Howard Hendrick – http://www.livingbythebook.net

“The Bible was not written to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image.
Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a
collection of biblical facts but to transform your life”

“The more time you spend in observation, the less time you will have to spend in interpretation,
and the more accurate will be your result. The less time you spend in observation, the more time
you will have to spend in interpretation, and the less accurate will be your result”

The 3 Step Process of Inductive Bible Study

Step One: Observation (what do I see?)

Background information (author, audience, date, location, main theme)
Literary genre (exposition, narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, apocalyptic)
Literary structure (a general outline that shows the development of the book)
Grammatical structure (subject, main verb, object, clauses, phrases)
Important terms (nouns, verbs, modifiers, prepositions, conjunctions)

Step Two: Interpretation (what does it mean?)

List your unanswered questions (who, what, when, where, why, how)
Use your Bible study aids to find the answers (concordance, handbook, atlas, etc.)

Step Three: Application (how does it apply?)

How does it apply to me?
How does it apply to others?