All quotations are taken from the New American Standard

Version unless otherwise indicated.

© 2014—For republication please contact Pastor Tim –

tim@graceofforesthills.com

For more booklets in this series go to

guineafield.blogspot.com

Table of Contents

Lesson 1 Introduction 1-10

Dependent Independence 1-9

Lesson 1 Q&A 10

Lesson 2 Scripture Plowing – Bible Reading 11-25

Scripture Plowing Method 13-20

Scripture Plowing Plans 20-24

Lesson 2 Q&A 25

Lesson 3 Scripture Mining – Inductive Study 26-41

Scripture Mining Preparation 30-34

Scripture Mining Process 34-39

Lesson 3 Q&A 40-41

Lesson 4 Scripture Mining Part 2 42-50

Scripture Mining – Topic Study 42-47

Scripture Mining – Verse Memory 47-48

Lesson 4 Q&A 49-50

Lesson 5 Exhale - Prayer 51-63

The Necessity of Prayer 51-53

The Activities of Prayer 54-62

Confession 54-55

Exaltation 55-61

Petition 61-62

Lesson 6 Q&A 62

Lesson 6 Practical Considerations 64-73

Don’t go crazy. 64-66

Choose a practical time and place. 66-69

Mark in your Bible. 69-70

Utilize Resources 70-73

Appendices 74-78

1

Introduction -

Dependent Independence

Humans are dependent creatures. You are dependent.

Anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves. Even

extreme survivalists who try to live independently of all

society are not as independent as they might think. The

desire to live independently of others can drive people to

crazy extremes.

You may have heard of

the family that set sail

from San Diego in a

small boat in search of a

life independent from all

outside interference.

Their destination was a

small un-developed

group of Islands

between Australia and

Hawaii, and they took their newborn and three year old

children with them! Two weeks into the trip they met some

storms that nearly snatched their lives. Thankfully they were

rescued by a fishing boat from Venezuela. Dependence is

inevitable.

Every day you live you are dependent on outside help. How

did you get water today? How did you get food? Where did

you put waste? Did you work? Did you use transportation of

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 1

2

any kind? These are all ways we depend on others in our

society.

Beyond the interdependence we all experience in society, we

have an even greater dependence on God. Have you ever

considered that you have never decided to beat your own

heart? And yet it is an essential activity of life. Why take a

pulse? Because if your heart is not beating then you are

probably dead. And yet you have no control over your heart

beat. Your body does this involuntarily. No big deal? Well

consider these facts.

“Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and

about 35 million times in a year. During an average

lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion

times.”

“Your body has about [6 quarts] of blood. This… blood

circulates through the body three times every minute. In

one day, the blood travels a total of [12,000 miles]—

that's four times the distance across the US from coast

to coast.”1

Who makes your body do that? You don’t; God does. What

about thinking? How did your mind read the next word on

this page? Even to this day Scientists describe what is

happening in these processes but they can’t tell you why.

Why do cells work? Why do Electrons continue to sail around

these Protons and Neutrons? If the brightest minds don’t

know why, I sure don’t. And yet I do know that Christ

upholds all things every moment by His Word. You have to

admit that you are physically dependent. We are all

dependent on God immensely every second we live.

One more interesting illustration – breathing. Vital for life,

and yet your body is made to continue to breathe when you

1 From PBS NOVA - www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/heart/heartfacts.

3

are asleep, or when you are not conscious of your breathing.

But this one is more interesting because when you think

about it you can control your breath. You can breathe more

and you can breathe less (don’t). I just read through a

Harvard Health publication teaching how to breathe well. It

was practical. Your mind and body need oxygen to function.

And God has made us both dependent and independent

when it comes to breathing. Your body takes over and keeps

you alive when you are not thinking about it.

Let’s think about this spiritually; you are even more

dependent on Your Creator in this arena. You are dependent

on God for the beginning of the Christian life. I am assuming

you are reading this as a Christian. As a Christian, you have

placed your trust for your eternal life and your standing with

God on Jesus. That is dependence. You are depending on

Jesus – His perfect life and sacrificial death for your spiritual

life. When you initially transferred your trust onto Jesus you

were born again.2 You received spiritual life. That spiritual

life is dependent on what Jesus has done.

But that dynamic does not change just because you received

spiritual life. Just as you are dependent on God for the

beginning of your physical life and every moment you live

physically, you are also dependent upon Him every moment

of your spiritual life. Just as you are dependent physically on

God to enable you to breathe, you are dependent on Him to

grow you spiritually.

Now that you are born again – born spiritually through faith

in Jesus Christ, you should begin growing in that spiritual

2 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive

Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to

become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who

were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of

man, but of God” (John 1:11-13; emphasis mine).

4

life. But what is fascinating is that in your spiritual growth,

God gives us a dependent independence. Without Him we

can do nothing. He grows us every step of the way. And yet

he tells us to grow.

There is an interesting passage that teaches this truth.

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for

it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His

good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

The idea of working out your salvation is not to work for it.

We know that Jesus worked to obtain our salvation. The idea

is to work it to its conclusion. Now that you are saved

continue to work God’s work in your life. The idea of the

word is to bring a math problem to its’ final conclusion.

Continue to work out the problem until it is through. Now

that you are saved, you are to continue to work out the

salvation you have been given. How? God is working in you

to work. So we are commanded to work because God will

work in us the ability to work. That may sound confusing.

But the Lord is telling us to live the Christian life – use the

mean’s God has given to live “for His good pleasure.” But as

you work toward that end, you will find that He is working in

you to do that work.

Are you growing? Are you taking a dependently independent

step toward growing in Christlikeness? I want to encourage

you to grow today. God will grow you, but you need to take

the steps. The fact that you are reading this booklet is a

good indication that He wants to grow you spiritually – or

perhaps I should say He wants to continue to grow you

spiritually.

It is a little like breathing. God has placed it in your body to

breathe – He is doing it, and yet you are responsible too.

5

You can learn to breathe well. You can take over with deep

breaths. You can hold your breath and hurt yourself.

Spiritual growth is a dependent independence.

Did you know that God has revealed the methods to use in

spiritual growth? He has, and

you are responsible to use

them. That is the

independent part. What I

want to lay out in the booklet

is a primary means that God

gives to grow you spiritually

– a daily devotional time with Him. You must grow – God will

grow you spiritually but to do so you have to be taking the

steps He has mapped out for you. You can’t pull yourself off

the spiritual ground by your spiritual bootstraps. But if you

work the way God desires you to work you will find yourself

growing by His power.

To help map out where we are headed I’d like to use the

illustration of breathing. Just as your physical body needs to

breathe in and breathe out to survive physically. You need to

breathe in and breathe out spiritually to survive. As you

continue to breathe spiritually God will continue to grow you.

Breathe in; breathe out. These two spiritual actions are

outlined in the well-known children’s song you have heard

for so many years. “Read your Bible, pray every day and

you’ll grow, grow, grow.” Inhaling is reading your Bible.

Exhaling is praying. Breathe in, breathe out every day and

you’ll not just survive, you’ll thrive!

So what I want to do in the pages to follow is share practical

guidance on how to develop a consistent breathing in and

breathing out habit in your life. It has been said that

motivation gets us going but habits keep us going. What I’m

God has revealed

the methods to use

for spiritual growth.

6

after is your’ developing the habit of consistent private

communion with God. God speaking with you (inhale/Bible

reading), and your’ speaking to God (exhale/prayer). I hope

you are after this same thing in your life.

Spiritual Breathing

One of the problems I’ve had over the past thirty years of

developing this in my own life is practical instruction. I wish

someone had sat me down and shared an overview of

developing a personal time with God when I was a child, or a

teenager. I was given Bibles. I was encouraged to read. But

then I was left alone. You will see many books and seminars

for one or another means for studying the Bible, or one or

another plan for reading the Bible. You will be encouraged to

pray this way or that way. You will be given an outline to

memorize and passages to memorize. But rarely will you be

given a practical overview of all of the aspects of developing

this special daily time of communion with God.

EXHALE – You

speak to God through prayer.

INHALE – God

Speaks to you through the Bible

Your Daily Communion with God

7

This study will be an overview of what is often called daily

devotions. We won’t be exhaustive on any one topic. My

goal is not to write a book on any one method. Although we

will survey that aspect of Bible study, I’m more interested in

painting the big picture for you. It is my prayer, that after

you finish these lessons you will not feel alone. Although

you will not know everything, you will know how to begin this

essential part of your spiritual life.

Let me outline where we are headed. We begin the booklet

surveying how to breathe-in spiritually. We will examine two

categories - reading and studying. We will use the

illustrations of plowing and mining Scripture for proper

Spiritual nutrition. Plowing is normal Bible reading. Mining

takes a little more time and effort and involves several

different Bible study methods.

The second major section of the book is breathing-out –

praying. In this section we will survey the three main aspects

of private prayer – confession, exaltation, and petition.

In the final lesson we will survey some practical tips on how

to maintain the habit of a private time of communion with

God each day.

The following page will give you a bird’s eye view of where

we are headed throughout the whole booklet. Don’t be

intimidated. As we walk through the different aspects of

Bible study and prayer, you will see that there are many

different ways to develop similar activities. These activities

provide variety in the way you listen to God’s life changing

Message, and how you speak to Him. Variety helps keep you

from transforming this wonderful walk with God into a

merely external task with no spiritual vitality.

8

PRIVATE

TIME

WITH

GOD

BREATHE

IN

Listening

to God in

the Bible

BREATHE

OUT

Speaking

to God in

prayer

Plowing

Mining

Confession

Exaltation

Petition

Inductive

Bible Study

Topical

Study

Verse

Memory

9

I can’t overemphasize the fact that developing this habit is

essential for you. You cannot grow if you are not breathing

spiritually. Your life depends on it! Perhaps you were once

daily in communion with God and relishing every moment,

but now you find yourself cold and indifferent. Please take

this opportunity to get back to those first steps. Get back to

the basics. As in most endeavors that is where the battle is

won.

