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Create a daily personal devotion schedule with your guide that works practically with your schedule. ​​

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We wouldn't think someone had a healthy relationship with their spouse if they didn't converse at least once a day. Granted, there are days when outside events can throw regular communication off schedule, i.e., someone is traveling or etc. But for someone to be in a healthy marriage, their priority should be their spouse (second only to God).  We as the Church are the bride of Christ. We were made to be in constant communion with Him.  

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* Personal devotions should include: Scripture Reading, Prayer, Meditation Time, Scripture Memory.  

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21 days of Accountability

 

Purpose: 

 

1. To develop a daily habit of abiding with God so you can be a maturing Believer and a benefit to the Kingdom.

2. Everyone should go through this as it is a way to be accountable to your church family where they can know you are obedient where it matters most.  

 

What’s entailed:

 

• Your accountability partner will sit down with you in person the first time so you can watch how it’s supposed to look. 

• Pick a book of the bible,  start at the beginning and work to the end. Only moving on once you understand the main gist. ****

• Drench all devotional times with prayer. 

• Use solid commentaries with every devotional time so as not to deny the cloud of witnesses to glean wisdom and for the catching of solid hermeneutics.  (Read through the “Grow” section on our Discipleship Path found on our website and you’ll also find solid Commentaries to use that are found on Bible Hub). 

• Pick a start time for your devo but not an end time.  God dictates when the conversation ends. 

• Pick a start verse,  not an end verse.  You may have to spend days on one verse. 

• If you miss a day you start over at day one because it takes 21 straight days (roughy) to make a habit. 

• The person going through the 21 days will reach out to their accountability partner at least every 72 hours and share where they are at and a bit of what God has been teaching them.  This can be done with a mix of phone calls and texts. 

• Listen to your accountability partner’s critiques or insights. 

• If your accountability partner doesn’t hear from you in 72 hours they will reach out to you.  The goal is they do not have to initiate reaching out to you. 

• Your accountability partner will also act as the liaison to the church family and will decide to vouch for your obedience or not regarding the 21 days.  

• Follow ups on this daily habit should always continue when attending your local church because, “The strength of Christians is the pride of the church.” - Richard Baxter 

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Reading Scripture: (A few tips)

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Read the bible in a way that you remember what you read. We don't really get to know someone by reading facts about them. We get to  know them by spending time with them. Take time, wrestle with scripture, and mine its gems until His Holiness consumes you. 

• Quality over quantity! Do not move on until you can at least grasp the basics of what is being said. If this means you stay in a verse for a month, do it! All scripture fits together so the more you understand one piece the better and more naturally you'll understand the other pieces once you get to them. 

• You Tube "Bible Project" and the "name of a book in the bible" to get great overviews of a book before you start it. 

• Be confident and delight in what can be clearly known about God. At the same time be confident and delight in the mysteries of God. Even David could not comprehend all the wonders of God, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain!"(Psalms 139:6).  "A God that could fit in my 3 pound brain wouldn't be worth worshiping." - Creationist Apologist, Kent Hovind.  

•  Use solid commentaries to help gain deeper insights. Gifted theologians filled with the Holy Spirit throughout the history of the church have read, meditated on, and written about, scripture. These commentaries are there for our benefit to understand and to behold what can be known about this amazing and wonderful God we serve!  Be immersed in the Word and be sprinkled by commentaries!  

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• BibleHub.com - A great online tool to help study scripture with.  

 

  Solid Commentaries to use on Biblehub:

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• Bengel’s Gnomon

• Clarke

• Benson 

• Calvin 

• Pulpit 

• Ellicott 

• J.F.B.

• Geneva Study Bible 

• Matthew Henry

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Books: 

The MacArthur Bible Commentary - John MacArthur 

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge - Hendrickson 

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Theology (The Study of God)

• To fall in love with God we must fall in love with Who He Is, and What He is Like. Otherwise we are just falling in love with our ideas of what He is like and that equates to idolatry.  

