Martin Spriggs

Was just relaxing on the couch basking in the glow of the San Francisco 49ers’ win over New Orleans (I’m a longtime Niner fan), and flipped on the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots. I’m rooting for Denver not so much because I like the Broncos, but have been following the career of Tim Tebow — a very public Christian who has been heavily criticized for being so forthcoming about it. It was probably no accident then that Focus On The Family aired a beautifully done commercial simply sharing the words of John 3:16. You can see it below. Wow. Nicely done. Goes to show that you don’t need anything more than the word of God. Truly a means of grace. Precious!

John 3:16 Commercial

My wife Debbie and I have been reading through the Bible in one year. It’s been a wonderful experience to do it together, and there is something special about reading it out loud. I will have to say however there are some very challenging parts of the Old Testament to actually read out loud. You probably all know the parts of I’m talking about. Yes, those sections filled with extremely hard to pronounce names. Here is a sampling from our reading this evening…

“Those who sealed it were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hakaliah. Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluk, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai and Shemaiah.” (Nehemiah 10:1-8)

You get the idea. While we do our best we have found that listening to someone else read sections like that is preferable – namely Max McLean via the Listener’s Bible. This audio Bible is available for MP3 download for $49. However it is free if you use YouVersion on one of many mobile devices including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7 and Android. I’ve mentioned YouVersion before. Just a wonderful little application that provides the entire Bible in digital form, as well as reading plans, bookmarks, note taking tools, and more.

Once you happen on a chapter in the Bible that you’d like to have read to you, click on the microphone icon at the bottom of the screen and you will hear the beautiful voice of Max McLean. This is an excerpt from Max’s bio on the Listener’s Bible home page:

“Max McLean is President of Fellowship for the Performing Arts, narrator for the Listener’s Bible audio line, and speaker on the daily radio program Listen to the Bible which airs on over 670 radio affiliates worldwide. But he is best known for his theatrical presentations of The Screwtape Letters, Mark’s Gospel, and Genesis. Each of these has received critical acclaim in a wide array of publications including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.”

He is good and provides a depth to the reading that you will enjoy. What’s more…he seems to have a good handle on Hebrew pronunciation! I would highly recommend giving him a try.

You can also listen online to any selection by using the Bible Gateway website at: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/audio/.

Of course there are many personal uses for an audio bible, which could include downloading the entire recording and playing it in your car each day on CD or MP3, using the 1 Year Bible Version, or simply playing selected passages as mentioned above. Beyond that however there are some other more public ministry uses that include:

• playing selections for your classroom or catechism class,
• using the recordings as background “music” in the narthex or other church locations,
• providing copies to shut ins or those with vision difficulties,
• as a pronunciation guide for some of those difficult names of people and locations,
• to assist with Bible passage memorization
• as a giveaway to visitors or confirmands,
• and the list goes on.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our very own Through The Bible in 3 Year audio podcasts read by retired Pastor David Witte of Fond du Lac, WI. Those can be found at http://www.wels.net/streams/podcasts/series/through-my-bible. These take a somewhat slower pace through the Bible, but allow you to listen through the Bible in 5 to 10 minutes a day.

Audio books are very popular these days as we often find ourselves in situations that we can’t really open a book and read (in the gym, running/walking, in the car), but can still listen to God’s word in some ways via a very similar delivery method as was practices in ancient times…having it read to you. Enjoy.

This post is a part of the Summer 2011 WELS Hacker series on the WELSTech Podcast.

YouVersion is my favorite online Bible for many reasons, but primarily two big ones: 1) It’s availability on the web and multiple mobile platforms, and 2) It’s note taking tools. I’ve written about the former on any number of occasions, so now it’s time to go into a little more depth on the later.

