Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (7 page)
Read Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set Online
Authors: Howard G. Hendricks,William D. Hendricks
Tags: #Religion, #Christian Life, #Spiritual Growth, #Biblical Reference, #General
EEP
G
OING INTO
A
PPLICATION
Observation and Interpretation lead to the third step in the process, the crucial step of Application. In application you ask and answer the question,
How does it work?
Again, not does it work, but how does it work? There are two areas to consider.
That can be a very convicting question. As George, the adult Sunday school teacher, told us in chapter 1, it’s so easy to study the Bible and say, “Oh, wow! That’s just what my class needs. Man, I can hardly wait to get there and tell it to them.” But by taking that approach, it is possible to ignore the more personal question, What does this have to say to me? How would this work in my life? Because if it isn’t working in my life, then what authority do I have to share it with someone else? I have a credibility gap.
Of course, the Bible does have implications for others. And it is legitimate to ask, How would this transform their life? How would it affect their marriage and family? Their school life, if they are a student? Their occupation, if they are in the work world? How can I effectively communicate biblical truth to others? I’ll point out some ways to make application of the Scriptures to people in your sphere of influence.
LWAYS
K
EEP THE
B
IG
P
ICTURE
That is an overview of where we are going and how we’re going to get there. Every time you come to a portion of God’s Word, approach it in terms of the big picture:
Observation: What do I see?
Interpretation: What does it mean?
Application: How does it work?
That’s the destination. Let’s get started on the exciting journey.
INDING
Y
OUR
W
AY
A
ROUND THE
B
IBLE
H
ave you ever felt lost when a preacher or Bible teacher told you to turn to a particular passage of Scripture? Maybe it was in one of those odd-sounding Old Testament books, such as Nahum, Zephaniah, or Haggai. You fumbled around for a while, trying to act like you knew where to go. Eventually you turned to the table of contents and looked it up. But by the time you got to the indicated passage, the speaker had moved on, and you were lost once again.
Not knowing how to find a passage of Scripture can be as frustrating as wandering down a country road with no map. But there are two ways to overcome this problem.
That’s not as hard as you may think. Look at the sixty-six books listed by categories on page 29. It’s easier to memorize them by groups, and you can do it in just a couple of weeks’ time.
A Scripture reference is like an address. It tells you where the verse “lives” in the Bible. It’s better than a page number because different versions of the Bible place the text on different pages.
By way of illustration, consider the reference, John 8:32. It is read, “John eight thirty-two.” “John” is the name of the book, the gospel by John in the New Testament. The “8” refers to the eighth chapter in the book. The verse number is “32.” That’s all there is to it.
Or consider 1 Corinthians 4:2. It is read “First Corinthians four two.” (Some church traditions call it “One Corinthians four two.”) The book is 1 Corinthians, “4” is the chapter, and “2” is the verse.
Occasionally you might come across a reference such as John viii.32 or St. John viii.32, using Roman numerals for the chapters, and a period rather than a colon to separate chapter and verse. That’s an older form of referencing, found particularly among works published in Europe. But the system is the same.
For multiple verses, you will find a hyphen connecting the first and last verses, in the reference. John 8:32–42 indicates the section of John 8 from verse 32 through verse 42. If there are only two verses involved, the writer will separate them with a comma, as in John 8:32, 42. He may also separate two consecutive verses with a comma rather than a hyphen, as in John 8:32, 33.
A reference may also indicate a section that spans two or more chapters. If you see John 8:32–9:12, it means the section beginning at verse 32 of John 8, and continuing through verse 12 of John 9. If the reference is to entire chapters and there is no need to indicate verse numbers, you might see something like John 8–9.
Suppose, however, that the reference is to a book with only one chapter, such as Obadiah, Philemon, or Jude. In that case, the reference mentions only the book name and verse number. For instance, Philemon 21 refers to the twenty-first verse of Philemon.
Sometimes a writer may want to indicate only part of a verse, rather than the whole. In that case he may use a lowercase a or b (or sometimes even a c if the verse is lengthy) to further specify the reference. Romans 12:1a, for instance, refers to the first half of Romans 12:1. Isaiah 40:8b refers to the second half of that verse.
What about multiple references, indicating more than one passage? Conventions vary, but a common one is to show a list of references in the order in which they appear in the Bible, separated by semi-colons, and to show book names only once. For example: Genesis 3:17–19; Psalm 8:3–8; Ecclesiastes 3:12–13; 5:18; Ephesians 4:28; 6:5–9; and Colossians 3:22–4:1.
One final note: When referring to a particular chapter in Psalms, use the singular, “psalm,” as in Psalm 23—not Psalms 23. The book of Psalms is a collection of psalms (plural); each individual chapter is
a
psalm (singular).
TEP
1
O
BSERVATION
What do I see?
HE
V
ALUE OF
O
BSERVATION
T
he first step in Bible study is Observation, where we ask and answer the question,
What do I see?
When the psalmist prayed, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law” (Psalm 119:18), he was praying for the powers of observation. He was asking the Spirit of God to tear the bandages from his eyes so that he might see with sight and insight into the truth that God had revealed.
What makes one person a better Bible student than another? He can see more. That’s all. The same truth is available to both of them in the text. The only difference between them is what either one can see in a cubic foot of space.
Have you ever gone to a Bible study or heard a message preached in a local church on a passage that you have read and studied—maybe even taught—but afterward you wondered, “Are we studying the same passage?” You were forced to ask, “Why can that person see more than I do? Why have they gotten so much more out of that passage?”
The difference between you and the other person is the difference that Sherlock Holmes was fond of pointing out: “You see, but you do not
observe
.”
The ability to observe is a developed process. Louis Agassiz, the renowned nineteenth-century naturalist of Harvard, was asked on one occasion, “What was your greatest contribution, scientifically?”
His answer: “I have taught men and women to observe.”
And he used a fascinating process to do that. He would place a malodorous fish on a dissecting tray, stick it beneath the nose of a freshman, and command, “Observe this specimen, and write down everything you see.”
The student would start out enthusiastically, writing down twenty or thirty things. Meanwhile, the professor would disappear until the next day, when upon returning he would ask, “How are you doing?”
“Oh, I saw thirty-seven things,” the student would boast.
“Wonderful!” the master teacher would cry. “Continue to observe.”
And the student would think,
Man, I’ve seen everything there is to see on that fish!
But since the professor told him to keep at it, he’d go back and look some more.
This process would continue for two weeks. Nothing but looking at the fish. You see, the genius of the professor was his awareness that the basis of scientific inquiry is the process of observing. And the same is true for good Bible study.
In the pages that follow, I’m going to give you a number of pointers on how you can boost your powers of observation when you read Scripture. I’m also going to give you plenty of opportunities to test your skills on various portions of the Word. But for now, here’s a little exercise to make the point that seeing is not the same as observing. Answer the following questions from memory. Then go find out whether your perceptions are correct:
1. | Think of a stairway or the steps to a building that you use regularly. How many steps are there? |
2. | How many stoplights do you pass on your way to work? |
3. | Which of the following inscriptions is not found on the back side of a dollar bill? |
(a) | In God We Trust |
(b) | annuit coeptis |
(c) | The Department of the Treasury, 1789 |
(d) | e pluribus unum |
W
ithout lifting your pen from the paper, draw four straight, connected lines that go through each dot only once. After you’ve tried two different ways, consider what restrictions you might be setting up for yourself in solving this problem.
H
ow many squares do you see below?
