Updated. This Bible study post was originally published on May 6, 2020.
What tools do you really need to study the Bible? Honestly, you really only need a Bible and the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have a Bible, you can’t study it, and if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you won’t understand it.
But beyond that, there are a few essentials you need if you want to really dive into the passage. As we move through this series, I will add the tools you need for each step. I know you want to know them all now, but you may decide to only work through step 3, so you won’t need the tools for step 4.To begin, though, let’s talk about the basics.
Which Bible Translation Should You Use?
This is a very personal decision. Bible translations are not the same as Bible paraphrases. There is a continuum of Bibles ranging from word-for-word translations to thought-for-thought paraphrases. It isn’t an issue of which is better, but it is an issue of understanding what you are using.
A word-for-word translation attempts to get as close as possible to the original language. A thought-for-thought paraphrase interprets the original language and writes it in a way that might be more familiar to you. It is up to you to decide if you want a Bible that might require a little more work to understand versus one in which someone else tells you what the passage means.
Which Bible Type Should You Use?
Should you get a study Bible? Should you get a journaling Bible? Should you get a large-print Bible? It depends on the outcome you want and what works best for you.
Study Bibles have great notes and cross-references. They tend to be bigger and heavier, and they can also be a bit more expensive. Unless you like hardcopy Bibles, you might prefer to access a lot of the notes online.
If your goal is to write in your Bible and take extensive notes, you should choose a Bible that has wide margins or a lot of white space on the page. And if you are a little nervous about writing in your Bible, getting a journaling Bible specifically for this exercise might be just the ticket you need to give yourself permission to mark up the pages.
Since I know you will ask, I have an ESV Study Bible I use for the notes and the cross-references. I have an ESV Single Column Journaling Bible I purchased when I started this study method. I also reference several other Bibles including the Study Bible for Women HCSB version, the CSB She Reads Truth Bible, the KJV Scoffield Bible, and the Reina Valera Spanish translation (yes, I have accumulated quite the collection of Bibles over the past 40 years).
Should You Get a Fancy Journal?
No, don’t go buy a fancy notebook. One of the biggest roadblocks to diligent Bible study is being afraid to ruin a beautiful notebook with your scribblings. And you will scribble. The goal isn’t to write the next great Bible commentary, but to have a place to jot down your thoughts, prayers, reactions, and research. Start with a notebook in which you are not afraid to write.
Make sure you choose a paper notebook and not an app on your phone or a document on your computer. There is something that happens in the brain when you physically connect pen to paper. As you watch your hand write the words, they become part of you. Since the end result you desire is to grow closer to God by studying His Word, it makes sense that you make the words part of yourself.
Which Pen Is Best?
Do not put too much importance on the pen. I have used a cheap Bic pen, Sharpie pens, PaperMate Ink Joy pens, erasable pens, and they all have their pros and cons. For this first step, while you’re still taking notes, the pen doesn’t matter. When you get to step 6 where you will write in your Bible, we will revisit this question.
This series is designed so you can stop the overwhelm of Bible study. You can end the study of a passage at any step in this process. Always start with step 1, but go only as far as you want to go. If you would rather download the process in a FREE workbook, you can enter your information below, and it will be delivered directly to your email.
If you’ve kept up with my posts, you know that I recently read Eric Metaxas’s biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I couldn’t help but see the similarities to Bondarenko’s account. As Christians in a quickly shifting culture, it behooves us to read these books and prepare ourselves to stand for our faith in the face of true persecution.
Bondarenko grew up under the shadow of prejudice against his family’s faith. He was prepared to answer the questions, face the interrogations, and go underground when necessary. Every time the prison guards nearly broke him, God gave him strength whether it was through an interaction with another inmate, a communication from a loved one, or even a vision in the privacy of his solitary cell.
In the midst of his suffering, we get the privilege of witnessing a love story as Bondarenko met and married Maria. As his family grew, the danger did not diminish, and Maria was forced to raise their children alone for many years as Bondarenko evaded the authorities and was was ultimately captured for a third prison term. One of the most moving scenes in the book is when his family visited him in prison.
In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, Bondarenko has returned to the prison and the KGB office where he faced down the enemy. He has used his experience to encourage others to stand for their faith. I imagine one day he will hear those precious words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Updated. This Bible study post was originally published on May 1, 2020.
Are you tired of being told what the Bible means rather than being able to study it for yourself? Have you ever done a Bible study and felt like you were learning so much, but when the study ended, so did your growth? Do you feel like you can’t have spiritual conversations because you just don’t know enough? Are you afraid to witness because someone might ask you a question you can’t answer?
