You know you should be reading the Bible daily. Right? Why not let e-Sword help automate
the task!
DOWNLOADING AND USING BIBLE READING PLANS FROM DDT.com
Here is how you download and use e-Sword's "Bible Reading Plans." Your first step
will be to decide which plan(s) you'd like to have available. When you extract the
.zip file, please extract to your “...My Documents\e-Sword” folder.
If e-Sword is running, exit from the program. Then open e-Sword. From the menu, go
to "Tools" then "Bible Reading." Your Bible reading window will open up. At the bottom
left, choose the "Bible Reading Plan Folder" button (it looks like a file folder),
and "browse" to "c:\...\My Documents\e-Sword". Click "OK".
In the dialogue box just to the left of the "Bible Reading Plan Folder" button, select
the gray arrow. Your Bible Reading Plan(s) will be shown. Select one.
Make sure you check the check box "show at Startup" if you want this tool to open
the first time you open e-Sword every day.
This devotional tool in e-Sword really is a fine way to help automate the process
of reading the Scriptures. Try it - you'll like it!
CREATING YOUR OWN CUSTOM BIBLE READING PLAN
Would you like to read through the entire Bible, while reading only on Monday - Friday?
How about reading just the Pentateuch, and only on Saturdays? e-Sword allows you
to create your own custom reading plan.
Here’s how:
Open the Bible Reading tool (from the “Tools” menu click on “Bible Reading”). In
the upper left, there’s a little button called “New Bible Reading Plan.” Click this
button, and follow the simple instructions. You’ll be able to create your own Bible
reading plan. (e-Sword likes for all of it’s user created resources to be stored
in the “C:\...\My Documents\e-Sword” folder, but as long as you can remember where
you put it, you can put them anywhere....)
e-Sword is limited to working with chapters in it’s daily divisions, so you’ll rarely
get 365 exact readings (or however many days you chose to complete your plan in)
- but this is still a very nice feature.
e-Sword’s wizard is also limited to contiguous chapters - you can’t skip over chapters
(you can skip books, though), and the chapters must be in book order. But you can
get around some of these limitations by creating multiple Bible Reading Plans.
EXAMPLE
Let’s say you want to read the Bible through in One Year, reading from the OT, NT
and Psalms-Proverbs every day (my preferred reading plan). To do this, simply create
3 different Bible reading plans. Every morning, when you open e-Sword, set the Bible
Reading window to open automatically, and do your OT reading, then choose the Psalm-Proverb
reading, and then choose the NT reading. You won’t get an equal number of days (there
are only 181 daily readings in Psalms-Provberbs, but there are 310 OT daily readings,
and 260 NT daily readings), but it is still a very nice feature.
CHRONOLOGICAL READING PLAN
Would you be interested in reading through the Bible chronologically (Job before
Abraham; Psalm 90 at the end of Detueronomy; etc.)? An unknown module builder has
created a 365 Day Chronological Bible Reading Plan that is available for download
here at DDT.com (extract to “C:\...\My Documents\e-Sword” folder). My deep thanks
goes to OMLB “Perhaps Today” for providing this beautiful module. This type of plan
cannot be made within e-Sword, but once it is built, e-Sword has no problems displaying
the plan itself. This module is a very nice addition to your e-Sword library.
The Bible Reading Tool is one of the features that makes e-Sword the one of the best
free Bible software programs available.
