What is Reddit's opinion of YouVersion?

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First, let's remove the biblical traditions entirely: Why does anyone raise their hands? 1) To be acknowledged. One raises their hand in school to be called on or acknowledged for something they may want to share, have learned, or are sure of. 2) In surrender. One raises their hands to show they are giving up. 3) To be raised up. As children one raises their hands upward toward those they want to comfort and hold them. 4) In sports, it is common to spread ones arms to show they are open and available. 5) To swear. As in court or when saying "the pledge of allegiance", one raises a hand to make a pledge or swear.

It is the same in Christianity. For the same reasons, we raise our hands to the one we want to acknowledge us, to surrender our hearts to, to comfort us, to signify we are open (in mind and heart), to swear or pledge ourselves to Him.

In Jewish tradition it was customary to raise your hands toward heaven during prayer and worship (1 kings 8:54). The raising of one's hands is one of the oldest forms of worship. When the Jews wanted to show their praise of God they would lift their hands (Psalm 63:3-4)

Personally, I raise my hands rarely. I only do it if I feel compelled in my spirit. I take it very seriously. As another pointed out, to many people do it simply as a tradition. Here is the Bible verse explaining why I as a Chirstian. raise my hands: (1 timothy 2:8) Raising my hands is also a proclamation saying that I hear God and want to give him the respect he deserve's and thank him for visiting me in my soul. A raised hand is the outward manifestation of God's presence in someone's heart.

I read the ESV and the NASB mainly. For ESV I use Crossway's official site. For NASB, I use my own site. Both are ad-free and easy to use.

EDIT: Youversion is also good.

YouVersion is a very good site (mobile version is excellent too). It offers many different translations you can choose from. It also offers reading plans to help give you good starting points.

I would check out YouVersion. They have tons of bible reading plans... many go through the whole Bible or just the NT or just the OT. They have free apps that excellent for all major devices that sync with the online desktop experience. Excellent!

Yeah, King James also goes with "flesh is as the flesh of asses and issue is like the issue of horses".

I found this comparison of dozens of versions: http://www.youversion.com/bible/verse/all-versions/Ezek/23/20

Of the ones I can read, they range from the bland:

She wanted men who behaved like animals in their sexual desire.

to the truly poetic:

"That whetted her appetite for more virile, vulgar, and violent lovers—stallions obsessive in their lust."

If you have a smart phone, I recommend downloading YouVersion's free app. It not only gives you access to many different bibles (most of which have audio components), but it also allows you to take notes and read what others have to say about a specific passage. I use YouVersion exclusively now in my study and at church (on my phone).

What's the one app (iOs/Andriod/Windows/etc) that is a must have for Christians and/or clergy?

• YouVersion Bible App Easy to use multiple translations and platforms

What am I missing?

Not without cause.

Lot did try to give his daughters off to the angry mob instead of two visiting angels.

> "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes. Only unto these men [the angels yet unrevealed] do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof." -- Genesis 19:8 KJV

That's actually from 1 John 4:17, not John 4:17. I know, it's a bit confusing. "John" is a book about the life of Jesus, written in a way that's designed to help people come to faith. "1 John" is the first (of three) letters written by the same man to the early Church, at a time when a particular idea, that Jesus hadn't been a real man, but only seemed to have been, was becoming popular.

Both books are well worth reading, but I'd recommend you start with the Gospel of John first. John 4:17 is from a time when Jesus was smashing through the culture of his day by talking to (a) a woman, (b) a Samaritan and (c) a woman with a chequered sexual past. You can read the whole story here.

Along with You Version I would like to throw in Bible Gateway and Bible Web App which is a great one for not only multiple translations, but commentary as well.

1. God is eternal, He always has been and always will be.

2. God knows what is going on. My personal belief is that the sufferers suffer so that people can do Gods work. Christians are called to action, not just to pray. Followers of God are told in the bible that they store up treasures in Heaven for doing the works of God. God wouldn't give us storehouses if we didnt get the chance to earn treasure for them.

> All the evidence only aligns with evolution/Big Bang if you are willing to take a materialistic/uniformitarian interpretation of the evidence.

I'll say it again: this is not true.

> I don't chop up my Bible because science says I should. I don't make contradictory statements such as "the Bible is all true... except this part".

I don't either. The Bible is all true, full stop. Suppose, for example, that the story of Jonah is a parable rather than a real, historical account. How does that change what I believe about God's judgement and forgiveness? Not at all.

