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How many Twitter followers do you have? Five? Twenty-five? One thousand!? Think about how many of those followers are walking through any number of the difficulties that life tends to toss our way. Consider how many of them just need to hear some encouragement. Maybe today would be a good time to send out a favorite, encouraging scripture or two. Perhaps you have a verse which has so inspired you it has become your life-verse and is the kind of support that someone might need today. Ref.ly was created to meet such a need.

With ref.ly you can provide a short link to that verse that has been on your mind and send followers directly to that passage at Bible.logos.com.

Sure, you could just enter the verse address you are thinking of but what are the chances that your tweet reader is going to instantly recognize Is 53:6 or run to fetch their Bible to look it up? With ref.ly you can link directly to a Scripture that can be read with a simple click; ref.ly

You can either go directly to ref.ly put in your verse and hit the tweet button or go directly to Bible.logos.com put in your verse and hit the Share or Tweet button at the right of the page.

Another great aspect is that you can bypass the actual ref.ly site for most verses and simply type in the short-hand of the verse you would like to tweet; for John 3:16 you would simply type out http://ref.ly/Jn3.16. It is as easy as that.

Sharing God's Word with those who are following your words is a blessing that can't be measured. And ref.ly was created for just such a purpose. If you have found have found a creative and encouraging way to use ref.ly in your tweets or other social media sites respond with a comment and let us hear about it!

You should follow us on Twitter here.

While I try to keep God’s Word in my heart and mind on a regular basis, I must say that among email, work projects, family, Facebook, Twitter . . . my heart and mind tend to stray a little. That’s why I’m excited about the new project we’re launching today.

Today we are announcing the launch of 7 new Twitter accounts that are designed to help you take a moment in your day and meditate on God’s word.

We set the accounts up about a couple week ago to run them through some testing, and I’ve been following them in my personal twitter account. It has been really encouraging to glance over at my feed throughout the day and see a simple reminder of who God is and who I am in Christ.

We hope that these accounts will be a blessing to all you Twitter users and that, amongst the endless chatter of Twitter, you will stop for a moment focus your heart and mind on God’s Word.

Here are the accounts you can follow:

Encouraging Verses from Scripture

Follow @BibleHope

Every three hours we'll send out a tweet with an encouraging verse from Scripture.

Example tweet: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom... http://ref.ly/Ps27.1

Hourly Bible Verses

Follow @BibleHour

We'll tweet a different verse from Scripture every hour.

Example tweet: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. http://ref.ly/Ac2.1

Old Testament Verse of the Day

Follow @OToftheDay

Once a day we'll tweet a verse from the Old Testament.

Example tweet: Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do... http://ref.ly/Jos1.8

Proverb of the Day

Follow @PRoftheDay

Receive wisdom from Proverbs with this once daily tweet.

Example tweet: There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. http://ref.ly/Pr14.12

Psalm of the Day

Follow @PSoftheDay

This once daily tweet will give you Psalms to meditate on.

Example tweet: RT @PSoftheday: Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - http://ref.ly/Ps103.2

New Testament Verse of the Day

Follow @NToftheDay

Once a day we'll tweet a verse from the New Testament.

Example tweet: Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very... http://ref.ly/Tt2.14

Bible Reading Plan

Follow @BiblePlan

Read the Bible in a year. Every day includes a reading from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.

Example tweet: Today's Reading: http://ref.ly/Ge27.1-28.9 http://ref.ly/Ps9.10-16 http://ref.ly/Pr2.3-5 http://ref.ly/Mt10.1-15

We’re constantly expanding our offerings at Bible.Logos.com. If you’ve been watching closely, you might have noticed the addition of the GOD'S WORD translation to Bible.Logos.com—which also means you can link to GOD'S WORD using Ref.ly and RefTagger.

What is the GOD'S WORD translation? This new translation renders the best available texts into readable English with the closest possible accuracy. This commitment to accurately translating the Bible includes expressing the meaning naturally and in a style that preserves the characteristics of the source text. The result? An eminently readable Bible translation for all ages.

David Dockery recently called the GOD'S WORD translation "a remarkably fresh, accurate, and readable translation that communicates well the original text for modern readers." It has also been endorsed by Billy Graham, Josh McDowell, D. James Kennedy, and lots of other pastors and scholars.

Start reading now on Bible.Logos.com!

To link to GOD'S WORD using RefTagger, add the version abbreviation after the reference in one of the following three formats, and RefTagger will properly identify and tag your references with the appropriate version.

• Heb 12:1-2 GW
• Deut 5:5, GW
• Rev 21:1 (GW)

You can also share the GOD'S WORD translation on Twitter using Ref.ly. With Ref.ly, you can specify a particular version by simply adding ; followed by GW, the version abbreviation. For example, to share John 3:16 on Twitter using the GOD'S WORD translation, simply type http://ref.ly/Jn3.16;GW or http://ref.ly/John3.16;GW.

Learn more about the translation on the GOD'S WORD page, or start reading it right now on Bible.Logos.com.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

When people ask me what I do for work, I half-jokingly tell them that I Twitter for a living. At any given time I can have up to 4 different Twitter clients up on my screen. I monitor a lot of different conversations and do my best to keep tabs on the vast number of discussion taking place. This can be a little crazy since @Logos has almost 5,000 followers and we follow all of them (spammers and SEO experts excluded, of course).

While there is a lot of information being thrown at me, there was one tweet that caught my eye the other day. @pastorjamie tweeted this:

I immediately stopped and thought, "Wow, what a great use of Twitter." Here we have a pastor using Twitter to not simply share that he's having a cup of coffee, or that he's washing the dog. Rather, he is using Twitter to lead his church, or at least those following him on Twitter, to engage in the study of God's Word. I was also pretty happy that he used our tool, Ref.ly, to do it.

The advancement of technology, especially in the social sphere, is nothing short of amazing. The challenge is how we can harness this technology for the kingdom and glory of God. At Logos, we are trying to do our part with projects such as Ref.ly (for Twitter and Facebook), RefTagger (for blogs and websites), and Bible.Logos.com. We hope that these tools serve you well and help you engage in a meaningful way.

So, how about you? Are you using Ref.ly or RefTagger? Drop a comment below with a link. Also, what are your thoughts on social media? What ideas do you have for engaging people in a meaningful way?

You should follow us on Twitter here.