Bible Toolkit: HEAR Plan for Studying the Bible

When reading a passage in the Bible, we should follow 4 main steps.

Arrange these in chronological order. (The order in which you should do them)

• read & observe

• discover what the passage means (in context)

• determine how the meaning applies to your life

• respond in prayer

In step 1 (HIGHLIGHT): Read and Observe,

which main question should you ask?

• What does it say?

• What does it mean?

• How should it change me?

In step 3 (APPLY): Determine how the meaning of the passage applies to your life,

which main question should you ask?

• What does it say?

• What does it mean?

• How should it change me?

When applying God's Word to our lives, which of the following is true?

• We should be PRAYERFUL when considering the application.

• We should focus on how we can CHANGE OURSELVES.

• We should focus on how THE TEXT SHOULD TRANSFORM US.

• We should FIRST consider how the text should change our HANDS (our actions)

• We should FIRST consider how the text should change our HEART (what we love/what we want)

In Step 3 [APPLY], we should consider how God may want to use the passage to transform WHICH areas of our life?

• our HANDS (actions)

• our HEART (what we love & want)

• our MIND (how we think)

• all of these

• none of these

What do we do in Step 4 (RESPOND) of reading the Bible well?

• Ask, "What does it mean?"

• Pray God's Word back to him.

• Prayerfully consider how the meaning applies to your life

• Read the passage and ask good questions/make good observations

In addition to READING the passage, which of the following are part of STEP 1 (HIGHLIGHT)?

• observing plot and characters

• noticing details

• asking good questions

• considering how to apply it to our life

• figuring out the underlying message

In STEP 2 (EXPLAIN), what is involved in discovering the MEANING of the passage?

• paying attention to what the context tells us about the meaning

• discovering the underlying message/themes of the passage

• asking, "What does this mean to me?"

• focusing on what we assumed it would mean before we even read it