I’ll deal mostly with the web version, but for the most part the tools work the same way on their mobile counterparts. YouVersion’s note taking tool is perhaps it’s most useful. To begin using it simply click on a verse or series of verses in the left hand reading pane. Clicking on one verse highlights it. Clicking on another verse adds it to the selection. As you select verses their reference appears in the right hand “selected” pane. If you select a verse by mistake, simply click it again to unselect it.

Once you have the correct selection of verses, click the “Create New” link next to the “My Notes” section in the “Selected” pane. You will then be asked to title your note, and then pick which translation you’d like to attach the note to. Then you can enter the note itself in a nicely functional WYSIWYG editor. You have the standard formatting tools like bold, italic, bulleted lists, etc. But you also can add images and videos (either of which must already exist on the web, so no uploading directly to YouVersion). It will accept any URL to a picture, or links to YouTube, Vimeo or Flickr.

Finally you determine the status of the note. You can make it public, so others reading that verse in YouVersion will be able to read what you wrote. You can make it private, so that only you can read it. If the note is not quite ready for prime time, you can also set it into draft mode so you can come back to it later to finish up.

That’s it! Whether on the web or on your mobile device it is very easy to annotate your way through the Bible. For me this is an extremely useful feature that encourages me to think a little more deeply about God’s Word and at the same time share it with others. Even better is that notes you make on the web are also available in your linked mobile versions, and vice versa of course.

To see all of your notes, you can click on the “My” link at the top of any page and select “Notes.” There you will see all your notes in chronological order. Your note will also appear in the “Selected” pane if you select a verse for which you’ve added a note, along with the notes of others in their own section.

There are many other features we don’t have time to include here like sharing via Facebook/Twitter, hyperlinking for inclusion elsewhere, and tags which help you categorize verses in ways that make sense to you. Give them a try and I think you will find the entire Bible reading experience on YouVersion even more enjoyable and fulfilling.

This post is a part of the
Summer 2011 WELS Hacker
series on the WELSTech Podcast.

At the beginning of the year my church decided that it would embark on a program to read through the entire Bible in one year. One Year “Daily” Bibles were made available and members were encouraged to “Join The Journey.” My wife and I decided to try it. It amounts to about 15 minutes a day.

In addition, we decided that it might be nice if we read it together and out loud, as it was probably read long ago. Now this new twist created some problems. I do quite a bit of traveling and therefore we are not always together to do our daily reading. That is where technology comes in. When I’m away, we set up a time in the evening where we can Skype each other and continue our read out loud ritual. So far we have been able to keep up, and what a blessing it has been. The Bible we are using is divided up into an OT, NT, Psalm and Proverb reading. That gives us a nice broad view of God’s Word.

Another place technology has assisted is that we only purchased one Bible. So rather than crowding around the one, or when I’m traveling, not being able to read along, I use my iPad to pull up the readings via the YouVersion app. The One Year Bible reading series is available through the app. So as I read along it tracks my progress similar to putting a bookmark in the physical book. I can even enter notes, thoughts or journal entries as I go along. This also allows me to check out the new version of the NIV. My wife reads the 1984 version, while I read the new one and we can see what has changed. Very enlightening. On that subject, I’d say the new version has done some nice things with clarifying certain passages. A lot of work was done in Proverbs. That is pretty apparent from even just a partial read.

Anyway, it’s been a great experience and technology has only enhanced our ability to stay faithful to our goal of reading the bible out loud in 2011. If you want to try it out, here is the page that provides the readings. http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/ Why not start now?

I’ve written about the GloBible in the past, but recently a new version was launched that deserves another mention. For those unfamiliar with the product, it is an “interactive Bible” that allows the reader to explore God’s Word through different “lenses.” Of course, you have the straight text in multiple translations, including the NIV (1984 & 2010), KJV, CEV, ESV and The Message. As you read, you can make your own notes or ready Study Notes provided by different sources including the NIV Study Bible.

