One of the most important works you will ever do is bringing family worship into your home. Family worship will disciple your children in the faith, give them ownership that this faith belongs to them, and prepare them for the war they will be engaged with in the years ahead.

Christianity’s Helm’s Deep
If you have seen or read the Lord of the Rings, you will remember that the defense of Helm’s Deep was one of the finest battles ever filmed or written. Today, it seems that Christianity in general and Christian families, in particular, have found themselves where the forces of Rohan once stood, outnumbered, outmatched, and in a battle for survival.
Upon the horizon of Western Civilization, the storm is raging, howling like a tempest on the open sea, and threatening to engulf the Kingdom of God and all its soldiers in a torrent of doubt and misery. Under the spell of the Dark Lord’s command, the forces of liberalism, secularism, and moral relativism have been amassing armies for years, bending the education system to their will, employing the entertainment industrial complex as propaganda for their perversions, and strong-arming government to execute their commands. This warfare has been aimed squarely at the home, marriages, sexuality, children, and the faith.
Like the valiant defenders of Helm’s Deep, we are tempted to look around and notice that there are but few upon our walls defending compared to the advancing legions. As a result, many have abandoned the fight, convinced themselves that there is no fight or that the Uruk Hai prefer our niceness. Yet, this small and embattled group, the covenant home, though vastly outnumbered by the forces of darkness that assail them, will likewise triumph. Not because our weapons and defenses are so great but because our God and His promises are greater than the walls of Hornburg.
This means we are not defenseless. On the contrary, God has armed our men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, to wield His weapons, which are as ancient and powerful as the faith we hold dear. The sword of truth cuts through the lies and deceptions of the enemy, illuminating the darkness with a bright and piercing light. The shield of faith protects the heart of the believer, deflecting the fiery arrows of doubt and the blows of temptation. Our banner of love waves high, even above the castle walls, as a symbol of the divine affection that sustains and strengthens us for every battle. And like the men of Helm’s Deep, an abiding conviction to protect our women and children will be how this battle is won.
Today, an all-out war is being waged to snuff out the light of the Gospel and plunge this world into chaos, moral perversion, and ruin. That fight is coming for you, your home, your faith, your children, and you must be vigilant to stand. This post is for our men to wake up, remember that there is a battle, join the ranks, and do everything we can to protect our women and children from the enemy’s encroachment. Our family is our future. The next generation’s church will be filled with our children. And if they take the Kingdom deeper and farther than we did, we will need to prepare them well. To do that, we must recover the ancient discipline of family worship!
What Is Family Worship?
Quite simply, family worship is daily Biblical worship that occurs within our homes. It is the male-led, wife-aided, Spirit-inspired, truth-bound, faithful, and joyful morning and evening adoration of a family unto their God. It is the hymns we sing, the Scriptures we read, the thanksgivings we share, the blessings we heap, the service we render, the prayers that we pray, and the commands we commit to both memory and action that echo from the covenant home and prepare our children for the future battle.
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Once you stand up from your study, your goal is not to leave those truths in the Bible, but to carry them away inside of your heart for a life time. One of the best ways to solidify truth in your heart is to meditate on it throughout the day. Biblical study is also not simply a devotional and spiritual exercise. Bible study also requires that we love God with all of our minds, which means we also need mental and cognitive tools to be able to extract Biblical data from the text as well.

