iPhone Bible Software : Good News Bible For iPhone
Friends, as you all know, the iPhone is getting so popular these days. So we thought of writing about a cool software called ‘The Good News Bible’. This iPhone app will make Bible accessible to you 24hours a day on your iPhone. Cool, isn’t it?
This iPhone App includes the full text of one of the best selling versions of the Bible and is perfect if for people who are new to the bible or just want a fresh look at the text and a new way to interact with it. The GNB is written in simple, everyday language, with the intention that everyone can appreciate it. This also has introductions to each book of the Bible and character profile for important people of the Bible.
As you can see from the sample image given above (which shows only a few from all the available features), The Good News Bible App is graphically rich with a beautifully illustrated timeline and comprehensive Who’s Who, Miracles of Jesus, Parables of Jesus, Passage for Occasions, Prayers from Bible, Quiz and Dictionary sections.
Moreover, this software is now available as an iPhone App from the App Store for just 7$. So it will only be a matter of few minutes for you to try out this great new iPhone Bible application. Visit the following links for more info.
The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31) is given here as a Video. Watch it.
Video Transcript : Lazarus and The Rich Man
There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed and who lived each day in luxury. At his door lay a diseased beggar named Lazarus. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. Finally, the beggar died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham.
The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames.’
But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at its edge, and no one there can cross over to us.’
Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them about this place of torment so they won’t have to come here when they die.’
But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read their writings anytime they want to.’
The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will turn from their sins.’
But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.’
Reflection on Lazarus and The Rich Man parable
Basically, the story of Lazarus is about compassion, or more exactly about the lack of it.
Here Jesus invents a “teaching story” or parable in which He stages a rich man who has no compassion for a poor man living beside Him. After his death, the rich man is condemned for his hardness of heart. This is the main thrust of the story. The fact that it deals with financial wealth is rather secondary, and we must take note of this very carefully. If we don’t, we will think that this teaching of Jesus is only for the financially wealthy.
But, in truth, financial wealth is only a stage prop in the story. For lack of compassion can characterize any of us in the various aspects of our social lives. I can lack compassion towards those who are less “fortunate” than I am in terms of family life, brains, health, good looks, education, or friends.
How do I treat the Lazaruses I meet every day in my own life? Please think.
But this parable contains another important teaching. It corrects the mistaken way in which the rich man understands the mechanism of conversion. Because the rich man is like a lot of people who seek religious sensationalism. They are always looking for miracles, private revelations, strange phenomena.
But Jesus warns us against this kind of attitude. We have in the Bible and in the teaching of the Church everything we need for our Christian life and our salvation. Waiting for anything more amounts to refusing the grace of God.
Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?” Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”
Reflection:-
Jews were astonished at the knowledge and teaching of Jesus, the eternal teacher and they wondered about its origin as He was never been taught. Jesus explains to them the secret of His knowledge. Jesus shows himself as a medium through whom the wisdom of the Father is flowing. Jesus stands for the Father by doing His will and seeking His glory. So Jesus’ teaching becomes the self revelation of the Father.
Jesus finds himself to be in total dependence to the Father, His sender. In other words here Jesus is telling that the source of his knowledge is the Father. Since Jesus is seeking His Father’s glory and doing His will, Father’s wisdom passes clearly through him without any hindrance. Those who do the will of the Father can identify His teaching as coming from the Father because Father’s will is the same. Those who seek their own glory can’t be true always as their selfishness blocks the Father’s wisdom from passing clearly through them.
Jesus, the teacher, shows Jews their problem, i.e they seek their own glory and don’t do the will of the Father. So they can’t understand the source and real meaning of Jesus’ teaching. Every teaching is to be in conformity with the will of the Father and it should give glory to Him. If any teaching is aimed at selfishness and one’s own glory it fails. Jesus tells them that they are trying to kill him as they deny the heavenly source of his teaching and also don’t look into their real message but only in their outward appearance.
Jesus shows this through his act of healing which is in real conformity with the laws of Moses who ordered to circumcise on Sabbath. The will of the Father is obeyed in and through Jesus’s deeds and words, they glorify Him. Jews say that Jesus has a demon. But Jesus shows them that their judgement is wrong. They judge by appearances and so they fail to do the will of the Father because they seek their own glory.
Here Jesus, the teacher, welcomes us to the source of our authenticity. Only in relation to the Father by doing His will and seeking His glory that we can be men of God. Otherwise we may miss the real by incorrect judgement based on appearances. And instead of doing God’s will, we will be blocking His glory by seeking our glory. Jesus the eternal teacher shows us how to be wise by doing God’s will and seeking His glory.
[Thanksgiving and Prayer] We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. — 2 Thessalonians 1:3
