Lesson 1, Why Bible Study? To Encounter God.

Studying the Bible Invites God's Presence into our Life. In my bedroom, I spent an enormous amount of time in bible study. I read through the text repeatedly to learn all the strange terminology. I marked passages, memorized verses, and looked up theological terms.

When I first started to study the Bible, I didn't notice anything special about this ancient book. In fact, I probably wouldn't have spent as much time reading it had I not been sidelined by an incurable autoimmune disease, MyAsthenia Gravis. I simply mumbled through the pages in frustration because many of the Scriptures seemed to promise healing. I begged God, "Here I am Lord, heal me!" I laid on my face quoting bible passages desperate for good health. I had no one else who could help me but God. I had to depend on Him to survive.

The more I aligned my life according the text the more I sensed the real living God behind it. I'll try to describe this type of encounter. Have you ever had an eerie feeling that someone was watching you when you were all alone? Many can relate. Experiencing the Presence of God feels exactly the opposite. You sense that Someone is there but you sense an overwhelming feeling of peace, love, and joy. I experienced this peace whenever two youth prayed for me and God touched my eyes. He didn't completely heal me of MG, but my eye ball drifted back to normal.

In my bible study classes, I learned about all the different biblical criticisms. I didn't have all the answers about the Scriptures, but God had revealed Himself to me enough times that my view of His Word would never change. I bonded with God many times with my Bible open. In the prayer rooms, I'd lay on my face praying through relevant bible verses. God's Presence would comfort me in my distress. When my eyes burned and double vision plagued me, I'd listen to the Bible on tape. I still don't have all the answers in the debate over the Word of God, but its text has become a part of who I am.

Some people try to study the Bible a few times, feel intimidated at its jargon, and then conclude that it's only a human book -- lacking divine inspiration. Others have been hurt by bible bashers. If someone has hurt you and tried to justify it with the the biblical text, that person has more than likely misrepresented the Scriptures. I challenge you to dedicate time each day to try and encounter God through the sacred text. If you take the Bible seriously, in time the Holy Spirit will break into your world.

Lesson 2, Why Bible Study? To Hear God

Studying the Bible Invites God's Voice into Our Life. Some contend God only speaks through the Bible. In the biblical text God speaks the loudest, but He has a history of speaking directly into peoples' lives. The closer our life aligns with the Scriptures the clearer God speaks. 


When I mention hearing God, I don't mean an audible voice. Oftentimes it's nothing more than an inner prompting. Have you ever traveled down the road when Someone shouts into your spirit, "DON'T GO!" Nobody spoke to you audibly, but somehow the internal voice persuaded you to turn the car around. Ever rebel against this prompting and pay some serious consequences?

How would you explain this to a friend without sounding crazy? This type of phenomenon happens all the time when God tries to speak to us. Many times His gentle voice passes us by undetected, disguised as intuition. I doubt that too many of us have actually heard the literal voice of God. I haven't. At some point, however, the Living God has probably tried to speak into all our lives about salvation.

The Holy Spirit convicts humanity of sin (John 16:8). "When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment" (NIV). As the Ultimate Evangelist, He wants us to have an intimate relationship with the Father. His gentle voice speaks truth into our hearts. We know when we've done wrong. He informs our conscience. He also reaches out to us through the biblical text.

God the Father watches to see how we'll respond to His word. Why should He bother speaking to us about life decisions if we don't take the smaller details of Scripture seriously? The more that we shape our lives within the guidelines of the sacred text the more our Father takes note of our genuine faith. Then His voice penetrates our life.

We need to dedicate time for bible study, so that we can make right choices. To take the Bible serious is to invite God's voice into our world. How can we do this without knocking the dust off the Word of God and dedicating time each day to apply it to our life? Some of my future blogs will train laypeople to more adequately interpret Scripture, so that they create opportunities for God to speak into their life.

Lesson 3, Why Bible Study? To Love God

Studying the Bible Teaches Us How to Love God. As the congregation sang Just As I Am, I moved toward the front to pray. The heavens didn't open, but I knew that something inside of me had changed. My love for God began that day. It would grow rapidly in time as I learned to love Him sacrificially. 

Love requires sacrifice. God demonstrated His love for us through the sacrifice of His Son (John 3:16). We express mutual love for Him each time we put sin out of our life. John declared that those who love God obey His commandments.  "This is love for God to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).

In the same way husbands freely choose to love their wives, Christians freely choose to love God. Men may joke before a wedding about the "old ball and chain" but they know that a healthy marriage requires hard work on their part and likewise for the ladies. Spouses demonstrate their love for one another when they live inside biblical boundaries. True love costs us much effort but pays rich dividends.

When we strive to obey God's precepts in the sacred text, we demonstrate our love for Him. Jesus didn't mean that we should beat ourselves over the head with a book of rules. That's not the nature of relationships nor should it be our mindset when we approach the Scriptures. We do, however, need to study the Bible to better understand its general guidelines for expressing sacrificial love.

The Scriptures teach us how to love God. Christians in a vibrant relationship with God would never use "ball and chain" language to describe their willing surrender to the Scriptures. We should eagerly study the Bible, so that our relationship with the Living God flourishes as we learn how to love our Father with all our heart, mind, and soul.

Lesson 4, Why Bible Study? To Petition God

Studying the Bible Teaches Us How to Petition God. Jesus teaches the disciples to pray. "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation'" (Luke 11:2-4). 


Jesus, the Living Word, offered a prayer according to God's plan.  Studying the Bible guides our prayer life as well. Have you ever heard skilled pastors quote scriptures from the pulpit? They spend hours pouring through bible verses and can mentally retrieve them on the spot. Similarly, laypeople can utilize Scripture to intercede within the will of God. Such powerful prayers penetrate the heavens. 

