APRIL FOCUS: Easter Season: During the entire month of March and into April many of us have been meditating upon the sacrifice that Christ made at the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. April 24th we will stop and reflect on this event as we celebrate and say together: “He is risen” and hear our friend’s response “He is risen indeed”.

What does Easter mean to you personally? Recently Amanda DeWitt captured this whole scene in her Tapestry Blog: When Something Dies. In John 12:24 Jesus puts it this way, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Not only was Jesus giving the Greeks a glimpse into his upcoming death, but he was also calling his disciples to an upturned perspective. He continues saying, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). HE is risen…HE is risen indeed!

CONTEST FOR APRIL: Tell us what Easter means to you "this year" as you have prepared your heart by meditating upon this event. We simply ask that you fill out this Easter Blessings form for us. Please assist us with your email address as part of your form so that we can communicate with you, otherwise we have no way of contacting you. The winning entry will be posted in the May Newsletter. Prizes to be announced!

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(Volunteer with the opportunity to move to a paid position)

Bible.org Needs:

• Last month we asked for volunteer help to advise us on enterprise cloud computing. Thanks to all who volunteered and worked with Hampton. We ordered some new computers this week and will see them deployed this month
• We are still in need for volunteers on Chinese NET Bible project team. NEEDED: Additional Chinese scholars, programmers and people to help build a web site, software products and distribution (read more) Contact us.
• Several responded to our call for help: (1) to enhance our NET Bible online environment in Spanish and (2) our Sunday school teachers effort. However, lack of internal staff time has caused these efforts to proceed slower than we would like.
• We are still desiring to work with church mission's committees to build study and resource material that is tailored to the needs of the missionaries they support. The idea would be that we would pull from bible.org and the Internet material that would help the mission's committees be more effective and their supported missionaries more productive for the Lord. NEEDED: a person to lead this effort. Contact us

NEW PERSONNEL: Last month we introduced you to one of the new project managers your sacrificial giving has provided. This month we would like to introduce you to Fred Yu who will be assisting us in the Chinese NET Bible project. His official title is: Project Manager for Chinese NET Bible. Fred comes to bible.org adequately prepared having been active in the professional side of software development as a software product director for 16+ years and in Information Technology for over 25 years. Fred, his wife Kim, along with his immediate family have a heart to reach Asian Americans and has led trips to the Far East teaching English as well as having led a mission team to Alaska with SEND, Taiwan and Hong Kong (CCC). In Fred’s spare time he is active as a part-time lay preacher. Thank you for your generous donations which make this all possible.

Director of Marketing, Sales and Development for Bible.org: Michael Garrett, in addition to marketing and sales, is a part time editor who keeps the home page and men’s blog in sync. Aside from all of that, Michael is also a studio musician who has his own studio! These musical talents are used to glorify Christ in his church. Need some help with the newest Bible study tool? Go and watch some of Michael’s newest ventures into making our bible.org tutorials and/or commercials! Check out the videos and see the new Skit Guys commercial which was just launched. It's hilarious.

One of our developers, Brian Seagraves, was invited to speak at BibleTech recently in Seattle, Washington. Brian’s topic was: "Techniques for Search in the Biblical Domain". His talk covered techniques for searching the Bible, Biblical content, and the Web by describing and demonstrating a search engine that: understands the verse reference, uses synonyms and multiple translations from which to build its index, and uses the wealth of extra-biblical resources to enhance the process of locating the best matches to a user’s query. We praise God for this marvelous opportunity. Enjoy the fruits of Brian's efforts at the NET Bible Study Environment.

PS You might note that Brian is not only technically inclined but is also a gifted musician.

MAILROOM: Daily we seek the face of God and daily we are reminded that you have joined us in this quiet seeking.
Recently we received a note from Amy saying: THE NEW NET BIBLE STUDY TOOL IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!!!!!!
I have not been able to afford Logos Platinum (or any Logos for that matter) but have been desiring this for a long time. I just discovered the NET Bible study tool yesterday and have already spent 3 hrs this weekend just studying Matthew - it is GREATLY aiding my Bible study time and gives me quick references and resources - especially in the ThM program, I covet having easy access to additional tools for my Bible study time because I think too much!
This is amazing and have already told 2 people about this new feature - I'm about to tell pretty much all my friends and prayer support team back home.
Thank you for providing an academic, free Bible tool. This is ministering to me and about to minister to many more!!

From Anonymous: I have been listening for hours, from Galatians through 1 Thes.
From Mark in Santiago, Chile: I have been a faithful user of your site for many years now. I have been greatly indebted to the excellent study tools that the NET notes are. In my personal study of a passage for preaching or teaching, I consult your notes to help clarify syntactical issues. Thank you so much.
From Gary: I have enjoyed your web site for several years and have referred many to some of your teachers (thank you Gary for this positive thought and idea.)
From Derebe: I always read your day to day study. May God help you and Bless the GLOBE. (Derebe is using this new study tool where you can choose the type of daily Bible reading program you would like to use)

Send new mail Here.

Blogs: This month we want to direct you to two different blogs which have been book reviews: Dr. Bock’s review and Dr. Burer’s book review. Both look at a book by Rob Bell from differing perspectives and should generate some ideas and thoughts. It is hoped that you, as the reader, will gain ideas on how to discriminate and discern ideas from other authors beyond bible.org but are out there for all of Christendom to consider. This is away to keep abreast and alert to how our NET Bible translators see new works. (note: a pastor recently lost his job after he posted a note on his facebook page supporting Bells view on hell.) In addition, we welcome reviews as well of books you have been reading. Help us by joining the book review club or go to the Forum and post your thoughts on "Books, Books, and more Books" and share your recent discoveries.

Facebook:This month we are going to give you a glimpse into the behind the scenes from Facebook. Each month they send to bible.org a summary of what they have recorded about our users. Be encouraged! The only down are the wall posts or comments and we hope that this will motivate you and encourage you to take time to do one or both to help us raise these numbers. Be sure to join in on our bible.org Facebook page.