One of the saddest truths in the American church is that we have so many resources to study and learn the Bible and yet there is so much Biblical illiteracy. This article is my humble attempt to equip Christ’s church to study the Word. I want everyone who reads this post to feel encouraged and equipped to study the Bible with an easy “step by step” guide that will aid and enrich their time in Scripture. May the Lord be praised as we study His Word!
What is Bible Study?
Bible study is a lot like paleontology. The first step is to go out into the field with all of your tools and begin collecting the raw material. You carefully dig through the sand, sediment, rock, and earth to collect bones, fragments of bones, and fossils that you will one day examine, assemble, and put on display for the world to see. In the same way, Bible study begins with specific tools that are designed to help you collect the raw Biblical data (This is called the Observation Phase). Once you have that data, you will examine it and attempt to assemble it into meaningful and coherent thoughts (This is called the Interpretation Phase). And then, once you have some concrete thoughts on what the passage means, you will begin displaying that truth so that you and also others can benefit from what you learned (This is called the Application Phase).
With that example in mind, let us consider the three phases of Bible study, beginning with the Observation Phase.
Step 1: The Observation Phase
As we said above, there are specific tools that are going to help you extract the Biblical data from the text. Remember, this is not just an academic exercise but also a spiritual exercise. So, let us begin by sharing some tools that will help you engage with the Bible spiritually.
The Spiritual Tools for Observation
Spiritual Tool 1: Read the Passage 10 Times
This may sound like an arbitrary number, but reading the passage multiple times will peel back various layers and help you get to the heart of the text. My recommendation is to use various faithful translations of the Bible (like the ESV, NASB, KJV, etc.) and then read the passage in each of these different translations. As you do that, like a good paleontologist, jot down notes in your journal. Take note of differences and word changes between the translations. Note questions you have about the text. Jot down any new insights that you gain or see. And then move on to the next step.
Spiritual Tool 2: Pray Through the Passage
What you want to do is read a few words and then turn those words into a prayer to God. For example, in Psalm 23 it says: “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Take those words and pray them back to God like this: “Lord, thank you for being the one who leads me, protects me, is guiding me, and looking after me like a good and faithful shepherd. I am like that poor sheep that keeps falling off cliffs and getting stuck in large cracks, but you are always faithful to find me and keep me safe”.
Once you have spent some time in prayer, move on to the next tool which is confession
Spiritual Tool 3: Confess Through the Passage
The goal of Bible study is not dead knowledge, but a thriving relationship with the living God. And in that relationship we need repentance. It is the lifeblood of serious devotion and no serious relationship can survive without it. By repentance we mean acknowledging our sin to God, asking God to help us kill that sin, and then turning away from it in courage to a life without that sin. Here are some pointers for you as you do that.

As you read the passage, list any sins that your Bible passage exposes. Sometimes those sins will be spelled out explicitly in the text and sometimes the Holy Spirit will use implicit truths to reveal your sin to you. However this happens, take an account of what the Spirit is revealing to you.

Take a moment and confess that sin(s) to the Lord in prayer.

Remember that Jesus has triumphed over this specific sin on the cross.

Remember that the Spirit has raised you to new life and has given you the power to
make war with this specific sin.

THEREFORE, repent and turn away from this sin, lay it down, and ask the Lord to help
you stay away from it moving forward.

Spiritual Tool 4: Worship Through the Passage
Remember that you have been forgiven. When you lay your sin down and repent from it, resist the temptation to remain in sullen shame, but instead celebrate the forgiveness you have in Jesus! Praise Him. Sing a song of victory. Let your heart be stirred that your sins have not been counted against you because they were poured out on Christ. And as you see that, let your love and affections be multiplied for your savior who loved you so much to be treated as you have deserved.
Spiritual Tool 5: Journal Through the Passage
A journal is one of the most important tools you will have. Not only should you record any questions you have, or the list of sins you will be repenting of, but you should also write down some initial thoughts about the passage. What do you think it means? What are the implications for your life concerning this passage? And even be thinking about ways you could communicate this truth to others.
Spiritual Tool 6: Meditate Through the Passage
Once you stand up from your study, your goal is not to leave those truths in the Bible, but to carry them away inside of your heart for a life time. One of the best ways to solidify truth in your heart is to meditate on it throughout the day. Here are some tips for you as you practice this discipline.

Revisit the thoughts on lunch break.

Set an alarm to read through your journal or pray through the thoughts you discovered.

Calendar a reminder to think through the questions you still have.

Try seeing situations in your day where you can implement the truths you discovered that morning.

Try avoiding things in your day which will tempt you back into old patterns of sin

Pray for a real opportunity to share these truths with someone else.

The above 6 items are very helpful tools that will get you thinking spiritually about the text. BUT, Biblical study is also not simply a devotional and spiritual exercise. Bible study also requires that we love God with all of our minds, which means we also need mental and cognitive tools to be able to extract Biblical data from the text as well. So, below I list out some tools that will help you study the Bible academically.
NOTE: Not every tool is the right tool for every text. Some may be helpful in one scripture but not very helpful in another. With time you will learn how to intuitively employ each of these tools, but for the time I want to list them out so you will have them and can begin using them.
The Study Tools for Observation
Study Tool 1: Identify Key Terms
With this first tool, you will seek to identify key words, phrases, parts of speech (like nouns, adjectives, and verbs) and any word that sticks out to you in the text. For instance, in John 6:44 it says:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them”.

