Sermon Series Graphics

Scuba Kyle has posted the graphics for a recent series they did, titled “I <3” (“I Heart/Love” in IM-Speak).  The topics they covered were:

• I <3
• I <3 GOD
• I <3 ME
• I <3 YOU

Reading the Bible: Strategies for Success

We’ve got our online Bibles, the tools to understand them better and a plan for reading.  Chances are, however, this isn’t your first time giving this whole Bible thing a chance.  So how do we succeed?  Here are some tips for you that I’ve gathered from around the web, in addition to my own.

Susan, at Fruitful Words, gives the following tips:

1. Keep all my Bible reading “supplies” together and in the same place.
2. Find a quiet place to read.
3. Beautify the space.
4. Realize that life happens.
5. Mix it up.
6. Pray.
   [Full post with explanation]

WayOfLife.org gives 20 tips for effective Bible reading.  Here’s an excerpt:

(6) DIVIDE YOUR BIBLE READING INTO MORNING AND EVENING PORTIONS (Psalm 119:147-148). A good habit to develop is to read a portion of Scripture in the morning and in the evening. Some possibilities: (a) Read a portion of the Old Testament in the morning and a portion of the New Testament in the evening. (b) Read the Scriptures systematically in the morning, three or four chapters a day, proceeding through the Bible; and then read more devotionally in the evening, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead to various passages.

HeLives.com offers a whopping 101 Tips for Reading the Bible.  Actually, he only gives about 50, counting on his readers to supply the rest.  They are divided into the following categories:

1. Making Time to Read the Bible
2. Understanding What you Read in the Bible
3. What to Read in the Bible
4. Reading Through the Bible in a Year
5. Picking Out the Right Bible(s)
6. Memorizing Parts of the Bible
7. Studying the Bible with Other People

The TLC Youth Group offer up their Top 5 Bible Reading Tips:

1. Remove hindrances – Cut your phone off, turn the music off and find a quiet, private place. So many times you will find yourself preparing for a good Bible readying time and something will come up to distract you from your readying and at times will make it impossible to get any good studying and reading done.
2. Truly Understand the Scripture – Compare relevant scriptures with each other so you know the aspects and differences. Again, take your time. So many times we find our self knowing a certain scripture but do not really understand the true meaning of what it is saying and end up confusing ourselves.
3. Apply what you read to yourself – We should be able to apply each and every word to our life each time we read. I read the Old Testament and the New Testament alike and could apply or relate each story to my life. That is why it’s there!
4. Write down all questions you have – write down all your questions and continue reading. If you still are confused about something – find the answer. Reading the Bible will bring up questions! It’s a good thing – But don’t stumble across a certain scripture and stop reading because your answer and true understand could be just a couple verses or chapters ahead.
5. Take Notes – I am still using notes I took 4 years ago and assume I will continue. Make bullets, short quotes or whatever you feel is best for you but taking notes will always help when reviewing what you have read.

And finally a few of my own tips:

1. Read small amounts daily instead of large amounts once a week. Daily reading becomes habit.
2. If you miss a day, don’t try to “get caught up.” Either skip the readings from that day and move to the next if you’re on a plan that assigns readings for each day of the year, or do your previously scheduled readings on the next day and continue with your plan.
3. Share what you’re reading with others. It’s a way to keep accountable about your reading, and also let’s you practice sharing God’s Word with others.
4. Try listening to the Scriptures. I purchased the NIV Audio Bible a while back and was able to get through the entire Bible just by listening in my car on the way to and from work.  Faith Comes by Hearing allows you to listen to the Bible in a number of different translations online if you’re so inclined.

Series Nav

Introduction Online Bibles Tools for Understanding the Bible Developing a Plan Strategies for Success

Video Teaching

Those clever digerati at LifeChurch.tv are at it again.  They’re launching VideoTeaching.com, a site dedicated to providing free quality video sermons for use in your church. [via Swerve]

Reading the Bible: Developing a Plan

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV):
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

I imagine the Israelites had some sort of plan for remembering the Scriptures.  Moses spells some out for them in this passage, but I’m sure they had some other ideas for how to remember the Scriptures on a regular basis.  Now that we’ve looked at some online Bibles and tools for understanding the Word, it’s time to develop a plan.  First, three tips to guide you in developing a plan:

1. Be realistic. It’s a worthy goal to read the entirety of the Bible. It’s not realistic to do it in 30 days. Figure out how much time you are going to devote to reading each day, then spend a week just reading the Bible and find out how much you can realistically accomplish in that amount of time.
2. Variety is the spice of life. It’s great to read an entire book straight through. But sometimes variety can be a good thing.  Consider breaking larger books into two or three sections. Alternate between Old Testament, Psalms/Proverbs, Gospels and Epistles.
3. Know what you want. What’s your goal for the reading plan?  Is it to get through the entire Bible one day? Is it to read portions of Scripture not covered in the Sunday lectionary readings?  Or maybe you want to find stories you’ve never heard of before? Knowing your goals will help you make a better plan.

