Trailblazin Ministries Blog

Ministry

Studying & Learning the Word

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Filed under: Faith, Ministry

Okay, I think the Lord is trying to tell me something. Of course, in the past year, my study of the Scripture has intensified, but even with that, I still have not memorized a lot of Scripture or really understand the whole of it. Sure, I know passages, but if you asked me where they were I probably couldn't tell you, which is pretty bad. I've found myself often having to open up my Bible software and doing a search for a phrase just so I can find out where it is in the Bible.

Well, over the past few weeks I've heard quite a few messages from John MacArthur and he has mentioned one particular thing on more than one occasion when it comes to studying and understanding the Scripture. The first time around it was him giving a lesson to some of the new believers in his church, that they happened to play on his podcast, basically going over the basics of Christianity and equipping you with the basics necessary to walk out the faith. The second go around, he simply reiterated the fact in the same setting (first time was teaching, the second was Q&A). The third time was today, as he was talking about how to get the most out of the Bible.

So, what was he teaching exactly? The premise of his teaching was repetition. He had suggested reading the same book of the Bible (primarily the New Testament) for 30 days straight, using the same Bible and translation. He stated that by the end of the 30 days you would have a firm understanding of what the book is about, what each chapter talks about, and where to find passages of Scripture. He even suggested taking notes, making outlines, and writing one sentence summaries of each chapter along the way to help you understand what you're reading. He did make note that you wouldn't necessarily understand the depth of the book, but you would begin to see the harmony amongst the books of the Bible and have a basic idea of what is being talked about, which will go a long way in helping you to understand the Bible.

In terms of the actual process, he said to start with a small book (i.e. 1 John) and do that for 30 days, and then switch to a longer book like the Gospel of John. Since John is a longer book (21 chapters), he recommended doing no more than 7 chapters at a time; so, for the first 30 days you would read chapters 1-7, the second 30 days would be 8-14, and finally 15-21 for the next 30 days. Then you would switch back to another shorter book, and keep alternating. By the end of 2.5 years, he says that you would have read the entire New Testament and have a great understanding of what it's talking about.

All of that to say this, come December 1, I think I'm going to give this my best shot and see what I can come up with. I really want to understand and know the Word of God, and repetition is the primary means that I am going to have for doing so. This method sounds solid, but I know that it is going to take a lot of spiritual strength, determination, and willpower to make it happen. I know myself, I'm a pretty lazy guy; but this is something I want to do. So, keep me in prayer as I undertake this challenge to learn God's Word. I recommend that you try it too.