In September last year, the Committee on Bible Translation announced that it would release an updated version of the NIV. The goal of the update was to maintain and strengthen the NIV’s existing focus on transparency to the original text and ease of understanding for a broad audience.

After a year of scholarly review and revision, the updated, fully searchable NIV is making its debut appearance at BibleGateway.com on November 1! The print version will follow in early 2011. You can read the press release announcing the news here.

The NIV’s debut will accompany the unveiling of the beta version of a new and improved Bible Gateway website. You’ll have the chance to visit the beta website and share your opinions; Bible Gateway will use your feedback to make the new site even better. Accessing the beta site will require that you create an account and log in to try out the new features, including:

> View the updated NIV text in parallel with the TNIV and NIV 1984

> Share any verse or passage using your favorite social media or email

> Keep up with your daily devotionals or Bible reading plans

> Share your feedback on exactly what you think about the new site

So visit BibleGateway.com on November 1 to check out the updated NIV and take the beta website for a spin! There will be more details about each of these in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the Bible Gateway blog (and Facebook and Twitter accounts) for the latest news.

If spiritual insight is what you’re interested in, you can sign up to receive the Verse of the Day or a daily devotional by Charles Spurgeon. For a taste of Bible history, the “Men of the Bible” and “Women of the Bible” newsletters explore the lives of famous Bible characters, drawing from them lessons for our lives today. You can also sign up to receive news and announcements from Bible Gateway.

Stop by and take a look at the newsletters, and sign up for all that interest you. Bible Gateway plans to add additional newsletters on a regular basis, so check back periodically to see what’s new. Enjoy!

One simple but powerful way to prepare for Easter is to spend time in the Scriptures. Our sister site BibleGateway.com has just put a Lent daily Bible reading plan online to help—it walks through all four of the Gospels between today and Easter, so by the time Easter arrives you’ll have read the entire account of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection.

If you’ve not made a Lent pledge before, daily Scripture reading like this is a great place to start (and involves a relatively light time commitment). Take a look at the Lent reading plan and see it helps you focus your thoughts on Jesus as Easter approaches!

It’s a great way to pick up great content and support the Bible Gateway at the same time. You can pick from a wide variety of formats—in addition to print titles, there are plenty of audiobooks and ebooks for use on your ebook reader or MP3 player. The Store keeps an online library of the digital books you’ve purchased; you can browse your library and download titles as many times as you want, from anywhere with an internet connection.

The Store is in beta while the Bible Gateway team expands its inventory, fixes bugs, and improves the shopping experience for final public release, but it’s fully functional—and even if you don’t buy anything, they welcome and ask for your feedback.

So take a look at the brand new Bible Gateway Store and check back often, as they’ll be adding new products on a regular basis! And don’t hesitate to share questions, feedback, or comments about the Store during the beta testing period.

• A new Lent reading plan. Have you ever thought about making a commitment during Lent to help you focus on the meaning of Easter? Committing to spending more time in the Bible is always a good idea, and a Lent plan that walks you through each of the four Gospels in time for Easter might help you do just that. Read more about the Lent reading plan on the Bible Gateway blog.
• On a somewhat related note, the Bible Gateway now makes it possible to subscribe to a reading plan (such as the aforementioned Lent reading plan) via email, so you can have each day’s Scripture reading delivered to your inbox. It’s still in beta, but if you’re interested, head over to the Bible Gateway to read more about it and subscribe to an email reading plan.

Stop by the Bible Gateway, try out the new features, and let the Bible Gateway team know what you think!

Two user requests in particular have been showing up most frequently in our email inboxes. And we’ve listened! We’ve made two new adjustments to Gospel.com based on your feedback:

1. You can now search the Bible Gateway from the Gospel.com homepage. Many of you told us that you missed the Bible Gateway search form on the old site, so we’ve added one to the top right of the Gospel.com homepage. Just check the “Search BibleGateway.com” option, type in a Bible passage or search term, and you can search the Bible!

2. The Verse of the Day is more prominent on the Gospel.com homepage. The Verse of the Day has been on the Gospel.com homepage since we launched, but it wasn’t obvious where it was. So we’ve bumped it higher on the page so you can see it right away when you visit Gospel.com.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to email us with your requests and feedback! We’re always looking to make Gospel.com more useful to you. We hope you like these additions, and don’t hesitate to send us your thoughts at info@gospel.com.