My 73 year old mother called me last week. She was very excited because a couple from
her church had asked her to accompany them to a nursing home ministry. They arrived at the home and the people came
or were brought into the area where the preaching was to happen. About 7 of them said at the end that they
wanted to make a profession of faith.
Mom went to speak to a man who the leaders had not been able to get
to. She made sure he understood the
gospel. She was elated by the
experience. She had never done anything
like this before.
But there was a fly in the ointment. The group left and the man she had spoken
with did not have a Bible. She said
there was no planned follow up. This man
did not know what he had. She has taken
steps to remedy that.
Many of us have a similar issue. We have the Bible in our hands. We have it but we don’t read it. For some, it is because they do not have the discipline. Others are not believers and do not have the
work of the Holy Spirit to give them the understanding. Then there are those I want to help with
this post. There are those who do not
understand as much as they could because they lact the tools to help them
understand. If this is you – get ready
to be blessed.
There is an amazing free resource that I have been using and
telling people about for many years. It
is a downloadable Bible program with some amazing FREE resources. It is the E-Sword program and it is FREE at www.e-sword.net.
The most important thing available in the program of course
is the Bible. Not just any Bible dozens
of translations in many languages. If
you don’t see the one you like you can usually pay a small free for the one you
want. I did this to get the New King
James and the NIV. Free volumes included
the KJV and the ESV. I have downloaded
the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. I have
the original Geneva Bible. You will
probably find something you like as well!
I love the commentary selection. There are a good number of these – most are
free. Among my free downloads were
Matthew Henry, John Gill, and Vincent’s Word Studies.They have a link on the
site where I was able to download other free modules created by other
uses. I got John Calvin and Matthew
Poole this way.
There is a section where you can keep your own Journal. Journaling is a time honored way of keeping
the benefits of one’s devotions. Keeping
it electronically is a great way for those of us with less than perfect
handwriting to read what we have written at a later date.
I especially like the Study Notes feature. It allows me to leave notes on a particular
text so I can come back to that text. I
can even take quotes from the other resources and paste them there! This keeps me from marking up my Bible even
worse than I already do!
There are daily devotionals available as well. If that is something you like – there is gold
in this here program! I have Spurgeon’s
Morning and Evening. Extra free add-ons
go on for several pages on the links page.
Next to my Bible I use the prayer list feature the
most. I break it up by day. I also break it up by topic. It helps me work on what many find to be a
difficult discipline. This helps me.
There is also a Scripture memory feature. This is an amazing thing. It has a number of ways to help retain the
word. It can give the first word. It can leave a few words in. It has other ways as well. If you have difficulty with memory this is a
great resource.
I also have a Bible Encyclopedia and several Bible
dictionaries. Did I mention that they
are FREE. I have Vine’s OT and NT words
as well as an Webster’s dictionary.
If you have a Bible and you need help in understanding it –
this is the best tool that I know of.
This is information that I do not want to keep to myself. This program is one of the best things that
has happened in my life as a Christian.
If you decide to download and use – It may be that for you as well. www.E-sword.net. This is a ministry and they like but do not
require support. I hope you check it
out!
