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Sometimes, things ARE better than you expect!

I love facing challenges that stretch me beyond what I expect… especially when they take me to arenas where others have never fought.  So when I talk about the advantages of living in a tent, please don’t feel bad for me!  Each objective pushes me to be free of mindsets and modern conveniences most cannot live without. 

If I remain bold over time, I learn from my failures and successes. And what I learn can help prepare God’s servants to live in places that are unbelievably difficult to get to.

Winter in a camper: Not what I expected

Making it through a Maine winter in my camper was not what I would expect

Nine months ago, God provided a camper for me to live in.  What a wonderful blessing it has been to call this place home!  It’s just the right size for me: not too big, not too small.

I expected to live in the camper through the Maine winter. So I made preparations for the cooler weather. This included buying long underwear, a ceramic space heater and an induction cooktop.

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MegaVoice Players and MicroBibles, Side-by-Side

Tom Treseder, the man God used to produce the MegaVoice player (source: megavoice.com/about/megavoice-history/)In 1986, Tom Treseder drew a sketch of a device without moving parts that could play audio files.  This picture was to lead him and his team to produce the MegaVoice player.

Back then, people depended on vinyl records and cassettes to replay audio. In the extreme temperatures of Siberia and the Sahara, these early technologies would often fail.

Twelve years passed before a microchip was invented which could hold the over 80 hours of audio required for the Bible. As the technology developed, the MegaVoice Player became a reality. Since 1999, MegaVoice Players have been a wonderful option for distributing the Word of God in audio format. (more…)

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What is a MicroBible?

MicroBibles are the solution God provided to help us break through the five barriers which prevent access to the Word of God.  The MicroSD card is smaller than your thumbnail, so government officials will find it very difficult to stop you from bringing one of them into their country.  They can be played on MicroSD Card players, available worldwide.

And you don’t need access to the internet to read these Bibles.  In fact, you don’t even have to know how to read!  These Bibles read themselves to the person who receives them, in the language of their heart.

What is a MicroBible?

Technically speaking, a MicroBible is an SD Card to TF Card adapter, and a TF Card (usually 2 to 4 Gigabytes in size).  MicroBibles for sale - Order NowWe load it with a Bible that reads itself to the owners in their own language.  Then we add the best Good News video and audio resources we can find.  Each MicroBible is tailor-made to reach its audience with God’s Love as expressed by what Christ did for them.

However, MicroBibles are much, much more than the metal and plastic they are made of.  They are even far more than the audio and video files within them.

When you dig deeper, this is what a MicroBible is: (more…)

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Five barriers which prevent access to the Bible worldwide

Barriers (Photo: Reuters/Marko Djurica)

As believers in Christ, we want to be sure that everyone has access to the Bible in their own language.  In our modern, tech-savvy world, it is difficult to believe that there are still barriers preventing millions of people from having access to the Word of God.

With websites like Faith Comes by Hearing and YouVersion, most Christians may conclude that the Bible translation and distribution task is complete.

Although these websites meet the need for many, there are millions who, for different reasons, cannot access these resources.

The reality is that millions all over the world have no way of receiving a copy of the Bible.  They live in a place where the Gospel has difficulty getting past the spiritual boundaries.

Desert Springs Ministries is here to provide you with the tools necessary to help you bring God’s Word to those who don’t yet have access to it.

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The Missing Bible Verses

Below is a list of the Bible verses missing from most modern translations of the Bible.

They aren’t missing from Wycliffe’s Bible.  Or from Luther’s Bible.  Or from Tyndale’s Bible, or the Geneva Bible.  We can find them in the King James Version of 1611 and the New King James Version.

Textual Criticism

Wescott & Hort's Greek New TestamentThey disappeared around 1881, when Westcott and Hort developed a new source text for New Testament Bible translation called The New Testament in the Original Greek. 

Since then, the study of textual criticism of the Bible has been popular with theologians.

If my understanding is correct, proponents of Textual Criticism believe that they can discern words from the original Books of the New Testament by applying man-made rules by committee to ancient biblical manuscripts.

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Learn from the animals: go to the ant…

Those who were translating the Bible with John Wycliffe used two words for “ant” in their translation of Proverbs 6:6. Why did they do this?

This is how the original Wycliffe Bible reads:

O! thou slowe man, go to the amte, either pissemyre, and biholde thou hise weies, and lerne thou wisdom. (Proverbs 6:6)

Quick answer:

  1. This is evidence that Middle English had dialects, and
  2. we may be talking about two types of ants.
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Surprised by a sailing term in Proverbs 1:5

I knew that I was going to be awestruck from time to time, as I began translating Wycliffe’s Bible into Modern English. And discovering a sailing term where most Bible translations don’t have it… was amazing.

sailboat by mschwander on pixabay: sailing on the ocean

I had just figuratively walked through the door of translating Proverbs… and as an art lover examining an obscure painting in the Louvre in Paris, I stood there, staring at the painting before me.

I couldn’t quite figure out what the man of understanding was grasping tightly in his hands.

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