Do You Love God's Word?

I've been reading the last book of the 'Left Behind' series and I can honestly say that it's one of the most truly exciting books I have ever read. It's called 'Glorious Appearing', and is a fictional account of what happens right before and after Jesus comes in the clouds.

Just in normal life I can't wait for Jesus to come back and for us all to go to heaven, but to get so close to it being reality and seeing how it might happen is real suspense!

But there was something that stuck out when I read it this time. There is a Jewish professor in there who gets saved right towards the end of the Great Tribulation, and as he and another wait for Christ to come in the sky he quotes lots of scripture.

When his friend says that he has never been able to memorise like that, he replies, "God gave me a love for His Word. Now there is nothing I would rather do than study it every spare moment and commit as much of it as possible to memory."

And there is a real motive for memorising scripture and Bible study - love of God's word. We can see that love in Psalm 119:

I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, 

As much as in all riches. 

I will meditate on Your precepts, 

And contemplate Your ways. 

I will delight myself in Your statutes; 

I will not forget Your word. 

Psalm 119:14-16

I want to get back to that love of God's Word, where I see it as a field of hidden treasure that I need to dig - which it is! And I want to memorise it because I love it. I hope to do it anyway whether I have that motive or not, but I want to stoke the fire of love that makes me really desire to know more of God's Word.

e-Sword Tips - Finding Parallel Passages

Last week I wrote about e-Sword, a free Bible software program, and how I wanted to share some tips to help you use it if you don't know how. For me it is such a treasure!

The first thing I want to explain is how I look up parallel passages. If you are wondering what on earth a passage of the Bible means, the very best way to find out is to look at other parts of the Bible - you should always compare Scripture with Scripture.

Kay Arthur says, 'A cross-reference is a reference to another Scripture that supports, illumines, or amplifies the Scripture you are studying. In other words, when you do cross-referencing, you compare Scripture with Scripture. Because Scripture will never contradict Scripture, the best interpretation for Scripture is other Scripture.' (from her book, 'How To Study The Bible')

But it can be hard to know where to find other parts of the Bible that talk about the same kind of thing because it is so big - which is where e-Sword comes in.

There is a great book called 'Treasury of Scripture Knowledge' which has parallel passages laid out for every verse of the Bible. It is free on e-Sword, and I think it even comes with the original download of the program. It is called 'TSK' on the e-Sword interface, and is in the window with all the commentaries.

Example: Philippians 2:5-7

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. Phil 2:5-7

You might be reading this passage and realise we are being told to have the mind of Christ, who made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant. But then you might wonder, what does that mean? I don't remember Him being a servant - he was a carpenter. So what's that about?

Well you can go to e-Sword and find Phil 2:7. Then open up TSK by clicking on it in the commentary window on the right of the screen.

If you look at the TSK window you will see a breakdown of the parts of the verse (if you have clicked on Phil 2:7 in the Bible window that is!). Where it says 'made' that means it's giving you passages of the Bible that talk about similar things to the part of the verse that says 'made himself of no reputation'. 

Then the next part that says 'the form' is giving you passages similar to or explaining in some way the part of the verse that says, 'taking the form of a bondservant', and so on - as you can see below. 

If you had the book form of Treasury of Scripture Knowledge you would then have to go and look up every verse. but because it's on computer, all you have to do is hover your mouse over the scripture reference that you're interested in and it pops up!

And if you want to see the context either side of the verse, just click on the reference and the Bible window then changes to that part of the Bible. If you then want to return to the verse you were just on, you can click the little back arrow at the top left of e-Sword.

Since we were thinking about the bondservant part, you can go to the references under 'the form' and hover over those. One of them is Mark 10:44-45:

"And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." 

This shows how Jesus was a bondservant because though he didn't hold a servant position in a household, he came to serve God and to serve us, to give His life for us. So this is an example of how we can find other Scriptures quite easily to help explain or illustrate other Scriptures.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is also useful to find a particular verse you're looking for - you can go to a verse that talks about similar things and look at the parallel passages to find the one you're looking for.

