Story of My Life

I finally did it. I put tabs in my study Bible.  I bought these books-of-the-Bible tabs on clearance several years ago at a Christian book store that was going out of business. I wasn't sure if I wanted to put them in my journaling Bible or my daily reading Bible or some other Bible. (I have a lot of Bibles, okay?) Then I acquired this She Reads Truth Bible and I knew this was the one. I use this Bible for studying, and it's where I keep all of my study notes now. I knew it would the perfect place for these tabs, but I was still undecided. I really liked the Bible as is. Would I ruin it by putting these tabs on? Would I hate them? I decided to just go for it and put them on. I LOVE THEM. Tabs for each book of the Bible make it so much easier to quickly flip around and find different references as I'm studying. I do know the books of the Bible, but having tabs for quick reference makes studying so much better. And the bright colors of these particular tabs go perfectly with ...

  If you do an internet search for "Bible Study Methods" you will find that there are SO many to choose from! There's the Inductive Method, the Topical Method, the Devotional Method, Verse Mapping, the SOAP Method, the ACTS Method, and so on and so on. I've tried a few of these, and I've never found one that really *works* for me. I want to study the Bible in a way that I can learn what it really says and what it means in context. I don't want to rely on someone else's ideas or my own ideas to try to figure out what it means. So I've put together a method of my own, inspired by a couple of  respected Bible teachers 1 and by the reading and study sessions that my husband and I have together each day. I call this way of studying "The Connections Method". It doesn't rely on commentaries or devotionals, and it doesn't require drawing conclusions or trying to make every Bible passage fit directly into our modern day lives. Instead, it sim...

This Study With Me series is meant to show you that any regular person can study the Bible for themselves. With that being said, I know that I own a lot more study resources than most regular people. There are a couple of reasons for this: one is that my husband was a Bible college student and we still have his Bible college books. The other reason is simply that I love books and I pick up second-hand copies of good books wherever and whenever I can. More on that later.  Let's talk about resources. When looking for resources to help in studying, there are a few things to keep in mind that will best help us learn about the context of  the Bible. 1. Just the Facts.  If we are studying the Bible to find out for ourselves what it says, we are not looking for someone else's ideas, opinions, interpretations, or doctrines. These are things that might be interesting to consider later on, after we have already studied a passage, but first we are looking for information to help us ...

  Thank you for joining me in the second post of my Study With Me series! The first two questions that people usually ask when they are planning to begin reading and studying the Bible are, "Where should I start?" and, "What Bible should I use?" So we're going to address both of those questions today. Where should I start? It can be a little overwhelming when you flip through your Bible trying to choose a place to start reading. But when you think about the purpose of studying the Bible, it clears things up a bit. I believe our purpose should be to read and study the whole Bible so that we can hear God speaking to us more clearly. If we just read it here and there in little parts and pieces, we are severely limiting our ability to see the themes and connections that run throughout the entire Bible. Where should we start? The answer is simple: at the beginning! Yes, the very beginning.  Genesis is where to start, especially if you have never read the entire Bible...

I've known all my life that I should read the Bible. My parents gave me my first Bible when I was five years old; a cute, red, King James Version that I still have to this day.  If you went to Sunday School as a child like I did, then you've probably heard the running joke that the best answer to every Sunday School question is "read the Bible and pray." There's even a song that I remember from my childhood that still goes through my head sometimes that was written and performed by my great-aunt Patsy Prescott, the yodeling Christian cowgirl: "Read your Bible and pray, read it every day. Read your Bible and pray, 'twill drive the devil away." I agree completely that Bible reading is important, but even more so is studying  the Bible. Over the years I have learned how to study the Bible for myself, and I want to share what I've learned and what I'm learning, because I have come to realize that it is so important for all Christians to learn to ...

 Yom Kippur is quickly approaching! You may be wondering what that has to do with you. If you are a Christian, you may be aware of Yom Kippur and that is was the one day a year that the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies back in Bible days. So, how is this significant today, and why would anyone be concerned at all about it if they're not Jewish?  If you are a believer in the God of the Bible and Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), you are a part of God's family; one of His people. Like Ephesians 2 says, " remember  that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:12-13) And, " So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household" (verse 19). You are on...

 As I write this, Rosh Hashanah begins tomorrow evening. I get SO excited when it's time to celebrate one of God's holidays again! These holidays have changed my life, and I strongly believe that anyone who chooses to learn about them and celebrate them will be greatly blessed. God gave these special times to us in order to draw closer to us, and in order to teach us about Himself and His ways. When we keep these appointments with Him, our lives begin to have a new rhythm - His rhythm. We learn to let Him order our lives, which makes it much easier to keep our focus on Him and how we can live our lives to bear His image and shine His light to others. And as a bonus, these times are rehearsals or shadows of things to come, and they all point to Jesus/Yeshua! In 2020 we have extra challenges when it comes to celebrating the Biblical holidays because all of these times call for "a holy convocation", which means getting together with others to celebrate. Normally, my husb...

