Testimony by Jeffrey Briar

“My name is SSgt Jeffrey Briar and this is a testimony: I have been saved by the grace of God for 9 ½ years. I have to share this with all believers, during this deployment I have been blessed with a revolutionary way of studying the Word of God... I want to share this because if I had known this in the beginning I would have grown a lot more and I want all of you to be blessed as I have been. One thing I have noticed over my journey is how sometimes scripture can be taken out of context, meaning we could misinterpret the meaning of scripture, by putting our opinions on it.

We have been taught (Praise God!), how to discover the context of the Scriptures, allowing us to stay true to the text. As Chaps always says, “a text without a context ain’t no text”. By looking at a verse or paragraph of scripture, we are taught a ditty called CHECK DISC, which means Check yourself (confess your sins - 1 John 1:9). Next, is Discover the context (of what you are reading), which basically means finding the “big Idea.” Next, is Identify key words within the text, (i.e. verbs). Subject is what is next, and that is forming a question based solely on the text you are reading. Forming the question that is the overall subject of the text you are reading allows you to not take the text out of context. Next Is Compliment, which is answering your Subject question, based only on the text you are reading and again solely on the text.

I have been blessed with this approach to studying because it allows us to really get into the text, to really understand what we are reading, and spending more time studying the Word of God. Again, because we get all of this from the text itself and solely from text there can be no way we can put our own opinion about the text, but instead we stay true to the text itself. Studying this way really makes the Word of God alive. I am without words God has again turned on a light to revolutionize my studying process, and I encourage all of you to do it as well. Don’t wait 9 ½ years I want to make sure you all receive the blessing’s I did. God Bless all of you, Keep the prayers coming for our ongoing deployment and studies.”