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Bible Study Magazine is a print magazine (not an emagazine) published by Lexham Press. Six times a year, Bible Study Magazine delivers tools and methods for Bible study as well as insights from respected teachers, professors, historians, and archeologists.
Read pastor profiles, author interviews, and stories of individuals whose thoughtful engagement with Scripture has shaped their thinking and defined their ministries. Bible Study Magazine reveals the impact of God’s Word in their lives—and the power of Scripture in yours.
We have a limited supply of back issues of the March–April 2014 Bible Study Magazine. Get your copy while you still can!
“In the early years I thought discipleship was sitting in a classroom and having information transferred to you,” says Craig Groeschel, founder and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv in Edmonds, Oklahoma, a church community with 19 campuses and an online community. “But we underestimated the power of the Holy Spirit in discipleship. He doesn’t just bring people to Christ and then leave the rest up to us. His work is much greater. Discipleship doesn’t take place only when someone is teaching you about the Bible—it also happens when you’re serving someone in need and using your gifts. We believe spiritual transformation happens as much through doing and being the body of Christ as it does through learning.”—Jessi Strong
Julie Wu, president of China Bible Seminary in Hong Kong, has great hope for all her students. “My hope is that they may know God’s way of life and live accordingly, implementing God’s call to His people: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ (1 Pet 1:16). Christians should be ready to defend their beliefs against the culture and values of the secular world. I emphasize the reading and studying of God’s Word. How can Christians who are not acquainted with God’s Word know how to separate themselves from various cultural influences?”—Jessi Strong
Jonah is a counter-example of what it means to love our enemies. He didn’t want his enemies to receive the same mercy and grace he had come to expect from God. Many of us can relate. It seems to go against our instincts to love people who have hurt or wronged us. Yet God’s love isn’t restrained by our human labels of friend or enemy. He goes to great lengths to bring all His creation back to Himself, as demonstrated by His compassion toward the infamous city of Nineveh.—Miles Custis
When we’re hit by chaos or confusion, we often feel like God has left us on our own. When the prophet Habakkuk surveyed the situation in Judah in 630 BC, he felt much the same way. Judah was in a state of complete chaos after more than 50 years of deadbeat leadership. Manasseh (696–642 BC), one of the nation’s most evil rulers, built altars to Baal and consulted spiritists and mediums instead of prophets. He had even sacrificed his sons to foreign gods and erected an image of the Canaanite goddess Asherah in God’s temple.—Israel P. Loken
Obadiah, the shortest book in the Old Testament, was written after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 587 BC. It’s an oracle of doom against the nation of Edom. Judgment will fall upon Edom through a coalition of other nations, but the ultimate indictment will be from God Himself (Obad 2; see also Lam 4:21–22). And His punishment will be remarkably severe (Obad 5–6).—Stephen Witmer