One of the coolest lenses is the Timeline lens which allows you to “scroll” through the Bible on a timeline zooming in and out on relevant sections. For instance, you can zoom in to the New Testament, then to Jesus’ life, then to Jesus’ birth, then to The Shepherds Visit Jesus. Once clicking on that section, you could read the account, look at commentary articles about the account, view of photo of the Church of the Nativity, thumb through history artwork about the event, view a map of key locations in Luke, or even take “360 degree virtual tours” of the Shepherds’ Field, and other key locations and events.

Throw in some video footage of archeologists and other Bible scholars and you have a multimedia experience that will draw you in to God’s Word and keep you there. I especially like the MyGlo section which allows you to set up your own reading schedule.

With their latest release they are offering a free Lite version for anybody who wants to download it. The Premium version is only $69.99 and can be purchased from within the app once you download it. For that price it can be placed on up to five devices (PC, Mac, iPad, with iPhone coming soon).

On our WELSTech Podcast Sallie Draper and I interviewed the founder of the GloBible, Nelson Saba about a year ago on episode 113. At that time he offered a discount code to all WELSTech listeners. This time around unfortunately we don’t have a discount code, but the good folks at Glo have given us a free Premium version to give away. If you win, we will give you a coupon code that will allow you to download the Premium version, currently selling for $69.99. All you have to do to enter yourself for a chance to win is comment on this blog post with your name and how you might use an interactive tool like the GloBible, and then listen to our next WELSTech podcast due out Wednesday, April 20th to see if your name is drawn. Good luck and may God bless your study of his Word!

Bible.is is the next Android-based SmartPhone Bible app we will review this month. It’s sweet spot is the ability to read and listen to the Bible at the same time. The interface is simple and easy to understand. Simply tap on the reference at the top of the screen and you can drill down to any book and chapter you like. You cannot go down to the verse level.

Bible.is offers three translations: 1) ESV, 2) KJV and 3) NRS. All come with Audio (Dramatized). A nice feature if you prefer to be read to. The audio is nicely done and does add some interest to the experience. Another unique feature to this application is the number of foreign language Bibles you can download. Changing translations or languages is as easy as tapping the menu button.

The application is not the most responsive. It crashes once in a while and is slow to load and change screens at times. Scrolling is not smooth and requires a lot of effort to move from top to bottom of a chapter.

Bible.is offers bookmarking, highlighting, note-taking and social sharing via Facebook. This seems to be the standard in Android Bible apps. Each feature is implemented in an intuitive fashion. Simply touch the verse and you have those options available to you. The app also offers five Reading Plans, although loading one for the first took FOREVER. This is consistent with the overall performance of the application. SLOW. I think one of the reasons for the sluggishness is the integration with their online bible at www.bible.is.

The search feature is very basic. You cannot enter an OR search. So if all the search terms don’t appear in a verse they will not be returned as a result. There is also no way to refine a search to a book of the Bible or even the Old and New Testament. It is the entire Bible or nothing. Search terms are not highlighted. Search seems to be an after thought with Bible.is.

If you are in the market for a Bible that you can read and listen to at the same time, this one might be a good choice provided you are interested in one of the three translations they offer. Otherwise, with the rather scant search and sluggish performance, this app isn’t ready for prime time. They claim over 1,000,000 downloads, so I’m assuming their other platforms must be better implemented. The Android app however is a disappointment. Grade: C-

The final Android-based SmartPhone Bible app we will review in this go-around is YouVersion. I should offer a disclaimer before proceeding. This is the application that has icon space on my Droid Incredible’s home screen (i.e. this is the app I use day in and day out). Let me tell you why…

I’ll start with the negatives. YouVersion on the Android is an internet based app only for certain translations like the NIV. If you aren’t online you aren’t reading the NIV. This is unfortunate as I prefer the NIV and there are times when I’m not online – on a plane, in our church basement during Bible class, etc. The folks at LifeChurch.tv have created a wonderful app with this one exception. If you guys are listening, perhaps you can make that available? I’d pay for it. This is one area the CadreBible has an advantage. They allowed me to at least purchase the NIV for download. If you are not an NIV user however, chances are you can download the version you prefer and have offline access. Many versions and languages are available. The most I’ve seen with any application.

