Grace and peace Hope Point family,
This past Sunday night at Broadcast was exciting as we examined the spiritual discipline of Bible study. To see students corporately digging into God’s word absolutely stirs my heart with joy! Our desire as small group leaders is to teach the students how to study and savor the word of God. Furthermore, our passion is to equip the students to become “self-feeders.” Creating students to be self-feeder’s fosters independence and personal growth for the them as followers of Christ. Too much of the time we rely upon others for spiritual growth when God has given each individual believer the power to feed oneself upon the precious Word of God.
As you engage in meaningful discussion with your teen, consider the notion of why we as Christians need to study the Bible. Although this may seem like a very easy question to answer, many Christians, especially youth, struggle with the “why” of Bible study. The all too common phrase, “You just need to read your Bible,” is used quite frequently, but do we understand the meaning behind this statement? Of course there is truth in this axiom, but we run the risk of making this a simple Christian cliché if we fail to understand why God even gave us the Bible in the first place. Understanding why God gave us the Bible is the key to understanding why we should study the Bible. Here are 6 reasons God gave us the Bible: 1) To teach us about Himself 2) To teach us about ourselves and the world we live in 3) To enable us to live Godly lives 4) To facilitate a relationship with God 5) To exalt Jesus 6) To prepare us for our God-given mission. With this in mind, here are a few questions to help foster discussion with your teen relative to what they learned this past Sunday:
- Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Timothy 2:15, and discuss how these passages highlight the importance of studying the Bible.
- What do you find most difficult when studying the Bible?
- “To love God, you must know Him. To know Him is to love Him.” How does this statement relate to the importance of studying God’s word?