John 5:14-15 states, "If we ask anything according to his [God's] will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" (NIV). The Lord's Prayer provides clues on how we can pray in God's will. Here Jesus reveals that the Father desires to forgive us of our sins as we forgive others. Thus, if we pray "God, help me to forgive this person," He will hear and answer our prayer.

Like Jesus, Paul understood praying to advance the kingdom. He prays for the Holy Spirit to increase the Philippians' spiritual knowledge, so that eventually they will stand before God blameless in Christ (Phil.1:8-11). He intercedes for them from a Roman prison unsure whether the emperor would kill him or not. If death awaited him, he desperately wanted the Spirit of God to empower this fledgling church to overcome temptation without Paul's physical presence.

Jesus also wants us to petition the Holy Spirit to transform our life as we pray through bible verses from our hearts. An in depth study of the text instills this ability in us. We probably should write down Scriptures on note cards, memorize them, and use them while we pray. It's not a hopeless cause if we choose not to, because we can always pray with our Bibles open. Both Jesus' and Paul's prayer unlock only a few examples of how the Scriptures can equip us to pray. Bible study awaits!

Lesson 5, Why Bible Study? To Worship God

Studying the Bible Teaches Us How to Worship God. David praised the Creator from the depths of his heart. He penned many of his words in the genre of Hebrew poetry, the Psalms. He transformed these poems into songs whenever he played musical instruments to his lyrics. 


Young David played the harp for King Saul. On some occasions his music relieved Saul's troubled spirit, but on others the wicked king hurled a spear at David. (1 Samuel 19:19). Later Saul would relentlessly pursue the life of this young man. In the chase, David emptied his heart to the Creator. Life events caused words to well up in his soul. His story rose before the Father in song.   

"The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears" (Psalm 18:4-6).

David worshiped God fleeing from Saul in the cave. "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me" (Psalm 57:1-2). The life of this young shepherd illustrates for us how to worship the Father. When trouble overwhelmed him, words flowed from his heart into God's ears.

Have you ever needed to express yourself to God yet didn't have the right words? I have. Filling my mind with the Psalms has helped me connect with God countless times. Like David, our words should rise before the LORD as a living song. Our Father waits for us to bring our song to Him. Studying the Bible equips us to express more effectively our life stories to God in worship.

Lesson 6, Why Bible Study? To Serve God

Studying the Bible Enables Us to Better Serve God. "You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor. 3:3).


Our lives are living letters from Christ to the world. When we live the Scriptures, we serve God by making His Word come to life in front of others. For example, the Bible says not to gossip. By not gossiping, we become a living letter. Christians can memorize the entire Bible but if they don't live it in public, why bother study it? After all, it's not about how much we know. It's about putting into practice what we presently know.

Sharing the Gospel terrified me whenever I first became a Christian. One scripture echoed through my mind, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven" (Matt. 10:32-34). I thought that if I didn't go door to door passing out bible tracts, Jesus would deny me before the Father. Studying the Bible transformed my life into a living tract.

The Holy Spirit changed my heart as I applied the biblical text to my life.  As a new convert, my friends  noticed that I had I stopped cussing and drinking. I put more "baggage" out of my life each time I read the Scriptures. Something else happened. My heart began to change from fear of sharing the Gospel to naturally speaking about God to others. Not every single conversation I had centered on God, but many of them did. I couldn't help talking about God. 

Studying the Bible creates opportunity for us to serve God. It leads to living the Gospel. We must, however, give people space and respect whatever their choice. God didn't force us to choose Him; neither should we be so aggressive that people turn away in disgust. Do others want what we have? Do we have faith during trials? Do we love the unlovable? Do we guard our tongues from evil? Our lifestyles either lead others to Christ or turn them against Him. 

Lesson 7, Why Bible Study? To Battle Satan

Studying the Bible Enables Us to Battle Satan. In Matthew 4:1-10, Satan tries to persuade the physically exhausted Savior to eat during a fast, to jump of the temple, and to worship him instead of God. The devil attacks Jesus in his moment of weakness.


Jesus had prepared for this moment all of His life. As a twelve year old boy, He intrigued the Jewish rabbis with His knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures (Luke 2:46-47). He studied the Bible twenty years before squaring off with Satan in the wilderness. After all, His nemesis could quote Scripture too. Jesus fired off from memory the appropriate bible verses to counter the devil's misuse of the text.  

In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis warns people to avoid to equal errors: 1) an unhealthy interest in Satan and 2) a disbelief in his existence (Lewis, 15). The devil pounces on spiritual people and remains elusive to materialists. Existing for thousands of years, he's the chief warrior of inflicting misery. He wants to crush our relationships with our families, our friends, and most of all our God. He crafts lies to stir up hatred, fear, and confusion.

Charles Spurgeon, a famous British preacher of the 1800s, wrote an incredible sermon on the garden of Gethsemane where he staged a hypothetical encounter between the Savior and His nemesis. He paints Satan whispering into Jesus' ear, "I already have Judas. I'll sink my claws into Peter next." Doesn't it make sense for Satan to aim right at Jesus' heart, His future church? Jesus, however, resisted and angels attended Him (Luke 2:44).

Studying the Bible allows us to engage in battle with Satan like Jesus did. A surface study of the biblical text isn't enough to beat the enemy's mind games. He cloaks his lies in proof-texted Scripture. We need to rebuke the him with appropriate bible verses. We should prepare for his attack before he lunges at us in our weakest moments. 1 Peter 5:8 states, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Sharpen Your Sword Today!