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Introducing Faithlife.com Plugins

Faithlife community

Use the new “Join my group” plugin to connect your church’s website and Faithlife.com, so that when someone asks you for instructions on joining your church’s Faithlife group, you can say, “It’s on the website.”

Click the new “Plugins” item on the Faithlife.com menu, or visit Faithlife.com/Plugins. This is the first of several helpful plugins we have planned, so be on the lookout for more soon. When you click through to the “Join my group” plugin page, you’re only three easy steps from having a Faithlife.com “Join” button on your website.

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Step 1: Search for and select your group.

Use the search box to find the group you’d like to link to. If you have multiple Faithlife.com groups associated with your church (one for each small group, for example), you may like to place multiple plugins on your church website, perhaps setting aside a special page to serve as a catalog of your church’s groups.

Step 2: Choose from three display options.

Once you’ve selected a group from the search box and drop-down menu, you’ll be presented with three different button sizes—small, medium, and large. The small and medium buttons also include a drop-down menu with options for changing your group status. Select the size you prefer, and you’ll get a preview of the button and the code you need to place it on your website.

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You’ll notice that the button changes based on your group’s status. Any website visitor who is not a member of your group will see “Join,” but the button will display differently for website visitors who are already members. You can see an example of this below.

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Step 3: Copy and paste two code snippets to your website.

The final step is to copy two small lines of code into your website. One—beginning with “<script”—goes in the body; the other—beginning with “<p”—indicates exactly where you’d like the plugin to reside.

Make it easier for church members to connect with one another on Faithlife.com.

Place the “Join my group” plugin on your church’s website today.

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A Christian Response to Drug Addiction

Jimi Hendrix. Heath Ledger. Whitney Houston. Cory Monteith. Philip Seymour Hoffman.

And countless others.

The drug culture that so often surrounds celebrities is tragic from every angle, and too often deadly. These men and women live in the spotlight, entertain us, and then retreat to the solitude and loneliness of addiction. They shoot poison into their veins, hoping it will calm their restlessness, and for a time, entertain the entertainers. They seek a fix. As Russell Brand, famously clean for many years, admitted in an op-ed published by The Guardian, “I look to drugs and booze to fill up a hole in me.”

But substance abuse isn’t limited to celebrities. Many people within the middle-class suburban towns that so many of us call home also struggle with addiction. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths by overdose have risen more than 100 percent nationwide since 1999. Even though no headline is made when one among them loses that fight, their loss is no less tragic. So how are we—the church, the ones with whom God has entrusted his truth—to respond? How can we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel to which we cling (Philippians 1:27)?

We must call sin, sin

Self-destructive, self-indulgent behavior like drug abuse and binge drinking is sin. There’s no way around it (1 Corinthians 6:9). It is a perversion of God’s plan, and we cannot make excuses for it. We can’t blame an addict’s environment, upbringing, or genetic predisposition. Those things may contribute, but sin is a matter of choice. Excuses don’t make the past better or the present easier.

We must extend grace and forgiveness

It was Ghandi—not Jesus or one of his disciples—who said, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” But the sentiment is no less true on his lips. We must look beyond the sin to the sinner who’s fallen victim to it. We must love without enabling, show mercy without excusing, and offer help without condescending. (Click to tweet)

Can a Christian, in good conscience, partake of the art made by a man or woman who regularly chooses to abuse controlled substances? Of course. We enjoy the art of gossips, braggarts, gluttons, and rebels all the time. Why should this specific sin be any different?

Personally—and it is a very personal choice—I choose to abstain from art, music, or cinema that openly glorifies sin. At least, I make an effort to do so. Like most forms of abstinence, it’s much easier to say than to practice.

How do you think Christians ought to respond to the rising tide of drug addiction, and drug related death? Tell us in comments.

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Learn what the Bible says about this and other issues with the free Faithlife Study Bible app. Download it today from your app store of choice.

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The 9 Major Types of Bible Study Tools

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Bible study tools come in all different shapes and sizes, but the most common resources usually fit into one of a few basic categories. They each have a specific purpose to aid your studies.

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of different kinds of Bible study tools and what they can do for you, along with some suggested resources to get you started.

Bible dictionary

Bible dictionaries are a lot like English dictionaries, but they are focused on biblical words. Rather than providing modern definitions, they describe what a given word means when used in the Bible. They often include details like the meanings of biblical names. Some more technical Bible dictionaries will include references to the Greek and Hebrew, while others stick to the English.

