There is a search box at the top of the right hand column of every page of the website.

Type into this box what you are looking for, then click on the magnifying glass icon to search, or simply press Enter on your keyboard.

A series of results will appear. If there are too many results, add more search terms to narrow the focus.

Use a shorter version of longer words so that you get more results – such as the singular instead of the plural.

If you are searching for biblical texts, I use two forms of biblical reference. If I make a long quotation I may use the full name of the biblical book, such as John 3:16, but if I use a biblical text as a cross reference, it will almost always be the abbreviated version. The abbreviations used on this website are:

… for the Old Testament books: Gen Ex Lev Num Deu Jos Jdg Rth 1Sam 2Sam 1K 2K 1Ch 2Ch Ezr Neh Est Job Ps Pro SoS Isa Jer Lam Ezk Dan Hos Joe Amo Oba Jon Mic Nah Hab Zep Hag Zec Mal.

… for the New Testament books: Mat Mk Lk Jn Act Rom 1Cor 2Cor Gal Eph Php Col 1Th 2Th 1Tim 2Tim Tit Phm Heb Jam 1Jn 2Jn 3Jn Jud Rev.

The usual convention for books with only one chapter is to write the reference as 1:* – for example, 2Jn 1:1.

Note that there is no space between the number and the book abbreviation. For chapter and verse, the convention is 3:16. If you search for a verse and don’t find it, it may be in the middle of 3:15-18, so it is better to search simply for the chapter such as Jn 3: for all the references in John, chapter 3.  If the search returns too many results, put the text in inverted commas such as “Jer 3:16”.

Searching any electronic page

When you open a page, you can find the Bible reference by using a handy feature on any computer screen that uses the ‘Windows’ operating system. Simply press down the Control button on your keyboard and at the same time press the the letter ‘F’ (for Find) key, and it opens a search box usually at the bottom left of your screen.

It may appear at the top right in some computer programmes, such as Adobe Reader. Type into the search box what you are looking for. It may be case sensitive, so simply miss out the first capital letter to be quicker. The first example of what you are typing will be highlighted on the webpage. Try it right now to see how it works – press the Control button and the F key, then type the word ‘work’ in the search box. It will highlight the first example in this paragraph. Hit ‘Enter’ or the carriage return key on your keyboard and it will find and highlight the next entry, and so on, one by one as you continue to hit the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard.

This is very useful when you are looking for something on a long webpage.  If it is not on the webpage, the search box will turn red (try adding ing to work); this is useful to save you wasting time looking for something that is not there. If you did not know this before, this blogpost has saved you many frustrating hours in the future – part of my Christian service to you. Happy browsing.