Personal Study Ideas

[Miss Bea]

On 11/28/2020 at 2:02 PM, Rain said:

I love these suggestions and ideas - very helpful! 😄

My family is currently trying to memorize more songs, both the Original songs and our Kingdom songs. So far, so good! 

That is what I’m trying to do. With some sisters. I figure my memory is shot, but if I absolutely do the best I can, Jehovah will step in and help me. 

[Luisabola]

I feel like I need to learn the songs off by heart too. That’s a great idea fir my personal study. 
 

At the moment I’m going through the fruitage of the spirit and decided to learn about patience first. (As I need most help with that one haha). 

[screenbomber]

I was 13 when I asked an old anointed brother, 'How do I know when I'm studying enough?'

He was my mentor. He simply had me read Ecclesiastes, chapter 1 2 3 & 4.

 

I came to the conclusion that you ought to (paraphrasing now) study 'until you find satisfaction in it'. Which is something all youths should be taught. Read and THINK- until you're full, just like eating. I don't open the Bible when the thought isn't good timing, therefore don't associate the Bible with negative thoughts.

 

Later he told me, "Studying is a form of art and therefore requires practice until you can do it for hours on end, with joy."

[EccentricM]

For the last few days I've been spending almost entire days reading through the New Testament, to see the truth for myself and all the Biblical truths laid out in front of me, and making my own study notes based upon my own personal conclusions of the scriptures with no additional outside sources. Just me, the Bible, comparative bibles and translation lexicons.

 

I thought I'd give myself the "minimum standard" that as a Christian, I should 'at least' read the full NT back to back. As it's what my entire life is based upon.

 

As I go through I write down my own takes on the meanings of scripture, and then compare them to what the GB's take is on them. So far I pretty much have come to the same conclusions of the GB (with only minor differences and personal alternative meanings of some verses, but my studies are not yet complete, and I may eventually start topics on the forum on my thoughts for discussion). It's amazing how the contradictory beliefs of Christendom even got off the ground.

 

In the last five days I have completed (via using the JW.org's audio bible) the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acts and Romans. I've yet to start Corinthians has I have took a mini break before going back to it.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by EccentricM

[ReadYourBible]

So, I've always kind of been old school about study projects. Write them, or just read and make a few notes. But I found out about a free storyboard program called milanote, and wow.

 

Not sure where I heard about it, but its a cool little tool and I wanted to share it with you guys in case you wanted to storyboard any of your study projects.

 

This is one where I've kind of put down all the things I need to work at, focus on. It's kind of hodge podge, but I started with one focal piece and then it grew out from there. If I'm to do x, then y must happen kind of deal. 

 

I hope no one is weirded out by my using some of our publications pictures in my personal study project. This picture I've attached is the actual story board I created. ❤️ It's kind of what I started to do with my bible study project, where I looked at each scripture and then found references for it - but then the brothers brought out the study bible!  They'd done the work for me!

Edited February 22, 2021 by ReadYourBible
add the reason why I posted this, it wasn't clear

[retroHelen]

During the pandemic 'lock-down' last year and when the weather was very wet/raining, I looked at the 'Good Land 'brochure and went on to Google it to see what the places look like now and found some interesting archaeology going on there & Youtube footage of the places that I wasn't so familiar with.

 

We did join some virtual Bible tours and I did find some more on Youtube to bring what I was reading to life. 

 

I also Googled some of the old Bible Manuscripts to see what their museums had to say about them and how they obtained them.

 

Dead sea scrolls have a strange history of a made up story of a shepherd finding them in a cave which seems to have been a lie to cover the fact that some parts of them were illegally bought in a market, so the buyer got to follow up where the rest of them were discovered, so he could make up a story around the  authentic place where they were found, that did lead to some better finds. Then I researched the interesting story of the opening and preservation of these ancient delicate repaired scrolls over many years of work, which was very interesting.

 

The Siniatic manuscripts were also a tale of a Victorian scholar going to the monastery and asking to see them to translate over a period of time. He systematically tore out pages and smuggled them out. He made up a lie that the monks were using them to light braziers and he had done the World a great service when he rescued them. It was not until years later, that these isolated monks realised there were pages missing from their library Bibles and what happened to them and have been angry about it since. However, though it was theft, at least it got publicised the importance of these very early manuscripts that these monks were not reading nor wanting to share, just keeping to themselves chained up on shelves in their library.

 

For artistry, my favourite old Bible Manuscripts are the Lindisfarne Gospels. Hand-written and decorated  by Irish missionaries of the 'Celtic Christian' faith before they were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism. They are so so intricate and have such beautifully patterned pages between each different gospel, that they are called 'carpet pages' like the patterns on Persian/Arabian carpets. These missionaries left their Irish home for a while and first went to a lonely Island of Iona to write and decorate this section of the Bible. There they built little conical huts & a kitchen garden, to be self-sufficient whilst working quietly to finish this Bible. Then they moved to Lindisfarne Island. Irish missionaries often did beautiful books like this, with leather bound covers with semi-precious stones inset and fancy gold hinges and clasps to give, by way of a 'Witness', to rulers as worthy gifts for them to read and learn from. This was why they were often a target for Viking raiders who were not yet 'Christian' and just wanted to steal the Bibles for their rich covers off the travelling missionaries. Such Bibles have been found in old Byzantium, now Istanbul, and in ancient ruler's palaces and tombs in Russia. Early writings indicate that the missionaries did head off to what we now know as China with some of these Bibles, but only traces of ancient 'Christian' settlements seem to remain. The Chinese are not keen on people discovering evidence of early Christianity there because it tends to indicate that historically, they jealously guarded their Buddhism traditions and preferred to stamp out any other 'foreign' religion before it could spread anywhere.

[Beverly]

Thank you for the link. I plan to use some of this information when writing letters! We truly are being bombarded by so much information lately, I think this would be a timely subject.

[Hotteok]

I've been planning on making board games (or just games) based on Acts.

(There is one board game with this theme though. Made by a non-JW Christian. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/255392/acts 

)

 

I've been also interested in making a game based on the modern day JW history, dating back to Charles T. Russel.

 

These require lots of knowledge however. I'm learning programming, drawing and the Bible too.

Probably Armageddon will come before I can finish making them. 

[Rain]

On 5/12/2021 at 7:40 PM, VisualizeUrParadise said:

I've been also interested in making a game based on the modern day JW history, dating back to Charles T. Russel.

 

These require lots of knowledge however. I'm learning programming, drawing and the Bible too.

Probably Armageddon will come before I can finish making them. 

😁 I did this once! I made a JW version of Monopoly, to put it simply. I bought a blank game board and used my own graphic designs for the cards and such. It took awhile, but we love playing it for FW from time to time. I am still working on fine tuning the game pieces. 

I LOVE your game ideas! I might have to "borrow" them... 😉

[Vido]

On 12/1/2020 at 6:50 PM, Jack1979 said:

Recently, I began a new study project all about "Prayer".

 

Inspired by so many things, both current and past... but in particular, Brother Lett gave a talk, and he mentioned something along the lines of, "If Jesus the perfect Son of God didn't rely on himself (but constantly prayed to Jehovah), we should be scared to death to do that (rely on ourselves)."

 

Now more than ever, I want to be as close to Jehovah as I can be. To be kept wrapped tightly in His loving arms... to keep tight hold of His hand as I run the race down the path to life is my hearts desire. Yet, even though I have this unlimited power supply available to me 24 hours a day, how easy it is to veer toward trying to handle things on my own. Getting so preoccupied in my self and my day... even when doing good... that I forget to cry out to my Father in heaven and beg Him for the strength and guidance that I need.

 

If any of you have any suggestions for something to read, watch or listen to in regards to this study, I would greatly appreciate it!!!

 

Luke 18:13 "not willing even to raise his eyes heavenward... kept beating his chest, saying, 'O God, be gracious to me, a sinner.'"

`nice sentiments and a good reminder not to rely on myself as I often do.

Satan strives to make us feel that we can rely on ourselves, independent on Jehovah.

[Roch]

On 17/11/2020 at 00:39, Golfguy74 said:

Não tenho certeza se é isso que se pretende com este tópico, mas este é um artigo que usei para meu estudo pessoal esta semana. Este link é para a edição de estudo de 2017 da Torre de Vigia. Artigo intitulado "Vencendo a batalha por sua mente"

 

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&issue=2017-07&pub=w17&srcid=share

 

Very good article tip, it's always good to be alert.

[Tia]

On 7/19/2021 at 1:43 PM, Vido said:

`nice sentiments and a good reminder not to rely on myself as I often do.

Satan strives to make us feel that we can rely on ourselves, independent on Jehovah.

Brother Eddie,

I echo this sentiment and I have kept this one under my belt as well, as a result my prayers

have increased - even in what seemingly not so bad times; I recall a sister on board who had a 

beautiful picture of one wrapped up in God's Word.  I too took to heart Brother Lett admonishment on ,

"If Jesus the perfect Son of God didn't rely on himself (but constantly prayed to Jehovah),

we should be scared to death to do that (rely on ourselves)."

[coony77]

I made a list called "what I look mostly forward to in paradise" - and named 26 things in the end,  documenting each one with at least 1 bible verse. 

[countrykaren]

On 8/1/2020 at 5:59 AM, New World Explorer said:

We could explore Bible characters in depth....dedicating fair amount of time to study each person......

We could divide our personal study into chapters ...like, chronology, younghood, family situation, devotion to Jehovah, personal challenges, outstanding aspects of personality worthy of imitation (or not) 

 

Daniel

Job

Salomon, ap Paul ....etc 

 

Also we could go through “less” known persons mentioned in Bible. 
 

And if someone want EXTRA hard challenge, then find answer to following question:

How many individuals in total are mentioned in the Bible? 
How many nations are mentioned in the Bible? 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t realise Samson was married twice thanks for the idea 

[vern]

No clue if mentioned.

 

Read bible in chronological order of when written.

 

Read bible in year... Bethelite assignment.

 

Read bible in three months... Gilead student assignment pre Gilead school.

 

Read bible outloud.. No skipping chronicles.  Learn the pronunciation notation.

 

All the prophecies.....  Helps faith... And we don.t go thru it like we use to.

 

Proclaimers book.

 

Crack open a bound volume of the watchtower.... Flip thru till something catches your eye.... Bethel entrance school used lots of older watchtowers.

 

Keep things simple... Less commentary... More scripture.

[Dages]

9 hours ago, vern said:

No clue if mentioned.

 

Read bible in chronological order of when written.

 

Read bible in year... Bethelite assignment.

 

Read bible in three months... Gilead student assignment pre Gilead school.

 

Read bible outloud.. No skipping chronicles.  Learn the pronunciation notation.

 

All the prophecies.....  Helps faith... And we don.t go thru it like we use to.

 

Proclaimers book.

 

Crack open a bound volume of the watchtower.... Flip thru till something catches your eye.... Bethel entrance school used lots of older watchtowers.

 

Keep things simple... Less commentary... More scripture.

Check (redoing it right now),

Check

Check (that's a crazy one)

Outloud reading is a very nice idea. Might do it next.

 

Another idea (maybe already given)

Read all the biographies in our litterature... one per day... it's awesome

https://wol.jw.org/fr/wol/dsync/r30/lp-f/r1/lp-e/1200024627

Edited October 11, 2021 by Dages

[Tortuga]

On 7/31/2020 at 12:13 PM, Tortuga said:

Read all of the Life Stories listed in the Index, there over 800 of them!

https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=502400102&srcid=share

[Mzbarb]

I am currently reading the life stories in alphabetical order

[Kiku]

I put together a list of personal study ideas that I keep to myself. Some ideas I kept from this thread, thank you so much for that, brothers and sisters! I made this list to help one elderly sister, but I want to share this list with all of you.

1. Prayer. Ask Jehovah for wisdom before each Bible reading. Pray for 2 minutes longer, and thank Jehovah for something special;

2. Look at the list of questions in the Introduction of the Bible, in question 20.

3. Before you start reading a new book of the Bible, pay attention to when it was written, where, by whom, who else was living at the time, what the conditions were there (you can find hints in appendices A and B);

4. Before reading the chapter, pay attention to the summary so that it is easier to understand what the chapter is about. After you read it, try to describe the chapter in two sentences yourself, or paraphrase what the brothers wrote.

5. Read each publication index and write out key thoughts and tags (lesson, Jehovah's qualities, prayer, prophecy, archaeology, etc.) in the verse notes.

6. Underline favorite verses and interesting expressions you want to use in prayer.

7. After reading the book, listen to the audio production or watch, if available, the JW movie about the episode.

8. Listen and read the Bible at the same time.

9. Memory training: memorize the order of the books, favorite verses and songs.

10. Rewrite in JW Library Bible notes all your old notes that you have taken at congresses, meetings, and personal studies before. Find a verse for each note.

11. Choose and read the topics of interest to you from the "Start Reading the Bible" section of "Rejoice in Life Now and Forever."

12. As you read, pay attention to the details and write questions in your notes, marking them with the "Question" tag. After a while, try to look up your questions and take the time to look for the answer. If you don't find one, share the thought with your friends.

13. Download from the JW website work charts on topics of interest to you and work on one each personal study.

14. Try an app from a brother, Personal Bible Trainer, on Android. It gives you ideas for each day, helps you keep track of your reading on the schedule you need, and makes reading more interesting with achievements. It makes it easy to read chronologically, in reverse order of writing a book, or by topic. Many of these ideas are also in this app.

15. Read one sibling biography each day and note the verses that supported them in life.

[Paa Yaw]

On 11/22/2021 at 3:40 PM, Kiku said:

I put together a list of personal study ideas that I keep to myself. Some ideas I kept from this thread, thank you so much for that, brothers and sisters! I made this list to help one elderly sister, but I want to share this list with all of you.

1. Prayer. Ask Jehovah for wisdom before each Bible reading. Pray for 2 minutes longer, and thank Jehovah for something special;

2. Look at the list of questions in the Introduction of the Bible, in question 20.

3. Before you start reading a new book of the Bible, pay attention to when it was written, where, by whom, who else was living at the time, what the conditions were there (you can find hints in appendices A and B);

4. Before reading the chapter, pay attention to the summary so that it is easier to understand what the chapter is about. After you read it, try to describe the chapter in two sentences yourself, or paraphrase what the brothers wrote.

5. Read each publication index and write out key thoughts and tags (lesson, Jehovah's qualities, prayer, prophecy, archaeology, etc.) in the verse notes.

6. Underline favorite verses and interesting expressions you want to use in prayer.

7. After reading the book, listen to the audio production or watch, if available, the JW movie about the episode.

8. Listen and read the Bible at the same time.

9. Memory training: memorize the order of the books, favorite verses and songs.

10. Rewrite in JW Library Bible notes all your old notes that you have taken at congresses, meetings, and personal studies before. Find a verse for each note.

11. Choose and read the topics of interest to you from the "Start Reading the Bible" section of "Rejoice in Life Now and Forever."

12. As you read, pay attention to the details and write questions in your notes, marking them with the "Question" tag. After a while, try to look up your questions and take the time to look for the answer. If you don't find one, share the thought with your friends.

13. Download from the JW website work charts on topics of interest to you and work on one each personal study.

14. Try an app from a brother, Personal Bible Trainer, on Android. It gives you ideas for each day, helps you keep track of your reading on the schedule you need, and makes reading more interesting with achievements. It makes it easy to read chronologically, in reverse order of writing a book, or by topic. Many of these ideas are also in this app.

15. Read one sibling biography each day and note the verses that supported them in life.

Can you please show me an example of no# 13 and how to go about it.

[daydream]

What about this as an example? 

 

[Kiku]

6 hours ago, Paa Yaw said:

Can you please show me an example of no# 13 and how to go about it.

Sorry, I seem to have translated it wrong. It's called Worksheets for Teenagers:
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/worksheets/

I download all the topics that interest me and fill out one of the worksheets each personal study.

[Sam09]

Hello! Here is a personal study Let me ask you some questions and I would really love to hear your thoughts.
 

1/How did Paul view his situation while in prison bonds? [Read Philippians 1:12-14] 

 

2/How can we imitate Paul’s attitude and example? 

 

3/What has helped you to view changes in a positive light? 

 

4/Why is it important for each of us to accept responsibility for maintaining a positive spirit? 

 

5/Why is it important to keep a positive view of those in our territory? (Mt 9:36, 37) 

 

6/How can we make our blows count in our own congregation’s territory? (1Co 9:26) 

 

7/Why is it good to examine our preaching and teaching skills from time to time? 

 

8/What schedule for personal study works for you? 

 

9/What adjustments have you made to stick to your schedule? 

 

10/Why is it important to include time for meditation and heartfelt prayer? 

 

11/How do you ensure that your surroundings are conducive to study, prayer, and meditation? 

