Your Relationship to God

A fresh and growing relationship with God is the key to all other relationships.  As author Rick Warren states,

"You cannot arrive at your life's purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator. You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God -- and until you understand that, life will never make sense."

Those can be tough words to hear, but I urge you to seek after God and His purposes for your life until you find His answers.

How do you find God? This is a question that haunted me for many years. The answer came in His Word, the Bible:

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue..." (2 Peter 1:2-3).

"The knowledge of him" starts in His revelation of Himself to us in His Word.

Bible Reading & Study...

• Knowing God -- I love these practical suggestions for studying the Bible personally and with your family!

• Listen to God's Word, online for free! KJV   NIV

• Readers Guide to the Bible

• An overview of translations of the Bible

• The Bible online in several different languages and versions.

• Want to read through the Bible in a year? Here is the Bible-reading plan I use, with an explanation of why.

• Other good Bible-reading plans are available from the Navigators and from Revive Our Hearts.
• Crosswalk.com has Bible study tools available at your fingertips online!  What a helpful resource!

• E-sword is the free software my husband and I use daily in our home. It includes the Bible (KJV and other translations), as well as commentaries, historical church literature, concordances, dictionaries, maps, and more.

• I have learned much about prayer by studying the prayer habits of the Jewish apostles at the time of the early church. Read more about our Hebrew prayer heritage here.

• The Scripture Memory Connection - Helping you hide God's Word in your heart and meditate on it all day long.

• Look up the meaning of Bible characters' names in the Hitchcock's Bible Name Dictionary. This is a great Bible study -- you'll be amazed at what you'll learn!

Check out one of our favorite books ...

More Books We Love -- Bible Study Tools

• Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament and New Testament (based on the NIV), by John H. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck -- my favorite feature of these books is how the authors begin each book of the Bible with an overview that's thorough, yet easy to understand.

• The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, by James Strong -- this is a book no Christian should be without.

• How to Study the Bible for Yourself, by Tim LaHaye -- This is an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand that should be required reading for every Christian!  ;-)

• How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon D. Fee -- Every Christian can be an expert on God's Word, and this books explains how to study your Bible accurately and how to apply what you learn to your own life.  

More Books We Love -- Christian Living

• Assumptions That Affect Our Lives, by Christian Overman -- Why do you believe what you believe? Maybe your outlook on life is affected more by our society than you realize!

• God's Provision for Normal Christian Living, by Robert T. Ketcham -- If you struggle with overcoming sin, this is a must-read. The author carefully outlines how to take care of that ever-persistent sin problem.

• Ordering Your Private World, by Gordon MacDonald -- We love to talk about ordering our closets and our schedules, but when problems come, will you discover that your inner, spiritual life is in shambles?