A gem appears in one of those regular emails, every once in awhile, off and on, if you keep looking. They always have at the bottom of the “newsletter” a little line that lets you “unsubscribe”. I’m just naive enough to think that an unusually unusual “ah-ha” moment will happen one of these times. So, I seldom unsubscribe.
A few days ago I ran across this goody from Matthias Media (a down-under company!). It’s all about the Swedish Method of bible study. When I first mentioned it to some others their eyes went wide. I think they were thinking of Swedish massage and other aberrations.
Took a bit to calm down, but then we looked it over. There is a core of three things (and you can add more) that let you just read the Bible and observe what it says.
A light bulb: This should be something that ‘shines’ from the passage—whatever impacts most, or draws attention.
A question mark: Anything that is difficult to understand in the text, or a question the reader would like to ask the writer of the passage or the Lord.
An arrow: A personal application for the reader’s life.
I began to reflect on this method. This is exactly what we used to do in our youth group Bible studies back in the late ’60’s (and to think I’m that old!!). I can see it still working today! I’m always amazed that our group would have 30 teens show up for Bible study – which was almost more than showed up for our Friday night “social and devotional” time. There’s something about direct Bible study that is rewarding. Maybe it’s getting to know God yourself, with a group of seekers who are looking for the same thing!!