The Wesleyan Church has partnered with Biblica to lead the Community Bible Experience, reading the entire New Testament together in just 8 weeks.

Would you like to join in this life forming experience?
This week on Free Book Friday I’m sharing  free resources to help you join in the 40 Day Community Bible Experience.

Resources for Adults

You can download free Community Bible Experience resources for adults, including the ebook and audio book of The Books of the Bible, a special version of the NIV New Testament produced for this experience.

You can also download a free reader’s guide to lead you on this 40 day journey.

Free Download: Adult Resources for the Community Bible Experience.

Resources for Children

Families can participate together in the Community Bible Experience.

You can download the free Children’s New Testament and Children’s Audio New Testament. There is also a parent’s resource guide available to help you lead  your family through this experience.

Free Download: Children & Family Resources for the Community Bible Experience.

Discover the Community Bible Experience

This week we share a free audio book.

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself
by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

With more than 225,000 copies sold, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation and ministry to those in need. Emphasizing the poverty of both heart and society, this book exposes the need that every person has and how it can be filled. The reader is brought to understand that poverty is much more than simply a lack of financial or material resources and that it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve the problem of poverty.

While this book exposes past and current development efforts that churches have engaged in which unintentionally undermine the people they’re trying to help, its central point is to provide proven strategies that challenge Christians to help the poor empower themselves. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts catalyzes the idea that sustainable change for people living in poverty comes not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out.

Free audio book from Christianaudio.com | Purchase from Amazon.com

You may also be interested in…

Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, And How to Reverse It
by Robert Lupton

Veteran urban activist Robert Lupton reveals the shockingly toxic effects that modern charity has upon the very people meant to benefit from it. Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups who want to help—not sabotage—those whom they desire to serve. Toxic Charity shows how to start serving needy and impoverished members of communities in a way that will lead to lasting, real-world change.

Purchase from Amazon.com

Today for Free Book Friday I share two free books on my reading list and 45 books for $.02 each I will never read.

Two Free Books I Will Soon Read

The Five Habits of Highly Missional People
by Michael Frost

Download from Exponential.


The Art of Storytelling
by John Walsh

Download from Story Cartel.

45 Books for $.02 Each I Will Never Read

Amish Romance 45 Book Boxed Set
by Becca Fisher

Purchase from Amazon for $.99.

In an Introduction to On the Incarnation by Athanasius, CS Lewis makes the case for reading old books. I recommend you read this excellent essay in its entirety. Lewis writes,

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

Remembering Lewis’ call to read old books, here are 7 free or $.99 Christian Classics everyone should read.

The Confessions of St. Augustine
Amazon | Project Gutenberg

Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
Amazon | Project Gutenberg

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
Amazon | Project Gutenberg

Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
Amazon

The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
Amazon

Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich
Amazon

Congratulations to BusyMom for winning last week’s giveaway! Watch for more book giveaways in Free Book Friday.

Let’s talk Bibles for this edition of Free Book Friday.
It’s early in the new year, and  many have resolved to read the Bible more this year.

We may be living in the golden age of Bible availability, and free Bibles, while Bible reading itself continues to decline.
Here’s some great free Bibles to help you in your Bible reading.

YouVersion

YouVersion offers a tremendous free Bible app for your smartphone and tablet. You can also read online at bible.com.
It offers hundreds of Bible translations, absolutely free (& ad free), as well as many good Bible reading plans.
Carry the word of God in your pocket all the time.
If you don’t have this installed on your phone and tablet, go get it now. Seriously.

BibleGateway

My online Bible of choice for use on the computer. BibleGateway offers over 100 translations free. It is great for searching the Bible and quickly comparing different translations.

Blue Letter Bible

Need to do some serious word study on a passage? Blue Letter Bible has tremendous Hebrew and Greek tools. It’s easy to study the original languages of the texts, even with limited knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. This resource is so good you probably don’t need to buy one of those fancy $300 Bible software programs.

Free Bibles for your Kindle
There are many good Bible translations available free for your Kindle, or Kindle app on your phone and tablet. The free translations include the ESV and HCSB. The KJV is available for $.99. My current translations of choice, the NIV and CEB are not free, but can be purchased for a few dollars. Watch for deals on the NIV Study Bible. Regularly priced at over $20 for the Kindle version, it often goes on sale for less than $5 at strategic times, like New Years and Holy Week.

Printed Bibles
It’s great to have free Bibles available. I love having the Bible on my cell phone when I need it. Searching the Bible electronically is better than with the old school concordance. Yet, having a good printed Bible can’t be beat for distraction free focus on God’s word. Here a few great printed Bibles I’ve recently discovered. While not free, they are worth your investment.

Women’s Sanctuary Devotional Bible 
I recently discovered this Bible. This is a beautifully designed NLT Bible, featuring highlights of verses about God’s presence and peace in our lives. I wish it was simply called the Sanctuary Bible, because I want one.

The CEB Study Bible
This is great new Study Bible featuring full color pictures and maps. The Study Notes are informed by the best of modern scholarship while seeking to grow the reader in faith. Dr. Ken Schenck, Wesleyan Bible scholar and Dean of Wesley Seminary wrote the study notes for the book of Hebrews.

CEB Bible for Daily Prayer
My current Bible for devotional reading. It’s a handsomely packaged version of the CEB text paired with helps for engaging prayer practices as you read. There are great insets on “Praying the Psalms” and “Praying with Jesus,” as well as a Bible reading plan and a helpful guide for practicing traditional prayer practices.

Do you have a Bible recommendation to offer?
Let us know in the comments.