As you develop this aspect of your spiritual life, you will find

that your most glorious life’s experiences come from this

time of intimate communion with God. Perhaps, very soon

you will pray as David – “As the deer pants for the water

brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1).

10

1. Describe what we mean by being physically dependent

on God and others.

2. Describe what we mean by being spiritually dependent

on God.

3. What are the two major activities involved in “spiritual

breathing?”

4. Which of these two do you find yourself naturally inclined

to enjoy? Discuss how both are essential.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

11

INHALE – Taking in the

Word of God

Breathing is essential for life. The oxygen that your body

needs is brought in through this vital function. How long can

you hold your breath? (No need to try at this point) Stig

Sverinsen, author of “Breatheology, the art of conscious

breathing” holds the Guinness World Record for longest time

holding his breath under water. After hyperventilating for

over 19 minutes, Stig held his breath under water for 22

minutes! What an achievement! That is the record.

I wonder who holds the record for spiritually holding their

breath the longest. I hope you do not. You remember that

we are comparing our daily time with God to spiritual

breathing. Breathing in – is taking in His Word. Breathing

out is talking to Him in prayer. How long has it been since

you breathed in a long draught of spiritual oxygen? Perhaps

you are ready to black out because of an oxygen deficiency.

The lack of inhaling spiritually effects the way we think

spiritually. So let’s get back to the Bible.

We will use three lessons to cover this topic. Today’s lesson

will develop Bible reading and Lessons 3-4 will develop Bible

study. We are going to use two separate illustrations to help

understand these two aspects of taking in God’s Word,

plowing and mining.

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 2

12

What do plowing and mining have in common? Both

activities involve digging in the ground. Both activities are

done to receive something valuable from the ground. These

are two pictures of how we dig into the Bible to receive

valuable communication from God.

Of course mining and plowing have many differences as well.

One major difference in the digging is that plowing involves a

larger portion of ground than mining. You cover more

ground this way. However in mining you are able to get

deeper into the ground to find treasures that are not

apparent on the surface. As we consider taking in God’s

Word, we are going to develop both of these ways of listing

to God through the Bible. Although you will probably find

one or another more natural to you personally, I believe both

are very important.

In this lesson we will survey plowing. Plowing is reading

portions of Scripture. Plowing in Scripture allows you to

understand the major themes of the Bible. Also, you develop

a well-rounded view of the character of God. If all you do is

study one portion of Scripture then you are missing “the

whole counsel” of God’s Word. You need to continue to plow

your whole life!

I’ve found that books and seminars that teach Christians

about Bible study usually put emphasis on either plowing or

mining in the Bible. Let me encourage you to work both

activities into your regular intake of God’s Message.

That being said, if you are going to choose just one aspect of

inhaling, I think you should develop this one. If you are short

on time don’t neglect this.

13

Plowing – Bible Reading

So, let’s take some time to sharpen our plow blade. For

those of you who may be agriculturally challenged, plowing

is the process of digging up a plot of ground in order to sow

seed and eventually harvest a crop. Plowing is work but it

needs to be done in order to bear precious fruit. The same is

true spiritually. Reading the Bible is essential in order to

bear precious fruit. Below we will develop a method for Bible

reading time, and then outline several different Bible reading

plans that others have developed.

SCRIPTURE PLOWING METHOD

I still have my first study Bible. It was given to me when I

was ten or eleven. What a joy it is to flip back through that

Scofield Reference Bible – black leather edition. My mom’s

handwriting is in the front flyleaf, and on the back flyleaf I

made little marks for each time I read through the whole

thing. Pardon my sentimentality driving down memory lane.

I’m so thankful for parents who encouraged and rewarded

daily plowing!

It was not till many years later that I picked up on different

practices to help me plow effectively. Perhaps you have ten

minutes set aside each day for plowing. Let me encourage

you to divide that into four stages - Pray, Read, Record,

Apply.

Pray

We will develop this much more fully in the second major

section of our spiritual breathing – this is exhaling. Don’t

wait, though to this point to pray. Pray throughout your time

with the Lord. George Mueller is known for his prayer life.

14

He said the best way to study the Bible was on your knees.

That may hurt after a bit, but whether physically on your

knees or not, the truth remains - as you read your Bible, be

in constant prayer. Realize that God inspired the Words you

have in front of you. He chose to speak through those Words

in a unique way. Before you jump in, ask Him to talk to you.

Paul taught the Corinthian church that Spiritual truths, these

truths taught in Scripture, cannot be understood naturally

(“the natural man”). They are only “appraised” by God’s Spirit

illuminating our spiritual eyes to understand them.3 So we

must pause before spending time at the plow and ask God to

guide us. This may be a very short prayer. “Lord, I know that

you speak through these Words. Please give me spiritual

understanding to listen to you. I believe that you speak and I

ask for grace to obey what you say. Thank you in Jesus’

name, Amen.” The Lord answers prayer.

Read

This goes without stating. But it is important to gain a little

direction. You may find it helpful to read out loud (especially

if your brain is “prone to wonder” like mine). Later in the

lesson we will spell out a few reading plans to take up. But

for now just be sure you have a plan. Be reading consistently

day after day. Don’t pick up at a new place each day,

plopping the pages open and reading for three minutes.

That is not enough oxygen for your day! Sit carefully and

read through a chapter at least at one sitting each day.

3 “…which things we also speak, not in words taught by human

wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual

thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the

things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he

cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1

Corinthians 2:13-14).

15

As you read, don’t get too bogged down in details and side

trails. Quickly turn aside from the path if you need too, but

it is best to plow in a straight line. Use the side trails for

when you turn to study time. If you are one give to study,

perhaps it would be best to write down questions and study

options you would like to take up later. For now, enjoy

allowing the Words of Scripture wash over your mind and

soul like purifying water washing off the distractions and

detractions of the world.4

We take for granted the ability to

enjoy reading the Bible in our own

language so easily. Spurgeon tells

the story of stopping in on a poor

illiterate, but devout church

member. He saw him turning the

pages of a well-worn Bible.

Spurgeon asked if him if he were

able to read. The man replied that

he could not read the words but at

least he could count the pages. Such devotion puts us to

shame. You have the resources to own a copy of God’s

Word. You live in a time of history where you are able to

read and the Lord has blessed you with sight. So plow away!

Read God’s Words and be transformed.

Record

If you have prayed and read you should not see yourself as

through. Record what you have discovered. What would you

think of a farmer that spent all his time plowing, sowing,

weeding, watering, and finally had a harvest but he picked

4 “…having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that

He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no

spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and

blameless” (Ephesians 5:26-27).

Allow the

Words of

Scripture to

wash over your

mind and soul

like purifying

water

16

the fruit of the field and let it lay on the ground to rot? Silly!

So, when you take the time to harvest out precious truths

from Scripture, do not let them lay aside. Capture them;

record them!

There are many ways to do this and I will give several

suggestions throughout our study. I enjoy using a Bible with

margins wide enough to record my notes and thoughts right

in the Scripture. That way I am sure to have it for the next

time I come across that passage.5

Let me give you another option that will be a very good way

to begin this practice. Purchase a notebook that you can use

specifically for your Bible reading time. You will use it like a

journal.6 At the beginning of your plowing time put the date

and portion you are reading. Putting the date on the page is

also a good way to remind you how often you are breathing.

If you look at the page and realize it has been several days

since you last took a deep breath of fresh air from God’s

Word, your page scream out at you to stay more consistent.

However, as you look back at a full notebook that numbers

every day for the previous month, you will be able to thank

God that a habit has begun that will not soon break – make

5 Let me recommend five options. Kay Arthur’s New Inductive Study

Bible has great space for margins. We will look at this tool in a little

more depth later. My favorite is the Cambridge Wide Margin Bible

series. The English Standard Version has a journaling Bible with

sidelines to help keep your writing neat. The New American

Standard Bible also has a wide margin version that includes a large

amount of space to record your devotional thoughts. A fifth option

is Charles Stanley’s Note takers Bible.

6 Some of you are so techy that you no longer know how to use

paper. You can do the same thing with a Word document, Evernote,

OneNote, or some other program. The essential items are the same.

Even if you are reading an electronic Bible, you should be recording

what you read.

17

that your goal, a whole notebook with each page and no

dates missing.

On the notebook page ask yourself three questions.

1. What does the passage say?

2. What does the passage say about God?

3. What does the passage say about how I should live

today?

As you answer these questions you should not take a huge

amount of time on each. Let’s say you are taking ten

minutes in this portion of your personal time with God. You

could pray, then give seven minutes to reading and three

minutes to recording. That would be a healthy balance.

As you record these thoughts they stick with you longer. Not

only do you have them for future study, writing what you

read cements the thoughts in your mind. As you answer

each question in the notebook, the truths are imprinted even

more in your heart and mind.

Let’s look at a brief example. Consider Matthew 9:1-9.

“Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came

to His own city. 2 And they brought to Him a paralytic

lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the

paralytic, ‘Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.’ 3

And some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This fellow

blasphemes.’ 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said,

‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5 Which is

easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up,

and walk? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man

has authority on earth to forgive sins’-- then He said to

the paralytic, ‘Get up, pick up your bed and go home.’

18

7 And he got up and went home. 8 But when the crowds

saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had

given such authority to men. 9 As Jesus went on from

there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax

collector's booth; and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ And he

got up and followed Him.”

What a wonderful message! Let’s now answer our questions.

