Bible Study - Sabbath School Podcast

A Double Blessing There are many ways we can study our Bibles, such as the verse-by-verse method (mentioned already), a chapter study, a theme study, a word study, or a book study. We can study with a concordance and Bible dictionary, and we can read the Bible alongside the Conflict of the Ages series for additional insight. We can go for a walk outside in nature and listen to the Bible being read...

Deep Bible Study Even if you don’t have to be a scholar to study the Bible, how can you study the Bible deeply? Pray:  It’s impossible to overstate the importance of prayer as bookends to (and bookmarks throughout) your Bible study time. Ellen G. White tells us that when we come to read the Bible, we are not alone. By inviting the Holy Spirit to be our guide, we reject all other distractions, and...

A Place Jesus  is our perfect example in all things, and when it comes to personal devotions, it is no different. What does  Mark 1:35  tell us about Jesus’ time with God? Although this is just one verse, we can learn so much here from Jesus’ example. Long before the sun came up, He removed Himself to a solitary place of quiet so that He could be with His Father. Can you imagine the scene--Jesus,...

Time Have you ever set your alarm a little earlier than usual in order to wake and read your Bible? Have you ever struggled to drag yourself out of bed and then looked at the clock and thought,  I have fifteen minutes before I need to begin the day. I better hurry!  Have you ever gone through the motions of having a brief prayer or skimming a chapter, only to find your conscience appeased but your...

Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study:   John 15:1-8, Mark 1:35, 1 Chron. 16:11, Ps. 119:105, Isa. 50:4, Isaiah 55:1-13 Memory Text:  “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” ( Isaiah 55:11 , NKJV). Think back to when you received your first Bible. Perhaps...

Further Thought:  If you consider the words that you’ve spoken during the past 24 hours, how would you evaluate them? Were they loving, kind, joyful, uplifting, frustrated, tired, anxious, angry, gossipy, or malicious? The Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” ( Matt. 12:34 , NKJV). When we have junk in our hearts, it comes out in our words. We’ve all experienced feeling...

State of the Heart❤️‍🩹 Our  ability to receive instruction from God’s Word ( Job 22:22 ) depends largely on what the state of our heart is like when we come to the Bible. How does  1 Corinthians 2:14  explain this? To have spiritual discernment means to have spiritual insight and understanding. It makes sense, then, that a spiritually open-minded person will have very different takeaways in readi...

Bible Claims What might change in your home if you turned to the Bible when faced with a big decision, relationship problem, or challenge? What might change in your workplace or church if the words of the Bible truly became the lens through which people viewed the world and chose to live by? The Bible authors knew how valuable the words of the Bible were. No other book can speak to your life as th...

Bible Truth A trend among some liberal theologians in the 1960s was to write God out of the field of theology. In 2017, a cover story of  Time  magazine featured the headline “Is Truth Dead?” It’s interesting because this trend illustrates the position of our society today. The very idea of “truth” itself is decaying to such an extent that no one knows what truth is anymore. According to popular c...

Scripture, the Authority The  Bible’s authority and function are clearly declared within its pages. Read and copy out  2 Timothy 3:15-17 . Take note of what these verses tell you about the function of the Bible. When it comes to personal Bible study, we must be careful not to expect the Bible to serve our purposes or perspectives, which are not always the same as God’s. For example, we shouldn’t u...

The Most Powerful Weapon Before we explore why the Bible is so valuable and how to dig deeper in our personal Bible study, we must understand something: One of the most significant attacks Satan can make on you is to stop you from spending time with God in His Word. Keeping people away from their Bibles through business, apathy, tiredness, or doubt is his number-one strategy. He knows that when we...

Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study:   Lam. 3:22-23; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; John 17:17; Eph. 1:13; Ps. 119:11; 1 Cor. 2:14 Memory Text:  “For the word of God  is  living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ( Hebrews 4:12 , NJKV). The Bible. No d...

Further Thought:  “The nearer we come to Jesus and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly we shall discern the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the less we shall feel like exalting ourselves. Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness.”  -- Christ’s Object Lessons , p. 160 . “Before honor is humility. To fill a high place b...

Look at Him Read  Luke 22:27  again. What is the key message for all of Christ’s followers here? In stark contrast to the disciples’ desire to be superior and their belief that they were better than the next guy, we see Jesus--the ultimate example of humility. Jesus, who said, “Yet I am among you as the One who serves” ( Luke 22:27 , NKJV). Jesus, who every day gave to those in need around Him bec...

The Greatest Offense Imagine being a disciple of Jesus. You travel with Him, eat with Him, sleep near Him, and learn from Him as He transforms countless lives, including yours. People clamor after Him, and you realize how special it is that He chose you to be one of the 12 closest to Him. Then you start to wonder: Who really is the greatest of all the disciples? In  Luke 22:24-27 , read Jesus’ res...

Moses, Humble Servant The grand halls of the Egyptian palace boasted of opulence, pleasure, and ease. “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds” ( Acts 7:22 , NKJV). A life of power, riches, and popularity were his for the taking, yet Moses chose something very different. “As historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator, he stands w...

Know Yourself Two men go to church to pray. One is a respected elder who stands at the front before church begins, in front of the congregation so they can see him. He prays aloud, thanking God for his own perceived goodness. The other man, a fringe dweller of society, stands at the very back of the church. His eyes are blurry with tears because of the weight on his shoulders from his sin. In the...

The Tight Fingers of Pride Pride. When you think of this word, you might picture a proud politician, a rich or famous person, or a peacock. P ride  is a feeling that you are more important or better than other people. Indeed, pride is a feeling--one that cannot, and should not, be relied upon. Pride first began with Lucifer, the covering cherub, who was in close service to God. We don’t know when...

Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study:   1 John 2:15-17, Luke 18:9-14, 1 John 1:9, Heb. 11:24-26, Luke 22:24-27, Phil. 2:3-8 Memory Text:  “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” ( Luke 14:11 , NKJV). We’ve all known people with big egos, those who think they are  never  wrong. Or perhaps you know someone who wants to be in control, who never...

Further Thought:  God calls His people to represent His character but, to do this, we need to know Him for ourselves. The best way to see Him clearly, despite our sinful human eyes that too often misunderstand His holy and perfect ways, is through searching His Word, the Bible. “All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the spr...

Immanuel, God With Us If you were looking to share with a non-Christian a description from the Bible about God’s character, where would you turn? The best answer, of course, would be Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus not only reflects God but reveals God. There are many Bible passages that explain this, but the one that does so most simply is  John 14:9 . Here, Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has s...

God in Creation You probably know from memory the first words in the Bible: “In the beginning God.” In Hebrew, the word for God here is Elohim. Although this word can be used when talking about false “gods,” when it refers to the one true God, it describes an almighty, all-powerful Creator in connection with the whole of creation; the transcendent God who is beyond our understanding but in control...

Read as Elihu describes some of God’s attributes in  Job 36:24-33  and  Job 37 . Then read God’s declaration of His omnipotence in  Job 38, and 39 . What do these passages reveal to us about God?

God Is Love Love  is perhaps the most common word used by Christians to describe God’s character. This could be because of the identity statement about God in  1 John 4:8 , which says, “God is love.” John didn’t say, “God is loving,” but rather, “God is love.” Love is His character, the very essence of who He is. For many people, their picture of God emerges from their human definition of love, wh...

God Is Holy Holiness  is not a word that most people use very often in their everyday language, perhaps because there are so few holy things around us and about us. The Sabbath is a holy day in time, and God is, of course, holy. Apart from God, our everyday lives, for the most part, lack holiness. If you do a study into the attributes most often associated with God’s character, you’ll discover tha...