Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (2 page)

45.
Now and Then

46.
The Principle of the Thing

47.
A Process of Life-Change

48.
Three Suggestions to Get Started

      
Additional Resources

I
n early 1960, as I was finishing my first year at Dallas Theological Seminary, I took a course from Dr. Howard Hendricks that would mark my life and ministry forever. Day after day I listened to his presentation, then I would rush back to our little campus apartment stimulated with fresh excitement and plunge into the homework he assigned. As weeks turned into months, the fog that had surrounded the Scripture slowly began to lift. Those puzzling passages no longer seemed so intimidating. As bigger pieces fell into place, I felt increasingly more comfortable with the Word of God. I realize now that it was becoming “a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105).

In today’s terms, the Bible became “user friendly,” thanks to this course that was destined to change my life. Dr. Hendricks convinced us that the Bible could be understood. Unfortunately, it often seems intimidating to the average person; it is a long book with lots of fine print and very little visual interest. He gave his students techniques that, when perfected by practice, opened up the Bible to us. Before that year had passed, the mystery dissolved into meaningful and reasonable truths. I soon discovered that my wife, Cynthia, and I were not merely talking about God’s Book, we had started living by the Book.

During the more than thirty years that have passed since my whole perspective changed, I have often thought how wonderful it would be if everyone could take the same course . . . if somehow my mentor could touch their lives as significantly as he had touched mine. I would muse,
What a difference it would make if all God’s people could get hold of the techniques and principles necessary for the cultivation of their own spiritual nourishment.

Recently, I learned that others would indeed be able to have the same privilege that had been mine. Dr. Hendricks and his son Bill decided to put his teachings on how to study the Bible into this book. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see that they have done so. In my opinion, the volume you hold in your hands has the potential to be a spiritual turning point for many people.

In a simple, step-by-step fashion, the authors explain how to glean truth from Scripture. They use words anyone can understand. These 350-plus pages will guide you through a process that will remove the mystery thinking; God has given you a mind and frame of reference. That is why
Living By the Book
is so helpful—it gives you a framework for studying the Bible at your own pace. It is practical, readable, and applicable. I know of nothing quite like it today.

If you will digest these pages and put the suggestions to use, I guarantee you will soon begin
living
by the Book, not just listening to others teach it.

C
HUCK
S
WINDOLL

Pastor, Author, Radio Bible Teacher

W
hy a revision of
Living By the Book
? My son Bill and I produced the first edition some sixteen years ago, and much to my delight it was well received. Over the years it’s become a standard work on Bible study methods. In fact many Bible schools, colleges, and seminaries use it as a required text.

So why a second edition? Have we changed our methodology for studying God’s Word? Not at all. And certainly the Bible itself has not changed in these intervening years.

But the world has changed dramatically since 1991. History has leaped forward into a new millennium. We’ve got a whole new way of communicating, called the Internet. The world has gotten vastly smaller as its economies have become intertwined. And we in the United States have discovered that we share this planet with many people who believe and behave much differently from us.

As always, God’s Word provides His people with divine insight as we contend with the challenges of this new world. But now we have a whole new generation of young people who need to discover the joy of digging into the
Word for themselves. Bill and I felt that by updating our book, we could make it more user-friendly for those newer readers.

I suppose some might say that if we really wanted to reach out to the next generation, we should scrap the book altogether and come up with a fancy, interactive Web site. Perhaps that will happen someday, but probably not on my watch. I am not particularly computer-savvy, much as I can see the value of such a project.

However, I try to be biblically savvy, and that’s the legacy I want to leave behind: a generation of Bible students armed with the ability to “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). I know that the Bible is a book, and books are now considered “old technology.” But that only heightens the need for guidance in Bible study methods. My great concern is that in its rush to embrace new technologies, the coming generations may forget how to access old technologies, because they may lose the ability to read.

Hence the passion to produce a an updated
Living By the Book
. I fully appreciate that young people today live in a visual, experience-oriented world. They place a lot of value on things being real, being “authentic.” That’s fantastic! But in that case, it’s vitally important that their understanding of the Bible be real and authentic as well.

You see, a lot of people nowadays are making all kinds of claims about what the Bible supposedly teaches—claims that are simply not true. A closer inspection of Scripture reveals that the Bible doesn’t, in fact, teach what they say it does. Likewise, there are a lot of things that the Bible does teach that many people don’t even know about, because those truths are deemphasized or ignored altogether.

