Showing posts with label eSword. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eSword. Show all posts

Sunday, January 16, 2022

Does Anybody Else...?

... Keep a study notebook/journal? For your Bible study, I mean. How has it helped you? 

I think that the best thing to come out of keeping a study notebook is just seeing how far I have come in my understanding of certain things. Whenever I have questions about something in the Bible, I remember a passage from Proverbs 25:2 pointed out by Chuck Missler to think about when we have trouble understanding:

 “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.”

 As I have pointed out, this past year was my time to do Bible study deeper than I have ever done. I read the passages out loud (or listened to the audio); I keep my notebook, marking out highlights and questions; I use every commentary, dictionary, and any other resources I can find (for which e-Sword is just invaluable); I pray before, during, and after reading; I seek out sermons about whichever passage I as studying, and I make lists of things to follow up on. (By the way, following a reading, I usually look for a corresponding lesson from Missler's Learn the Bible in 24 Hours - which, for some reason, I always call 24 Hours Through the Bible! Here's a video of one lesson.)

I was leafing through my study notebook to extract the questions I've noted up to this point. I am almost 85% of the way through the Bible and am now in the Gospels.

So, I have wondered if anyone else has the same questions I do? Or if anyone has already "searched out" the answer? Here is a shortlist of some questions. A very short list:

  • (from Proverbs 8): What does it mean that Wisdom was there with God was making creation?
  • (from Kings 11): Solomon turned away. Is he still saved?
  • (from 2 Kings 4): Where did the dead who were healed back to life go? Lazarus and the little boy, for example?)
  • (from Isaiah 36:11): Are Hebrew and Judah languages different or the same?
  • (from Luke 12:14): Should we be concerned with politics and civil matters to the extent we are these days?
One thing I have noticed about keeping a study notebook is that when I review questions I wrote down, I sometimes have found the answer further into my reading. This is another good reason to keep a notebook, I suppose.

So, now as I start my reading today (Matthew 27; Mark 15), I am going to ask again for guidance and understanding of the Word.

Peace
--Free

Monday, June 21, 2021

When a Verse Hits You in Your Conscience

 Every Christian can probably relate to the title. It either happens when you're sitting through a sermon or teaching and feel like the words are directed right at you. Or, as in my case this morning, you're reading a chapter and some verses jump right off the page and slap you on your conscience. Yeah.


My Bible reading was the book of  Haggai. I won't be longwinded about it but these are the verses and the corresponding bits of commentary added for 1:9

Hag 1:6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (ESV)

BTW, I had just finished browsing the Prime deals on Amazon that day... The verse made me consider my chasing after material things that aren't necessary for my daily living needs. Then I kept reading and got to verse 9.

Hag 1:9  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. (ESV)

Haggai 1:9 (commentary from John Gill):

... and ye run every man unto his own house; were very eager, earnest, and diligent, in building, beautifying, and adorning their own houses; taking care of their own domestic affairs; sparing no cost nor pains to promote their own secular interest; running in all haste to do any thing and everything to increase their worldly substance; but sat still, were idle and slothful, careless and negligent, about the house of God and the affairs of it.

Wow, right? Did that one hit you too? All I could think about was how I worry so much about how nice my own living space looks when I maybe don't worry enough about how the inside of my heart and mind - the temple that is me and my body looks.

Anyway. I just wanted to share that with the blog. Maybe someone needs to see it and think on it. I know I did.

Peace

--Free


P.S.: By the way, I copied the commentary that I use when reading the Bible via eSword. It's very useful to have the commentaries, dictionaries, etc right at hand while doing my Bible study. Here are shots of another feature of eSword - the Summarized Bible commentary:




Monday, February 22, 2021

The First Sin (I had it wrong)

 Like many others, if someone had asked me what the first sin was, I would have thought of Eve's succumbing to the temptation to eat of the tree. 

Well. I had it wrong.

While doing my Bible study today, I was reading a summary (thank you, eSword).


Of course, I went to do a little more digging. I searched out whether "covetousness was the first sin" in the Bible. This was a result that made me sit back and go, "Huh!"

source: Answers in Genesis

Well, amen. This is why it's so important to not just read the Bible but to dig deeper. I have read Genesis more than I have any other book in the Bible. This is the first time I ever even considered Satan's rebellion as being the first sin.

So, folks, keep reading and re-reading and studying. 

Peace

--Free


LOL Moments in Scripture (and eSword)

 The Hebrews are a people with a past of extreme highs and lows. Their sense of humor is a bit different from that of my own African- American-slave-descendant culture. But I think our troubles and blessings make us appreciate wry humor. 

