Read a tweet last night that was actually a link to a forum post at the Accordance Bible Software forums. The question in the tweet and forum post was how has Bible study software helped to improve your preaching.

Portability

The first response is one I wholeheartedly agree with. The key word was “Portability” by which he meant that using a laptop and software enabled him to port his entire library around. I would add things like the iPad or iPhone (or any other mobile device) which lets me use that fifteen minutes as I am waiting for a meal or for someone to meet me somewhere. When previously that fifteen minutes might just let me read my bible or one book, now I can search my whole library for a word, find a sermon illustration, or get some information about a passage I am preaching.

Connection

The second post makes another great point that I agree with. We’ve always been able to connect one passage to another via things like concordances, margin notes in our study Bibles, or just our memory. But with Bible software these connections are more accessible and therefore more likely to be found. The person posting gave an example of the word “ridicule” in Luke 14:28-30, the passage counting the cost and not wanting to be ridiculed for not doing so when building a tower. He said that the same word is used to describe Jesus’ treatment in passages about the crucifixion (the soldiers, the religious leaders while on the cross). The connection brings up the idea of ridicule and counting the cost. Did Jesus fail to count the cost when he came to earth and did things that led to his crucifixion? The answer of course is yes he did but felt it worth the cost to redeem our souls. GREAT POINT!

Time and Efficiency

A third way cited was the speed of Bible study software. It saves a lot of time in all three stages of preparation. It saves time in study as I don’t have to search a stack of books manually. They are there ready to go at my finger tips. The time saved allows me to go deeper. In the sermon writing phase, it saves me time in finding good illustrations, in copying and pasting texts or notes into the sermon, and if you use your Bible software to actually write your sermons you don’t have to switch between two applications.

Enjoyment

The final point is my own. I am a tech geek and I love technology. For that reason I am more likely to play around with something if it has to do with technology. Put Bible study software on my computer or mobile device and I am more likely to do things like read my Bible more regularly and longer.

If you use more than one Bible software application, then you likely own multiple copies of the same book on different platforms. Now that there are more than computers involved (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android), the problem is worse.

I love the Holman Christian Standard Bible. I preach from it and use it in my study. I also love the English Standard Version. My favorite commentary is the New American Commentary and the Expositor’s Bible Commentary. I own as few as two copies and as many as five or six copies of each.

This is a real problem. I want to study the HCSB and the ESV in all of my various programs. To do so I would have to purchase them both in the various platforms. I have four Bible apps on my iPhone and iPad. I have three computer software packages on both of my desktops and my notebook. That means that including all four apps and the three application I have 7 copies of those two translations. And this does not even include the Kindle, iBooks, and even PDF versions I have.

There needs to be a new way to buy digital copies of books. I have howled about this issue before wishing the Bible software companies would deal with the issue. There used to be a program called STEP which was an attempt at a universal format for digital Bible publishers to share. Many got on board but modern technology left it behind and now we are back to the pre-STEP days with no publishers wanting to fix the problem. They like re-charging us for the same content because they each get a cut of my hard earned money. It is time for these companies to come together. Technical reasons keep them from using the same book format. But they could share a database of who has rights to what content if they wanted to.

Here is my proposal. Digital publishers could sell books to users and the various software makers could give a copy of that book to users if they can prove they already own the content. So, Holman could give me a digital receipt for my copy of HCSB that is tied to my identity to keep me from sharing it with friends. Then the various Bible software makers could check to make sure I own the HCSB and if I do, they could unlock it in their application. The money I could save in buying only one copy of HCSB would help me greatly. Publishers would like it as they would now have control over their books. And software companies would not have to find a universal file format to share; they could be as proprietary as they want.

One objection I could see is that less money would be flowing into the Bible software makers pockets. They won’t get a cut of my seven copies of the HCSB. But if I not longer have to keep re-purchasing the content, I would not mind paying for quality software as much. That free upgrade would now be a paid upgrade and I would be willing to pay it since I don’t’ have to pay for the HCSB again. And, buyers will still be buying books and they could do so through the software makers getting a cut of the profits from the publisher as they do now.

Bible.Is is a new iPhone Bible app that reads the Bible to you. It is not like many of the Bible apps that have introduced audio. Instead of computer generated Bible reading, it uses dramatized Bible readings. They get the audio from Faith Comes By Hearing, a ministry that supplies the Bible in 400 languages and free for download. Thanks to Bible.is you get it on your iPhone or iPad. It is also available on other platforms, like Android and hopefully Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian OS in the near future. Until then you can subscribe to the SMS version which sends a text message with links to the MP3 of that day’s reading. They say it will take you 40 days to listen to the entire New Testament.

I really like the iPhone app and think it is well worth the price, which is Free. But it would be worth it if it costs even more. Below is a video of the app reading from 1 Kings.

As you can hear it is high quality dramatized Bible reading. But that is not all Bible.is can do. You can of course read from a few different translations, including the ESV, one of my favorites. It doesn’t have as many modern translations as some apps, but it is free.

The app also lets you highlight text, take notes, and bookmark your favorite verses. Notice from the screen shots below that you can listen to the Bible by simply opening to a verse and hitting the play button. You choose to read from several English translations including ASV, BBE, CEV, ESV, KJV and NRSV. The audio is available only for some translations and sometimes only for the NT.

Dramatized Available: ESV OT & NT, KJV OT & NT, NRSV NT only

Non Dramatized Available: KJV NT only, NRSV NT only

These will have to be downloaded via the More option in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (see bottom left row of screen shots).

If you want to get through the NT in just 40 days there is an audio listening program available for that (see above right).

