MJ_

Thank you, MJ!

e-Sword seems to be "alive and well" thanks to the excellent help I got here....and I'm grateful to God to have my study aid back.

"how you became involved in prison ministry...."  You know I'm a preacher, right?...Nevertheless, I'll try to give the "short answer"  


I ended up being directed by my original pastor again (30 years down the road) who was then working with an international prison ministry.  He got me set up as a volunteer with them and my wife and I worked in prisons in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.  (She and I have a deal--I don't sing and she doesn't preach.....).  Her health failed first and she's been inactive for several years; I am slowed down but not stopped.  It's a ministry which cannot be adequately described, but I will say "the greatest experience by far" of my efforts to be a representative of Christ.

I've heard it said that life is a circle, that the world is really a small place.. It is true sometimes..
Thanks for sharing your story.. it is indeed a great honor to be a representative of Christ.
There can be no greater calling than the ministry, don't you think?
As a young man I dreamed of being in the ministry but life did not take me that way. Perhaps in the future God will have me do something more worthwhile than my current role.

Very nice meeting you Ed... I hope you will be able to continue in your calling for a long time to come...

I was referred to this forum just a couple days ago because of a nightmarish experience I am currently "enjoying" with e-Sword.

So, I just popped in with my situation and request for help without an introduction.  I must say the helpful folks here are a blessing.  The problem is not yet solved but it's nice to have help and support in a matter which is very frustrating.

I am aging country preacher, living in the woods of southern middle Tennessee.  For the past ten years or so, I've worked almost exclusively in prison ministry.  Now I'm at the point physically where I can hardly cover all the hills and valleys going from unit to unit and have had to scale back my efforts.  My heart is still incarcerated, however.

Thanks to all ...for the forum, for the help; looking forward to fellowship here.

That is a very nice intro Ed.
I hope your troubles with Esword are soon solved.  Esword, for me is a very valuable tool that I use pretty much every day for study and note taking.  There are just so many options and features that I am constantly, pleasantly surprised at how useful a tool it really is.

I hope your health will continue so that you are able to continue in your work.
Would you care to share how you became involved in prison ministry?

Mj

My next project (time permitting) will be to convert the apparently abandoned Wikipedia Bible Project (also called "The Free Bible") into e-Sword format.  The wikipedia page (http://en.wikisource...28Wikisource%29) shows that specific people volunteered to translate a chapter here or a book there back in 2008, and those books and chapters remain unfinished.

This module will be the edition that was found by saving all the pages on 3-12-2012.

On a side note, if anyone happens to be interested in doing some of the translation work and fleshing out the translation, feel free to go to the above link and do so.  It seems as though no one has updated anything on there in at least a year (if not more).

After that, I may work on the "Conservative Bible Version" found at http://www.conservap...e_Bible_Project

Back to work!

This is an interesting project you've undertaken. Lot's of work involved no doubt. Thanks.

Soon! I think I've learned a lesson on issuing public deadlines. Lange's is coming around, but with the warm weather my progress has slowed. Fortunately, it's not a verse by verse commentary. Since it's chapter by chapter, it's manageable. The chapters that are properly divided are very fast. It's the redividing that's annoying. I think it's going to be near 160 megs. I'm spending a few hours a day on it.

Deadline?  Anyone remember hearing about a dealine? haha..

Since installation of the new version of Esword, a day or so after it was released, I have had 2 pup ups for estudy resources. Both of these pop ups came within a minute of starting up. It only took one click to clear them.

There are some other angles to look at this.

First, it is extemely limited advertising at best. it isn't an hourly or even a daily occurance. It's quite rare.

Second, these ads make people aware of resources that they might not otherwise know about, which would constitute more of a blessing to them than an annoyance.

The third factor, assuming that there is some financial gain by the author of Esword, it certainly would benefit all of us to allow this feature to exist. On the other hand, it is possible that this is a service that does not benefit the author at all.

I expect that there may be enhancements to the software in how this all works. It is a new addition and as we have seen over the years, Esword continues to be improved and enhanced in so many ways.

What I don't understand at all is the mentality that small upgrades (like 10.05 to 10.1) is time consuming, problematic, wrought with the room for error, people biting their nails from nervousness, people weighing the pros and cons of upgrading, etc. I've seen people give "upgrade recommendations" where they recommend you upgrade or not upgrade. *Sigh*, this is where I bang my head against the wall.   Anytime e-Sword offers an upgrade, you should use it (barring a situation where Rick has removed a popular feature and people were upset--which only happened once or twice, lol). I almost have a soap box going here, don't I? Ok, I'll leave this one alone for a while.

