Love to read??

If you love to read then I've got THE perfect thing for you....read through the Bible in a year! Today in church our pastor kindly shared with us a number of great reading plans which can help you get through the entire Bible with ease. Here are the links he gave:

Want to improve your memorization of Bible Verses? Visit this site: Bible Memory

Bible Reading Plans - all by NavPress:

• Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan
• The Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan
• The 5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan

Walk Through the Bible:

• Tapestry
• Closer Walk
• Daily Walk
• Indeed
• Youthwalk

Other great websites for Reading Plans:

• Bible Plan - 12 different Bible reading plans from which you can choose
• Bible Stuph - In addition to Bible reading plans, there are riddles, trivia, devotions etc.
• Back to the Bible - They offer a Chronological plan; Historical plan; OT plan, NT plan; Beginning to End plan and Blended plan.
• Bible Gateway - Listen to the Scriptures in KJV, NIV or Contemp. English. Great concordance feature, topical index, etc. for personal Bible Studies.
• Dynamicapps - Use their plans or design your own plan choosing from 60 different versions of the Scripture.

Speaking of scripture versions (nice transition 'eh?), I got the BEST gift for my birthday back in November from my dear husband! The new ESV Version of the Bible!! I wanted to get ths version a while back, but they didn't have it out yet as a study Bible, so I opted to wait for it. Well, in October, the study Bible came out and I'm thrilled to own one!

ESV stands for English Standard Version. From the ESV website: "The English Standard Version (ESV) Bible is a new, essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning." I grew up on the King James Version, then our church decided to change to the New American Standard version in the 70's, only to change to the New International Version back in the 80's. Now they are using the NIrV version in the kid's programs! Ugh! It's been most frustrating not knowing which translation to 'stick with' as far as memorization goes. All the verses I know by memory are from KJV but I honestly don't read the KJV much anymore, so it wouldn't really benefit me. The ESV is extremely close to the KJV but without all the words like thee, thou, and other words that put the th at the end...loveth, tilleth, goeth etc. You get the point!

I also love the fact that this study Bible has a TON of 'extras' added. Lots of great charts, drawings, lists, maps and other great information. I got my new Bible from CBD. Click on the link to read about all the details included in this Bible.

Click on the photos for a closer look at my new Bible...

Can't you just smell that new leather?!? My name is also on the front, but I deleted it for the photo.


If you're reading this...I added this photo for you Matt & Mark! Don't worry, Lionel doesn't study this version for quiz team! =)

Incredible drawings filled with details & information!

Devotionals are a great supplement to reading God's Word. Here are a few sites with great devotionals mentioned by our Pastor this morning...

• Moody - Today in the Word Devotional
• EBread - Daily Byte of God's Word
• CBH Ministries - Keys for Kids (we use these and they're AWESOME!)

I pray that you will start off this new year with Christ...open up Bible (after you dust if off) and really get into His Word!! Read just a little bit of it each day and as our pastor mentioned...remember to take the time out to listen to Him as you do so!