Three Question Method of Bible Study

 

I sat with my bible open, devouring the word as if I were starving.  I actually was starving for the word of God.  I was 38 when I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. I had not known how sweet and satisfying God’s word could be, how much I needed it, and how much I craved it.  At the age of 38 all I could do was read, all I wanted to do was read.  I could not understand everything, but that was ok, I was drinking it all in as a baby drinks milk. 

 

It wasn’t long though, and I began to really desire understanding.  How could I read the word for myself and truly hear from God?  I knew He had something to tell me though the word, but how could I really know?  Sometimes words seemed to jump off of the page, and I knew it was a message from heaven, just for me, but I wanted to hear from God every day.

 

 

It was then that I learned the three question method of bible study. I was fortunate to sit in on several sessions of an Anne Graham Lotz seminar where I work, and through her teaching, my eyes were opened to a whole new world, and my heart was opened to a deeper understanding of the Bible, and relationship with Jesus.

 

It is a simple method of study, in that you only ask yourself a couple of questions about each verse, but it can be challenging, in that, it makes you think and take time to listen to what God has to say.  It is not something you can rush through, but you can do as little as one verse per day and still hear from God through that one verse. 

 

So what is the “three question method?”  I also call this the Anne Graham Lotz method, as this is who I learned it from, and on her website, which I will post a link at the end, if you have time, please check it out.  She has a video tutorial on this method

 

I am providing basic instructions, but please visit Anne’s web site for printed instructions and sample worksheets.  Once you can do this method from a work sheet, it is an easy transition to using a notebook and study on your own any passage of scripture you choose.  This is the only

method I use in my personal study.  I hope you are as blessed by this as I am.

 

First, read the desired passage then ask yourself the following questions.

 

1.      What does God’s Word Say?  Be Literal.  Make a verse by verse list of the most obvious facts using the actual words from the passage itself. Do not paraphrase. Do not get caught up in details. Ask yourself: Who is speaking? Who is the subject? Where is it taking place? When did it happen?   2.      What does God’s word mean?  Be Spiritual. Look for a spiritual lesson or principle within each fact. Ask yourself: what are the people in the passage doing that I should be doing?  Is there a command to obey? A promise I should claim? A warning I should heed? An example I should follow?   3.      What Does God’s Word Mean to Me? Be Personal.  Put the lesson you found in question 2 into the form of a question you would ask yourself, your spouse, a child, a co-worker, a friend or church member. As you write out your questions, listen to God communicate to you through His word,  Don’t rush.  Take time to meditate and discover what God is saying to you.   Final step:  Live it out.  Read your lessons prayerfully, thoughtfully and attentively as you listen to God speak to you.  He doesn’t always speak in every verse, but if something is speaking to you, record the verse, and what your response will be.  In this step I hold myself accountable by dating it.   Instructions:  http://www.annegrahamlotz.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-Question-Directions_revised.pdf

Sample Worksheet: http://www.annegrahamlotz.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-Question-Sample-Worksheet_revised.pdf

 

Blank Worksheet: http://www.annegrahamlotz.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-Question-Blank-Worksheet_revised.pdf

 

In next week’s post I’ll go through some verses starting in the book of Acts straight from the pages of my notebook so you can see how I do this method of study. 

Q & A With  Guest Blogger Laurie Coombs


Last week I featured a guest blogger, my dear friend Laurie Coombs.  She has an amazing new book that just released this week titled "Letters from my Father's Murderer".  I have had the privilege to read it, and I cannot tell you just how powerful this story truly is.  A story of redemption, of God's grace, healing and forgiveness.  I hope you all take the time to read it. 


This week, I am posting a Q & A session with Laurie.  I hope you are blessed by it.


Patty

Q&A with Laurie Coombs

 

Author of Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness

Q: What would you like for our readers to know about you personally?

                     

A: I’m just a girl who loves Jesus. Someone who believes God enough to follow His lead. I love my husband and children more than I can ever say. I love spending time with my family and friends. I drink entirely way too many soy chai tea lattes. I am terrible at keeping a workout schedule. And I feel most alive when I speak about Jesus. 

 

Q: Tell us about your family.

A: My family is most certainly my greatest blessing here on this earth. My husband, Travis, and I have been married almost fourteen years but have been together for close to eighteen. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long––we were just babies, seventeen and eighteen years old, when we began dating.

