The Glory of God and wonderful truths about Him Gods good and kind actions toward us The Glory of Jesus and wonderful truths about Him Truths about us because of what God did for us Commands I must keep Rewards for obeying Gods commands Gods plan to spread His fame amongst all nations Persecution for His Name Troubled feelings and conversations with God Communication with God & prayers I could pray Eternity in Heaven Eternity in Hell Sin to avoid Consequences of sin Use the orange colors to mark anything else you find important.

Like many Christians, Toby's personal Bible study amounts to skimming a couple chapters of the Bible until he experiences a "good feeling" while he reads. The "good feeling" may have little or nothing to do with the author's intended message, but because Toby now "feels so good" he closes the Book, judging his "Bible study" a success. By contrast, the goal of an "Inductive* Study" is to discern the precise message which the author intended to communicate. By taking a more careful look at what was written, the present day reader hears what the original author hoped he would hear. (Then, depending on the message and the reader, 'good feelings' may follow. Sometimes bad feelings follow, hopefully bad enough to incite repentance).

There are many different secrets of inductive Bible study. My Color Coding Guide is a simple tool and method which borrows from many other's ahead of me. Very little is original. Here's how it works.

Read the passage carefully and expectantly. While reading, look for any of the Bible's most common themes (14 are listed in the Color Code Guide to the right). Using a box of colored pencils (Crayola colored pencils work well), highlight each theme in the appropriate color. It's that simple, but it simply works. Try it! Many students find that by "looking' for anticipated Bible themes, they actually discover much more than had they been reading without such expectation.

Then, when you find a passage that says really cool things about Jesus, highlight it in yellow; if it says wonderful things about God, highlight in purple; when you find a command, either stated or implied, highlight it in light blue; if you notice a promised reward attached to that command (and there are MANY in the writings of Jesus - He was always promising us something wonderful if we would obey Him), highlight it in red and put a red line in the margin next to the verse; all sin is highlighted in black; the consequences of sin just has a black line in the margin next to the verse(s), etc.

It really doesn't matter what color scheme you choose -- as long as you make note of what each color represents and stick with it. (Of course, if you use those "girl colors" like PINK and PASTEL GREEN, you won't get as high marks on your entrance exam into heaven.)

The first time you read through a book you will not find every passage that addresses these 14 common themes, but you will find many more than if you weren't looking for them. Next time you read Luke, you will undoubtedly find more. If you use Crayola pencils, you can erase the highlighting when later you change your mind (and you will) and decide the passage addresses a different theme than you originally thought.

This is only the beginning, but a GOOD beginning. With colored ink pens (for many years I have used a 4-colored Bic pen), you can mark other themes you find in various passages: for example, in Luke's second book, Acts, I have marked all the actions which the early church practiced which are great "models" for us today. Models are not the same as "laws" - by that I mean, God does not demand that we MUST do everything the way the early church did it. But, the way they lived is a great model for us today. Why else would God have taken so much of the Bible to record how they acted?

For example, when Acts records several instances of how the gospel was preached "in ever widening circles", that is a great model for us to follow (one which many missionaries have failed to model, and thus failed to start church planting movements). The reason we do not focus on only a couple families in our short term trips (which would be the easy way to do it), is that we try and follow the model of Acts. The apostles didn't just preach to one household, or even a couple households, until those few friends either believed, or died. Rather, they went from community to community - when they found receptive hearts, they lingered a while; when the hearts were not ready to hear, they moved on "in ever-widening circles" (Acts 6:7).

Anyway, throughout the Book of Acts (and some in Luke as well), I have underlined (with a blue ink pen) every place where Dr. Luke records some specific action taken by the early church, which is obviously a good model (not a law) for us to follow. In the process I discovered over 50 models that we could emulate in planting reproducing churches overseas. Those 50 models became the outline for part of the "Church Planting Strategy" course I teach in the internship program I now lead.

As you read the Word more and more, you will notice more and more of these themes; and if you start to mark them in some special way, they will stand out in your Bible so that you can find them more easily next time. Furthermore, you will begin to see other themes popping up elsewhere. For example, in green, I have marked 'CP' in the margin next to every occurrence of corporate prayer (and in Acts I discovered that corporate prayer is mentioned twice as much as private prayer).

In red, I have drawn the simple stick figure of a bird in flight, next to each passage that mentions the Holy Spirit. I have noticed that Luke speaks about money a LOT - more than 50 times, and next to each occurrence, in my margin is a $ sign. I have placed a green half-moon in the margin next to every passage that I think could be a great lesson to share with a Muslim (green is the color of Islam, and the Crescent is their symbol); a small green circle with an h in it - next to every healing passage; a green circle with an m in it - next to every miracle Jesus performed, etc.

One last practice of Inductive study that I find helpful, is to write "headings" over every paragraph. Kay Arthur suggests chapter headings and adds they ought not be longer than 10 words. I find it more helpful to summarize "sections" with headings of 10 words or less, rather than chapters. My NLT Bible has no less than 9 headings for chapter Luke 6 alone. I wouldn't even know how to summarize all that in one heading, and besides, the nine separate headings are more helpful when I'm trying to find passages later.

The exercise of adding headings (in 10 words or less) is a good one because it forces you to analyze the passage and determine it's message before you can summarize it. In most cases, my NLT Bible does an adequate job for me. But, if after studying the passage, I find that they have missed something key, I will often add to theirs; sometimes even delete theirs and add my own.

For example, over Luke 6:12ff the NLT has "Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles". That is an accurate heading, but misses the key point of the passage. So I have added a couple words - now my heading reads "From all His disciples Jesus chooses the twelve Apostles AFTER prayer" - the important point being that He prayed MUCH before choosing the 12. When I realized that the Son of God spent the night in prayer, talking with the Father, over WHO He would pick to be His closest disciples for the next three years, I decided I had better do at least as much.

Ever since "inductively" noticing this, I have made it a point to not accept anyone into any of the ministries I lead (God's Story! evangelism training; Internship in Living Abroad; Inquiry Group leaders, etc.) without first making a list of the potential candidates I can choose from and praying over them until I think I know which of them God wants me to disciple.

* The term "inductive" simply refers to the logical or reasonable manner in which a study is carried out. An inductive study reads the passage much like one reads any other factual, historical document, looking for the meaning which the author logically intended his readers to grasp.