The result is that much of our culture has embraced what might be called “folk religion”—popular beliefs based on misperceptions, misinterpretations, stereotypes, sentimentality, and downright wishful thinking. That is
not
authentic Christianity.

And so my appeal to every young person using this book is this: the only sure way to experience authentic Christianity is through firsthand acquaintance with the Word of God. Don’t just let a friend or a DVD or a blog tell you what the Bible says—
read and study it for yourself
. If you do, you will gain an authority from your personal ownership of Scripture that will stabilize and
direct your life, even if the people around you are lost in a fog of spiritual confusion.

Those already familiar with
Living By the Book
will find that while Bill and I have left the previous content virtually unchanged, we have added to it. We particularly enhanced the section on Application. We make the point that in applying Scripture, each of us needs to take into account the way that God has uniquely and individually designed us. We also need to see that our lives matter beyond our own personal concerns. God’s purpose is that we become His agents of transformation for the world around us.

King Solomon had a similar vision in mind when, near the end of his life, he prayed:

That is exactly my prayer for this second edition of
Living By the Book
. There is lifegiving power in the Word of God, because it leads us directly to the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. May this book open the door to His Book, both for this generation and all who are to come.

H
OWARD
G. H
ENDRICKS

S
hortly after I became a Christian, someone wrote in the flyleaf of my Bible these words: “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” That was true then, and it’s still true today. Dusty Bibles always lead to dirty lives. In fact, you are either in the Word and the Word is conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ, or you are in the world and the world is squeezing you into its mold.

And yet the great tragedy among Christians today is that too many of us are under the Word of God, but not
in
it for ourselves. For example, I met a man once who had driven his entire family all the way across the country to attend a conference of Bible teaching.

Amazed, I asked him, “Why did you come so far?”

“Because I wanted to get under the Word of God,” he said.

On the face of it, that sounds wonderful. But later it hit me: Here was a man willing to drive twelve hundred miles to get under the Word of God; but was he just as willing to walk across his living room floor, pick up a Bible, and get into it for himself?

You see, there’s no question that believers need to sit under the teaching
of God’s Word. But that ought to be a stimulus—not a substitute—for getting into it for ourselves.

Who reads the Bible? According to the Barna Group, in 2006 about 47 percent of Americans polled claimed to read the Bible at some point in a week (up from a low of 31 percent in 1995). However, a famous Gallup survey from a number of years ago found that while 82 percent of Americans claimed to believe that the Bible is either the literal or “inspired” Word of God, and more than half said they read the Bible at least monthly, half couldn’t name even one of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. And fewer than half knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

Have you ever seen a Bible “parked” in the rear window of someone’s car? That’s common where I come from. A guy will come out of church, hop into his car, toss his Bible in the back, and leave it there until the next Sunday. That’s quite a statement of the value he places on God’s Word. In effect, when it comes to Scripture he’s functionally illiterate six out of seven days a week.

The Bible is owned, read on occasion, even taken to church—but not
studied
. Why is it that people do not get into Scripture for themselves, to understand it and see it make a difference in their lives? Let’s find out by listening to six Christians describe their experience in this regard.

HGH:
Ken, you’re a business executive with a lot of responsibility. You’re well educated. I know you love the Lord. Where does Bible study fit into your life?

Ken:
Back when my kids were young, we used to read a verse or two every morning at breakfast, or maybe at dinnertime. But I wouldn’t say we ever studied the Bible. And of course it’s not the sort of thing you’d do at work.

HGH:
Why not?

Ken:
Well, work is work. You’re there to do a job. When I go to work I’m thinking about our payroll, our customers, the bills we’ve got to pay, what our competitors are doing. The Bible’s about the last thing on my mind.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of these people who acts one way at
church and another way at the office. But let’s face it—the business world is no Sunday school class. You’re up against things that aren’t even mentioned in the Bible. So it doesn’t exactly apply to your day-to-day situation.

HGH:
Ken, you’ve put your finger on the problem of
relevance
. And that may be the number-one reason people are not studying God’s Word today. They think it’s archaic, out of date. It may have had something to say to another generation, but they seriously question whether it has anything to say to ours. Yet, as we’ll see, God’s revelation is as alive today as it was when it was first delivered.

HGH:
Let’s move on to Wendy, who is a copywriter for an ad agency. Wendy, you seem to have a lot of energy and initiative. I’d be willing to bet that you’d make an outstanding student of the Bible.