I got this by email and just had to pass it along…

Are you growing weary in well-doing? John Piper gives us great encouragement to persevere…

As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be ‘coronary Christians,’ not ‘adrenal Christians.’ Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It just keeps on serving – very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never says, ‘I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I’m taking a day off.’ It just keeps humbly lub-dubbing along. It endures the way adrenaline doesn’t.

Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline – a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of social justice (for example, against racism and abortion), and the cause of world missions (to plant churches among the unreached peoples of the world), and the cause of personal holiness and evangelism (to lead people to Christ and love them no matter what) is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul. Marathoners, not sprinters. (John Piper, The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce), pp. 11-12)

Are you a coronary Christian?

Have you ever wondered how to study the Bible for yourself, or how to write your own study for teaching others? One of the best ways to prepare a Bible lesson is through inductive Bible Study.

Inductive Bible Study is the process of examining a specific passage in the Bible and then drawing general conclusions. It’s looking at the individual words, phrases, and units of thought, and then developing the doctrines, principles, and applications that naturally flow out of the text.

The opposite of Inductive Bible Study is Deductive Bible Study, which starts with a general truth, and then tries to find particular verses that teach or illustrate that truth. As a general rule, expository preaching is more inductive, while topical preaching is more deductive.

As our church moves toward a more inductive approach to Bible Study in our “Life Group” Sunday School classes, our teachers have been learning how to prepare and lead an Inductive Bible Study. It’s a process that is quite rewarding because it forces us to immerse ourselves in the text and listen directly to God. We learn to rely on the Holy Spirit and not depend too much on other study tools, which can become a crutch.

Inductive Bible Study can be done by approaching the text with 6 kinds of questions. The first three are observation, meaning, and doctrine questions. Here’s a diagram I made to illustrate:

Observation questions ask, “What does the text say?” Meaning questions ask, “What does the text mean?” Doctrine questions ask, “Where else does the Bible explain this truth, and what does this text teach us about Christ?”

Let’s take Psalm 119:105 for example. The text says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Sample observation questions: What’s the main theme of this verse? Read 10 verses before and 10 verses after. What seems to be the recurring theme of this chapter? Whose word is spoken of here? Do we know who is speaking? What two metaphors describe the Word in v. 105?

Sample meaning questions: What does the psalmist mean by the “word?” What other words are used in the context to describe the “word”? Is the psalmist speaking literally or figuratively? Taken as poetic parallels, what do the “lamp” and “light” metaphors mean? What do “feet” and “path” refer to?

Sample doctrinal questions: What main doctrine is discussed in this verse? Look up Ps. 119:1; Prov. 6:23; 2 Peter 1:19. Explain how they relate to Psalm 119:105. How does this verse point us to the gospel of Jesus?

The dotted line in my diagram points straight from the text to the heart. This represents the application phase. After studying the text, it’s time to move toward application, asking a series of principle, application, and implementation questions. I’ll discuss these kinds of questions in a future post.

Here’s an interesting headline I came across yesterday: “Coffee Spill Costs Community College $200,000.” Ouch! Just for fun, which one do you think was the cause?

A) Piano student sues after scalding hands
B) Ruptured water line damages labs and classrooms
C) Computer lab assistant fries main network station

Click here to see the answer and read the full story of what happened at St. Louis Community College.

The International Missions Board reports,

While in college, Emma Zondervan called the International Mission Board almost every week for two years to keep informed of opportunities to serve the Deaf. While still a student, she raised her own support and worked with Southern Baptist missionaries in Europe ministering to the Deaf in the summer of 2006. After graduation, she spent several months in Asia working with the Deaf — once again, on her own dime. These trips confirmed her calling and now Zondervan is going to Asia to minister to the Deaf.

Emma is one of 60 new missionaries appointed by the International Missions Board last week. Finances have been tight in this economy, but we praise the Lord new missionaries are still entering the field. More exciting news:

Southern Baptist missionaries are experiencing unprecedented victories in sharing the Gospel around the world, according to Gordon Fort, vice president of the IMB’s office of global strategy. Fort reported that in the past five years, thousands of people from Muslim backgrounds in South Asia accepted the message of salvation.

You can read the whole article here.

HT: SBC Voices