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Post by Cindy on Mar 9, 2022 11:12:50 GMT -5
Taking notes as you study your Bible can help you remember key things about a passage or scripture. They don't have to be long, but can contain just enough to jog your memory about it. I've always highlighted passages and added notes as I studied my Bible, even in my "real" Bible. Obviously, they had to be short and sweet back then, but with Bible programs or "apps" as they're called now, you can write as much as you want to.
There's one kind of note that I find to be essential. I call this kind of note an "application note". After I've read a section or chapter, I write down what I've learned from it and how I can apply it to my life. I love doing this in my Logos Bible Library program because I can not only go back and re-read my notes whenever I'm in that section of the Bible, but I can also add to them or even change something in them as often as I want to. Over the years I've found that I have had to edit a few of those notes as my understanding of the section grew, and have had to add to others because I understood it better. These notes really help me stay on track and grow in faith.
Sometimes it's easy for me to write an application for a passage, but other times I have to really sit and think about it for awhile. Those are the times when I'm reminded that I should be asking the Lord how to apply it and not just making it up on my own.
Some of my application notes are really long, and others are quite short. Sometimes notes are long because I've added on to them over the years. Other times they're long because I've added an experience I had that relates to the application. The length of your note doesn't really matter. What matters is what you get out of it.
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Post by Cindy on Mar 10, 2022 12:31:59 GMT -5
There were questions about the above post in the Christian chat thread, so I thought I'd include my answers here as well: While I did write in my "real" Bible, my notes were generally short. Now I use my Bible study Library and I can write a whole article for a note if I want to, since it's all on my computer. In fact, when I first got my Bible Study Library, I copied all the notes from my "real" Bible into my computer one so I'd not lose them. How much I wrote in my real Bible was determined by how much space was available. Now that's not a problem though. Plus, my notes show up on all 30 Bible versions I have there. Here's a screenshot that shows one of my notes. All I have to do is hover my mouse over the note and I can read it. If it's too long and I can't see it all that way, I can just click on it to read it. Each of those colored squares are notes.
Here's another one that you can see the squares and other shapes that are my notes better. Each different shape tells me what the note is about....
And here's one that shows the kind I use when the note is about something one of you has said that I didn't want to forget:
See what looks like a yellow paperclip on verse 18? That's what I use when I don't want to forget what one of you has said. At the start of any of those kind of notes I always say who said it too.
See the red note by verse 25 that has a red arrow pointing up and to the right? That's the color and type of note I use for all my application notes. The green squares with a checkmark in them mean the note is about history, archaeology, science, or traditions. (like the one on verse 27 or the ones by the title of that section about Phillip.
See where it says "Phillip and the Ethiopian"? There are two notes before that phrase, so those notes are going to be either about that phrase or about that particular portion of scripture the phrase is the title for. In this case the scriptures it's referring to are Acts 8:26–40. Remember I said those kind of squares are for notes about History, customs, traditions, science. So let me share what is in those two notes:
1. The Wallamos in Ethiopia. There are over 60 references to Ethiopia in the Bible, and Christianity there goes back to the days of Philip in Acts 8. But the modern story of the Ethiopian church also sounds like readings from the book of Acts, especially among the Wallamos. In 1927 the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) sent missionaries to evangelize this wild tribe, worshipers of Satan. During its annual “Passover” the Wallamos sacrificed a bull to Satan, sprinkling its blood on the doorposts of their houses and serving its raw flesh to every member of their families. The atmosphere smelled of demons. After several years a small church was established, but missionary labor was interrupted when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935. When Italian troops reached tribal areas, they demanded SIM to leave. The missionaries met a final time with Wallamos believers. When they had arrived not a single Wallamo had known of Christ. Now