Yesterday, I was reading in 1 Kings and there is a part in chapter 18 that cracked me up so hard I had to wipe tears from my eyes. I will share versions from both the ERV and the ESV. As a speaker of contemporary English, I found the ERV hit my funny bone hardest.

screenshot from eSword ERV version




Can you just picture it? Elijah making fun of these fools while they are hopping around like madmen!

There is much humor to be found in the Bible. This is a post in the Bible History Daily section of Biblical Archaeology Society that I wanted to share.

Where are parts in the Bible that have made you chuckle?

Peace

--Free


P.S.: I am not affiliated with or compensated by eSword but I love encouraging people to check it out. I have it downloaded onto my computer and use it daily for the many free and paid resources. Please consider donating to them. 


Monday, September 28, 2020

**UPDATE** The Amazing eSword Bible Resource

UPDATE: I am an idiot. I didn't think of showing the screens using the Gamebar recording feature on Windows. If you scroll to the bottom, I have included some video showing the app in action as I use some of the features.


Remember when I was trying to find a good NKJV study Bible? I still haven't found one but I might not need to. Long ago, I had downloaded the free eSword Bible Study Resource. And forgot about it when my old laptop died. 

The other week, I put eSword on the new laptop and, seriously, I can't even tell you what a great resource it is!

I know that a lot of people use the Blue Letter Bible resource and I use it a lot when I am online. The problem with BLB is that I can't find an easy or safe way to download it to my PC. I could order the disc - which I don't think is free - but I don't have a way to use a disc on this computer. eSword is everything I need. Would I still like to have an NKJV study Bible? Yep. But I'm not having a hard time without one for now. 

For those who aren't going to check the eSword link right now, here are some of my favorite features - and keep in mind that, though I will be donating asap, I haven't paid for anything yet:

  • I currently am using 6 versions of the Bible and the Parallel and Compare features.
  • There are so many commentaries I won't bother the count the ones I am using but here is a screenshot of what I was using recently:


  • I can adjust the screen colors (within limits), change the font settings (with a LOT of options), and more.
  • I can easily set up verse lists and copy things right into the Notes feature.
  • There are tools for doing searches by parameters such as just the O.T., N.T, specific book, or range of books.
  • It is very easy to print. I print a lot of search results. 
Those are just the features I can name off the top of my head because I use them so much.

What I love, love, love are the commentaries. One of the reasons I am so picky about buying a Bible is because I like a lot of notes and commentary included to expand on or help explain certain passages. Now that I am using eSword, I have just about every kind of commentary right there on my PC. 

Here are some screenshots of 
toolbar offerings




I have really gotten a lot from reading the various commentaries. For instance, I happened to be doing my daily reading (in Exodus) and ran across a comment that was credited to Aben Ezra and something called "Targums of Jonathan, Jarchi, and R. Jeshua". What??? Right. I went online to figure out what that was about and was led to the Talmud and other writings and writers. So now I have on my Reading To-Do List Philo the Jew, Targums, the Talmud, and others. This is how a long time ago, I discovered Flavius Josephus and The Antiquities of the Jews (which, by the way, is free via most podcast players).

So, yes, I highly recommend using eSword. I also would encourage people to donate to the project. I was going to pay upwards of forty dollars for a Bible so I can surely scrape together money for eSword.

Now, are there some issues I have with eSword? Sure. Actually, I've only had one problem to date: I tried saving my Notes and they disappeared. I could find the files on my computer but not a program to read the files. I solved that problem by going back into the Notes feature and doing Control-Z and they reappeared. I now copy all notes to a Notepad doc just in case.

You can click on the screenshots I've scattered through this post to enlarge them and see some of the features I mention. Or you can check this page on the eSword site where there are plenty of visuals. In the meantime, here are some additional links I thought you might be interested in. These include some of the things I mentioned in this post and a couple of things I have run across lately:
I hope this is all a blessing to you.

Peace
--Free


This is using the Graphics viewer. 
I can look at a variety of maps and timelines & control the size with the + and - buttons


This next one shows using the Bible to view commentaries, verse by verse & 
how to select the Editor (for Notes) and pin it to screen or 
move it off screen.
The same can be done with the dictionaries. 


I will add more screen captures when I have more time and brain function!


Wednesday, June 26, 2019

**Cross posted** Can't See For Looking

This is a post from my other blog, but it definitely belongs here.

Okay, folks, I'm going to "go religious" on you but, hang with me because there's something in here that even atheists might like.

How do you picture Jesus? I'm sure people of all faiths (or none) would be interested in knowing what he actually looked like. I have started reading other versions of the Bible in my personal studies. This weekend, I read passages from some of the Messianic Bible versions.

