I am a “verse by verse, chapter by chapter, keep it in context” type when I study, but not everyone is. You may prefer topical study. For that, try using the concordance or subject index in the back of your Bible.

A concordance lists each occurrence of a key word in Scripture. Some ‘back of the Bible’ ones are more complete than others. If you want complete, try Strong’s, Young’s or Cruden’s.

Strong’s is very complete, exhaustive even and has become the standard. There are a few things that make it difficult to use. It is arranged by the Greek or Hebrew word, so you need to know those to look words up. Also, we read in English. The word hesed in Hebrew is translated lovingkindess, mercy, love and several other ways. Then there are other words translated mercy. If you wanted to study mercy, you’d need to know all those Hebrew or Greek words.

Young’s is arranged by the English word. If you looked up mercy, it would list all the occurrences original language words translated mercy. It’s more practical for people not wanting to get into Hebrew or Greek.

Cruden’s is based off the KJV, so if you’re not familiar with its wording, this one may not help much. I use it in situations where you know the words, but don’t know where they’re found. You know, something about mercies new every morning… Oh yeah. Lamentations 3:23.

A subject index covers a limited number of topics, so it is less complete but great for a quick study.

Topical Bibles are arranged similarly but are more complete.

A Bible Dictionary can also be a great tool for a topical study. Here’s the entry from the Holman Bible Dictionary for thanksgiving.

(Holman Bible Dictionary Copyright © 1991 Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was sick all last week during my semi-annual battle with my immune responses. We have a spring skirmish and a fall assault each year. The fall one was late- very tricky. However, as I was giving my body a chance to recuperate, sleeping off the antihistamines, I began to wonder if we, as the body of Christ ever suffer from an allergy attack.

An allergic response occurs when the body misidentifies something as an invader and rallies a full immune system response to get rid of it. Do we ever incorrectly identify threats, or invaders? Is our ‘body’ tired, achy or ineffective because we’ve being fighting the wrong things? This is not to say that the body of Christ isn’t threatened from within as well as from the outside. John’s and Peter’s epistle say a great deal about heresy and false teachers. However, we do need some discernment to ensure we’re not at war with something harmless or worse, fighting our own body.

I’m not going to name what I believe have become ‘allergies’ for the church. Our best strategy is to look at Jesus Christ. He had three short years of ministry, so He didn’t waste any time on anything that wasn’t helping fulfill His purpose. How did He minister? What did He address? How did He touch lives?

Go, and do likewise, He said.

Scripture written by folks long ago and far away can sometimes seem detached from us in the here and now. However, God is timeless and His word reaches across the years and speaks to our situations. With some passages, it takes a little personalization during your quiet time to see it. The Psalms are a great place to start. Many of them are written in first person. My son has had a rough year in school and has latched on to Psalm 56. It’s a great first person psalm about being hassled by enemies all day long. It includes “In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid.   What can man do to me?”

Other Psalms can be converted- I read Psalm 66 recently, and changed the ‘our’ pronouns to ‘my’ pronouns in my mind.
Who keeps [my] soul among the living,
And does not allow [my] feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested [me];
You have refined [me] as silver is refined…
[I] went through fire and through water;
But You brought [me] out to rich fulfillment.

In the New Testament, any passage that refers to believers can be personalized. One of my favorites is Ephesians 2:4-10.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me],
5 Even when [I was] dead in trespasses, made [me] alive together with Christ (by grace [I] have been saved),
6 And raised [me] up together, and made [me] sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward [me] in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace [I] have been saved through faith, and that not of [myself]; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For [I am] His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that [I] should walk in them.

We are not just a number or a name in a book to God. He knows us intimately and individually. Reading His word as His personal message may help us grasp that.

I ran all five days this week! It was 32 degrees this morning. That should count for some kind of physiological bonus point. Here’s the rest of the update- (I hope to have a newsletter out soon. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up in that box at the right. If you’d like to get these posts as they’re written, click on the Subscribe bar.)

What am I writing?     This week I’m finishing up another read thru and proof on Contingency. When it didn’t place in the most recent contest, that was another occasion to back-up and rethink it. I admit, this time it was difficult to get back to writing. So to entertain myself mostly, I wrote out Chuck and Tracy’s first encounter, and sent it to Amanda. She said it needed to be in the book. So we sat down and hashed out a series of ‘flashbacks’ that allowed me to deepen Chuck’s character and give us a greater sense of where Bobbi and Chuck have been, as well as, give some background about how Chuck ended up where he did. You can check a few of them out here. Next week, it’s headed out for a thorough critique. Maybe now I can finally get back to Claire and Mike.

What am I reading?    School stuff. We did the Taming of the Shrew. I think Lauren is more of a nerd than I am (if that is possible). She loves Shakespeare, and we haven’t even read the good ones yet. I am so glad to leave the poetry unit behind. Now we’re on to short stories. Some of these I’ve read before. “The Lottery” is still unsettling and “The Monkey’s Paw” still creeps me out. I got some great books in the mail and hope to get into them over Thanksgiving. *crossing fingers*

What have I learned?    Nerd stuff- I switched all my programs around. I’m using Google Chrome as my browser. (I love Firefox’s add-ins. I do. But my computer is slow when it runs. A new computer has been requested for the 2010 capital budget. We’ll see what management says.) Chrome is fast, but no frills. I also switched to Postbox for my email client. Same reason. I like Outlook a lot, but it is so confounded slow… Postbox is built on Mozilla’s technology, and it is so much faster. The Lightning add-in gives me the Calendar functions like Outlook. The only complaint I have is that I can’t change my “view” fonts, and message formatting is limited. However, leaving Outlook meant I had to leave my Twitter client- TwInbox. Tried TweetDeck. Like it, but uses a ton of resources, and slows my old computer down. This week I’m trying out Twhirl. It’s okay.

What has God taught me?    We had revival this week, great preaching, great music… Here’s a question or two- Would anybody want what I’ve got? Is my salvation infusing my life and bringing the fragrance of life with it? Or like the preacher said, do I look and act like I’ve been soaked in pickle juice? Is my salvation changing my life now and not just my eternity? Am I interfering with God’s working in my life?

Psalm 119:102 I have not departed from Your judgments for You Yourself have taught me.

I hate golf. There, I said it. I hate everything about it. Jon plays golf, even, and I still hate it. If I took lessons from Tiger Woods himself, I doubt that I would come away even a par golfer. Because I hate it. The thing is, no one would blame Tiger Woods for my high score and lack of skill. It was my responsibility to learn the game.

God Himself cares enough about us, about our understanding of His laws that He personally teaches them to us. He won’t entrust that to anyone else. He sees it as that important. His laws are simple and straightforward, His path well-marked. We have no excuse, really, for not following what God gives us. It is not God’s fault or a problem with His precepts when we mess up our lives. He told us as plainly as He could.