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About Bible Readings
What Stood Out |
About What Stood Out in Today's Bible Reading Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Ps. 119:18). Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old (Matt. 13:51-52). The Bible is truly a treasure. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. … More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold (Ps. 19:7-10). The more one reads the Bible, the more one sees of its inexhaustible worth. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge (Ps. 19:2). Each day as one reads the Bible, he or she can find something fresh. Even someone who has read through it many times can find something each day that he or she has either not noticed before or has forgotten from a previous reading. Some may not understand how they can find something new each time they read through a given passage of Scripture. I used to wonder about that. The path to finding out depends on how firmly one believes the Bible is essential to life – indispensable to our survival – and how committed one is to selling all he or she has to buy that hidden treasure (Matt. 13:44-46). In other words, it depends on how committed one is to making it his or her first priority to hear from God through His Word. When I first started reading through the Bible, most of the things I noticed stood out to me primarily on a factual level – events, people, geographic locations, etc. But the more times I read through, the easier it is to see things on a spiritual level. This does not mean that we will be able to exhaust the things in the Bible that stand out on a factual level. But the more we grow in our devotion to the Word of God, the more our eyes will be opened to the endless abundance of spiritual nourishment God has provided to feed our soul. The What Stood Out (Daily or Chapters) section of this web site may give some ideas – not just of specific points that might stand out in a given reading, but also of various types of points that might be interesting – for example, spiritual, geographical, historical, scientific, etc. As time has progressed, the focus has been more and more on a spiritual level. After all, the ultimate purpose of Bible reading and Bible study should be to draw us nearer and nearer to its Author, who inspired it to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works (II Tim. 3:16-17). The contents of this section are presented in two formats -- "Crossrefs Format" and "Latest Year." As the title indicates, "Crossrefs Format" is in the form of cross references. The Bible text is presented in one column, and the words that stood out in a given verse are shown in the adjacent column. Clicking on the words that stood out will lead to a page which often gives more detail about how they stood out -- often in the form of cross references to other passages. The cross references which are more spiritual in nature could be called devotional cross references. The Latest Year (Daily or Chapters) pages present what stood out in the most recent year. These pages may be especially helpful to those who have looked through the material in past years and just want to see what's new in the most recent year. The Crossrefs Format (Daily or Chapters) pages will often show how a given set of words stood out in different ways or with increasing insight over multiple years. Hopefully this will encourage the reader to persevere in reading the Bible over and over again. This is something we need to do throughout our entire lifetime. In addition to seeing things we have not noticed before, we need to be reminded of things we have forgotten, and things need to be brought to our attention again and again. Sometimes as we read through the Bible a set of words will stand out, but there will not be time to do a deeper study. This is shown by simply underlining the words. Understanding and deeper insight may be found in later years. On the pages showing how things stood out, sometimes words will appear in quotes (sometimes multiple words separated by ellipses (…)) followed by a verse count in parentheses (for example, "mark* … forehead*" (4 verses)). This means that a search for the words in the King James Version of the Bible will yield the number of verses shown. The ellipses mean that the words do not have to appear adjacent to one another. The asterisks (*) are wildcards, meaning that the search will find words having no or any letters substituted for the asterisks. Multi-word concordance searches can be performed via PureBibleSearch (either online or downloadable for free from PureBibleSearch.com) or via SwordSearcher (available from SwordSearcher.com). There are other online and offline computer multi-word concordance tools as well. As time becomes available, hopefully the verse counts (at least the smaller counts) shown in this What Stood Out (Daily or Chapters) section will be replaced by actual references to the verses, or even the text itself. It is the prayer of the author that the reader will find encouragement to say, along with the psalmist, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Ps. 119:18), and also to be able to say along with him, more and more, O how love I thy law! (Ps. 119:97). What
Stood Out in Today's Bible Reading, Crossrefs Format (Daily or Chapters) What
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