1. Read the Bible straight through from Genesis to Revelation.
2. Bible arcing. This Bible study method takes some practice and thought, but it is a powerful way to make yourself think about about what the text is saying.
3. Do a word study. Examples: Rebecca studies the term “mediator.”
Bible toolbox word study.
How to do a word study by Dennis McBride.
Guidelines for performing a basic Greek word study.
4. Read and consider the context.
5. Read an entire book of the Bible in one sitting. Try to understand what the entire book is about and what God is saying to you through it.
6. Focus on Jesus.
So then, from this we must gather that to profit much in the holy Scripture we must always resort to our Lord Jesus Christ and cast our eyes upon him, without turning away from him at any time. You will see a number of people who labor very hard indeed at reading the holy Scriptures — they do nothing else but turn over the leaves of it, and yet after ten years they have as much knowledge of it as if they had never read a single line. And why? Because they do not have any particular aim in view, they only wander about. And even in worldly learning you will see a great number who take pains enough, and yet all to no purpose, because they kept neither order nor proportion, nor do anything else but gather material from this quarter and from that, by means of which they are always confused and can never bring anything worthwhile. And although they have gathered together a number of sentences of all sorts, yet nothing of value results from them. Even so it is with them that labor in reading the holy Scriptures and do not know which is the point they ought to rest on, namely, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John Calvin, Sermon on Ephesians 2:19-22 (1559).
7. Pay atttention to literary devices and forms. Rebecca Stark reviews The Literary Study BIble
8. Enter into the mind of a Biblical character.
9. Read the Bible in chronological order. The Narrated Bible is a chronological study Bible.
10. Eat of the Word after each meal.
11. Memorize a book of the Bible.
12. Join a Bible study group at your church.
13. Journibles: write out the words of Scripture.
14. Combine exercise and Bible study.
15. Study a specific topic in the Bible: prayer, contentment, heaven.
16. Future Hope: A Bible study for the new year.
17. 5 Minutes Bible Study
18. Choose a book of the Bible or a passage to focus on for each month of the year.
19. Listen to a Bible teaching radio broadcast or podcast. I would suggest J. Vernon McGee at Thru the Bible Radio or Chuck Swindoll at Insight for Living or R.C. Sproul at Ligonier Ministries, Renewing Your Mind.
20. Subscribe to Tabletalk magazine from Ligonier Ministries. Tabletalk’s daily Bible studies offer structure for your devotional life. Bringing the best in biblical scholarship together with down-to-earth writing, Tabletalk helps you understand the Bible and apply it to daily living.
21. Each January, the Southern Baptist Convention promotes a January Bible Study of one particular book of the Bible. The study for 2011 is called The Truth About Grace: Studies in Galatians. Study on your own or find a group to study with at your local Southern Baptist church. Notes on Galatians by Joe McKeever.
22. Daily Bible Verse tweets a new Bible passage every day. Follow to get a new passage every morning. Suggest a verse to @daily_bible and they may include it.
23. Notebooking through Genesis free dowloads for homeschoolers and others.
24. Use a plan to read through the entire Bible in a year.
25. Read the Old Testament in a year.
26. Read through the New Testament in a year.
27. Listen to the Bible on CD. I suggest The Listener’s Bible narrated by Max McLean.
28. Read Proverbs a chapter a day for a month. Proverbs has 31 chapters, so it works out perfectly to the chapter for the day each day of the month.
29. The Bible in Pictures from 1922, free to copy.
29. Blue Letter Bible has a goal to “facilitate an in-depth study of God’s Word through an online interactive reference library that is continuously updated from the teachings and commentaries of selected pastors and teachers who hold to the conservative, historical Christian faith. By God’s grace and provision, BLB now offers over 680,000 content pages of Bible study resources.”
30. Read aloud daily from the Bible as a family. Reading a Psalm a day or an episode from Jesus’s life each day gives the whole family something to talk about and think about together.
31. Keep a journal of insights gained during your time of Bible study.
32. Write in your Bible. Create a Bible legacy.
33. How to Study the Bible (SImply and In Context) by Bob Gerow.
34. Daily Bread Bible Study from the book, Learn to Study the Bible by Andy Deane.
35. Meditate, pray and get help. How to Read the Bible by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
36. Compare different translations and paraphrases of a particular Bible passage.
37. Make a list. The Commands of Jesus. Promises to the Christian from God. Names of God and Their Meanings.
38. Study the parables of Jesus. For children, act out the parable and discuss its meaning and application.
39. Ask God for wisdom.
It is a rare privilege to study any book under the immediate guidance and instruction of its author, and this is the privilege of us all in studying the Bible. When one comes to a passage that is difficult to understand or difficult to interpret, instead of giving it up, or rushing to some learned friend, or to some commentary, he should lay that passage before God, and ask Him to explain it to him, pleading God’s promise, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt” (James 1:5-6). It is simply wonderful how the seemingly most difficult passages become plain by this treatment.
