Today’s study tip doesn’t have much to do with the studying itself, but everything to do with its effectiveness. Before you open your Bible or notebook, take a few moments to walk through these questions in preparation.

1. Why am I studying?
Habit – I admit, this is often my reason. I read and study every day.
Obligation – Sometimes this one gets me, too. I teach, so I have to study.
Vindication – Ever want to win an argument or prove a point?
Need – I believe the best studying happens when it comes from a need to be with God, the spiritual equivalent of sitting with Him and hearing His stories, His advice, His comfort.

2. Am I prepared?
Clear the mind of distractions. Pray for the Holy Spirit to do the teaching. If necessary, use music to help make the transition to study time.

3.  Am I ready to hear what God has to tell me?
Sometimes, God has to deliver a challenge, a reproof or even a rebuke through His word.

4. Am I ready to change?
God’s ultimate goal is conforming us to the image of His Son. I need to be ready and willing to change my actions, attitude or thinking based on what He shows me. That may involve giving up long-held, tightly-grasped, ingrained notions.

After you study, before closing up, take a moment for review.
What did God teach me?
It helps me to write these down, and I refer back to them often. (Usually when I have to learn the same lesson again.)

Who else may need to know this?
God places us in the body of Christ for a reason, and we are instructed to comfort others with the comfort we have received.

Finally, don’t forget to thank God for revealing Himself once again.

In last week’s study tip we looked at the benefits of a fly-over, that is a quick overview read-through. It helps us become familiar with the layout, the major themes, and the key people or events. Today we’ll take a little closer look in a drive-by.

Imagine you want to buy a new house, and you’ve scoured the weekend papers, and circled all the possibilities in red. Your next step in the search will be cruising the neighborhoods with a lingering look at each prospect. This is the kind of Scriptural drive-by we’re working toward, not the zipping down the highway kind, but the slow, stalker-ish kind of look. And since we’re driving by so slowly, we’re not going to cover a lot of ground, so we’ll limit this kind of examination to the chapter.

Here are the steps to a drive-by.
1. Read the chapter straight through as a unified whole. Don’t necessarily look at the divisions or headings if your Bible has them. Just read like you’d read any other writing.
2. What are your first impressions? Is this a story or is it more informational?
If it’s a story, what happens? Were you surprised by the events? Did it ‘end’ or do you need to keep reading to get to the end?
If it’s informational, what’s the tone? A rebuke, or encouragement? Maybe it’s instructional.
3. If you’re a note-taker, write down a summary statement or a chapter title. This goes a long way toward helping you remember what the chapter is about.

Next week, we’ll get out of this metaphorical car and walk around a bit.

I am back from the most unique vacation I have ever been on. I went to the beach. (My favorite place- Any beach will do as long as there is sun, sand and ocean.) But I went alone. No computer, and absolutely nothing I ‘needed’ to work on. Just me, some books I’d been wanting to read, my Bible and my notebook (and my cell phone- I can’t be totally gadget free).

Jon suggested the vacation, not just because I needed a break from my routine, but because I’m at a critical spot in my faith. God and I are wrestling through some major issues (I suppose, in truth, I’m the only one wrestling. He’s waiting for me to get it.) I feel like the father in Mark 9:24 who cries out to Jesus in desperation over his demon-possessed son, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” I know there are gaps in my faith, but I want a deep, intimate, intense relationship with God. So I went away with God.

I was ready for a Damascus Road experience with God. In fact, I walked out to the beach when I arrived and said, “God, what do You want to tell me?” He said two things. (Now when I say ‘God said’, I don’t mean I heard Him with my ears. What I got was a distinct, fresh thought in my mind.) God said, “You are worthy because I chose you.” I’ve got a lot of emotional baggage and struggle with self-worth issues. God knows this and He wants me to understand my worthiness rests with Him, and not me. Because of that, nothing I do (or don’t do) can change my worth. He imputes that worth to me just as sure as He gives righteousness and salvation.

