The Quick Reference Guide

Good Bible study reference materials can be hard to find!

I have classed the following bible study references as “reference materials”: commentaries, dictionaries, and concordances. I used some of the below materials, in addition to other printed material, as references in my Bible story facts. I also use references like these to guide me in areas of the Bible that I don’t fully understand.

Bible Commentaries

Bible commentaries contain the author’s thoughts on a particular book, verse, or chapter of the Bible. Keep this in mind when using these as references materials – they are only someone else’s thoughts / interpretations (not to be taken as gospel). Some good commentaries are:

Free Bible Commentary.org

Commentary by book of the Bible published in PDF Format by Dr. Bob Utley. An excellent read. Historical, archaeological findings to support research. The site has other resources as well (audio, video). Some old and some new testament. More commentary to be added in the near future. Amateur look and feel.

Matthew Henry Concise

Laid out well. Professional look and feel. Original book written in 1706, but seems very up-to-date and relevant to today. An excellent bible study reference.

Bible Centre.org

A collection of commentaries. Easy to navigate, good, thoughtful information. Great L&F.

Biblia.com

Good information. Free service. The site is dedicated to (and named after?) his son who died in the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in New York. Information seems to be up to date. Looks like original language is Spanish – pretty good english translation, though. Site author is a medical doctor. Commentary on the entire Bible. Navigation isn’t real friendly. Amateur look and feel.

Bible Dictionaries

Bible dictionaries contain definitions for terms used in the Bible. The terms could be places, people, objects, or animals. Knowing what you are reading about can help to understand the purpose of its place in the Bible. Some good Bible dictionaries are:

Eastons Bible Dictionary.com

Written over hundred years ago, good definitions otherwise. A great Bible study reference which is easy to use.

Christian Answers.net

Good description of Nephilim. I noticed a references/quotes by an evangelist that I don’t necessarily agree with some of his views on creation. Great dictionary search capabilities, though. I highly recommend this site.

Bible History.com

Good online dictionary. Written over hundred years ago. Easy to use – a little too dark L&F for my liking. Many more links to other resources like archaeological digs, etc. Very useful site.

Bible Concordances

Bible concordances are basically indexes of subjects, people, places, animals, or objects in the Bible. A typical use of a concordances would be, for instance, if you looked up “Adam”. You would find references to Adam in Genesis, I Chronicles, Hosea, Romans, Luke, I Corinthians, I Timothy, Joshua, and Jude. This is a very handy tool to cross reference topics in the Bible uncovering all sorts of biblical knowledge. Some good concordances are:

BibleGateway.com

By far the best topical Bible study reference on the net. You can search by keyword, verse, or browse topics. Many (if not all) translations of the Bible available. Loads quickly, not a lot of graphics. Some neat tools here. I particularly like the English word search for Hebrew/Greek translation – pretty cool. The search screens are split apart, but if you know what you want, it’s pretty easy to get used to to find whatever it is you are looking for. It’s all free, no advertisements!

Crosswalk.com

This has no search capabilities, and is a little annoying in that you have to navigate back an forth between windows/tabs, but the cross references are thorough.

Note: Please make sure you use the actual Bible for making final decisions on your opinions. Don’t base your opinions on someone else’s interpretation of the Bible – unless it fits within the Biblical teachings. Normally, God backs up what he says at least twice. Cross reference several verses to be sure!

Want to dig deeper into the Bible and understand what you are reading? Or maybe you are looking for resources to teach a Sunday School class? Check out my website: http://www.bible-stories-library.com

Mantis Bible Study 4: SCRF – Strongs Cross Reference

Which is a more reliable source of factual information for supporting reference:the bible or wikipedia?

Why do Christians reference bible verses to support their causes?

Anybody can edit wikipedia. Only God can write the bible.

The Scofield Reference Bible

Soccer is an athletic sport and it has become more than a game that awards the player with the best ball skills. Improving your body and your physical traits, as well as chiseling your physical weaknesses is extremely important in modern day soccer and the field that tends to all these aspects is called soccer conditioning.

Soccer conditioning is actually made up of 6 concepts, or sub-sections if you will. The warm up, strength, power, endurance, agility and speed training are key components to a full soccer conditioning program. I won’t go into too much detail about them with the article at hand, but what I do want to do is give you a glimpse on what each component is, how it benefits you as a soccer player (or your players if you’re a coach) and how it can be improved.

-Soccer Warm Ups

At the very beginning of soccer, players would warm up before a match individually and rather disorganized. Besides of a few common warm-up and stretching exercises, they depended on the first minutes of play to get them into the right condition to play at full potential.

Nowadays, warming up is given increasingly higher importance, because it helps a soccer player in two ways: it protects you from muscle injuries such as strains and ruptures and it brings you to your maximum playing ability as the match or training session begins. A third benefit comes from specific stretching exercises, that make you more agile and flexible, which is a great advantage for a soccer player in today’s lightning fast game.

-Soccer Strength

Strength is a crucial factor in soccer, since it affects several abilities used during a match, such as jumping, shooting, dribbling, shielding, balance, tackling or marking. Actually, strength is probably the only conditioning key component that is useful in the same measure for all players, regardless of their position on the pitch. Shielding is often confused with power, but as you will see below there’s a difference between the two.

-Soccer Power

Power can refer to one of three things in soccer: the power of your shots, the power of your headers and the power of your throws. Although strength does have an important role in determining these three attributes, you also need to have the right technique to make them work. So power is a combination between strength and technique.

For example, when kicking a ball towards the goal, strength will work towards a more powerful shot if you have trained out your abs, lower back and leg muscles, but at the same time you’ll need to kick the ball perfectly if you want to achieve a truly powerful and accurate shot. As a tire commercial once put it…power is nothing without control.

-Soccer Endurance

There are two types of endurance, short and long range. Short endurance refers to your ability to sprint longer and long endurance is more general and it helps you pull off an entire match. It’s important to know that endurance isn’t just about being able to run for the ball longer in a match. If you get tired, you will also have a harder time focusing on the game, jumping, tackling, dribbling, finishing and so forth. So having good endurance can help you get the best out of yourself for longer periods of time.

Note that it’s very hard to get to a level where you can run tirelessly even in the latter stages of the match. Even professional soccer players that are part of the most powerful clubs in the World tend to get tired around the 80th minute, or earlier if they played a high tempo game.

-Soccer Agility

Agility can help you on several levels in soccer. Goalkeepers will have better reflexes and they’ll be able to get to high balls quicker if they’re more agile. Defenders will be harder to dribble and their tackles will be more accurate and clean with the right level of agility. Midfielders can dribble with ease if they’re agile and strikers work well around their quickness in order to get in front of the defender and finish on crosses, or dribble their way to goal when possible.

-Soccer Speed

Just like with the power-strength confusion, some people tend to put an equality sign in between speed and agility. Whereas agility refers to quick reactions, speed refers to running at full throttle, on a longer distance. Actually, speed has two components: acceleration and top speed.

Acceleration lasts from the moment you start the sprint, to a second or two before you can reach top speed. Indeed, agility plays a crucial role in acceleration, but has little to do with top speed. So focusing on agility exercises may improve your acceleration, but your top speed is difficult to improve, since it’s determined by a formula involving your lower body strength, natural constitution and running technique.

About the Author:

Niv Orlian is the author and the owner of a
Soccer Fans
website that provides information on various topics related to soccer such as
soccer conditioning.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Soccer Conditioning – The 6 Elements

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