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.

This week the Atlantic noticed something that readers of my blog have known for quite some time. The iPad is a great tool for Bible study. According to the site, Olive Tree cracked the top 100 highest grossing book applications for the first time. They are citing Drew Heninger, CEO of Olive Tree.

The huge selection of Bible apps actually has one affect that likely waters down the overall figures. Since there is likely only going to be a few apps that will sell popular books from NY Times best selling authors, those sails will rise. The latest Dan Brown or John Grisham can be bough from two or three at the most. But the Bible can be had in more than a dozen different iPad apps. This dilutes their impact. If you could combine all of the Bible app sales and rank them against all the sales of each of the other titles in all their various outlets like Kindle, iBooks, etc., I would bet the Bible dwarfs most books. But despite the dilution, the Bible is  breaking into the top 100.

The Atlantic is trying to say this somehow gives us a hint at who iPad users are. I doubt that. But it does show that the most popular book in human history is popular even as an eBook too!

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).

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.

In the WORDSearch blog this morning was a post highlighting an interesting new feature in the new version of WS9. It is called a WORDgraph.

Logos has a similar feature. WORDgraph tells you how many instances of a specific  word you will find each book of the Bible. But instead of just a list of numbers next to the book of the Bible, you will see that it is presented in a very interesting graph.

Go check it out. It is an interesting read.

My review of Bible Reader apps for the iPad are now up and ready to go. It is in this month’s issue of Christian Computing Magazine. If you are looking for the link to the Bible Study page that was in the opening paragraph, sorry but that link was invalid. It is actually the Bible Study tab in the upper right or click here.

I am not yet finished with all the video reviews, but I will be working on more next week and hopefully finish them soon.

One of the more popular Bible Reader apps on the iPhone was YourVersion’s Bible. They updated it for the iPad to take advantage of the new device’s features.

 Bible HD (BHD from now on) is one of the readers that really needs the Internet to get full use of it. It has the capability of reading multiple translations offline, but not all of them are available offline. For example, my two favorite’s are HCSB and ESV. Neither are available for download. For those reasons I don’t use it much at all. But if you prefer another translation, then you might find it available for download. And if you need a foreign language translation, it is likely here. There are a ton of them.

BHD shines in the area of reading plans. There are more than 20 different plans ranging from read the Bible all the way through in 90 days to just reading Psalms and Proverbs in a year. So if you want a lot of Bible reading plan choices, this is the reader app for you.

One of the features I believe all iPhone/iPad apps should have is a low light reading mode. It is built in via the Settings menu.

Other features included are the ability to search, bookmark verses, share verses via Twitter and email them too.

There are unfortunately a couple of big features missing. First you cannot simply copy a verse or range of verses. This is a feature that should be in every app. You could tap and hold the verse and choose to email or tweet it and then copy the content from the email or Twitter window. But it should be built in.

The other thing missing is all the great stuff that makes the YouVersion web site so cool. When you sign up for a YV account, you get some neat social networking features, like the ability to share content based on a passage. You could post comments, sermons or studies, web sites, etc. on a verse. Also the Groups on YV are great. You can join one of the those available or create one for your church or study group. But you don’t have access to them via the app. This really sets YV apart, but until it is available in the app, then BHD is just another reader that has great Bible reading plans but requires an Internet connection for some of the most popular translations available. Without the ability to copy verses into Pages, then I won’t be using it much.

One of the best modern Bible translations is the ESV. I have chosen to read through it this year in my devotionals. The publisher is Crossway and they are aggressively pushing it into the digital realm. If any of the free Bible apps on the iPad have a modern translation available it is often the ESV.
Crossway has their own Bible Reader app too. The ESV Bible is a simple Bible Reader app and little more. With it you can read only the ESV. You can do a few other things as well.

You navigate through the Bible by scrolling or to quickly jump to a passage you choose the strangely named Browse button.

If you are a Twitter user, you can post verses online for your followers to read. And you can also email right from within the app.

The app also support personal note taking and highlighting via the more button on the right end of the toolbar. Or you can press and hold the text of a verse to open a dialogue box. From there you can access reference notes, post to twitter, send the verse by email. highlight the verse or add it to your favorites.

To search tap the search button.ESV Bible is a very basic Bible reader. It doesn’t have a lot of frills. It does not have the ability track Bible reading plans or a low light mode. And there are no other books or translations in it. But if all you want to do is read and share the ESV Bible then the free app cannot be beat. It is a  univesal app too, so it will work on both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Below is a video that I shot to show you the interface of the program.

If you have been following the tech news this Easter weekend you’d think that Jesus resurrection was the second most important event celebrated today. Personally, I had a ball in church proclaiming “He is risen! He is risen, indeed!” I told my wife as I was exiting the sanctuary that I felt like a kid coming off the roller coaster. “Can we go again!”

After going home and taking a holy nap to recover from the busy weekend of worship prep, I am starting a week of vacation and excited about both preaching and the iPad.

For the last week the various Digital Bible study outlets have been prepping for the iPad launch. Sadly, only a few of them made it over the finish line. But never fear because the race is not over. Some are taking the slow and steady pace approach and others the get there and get it done approach. One of those latter, sadly fell victim to the App store approval process and so wasn’t ready despite great efforts.

The ones that are available are getting in on the excitement. Logos is shining the brightest in my opinion. It is atop the store when you search for Bible and has some really good reviews. YouVersion is very popular and gets a lot of downloads from people who are not looking for a serious Bible study tool. BibleXpress is making a name for themselves, but also has the the most expensive price in the currently available apps for the iPad. HandiBible is there too with the most instances – they have the basic app, a version in Romanian, German, and The Message. holiwrit (yes it is supposed to be lowercase h) is a newcomer going after the crowd who only want a simple Bible reader. Coming soon are OliveTree, PocketBible and MantisBible.

I am excited about the future of Bible study on the iPad. The things that are net yet out may be some of the most creative and use the space most effectively. So be looking for them soon. Until then, it is a little sparce.

One sad note! I did a search for Bible in the Apple iBook app and found very little. You can get the KJV, NIV, and NRSV, but none of the other most popular translations like ESV, HCSB or NLT are there. I hope this changes. On the Kindle side publishers have had a large collection of Bibles for a long time and this helps Bible students who want to read on their iPad. There are also some commentaries and reference works available in iBooks and Kindle. I found the Expositor’s Bible Commentary in iBooks.