Perhaps you would write something like this.

Date – January 1st 2014

Question 2 – What does the text say about God?

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Jesus heals a paralytic man by forgiving him

of His sins. Jesus then confronts the scribes

for what they thought against Jesus’ authority.

Everyone glorified God for what Jesus did.

Text – Matthew 9

Jesus forgives sin!

Jesus is interested in helping those that others

may overlook.

Jesus knows my thoughts

19

You could spend much more time in the recording process.

But we are not as interested in writing a novel as we are

gleaning the truths in a memorable way – you are gathering

your labor. If you find yourself recording too much you are

getting in to the mining process which we will develop in the

next lesson. That is fine, but be sure not to distract yourself

from actually reading a larger portion of Scripture than you

would if you were studying a text.

Live

You have prayed for guidance, you read a portion of

Scripture, and you have recorded your gleanings. Good!

Great first steps. But remember that God has spoken to you.

If you heard God audibly from heaven ask you to do

something would you not aggressively obey? Well, this is the

same. In fact this is even more reliable. You know that this

is God’s Word. A voice from heaven may be your neighbor in

the apartment above you having a shouting match with his

teenage son. But you have heard from the Lord’s Word

without a doubt. Now, obey.

Question 3 – What does this text say about how

I should live today?

I should come to Jesus for forgiveness of sins.

At times, sin can cause illness (NOTE for

further study another day).

When I see God work in my life I should

glorify Him.

20

James gives us a helpful illustration of this truth.

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely

hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer

of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at

his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at

himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten

what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently

at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not

having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer,

this man will be blessed in what he does” James 1:22-25.

When we read the Word we must do what it says. Don’t just

hear what the text says, live out the answer to question 3

that you answered in your book. As you continue to read you

will find yourself being changed to look and act more like

Jesus even without this conscious effort. But that is not an

excuse for a lack of determination and effort. God

commands us to be doers of His Word. So listen and obey!

Remember that this growth is a dependent independence.

SCRIPTURE PLOWING PLANS

There are so many Bible reading plans out there that it is

hard to pick just a few to highlight for you. I’ve picked one

from each size to fit different time slots - Small, Medium,

Large, and Supersize (Big Gulp® is trademarked or I’d use

that).

Small – One Chapter a Day

Although small doesn’t sound all that great (and that’s on

purpose), it is a great place to start. Don’t despise the day of

small things. If a chapter is all you can consistently read

each day then by all means only read one chapter a day. One

21

chapter of plowing every day is much better than a seven

chapters one day a week. Again, we want to form a habit

that will stick with you the rest of your life. According to a

recent survey by LifeWay research, 90% of churchgoers desire

to please Jesus in all they do, and yet only 19% read their

Bible daily. In order to be a doer of the Word, you must be a

hearer as well. It starts with listening to Him every day.

If you are just beginning this habit I recommend you begin

reading through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

Once you have finished this you will want to read the rest of

the New Testament and then perhaps you will be ready to

expand to one chapter from the New Testament and one

chapter form the Old Testament each day. That would be a

good way to ease into this habit.

Medium – Three Chapters A Day

This is still a large portion of time to give to reading. It will

most likely take you fifteen minutes to read three chapters,

so don’t get discouraged if you are not able to read this

much each day. The goal is not to get to supersize. The

goal is to gain a consistent Bible reading time each day.

The reason the Medium size plan is a helpful goal is that you

will be able to read through the Bible every year if you take

this step. Perhaps it would be wise one year to commit to

this and then save Saturday for the mining portion of your

time with the Lord (see next lesson). Below you will find five

different tools to use to help you keep track of reading three

chapters a day.

1. “Our Daily Bread” gives a Bible reading plan and a brief

devotional each day of the week. You can access their

booklet free directly from them, from their website

(odb.org)/phone app, or from our church.

22

2. The YouVersion Bible app and website is extremely

helpful in providing multiple Bible reading programs.

You can map out three chapters a day using this app.

3. I find it helpful to read three chapters a day starting in

Genesis and go to Revelation. Sometimes simple is best.

Read three chapters each day and use a bookmark to

keep your place.

4. One Year Bibles. Many versions offer this copy of

Scripture. These Bibles mark off a specific amount to

read each day with the days date. These are offered in

chronological order as well. You may know that the

Bible’s books are not ordered in exact chronological

order. Reading the Bible through chronologically

through The One Year Bible can be a good way to learn

the timing of Scripture.

5. More Variety. One other option I find helpful is to read

one chapter from the Old Testament, one chapter from

the New Testament and one chapter from Psalms or

Proverbs. You won’t quite get through the Bible in a year

but the Psalms and Proverbs are so precious that this is a

very practical possibility. I would recommend this if you

are just moving from one chapter a day to three chapters

a day.

Large – 5 chapters a Day (M’Cheyne’s Bible Reading

Schedule).

I won’t elaborate on this plan as much. I have included it in

the back of this booklet if you would like to try it (Appendix

2). It is patterned after Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Bible

reading schedule. He was a godly pastor in Scotland in the

1800’s who, although he died as a young man, greatly

influenced his generation for Christ and His kingdom. In this

plan you make it through the New Testament and Psalms

twice a year and the rest of Scripture once.

23

You may say, ‘That’s a bunch of time!’ That is true. Let me

quote M’Cheyne. “Do everything in earnest – if it is worth

doing, then do it with all your might. Above all, keep much

in the presence of God.”7 You will not be able to read this

much of Scripture every day unless it is a high priority in your

life. And if you begin and are not able to keep up, that is ok

– take on this reading plan and stretch it to two years.

Consistency is key.

Supersize – 10 Chapters a Day

I include this one because it is a helpful one to try even just

for a few months. One way to devour Scripture reading this

way is to read a large chunk of Scripture (say ten chapters)

each day. As you do that you will experience the flow and

message of Scripture very clearly. If you continue this for

four months you will read through Scripture and you will

have much of God’s themes right at the forefront of your

memory. This is quite a commitment but is worth trying.

You could do this in place of any deeper study for a period of

time perhaps to make it more manageable. Let me

encourage you to get a modern version that is easy to read in

order to help you make this reading simple. What a joy to

see the whole picture of Scripture rise out of pages as one

painting!

Another way to apply this large chunk of reading is to read a

chapter a day in ten different sections of Scripture. Professor

Grant Horner has recently made this system more popular. I

have included this in the back as well if you would like to try

(Appendix 3). Although a bit more complex to stay on top

of, it will help you pick up on how Scripture fits together

perfectly in all its portions. Horner has designed the reading

in a way that you will be reading through some books of the

7 Robert Murray M’Cheyne by Andrew Bonar, Pg. 37, Banner of Truth

Trust.

24

Bible several times a year and other portions of Scripture less

frequently.

CONCLUSION:

We have made it through the survey of plans. I hope that you

are not discouraged. Please don’t allow the large and extra-

large options discourage you from taking on the first step.

Even if you read five minutes a day, record your findings in

the way we outlined above, and then make a conscientious

effort to live out what you read you will find yourself growing

immensely in the months to come. Certainly you can give

five minutes a day to the One Who gave His life for you.

We will turn to some further practical considerations about

time, place, and other tools in the last lesson. For now just

get to plowing! There is a life-long bounty of wonderful fruit

to enjoy for those who consistently read. This oxygen is life

sustaining.

25

1. Plowing is reading the Bible (True/False)

2. What are the four stages of Bible reading (Four Words)?

3. Read the following passage and answer the three

recording questions (Matthew 4:1-11).

What does this text say?

What does this text say about God?

What does this text say about how I should live

today?

QUESTION AND ANSWER

26

Mining – Bible Study

We have spent a lesson on one primary part of our breathing

in the necessary, life-giving Words of God - Bible reading

(plowing). Now we will take two lessons discovering ways to

dig deeper into the Words of Scripture. Let’s mine out some

deep truths together!

Just like plowing, mining is hard work. We are beginning to

examine the Scripture closely instead of gaining a broad

overview. Luther described it this way. “I study my Bible like

I gather apples. First, I shake the whole tree that the ripest

may fall. Then I shake each limb, and when I have shaken

each limb, I shake each branch and every twig. Then I look

under every leaf. I search the Bible as a whole like shaking

the whole tree. Then I shake every limb--study book after

book. Then I shake every branch, giving attention to the

chapters. Then I shake every twig, or a careful study of the

paragraphs and sentences and words and their meanings.”

Bible reading and Bible studying have similarities, but are

different practices entirely. I would encourage you to

develop three sections to your private time with the Lord. A

Bible reading time, A Bible study time and a prayer time. If

you have 15 minutes a day you may give five minutes to each

section. It is hard to give a time suggestion in a booklet like

this. Each person is different and each person is in a

different setting of life so I don’t want to be too specific here.

I think it would be wise for even the busiest of teens and

adults to try to develop 30 minutes a day with the Lord. If

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 3

27

you are in full-time ministry or in a season of life when you

have more time, you can increase time from there. For some

of you this may mean taking lunch time away. Or perhaps

taking 20 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes before bed

at night.

Although I am careful not to lay a burden on your conscience

of keeping to a 30 minute schedule in a busy world. I’m also

very well aware that the average sitcom is 30 minutes. I’m

sure most Americans are able to find 30 minutes for

mindless Television. If you would agree that this is true of

your schedule then I don’t think you have an excuse not to

take 30 minutes of your day in vital communion with God. If

you spend 30 minutes, you might divide it this way:

As you work out a schedule each day you will find the best

time allotment for your personal time with the Lord. Some

people would rather spend half the time in prayer and half

the time in Bible reading/studying.

