Once we have chosen to follow God's plan for our lives, we are not only responsible to conform our lives and characters to Christ's image, but to share Christ's love with others so that their lives can also be transformed. We can best fulfill our responsibilities as we respond to the Holy Spirit when He reveals God's mind to us as we study the Bible. This 132-page course by Thomas Maphori gives a great deal of necessary insight for those who are interested in organizing their study of the Bible.

When you study God’s Word to gain wisdom and knowledge of God, you will have to work hard, digging deep into the Scriptures, just as you would search for water. When you work at studying the Bible, you will find life-giving water.

In order to have this experience of drinking living water, a person must keep studying the Bible day after day. This lesson tells why we study the Bible.

We can receive blessing and instruction from reading the Bible, even though we do not understand it completely. But the full joy of Bible knowledge comes only with serious study.

Therefore, we need to have some basic information. In this lesson we will learn about the writing of the Bible, its central ideas, unity, and divisions.

When you talk to someone, you want that person to understand you. So you choose a way to express yourself that will make your ideas clear. Like speech, literature or writing is effective when the writer states his ideas clearly.

The writers of the Bible chose their words and arranged them to fit their purposes. Studying how writers express their ideas should help you in your Bible study to identify his style or manner of expressing himself.

Now that we have stated reasons for studying the Bible and briefly described the Bible, we need to discuss how to study the Bible. In this lesson we want to talk about things that will prepare you to study. You might think that to study the Bible is an impossible task. But as with any other large task, if you know how to do it and divide it into smaller parts, you will accomplish a great deal.

It might seem easier to rely on a few favorite Bible verses to guide and nourish us spiritually. But we need a "full diet" of God’s Word in order to grow into the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

We must eat heartily of God’s Word day after day in order to reach this goal. To better understand our life in Christ, we need to study what each book of the Bible says about Him.

Any time you do not understand something about your Christian life, you can do a topical study on that subject. You may want to know how to live by faith. Maybe you need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you know who you are in Christ? How can you live a holy life? Whatever the topic is, a study of it will show you a little more of God’s plan for you.

We can be thankful that God chose to record many of the Bible’s lessons in story form. The characters of these stories are real people who faced the same kinds of problems that we face today. People like Moses, David, and Peter made mistakes and learned by their mistakes. Now we can read about what happened and profit by their experiences. Also, we can read of their victories and be strengthened by their faith.

As you apply the Word of God to your life, the devil will fight you. He wants to make you discouraged. He wants you to doubt God. He creates spiritual conflict within you.

Jesus showed us how to deal with spiritual conflict. The Word of God brings you cleansing, healing, and victory when you hide it in your heart.