It goes almost without saying that the few hours of weekly Bible instruction afforded by traditional church services is not nearly enough to build students, who find themselves beseiged by an ungodly culture, into mature Christians. While doctors tell us that our bodies need "three square meals a day" in order to be healthy and grow, many are trying to subsist spiritually on three "meals" a week! Small wonder that there are so many weak Christians, right?
It also goes almost without saying that few people find anything more difficult than establishing a habit of "daily devotions," a time of personal prayer and Bible study. For many, the whole idea of "personal Bible study" sounds dangerous because we've all met those wild-eyed people who tell us that, last night, as they were doing their "personal Bible study," God revealed to them that the Ark was actually an alien spacecraft that took all the dinosaurs to live on planet P-63 in the Zarthan Galaxy, or some other crazy nonsense. We much prefer to leave "Bible study" to the experts--pastors, professors, and such.
But I would say that those lunatics who've discovered the existence of extraterrestial life in the book of Nehemiah are precisely the reason why we must learn about "personal Bible study." As with most parts of the Christian life, there's actually two ways to go about it--the right way and the wrong way. I'll let you guess which way we're leanin' here.
The Purpose
"EAT His Word" is a guided-discussion blog designed as a tool to help students more effectively study and apply the Word of God. "EAT" is an acronym for "Enhanced Apostolic Teaching." This blog is "enhanced Bible study" in at least two ways. First, we hope that it will foster extended interaction with God's Word on a daily or almost-daily basis. Secondly, "EAT His Word" is not focused simply on doing Bible studies but on learning how to study the Bible. That's a BIG difference! If you can grasp the underlying principles of this Bible study method, you can more confidently tackle biblical teaching on any topic, knowing that you probably won't come away with a new theory about the Loch Ness monster!
The Plan
So the plan is real simple. Each Monday, I will post the "Bible Buffet"--the Scripture passage/s that we will be meditating on throughout the week. I will be sure to include some "Appetizer" questions to get you thinking about the passage/s we're discussing. Each student will then have the opportunity to post their thoughts and learning about the passage/s under consideration.
Ideally, I would like student posts to cover three areas, but we'll settle for two out of three (life gets busy, I know). Here's the areas I'd like you to cover in your posts:
Dietary Supplement-Complete the following statement: "One thing I learned about the Scripture/s we're studying that really helped me understand them better is . . ." This one is for the nerds among us who thrive on trivia that no one else considers useful (and, yes, I mean Danny and Dustin--jk). Do some "research"! Check commentaries, Bible dictionaries, concordances for interesting connections with other passages and things you didn't know about this chapter or book. For example, f the passage mentions a specific location, look it up on an atlas. Find out what the name of the place actually means. You know, geek out on the Bible!
Table Talk-Complete the following statement: "One question that came to my mind as I read the Scripture/s we're studying was . . ." So, maybe you didn't get your geek on and have some amazing insight into the original Greek to share with the rest of the class. That's cool. Because maybe you thought of a really interesting question after checkin' out the "Bible Buffet." So, here you go, hepcat; share with everyone how Scripture is "blowin' your mind," dude!
Burning Calories-Complete the following statement: "One thing that I think the Scripture/s are telling me to do is . . ." No Greek. No questions. Just God grabbing your attention and saying, "Hey. You. Do that." Please share.
Really looking forward to this! Ciao.
