follow the flow of texts. For example, while it is always worth meditating on individual words and phrases, the most important factor in determining what a word means is how the author uses that word in a specific context.

One of the best signs of good exegesis is asking thoughtful questions that drive us to “listen” attentively to what the Bible says. As we read the text again and again, these questions are progressively honed, sharpened, corrected, or discarded.

Biblical Theology

BT answers the question, “How has God revealed his word historically and organically?” BT studies the theology of individual biblical books (e.g., Isaiah, the Gospel of John), of select collections within the Bible (e.g., the Pentateuch, wisdom literature, the Gospels, Paul’s letters, John’s writings), and then traces out themes as they develop across time within the canon (e.g., the way the theme of the temple develops, in several directions, to fill out a “whole Bible” theology of the temple). At least four priorities are essential:

1. Read the Bible progressively as a historically developing collection of documents. God did not provide his people with all of the Bible at once. There is a progression to his revelation, and to read the whole back into some early part may seriously distort that part by obscuring its true significance in the flow of redemptive history. This requires not only organizing the Bible’s historical material into its chronological sequence but also trying to understand the theological nature of the sequence.

2. Presuppose that the Bible is coherent. The Bible has many human authors but one divine Author, and he never contradicts himself. BT uncovers and articulates the unity of all the biblical texts taken together.

3. Work inductively from the text—from individual books and from themes that run through the Bible as a whole. Although readers can never entirely divorce themselves from their own backgrounds, students of BT recognize that their subject matter is exclusively the Bible. They therefore try to use categories and pursue agendas that the text itself sets.

4. Make theological connections within the entire Bible that the Bible itself authorizes. One way to do this is to trace the trajectory of themes straight through the Bible. (That’s what the articles in the NIV Zondervan Study Bible do.)

BT often focuses on the turning points in the Bible’s storyline, and its most pivotal concern is tied to how the New Testament uses the Old Testament, observing how later Scripture writers refer to earlier ones....

Much more at the link. 

Getting The Most From the Effort

Saw a great piece on personal Bible study by Jen Wilkin, "How To Make The Most Of YOur Bible Study," taken from The ESV Women’s Devotional Bible, and quoted at the Village Church Blog. Good lessons here.

We are pulled in many directions: work, family, ministry, fitness and many other activities tug at our schedules. The more we are tugged, the more we have to work to guard the time we give to personal study of our Bibles. When we are at last able to sit down to read, we want every precious minute to count. Whether we have 15 minutes or two hours, we want our efforts to yield the most benefit possible. But how can we make the most of the time we have to read and study?

It can be tempting to want our personal study time to fill our emotional tank for the day. We may rush to find an application point we can act on in whatever time we have. This may mean we limit our time in the Word to devotional reading—meditating on a passage and looking for a way to put it to immediate use. Devotional reading is beneficial, but it is not foundational, and its benefit actually increases exponentially as we grow in our foundational understanding of the Bible. So we must be sure to study the Bible with our minds, as well as with our hearts. As you read the Bible devotionally, seek to complement this with time in which you also build a basic knowledge of Scripture. Here are some suggestions to help you make the most of that time.

Take a Long-term View

Think of Bible study as a savings account rather than a debit card. Rather than viewing it as a declining balance you draw on to fill an immediate need, allow it to have a cumulative effect over weeks, months and years. You may not reach understanding of a passage or be able to apply it well after one day’s exposure to it. That’s OK. Keep making deposits into your account, trusting that in God’s perfect timing, He will illuminate the meaning and usefulness of what you’ve studied, compounding its worth. What if the passage you study today is preparing you for a trial 10 years from now? Study faithfully now, trusting that nothing is wasted, whether your study time resolves neatly in 30 minutes or not.

Stay Put

Rather than reading passages pulled from different parts of the Bible each day, choose a book and stay there. Topical study guides and devotional guides can leave us with a piecemeal knowledge of Scripture. We may grow very familiar with certain passages, but we might never learn their context. Reading a book of the Bible from start to finish helps us connect the dots in our Bible knowledge and generate a cohesive understanding of the text.

Honor the Context

Before you begin studying a particular book, research its historical and cultural context to prime yourself for proper understanding. Reading a book in light of its original audience and setting is a basic principle of interpretation. Who wrote the book? To whom was it written? When was it written? What historical and cultural factors prompted and informed its writing? Researching these questions guards us from interpreting in light of our own cultural or historical bias. A key resource to help you here is the ESV Study Bible. 

Understand Genre

The Bible is comprised of many different literary genres. It contains historical narrative, poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature and more. Each of these genres abides by certain rules. Each uses language and imagery in a certain way. We cannot read the Psalms the same way we read the Gospels, nor can we read prophecy the way we read wisdom literature. When you begin a particular text, learn about its genre and read it according to how that genre “works.”

Use Proven Tools

If your goal is to build foundational knowledge of Scripture, you’ll need good tools to do so. Choose tools that have stood the test of time: read the text repetitively, paraphrase verses in your own words to help you focus on their meaning, look up word meanings, annotate a copy of the text, check cross-references, read accessible commentaries. Each of these tools will help you build comprehension and move you toward sound interpretation and application....

Read the rest at the link.

Starving Ourselves to Death

From The Poached Egg

(Click image to enlarge)