Bible encyclopedia

Bible encyclopedias are similar to Bible dictionaries in concept, but they are greater in scope. While dictionaries typically have short entries for quick reference, encyclopedias tend to have longer articles covering people, places, events, objects, and more as found in the Bible. Bible encyclopedias often go into much greater historical and cultural detail than dictionaries.

Both Bible dictionaries and Bible encyclopedias are organized alphabetically by topic. When you get one from Logos.com, you’ll see links to it in your study notes whenever the text you’re reading mentions a topic it addresses. In this way, your FSB app gets more detailed and powerful as you add resources from Logos.com.

Commentary

Commentaries go verse by verse or passage by passage through the Bible, or through a particular section of the Bible. This system of organization is called “versification” because it follows the book, chapter, and verse structure of the biblical text. Commentaries are meant to be used in parallel with the Bible’s text, offering explanations, insights, textual notes, historical background, and more. Most commentaries also include introductions to the books of the Bible, providing details such the book’s author, as well as when, where, and why it was written.

Study Bible

Study Bibles combine multiple study tools (such as a Bible dictionary and commentary) into one relatively compact volume. Like commentaries, study Bibles are versified, but the notes in study Bibles are usually much more concise and to the point than full commentaries. When sold in print, the text of the Bible is placed right alongside or above the notes and articles. The world’s largest, most advanced study Bible is free! If you’re not already using it, get your free Faithlife Study Bible now. You can also add notes from other study Bibles to your FSB.

Versified resources like commentaries and study Bibles offer a great alternative to the study notes included in your FSB app. If you’d like to survey multiple opinions while you study, add a commentary set or another study Bible to your FSB, and you can quickly switch between them.

Concordance

Concordances are designed to help you find things in the Bible. Basic concordances have fallen out of popularity, due to the ease of searching digital Bibles. However, the more advanced concordances are still useful, due to their ability to search by topics and themes or even people and places, rather than simple word searches.

Harmony

Harmonies take books of the Bible that overlap one another in content, and they show how the books fit together. They reorganize the biblical content to flow chronologically, so you can find parallel passages more easily. The most common variety are Gospel harmonies, combining the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; however, harmonies also exist for other books, such as Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Many harmonies only include Scripture references, while others place the actual texts in parallel columns. A few harmonies actually combine the four Gospels into a single text that flows chronologically.

Lectionary

Lectionaries are reading plans for the Bible that group texts into weekly readings. They often span three-year cycles, designated year A, year B, and year C. The idea is to provide believers around the world with a shared reading schedule. While some lectionaries include only the readings themselves, others include reflections on the texts.

Devotional

Devotionals are one of the most common Bible study tools, but they have wide variety among them. Some focus on a book or passage of the Bible, while others focus on a certain topic, while others still cover multiple topics. Some devotionals include a year’s worth of reading, while others only last for a month. Some are meant to be read in the morning, while others are meant to be read at evening, while others still have entries for both morning and evening.

Bible atlas

Bible atlases are collections of maps that show the world as it was in Bible times. They are helpful for seeing how different biblical locations fit together. Many Bible atlases show the paths followed by biblical people during their travels.

All the study tools you see here can be enjoyed in your free Faithlife Study Bible app. Buy one from each category, and you’ll have a robust Bible study library that will serve you well for years to come.

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Serious Bible study is easier with serious Bible study software. The Faithlife Study Bible is a great place to start, but if you’d like to study in greater detail, Logos Bible Software is for you. Its powerful, intuitive tools and vast libraries are the perfect way to expand your understanding of the Scriptures.

Get Logos Basic free.

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Introducing Faithlife Discussions

Faithlife Groups help facilitate faith-based discussions.

A healthy faith community always contains diverse opinions, experiences, and interpretations of Scripture. Navigating the differences can be spiritually enriching in a way that few other things are (Proverbs 27:17). As we’ve often said: we learn best when we learn together.

Faithlife discussions makes enriching conversation on faith and doctrine easier than ever. And it’s simple. You’ll find the discussions section of your Faithlife Group on the menu bar alongside newsletters, calendar, and other important group functions. If you don’t see it, use the down arrow to reveal more features.

Inside Faithlife discussions, you can create new discussion threads, view the post count, and read and reply to existing threads. Group members can comment on a thread by either adding their own thoughts in a comment or affirming with expressions like “Agree,” “Amen,” “Praise the Lord!,” “Stand Firm,” “Like,” and “Praying.” These options create a unique middle ground between a “like” and a full written response.

