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 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 am teaching at church.  You can find it here on youtube.  I have a youtube channel now that lists my favorite videos…just got started but – get out your Kleenex!

Openbible.info has a Topical Bible Search service that is easy to search.  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 word variations, alongside the King James translation.  You may have to download the special fonts for Greek and Hebrew to see them but that is easy peasy.  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 Biblos.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!

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 at times when I have had to correct my kiddos with the Word – this has been a great thing for our family.  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 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

JustAgirl…just like you!