Ten Minutes of

Plowing (Bible Reading)

Ten Minutes

of Prayer

(Exhale)

Ten Minutes of

Mining (Bible Study)

28

We will examine a few different ways to study Scripture, and

try to give additional resources if you would like to spend

more time developing one or more of these methods, you

can pick up the outside resources. We will survey the

inductive study approach, the topic/subject study approach,

and also scripture memory as a study method.

SCRIPTURE MINING – INDUCTIVE BOOK STUDY

Inductive Bible study is a valuable tool, and is really a science

that you can develop over the years improving your ability to

study Scripture. As in all other disciplines, study is work.

The Lord commends this to us as students.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a

workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately

handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

“The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by

night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the

synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-

minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the

word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily

to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:10-11).

So let’s learn how to better study the Bible inductively.

Inductive simply means that we are gathering all the facts

before making conclusions. By digging (mining) we gather as

much as we can find out about the text. As Luther said

above – you are overturning the leaves in order to gain all the

information you can. Bible study tools are helpful in digging.

But we need to start with a method. Let me encourage you

to use the same practice as our reading. This time, however,

we will spend much more time in the “What does the text

say?” portion.

29

Let’s re-gather the four steps and three questions. Step 1 –

pray. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to these truths which

are only discerned with spiritual eyes. Your greatest Teacher

is God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us and teaches us the deep

truths of God. Step 2 – Dig (Read and Record above). I will

develop step 2 below. Step 3 is the same as in the

reading/mining section in Lesson 2. Live! Don’t be merely a

hearer of the Word – be a doer.

Let’s develop Step 2 in greater detail. We will ask the same

three questions:

1. What does the text say?

2. What does the text say about God?

3. What does the text say about how I live today?

However the first question will involve much more detail.

In Bible study, the recording of your findings is even more

valuable. Can you imagine a person mining gold without

taking what he finds? After long hours of mining out the

earth’s treasures he looks at the gold, holds it close to his

light; perhaps he gives it a kiss. “That is beautiful!” And then

with a twinkle in his eye he buries it a bit and walks out never

to return. That would be insane. Then why do it with

spiritual treasures? Record these findings for future use.

I will outline below how to do this in a notebook of your own,

(or perhaps digitally). But let me encourage you again to try

a Bible with margins where you can record your findings for

future studies right in that Bible. In the future as you pass

that portion of Scripture again you will find that treasure

right there just as visible as a chunk of gold laying on the

floor in your living room.

30

Let’s get recording. Let me give you an ideal example of how

to break up an inductive study on a daily basis. As you see

the principals involved you may develop your own schedule.

This is suggestive. Ideally you will study one book of the

Bible at a time, giving a month or several months to each

book (depending on the length of the book). As you know,

each book is different. God wrote the Bible but He used

different individuals writing to different groups at different

times in different styles. So we need to determine this up

front.

Let me encourage you to begin with a shorter book. You will

want to begin with several days of preparation to begin the

study, and then give one or two days to each chapter in the

book. We will divide the mining into those two steps –

Mining Preparation and Mining Process.

Mining Preparation:

Book Survey

Although you will cheat in a bit (finding some answers out by

looking at other people’s work), start on your own. Read

through the book of the Bible that you are going to study at

least five times. I suggest that you read it once a day for a

week.

This will help you fit the mining stages of a book study into

our Steps above. As you read through the Book each day you

will again answer the questions:

1. What does the text say?

2. What does the text say about God?

3. What does the text say about how I live today?

31

Each day you read the book, however you will discover new

treasures. As we go from Mining Preparation to Mining we

will spend more time on question number 1. Right now, on

question number 1, focus on recording your general

impression of what the major themes of the book are. If the

word “theme” scares you substitute “big idea” – what are the

big ideas that come up repeatedly in the book.

Each day on question one you may write something like this:

Once you have done this five times (ideally over five different

days), record the themes you consider to be the most

prominent on a separate sheet of paper that you can return

to repeatedly. This will be a summary page that you will

record your major conclusions. Also, record what you would

say the book is about generally.

Now you have the big idea of the book and some of the other

big ideas of the book in writing. You will definitely fine tune

this and change it. But if you don’t make yourself record

these findings you won’t make yourself think. Next let’s

answer two more big questions.

Date – January6thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Key Words/Big Ideas – joy, the Gospel, living

for Jesus

Main idea – It seems like Paul is encouraging

the Philippian believers to live for Christ in

hard times with a joyful heart…

Study - Philippians

32

Read back through the book twice with two more questions

in mind. Who is writing and to whom is he writing? You may

not be able to answer these questions in much detail. But it

is helpful to think through these things on your own before

having answers spoon fed to you. I like calling today’s

popular study Bibles “studied Bibles” because they give you

all (or many of) the answers that someone else has studied

out. I’m trying to get you to think through questions before

you know the answers so that the Holy Spirit can walk you

through the discovery process.

Each day you can go through the same steps (Pray, Dig, Live)

and answer the three questions:

1. What does the text say?

2. What does the text say about God?

3. What does the text say about how I live today?

However, on these days, as you consider number 1 you are

not asking “what are the big ideas of the book?”, you are now

answering the questions – “what does this book tell me about

the author and the recipients?”

Some helpful clues to look for – does the text tell you the

author’s or recipients name? Does the text give you any

clues as to the attitudes or actions of the author or recipient?

Does the text give you any references to time or place of

writing? Can you get a sense of the emotions the author or

recipient has as they read or write (e.g. persecution/duress,

imprisonment/joy). All these are helpful considerations as

you read.

You would record these things daily in your notebook like

this:

33

Now let’s get some help from people who know more about

the background of this writing than we do.

Book Background

We are still developing the preparation to mine. This takes

time. Now that you have done a thorough survey of the book

on your own, you will need to gain an understanding of the

background of the book from others. You will need to access

a good study Bible or commentary at this point. Use these

resources to answer the following questions:

1. Who is the Author?

2. Who is the Recipient?

3. Why is the Author writing?

4. When is the Author writing?

The New Inductive Study Bible does this work for you. Most

major study Bibles will answer these questions as well. You

will usually find the information at the beginning of each

book of the Bible in the introduction section to that book. If

you would like to access a commentary, please ask around

Date – January 8thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Author

Name – Paul

Emotions – Joy!

In Prison

Recipient

Name – Philippians/with

elders and deacons

Hounded by false teachers

Study - Philippians

34

for a recommendation. Some commentaries are not worth

the paper they are printed on (or the cyberspace they fill?).8

Record the answers to these questions on the same page that

you recorded your thoughts about the main themes of the

book. You may find in your research that there are more key

words you would like to add now.

Mining Process

Now that you have done the preparation, you are ready to dig

even deeper into the text. The method stays the same (make

it simple). Each day you spend Mining you will go through

the steps – Pray, Dig (Read, Record), Live. In the dig section

we continue to answer the three questions. However, we will

change our focus from the entire book to focusing on one

chapter.

You may find it helpful on your first time studying through a

book to use several days per chapter. Each day begin

reading the chapter two times. The number of days you

spend will depend on the amount of time you can give. If

you are giving 30 minutes entirely to study you will be able

to get through things much more quickly than if you can only

give 10 minutes a day to Mining.

8 Since you probably do not have space in your home for an

extensive library, it would be a good idea to invest in software that

holds numerous commentaries. Several resources are available

online for free. NetBible.com is a valuable Internet resource for this

type of study that and is free. If you are looking for all in one

commentaries, John MacArthur and Warren Wiersbe have printed

abbreviated commentaries of the whole New Testament which would

give you the information you would need. See the closing lesson for

helpful study Bibles.

35

You don’t want to move on to the next section before you are

able to summarize the chapter in one sentence. What does

this chapter say? Here is a general idea of how to do that.

First, divide the chapter into sections (often it is divided into

paragraphs). Summarize each paragraph in your own words.

You may find it convenient to summarize a paragraph a day.

Second, understand the main ideas. You have already been

doing this for the whole book, but you will also notice that

from chapter to chapter the main idea often changes.

Third, name the main idea of the whole chapter. Be as

simple as possible. You will want to include the main idea of

each paragraph in your summary sentence of the whole

chapter. This will take time and you will get better at this as

you practice.

Each day record these findings in your notebook under the

question “What does the Text say?” Below is an example of

how you would survey Philippians chapter 1.

Date – January 12thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Chapter 1 - Section 1 covers verses 3-11 and

is a prayer of thanksgiving for the effect of

the Gospel in the lives of the Philippian

believers.

Study – Philippians

Chapter 1

36

As you look at the summary of section one and two you see

that they both have to do with the Gospel, and how it relates

to believers and the Gospel. As we summarize the chapter

that will have to be included. Let’s look at the third section.

For the sake of space we divided the first chapter of

Philippians in three sections. You might divide into six

sections to be more thorough. Now that we have the three

main ideas we put them all together. The next day in your

study you might do something like this. I’ll answer all three

questions in this example.

Date – January 13thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Chapter 1 - Section 2 covers verses 12-20.

Paul rejoices that the Gospel is being preached

and even if it means persecution, he wants

the Gospel to go forward no matter if it

results in his living or dying.

Study – Philippians

Chapter 1

Question 2 – What does the text teach me about God?

Date – January 14thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

Section 3 covers verses 21-30. Paul rejoices

that he can continue to minister the Gospel to

the Philippian believers and asks them to

conduct their lives with joy in a godly

manner in keeping with the Gospel, even in

the face of persecution.

Study – Philippians

Chapter 1

37

Be sure to answer all three questions each day.

Once you have summarized a chapter in one sentence, you

will record that on the same summary sheet that you

recorded the main themes, and the answers to the questions

about the recipient and author.

Date – January 15thst 2014

Question 1 – What does the text say?