• Any time we are learning about God- whether from the bible, commentaries, online sources etc., we are studying theology. 

• While studying theology, keep discussion with your guide, ongoing- through questions and sharing about what God is teaching you. 

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When reading Scripture or studying Theology, some questions to ask are (include also in meditation):  

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  -What does this teach me about God?

  -What does this teach me about me?

  -What does this teach me about others?

  -What does this teach me about sin?

  -What does this teach me about grace?

  -How does this fit into the big picture?

  -How can I apply this practically to my life? 

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"If our Theology doesn't cause us to act out in love we either haven't learned it or it's wrong" - Augustine 

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• Can we trust the Word of God? 

  • God's design is that the more we study the Bible, the more our faith in the Word of God will strengthen. (Rom.10:17)

                 Watch: https://youtu.be/rOYJkEFauZs - Why I Choose to Believe the Bible - Voddie Baucham 

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• Solid Online Preachers to listen to for further study:

 (Supplementary only to personal study and corporate study at the local church). 

 

- Voddie Baucham     

- Paul Washer 

- John MacArthur (gty.org and the gty app) 

- R.C. Sproul 

- Conrad Mbewe

- Sinclair B. Ferguson

- James White 

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- Theology overview books * Look at bottom of page for books pertaining to categorical theology topics. 

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Systematic Theology - Wayne Grudem

Institutes of the Christian Religion - John Calvin 

Concise Theology - J.I. Packer    

John Owen, on the Christian Life - Sinclair Ferguson       

Biblical Doctrine - John MacArthur/ Richard MayHue

*Anything from the Puritan Paperback Series (There's 49 of them).          

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Hermeneutics  (The Art and Science of reading the bible) 

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To be sure that we are reading and applying the bible correctly we must learn HOW to read it, that's where Hermeneutics comes in.  

• We teach what is known as the Literal Historical-Grammatical Method of Hermeneutics. 

• Hermeneutics is an Art and a Science. That means there are actual guiding rules to studying scripture (Science) and the more you do it based on those rules the more you will develop distinct ways God speaks to you through scripture by the illumination of His Spirit.  This is why we are told to worship God in Spirit and in truth.(Jn.4:24)   

• Key Hermeneutical rules to remember: ​

  • Read scripture literally unless it clearly isn't. When Jesus says He's the door, don't look for a handle on Him. 

  • Figure out the original meaning (aka: Context):

    • Always look for the author's intended meaning (a.i.m.) in his context (do unto authors as you would have them do unto you). 

    • Ask yourself how the audience would have taken what was being said in their setting (always grow as a biblical times historian). 

    • Until we know what the author meant and how the audience heard it, we cannot begin to understand how to apply scripture to our own lives correctly. 

• Scripture best interprets scripture (if you're not sure what is being said, another part of scripture speaking about the same topic will help fill in the gaps). 

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Books:

How to Study the Bible - John MacArthur 

How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth - Gordon Fee, Douglas Stuart 

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Online Resources:

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Podcast:  The Drafted Man- Episodes 1-5

R.C. Sproul: How To Study the Bible - * Take notes on the Hermeneutical rules he presents.

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Apologetics  (The Defence of the Faith) 

• ​​​When we study Apologetics we learn to fight God’s way in the war for souls. Our faith strengthens and we learn even more about our God in order to share Him with others! "In your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." (1 Peter 3:15)

• Who is our enemy?  "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12) ​

• Because our fight is not against flesh and blood, and in order to be effective in apologetics we need to put on the full * Armour of God - https://youtu.be/S-5enCWJLGs

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Online Resources:

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Voddie Baucham - Expository Apologetics (Aka: Defend the faith when preaching the Bible) - https://youtu.be/b3svqyyID8Q

Carm Apologetics Website: Carm.org - Explore to your heart's content! *Be sure to work your way through their Key Verses to memorize for apologetics and for your personal devotions so our Sword is always ready. 

Monergism.com 

 

 

 

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