If I were going to do an advertisement, it might be for reading the Bible. That has to be one of the things I believe matters more than most in this world.
Olive Tree Bible Study App is the one we currently use. And this is a great time to get it.
Laura and I have one account, so we have access to all the same Bibles. This also means that if she makes highlights or notes I see them. (I don't make highlights or notes in the text as I don't like to be distracted from the text itself--or because I'm lazy, you can choose.)
You can get several bibles for free all the time, now including the KJV, ASV, ESV and the NET bible (with limited notes). Right now you can also get the NASB for free (through the weekend).
Right now you can also get several popular (English) translations for about $5.
-The NIV is probably the most standard translation used these days. It is readable and accurate, but written in standard modern English. There are actually a number of editions that update language to current usage, more or less.
-The NLT won the hearts of our generation by using ordinary language that most anyone can understand. Ken Taylor originally wrote it for his children (he had 9!) who were not understanding and tuning out during daily Bible reading times. Since it's been sharpened and edited by a large team.
-The Message was Eugene Peterson's effort to be more memorable. It uses figures of speech that the original text never imagined, but lots of my friends find it drives points home that otherwise they might miss. Vance (shout out!), I know you love it and memorize it all the time.
I don't think you can go wrong paying for any (or all) of these if you have the money at the moment.
-One more I use a lot is the NET Bible with full translation notes. (This varies a little between different books, since it was the efforts of a large team, but it includes more than 64k notes.) I find these translation notes help me with questions of...translation, which matters to me since the Bible was not written originally in English. (You already knew that, didn't you?!) I do also have a (free) Hebrew OT and a (free) Greek NT on my phone as well, but if you need these, you really don't need my comments about translations, do you?! We also have a free Chinese translation, a free Spanish translation, and a few other resources in our account.
This app downloads whatever resources from your account you want on any or all of your devices including your desktop or laptop, and keeps your single account synced between your various devices. This is important to me because I do not have a data plan on my phone and also because it makes the app much more responsive (and always available) than looking things up across the net.
One downside is that they like to send you emails pushing lots of resources you could add to your account, many of which are not at all free. I should be clear that I use this to read the Bible and look up texts, not to hold my library.
Steve
PS We had a great family Christmas, made unique and crazy because Laura's dad is at a rehab facility following knee surgery with memory complications, a trip to Breckenridge that ended in a snowstorm and a traffic jam, and the current Spinella configuration of two boomers and five millenials, Laura's dad and mom, and Laura's sister's family from Houston also in town with it's own configuration of 8 people.
Steve and Laura Spinella
street: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920
mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187, 800 343-3144
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187, 800 343-3144
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Olive Tree Bible <newsletter@olivetree.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 12:18 AM
Subject: On the Second day of Christmas…$4.99 Bibles
To: spinella@alumni.rice.edu
From: Olive Tree Bible <newsletter@olivetree.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 12:18 AM
Subject: On the Second day of Christmas…$4.99 Bibles
To: spinella@alumni.rice.edu
|
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