Learning the Bible as I Disciple Marissa

I am a Christian. I hope that is obvious. I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. One of the biggest benefits I have personally enjoyed in home schooling Marissa is that while learning together with her, I have been able to spend much more time studying the Bible.

More than just a historical record, the Bible communicates the character and holiness of God. The Bible portrays man as special and unique part of God’s creation that possesses the very image of God, but is separated from God due to sin. The Bible gives us a basis upon which to make moral and ethical decisions. The Bible tells us that history is meaningful. Mankind, and indeed all of creation, did not occur by chance. God is directing history toward His ultimate goal. If you have read my blog at all you know that I believe, in order to love the Lord with your entire mind, you must be ready to evaluate and engage the culture we live in, the books you read and the worldviews of other religions (including secular humanism) against the absolute truths presented in the Bible.

I have learned that in order to evaluate anything against the absolute truth of God, I must first submit myself to be discipled by it. I use the New King James Version when I do my personal Bible reading. Marissa likes to read from a Comparative Study Bible when we reason together. I have downloaded free Theophilos Bible Software onto my computer. Marissa and I are reading through a Narrated Bible in Chronological Order. Marissa has a King James Version (KJV) Bible: a gift from her birth mother. She had been taking this Bible to a teen’s Bible study she attends. She found it awkward to read the KJV out loud. Just yesterday I ordered her a New American Standard Bible.

I am thankful that the Bible is readily available in the English language. Most of the Bible translations available today are very good translations. One, in my opinion, is decidedly not a good translation, but I will leave that for another post. But no matter how good these translations are they are not perfect. Mostly Jewish men whose culture and language was far different from ours wrote the Bible. No matter how sincere the translators were and how committed they were to accuracy, not every idea that was communicated in the original text can be understood from a purely English standpoint.

When I want to dig deeper into scripture I always use Bible study tools that are available on-line. Using this online study Bible is very easy. All I do is type in the passage or word I want to search and then search using the “KJV with Strong’s Numbers.” This site is a powerful study tool. I can look up each word and find the meaning of the word in the original language. Further, I can click into links that will bring me to other places in the Bible that the word appeared.