S.O.A.P.

Today's Reading:
Acts 18-19:20

If you've been keeping up with this BLOG, you most likely have been keeping up with your daily reading of the Scriptures. Bravo! When I was a much younger believer and was first learning what it was like to hear the Lord speak to my soul, one of the first things I can remember was the Holy Spirit impressing on me the importance of reading the Bible and praying daily. That was back in December of 1983. Since then, I have read the Bible through cover to cover a few dozen times. But just reading is not enough to make us mature people of God. We've got to go deeper. In today's reading we learn of a man named Apollos who, "vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ" (18:28). How well equipped are you to refute the claims against Christ by using Scripture? How well would your defense be?

I'd like to share with you a very simple way of going deeper in your study of God's word. It's called S.O.A.P. :

S is for study. Don't just read the Bible each day. Take some time to begin studying it. Do a word search on a particular word that you read that day. Do a thematic study of a book in the Bible. Give each chapter a title and then combine all of the titles from each chapter into one title for an entire book.
O is for observation. List observations from your daily readings.
A is for application. Apply the Scripture to your life, similar to what I have been doing with the "ActionPoint" portion of this Blog.
P is for prayer. Respond to God about your reading/study for that day in prayer.

PrayerPoint:
Ask God to protect the unity of our church.

ActionPoint:
Begin taking one day of your daily Bible reading each week to study the Scriptures.