Bible Study Tools

In reading about operation Bare Your Bookshelf, I was reminded of Percy Marongo. His only "aid" for sermon preparation was a well used Bible, that had no textual apparatus, cross-references, or anything similar.

I have conflicting thoughts about additional resources. Yes, they help in understanding the text. On the flip side, they can get in the way of reading the texts, and studying it deeply.

Nave's Topical Bible, Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, and the like greatly aid in locating passages that are related to a specific topic --- if the indexer has included them.

Concordances are useful in knowing where a specific word is used.

At what point do additional resources become more of a hindrance, than a help?

Does Logos 4 Portfolio Edition increase your understanding of the Bible, and help you produce sermons that are ten times better than if one uses Libronox4 Original Languages Edition?

The concept behind Operation Bare Your Bookshelf is a good one. If you bought any of the US$300, or more Bible Study Software programs, you probably have a digital library that greater in size than that found in a typical third world seminary fifty years ago.


My concern is that the preaching won't be from the heart, but from the latest or second latest craze to run through churches in the United States. The Prayer of Jezebel, instead of The Gospel.