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Links For Easy Bible Lookup
As some of you already know, River of Life Church’s website has a tool that automatically looks up Bible references for you. This is a wonderful little feature that works throughout our entire site including all pages, blogs, sermons posts, etc. The tool is so intuitive that it searches for references to the Bible of any type (Jn. 3.16 or John 3:16) and effortlessly transforms the text into an interactive Bible look up for you.
We have installed this for you in order to make it easy to quickly reference, look up, or even go in-depth & study the verses from God’s word that we are discussing. I hope you enjoy this tool & the convenience it provides for God’s people to rejoice & grow through the studying of His word.
There are 4 ways to use with this tool throughout our site:
1.) Hover
Hover your mouse over the bolded blue Scripture reference and the verse or passage will quick pop up for you to read instantly!
2.) Click
Instead of hovering, just click the Scripture reference to see it in a new window. Once in a while this even displays a cool graphic as well (check out Jn 10.9 for instance).
3.) Context
Once you have clicked the verse, you may want to read more context (before & after) the referenced verse. To do this, simply click on the “More >>” link on the bottom left of the new page that came up when you clicked the Scripture. This will then open up the entire chapter & more for you.
4.) Logos
If you really want to study the Bible reference more and you have Logos Bible Software, just click the little 
symbol that is just to the right side of the Bible reference. This will automatically open your ESV Bible in your Logos Bible Software to the correct passage.
Enjoy!
John Piper’s Unexpected Career in Hip-Hop
Holy hip-hop or Christian rap has been on my mind lately. While I still feel like a complete poser when a listen to such music, I can’t deny that I quite enjoy it (as my wife would be glad to testify with a roll of her pretty eyes; she isn’t much of a fan). As I’ve been exploring this genre, which is still rather new to me, I have come across an interesting and unexpected influence on these artists: none other than John Piper. Sometimes he is the one who has inspired the song and, even more often, he actually appears within the song. Let me give you some examples.
Let’s get started with what is probably the most notable and most popular of these Piper references.
Don’t Waste Your Life by Lecrae may not actually feature Piper’s voice, but it is named after one of his most popular books.
Next up is Make War by Tedashii which begins with John Piper’s battlecry of “Make War!”
From Tedashii we go to Shai Linne who begins his song All-Consuming Fire with a great quote from Piper.
We’re just getting started. Here is Json with Who He Is, a song that features Lecrae. And John Piper.
Let’s not forget Voice (aka Curtis Allen) who was the first person ever to rap at Bethlehem Baptist Church and who subsequently wrote a song titled Desiring God.
Timothy Brindle is also in on this John Piper thing, using a Piper sermon to introduce his song Sanctification.
And here comes Swoope with Actions Speak Louder. You’ll need to wait to the end to hear Piper’s bit.
We’ll go back to Tedashii and his song This Song’s For You, which is meant to honor true preachers. “So this song’s for the true shepherds / who prove selfless / whose aim is to aid the true helpless / I mean brothers like Spurgeon and Piper, Tom Nelson, John Edwards, / brothers who make disciples / Those who because of Ezekiel 34 shepherd the flocks / as a true pastor of the Lord.”
And back to Shai Linne with My Portion who gets Piper involves right off the top.
Once I began looking, I found quite a few more Piper quotes and references from artists who are not quite as well-known, but I guess I’ve made the point. Even here I am sure I haven’t exhausted all of the references from the more popular artists. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what I’ve missed!
Bonus
Here are some bonus videos:
It is not just rappers who use Piper’s sermons. Matt Papa includes John Piper in his song The Glory of God.
The Joy Eternal has a whole album based on the work of Piper. The title of the album is A Sweet & Bitter Providence. Here is their song The Best Is Yet to Come.
And to wrap it up, here is John Piper interviewing Lecrae:
—
- from Challies’ blog
Recommend: Logos Bible Software – iPhone App
My Vote -
Now the best Bible App for iPhone, iPad, & iPod users!
The newest update came out this morning for the Logos Bible Software app on the iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch… and its still free!
Make sure to update (or download for those who didn’t have it) & check it out! In my opinion, the new new features make it FAR better than any other Bible app out there.
Here is why:
Highlighting
You will be amazed at all the different highlighting palettes & options available. from basic colors, underlining, inductive (graphical) and much more. one great thing about the new Logos app over the ESV app, is you are not forced to highlight an entire verse, but can highlight a single word, a phrase, or the whole verse. Its really wonderful.
Notes
Logos now has notes for the mobile iOS! This is phenomenal as you can now use this as your all-inclusive Bible and note taking application. During your quiet time, something jumps out at you… take a note. Had a great prayer time over a verse? Write it in your notes. Have a question? Take a note and even mark it with a question mark graphic. Listening to a sermon is great, as you can now take notes in your Logos Bible app! Notes also comes with a full selection of color and graphic markers so you can systematize it however you prefer to.
Faster
One of the reasons I preferred the ESV app over Logos was because it seemed “snappier”. Meaning it seemed to be faster in response to page turning, etc. This is no longer the case. Logos Bible app is very responsive and excellent to work with in study & keeping up with teaching/preaching. One quick note of advice – make your favorite Bible translation & commentary available offline (download it to your device) for even quick responses!
Cloud Sync
Another thing I truly love about Logos Bible Software and its App is that they are cloud based. So all of your preferences, books, highlighting, notes, etc. are saved on a cloud server that automatically syncs with all of your computers and devices. Highlight a verse on your iPhone, and it will show up on your desktop that way. Add a note while studying at home, and your iPad will have it on it when you travel. Its amazing and seamless.
Bible Word Study
Logos iPhone & iPad app allows for you to do a Bible Word Study just by tapping a word with your finger. Its that easy! Find a word that you find interesting or would like to study, tap it, and click “Look Up”. If you have a Logos base package with original language support, you will then see the Greek/Hebrew along with morphology and much more. You can also click “Bible Word Study” to get much more detailed information from your resources that you have available.
Two Resource Panels
Logos not only gives you access to your Bibles, commentaries, and all other resources, it even allows you to see two at the same time! With their split-screen view, you can have your Bible on one screen, and your commentary on the other one. Want a different commentary or resource, you can easily switch them out from something else in your library. You can also choose for the panels to follow each other, so you don’t have to update them both. Turn your Bible to Ephesians 2, and your commentary automatically follows. Its that easy!
Its the Best!
All in all, this is the best Bible app I have seen on the iPhone and the iPad. I will now be using this for further study, teaching & preaching prep, and for my quiet time. You can get a free account to sign up for free resources. Even better, if you already have a Logos base package, you get almost your entire virtual library available at your fingertips. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an iPod touch, an iPhone, or iPad! Excellent job Logos! Click here to get it for free!
Here is a brief video to show you more of these features in action:
River’s Table – Now an Android App
The Table Android App: Church on the Go
River’s Table is now available as an Android App for free!
You can download it from the Android Market now.
Whether you’re using Android or iPhone, now you can bring your church with you wherever you go.
What can you do with the Android App? Click here
Free eBook: “Temptation and Sin” by John Owen
Temptation and Sin
by John Owen
John Owen’s treatises on temptation and sin stem from his pastoral concern for the church in England. These works have provided invaluable insight into the human condition and God’s grace to Christians for centuries.
Included in this volume:
- On the Mortification of Sin
- On Temptation
- On Indwelling Sin in Believers
- Exposition of Psalm 130
“I owe more to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern; and I owe more to The Mortification of Sin than to anything else he wrote.” —J. I. Packer