after 9 years, 48 native believers gathered around them. The little church worshiped, wept, and shared the Lord’s Supper. Then the 26 SIM missionaries boarded army trucks for evacuation. On April 17, 1937, their first day without missionary support, the little Wallamo church found itself having to stand on its own feet. “We knew God was faithful,” wrote missionary Raymond Davis, “that he was able to preserve what he had begun among the Wallamos. But still we wondered—if we ever come back, what will we find?” The invasion of Ethiopia marked the beginnings of World War II, and it wasn’t until July 4, 1943 that the missionaries returned. What they found almost defies belief. The Italian soldiers had tried to stamp out the small church. Church leaders were given 100 lashes, and one was given 400. They were unable to lie on their backs for months. Several had died. One of them, Wandaro, beaten in public, preached to the crowds between lashes. Another, Toro, stripped in the marketplace and flogged with a hippo-hide whip, bravely shouted out the gospel. Conversions multiplied, and tribal villages began sending missionaries to other villages. Instead of 48 believers, the returning missionaries now found—18,000. On this day
So do you see how the above note is about history, and that it also is about Phillip and about Ethiopia? 2. Ethiopia was viewed by people of antiquity as lying at the southernmost end or limit of the earth. Second, in antiquity, skin color was an Ethiopian’s most distinctive feature. About Ethiopians, pseudo-Aristotle says, “Those who are too swarthy are cowardly; this applies to Egyptians and Ethiopians.” If this negative view of Ethiopia/Ethiopians is in the cultural repertoire of Luke’s audience, Luke encourages the setting aside of those prejudices. What was the status of eunuchs in the Mediterranean world of late antiquity. Eunuchs in antiquity “belonged to the most despised & derided group of men.” This claim would certainly find support in the writings of Polemo, who notes that “eunuchs are an evil people, & in them is greed & an assembly of various (evil) qualities” . This attitude was prevalent among Greek-speaking Jews of the first century as well. Why were eunuchs thus demonized and ostracized in antiquity? In part, the answer lies in their ambiguous sexual identity. Lucian of Samosata argued that a eunuch “was an ambiguous sort of creature like a crow, which cannot be reckoned either with doves or with ravens … neither man nor woman but something composite, hybrid and monstrous, alien to human nature.” In a culture in which honor was gender-based, to be sexually ambiguous was to blur clear-cut gender roles and expectations and thus to bring shame upon oneself and one’s community. The eunuch was impure and filled with shame. The fact that many eunuchs, despite their social stigmatization, held important offices, were literate, and had access to material wealth only made them that much more socially ambiguous. Acts.
The above note shows how people thought about Ethiopians back then.
I'm actually working on something in my Bible. Up until recently everything I wrote in it or did in it was for my own understanding and learning. But now I'm redoing a lot of my notes so my daughter Jennifer and her children will be able to easily understand them, because I am giving my Bible Study Library to them when I die, but I intend to teach them how to use it now and give them access to it now as well.
What's neat about doing this (and it can be done with a "real" Bible as well) is that as you're studying God's Word, you're thinking about the person or persons you intend the Bible to go to, and so you begin to pray for them; especially when you read a scripture that fits something in their life. So by the time you're done, you've saturated that Bible with prayer for that person(s) and filled it with personal notes about the meaning of scriptures and about things that cause you to think about them. The Bible becomes a gift of love for whoever you're doing it for.
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fearnot
Living With Pain
Posts: 7,660
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Post by fearnot on Jun 19, 2023 10:11:29 GMT -5
This was really interesting. I kind of wish you had also written out some of the actual applications! :)
And to think, that now, this is being pushed on as many young children as possible:
"neither man nor woman but something composite, hybrid and monstrous, alien to human nature.” In a culture in which honor was gender-based, to be sexually ambiguous..."
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Post by Cindy on Jun 27, 2023 10:45:04 GMT -5
Sure! Here's an application that you gave me quite some time ago about Mark 14:1–6: Barbara posted this and I just love it: An application for me, is to never think I can 'out mercy' Jesus. Furthermore, to ignore anyone who might say I am going overboard loving the Lord.
