I have recently become more interested in Bible study. Don't get me wrong this is not the first time I have picked up the Bible but I have recently found a renewed interest in taking a closer look at it. I think I should attribute some of this new found inspiration to my friend Ellie who I have recently had some really interested theologically conversations with.
A few weeks back, Ellie and I were having lunch at Panera and discussing one of her recent sermons when I mentioned to her that I really wished that the Bible had an index by topic. To my surprise she looked at me and told me that they existed! She told me that there are specific books which catalogue the Bible by topic and by word references and that it is called a Concordance.
A week or so later, I began researching where I could get one of these books. I found a Christan book store in town that May had told me about and found that they were having a sale on Bibles and Concordances. Yay! When I went to the store I found a topical Bible but it was vague and did not seem to include many entries. I ended up buying a Strong's Concordance. It seems a little intimidating because it is EXTREMELY detailed and has a Hebrew/Aramaic dictionary, a Greek dictionary, and a list of every single time every word in the Bible is mentioned as well as a comprehensive list by topic but the salesgirl highly recommended it and it was a great deal. Go big or go home right?
Anyways... so I have been looking up topics and looking up the respective Bible passages in the past week or so. I have discovered that there are many many books in the Bible that I am slightly ashamed to admit that I didn't even realize existed. I was raised a Catholic and went to CCD for years but when we discussed the Bible we always focused on the first few books about creation and the Gospels. Now I realize that the Bible is so much more than that!
I have asked Ellie to consider facilitating a Bible study online since she will be deploying soon. I really hope that she agrees.
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