The Zone Gathering

Today’s Bible Drill Wednesday is going to be a little different. Instead of doing a play-by-play of a book, I want to make you aware of some tools that might be helpful to you in your own personal Bible study.

First, you need a good study Bible. One that is fat and has lots of cool maps and notes. I personally believe you should have 2 Bibles– one for study and one that you haul around. Wonder where Sarah gets all of that inside scoop on the books she highlights each week? You don’t need a set of commentaries for that. Most of that information can be gleaned right out of the book introductions from a study Bible. I would recommend the NIV Life Application Study Bible.

A good concordance is the next thing I would recommend. Concordances are those big books that list every single word in the Bible and where they can be found. Don’t be fooled by that pitiful little concordance in the back of your Bible. That doesn’t even scratch the surface. Invest in something like Strong’s Concordance. A Bible dictionary like Vine’s would also be helpful.

A couple of books that I have found very helpful are The Bible for Dummies and The Idiot’s Guide to the Bible. My absolute favorite is God’s Word for the Biblically Inept, but it appears to be out of print.

Rick Warren has a great new book out entitled Bible Study Methods. The book explains 12 different Bible Study methods, including the devotional method, the character quality method, the topical method, the word study method, and the verse-by-verse analysis method. If you are looking for ways to go deeper or to diversify your study, you should check out this book.

Finally, I would encourage you to check out The Story- a 3-week, high speed thrill ride through the story of the entire Bible. This group will give you a bird’s eye view of the people, places, and events of the Bible.

They key to learning how to study the Bible is simple. Just study the Bible.

This is a learning community, so please use the comment threads to share any helpful hints or tools you have discovered for studying the Bible.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 9:21 am and is filed under Bible Drills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.