Day 3 of Family Bible Week: Your family’s YouVersion stories.

Tell us your family’s YouVersion story.

…I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…

ROMANS 1:16

Today, for the third day of Family Bible Week, please share your YouVersion stories with us. How does your family use the Bible App? What has the Bible App for Kids meant to the children in your life?

We’d love to hear from you about how the Bible App and/or the Bible App for Kids have helped transform your family.

You’re welcome to include pictures with your story. Or, if you’d like to make a short video to tell us your family’s YouVersion story, we’d love to see it.¹

Share Your Story

¹ When you submit your story, all content provided may be used publicly in whole or in part at the discretion of YouVersion. YouVersion reserves the right to edit your written content for length and for spelling.

A Few Stories…

“This is how we use the YouVersion Bible App: every morning, I start by reading and reflecting on the Verse of the Day. Then my wife and I read a chapter of Scripture before we pray or we read one of the Plans together. It helps us in our morning discussions on the glory of our Lord and things we pray about. It also helps us in starting our day focused on Him.”
– Mark

“I have been a Christian for 35 years. I have always wanted to read the Bible through in a year but always quit around April. I started the One-Year Chronological Bible last fall. I have given myself freedom to not be militant with it and have had more success. I am very grateful for this tool that allows me to be in God’s Word on a daily basis (getting ready for work, in the car, sitting on my back porch —wherever!). I am thankful for the example it sets for my young adult children.”
– Dianne

“Both of our children are adopted. Our daughter Isabella is from Russia and was adopted at the age of 1. She is now 8 years old. Our son Alexander is from Haiti and was adopted at the age of 3. He is now 5 years old. As Alexander learned a new language and adjusted to being in a new family, we used the YouVersion Bible App for Kids to teach him all of the great Bible stories and about Jesus. He loved it when he first came home, and he still loves it today. He learned so much about Jesus through using it. Also, both of my children were excited to read the Bible because of the Bible App for Kids.”
– Peggy

“We have five children still at home, four that home school. We chose to do a group read through the Bible, taking one book at a time, jumping wherever the Lord led us. It was awesome! It took us fifteen months to complete. The Bible App was an instrumental tool that helped us all follow along as each person read aloud. We were able to read out of the same version (NIV). My children’s reading proficiency and speed increased substantially! My second grader went from being a struggling reader to now reading 120 words per minute. I credit this all to reading God’s word. Put His word first and watch everything else fall into place.”
– Kathryn

2017-05-152017-05-12

Pick a family Bible Plan for day 2 of Family Bible Week.

Family Bible Week 2017 Family Bible Plans

Gather your family around God’s Word.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds… Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

DEUTERONOMY 11:18–19 NIV

The best way to help your family consistently connect with the Bible… is to invest time in it together. That’s why today, for the second day of Family Bible Week, we’re presenting this special blend of Bible Plans for your whole family.

FBW Picnic

Let us encourage you.

We’ve suggested several Plans below, but you can use any Plan you think your family will enjoy. Let us know which Plan your family is doing together, and you could be one of many who are randomly selected to win a prize pack picnic basket.¹ Each basket has everything you need for a fun afternoon together: custom YouVersion items and other picnic essentials!

Just share which Plan you’re doing on Instagram, Twitter, or at Facebook.com/YouVersion. Be sure you include the hashtag #FamilyBiblePlan so we can find your entry!

¹Prize packs will be selected at random from eligible entries. For your entry to be eligible, you must use the hashtag #FamilyBiblePlan on a publicly-facing post (such as Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest, or at Facebook.com/YouVersion), and you must include the name and/or link to the Plan your family is doing together. Prize pack contents subject to change based on availability of individual items. We can only ship prize packs within the continental U.S.

The Power of Same: Family Devotional (Ages 3+)
Elevation Church, 35 days

This companion devotional to The Power of Same and the Bible App for Kids helps your family learn how to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus-Centered Family Devotions
Lifetree and Group Publishing, 7 days

Enjoy each other’s company as a family, as each day a fresh new devotional helps you lead a fun discussion about Jesus, with straightforward instructions on exactly what to do and say.

G.R.A.S.P.
Kelly Carlson, 7 days

Introduce your preschool- and elementary-aged children to practical biblical principles, simply by reading to them about Ada and Manny, two kids whose adventures unfold each time in the GRASP sequence: God’s Word, Read, Ask, Say, Pray.

Creating Compassionate Families
Compassion International, 6 days

Featuring discussion games that your family can play anywhere, and easy activities that you can do together at home, these daily devotionals help your kids learn how to grow their heart for others.

Better Than Blended Devotional
Willie & Rachel G. Scott and Better Than Blended, 8 days

Developed especially for stepfamilies, daily Scripture, practical solutions, and questions for discussion help you strengthen your marriage and unite your blended family around biblical truth and unity of purpose.

