Who We Are
Personal Background
The inductive Bible studies on our site were written by Jason Dexter (you can view his author bio here: Jason Dexter author bio). He was born in Austin, Texas in 1985. He has 7 brothers and sisters. When he was ten, his family moved to Wilmington, NC where he grew up enjoying the beach. He was in awe of the intense power of multiple hurricanes that hit in those years.
His parents are both faithful believers with a Navigator background and led him to have a strong appreciation for the truth in God’s Word through daily devotions each weekday at 7 AM. He knew he wanted to serve the Lord so attended Moody Bible Institute in order to build up his understanding and foundation of the Word to prepare for a life of service. In 2006, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies.
The verse that had a huge impact on Jason is Luke 10:2.
“He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
When studying this verse, he knew he had to commit himself to serving the Lord overseas and take part in this great harvest. More than that, he was motivated to train up other workers since the task is far too big for one alone.
For the past twenty years, Jason has lived and served in Asia along with his wife, Christy, and four children (ages 4-13). He and Christy are part of WOM, world outreach ministries, and you can see their listing here: WOM
He serves as an evangelist, disciple maker, trainer, preacher, and church elder. In the vast harvest field of the country where he is serving, one of his missions is to lead weekly small group Bible studies. In these, he seeks to equip the next generation of workers. Since the Bible contains all that is needed for life and godliness, the Word is the key focus. He leads the brothers and sisters to study it verse by verse, book by book, with an emphasis on obedience and life change. So far he and his group have studied through over 30 of the 66 books in the Bible. His goal is to finish all. A number of years ago, he began posting these studies online in case they could benefit more people and this site, Study and Obey, was born.
His favorite speakers to listen to include: John Piper, Paul Washer, and Voddie Baucham.
Jason serves at a non-denominational church. Growing up, he attended primarily Bible churches, but also Baptist, Presbyterian, and Bible chapels. View his statement of faith here.
In addition to this site, Jason has a YouTube channel, a podcast, e-books, and paperback books on Amazon.
Bible Study Philosophy
Studying and Obeying
The whole purpose of spending time in the word is to obey. Thus, suggested applications are dispersed throughout the lessons. Each person is encouraged to think of and make additional applications of their own as the Lord leads. These are meant to help encourage thought about how the passage may apply. In the Great Commission we learn that we are to “teach them to obey all I have commanded you.” Obedience is the goal, not knowledge.
Discovery Study
The best way to teach is to help the learner discover. Active learning through active participation is far superior to passive learning such as listening to a lecture. So each lesson contains many discussion questions or discovery questions. These are mostly open-ended, but are designed to encourage the fellow Bible study participants to carefully examine the Bible passage and think about it critically on their own. Study through discovery.
Bible Based Teaching
The Bible explains itself and clarifies itself better than we can. Therefore cross-references are included for each lesson. These are carefully chosen to reinforce the teaching of that passage or clarify hard to understand issues. The Bible is sufficient. It should be the final authority and we believe that Scripture interprets Scripture. Rather than sharing many of our own personal opinions, we seek to ask the question, “what does the Bible say?”
Clear and Practical
Teaching points are observations from the passage that should be brought during the Bible study discussion time. The best way is to lead the listener to these points through questions, though the teacher can also share these observations with the group. Some of these are observations about the passage. Others are related to how this passage should look if we use it in our own lives. Clear and deep Bible teaching is edifying and helps us grow.