The second thing came as I watched a mother hold her little boy’s hands, helping him jump over the incoming waves. God said, “I will not stop the waves, but I will never let go of your hand.” He knows that any time I read His word, especially in Psalms that the descriptions of waves or floods always mean some of this emotional turmoil I battle on occasion. Apparently, the battle will never end this side of heaven, but He will never abandon me, never leave me to fight for myself, never let me be swept under.

Those were two powerful statements for me. Then God didn’t speak again for six days… But I’ll save that story for another post.

The ultimate purpose of Bible study is to deepen our relationship with the God who reveals Himself in its pages. He promises us ‘you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.’ (Jeremiah 29:13) It will increase our wonder and our worship of our God ‘who called you out of darkness into His glorious light’. (1 Peter 2:9)

So with each passage, each you study, ask yourself what it reveals about God or His ways. In the two quick examples I cited, we find out that God encourages us to seek Him and promises to honor every sincere search. He wants us to know Him. Ponder that for a moment or two. God… wants me to know Him… challenges me to… How could I refuse an invitation like that? How could I slack off on Bible study when God is effectively asking me to sit down with Him?

That phrase from 2 Peter gives us the gospel. God called us. He didn’t move us Himself. He called and we had to respond, but when we did, everything changed as much as it could possibly change. From darkness into light, and not just any light, His glorious light! God wants us to join Him in that light, so He calls us. How could you not love a God like that?

One more example- This one is a little more obscure. I was reading in 2 Kings this morning and hit this verse in chapter 17. “And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.” The context is that Assyria has taken the northern kingdom into captivity and repopulated the land with people from all over their empire. These folks brought their religion with them, and when they practiced it in the Promised Land, lions came and attacked them. What does that tell you about God? Mess up church and you’ll get eaten? Maybe. I think the Old Testament consistently reveals God’s character. In this odd verse, we see that He takes assaults on His holiness very seriously. The people failed to revere Him alone, and He brought swift judgment. Thankfully for us, His grace often delays that judgment, but He has that right.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to makes notes about all these observations in your notebook.

This tip may be a little obvious, but I’ll mention it anyway. Use a notebook. I don’t remember everything – and less all the time – so my notebook is essential to my studying. I’ve kept a study notebook at least since I was in college. Sometimes I enjoy going back to see how my insights have grown over these “few” years since my college days. (20 is a few, right?)

What should you write in your notebook? It’s your notebook. Write whatever you want. Here are a few ideas.
I make it a point to write the passage and the date. Then I go verse by verse and write my own questions, or comments.

Here’s an excerpt from my notebook: January 22, 1995 Galatians 5:1-26
v.1 This is not freedom to sin but freedom from sin and its eternal penalty
v.2 To say circumcision is necessary for salvation denies the faith that God requires…

I also keep a running list on my computer of some topics I’m chasing. One is ‘fear of the Lord’. Anytime I come to a verse dealing with that topic I make a note. Today I hit Psalm 31:19
Oh, how great is Your goodness,/ Which You have laid up for those who fear You,/ Which You have prepared for those who trust in You/ In the presence of the sons of men!
So in my notebook I added:
Fear and trust are equated. To fear God is to trust Him completely. To begin to trust our own judgment is to begin to put ourselves in God’s place. We can only trust one. The result and reward is God’s goodness- goodness so great He can’t give it to us all at once, but it must be laid up in store. His goodness is not in secret, but will be publicly given as a further testimony of His goodness.

Sometimes I just copy down verses that hit me-
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,/ And as I have purposed, so it shall stand: … For the Lord of hosts has purposed,/ And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?”
(Isaiah 14: 24, 27)

Finally, I write down questions I have for God that I need help with- These are from November 2007.
Question: How can you know that you are doing what God wants (called/willed) without reinforcement? Failure always causes me to question my course of action. However the failure may not be my fault, may be something God is doing in someone else…
Question: How can I know when I should maintain the course THRU the failure and when should I take that as a hint to abandon that direction? In other words, how do I know the difference between a closed door, and a challenge?

The notebook can be anything you want as long as it helps you stay in God’s word, because His word works! (BTW- If you know the answers to those questions… I’m listening!)