In Pursuing More of Jesus, Anne Graham Lotz is teaching Inductive Bible Study. As a former educator, I am impressed with this method, because it uses higher order thinking skills. This is the best way to retain information.
The object of these
devotional studies is not to get through the study, but to develop
your personal relationship with God in order to satisfy your
spiritual hunger and increase your spiritual health.
NOTES FROM CHAPTER ONE
- In the first seminar, Lotz says that "there are so many voices in the world- they are like static."
- God speaks primarily through the Scriptures, and at times, through other people - which is where we must be careful.
- What others say should always be in accord with and confirmed by His Word.
- The Confusion about Authenticity: This mixture of true and false shepherds can be confusing to those who have become casual in their relationship with God and their attitude toward His Word.
- When God speaks it's in the language of our own personal lives, through a verse or passage of Scripture that just seems to leap off the page with our name on it.
- When a person claims to speak for God yet that person is false, the authentic sheep may not know specifically what is wrong, but instinctively we know it is It's as though a warning bell goes off in our spirits. Our spiritual antennae are alerted. (the spiritual gift of discernment?)
- The only way we can know the true from the false is to know the Shepherd's voice - God's Word.
- One of the primary reasons we need to be in a disciplined study of the Scriptures is so we can saturate ourselves in the truth.
- In order to give God's Word out so that others can hear His voice in their ears, we MUST read it, study it, understand it, apply it, live by it. But that's not enough! We have to listen for our Shepherd's voice to speak to us through it. Personally.
- We will recognize our Shepherd's voice when we listen with our eyes on the pages of our Bibles.