Ok, so we’ve got some guidelines, now what?  There are several plans already available online for you, which is probably the best place to start if you’re not extremely familiar with the Scriptures already.  Here are a few:

• Open the JAR.
  I first heard about this plan from Bill Woolsey, pastor at Crosspoint Community Church in Katy, Texas.  Start reading the Bible in the Gospel of John, which gives the story of Jesus’ life and ministry among us. Continue into Acts, to story of the early church.  Conclude with Romans, one of Paul’s letters that contains many of the key teachings of the Christian faith.
• Zondervan Bible Reading Plans
  Zondervan has compiled a number of great reading plans that are grouped into three levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.  Some of my favorites there include:
  • 30 Days with Jesus
  • 180-Day Guided Tour of the Bible (a good overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation)
  • Various “Two Week” plans that allow you to focus on a topic for a short period of time, then switch it up
  • The Bible in 3 Years (The chart is in the order they think you should read the Bible, which is fine, but the real value is in getting the chart. As you read sections of the Bible, mark it off on the chart to track your progress.  Mix and match plans from various sources, then come back and fill in the blanks at the end.)
• BiblePlan.org
  BiblePlan.org offers 13 different reading plans for you.  More interestingly, they include an option to subscribe and receive your daily reading via email.  Emails include links to the readings at Bible Gateway.
• Christianity.com
  Christianity.com provides a single reading plan to get through the Bible in a year. By signing up (for free), you get access to the readings online and a chart to mark your progress.  Simply do the readings and then mark the day complete.
• Into Thy Word
  Here you will find some more reading plans, similar to those above, but one truly unique one: The Genres Plan. It takes you through the Bible in a year, but breaks the readings into different genres that you read on certain days.  The genres are:
  • Sunday: Gospels
  • Monday: Law
  • Tuesday: History
  • Wednesday: Psalms
  • Thursday: Poetry
  • Friday: Prophecy
  • Saturday: Psalms

So what plans do you use?  Did I miss a great site?  Share it in the comments!

Series Nav

Introduction Online Bibles Tools for Understanding the Bible Developing a Plan Strategies for Success

Reading the Bible: Tools for Understanding the Bible

We’ve already discussed using online Bibles for better understanding.  From  the community contributions of YouVersion or the commentaries of Bible Gateway.  So what else is out there?  Here are some sites and resources that may prove useful:

• Parallel Bible: A parallel Bible puts the same scripture passage/verse from different translations side by side.  StudyLight.org has a good one for comparing longer passages, but only offers two translations at once.  It does, however, offer a feature that highlights the differences. Biblos provides another that’s great for looking at a single passage at a time across 14 versions at once. You can also click “Par Chap” on the Biblos site and see five translations at once for an entire chapter.
• Pictorial History of the Bible: Part of the Biblos family of sites, you can enter a search term here and see what pictures are available for it.  For example, what was Corinth like?  You can also try BiblePlaces.com.  OpenBible.info has geocoded (huh?) over 14,000 pictures as well.
• Bible Encyclopedia: Get lots of information about all kinds of stuff.  Cities (like Corinth), people (Cornelius) and theological words (Grace) all make great searches.
• Learn Greek: Ok, this one is harder to do than many other options, but it can really help with understanding the Scriptures.  Concordia Seminary in St. Louis has put their entire Greek course online through iTunes.  Check out what they say about it.  If you have iTunes already installed, you can click here for the Greek class.
• Word Resources: Want to see a visual picture of how often a word is used in the Bible?  BibleInfo can create one (Love) for you.  Or BlueLetterBible.org allows you to look up a word (Love) in 9 different resources, to see what each says about the word.

This is just scratching the surface of what’s out there. What resources have you found useful?  What categories are missing?

Series Nav

Introduction Online Bibles Tools for Understanding the Bible Developing a Plan Strategies for Success

Reading the Bible: Online Bibles

You probably already knew you could read the Bible online.  In fact, there are any number of sites that allow you to read the Bible, but two stand out above the others: Bible Gateway and YouVersion.  Read on for some of the most compelling features of each site.

