Introduction:

     One of my main concerns is that most Christian churches don’t have very much Bible teaching. So I have tried to encourage many to study the Bible more and even begin home group Bible studies. Recently, I have had opportunities to share about my logical indent method of formatting Scripture with some leaders in a world-wide denomination and they thought it was good and could help the indicated Bible study revival. In the last part of August 2007, I re-organized about 350 complete and partial Bible studies for making some MS Word files of Bible studies which could be used as “springboards” for personal or group Bible studies. Hope that you will enjoy all that follows.

 

Note: The following is about a way I have been logically formatting Scripture since September 1977. Many of my Bible study courses have it because it causes reasoning which helps for better retention. After reading the directions, try your favorite Bible chapter. The man I learned this from even did his personal letters this way.

 

Proper Bible study is so important because it is the best way to discover “the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2) or how Jesus Christ thinks.

     That is the way to get to know Jesus Christ intimately which the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3 is so important.

Studying and using Scripture suggestions:

      First in responding to any Bible verse or Scripture passage you hear in a sermon,

           skim the verse or passage

                 and then check the verses before and after to make sure that was is being said really relates to the verse quoted.

      Sometimes after the sermon and I am at my computer,

           I will download any meaningful verses’ passages and at least do the indent formatting to them to understand better the logic of them.

      If you are just typing Scripture without using Bible software to copy/paste from, be very careful and double and triple check what you have written.

           One letter missing or one letter added can change the meaning of a verse.

           For each verse, think: “Does it just tell me something I believe already or does it indicate something I should change in my life to be more Christ-like?”

                If it is the latter, you should copy it onto a 3 x 5 card in your own words in a commitment form.

For your e-mail and Internet ministries, you can share any of my Bible studies

      which are free for the asking via e-mail at living.for.jude.20.to.25@googlemail.com

      or downloadable from http://www.box.com/s/b5e77263893659cd0b28

           or even uses parts of them in counseling or for your website.

But if you want to develop your own inductive Bible studies or Bible study tools, following is some advice from me:

      Back in 1977-78, I learned to do a special logical formatting.

           The above and the below are samples of it.

           This method of Bible study will help the formatter learn new understanding of God’s Word

                and can be used for inductive teaching for Bible study discussion groups

                and for easier memorizing of Scripture.

           This way of writing Scripture can be done using any translation of the Bible

                but please show respect in and capitalize the first letter of deity pronouns, Earth (for God’s special planet), Christian,

                     and other words that indicate uniqueness (like “Bible” and “Apostle”).

           This will almost look sort of like the outline format

                 with the verses or groups of verses that seem to be of equal importance indented the same positions from the left of the page.

For producing inductive study for a Bible chapter or passage:

      First be in the frame of mind as Proverbs 3:5-6 in order to be sensitive to The Holy Spirit.

      Download the desired Bible chapter or passage into a MS Word document.

             The software I usually use is

                   from the free e-Sword downloads (usually the MKJV or the KJV red letter edition)

                   or from the Lockman Foundation downloads of the Amplified and NASB Bibles.

      Type the reference title above the first verse.

             Press the Enter key and that is where the first verse number goes.

                  If the verse number is one digit, put a space in front of it.

                      Then press the space bar 4 times.

                            Determine how much of the first verse should be on the first line. 

                                  Most likely there will be a comma or semi-colon at the end.

                                  In most cases, you will want to get as much on each line as possible,

                                        but any equal important phrases usually should be separate lines

                                              indented the same positions from the left of the page.

      There are four main choices of this logical formatting:

            If a phrase or statement is just a logical continuation or subordinate to the line above,

                  start it three or four spaces to the right of the starting place of the line above.

                        Some letters are thinner than other letters, so that is why the 3 or 4 option of spaces.

            If a phrase or statement seems to be of equal importance to one of the lines above,

                  start it three spaces to the right of the starting place of that same importance line above.

            A phrase or verse which seems to be just a clarification of a word or phrase in a previous verse

                  should be indented at least 7 spaces to the right compared to the previous line,

                        so that the next line can start as it is a continuation of the previous line.

                  Such is a parenthetical statement and could be easily left out and not affect the meaning of the above.

            If a phrase or statement ends a definite paragraph skip a line before starting the next paragraph.

Then sometimes I make the studies better Bible study tools or even courses by doing the following:

      I will bold or/and underline important verses or phrases

       or/and I will insert thought provoking questions.

For producing subject studies:

      After I sense a need (from the Holy Spirit, a sermon, a TV program, a conversation, etc.),

          I use a Bible software to download verses using a key word to search with.

               I usually have to sort such several times using different tense forms of a key word and synonyms of that key word.

               Two other good sources for subject study verse references are The Naves Topical Bible and The Thompson Chain Bible References.

          Then for each verse that you want to use choose enough of its context before doing the logical formatting.

                Proper context is so important for most verses.

                     After looking at a verse’s context, you may realize that it isn’t appropriate for the study and should be deleted.

          As I am doing such a study, groupings seem to develop.

                And The Holy Spirit gives me names for these groupings.

          So I start sorting the formatted verses and passages.

                I split the MS Word document to save time in doing such.

                     And sometimes in large studies, I make a separate list of the group titles for the lower work-in progress part,

                           so that I know how to search the top section on a key word of a group title

                                to find the right group to put in the recently formatted verse or verses.

                                    I use the Table of Contents tool in MS Word to make this easier.

          If a Bible verse or passage is identical or almost the same as you have previously done in the study,

                do a search in the top part of split document to find the just mentioned.

                     If the unformatted Bible verse or passage is identical or not as good as the search result,

                         then put the reference of the Bible verse or passage in the working section in parentheses just after the last line of the search result,

                              type before the reference "See also in", and italicize the addition.

                                   Then delete the unformatted Bible verse or passage.

                     If the unformatted Bible verse or passage is better than the search result,

                         then format it and put it in the proper location in the above section

                              followed by the reference of the Bible verse or passage to be deleted in parentheses just after the last line and do.

                                   Type before the reference "See also in", and italicize the addition.

                                         Then delete the verse or passage.

I have learned much every time I have done the logical formatting.

     Remember the ETRSF formatted Isaiah 28:9-10 and 2 Timothy 2:15 which I posted in the first page of this website?

            Hope that you

                   will too learn from doing ETRSF

                   and will share the results with others via the Internet or/and Bible study groups.