Bible podcasts, videos, blogs, printables, and more to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible.

from Yvon Prehn to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible

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How We Got the Bible—an essential foundational series for reading the entire Bible

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Study your Bible
Learn how we got the Bible and you can better trust what you learn in it.

Getting to know, trust, and apply the Bible is one of the most important things you need to do to grow as a follower of Jesus.

One of the most important things to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible is to read through the Bible in Chronological order, where you see God’s entire redemptive story of salvation from beginning to end. Bible805 will start a series of weekly lessons on that again in Janurary 2023. I have lots of materials on this site on related lessons from the past, but between now and then, I have a series of foundational lessons.

Before we start reading through the Bible

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A Free Christmas flyer you can use for Christmas letters, flyers, however you want

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Free story that shares Jesus at Christmas
An easy way to share our most important message at Christmas about Jesus. Click the image to download the Zip file, click to open, and SHARE!

Note: I created this initially for my Effective Church Communications ministry (one of the associated ministries of the Bibleverse), but then I realized that it would be important to share with my Bible805 ministry because for all of us sharing the good news about Jesus is the most important thing we can do at this time of year and always.

This way of sharing the gospel has been used by thousands of churches through the years and I created 4 new designs this year, that you can download as PDFs, plus an MS Word file, and use in any way you want to share the Gospel of Jesus at Christmas. You can use them in these ways:

  • Personalize from your church with invitations to specific events on the back or links to more information about what it means to follow Jesus.
  • Print and give as a gift to members to share in Christmas letters, give to friends, and encourage them to use them.
  • Upload to your church or ministry website and freely share the link and encourage members to download and share either in print or in their own social media.
  • Use in your social media, newsletters, and anything that the church sends out.

Below are images of the PDFs and below that is a ZIP file that has the PDFs and the MS Word file. The text copy is also below the images if you want to copy and use it from there. Click on the images to see a larger version.

To download a PDF of the images above, plus an MS Word file of the content CLICK the following link: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Christmas-Flyer-to-Share-Jesus.zip

To go to additional FREE Christmas Templates and past versions of this Christmas Letter: CLICK HERE

Here is a short motivational video–share it from YouTube to motivate others to use the flyer:

To download a PDF of the story to share Jesus, shown above, plus an MS Word file of the content CLICK the following link: https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Christmas-Flyer-to-Share-Jesus.zip
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A gift for you–free copy of Tetelestai, if the battle is finished, why is life so hard?

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Tetetelesti“Tetelestai!” was the final cry of Jesus from the cross and it means, “it is finished.”

It is an extraordinary cry of victory and hope and this eBook (CLICK HERE or on the image to download it) will give you strength and encouragement to fight the battles of life. You have permission to make as many copies of the book as you want to share with others.

Though the word is often a part of sermons on the Easter message of salvation, there are many questions about it that this book explores and that are useful for any time of the year.

    • Did Jesus really say “tetelestai”? (spoiler alert…He didn’t)
    • What did he really say and what does it mean?
    • What is finished?
    • If the victory is won and the battle over, why is life so hard?
    • And how should we live in this challenging time, between His resurrection and return considering what He said?

Download NOW, be strong, and continue to fight the daily spiritual battles we all face until our time on earth is finished.

Bible Study Tools of YouVersion Bible App, BibleGateway, BlueLetter Bible, Precept Austin, and Wikipedia

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  • Online Bible Study ToolsDo you wish you had more time for Bible study? Either for yourself or for when you prepare to teach?
  • Do you wish you were able to understand the Greek and Hebrew words of the original manuscripts?
  • Would you like to know more about the archeology or history of the Bible?
  • And would you like to do all this without an expensive and time-consuming seminary education?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, I’ve got some great ways for you to accomplish all these goals in our lesson today—Online Bible Study Tools, easy to use, in-depth results.

Below is the podcast, the transcript, and inserted in it, the video overview of the sites mentioned—they are GREAT, FREE RESOURCES—do check them out.

Like many of you, I feel like I never have enough time to do all the study and preparation I would like for the Bible classes I teach. There is always one more resource, one more commentary, one more word study I wish I had time to look at.

Though that frustration will most likely never totally go away in this earthly life, I have found some tools that enable me to do a much greater depth of study in a shorter time than I was able to in the past. I’m going to share them with you in this brief audio overview of a set of online tools I use continuously as I do my preparation for Bible teaching. Instead of one long video, below are links to short video previews of each of the tools, that include a brief tutorial and demonstration on how to use each one.

I’m not doing this to market or promote any of these, nor does my ministry get affiliate or other payments for telling you about them. I have simply benefited greatly from using them and I’ve promised people in my Bible classes for far too long that I would demonstrate how to use them—finally I’m fulfilling that promise now.

Do check them out, they are really easy to use and will make a great difference in your studies of the Bible. [Read more…]

3 tools to keep you from making mistakes as you read

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3 to to keep you from making mistakes as you read the BibleIn our previous lesson, we looked at the big, theological word “Hermeneutics” that in summary means the guidelines we use to properly understand the Bible so that we can apply it in the way God wants it applied.

Instead of simply listing “Hermeneutical Principles,” guidelines to help us interpret things properly, which can be very helpful, but often don’t make a lot of sense out of context,

We looked at Jeremiah 29:11, the very popular verse that says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

And by applying hermeneutical principles of looking at the words in their original language, at the context of history, and context of the passage itself, and finally the tool of Principlizing we got a correct interpretation of it.

Please go HERE for the complete previous lesson.

In this lesson, here are THREE more Hermeneutical tools that will help us properly interpret the Bible

1. Understand genre—is it a comic book or a cookbook?

2. Beware of the hapax—passages or words mentioned only once

3. Embrace humility—we know so little and so many have gone before us, not one of us is the final authority or expert and so we apply this by using the tools given to us by others in the Body of Christ.

Following is a PDF of the notes (CLICK on it to download and print out) and then the Podcast and Video for the lesson. Please share freely.

NOTES for 3 Tools to keep you from Making mistakes as you read the Bible

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Focus on the things that matter and not “the multitude of trifling things”

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Focus on the important things in lifeThough this quote comes from a secular, self-help site, it is an incredibly important truth to keep in mind as we all try to grow in our Christian discipleship. A.W. Tozer expressed a similar thought in this way:

The wise man will simplify his life by going to the center of it. He will look well to the foundations and, having done that, he will not worry about the rest.

Life, as we know it in our painfully intricate civilization, can be deadly unless we learn to distinguish the things that matter from those that do not. It is never the major things that destroy us, but invariably the multitude of trifling things which are mistakenly thought to be of major importance. These are so many that, unless we get out from under them, they will crush us body and soul….

Every believer as well as every minister of Christ must decide whether he will put his emphasis upon the majors or the minors. He must decide whether he will stay by the sober truths which constitute the beating heart of the Scriptures or turn his attention to those marginal doctrines which always bring division and which, at their best, could not help us much on our way to the Celestial City. A.W. Tozer The Next Chapter After the Last, 11,14.

To repeat his key phrase: It is never the major things that destroy us, but invariably the multitude of trifling things which are mistakenly thought to be of major importance.

Oh, it is so important that we learn to distinguish between the two!

The best way to do that is to spend time in God’s Word, looking at what are His priorities for life and how we should be living. Then, we need to take some time to consider, journal, whatever we need to do to make certain our priorities, how we spend our time and money line up with His.

If we need to make changes, we must do that so we are not destroyed by the “multitude of trifling things which are mistakenly thought to be of major importance.”