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The Bible on the Web
What is one resource that every church professional always has close at hand, if
not in memory? That's right: the Bible.
But what do you do if you need to do a quick keyword search? Or you need to
create a handout for confirmation class and your trusty concordance and study
Bible are being used to prop up your computer's monitor? You can use any number
of free and flexible Bible sites on the Internet. There are many online Bible
searches available, each with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. We
hope that the following resources will provide you a starting point for your
online exegesis.

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Bible Gateway (www.BibleGateway.com) is a full-fledged service, great for quick
passage lookups and keyword searches in a variety of languages, from Amharic to
Tagalog and several in between. Many of the most-used English versions are
available as text. However, Bible Gateway also provides several English
renderings as well as Spanish and other languages as audio files. With a little
work, you can have a virtual Pentecost language celebration anytime you want!
Olive Tree Bible Software (www.OliveTree.com/Bible) makes the popular and
widely used Bible Software for PDAs and Smartphones (Palms, Blackberrys, etc.).
At their online search site, they provide similar keyword lookup options. This
site has very good original language (Greek and Hebrew) versions, including
interlinear options for those who want to do a bit more original word study.
Oremus Bible Browser (www.Bible.Oremus.org) provides much of the same
functionality as the other Bible search sites mentioned above. Two things make Oremus stand out and cause us to use this as our primary bookmark for online
Bible. Of the search sites that we've discovered, Oremus is the only one to make
the NRSV available. We prefer this translation for nearly all of our
congregational ministries. Second, Oremus provides a search box which allows you
to enter multiple passages. The resulting screen will give you each of the
passages you entered, one after another. This is a simple way to produce
handouts with all of the lectionary readings for a given day or other
multiple-passage results, without having to retype them all, or make your
monitor topple over.
Daily Bible Reading (www.ELCA.org)
While not a searchable Bible resource, the ELCA provides a Daily Bible Reading
using the NRSV. This Daily Bible Reading follows the pattern of the Revised Standard
Lectionary and provides a way to follow up on the previous Sunday's reading or
prepare for next Sunday. This is a great resource and link for congregational
Web sites.
Jennifer and Seth Moland-Kovash serve
as co-pastors of All Saints Lutheran Church, Palatine, Illinois, and are Web
resource editors for Lutheran Partners magazine and Lutheran Partners
Online.
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