100 MILLION DOWNLOADS IN LESS THAN 7 YEARS. DEVOTIONALS, READING PLANS AND MORE!

More and more people, (including yours truly) are reading the Holy Scriptures – the BIBLE – on mobile PDA’s than ever before. The Word of God is reaching literally the ends of the earth faster than your local cable company can lay the fiber optics in the ground. There are more free downloads of the wildly popular YouVersion app around the world than Justin Bieber songs!

Just as an FYI, YouVersion was developed by a pastor with ties to Central Illinois named Bobby Gruenewald who in a long line at O’Hare airport in Chicago, wishing he had a small bible in his pocket to help him pass the time! One thing led to another and the idea to have a bible which anyone can access at any time, anywhere was born! Six years later, the 37 year old now innovation pastor at LifeChurch.tv has the most popular application in the world in over 600 versions and 375 languages! As of July 2013, there have been over 100 million free downloads of the app from iTunes and elsewhere. Apart from just the Biblical Text now, YouVersion is now offering manageable bible reading plans and free devotionals from Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns and others among a myriad of other features.

Because of popular discipleship tools like this (YouVersion), Bible reading is now at an optimum! It is estimated that within twenty years, more people will be accessing the worldwide web (internet) via Tablet and/or Smartphone, than the old fashioned desktop computers! In fact, mainline computer manufacturers like DELL, Gateway and others are seeing their share of the market fall as iPad; Google Nexus; Kindle HD Tablet and others zoom in sales and popularity. As a future ebook publisher and current fan of ebooks, I can testify that an ebook is a lot easier and faster to read than a traditional hard or paperback book.

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FROM BROOKLYN TO THE KINGDOM!

One of my favorite people in the world to read is also the lead pastor of the greatest church on the eastern seaboard of America – the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. That man is Jim Cymbala, whose books Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire and Breakthrough Prayer played a major role in the development of the prayer ministry, which God gave me as a lifestyle. His church has given us the world-famous, award-winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir!

Many think of the Brooklyn Tab as a new mega-church. However it has been around for almost 165 years! Founded in 1847 as the Central Presbyterian Church, when the presbyterians were the major revivalists of America, the church went through many phases! It was destroyed by fire twice and a thunderstorm once. When one of those fires destroyed it in 1894, it had over 6000 members. After that, the Tabernacle floundered and fizzled until the 1980s when Jim and Carol Cymbala were called by God to take over a dying church of 30 people.

Through many hardships; financial difficulties; spiritual warfare attacks and general days of despair, they persevered. They persevered not in their own strength but in the same kind of love we see demonstrated in today’s passage. How did they persevere? Prayer, Praise and the Power of Love!

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