There are few things in this world more frustrating than the feeling of inadequacy when you think you should be confident. I grew up in a missionary’s home, attending church from the very first Sunday I had breath. I could answer all of the Sunday school questions, and I knew all of the Bible stories. I graduated from Bible college AND seminary. In spite of all of that, I felt unqualified to have spiritual conversations, and I didn’t know how to apply what I knew to real-life situations.
The truth is that growing up in a preacher’s home created some challenges for my personal walk because it was always easier to ask my dad than to search Scripture for myself. And this was my pattern even through adulthood. It wasn’t until my dad started showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s that I realized I needed to bulk up my own spiritual muscles. But where to start?
Pursuing Godliness through Bible Study
I like to compare the pursuit of godliness to a health journey. We know the only way to get healthy is through diet and exercise. In the same way, we know the only way to get healthy spiritually is through personal Bible study and prayer time.
If you’re like me, you have a cabinet full of shakes, pink drinks, supplements, and wraps to help the weight loss process along, but if you look at the fine print, they will all say “works best when paired with proper diet and exercise.” In much the same way, we buy books about the Bible, listen to sermons, subscribe to podcasts, and do big-name Bible studies to help our spiritual walk. All of these things are good, but they all work best when paired with personal Bible study and prayer.
Without personal Bible study, how do you know the book you are reading or the sermon you are listening to is teaching truth? We have to put in the effort to cut out the middle man. We have to learn to study Scripture and pull out the principles on our own.
“God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God” (Psalm 14:2 & 53:2)
Stop depending on others to tell you what the Bible means and learn to study it for yourself.
God wants you to look for Him.
God wants you to seek Him.
God wants you to find Him.
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Here’s the good news: Godliness is learned! It isn’t reserved for an elite few. Godliness is available to all of us.
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3)
The way we grow in godliness is by growing in our knowledge of Him. And you have all you need to do that in the pages of your Bible. Ok, so what’s the first step?
There are many plans out there that you can try, but if you don’t want to look any further, you can find your guide here. I took the Bible study tools that worked and created a Bible study process. I have created a blog series that spells out the unique process that always begins at step 1 but only goes as far as your current season of life allows. If you would rather download the process in a FREE workbook, you can enter your information below, and it will be delivered directly to your email.
Greci takes what can be a complicated topic, the attributes of God, and puts it into language that is easy to understand, giving relatable and vulnerable examples from her own life and experience. While she doesn’t sugarcoat the topics in each chapter, she provides hope for each difficult discussion. The attributes of God discussed in the book include His love, righteousness, faithfulness, and holiness, to name a few.
My favorite chapter is the second one. In it, Greci points out something I try to communicate every chance I get: “This life here on earth is just the beginning, yet we tend to live like it is the be-all, end-all.” When we keep our eyes on eternity rather than on this temporal world, it changes the things we think, say, and do. It allows us to understand what true love is as we interact with this confused world.
While Greci quotes a few people who have demonstrated a lack of true biblical wisdom, the quotes she uses in no way undermine the truth of the message she presents.
This book is an introduction to the attributes of God and a good springboard for deeper study. It is great for someone who is trying to find her footing, not sure where she stands with God or how a relationship with Him should affect her. But if you are a seasoned Christian and have a strong relationship with the Lord, this book could serve as a reminder of the first things, getting back to the basics, as they say.
In a society that seems to be disintegrating before our eyes, Lutzer helps us identify the root causes and gives us tips for combating it from a Christian worldview.
Erwin Lutzer’s book, We Will Not Be Silenced: Responding Courageously to Our Culture’s Assault on Christianity, is one of the best explanations of the current situation in America and the direction our country is going that I have read. It is an encouragement to course correct as soon as possible, and it gives specific ways Christians can and should stand against the tide of the culture.
While I struggled through some sections where he and I have a different perspective (I address these at the end of the post), Lutzer made connections I haven’t found in other materials I’ve read on this subject.
Lutzer gives a thorough and clear history of cultural Marxism and how it is gaining ground in the United States. Beginning with the destruction of the nuclear family, Marxism really took root in feminism, encouraging mothers to work outside of the home and allowing others (namely the public education system) to raise their children. The key to Marxism is oppression. Once someone is convinced she is a victim, she is easier to motivate into revolution.
He makes this connection even further when he addresses the link between broken families or single parents and Marxism. He says, “Children without family roots can be more easily directed toward secular values and state benefits. The state can do for them what their parents failed to do” (27).
This victimhood formed the basis for the flourishing of feminism, abortion, the sexual revolution, homosexuality, and transgenderism. These movements have not happened organically but have been planned and executed by those who seek to destroy America as we have known it.