Another minor weakness compared to other apps is the search feature. While functional it doesn’t offer advanced features like limiting your search to a book or testament. Also you are left to guess if you are doing an AND or OR search. By default, if you enter two search terms it will assume you mean to conduct an OR search. You can insert AND and it will work correctly, although there isn’t any documentation in the app…another negative.

So much for the negatives. The rest of the features YouVersion brings to the table are top notch. Bookmarking, note-taking, reading plans and social network integration are all well implemented and very intuitive. Just tap on a verse and then the icon in the lower right provides all these options as well as the ability to copy the selection. You can even select multiple verses.

Social networking features are one of the major reasons you may want to consider YouVersion. You can select verses and share them via your Facebook or Twitter account. In fact, there is no limit to how you can share as every tool on the phone is available. For instance, I could set up Google Reader, Email, Evernote, and many others as receivers of the data/notes I select or create. You also can contribute notes to the YouVersion community. Each note you make can either be private or shared with other YouVersion users. A very nice feature. This allows a great way to document your journey through God’s Word. The creators of the app seemed to make the social components a high priority. It is well done and encourages its use.

YouVersion is a beautifully designed application. The opening screen lets you go right to the bible, view your bookmarks or notes, launch a reading plan or use a featur called Live. I won’t go into too much detail here, but it is an innovative feature that allows people to interact with each other and the application during worship. Screen navigation is smooth and responsive and the font size is readable and adjustable…as is almost everything else.

One advantage YouVersion has over the competition is their web version. As nice as the Android version is, the online app is even better. Once you have a YouVersion account everything you do in the app you can also do within the web version and the two sync! So no matter what platform you are on, you have your Bible the way you want it or left it.

As you can guess I would highly recommend YouVersion for many different reasons. Ease of use and the social note taking are two of the main reasons why. Couple that with the splendid online version and you have a powerful Bible study tool. The lack of an offline NIV and a rather tame search feature are the only reasons this app doesn’t get an A+. Grade: A

We continue our review of SmartPhone Bible apps with the Touch Bible Free Edition. This series is only considering Android versions. Many of the apps, including this one, also offer iOS and other versions. At first blush this little app seems to keep the features to a minimum, but does them pretty well. It offers KJV, NET, ASV and WEB translations. They are very easy to switch between by using the Android menu button and then tapping Look Up Verse. A menu pops up with four columns: 1) the translation column which allows you to easily pick which version you’d like to read, 2) Book of the Bible column, 3) Chapter, and 4) Verse. Very intuitive. There is a button at the top that allows you to switch between Old and New Testament. With the flick of a finger you can scroll any one of the columns down to the selection of choice.

There is an online component, but only for such things as commentaries and Bible maps. The maps are nicely done and a helpful addition for any Bible reader.

The font size is adjustable and if you select the NET (New English Translation) you will see many markers mixed in with the text that when clicked pop up commentary on the word or verse. This can be very helpful “extra” information, but I found it to clutter up the screen a bit. Unfortunately I found no way to turn this feature off.

Search allows you to search the whole Bible or just one testament at a time. There aren’t many other choices however. It appears to be an OR search only, meaning that if you type in two words it will find all verses with either word. By trial and error I think I determined that it at least ranks the entries with both words higher than with only one. A more advanced search would be very helpful. The search results do not highlight the word you searched on, but do allow you to tap on the verse to read it in context.

Bookmarks are easy to add but not overly useful. To create one just click on the verse number and select “bookmark.” You can only bookmark verses, not groups of verses or even chapters. When you later retrieve a bookmark it takes you to the beginning of the chapter, not the selected verse. There is no way to take notes. There are also no social sharing features.

