I never saw a useful Christian who was not a stu dent of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray and ask God to use him in His work, but God cannot make use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon. ‘‘There is no situation in life for which you can not find some word of consolation in Scripture. If you are in affliction, there is a promise for you; if you are in adversity and trial, there is a promise for you. In joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in poverty and in riches, in every condition of life, God has a promise stored up in His Word for you.” These words of Evangelist Dwight L. Moody stress the urgent need as they hint at a prevailing weakness in Christian living today. The Bible holds tremendous value for us— if we study it. Bible study takes time, always in short supply. How can we gain the maximum advantage from the time we spend in studying our Bibles? Some meth ods have been highly profitable. When used thorough ly, they have brought not only increased knowledge of Scripture, but also joy and fascination in Bible study. No longer does the Bible seem boring; periods set aside for its study are eagerly anticipated. While methods of Bible study are numerous, space considerations compel us to limit our exami nation to three outstanding methods. The Bible is made up of separate books, each of which can be studied separately. Few Bible books cannot be read through in about half an hour, yet rather than risk failing through taking too big a step, 34
we choose first one of the shorter books. Ruth or Jonah in the Old Testament, James or Philippians in the New Testament are short enough to be read through in a few minutes. Having chosen the book, we begin by reading .carefully the text of Scripture. We read it through rapidly at one sitting, ignoring the chapter and verse divisions. These divisions are not original and while they facilitate reference and quoting, sometimes they are misleading. Reading through a Bible book, it is good to start with the familiar King James Version. Then we can use the more modern American Standard Version. We would well follow with a modern paraphrase such as Phillips’ or Today’s English Version for the New Testament. In this preliminary reading no attempt is to be made to understand the difficult parts of the book. The purpose of this reading is to gain the message of the book as a whole. Having understood the Bible book’s main thrust, we find out and mark in either our study Bibles or note-book the principal divisions and later the sub divisions. Many Bibles show the natural divisions of a book. If ours does not, we can analyze the book ourselves. We give each division and sub-division a heading that is terse, but clear. We can then read each of these divisions separate ly, again reading repeatedly. While the first or sec ond reading may tell us little, the tenth reading will make its impact. THE KING’S BUSINESS
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