Study

Yesterday, we talked about some of the qualities that we find in the wise men (or “Magi” as they are called in the Scriptures). We saw that one of the things that defined the wise men were that they were academic, or students of the prophets. One of the things that we weren’t able to get into is that their study went even beyond their own religion to that of others as well. They would not have known the significance of the star or the coming King of the Jews had they not been seeking through the Old Testament prophets, too.

So the question for us today is how is our study of the Scriptures? Are we devoting the time necessary to truly understand what the Bible is saying? Are we students of the Scriptures? We talked about some tools that we need to study the Bible the way we ought. We talked about a concordance, a reference Bible and a good commentary. I'd like to give you my thoughts on each of these today.

First, I would recommend you buying a concordance that corresponds with the version of Scripture you generally read. One of the best I've found is called The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and can be found here on Christian Book Distributors website. This will help you find words used in many of the best translations used today.

Secondly, I would encourage you to buy a reference Bible if you don't already have one. The one most people find useful is The Thompson Chain Reference Bible. The references in this Bible are extensive, but like any tool, the more you use it, the easier it will be to find what you are looking for.

Finally, we encouraged you to get yourself a good commentary. There are two commentaries that I continually reference, simply because I trust the sources. One is The Bible Knowledge Commentary by Walvoord and Zuck. This is a very good commentary that comes in two volumes, one covers the Old Testament, the other the New Testament (you can find these both at CBD, here). The other one is The Moody Bible Commentary. This one is a single volume commentary and you can also find it here at Christian Book Distributors. There are other commentaries that are multi-volume (meaning one volume per book of the Bible), but these tend to get expensive if you’re only using them once in a while.

I hope that you will take the time to consider adding these tools to your Bible study tool box, and use them often. They will help you be able to not only study the Scriptures for yourself, but also help you to know the truth, and be able to spot error when you hear it or see it.

God bless you all this week, and I hope you have great Monday. And we’ll see you on Sunday!