Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
I recently finished reading, "How to Study the Bible for Yourself." My mom got this book awhile ago through Crossings Book Club and I hadn't read it, so I started it the other day. To tell the truth, I just decided to read it more for fun. Because I already have my own way that I go about studying the Bible, but I thought that maybe I could get something out of it.
I do like some of the study worksheets that they provide at the end of the book. And LaHaye shares stories of people who became excellent students of the Bible. I probably will do a study of the life of Jesus or a study of Jesus' parables. I also like that he encourages that you should memorize verses from the Bible. I remember one time hearing a preacher say that you didn't need to memorize verses. I don't exactly remember why he said it, I just remember hearing him say you didn't need to do it. Two things that I believe that so-called preacher didn't want those under him to be able to do, first, he didn't want them to spiritually grow and be able to overcome spiritual warfare. Number two, he was probably afraid that they would learn verses that would show them that they should kick him out of the pulpit.
One thing that I didn't agree about is, he gave a list of books that you should use to study the Bible. One reason I didn't like this is sometimes people can't afford them. I was blessed to get two of my study Bibles through my church. I bought a Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible for $10 bucks last year. I received a Bible dictionary from my grandmother's church when I graduated from High School. Christmas 2006, I took the money that my grandfather and my aunt Lori gave me and I bought a 5 volume commentary set. My cousin Marcy installed a Deluxe Bible Collection on my computer and that has different commentaries and it also has the Strong's Concordance. Also one year my aunt Lori gave me a Halley's Bible Handbook (that was one book on LaHaye's list). I got a cheap concordance last year (that was really by accident). But as I said, sometimes people can't get those books. I have heard many times that my grandfather uses a Webster's Dictionary to look up words from the Bible.
I would recommend, that you would get a good Study Bible. If you could get The Deluxe Bible Collection then that would be worth your money. But don't worry, there is this awesome website called E-Sword that you can download onto your computer and then you can download commentaries and books. Two things that I downloaded off E-Sword that I love is the Bishops' Bible 1568 and the Geneva Bible 1587. Most of the Bibles and commentaries are free, but there are some you have to pay for. Here is the link, E-Sword.
