A first attempt at Inductive Bible Study

Good morning church family,

How did your first exercise in inductive Bible Study go? Not very well, huh? My wife said I chose a hard passage to start with because it didn’t have any command to obey. We did it as our family devotions this morning and my kids found it hard. Don’t give up though. Training is never easy to start with. Hopefully, if you stick with it this week, you’ll have a better handle on a great exercise for transforming your mind and revitalizing your spiritual life.

As I talked with my kids today, here’s a couple of things that I clarified. Write down your observations. Some of them are so obvious they don’t really need any interpretation but then there may be some things that you observe that you don’t understand. Here’s an example. Katie noted that in the text for this morning, Luke 4:14-30, Jesus sat down after he read— she wondered why? Shep wanted to know what the saying, “Physician heal yourself meant.” Anyway, take one or two of the observations you noted and try to discern what they meant. And then finally, look at all you’ve written and ask the question, what do I take away from this?

For me, I came away with two applications. First, I noted that Jesus read the scroll and said “What I just read is about me.” When I read the words from Isaiah I noticed that Jesus was bringing good news, news of release and freedom. He wasn’t bringing bad news or even condemning news— he was bringing news of hope. Isaiah called it good news. So as a way of application I’ve asked God today for an opportunity to be an encouraging person, a person who brings good news and hope to others. Second, I observed that they went from loving him to hating him in just a very short about of time— maybe a few hours. So I asked why. As best I can discern, they turned on him because he spoke of God loving non-Jewish people. It was their prejudice that must have driven them to such hatred so quickly. So as a second application, I’ve asked God to help me never let prejudice blind me or direct my life. I asked him this morning to help me judge men on the content of their character whether than the color of their skin or their ethnicity. My hope is to think on these things through out the day.

Don’t give up. Bring your notes on Sunday and we’ll see some of the things God taught us this past week. Remember, training is never easy and every expert was once a beginner!