THEME OF THE MONTH: Valentine’s Day

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February is soon upon us. In America there are five days set aside to enjoy as special events. Some are frivolous like Groundhog Day on Feb 2, while others honor past American leaders such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And then there is one very special day, Valentine’s Day, on Feb 14th. What is the history behind Valentine’s Day? Basically the answer to that question lies in three different legends all passed down in the past century to us involving a man who in some fashion and for some reason sent a valentine to a sweetheart. Hearts and love have become the symbol of Valentine’s Day since that time. The NET Bible lists 496 results for the word heart and 662 for the word love. In digging we can find “a joyful heart, a new heart, a wise heart, a heart’s desire, my heart, their heart,” and on and on and on. The most precious is John 3:16 as God’s Valentine to the world, His Son Jesus Christ. In thinking of that, here’s a simple exercise for you to do on Valentine’s Day. Make a valentine card from God to you and/or a friend. Inside write out a poem or a note on what God would say if He could hand the card to you. Then share your card with a friend or loved one.  Join the new users group "Valentine Thoughts" and share your ideas.  Another idea comes from one of our authors; Alex Strauch in his article “Evangelize or Fossilize” that Valentines Day can be a “fishpond”—invite friends and neighbors to a dinner with a special speaker who will speak on romance and recharging your marriage. There are many such fishponds that you can use to connect with the community. They’re opportunities looking you right in the face Perhaps you will share God’s Valentines Gift this Valentines Day with your friends.

1.  I'd like to express my thanks toward Mr Miller on his article Knowledge Puffs Up? — Deflating a Popular Proverb.As a Chinese Christian, I was baptized six years ago. I am blessed to have many accesses to Biblical materials (from teachers, bookstores, internet ) although Christianity here is still new to many people, which means there is a huge room to be improved regarding our teaching/church leadership. The above article really helps me.  ;-) I never doubt the importance of Bible study but it does confuse me when people frequently quote the above verse as a subtle criticism of learning. I love learning, and sometimes I am under the pressure when people praise how good a Bible student I am with the kind reminder of " but as we all know, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up".

1. I have been blessed with the understanding the commentaries on bible.org have given me; As I read the Bible I don't feel I am mature enough yet to gather the many times underlying truth the Lord wants me to know. Your commentaries and studies allow me to read and understand the wonderful message of the Bible' both the obvious and the ones the Lord wants us to have to work and  study to understand. Thank you, in Christ
2. Just wanted to let you know that i am truly grateful for your ministry. I have been reading the Net Bible on my Win Mobil device for a couple years now and just ordered a hard copy for my wife. After 34 years of marriage she has finally asked to have a bible she can read and understand. Praise the Lord. Thank you again,

And from our newest FACEBOOK FANS:

1. Amen, bible.org! The NET notes are a very good analysis of these verses.Thank you for the clarity you bring to difficult portions of the Word.
2. I would hope that no one who is a Christian simply reads the bible. We are all called to ministry and should be studying it. I love the transparency of translation provided by the notes. No doubt the KJV is lovely. So keep it and add the NET Bible. 
3. I recently got an I-phone and purchased the Net Bible for it. I enjoy using it on the go and the notes add wonderful depth to studying the passages. Some of my professors at Seminary are very fond of the Net Bible as well! 

• Financial Update

We praise God for the end of year giving. It took our deficit from 158k in October to 116k for the whole of 2009. We have been praying how we can get to a place where we are not running deficits every month. Next month we will share our 2010 plans and budget needs but If we could get  an additional 1000 donors at just $10 a month we could meet current expenses and if we could double that we could restart some of our curtailed programs. Next month we will share our 2010 plans and budget needs.(Donate page)

Staff Updates:

  Additions: We welcome Marcy to our Dallas office staff. Marcy is a member of Trinity Bible Church where Jeff Miller is Pastor. When you call in an order you will hear her cheery voice, “Hello, bible.org, this is Marcy, How can I help you?” Subtractions: Chris, our director of Ministry Development, will be leaving us for a new position in the local area .Also Mitch, one of our techies is leaving for a position where he gets health benefits. He will volunteer as he has time. Margaret, our part time bookkeeper and seminary student is graduating this year and has accepted a position with a church. She will continue to lead our new Children’s ministry thrust as a volunteer. Our hearts go with them as they depart knowing that God leads and we follow.

Project Updates:

NETBible Evangelist Program OR How to Become a Philip
Scripture tells us that Philip was an evangelist in Acts 21. Philip served as God led and he used every opportunity to share the good news with those around him and any that would stop and listen. As NT believers we are encouraged to follow his example by becoming an evangelist. We encourage you to share the good news and in particular, the news of the NET Bible and the bible.org site.  On this page, "bible.org Evangelists, Supporters and Friends", you can find different ideas on how to help in this endeavor, how to start and who to contact with your questions. Update: last month we sent brochures to several who responded to the call.  Stay tuned for next months update. 

NETBible Everywhere Program- The NETBible printed leather edition has been on the market for several years now and this past year we seem to have turned the corner where our efforts to liberally license the NETBible to all Bible study programs and those wanted to do a mobile application is paying off. You can see some of these on the NETBible downloads page

Social Networking Initiatives (helping the church win the relationship war for the next generation.)