No matter what we face – life, death,

persecution, or peace we should rejoice in the

way that the truths of the Gospel transforms

us to live a life pleasing to Christ.

Study – Philippians

Chapter 1

Question 2 – What does the text say about God?

Christ is worth living and dying for (v. 21).

God changes us (v. 6)

Jesus has affection for us (v. 8)

God allows suffering for His Name (v. 29).

Question 3 – What does the text say about how I

should live today?

Rejoice in Jesus no matter what happens to me

today. Think about my blessings in Him

Live in a way that reflects well on the Gospel –

worthy of the Gospel.

Anticipate the Lord’s changing me through His

power living through me…

38

Chapter one is done. In the days to follow you will do the

same process with each of the chapters in the book. Be sure

to read the chapter you are studying two times each day.

Reading is what changes you. When you have a summary of

each chapter, record these summaries on your summary

sheet. As you go through each paragraph you will want to

read through the notes that your study Bible (or short

commentary) gives you for that paragraph. Don’t get too

bogged down in these extra sources. Scripture changes us.

The only reason you are looking into these other sources is

so that you have a correct understanding of Scripture.

You have one final step in the mining process. You need to

answer the question – “what is the book about”? To do this

you will follow a similar process as summarizing each

chapter. Tell the main idea of the book in one sentence, and

include in that sentence a summary broad enough to cover

each of the main ideas of the chapter summaries. Consider

the following diagram. In each stage you are getting more

broad going from small to large. And yet narrowing from

many ideas to one main idea. In the image below you can

see how this works. The diagram would be summarizing a

two chapter book with each chapter holding two sections and

each section highlighting a few ideas. Each section

synthesizes the ideas. Each chapter summarizes the

sections, and the main idea of the book summarizes the

chapters.

39

40

1. What is the difference between Plowing and Mining God’s

Word?

2. What are the three stages of Bible study (Three Words)?

(We combine the middle two into one)

3. What three questions do we ask when approaching a

text?

QUESTION AND ANSWER

41

4. Read the following paragraph, pick out the key themes,

and summarize the paragraph in a sentence.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God;

and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God

is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us,

that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world

so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not

that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son

to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so

loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one

has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God

abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this

we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He

has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify

that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the

world” (1 John 4:7-14)

Key Themes

Paragraph Summary:

42

Before we begin lesson four, take a moment to review where

we are in the booklet. We want to grow in our spiritual life.

That takes commitment! It also takes spiritual breathing –

inhale and exhale. Lessons 2-4 survey inhaling – taking in

the oxygen of God’s Word. Lesson 5 surveys breathing out –

prayer. There are two major ways of taking in God’s Word –

reading and studying. We illustrated those with two different

pictures. Reading is like plowing and studying is like mining.

We have begun now to survey three different ways to develop

our mining ability. The most common is the approach that

we learned last lesson – the inductive book study. However,

this is not the only effective Bible study practice. In this

lesson we will survey mining through topic studies and

Scripture memorization.

SCRIPTURE MINING THROUGH TOPIC STUDIES

At times you need to gain an understanding of a topic of

Scripture that is not found exclusively in one book of the

Bible. A topic study will help you glean what the entire Bible

teaches on that topic.

This type of study will usually take several days of the mining

time of your personal time with the Lord. And because of the

nature of the study, it will be more difficult to divide the

steps into daily increments in which you ask the three study

questions each day. But keep the questions in your mind.

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 4

43

As you study through each passage, keep asking – what does

this text say? What does this teach me about you Lord? How

can I live out this text today?

Let’s walk through an example of how to study a topic of

Scripture. Perhaps you are reading in your daily plowing time

in Genesis and you read of the Angel of the Lord appearing

to Hagar in the wilderness when Hagar fled from Sarah,

Abraham’s wife.

“Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of

water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

He said, ‘Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from

and where are you going?’ And she said, ‘I am fleeing

from the presence of my mistress Sarai’” (Genesis 16:7-

8).

Your question immediately is. “Who is the angel of the

LORD?”9 That is a great topic study. There are four steps to

studying a topic in Scripture. Gather all the occurrences of

the topic (try to be exhaustive). Summarize what each

passage teaches about that topic (main ideas). Group these

main ideas into categories or headings. Synthesize what

Scripture teaches about the topic by combining each main

category.

Gather Passages that Mention the Topic

We start by gathering data across all of Scripture. In the

“good old days” (not too “good old,” because I remember

doing this when younger), you would have to use a Strong’s

Exhaustive Concordance to get this information. Strong

9 If you don’t have time for this detailed of a study, perhaps your

Bible will give you the results of a topic study through the cross-

references. See the final lesson of this booklet for an overview of

using cross-references.

44

numbered every word in the Bible. Each word he then keyed

to every occurrence of that word. If you find the Strong’s

number you can locate each occurrence of that word. This

gets a little complicated, but at this point you would go

through and compare all the times that the Strong’s number

for “angel” and the Strong’s number for “Lord” occurred

together in the same passage. Very difficult proposal

because of all of the occurrences of the name “Lord” in the

Bible (7,836 occurrences in the KJV!).

This study has become much easier because of modern

technology. What took hours of searching through an

exhaustive concordance can now be done by typing in words

and clicking “search.” Bible Works and Logos, are both

powerful (and expensive) software research tools for this

type of study. To be honest, most of what you will need to

study a topic like this is easily accessible on the Internet.

Two valuable resources are Biblegateway.com and

netbible.com. I typed “angel of the LORD” in the topic search

of Biblegateway.com and in the twinkle of an eye I had a list

of 78 references where the phrase “angel of the LORD”

occurs. We are so blessed to have such easy access to study

tools like this.

This list is not complete. We now have to weed through

which references actually mention the Angel of the Lord.

Different programs will be more helpful and give you an

exact list. A more exact list gives us 68 occurrences in about

30 different passages. That is our complete list.

Summarize what each passage teaches about that topic

in principles (main ideas).

Now we want to learn what the God is telling us about that

topic. Because of space we will not be able to detail the

entire study about this topic. But let’s look at one example

45

to demonstrate how to do this. The third major passage of

Scripture that mentions the Angel of the Lord is in Exodus 3.

“Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-

in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the

west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the

mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him

in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked,

and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush

was not consumed. So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now

and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned

up.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look,

God called to him from the midst of the bush and said,

‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said,

‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your

feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy

ground.’ He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the

God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God”

(Exodus 3:1-6).

As you read through this passage you record what this

passage teaches you about the angel of the Lord.

The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the

burning bush.

The angel of the LORD was called God by

Moses.

The appearance of the Angel of the LORD caused

fear.

Subject Study-the Angel of

the Lord: from Exodus 3:1-6

January 22nd, 2014

46

Each passage will give you one or more principles of what the

Bible teaches about the angel of the Lord. Record those

principles on a separate sheet of paper (or better yet a

document on computer) with the reference next to the

principle.

When you have finished going through all 68 passages you

will have at least 100 principles on this topic. Some topics

will be much smaller. Other topics you will find are

impossible to exhaust (more on that later).

Group these principles into main categories or

headings.

As you look at the principles you will find several that say the

same thing. Several of these passages teach about the

character of the angel of the LORD. Several teach about the

activities of the angel of the LORD. Combining all of what

the Scripture teaches about a topic in one document will help

you look at all the teaching and see these main ideas.

Summarize what Scripture teaches about the topic.

Similar to our summarizing in the Inductive method, now we

need to look at all the categories and try to come up with a

one-paragraph definition of the topic. This paragraph then

becomes a pack of gold for future reference. You have

combined what the Bible teaches on that entire topic in one

sentence!

In our example above, we find that at times the angel of the

LORD is the Son of God, Jesus! At other times the angel of

the LORD is not. If we did not take the time to look up each

reference we may think incorrectly of the entire topic.

47

Sadly, it is often something like an incomplete topic study

that makes people misunderstand one aspect or another of

Scripture. Not gaining all that Scripture says on a topic often

leads to false thinking.

There are tools that help us with topics that are too broad to

study in one lifetime. Nave’s Topical Bible (available in print,

or free online) can help. A topical index is often found in the

back of a good study Bible. Although those are not as

exhaustive they help give you an idea of the topic. Another

key resource are books written to systematize what Scripture

teaches on all major topics and organize that teaching in an

accessible way. These are called Systematic Theologies.

SCRIPTURE MINING THROUGH VERSE MEMORIZATION

A third valuable mining activity is Scripture memorization.

I’m sure you have experienced the value of Scripture

memorization. If a passage is committed to memory, you

can take it with you throughout the day and meditate not just

in your private time with the Lord, but also in the subway or

at a slow time at work.

In times of temptation, memorized Scripture is like a dagger

that you can quickly pull out to put the temptation to flight.

We find Jesus doing this during His time of temptation on

earth. At each time of testing from Satan, Jesus quoted

Scripture in response. Each time He was victorious.

“Your word I have treasured in my heart,

That I may not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11)

It is helpful to memorize single verses of Scripture, for these

settings. Perhaps you would like to memorize a few verses

that cover an area of temptation that you often face -

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perhaps three verses on lust, or three verses on anger. A list

of 50 good dagger type verses and the topics which they

apply to is listed in the back of this booklet (Appendix 1).

Perhaps the Lord has given you a very sharp memory and you

would be able to memorize a large portion of Scripture. As a

child, beloved hymn writer, Fanny Crosby could recite the

Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible), the Psalms, other

books of the Old Testament and much of the New Testament

by heart. And she was blind. Depending on the hardware

the Lord has placed in your head, this may be a wonderful

way for you to keep your mind stayed upon the Lord all

throughout the day.

