B. Appropriate the Word of God personally by these five steps:
1. Meditate
Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
1Ti 4:15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
2. Memorize
Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 11:18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Pro 7:2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
Pro 7:3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
3. Study
Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
4. Read
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
5. Hear
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
hello jerry great post you bring out some important points about intake of the word of god. a hand illustration developed many years ago by dawson trotman helped me understand the 5 different ways of intake of the word of god. the little finger is the hearing part of the word of god rom 10/17. the next finger represents the reading part of the word of god rev 1/3. the middle finger represents the importance of studying the word of god acts 17/11. the index finger is memorization of scripture psm 119/9-11. the thumb is the meditation of the word of god psm 1/2-3. meditation on the scriptures is prayerful reflection with a view to understanding and application. the goal is to conform your life to gods will by prayerfully thinking how to relate gods word to yourself. these five methods of scripture intake help you get a firm grasp on gods word. [dawson trotman].
Dear Ken,
I don’t think I was aware of Dawson Trotman at the time I recorded these ideas about Bible study methods in my Oxford loose leaf Bible. But I’m pleased that others have seen the same truth.
A very encouraging study of God’s Word would be to take each of the Bible verses I quoted in this post and look up the cross references for each.
More people need to visit this site and learn the joy of studying the Bible independently to foster their own spiritual growth.
If more people did this, we might not be facing many of the problems and seeing many of the tragedies that are reported or take place in the daily news!
hello jerry thank your for you website thats devoted to bible study and growing in the lord. this week leroy eims said something i thought was pretty good in regard to meeting with the lord each day for prayer and bible study. “lord, meeting with you sets the tone of my day, and i wouldnt miss this most important standing appointment. the lord wants to meet with us each day and that appointment is far more important than any meeting with any person on the earth”. amen.
Dear Ken,
Thank you for your excellent comment and feedback. This week my email broke. Dan fixed it partially so I could get and read email, but I couldn’t send any. So today I tried my Hotmail email, and it was broke too. I called Dan and he fixed them both today, so here I am again.
We got struck by lightning on Wednesday morning at exactly 6:30 am. It knocked out our second floor lights, the water softener, and damaged our caller id unit. I called Radio Shack and was surprised to learn they still carry that style of caller id, so for the first time in a very long time I drove there and bought a new one. It burned out the night light in the upstairs bathroom too, unless it just coincidentally quit working at the same time. The lightning struck two large, tall maple trees right out our kitchen window. It stripped a five-foot piece of bark and wood off the trunk of one of them and propelled the wood to the grass on the other side of the driveway. It dug a trench in the lawn where the lightening followed the maple tree roots to the ground.
We are back to normal now.
I’m currently working on John 16.