Someone said we should treat our Bibles like our cell phones. Just think, we’d carry them around with us everywhere. We’d flip them open throughout the day. We’d use them to receive important messages. We’d feel incomplete without them.

The Bible is a precious gift from God, more valuable than the latest generation smart phone. It is sweeter than honey and more desirable than gold (Psalm 19:10). Yet sadly, many Christians spend little or no time reading their Bibles. How can this be?

Perhaps it’s a lack of self-discipline (if that’s the case, then try turning off the TV or setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier). But for others, perhaps it’s a lack of direction.

I believe there are a lot of Christians (and even teachers) who simply do not know what to study or how to study the Bible. They’re intimidated by such a big book written long ago, so they just rely on the Sunday preacher to feed them and get them through the week. They’re like grown adults who have a fully stocked kitchen, but since they never learned to cook, they just go out to eat whenever they’re hungry.

Let’s break this cycle! If you’d like to learn how to study the Bible for yourself, or how to prepare a Bible study to lead others, here is a simple Bible Study & Teaching Worksheet. It explains the Bible Study process in four steps:

• Supplication – humbly ask God for guidance
• Observation– carefully examine the text
• Interpretation – use your own investigative skills plus a few good commentaries
• Application – use the SPECK method to become a doer of the Word

Plus, here are two more steps for those preparing to teach or preach:

• Preparation – craft your lesson with good questions and a clear outline
• Proclamation – engage your audience and speak God’s Word with authority

The worksheet spells out all the steps and provides a suggested schedule if you had only 4-6 hours to prepare a lesson from start to finish. You can download it here. Hope you find it helpful.

If four journalists were assigned to cover the same news story, we would expect four similar, yet slightly different perspectives. The basic facts would be the same, but the details would depend on their vantage point, research, writing style, and audience.

The same is true of the four Gospels. They all testify to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But some details are unique to each gospel writer. At first glance, they can even appear contradictory. Take the Transfiguration, for example.

Matthew 17:1 says “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”

Likewise, Mark 9:2 records “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”

Luke 9:28 however, says “Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.”

Is this a mistake? No. In fact, this minor difference actually confirms the reliability of the Gospels. Let me explain.

Luke’s word ‘about’ (Gk. hosei) means ‘as if, nearly, something like’ (Vine’s Dictionary). The author admits he is only giving a ballpark figure here. Unlike Matthew, Luke was not an eyewitness. During his research, perhaps it was difficult to nail down the exact timing of this event. It could’ve been six, seven, eight, or maybe even nine or ten days later. Six certainly falls within the range of ‘about eight.’

But here’s what’s most significant. Luke’s account of ‘about eight days’ suggests he was not using Mark as a source. This verse actually helps disprove Markan Priority, or the theory that Matthew and Luke leaned heavily on Mark’s gospel to pen their own.

It would have been easy for Luke to just copy the number six if he had Mark’s gospel in front of him. But it seems that each gospel writer gave their own account through personal testimony, painstaking research, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.