HOLIDAYS AND FRIENDS GO HAND IN HAND: Did you know that everyday somewhere, someone is celebrating a special holiday? Did you also know that the first Sunday in August is designated as International Friendship Day? The world limits it to one day a year! But, at bible.org we have many friends and our friends-focus is 24/7! Which friends group are you in? Friends on Facebook, Friends on Blogs, Friends who spend time in prayer for the ministry, friends who send us marvelous letters of appreciation and encouragement, Friends who donate time or money, and Friends who…. “fill in the blank”. What does a friend do? Take time to read Kelley Mathews’ blog “Friends: A Loaded Term” on this topic and you might find that some wise counsel and ideas for your friendships. As Kelley wrote: While friend is a handy term online, "friend" has traditionally meant a whole lot more. The Bible helps us understand the depth of such a relationship: [Prov 27:17] tells us As iron sharpens iron, so a person sharpens his friend. The test of a true friend is seen in the words of Jesus, “No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”. [John 15:13-14]. Thank you for being one of our “International bible.org Friends”.

August Focus: “Winterize or Being Ready” You have to admit the word winterize grabbed your attention didn’t it? You might be shaking your head when the calendar says August and the temperature here in Dallas, Texas continues to hover at 102 degrees. But, autumn and winter are just around the corner and for that we need advance preparation. Long ago Aesop told a Grasshopper fable to teach the principle of being prepared or being ready ahead of time.

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling in that way?” “I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.” “Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. It was then that the Grasshopper experienced the consequences of not being ready for the “day of necessity”. Long before Aesop, Solomon, as the author of Proverbs, taught this principle using the very same example of the ant. “Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise. [Prov 6:6]

Being ready is the key! Luke 12:40 says: “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” So as we are thinking about advance preparation, we would like to get some helpful ideas from our bible.org Friends.

We have created a form for you to add your ideas as our August Contest “Being Ready”. Winning entries receive a promotional gift from the bible.org store and names and ideas will be published in the September Newsletter. We have set up 3 categories 1- Family Ideas, 2- Church Ideas and 3- Personal ideas. To get you started our newsletter editor (Sonshine) has listed some sample ideas below:

This month we are going public with a Prayer ministry for the volunteers and staff that labor diligently as part of their ministry. If you would like to get updates by email on this Prayer Ministry send SonShine your name, email address. She will add you to the list that goes out every other week. You can then pray with us and for us
Have other ideas? Send your ideas to us via this webform.

In addition, Sonshine has updated the Treasure Chest of Prayer and Praises. You may now add your own prayers for the individuals highlighted on the weekly focus and enter your prayer for the individuals noted on a webform. That entry will be sent privately to the individual that you may encourage them. Watch for each week's updated staff member or pastor/teacher or blogger.
Note: to offer a prayer on the form you must be a logged in user of bible.org

Bible.org Mailbox Letters: Quoted as received with links added by staff.
Thank you for your support and encouragement even in our “slow” month of July. Here are some that came our way and for that we praise God. We at bible.org are incredibly encouraged! Keep those letters coming our way by telling us how bible.org has blessed you!

Patricia writes: The site is such a blessing that words cannot express. My heart felt thanks for the study guides, I was looking for the list of Jehovah names and meanings and I like how you made an in-depth sturdy. I can study where the names originated and how to apply it now to my life. Thank You so much. I know this web site is a blessing to who want to grow in the word.
N.T. Gilbreath writes: So far I have bought & given away 3 NET Bibles to introduce to friends. It blesses me that I am able to give God's word to people who have never seen or known about the NET Bible. It makes me feel good to help some other Christian find help understanding The Bible.
Leslie writes: Dear Friend: My name is Leslie, an Indian Christian. I want to thank Bible.org for your splendid ministry. I have lost count of how many times I have visited your site to find solutions for my theological questions. And it is refreshing to rely on such trusted scholars. ……Thank you, once again, for your great ministry.

Social Networking News and Initiatives:

Facebook “Friend”? Have you checked out www.facebook.com/bible.org lately? 12,040 fans (friends) like bible.org. Todd Lingren has a put our Illustrations CD on special for only $10 for our Facebook friends. If you have not signed up you can do so easily by signing up on www.facebook.com . . (We gently remind you to make your Facebook personal data private or you may end up on the list with [100 million others]

Bible Reading “Friend”? Are you a Bible Reading Friend yet? If not go here and sign up to get your reading plan sent via email each day. Last month we had a mini-contest to see which plan was the most popular and we read many entries. But, Michael Teague’s entry is the winning choice! Michael’s gift is a Synopsis of the Four Gospels. Here’s what “Michael” wrote as his winning entry for the July Newsletter contest:
I am using the Chronological Bible reading plan. I decided to read the Chronological Bible because last year, while reading the Daily Walk Bible, I found it difficult to understand some of the prophets because it was difficult to understand the context. This year as I read 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, I read the prophets in context.

[p.s. Your bible.org Exec Director and family are using this plan now for the 3rd consecutive year and sharing daily Bible principles via email. A special gift to them this year is to have a new Messianic believer join them. We praise God for making the Bible so relevant to him in his new walk and to also see as Michael saw; the prophets teachings “in context”]

Blogs: • Blogs: More and more of our “Friends” are reading and commenting on the blogs both on the bible.org Blogs page and on the blogs on the users page. Be sure to check out each one! Not only is that encouraging but what is exciting is that several of the newest blogs have been picked up on Google. God has again marvelously provided more worldwide attention by this. If you want to see what Google finds on bible.org, you can sign up for [Google alerts] and enter bible.org as your selection.

. ** Bible.org reserves the right to remove any links to personal websites or any websites that are shared in a blog which directs our audience to a site published for commercial use and is not bible.org related.**

• This last month bible.org’s Hampton Keathley uploaded over 100 audio files on studies on Hebrews, Psalms, Galatians and Disciplined Spirituality see (http://bible.org/series) and note the column on right indicates if it has an audio component
• Coming events: Stay tuned as soon the home page of bible.org will have a new face! Our techies are actively working on updating it to be more “Friendly” to our bible.org friends and easier to navigate.
• Personnel changes: We are excited and yet sad. Todd Lingren will soon be departing for the Seattle area to enroll in school for an advanced degree in computational linguistics. Todd will continue on half-time for bible.org. He has been with bible.org for many years and so is our “walking” encyclopedia of information. He has managed the store, formatted the NET Bible for printing, handled all manuscript submissions, been our editor extraordinaire, as well as coordinating the conferences for us to attend along with the many other tasks as well that are too numerous to mention. He will continue as the director of publishing and work with authors and site submissions. Todd has always been ready with the answer to our questions about formatting and the web page layout. As bible.org prayer warriors, we have seen the hand of God in graciously providing a buyer in “His Time” for the Lingren home in Texas. Soon the Lingren’s will be saying “westward ho” in their new adventure as they seek new employment for Todd’s wife, new schools for the girls, and a new routine for the new baby. 
o We welcome Michael Garrett as the Director of Marketing and Sales. Michael, has now joined the bible.org team full time and will be handling many new tasks such as working to promote new areas for bible.org and designing new programs for the bible.org site. He has been a volunteer for many years and recently headed up the “Equipping Men for IMPACT blog”.
o We also welcome Chris Abrams, a full time seminary student, who has joined the bible.org team as a techie. He will be assisting in the building of the new home page until he “winterizes” back into the fall routine of school.