Bible Lighthouse

The Bible reveals that God created human beings in His own image (Genesis 1:26 - 28). Whether or not you can believe this statement will depend on whether you can accept the never-ending evidence that the Bible is truly the word of God. According to Scripture, the Bible reveals that God created humans so they could learn to manage the earth (Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15), and build character by learning to discern right from wrong (Genesis 2:16-17). In Genesis 2:18-24 God established the institutions of marriage and family. In the New Testament, Matthew 19:3-9, Ephesians 5:22-23, 6:1-4, 1 Timothy 2:8-15, and 1 Peter 3:1-7, God established the roles in marriage and revealed important guidelines so that these divinely ordained institutions would function smoothly and successfully.

The reason for the Biblical emphasis on learning to manage our own lives, and on functioning smoothly in marriage and family, is that we have been created to become members of God’s spiritual family as we can find in the scriptures of Romans 8:15-17, Hebrews 2:5-11, and 1John 3;1-3. If we qualify to become members of that spiritual family, we will reign with Jesus Christ when He returns to establish the Kingdom of God on earth as we read in Revelation 1:4-6 and 5:10. The Bible clearly reveals that we do not fly off to heaven when we die as explained in John 3:13, Acts 2:29 &34 and 13:36. When you understand what the Bible actually reveals about the purpose of life, you can begin to understand why the teachings of today’s ‘mainstream’ Christianity are not very satisfying or convincing.

The NRSV Catholic Women’s Devotional Bible is designed to specifically nourish a woman’s spirituality, making it easy to form a habit of devotional reading and prayer. The Catholic woman will find a year’s worth of meditations, all written by women.

The Catholic Women’s Devotional Bible is designed to meet the needs of all that are accustomed to liturgically-based forms of worship. This Bible includes a six-year reading plan tied to the lectionary, making it easy to locate readings for daily and Sunday liturgies. You will find each weekend devotional based on the life of a Bible woman, seeing her relevance to your daily life. There are articles focusing on sacraments, holy days, liturgy, and spiritual direction, explaining the link between tradition and scripture to help you gain a greater understanding of your faith.

The Bread of Life from this scripture in The Catholic Woman’s Devotional Bible will fill your soul with wisdom for important every day issues like relationships, marriage, child-rearing, prayer and finding real peace in your life. If you fill your soul daily, it will become a well of refreshment, nourishing your faith and strengthening your sense of God’s never failing love in your life.

With some translations, it is hard to understand what the message is, but it is not with the New Living Translation. The last time that I was studying the New Living Translation, I forgot that I was reading the Bible because it sounded to me as if some one was telling me a story in today’s language.

Another reason that I appreciate the New Living Bible is that, when I am online with the daily devotional, I stay on track with God’s Word as it feeds my soul with the Bread of Life.

I appreciate the New Living Bible because this translation speaks to me in my language. The translators that worked on this fresh and inviting Bible not only have been faithful to original texts, but they have brought the Living Word of God to us in yours and my language as we remember the poetry and power of the Scriptures from our childhood. As I read the New Living Translation, I find God as my Friend.

#1 Best-selling Study Bible in the best selling NIV Translation.

The NIV translation is the most read and trusted translation of the English reading Bible. The NIV Study Bible has over 20,000 study notes. Unmatched in any other study Bible, the notes place at your fingertips a treasury of instant commentary from today’s top evangelical scholars. Icons highlight notes of special interest in the areas of character study, archeology and personal application. Simply put, you won’t find study notes as complete, up-to-date, helpful and easy to use anywhere else.

Over the last five years, the editors of the NIV study Bible have painstakingly reviewed, revised and rewritten the notes of the classic , best selling NIV Study Bible. This update reflects the most recent scholarship from a conservative academic perspective, and reflects changes to the text suggested and requested over the last 15 years by students and academics who have studied, used and loved the NIV Study Bible.

Like no other Bible, the Zondervan NIV Study Bible places an entire resource library for Bible study in your hands. Over 6 million people have made it their Study Bible of choice. Make it yours as well. It is one choice that you will always be glad you made.

Are you finding it harder and harder to find the time to read the Bible as you would like to? There is a solution. Have you ever tried the Audio Bibles?

