Effective Bible Study

Pick of the Week: Free Digital Books from Logos Bible Software

September 2, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource, Teaching & Study

Maybe because I’m cut from the cloth of the “old school” Gospel preachers, there’s scarcely anything nearer to my heart than getting more books for my library. But now with the changing of times and technology, most of those books are digital. They are scattered across several of the popular digital platforms – Kindle, Apple Books, Adobe PDF – but the largest number are embedded within the various Bible software programs I own. These include Logos, Olive Tree, Wordsearch, Pocketbible, and my favorite, e-Sword.

In this article I want to mention a way to get FREE books through Logos Bible Software. If you visit their website, you will observe that their software packages range up to $10,000+! But there is a way to get some of their books and resources absolutely free. Here is the way to do it:

Read This: “Final Judgment”

August 29, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Read This, Resource, Teaching

A few weeks ago, our “Pick of the Week” was the “Simply Put” Podcast, hosted by Barry Cooper and produced by the Ligonier.org ministry.

If you have not yet taken the opportunity to start listening to these short 3 to 5 minute audio lessons, I’m going to reproduce the written form of the most recent episode below.

I’m doing this for two reasons: (1) Every lesson is very good, and this one especially! (2) My overarching theme with www.EffectiveBibleStudy.com is providing good resources I use and can recommend to others who also teach God’s Word. As for this second point, a good student of the Word learns how both to dig into the text for him or herself, but also how to find and use good materials from others which also study the Scriptures. So, here’s the written form of Barry Cooper’s “Final Judgment.”

Read This: “The Most Dangerous Thing Luther Did”

August 28, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Church History, Read This

No secret about it. I love to read and study Christian (i.e., Church) History. Numerous articles on this website are evidence of that. The stacks of books in my library and numerous titles in my Kindle digital book account confirm it.

Recently I wrote several articles on some little-known aspects of Martin Luther’s life and work, including two on this translation of the Bible into the common German language. So I was thrilled to discover this article in the Christianity Today Magazine archives written in 2017 by Ben Witherington, entitled, “The Most Dangerous Thing Luther Did.”I highly recommend it.

Our image is of the original 1534 printing of Luther’s complete Bible in German. Provided by Wikimedia Commons.

Pick of the Week: The Bible Project

August 19, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource, Teaching & Study

I wrote the following article almost exactly one year ago. But I continue to be impressed and blessed by The Bible Project resources, and want to introduce our new readers to this free set of multimedia materials. In addition they have added new resources over the last year we will talk about at the end of this reprinted article. Almost every time I visit their website or their YouTube channel, I find myself spending far more time than planned enjoying previously undiscovered great resources. – Richard Cravy

The Bible Project (www.thebibleproject.com) is a unique and valuable internet resource I greatly enjoy and regularly use for personal study. The project began in 2014 when Timothy Mackie and Jonathan Collins wanted to present the overall story, themes, and beauty of the Bible in a way that would connect with our modern media-centric culture.

Pick of the Week: “Grace” by The Skit Guys

August 9, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource

As our family continues to do church at home because of the COVID pandemic, we are discovering new resources to help my grandchildren (and all of us) understand Bible concepts better. One such new resource is www.skitguys.com. These guys have produced many short skits, videos, animations and other useful stuff presenting concepts and principles from Scripture. Some of the things are free, while unlimited access is via a subscription. A quick search for “The Skit Guys” on YouTube will turn up many examples of their work. They mix a little humor with good scriptwriting and imagination to produce some very thought-provoking and enlightening material.

I especially want to highlight this short 4 minute video on Grace. The setting is Jesus’ meeting with Peter and the other disciples by the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection.

Church at Home in the Time of a Pandemic

August 8, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Featured Articles, Study, Teaching & Study

The following article was written by my son, Aaron Cravy, and appeared first on his website, www.inklingsandpaperthings.com. Since the beginning of the pandemic and the dismissing of services at the Sunset Church of Christ as a precautionary measure, we have been meeting as a family on Sundays for “home church.” This is his description of how this experience has been.