Please note that there are other ways of comparing Scripture with Scripture, such as using a concordance to find where those words occur, or a topical reference like the Thompson Chain Reference Bible, or the references in your Bible.

How To Stop the Pity Party

You may think I'm writing this because I’m way past pity parties, but unfortunately I’m actually writing this because I was just having one! So I thought I’d share how I got myself out of it with God’s help, and some other thoughts.

My 2 year old son had a long pity-party after landing face-first in the mud,
but I don't really blame him!

I had never even heard the word ‘pity party’ before I met my American husband. I just thought I was feeling down. But now I realise that a lot of the times that I feel like that, it’s actually more that I’m feeling sorry for myself. And ‘pity party’ is quite a good word for it, because for some weird reason it can feel good in a strange and depressing kind of way!

My husband has just left for America for a few weeks so after I put the kids to bed last night I breathed a sigh of relief and then started feeling really lonely and sad, knowing that I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to for three weeks. Which of course is a bit of an exaggeration, since I do have e-mail and a phone, but thoughts do that to you sometimes! And I started feeling sorry for myself.

Then after I had got back from taking the children out today I didn’t feel like doing anything because I felt depressed. And I realised that I needed to change my thoughts!

Get on With Your Responsibilities

I remembered what Dr. Jay Adams teaches about self-pity and depression, that it spirals downwards and gets worse and worse because you feel bad and therefore neglect your responsibilities. He says that the people who suffer the most from this are housewives and pastors because their time is their own, so they can more easily neglect their responsibilities if they feel bad because there is no earthly boss to keep an eye on them!

So the important thing when you are feeling down, or sorry for yourself, is to pray and then get on with your responsibilities regardless. It is hard to do, but otherwise you then end up more depressed because you’re behind with everything. If you keep going, and 'do the next thing' as Elisabeth Elliot talked about when her husband was dying, you will eventually get through those feelings.

Today I remembered this, and decided to get on with what I would normally be doing even though I didn’t feel like it. And surprise surprise, an hour later I felt great! I know that if I had carried on moping around I would still be feeling bad now.

When we keep going with our responsibilities we are then focusing on what we should be doing, and can glorify God in doing that.

‘Whatever you do, work at it heartily, as for the Lord and not for men’ Col 3:23

Be Thankful for What You Have

Another thing I realised in thinking about this today is that my self-pity was really a form of discontent, as I was basically saying that I wasn't happy with the situation God had put me in. So I needed to thank God for what I do have, and be content.

‘For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content’ Phil 4:12

Focus on God and Others

Jay Adams says that when we are pitying ourselves we are too much absorbed in ourselves and need to change our focus from ourselves to God and others. Since the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love others, these would be great things to focus on, and would take our mind off ourselves!

Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Matt 22:37-39

Remember that God Understands

You could easily have a far worse situation than I did, and it may be a lot harder to deal with. But God understands and knows what you are going through. And He will deliver you and help you through it.

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:1,2

e-Sword: Great Free Bible Study Software

e-Sword is my favourite Bible study software, but it's hard to get people to use it if they don't know how. So I decided to write a short series of tutorials on some of its highlights. It is free, so everyone who is reading this should be able to use it so long as you are able to download it from the internet.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like on my computer:

Today I just want to start by explaining why you should download it, and how!

Why Use e-Sword?

