Finishing up Women of the Word
The ladies' Sunday School class at church just finished going through Women of the Word, by Jen Wilkin. While I had read it once before, it was a blessing to go through it again! Yes, I am a slow learner and need to have things repeated over and over again. It was an incredibly helpful book for learning how to approach God’s Word for myself in order to clearly understand what it is saying. In several ways, this book has helped me to put together some pieces of the “Bible study methods” puzzle that before seemed obscure and vague, without a clear fit into the picture.
In my understanding of the big picture of how to study the Bible for myself, Women of the Word contributed one significant piece: that piece was a grid for approaching the passage and determining how that affects my life. This is most easily summed up into three main questions: What does this passage teach me about God? How does this aspect of God’s character change my view of self? and What should I do in response? These three questions can be applied to any passage of Scripture, whether it is a genealogy in Numbers, a psalm of David, or the Revelation of the apostle John on the island of Patmos. Keeping these key questions in mind at all times will prove to be helpful in keeping my heart and mind on track with the primary purpose of the Scriptures: to teach me about God and to make me more like Him.
There are some other points that stood out as well. Overall, Women of the Word drove home the point that studying the Bible revolves a lot around applying normal literary skills that are often used with any other book that we read. In other words, the Bible isn’t a mystical book with a hidden message that can only be deciphered with a special code known only to a select few. Yes the Bible is a divine book, given from God to man, with spiritual truths that are foolishness to the world. But God gave it to us, His children, to understand it. He wants us to understand it! With the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts in all truth, a lot of studying the Bible is about applying a lot of the same principles that we would use for reading any other book. Any Christian can do it! Yes it will take practice and much diligent work, but it can be done.
It is vital, however, to have the proper motive for why we’re studying the Bible in the first place. Is it to learn how to turn my life into more health, wealth, and prosperity? Is it to get that special “nugget” of inspiration for the rough day ahead of me that I know I’m going to have? Why do we even study the Bible? Jen drives home the crucial point that the Bible isn’t about us. Surprise! Instead, it is first about God, and always will be about God. It is only after learning to approach the Bible with God as the central focus of the Bible can we truly learn to love the God of the Bible. But we must be diligent to study it, for “the heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” (page 31)
If nothing else, Women of the Word gave me a new love for the Scriptures and a new motivation for studying it with perseverance day in and day out, even if I don't have lots of time to be doing lots of digging. This study has reminded me that if I want to grow to love God more, the most specific way that He has given for me to know Him is through the Bible. Why am I neglecting it then? I have but to avail myself to what He has already revealed about Himself in it. At my fingertips is a wealth of riches that will last for all eternity, and Women of the Word equipped me with the tools that I will need to dig up those treasures.
In my understanding of the big picture of how to study the Bible for myself, Women of the Word contributed one significant piece: that piece was a grid for approaching the passage and determining how that affects my life. This is most easily summed up into three main questions: What does this passage teach me about God? How does this aspect of God’s character change my view of self? and What should I do in response? These three questions can be applied to any passage of Scripture, whether it is a genealogy in Numbers, a psalm of David, or the Revelation of the apostle John on the island of Patmos. Keeping these key questions in mind at all times will prove to be helpful in keeping my heart and mind on track with the primary purpose of the Scriptures: to teach me about God and to make me more like Him.
There are some other points that stood out as well. Overall, Women of the Word drove home the point that studying the Bible revolves a lot around applying normal literary skills that are often used with any other book that we read. In other words, the Bible isn’t a mystical book with a hidden message that can only be deciphered with a special code known only to a select few. Yes the Bible is a divine book, given from God to man, with spiritual truths that are foolishness to the world. But God gave it to us, His children, to understand it. He wants us to understand it! With the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts in all truth, a lot of studying the Bible is about applying a lot of the same principles that we would use for reading any other book. Any Christian can do it! Yes it will take practice and much diligent work, but it can be done.
It is vital, however, to have the proper motive for why we’re studying the Bible in the first place. Is it to learn how to turn my life into more health, wealth, and prosperity? Is it to get that special “nugget” of inspiration for the rough day ahead of me that I know I’m going to have? Why do we even study the Bible? Jen drives home the crucial point that the Bible isn’t about us. Surprise! Instead, it is first about God, and always will be about God. It is only after learning to approach the Bible with God as the central focus of the Bible can we truly learn to love the God of the Bible. But we must be diligent to study it, for “the heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” (page 31)
If nothing else, Women of the Word gave me a new love for the Scriptures and a new motivation for studying it with perseverance day in and day out, even if I don't have lots of time to be doing lots of digging. This study has reminded me that if I want to grow to love God more, the most specific way that He has given for me to know Him is through the Bible. Why am I neglecting it then? I have but to avail myself to what He has already revealed about Himself in it. At my fingertips is a wealth of riches that will last for all eternity, and Women of the Word equipped me with the tools that I will need to dig up those treasures.
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