~R.A. Torrey, Profitable Bible Study.
41. Choose one (short) book of the Bible or Bible passage and read it aloud every morning for a month. Meditate and memorize.
42. Use a Bible dictionary to discover the meanings of words and phrases in the Bible.
43. Celebrate the Biblical feast days as a way of studying the Bible by doing.
44. Look up customs and manners in a Bible handbook.
45. Look up locations in a Bible atlas.
46. Look up cross-references in a study Bible.
47. Write a summary, paragraph, poem, or essay based on the Bible passage you are studying. Write a song. Create a work of art.
48. Explain the Bible passage you are studying to someone else. Write about your insights on your blog.
49. Outline a Bible passage or chapter. Outline example.
50. Watch a Bible study series on DVD. I can recommend the following:
Dust to Glory by R.C. Sproul. A study of the entire Old Testament and its major themes, events, and people.
That the World May Know: Faith Lessons with Ray Vander Laan.
Beth Moore Bible studies.
51. Siesta Scripture Memory Team.
52. The purpose of reading and studying the Bible is to come to know and love its Author, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have questions about WHY Bible study is important or what it means to be a Christian, try out this very brief article by Joe McKeever: How to Know Jesus Christ and Live Forever.
“John chapter 3 is a great place. In fact, the entire Gospel of John is excellent. Why not get a New Testament, and turn to the fourth Gospel (that’s John) and begin reading. Read for understanding, not to cover ground. Before you begin reading, pray this little prayer: ‘Dear Lord, help me to listen to what you are saying to me.'”
So, which method(s) are you going to use this year?
Here’s another one that I’m trying this year: reading the Bible in 90 days. (http://www.momstoolbox.com/blog/bible-in-90-days-reading-schedule/)
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Dear Sherry,
Where is the Reference?
Bible Christians, believers in Sola Scriptura, teach that the Bible is complete and that it is all that is needed. They teach that all answers are given by Scripture.
I wish to refute that thinking by showing that there are a lot of questions brought up in Scripture that are not answered therein. So where do we go to find those answers so that we have the fullness of truth and not just some of it?
Matthew 11:21, “Woe to thee, Corozain…For if in Tyre and Sidon had been worked the miracles that have been worked in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
What are these miracles in Corozain? Where is the reference?
Matthew 23:2, “The Scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses.”
Where is this ‘chair of Moses’ referenced in Scripture?
Acts 20:35, “In all things I have shown you that by so toiling you ought to help the weak and REMEMBER the Word of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
Show me the verse where Jesus said these words.
Matthew 2:23, “And He went and settled in a town called Nazareth; that there might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”
In what verse did the prophets say this?
James 4:5, “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit which dwells in you covets unto jealousy.””
Where does Scripture reference this?
2Timothy 3:8, “Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these men also resist the truth…”
Who are Jannes and Jambres? Where is the reference? If you know, by what means did you find it?
Hebrews 11:35, “Women had their dead restored to them by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might find a better resurrection.”
Who are these ‘others’, the ones searching for a better resurrection? Where is the Bible reference?
Jude 1:9, “Yet when Michael the Archangel was fiercely disputing with the devil about the body of Moses…”
Where can this ‘dispute’ be found in Holy Scripture?
Jude 1:14, “Now of these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord has come with thousands of His holy ones.'”
Where is this prophecy in Scripture? Where is the reference?
Since non-Catholics are bound to Scripture and Scripture only (Sola Scriptura), the purpose of this post is to show that everything is not in the Bible.
Answers to some of the questions asked here can be found through Tradition, and others through the seven books that non-Catholics do not have in their Bibles.
Some can be found in the multitude of apocryphal writings, and in the very large library of writings by the Church Fathers.
Others simply cannot be found anywhere but have been lost forever for various reasons. It is thought that about 400,000 priceless historical writings alone were lost due to the great fire in the library of Alexandria Egypt in 48 B.C. (the actual date is debatable).
Others have been lost simply by the deterioration of the scroll media used by the various authors of antiquity.
Catholics have the fullness of truth since they can draw on so many resources outside of Scripture as mentioned above.
Protestantism has many pieces missing to their puzzle of GOD’s salvation history unless they are willing to search the Catholic sources listed.
As long as they cling to the false doctrine of sola scriptura, they will never see the full picture. They will never have the fullness of truth.
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Excellent post. I agree with all you recommendations. Thanks for posting and sharing about the Biblical Holidays.
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