Bible Study Tools - Christianity.com

      Every Bible study starts with a good Bible and now you can find one online. Christianity.com has an excellent online Bible with some slick features usually found only on commercial stand-alone software packages. Like a lot of other sites, the online Bible on Christianity.com has a text version of the Bible with multiple translations to choose from and a way to navigate around in the text. Christianity.com has much more.

     First off, Chrisitanity.com has fully editable text. You can highlight it in four different colors; you can change text size, bold, and underline text. Text color can also be changed for individual verses. So you marker-uppers - -go wild. You can also post notes to the text (which are saved) and post flags to mark text. There are also powerful search engines which you can use not only to find sections of text but also use as a concordance. Finally, you can view multiple panes to read different translations at once in a parallel Bible fashion.

     Christianity.com is also the Swiss army knife of Bible study sites. It has a great research section loaded with Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, commentaries and cross-reference guides. A great feature is that you can use the search engine to search the entire library of research tools. This is a quick treasure trove of background and textual material. While there are better web pages for word studies and commentaries (as we will see in coming weeks), none of them are searchable directly from your online Bible as with Christianity.com.

     You will have to set up a free account when you first log-on to Christianity.com. This allows you to have your personalized study Bible which saves all your notes, flags and text edits. Once set up you can access your online study Bible from anywhere you can access the web. If you’ve a mind to check out Bible study online, Christianity.com is definitely the place to start and set up base camp.

Next Stop - Hebrews

At our next meeting on September 30, 2009 we will begin our study of the book of Hebrews. We will be doing an intoduction to this New Testament book. We shall try to cover the genre of the book, the primary themes, the intended audience and the historical backgroud. We may even take a stab at speculating on who the author was. Gary is a staunch "Paul authored Hebrews" guy, while my take on authorship may surprise you. You may want to review the Hebrew's Introduction I've linked to on right hand side of this page. Join in for a lively discussion.

For anyone following us on the web, feel free to add a comment on any aspect of Hebrews, suggestions for the study, questions or mere speculation on authorship. We'd love to hear from you!

Our next study: Hebrews

Hebrews was the majority choice of our poll for which book of the Bible to study next. We will probably begin our study of this book within the next couple of weeks. Last meeting we focused on Chapter 23 of Joshua and had a great free-form discussion on how Joshua relates to the Gospel of Jesus. Next meeting we should start on Chapter 24 (the last chapter) of Joshua. Please join us to wrap up our study of this wonderful Old Testament book of history. A call out to Mike - we were very happy to have you join our study this week and hope you can attend regularly in the future.

Peace & Grace

The good-o-meter

A cute video.

The Logos Premium Bible giveaway contest

Logos, the premium Bible software, is sponsoring a very cool Bible giveaway - check it out:

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

Joshua 22: Security in God

We just about wrapped up Joshua Chapter 22 on Wed and should be starting Joshua 23 next meeting. We'd love to see you there to discuss this deep winding down of Joshua.

An observation on Chapter 22. As you will recall, back in the first chapter God gave this exhortation to Joshua before sending him out on his mission to conquer the promised land:

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7-9)

Joshua followed these commands. For over a decade he carried out God's will for him and subdued the promised land, a land of milk and honey. God gave the Jews a paradise; houses they didn't build, wells they didn't dig, vineyards they didn't plant and orchards they didn't sow. Joshua trusted his Lord and was rewarded with heaven in return. Is it any wonder then that after his work was done, and the three tribes whose land was east of the Jordan river prepared to depart for home, Joshua left them with this advice:

"And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Joshua 22:4-5)

Sound familiar? Joshua never forgot the source of his blessing and the precepts which guided his path. God never changes. His words are true yesterday, today and tomorrow. You can trust him, just as Joshua did, through his son Jesus Christ. Has the world let you down? Have you faced difficulties in this harsh economy? Have you faced betrayal or rejection by another person? Do you feel there's nothing you can truly believe in or rely on? If you recognize any of these feelings then try turning to Jesus Christ. Jesus will never let you down - he never changes, his promises and precepts always stay the same. With Jesus, you too can be like a humble man in Palestine 3000 years ago who led his people into the Kingdom of God.

Bible Study Tools

Bible study is more than just a one hour study discussion every week with fellow Christians over the relevant passages for that day. Although such group discussion is very informative and satisfying, especially in the fellowship such a group setting provides, it is ultimately limited by the amount of personal study each member (literally) brings to the table. Thus, to get the most out of the Bible, and to discern the spiritual truths God would have you learn, it is important to spend some time alone studying the verses the group will be discussing next.

     In that pursuit, I have added some Bible study links to the right of this page to help everyone in the individual study. There is a difference in "reading" the Bible and "studying" the Bible. Both are important and each has its place. I believe one reads the Bible to learn the big picture story of scripture. Since the Bible is the progressive historical revelation of God's plan for human salvation, a good grasp of the Biblical narrative is essential. To achieve this, I believe one should read the Bible every day. I try to read the Bible cover-to-cover every year by reading my Bible 20 minutes every morning. There are many daily Bible reading plans out there to help you accomplish this, in fact, many study Bibles contain such plans in their general study materials.

     In addition to reading the Bible, it is also important to study its individual parts in detail to mine the deep spiritual truths which God provides in such abundance. Each verse is "God Breathed" and provides something important for your spiritual growth and sanctification. (2 Tim 3:16). This includes not only reading the particular passage repeatedly but comparing it with other similar verses; establishing its context in relation to the chapter it appears; discerning the themes or deeper message it conveys in context with the greater themes of the chapter, book and entire Bible in which it is contained. Study includes looking up the Greek definitions of ambiguous words and determining the historical and cultural context in which the author is writing. All this only scratches the surface of the many elements of a good Bible study - sounds daunting doesn't it?

     Don't worry, there are many tools available to help you in your studies and keep you from having to re-plow ground which has already been tilled by Christians ahead of you; and that brings us to the topic of this post - Bible study tools. The tools linked on the right of the page are excellent resources and I will be discussing each, in turn, in the coming weeks. Next week I will review "Christianity.com". Any Bible study starts with reading the verse(s) you are studying and Christianity.com is an excellent online source of Bible text. I think you are going to like it very much.....so stay tuned.

Reminder of New Start Time

Just a reminder, We will be starting at 11:30 next Wednesday. We are still meeing on the second floor of the East wing of the Market. Last meeting, we studied Joshua, Chapters 20 and 21. Next week we will cover 22 and possbily introduce 23 if we have time.