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Study: You may have memories of homework and boring classes in high school and college–but actually, we are studying constantly. When you notice something and decide what you like or don’t like about it. You make comparisons and draw conclusions about so many things daily. Your values are based on an array of studies over years of study. Our values are based on the assessments we’ve made over a lifetime. Lastly you decide to do something about your daily studies. You create a list in your mind, what you want out of life or what you want to experience with friends and family. All because you studied.
Here is a classic Bible study method: you observe, interpret, and apply. In every area of your life.
Here’s another ancient method of study or contemplation from the other side of Christian tradition. It’s called Lectio Divina. It’s explained in the book by my professor, Tony Jones, in his book about Lection Divine, which gives us one word for each step in its title: Read, Think, Pray, Live. Take a moment to memorize those four words, and you have a way to study, not just the Bible, but any other subject you want to learn more about. Let’s take them one at a time.
Read – Just do it, take some time to go carefully through the text. Maybe read it a couple times or in a few versions. I like to recommend these three: the ESV, a nicer literary version. The NASB, more accurate, from the original languages, and the MSG, Eugene Peterson’s modern paraphrase of the Bible.
Think—After you’ve read it over and over a few times. Think about it. What do you notice, what do you resonate with and what are you struggling to understand. Maybe it’s as simple as looking up the meaning of a word. Your best study skill will be understanding the English language. Unless of course you’re studying it in Spanish.
Pray—then start to pray about it. Jesus said that the Spirit would lead us into all truth. Trust God to help you understand and to help you remember what you learned throughout your day.
Live— Lastly, take the message into your daily life. Life is the laboratory. Experiment, try out what you’ve learned. The sooner you make it part of your day the more it will be reinforced and become part of who you are. So, as you study, think about this question: What is “study”? It’s learning from the Bible, any other text, or nature itself, to understand and experience reality and truth.)