In a prior post I had recommended an inductive bible study method by the campus ministry Stumo and I had links to there handouts.  I recently revisited my post and discovered that the links in the post and on my  resource page were broken.  Seems Stumo decided to rework their site which left my links dangling with nothing on the other end.  Well, the links are fixed and I have copies of the method stored on my server so this won’t be a problem again.  I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone.  Here are the new links.

Stumo Inductive Bible Study, page 1

Stumo Inductive Bible Study, page 2

If you are unfamiliar with inductive bible study, essentially you study by first making observations.  Then, from your observations you try to understand the meaning of the text.  Lastly, you seek to apply what you have learned.   The Stumo outline is a rather thorough template for studying a passage.   I highly recommend you take the time to look it over and give it a try.  Working your way through this method with a group can be a great bible study exercise.

Identifying a principle, task or change is just the beginning. Once identified you need to set concrete measurable goals for how you will pursue the calling. Some callings can be accomplished via a goal and some callings require an ongoing discipline. Particularly, I find that life changes requiring repentance often times necessitate the adoption of some form of ongoing spiritual discipline.
 
Lastly, I need to add that not every sermon or bible lesson is going to necessarily leave you with something to do. Sometimes you simply get exposed to a truth that you need to know or understand. For example, a sermon may teach you about the divinity of Christ. That is a truth you need to understand but there may not be a particular calling in it. So, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t walk away from every scripture passage with a mission. Similarly, I found that sometimes God gives me comfort or assurance. In those instances, where I do not sense any immediate calling I simply  thank God for the truth revealed or the comfort given.
 
Next time you read try looking for one of these specific ways God speaks to us through his living word.
 
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PRACTICE RECALL

Seriously, how much of the sermon can you recall?  I mentioned in my prior post taking a moment to recall the sermon during worship.  Do it again the next day.  If you took notes, you can check your recall against the notes.  The key is to work as hard as you can at recalling as much of it as you possibly can first.  Don’t just review the notes.  Use the notes to spot check your recall.   Let me repeat that.  Don’t just review the notes.  Use the notes to spot check your recall.  This will greatly enhance your memory.
 
Research has shown that you need reviews repeatedly and at strategic intervals to shift knowledge from your short term memory to long term memory.  Ideally, you would review within 10 minutes and then within repeated expanding intervals such as, one day later, one week later, one month later and four months later.  For your average sermon or Sunday School lesson I would suggest that you review as follows:

• Within 10 minutes
• At the end of the day
• The next day
• At the end of the week

 
You may feel like you don’t have time to review. Reviews need to be no more than 5 minutes and the later reviews may only be 2 or 3 minutes.  A weekly investment of 15 to 20 minutes of review will radically transform what you take away from Sunday morning.  Just think what a wasted opportunity it is to listen to the Word unpacked and then not actively attempt to recall and apply it.  Yet, that is the average experience.  Why be average?  Why not be exceptional, when exceptional is only 15 or 20 minutes away from you?
 

BE SELECTIVE

Okay, in the suggestion above I asked you to work at recalling everything you possibly can from a sermon.  I would recommend you do that for 6 sermons in order to build your ability to recall.  After six sermons, discard trying to remember a whole sermon and start practicing some selectivity.  As soon as you have heard a sermon make some choices about what you are going to remember and act upon.  Actively let go of everything else.  You don’t need it all every Sunday.  Then during your reviews, only review the selected items.   I highly recommend though that you really work at recalling six whole sermons before shifting to that sort of selectivity.  The investment on practicing the skill of recall will pay big dividends.
 

TAKE ACTION

Did you apply something from the sermon? Do you have a plan for applying it? At the end of the sermon on the mount Jesus shared the following parable:
 

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27, ESV)
 

In the prior post I recommended setting goals.  Goals without action are irrelevant. Furthermore, you truly don’t understand the Word of God until you live it out and experience it.  Be transformed by the word of God, don’t just catalog it in your head.  Settle for nothing less.  If you have never been taught how to set goals, you may want to read my prior post, Resolutions need Goals. Be sure to include review you goals as part of your review of the sermon.

