Today I am re-posting a post that I wrote last year (March 9, 2012).  I have added a bit to it and tried to update links and information.  I hope you enjoy!

So I am not theologian…I just find that God speaks to me from His word when I study it.  I get some help when I write my posts and I wanted to share some great resources with you that I have discovered.  These are all FREE and available online – my fav!  Here goes:

Biblegateway.com (#bgbg2) is a great website that lets you search the Bible by passage, keyword or topic.  There are other helps there in the way of biblical commentaries or dictionaries and there are reading plans and newsletter that you may subscribe to.  This website is something I could not write my posts without…or I would not be able to write so many per week – it just saves me so much time!  I created a tutorial for using it for a class I taught a year ago, so it is a little outdated.  It still shows the NIV1984 translation (an old favorite of mine, since removed) and it now has additional resources like the IVP Commentary (InterVarsity Press) – all found in the same places I show when demonstrating the other resources like the Matthew Henry’s Commentary.  This link will show you all their commentaries on one page.  In addition, Biblegateway.com has a great mobile app available too now!  I love it and use it often when I am on the go.  Have a look at my tutorial and you will see what I mean.  You can find it here on youtube.  I have a youtube channel that lists some of my favorite videos…have much more to add it it, but for now – get out your Kleenex!

Openbible.info has a Topical Bible Search (I have this link bookmarked and use it several times per week).  It is easy to use!  Just enter the topic like “Obey Parents” or “Honor God” and a list of verses that apply to these will be generated.  The verses are shown on the page, but you can also click on the hyperlinks and they will bring you to that particular passage on Biblegateway.com.  The thing to remember is that for this website (Openbible.info) the answers are compiled by other readers so there are sometimes errors or omissions…you have to just take the good with the bad!  It also has some other really neat features I have not used much, but that you might like.  It has a page, Bible Geocoding, that utilizes Google Earth to show the “location of every identifiable place mentioned in the Bible”.  It does have a search feature that allows you to search through thousands of posts of Bible verses to Twitter and Facebook…I just found this feature and haven’t checked to see if any of mine are on there…small world if they are!

A new one I like is the Online Greek Interlinear New Testament and Online Hebrew Interlinear Old Testament available at Scripture4all.org.  Scroll down the home page  and click on the links below these words, “Online Interlinear (PDF format)” to test it out…so cool!  Here you can look up a particular verse and see the original words in the original alphabet, the original words in our alphabet, and the direct translation with all the possible variations of translation, alongside the King James translation in English (on the right side of the page).  You may have to download the special fonts for Greek and Hebrew to see them but that is easy peasy.  My favorite for comparing translations lately is biblestudytools.com/interlinear-bible/; they also host the Strong’s Concordance (which gives you the different options translators have in word choices).  Biblestudytools.com does have some annoying pop ups but, if you can get past that, it also has many, many more resources though I do not use them on a regular basis.  Maybe you will?  Now you can feel like a bible scholar with just a few keystrokes!

There is another option to both Biblegateway and Scripture4all in one website called biblehub.com (formerly biblios.com).  It has a parallel Bible is available here – you can search from this page by entering your query in the boxes.  It also has an arsenal of online Bible Study Tools including an Atlas, Concordance, Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Devotions, Commentary, a Mobile Feature (a great free App), a Library of online Christian Books (many very old and important works), and Newsletters to subscribe to – whew!  This website is one-stop shopping, a powerhouse, and I do use it sometimes, but I prefer Biblegateway because I am able to copy and paste Bible verses without interfering with the html on my website.  Also, I am more used to it!  🙂  Biblos is more ecumenical in its options, meaning it has sources from all walks of Christianity.  Biblegateway has a smaller range of sources, but they are from a more conservative, Reformed perspective…maybe that is what I like about it too!

When I want an analysis about what the Bible says on a topic, I search on two websites.  I like to compare what I have read to what traditional commentaries say too.  I have found carm.org (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry) to be useful in researching issues having to do with defending the faith (for example: explanation of the beliefs of cults and how they differ from Christianity or topics like evolution or how the “canon” of the Bible books was selected).  And for general theological questions, I always like to see what they have to say at www.gotquestions.org.  I constantly compare what I am reading to the Word and to other sources I trust, but I find these two websites have not let me down yet!

I have found so many other great resources during my searches but these are the very best I have encountered!  Try them out and you will be amazed at the ways you can enrich your devotional or Bible study time.  If you are called upon to teach a Sunday school lesson or prepare for VBS, you can access all that you need very quickly.  I have also used the searches to construct our Family Mission Statements’s supporting scriptures – these are used to teach the kids and keep the whole family on the same page.

At times when I have to correct my kiddos with the Word in an area where we have not yet taught them – online searches can be helpful.  I can send them to their room and take a minute to compose myself and pray.  If a Word does not come to mind then, I can do a quick online search, by topic, (like lying or disobedience, etc.) to share God’s perspective with them.  They respond very well to this…it is because we have learned the value of constructing our responses to problems together, with God’s help!

Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the Rock.  Matt 7:24-25

Tell me – what online resource interests you most?