"I have a Bible don't I? What else do I need?" I sometimes imagine people saying that in their heads when I tell them about this Bible software. And it is true that we don't really need anything else besides the Bible. But it can help with an awful lot of things. Here are some reasons why I think it's so helpful (and no I'm not benefiting in any way from promoting it!):

• You can find verses. Often you know a Bible verse exists but you can't remember where it is. My husband sometimes asks me where a verse is and if I have my computer on I often look on e-Sword.
• You can find what the Bible says about different topics. Sometimes I'm interested in one particular topic, and although my Thompson Chain Bible is more thorough, I can use Torrey's topics on e-Sword for a quick look. 
• You can find parallel passages. Comparing scripture with scripture is one of the best ways to study the Bible, but it is hard to do if you don't know where the other scriptures are! Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is one of the free resources on e-Sword that is invaluable for doing this.
• You can get an idea of what commentators say. Often if I'm about to put something on Twitter about a particular verse I will look it up on e-Sword first just to make sure I'm not barking up the wrong tree!
• You can copy and paste Bible verses. Often when I'm blogging or writing e-mails I use Bible verses, and with e-Sword I can just copy and paste the ones I want to use. Admittedly I did pay extra for the NKJV version on there, but there are many free versions on there as well. 
• It is fast. You may have a concordance, but if you look up the wrong word in it then you have to turn the pages to find another word. With e-Sword it is a few clicks of the mouse.
• Everything is in one place. A lot of these helps you can find in other places, like topical treasuries, dictionaries, concordances, commentaries. But they are all together here so you can quickly switch from one thing to another.

How To Download It

This part is quite simple really. Just go to http://www.e-sword.net/ and click on the blue button on the right that says "Download e-Sword now". Then on the Downloads page go down to where it says e-Sword application installation, and click on the arrow on the right of it. If you are a Mac user just scroll down to underneath those boxes and there is a link you can click on there.

Once it's all downloaded and installed, if you open the program you will see a 'Download' option at the top of the page. You can use that to download all the extras you want. Many of them are free, and it will state clearly if they are not. 

Here's some of the freebies that I would recommend you get at the very least from those downloads:

Commentaries - Henry (Matthew Henry Concise is I think on the original installation, but the full version is better!), Psalms (the Treasury of David by Spurgeon).

Dictionaries - BDB & Thayer for Hebrew and Greek definitions, Torrey and Nave for topical studies, ISBE to have an encyclopedia.

There's loads more of course and I tend to download a lot of them, but I don't want to overwhelm you!

I am going to try to write next about some of the different things you can do with e-Sword, but they also have a training page which you can look at for help here.

Linking up to Women Living Well

3 Ways to Take Control of Your Thoughts

Our sinful words and actions all start out from what is going on in our mind. And that is why it is so key to do what the Bible says:

'Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ' 2 Cor 10:5

The idea of taking every thought captive is not always that easy to do though. Thoughts are like little clouds in our minds, and it can be difficult to pin them down and imprison them! That is especially true when our sinful or foolish thoughts are pleasurable.

Even negative thought trains like self pity can be enjoyable, because we like feeling sorry for ourselves. So it can be difficult to even want to change our thinking, let alone actually change it. Or maybe they have become an ingrained habit.

But there is a clue that comes right before that scripture, to help us. It says:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor 10:3-5

The weapons of our warfare against these thoughts are spiritual. And it is through God that we can get victory over them.

Here are three important and very effective ways of gaining immediate control of our thoughts. While they can all be used in every situation, I think from experience that some are more effective than others as our first port of call for different issues.

1. Pray and commit them to God

One of the best situations to straight away turn to prayer in is worry. We are told to ‘be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ Phil 4:6,7

When I catch myself starting to worry or fear about something I try to turn the situation into prayer. I ask for God’s help and just tell Him about all of it, committing my burden to Him. It really does stop me worrying, because I know that it is in the hands of the King of the Universe and He will work everything for the good of those who love Him.

2. Replace them with Biblical thoughts

Sometimes our thoughts can be plainly and simply wrong! Like if we are thinking to ourselves in the middle of stress and trials, ‘I can’t cope’. That just isn’t true because the Bible says, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ Phil 4:13. And if you catch yourself thinking this then you should replace the thought with this scriptural truth along with praying about the circumstances you are in.