As I write this, the holiday of Pentecost is coming up in just a few days, on Sunday. Although I grew up attending mostly Pentecostal churches, it has only been in recent years that I have begun to understand what this holiday is all about and just how significant it is. What I knew about Pentecost was that it was an event that happened in the New Testament in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Jesus/Yeshua. There was a loud sound of a rushing wind, tongues of fire came and rested on their heads, and they spoke in languages they did not know. As a result, many people who heard them speaking also became believers in Yeshua. Here's what I didn't know: Pentecost is another name for a Biblical Holiday that has been celebrated since the Old Testament! It is also known by the Hebrew name of "Shavuot", which means "weeks". In English it is often called the Feast (or Festival) of Weeks or the Firstfruits of the Wheat. You can f...

We have just finished celebrating Passover, Firstfruits, and the Week of Unleavened Bread, and I have been reflecting on the lessons I have learned from celebrating these holidays over the past 11 years. The seven day holiday of Unleavened Bread is one that often gets overlooked by most Christians today. Many people don't even know it exists. But it's one of those special times that God calls His appointed times, and there is much to be gained and learned by acknowledging it, keeping it, and celebrating it. In the Bible, God often talks to us and teaches us using practical terms to explain spiritual things. Sometimes this might be in a story or parable. Other times He asks us to physically do something to learn a spiritual concept. That's exactly what happens when we prepare for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In  Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28, and Deuteronomy 16, we find the instructions God gives His people for keeping Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Brea...

Yesterday, many people celebrated what is known in churches as "Palm Sunday". What they were celebrating is an event that falls on the 10th day of the First Month on God's calendar. This year that date falls on Monday, April 15th: today!  This is the day that Yeshua (Jesus) rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people waved palm branches and cried, "Hoshiana!"  This was very symbolic and significant, and you can read about it in your Bible in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12.  Yeshua was fulfilling a prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9, which says: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.   The word "hoshiana" is transliterated in our Bibles as "hosanna". Don't ask my why. I'm not a linguist, so I don't know. But what I do know is t...

Tonight at sundown, Purim begins. Have you heard of it? For most of my life, I really hadn't.  I may have heard the word, but I had no idea what it was.  Then I found out I already knew the story of Purim; in fact, it's one of my favorite stories ever!   If you've ever read the book of Esther in the Bible, then you know the story of Purim.  I  love this story, because it is  a real live "fairy tale", complete with a king, a girl who becomes a queen and her courageous guardian, an evil villain, and a happily ever after ending.    Purim is the holiday that celebrates this story.  This holiday is full of joy and celebration, with parties, costumes, parades and fun.  It is also a holiday full of hidden meaning.    At Purim we wear masks and costumes to symbolize the hidden meaning of the holiday.  The Hebrew meaning of Esther's name itself is "hidden".  She was urged by Mordecai (her guardian and rel...

Since I started learning about the Biblical Holidays about 11 (or 12?) years ago, every time one comes around I am amazed at how much these appointed times are teaching me.  I am growing and learning each time I celebrate one of these special, set-apart times, because each one is full of symbolism that reveals God's intricate plan, His wisdom, His goodness, and His unfathomable love for us. Over the years, these holy-days have set a new rhythm to my days, weeks, months, and years.  I am learning to center my life around what God wants, and what His plan is rather than my own. These "appointed times" ("moedim" in Hebrew) are spelled out in Leviticus 23, and can be found throughout the whole Bible. But there is an important time that is not mentioned in that passage, so it often gets overlooked. It plays an integral part in God's calendar, and He calls His people to celebrate it every month.  In Hebrew it is called Rosh Chodesh, which means the head of th...

I am one of those people who always has a song running through my head. Always. Ask me at any time, and I will tell you what song it is at the moment.  Songs even invade my dreams, and I always wake up with a song. I'm usually either singing, humming, whistling, or right on the verge of somehow bursting out in song.  I have loved to sing as long as I can remember. I have sung solos, in choirs, duets with my husband, and to my babies.  Singing has always been a part of my life.   Lately I have gained a new perspective on singing and music.  Have you ever thought of music as a form of prayer? In churches, the "worship service" is the music and singing part of the service, and we refer to a type of Christian music as "worship music", but it still never really occurred to me that music is an important part of prayer!   The subject of prayer has been on my mind, and so I've been studying a little bit about it.  Prayer is kind of a mystery to...