7 Ways to Learn the Bible.

Take note of the above quote by Edgar Dale and realize that, when we use all 7 ways to learn the Bible (especially when when we do what is says, and teach others to do the same), then we will unleash the blessings of Gods word into our lives because not only will we be obeying God, but we will remember what we teach others.

1. Hear the Word of God: The scriptures were written to be read aloud to the audience. The Bible clearly says “Faith Comes by Hearing and hearing by the word of God”. Faith is the foundation, the rock bed of our Christian walk. Fortunately for us today, there are many ways we can hear the Word of God. We can hear the word of God through sermons, audio books, CDs of Christian books, and audio bibles (which are CDs and other digital copies of the Bible). There are many online audio Bibles for people with internet access as well. Biblegateway.com is one of my favorite places to listen to the Bible online. Another one is youversion.com. There are many others than can easily be searched through Google or another search engine.
2. Read the word of God
3. Study the Bible  (writing distinguishes studying from reading).
4. Memorize
5. Meditate
6. Do what it says: Christianity is practical faith. Many of us want to make it a theoretical faith. We grow as Christians by doing the will of God, but its not because of our doing that we grow. Everything we receive is by grace. We are transformed into the image of God by beholding, not by working. Many of us rightly say that Christianity is not a “do” but a done faith. And all that is true. Christianity is a “done” faith quite alright, but the only way we experience it is by “doing”. God has prepared good works for us to do since the foundation of the world, why? So that we can work out what he has worked in. When we do that, we add nothing to what he has been done by our doing, but our doing or working out allows us to experience the fullness of what has been worked in. We can go to church every Sunday and learn about giving. We can even meditate on giving. That’s all good. But until we become like mother Theresa where constantly give of the love that has been poured into our hearts by the grace of God, we will never experience how wide or how deep that love is. We experience it when we are put in a situation where that love is given all day long and then the next day and when we realize that the grace of God is instead increasing and not decreasing as the demand on the love is increasing. Then we will say, aha. The grace of God is an infinite grace!
   James said it well. If you could make your Christian faith a theoretical faith, you kill it. Read James chapter 2 where he explains why faith without works is dead.
7. Teach What it says: Another thing that is so crucial to understand is that, our words and our thoughts are one and the same thing. Our thoughts are expressed as our words and our words shape our thoughts. Our words are an expression of our invisible thoughts. The process of understanding the word of God doesn’t end with reading, memorizing or meditating. It continues through doing and through teaching. Our understanding is continuously shaped by our actions and our speech. So obeying or putting into practice the word of God is not a separate part. It is a necessary expression of the word that is in our souls. If that word is not expressed in what we do and what we say to teach others, it is full proof that the Word of God hasn’t taken hold of our minds. We have nothing in us. This is a scientific principle. Our words and our thoughts are the same thing and they influence each other. Jesus rightly said it. Out of the abundance of a man’s heart his mouth speaks. The word of God is like fire in the bones. You cannot have it in you and hold it in. It is impossible. So the visible proof that you have the word of God in you is that you will speak it. This is corroborated by how our belief systems work. 90% of our behavior is controlled by our subconscious memory. That includes 90% of what we say and don’t say. Most psychologists would confirm that scientific fact. Our belief systems rule our subconscious. In fact, what those statistics are saying is that 90% of the time, we are on cruise control and our belief systems are driving when our subconscious mind is in control. If the word of God has renewed our mind (Romans 12:2), then we will spontaneously speak it and do it 90% of the time. The reason we don’t see ourselves doing that is because our belief systems and our subconscious has not yet been taken over by the Word of God.
   We need to make every effort (with our 10% consciousness) to share the word we study. What we do also affects how our belief systems form and over time of doing, it will influence our believe systems to automatically act that way. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. Research has also shown that when we do or say something long enough, it influences both the way we think and the way we act. That again proves my point that our thoughts, our speech, our actions are forms of the same thing.