Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (15 page)

We learn this type of thing by asking one simple question: When did this take place?

There is an infinity of Why? questions to ask the biblical text. Why is this included? Why is it placed here? Why does this follow that? Why does this precede that? Why does this person say that? Why does that person say nothing? Why? is a question that digs for meaning.

For example, the parable of the prodigal son is found only in the gospel by Luke—not in Matthew, Mark, or John. Why? Why does Luke alone record this powerful parable?

Or, we come to the book of Acts, and frankly, there’s no ending. Paul is in
Rome, teaching and preaching. But we never find out what happens to him, or to the early church, or to the rest of the apostles. Why? Why did Luke not continue the narrative? Why did no one else pick up where he left off?

The question Why? probes the text more than any other. Asking it will inevitably lead to new insights.

I like to paraphrase this question, So what? What difference would it make if I were to apply this truth?

Wherefore? is the question that gets us started doing something about what we’ve read. Remember, the Word of God was not written to satisfy our curiosity; it was written to change our lives. So with any passage of Scripture, we need to ask, So what? When we get to the step of application, I’m going to show you a number of ways to answer that question.

Can those six questions really unlock the Bible for you? After all, they are really very simple. Reporters have been using them for years to get the facts for their stories. So how powerful can they be?

Many years ago I was flying from Dallas to San Francisco on a 747. Believe it or not, there were eight passengers and fifteen flight attendants. After we got up in the air, I was reading my New Testament when one of the flight attendants came down the aisle. When she saw me with my Bible open, she stopped and asked, “Oh, are you a believer?”

“I certainly am,” I said. “How about you?”

“Yes, I am too,” she replied with a smile.

She sat down, and we got into a conversation about spiritual things. Finally I said, “Would you mind if I asked a question?”

“Of course not.”

“Do you have a regular Bible study program?”

“No, sir, I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Why not?”

She said, “I don’t know how. I don’t know where to begin.”

So I asked, “Would you like to learn?”

“I’d love to.”

“Have you got some time?”

She had time to burn on that flight. So I took out one of those sickness bags (they make wonderful notepads) and wrote the six questions mentioned above: Who? What? Where? When? Why? Wherefore?

Then we went through Mark 4:35–41, the stilling of the storm. I asked her to read the passage, and then we went through the questions: Who are the people involved? What is happening in this paragraph? Where is it taking place? What time is it? Why do you think God put it in the narrative? And what difference would this make in your life?

I’ve rarely seen someone so excited. When we finished she asked me, “How is it that I’ve been a Christian now for seven years, and nobody ever taught me how to study the Bible?”

That’s a good question. But it’s really a tragedy. You see, the church today is leading people to Christ, but sometimes they are in the faith for ten, fifteen, or even twenty years without ever learning how to study the Bible. The reason? They don’t know where to begin. They don’t know how to go about it.

They are a lot like I was at that pond in Colorado—looking at the fish, but unable to land any of them for myself. That’s no big deal when you’re just on vacation. But when you are starving spiritually—and most people are—someone needs to teach you how to fish.

I suggest you try the six lures I’ve mentioned. They’ll help anyone catch the big ones.

A
fifth strategy to use in unlocking Scripture is:

We tend to think of Bible study and prayer as separate disciplines, but the fact is, they are integrally related. Prayer is really a key to effective Bible study. Learn to pray before, during, and after your reading of the Scriptures.

Prayer is especially crucial when you come to a place in your study where you are stuck and confused. That’s a good time to stop and carry on a conversation with God. “Lord, I can’t make any sense out of this passage. I don’t understand it. Give me insight. Help me to discover Your truth.”

However, most of us struggle when it comes to prayer. Do you? Do you want to learn how to pray? Here are a couple of suggestions—something to avoid and something to do:

If you listen too much to the prayers of other believers, you will only pick up all of the clichés, all of the lingo, all of the shibboleths to get you over Jordan
(see Judges 12:4–6). Without question, Christians should pray corporately. But that doesn’t mean they should pray identically.

I’ve discovered there are two groups of people who can teach you the most about praying. Number one, children. They are refreshing and realistic. How many churches do you suppose recite the Lord’s Prayer week after week? And week after week it’s the same old thing—the same words, the same rhythm, the same corporate mumble. But what a difference when a four-year-old launches into a simple, eloquent rendition before dinner or bedtime.

The other group to listen to is new converts. They haven’t learned all of the jargon. A man in our church came to Christ and decided to show up for a prayer meeting and Bible study on Wednesday night. We had the study, and then we broke into groups for prayer.

“Hey, Howie. Where are we going?” he asked me as we headed down the hall.

“We’re going down here to pray,” I said.

“Well, then I’ve got a problem.”

“What’s your problem?”

“I can’t pray,” he admitted. “I mean, I can’t say it the way you guys say it.”

I said, “Friend, that’s no problem. Thank God for that.”

So we began praying. I knew he wanted to participate, but he was a little hesitant. Finally, I reached over and prompted him to go ahead. I’d give anything to have a recording of what happened next.

He said, “Lord, this is Jim. I’m the one that met You last Thursday, remember?” (I thought he was going to give God his zip code.) “I’m sorry I can’t say it the way the rest of these guys say it, but I really love You. Honestly, I do. And hopefully, after I know You awhile, I’ll be able to say it a lot better. Thanks a lot. I’ll see you later.”

You know what that man did? He turned on a prayer meeting. You see, the rest of us were saying prayers. As usual, we were reviewing our theology, taking our tour of the mission field, scraping the Milky Way. This guy was praying—just talking to God. Without realizing it, he was way ahead of the rest of us because he was honest before his heavenly Father. The only thing that ever moves Him is our heart.

God loves to be reminded of what He has promised. So tell Him. Remind Him. Claim His promises.

Let me give you a beautiful illustration of this from Nehemiah. We’re going to come back to this man in Chapter 18, when we look at how to study a paragraph. But for now, I want you to see how Nehemiah turns God’s Word into prayer. If you want to learn to pray, study his prayer. It’s a classic. (You can find it printed on pages 133–34, or turn to Nehemiah 1:4–11.)

To set the context, Nehemiah is a highly placed Jewish official in the Babylonian court. Messengers arrive to tell him that his hometown, Jerusalem, is in dire straits. Its walls are broken down, and the people are in distress.

So Nehemiah goes to his knees. His instinctive response is to pray. There’s a lesson right there. As he prays, the first thing he does is to adore God:

We can put the label “adoration” next to that verse. Before he gets to anything else, Nehemiah occupies himself with who God is.

Is that the way we pray? No, we’re more likely to say, “Oh, Lord, am I ever in a jam. Please bail me out.” We focus on ourselves.

But the prayers of the Bible have one characteristic in common: they always focus on who the Person is to whom the prayer is addressed. Whenever we write out a check or hand over our debit card to a salesperson, we first need to ask how much we have in the bank. That’s also what we need to do in terms of prayer. Looking at what we need, we should ask, Who are we talking to? What kind of a Person is this? Nehemiah fills his mind with who that Person is.

Then he changes his prayer. Having occupied himself with God, his next step is to confess his sin as well his people’s sin:

We can put a second label next to these verses: “confession.” The prayer is now focused on sin—not only the people’s sin, but Nehemiah’s sin too. If you have children, you probably know they are prone to confess the sins of their brothers and sisters. But Nehemiah sets a different pattern. He says, in effect, “The first thing I want the Lord to know is that we have sinned and I’m a part of the nation.” It’s not those sinners out there, but it’s us in here.