Fishers Of Men Study

The following are some tips on the first two areas of the observation step in the Inductive Bible study process… 

• Week 1 Bible Study Passage: Eph 1:1-14  Using The Inductive Bible Study Worksheet:  

• The 5W’s – (Who, what, when, where & why)   1.      Who is speaking in this passage? To whom is he speaking to? 2.      What is he speaking about? 3.      When is he speaking?4.      Where is he speaking?5.      Why is he speaking?  Note: You may not be able to answer all five questions with in the verse from this passage.    

 

• Key Words – (Words that repeat, synonyms, pronouns word to look up definition)  1.      Mark all names and  personal pronoun 2.    Mark words that repeat, synonyms or words you need to look up    

 

• Example: (Eph 1:1-7 NIV) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful  in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he  predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will–  6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace   

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• Red Pronouns are all in reference to Jesus Christ Blue are in reference to God  Black are word I want to look up the definition of in the Strong’s Concordance (meaning in the original language)  Pink are words that repeat and I my want to look up also   This is just one way of doing these first two steps. The colors and the marks realy do not matter, just be consistent in how you use them as to not get confused i.e. same color for a pronoun referring to a particular person ect. Hope this has been helpful.    

• Special Note: The Bible version you use does matter! Here’s why if you are using any of the online Bible study tools from the website or you have download e-Sword or any other free Bible Study software (generally speaking) and you are using the NIV you will not be able to look up the words in the Strong’s Concordance. These programs do not have a Strong’s Concordance keyed to the NIV Bible. I suggest doing your Bible study using both the NIV and the KJV so that you can identify the similar words in each translation and look them up using the online study tools. Another option if you absolutely do not want to use the KJV would be to go out and buy a Strong’s Concordance Hardcover Book that is keyed to the NIV. This will be a little more work because you will have to find the word from the Bible verse look it up in the Concordance and then look it up using the Strong’s reference number in the Greek dictionary. A little more time consuming but it is doable    If you want to buy it I am putting a link to Berean.com   http://www.berean.com/advSearch2.asp?mode=search&selQuickSearch=quicksearch&txtTitle=Strong%27s+Niv&x=15&y=11  

  

• Again I hope this has been helpful! I am praying for each of you, that the Lord would bless you desire and your efforts in studying His Word,  Bro. Brian

Tonight I want to talk about getting started. As I pointed out in the “Inductive Bible Study Overview outline, which you can download on from this web page,

 (http://boystomenministry.org/WeeklyBibleStudy.html) a life style of prayer is essential in studying God’s Word. I want to encourage you to simply start talking to God! Talk to Him as you take a shower, as you drive to work every opportunity you have just talk to Him. Talk to Him about the things that make you happy, things that make you sad, talk to Him about everything and anything just start talking to Him. That’s it, just start. The Lord can do amazing things with a willing heart.

 

Now let’s talk about Bible Study. Hopefully you have read through the book of Ephesians by now or have listened to the MP3 files of the book that you can download from this web page (http://boystomenministry.org/Ephesiansdownload.html)  If not don’t worry JUST START! Employ the power of one. Just do one thing. Don’t focus on reading all six chapters just read one. If you listen to the MP3 files each chapter is only a few minutes long. Just listen to it one time, JUST START! The first step to the Inductive Bible study after praying (life style of prayer) and reading through the book to become familiar with the context and content is Observation.

 

What I do is start going through the chapter verse by verse looking for the 5 W’s and marking key words. What I do is copy the text (in this case Eph 1:1-14) into a word.doc and then print it out and I use that as my working copy. I highlight, underline make note ect. I have posted a copy for you to look at to give you an idea on how I do it. Go to this web page http://boystomenministry.org/WeeklyBibleStudy.html and then click on           “Brian’s Study Scans” This is what I do you do what ever works for you the key is to DO IT!

 

I hope this has been helpful

 

Bro. Brian     

Preparing For The Attack As we prepare to begin this Bible study next week it is vital that we fully understand what we are truly engaging in….  Spiritual Warfare  As Christians we often here the term Spiritual Warfare but I don’t know that we truly believe in it or maybe we simply don’t understand it. Consider this, if you were in the US Military stationed in Afghanistan or Iraq would you go out on the battlefield unarmed? Would you go out to battle never having been trained or prepared for battle?  Would you wander into enemy territory alone? Would you go out to battle without any means of communication? What do you think would happen if you did?  In these scenarios it is very easy for us to say Absolutely Not! But yet many of Christians have done just that, gone onto the battlefield unarmed, untrained and without communication. Brothers I want you to fully understand what you are doing by joining this Bible study. The Bible says….    

