The Judeo-Christian faith has long been formed by books and reading. From synagogue scrolls to circulating letters, believers have been nurtured, disciplined, and matured through ongoing conversations in the form of written words. We are people of The Book, and alongside it is an ever-growing shelf of more books.
I am a reader, in large part, because I am a believer. From the literature of the Second Temple period to the writings of Lewis, Chesterton, and Peterson, books have had an incalculable influence on my life and faith. Our house shows it. We converted our formal dining room into a reading room lined with bookcases. There’s a built-in bookcase in our entryway filled with books. My home study is lined with books. And much to my wife’s annoyance, there’s usually a pile beneath my side of the bed. I’m not even counting the two-credit-a-month audible subscription I’ve kept for nearly a decade.
We have a rule in my house—if my kids will read it—I’ll buy it. There’s no book budget. It’s always a yes to more books. (Thankfully our pace of reading has kept the budget in check.) For all the books we’ve purchased, my largest investment is not on my physical shelves. Since seminary, my largest book purchases have taken place through Logos Bible Software.
Logos Bible Software for Families and Pastors
My first copy of Logos came on a pack of CDs, and I just pulled up my order history to confirm that my first book purchased on Logos was in March 2010. I’ve been using Logos for almost 15 years, and I use it almost every day.
Over the years, I have developed a strategy for book buying. If I want to read a book straight through, usually in our reading room or lying in bed, I usually purchase a physical copy. If I may need to reference the book in the future, I buy it in Logos. My Logos library currently contains more than 2,700 books.
The key to understanding the value of Logos is recognizing it’s two things: a tool and a library. Of course, there is the benefit of having access to this library anywhere I take my phone or laptop, but these days, most books can easily be purchased in a digital format. The real value is that Logos offers a suite of tools to help you organize your study of the Bible and your growing Biblical library. It’s the tools and the books that make it powerful.
For pastors, I’ll go so far as to say that I think Logos is indispensable. In its early days, Logos seemed mostly designed for clergy and academics. But over the last decade, Logos has made impressive strides to make its software a tool for pastors and any individual or family serious about the Bible. Recently, I’m not the only one using Logos.
Each year, my son’s school hosts a history day. Each child is assigned a famous person from the past. My son was assigned the Apostle Peter (it’s a classical Christian school). One of the first things we did was open Logos’ factbook and search for facts about Peter. I was excited to give him not only an answer to his question but also to show him how anyone can study and learn more about scripture.
I think every believer and family needs to think about the resources they turn to and the value of the tools needed for serious study.
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