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Group administrators can moderate threads and comments with tools to edit, delete, and flag inappropriate posts.

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We hope that Faithlife discussions equip you to facilitate more meaningful conversation in your faith community.

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Faithlife Groups are the digital home for your faith community. It’s free to join and invite others. Tools like prayer lists, reading plans, Community Notes, and a group newsletter make it easier than ever to communicate, collaborate, and fellowship around the Word of God. Join today at Faithlife.com.

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Observe Lent with This New Devotional

40-days-to-the-cross-reflections-from-great-thinkersObserve Lent this year with 40 Days to the Cross: Reflections from Great Thinkers—a devotional prepared by the Lexham Press editorial team.

Lent is a 40-day period of prayer, reflection, and preparation for Easter. Traditionally, it runs from Ash Wednesday to Easter (excluding Sundays). And though it’s often associated with church traditions like Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Presbyterianism, Christians from a variety of backgrounds observe Lent with a mixture of fasting, reflection, and repentance.

It was with personal knowledge of the power in the Lent season that the Lexham Press editorial team set out to compile a 40-day devotional to guide you through it. The team that brought you Connect the Testaments, the Lexham Bible Guides, the Studies in Faithlife Living Collection, and the Faithlife Study Bible drew upon the works of great theologians like Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, John Newton, Charles Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, and many others.

Each day contains a passage of Scripture to facilitate confession, a reading from the Gospels cataloging Christ’s journey to the cross, and a reflection from one of church history’s greatest scholars.

Personally, I’ve been celebrating Lent since 2011, when my home church made a point to observe all the major points on the church calendar. As a faith community, we celebrated together. In the weeks leading up to Lent, our pastor explained the traditional observance practices, unpacked their meanings, and challenged each man and woman to single out something from which we would abstain. He also challenged us to find something with which we’d like to fill the resulting void in our schedule. To punctuate our commitments, a member of the church who also happened to be a skilled carpenter crafted a pair of giant less-than and greater-than signs for the stage. At the close of the second service, each congregant was invited to leave their seat and write a single-word summary of our commitments on each sign. They remained on the stage throughout the Lenten season as a reminder. On Easter Sunday, dozens of resurrection lilies replaced them. Our season of preparation was over. Our celebration had begun.

It was a beautiful season that I will never forget. Our small commitments focused our attention on the work of Christ, and prepared my heart for one of the most meaningful and joyous Easter Sundays I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve had the privilege to preview this resource so that I could share it with you. I sense the same spirit in it that motivated me to rise from my seat and write a commitment on a wooden less-than sign. I was reminded how much more meaningful Easter has been since I started observing a season of preparation. It excites me to imagine that others will enjoy a similar experience thanks to this devotional.

We’ve discounted this new product by 25% until March 9 because we want more people to experience the power of Lenten preparation, prayer, and meditation. Get it now, and enjoy it each day until Easter.

Get 40 Days to the Cross: Reflections from Great Thinkers today at a 25% discount!

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Spurgeon’s Critics

spurgeonWho would dare criticize the Charles Spurgeon, the great prince of preachers? Maybe more people than you think. The Spurgeon Commentary: Galatians opens with a brief biography of his ministry.

This passage might surprise you:

When 19-year-old Charles Spurgeon was called to the New Park Street Pulpit in 1854, London newspapers derided him as a brash upstart. Critics complained that his plainspoken, direct speaking style was too edgy—and dangerously innovative. A secular magazine referred to his colloquial speech as “slang.” A newspaper editorial categorized his preaching as “ginger-pop sermonizing.” One particularly harsh critic wrote:

He is nothing unless he is an actor—unless exhibiting that matchless impudence which is his great characteristic, indulging in coarse familiarity with holy things, declaiming in a ranting and colloquial style, strutting up and down the platform as though he were at the Surrey Theatre, and boasting of his own intimacy with Heaven with nauseating frequency. His fluency, self-possession, oratorical tricks, and daring utterances, seem to fascinate his less-thoughtful hearers, who love excitement more than devotion.

During that first year, pundits regularly predicted an early end to Spurgeon’s ministry in London: “He is a nine days’ wonder—a comet that has suddenly shot across the religious atmosphere. He has gone up like a rocket, and ere long will come down like a stick.”

Spurgeon’s critics were wrong, but they weren’t silent. They attacked him, slandered him, and fiercely opposed his ministry. They called his successes flukes and his failures proof of his character.