It can require a bit of Bible study or godly counsel from people or books (some of my favourite counsellors!) to find what is the right Biblical thought to replace it with. But if you often struggle in this area then it is well worth it because the more often you replace it, the more the right thinking will become a habit.

This happened for me with the whole issue of lack of confidence and insecurity. After having being continually bullied and left out at school I was left with some real issues. I am not clear of all that yet, but with God’s help I have made a lot of headway just through replacing my wrong thoughts with the right ones. My husband helped a lot by reminders such as that I am a daughter of the King :)

3. Meditate on Scripture

One of the worst kind of thought trains to be on is one that we know is bad for us or wrong but is also really enjoyable, as it can be extremely hard to take captive.

With some kinds of thinking we can go into a whole fantasy world. I know of people who have gone into fantasies about killing someone, or there could be a romantic attraction to someone who is not good for you or forbidden territory. Meditating on scripture is good for all kinds of wrong thoughts because the sword of the Spirit is the word of God so we can really fight with it. But I think it is especially effective here.

The reason for that is because praying about our thoughts still keeps us on the wrong train of mind, as does trying to figure out how to think Biblically about it. Of course we do need to do both of those at some point, but sometimes we just need to get the thought out of our head before it starts going off on its little trail that can be so dangerous.

And then to start reciting and meditating on scripture – it doesn’t even matter which one – is really effective. It is hard to do, because we have to wrench ourselves away, but it is truly taking our thoughts captive.

If you have memorised scripture then you can just recite and think about any of them. If you haven’t memorised anything and are struggling with these kind of thoughts then I would recommend that you either start memorising something, or write down a verse or passage on a card and carry it with you. Then you can take it out of your pocket and look at it when these thoughts start to attack.
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I hope that helps a little. It is a big battle, and I think many of our spiritual battles are fought and won in the mind and then affect our words and actions as a result. It is ongoing throughout life too - I continually struggle to take my thoughts captive - and one of the biggest reasons I look forward to heaven is that there won't be any sin and temptation to fight any more!

‘For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.’ Rom 8:6

Linking up to Women Living Well, Winsome Wednesday

Life Is Short – Let’s Use It the Best We Can

I was reading in the Psalms the other day and was reminded of the shortness of life:

"LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. 

Ps 39:4-6

Basically we only have a short time on this earth and if we work to get riches they will only go to someone else when we die.

So what should we focus on then? We will be much better off working for the things that are eternal, because they last and we will be building up treasure in heaven where it won't be destroyed.

At the end of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon often states that ‘all is vanity’, he concludes with this:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecc 12:13, 14

So our chief concern as Christians should be to fear God, and to obey Him. All the commandments are summed up in loving God and loving others.

But even if you are not a Christian, it says it is 'man's all' to fear God and keep His commandments. Maybe you need to think about what you are really doing everything for, and will it last? What will happen when you die? Are you sure you will go to heaven? If you have repented of your sin and believed in Jesus to save you then you can be sure that you will.

The cross should motivate us to obey and serve God because of His love for us in sending His Son to die for us. But there are more Biblical motives, and three of them come out from the passages above:

• Life is short so we have limited time to do it on this earth, let’s use the time we have.
• Pursuing worldly and earthly things is largely pointless in the big scheme of things, it is far more worthwhile to work for what is eternal!
• One day every work will be judged by God, and though this won't take away our salvation if we have repented of our sin and believed in Jesus, it should motivate us to godly living.

M’Cheyne is quoted as saying this:

“Oh! Brethren, be wise. ‘Why stand ye all the day idle?’ In a little moment it will be all over. A little while and the day of grace will be over – preaching, praying will be done. A little while, and we shall stand before the great white throne – a little while, and the wicked shall not be; we shall see them going away into everlasting punishment. A little while, and the work of eternity shall be begun. We shall be like Him – we shall see Him day and night in His temple – we shall sing the new song, without sin and without weariness, for ever and ever.”

Linking up to Women Living Well and Winsome Wednesday