Skip to main content

Dig Deeper

What does it mean to preach the Word faithfully? One way to express it simply is this:
1. Get it right
2. Get it across
First we need to listen very carefully to the Bible text and chew on it and feel the force of it and see Christ in it and work out what is the main point of the passage. Then we need to think very carefully about how to communicate that to our hearers in a way that will keep it clear and cutting.
Both theses stages are hard work. Dig Deeper is a great resource to help us with the first stage - getting the right message from the text. Here is a review by one of the iServe Africa ministry apprentices Sheena Murabula.


In the Kenyan church context, at least as much as in other places, a very concerning phrase pops in bible study groups; "Well that’s your interpretation, but this is what I think." With this trend of individual opinions reigning, the Bible can say almost anything. Also, the Bible warns us against false teachers as in 2 Peter 2, 1 John 4 and several other references. But who knows, any one of us may misinterpret the Bible and lead others astray not because we mean to but out of lack of knowledge.
Dig Deeper has been written by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach. It offers a number of tools a Bible reader can use to find out the big idea of a particular passage or book in the Bible and therefore come up with relevant applications. The tools they recommend include; Genre tool, Repetition tool, Vocabulary tool, Who am I? tool, Copycat tool, Parallel tool, Quotation/allusion tool, Linking words tool, Author’s purpose tool, Translation tool, Tone and feel tool, Bible timeline tool, So what? tool, Narrator's comment tool, Context tool and Structure tool.
For example, the ‘Repetition’ tool helps one identify the author’s emphasis; maybe in the form of an idea, word or phrase that comes again and again in a passage. Similarly the ‘Author’s purpose’ tool can be very helpful to form the background of all your study - what we really need to know is what the original author was wanting to do with his words - warn, encourage, urge, challenge or whatever. All these tools are aimed at helping us handle the Bible in a way that is not based on one’s own thinking but on the Word; #LetTheScriptureSpeakForItself.
I like the persuasive language used in this book, the illustrations, the worked out examples and the assignments at the end of each chapter designed to help the reader learn and gain skills through the process of doing. It is also easy to follow through the book with a few stops for Bible reference when compared to other books of the same genre which can be much heavier reading.
This is a book is for every Christian: the Preacher who desires to faithfully handle the Scriptures, the Parent who would want to understand God’s word before sharing with their children and spouses, C.U. leaders who love to share the good news in missions and during fellowships, Bible study leaders and everyone else with the task of joyfully labouring at preaching the gospel.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A prayer for the summer

LORD God, our God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, our Father, as your children in the northern hemisphere enter this season of the academic year, please give us fresh grace to walk, stand and sit aright. May those of us who enjoy running and walking in your creation give thanks to you for that privilege but not be as concerned about the daily step count on our trackers as in taking practical steps this summer in kindness, in compassion, in forgiveness, in building others up, in pleasing the Lord - steps of progress in gracious, sacrificial, Christ-like loving (Ephesians 4-5).  May those of us who look forward to getting out of the city give thanks to you for the privilege of travel but not ultimately be as concerned about the physical location in which we stand (whether "beneath the boughs" or on a hot and sweaty tube train) as about our location "in Christ" - the address of every spiritual blessing, complete forgiveness, intimate sonship, total security (Ephesians ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everlasting gobstopper theology

The idea here is that there are layers to Christ's fullness and when the biblical authors present Christ to us they might only explicitly refer to one layer but as they do that the underlying layers are also implied. Or to put it another way, the glory of the underlying layers shines through the layer that is presented to us. That might sound strange, abstract and not particularly helpful but let me try to explain.  The incarnation implies the pre-existent Word When John identifies "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" as the key test of orthodoxy, Augustine asks (Homily 6 on 1 John) how can this be when so many heretics happily affirm the humanity of Jesus but deny his deity? Augustine then asks us to dig a bit deeper and consider: From whence did he come? "Was he not God?" Simon Gathercole demonstrated (in his 2006 book, The Pre-existent Son ) that Jesus' phrase in the synoptic gospels, "I have come", implies divine pre-existence.  So whenever we ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The virtue of stability

We live in a culture where stability, stick-ability and consistency are not really seen as virtues but disabilities. We told that it’s good to be flexible, agile, constantly shifting, morphing, evolving, jumping from one thing to another. Everyone offers us change – politicians, internet providers, management gurus. To stick with one thing, to be the same person yesterday, today and tomorrow is strange, boring, old-fashioned, impractical and probably deadly. Change becomes the new constant, flux and flex the new buzz words. That culture affects us personally and as churches. And there are some things about willingness to change (reformation?) that are hugely positive. We've talked about the need to be willing to change as a good farmer seeking growth . And how change is often spiritually good for us . But there are negative aspects to a culture that makes a virtue of constant instability. Is it good for customers and companies if employees change jobs every year? Is it good for chi...
Post a Comment
Read more