{"id":188,"date":"2020-04-20T21:55:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T21:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3.14.142.208\/?p=188"},"modified":"2024-01-17T15:37:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T15:37:55","slug":"three-things-to-avoid-to-achieve-better-bible-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"Three Things to Avoid to Achieve Better Bible Study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An article entitled \u201cLearn from My Bible Reading Mistakes: How to See God in the Story of Scripture\u201d by Tara-Leigh Cobble in the October 7, 2019, Bible Engager\u2019s Blog presents three things to avoid in Bible study.&nbsp; The link is <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bible\/bible-engagers-blog\/entry\/learn-from-my-bible-reading-mistakes\">https:\/\/blog.bible\/bible-engagers-blog\/entry\/learn-from-my-bible-reading-mistakes<\/a>. Even though avoidable, it is easy to stumble into any one of these activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first thing to avoid is reading or studying to see oneself in the text.&nbsp; The Bible is not a self-help book or a \u201cto-do\u201d list or a \u201cdon\u2019t do\u201d list.&nbsp; As she writes, reading the Bible is \u201can opportunity to behold the beauty of God and be drawn in by him.\u201d&nbsp; She lists five questions to ask of the text to redirect one\u2019s focus toward God, and there are: What does God say or do in this passage?&nbsp; What does this reveal about what God loves? What does this reveal about what God hates? What does this reveal about what motivates God to do what he does?&nbsp; In all of that, what attributes of God are displayed? &nbsp;These are great questions to better see what the text says about God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing to avoid is reading or studying without reference to the context.&nbsp; To ignore the context is a recipe for disaster.&nbsp; The context is a critical part of Bible study, and so the following questions she asks of the text are great ways to focus on the context: who wrote it, when they wrote it, who they wrote it to, and what style they wrote it in. The factors that develop the authorial intent are critical to a proper understanding and interpretation of the passage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third thing to avoid is drawing conclusions too early in the process.&nbsp; She correctly points that reading just for selfish purposes is a mistake:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mistakes #1 and #2 worked together to create my biggest mistake: drawing conclusions about God before I\u2019d read the whole Bible. Since I had primarily been reading Scripture for selfish reasons, I was impatient and didn\u2019t take time to read it all. That\u2019s a dangerous approach because I didn\u2019t have all the information.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bible study is a crockpot exercise and not a microwave experience.&nbsp; It takes time, and the time it takes is worth it to accomplish careful study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her article sets out practical things to avoid that even the experienced exegete ought to keep in mind.&nbsp; It is a great article, and I recommend you read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks for taking the time to read this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article entitled \u201cLearn from My Bible Reading Mistakes: How to See God in the Story of Scripture\u201d by Tara-Leigh Cobble in the October 7, 2019, Bible Engager\u2019s Blog presents three things to avoid in Bible study.&nbsp; The link is https:\/\/blog.bible\/bible-engagers-blog\/entry\/learn-from-my-bible-reading-mistakes. Even though avoidable, it is easy to stumble into any one of these activities. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebelsheim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}