What did Spurgeon do? He just kept preaching. He kept writing. He kept sharing the truth of Scripture as plainly and directly as he could for 30 years of faithful ministry.

Though he only wrote commentaries on two books—Matthew and Psalms—he wrote and spoke extensively enough that a team here at Logos is compiling a commentary from his preaching ministry. The first volume, Galatians, is available right now. The rest of the New Testament letters are available for pre-order. Get Spurgeon’s insights in your Faithlife Study Bible—pre-order the Spurgeon Commentary Collection today.

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You’re Never Too Busy to Learn

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I have noticed something about most people around me. If I ask my friends, coworkers, or family members, “How’s life?” they inevitably answer, “Busy!” I am no exception. Working a full-time job, raising a family, and serving in local church ministry all take their toll. With everything going on, it’s a struggle to continue to learn and grow in understanding the Bible. But if the Word of God is the ultimate rule for faith and practice, how do we make sure we’re letting it inform everything we do?

If you’re like me—longing to learn more but struggling to find the time—there’s an answer: Logos Mobile Education.

Education that fits

Mobile Ed is a new way to learn, developed for you exclusively by Logos Bible Software. It’s a mobile learning experience, with personal video lessons from world-class teachers and super-powered transcripts, so you can follow along, highlight your favorite portions, and search through the lessons at any time to find what you need. Mobile Ed also interfaces beautifully with Faithlife, as Community Notes and Faithlife groups give you the perfect platform to go through a Mobile Ed course with your spouse, your small group, or your entire church.

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These video lessons are broken up into bite-sized teaching segments. Instead of watching hours of lectures at a time, you can watch a cohesive, logical chunk, or as many as you like. You can grab your phone, tablet, or computer, and dive into a biblical and practical lesson, whether you only have five minutes on the bus or an hour while the kids take a nap. Mobile Ed goes with you, where you are, and fits into your lifestyle.

Learn from the experts

We are filming courses from the leading experts and teachers on many topics, including biblical counseling, practical theology, biblical interpretation, and so much more. If you want to better understand or teach the book of Romans, you can learn with Dr. Douglas Moo as he takes you through the book’s intricacies. If you desire to be a better mentor, friend, or counselor, don’t miss the three-course Elyse Fitzpatrick Bundle comprised of Gospel-Centered Counseling, Our Identity in Christ, and Idolatry and the Power of the Cross.

Check out Fitzpatrick’s introduction to her course, Idolatry and the Power of the Cross:

Learn more about Mobile Ed, or browse all available courses at Logos.com.

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Understanding Prayer Lists in Faithlife Groups

Prayer lists add unique functionality to Faithlife Groups. Here’s a quick primer on what they can do, and how to get the most out of them.

Setting user permissions

Faithlife Groups offer five levels of access, and empowers you to set privacy settings that suite your group’s unique needs. In the group settings panel, determine which members will be permitted to connect to group prayer lists, create and share new prayer lists, and remove requests.

Regarding prayer lists, you have three decisions to make:

  1. Connect to prayer lists—That is, follow prayer lists. Anyone connected to a prayer list will be able to add requests of their own, see details on other added requests, and receive notifications about prayer requests inside their Faithlife Study Bible app.
  2. Create/Share new prayer lists—New prayer lists are created from inside Logos 5 (more on that later), and shared to a Faithlife group, but you may wish to limit access to only certain people, like administrators or moderators.
  3. Remove prayer lists—Prayer lists can be deleted easily, so guard this permission a little more cautiously to prevent inadvertent deletion.

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For a more detailed explanation of all privacy controls and user permissions on Faithlife.com, check out the post “Understanding the Privacy Settings on Faithlife.com.”

Creating new prayer lists in Logos 5

It’s easy. Select “Prayer lists” from the documents menu, give your list a title and start adding requests right away. You can set frequency and duration for each request and add tags so that your prayer requests so you can find them again later.

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Then, visit Documents.Logos.com to share it with a group. The “Collaborate” option will give a group ownership of your prayer list, so that members can add their own requests to it.

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You could, for example, create a prayer list about a missions trip that your small group plans to make together. You would create the list in Logos 5, seeding it with some general requests like “financial support” and “safe travels.” After announcing the trip, you could share the list with your group at Documents.Logos.com, and then members could connect to it and add their own more specific prayer requests.

Add a prayer list to the group’s sidebar

Though a prayer list may belong to a group, it may still not appear on the group’s page. A group administrator or moderator can add group lists to the sidebar for all to see. Tab over to the “Sidebar” section of the group settings menu, and drag a prayer-list widget to make shared prayer requests visible to all group members.

