The Bible is a literary masterpiece, written in fine literary fashion, and worthy to be studied by students of literature. It serves a much higher purpose, however, in the life of a believer. When a believer reads the Bible, he or she reads an message from God applicable to that particular believer in his or her current life circumstances. The Bible is God’s living specific truth that speaks into people’s lives today as much as ever.
I cannot tell you the number of times a specific passage of Scripture has come to life when I read it and that God used it to instruct, challenge, encourage, inform, or convict me as I read it. Sometimes I feel “ambushed” by God because I read a passage of Scripture only to have the Holy Spirit speak – silently yet loudly – right to a current situation in my life. That can happen to you as well if you approach the Bible to hear what God wants to say to you!
Last week I encouraged you to develop an intentional plan for reading both larger and smaller portions of Scripture on a regular basis, and for probing a smaller passage on a daily basis. I believe that best way to study the Bible is through what is called the Inductive Study Method, which consists of three parts:
- Observation – What did the original writer say?
- Interpretation – What did the original writer mean by what he said?
- Application – What does the passage say to ME?
You can read a good article on the basics of Inductive Bible Study by clicking here.
To get the best results, those steps are best followed in the order listed above. We cannot make good interpretative decisions about a text until we have carefully and fully engaged in a a thorough observation of that passage, so OBSERVATION is the place to start.
Read the text in its context several times. Notice what kind of writing it is. Is it a letter? A historical account? Poetry? To whom is the author writing? What sorts of things are happening that caused the writing.
Through observation you want to answe the basic interrogative questions:
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- How
- Why
Several online tools are available to help you in both the observation and interpretation stages. Some I recommend include:
The Bible Study software I use on my computer is Logos and I recommend it to all serious Bible students. Logos has several tiers available to accommodate any budget. It is the best technology investment I have EVER made.
The observation stage is much like helping the people on your favorite forensic or detective television show solve their case, only in Bible study the evidence is REAL not fiction and the implications are Kingdom sized.
Feel free to ask questions in the comment section below or share with is how you go about the observation stage of Bible study.
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