Studying the Word of God

I am often asked questions that relate to personal Bible reading and study as people want to get the most benefit out of their time in God’s Word. Let me share with you a few thoughts about your personal time in the Bible that may be helpful.
First, use a translation that you are comfortable with. Different translations serve different purposes and you need to find one that is easy for you to understand, yet also maintains the accuracy of the Scriptures. With the abundance of English translations available today this task is not at all difficult.
Second, read for breadth. Expose yourself to the entire Bible so that you are able to see how all of God’s Word fits together and is a unity. I highly recommend a Bible reading plan that allows you to read through the entire Bible in a year. This allows you to see the big picture of God’s story of redemption as well as exposing you to books of the Bible that you may otherwise be tempted to neglect. There are many great Bible reading plans that do this (we put a reading plan in the bulletin each month) and there are even “One Year” Bibles that contain each day’s reading. With as little time as fifteen minutes a day a person can easily read through the entire Bible in a year. When one reads for breadth they are getting the “lay of the land” and are not reading for great detail, but just to see the overall picture.
Third, read for depth. I know you are thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought you just said read for breadth!” True, but it is both/and, not either/or. Reading for depth in not just reading; it is study. There are several practices that will help us do this. One that has been very helpful to me over the years is to read the same book of the Bible every day for a month. A short book like Colossians or 2 Peter can easily be read in one sitting, while longer books like one of the Gospels or Romans can be divided into smaller units. Reading the same book every day for a month allows you to become intimately familiar with the book. After reading it several times you will begin to see certain themes that emerge or certain key words and ideas that are repeated that you may want to study further. Writing key verses on index cards and taking them with you to work or sticking them in your pocket to reflect upon during the day is another good way to cement God’s Word in your heart and mind.
Fourth, ask questions from the text that you are studying. As part of your reading for depth you want to encounter the text and think deeply through it. Asking questions helps us in this process.
The following are some questions to consider as you study a passage:
What does this text tell me about God and what God is like?
What does this text tell me about what God has done in history?
What does this text tell me about what God has done for me?
What does this text tell me about myself and what I am like?
Does this text contain a promise from God? If so, what is it? Is the promise conditional or unconditional?
Does this text reveal something I should praise or thank God for? If so, what is it?
Does this text reveal something that I should pray about for myself or for others? If so, what is it?
Does this text reveal something that I should have a new attitude about? If so, what is it?
Does this text reveal something I should do for the sake of Christ, others, or myself? If so, what is it?
Does this text reveal a sin in my life that I need to repent of? If so, what is it?
What am I going to do in response to this text from God’s Word?
These questions, and others like them, will help us not only to understand the text, but more importantly to apply it.
Above all else, just make time for the Word of God. Identify the things that steal time from your life and prevent you from spending more time with God in His Word and eradicate them. While these thoughts by no means exhaust the many ways you can read and study the Bible, some of them may be of genuine use to you. Grab your Bible, find a quiet place, and taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8)!

Praying for Missionaries

Missionaries have always asked for prayer. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome and said, “Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me” (Romans 15:30). But all too often our prayers for missionaries consist of “God please bless all the missionaries all over the world wherever they are.” Many times I have heard people who have a genuine heart for Jesus, the Gospel, and the Great Commission pray in this way. And I readily confess that I have uttered these general type petitions in the past as well as I sought to lift up those who are serving the cause of Jesus Christ and the Gospel overseas. But over the years I have tried to move away from such blanket prayers and move toward praying for some very specific things on behalf of missionaries.
One thing that has greatly helped me to do this is to pray regularly for specific missionaries. Our family receives several monthly prayer updates from missionaries on the field that convey their detailed needs. This allows one to “get to know” the missionaries and their struggles and their specific needs and concerns. Also, many missionary agencies such as the International Mission Board provide prayer calendars and send out weekly e-mail prayer updates to keep God’s people aware of particular needs that arise, as well as to inform them of how they can praise God for the continued advance of the Gospel.
It also helps to pray for some needs that are common to all missionaries. The following list is far from exhaustive, but may cause you to enlarge your prayers on behalf of God’s ambassadors.
Pray for their Spiritual Life: that they would take sufficient time to study the Bible and pray; that they would be encouraged and experience joy in their ministry; that they would be people of integrity, reliability, humility, discernment, and wisdom; that they would be led by the Holy Spirit in all of their day to day decisions.
Pray for their Personal Life: that their marital relationships would be strengthened; that the needs of their children would be cared for; that they would not be homesick for or worry about family, friends, and situations back in the United States; that they would be protected from sickness; that they would be protected from accidents, crime, terrorists, and calamities.
Pray for their relationships: with other Christians; with their ministry team; with the nationals they are working with and ministering to.
Pray for them as they work in a different culture with a new language: that they would make steady progress in language studies; that they would adapt well and be sensitive to new customs and cultures; that they would have clarity, creativity, and relevance in their preaching and teaching; that they would be fearless to preach Christ and Him crucified no matter what the cost.
While there are so many more things that we must pray for on behalf of missionaries, let this serve as a great starting point for us as we seek to be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Now let us pray without ceasing on behalf of those who are pouring out their life for the spread of the Gospel!

Down-to-Business Living for Christ

At the age of 22 Jim Elliot wrote these words to his father in a letter dated April 13, 1950, “I met with twenty-five young people, high school age and over, last night after the meeting before I went to the bus and had a serious time dealing with them about private study of the Scriptures, personal holiness, and down-to-business living for Christ.”
Jim Elliot was more than qualified to speak about down-to-business living for Christ. His life was permeated with a desire to live a life that thoroughly glorified Jesus in all that he did. When Jim was between the ages of 20 and 24 he penned the following quotes in his journal and in letters to family and friends:
“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”
“He makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame.”
“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”
“Christ needs some young fellows to sell out to Him and recklessly toss their lives into His work.”
“He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
After college and some time spent in various ministries Jim traveled to Ecuador to minister among the Quichua Indians. God had also implanted within Jim’s heart a desire to reach the Auca people. The Auca were a primitive and savage people who were hostile toward the Quichua and outsiders. It was dangerous to attempt to reach the Auca, yet Jim knew that this was what God had called him to do and that the Gospel was the Auca’s only hope.
Less than six years after he wrote to his father about “down-to-business living for Christ” Jim Elliot would lie dead on the banks of a secluded river in the jungles of Ecuador having been run threw with a spear by the very people that he desired to share the Gospel with. His widow concludes her story of Jim’s life in this way:
“Suffice it to say that on Friday the thrill of Jim’s lifetime was given. He took an Auca by the hand. At last the twain met. Five American men, three naked savages. Two days later, on Sunday, January 8, 1956, the men for whom Jim Elliot had prayed for six years killed him and his four companions.” Jim Elliot, at the age of 28, lay dead on the banks of the Curaray River in the jungle of Ecuador.
As his widow begins the Epilogue she writes, “W. Somerset Maugham, in Of Human Bondage, wrote, ‘These old folk had done nothing, and when they died it would be just as if they had never been.’ Jim’s comment on this was, ‘God deliver me!’” And God did indeed deliver Jim Elliot from such a wasted life. His life and death were characterized with bold obedience to Jesus Christ. And though when he died he had very little of material value, he left an enduring legacy and an example of self-sacrifice for the cause of Christ to the peoples of the world.
God deliver us so that we would not waste our lives, but would live them for the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of His Gospel to the nations!

All quotes are from: Elisabeth Elliot. Shadow of the Almighty. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1958.