Thank you so much for your site. It has been an integral part of what God has been doing in my life over the past 3 years or so. May God bless your faithfulness!
I hope you might be able to help me. I’ve been asked to lead a new Bible study group at our church. I’m very excited but also apprehensive. I’ve only just begun to really study the Bible for myself and don’t have a clue how to help others learn to do it. I want to encourage them to take the responsibility and privilege of personally examining scripture seriously without leaving them twisting in the wind. The Bible can be a little overwhelming! Can you recommend some resources or advice I can give them as we start this journey?
When I first began teaching, I would pick a Book of the Bible that I wanted to learn, look through all the commentaries at the local Bible book store until I found one I liked, and then I would study a chapter, study the commentary, and teach the chapter. Along the way, I discovered that the teaching professions have long relied on this approach to learning, and say that the best way to learn is to teach. In medical school, they call this “see one, do one, teach one” method.
The only difficulty I encountered was that for some books of the Bible it’s hard to find a commentary that follows a literal interpretation of Scripture. Fortunately (could it be God?) I discovered a group whose ministry was to provide recorded commentaries by pastors and teachers who read the Bible literally and are interested in prophecy. After that, I relied on them almost exclusively. Their web address is www.firefightersforchrist.org.