Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you!<\/p>\n
Those who study the Bible are in spiritual agreement (a\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0of beliefs).\u00a0 They believe that \u201call Scripture is inspired by God\u201d, and the approach we take must be to \u201cclearly read God\u2019s word, explaining its meaning, so that the people understand what is being read\u201d (see Neh 8:8), for the purpose of making \u201cthe man of God adequate, equipped for every good work\u201d.\u00a0 Those who are in Christ share (koinoneo<\/em>)\u00a0<\/em>this agreement of \u201cbelief, approach, and purpose\u201d:<\/p>\n All Scripture is\u00a0inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for\u00a0training in righteousness;\u00a0so that\u00a0the man of God may be adequate,\u00a0equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)<\/em><\/p>\n Bible study is for believers.\u00a0 Non-believers who seek to know God (hereafter \u201cseekers\u201d) are welcome to participate, but the study of God\u2019s word should not be compromised by the presence of seekers.\u00a0 Worship is also for believers.\u00a0 Seekers are welcome to participate, but the worship of God must not be compromised by the presence of seekers.\u00a0 Some people try too hard to placate the non-believers, saying things like \u201cYes indeed, what you are saying makes a lot of sense.\u00a0 The Bible can be interpreted in many ways, your point is also very plausible\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Not only is such compromise unlikely to result in the seekers believing in Christ, it may even cause them to look down on God and His word, and a valuable opportunity to bear witness for God has been lost.\u00a0 On the other hand, many seekers are drawn to Bible studies where the believers humbly and earnestly study God\u2019s word.\u00a0 They are moved by the sincere manner in which God\u2019s people approach His word, and some come to Christ as a result.<\/p>\n There are three steps in Bible study:\u00a0 first, read and study the Scripture passage; second, design discussion questions; third, conduct the Bible study.\u00a0 The first two steps are the preparations, and the third step is the implementation.\u00a0 The quality of a Bible study depends on a thorough preparation.<\/p>\n A Bible study leader must first read the Scriptures himself.\u00a0 This means to read the Bible, not reference books or information found online.\u00a0 This is not to say that you cannot refer to other helpful sources, but that you should not only read reference books and neglect the proper reading of God\u2019s word.\u00a0 You must read directly from God\u2019s word to get a good grasp on its meaning.\u00a0 The initial step should be to have a good overall comprehension of the entire book of the Bible you are studying.\u00a0 The key to good understanding is diligent reading.\u00a0 For a book with less than 10 chapters, my suggestion is to read the entire book three times.\u00a0 A book with 11-20 chapters should be read through twice, and a book with more than 20 chapters should be read once.\u00a0 Only after you have read through the entire book should you read the passage to be studied.\u00a0 For instance, if I were leading a Bible study on a passage in Colossians, which has 4 chapters, I would read the entire book of Colossians at least five times, comparing readings from different translations.\u00a0 After that, I would read the desired Bible passage several more times.<\/p>\n The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (with a very small part in Aramaic), and the New Testament was written in Koine Greek.\u00a0 All Chinese and English Bibles are translations of the original languages.\u00a0 Many of these translations are wonderful, and reading a few of them will help you to grasp the meaning of the original texts.\u00a0 I read the Chinese Union Version, published in 1919 and popular among Chinese speaking believers.\u00a0 For English Bibles, I mainly use two translations\u2014one is the NIV which has the approach of a dynamic translation (there are two editions, one published in 1984 and the other in 2011, the newer edition being even more dynamic), and the other is the NASB which uses a literal translation.\u00a0 Sometimes, to deepen comprehension, I will also refer to the oldest English translation, the KJV (published in 1611), as well as contemporary Chinese translations.\u00a0 There may be times when it is necessary to research the original languages when investigating the meaning of a particular word or phrase.\u00a0 In that case, there are many free software that can be downloaded online, such as e-sword.\u00a0 These are outfitted with the Bible in the original languages as well as many different translations of the Bible.\u00a0 There are also many resourceful apps that can be downloaded for Bible study purposes.<\/p>\n If within the church, there is a group of Bible-reading believers, then the Bible study culture will flourish, and it would not be difficult to find Bible study leaders.\u00a0 The study of the Bible must be built upon the foundation of Bible reading.\u00a0 Reading the Bible requires effort.\u00a0 You must draw near to God with a heart willing to receive God\u2019s word.\u00a0 There are no shortcuts.\u00a0 If you look for shortcuts and search online for answers without reading God\u2019s word, then you would not have digested God\u2019s word for yourself, and such shallow knowledge will not last long.\u00a0 Many Bible study leaders do not read the entire book.\u00a0 When they are tasked to lead Romans chapter 9, they simply read Romans chapter 9.\u00a0 They have no idea what chapter 8 or chapter 10 says, and little clue about what the book of Romans is about.\u00a0 Bible passages must be read in context.\u00a0 If you read a Bible passage out of context and are unaware of its connection to the passages before and after, then you will likely have a distorted understanding of the passage.<\/p>\n After reading through the entire book, read the desired passage several times.\u00a0 Reading produces understanding.\u00a0 As you read, you understand.\u00a0 This understanding is not from listening to others, but it is your own understanding.\u00a0 Having put in the effort in preparation, you are now ready to lead the Bible study.