2017-05-122017-05-11

Family Bible Week Day 1: “Thanks, Moms”

Family Bible Week - Mother’s Day

Thank God for moms.

What better way to kick off Family Bible Week than to celebrate moms? Maybe it’s your mom. Maybe it’s a friend, a confidante who’s always there with great life advice, right when you need it. Or maybe you’ve noticed a neighbor who takes great care of her kids.

For every special Mom in your life, why not send her Scripture to let her know how much she inspires you? Call her. Text her with a Verse Image, or even post one on her Facebook page. Just take a moment to tell the moms in your life how much they mean to you. Here are a few of our favorite inspirational passages to get you started:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking…

Proverbs 31:30

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…

2017-05-112017-05-11

Family Bible Week is back with tips, ideas — and PRIZES!

Family Bible Week Starts Soon

Family Bible Week 2017 Starts Soon…

Beginning Sunday, May 14, Family Bible Week is our annual celebration to help your family grow together around God’s Word. You’ll get free resources that your family can use to encourage one another. We’ll share our favorite tips on leading your family spiritually. And along the way, we’ll award fun prize packs that families can enjoy together.

Delight the special Moms in your life with lovely Bible art made specially for them.
Discover which Bible Plans we recommend for families to experience together.
Learn how your family can become “that” family — the one that inspires others.
Begin planting seeds today that will yield fruit across your family for generations to come.
Find out the role that fun plays in fueling your family’s faith.

Start spreading the word: Family Bible Week is back! (Also… did we mention there will be prizes?)

2017-05-082018-03-23

History is being made, right now. Be a part of it.

For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” …But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?

ROMANS 10:13-14 NLT

Life.Church started YouVersion to help people engage with the Bible. Year after year, more and more people join us in the vision to spread God’s Word. Installed on over 270 million unique devices, the Bible App has been downloaded in every country on earth. All of us in the global YouVersion community are blessed that we get to take part in this historic move of God. Even so, today we face a significant challenge together:

More than a billion people still don’t have a complete Bible in their language.

In fact, thousands of the world’s languages don’t even have a complete New Testament. And of these, more than 1,000 have only some Scripture, ranging from just a few Bible verses up to perhaps one or two chapters. Everyone deserves the same opportunity to experience the life-changing power of God’s Word that we already enjoy. That’s why…

This needs to change.

In the past, getting the Bible into another language — accessing sources, translating, proofing, printing, and finally, distributing it — often took decades. But today, the world’s leading Bible translation ministries collaborate as illumiNations, an alliance created to help them easily exchange ideas, share systems, improve practices, and recruit givers. Working together, they have leveraged advancements in technology, communication, and travel to shorten the translation process, in many cases to just a few years.

It starts now.

Another benefit of their collaboration is that illumiNations now believes that they can have at least the New Testament translated for 99.9% of the world’s population by the year 2033. What will happen when almost every person on earth can finally engage with God’s Word in their own language? For the first time ever, not only is this dream possible, it’s actually within our reach.

We’ve already accepted the challenge.

We believe we can accelerate translation even further. That’s why, over the next four years, Life.Church has committed to match $1 million of contributions made towards Bible translation.* We’re working closely with our Bible translation partners to identify specific high-impact projects that can get the ball rolling. For example, the Mongu cluster of people groups in Zambia, Africa recently received the Gospel of Luke, the first Scripture they’ve ever had in all five of their languages: Fwe, Kwangwa, Makoma, Mashi, and Shanjo. But that’s just the beginning.

Give Now

Now, we’re challenging you.

Our first project is the next book of the Bible scheduled to be translated for the Mongu: the book of Acts. Project coordinators estimate that with some financial assistance, they could have the entire book of Acts translated into all five of these languages by this September. So that’s our first challenge: Life.Church will match whatever the YouVersion community gives towards translating Acts for the people of the Mongu cluster.*

Let’s wipe out Bible poverty together.

In the coming months, we’ll tell you more about the other projects for which we’ll be matching funds, and we’ll update you on each project’s progress. Get in now on this worldwide move of God. Pray and ask Him to continue accelerating the work of translating His Word into every language. Ask Him to prepare the hearts of those who will be hearing about Him for the first time. And give.

Then one day, you’ll have the great joy of standing before God’s throne and seeing some of the very people that your gift helped bring there:

After this I looked, and there in front of me was a multitude that no one could count, people from every tribe and every nation.

REVELATION 7:9a NIV

Give Now

Notes

* All contributions received through this campaign will be used exclusively for the purpose of Bible translation. Life.Church has committed to match up to $1 million of contributions that the YouVersion community makes toward Bible translation from 2017-2020. Life.Church will contribute $250,000 during calendar year 2017, spread across four different, high-impact translation projects. Contributions will first be applied toward the most current Bible translation project identified by YouVersion. When that translation project is fully funded, any remaining funds will then be applied toward the next translation project, as selected by YouVersion and its partners.