Monday, January 7, 2013

Don't Just Read Your Bible, Study It!

So this is the New Year. And I am seven days late in writing a post.

Nevertheless! Some good news is that this past week has been busy with goal-setting and a more sustainable action-plan for this year. More on that later. On to a more impromptu post!

Today was my first day of being back inside a classroom. It was exciting, meeting new people and navigating a new environment. Something that got me thinking was how closely we can connect our school readings to Bible reading.

I will make these connections via suggestions my professors said today...

Read ahead of time
School readings for a class prepares you to participate in discussion and collaborate on ideas. Each week my pastor sends out emails that highlight what verse we will be studying that Sunday. Coming prepared having read your Bible will do a number of positive things; allows you to meditate and pray, raise questions that may be clarified during the sermon, gain insight from a different perspective.

Use tabs 
Our professor advised us to use tabs in our Writing Style handbooks, insofar as saying that "a handbook with tabs is a true mark of a Humber grad." When was the last time we tabbed scripture pages we've read, come back to them for reference, noted their significance?

Sharing is caring
Textbooks are expensive! That's why having classmates that share reading material with you is an edge on saving while learning. Similarly, be ready to share your Bible with a person next to you who doesn't on a Sunday morning.

Discussion questions
Think about what you just read, meditate on it. At the end of each chapter in a textbook, there are often questions to probe whether you've learned the material. Similarly, there are questions you can ask yourself following a message to gauge whether you've learned something. Questions I ask after reading scripture include, What is the text saying about me? and Where is the gospel in this text?


I think that when we apply the traits of a student to our spiritual development, we do see a progression in our spiritual maturity. The apostle Paul agreed: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  (2 Timothy 2:15, King James Version)

No comments:

Post a Comment