by Stephen Rodgers
I get a lot of questions about Christian resources: books, sermons, blogs, software…even Twitter, Facebook, and magazines. I hope that this article will serve as a helpful introduction to some excellent and trustworthy resources that will help you in your walk with the Lord. And as always, if you need help with any of these, just find me at church. They day I’m not happy to talk about the Bible and study-aids is the day I stand before my Maker.
Blogs
Sometimes a Christian just needs something good to read! Any of the blogs below would be a great place to start adding to your diet of Christian writing. And all of them support RSS as well, in case you just want to be notified when there’s an update. (If you don’t know what RSS is, ask Stephen Rodgers at church and he’ll explain it to you).
Shine the Light – This is the official blog of the Pastor’s of LBC. If you’re not reading it already, what are you waiting for?
Al Mohler’s Blog – Al Mohler blogs several times a week with a focus on current events and cultural issues. Just reading him is guaranteed to make you smarter!
Pulpit Magazine – Pulpit Magazine is the official blog of the Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church, and they recently redesigned their website to make it much easier to read. They post several articles every week.
PyroManiacs – Updated daily, this is a Team Blog by Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips, and Frank Turk. They are some of the most outspoken voices (who can actually support their statements Biblically) on the internet today, and you would do well to give them a read.
desiringGod Blog – This is the blog of John Piper and several other folks at his church.
Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog – This is the blog of CJ Mahaney and several other folks at his church.
Twitter may be a relatively recent phenomenon, but already several Christians have moved into the space and are working hard to encourage fellow believers and redeem this corner of social networking for the King.
JohnPiper – John Piper takes Twitter to a whole new level. His tweets are frequent, timely, and incredibly Bible-centered.
johnmacarthur – John MacArthur mostly uses Twitter to link to relevant articles at either Pulpit Magazine or Grace to You.
Rick_Holland – Rick Holland tweets often about the Bible, pastoral ministry, and life as a pastor/husband/father.
Kim_S_Holland – Kim Holland (Rick Holland’s wife), may actually be more prolific than her husband, and offers interesting comments and insights as a Christian wife and mother.
iamresolved – Even the Resolved Conference is on Twitter! You’ll want to follow them to get the latest information on resources and scheduling related to Resolved.
Sermons
Didn’t get enough of the Gospel on Sunday? Good for you! Listed below are links to a LARGE libraries of available and trustworthy sermons freely available on the internet.
LBC Sermons – Our first stop is the sermon library at our very own church. Ever wish that you could be in two (or more!) Sunday School classes at the same time? Now you can be! And while it may seem that the sermons only go back to 2008, Kyle and his team are busy getting the rest up there soon!
Grace to You – Another fabulous resource is what GCC affectionately calls “The Vault.” Here you will find 40 years (!) of sermons by John MacArthur, organized by title, scripture, date…if you can’t find something here to help you, then you’re just not looking hard enough. And the vast majority of the sermons have a transcript as well, so you can read them if you prefer that to listening.
Desiring God – John Piper has 20+ years of sermons available here, as well as messages from innumerable conferences. And yes, they are organized, categorized, and have transcripts as well. Honestly, I don’t know what DG feeds their webfolks, but the speed, quality and sheer amount of material that they make available is staggering.
Sovereign Grace – Something happened to the old page, and there’s only 3 of CJ Mahaney’s sermons up here now, but if you poke around a bit you can find many more.
Christ Fellowship Baptist Church – And while he doesn’t blog, another fantastic place to get some sermons is from Steve Lawson’s church. The man has a distinctive voice and a distinctive style that really make his messages come alive. And he’s one of my favorite expositor’s to boot.
Software
While there is a variety of Christian software available, I chose to highlight the following two resources because they’re good, easy to use, and best of all: free!
e-Sword – My personal favorite Bible-study software, e-sword makes the ESV Bible freely available. Other study guides such as commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, and other translations of the Bible are available as well. Some require a small fee, but many are freely available. For ease of use, price, and value, I honestly believe this is the best software out there.
Libronix – If you have an ESV Bible, then you have qualified to download the ESV demo version of Libronix. It comes with the full ESV text, several other resources, and it is quite common for new resources to be made freely available (you’ll receive email notifications after you’ve registered). For example, last week, they gave away John MacArthur’s Study Guide to the book of Romans. It’s a bit more complicated to use than e-Sword, but it does give you access to material that e-Sword doesn’t. And since it’s free…why not have both?
Websites
Let’s be honest, there are a lot of BAD Christian websites out there. But listed below you’ll find that three are actually quite good, and will help you a LOT as you study the Word.
Bible Bulletin Board – BBB collects a variety of sermons, articles, and notes with an emphasis on John MacArthur, Charles Spurgeon, and Christian classics.
Biblegateway – It’s not fancy, but Biblegateway brings together hundreds of translations of the Bible, makes them available, searchable, and free. If you just want to read a passage in several translations, this is a great place to do it.
Blue Letter Bible – Blue Letter Bible is a fantastic resource for Bible translations, notes, commentaries, study aids, dictionaries, and devotionals online.
NET Bible – The NET Bible is a very interesting site. In addition to being a very credible translation in it’s own right, they also make their footnotes, cross-references, index, and translator notes freely available. You can learn a LOT from checking out their site.
And don’t forget…if you have an ESV Study Bible, then you have a code that you can register to get access to the Bible, notes, and account software online for free as well! Anywhere you have an internet connection, you have your ESV Study Bible.