Kay Arthur - Free from Bondage Gods Way: Galatians/Ephesians

KAY ARTHUR

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Except where otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in this book 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.

Except where otherwise indicated, all maps and charts in this book, as well as the How to Get Started portion of the introductory material, have been adapted and condensed from The New Inductive Study Bible, Copyright 2000 by Precept Ministries International.

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

The New Inductive Study Series
FREE FROM BONDAGE GODS WAY

Copyright 1994 by Precept Ministries International
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Arthur, Kay, 1933

Free from bondage Gods way / Kay Arthur.

p. cm. (The new inductive study series)

ISBN 0-7369-0800-5

1. Bible. N.T. GalatiansStudy and teaching. 2. Bible. N.T. EphesiansStudy and teaching. I. Title. II. Series: Arthur, Kay, 1933 The new inductive study series.

BS2685.5.A78 1994

227.4007dc290

98-36529

CIP

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.

02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 / BP / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Sometimes its hard to read instructions. You simply want to get started, and only if all else fails will you read the directions. I understand, but in this case, dont do it! These instructions are part of getting started, and they will help you greatly.

As you study the books of Galatians and Ephesians, you will need four things in addition to this book:

1. A Bible that you are willing to mark in. Marking is essential because it is an integral part of the learning process and will help you remember and retain what you learned. An ideal Bible for this purpose is The New Inductive Study Bible (NISB). The NISB, available in the New American Standard Version, comes in a single-column text format with larger, easy-to-read type, and is ideal for marking. The page margins are wide and blank for notetaking.

The NISB is unique among all study Bibles in that it has instructions for studying each book of the Bible, but it does not contain any commentary on the text. The NISB isnt compiled from any particular theological stance since its purpose is to teach you how to discern truth for yourself through the inductive method of study. Inductive Bible study simply means that the Bible itself is the primary source for study. (The various charts and maps that you will find in this study guide are taken from the NISB.) Whatever Bible you use, just know you will need to mark in it, which brings us to the second item you will need.

2. A fine-point, four-color ballpoint pen or various colored fine-point pens (such as Micron pens) for writing in your Bible. The Micron pens are best for this purpose. Office supply stores should have these.

3. Colored pencils or an eight-color Pentel pencil.

4. A composition notebook or loose-leaf notebook for working on your assignments and recording your insights.

Though you will be given specific instructions for each days study, there are basic things youll want to look for and do as you study each book chapter by chapter. Let me list them for you. Read through the list but dont be overwhelmed. Eventually, each step will become a habit.

1. As you read each chapter, train yourself to ask the 5 Ws and an H: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Asking questions like these helps you see exactly what the Word of God is saying. When you interrogate the text with the 5 Ws and an H, ask questions like this:

a. What is the chapter about?

b. Who are the main characters?

c. When does this event or teaching take place?

d. Where does this happen?

e. Why is this being done or said?

f. How did it happen?

2. The when of events or teachings is very important and should be marked in an easily recognizable way in your Bible. I do this by putting a clock (like the one shown here) in the margin of my Bible beside the verse where the time phrase occurs. You may want to underline or color the references to time in one specific color.

Remember, time may be expressed in several different ways: by mentioning an actual year, month, or day, or by mentioning an event such as a feast, a year of a rulers reign, etc. Time can also be indicated by words such as then, when, afterward, at this time, etc.

3. There are certain key words that you will want to mark in a special way in the text of your Bible. This is the purpose of the colored pencils and the colored pen. Developing the habit of marking your Bible in this way will make a significant difference in the way you study and in how much you remember.

A key word is an important word that is used by the author repeatedly in order to convey his message to his reader. Certain key words will show up throughout the book as a whole, while other key words will be concentrated in certain chapters or segments of the book. You will want to mark key words and their pronouns (he, his, she, her, it, we, they, us, our, you, them, their) as well as any synonyms in a distinguishable color or way.

For instance, one of the key words in Galatians is gospel. I put a hot-pink megaphone like this around the word gospel and then color it in with green. I use the megaphone because God tells us we are to proclaim the gospel.

You need to devise a color-coding system for key words so that when you look at a page of your Bible, you will instantly see where a particular word is used. When you start marking key words in various colors and symbols, it is easy to forget how you are marking certain words. You may wish to use the bottom portion of the perforated card in the back of this book to write the key words on. Mark the words the way you plan to mark them in your Bible and then use the card as a bookmark.

Like gospel, covenant is also a key word in the study of Galatians. I mark the word covenant the same way throughout my Bible: I color it red and box it in yellow. I mark the word grace blue and box it in yellow. Grace will be a very important word in Galatians and Ephesians. And references to the devil and his cohorts can easily be seen in my Bible because I mark these with a red pitchfork