Lutzer dives into the reasons behind the rewriting of American history. He says, “…when revolutionaries want to remake a country, they vilify the past to give legitimacy to their vision of the future” (42). In order to make those in the next generation buy into the “necessary” changes, the Marxist must convince them our country is founded on terrible principles and must be destroyed and rebuilt. There can be nothing positive in our history in order for this revolution to take root.
“Absurdity is no longer an argument against a point of view. If you are progressive, you have to detach from reality and self-righteously embrace the bizarre. This is the world of alternate facts, and the price one has to pay to see evil as good and good as evil.”
Quote by Erwin W. Lutzer
Other connections Lutzer makes include the link between Marxism and fighting climate change as well as opening the American border and defunding the police. But Marxism is never about the issue it claims; it is always about power.
We have redefined words and created new terms to ensure that the conflict between races, classes, and genders will never be resolved. We must remember that, “In CRT [Critical Race Theory a.k.a. social justice],…the goal is not to foster unity or common ground but to assign blame and ensure that people will be put into categories so that tensions between the groups can be enflamed and maintained” (80). Ultimately, “No common ground is allowed because that would diminish the extent to which some groups have been oppressed. And no concessions are ever enough” (81). Lutzer reminds us that, “Only through the cross can we show [the world] what reconciliation looks like” (100).
Throughout the book, Lutzer upholds the biblical definition of man (and woman) as one made in the image of God, as well as the biblical instruction on gender, marriage, family, and the church. He reminds us that we must remain faithful in the face of the blatant lies of the culture. He is especially concerned with the sexualization of children: “Perhaps nowhere do we see the work of Satan in America as clearly as we do in the sexualization of children—destroying their identity, confusing their gender, and creating unresolved guilt and self-hatred” (156).
Lutzer also dives into the world of economics, explaining why capitalism, while flawed, is rooted in principles that align with Scripture. He takes on the proponents of socialism by explaining how it will always inevitably fail.
One connection Lutzer makes that had not been presented to me before is the mind-blowing alignment of the social justice movement with Islam. This is mind-blowing because there is no more “intolerant” religion than Islam, yet we find the very things it condemns have aligned with it. Why? Because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Islam calls for the destruction of America. Since there is a shared goal, they can work together to that end. However, the partnership cannot last. But when the dust settles, which one will stand victorious?
While I love this book and think every Christian should read it, I did have a few moments of disagreement with the author. Lutzer seems to lean a little heavily in support of the idea of systemic racism in America. He says that “we are not yet where we want to be in race relations; the failures of the past must be acknowledged, and forgiveness and reconciliation are the way forward” (51). He goes on to say that we must “take personal and collective responsibility” (54), yet he doesn’t define or delineate exactly how this should take place. Finally, he says that “Those who are white need to be sensitive to the concerns of their brothers and sisters from other ethnic backgrounds” (63), but he never extends the same courtesy to “white” brothers and sisters.
Along the same lines, Lutzer’s wording around the topic of George Floyd’s death lays the blame completely on the police officer. He calls it a “horribly unjust incident” (45) and “the tragic murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer” (72). While no one celebrated the death of George Floyd during an altercation with the police, there are still so many questions not only about the cause of death, but also about the trial, and it is not prudent for Lutzer to make such strong statements on one side of the issue.
Our disagreements on these issues may simply be a result of our differing perspectives. I live in a smaller city in rural America. I honestly don’t see many racial difficulties. Lutzer lives and ministers in Chicago. I can imagine his perspective is very different.
Regardless of perspective, the Bible is clear that we repent for our own sins. It is an individual and personal interaction with God. We cannot repent for the sins of another, nor can we repent on behalf of someone else. It doesn’t do us or them any good. Brothers and sisters in Christ should come together as Christians first. The color of our skin does not make us more or less righteous before God, and should not affect how we relate to one another. While Lutzer doesn’t necessarily contradict this biblical position, he doesn’t go far enough in his writing. He doesn’t specifically state it, and therefore, leaves room for the very victimhood this book is meant to combat.
All in all, I agree with Dr. David Jeremiah’s sentiment on the cover of the book: “If I could, I would put this book into the hands of every Christian in America.”
While many do not agree with the culture’s perspective on social justice and all of the baggage that comes with it, we have been mocked into silence. We have been led to believe that we are not allowed to voice our concerns. But we cannot remain silent. There is an intentional attack on our freedom of speech, but we must speak while we still can. Lutzer cautions us that, “Freedom of speech and civility will not be restored until the victimology culture is shown to be the fiction it is” (231). And he reminds us that, “We don’t have to shout louder than others when we stand our ground. We just need to know that we are being faithful to our Commander and King” (243).
