Almost 80, and God is still teaching me.

[Arrabon]

I love my Christian faith !! I love my God and Savior !!

I love to study God's word more and more the older I get.

There are always new and important "MEAT" of the word studies that God brings to me when I least expect it.

When you study for over 40 years you build a foundation of faith that God can use to continually build on, and that's exactly what he's been doing.

I was studying a topic today I've been working on for sometime, and while researching, these new words and ideas that have always been there, but I have always read over many times, like everyone has, started to become my focus for hours - Totally exciting and exhilarating. God and His word excites me.

When I study I use 2 monitors now, each 32" wide, that I can use independently of each other with one computer, and print commentaries from each monitor on one printer.

I can move my cursor from monitor to monitor.

I designed the system and had it built so I can do research on one monitor while writing the results of my research on the other. I dreamed of this for years and the technology finally caught up so I could do it. The results for me are "spectacular" for my process of learning and growing. I have a third monitor, as my system will do 4 monitors, but I'm still getting used to all the new choices I have, including on-screen prompts for more options.

I feel like I have entered the "Twilight Zone" of learning, with so much more technology still available.

I can study up to about 6 topics at one time, but before it was so much more difficult with only one source to do research from. I would get my topics mixed up.

This has opened up a whole new world of study where I can compare side by side, commentaries from different authors, and see how much they differ or compliment each other in their conclusions, and with more monitors, up to 4, I can also, at the same time, type out my own responses and conclusions, and then print them on one printer from any of the 4 monitors - CRAZY , BUT SO FUN!

I've entered a whole new level for developing  new learning skills and researching - I am pumped !!

My name is Arrabon.

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Arrabon

[R. Hartono]

Thats good Bro.

[Ray12614]

Great idea with the monitors!  We are never too old to learn new tricks about how we each study the scriptures.

May the Lord bless you with all blessings in your study time.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Grace and Peace . . . ray

[Dennis1209]

9 hours ago, Arrabon said:

I feel like I have entered the "Twilight Zone" of learning, with so much more technology still available.

Reminds me of...

Daniel 12:4 (KJV) But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

[Worship Warriors]

Love it.

[Dennis1209]

On 4/3/2021 at 11:06 PM, Arrabon said:

I love my Christian faith !! I love my God and Savior !!

I love to study God's word more and more the older I get.

There are always new and important "MEAT" of the word studies that God brings to me when I least expect it.

When you study for over 40 years you build a foundation of faith that God can use to continually build on, and that's exactly what he's been doing.

I was studying a topic today I've been working on for sometime, and while researching, these new words and ideas that have always been there, but I have always read over many times, like everyone has, started to become my focus for hours - Totally exciting and exhilarating. God and His word excites me.

When I study I use 2 monitors now, each 32" wide, that I can use independently of each other with one computer, and print commentaries from each monitor on one printer.

I can move my cursor from monitor to monitor.

I designed the system and had it built so I can do research on one monitor while writing the results of my research on the other. I dreamed of this for years and the technology finally caught up so I could do it. The results for me are "spectacular" for my process of learning and growing. I have a third monitor, as my system will do 4 monitors, but I'm still getting used to all the new choices I have, including on-screen prompts for more options.

I feel like I have entered the "Twilight Zone" of learning, with so much more technology still available.

I can study up to about 6 topics at one time, but before it was so much more difficult with only one source to do research from. I would get my topics mixed up.

This has opened up a whole new world of study where I can compare side by side, commentaries from different authors, and see how much they differ or compliment each other in their conclusions, and with more monitors, up to 4, I can also, at the same time, type out my own responses and conclusions, and then print them on one printer from any of the 4 monitors - CRAZY , BUT SO FUN!

I've entered a whole new level for developing  new learning skills and researching - I am pumped !!

My name is Arrabon.

 

I'm at my 7th decade now, and I wasted decades of my life living a secular lifestyle, consisting of wants and pleasures. I fell far behind in biblical knowledge of where I should have been by now, had I not drifted and backslid. I was determined to makeup some of the knowledge I didn't acquire. You can teach an old dog new tricks, as I was old fashioned using only hardcopies of everything. I now own a pretty nice biblical study collection in hardcopy, and it takes a lot of time to dig out the book(s) and find what I'm after.

I bit the bullet and purchased LOGOS 9 with most of what I have hardcopies of. Everything [Bible translations; lexicons; early church fathers; dictionaries; encyclopedias; Hebrew - Greek word studies; Josephus; systematic theology; commentaries; Septuagint; maps. photos; notes you'll never lose; on and on] is only one mouse click away. It is so productive and time efficient!

I too wanted dual monitors, but have to use two different computers. With fiber optic hook up, battery backup system, etc.; I don't have a spare computer plug in for a second monitor. When one of them crashes, I'll get one setup for my needs. Till then it's toggle back and forth. These old eyes sure do appreciate 27 inch monitors, and adjusting the print size for comfort...

 

 

[Arrabon]

3 hours ago, Dennis1209 said:

I'm at my 7th decade now, and I wasted decades of my life living a secular lifestyle, consisting of wants and pleasures. I fell far behind in biblical knowledge of where I should have been by now, had I not drifted and backslid. I was determined to makeup some of the knowledge I didn't acquire. You can teach an old dog new tricks, as I was old fashioned using only hardcopies of everything. I now own a pretty nice biblical study collection in hardcopy, and it takes a lot of time to dig out the book(s) and find what I'm after.

