life of faith

last week, i had an informal bible study session with sarah. after our last meetup when she suggested imparting her skills, i made a new bible study shifu and became a curious disciple. using her bible teaching materials, she taught me some bible study methods like color-coding. with color pencils, we highlighted different words from the text. it was quite a feat as we went through the book of titus. the whole session was 4 hours at her place and we only managed to finish the first chapter, after some introduction. wow.. this is hard work! my homework is to finish the other 2 chapters before meeting up with her again soon. i see the rewards of going deeper into the word, and allowing the word to speak just as it was intended to. looking forward to learning more about inductive bible study and to pass on these skills to my group :) it is exciting to be able to receive from reading the word!

3 basic steps of bible study (summarised from what i learnt):

1. Observation: what is written in the text? look for clues such as repeated words/phrases, who, time element, verb, where, constrasting ideas, comparisons, commands, connectives, conditional statements, lists, emphatic statements (statements that emphasize something), and the ‘how’ (way something is achieved).

2. Interpretation: what does this mean to the original reader? study, research on the historical background to understand the observations.

3. Application: what does this mean to me? how can i apply this knowledge to my life? this is the goal of bible study, not to gain knowledge but to know how to apply it practically.

Ephesians 1:18 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”

let our spiritual eyes be open to the truth that is found in His word!