Monday, June 15, 2009

Bible Resources


We are blessed to live in a time in which so many resources which allow us to read, study, search and reflect on the Bible. Here are just a few links to finding a way to read or listen to God's Holy Word.

THE BIBLE ON THE INTERNET
BIBLE GATEWAY
Bible Gateway biblegateway.com is a great way to look for a text of the Bible. It can be read in a large number of translations such as the New International Version, New American Standard, English Standard Version or even the King James Version. You can look up passages by book, chapter and verse. You can search it by keyword. It also contains a number of links to non-English translations. If you're on your computer, IPod or some other mobile, wireless device, this is a great way to get a hold of the text you're looking for.

DOWNLOADABLE BIBLE AUDIO
Perhaps you want to download a portion of the Bible for use on your IPod, mp3 or some other audio device. One site which offers free downloads of each chapter of the Bible. They are in the public domain. In otherwords, there is no copyright restriction. The site is for the World English Bible audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm

BIBLE FOR YOUR MOBILE DEVICE
There are a number of companies which produce Bible software for mobile devices. I have used Olive Tree software for my Palm Tungsten "E". A link to them here www.olivetree.com/ provides you the opportunity to download a number of currently used Bible translations for a minimal price. Olive Tree also offers a number of free resources, (found here at olivetree.com/resources/free/), some of which are older translations of the Bible, but some are other types of books, such as those of Christian biography, theology and prayer.

ONE YEAR BIBLE
There are a number of plans for reading the Bible through completely. One plan which I have used multiple times is that of the One Year Bible. Link at oneyearbibleonline.com . There is a page for specific use of mobile devices which allow you to access these readings from your Blackberry, IPod, etc. Link at www.oneyearbibleonline.com/oybomobile.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101

SCRIPTURE MEMORY
Memorizing portions of the Bible is a great way to keep God's Word in your heart and mind. One site which can help is memoryverses.org/. Another is creativebiblestudy.com/Biblememorization.html which employs a number of techniques and even gives links to print off sheets which can be stored as small cards which can easily be carried and used where the opportunity allows.

BIBLE STUDY TOOLS
There are two downloadable pieces of Bible software which I highly recommend. The first is E-Sword. E-Sword is software which enables in-depth study of the Bible. Once it is downloaded, it remains on your computer (thus it is not an internet link such as Bible Gateway). Some of the Bible downloads have a small cost. However, a version as recent as the English Standard Version (put out in 2002) is a free download. The link for E-Sword is here.

One other free Bible Study resource I would like to recommend is Quick Bible. It does not have all of the features of E-Sword. However, if you are looking for a free, searchable Bible in a modern translation, Quick Bible may be what you are looking for. It is produced by the Lockman Foundation, the translators of the New American Standard Bible (probably the most literal translation of the Bible into English). The link for the download can be found here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Walt: Another useful (and free) Bible tool for the computer user is eSword, which can be found at http://e-sword.net/. The KJV and several other versions are free, with copyrighted versions (NIV, NASB, etc.) available for a fee. I've used it for years and highly recommend it.

Blessings,
Dave Wilson