Welcome to truthmadeknown.com
"If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth,
and the truth will make you free." John 8:31-32
A website to provide help and discussions on the search for truth and with
truth, gain purpose, direction and help in life. The
Members' Comments page
is for users of the MyBibleStudyApp program to share insights and such with other
users and share relevant information about truth
and from this sharing of truth help each other construct our
personal faith.
There are numerous tools for studying the Bible on the web.
However, an attempt to find a how to guide as a gift
for my daughter sometime back came up empty. The Bible is confusing and even offensive to all
when we honestly seek to understand it and push aside the temptation to
disregard portions we don't like or minimize other sections as irrelevant for
today. The confusion within Christian denominations
and the desertion of youth leaving our churches testifies that a how to
guide is truly needed. For those who want to truly understand what the
Bible does or does not teach, giving them more tools like more commentaries,
translations and such seems like giving another violin to a child who is
struggling with learning how to play the one he already has. It just is
not helpful and may in fact only add to the frustration. These tools are
good, but they do not provide the very fundamental instructions of how to
correctly and objectively understand the Bible.
The
MyBibleStudyApp program was developed for the purpose of helping people learn how to
study the Bible correctly in order that their beliefs and perspectives agree
with the Bible. This is needed so we don't tell lies about what
God has said. No one likes to have lies told about what they did or did
not say. Neither does God. If we correctly understand what God
has said, then we can correctly understand what it means to believe and follow
Jesus. Additionally, the program provides the means to be able to manage,
share, and use all we learn from our Bible studies. From these studies, you
will learn how to construct your personal faith in God, Jesus and the Holy
Spirit. You will learn how to use the Bible for making all decisions in life,
what you can expect from God based upon what the Bible truly teaches. This
means you can know correctly what He has promised (blessings and
curses), what He does or does not demand from you, what type of help He has
promised, why and what types of help He will not give. You will grow in
understanding of correct perspectives, realistic expectations in life, God and
yourself. Decisions will become more reasoned and biblical. Your
convictions will grow stronger and beliefs more certain. One of the important concepts of this
guide and application is that faith that is not personal is neither
sustaining nor sustainable. Every person needs to come to a
full persuasion and conviction of what he or she believes or that faith will not
be sufficient to guide and sustain him in troubled times.
Considering churches and demonimations, this study guide is intended to be
non-denomiational. Rather than tell users what they should believe, the
objective is to help them understand how to determine for themselves what is
true. Note, not to determine it by themselves, but for themselves.
Everyone needs instructions and input from many people and sources to arrive at
an
understanding of the truth. This guide is not a replacement of any of these
sources. It is an aid to make better use of those sources and how to sort
the objective truth from the subjective ideas or beliefs that are not truth by
testing everything against Scripture and validating the conclusion by comparison
to other known truths.
When someone comes to a decision to follow Jesus, giving them a Bible and
telling them to read it is similar to the famous quote by Yogi Bear (a baseball
player and coach with a great sense of humor), "When you come to a fork
in the road, take it." Some important instructions are missing or would atleast
be helpful. How many "forks in the road" are in the Bible for a new believer? How many
forks do we encounter in a lifetime? Trial and error just will not do! Left to
our own whims and ways, we have today just what should be expected: confusion,
dissension, and desertion. Hopefully, this study guide can be a tool to
help fill that gap of instructions.
Some of the important points
of this Study Guide:
- Truth must be reasonable. We may not be able to comprehend the fullness of
some truths, but what we can comprehend must be reasonable.
- Truth must harmonize with other truth or a misunderstanding exists
- How to know if God exists
- Comparison of the Bible to other beliefs in history and today
- Who is God and how can we know?
- Is the Bible authoritative or even relevant today?
- How to correctly interpret the Bible to accurately understand what God said
- How to test for truth from other sources like nature, history, friends, TV and internet
- How to study the Bible to develop conviction, commitment, growth and strength
that builds your personal faith
Some of the more important features of the application are:
- Abiltiy to link documents together similar to cross-reference of Bible passages
in a study Bible. This enables you to tie your study notes together in a
meaningful way so that you can develop and hone your thoughts and beliefs.
- Assign documents to topics/substopics. This enables ease of locating them
as well as, again, organizing them in a meaningful way.
- Create bookmarks in a document and even assign these to topics/subtopics.
This enables you to browse listings of bookmarks within documents that you
have assigned to a Topic on Illustrations of Belief.
- Together with other search options thise features enable you to create what
normally would be a glob of information into a meaningful, relevant, easily
accessible and useful information. When you need information from previous
studies to discuss a topic with a new acquaintance, you can get it almost
instantly and effortlessly. You can help yourself, others and glorify God
more than ever before.
- During the Great Reformation there was much emphasis upon rote memorization.
Most people could not read and write and the Bible was largely not availabe to
the common person. Additionally, there was little contact with differing
beliefs and ideas so what could be memorized was sufficient. Today, all of
these circumstances have changed. We are deluged with differing ideas and
beliefs. Just as in other areas of life, we must adjust and learn to
manage much information so that we can access it when needed to dispell
confusion and doubt and help others understand what you have learned.
- Assign studies to Projects/Tasks so that intended studies are not forgotten
- Though the application is intended primarily for Bible Study, it is actually an
information and time management program. Moms can use it to catalog and
link recipies, kids can use it plan and manage school assignments, Dads can use
it to track tasks around the house and so on. Any task that involves
information and the need to manage it so that you can find documents quickly can
be made easy with this program. Want to be able to leave all that you have
learned about the Bible or any other subject to your kids or grandkids, here's
the tool to enable you do so.
For those of you who have been invited to participate in the beta testing, you can
download the application at MyBibleStudyApp download page.
This is a beta copy. A production copy will be available soon. The
production version will be free for trial use for 30 days.