And when we do make time to study Holy Scripture, many of us stumble as we try to really understand what it’s saying and more importantly what significance it has for our lives today.

If you’ve every felt like you just can’t make sense of the Bible, don’t fret – you are not alone! In fact, I believe most people in most churches struggle or have struggled with finding meaning in the scriptures.

The key is not to give up. The Ancient and Sacred Wisdom found in the Bible can literally change your life.

Here are 5 resources that can help you strengthen your Bible Study Muscles:

1. www.BlueLetterBible.org

This website provides multiple versions of the Bible and gives users the ability to see the original translation of every word. (The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek.)

2. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible or a comparable Study Bible

For many people, the King James Version of the Bible has outdated words and phrases that make it hard to understand what a scripture is really saying. The New Revised Standard Version is written in plain english and has study notes and commentaries that help bring the scriptures alive.

3. Parallel Bible

Many Bible Study websites give the user the ability to read multiple translations of the same scripture which help to make meaning clear. However, if you’re not a regular on the internet; your local Christian Bookstore should have a Parallel Bible for you…giving you the ability to compare how many versions of the Bible translate the same scripture.

4. www.YouVersion.com

For the person on-the-go who wants to build in Bible Study time at the red light, on the elevator, or over lunch, this website is for you! You can download its App right onto your smartphone and anytime you have a minute you can open it up and get some inspiration for your day. YouVersion also has many Reading Plans (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) that you can sign up for for free and build some CONSISTENCY into your Bible Reading.

5. www.BibleStudyTools.com

Similar to Blue Letter Bible, this website gives you the ability to have in-depth study of scripture – comparing multiple translations, accessing commentaries, and choosing a version of the Bible that best suits you.

Consistent attention to any one of these five resources will help you better understand the Bible and more importantly highlight meaning for the modern day. Don’t try to become the pope or Mother Teresa overnight, but think about the next step you can take in your attention to the Bible that will help make you a more faithful follower of the Way of Jesus.

I’m rooting for you!

Pastor Heber Brown, III

@HeberBrown
Facebook.com/HeberBrown

Let us know if you’re interested in joining the Pleasant Hope Green Team!

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The grande finale of the Unity Day Celebration is this Sunday, November 8, 2009 11AM and 3:30PM. The afternoon service will be a choir concert with groups from as far away as Virginia coming to share with us. All are invited!

For those that missed Pastor Gwynn’s powerful sermon, here is a clip for your enjoyment and edification.

For I share that testimony today that I am as pastor more than 30 years younger than the next person in leadership at Pleasant Hope. I’m a young husband and new father with endless energy and wide eyes for the future who has never known a world without modern technology. However, most in leadership at the church I serve are 60 or older, retired – or about to retire, extensive travelers, and in some cases technological neophytes who aren’t interested in making the computer a regular part of their day.

So these past 16 months have been a time of great exploration, joy, discovery, and frustration. Like any new relationship, it is taking some time to really get to know one another. In a society that promotes age prejudices, we have to be all the more vigilant about breaking down the barriers that divide the generations at Pleasant Hope.
No older adult should be considered “too old” to contribute to the future of our church. Likewise, no youth or young adult should be patronized or despised because of their age. We won’t dismiss the hymns and old songs of the church. Neither should we shake our heads in shame at every new gospel song. We will honor the sacred traditions of how church used to be, but we won’t let that reverence blind us to how things need to be today in order to effectively minister to the world around us. We will acknowledge the ways in which the church of yesterday thought about church leadership, but we’ll also acknowledge that the emerging generation has a different view of the church and its leadership.

No doubt there will be times of friction as we struggle to speak each other’s language and understand each other’s worldview. But the more we commit to be in true relationship with each other, the more we will understand where the other is coming from – even if we ultimately still decide to disagree. We can disagree without being disagreeable.

What we all should be able to agree on is the need for intergenerational relationship and partnership. If you take a mental snapshot of our church, we have seniors and children- not many teenagers or young adults. Young people today don’t want to be patronized, disrespected, or pulled into plans that were already decided for them. They want to be real partners whose opinions are valued, whose gifts are let loose, and whose creativity is not stifled by controlling elders. If we don’t figure out how to be partners, then a very sad time is around the corner for this congregation: as the seniors make their last earthly transition we might just fall into a day where there is no one to pass the blessing of Pleasant Hope on to.

I am enjoying the journey of building intergenerational relationships and while we have much more walking together to do, I’m encouraged by the example of Jesus who was one who tended to attract people who wouldn’t naturally share space – bringing together revolutionary zealots and tax collectors, pharisees and prostitutes, the convicted and the convinced. The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t a story of homogeneity. It’s a story of radical diversity within community.

We’re about to start some intergenerational small groups at our church focused around a book that I’m currently reading and have not been able to put down. It’s called The Leadership Jump: Building Partnerships between Existing and Emerging Christian Leaders by Jimmy Long. I’m asking for young folks and older folks to sit down together and read this book so that we might sidestep intergenerational pitfalls and experience the blessing that comes about when everyone is loved, respected, and encouraged as the beautiful gifts from God that we all are.

Next Tuesday night, November 3, 2009 7PM, Pastor Alvin Gwynn, Sr. and the Friendship Baptist Church will be our guests. Don’t miss this amazing night of praise, worship, and song. You will be blessed!

For those who didn’t make it to worship this past Tuesday, here’s a taste of what you missed. Enjoy!