Having worship prior to study is so very important. It opens our hearts, our spirit to God. It invites His presence. It brings us away from the world and to a place that we can meet with God. You are far more likely to get so much more out of the study. The Holy Spirit will be able to convey what The Lord needs or wants us to know, to hear. “Worship and praise is the purest form of prayer because it focuses our minds and souls entirely away from ourselves and on Him.” ~ Stormie Omartain

We do not always need a song to worship God. Worship is a verb…it is an action…Loving the unlovable, showing patience…Acting out on those whispers of the Holy Spirit. “Worship will only make complete sense when we understand its place in God’s complete plan. He did not give worship as a test of the wills but as the source of our potential. He did not create man as a pawn or plaything but to become a partner in His highest purpose.” ~ Jack Hayford

There is so much to learn about the culture of the Bible (especially seeing how it was written by multiple people over hundreds of years). One of things that has helped on my journey was reading history as it helps place things within context. Eusebius and Bede are two of my favorite ancient church historians. Bruce Shelley’s “Church History In Plain Language“ is also a good starting place in learning the history of theology.

Bishop Kallistos Ware’s book “The Orthodox Way” is another great book for those looking to learn from our Eastern Orthodox family. He does a phenomenon job at mining the Scriptures and ancient church fathers while keeping the mystery of God alive. You can read my review of this book here

http://studentsofjesus.com/imported-20111230192554/2012/1/7/the-parable-of-shrewd-good-guy-manager.html