Studying The Bible 101

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There is no better way to get to know God than through His word

No better way to know

His character

His Nature

His Love

His righteousness

If we are not spending time in the Word of God, we are not going to know Him

He has given us this beautiful gift that allows us to open the curtains and peer into who God is.

The truth that God is not just sitting up in heaven wanting to be distant and wants us to wonder who He is, God wants us to know Him

So there are a lot of different reasons people do not read their Bible

Some people do not know how to study the Bible

Some people do not care

Some believe that it’s a waste of time and it does not apply to them

Some tried to read but got confused

some got bored and gave up

But I believe there are a lot of people that want to but do not know how to start

How many of use started out good started in Genesis

read the fall

Noah’s ark

Abraham

Jacob

Joseph

Got to Exodus

Moses

the time in the desert

a pillar of fire leading the people

walking through the split sea

Come on such great reading right??

Then you got to Lev. and all of the ambition went out the window

Or how about the I’m going to open to a random page and blindly put my finger down and read that verse

Isaiah 36:12 NIV

But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

How do we apply this to our daily lives???? My name is not Bear Grylls

But lets get into how to Study the Bible

Choose a Translation You Understand

Jude 4 YLT

for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord—Jesus Christ—denying,

This was the Young’s literal translation

The point is that its a bit difficult to understand what is being said, and for some we would need a (Dictionary) to just read the Bible.

So on most of our phones we can download the Bible app and have access to over 300 different versions, some easy to to understand and some more difficult.

I have been often asked what is the best translation, and I can go into different translation technics, and what manuscripts were used, and who did the translating BUT at the end of the day its the translation you will read.

Let’s read that same verse in a different translation

Jude 4 NIV

For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Makes a lot more sense now

Make Your Study Time Consistent

We can say all day that we will start reading our Bible more and have the best intension But if we don’t not have a plan, we will never succeed.

The best way to do this is to

Set up a time

A place

look for a reading plan

a devotional

marking that time as a meeting that will not be changed

We Need To Understand The Context

Story of punching Eric in the face boxing

It is so very important that we read the Bible in the context that it was written

We have to understand that the Bible is

A Collection of 66 Different Books

Written by 40 different Authors

In Three Different Languages

Over 1500 years

Across Three Different Continents

Asia, Africa and Europe

And We have to ask the Questions

Who Wrote it? To whom Was It Written? And What Was Its Purpose?

Lets Kick This study off with Jude

Who Wrote it

Jude 1 NIV

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

So Jude the brother of James wrote this letter.

The beautiful part of this verses is that we know that James was the half brother of Jesus, and so by that standard we can say that Jude was also a half brother of Jesus. but Jude does not try to used that to boast BUT shows humbleness as a servant of Christ.

He is not is not trying to show how great he is but how great Christ is.

We are not sure who this letter was written to but as reading the text we can see that there was an issue in the Church that needed to be addressed .

Lets see what is going on that Jude needed to write this letter

Jude 3–4 NIV

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

So the purpose of this letter at least here in the beginning it to warn the person that is receiving this letter that there is a problem with what is going on inside the Church.

“There is ungodly people that are perverting the Grace and doing things that they really shouldn’t.

It would seem that these people that Jude is talking about are taking God’s grace out of context.

They are using it to be able to do what they want to do instead of letting change them.

This is to show how dangerous it really is to just kind of grab a verses here or there and then make an assumption on the context and what is being said

If we do not know what the context of a verse, or what is going on we can be led astray and believe that we are in the right, when in fact we are wrong .

I believe that today we are in a dangerous time.

everyone has a platform

people can amass a large following that makes them seem like they know what they are talking about

people are being led away from the God

and many are not studying to make sure that they are right.

This needs to change

When we take the word of a video on youtube over the Word of God there is a real problem

We have a responsibility to make sure what we are hearing is what the Word is saying.

Read the passage and Ask Questions

1st

What Does The Passage Say Before?

Jude 3 NIV

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.

Let’s Highlight the word “Contend” for the faith

Why is this important?

What are some other words for contend?

Well in this context might be “Fight”

Not in the since of violence but more of making sure the what is happening is right.

So now the question is “What are we fighting for in our faith?”

I would argue in this since wrong Doctrine

People have came in and perverted what is true so they can change what the word of God is saying instead of allowing God’s word to change them.

As we are closing I would encourage you to choose a translation that you will read, set a time and a place to read and then while reading ask these questions

Who Wrote it? To whom Was It Written? And What Was Its Purpose?

What Can I Learn From It?

Is there a way I can apply what the Bible is saying to my life

In this verse maybe, making sure that I am not trying to make the Bible say something that is not there, and I let the Word guide me instead of the other way around.