January 2023 As far as I know, The Expositor’s Study Bible is the only study Bible that has been given, free of charge, to great numbers of people serving the Lord in foreign countries. With your help, we have given out nearly 4 million of these Bibles since the Lord instructed me to do so some ten years ago. WHAT THE LORD SAID DO As I compiled the notes for The Expositor’s Study Bible, I had no idea that the Lord would use this Bible as He has with millions of them going into foreign countries all over the world. Virtually all of these Bibles have gone to pastors and Christian workers who could ill afford to pay for any Bible, let alone a study Bible. I’ll not forget the day that the Lord instructed me regarding this outreach effort. About ten years ago, our ministry was offering The Expositor’s Study Bible at half price here in the United States. A man in our church came up to me and said, “Brother Swaggart, I sold a house, and I have a certain amount of money, and I want to give Bibles for a missions project in Mexico.” I gave him the Bibles, but when he walked away, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “I want you to give one of these Expositor’s Study Bibles to every third world pastor and worker.” It was just that simple. From that day on, we started doing exactly what the Holy Spirit had told us to do. Again, with your help, we have given away nearly 4 million of these Bibles. I believe you could say that The Expositor’s Study Bible is the Bible for the twenty-first century. A steady flow of people contact us to say how much it has helped them to understand what they are reading, and anything that helps you understand the Word of God to a greater degree is valuable indeed. Frances was telling me about a mother of five children who used to listen to audio recordings of the Bible. She did this because she couldn’t read all that well. A friend of hers decided to get her a copy of The Expositor’s Study Bible and told her, “Honey, if you sincerely want to understand the Bible, God will help you.” At first, this dear lady would still play her audio Bible in the background, while doing her best to follow along on the pages of her new Bible. But soon after, she did away with the audio and, as a family, she and her children started taking turns, each one reading aloud a verse from the Bible, along with the notes. As a family, their reading improved. As time went on, instead of reading six verses a night, they read six pages a night. They emailed Frances a note from the school that these children attend—a note saying that their reading ability had increased by 42 percent. Glory to God, the Lord is using this Bible in ways that we never dreamed of! In order to do what the Lord told us to do, we had to have the Expositor’s Study Bible translated into different languages. After the English version was completed, we had it translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and German. We’re just about finished with the French translation; it will be ready shortly. Also coming soon is The Expositor’s Study Bible in Vietnamese—yes, I said Vietnamese. Our friend Dave Roever told me that the Vietnamese people desperately need some Bible tools to help them understand the Word of God. If you don’t know about Dave, this man has a powerful testimony. He suffered terrible injuries in the Vietnam War but since has established ongoing missions work in Vietnam as well as ministry here in the U.S. When Dave saw The Expositor’s Study Bible, he said to me, “That’s just what we need.” He asked if he could translate it into Vietnamese and Hmong. Not only did I give him permission to translate it into those languages, but I told him we would also pay for the translation to be done. Incidentally, these should be ready in a short period of time. Who would have thought that there would be thousands of Expositor Study Bibles going out to preachers in Vietnam? And we believe this Bible will be such a blessing to these people who have not had anything like it before. ANOTHER TESTIMONY A dear brother in a Central American country went into the capital city to a Christian bookstore. He needed a Bible; his was completely worn out. He found several Bibles on the store shelves, but he simply couldn’t afford to buy one. Heavy hearted, he left the store. This man went on to a preacher’s meeting where he was one of several hundred pastors in attendance. What he didn’t know was that on this particular day, a copy of The Expositor’s Study Bible was to be given to every pastor and Christian worker in that meeting. When this man received his copy and held it in his hands, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He was holding a brand-new Bible that he knew he could have never afforded, but the Lord had made it possible for him to have an Expositor’s Study Bible. We hear this same story again and again by countless preachers who have received this Bible—preachers who did not have a Bible with which to read from and study. Think about that—a preacher of the gospel who doesn’t have a Bible. Pastors who have walked for miles just to get access to a Bible, to read a page and then walk back and try to preach the next day on what they remember reading. How thankful we are for all the times the Holy Spirit has seen to it that an Expositor’s Study Bible came into their possession! That’s the reason the Holy Spirit told me to put these Bibles into the hands of every preacher and Christian worker, and this is what we are trying to do. A FINAL WORD, BUT MOST IMPORTANT All that I’ve mentioned about The Expositor’s Study Bible—we simply could not do what we’re doing without your help. You are the ones who make it possible, and how we appreciate your generosity, your love for God, and your love for souls. You understand how very important this is. We thank God for each one of you who pays for one Bible a month, or several Bibles a month, which, so far, make up the nearly 4 million Bibles now in the hands of pastors and workers around the world. Again, we can only do this with your help. But I thank God that so many thousands of you are attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, helping you to place these Bibles into the hands of those who desperately need them. There is nothing in the world more important than the Word of God—it is the single greatest thing on the face of the earth. And thank the Lord that all of us have a part in getting The Expositor’s Study Bible into the hands and hearts of untold thousands of preachers and workers. Again, thank you so very, very much.