Bible Study ~ the mistakes I’ve made

Y’all know I am passionate about herbs. But today I wanted to talk about another passion I have….studying the Word!

I didn’t always feel passionate about studying the Word. I wanted to share some mistakes I made in how I studied the Word in the past. I’d like to share what tools I use now and what I do differently that evokes this passionate excitement . Please be patient as I try to be very real and open my heart.

I became a believer in 1979. I studied the Word the way most believers did.  I “read” the Word.  I attended church and was deeply involved in different ministries in the church. I attended bible studies of all sorts.  I did studies by Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, John Piper, Joni, Sproul, and many other “names”. I did ladies’ studies, couples’ studies, devotional studies, Wed. night studies.  I read all the right books.  I’m a voracious reader…give me a book and you’re a friend for life!

I’ve had excellent teachers who devoted hours to preparation and disinterested teachers who were just as lost as I was when it came to studying the scriptures.

I enjoyed some, endured some and life went on. I learned a lot…or, thought I did. Studying the Word was not something that I was passionate about.  It was something I did because I was supposed to. I enjoyed it sometimes and sometimes it was just another thing to check off my list at the end of the day. (ouch!)

As I look back at the bibles I’ve filled with notes over the last few decades, I find that the majority of my notes are in the New Testament – the “back of the book”.  Outside of the traditional stories (Esther, Abraham, David, Noah, and a few others) and Psalms and Proverbs – there were practically no notes in the “front of the book.” Most of my pastors and bible study leaders spent little time teaching from the Old Testament.

I let my pastors, bible study teachers, commentaries, study books, other books, friends and the “helpful” notes at the bottom of each page in my bible tell me what the difficult (and not so difficult) passages meant.  I was not the Berean I should have been. (ouch again…)

In the past, I did not take into account the culture of the time period I was studying, the idioms of that time, or the politics and history of that time. I looked at things from the perspective of our culture today. That certainly muddied the waters!

I let myself, and others, be the dictionary for the words I studied. I did not let scripture interpret itself.

I did not keep in mind that when someone referred to “the scripture” in the New Testament…they were referring to the Old Testament.  The Old Testament was the only scripture they had at that time.

I didn’t ask important questions…who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? (The answer to that can completely change the meaning of a passage!) Where is this happening? I should have remembered the questions all good reporters are supposed to ask; who, what, when, where, why and sometimes how. If I had asked those questions as I studied, many things would have been made clear!

I paid attention to chapter and verse endings.  I stopped when I should have kept reading. Those numbers weren’t in the original documents.  When you get a letter do you only read half at a time?  Or a few paragraphs? Sometimes, what comes next completely changes the context of where you stopped.

And lastly, I skipped over difficult passages.  When I didn’t understand something I just blew past it knowing that my pastor would make it clear if it was important or I could ask the current leader of whatever Bible study I was in at the time. If I remembered to. Trouble was, they usually didn’t know or told me maybe it was just one of those “now we see through a glass darkly” passages.

Bible study became dull.

I listened to people talk about how much they loved studying the Bible, how rewarding and fulfilling it was and I wondered what I was missing. Were they kidding? Were they really as confused as I was but didn’t want to admit it? I just didn’t get it.  Much of it did not seem applicable in my life.

I still struggled through.  I read more books that promised to “make the Bible come alive” than you could count on all your fingers and toes. I wanted more.  I wanted more of Him.  I wanted to know Him intimately and from what I could tell, that was supposed to happen as I read His word and prayed.

It wasn’t happening.

I never gave up.

But it was going to take something outside of myself to get me on the right path….