My college roommate and I share thoughts on a blog called Same Shoes.  Much of what I put on this blog can also be seen there as well. www.sameshoes.wordpress.com

In a post today, Josh brought up some interesting questions that we can ask ourselves when studying the Bible to aid in our research.  Bible study can be a very complicated and sometimes even frustrating task, however if you keep the right mindset, stay motivated, and use the proper "tools" to help you will begin to see the rewards found from this discipline.  Remember that hardly nothing that is worthwhile is easy.  Bible study is not a sprint - it is a marathon.

Here is Josh's post:

My preaching professor at Southeastern helped me greatly on this topic.  He once shared with us this effective means of reading and studying a passage.  He told us to ask these three questions:

1). What is the passage about (what’s the topic)?

2). What does the author of that passage say about that topic?

3). How does this apply to me?

I’ve used these questions numerous times and they’ve helped me tremendously.  Hopefully these questions will be useful to you too.  And remember, studying the Bible can be difficult but the benefits of that hard study are well worth it when you come to a better knowledge of our glorious Savior.