Hi Friend!
Here’s my news:
First, I have attached a little image which I hope you will download from the episode notes to this podcast, our Facebook page, or the BibleReaders.info forum. I hope that you will share this image in whatever social media platform you use. Let’s pray that the simple message of this picture will cause someone to stop mindlessly scrolling and stop to read the message: “Read the Bible this year.” Let’s pray that the Lord will plant this message in the minds of those whom He is calling. Let’s pray for lives to be transformed in 2020 because of your sharing this simple message.
Secondly, if you happen to be good at making share-able pictures, please make any kind of imaginative graphic that we can use to promote the Daily Bible Reading Podcast or our YouVersion Bible reading plans. Please send them to me via the contact link found in this episode’s notes. An easy way to make such a graphic would be to make a verse picture inside of the YouVersion Bible app. When you share your picture with your friends, please include our web address (dailybiblereading.info) in your message. And I hope you will share a personal recommendation also.
Any new graphics I receive will be posted at our forum, BibleReaders.info. If you visit that site by manually typing in the address, click on the portal link in the site menu to see the newest posts.
In the last two weeks, I have revised the 365-day Digging Deeper Daily YouVersion reading plan. Lots of improvements have been made in the devotional pages. This is the best YouVersion plan to use if you want to read the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan while listening to the podcasts for each day. I have also revised one half of the first semester of the Read To Me Daily reading plan.
I have also revised the Read This First pages at our website that are for new readers or listeners using the 3D reading plan.
In my last news update of each year, I always try to share information about the best one-year full-Bible reading podcasts out there. I am surprised NOT to find more good ones to choose from! I don’t recommend listening to my voice for multiple years in a row. Here are some great options to consider for your next year of Bible reading:
The first one, Dailyaudiobible.com with Brian Hardin is the oldest and biggest in this genre. They have a very active on-line community that shares in mission projects and prays for one another, and this makes it so people keep following his daily podcasts year after year. Unlike my podcasts, Brian and his family produce the Daily Audio Bible series new and fresh every year! This collection of podcasts includes products for children and in different languages. I consider the dailyaudiobible to be— in an odd way— an online church. If you cannot attend a local church, you might find the online interaction and the sharing of prayer requests a wonderful thing. I listened to the dailyaudiobible throughout 2012 on the advice of a friend in Jakarta. This is the audio Bible that gave me the idea to do my own podcast.
The second one is Daily Radio Bible with Hunter Barnes. Hunter’s podcasts are in many ways like Brian Hardin’s. I think that he also is recording the Bible afresh each year. I have only listened to 1-2 of Hunter’s podcasts. They seem good.
And THIS is a new one for me to recommend this year: I think some of you might really like the YouVersion audio reading plan named Bible in One Year 2020 by Nicky Gumbel, who is a pastor in London, England. There are also dedicated apps for this plan for Android, Apple, and even Amazon devices. The web site for this is http://www.bibleinoneyear.org/. I note with a little bemusement that Pastor Nicky and his wife Pippa were able to get past YouVersion’s length limit for devotional content. Their first day’s devotional has 4 times the normal YouVersion limit for devotional content. So if you choose to listen to the audio content for this reading plan, it will probably take you 35 to 45 minutes per day. (My podcasts average 24 minutes per day.) Pastor Gumbel has the advantage of having a staff of people who can help with all the production work of creating a wonderful podcast with great devotional content. You will also enjoy their British accent.
I started my no-frills Daily Bible Reading podcast reading the NLT in 2014, then I added the GNT in 2016. Each day’s podcast was done with the hope that my children and grandchildren would one day be blessed by them. We praise the Lord that our five grandchildren are doing fine spiritually at this point. Luke is the oldest, at 18 years old, and our youngest, Devin, is 3. I still hope that my podcasts will be remembered by them just when they need spiritual input, and that might be when grampa is no longer around to talk to.
The motivation I have for asking YOU to share word about website, podcast, or reading plan is similar. Send out the news about the DBRP or the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan with a prayer that it will be noticed by those whom God is calling. I bet that not everyone of your Facebook or Instagram friends has their life perfectly together, spiritually speaking. They need God’s Word to be living and active in their lives. And they know you and will trust your recommendation, and God will use what you share!
May the Lord bless you ‘real good’ this Christmas and in 2020!
Phil & Gale