It’s not too late to respond to Sunday’s sermon. Right now why not try to remember, set a goal, and then review those things tonight and tomorrow. Blessings to you and may the Word of God dwell in you more richly every day.
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1. BYOB. Bring your own Bible. Follow the readings and when appropriate underline, mark or otherwise annotate the text. If you read the Bible with a pencil in hand you will pay more attention to the text.
2. Take Note.  Bring a pad or scribble on your bulletin the thought flow of the sermon. This past Sunday when I was in worship I made a mind map of the sermon on the back of my bulletin. Mind mapping is a graphical method for taking notes.
3. Rehearse your notes.  I study my notes in down moments in the service. Specifically, I repeatedly try to recall the order of the sermon, until I can reconstruct it completely without looking at my notes. This usually takes just a few minutes. At first it may be difficult for you, but with practice you can learn to reconstruct sermons, lectures, and conversations with an amazing degree of accuracy. It’s a skill set and just takes practice.
4. Set Goals.  Determine how you are going to apply the sermon before you leave worship. For example, Sunday’s sermon was about the Good Samaritan story. The preacher mentioned three reasons the priest may have passed by the man who was beaten and robbed. He mentioned, 1) feeling the situation was too far gone. 2) pressure to do other things and not having time 3) fear of being harmed. I took time before leaving worship to identify ways I am failing to do the right thing because hopelessness, pressure and fear. I set goals for addressing them before I left worship.
5. Review it in the evening.  I took time afterwards to review and journal on what I had learned and how I intended to respond in the evning before I went to bed.
6. Discuss it with others.  I often ask my kids about sermons after worship.  I do this for two reasons.  One, to process itmore myself.  Two to train them to be actively engaged with the sermon.

 
In short, when you are in worship don’t be passive about the Word.  Your pastor has diligently prayed, studied and prepared.  God is very likely speaking through that pastor.  You should do everything  you can do to capture what is being said.  Apply it and live into it.
 
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• Investigation–Detect, study, explore, gather
• Incubation–The longest stage, quantity over quality, can involve blending, traveling, polarizing, walking, meditating, praying and sharing
• Illumination–The editing of stage two, illuminate the big idea, the “Aha!” moment
• Illustration–Portray and personify the big idea, design, create

 
I read this process and immediately thought, this sounds very much like the process I try to follow when writing a sermon.  It is a fitting general prescription for Bible reading as well.  I had never really thought about my general Bible reading as a creative process, but really it is. Each time we read we should strive to manifest the word as a living reality in our lives. That is truly a creative process.
 

FIRE THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD SAYING,

“YOU’RE NOT CREATIVE”

IT’S A LIE.

You might be thinking, “But I am not creative.”  Kick that crud out of your head.  You are created in God’s image.  God declares that immediately on the heels of creating everything, including people. Do you think God forgot to include creativity?  Also, when you look at all of creation people are the one thing that God created with the ability to create just for the beauty of creating.  That includes you.  Have you ever seen a child with no imagination?  You where once a child.
 
Let me ask you this, do you worry about things that never come to pass?  Just think about that for a moment.  Those worries are fantasies of fear created in your head by…guess who….YOU!  Where else did those fantasies come from accept your imagination?  I bet you never thought about that as being creative.  It is creative, just in an unhealthy manner.
 
So, when you pick up that bible…

• Investigate–have the curiosity of a child. Go at scripture like you are on a treasure hunt.
• Incubate–Go ponder. Take a hike. Sit around doing some handy work. Mull it over while doing something slightly physical but pretty much mindless.
• Illuminate–Once you have had some mull time, try to formulate a response out of the ideas that arise.
• Illustrate–Find a metaphor or picture. Can you find an analogy that captures your insight. This will really cement your discernment in your long term memory. Often times a metaphor or picture will be a catalyst for deeper insight. Also, put your words to work. Live them out. Living out the Word of God is how you truly come to understand it deeply. When you do that you are creating at the finest level. You living into the image of God.

