A Method For Book Study

just some of our books

Today I am sharing with you a book report and some of my methods for Bible and book study. 

I read a lot of scripture (the Holy Bible), and faith-based motivational and psychology publications. Occasionally I'll read historical books, and biographies, or fiction; but mostly I just want to know what life is about, what God wants me to be doing, and how to best get it done.

Gary reads a great deal, too. He leans toward war stories, particularly WWII, the Korean War, and Viet Nam (the latter of which he is a veteran, by the way, serving in Thailand). 

I have followed him in some of those books because lots of practical wisdom comes out of those accounts. It has been accurately said that we can't make all the mistakes, so if we read the accounts of others, we should spare ourselves some anguish and terrible consequences.

It's nearly impossible for me to read without at least a pen in hand to make margin notes. The most salient points are often very personal to me. I do not lend my books to anyone because my notes come across as a private journal (much more personal than this blog, I assure you).

To illustrate my methods, I'll use a recently-completed book by one of my favorite authors, Dr. Robert Jeffress. He is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, We watch his half-hour program on TV every Sunday, Pathway to Victory.

He is a prolific author. In the two years since I've been following him, I've read several of his books (maybe 6) with another one having arrived just yesterday. His topics have been (for me) addressing the very subjects that my state of spirit and mind have needed. Here is a list of the chapters in the above book:

How Can I Know There is a God?

How Can I Know the Bible Is True?

How Can I Know Christianity Is The Right Religion?

How Can I Know God is Good with All the Suffering in the World?

How Can I Know I'm Going to Heaven When I Die?

How Can I Know How to Forgive Someone Who Has Hurt Me?

How Can I Know How to Start Oven When I've Blown It?

Since I was raised in a deeply devoted and conservative Christian home, before reading this book I was already well-versed in the answers to many of the questions addressed. But as life progressed and blind-sided me with the unexpected, reading this book was instructive, encouraging and validating. 

That is all I will say specifically about the book's content and its personal application. But I do want to share a study method that I've been using over the past 5+ years that has benefitted me greatly.

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The practice all began when I was about Kindergarten age, sitting beside my Daddy in church with his Bible open on his lap. I saw that he had underlined or hi-lited sentences with a red pencil. When I asked him why he was coloring in his Bible, he said those were things he wanted to remember. Years later, when I was given my first Bible, I used a red pencil to do the same.

Then much later into my adult years, I was introduced to the Precept method of Bible studies created by the late Kay Arthur. For those of you who are familiar with her, the practice of writing/marking in our Bibles was a dominant study practice. This fascinated me to the point that one weekend in 1992 I flew by myself to her ministry headquarters in Chattanooga, TN to attend a training seminar.

While her methods were a little too detailed for me, I did come away with a stronger desire to capture what God is saying to me in His Word and how to help myself to retain the information, or at least how to find it again within the 66 books of the Bible. 

Then in 2021 while attending a GriefShare support group at church, one of the leaders made a comment about the many times scripture mentions widows. I decided to start hi-liting the word, "widow," every time I came across it in my Bible because I wanted to know what God has to say about and to widows -- now that I was one.

Shortly after that I made up a habit with specific colored pencils and began using this same procedure with other books in addition to my Bible. 

Green pencil used for anything directed to me, as in "do this"

Purple pencil for who God is, what He does, what He desires, and what He says

Blue pencil with a squiggly line for sin, things to avoid

Red pencil for general statements of fact and history

Gold for making a star with something especially meaningful, applicable or that really touches me

Then in this past year or so, I added one more habit. When I finish reading a book, such as the one featured today, I find a blank area where I make a list of all the pages where I had drawn a gold star of the most meaningful points. It's a summation of what meant the most to me as a result of reading that book. 

After making that list, if there is one single point out of all of them that REALLY stands out to me, I add a gold star to that one. Later, if I want to be reminded what helped me the most in a book (and my Bible), this color-coded method with occasional gold stars is a big help.

In closing I'm sharing a verse that's shown up on this blog many times, Jeremiah 33:3. But this time I'm quoting only part of it, a phrase that really stood out to me this week and lifted my heart:

Call unto Me

and I will answer thee...

How wonderful it is to be reminded that when we call out to God, He answers. 

P.S. It is my opinion and experience that even though God may seem to be silent at times, what He is actually saying is one of these:

Yes

No

Not yet; wait

Until next time, grace and peace.

Barbara