The gift of nerdery and essentials for study.

I have been really digging into some of Beth Moore's studies, including Breaking Free (pivotal study!), Loving Well, and currently I'm doing The Inheritance and Believing God. She is an amazing teacher with the gift of explaining things that maybe sometimes are cloudy to us. Her studies are grounded in nothing else but Scripture, pure and true. There is no compromise.

If anyone knows me well, they know that I love to study. Yes, I'm a nerd. I loved college for the learning portion of it, for the feeling that my brain is expanding with knowledge. Recently the realization came upon me that I can be a student of the Bible. I'm not sure about grad school right now as we are moving soon and I don't want to take out loans for it, and studying the Bible doesn't cost a whole lot of money.

These are a few essentials I've found for good solid Bible study:

• A good Bible. Duh. I've been using the NIV Life Application Study Bible for ten years now. It's been instrumental in my understanding of certain passages of Scripture. Soon I will be getting the Hebrew/Greek Key Word Study Bible (NAS). I have a degree in Spanish and a penchant for language and etymology so this will be wonderful.

• A notebook.

• Various commentaries and Biblical reference books. This is in progress.
  

• Good teachers and mentors. These for me would include pastors, people like Beth Moore who aren't afraid to teach the Bible and not some doctrine someone came up with two hundred years ago, mentors who are honest and have spent a good chunk of their lives investing in other people and who know Scripture like the back of their hand.

• Worship music. It helps me focus. Personally I like Hillsong, Michael Gungor Band, Hillsong, David Crowder Band, and some more Hillsong. Oh and maybe some Desperation Band and Travis Cottrell.

• A good cup of coffee. Thankfully one of my sisters Emily works at Starbucks and gives me a random pound of coffee here and there. Don't forget the sugar and half-and-half. Speaking of which, this cup is about empty. We can't have that.

• A long drive to work (+ good cup of coffee), or any long ride by yourself in the car. A lot of my personal epiphanies have come somewhere between Peoria and Varna on routes 29 and 17, and before that I-74 and I had a very close relationship. We were pretty much married [I was in Pekin, Aaron in Champaign].

What I have found to work for me is getting up earlier than I would like to in the morning, you know, putting down the natural [wo]man and letting the spirit [wo]man do the talking. Um, this definitely doesn't happen every morning. But most. Sometimes my brain just works better in the evening. I have also really benefited from using guides. The Bible is a really big book and it can be daunting just to think of where to start. I also like guided studies because of the insight one can gain from other teachers/fellow studiers of the Bible.

So there you have it. I think we're ready now, now that you know quite a lot about me. Hopefully these two entires capture the essence of the type of person I am: nerd who is in wonder of God and his spoken Word.