I love books. I really do. I love to look at them and touch them. Sometimes even smell them. I am an official Bookworm.
Preparing to teach a Bible study provides ample opportunity to be surrounded by great books, what with commentaries, word studies, and the Greatest Book of All (the Bible). But there's a better way. I have grown a love that is wide and deep for Bible study software. Here are my favorites:
- PC Study Bible - I use this to prepare for any Bible teaching endeavor. Noteworthy features are numerous Biblical translations, original word study, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, pictures, maps, and concordances. You can copy text from the software to your notes and even get a reference with the copied text. You install the software on your computer, so you don't need to be online to use it. It's a little on the pricey side, but I've found it to be well worth the money.
- Bible Gateway - This is a nice online tool that you can use for word searches and Scripture lookup and several different Bible translations. I like to use it to link Scripture references from my blog. They also provide the html code to add the search feature or a verse of the day to your website.
- Crosswalk Bible Study Tools - Crosswalk provides online access to the same types of tools as the PC Study Bible. One noteable addition is that the Strong's lexicon provides an audio file of how to pronounce the word in its original language. Here's "psalm" as an example. Also, since these are online tools you can link to them from the blog. Since I'm doing Sunday School lessons on my blog this is a nice tool to use.
Check out Shannon's blog for more tips!
