I took a little break for Thanksgiving. Thanks for hanging with me. I’m so excited. The site is growing! The feeds are growing! My content is growing! Thanks for being a faithful reader!

To continue my Keep Your Focus series, a series dedicated to resources that can help our spiritual growth, I wanted to make you aware of some great Bible studies. Grace Bible Church of College Station, TX has put some publication quality Bible studies online. You could go through these studies for a couple of years and not have to buy a bible study.

This one is for my scholar friends out there! Check out GreekStudyBible.org. You can read the Greek, plus 4 other translations (pretty much any of them) side by side. You can parse words, see detailed meanings, make study notes, and cross reference with an exhaustive Greek concordance. This site is an extremely versatile and user friendly tool. Even if you have the most basic knowledge of the Greek language, it is helpful!

Don’t forget to put your name in the hat for a FREE 1 hour phone consultation.

What can I say, I go to this site ALOT!

1. Articles
2. Daily Bible readings
3. Free downloadable NET Bible (a very good translation)
4. Adult curriculum and Bible study courses
5. Self study theology courses

Take a look at it and bookmark it!

Today, I bring you Examen.me.

This is an online devotional site which allows spiritual growth through the following three arenas:

1. Scripture reading and mediation
2. Prayer guides
3. Journaling

You have to sign up with a free account to access it. I have to say that it is a very neat concept and its interface is user friendly. However, if you are like me, and you love to have the actual book in front of you with real pen and paper, this site most likely won’t be used much. I did want to make it known to my more “tech-minded” followers out there who may be able to foster a great amount of spiritual growth using this avenue.

Have you used this before? Do you know of any similar sites? Comment below!

A couple of years ago, a friend let me know about a unique ministry called Talks for Growing Christians. This site has some very straightforward Bible teachings which can be streamed or downloaded. I also like that they provide lesson notes and questions to consider as you listen along. You could easily turn this into your daily Bible study.

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Today, you need to check out YouVersion. This online Bible and study tool is freely offered by LifeChurch. It combines Bible readings with community contributions…you know, because this whole social networking stuff is all the rage these days!

You can also get it for your mobile device. Having it on my Blackberry has come in handy on multiple occasions.

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*Image designed by Andy Johnson using Inkscape

This week, I am beginning an 8 post series about how we who lead children can keep our spiritual focus. I will highlight various resources that help put a spark in your spirit! This will go for 3 straight weeks, aside from a Wednesday Give Away next week. One thing that is critical for every believer is sitting under the authority of God’s Word. We certainly need to be in personal Bible study every day, but there is something about the preaching of God’s Word that motivates our spirit to be disciples who walk more closely to Jesus. I have not sat through an entire Sunday worship service  in close to a year. I’m sure that many of you are in the same boat. Both of my children’s worship services take place during the two adult worship services and I feel a strong calling as the Pastor to Kids, that I need to be the one preaching to them. I can not contract that out.

I work around this by listening to sermons in the car and while working out. I wanted to compile a list of notable places to listen to or download free, Bible based messages. I hope you may find some of these helpful, they are in no particular order.

1. OnePlace–This website has an enormous array of streaming sermons. Downloads, however, generally cost a few bucks.
2. SEBTS Chapel–My seminary has a host of notable speakers and all messages are freely accessible and downloadable.
3. Sermon Audio–A great place to go if you are interested in getting messages dealing with particular topics or books you are studying. If you want your toes stepped on about wishy washy discipleship, download this message by Paul Washer.
4. Mark Driscoll–The Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He is now several weeks in to a Luke study which he plans on taking 3 years to finish. I hope to stick it out with him and so far I have not been disappointed!
5. John MacArthur–Leader of Grace To You Ministries. His site has decades of his Bible teaching.
6. John Piper–Founder of Desiring God Ministries. His site also has years of sermons on various Bible passages, social issues, and doctrinal topics.
7. David Platt–David is a tremendous up and coming pastor of Brook Hills Church. His teaching is up front and challenging.
8. S. Lewis Johnson–This guy is old school, but you can find a great deal of in-depth Bible teachings and messages on theology and doctrine at the Believer’s Chapel site.
9. Clay Waters–This is my pastor and I keep up with his sermons as well! He’s a great preacher.
10. Ravi Zacharias–Ravi is an international apologist. His site is filled with sermons he has preached on apologetics and biblical worldview.
11. Tom Nelson–Tom is the pastor of Denton Bible Church. He is very good at splashing humor throughout his messages.

Please feel free to comment on any other places you have found dynamic bible based teachings!

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With Wordle, you can create really cool word clouds for your ministry like the one above. Since it is a Java Applet, getting it to be an image file (.jpg or .gif) is a bit difficult, but here’s what I did.

1. Create the Wordle
2. Print it as a PDF
3. Open the PDF and use the snapshot tool to copy the area you want to use
4. Paste the copied area into Publisher or graphics editing program
5. Save the copied picture as a .jpg or .gif using, right click–>Save As Picture

Happy Wordling!

You may also be interested in:

1. Lots of free videos, looping backgrounds, and countdowns
2. Open source graphics editor

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I have had an increasing conviction about teaching the kids under my ministry about how good we have it in the western church. I want them to have empathy and compassion for our persecuted brothers and sisters. One way I have recently done this is by using one ministry of Voice of the Martyrs called Prisoner Alert. On the Prisoner Alert website, you can write letters using a “wizard,” print those letters out, and mail them to imprisoned Christians featured on their website.

I recently did this with the Awana ministry at our church. I printed out a good deal of letters and had the children decorate them with Christian symbols and colorful pictures. They really enjoyed it. VOM will also send you a promotional video you can show your children to make them aware of how Christians are persecuted as well. I showed this prior to giving them the letters to decorate. Even though the letters cost money to mail, I thought this activity was well worth it to feature on this site.

You may also be interested in:

1. Families Celebrating Christmas
2. Evangelism Site for Kids

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I not only like to provide free resources on this blog, but also free “nuggets” that you can use to make your ministry more healthy. This month, I’d like to share with you some awards that I give to volunteers each year at our volunteer banquet. I have the volunteers nominate people for these various awards. When I present them, I speak a few words about the individual, and present them with a nice certificate (which you can find here). The awards are:

• Cardiac Award: The volunteer with the biggest heart for kids.
• Legacy Award: A volunteer who has committed a great deal of years, time, emotion, and energy to your ministry.
• Rubber Band Award: The volunteer who shows an attitude of flexibility each and every week.
• Boy Scout Award: The volunteer who shows themselves to be the most prepared every week.
• Lexus Award: The volunteer who shows a commitment to excellence in all that they do.
• Up and Coming Award: Goes to a new volunteer who shows unique promise in doing great things in Children’s Ministry.
• Spirit Award: Awarded to the volunteer who is a wonderful example of godliness to the kids and other volunteers
• Out There Award: Goes to the volunteer with an extra measure of goofiness and ability to relate to children on their level.

You may also be interested in:

1. No Other Ministry Promotion Poster
2. Volunteer Performance Evaluation

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