Discipleship
Aids

We have tracks for you to grow as a disciple of God in truth. First are ways to grow through devotional times and second, by dedicated study to enhance your growth experience, to guide you into systematic study to know God more fully, accurately and personally.

DEVOTIONALS

The idea of devotions is to spend time focused on who God really is. This is not a mystic practice as some religions where you are trying to get in touch with yourself or an undefined and vague idea. Devotions is taking time to devote yourself to reading what God says in the Bible and then seeing how it applies to your life in God. Reading, meditation and prayer are elements of a devotional practice. Many find online daily devotionals helpful to begin.

Our Daily Bread is available in print or online and you can subscribe to receive a daily email with that day’s devotional or you can print out the current day’s devotional. Each devotional will have a Bible text, then the audio and text of the thoughts on that Bible passage, and then a “Reflect & Pray” to help you learn to apply the devotional. This website also has resources for reading the Bible in a year and other ways to engage in growth.
https://www.odbm.org/en/devotionals

Several national ministries also have daily devotionals which are free for subscribers:
In Touch Ministries (Charles Stanley): https://www.intouch.org/read/daily-devotions
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: https://billygraham.org/devotions
Insight for Living (Chuck Swindoll): https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional
Today with Allen Jackson: https://allenjackson.com/devo
and hundreds of more! These are simply ones we have appreciated in our lives.

There are also hundreds of devotional books, often a year’s devotionals, available such as at Christian Book Distributors. You will find books by many well-known Christian authors and are for topics, audiences, themes covering most interests: https://www.christianbook.com/page/devotionals

STUDY RESOURCES

While the Bible really is understandable without more than the language you are reading it in, you likely will soon begin to wonder “Who are these guys?”. Study aids range from basic surveys to give you an overview of who wrote a book, the context (culture, times, beliefs), background and a light summary to quite involved commentaries which will “explain” even more than the authors of the commentary actually knew. There are dictionaries of Bible words, concordances which will tell you everywhere in a particular version a certain word appears, those that are linking English words to the original Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic words and possible meanings. Lexicons, cross-references, interlinears, harmonies, encyclopedias, topical indexes and even study Bibles with extensive notes, reference materials and views of theological points all abound. But don’t get enamored with depth before you have your basic relationship with God practiced. Knowing about is not the same as knowing relationally. What you need to know will be more a matter of growing conviction than a fostered intellect. Don’t settle for knowing about rather than knowing relationally.
That said, for a most concise yet comprehensive study resource we again recommend the Blue Letter Bible which includes more resources than you will likely need. Additionally, BLB has devotional schedules, reading plans and more for free (donations are welcome): https://www.blueletterbible.org/study.cfm

STUDY BIBLES

Having mentioned Study Bibles, we will give you a couple of our favorites although there are a multitude depending upon the version of the Bible you choose.

For those interested in physical, geographical and cultural backgrounds, Zondervan’s Archaeological Study Bible in the NIV will give you a readable Bible with a depth of information on the settings and cultures being talked about.

Crossway’s ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible includes extensive articles and resources about use of the Bible, background, God’s purposes, ethics and then introductions and in-depth notes accompanying the Bible text. It also has an impressive size if you are so inclined.

The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible by Zondervan is available in many versions of the Bible and includes the user-friendly chain-reference to aid you follow a subject through the Bible and Helps that will be appreciated by most readers.

BE AWARES

If you are committed to knowing God more intimately and actually being conformed to His image, just one short warning: There are those who want you to be theirs maybe even more than you would imagine. Not all groups or believers are wholly devoted to God but have ideas (theology or practices) which will distract you or distort your relationship with God. Simply be aware that not everyone calling themselves “Christian” or claiming to believe in Jesus are talking about the same God you want to know—same words, different meanings. If it isn’t Bible, don’t believe it. The Bible says that no Scripture is of private interpretation, no one is going to give you ‘hidden’ meanings that have God’s value.

Just a word about the main types of versions of the Bible:

• Translations are meant to accurately reflect the content and context of the original Bible manuscripts.
• Transliteration is a verbatim word-for-word from original language to another and may or may not consider context.
• Paraphrases are meant for ease of readability and may make accuracy to intent and context secondary. The deviation from accuracy is in the hands of the paraphrase-er.