||
                 ||||||||
                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 26/02/1998 ........................ 2 TIMOTHY 2:15c2
             Be diligent to present yourself to God, "approved":-- A WORKER
          who has no need to be ashamed, cutting straight the word of truth.
                                                     --2 TIMOTHY 2:15 (RLW)
             To be a worker for Jesus, you need good equipment.  After all,
          if you got a job cutting pulpwood in the bush, you'd need to have
          work clothes, gloves, safety boots, ear protection, a chainsaw.
          Being a Christian is just as much "work", as cutting pulpwood is;
          and for this work, you need to have the right basic equipment.
             As your most basic workman's equipment, you need a good study
          Bible; in a good, fairly literal modern translation in a language
          you understand very well.  In English, the NAS and NIV are both
          very good.  You want an edition with notes and study aids written
          from the point of view of good, conservative Bible interpretation
          and theology.  As a pastor and teacher, I use the "Thompson Chain-
          Reference Bible", NIV edition, all the time.  This helps you find
          Scriptures relating to any of thousands of topics, even if they
          don't contain the same key-word or phrase you may be studying.
          If you'll be using your study Bible for other types of ministry,
          you may want to ask your pastor for additional recommendations.
             However, you do also need to be able to search for, and find
          Scriptures containing specific key-words or phrases you want to
          look up.  For this, you need your second most important piece of
          equipment-- a detailed, "complete" concordance.  This gives you
          an alphabetical listing of most words in the Bible, showing which
          verses contain each of those words.  Since different translations
          use different synonyms for the same words, you need a concordance
          listing words from the -SAME- translation as your study Bible!!
             Next you need your third most important resource-- a really
          first-rate one-volume commentary.  This will give you good sound
          Bible interpretation and teaching, to help you understand better,
          and deeper, what the Scriptures are saying.  Of course the Bible
          was written so every Christian can understand the most important
          things it conveys.  But, as we see in EPHESIANS 4:11-16, Christ
          appoints certain Christians to the five-fold ministry of leading,
          teaching and equipping the Church.  Some of these are appointed
          by the Church, to studying the Bible, and writing commentaries to
          share with the Church, what they've learned.
             Your own church's, or denomination's, theological background
          will influence your choice of a commentary.  We'd like you to use
          one which takes a conservative viewpoint.  The one we use, "The
          New Bible Commentary: Revised", is just excellent!  Nevertheless,
          Fresh Manna readers include brothers and sisters from a broad
          theological spectrum, and you may want something closer to the
          teachings of your own pastor, church or denomination.
             The fourth item of a Christian worker's equipment you need, is
          a good, thorough, recently-enough updated Bible dictionary.  You
          will find this useful for looking up explanations, background and
          ancillary information on a variety of Biblical topics; including
          words, people, events, concepts, archaeology, natural history.
             Now, your budget may not stand this all at once, though these
          resources -are- just basic equipment every Christian should have.
          But once you do have these things; then, for deeper study of word
          meanings, you'll need two or three Bibles in other translations.
          Or, one book which gives varied translations in parallel columns.
          This will allow you to compare how the different translators have
          dealt with the same word, phrase or verse.  And this will help
          you to see better, the range of meaning expressed by the original
          language that word, phrase or verse was written in.
             If your major study language is English, one translation you
          should definitely include in your resources, is the KJV (or, AV).
          This, because the KJV was the predominant version of the Bible in
          English for nearly four hundred years.  Many Christians still use
          it.  KJV quotations, phrases and allusions abound in English hymn
          writing, colloquial speech, and religious and secular literature.
            Now, the New Testament portion the KJV is based on an early
          edition of the Greek text, containing some words and phrases not
          found in more recent editions.  This does cause some confusion,
          when comparing translations.  Also, the KJV contains a number of
          words whose meanings have changed greatly, over four centuries.
          For both of these reasons, you'll also need the widely-used Bible
          study resource, the KJV-based, "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance".
          This book includes not only the great concordance, but also gives
          numbered cross-references to its own dictionary listings of words
          used in the original Bible languages-- Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
          This puts you in the place you'd be in, if you'd taken the first
          semester of a first-year seminary course in Biblical languages!
             We aren't experts in the full range of Bible study resources
          available.  So, although we're sure these are the right -types-
          of Christian worker's equipment you'll need, you might do well
          to consult your own pastor, Christian bookstore/supplier, and
          mature brothers and sisters in Christ; about what best meets your
          own particular needs, for your own ministries, within your own
          denominational tradition.  But at any rate, let us all be sure to
          provide ourselves with the tools we need to serve as effective,
          fruitful, "approved" workers for Jesus!  --RLW
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