Do you find the Bible hard to read? Do your thoughts wander as you try to make your way through a Bible reading program? If so then discover the joy of listening to the Audio Bible. Now you can experience the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, wherever your are…with understanding you never thought possible.

For many people, hearing God’s Word offers insight, meaning and understanding that are often missed when it is read. And you can receive these blessings anytime…while you commute to work, jog, or during your quiet time as you read along.

These digital recordings are a lifetime investment for your spiritual well-being. Audio Bibles are also the perfect gifts for senior citizens, the sight impaired and anyone who finds the Bible hard to read.”

The MESSAGE is a reading Bible. Read It in order to live, praying as you read, “God guide me as I read and may your will be done.”

Reading is the first thing, just read the Message Bible like a book. Listening to God from the Message as we read is the most important thing! As we read, and the longer we read, we begin to “get it” –we are in conversation with God. We find ourselves listening and answering in matters that most concern us: who we are, where we came from, where we are going what makes us tick, the texture of the world and the communities we live in, –most of all–the incredible love of God among us, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

As we read the Message we come to realize the the focus of the Bible has to do with what God is doing in a saving love that includes us and everything that we do. The Bible begins with God speaking creation and us into being. It continues with God entering into personalized and complex relationships with us, and helping and blessing us, teaching and training us, correcting and disciplining us, loving and saving us. We also find that there is a connection between the Word Read and the Word Lived.

The Message is the Bible to read, to listen to and obey God.

You ask, “How do I use the Bible?”

The clearest answer is found in the words of Jesus when He promised, “Ask, and it will be given unto you; seek and ye will find; knock and it will be opened unto you,” (Matthew 7:7). Prayfully, we need to ask God to guide us, and through His help we come to understand. It is not just because we are reading and using a study Bible. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:26).

Before reading the Bible, Pray. Invite God to speak to you. Go to the Scripture looking for God’s Divine guidance, and do not look for your own ideas. Read the Bible carefully. Seek and you will find. If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:4-5).

Be a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Study the Bible a little bit at a time. Use a good Study Bible to help you. The soul needs a steady diet of the Bread of Life to stay strong. The soul can not digest it all at once. Don’t be discouraged if your reading reaps a small harvest. Some days a lesser portion is all that is needed. What is important is to search every day. A steady diet of God’s Word over a life time builds a healthy soul and mind.

Knock, and it will be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7). To knock is to stand at the door of God. Make yourself available to Him. To knock is to ask what you can do. How can you obey? Where can you go? If you chose and do what Jesus asks, you have a special reward awaiting you as God promises!

Ask. Seek. Knock. Use a Study Bible if you need to. You will reap the wonderful reward of God’s everlasting promise.

For years and years, critics viewed the biblical story of David and Goliath as a fanciful tale of religious fiction. Recently “archaeololgists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4) have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine’s name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible’s story of David’s battle with the giant”. This is the oldest Philistine inscription ever discovered, dated to 950BC–within 70 years of the biblical narrative. Doubting scholars for years assumed that “there were no Hittites at the time of Abraham, as there were no records of their existence apart from the Old Testament.

However, later “archaeological research…uncovered more than 1200 years of Hittite civilization. In similar fashion, critics assumed that the biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were fictional figures from Hebrew folklore. Yet cuneiform tablets discovered in the royal archives of the palace of Mari in northern Syria dating from the start of the second milleniumBC (the approximate time of the patriarchs) mention “such names as Abam-ram (Abraham), Jacob-el and Benjaminites. All these discoveries support the biblical record and refute the charges of critics.

An inscription near Jerusalem refers to “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” (Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion (Matthew 26:57). An inscribed stome from first century Caesareans reads, “Pontius Pilate, the Perfect of Judea” (Pilate was the governor at the time of Jesus” crucifixion (Matthew 27:2). Such evidence, carved in stone, supports the conclusion that the Bible writers were recording facts and not fiction.

The manner in which archaeology has verified the historical accuracy of the Bible has been nothing short of remarkable. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible”. William F. Albright, who stated, “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition…The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…has been progressively discredited. The evidence of history and archaeology defies the critics, and supports Scripture.