Inductive Bible Study

One of my readers has asked me to tell you about the new way of Bible Study I found on my week in Gloucestershire.

It is called Inductive Bible Study. It means using the Bible as your primary source. Three main ways are included:

OBSERVATION
This means you ask questions of the text with help from the 5Ws and 1H - What, Where, Who, Which, Why and How? In other words you interrogate the text.

INTERPRETATION
Here you have to ask yourself What does the text mean? Most important to remember is the context. Who was it written for and why?

APPLICATION
This means applying the text to my life. That's the hardest part - putting it into practise.

Now a piece of PERSONAL TESTIMONY
In the past I have run off after one of these new things with great enthusiasm and it has lasted a fortnight, or maybe a month at the most, and then I'm onto something else more new and exciting. I'm a real Mr. Toad I am.
So I have been determined not to do that with this Inductive Bible Study. But I have started to use it in my own Bible reading and it certainly has opened up the text of Proverbs to me.
I have also been using the Lightning Study cards which Precept UK produces with my House Group. They have expressed appreciation.
Now a friend has asked me to recommend a six-week study on Prayer for his group and I have ordered a 40-minute Study Book on that subject from Precept.
And I am also working through a booklet written by the co-founder of Precept Ministries, Kay Arthur, called What can I do about anger? and that too is proving very helpful.
So my personal testimony about the literature and studies published by Precept Ministries is this: They work.
You can find out more about Precept Ministries on their website: http://www.precept.org.uk/

Precept

I have been away at Lindors Country Hotel in Gloucestershire for a week.

The week was organised by my friends from Brimscombe in that county, under the auspices of Precept Ministries. It was a week well spent.

We were looking at the Book of Hosea. It was an intense study, both in work and in content. The work was partly our own study with a handbook, and then interactive study with a leader, whose name was Ann Absolom. I found it hard going but worthwhile.

I came away with a new way of studying the Bible, and with new ideas of how to make the Bible better known in the Church.

Am I still angry? Yes. Because yesterday I went to sign on at the Department of Work and Pensions in Kendal and was greeted with the words that I should not be drawing Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) as I was applying for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). I blew my top at this.

Not only am I not applying for ESA, I am not being paid my full amount of JSA either. What little I was getting was about to be taken away. They saw Mr. Angry. And they kindly backed down, although I have yet to be paid my JSA.

Today I went round in a van, helping to pick up Shoe Boxes for the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Project. We collected 650 boxes from the area around Lythm St Annes. Mr. Angry did not appear. Thank God.

Anger

Maybe I'm Mr Angry. I certainly feel like it.

I'm angry at myself for getting such a stupid job at Lakeland. I had no idea it would be such a disaster.

I'm angry at other people for not understanding me.

I'm just plain angry.

I went to see the Counsellor yesterday and she could see I was angry. We decided that the move into a job at Lakeland was a step too far. She suggested Voluntary work as a first stage into work.

So I'm going to have a go at that instead.

Pray for me.