Welcome to Day 1610 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom 

Bible Study – Software and Dictionaries – Meditation Monday

Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! Wisdom is the final frontier in gaining true knowledge. Our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, seek out discernment and insights, and boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; this is Gramps; thanks for coming along on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy Today is Day 1610 of our Trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy. For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, Meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and in prayer. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and making sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you, too, will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind.

 We are continuing our series this week on Meditation Monday as we focus on Mastering Bible Study through a series of brief insights from Hebrew Scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Our current insights are focusing on practical tools for Bible study. Today let us meditate on:

Bible Study – Software and Dictionaries

·      Insight Seventy-Three: Buy Bible Software-Then Use It

I recommend that you buy (and use) Bible software. Unless you’d rather have a rotary phone, like to wash dishes and clothes by hand, or yearn for the days of the Ford Model T, you want Bible software. I realize there might be some people out there in the world that have enough time to experience the thrill of spending weeks or months on a Bible study task that my software can do in less than a second, but I’m not that guy. We still have monks and monasteries, but the monastic age is history.

There’s nothing like having Bible software when it comes to Bible study. It isn’t an issue of laziness or wanting to do Bible study as fast as possible to move on to the rest of your day. No way. Bible study still takes discipline: it isn’t a ritual act. That isn’t what lightning speed for processing searches in the Bible is about. The speed allows you to get more done, not pave the way to do less. This is what technology is all about: how to do something with greater accuracy, efficiency, and frequency. Bible software is a boon in all those respects.

In the old days (forty years ago, not the days of the apostles), scholars had a few reference works that would enable them to do tasks like look up all the occurrences of a word in the Bible. But they would have to manually navigate to each passage to make sure that the handwork responsible for that reference work was accurate. Even then, the tools to search for anything beyond a single word, or words in books besides the Bible, just didn’t exist.

All of that is a reality today. This is particularly true because of Bible software companies’ massive biblical studies libraries. You can find discussions of anything you’re looking for in thousands of books all at the same time, even in books that have no indexes of their own. Bible software also enables Bible students who don’t read Hebrew and Greek to search in those languages. The software that I use and recommend is Logos Bible Software. It contains thousands of reference materials that can be integrated and indexed for comprehensive Bible Study. There’s literally nothing like it on the planet.

·      Insight Seventy-Four: Acquire a Clear, Succinct Theological Dictionary

When you’re engaged in serious Bible study, you will invariably end up running into theology. The Bible is not simply putting forth names, places, and events in artful storytelling. It’s teaching truths to believe—truths about God, us, and God’s solution for the human condition and human destiny. That’s theology, the study of God and what He’s about. So don’t panic if you end up thinking about doctrine. That’s supposed to happen.

I say it that way since many Christians I know recoil at theology because they think it’s impractical, dull, or scares them. Having had a lot of experience in the formal study (and teaching) of theology, that’s understandable. Theologians use a lot of terms that are long and unfamiliar. But despite the confusing nature of many such terms, they’re essential to know, since you won’t be able to avoid them in academic reading in theology. You need to look up words in books you don’t know. To prevent that is to remain ignorant, which isn’t a virtue in Bible study (or anything else).

There are two convenient solutions to this problem. One is to have some good theology books with indexes. At the very least, you can see if the index has that word that stopped you cold. You might get an excellent definition on one of the pages to which the index directs you. Using Bible software, of course, makes this effortless.

The problem with this solution is that your theology books may not have the term you’re looking for in the index (presuming there is one). And even then, you may not get a short, clear definition. Enter the second solution: get a succinct theological dictionary. I’m not talking about a reference work that has long articles on topics. I’m talking about a dictionary that defines terms in a couple of sentences.

There are a couple of options that fit this description. My favorite, and the one I think is the best, is Millard Erickson’s Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology. The book is precisely what the title claims. It has hundreds of theological terms defined in short, understandable sentences. With this tool in hand, you never need to fear reading a theology book. It should be part of every Bible student’s arsenal.

Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

That is a wrap for today’s Meditation. Next week we will continue our trek on Meditation Monday as we take time to reflect on what is most important in creating our living legacy. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1609 daily treks or read the daily Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and Journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you tomorrow for more daily wisdom!