How to Dig Deep for the Meat of the Word

Last week at Polishing the Pulpit I spoke three times about digging deep in Bible study and getting to the meat of the Word. I’m sure the preparation did me more good than the delivery did any of the other ladies. The concluding lesson was just a year’s plan of study. It’s what I would do if I were determined to get into the meat during the next year and  had never really dug into the Word in the past. I’ve gotten several notes about the plan of study and how it is being used. One congregation has thirty ladies who are studying this together and they have even created a website or facebook group where they encourage one another and comment on their study together. What a study-booster for that South Carolina church! Kudos to Sheri Blackwell for making that happen there! At any rate, here’s the plan. Hope it’s helpful to someone. If you want the accompanying lessons on audio, go to www.polishingthepulpit.com.  My best Bible study tips are there.

Oh…and here’s the promise: If you do this over the next year…I mean, you really do it…you will never have to wonder how to dig deep into the Bible again. You will have so many study opportunities with others and you will have so many burning questions in your own heart, that you will be driven into the Word regularly for the rest of your life. You will be a better person and heaven will be dearer to you than ever. If you make this your plan, let me know how it goes.

How to Dig Deep for the Meat… If I were just beginning to dig; a plan for my year…

• Read through the book of Genesis and write down every promise.
• Read it until you can tell its story in sequence.
• Memorize Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 12:2
• Understand that the Bible’s theme from Genesis 3:15  forth is “Redemption”.
• Go to thecolleyhouse.org, subscribe and read twice weekly this month.

• Read through the book of Exodus with your brain in search mode for comparisons between its events and our passover, the new law, the new covenant, and the new priesthood, and the sacrifice of Christ.
• Write down each old testament shadow and try to find its antitype in the NT.  Keep a list of these scriptures.
• While you are keeping the list of comparisons, look up every NT occurrence of keywords in these analogies. A sample list might be: covenant, priesthood, bulls and goats, holy place, sacrifice, tables of stone, etc…
• Memorize the ten commandments from Exodus 20.

• Study through the book “Women of the Genesis” and complete all questions in your notebook.

• Study through the book “Women of Deliverance,” keeping all notes and answers in your notebook.

• Study through the book “Women of Troubled Times,” in the same way.

• Read through the Samuels and the Kings. Be sure you know how the kingdom became divided and what caused the bondage of both kingdoms. I recommend reading these according to the Chronological chart you have been given.

March

• Read Isaiah and jot down the passages that refer to the Messiah.

• Read the gospels in chronological order. Keep a list of the parables of Christ. Beside each parable reference, write down the main lesson taught by the parable.

• Now you are to the climax of the Bible. Read through the book of Acts and make a chart similar to the following one as you encounter the passages that tell of conversions to Christianity.

• Read through the book of James with an eye to be the kind of working Christian that James is so powerfully promoting. Keep a list of ways you can plug James into your life and put these plans on your calendar. Do these things.
• Memorize James 1:5 and James 1:27
• Read Romans 12 and continue your list.  Make sure you accomplish your list.

• Read Romans 8. Memorize verses 1 and 28.
• Read I Corinthians 13. List the attributes of love and one practical way a person can exhibit each.
• Read  the book of Ephesians. List every piece of advice or command that might help a woman be a better wife.
• Read Philippians with your heart focused on rejoicing. Try to find a long list of things in which you should find joy from this great book. Include the “I am not” reasons. Look up the word“rejoice” in your lexicon.
• Memorize Titus 2:3-5 and make a refrigerator magnet with this list.

• It’s been a year. You are ready to be eating meat and be a teacher. Find someone at the beginning of this month who would like to study weekly you. If it is a non-Christian, then dig in with some evangelism method. If it is a Christian, then put your heads together and invite a non-Christian to your studies.
• Study Suggestions for a non-Christian: “Soul Survivor Guide,” “Search” DVDs, the book of Acts, “Open Bible Study,” “Crown of Creation” series.
• Study Suggestions for a Christian: Textual, “God’s Woman: Feminine or Feminist”; “Living Together in Knowledge”; “Meet My Friend David,” (all McWhorter).

Come back to PTP and tell me you did this (completely) in a year and I will be your biggest encourager. You will be a happier and better person for this life and you will be leading people to heaven. And, to spur you on, I will give you (anyone who completed this list in a year) a free Bible memorization CD  (Hannah’s Hundred) to help you internalize the word. Go be carnivorous!