Here's some more: For Acts 23: Application: This shows me that I need to give honor and respect to officials regardless of how I think or feel about them; even if they’re disobeying God, because God tells us to show them honor for their position. So I shouldn’t speak badly about them.
I also need to remember that God is in control, not me, and not anyone else. Whatever is God’s will is what will happen. God uses the hostility of our enemies. I don’t need to fear anyone or anything as long as I’m doing His Will.
Mark 8. Application: Jesus had already fed 5000 (actually 20,000!) so when He spoke about feeding these 4000 (actually 16,000!) it wasn’t anything new. But the disciples didn’t think of what He’d done before. I think this shows that He will sometimes put us in a situation just so we will learn something He’s been trying to teach us, and will keep doing so until we have truly learned the lesson. Jesus then warned us guard against false teaching and against being hypocrites. Finally in Mark 8:34–38 Jesus tells us the important truth that we must put our sin nature to death - deny our selves, and live for Him. His needs and wants will come before ours and the wants and needs of others will also come before ours. We are to live for God and His Kingdom 1st, which includes loving Him and His Word, knowing His Word well, and telling others about Jesus; then we are to live to love and help others.
Luke 9. Application: The first 17 verses show me that the Jesus will provide for ALL my needs and He doesn’t need my help to do so because He is God. All He wants me to do is to follow and obey Him. Next we learn that WE ARE TO DENY OURSELVES, OUR AMBITIONS, OUR SELF INTEREST. Our lives belong to God now. Next we learn that the way to be great in the Kingdom of God is through sacrifice and self denial. Finally, having knowledge about Jesus isn’t enough. We must be willing to act on what we know.
1 Cor 13: Application: It's all about love - God's kind of love. Not just this chapter, but really the entire Bible, because God is love and He pours His love into our hearts. He wants us to love others the way He does. It seems like our whole lives are a platform for us to learn how to love. The application to me is to practice loving God's way every day. Everything I think, say, and do, should be done in love and with love.
2 Thess 3. Application: We often feel guilty if we don’t help everyone who asks for it. But here, Paul plainly states that if the person asking for help has or is simply being lazy, then we shouldn’t help them. Instead, they should be told to get a job and help themselves. We work to support our self and those who can’t help themselves. He also warns us that people who don’t work, often wind up being “busybodies”, meddling in the lives of others. 1 Tim 5:13 add that they also become gossips. Work in itself is not a curse, only the toil of work is part of the curse. The curse is what makes work drudgery, and why the workplace is often driven by greed and selfishness. Do not encourage idleness by supporting those who will not work even though they’re capable of it. Finally, we’re not to associate with other believers who aren’t living like a Christian.
Actually, here's a whole bunch more that I posted for you:
fresh-hope.com/thread/6049/bible-studies
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fearnot
Living With Pain
Posts: 7,660
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Post by fearnot on Apr 8, 2024 22:54:27 GMT -5
I am re-reading this. I will re-read the applications again, as I am now about 1/2 asleep.
But what you wrote about our leaders....
It really hit me the other day, because I often receive 'invitations' ( so to speak), in my e-mails, from political types,
about the "latest word salad' by President Joe Biden. Well, I did listen to a couple of them.
But after a while, I realized, to laugh at his confusion, was not only cruel, prideful on my part, etc. but did it honor God in anyway?
No, it didn't, so, for the last few weeks, when I see similar invites, to listen to his confusion,
I pass up the 'opportunity' to laugh and roll my eyes.
There but for the grace of God...go I!
It is not constructive, or helpful to the situation.
It is rather sad, and even scary, that he is the one that holds the keys/codes to our atomic weapons....
But, that too is in God's hands.
I would be better off praying for him...
And certainly, I can spend my time better, spreading the gospel, Bible verses etc. in whatever way I can, and praying for other people, situations etc. etc.
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