\u00a0 You must also be prepared in your heart, to be humble and to be persevering.\u00a0 First is to be humble:\u00a0 even though I spent a lot of time preparing, but God\u2019s word is rich and filled with treasures, so there will be times when others will observe something that I failed to pick up on.\u00a0\u00a0 Second is to persevere:\u00a0 if God leads you to serve Him in His word, whether it is to lead a Bible study, to teach a Sunday school class, or to preach a sermon, then you must persist tirelessly.\u00a0 God will bless you with His word and guide you your whole life.<\/p>\n In a Bible study, there must be discussion questions so that everyone can be encouraged to participate.\u00a0 These questions arise from reading the text.\u00a0 When you understand the meaning of a passage, you will know what questions to ask.\u00a0 If the questions are well-designed, the Bible study will have a clear direction.\u00a0 After discussing the questions, the meaning and applications of the Bible text should become apparent.<\/p>\n The first category of questions should be observation questions, questions that simply ask what the text says.\u00a0 Many Bible studies do not even start with observing what the Bible text says and everyone fights to chime in about what the text means to them.\u00a0 How is this even a Bible study?\u00a0 A good Bible study must rely on a good observation of the text.\u00a0 Observational questions could be both easy and difficult to compose.\u00a0 Such questions should serve as a guide for more discussion questions down the road.\u00a0 Some observational questions simply ask a round of \u201cwho, what, when, where, why\u201d type questions, but turn out to be quite pointless when they are unrelated to the subsequent discussion questions.<\/p>\n The second category of questions are questions that lead to interpretation, asking the participants to draw out the meaning of the text.\u00a0 The questions should be restricted to the discussion of the Biblical text, in order to seek out the original meaning and intent of the Bible passage.\u00a0 These questions should not become a platform for discussing current events, theological knowledge, or personal opinions.\u00a0 A genuine discussion is the best way to absorb God\u2019s word.\u00a0 When such discussions serve the end goal of learning God\u2019s word, everyone will eventually reach a common understanding.\u00a0 Brothers and sisters, please remember that the entire Bible study should be a process of \u201chearing\u201d.\u00a0 The purpose is to \u201chear and understand God\u2019s word\u201d.\u00a0 The Bible study leader is a humble servant of God, guiding the people to hear God\u2019s word, and not to show off his own knowledge.<\/p>\n The third category of questions are application questions, asking the participants to share about how they would apply the truth they have learned.\u00a0 These types of questions are usually placed at the end, and the purpose is to guide the participants from \u201chearing the word\u201d to \u201cdoing the word\u201d.\u00a0 The desired result is that believers will keep and obey God\u2019s word.\u00a0 A Bible study must be applicable.\u00a0 It cannot simply be all theoretical, because most people will lose interest after a while.\u00a0 It is even better if brothers and sisters are willing to share a personal testimony testifying to how they have experienced God\u2019s word in their lives.<\/p>\n The time for the Bible study has arrived, and everyone is gathered together.\u00a0 All the preparation leads up to this moment.\u00a0 Those attending the Bible study should have previewed the Bible passage so that they know what the study is about.\u00a0 The Bible study should start with a reading of the Bible passage.\u00a0 The normal way of doing this is for each person to take turns reading a verse.\u00a0 This is actually not the best way, because it\u2019s easy for someone to only focus on their own verse and not pay attention to what others are reading.\u00a0 A better method is to ask one person (who reads clearly and loudly) to read the whole passage while everyone listens.\u00a0 This is also the most frequent method of reading Scripture found in the Bible.\u00a0 After the reading, it is time to study the Bible.\u00a0 With the discussion questions already written, the Bible study should follow the path of the questions.\u00a0 These questions follow a certain course and will ensure that the Bible study will not be chaotic and disorganized.\u00a0 The worst are those Bible studies with no preparation, and the leader simply asking the question \u201cDoes anyone want to share?\u201d after every few verses.\u00a0 This is irresponsible behavior!\u00a0 As a Bible study participant, we must have an awareness that we are there to study God\u2019s word.\u00a0 If anyone strays too far from the topic at hand, someone must gently stop him from talking, and guide the discussion back to the Bible passage.<\/p>\n The atmosphere during a Bible study should be welcoming, friendly, sincere, and joyous.\u00a0 Everyone is filled with joy at meeting each other.\u00a0 Seekers are welcomed with open arms.\u00a0 The people are earnest in studying God\u2019s word.\u00a0 There is fellowship (koinonia<\/em>) around God\u2019s word, resulting in deeper friendships and increased love for God.\u00a0 Seekers may not fully understand or agree with the truths in the Bible study, but they surely feel everyone\u2019s friendship and sincerity and observe the diligent attitude with which believers study God\u2019s word.\u00a0 Even though it was hard work for the Bible study leaders, but their hearts are filled with praise and thanksgiving when they see the fruit of their efforts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you! Those who Study the Bible are in Spiritual Agreement Those who study the Bible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,57,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotionals","category-koinonia","category-pastor-warren-wang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/1966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The First Step in Bible Study:\u00a0 Read and Study the Text<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Second Step in Bible Study:\u00a0 Designing Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Third Step in Bible Study:\u00a0 Bible Study<\/strong><\/h3>\n