 

2Co 10:3-5  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4)  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

1. The battle is not physical we must understand this point. Though the enemy may use physical means to attack us, the battle it self is not about the physical.
2. The weapons of our warfare therefore are not physical; but they ARE mighty through God. (see Eph 6:10-18)
3. The intent of the weapons are to bring the thoughts ( the mind) into obedience to Christ

 1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 

4. The War is serious and it is hard work; don’t go onto the battlefield without being fully aware this fact and fully committed to the fight.
5. There is an enemy and it is not another human being. Though humans may be used by the enemy the enemy is the Devil
6. The enemy is committed; he will not hold anything back; he has no second thoughts about the battle he is looking for those who he can devour swallow up and destroy. This is important because those who become deeply rooted and grounded in the truth of God’s Word are mighty warriors in the hand of the all mighty God, and that is the last thing the enemy wants.      

 Eph 6:10-18 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.(11)  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12)  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (13)  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.(14)  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (15)  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (16)  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (17)  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (18)  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

7. Don’t forget your armor … in the battle every piece of the armor is essential. We will learn more about each piece of the armor when we get to this chapter in our study. For now it is important to understand that it is the Word of God that has the power to change lives!

 Why take the time to write all this? Brothers I want you to be prepared for when the enemy attacks. Notice I did not say IF the enemy attacks but WHEN! He will, because he knows that if you begin to grow in the knowledge and truth of God’s Word you will begin to impact your wives, children, friends, family, co-workers, and anyone you come into contact with, for the cause of Christ. You will be a threat to his plan.  I will be sending out a group e-mail to all of those who have signed up for this Bible study. In the e-mail I will be asking for prayer request. Please reply to this e-mail with anything we (as a Bible study group) can be in pray about. Most of us are aware of the areas of weakness in our lives. Areas that draw us away from God, temptations or sins that are particularly difficult to deal with, pressures of life at home or in the work place that cause us to stress or worry or any other thing that is on your heart. I will then list those prayer request in a separate e-mail and send them back out to the group so we can be praying for each other. An active and consistent prayer life is essential when you are on the battlefield!  Let us pray one for another!  

Your brother in Christ,

Brian   

 

If you plan on joining this Bible study I want to encourage you to download and print the following documents from the Fishers Of Men Bible Study Material web page… Here is the link just in case you haven’t. http://boystomenministry.org/WeeklyBibleStudy.html On this page click and open the file (they are listed below).  After you open the file you can print out a hard copy to use and then save a copy of it on your computer.

1.       Inductive Bible Overview: This is an outline of the Inductive Bible Study process and is essential in participating in this study.

2.       Inductive Bible Study Worksheet: This is a worksheet you can use in doing an Inductive Bible Study. It will be particularly helpful to you if you are not yet familiar with the process.

3.       Figures of Speech: This is a document I found on the internet that is a really good source for becoming familiar with the various forms of figures of speech. This will prove helpful when working on the interpretation step of the Inductive Bible Study process.   

Also on the Book of Ephesians Bible Study page http://boystomenministry.org/Ephesiansdownload.html there are some great links to sites that will give you some historical and cultural background information about the city of Ephesus. You will also find some audio files (MP3) of all six chapter of the Book of Ephesians. You can down load them to your MP3 player or burn them to a CD and listen to them while you are out and about. This is a great way to become familiar with the Book of Ephesians. You will find that reading and or listening to the passages over and over again will have great benefit once you begin to dig in and study the passage.   

I am praying for each of you who have committed to this Bible study and I am praying for those who will join us soon.

May the Lord bless you and your families this and every day

Bro. Brian

   

I thought that setting up this blog site would be a good way for the Fishers of Men Bible study group to communicate with one another in between conference calls. For more information about the Fishers of Men Bible study click on the link.  http://boystomenministry.org/Fishersofmen.html

I will post my thoughts, tips and questions regarding the particular passage we studying every day. As of today we have not set up what day of the week or the time for the conference call but we should have that set up soon. I have set the start date for the twelve week study to begin the next week, the week of 5/18/08 to 5/24/08. The fist conference call will take place sometime in the following week.

Be patient with me in regard to the blog I am a first timer! Anyway I am looking forward to the time we will be spending in the Word.

 

Bro. Brian