You can search the Bible and add bookmarks, highlights, and notes. To add these just tap and hold the verse and the screen above center will appear. Tap the first icon on the top toolbar to add a bookmark. The center icon brings up the highlighting color options. And the third icon is for sharing the verse on Facebook. I wish it had Twitter, but maybe in a future release.

Once the verse is highlighted it will look like the upper left screen shot. The bookmarks list is in the center above and the right is for changing the text size or the language.

Below you will see the More screen options. Share is for sending verses via email. The settings screen is the one on the upper right. Download is for adding translations and audio Bibles. Support and About are what you would expect. The screen shot below on the right is for changing the toolbar icons. You can change the default to include other things as you wish.

I think Bible.is is a great Bible listening app. My only complaints are that it doesn’t have my favorite translations, the HCSB and it doesn’t share via Twitter.  Other than that it is a wonderful app well worth your time to download and use to listen to God’s word. I plan to listen to the program on the go via my car stereo (cassette adapter).

TouchBible Loaded is another Bible reader app for the Apple iPad. It has some nice feature, but unfortunately it falls down in one big one.

The interface is simple with the ability to pinch to zoom, scrolling within a chapter, and advancing or going back a chapter at a time using swiping or the arrow keys.

Of course you can search using basic search functionality in the OT or NT only and searching by word, any words or exact phrases.

It is a little limited in content with only the NET, KJV, WEB, BBE, ASV, YLT, Darby, and Webster.

Some of the nicer features included is the ability to have parallel translations and adding notes and highlighted.

Below is my video review and then the Pros and Cons of the app after that:

Pros:

• Simple
• Has parallel version mode
• Can add notes, bookmarks, highlights
• Pinch to zoom
• Night mode
• Dial-a-verse which loads on random verse each time starts
• Paragraph and verse per line mode

Cons:

• Slow to respond
• Few translations
• Help, Reading plan for daily bible reading, maps are Internet only features

The TouchBible Loaded that I reviewed in this video is $4.99 in the app store. There is also a free version and version for the iPod Touch/iPhone.

Christian Computing Magazine is out for this month. In it I did a review of the four Bible Study apps from Logos, PocketBible from Laridian, OliveTree’s Bible Reader, and MantisBible. Check it out at CCMag.com. Also they are giving away $500 Apple Gift card this month. So there’s another reason to go get the issue.

First there was the prayer book for priests of the Catholic Church. Now there is the Lectionary for the mainline protestants.

This app is an attractive yet simple lectionary app. It contains the Revised Common Lectionary with the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. In case you don’t know it, the lectionary is the listing of Bible passages that a large number of Christian churches follow each Sunday. It is designed to take the church through the Bible, not verse-by-verse, but topic-by-topic, in a full year. It also contains the “office” which is a daily Bible reading.
As you can see from the screen shot above it has a dark interface. The listing of weeks is in black and separated by month. The list of passages is in dark Greek with the current Sunday highlighted at the top.
In the upper right you see the taps for lectionary and office readings. When you tap a passage, it replaces the verse list with the NRSV of that passage.

The text is available in either light background with dark text, or vice versa.

My only complaint is the settings. Instead of being in the app, they are found in then general device settings. This is not typical although some do this. I don’t like it when they do and the the info button even tells you this, meaning they have likely had many asking where to find it. Why not just put it where most will look.
It is only $2.99 in the App store. And it is available for the iPhone as well.

As some of you may know, I wrote an article for iPhone Life that was released earlier this year. They are offering a free issue of the magazine this summer which you can get by clicking the icon.

BibleXpress is another Bible reader for the iPad. It is a simple reader that has little more than a few translations and a dictionary. Below is a video review of the app with some screen shots.

I like that it has bookmarks, a couple of modern translations like the ESV. And you can highlight favorite verses. There is no Bible reading tracking, or lowlight mode.

Above is the screenshot of the Bookmarks feature. Tap the plus sign in the upper left of the Bible window and you will be able to add bookmarks.

Above you see the dictionary, which you access via the left hand tools window. Notice the Dictionary button which is the right most button in that left hand window.

One of the distinguishing features of BibleXpress is the Prayer list tracking.

This is BibleXpress in portrait mode. Instead of the left hand window, you only have the toolbar which gives access to the various features available there like bookmarks, prayer lists, searching, and dictionary lookup. Also notice the margin notes along the left of the Bible text.

Notice the note window in this screenshot above. You access it via the button in the upper right above the Bible text. It lists all the verses in the current chapter and you tap the verse you want to annotate and start typing.

BibleXpress is a nice app. Of all the Bible readers it is one of few with a modern translation. However, it does come at a cost. There are two versions. One with the with copyrighted translations for $30. The light version is only $3. It is available for both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch in the App store.

iPad version of Olive Tree’s Bible Reader is available in the app store. Get it here.

Wanna see what PocketBible is going to look like on the iPad? Me too! Thanks to a post at the Laridian blog, you can.

Feel like a kid in December waiting for this one to get in the app store. They waited to test their app on the actual iPad which will hopefully result in a much more stable release. I like PB on the iPhone, but with the new ability to open multiple books at once it is going to be a killer iPad study tool!

Aside from split pane view, you will get notes and searching of notes. Some of what is being added on the iPad will work in the iPhone app.

“I don’t want to sound like an Apple zealot or iPad fanboy, but I’m starting to think the iPad is the platform for mobile Bible study. I know, I know — you’d like to make that decision for yourself. We’re getting close. It will be worth the wait,” wrote Craig Rairdin of Laridian. Welcome to the party! You’re just now “starting to think” that? He’s right. It is a great tool for mobile Bible study and I think PB looks like it will be a great weapon in that arsenal. Can’t wait to see if I’m right.