Years ago, my mother regularly watched a show called Zola Levitt Presents. Every now and then, I would sit and watch with her. That was the first time I ever thought seriously about the fact that Jesus was Jewish. As silly as it sounds, up until then (and I had to be at least 22 or 23) in my mind's eye, Jesus looked like this:

That's not Jesus.
That's Robert Powell

The actor Robert Powell isn't a savior but he played one in Jesus of Nazareth. Such a beautifully done movie with an amazing cast. Before that movie came along, I had imagined Jesus looking like the classic painting that was hung somewhere in the homes of most black families. You might remember the ensemble of paintings your grandma gave pride of wall space to - Jesus, MLK, and JFK.

 However, my mind's eye (and the movie and paintings and so many church fans) got it wrong.  Jesus was a Jewish man so he most likely did not have those brilliantly blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he didn't have the whole rock star look. Looking back on that movie now all I can think is that the late Michael Hutchence would've wished to be that fine. I'm not being flip. Just look at that photo again.

According to the Bible “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 53:2 NIV) It's been opined that based on his racial makeup and manual labor occupation as a carpenter, he was probably of a darker complexion and had some sun damage to his skin. Along with the Bible identifying him as being not very handsome (whatever that means), he may have looked more like this:


Source: Popular Mechanics

That's more plausible, right?  The article at Poplar Mechanics makes a lot of good points. Our minds are so polluted with stereotypes about people that we want to think good people must be physically attractive. Just think of that so-called black doll/white doll syndrome - as true or untrue as that might be. Or the fact that attractiveness can play a huge role in our lives.

Listen, I am not pointing fingers at anyone else's ignorance here but my own. Not only did I have the wrong idea about Jesus's appearance, but I just about had heart failure when I heard the Lord's Prayer spoken in the languages Jesus used.





Uh, why doesn't he sound British!?!?!? I'm just kidding. Some filmmakers aren't kidding.

Now, it had at some point in my much younger life occurred to me that we Westerners had the wrong impressions of Jesus. And some people were just completely stupid on the subject. I can remember some kind of anti-semitic rally or demonstration taking place near wherever my family was living back in the mid-'70s. My mother and her friends stood in support of the Jewish people. What was so silly is that there were only about 6 Jewish people in that community. Maybe the racist idiots just wanted something to rally about. Who knows? But I remember my mother shaking her head in disgust at the people carrying crosses while they chanted about "dirty Jews". Much like the Klan and other so-called 'Christians' who hate just to hate or judge in hate, these people forgot, I guess, that their Savior was Jewish. (And, by the way, the saying is not "Judge not" with a period at the end. It is "Judge not lest you be judged."  People always forget that last part. So, you can judge others if you're free of sin. Anybody? Go ahead. I'll wait. I'll just be over here taking this plank out of my eye.)

My whole point is, I have never fully appreciated everything about the Lord I serve. Like most people (I'm assuming), I tend to think only in flavors I know of. Now that  I have it in the forefront of my mind that Jesus talked, walked, ate, prayed, and lived Jewish, I get it. I can see a little deeper into my study of what he said and did while on Earth.

Just like I did in seeing Jesus in my shallow and one-dimensional way, I do the same thing in other areas of my life. I have got to work on that. I need to start viewing people as they are and not how I want or imagine them to be. Same goes for life and situations in general.

One of the sayings I remember from my childhood in Texas was "Can't see for looking." It was your response when you saw something shocking and someone asked if you "saw that". I apply it to my life in other ways. Sometimes, when I make an immediate judgment about a person or situation based only on shallow information, I later realize I missed the bigger picture. Can't see for looking and sometimes, can't hear for listening.

I'm not the only one with this weakness. This is the reason that a lot of us have shallow and ever-changing standards of beauty. It's why we assume intelligence based on slick looks or words. It's why we so often don't see the full worth of people and life. We're too busy looking at the cover to read the book. Because that takes time, doesn't it?

At any rate, I'm really enjoying my Bible studies now more than ever. By the way, for those of you who may not own a Bible - or a lot of Bible study resources - you might want to check out eSword or My Sword  Both have a variety of Bible versions, concordances, commentaries, and other help. Both are free (with expanded options for purchase). I've been using eSword and I'm amazed at the number of tools available in both the app and pc versions.  Usually, when studying my Bible, I have to sit by my computer with 20 browser tabs open to all the different resources. A single app or program is more productive. Actually, the modules for the two 'sword' products are somewhat interchangeable and updates are being made all the time. Check out both no matter which operating system you use. I'm currently using eSword on both my Windows pc and Android phone. Here are the links:

By the way, there are huge selections of language options in both programs. There's a slight learning curve but, hey, I managed to figure it all out so...

That's it for now. I hope that at least some of this information is useful to you guys out there. Even if you're not "religious", information is always good to have.

Peace
--Free



Sharing a few of the songs I've been listening to this evening


Amazing, amazing, amazing grace





I have loved this song for years



Oh, blessed Prince of peace




"Stop fighting a fight that's already been won."