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Faithlife Groups are the digital home for your faith community. It’s free to join and invite others. Tools like prayer lists, reading plans, Community Notes, and a group newsletter make it easier than ever to communicate, collaborate, and fellowship around the Word of God. Join today at Faithlife.com.

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What God Meant: “Like Newborn Infants, Long for the Pure Spiritual Milk”

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Biblical writers use several different word pictures to help us understand the power and function of Scripture.

At different times, the Bible is compared to:

  • Light (Psalm 119:105)
  • A mirror (James 1:23)
  • Fire (Jeremiah 23:29)
  • A hammer (Jeremiah 23:29)
  • A sword (Hebrews 4:12)
  • Milk (1 Peter 2:2)
  • Food (1 Corinthians 3:2)

It’s those last two that can be a little confusing. In 1 Peter 2:2, the comparison to milk seems to be a favorable one. Peter’s admonition is for the readers (and us) to preserve a singular focus on and childlike enthusiasm for God’s Word.

Then Paul uses a similar word picture in 1 Corinthians 3:2, but seems to indicate that at some point, we ought to graduate away from the “milk” of the Word.

So which is it? Is the Word of God like milk or like food? And is that good or bad?

While it’s almost always a good idea to compare Scripture with Scripture, literary devices like metaphors or similes remain effective only in their original contexts. The same metaphor used in a different way can illustrate a different point, and that’s what’s going on here.

Peter uses the “milk” word picture to point out how eagerly we ought to consume the Word of God, just like an infant consumes milk.

Paul is addressing a different group of people all together about an all together different idea. The Corinthians who received Paul’s letter did not lack eagerness—they lacked perseverance. They were rehearsing the same fundamental truths constantly, never moving beyond the basics, and were thus missing the richness of other, heavier, more substantial Scripture passages.

Peter and Paul are not arguing. They are standing back to back, defending the same idea from different directions.

As we read the Word of God, it’s important for us to keep in mind that it was written over a span of more than 1,500 years by more than 40 different individuals from all walks of life. They address different subjects for different audiences, from different perspectives, and yet not a single contradiction or error appears in its 66 books. Remarkable, no?

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The Faithlife Study Bible links Scripture passages that address the same topic, so you can make connections with just a click. Download the Faithlife Study Bible for free from your favorite app store, and take your Bible study to the next level.

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Between a Rabbi and Two Imams

whiter-than-snow-meditations-on-sin-and-mercyWhiter than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp is one of my favorite devotionals of all time. In 52 short passages, Tripp explores the rich truth of Psalm 51. As he explains in the introduction, “Psalm 51 is about how God meets us in our moments of deepest failure and transforms us by his grace. It is about how broken sinners can be brutally honest with God and yet stand before him without fear.”

This is a great little book that will take you to unexpected places in your spiritual walk.

You can pick it up at a great discount right now from Vyrso.com and read it in the free Vyrso app.

One of the most interesting passages contains a story from Tripp’s ministry:

It was a wonderful opportunity. I was asked to participate in an open discussion about death and dying from a patient’s perspective. The event was held at a local medical college. It was the first ministry situation I had ever been in where I had sat between a rabbi and two imams. My Jewish and Islamic colleagues were all very warm and articulate, but I had an unfair advantage: I came armed with the gospel. I carried something into the room that no one else had, and as the evening went on this message glistened with greater and greater beauty.

The men on either side of me were gentle and caring. They knew their faith well, but they had one distinct disadvantage: the only message they brought into the room was the message of the law. The only hope they could give was the hope that somehow, someway, a person could be obedient enough to be accepted into eternity with God. The more they spoke, the more beautiful the gospel looked.

The most significant moment of the evening came when we were asked about what we would say to a family of someone who had committed suicide. It was at this moment that the gospel shined the brightest. I said, “Suicide doesn’t change the paradigm. Think with me: who of us could lie in our bed during the last hours of our life and look back and say to ourselves that we have been as good as a person could be? Wouldn’t all of us look back and have regrets about things we have chosen, said, and done? None of us is able to commend ourselves to God on the basis of our performance. In this way, the person who has committed suicide and the person who hasn’t are exactly the same. Both of them are completely dependent on the forgiveness of a God of grace, in order to have any hope for eternity.”

This is a book you’ll read again and again. Get it today and start exploring the mercy of God.