See-saw Part 2

I received some nice comments on the previous post (see below), and a few people suggested that I follow it up with a short list of user-friendly resources for serious study. One person smirkingly suggested that since “balance” was the theme of the last post, I should include a list like this if I truly wanted to maintain balance. He clearly thought he was being funny. OK, Chuckles. Haha. Resisting the urge to administer a head-butt, I did the polite thing and thanked him. Then, I had him blocked.

With him out of the way, this leaves us free to talk candidly. Here then are a few suggestions of items that would be essential in your library.

Start by making sure you have a good translation that attempts to be true to the original languages. Paraphrases such as The Message are great, but are best for devotional reading as opposed to in-depth study. Get hold of a translation that is fairly literal or what is called “thought-for-thought". The New International Version (NIV) is probably still the industry standard here, but there are other good translations such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB), Contemporary English Version (CEV), English Standard Version (ESV) or the New English Translation (NET Bible) that do an admirable job of faithfully translating the Hebrew and Greek.

Several of these come in “study Bible” versions, with helpful notes at the bottom of the pages. These go a long way in providing background and context, and in explaining some of the less-obvious features of the Biblical text. They also typically come with maps, cross-references and other helps that will save you from having to buy atlases and the like. The NIV Study Bible and ESV Study Bible are fine examples. It is important to remember though that with study Bibles, divine inspiration is in the Biblical text only. The notes are simply the research and thoughts of scholars and exegetes.

A concordance (the "exhaustive" kind) lists every occurrence of every word in the Bible. You may want to look up a verse but only half-remember it. Or maybe you want to do a Bible study on, say, “salvation”. Or “fatted calf” (OK, whatever. Who am I to judge?). By searching a key word in a concordance, you can find everywhere it occurs in all of Scripture, and find the verse(s) you want. For years, Strong’s Concordance was THE book to have, but it was based on the King James Version. Arguably the best modern-day concordance is the The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance which is obviously based on the NIV.

A Bible dictionary that defines terms and concepts you may not be familiar with is a great thing to have. There are several out there. One of the best is the New Bible Dictionary.

Commentaries on individual books of the Bible are great, but that can run into some serious moolah (66 books of the Bible, $20-50 bucks per commentary. Do the math). A solid one-volume commentary is a wonderful tool to have on hand. The New Bible Commentary is one of the better ones. But if you are studying a book and want something more detailed, seek out the Old Testament Commentary Survey (by Tremper Longman) or the New Testament Commentary Survey (by D.A. Carson) for recommendations on individual commentaries. The same principle applies – these commentaries are not divinely inspired texts but represent our better efforts to understand them.

Finally….there are many good online versions of these resources you can access with a Google search. And the folks at Christian Book Distributors (www.cbd.com, and 1-800-247-4784) have specialists in these areas who can lead you to the right tools for you.

Please get to me if you have any questions.  Happy studying!

A Lesson From The See-Saw

Growing up, I was always big for my age. You didn’t want to play see-saw with me unless you had a highly-developed spirit of adventure. Or a death-wish. Because I tended to dwarf my friends, the weight balance was always out-of-whack, and there was a strong likelihood that my latest see-saw partner/victim would be vaulted into the stratosphere. On our playground, helmets and padding were standard equipment.

Balance, we are told, is the Secret Of Life (apologies to James Taylor). One area where balance is important is in how we approach Scripture. It’s vital to read it devotionally for spiritual nourishment but also for serious study. Both are necessary because, as the saying goes, you can’t ask “What does this mean for me?” until you have a sense of “What did it mean for the original readers/hearers?” Put another way, a passage may have multiple applications, but its fundamental sense can’t violate what the writer intended to say to his immediate audience. Our devotional reading needs to be informed and undergirded by this knowledge.

How can we know what the writers intended? Through thoughtful roll-up-the-sleeves study. Yet we find a disturbing attitude in many churches, which says that in-depth Bible study is only for the specialists - pastors and teachers, who will then dole it out on Sunday mornings or in small group meetings. There are many dangers to this, not the least of which is not knowing if our leaders are feeding us truth or Cheez Whiz. There is a lot of Elmer Fudd theology out there. We need to know the difference for ourselves.

The great news is that we don't have to be trained Biblical scholars to get deeply into the Word. There is a wealth of solid, user-friendly Bible study helps of all sorts in hard copy and on the web. Few of us can legitimately say that we lack access to the tools. If anything is lacking, it’s the commitment to just dive in and do the work. Yet as many will tell you, once we begin, the rewards come quickly. On top of that, we find ourselves getting jazzed! Soon we can’t get enough. We get psyyyyyyched! Sleep becomes optional. Unsightly drooling may occur (see your doctor). Someone once said to me, “I had no idea I could get this excited about Bible study…BIBLE STUDY!”.

I’ll be the first to confess that I don’t always maintain the balance well. Study involves some work, while devotional reading is comparatively easy. But I’m trying. I want Scripture to inform my heart and my mind, with one voice.