Q10. Reading the Bible

Q10. What is a practical way to study and read the bible?

Q10. Answer

Bible study for me has two focusses.
1. Devotional Study
This type of bible study, I approach from the perspective of having a daily sustenance plan
for my spiritual life. The objective here is not to plough through volumes of information,
or to achieve a certain amount of reading per day.
The objective for me is that what I read, must go in and be understood and remembered. It's
better to slow down and go at the pace your mind can comprehend well.
I believe it is helpful to have a daily devotion booklet to assist with a bible reading programme.
My personal favourite is the Word for today - thewordfortoday.com
2. Deliberate Study
I find another type of bible study is when I deliberately need to read and study a particular theme
or subject in the bible.
In this regard, there are many aids and books to help in this pursuit. However some very simple
approach that I regularly use as follows:
a) Word Study
If Im studying a particular subject I can simply go to the back word concordance and begin to read
through the bible every verse where the particular word is mentioned.
In this way, I get to read the value and context of that word in the scriptures.
I have found this to be an incredibly helpful tool as Im learning particular subjects.
One tool online that is a brilliant aid in this regard and gives a lot of versions of the bible to
choose from. www.biblegateway.com.au
b) Character Study
Another wonderful way to study scripture is to read through and study the life of an individual
written in the scriptures. The bible tells us that the experiences of bible characters were written
down as examples to us to learn from. Through studying their character and their experiences, we
learn how God wants us to navigate life and respond in our life.
Some of my favourite character studies are King david, Joseph, Samson, Peter, etc