Following on from Sunday’s sermon, this week is “reading week”, where I hope to give you help and encouragement to read the Bible for yourself. I hope you find the following links helpful. The Bible is an incredible gift, evidence of God’s love for us and, very importantly, it is for you! The Bible is not just for scholars, or experts, or super-saintly people who never doubt or sin or make mistakes, it’s for us all.
Bible Apps and Websites
The most important thing is that we read the Bible, it doesn’t need to be from a fancy, leather-bound, ornate edition. There are many very beautiful looking Bibles sitting on shelves gathering dust. It doesn’t matter how fancy your Bible is if you’re not reading it. Reading from a website or app is just as good and I myself have found them very helpful. Here are some free apps and websites I have experience with.
- The Bible App, by YouVersion is available for Android and iOS. It includes the Bible in many different translations. This app also has some great reading plans, short plans lasting only a few days as well as plans that will take you through the whole Bible in a year. They also make a Bible App for kids with interactive games and stories.
- BibleGateway is a website I’ve been using for about as long as I’ve been a Christian. It has many different translations in multiple languages as well as reading plans.
- The Bible Project. I love what these guys are doing! They create excellent animated videos to help people understand the Bible. I am a regular user of this website and a supporter of their ministry.
- Biblia provide Bible translations for you to read online, as well as access to reading plans and to commentaries. It’s a useful tool for deeper study.
Regarding translations, I know it is easy to get lost in the sea of choices available on these apps and websites. Most will default to a popular English translation like the NIV or ESV, both are fine. If you’re wondering what we use regularly in church it’s the New International Version (NIV for short), which I think is a good translation and very accessible for daily reading. The NIV is what I use for my own daily reading, but for more in-depth study I will use other English translations as well as the original languages. You don’t have to do that. Like I said, this isn’t just for scholars or experts, but for everybody and the most important thing is to just read the Bible yourself.
If you have any questions please just let me know! I would be delighted to help you out! Seriously, that’s not an exaggeration, I am a big Bible nerd and I love helping other people to get to grips with the Bible.
Rev. John.