Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

Good morning Dear Ones. We have reached the last  post in this series on Bible Study Basics. My prayer is that the Lord will use these truths and principles to help each one of us grow into Christlikeness.  I have mentioned from time to time that I look for recurring patterns in the scripture that I am reading. Patterns come in a wide variety of forms. Law of First Mention One pattern is the "law of first mention." This simply means that the first time in scripture we read about a person, place, event or a thing will set the tone for how we should view it in later passages of scripture. As an example, the first time we read about the serpent is in Genesis 3. This gives us the view of what  we should always be thinking about whenever we encounter the serpent in the Bible after that point. The serpent twisted the word of God into a lie. That will always be his primary preoccupation. In like manner, when we encounter a name of God only used once in the Bible, it ...

 Good evening to all of you.  I apologize that it is taking me longer to get back up to speed with new lessons for you. Sometimes my energy  is low and I have to lie down for a bit. Sometimes my focus is not as sharp as I need it to be. Other times, my physical therapy makes me very sore.  These things cause some delay but rest assured I will keep at the task at hand, which is sharing God's wonderful Word with others. The speed will eventually come back. What it means to interpret. I looked up the words interpretation and interpret in a concordance to see if I could find out how God uses the words. There are basically two definitions that seem to apply throughout the Bible--explanation and translation. The word interpret often means that we are to explain the truth of God’s word to someone at a level they can understand. The trick is that we must do this without changing what God has said in His word. It also means to translate. If you would...

Good morning everyone.  It is the Lord's Day today and although my family will not be able to attend, our church did live stream our services so that we are able to see our Pastor preach today You can find our church's Live Streaming of Pastor Alvis's sermons on a YouTube Channel, HBC Smithville, OH.  I want to think with you about what to do when we encounter an unfamiliar word as we read the Bible. The original languages that the Bible was written in was Hebrew and Greek. There is some Aramaic or Chaldean in there as well.  We can thank God for providing capable translators whose burning desire was to carefully and accurately translate so that we can have a copy of God's Word in our language.  There was an extended period of time where the Word was suppressed and ignorance spread. This was known as the Dark Ages.  I read from an English Bible but some of you may be reading in an entirely different language such as French, German or Portuguese. The...