That was an excellent, excellent exposition, Atlas. I truly could not have done it so well.

Luke, "Born Crucified" is the name of a very good book by a man named L. E. Maxwell. It's on Ruckman's "Recommended Reading" list; it deals with the Christian life.

This business of Strong's Concordance needs to be addressed further, although I don't have time right now. Far too many Christians depend on Strong's own translation of a Hebrew or Greek word, which they look up in his Inedx. They treat Strong's Index as though it were the 67th book of the Bible. The problem is that he doesn't always choose the correct definition, when there are several possibilities; and that Strong himself was not an evangelical or fundamentalist by any stretch of the imagination.

Young's is much better; instead of an "Index," he arranges the verses, in the concordance itself, showing how a word is used in one place, and how it's used in another place. But it's not "exhaustive" as Strong's claims to be, because he doesn't list all the pronouns (he, she, it) or articles (the, a, an). And he's a very humble, very fundamental man, as is indicated in his introduction. I came to Young's late in life, but now it's the only one I use.

Of course, no concordance is to be used in order to correct the words of God, which have been faithfully preserved in the Authorized Version. Christians are very, very bad about wanting "shortcuts" in Bible study.

But "Bible study made easy" isn't a valid concept. Is prayer easy? Not real, heavy-duty prayer, no. Is witnessing? Not always, no. So where do we get the idea that Bible study should be "easy?" We're spoiled.

That's why God said study to show thyself approved - - - and why the word "study" has been changed in all the new Bibles.

Ahhhh, don't get me started on this stuff.....