Archives for 2013

NIV 1984 Archive

NIV Study Bible  I came to faith in Christ in middle school through the ministry of Youth for Christ.  I remember asking for an NIV Study Bible for my birthday (which I think surprised my parents at the time).  The 1984 edition had just recently came out.  So this version is the “heart language” of the scripture that I know.  On February 28, 2013, it was a day of morning for me and others when Biblica removed the 1984 edition from all websites and digital apps.

As technologies have changed, I am more digital and now read the Bible mostly in digital format.  Thankfully, I had purchased the 1984 edition from Laridian many years ago and will continue to have access to it through PocketBible.  However, there are other friends who did not have a digital copy and had relied on biblegateway.com and other on-line resource for digital access to the scriptures.

Thanks to the Internet Archive, we still have access to the text of the NIV 1984!  You can’t search through it, but you can browse to the passage that you want.  I have made a short URL to the biblegateway page which lists all the books of the NIV 1984 edition.  Enjoy!

http://bit.ly/niv1984archive

We Never Walk Alone

Commissioning Day – February 24, 2013

A day full of tears, full of prayers, and an outpouring of love from the body of Christ…

prayers

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

~Never Once by Matt Redman

 

prayers2

Our hearts are full of thankfulness to our amazing God who never has us walk alone.

Not Because of Who I Am

Over the past year, our family has been involved in sharing how God is working to bring His Word to the nations– through the work of Wycliffe and the Bible translation process.

wycliffe table

After a recent presentation, I was taken a little off guard by a question in regards to missions and our upcoming move. The question was worded similar to this…

“What is it about you that you are able to just get up and change the direction of your life?  What is it that you’ve got?  What does it take to do something like this?”

I smiled awkwardly, fumbled with my answer, and then finally said the first thing that had come to my mind, “There is nothing special about me.”  We talked a little bit more, but as with most conversations I walk away from, I realized what I should have said – much after the fact.

My more elaborate answer should have resembled the following…

There is nothing special about me.  It is all about Jesus.  It takes intimately knowing the One who has called you.  It takes trust that has built up over multiple times of finding Him faithful.  In order to step out in faith – whether to reach out to an unsaved neighbor, to move your family to the inner city to minister within community, to moving across the country to further the Gospel, or crossing the ocean to bring the Good News to those who have never heard – you must trust that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever and that He will continue to be faithful and true. It takes reminding yourself of Who you serve – the King of kings and Lord of lords, who loved us so much that he died for us and took away our sins.  I, this weak and sinful vessel, go and follow His call, not because of who I am, but because of who my Savior is.

God will still make a great name for himself among the nations. God involves us in His mission not because He needs us but because He loves us and in His mercy He has invited us to be involved in His sovereign design for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
~ David Platt, Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions, Together for the Gospel 2012