Proper Bible study is so important because it is the best way to discover
"the mind of Christ" (Philippians 2) or how Jesus Christ thinks.
That is the way to get to know Jesus Christ intimately
which the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3 is so important.
For your e-mail ministry, you can share any of my Bible studies (which are free for the asking)
or even uses parts of them in counseling or for your website.
But if you want to develop your own inductive Bible studies or Bible study tools,
below are some advice from me.
Studying and using Scripture suggestions:
First in responding to any Bible verse or Scripture passage you hear in a sermon,
skim the verse or passage and then check the verses before and after
to make sure that was is being said really relates to the verse quoted.
Sometimes after the sermon and I am at my computer,
I will download any meaningful verses' passages and at least do the indent formatting to them
to understand better the logic of them.
If you are just typing Scripture without using Bible software to copy/paste from,
be very careful and double and triple check what you have written.
One letter missing or one letter added can change the meaning of a verse.
For each verse, think:
�Does it just tell me something I believe already
or does it indicate something I should change in my life to be more Christ-like?�
If it is the latter, you should copy it onto a 3 x 5 card
in your own words in a commitment form.
Back in 1977-78, I learned to do a special logical formatting.
The above and the below are samples of it:
This method of Bible study
will help the formatter learn new understanding of God�s Word
and can be used
for inductive teaching for Bible study discussion groups and
for easier memorizing of Scripture .
This way of writing Scripture can be done using any translation of the Bible
but please show respect in and capitalize the first letter of
deity pronouns,
Earth (for God�s special planet),
Christian, and
other words that indicate uniqueness (like "Bible" and "Apostle").
This will almost look sort of like the outline format
with the verses or groups of verses that seem to be of equal importance
indented the same positions from the left of the page.
A definite paragraph should have a blank line above its first line.
For producing inductive study for a Bible chapter or passage:
Download the Bible chapter or passage into a MS Word document.
Type the reference title above the first verse.
Press the Enter key and that is where the first verse number goes.
If the verse number is one digit, put a space in front of it.
Then press the space bar 4 times.
Be in the frame of mind as Proverbs 3:5-6 in order to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit
Determine how much of the first verse should be on the first line.
Most likely there will be a comma or semi-colon at the end.
In most cases, you will want to get as much on each line as possible,
but any equal important phrases usually should be separate lines
indented the same positions from the left of the page.
Continue as this page indicates.
Phrases or verses which seem to be just a clarification of a word in a previous verse
most likely should be indented at least 7 spaces to the right compared to the previous line,
so that the next line can start as it is a continuation of the previous line.
Then sometimes
I will bold or/and underline important verses or phrase or/and
I will insert thought provoking questions.
For producing subject studies:
After I sense a need (from the Holy Spirit, a sermon, a TV program, a conversation, etc.),
I use a Bible software to download verses using a key word to search with.
I usually have to such several times using different tense forms of a key word
and synonymns of that key word.
The software I usually use is from the free e-Sword downloads (usually KJV red letter edition)
or from the Lockman Foundation downloads of the Amplified and NASB Bibles.
Two other good sources for subject study verse references are
the Naves Topical Bible and Thompson Chain Bible References.
