Sunday, March 9, 2014

E-Sword.net A Great Resource

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!