Travis and I have two wonderfully amazing daughters, who are seven and nine years old, who we absolutely adore. But our family is not finished yet. We’ve been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia for almost five years now and are in the home stretch to bring our three year old little boy and five year old little girl home! Quite honestly, we cannot wait see this epic journey come to completion, and so prayers are very much appreciated!!

Q: Have you written other nonfiction books?

A: Not yet! But I have a sneaking suspicion God might call me to write a book on faith and belief enough to follow Him in the hard places. I have so many more incredible stories of God’s faithfulness in the face of difficult circumstances in me, but we’ll just have to wait and see where He leads! 

Q: Do you have any other books in the works right now? 

A. Letters from My Father’s Murderer has been keeping me pretty busy over the last three years, and I quite honestly haven’t had much time for anything else. I told my husband I’m never going to write another book, when I was in the thick of it a few months back. His response made me chuckle. He told me writing a book is probably like having a baby––toward the end, you think you’ll never do it again, but once you give birth––and see the fruit of your labor––you get amnesia of sorts and are ready to do it all over again. I think Travis is right. This will not be my only book. 

Q: What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy? 

A: I absolutely love doing just about anything outdoors––hiking, camping, backpacking, snow skiing––and so does the rest of my family. Together with some of our closest friends, we spend most weekends outside, enjoying God’s creation in one form or another.  

Aside from that, I love to read. I can often be caught reading four or five books at the same time (though not in one sitting). And I’d say one of my favorite things to do is to share dinner with our closest friends while our gaggle of kids run around playing with one another.

Q: Why did you write the featured book?                 

A: To be honest, I didn’t initially want to write this book. I wanted to share my story, but I knew that writing it in a book would require me to bare all. I knew I’d have to share difficult things, and I quite honestly didn’t want to. But greater than my resistance was my desire to see people experience freedom and redemption and healing as I had. I wanted God to be glorified for what He had done in and through my life.

I knew God was calling me to write this book. And I knew God well enough to know that if I answered that call I’d most assuredly see lives change as a result of the message He has given me. God allowed me to see that good could come out of the ashes of my past. That I could play a small part in the grand story He has been unfolding since the beginning of time. That I could participate in what He’s doing in the here and now, for the good of many. And so, I chose to say yes, and of course, I’m now completely on board with God’s plan for my life. 

Q: What do you want the reader to take away from the book?                       

A: Hope is at the heart of my message. God truly has worked all things for good in my life. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” The first part of Genesis 50:20 says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God brings good out of evil. Love out of hate. Peace out of despair. I believe it is His desire to do this for every one of us. You see, our pain won’t be wasted. We don’t have to sit in it. If we bring our pain, past and present, to God, He will redeem it.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to tell my readers about you or your book?                 

A: I’d like the readers to know that we all have wounds. Every one of us. And my pain is no more valid than yours or anyone else’s. I believe pain is pain, regardless of its cause. But here’s the thing, Jesus came that we might have life. Life to the full. He came to bind the brokenhearted. To proclaim freedom to the captives. To release prisoners from their darkness. To comfort all who mourn. To bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes. In short, He came to redeem. To make us new.  

Jesus once said that we will have troubles in this life, “but,” He said, “take heart for I have overcome the world.” Troubles will come, pain will be felt, but our troubles and our pain are not without purpose. God uses everything. Nothing goes to waste. If He allows something to take place, it is because He has a plan for it. There is absolutely nothing we might face that won’t be used by God. 

Q: Where on the Internet can the readers find you?                  

A: I write at LaurieCoombs.org but can also be found on iBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com. I also have had the honor of being featured in Billy Graham’s most recent film, Heaven, which can be viewed online at My Hope with Billy Graham. It’s well worth the time to watch!

Bio: Laurie Coombs is a passionate writer and speaker on the issues of forgiveness, redemption, and the hope found in Jesus. She is the author of Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness, an incredible true story of grace, mercy, and the redemptive power of God. Her story was featured in Billy Graham’s film, Heaven, and she is a featured writer and blogger for iBelieve and Crosswalk. Laurie and her husband, Travis, make their home in Nevada along with their two daughters, Ella and Avery. Be sure to visit LaurieCoombs.org or connect with Laurie on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Why I Can’t Remain Silent

 

I believe I have not kept my Christian faith a secret, nor do I think it would come as a shock to anyone if I said I am a Christ follower.  Up until now my message has been, and will continue to be one of Christ’s love for us all, a message of hope, of God’s grace, love and mercy. 

