Welcome to True Ruth!
Here's some tips on how to interact with the Bible : Record your thoughts in a notebook. Mark your Bible to help locate people, places and grammar to signal what is happening.
- Pray first- ask for God's help to understand the reading.
- Look at the passage. Summarize what you think it says.
- Character's get marked (using colored pencils), even pronouns so we know who is doing what.
- Make lists.
- Find keywords.
- What's the environment? context? genre?
- What's the occasion, when did it happen and who are the participants?
- Ask reporter questions like: who, what, when, where, why and how.
- Know how to interpret what you've read. Be objective and base interpretation on what you observed.
- Be objective (what does God say) before you are subjective (what does this mean for me). Then after you know what it means, decide how it relates to your life.
- Work it out. Find spiritual truths. Process it.
I ask God to help me to remember truths I learn- especially helpful when I encounter moral dilemmas and personal difficulties.
Best Guides for inductive study:
- LifeChanges (Navigators)
- Precepts Bible Study (NISS=New Inductive Study is great for independent Bible Study)
- Irving Jensen's Bible Study
Read the blog. More on these tips.