“For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:6, NASB)

Meditation:

Today’s verse reminds us of simple yet often ignored truth, the gift of the Spirit requires responsible continued attention. The greek word translated “kindle afresh” in the New American Standard Bible, is a difficult word to translate cleanly. An examination of five versions yielded four different translations.

• The English Standard Version and New International Version-”fan a flame”
• New Revised Standard Version-”rekindle”
• King James-”Stir up”
• New American Standard Bible-”kindle afresh”

 
The translation challenge that results in so many different version is that the greek word is a compounding of several things. Perhaps, a more literal and accurate translation would be something to the effect of “to fire to life again.” Regardless of the translation the image given is a of having been given a fire that needs continued tending to burn and burn well. I teach fire making skills to camp counselors and children every Summer. I can’t tell you how many times I have started a fire for a struggling group only to leave for a little bit and find it nearly extinguished for a lack of care.
 
Caretaking a fire requires feeding and stoking. You must continually feed a fire so that it has fuel to keep burning. Often times you also have to interact with the fire to keep it going. You may have to rearrange some logs so they get better air flow or you may need to shuffle the coals around to expose them. I am learning through scripture and through this novena that the gift of the Holy Spirit needs to be also feed and interacted with. Through studying the Word we can feed the gift of the Holy Spirit. By exercising our spiritual gifts we can feed the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through prayer, particularly asking the Spirit to teach us and/or leaning on the Spirit for strength, comfort and discernment we can interact with the Spirit. What will you do today to actively feed or stoke the fire that has been placed in you?
 

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, Paul told Timothy in an earlier letter “do not to neglect the spiritual gift within you.” (1 Timothy 1:14)  His language in this letter is even more proactive. This word reveals to me a history of being passive in attention to you. I prayer that I will continue when this novena is complete to seek to learn more about you. I would like to come away with a plan from this nine day period of reflection for knowing specifically, how I should continue to “rekindle” or “kindle afresh” this gift.  I give you thanks for this word today.  Amen.

 
If you missed the beginning of this “Dose of the Ghost” series, just read this post, A Protestant Novena, A Dose of the Ghost.
 
 

I have used a variety of inductive Bible study methods over the years and find this particular study an extremely clear helpful process to follow.  The method is divided into two PDF files that can access using the links below.

• Inductive Bible Study Method, Page 1
• Inductive Bible Study Method, Page 2

This study method is published by the campus ministry Stumo.  Their purpose is to prepare laborers for Christ from college campuses.  You can learn more about them on their website Stumo.org.   You can also find a wide variety of other tools and Bible studies on specific topics or books of the Bible.

My thanks to PD reader Marshall for sharing these links.  The time was very Godly.

Lastly a word to Pastors, Christian Educators, Youth Leaders, Teachers and such–This Bible study method can be a really quick out of the box tool for leading a study with a small group.  Simple pick a passage and as a group work your way through the steps.

What about you?  Are there activities that you use to make yourself feel good about “doing something” to enhance you faith when the reality is you are avoiding something far more basic and productive like, prayer, study, worship or service.  Do you perpetually read about prayer, but don’t pray.  Do read books about the Bible or sit in on classes about the Bible, but never actually crack the cover of yours?   Do you talk more about God or to God?  Do you bounce around on the internet reading blogs about God, discipleship, and the church but never really applying much from it?  Are you really learning or are you avoiding face-to-face time with God?  If you are, then stop.  Stop reading this.  Stop viewing cool inspirational videos.  Stop roaming through the Christian bookstores and either go get into some direct time with God or go do something you believe God has been wanting you to do for a while.

Blessings to you as you take those steps that will bear the most fruit in your walk of discipleship.

I have also changed my recommended resource to my current study Bible, The New Inductive Study Bible.   This Bible is ideal if you are wanting to read the text and create your own headings and comments based upon your own observations.  It’s wide margins, blanks for chapter headings, guidance on what to watch for and mark in the text, and space for outlines at the end of each book, make it perfect for this purpose.  This Bible is a New American Standard (NASB) translation and is one of the most literal translations available. If you are new to Bible reading I would not  start with this Bible because there are no headings or explanatory notes offset from the text to aid the beginning reader.  There are  a few study helps in the back along with a brief concordance.

