Studying the book of John

Through primarily an English class we have helped with here in Hong Kong, we have been able to meet some students who have now become dear friends to us over the course of time spent mainly outside of the classroom with them.  We are beyond belssed to have them in our lives.

Over the past few weeks, I have been meeting with three girls, whom I met through this English class, every Friday.  They are so precious.  We hang out, usually over coffee, talk about life, class, and study the book of John.  This has been such a blessing, both to be a part of in their lives, and in my life personally.  They are curious about Christianity and the Bible and decided that they wanted to learn more.

Studying the Bible with girls who litterally come from not knowing anything in the Bible (minus maybe a couple names and vague stories) has been a completely new and stretching experience for me.  I read the Word so differently now.  When we are going through scripture together, it is a lot clearer what I know and what I don’t know.  In America, whether you are a Chistian or not, you grow up hearing Bible stories.  Seeing scripture.  It is unavoidable.  Therefore I think it is easy to use that background information we have of the Bible to be enough.  For some reason, I think most of us from the States could say that when we read the Bible, we don’t naturally get stoped at every other word asking the question, what does that word really mean, who is that, why is he there, why are they there, why did he do that, etc, etc…  (It seems to be more of a discipline for us to learn to stop and ask all the questions).  We might say some of these different things when we realize we are reading something in scripture that we don’t really understand:

Well, I don’t understand it, but I have faith that it happened.
I am sure that made since at that time.
I can understand half of that chapter, so I just won’t worry about the part I don’t really understand.
(The list could go on and on…)
Or…
We might realize that we don’t understand the meaning of a lot of scripture, get frustrated, not understand the point of reading it daily, and give up.

Now this is not to say that everyone does this, but I think you would agree with me in saying that if you are really honest with yourself, this is you and I a lot of the time.

All of that to say, that as I am studying the book of John with these girls and looking over other parts of scripture with them and answering their questions about the origin and validity of scripture, I have realized and am realizing how much there is for me to learn.  I am seeing what I have not personally studied before.  I cannot express to you fully how huge of a gift this has been to me.  God is still in the midst of teaching me more and more how to study His Word, but I am thankful for what he has already done.  Here are some things I have learned so far:

1. Study both the big picture and the details.
2. Don’t simply assume that you know the meaning of everything in a passage just because you have read it or heard it “a billion times.”
3. Learn the discipline of stoping and asking yourself honestly if you really know the stories of all the people in that passage, why certain words were used and what they mean, why certain stories were included, why these people in scripture did what they did, ect…
4. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that there is a lot that you do not really know.
5. Pretent like you have to teach it to someone that does not know anything (this will show you if you really do know it enough to put it into words).
6. Read along with a sound and reliable commentary for more meaning and explanation.
7. Go for quality, not quantity.
8. Study scripture with someone for accountabliity.

God’s Word is eternal.  It is truth.  Looking more deeply at His Word has been so enriching to me.  I am knowing God more and more.  My prayer is that I continue to know Him more and more through scripture.  Praying that this challenges you.