 

Because of this, I have not voiced any opinion on marriage.  I have people that I truly love and respect on both sides of this issue and I did not want to offend anyone, but rather, I want very much to display God’s love.  Today, I have been reading many articles, posts, blogs, etc. with way too many displays of hate filled speech from both sides, so much so, that I almost feel sick to my stomach. 

 

I am working toward publishing a bible study that I have written, and I am working toward a speaking and teaching ministry, and will be asked my opinion on this subject, probably sooner, rather than later.  I also work for an organization that has strongly expressed its opinions on the subject, so I find I can no longer remain silent.

 

First let me say that I know I will offend some people who I love dearly love, some who have been lifelong friends, some who are family, this is not my intention, and my feelings for you have not changed.  I have no hate in my heart toward anyone.  Someone said in a post I read earlier today that disagreement is not hate, and that is where I am at this moment in time.  So in a long post, that I hope and pray you will read to the end, this is how I come to believe as I do…

 

As someone who believes the Bible to be the word of God, who believes it to be true, active and alive, I went to the source. I wanted to try to find what Jesus would say if He were sitting here today and asked His opinion. 

 

First let me say, I am NOT an expert, and there is a lot that I do not know.  What I do know is, how to actively study the word, how to let it teach me, and how to break things down properly, while preserving context and intent.

 

Let me also say, that I have no desire to “shove my ideas down anyone’s throat.”  What I am writing is what I have found in the bible, you can choose to believe it or not.  I also have no desire, nor do I judge anyone’s behavior, that is between you and God.  Ok with that said, what would Jesus say if He were asked the question today?

 

In Matthew 19 the Jewish leaders of the day came to Jesus and asked him a question that they thought would trap him, thinking that there could be no correct answer.  They asked him about divorce.  They knew what the law said, that a man could divorce his wife for any reason and send her away.  Jesus knew their hearts, and He knows our hearts today.  This is how He responded…

 

Matthew 19:3-9

³ The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

⁴ And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made^[a] them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{[b] 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?^{[c] 6} So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

⁷ They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality,^[d] and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

            So Jesus said, “in the beginning God created male and female and the two are to be united”.  He also said,” because of the hardness of your hearts Moses (emphasis added) permitted you to divorce, but in the beginning it was not so.” 

So using this example, if I were to ask Jesus the question today if marriage was to be for same sex couples, the same as opposite sex couples, this is how I interpret His answer…

            “In the beginning, God created male and female and the two are to be united, but because of the hardness of your heart, the Supreme Court has permitted you to marry whoever you wish, but in the beginning it was not so….”

            Next, I want to address a question that always seems to come up during this debate, and that is sin.  Why is it bad, and why do Christians seem to fixate on this particular sin?

            The bible says in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 6 a couple of things, first, that all sin is an abomination to God, he then names several in verses 9-10  

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,^[a] nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners (swindlers) will inherit the kingdom of God.”

That is the bad news. I will talk about the good news in just a minute, so please stay with me.

He then explains in verses 12-19 why sexual sin is so destructive, and this is why Christians are so upset about this issue.

¹² All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful…. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”^{[b] 17} But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body^[c] and in your spirit, which are God’s.

            Ok I talked about the bad news of sin, I would be doing a disservice if I did not talk about the good news.  It is true, all have sinned, there is sin in this world, no one is without fault, and I am including me in this, there have been many things I have done that I am not proud of. 

BUT, and this is a huge BUT, Jesus Christ took all of our sin on Himself when he died on the Cross, all we have to do to receive eternal life with God is admit that we are a sinner, thank Jesus for dying on the Cross for our sin, turning from what we are doing wrong, and let Him do the rest.  If you do that, He will do the rest, and we will have eternal life in Heaven with God!

Now I have given you my biblical reason for my opinion. Please, please do not interpret my belief as hate, or bigotry, I do not hold hate in my heart, I do not judge one sin over another sin, and I will always support and cheer for you my friends and family, because I truly to do love you.

let me also quickly state, that I, as someone who is putting myself out there as a speaker, in Christian ministry, this new law scares me.  For what if I am speaking somewhere, exactly what I wrote here today, and am told I cannot voice my opinion because it goes against the law?   

This Wonderfully Messy World

 

Guest post by: Laurie Coombs

 

 

I had always thought the world was a wonderful place, full of beauty and love and light. Growing up, the life I imagined for myself looked more like a fairytale than I care to admit. I had plans for my life, big plans. But just as I was coming into my own, just as I was about to seize all life has to offer, my world unraveled when confronted by an evil I never imagined possible. My dad, who I love more than I can ever say, was murdered, and with that loss, all the lofty notions I held about life shattered.

