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Rediscover the Christmas Season…with YouVersion

It can be hard not to get swept up in all the chaos of the Christmas season: Parties, travel, food, guests coming into town, and of course, shopping, shopping, shopping! For many of us, even if we take a moment to really think about what Christmas truly means to us, we might express it as “having your loved ones close,” or “family traditions,” or “peace, love, and joy.”

While certainly there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the people that we love, Christmas is about so much more than emotion, sentimentality, and giving and receiving gifts. First and foremost, it’s about Jesus. It’s about the greatest gift that mankind ever received, when the One Creator of the universe sent His only Son, knowing that that baby would one day grow into the man who would sacrifice Himself to redeem our lives.

What’s most important to us at YouVersion is helping people engage with the Bible. To give you opportunities to interact with God’s Word in fresh ways, we offer several different reading plans, which are great tools to help you read through the whole Bible, or just portions of it. We recently added a special Christmas Reading Plan: “Rediscovering the Christmas Season.” If you start this plan on December 1, you can experience the true Christmas story—direct from the source, along with supporting material to help you understand its significance—just in time for Christmas Day. (But don’t wait…You can get started right now!)

Decide to dedicate just a few minutes each day for the coming month to remember what Christmas is truly about.

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A Few Things We’re Thankful For…

Here in the U.S., on the fourth Thursday of each November, we celebrate a national holiday called Thanksgiving Day. Historically, Thanksgiving was considered a religious holiday for people to express gratitude and appreciation to God for providing them with a bountiful harvest season. Today, all of us at YouVersion would like to take just a moment to share with you some of the things we’re thankful for:

Our partners, publishers, and donors. Many dedicated people have committed time and resources to join us in fulfilling our vision: making the Bible available to as many people as possible, and helping them connect with it. We couldn’t do that without these people and organizations.

Our users, and especially our volunteers. YouVersion is for you. And your feedback and passion have propelled the Bible App even further in helping people fall in love with God’s Word. Thanks especially to those of you who have devoted your time, your energy, and your abilities to helping us make it all work. There’s no way we could cover the ground we do without you.

This time that we live in. We’re convinced that this period in human history offers us opportunities unlike any this planet has ever seen: connection, interaction, and genuine global community. We believe that technology—whether we’re talking computers, communication, travel, whatever—makes it possible that we could actually see the Great Commission fulfilled in our lifetime.

A God who truly loves us. God has given us the opportunity to know Him and to hear His voice, especially when He speaks to us through His Word. We love the Bible because we love Him. And we’re deeply thankful to Him for the community He has brought to YouVersion—especially you!

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Your Stories: Connecting Community with God’s Word

This week we’re sharing some stories with you from our users, about how YouVersion and the Bible App have helped them and the people they serve connect with God’s Word. Today’s is from a pastor who uses the Bible App on his phone to share verses on Facebook and Twitter, and encourages the people in his church to take advantage of the

Reading Plans.

Our favorite quote: “We’re commenting back and forth on Facebook about how the Word is challenging us.”

How about you? If YouVersion has helped you, we’d love to hear more at Facebook.com/youversion
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Updated NIV Coming to YouVersion December 1

The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) recently completed their update to the New International Version (NIV), and we’re pleased to announce that The Bible App will have it soon. Thanks to our partnership with Biblica, worldwide publisher and copyright holder of the NIV, the updated NIV will be available on your mobile device through YouVersion! Starting December 1, you will see the updated NIV display in the list of Bible versions as “NIV © 2010.” Additionally, you will see the NIV 1984 © 1984 and TNIV © 2005. You can visit the CBT’s website or www.biblica.com to learn more about their work on this popular translation.

As always, The Bible App (and every translation you can find there) are free. All you need to do is download YouVersion to your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Blackberry. You can also point your browser directly to YouVersion.com, or to our newest platform: inside Facebook.

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Your Stories: Helping Youth Engage with the Bible

Frequently, we hear from users who let us know how YouVersion and the Bible App have helped them engage with the Bible. This week, we’ll be sharing some of those stories with you. Today’s is from a Youth Pastor who used the Bible App to read through the Bible—in just 90 days!—with one of her students.

Our favorite quote: “…gave me a bigger, broader scope of the redemption plan.”
How has YouVersion helped you? Share your thoughts at Facebook.com/youversion