One thought regarding Scripture memory. Use it or lose it. If

you do take time to memorize Scripture, make the most of

that time by reviewing and re-reviewing until it is firmly in

your mind. If you do not review what you have memorized it

will leave as quickly as when you crammed for a test the

night before. Make the best use of your time.

Now you know three ways to mine out Scripture in deep

study – inductive book study, topic study, and memory. We

could survey more ways as well, but this will be sufficient to

give you a few different varieties of Bible Study. You may try

memory for a month and then switch to an inductive study of

a book of the Bible for another two months, and then try a

week on a topic. This helps you keep variety in your Bible

study.

Let me challenge you again to keep up with the plowing

(reading) even while you are mining. When you want to

spend more time studying you can always trim back to a

lighter reading plan, but always keep up with a regular

reading program like one we discussed in the second lesson.

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1. What are the three mining activities that we have

surveyed in the last two lessons?

2. List the four major steps in a Topic study.

3. If you cannot list all the references (exhaustive) where a

topic is found then you cannot know what the Bible

teaches about that topic (True/False).

4. Read the following passage and list seven principles that

this passage teaches us for at topical study on the Holy

Spirit.

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons

of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery

leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of

QUESTION AND ANSWER

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adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The

Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of

God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow

heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may

also be glorified with Him. 18 For I consider that the

sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For

the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the

revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was

subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who

subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set

free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the

glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole

creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together

until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having

the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within

ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the

redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved,

but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he

already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with

perseverance we wait eagerly for it. 26 In the same way the

Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to

pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us

with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches

the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He

intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”

(Romans 8:14-27).

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EXHALE – Talking to

God in Prayer

Your personal time with the Lord is spent quite a bit in His

Word. But you cannot think of God as a book. Although He

speaks through the Bible, He is a Person and wants us to

speak back to Him in prayer. This is another fulfilling section

in your private time with Him. He longs to be worshiped by

His children in private prayer.

You probably either gravitate toward inhaling or exhaling -

Bible or prayer. But both are essential. God talks to me from

my Bible and I talk to Him through

prayer. Any healthy relationship has

communication given and taken.

In this lesson we will survey prayer’s

necessity and then summarize the

three types of prayer that a Christian

should develop in their daily devotional time.

Necessity of Prayer

It has been said, "Prayer is the Christian's vital breath." The

emphasis in that saying is the idea of vital. Prayer is a vital

sign. If you do not have prayer then you are not alive. If you

are not praying then you will not survive.

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 5

Prayer is the

Christian’s vital

breath.

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As you follow God's servants in Scripture, His people are a

praying people. Enoch spent so much time in God's

presence, talking with Him and walking with Him that God

took him to be with Him eternally. "Enoch walked with God

and was not for God took Him." We read of Abraham and

Moses continually talking with God. It is interesting that as

Moses spent time talking to God in the tabernacle, Joshua

would go and listen as well. But when Moses went back to

the people, Joshua would remain in God's presence.

"Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just

as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to

the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young

man, would not depart from the tent" (Exodus 33:11).

David's prayers are recorded in Scripture as beautiful songs.

These were poems that flowed from a vibrant private prayer

life. Jesus prayed as well. At times He awoke far earlier than

the sun was up to spend uninterrupted hours in prayer.10 If

God's perfect Son needed this, certainly you and I do as well.

The early church constantly devoted themselves to four

activities - the first one mentioned is prayer. The early

church leaders gave up as many other tasks so that they

could give more time to prayer.

We could go on and on with more examples. But, let me stop

and ask the question - are you praying? If not, consider a

few reasons Scripture gives to teach why prayer is essential

in your life.

10 Many verses could be given here, but consider this one, "It was at

this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the

whole night in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12).

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1. There are victories on earth that can only be won through

prayer.

"When He came into the house, His disciples began

questioning Him privately, ‘Why could we not drive it out?’

And He said to them, ‘This kind cannot come out by

anything but prayer’" (Mark 9:28-29).

2. The believer is commanded to pray at all times.

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

[Be] "devoted to prayer..." (Romans 12:12).

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit,

and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance

and petition for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).

"Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an

attitude of thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2).

3. Prayer unloads our burdens onto the Lord.

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of

God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all

your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter

5:6-7).

4. Prayer accomplishes much.

"The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish

much" (James 5:16).

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Activities of Prayer

Perhaps you know the essential nature of prayer and have

seen God work powerfully through prayer, but you have

never been taught how to develop sustained time in prayer.

Let’s do that now. As you talk to the Lord communicate with

Him in your heart in three ways, Confession, Exaltation, and

Petition.

CONFESSION

As we come before the Lord the first stop is confession. We

are taking off our shoes before coming to holy ground. John

tells us:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to

forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Before you come to the Lord in petition or praise you should

spend time confessing sin. The word confession in this verse

is made up of two words in the original language – “speak”

and “same.” Confession is to speak the same thing about an

issue as another. We must agree with God about the

ugliness of our sin. We agree with the Lord that it deserves

to be punished. Then we must turn again to the cross and

thank Jesus for dying for that sin. It is with sorrow mixed

with relief that we confess and forsake our sins in prayer.

When we confess our sin to the Lord we say something like:

“Lord, I know this (name the specific sin) is sin and it

displeases You. It is sin like this that sent your Son, Jesus

to the cross to bear your wrath. I am so sorry. But I trust

the forgiveness obtained through Jesus’ death on the

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cross to cover this sin and thank you for His blood that

continues to cleanse me from my sin.”

It is important to preach the Gospel to yourself each day.

Don’t meditate on your sin in order to grovel in guilt.

Confess it, forsake it, and turn to the comfort of the Gospel

of Jesus.

EXALTATION

Devote another portion of your

prayer time to exaltation. To

exalt is to glorify or praise. All

these verbs have reference to

making much of the greatness

of something else. That is what

you will do in this time. Lose

yourself in the glory of God.

Rejoice in the glory of His

presence. Meditate on His

character and thank Him for

Who He is.

Although all of the communion with God we have examined

so far in this booklet (breathe in/breathe out) is soul

satisfying and will fill your heart with joy, this section is

especially holy ground. I say that because I have biblical

warrant for it and also personal experience of it. If you will

develop a time of quiet meditation on the glory of God you

will not find anything else in life that will satisfy. When you

have tasted the fruit from the glorious trees of heaven, no

earthly taste can satisfy. They leave you hungry and thirsty

I have found that

satisfaction in

communion with

God, which I

would not

exchange for all

the delights of the sons of men

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for something more. Only God can satisfy that thirst.11 Let

me quote Matthew Henry from one of my favorite devotional

books.

“A holy, heavenly life spent in the service of God, and in

communion with him, is, without doubt, the most

pleasant and comfortable life any man can live in this

world” (43).

“Here is bait that has no hook under it, a pleasure

courting you which has no pain attending it, no bitterness

at the latter end of it; a pleasure which God himself

invites you to, and which will make you happy, truly and

eternally happy…” (45).

I have found that satisfaction in communion with God,

which I would not exchange for all the delights of the

sons of men, and the peculiar treasures of kings and

provinces” (98)12

He is absolutely right! This is the greatest draw of

Christianity. Not that God takes all our problems away. The

draw is that He is all that we want problems or no problems.

Glorying in God is at the heart of the Westminster

Confession’s opening question.

Question: What is the chief end of man?

11 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this

water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give

him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become

in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’ The woman said

to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all

the way here to draw’” (John 4:13-15).

12 “The Pleasantness of the Religious Life: Life as Good as it Can Be”

by Matthew Henry.

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Answer: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to

enjoy Him forever.

As you read Scripture and the writings of church history you

realize that these are inextricably linked together. As you

glorify God you enjoy Him. God has made us that as we fulfil

our purpose of glorifying Him we enjoy the existence He

blesses us with.

To help you develop this satisfying practice in your own life I

want to answer two questions. 1. What is the Glory of God?

2. How can I exalt God in my private prayer time?

What is the Glory of God?

Do you remember when the Lord appeared to Moses in

Exodus? In the text we get a good glimpse of what the glory

of God is.

Moses asked to see God’s glory. God responded to Moses’s

request in the affirmative. “And it will come about, while My

glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock

and cover you with My hand…” (Exodus 3:22). So God

promised to show Moses His glory – albeit just a portion of

His glory. God’s glory would be seen. So what happens?

Read on.

“Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to

Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he

took two stone tablets in his hand. The LORD descended

in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon

the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front

of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God,

compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and

abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps

lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,

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transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the

guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the

children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth

generations.’ Moses made haste to bow low toward the

earth and worship” (Exodus 34:4-8).

Do you see what God’s glory is? God’s glory is His Name.

God’s glory is His character – compassionate, gracious, slow

to anger, truthful, forgiving, keeping covenant promises,

punishing the guilty. These are all manifestations of God’s

glory. What was Moses’s response? Bow and worship.

God’s glory is Who He is. It has been defined as His unique

excellence. God is unique in how forgiving He is. God is

unique in how truthful He is. These are all extremely bright

and colorful beams of glory bursting forth from the pages of

Scripture. God’s glory is His excellence, His greatness in the

sum total of all His character qualities. One word we use to

refer to God’s unique excellences is His attributes.

How can I exalt God in my private prayer time?

Now we need to apply what we have learned about the glory

of God to our private prayer time. To worship God, to glorify

Him, is to be awed with His glory. It is to look at His glory,

just like Moses, and to bow in holy reverence.

Practically, what does that look like? We come before God’s

glory as revealed in the Bible. God speaks to us just as He

did to Moses. He tells us His glory just like He did to Moses.