By my calculation, this morning was the 21st Sunday in which we did not attend a church service outside of our home. I had not realized that it had been that long, which is normal for those living the quarantine life. One week just kind of flows into the next and the next thing you know, it’s August. Wait. It’s AUGUST?!?! See what I mean, it’s hard to keep up with all the days flying by when not a whole lot is changing due to all the limitations imposed on us by this virus.

In Memory of a Friend of Many Years

August 2, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Editorial

Yesterday, August 1, was the 3rd anniversary of the death of a friend of almost 50 years. I first met Rick and Betty Smith in 1970 while enrolled at Florida College in Temple Terrace (Tampa), Florida. Over the following years as we both pursued our Lord Jesus and His work for our lives, we often supported each other in ministry. We even spent many hours on the golf course together, even though I didn’t even like playing golf, because I loved to be with this guy.

My family was ministering in Huntsville, Texas while his was in Cleveland, Texas. We were in Orange, Texas while they were in Artesia, New Mexico. We both returned to Florida in the early 1980s to work and worship together in the same congregation in Gainesville, Florida. There we also had the blessing of working together with Betty’s father, John, whom we all dearly loved.

History: King James I of England & the KJV Bible

July 26, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Church History, Series, Teaching & Study

On February 5, 2020 I recommended the “Today in Christian History” daily email newsletter published by the Christianity Today Magazine. This daily email is a must-read for me every single day. Of course, this is because I am both a student and a teacher of Christian History, and love to always be learning more about the people and events that have shaped Christianity over the centuries.

So, starting today, I am going to frequently “borrow” ideas from “Today in Christian History” to write mini-posts for this site. These will not be “copy and paste” plagiarized articles, but simply posts inspired by things I read in that newsletter. I hope that these articles will inspire and educate you, my readers, as they do me.

The Jesus Documents: Part IV – Extra-Biblical Evidence

July 19, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Teaching & Study, The Jesus Documents

Having looked at the New Testament documents – and particularly the four Gospels – as reliable historical records of the existence, life and teachings of Jesus, we now want to briefly consider evidence outside the pages of these documents which help corroborate their record. A common misconception and erroneous criticism about Christianity is that there is no evidence outside the New Testament about Jesus. We hope to illustrate the error of that view in this message.

Below I have reproduced a short form of my Part IV – Extra-Biblical Evidence outline. If you want to skip the outline and just listen to the audio of this sermon, you can go directly to the page I have created for The Jesus Documentshere.

Pick of the Week: The “Simply Put” Podcast

July 16, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Teaching & Study

I have recommended a number of podcasts over the last few months. Podcasts are audio ( or sometimes video) programs posted on the internet and/or in some of the popular podcasting services (iTunes, Spotify, etc.) on specific topics or areas of interest. I often listen to them while driving, especially on longer trips, because I can learn something while being otherwise limited in what I can do other than keep my eyes on the road ahead. Podcasting services provide access to their apps on both Android and Apple phones and tablets. And most podcasts are provided free of charge.

History: In the News – Hagia Sophia Church a Mosque Once Again

July 11, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Church History, News

When I teach the course on Christian History (see my videos on YouTube), I always emphasize to my students that Christian or church history is still taking place every day. And on some days, very significant historical events take place that will impact Christianity in the centuries to come. One such recent example would be the great fire that nearly destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019.

This week another very significant event occurred affecting a historic Christian structure. The president of Turkey on Friday, July 10, announced that the Hagia Sophia (“Sacred Wisdom”) church building in Istanbul would be converted into a mosque after being a museum open to the public since 1934. Why is this significant?

The Jesus Documents: Part III – Their Authorship

July 7, 2020 By Richard Cravy in Apologetics, Teaching & Study, The Jesus Documents

The New Testament documents, and specifically the four Gospels, have withstood the test of almost 2,000 years of intense scrutiny, criticism, and efforts to discredit them as historical records. And a significant part of this discrediting effort involve questions about their authorship.

In this third lesson in our series we want to spend a little time talking about this issue, and the confidence we can have in their trustworthy nature. Below I have reproduced a short form of Part III – Their Authorship outline. If you want to skip the outline and just listen to the audio of the sermon, you can go directly to the page I have created forThe Jesus Documentshere.