• Facebook: Todd Lingren added bible.org to Facebook. Our prayer is that our presence on Facebook will encourage Christians to practice Ministry with one-another as they take up hurting peoples needs in prayer and sharing. As we near the end of January there are nearly 7000 members on Facebook saying they are a fan of bible.org. In addition, each week Todd adds a new bible.org idea and the link for Facebook fans to explore. If you have not joined Facebook yet you are missing an exciting section each day. http://www.facebook.com/bible.org
• The Users Site:The readership bible.org continues to grow with readers and scholars sharing news, articles, and researching ways to dig deeper into the Bible and provide ways that users can share their content with others as they build relationships and minister with one-another. One way to support this effort is to allow people to share material based on the master topic list on bible.org and allow any registered user to publish their content on our new users.bible.org site and select the biblical topic from the topics list which will allow others to find it when they search the site. This is a place where you can post their thoughts, blog, start a public or private group, share ideas for working on Sunday School. Check it out!

Announcements:

• Author of the Month.

Beginning this month we are going to spotlight one of the many authors from bible.org. The author for February is: Dr. Kay Daigle. Kay is currently Minister to Women at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas, Texas, and previously served as Director of the Women's Ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church. In addition, Kay is a part of the Women’s Leadership Team/Executive Committee for bible.org We encourage you to look at the selection bible.org offers of her many books in the bible.org store. How appropriate that Dr. Daigle has written a book which fits in with our theme of the month. It is entitled “God’s Design for Building Your Marriage.” 

• Vacancy: 

 We need a part time graphics web design person. If you know someone gifted in this area and looking to serve in a Christian ministry, have them contact us.

 

News 

bible.org News- As always in any organization there is good news and not so good news. Good news is preferable and enjoyable, not so good news is necessary but hardly palatable. Let’s start with the good news.

NETBible news: activities are picking up. The NET Blog titled “NET Bible Revolution" will become a team effort! Posts will rotate among various members of the NET Bible Team who work on the NET Bible translation and notes. Dr Michael Burer will be coordinating the efforts and he will begin a series of audio notes that will augment the 60,000+ footnotes. See audio note-introduction We are encouraging pastors, seminary teachers who use the NETBible in their teaching to interact with the NETBible scholars about problem passages that they think need additional notes or clarification.

•  Children’s Ministry: .Recently Margaret, our new Children’s Ministry Director attended the annual Children’s Pastor’s Conference in Nashville, TN where she presented our new Children’s ministry. The children leadership team is working to compile original works from experienced children’s ministry leaders to post on the website. If you would like to join us and/or have developed some original work that others can benefit from, please contact us. KEY Verse: (Psalm 78:4b, 6-7 ) (NET)

• Forum News:  On the upper right corner of the main site you will see a box listing What’s New, Popular, Forum Posts and Blog Posts. Be sure to check each one out when you drop in for a visit. This week’s forum post leans towards music and leads to an interesting discussion. Consider joining in and post your own viewpoint.

• On What’s New check out Jeff Miller’s series on Hebrews or Bob Deffinbaugh series on Judges

Tapestry Blog News: The Women’s Exec Committee had a dinner fellowship for the Tapestry Bloggers whose goal is to invite readers to participate in sharing a Christian worldview from a biblical perspective using scriptural principles in areas that are thought provoking. You can visit the Tapestry Blog by going to the womens page and click on the door marked Tapestry. Recently we all heard on TV about Harry Reid's racist remarks. Sharifa Stevens wrote about her thoughts which challenged the readers to stop and ponder all about how we are to be living and exalting Christ when we are faced with remarks about race and character.

Other Blog news: Dr. Michael Burer recently gave us much to think about in his blog on Brit Hume and Tiger Woods. Check out his thoughts and add your response.

Now for the not so good news: The development activities on the NETBible online environment project have come to a halt due to lack of funding. The http://net.bible.org/ will remain as you see it, but further development is currently curtailed until the funding situation improves. . If you know of someone who would like to discuss further ideas for this project, send David Austin a note:

PRAISES AND PRAYER

Prayer: Our hearts ache for the Haitians and the struggle they are facing. May we remember to pray and share of our bounty with those who have faced this terrible disaster. May God’s glory be seen and many turn to Him at this hour of need.

PRAISES  Ps 113:1 says Praise the Lord! Praise, you servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord! How marvelous is our God. He has answered one major prayer in the end of the year donations. A second one is that as of this week we now have 4 committed prayer warriors who will pray for the needs of bible.org. A third one is bringing Marcy to the office. A fourth one is that we have recruited some new gals for the Tapestry Blog; what a blessing to read their thoughts each day. A fifth one is that Margaret came back from the Children’s Pastor’s conference renewed in heart and mind and with many other ideas for the children’s program. A sixth one is the Bible reading program  now has  the chronological reading program  added to the other three already there. The enemy would try to defeat bible.org but we remember these marvelous verses: 1 John 4:4 because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. And Rom 8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Now to pray: wisdom and discernment regarding the work going on in Haiti, the activities of bible.org; continued prayer for the finances; pray for the users.bible.org page to be successful; for pastors and teachers who are faithful in teaching the Word, for protection, holiness, wisdom as missionaries serve in difficult places around the world. Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter where we will discuss concrete ways to pray for the missionaries.