We read in Scripture that God is gracious. And we think

about that. We think about what that looks like and how that

is demonstrated in our life. Then we respond in thanks and

praise. Look; Think; Respond. As you begin to do this on a

regular basis you will find that you don’t have much time for

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other activities in your private devotional time with God (you

can tell I’m biased toward this activity).

Let me give you a practical example. Many passages of

Scripture are bursting forth with God’s glory so that we are

almost overwhelmed with the light! Look at a Psalm like

Palm 145.

Step 1 - Look

“I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name

forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise

Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and highly

to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One

generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall

declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your

majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate” (Psalm

145:1-5).

In the first step you may look at any attribute in the verses

above. They are packed with God’s glory. His name is

blessed; He is great; His greatness is unsearchable; His

actions are great. We could go on and on. But let’s look at

one attribute in particular. The text says that God is a King.

Step 2 – Think

This is meditation. Meditation is chewing on this truth in

your heart and soul. Let’s think about the ways that God’s

Kingship is true. God is King so He is in charge. God is King

so I need to obey Him. As King His authority goes over the

head of my boss or my political leaders. I am not in control.

God is King and He is in control. You could go on and on in

your thoughts about God’s kingship.

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Step 3 - Exalt

Once we have looked and thought, we need to express our

praise and thanksgiving to God through Jesus. You may be

on your knees before an open Bible, or you may be on the

subway having this verse memorized. But in your soul, you

are as Moses before the burning bush, or before the

expression of God’s glory on the holy mountain. You are

praising your Creator. This is a glorious gift given uniquely

to humankind. We can voice praise to God for Who He is.

You may something like this.

“Holy Father, I come to you through Jesus Christ and Him

alone. I praise You for You are King. I do not dread the

future for You are in control. I praise You for the Kings of

the world are nothing compared to You. You alone are

King of Kings. I praise You for your Kingship will never

end. Earthly Kings have limitations through life. But I

praise You for I serve an everlasting King Who’s rule will

never end. I praise You for you are King over everything.

There is nothing that is out of Your control. When I face a

difficulty today I glory in the fact that You are King over

that difficulty. You rule. Lord, I give you my sovereignty.

I have no rule in my own life. I simply wait for your

direction and guidance. My will is nothing. I worship and

adore You as King. Thank you for revealing Yourself to

me in this way today. Help me Lord to keep Your

Kingship in front of me today. In Jesus name I pray,

Amen.”

These three steps - look, think, and exalt, are called

meditation. Meditation on the glory of God is a soul-

satisfying joy. You will find yourself relieved when you finish

this meditation. Stress and anxiety will flee away. Earthly

considerations will have no more bearing upon your spirit.

You will be free.

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This is what changes you from the inside out. I believe this

to be the heart of change. Paul explains that when

considering the Moses story as well.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror

the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the

same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the

Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

As we meditate on God’s glory He changes us in step by step

- “we are being changed”. As we meditate on God’s

forgiveness, He makes us forgiving. As we meditate on

God’s truthfulness, He makes us more truthful.

PETITION

The final aspect of prayer is what normally comes to mind

when we consider prayer. Prayer is asking. It is fascinating

that the Lord chooses to work through our prayers. It is

puzzling. And, actually it is scary. There are some things

that God waits for us to pray and ask for before He provides

it. He wants us to demonstrate our dependence on Him

through waiting till we ask.

I understand this as a Father with my children. I enjoy

providing all they need, but I especially enjoy when they

kindly ask for something that I’m waiting to provide for

them.

When you come in petition, remember the Gospel again. You

have no right before God’s throne save the mercy that is

brought to you through Jesus Christ. Jesus makes God’s

presence a throne of Grace. You can expect grace every time

you come before God because Jesus has made it a throne of

grace by dying for your sins and living a perfect life. His

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perfection is yours your sin is His. So you come before God

in His Son in Jesus.

This gives us great boldness to bring all our needs before

our Heavenly Father. Now we are ready to bring petitions. If

you would like more information on praying through the

Lord’s Prayer, please pick up one of our booklets that walks

through this pattern.

Let me encourage you to keep a prayer list. Perhaps you

would keep this list in your study Bible. If you don’t list your

requests you will probably not remember each one. As you

see the Lord answer the prayer (Yes, No, and sometimes

wait), you can mark that God has answered that prayer.

God wants to work through you in prayer. Pray for your

friends, family, and church. Pray for your government

leaders. Pray for the persecuted church around the world. It

will not take long before you have a long list of things to pray

for.

Pray specifically. The more specific your prayer request, the

more glory the Lord receives from saying yes to that prayer.

Thank God for answered prayer. When the Lord does answer

your prayer, be sure to thank Him for what He has done. It is

instructive that two of the times we are told to pray in the

New Testament, we are told to pray with thanksgiving. As we

bring our petitions before the Father we don’t forget to thank

Him for the blessings He has already given us. Petition; but

in your petitioning, thank.

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1. What are three activities involved in prayer?

2. Define God’s glory.

3. What three steps are involved in the exaltation process?

What is another name for this?

4. Group Discussion – Discuss how and why God chooses

to wait for our prayers to work on our behalf.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

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Practical Considerations

In our final lesson together I want to pass along various tips

and thoughts that others have passed along to me in this

practical area of instruction.

1. Don’t go crazy.

There is a large amount of information in front of you now.

We have gone through several different ways to get into the

Bible and pray. You have to pace yourself.

Depending on your personality, you may lay such a heavy

burden on your back of accomplishing all these things that

you will not enjoy one moment of your daily devotional time

with God. That would be a horrible result of this booklet! I

speak from experience in this area. At times I’ve tried to

accomplish such a big portion of memory or reading that it

actually had a negative effect on my spirit in some ways.

Please don’t take this first piece of advice as a reason to be

lazy. I want to encourage you to attack this with zeal. Often

the best things of life are attained through greater effort.

The Lord wants you to pursue Him in His Word. And yet He

wants the pursuit to be enjoyable.

Developing Daily

Time with God

LESSON 6

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If you are just beginning, don’t try to take on too much.

Start small and work your way to more time and more

involved time. Let’s overview each of the things we have

spoken about so you can get a look at what would be a good

plan for you.

If you are just getting started in this, let me encourage you to

pick one of the reading plans in the plowing section to

commit to daily. Also, develop the prayer time in all three

areas of prayer. The Scripture mining you may want to save

for one or two days a week, perhaps on the weekend.

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Don’t overcommit yourself. But what you commit yourself to

– follow through with it. The reason I’ve included several

different study habits is so you can experience different ways

to study your Bible. Mix and match these in different ways

for varieties sake, just make sure you are inhaling and

exhaling every day. That is the essential thing. Breathe,

Christian, breathe!

2. Choose a Practical Time and Place

This is a very helpful thing. These types of external things

may not appear to be important but experience tells us

otherwise. Our environment does affect the way we perform.

If you have a dirty work space or a cluttered office, it will

affect the way you work in that environment. Seek a strategic

place and time to set aside for this private communion with

the Lord each day.

Many give this same advice. And I can agree whole

heartedly. I’m spoiled in that my church has given me a

private office to use as a place for quiet away time. You may

be living in a two bedroom apartment with 17 children. That

makes things difficult! Try to meet the following practical,

strategic goals.

A PRIVATE PLACE AND TIME

It is helpful to pray and read out loud. Or at times the Lord

works in your heart and you want to express emotions of joy

or tears. Sitting in the subway on your morning commute

does not give you great privacy. If that is your only time in

the day, it is better than nothing, but try to carve out a

private time where no one else is around.

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A QUIET PLACE AND TIME

This is similar to having a private place. But I want to

highlight not just the lack of noise from others, but the lack

of noise from life in general. Try to find a place and time

where there will be the least amount of distractions.

It is uncanny the amount of things that will happen as soon

as you begin to pray. You will be surprised. The enemy

knows the power of prayer and will distract. Perhaps you

have not been contacted all day but when you begin to pray

(perhaps not even as much when you read your Bible or

spend time in praise, but especially when you petition)

distractions are abundant. You will receive a text, fax, phone

call, nock on the door and a natural disaster in that moment.

Take these interruptions as faith building. What you are

about to do is most important.13

So plan ahead – find a place and time when you will

experience the least distractions. Many people find the

quietness of the morning or just before bedtime as ideal

because of this principle.

A CONSISTENT PLACE AND TIME

Be consistent. We are creatures of habit – yes I’m back to

that bad word. Developing the same time and place each day

13 Hiebert puts it well – “[Prayer] is the essential element for Christian

victory. Without it, all other means are powerless and ineffectual.

Without prayer, toil we ever so hard, our labors for God are vain.

The Devil cares but little how many activities we engage in or how

many organizations the churches develop, so long as he can keep

believers from intensive prayer. Without prayer all the machinery is

useless for lack of power “Working with God through Intercessory

Prayer” Pg. 9.

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will go a long way in allowing you to schedule the time you

need each day to develop this habit in your life. Some people

have more obligations than others, but we all have the same

amount of time. You need to carve out of your busy

schedule a slice of time that is holy – put a wall around that

time and allow yourself to spend time doing what is best.

You remember Jesus’ instruction to Mary and Martha. Mary

took the time aside of the business of serving and sat at

Jesus feet – listening to Him. Martha confronted Mary – “Lord

rebuke her for she is not doing she is sitting before you.”

What was Jesus response? He praised Mary for choosing the

best thing. Activity is not always good. Especially if activity

distracts you from the glory of a personal devotional time

with the Lord.

“But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and

she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that

my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell

her to help me.’ But the Lord answered and said to her,

‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so

many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary

has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away

from her’" (Luke 10:40-42).

AN OPTIMUM PLACE AND TIME

You need to find the time that is best for you. I won’t

belabor this point, but at times people put on their

conscience that they have to get up at 4:00 am in order to

please God. As if that is the only time the Lord listens to us.

