Today I bring you a special gift---an article by author Julie Zine Coleman,whom I met at a writers' conference in Philadelphia quite a few years ago now. I'm honored that she has agreed to write a post for us here. Julie's great love is deep study of the word of God, and unpacking it to bless the rest of us as well as equipping us to study deeper and better ourselves.
How to Go Deeper into God’s Word (part 1)
By Julie Zine Coleman
It has been said that the Bible is the least read bestseller
on the market. Most people purchase their Bible believing it to be the inspired
Word of God. Why then aren’t we reading it?
Honestly? Finding something fresh or inspiring in the Bible
that relates directly to our life experiences can be a challenge. It was
written thousands of years ago. The language can be archaic, and the literary
style and content often feels out of date. It’s hard to know how to jump in.
How can we move past
a superficial reading to finding fresh meaning in our study of Scripture? It’s
not rocket science. There are
three basic steps to hermeneutics (interpretation of Scripture) that should be
followed in order to determine the intended meaning in a passage: observation,
interpretation, and application.
This article will
cover the first step, which is always observation.
It is our human tendency to give something a good read, then jump right to interpretation.
But when we rush through observation, we will miss so many important details
that will make the passage come alive. Every word is there for a reason. The
best way you can start digging is to know what the passage says.
1. Before you do anything, pray.
1 Corinthians 2:11-16 tells us “the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we
have received… the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely
given to us by God…those taught by the Spirit.” Ask the Holy Spirit to teach and
guide you. He will be faithful to do it.
2. Approach the passage with a clean slate.
One of the greatest killers to our potential to discover
truth is approaching Scripture with the attitude: “I already know that.”
3. Look for what is emphasized (find repeated words or
ideas).
4. Look for the main point of the passage. You can
also find supporting details in many passages. Often the author gives several
examples to flesh out a main point.
5. Note anything you learn about God. After all,
Scripture is one big revelation of Him! There’s so much to look at and investigate and
discover about Him:
How he interacts with individuals
What he values
What is his desire for us
His master plan from the beginning
Faith, grace, mercy, forgiveness
Character traits: how He defines Himself
6. List reasons the author gives for something.
7. Note parallel ideas being presented.
8. Note signal words.
·
For
indicates the author is about to list a reason.
·
Therefore,
so that, for this reason indicate the author has just given you a
reason. What follows then will be our appropriate response.
·
Therefore
can also indicate a summary or conclusion is about to be made.
·
But,
however, nevertheless signal contrast. Look to see what two things are
being compared.
9. Find the pronouns (he, she, it, they, them) and
determine the antecedent (the word they are replacing).
10. Ask questions. Is there something you don’t
understand? Write it down. I keep a list with every passage I study. Keep these handy for when you come to a stand-still
in your observations. They might give you something else to look for and get
you moving again!
The way I approach any passage is to first print it out,
copy and pasting from a site like biblegateway.com. Then, as I discover
these things, I use colored fine-point sharpies to mark it up. I draw arrows to
related things, draw boxes around important words, circle, underline, etc. No
color means anything specific. I just change colors with every new thought or
idea to help me visualize what goes with what.
Don’t be in a hurry. Spend at least 20 minutes and two or
three days in this first step. You will be surprised what you will find that
you might have brushed right past with a superficial reading.
Once you have spent
ample time in observation, you will be ready to move into the next step: interpretation
(we’ll cover that in another article). The more you practice good observation tactics,
the better you will get. Time to get started!
Please visit Julie on her web page to learn more about her and what she is doing: http://juliecoleman.org/about-julie/
(Julie's first book can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Love-Heart-Revealed-Conversations-ebook/dp/B00A0VP5OU/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=julie+coleman&qid=1595996368&sr=8.
She is hard at work on her second book and we will be seeing it in bookstores and on Amazon soon. Please grace her by writing a comment on this post. She has two more articles to follow up on this one. Please let her know if you liked this first post.
5 comments:
Thanks for having me here today, Cynthia! The study of Scripture is so important for anyone struggling with depression or other mental illnesses. It can speak truth into us and cancel the lies a malfunctioning brain feeds into our hearts. When my husband was struggling depression, one of the hard things was knowing what thoughts to believe. His brain kept telling him he was going to be a big failure, and that he would fail to support his family. So he memorized Scripture and kept 3x5 cards in his pockets of promises and assurances from the Bible. It was his source of truth. God would not fail him. He was weak, but the Lord could be magnified in those weaknesses. It was his lifeline. So knowing Scripture is important to anyone struggling. I hope these tips will help you all in going deeper!
Really helpful and practical advice. Thank you!
Julie, I'm the one to be grateful ...your insights have helped me immensely. And you are right: Scripture is our source of truth--but not only that! It is also our source of hope. And for those of us stuck in a morass of fear and worry and even delusions, it is easy to find ourselves scrambling to find a foothold and a hope for a future. Only God's Word can promise and deliver these things!
I do the same thing as your husband by carrying notecards around with verses to memorize. It keeps me grounded. Thank you again for contributing so much to our understanding of how to approach a systematic study of God's Word.
Always good to review Julie's Bible study plan. It works! Especially the 'I already know this'...how often I find out that I do not and the Lord shows me some new information I never saw before!
For sure, Marge, thinking we know something already completely blinds us to fresh truth God desires to give us. Maybe it's perspective, maybe it's a new application, or maybe there's something there we have never before noticed. No matter how many times I study a passage, the Lord gives me something new. It totally makes sense, because its author is the eternal God. He is way beyond anything we can fully comprehend. Thanks for the comment!
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