As you speak of problematic upgrades.. Microsoft is the author of painful upgrades with it's operating systems.  Their operating system upgrades do cause problems, so much so that I think that may be the root of the upgrade phobia problem. Upgrading has been tarnished by the painful experiences of lost data, programs that no longer worked, printers that became obsoleted, all by a so called upgrade.

I did find that jump from version 8 to 9 somewhat painful and intimidating. I think many people are at a level where they really do not understand things well enought to trouble shoot minor issues when it comes to computer software. I have fiends and relatives that are very smart in many areas. They have lot of life experience and wisdom, yet, when they sit down in front a computer, they are lost, completely lost.

Well now I'm selling soap too..

Hello to all that may pass through this way.
I just wanted to post a note here and send greetings to everyone.
I am a long time e-sword user and a Christian.
I do very much enjoy the scriptures and becoming more familiar with the bible through the use of E-sword and it's many resources available and supported through this site.
I am frequently logged in here and even more frequently tuned into the internet.
Should you log into this site and read this message feel free to reply and say hello.
Should you run across my profile page, also, please feel free to strike up a conversation. If I am online at the same time you are please feel free to contact me through the 'private chat' .

When I find a new site the first thing i look for is a "What we believe" statement to get a feel for their theology.  This one doesn't have one labeled as such, but it did have an "introduction" page.
http://www.mirrorwor...is/Introduction

This is what it says:

Jesus Christ is infinitely more than an historic Hero; He is both the mirror image of an invisible God, and at the same time the reflection and blueprint of every person's original design. His life, death and resurrection represent the human race, preserved and revealed in the most documented ancient record, and confirmed in our faith.

We believe that the church, ekklesia, is so much more than a building or an organisation. It is the voice of God that echoes in man and reveals man's true spiritual origin and identity (Greek, ek, a preposition denoting origin, and kaleo, urgent invitation, to give a name to, to receive the name of, to call or salute by name). Jesus introduces Simon, the son of Jonah to his true identity, a stone hewn out of the Rock; the son of man is the son of God. It is in this context that Jesus says he will build His ekklesia. Math.16:13, 16-18. Isa.51:1, Deut.32:18, 1Peter 2:5.

'And we all, with new understanding, see ourselves in Him as in a mirror; thus we are changed from an inferior mindset to the revealed opinion of our true Origin.'
2 Corinthians 3:18 - Mirror Translation

and an "About us" section that starts out with the same thing, then expands upon it.

Having read through that little bit. It sounds like a narrow focus of Christ and religion in general. One would hope that there is something more that they are not telling us.
My personal view on religion in general in our society is that so many denominations have either thrown out the old testament all together or minimized it to something of equal value to a dime store novel.  At least in summary, this description of beliefs seems to go even further in that minimalization of scripture and truth.

I am very appreciative of the efforts that it takes to compile these commentaries and get them usable and looking good.  Thank you very much for your efforts James.  I have no doubt that God is also pleased with your attitude of service and the diligence you have shown in preparing this work for others.
Giving is God's way and we all need to learn and PRACTICE that way.

See, in many respects I'm just lazy about switching modules around and streamlining them to those that I regularly use. Not only that, e-Sword looks kind of naked without all the modules I have on it. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Blessings,

I smiled when I ready our reply, I am the same way. I love the resources. the only ones I turn off are the greek translations that I never use. I picked them becaue I had a friend that used them and his enthusiasm was so contagious I couldn't resist. But alas, in the comfort of my home with no one around I am lost with the greek so now they just take up space.. ;(

Kind regards,

Michael

Great responses Jonathon.  I like the spirit of your posts.  Despite what some may believe, it was not my intention to stir up strife on the forum.  I just feel that having e-sword's source code would lead to the development of e-sword as a native Mac and Linux application, and facilitate bug fixes and new features at a faster pace.

I enjoyed the thought of what was behind your poll. I did not take it as a negative or troublesome topic at all. thanks for posting. It got a lot of people thinking.  We all need to spend more time thinking.   We all enjoy esword and it's many features, and it is not uncommon for programmers and power users to see things that they would like to change or improve.  There is the future to think about too. Perhaps one day Rick, and whomever he works with to develop the software, will want to do something different like open source. You never know...
Good day sir..

Mj

That is a helpful clarification. Thanks..

Just a spent a few minutes writing in the journal window. I had some scriptures that I tool tipped and then went through the text and highlighted some notes, added some color, etc etc.. I decided I would like to copy it to a topic file. when I copy the entry it doesn't copy any of the formatting or tool tips. Is this normal?

Mj