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New Plans from Phil Vischer Bring the Bible to Life for Your Kids

♫ If you like to read in your Bible ♪ /

♪ If your kids can make you smile ♫ /

…have we got a Bible Plan for you!

Today we’re pleased to introduce a delightful new series of plans for families, developed exclusively for the Bible App: “Buck Denver Asks…What’s in the Bible?” VeggieTales® creator Phil Vischer has partnered with YouVersion to help you explore God’s Word with the littler members of your family.

Based on an all-new 13-DVD series, each plan includes Scripture, reflections on the reading, and videos featuring Vischer’s infamous wit and contagious melodies. But don’t take our word for it…let Buck Denver himself tell you all about them:

What’s in the Bible: Heroes of the Old Testament tells the stories of some of your favorite Bible characters, showing you how God worked through them—and helping you think about how God wants to work through you, too! 25 days

What’s in the Bible: Comfort shows your family how faithful people from the Bible turned to God for comfort when times got tough. Let your children see how God’s living Word has the power to encourage their hearts. 7 days

The Ten Commandments takes your family on an epic journey to explain why God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. Then Buck and his friends will help you see what they mean in our lives today. 11 days

Walk with Jesus: 21 Days Through Matthew follows the book of Matthew, from Jesus’ birth through His ascension. Learning about Jesus’ life can help your family imagine what our own lives could look like—with Jesus as our guide. 21 days

What’s in the Bible: Holy Week is perfect for the week leading up to Easter Sunday. If you begin this plan together on Palm Sunday, your family can walk with Jesus through His last week on earth—right into His resurrection. 8 days

Why Do We Call It Christmas? connects the modern traditions that most people seem to observe now with Jesus’ birth: Santa Claus? Christmas trees? What do these things have to do with Jesus? Maybe more than you think! 10 days

Each of these new plans can make exploring the Bible with your kids fun, easy, and meaningful. So please share this exciting news (and what your kids are learning) with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. To learn more about Buck Denver & Friends—and to find activities, DVDs, and more that can help you and your children learn all about the story of the Bible—visit WhatsInTheBible.com.

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YouVersion Exclusive: John Piper Video Devotional

john-piper-video-devoYouVersion’s newest Bible Plan features John Piper discussing your favorite verses! In Popular Verses: A Video Devotional with John Piper, the renowned Bible teacher, pastor, and author discusses the top 10 verses bookmarked and highlighted most often by the worldwide YouVersion community. Each day, Piper reads a verse, then explains its relationship to other passages, explores its meaning, and wraps up with practical application for your everyday life. (Videos range from just two and a half minutes to four minutes.)

YouVersion is honored to partner with Desiring God to bring you this new plan that packs so much into a concise, accessible format. Sample the first day, and you’ll be hooked. Piper’s insights will ignite your mind and give you plenty to meditate on throughout your day.

All you need to subscribe to “Popular Verses” is a free YouVersion account. Even after you’ve completed this 10-day plan, we think you’ll find yourself coming back to watch again and again.

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YouVersion Welcomes Billy Graham

BGEAinK.C.04-56YouVersion is excited to announce the Bible App’s newest devotional reading plan, Day by Day with Billy Graham. In a partnership with BGEA, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Day by Day with Billy Graham gives you 366 days of biblical wisdom and practical advice, drawn from decades of Reverend Graham’s sermons and writings. The one-year plan features content from his popular devotion, Day by Day, in an easy-to-read, easy-to-share format.

One of the most trusted, recognizable Christian leaders and influencers of our time, Reverend Graham’s messages—and in particular, his televised “Billy Graham Crusades”—have been seen by an estimated 2 billion people. Reverend Graham has been a pioneer in leveraging technology for evangelism through the early use of radio, television, and film. Often called the “Pastor to the Presidents,” Billy Graham’s name has appeared in the top 10 of Gallup’s “Most Admired Man and Woman” poll more than anyone else in history: 55 times since 1955.

Use your free YouVersion account to subscribe now to Day by Day with Billy Graham for insight, encouragement, and life application. And be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know about this exciting new plan.

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Celebrating 5 Years of the Bible App: Thank You

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us,
to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
—Ephesians 3:20, New Living Translation

Engagement

A Simple App. When Apple opened its App Store on July 10, 2008, YouVersion’s Bible App™ for iOS was there, one of only 200 free apps. No one knew if that experiment would even work, let alone what impact apps and smartphones might one day have on our lives. With the App Store passing 50 billion app downloads in May this year, it’s clear we’re just beginning to see what’s possible.

Engaging with God’s Word. YouVersion didn’t stop there, of course. We made the Bible App for every popular platform we could: BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone—even Palm OS! Then we just kept going, building the Bible App for international platforms like Java, Symbian, and mobile users in general. We wanted to make it easy and free to get the Bible, so more people than ever could experience it for themselves. And today we’re more focused than ever on helping as many people as possible daily engage with God’s Word.

A Team of Millions. As word began spreading about what God was up to, Bible publishers and societies, churches, and other partners joined in, generously sharing resources. As those collaborations began to bear fruit, the YouVersion community erupted into a worldwide movement. Now, hundreds of passionate people in many countries and languages are volunteering their God-given gifts to help get the Bible into even more people’s hands…and hearts.

Changing the World. With more than 500 Bible versions in more than 300 languages, the Bible App today represents the single largest digital Bible community in the world. And you are the difference. Click the image at right to see just a snapshot of how you are changing the world, ways that you are helping make this the most Bible-engaged generation in history.

We’re just getting started. While it’s extraordinary to think of the Bible App on 100 million smartphones and tablets, more than 7 billion people share this planet with us. In the coming months, we’ll bring you several exciting new announcements: features, partnerships, plans, and tools that will help people engage more with the Bible than ever before. We can’t say, “Thank you,” enough for all that you’ve already done. And we can’t even guess what God is going to do—more than we can ask, think, or imagine. But we do know this much:

It STARTS with 100 million.

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Worldwide YouVersion Community Shatters Records Throughout March

When The Bible series was breaking ratings records this past Sunday, attracting nearly 100 million viewers over the course of its run, YouVersion was making history as well with a month full of firsts:

  • The Bible series producers named the Bible App™ their official app of the series even before the first episode aired.

  • During the first episode of The Bible, YouVersion debuted its first-ever national television commercial in the U.S. And it continued to air multiple times each week throughout the series.

  • The brand new Videos feature launched, helping people experience the Bible’s stories and concepts visually from inside the Bible App.

  • Every Sunday in March landed on YouVersion’s top 10 list for most installs in a single day.

  • March 31, Easter Sunday (the same day as The Bible series finale) saw the most installs of the Bible App ever in a single day: more than 3.5 per second… all day.

And while each of these firsts are truly thrilling, even when we take them all together, still they don’t tell the whole story. You, the worldwide YouVersion community, broke several far more important records. Together during March, we:

  • Spent more than 3.4 billion minutes reading God’s Word.

  • Completed almost 671,000 reading plans, and

  • Shared more than 6 million Bible verses through Facebook, Twitter, email, and text messages.

Literally millions of people all over the world discovered the Bible App for the first time during March, thanks in part to your passion for the Bible. Thank you…for reading, listening, watching, and sharing it. You are an inspiration. Together, we’re helping more people engage with God’s Word than ever before.