 

Things like this don’t happen to people like me, I thought. I grew up in a nice, quiet small town. I came from a good, loving family. How could my dad have been murdered? I wondered.

 

I found myself sitting at a park after the funeral questioning just about everything I thought I knew to be true. Something my mom always said came to mind. “Everything happens for a reason,” she used to say. I pondered this familiar adage for some time, wrestling with my new reality, before crying out, “How could there be a reason for this?” through my anger and tears.

 

This was not my plan. This was not the path I thought my life would take. And I was angry. Mostly at Anthony, the man who murdered my dad, but it was more than that. I was angry at the lack of sensitivity I saw in the media. I was angry at the indifference of others watching the news coverage. I was angry at our society and its unhealthy fascination with murder. But I was also angry that my life was not turning out the way I thought it should.

 

It just didn’t seem fair. All those big plans I had for my life were upended by my new awareness of evil. Nothing good can come out of this, I thought. Nothing.

 

But I was wrong.

 

The years that followed were characterized more by trying to be okay than actually being okay. Shortly after the murder, I put on my happy mask and decided it was time to move on, and so I did. I buried my pain and went on with my life, hoping my past would stay in the past. But it doesn’t take much to know that unresolved pain rises to the surface at one point or another, regardless of how deep its buried.

 

It took nine years for my pain to resurface, and when it did, I was absolutely stunned by it. My pain showed up in the form of anxiety and depression, something I had never dealt with before. I didn’t know what to do when this monster reared its ugly head. And for the first time in my life, I was presented with something I could not fix. I was able to work through every other struggle in my life prior to this, but this time was different.

 

I tried everything the world tells you to do in a situation like this. I tried eating better and exercising more. I tried meditation. I tried taking a stress management class. I tried yoga. I tried self-help books. And I even tried taking medication, but it only worsened my condition. Nothing worked. And so with all other options exhausted, it seemed God was my last and only hope.

 

But I was not a believer. In fact, I was a skeptic. I was one of those people who thought faith was something weak-minded people relied on to get through life. All that stuff in the Bible seemed like a fairytale concocted to tickle ears and make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But at this point, I had come to the end of myself and saw no other option out of the mess. And so with a fearful heart and an analytical mind, I attended church, fully expecting the God-thing to be yet another rabbit trail that would lead absolutely nowhere. But it wasn’t.

 

As I listened to the pastor speak, my mind only semi-present due to the anxiety, God did something I never imagined possible. He showed up. He continued to do so time and time again until there was absolutely no denying it was Him, and I received faith.

 

But I don’t believe I would have ever gotten to that point apart from my dad’s murder, and so the very thing intended to destroy my life would be the thing that would save it. Apart from this terrible tragedy, I would have never experienced true life. God had a better plan than the one I had planned for myself. A messy plan. A plan that included tragedy and loss. A plan that included pain-filled searching. But also included in that plan was my salvation and the call to love and forgive my enemy which ultimately resulted in the beautiful message of hope and redemption that I have been called to share with this world.

 

Yes. We live in a broken world. A world that involves evil and loss and pain. But apart from the darkness, we would never fully know the light. Only in the darkest of dark does light shine the brightest. Only in a broken world can we see healing and redemption. Love is shown greater in the face of hate. Beauty is all the more beautiful in the face of the ugly. 

 

And what beauty there is to behold in this wonderfully messy world.

 

…

 

Laurie Coombs’s new book, Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness––which tells an incredible true story of grace, mercy, and the redemptive power of God––has just been released. It’s available wherever books are sold. Be sure to pick up your copy today!

 

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | ChristianBook | Books-A-Million | Powell’s | Parable

 

 

 

 

Laurie Coombs is a passionate writer and speaker on the issues of forgiveness, redemption, and the hope found in Jesus. She is the author of Letters from My Father’s Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness, an incredible true story of grace, mercy, and the redemptive power of God. Her story was featured in Billy Graham’s film, Heaven, and she is a featured writer and blogger for iBelieve and Crosswalk. Laurie and her husband, Travis, make their home in Nevada along with their two daughters, Ella and Avery.

 

For more information about Laurie or to book her for a speaking engagement, visit LaurieCoombs.org. And be sure to connect with her on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.