That may be the best time for you. But that may be placing

temptation in front of you – temptation to fall asleep.

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9:00 am may be the most productive time for your mind and

body that you can give the Lord. You need to find the place

in your schedule that is optimum for you both in your ability

to think and your ability to be alone.

If you choose an early rise – that is often the most practical,

then you must choose an early sleep. “The key to getting up

early is going to bed early.” It’s that simple.

3. MARK IN YOUR BIBLE

It took many years and many times reading through the Bible

before I started marking my observations in the margins.

You still may have a hard time doing this. Let me encourage

you to begin writing with pencil so you can lightly erase if

you need to.

God’s people have been doing this for ages. If it helps you,

consider that the earliest copies of Scripture were all hand

copied. God is Holy, His Word is holy. And so is our

interaction with Him. As you record your communication

with Him you are recording your heartfelt thoughts and

experiences you have had with the Lord.

It is convenient to have that record for future study. Another

benefit is that the inductive book study (Lesson 3) is much

easier if you are recording these things right in the margin.

You can highlight the themes of a book with different colors

allowing the themes to jump out in front of you. Computer

programs can do this as well, but it is nice to have that page

in front of you for the rest of your life. You will forget your

discoveries if they are not recorded. But if you don’t record

them where you will see them, then you will forget them

anyway.

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If you do not have a Bible to use in this area, let me

recommend again the New Inductive Study Bible. The New

Inductive Study Bible actually walks you through this process

and outlines how to study each book of the Bible inductively.

I have found it an extremely helpful study tool personally.

You will want to find a good writing pen for this purpose.

This may sound simple, but I have to recommend this or you

will run into some problems. If you want to begin with

pencil, use a mechanical pencil that remains sharp. I

encourage you to use pen. The Micron Pigma series of art

pens are great for this purpose, and they are not too

expensive. They come in different thickness and colors. I

find .005 to be a good thickness to help you write small and

neat. You can also use the different colors to mark different

themes in your book studies.

4. Utilize Resources

We have examined several resources in this booklet. Let me

give you an overview of these resources and information on

ways to purchase or utilize them online. We are so privileged

in our day to have God’s Word in our hands. Now we have it

on our phones! Don’t miss out on the wealth that is yours.

WEBSITE AND APPS

There are so many of these available. I will just name a few,

but you can find many others.

www.netbible.com – Valuable for searching topics as well as

a commentary on each passage that is usually more in depth

than others that are available free. It is usually Biblically

accurate.

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www.biblegateway.com – Another valuable tool for searching

Scripture which includes several different versions and

commentaries.

www.youversion.com (and app) – Valuable in providing both

text and audio Bibles. The app and website also work

together to help you keep track of your Bible reading plan.

This is extremely valuable for those of you who are trying to

read during a commute or lunch break along with other

study time at home.

COMMENTARY SERIES

John MacArthur’s commentary – There is a helpful shortened

collection of MacArthur’s entire NT set. “MacArthur Bible

Commentary” From Thomas Nelson.

Warren Weirsbe – A shortened edition of the Be Series of

Commentaries on the books of the Bible. “Bible Exposition

Commentary Set”, Published by David C Cook.

Other commentaries are available free online. If you would

like recommendations for single commentaries on any one

particular book please contact me. There is a wealth of great

information in Commentaries. But you can also find a

plethora of the ravings of spiritually bankrupt professors, so

be careful.

REFERENCE BOOKS AND SOFTWARE

Bible Works Bible Software – This is a heavy duty search

program that gives you access to thousands of works and

translations. More than you would ever need, but a fun tool

if you are able to spend money and hard drive space without

thought. As a Pastor I have to use this every week and it is

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an essential tool in my sermon preparation. Go to

www.bibleworks.com to order.

Logos Bible Software (App is available also) – You can order

just about any Christian book or series of books through

Logos software. It is also a valuable resource for searching

and studying texts as Bible Works. Again it may be too

costly. Go to www.logos.com to order.

“Naves Topical Bible” – A helpful summary of different topics

in Scripture. You may have one in the back of your study

Bible, but this is more exhaustive. Nave’s Topical Bible,

Published by several companies. You can also use this online

for free at:

www.biblegateway.com and www.biblestudytools.com.

Systematic Theology – “Introducing Christian Theology” by

Millard Erickson, produced by Baker Press. This is a very

good systematic theology. It is a shortened version but still

includes detailed explanation for most Christian Doctrines.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge – R. A. Torrey’s valuable

resource of hundreds of thousands of cross-references that

help you tie together themes in Scripture. After a phrase, the

Treasury will give you a list of several other verses that are

related to the verse you are studying. It is available in print,

but is also available free on line and in most Bible software

packages.

STUDY BIBLES

Each of these study Bibles can be found at our local Christian

Book Store, Amazon, or CBD.com. Each of these study Bibles

will help you answer the questions that we suggested in

chapter 4 of this booklet.

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English Standard Version Study Bible – ESV gives numerous

notes, charts and maps and is very helpful. I would disagree

with some of the notes, but overall they are very good.

New Inductive Study Bible – Again, this is extremely valuable.

This is a true study Bible. The others are studied Bibles that

share with you what someone else has studied. This one

walks you through how to study the Bible yourself. Buy Kay

Arthur’s “How to Study Your Bible” as a partner guide.

Life Application Study Bible – This is a practical Study Bible

with helpful notes.

Other helpful Study Bibles are – MacArthur Study Bible, Ryrie

Study Bible, Scofield Study Bible, NIV Women’s Study Bible

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Apendix1 - Memorization Verses

1. Psalm 119:128 My Opinion of God's Word

2. Numbers 23:19 God Will Do As He Has Said 3. Matthew 4:4 Obeying God's Words More Necessary Than Eating 4. Daniel 4:35 God's Providence: Universal & Irresistible 5. Job 23:14 God's Providence: Personal 6. Romans 8:28-29 God's Providence: Transformational 7. Hebrews 13:5-6 God's Presence Suffices 8. Psalm 23:4 God's Presence Comforts

9. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

God's Presence Obligates

10. Psalm 56:3 Faith 11. Hebrews 11:6 Faith 12. 1 John 5:4 Faith 13. 1 Samuel 15:22 Obedience: the Priority 14. 1 John 5:3 Obedience: the Motive 15. Psalm 40:8 Obedience: Christ's Example 16. Proverbs 21:23 Guarded Speech 17. Proverbs 25:15 Soft Speech 18. Proverbs 31:26 Kind Speech 19. Philippians 4:8 The Christian Mind: Its Subjects 20. Isaiah 26:3 The Christian Mind: Its Effect on the Spirit 21. James 1:8 The Christian Mind: Its Singleness 22. 1 Peter 5:5 Attitudes: Humility 23. Proverbs 22:4 Attitudes: Humility 24. 1 Peter 4:8 Attitudes: Christian Love 25. Nehemiah 8:10 Attitudes: Joy 26. Philippians 4:4 Attitudes: Joy 27. Colossians 1:11 Attitudes: Patience 28. Ephesians 4:32 Attitudes: The Kindness of Forgiveness 29. Colossians 3:15 Attitudes: Peace 30. Psalm 27:14 Tempted To Be Discouraged 31. Proverbs 19:11 Tempted To Be Angry 32. Proverbs 23:17 Tempted To Envy Sinners 33. Proverbs 20:4 Tempted To Be Lazy 34. 1 Corinthians 10:13 Tempted To Sin of Any Kind 35. 1 John 1:9 Need for Forgiveness & Cleansing 36. James 1:5 Need for Wisdom 37. Matthew 6:31-33 Need for Material Things 38. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 Need for Protection From Evil 39. Psalm 84:2 Need for Soul-Satisfaction 40. Proverbs 27:6 Need for a Friend's Correction 41. Proverbs 4:14-15 Relationships: To Evil People 42. Jude 22-23 Relationships: To The Unsaved 43. Romans 16:17 Relationships: To Teachers of Error 44. 2 Thess3:14-15 Relationships: To a Disobedient Brother

45. Philippians 2:1-2 Relationships: Within a Local Assembly of Brothers

and Sisters in Christ 46. Hebrews 13:17 Relationships: To Spiritual Leaders 47. Psalm 42:5 Praises 48. Psalm 51:15 Blessings 49. 2 Timothy 4:18 The Future 50. Proverbs 11:3 Guidance

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Appendix 2 – M’Cheyne Reading Schedule

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Appendix 3 - Horner’s Bible Reading Lists

Cut out each of the following bookmarks and place them in

the sections as listed on the bookmark. These are the ten

different chapters you read each day from ten different parts

of Scripture. Go online to find the full explanation of this

system.

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What are L.I.F.E. Groups?

In the blueprint for church ministry found in Ephesians 4,

God explains that He gives

church leaders who will equip

each individual in the church to

do the work of building others

up. Look at three primary

principles from this passage:

Loving—In the Ephesians 4 blueprint, all building that is

done is done through people who are speaking the truth in

love. Love is the great greenhouse of the church. Our

motivation in these groups should not be selfish. We must

strive for another person's spiritual maturity.

Individuals—In the blueprint found in Ephesians 4, the

spiritually maturing church is one where each joint in the

body is functioning properly. We are like a clock filled with

cogs, gears, and other intricate moving parts. Each part in

that clock must be working properly for the goal to be

reached. You are needed in this clockwork—you are needed

in God's blueprint for church ministry!

Furthering Edification—In the blueprint in Ephesians 4, God

shares His goal for church ministry—that we are all building

each other up to be more like Christ. We are to think, act

and live like Jesus. So the end goal is that each person will

be more like Jesus through meeting together around God's

Word.