In Part 1: of Hearing God’s voice: Wisdom for long life in business, we studied Proverbs 28:2.

When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.

We discussed how man can only receive this lasting understanding and knowledge from the Lord God. This knowledge is received as we come to know the Lord through a personal relationship with Him. How do we get to know God? Will we be waiting for a voice, a vision, or some physical manifestation? Maybe, but that is extremely rare. We find out about God by finding out what he says to us in his written word; the Bible.

This is no new revelation. Many people start reading the Bible with great intentions to conquer this “enigmatic” book. We may make it a few pages, a few chapters, or even a few books into the Bible but it quickly returns to our shelves, not to be picked up until our next New Year’s resolution, or time of trouble.

The Bible though, is actually an exciting book! It isn’t just a book of rules; it is a “Cliff’s Notes’ adventure book” of the history of God’s people. I’m not just talking about the Jewish people. The promises of God to the Gentiles are also included - which includes all the rest of us.

If we are to heed God’s calling on our lives, we need to find out what that is. To set us up for success for our pursuit of a relationship with our God, consider the following suggestions for our Bible Studies.

Gather the best Bible study tools:

• Get an understandable (i.e. modern) translation of the Bible - I am not sure why we still think that 400 years ago people had the best understanding of the Bible, ever. True, there are some translations that are better than others, but they each have different purposes. I firmly believe that God has allowed certain translations to become more popular because they are closest to what God intended - not because they were the most heavily marketed.
• Get e-sword - http://E-sword.net provides absolutely free Bible study software. I am quite serious in saying it is the most complete software package ever created, and it is designed so others can create resources to work with the program. There are tons of translations, commentaries, integrated maps, dictionaries, a personal study note editor, and much, much more. If you have a computer, you need to pick up a copy. The creator of this does e-sword full-time, and does not charge a dime for it - what a blessing. Of course, if you wish to make a donation, I am sure Rick Meyers would gladly accept it.
• Get an audio Bible - “What, I didn’t know we could do that?” Sure you can! I had an acquaintance not long back that said, “Listening to the Bible on CD - that just doesn’t feel right.” How do we think the Bible was able to be put on paper? People passed the stories down from generation to generation. We need to shake off the bondage of tradition - Jesus spoke often of the dangers of allowing the traditions of men to replace God’s will.

  If we truly want to immerse ourselves in God’s word, we can take advantage of time on our commute to work, when working out, or any place where we may not conveniently bring our hard copy of the Word

  There are several versions on-line, but it may be easiest to pick up Zondervan’s NIV on audio. They even have it on MP3 now, for our Ipods (or whatever)

Study God’s word with purpose:

• Read the word daily - Seriously, this will make an enormous difference in our relationship with God. This should one of the most important things we do. I am not saying we should read the word for hours at at time (although an occasional day dedicated to the word is great!), but we should set aside a few minutes a day where we are completely uninterrupted. Even with the most active of children, and the busiest of lifestyles, it is possible. There are millions of people before us who had more trying circumstances than us who have found time for God - he finds time for us, right?
• Read for depth, not breadth - I used to be a “mileage” reader of the word. I wanted to read the whole thing. I would say, “I read the whole book of I Peter today, or I read the 12 chapters of Leviticus (aren’t I a great Christian!). God wants us to drill down deep into his word to get the full meaning of it. People who have been Christians 70 years, and have read the word every day, still receive fresh revelation from the Bible’s pages. Try limiting yourself to one chapter a day. Read through once for comprehension, but do not get tied to the purpose of finishing the chapter. If there is something you do not understand, mark it and come back. Yes, write in your Bible - it helps! The reason why I say to come back is that the answer may occur in the following verses. Some answers come from knowing more about the entirety of the Bible, so we may need to do a bit of research into this. Once we start to read smaller amounts, God’s word will come alive for us. After some time, we may even shrink back from full chapters. Simply meditating on the meaning of a particular verse may be more than enough for one day.

Get some feedback from our understanding of the Bible:

It is always nice to know we are on the right track. The best way to “work out our faith” (Philippians 2: 11-13) is to share what we are given through reading God’s word.
• Join a Bible study Group - Asking God to help lead us to a Bible study group will greatly increase our knowledge of the Lord, as each member may contribute God’s gifts.
• Consult online resources

There are several ministries; one of them being http://gotquestions.org where various ministers and laypersons combine knowledge of the Lord to help us with our questions regarding the Bible.

There are also several ministries that go through the entire bible with a Bible study format. Both allow free downloads of their studies.

The first is J. Vernon Magee at http://thruthebible.org. The Late J Vernon Magee was extremely gifted in knowledge of God’s Word (and had quite a bit of spunk). Some of the examples may seem a bit dated (some current events are actually from the 1970s), but remember that mankind has been screwing up the same things for our entire history - Magee’s applications are all still highly relevant.

The second is John Hunt at http://www.audiobiblestudy.org. He has led a bible study out of his home for many years now, and has a fresh approach to the word.

And of course, I reiterate the gread FREE software - E-sword has a ton of great commentaries and study guides for free download. You don’t even give them your email. It’s just free - take it!

Categories: Wisdom
Tags: