Bible study v. Bible Study

In my... 17 or so years of being a Christian, I have been in many small groups (and large ones) and went through a lot of Bible Studies.

As a complete layman when it comes to creating Bible Studies I would separate them out into two groups. Topics and Books of the Bible. In other words, the studies are either about something like marriage or shepherding camels or they go through a passage of the Bible (whether it be one verse or one book).

Since I have been married I have noticed a trend that men prefer the Bible Studies (i.e. the study of the Bible) while women generally prefer something which has a (lol... I was going to say point but that is totally and utterly blasphemous).

The BIG negative of a Topic based study are that the passages used by the author from the Bible are often very literally USED - i.e. take out of context, manipulated, bent to fit into their lesson or point. Steve would say that these end up having very little point because they are all sort of fluffy and out there with no real result or application. I, of course, think the opposite, but I'll talk about that more in a minute.

The BIG negative of a Bible Passage based study is that it is so totally easy to take all passion, all personal experience out of it. We often get caught up in the historical application or the word use or whatever. AND very rarely are we in a group where anyone knows too much more about the passage, history, or meaning than Steve which is somewhat... limiting in my point of view. That isn't meant to sound snobby, though I'm sure it did. Sorry. I suck. Blasphemy all over the place. But the reason I am snobby is because I had all these amazing professors at Westmont as Biblical resources who have studied the language and history and passion, who have heard all the debates and philosophies and have come to conclusions with all these things mixed together - I really loved listening to them break apart a passage. That is OBVIOUSLY not to say that I am looking disdainfully at anyone that speaks about a passage that doesn't have a PhD in the field, it's just that... I dunno... when it comes to the strict academics of the Bible, I am a snob - but hey - I'm well aware it's not all about strict academics - if a verse or passage inspires or encourages or reminds someone of something I'm all for it - more power to us all because that always adds to my own understanding - but that is a rare thing in Bible Studies, for someone to pause and share how the scripture affected them.

But a topic based study - I can't be a snob about that - we all have different experiences and needs and goals etc, so that is fascinating to me. Too light for Steve maybe but I do take things from these studies and apply them in our daily life. And it's often to his benefit that I do ;).

All that to say that I have been feeling distant from God recently but didn't really notice it because it certainly wasn't coming from any sort of problem. But a friend recently pointed me towards a book she'd used in a woman's Bible Study called, "Calm my Anxious Heart" (applicable much?). And even just reading the introduction it was like that personal connection with God was ... well... reconnected. Like when you haven't had good quality time with a person for a long time but there was no discord, only this good 'home' feeling when you're together again.

SO, for ME, I need to be in one of these sorts of books as part of my faith... Hmm... Probably could have said that in three sentences....