> It is very difficult to stay a logically consistent Christian without accepting it all.

This is true. I do accept the entire Bible as the absolutely true revealed Word of God. I haven't watered anything down. However, it is every believer's duty to apply a rational, historical-grammatical hermeneutic, otherwise, you're likely to wear yourself out arguing that unicorns existed.

Spot on idea and I'm in!

Here's my recommendation for the site we use

^ Simple layout and very easy to change between translations. I also recommend using an updated translation (my preference is ESV), however, this tends to get many Christians riled up right away.. so proceed with caution! ;p

Can't wait to see how this evolves!

I love YouVersion; they have several reading plans and it's easy to bookmark, recall, make notes, etc. Also, Bible in a Year has some good reading plans that you can follow.

Starting at Genesis and reading straight through becomes a chore really, really quickly.

At a certain point I just have to trust that God as infinitely more aware and sensitive to things like justice than I ever could be and that just maybe he knows something I don't. For instance, maybe somehow their death was their salvation in some way (as it is for believers as well.) It's impossible to say for now, but at the end of the day God is God and we're not. Also, so much confusion is cleared up when we remember that God sees things from every posisble angle, including from eternity future.

Edit: All this to say, asking a Christian to defend all of God's actions is like asking a preschooler to defend all of their parents' actions. The inability to do so is no fault of the child nor is it a commentary on the morality of the parent. It's just how things are for now.

With prayer I'm referencing Matthew 6:5-8 which makes it pretty clear that your prayers are between you and God only. My interpretation was that corporate prayer should be done silently to follow this command.

Just to plug YouVersion, there's a whole collection of Reading Plans over there to get you through the bible anywhere from 90 days, 1 year, or however long you want to take.

New Living Translation is good just for readability. If you want to check out different translations/ versions for readability, YouVersion and Bible Gateway are good resources- you can look up a specific passage and see how different translations of the Bible read, to compare them.

I wouldn't recommend the King James version unless you are very, very well-read and/or already comfortable reading Shakespeare and more antiquated versions of English. Of course there are a lot of people who disagree, but there you go.

Here is the list of reading plans: http://www.youversion.com/reading-plans. I'd select one and follow the plan.

As for praying, just get comfortable and start talking. It doesn't matter what you say, just talk. God will listen.

I believe there might be directed reading online [and in an Iphone app] at http://www.youversion.com/

If you are not disinclined towards Catholicism they put out a little booklet every month of daily readings sometimes combined with a paragraph lesson related to the reading. They do this because they have service every day of the week and these readings are what they talk about in service. My Catholic Uncle sent me one and it is actually quite well written. One could easily be obtained at a Catholic church I imagine or possibly online. It would not involve too much of your time and hopefully with help to keep you spiritually focused.

Even still, the comment makes me think of what Paul said in I Corinthians 7:8 (NIV).

>"Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do."

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is foundational to Christianity. Using the rules of evidence, prove it didn't happen and you've proved that Christianity is baseless.

Paul affirms the same thing: http://www.youversion.com/bible/esv/1cor/15/12

Some of these are nice to have as reference even if you're not a "religious" person, per se. The iPhone Bible app has a good search and can toggle quickly between various versions / translations of whatever passage you're looking at.

>the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few

That exact quote is from Star Trek.

The similar bible verse: John 11:50 - You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.

An article explaining the difference between the two quotes.

Regardless of the above, its not a matter of need (the majority needs slaves?), but of equality. IMO, a strong indicator of a moral practice being "right" is usually true when everyone is considered equal under said practice.

>From a Biblical view, I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with premarital sex. It isn't sin, it isn't wrong, it is not something to be avoided, and it is certainly not something to feel guilty about. The reason for this is because it does not exist.

Uhm... heh.

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."

http://www.youversion.com/search/bible?version=kjv&q=fornication

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fornication

Etc. etc. etc.

I prefer the NET translation, just because how transparent the translation process is. Depending on what you use to read it (app, website, or book) you can read the transolators reason for going with whichever wording.

I should have been more precise. I have most well-known translations in the major languages. I use YouVersion for iPhone which contains 41 translations in 22 languages.

for those of you who want, I created a group for us on YouVersion

http://www.youversion.com/groups/redditchristians

I'm doing the "First Steps" reading plan with the ESV Bible, and just started today.