Bible Gateway
Bible Gateway is a part of the Gospel Communications network of resources.  Some of the key features include:

• Passage Lookup: Just enter a full or partial Bible verse into the search box and Bible Gateway looks it up and puts the text on the screen.  It supports a range of verses or even just a book and chapter number.  It only returns the verse(s) you specify, but there’s a button to expand the view to the entire chapter.
• Multiple Translations: You can choose from any of the available translations for your search.  After searching, there is a drop-down box that gives you the ability to see that portion of text in another translation.
• Hear the Bible: After searching for a section of scripture, you can click the speaker icon at the top of the results and hear the section of scripture read aloud.  There are a limited number of audio versions available, but most major translations have an audio version.
• Commentary: If there is commentary available on a passage, there will be a speech bubble icon that allows you to view any commentary for the passage that is in the Bible Gateway system.
• Keyword Search: Look for verses based on words in the passage. Great for when you know some of the verse, but can’t think of the entire reference, like maybe where the Bible talks about grace, faith and being saved.
• Topical Index: Search the Bible by Topic. Topics are taken from Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook.
• Bible Dictionaries: Not sure what that name means or want more information about what prisons were like in the time of Paul’s stay in one?  Search here for lots of background information about what you read in the Bible.  Entries come from Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary, Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary or Smith’s Bible Names Dictionary.

YouVersion
YouVersion is published by the folks at LifeChurch.tv.  It has a Web 2.0 look and feel to the site and focuses on the community aspect of reading the Bible.  Some of the key features include:

• Passage Lookup:
  
  Type a verse into the search box and YouVersion looks it up for you.  Unlike Bible Gateway, YouVersion always returns the verse in context for easy scrolling to see what comes before and after the verse.
• Keyword Search: The passage lookup box also serves as the Keyword search box.  Here’s our grace, faith and saved search again. Enter the words you are looking for and YouVersion gives you the results.
• Multiple Translations: Click the down arrow next to the translation after doing a search and you’ll be able to switch to another translation.  Much like Bible Gateway, all the major translations are represented.
• Community Content: When you select a verse in YouVersion, the verse turns yellow.  Click the community tab to the right and you’ll find resources that other users felt were applicable to this verse, or their own commentary on it.
• Contribute:
  
  Add your own content for others to share.  Select the verses you’d like to contribute to and click the Add Content button.  From there, you can choose what kind of content you are adding.  Depending on what you add, the interface gives you different fields to fill in.  Mark your content private and only you will see it (in the My Content) tab.  Mark it public and others will be able to see what you wrote about those verses.
• Journal Your Thoughts: Click the My Journal tab and you’ll be able to record your thoughts.  Everything posted to your journal page is accessible only to you, so write away.  This is a good place to track your thoughts as you read through the scriptures.
• YouVersion Mobile: If your cell phone has a data plan, there is a slimmed down version of YouVersion that you can access from the phone.  You can search the Bible, check out the daily readings (which will take you through the Bible in a year) and recent contributions to the system.  In addition, there’s also an iPhone and Blackberry app you can download to your phone.

Each program has their strengths and weaknesses.  I prefer Bible Gateway for linking to small sections of Scripture, but YouVersion’s community content often helps me think about passages in new ways.  What’s your favorite online Bible reader?

Series Nav

Introduction Online Bibles Tools for Understanding the Bible Developing a Plan Strategies for Success

Reading the Bible: Introduction

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
Amos 8:11

Wikipedia suggests there are over 142 different English translations of the Bible right now.  Many Christians own more than one Bible. Yet it seems fewer and fewer people are reading the Bible on a daily basis.  With the advent of the Internet and the growing smart phone market, the Bible is more available to us today than at any other time.  Yet we still aren’t taking advantage of it.  Over the next few days, we’ll be looking at resources to help people dig into God’s Word.  We’ll cover:

1. Online Bibles
2. Tools for Understanding the Bible
3. Developing a Plan
4. Strategies for Success

The Elephant in the Church

Mark Batterson writes about their recent sermon series, The Elephant in the Church:

The videos and graphics from The Elephant in the Church series are officially uploaded. Love to see hundreds of churches do an Elephant series. We’ve got to be talking about "the obvious truths that everybody ignores." All of the videos and graphics are free. All we ask is this: do it better than we did it. Put your fingerprint on it. Then share it with others.

Some of the topics for the series include:

• The Christian Elephant
• The unChristian Elephant
• The Sexy Elephant
• The Evolutionary Elephant
• The Political Elephant

Check out the complete list at the official Elephant in the Church site.  What “Elephants” did they miss?  What controversial topics have you tackled in your church?