 

12/How do good relationships with our brothers and sisters help us to maintain our spirituality? (Pr 27:17) 

 

13/How have good associates strengthened your joy in serving Jehovah? (Pr 17:17) 

 

14/How has sharing in various aspects of the ministry refreshed and fortified you? 

 

15/How have you been using Enjoy Life Forever!? (Pr 15:30) 

 

16/What aspects of Enjoy Life Forever! do you appreciate? 

 

17/How do you prepare in advance to teach others

would be great if you could make the time to consider the questions. 
Brotherly Love

😊 Agape.

[Emsrd]

On 7/7/2021 at 5:42 PM, Rain said:

😁 I did this once! I made a JW version of Monopoly, to put it simply. I bought a blank game board and used my own graphic designs for the cards and such. It took awhile, but we love playing it for FW from time to time. I am still working on fine tuning the game pieces. 

I LOVE your game ideas! I might have to "borrow" them... 😉

I like your idea. 

I would like to see your game board of a JW version of Monopoly. 

I've the same idea, but I don't know where to start 😉

[surfergirl]

On 3/4/2021 at 8:18 AM, retroHelen said:

During the pandemic 'lock-down' last year and when the weather was very wet/raining, I looked at the 'Good Land 'brochure and went on to Google it to see what the places look like now and found some interesting archaeology going on there & Youtube footage of the places that I wasn't so familiar with.

 

We did join some virtual Bible tours and I did find some more on Youtube to bring what I was reading to life. 

 

I also Googled some of the old Bible Manuscripts to see what their museums had to say about them and how they obtained them.

 

Dead sea scrolls have a strange history of a made up story of a shepherd finding them in a cave which seems to have been a lie to cover the fact that some parts of them were illegally bought in a market, so the buyer got to follow up where the rest of them were discovered, so he could make up a story around the  authentic place where they were found, that did lead to some better finds. Then I researched the interesting story of the opening and preservation of these ancient delicate repaired scrolls over many years of work, which was very interesting.

 

The Siniatic manuscripts were also a tale of a Victorian scholar going to the monastery and asking to see them to translate over a period of time. He systematically tore out pages and smuggled them out. He made up a lie that the monks were using them to light braziers and he had done the World a great service when he rescued them. It was not until years later, that these isolated monks realised there were pages missing from their library Bibles and what happened to them and have been angry about it since. However, though it was theft, at least it got publicised the importance of these very early manuscripts that these monks were not reading nor wanting to share, just keeping to themselves chained up on shelves in their library.

 

For artistry, my favourite old Bible Manuscripts are the Lindisfarne Gospels. Hand-written and decorated  by Irish missionaries of the 'Celtic Christian' faith before they were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism. They are so so intricate and have such beautifully patterned pages between each different gospel, that they are called 'carpet pages' like the patterns on Persian/Arabian carpets. These missionaries left their Irish home for a while and first went to a lonely Island of Iona to write and decorate this section of the Bible. There they built little conical huts & a kitchen garden, to be self-sufficient whilst working quietly to finish this Bible. Then they moved to Lindisfarne Island. Irish missionaries often did beautiful books like this, with leather bound covers with semi-precious stones inset and fancy gold hinges and clasps to give, by way of a 'Witness', to rulers as worthy gifts for them to read and learn from. This was why they were often a target for Viking raiders who were not yet 'Christian' and just wanted to steal the Bibles for their rich covers off the travelling missionaries. Such Bibles have been found in old Byzantium, now Istanbul, and in ancient ruler's palaces and tombs in Russia. Early writings indicate that the missionaries did head off to what we now know as China with some of these Bibles, but only traces of ancient 'Christian' settlements seem to remain. The Chinese are not keen on people discovering evidence of early Christianity there because it tends to indicate that historically, they jealously guarded their Buddhism traditions and preferred to stamp out any other 'foreign' religion before it could spread anywhere.

One of my daughters is a little more challenging lately. A while ago she asked did we just use our own Bibles? What makes em so different. So I have a few different ones. I also bought a King's James version with the beautiful looking gold details. It's the 1600's version. I was nervous prayed a lot. It came. So it has Jehovah's name in it. Psalms 83.18

In the glossary it mentions William Tyndale and a few others we have discussed before. 

I showed my daughter. Said when we Study how about we get both ours & the KJ. We compare the verses. Only difference is kinda still like Shakespeare lingo. She's into that. Likes Latin.  Has a piece with Latin. 

Fascinating history you mentioned