Bible Study sample booklet

cover page

general info

General Facts About the BIBLE 1. 100 Million copies are printed and sold each year. 2. Historically over 5 Billion copies have been sold or distributed. 3. It is the bestselling book every year. 4. It has been fully translated into 698 languages or dialects. 5. The New Testament has been translated into 1,548 additional languages or dialects 6. There are 1,350 Bible quotations in the works of Shakespeare 7. Arguably the most important primary source for the study of ancient history 8. Unprecedented number of Bible manuscripts in existence 9. Unprecedented time gap between historical events and the manuscripts. 10. 70 Million people (and counting) have been martyred for their faith in the Bible. 11. God says the Bible will exist forever. And did you know that Christian generally assume the Bible to be... ... the Word of God. ...the primary source material for the life of Jesus Christ. ...the essential basis for understanding the Christian Faith. ...the guidebook for Christian growth. ...the source of divine wisdom for day-to-day life. ...our necessary “Food” (Jer. 15:16) ...our necessary “Water” (Eph. 5:26) ...our necessary “Light” (Psalm 119:105) Yet, though admonished numerous times to read, study and meditate on it..

...these facts are also generally true: • Many Christians do not have a consistent daily quiet time with the Bible. • Even fewer Christians study their Bible in a serious way. • Many Christians do not have a systematic understanding of any part of the Bible. • Many Christians only teaching about the Bible comes from someone else on a Sunday. • Many Christians have a desire to know their Bible better but are unsure about how to go about it. What is the purpose of this book? This book is written with the assumption that you may be one of those people who wants to study and know the Bible a little better on your own, but are unsure of how to go about it. A lot of churches and Christian organizations teach us about the Bible and its contents but do not spend much time teaching us how to study it for ourselves. It is very kind when someone gives me a fish. It will feed me for a day or two. But if someone teaches me to fish, they feed me for a lifetime. That is what this little course of study is meant to do – take you beyond dependence on others and give you some confidence to study the Bible on your own and find blessings for your soul and help as you walk the Christian path. A few brief caveats about what this book is not meant to be. It is not meant to be an exhaustive, in-depth course on how to study the Bible. In many ways it barely begins to address the subject. It is not meant to give the impression that the methodology presented here is the best or only way to study the Bible. It is simply a suggested ap- proach that has proven helpful to the author and others through the years. 2 | STUDYING THE BIBLE

What are some of the goals of this study guide? 1. To show us that we do not have to be solely reliant on someone else to teach us about the Bible – that we can investigate it for ourselves and enjoy the blessing of God’s Spirit opening up the Word of God to us. 2. To help people gain confidence in their ability to understand the Bible for them- selves. 3. To provide personal growth and spiritual strength in our own life. 4. To help us Biblically back up and support the claims we make about our God, our faith and our manner of living. 5. To enable us to clearly pass on Biblical truths and blessings to others. 6. To introduce us to the joy of finding wonderful Bible truths on our own, thus giving us real “ownership” of the Bible’s teachings and blessings. 7. To enable us to participate intelligently and helpfully in a conversational Bible study. 8. To prepare us to coherently share Bible truths in slightly more formal settings: leading a Bible study, teaching Sunday School, Camp work, youth work and perhaps even teaching and preaching to an audience. Preliminary Practical Concerns Do we have a passion for Bible study? This is a very important initial question to ask ourselves. People excel at things they are passionate about. They will gladly expend time, effort, and resources to pursue those things and think nothing of it. Our occu- pation, our education, our sports interests, our relationships, our hobbies and pas- times; these are all things that we instinctively find time and energy for. GOALS & PRACTICAL CONCERNS | 3