Twenty-Five Observations

The class that I was most excited for this semester was Bible Study Methods. Dallas Seminary is known for their emphasis on in-depth study of the entire Bible. So you can probably imagine that a class on Bible Study Methods is an exciting foundational class with glimpses of the enriching stuff that I will learn over my next four years. However, the reason that I was really excited for this class is because of the professor – Howard Hendricks. “Prof” Hendricks is a DTS icon. He has been here for a long time and made some incredible contributions to not only Bible Study Methods but Christian leadership and many other areas (thus on campus we have the Howard Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership). He actually trained my father / mother-in-law with Campus Crusade for Christ when they were just out of college. He was also a Dallas Cowboys Chaplain at some point, but that’s just a bonus :).

The first step of Bible study is observation. Our assignment during the second week of class was to take Acts 1:8 and make twenty-five observations (without crossing over to step two, interpretation).

"but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”" Acts 1:8, New American Standard Bible

I spent the better part of an evening pouring through this simple, yet deep verse making twenty-five observations exactly. Most of them were solid, only a few were a stretch. I was pretty proud of myself. I was sure that I had explored every angle and then some. I brought my assignment the next day to turn-in, but Prof told us to hold onto them. He said, “Your next assignment – go home and make twenty-five more observations on Acts 1:8.”