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.