This is an incredible verse memory tool! Creating verse memory cards has never been easier.
The ESV Bible Blog explains:
Using the ESV API, Michael Scott has developed a handy tool to help you with scripture memorization. His website takes a list of references and automatically fetches the texts, formatting them into business card sized cards for easy printing.
Enter the date you will begin memorizing the verses you have listed along with the number of days between verses. For example, beginning on September 1, I want to memorize one verse every five days.
Click “Make Cards”
It’s that easy! A PDF will be generated complete with your verse references, verse text, and dates to keep you on track.
Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance has released a list of the world’s Top 60 Church Blogs. These blogs cover a number of topics from ministry to theology. At the top of the list you will find:
Repetition and word frequency are important factors to take into consideration when engaging in Bible Study. For example, Paul’s frequent use of the words “joy” and “rejoice” in his letter to the Philippians should not be overlooked or dismissed by the reader. Something important is being communicated. Let me say again, one should pay close attention to repetition and word frequency when studying the Bible. When studying the Bible, let us all consider repetition and word frequency.
Okay, I’m sure you get my, cleverly-stated, point.
Back in the good ol’ days, Bible Thumpers were reduced to counting each word that occurred in a passage by hand. One “joy,” two “joys,” and so on. Of course, today we have handy computer programs and online tools to do the counting for us. One such tool is Wordle. Simply provide text and you are given a word cloud visualization of that text. The Wordle web site explains that it is “a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”
Of course, Wordle certainly isn’t useful for Bible study and teaching purposes only. In addition to being able to copy-and-paste in text, you may also provide the URL for any blog, feed or web page that has an Atom or RSS feed. This makes Wordle a useful tool for bloggers as well. Create a word cloud for your own blog or use Wordle to compare and contrast the words and themes that occur in multiple blogs or web sites.
Below are three Wordle word clouds I made for Genesis 1, 2, and 3 (click each for a larger image). You may have also noticed that the word cloud above was made for this blog post.
Genesis 1
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Do you use Wordle? How else do you make use of this tool? Chime in and comment!
If you have not yet been introduced to social bookmarking, then don’t delay any further. This video by CommonCraft offers a fantastic introduction to Del.icio.us, one example of a social bookmarking service.
Del.icio.us is a resource that could prove extremely valuable and useful to the Christian community. It is a powerful tool for research, communication, interaction, collaboration, information storing, and information sharing. Here are some practical and basic ways in which you might utilize social networking to enhance your Christian walk or ministry:
Bible Studies – Do you lead a Bible study? Encourage all members of your study to register for Del.icio.us accounts. This will allow you and other group members to easily share relevant web resources, articles, and commentary.
Churches – There are numerous ways in which a church (large or small) might utilize social bookmarking. Share articles, blog postings or videos that correspond with your current sermon series. Your church supports a team of missionaries in Zambia? Tag online news articles reporting on current events in the area and post the running list on your website.
Debate, Dialog, and Encouragement – Social networking makes for a great platform for interaction and conversation. Share an uplifting link with someone needing a bit of encouragement. Engaged with another in dialog or debate? Share a challenging article with your counterpart that illustrates your point-of-view.
Leadership Teams, Youth Ministry – In college, I was a member of the leadership team of a parachurch campus ministry. We focused on topics such as evangelism, apologetics, and discipleship. Social bookmarking would have provided a wonderful means by which supplemental web material might have been tagged by topic and shared all members of the leadership team.
Study and Research -Del.icio.us is a great place to search for study and research resources. Unlike traditional search engines, all results have gone through a human filter. The results you find will be those deemed worthy of tagging by other users.