With this verse, you could grab a journal and list the following key terms with a few words of explanation as to why these particular terms stood out to you.

“No one” (Noun) – All humans have a fundamental inability caused by sin.

“Can come” (Verb) – That renders our actions incapable of getting us to God on our own.

“To me” (Preposition) – The only hope of salvation is through coming to Christ and we are incapable of this on our own.

“Unless” (Conjunction) – God provides a condition that could allow us to come to Jesus.

“Father” (Proper Noun) – That condition is that God can use His perfect ability to choose us in our inability.

“Draws” (Verb) – The way God chooses us and gets us to Jesus is by dragging us to Christ… Since, we were so unwilling and stuck in our sin, praise God He grabbed and dragged us to Christ!

Study Tool 2: Identify Authorial Emphasis
With your journal, jot down a few notes on why you think the author is writing this and what the author is trying to emphasize to us. What is the underlying theme of this passage? And why is that important?
Study Tool 3: Identify Repeated Words
Sometimes, an author reveals his intended emphasis by repeating a word and using it multiple times in a passage. For instance, in John 8, Jesus and the Pharisees are engaged in a detailed argument. And as you read it, it would be easy to get lost in the mix of the details and miss the overarching point of what is going on. To avoid that trap, we look for repeated words and see that the word “father” and other familial words like that are used 8-10 times in this chapter. As we look more closely at the word Father and how John is using it in John 8, we see that both the Pharisees and Jesus are claiming God as their Father and both are appealing to various evidences to prove it. This lets us know that the passage is about who has a true relationship with God? Is it the one claiming to be the Son of God? Or is it the religious leaders who claim to speak for God? Once we know that this is the authors emphasis, we can see how Christ is the only solution!
Study Tool 4: Identify Cause and Effect Relationships
Whenever one event causes a particular response you have a cause and effect relationship. And these can be incredibly important whenever you see them and you should get into the habit of noticing them and noting them in your journal. For instance, look at Romans 8:28, which says:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

In this passage God is promising to call men and women according to His purpose and bless them with His good. The point is very simple, if we have been called by God unto salvation (The cause) then everything must and will work out for our good (God’s desired effect). Knowing this will encourage us as we look at situations in our life that do not feel good, but in some way, are good and are working good according to the Father. Knowing this will allow us to lay down our definition and expectation of good and accept His.
Study Tool 5: Identify If / Then Relationships
This is a specific kind of cause and effect relationship called an “if / then” relationship, which is much simpler to identify. Essentially it looks like this: “If____ happens, then ____ will be the result.
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After thinking through all of this more carefully and more clearly, I can no longer in good conscience stand by my initial endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book because of its “Side B” underpinnings and faulty anthropology (and therefore faulty theology).

I’ve gotten a lot of emails and messages lately regarding my endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book, Still Time to Care. Many are confused as to why I would endorse a book that embraces so-called “Side B” Christianity.
Greg sent me his book back in March of 2021 and asked if I would consider endorsing it. After reading it, my main take-away was how the church in the past had placed a heavy expectation on new converts who came out of a homosexual lifestyle to engage in “reparative therapy” and become heterosexual. At the time I read Greg’s book, I was not fully aware of the faulty theology behind “Side B.” In fact, I didn’t really understand what it meant at all.
What Does Side B Mean?
Tim Keller defines “Side B” in this way: “People attracted to the same sex, though remaining celibate in obedience to the Bible, still can call themselves ‘gay Christians’ and see their attraction as a part of their identity which should be acknowledged like one’s race or nationality.”
But it’s more than this. “Side B” uses a Freudian (not biblical) framework in terms of the understanding of personhood (anthropology). According to Freud humans are at the core, sexual beings—sexual desires define who we are. Freud’s theory was the progenitor of sinful sexual behavior becoming a full-blown identity—LGBTQ. The “Side B” camp would assert that being “gay” is ontological. The problem with this assertion is that a person’s “gayness” cannot be sanctified. This idea is in violation of the Creation Ordinance (Gen. 1:27) and the biblical understanding of personhood. We are not our desires.
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