Bible study is not about getting head knowledge. While head knowledge is good, effective Bible study is also focused on application. Effective Bible study is about transformation through the renewing of your mind. Do you earnestly seek God’s transformation? If yes, you have the most powerful ally in the person of the Holy Spirit.
So, let’s apply what you learned this week in dissecting Psalm 23:1(a). Based on the answers you generated for “The Lord is my shepherd” this week, please answer the following 4 questions:
- What are the qualities of God that have been illuminated or reinforced?
- What have you learned about yourself?
- How do you feel about having the Lord as your shepherd?
- What are you going to do differently (e.g., change in attitude, actions or sharing with someone else)?
This concludes our week-long focus on Bible Study. Next week our basic discipline will be Prayer. Of course you should continue to build on practicing the discipline of Bible Study. Thank you very much for participating this week. And by the way, it is not too late to add your comments to the blog – even for past postings.
March 15, 2014 at 9:29 pm
God is always there for us, but sometimes we try to do things our way. I feel that internal peace knowing that someone is looking over me 24/7/365. The change that I need is to consistently submit to my God in all areas of my life. My God is not a part time God. I have to also expand my view of Submission ,NOT only to get back on track with my spiritual life, BUT also to use my gifts and talents to glorify HIM.
March 19, 2014 at 3:47 am
I had a frustrating start to the morning’s session when I accidentally erased all of the notes I had taken on the subject of bible study, yes, for the entire week, irreversibly. And I thought some were pretty profound! So, puzzled, I asked, “Lord, why would you allow this to happen?”, after which, in consciously not wanting to accept defeat, I started trying to recollect the snippets of revelation I had recorded. I ended up with truths in my mind rather than on ‘paper’ (iPhone), and realized that perhaps therein I’d found the answer to my question.
Application is transformation, the renewing of our MINDs. Let’s be careful to see notes and study with that goal in mind, and to that end, and not as an end unto itself.
I ended up summarising the application of the truths I’d discovered, regarding i) His essence, and ii) my right response, in a curious reversal of the verse, which I can take with me anywhere… ‘The Shepherd’ is ‘my Lord’. Ponder that if you will.