For new Bible readers I would recommend the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.  It contains a lot of great questions and notes that help you reflect on how to put God’s Word to work in your daily life.  I am finding The Life Application Bible harder to find as an NIV.  This may just be a regional issue.  Its seems more available as a New Living Translation which I do not care for as much.

Blessings to you in your reading of God’s Word.

READING LEVELS

Bibles are written with a reading level in mind.  I will never forget the comment of the woman which prompted me to write this post.  She said, with regard to a Bible I gave her when she was a teen, “It was the first Bible anyone gave me that I could read.”

The following chart is from the CBD page, Bible Translation Reading Levels.

The CBD site notes that people may disagree on these reading levels, but these are approximate reading levels drawing upon information from publishers when available.

TRANSLATION APPROACH

Translators tend toward different approaches of translating that range somewhere between “word-to-word”  or “thought-to-thought” translation.

Word-to-word translations tend toward a more literal translation of text in which the nearest equivalent English word is found to replace the hebrew or greek original words.   Word-to-word translations strive to retain the original sentence structure and grammar, in as much as possible.

Thought-to-thought translations strive to find the essential thought that the original words intended to convey and then find functionally equivalent words or phrases in English.

Once again, CBD has a nice concise discussion about these terms on their page, About Bible Translations.  The graphic below is taken from that page and gives you at least a general sense of how translations fall upon the spectrum of word-to-word versus thought-to-thought approches.

MY PERSONAL PREFERENCES

I read from multiple translations.  For study I lean heavily upon the New American Standard Bible (NASB).  As you can see from the chart above, it is one of the most literal translations.  I really haven’t noticed any sacrifice regarding readability.  I originally purchased this Bible as much for it’s margins as I did it’s translations and have regretted neither.  My wife has used the ESV frequently when doing translation work and finds it a well-grounded translation.  It’s one I am going to check out in the near future.

For many years,  I used a Thompson Chain Reference Bible that was a New International Version (NIV).  The NIV is extremely readable which  probably explains its wide appeal.  If I were in doubt on purchasing a Bible for someone else or if I were getting a Bible for  a teen I would lean toward the NIV because it is a reasonable compromise between word-to-word and thought-to-thought translation while being at a reading level that is simple, but not necessarily juvenile.

I have a bias toward the left hand of the graph because I prefer translations that take less liberties with the text.  The New Revised Standard translation is what we use in our pews at church.  It has a good scholastic foundation for how it was translated.  When this was written there was a distinct agenda to create a translation with gender neutral language.  So, if that is important to you, then this is the Bible for you.

I would avoid paraphrases like the Living Translation or The Message as your regular reading. There is a place for these though.  Sometimes I like to refer to them when I am so familiar with a text that it is hard for me to look at it with a fresh and open mind. Reading a Bible like the Message, in those instances, can sometimes open you up to possibilities that you really haven’t considered.

So which is the best translation?  It depends.  The bottom line is that you select a Bible you will read.  The woman I mentioned above was given a beautiful and wonderful King James Version Bible, unfortunately, it was seldom touched because the reading level was extremely daunting for her.  As I mentioned, my personal favorite has become my NASB.

I highly encourage you to go browse the CBD links and articles on their page, Choosing a Bible. Also, on their page, Choosing a Study Bible., you can find a very helpful and concise description of features that you may want in a study Bible.   If you didn’t read my post, Choosing a Bible when you are a beginner, then I would recommend you go back and take a peek at it.  In that post I cover a lot of very pragmatic concerns about which Bible is best for you.

ACTION STEP:

• Evaluate your current Bible based upon it’s reading level and translation approach
• Consider getting another translation that you can compare and contrast with as you study
• If you do not have a study Bible, review these articles and visit a local Christian Book Store and get one as soon as possible

Blessings to you from The Practical Disciple

p.s.  The best Bible in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t read.  So be sure and follow a daily bible reading guide.