I bit the bullet and purchased LOGOS 9 with most of what I have hardcopies of. Everything [Bible translations; lexicons; early church fathers; dictionaries; encyclopedias; Hebrew - Greek word studies; Josephus; systematic theology; commentaries; Septuagint; maps. photos; notes you'll never lose; on and on] is only one mouse click away. It is so productive and time efficient!

I too wanted dual monitors, but have to use two different computers. With fiber optic hook up, battery backup system, etc.; I don't have a spare computer plug in for a second monitor. When one of them crashes, I'll get one setup for my needs. Till then it's toggle back and forth. These old eyes sure do appreciate 27 inch monitors, and adjusting the print size for comfort...

 

 

@Dennis1209

You really take me back many decades and I find your enthusiasm very exciting.

Through all my trials and tribulation of life the last 43 years of walking with God, and satan constantly trying to trip me up, I was somehow able to stay with my studies, although like you said there were times I was distracted for a time dealing with my own sins, and dealing with  people who satan tried to use against me, and at the same time just trying to make it in life with family, job, and ministry work, and somehow fit in my studies. That was my first 20 years of my faith. Life changed a lot after that.

18 years ago I was able to retire by God's choice, and began some new ministry work for the Lord that He had waiting for me after I retired.

He had to retire me so I could do the ministry work fulltime

Thanks to God I got started in my faith in 1978 with the right choices, and built a great foundation of faith and salvation, that still serves me well today, both in how I live and in moving forward in my faith, and my studies.

Seven years ago my life really changed again. A new season of life.

God called me slowly to a new level of studies, beyond anything I would ever have imagined for myself. It became my "7 years in the desert experience" that God had been preparing me fore without my knowledge.

Praise God for what He called me to in my entire life, and what He allowed to happen,  even for the trials, my failures, and the struggles I had to go through that God used to grow me and mature me in His word and my faith. Thank goodness, I have a hobby I have loved since I was 7 years old and helps give me keep a balanced life along with family, friends, some fun yard work, and enjoying my neighbors and exercising regularly,

BUT... 7 years ago, God decided I would enjoy all of that a lot less and spend a great deal more of my time, being drawn into a time and depth of study I could have never imagined, as I mentioned earlier.

Like you, I put together a nice library of study tools over time that God has used in my life to find a new level of faith and maturity like you've found too.

In my studies I was able to develop a library of nearly 600 3 ring binders of studies  that I refer to all the time, depending on what I'm researching or studying, or what I'm sharing on line.

Having that much information at my disposal, has really takin me to a new level of faith only God and the Holy Spirit could have caused to happen. I'm far beyond where I could have ever been without them calling me to a level of study that at times overwhelmed me and exhausted me, and made me feel burned out, so I would pray and tell God I was so tired I didn't think I could go on. Usually the next day I was fine, but other times I would take a few days off and do my hobby, and then my "DRIVE" would return, and I was off once again. WHAT A CRAZY TIME .

Anyway, "God's intensity" with me  seems to be over, and I am now entering a new season of a calmer  life of studies and ministry, and I'm looking forward to how He uses all this for serving Him and my community, and sharing in the forums I belong to.

God bless you @Dennis1209 in your studies and and your walk with God.

My name is Arrabon

Edited April 7, 2021 by Arrabon

[Willa]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:06 PM, Arrabon said:

I can study up to about 6 topics at one time, but before it was so much more difficult with only one source to do research from. I would get my topics mixed up.

This has opened up a whole new world of study where I can compare side by side, commentaries from different authors, and see how much they differ or compliment each other in their conclusions, and with more monitors, up to 4, I can also, at the same time, type out my own responses and conclusions, and then print them on one printer from any of the 4 monitors - CRAZY , BUT SO FUN!

This would only make me dizzy.  I am not a good multitasker.   However using E-Sword helps me to do a lot of that on one screen.  Having been saved in the 8th grade I have to say that using computers does make it all a lot easier.  Books are heavy and cumbersome, let alone expensive.  But our love for God's word grows with each passing year as we gain more understanding.  Then we find that the truth we just discovered in our late 70s is something that a new Christian has already discovered!  God sure has a sense of humor.  

[Arrabon]

42 minutes ago, Willa said:

Books are heavy and cumbersome, let alone expensive.  

@Willa

Yes, books and other learning tools are expensive, and heavy and cumbersome, but there are things in books you can't get anywhere else, at least to me. I have a whole library of books and other study helps, and yes the level I study at is expensive, but what price can a person put on their salvation and faith. For me it's priceless, and when it's obvious that God is calling me to add to my library, because he has a new level of learning for me to be exposed to, who am I to be worried about money when God always provides for me ahead of time, and then rewards me financially in a greater amount than what I spent.

You can't outspend God. I have spent many many thousands of dollars to study God's word in English and in koine Greek, and God continues to keep me well supplied in an "ABUNDANCE". I live to continually know Him better and continually seek His plan for my life until it ends, and continually seek to serve Him and serve all those He brings into my life, and I continually seek to know the ONE truth of His word, as the Holy Spirit continues to lead and guide me in the way and truth of His word.

His Son suffered and died for my sins and salvation.

What can He ask of me that is "TOO MUCH or too expensive?"

My name is Arrabon

[Arrabon]

1 hour ago, Willa said:

Then we find that the truth we just discovered in our late 70s is something that a new Christian has already discovered!   

@Willa

When we get our age there are truths in maturing in the "meat of the word" that pastors and teachers, and yes even young Christians would love to know, but there are ages and seasons of life and learning that only comes to the older faithful who have built a foundation of faith and learning for decades, so they can receive the "MEAT" of God's word, leaving the "Milk" of the word behind, being received by those younger and immature in the faith.

God bless you @Willa.

My name is Arrabon