Kay Arthur - Lord, Teach Me To Study The Bible In 28 Days

IN 28 DAYS

Kay Arthur

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

LORD, TEACH ME TO STUDY THE BIBLE IN 28 DAYS

Copyright 2006/2008 by Precept Ministries International

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Arthur, Kay

Lord, teach me to study the Bible in 28 days / Kay Arthur.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-2383-5 (pbk.)

1. BibleStudy and teaching. I. Title.

BS600.3.A79 2006

220.071dc22

2006010908

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 / ML-MS / 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Welcome to the world of inductive Bible study! Thank you for joining me on this exciting journey as we learn how to read and study Gods Word, the Bible, and experience its life-changing power.

This is a very practical, hands-on, learn-by-doing book. The tools youll discover are not hard to use. In fact, they are so easy to use that you are going to wonder why you werent taught this years ago!

You can do ityou can study the Bible for yourself and understand it correctly. Anyone who can read can do it. And this is what makes this way of studying the Bible so wonderful. God has not reserved His Bible for the intellectually superior. Rather, He intends for all people, regardless of their intellect or education, to know and understand His Word.

The Bible text we will use in this study is included in the back of this book, just before the discussion questions. Youll also find spaces throughout the book to record your insights. All you need is a pencil, a pen, and some colored pencils for marking the Bible text. And dont forget to equip yourself with the most important tool of allprayer! Pray that God will continue to whet your appetite for the truths in His Word. Ask Him to help you see the wonderful things He has provided for you in the Bible. Those are prayers He loves to answer!

If youre learning how to study inductively in a group, at the end of this book are some Inductive Bible Study Adventure Questions to help get your discussions started.

Im so excited youre starting this journey to developing a better understanding of Gods Word!

In 74 minutes, Lucinda would live, never to die again.

I was teaching in the Secured Housing Unit of the largest womens prison in the United States. From where I stood, I could see the silhouette of Lucindas hard, flat, rail-like form through the small window next to the huge brownish orange iron door that locked her in. Everything about Lucindathe pallor of her skin, her shaved head, and the vacant stare of her eyesspoke of death.

Every fiber of my beingbody, soul, and spiritwas focused on what I was doing. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this unusual opportunity came about because of God, and I was there because the women needed to hear not my words but Gods. Mine were the words of man; His are the words of lifedivinely empowered.

I watched His words cut like a sword as I read and explained Romans 1 along with other scriptures. I saw the pain. In my heart I cried to God for her life, for liberation from sin and death, for a way to live behind razor-sharp barbed wire and monstrous walls that separated Lucinda from the beauty and solace of trees and gardens and ponds.

I thought about what life must be like, caged in that cell. The SHU housed the worst offendersthe most rebellious, most dangerous, most violent. The most desperate. Souls so angry, so frustrated, they thought they could fight the system and get away with it. Or they didnt care anymoreall that mattered was venting rage or getting revenge.

These were the walking dead, entombed in cold concrete mausoleums. Only a trip to the shower or the doctor brought them from their cell. Then they walked in chains. Everythingfood, books, mail, medicineleft or entered their cell through a small metal trap door at the bottom of the brownish orange door.

I wasnt naive enough to think my God-ordained visit would spring open the doors of this prison for any of them. But I did know God could use it to roll away the stone that trapped them in their spiritual tombs and bring them from death to life. I knew if God would give them ears to hear and hearts to believe, they could gain a true knowledge of God that would bring power and divine purpose to their lives so they could live anywherein the prison or outas overcomers of any and every circumstance of life.

In the course of my 74-minute presentation this precious lesbian, along with surprisingly many others in the SHU, all with stories of their own, passed from death to life. It was a glorious moment as I donned the required prison gear to protect my face and chest and walked to Lucindas cell on the second level. Her brown eyes, swimming in tears, shimmered with light.

We talked. She truly understood. The old Lucinda had died; a new Lucinda had been born. No more anarchy. No more women. God would be her source of love and comfort and satisfaction. Yes, she would experience temptation and isolated acts of sin, but never again would she be sins prisoner, sins slave. Truth had set her free.

As I sit to write this book for you, dear reader, three years have passed. Lucindas address is still the same, but she is not. Her feminine appearance, her hair, her hunger for and understanding of the Word of God, and her changed life all witness to her salvation. Lucinda passed from death to lifeeternal life. He who began a good work in her will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Lucinda is a brand-new creation. Old things passed away and all things became new, just as I taught from 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 that epochal night she heard the words of life.

Lucinda is in the process of being transformed by the true knowledge of Him who called [her] by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3), and because of that, she is able to live as more than a conqueror in the midst of what I consider the hardest and potentially most depressing of circumstances.

Lucinda is studying her Bible the way you are about to learn to study yours.

The question is, how did Lucinda get so messed up even though she had a religious background?

How does anyone waste a life?

Waste away?

End up without answers to the most common of lifes issues?

Unequipped, unarmed, and unprepared to withstand the devastating seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil? Believing a lie?

Lets see what God says as we cry out, Lord, teach me to study the Bible in 28 days. All the answers are in His book, the Bible. If we know the cause of mankinds spiritual imprisonment, we can determine the cure.