If you are looking for a simple application that is fact and easy to use AND can live the limited number of translations, the Touch Bible does a nice job. If however you prefer the NIV, you will want to take a look at the CadreBible or others that at least allow you to purchase a copyrighted translation. The lack of social sharing and noting, plus the limited search brings the grade on this app down a bit. Grade: C+

This is the third review in my series of SmartPhone Bible apps. Previously I tried out CadreBible and AcroBible. Next up is the DailyBible app. This app is the first to offer a “hybrid” approach to a SmartPhone Bible. The non-copyrighted translations like KJV are downloaded to the phone and available offline, while translations like the NIV are only online. I’ll start with the online versions as they are less full featured. In fact, it appears they have simply taken the Bible Gateway website and added a few buttons to allow easier navigation. You can click on an “index” button that essentially builds a search query and submits it to Bible Gateway. Once the reference is retrieved you are limited to the minimal functions in the mobile website version. About the only thing you can do is search and change translations. No bookmarking, notes, highlighting, etc.

If you want to stick with the offline version (KJV and a few others), you have the standard features like bookmarks (chapter or verse), sharing via social networks, and note taking. One very big negative about the hybrid approach however is that when you switch translations, the app isn’t always consistent in displaying available features. For instance, when you initially run the application the KJV downloaded to the phone displays, However, if you switch to an online translation and then try and go back to the KJV, it uses the web-based version of the KJV. Very confusing.

Another poorly implemented feature is the note taking feature. From my limited testing it didn’t appear that you could attach a note to a specific verse…just generic notes hanging out there all by themselves. There is also a feature that allows you to copy a verse, but when prompted to “select text” there is no way to do so when online…only off.

The app does make it easy to listen to devotional podcasts and has one click access to reading plans. Another nice feature is the ability to have selections read to you, either the verse of the day or full chapters if you like. Again, many of these items are available already on Bible Gateway.

I do give them credit for providing a user-friendly way to navigate Bible Gateway, but if shopping for a Bible app there are better options (paid and free) available. Grade: C-

The AcroBible app is an offline version similar to the previously reviewed CadreBible, however it does sync to iBibleSpace.org with your highlights and notes. It is available an all the SmartPhone platforms (Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7). I reviewed the the Lite version for Android. The paid for app ($17.99 for NIV) includes a couple of additional features like downloadable commentaries, syncing, reading plans and note taking. The free version only includes the KJV. In general the Lite version is very limited and in general just doesn’t work very well. More on that in a minute.

One of the first things you will notice upon launching the app is a series of letters centered in individual hexagons. Essentially this acts as a table of contents for all the books of the Bible. So letters that do not have a letter represented in a book of the Bible are missing. So the top “line” begins A C D E. A bit odd and threw me the first time I took a look at it. I think for most people the standard Old and New Testament grouping would be more intuitive. You can change the default listing to a New and Old Testament list by going into settings.

Another oddity of the interface is a tab that slides out once in a book of the bible listing the verses of the chapter down the right side. The app attempts to show an index of all the verses, so chapters with many verses cause the tab to systematically skip verses. For instance, if you open up a long chapter like Psalm 119, the list down the right side shows 10 20 30 40 etc. all the way to 170. So you can go directly to any verse as long as it is a multiple of 10. It doesn’t act like a scroller similar to a to z indexes in a contact list.

Search is fairly basic. You can only enter in 4 words at a time and can only filter by testament (exact phrases or all words only). I’d like to share more about the search functionality but I could never actually get search results to come up before the app crashed. By the way, I’m testing all these apps on an HTC Droid Incredible running the 2.2 version of Android call Froyo.

The only other feature worth noting on the phone is it’s ability to create bookmarks. Although, that feature, like the rest of the app is unrefined and almost useless. It will only bookmark the chapter, not individual verses. There is also no visible indication that a chapter has a bookmark.

For those looking for a good Bible app for their Android, I’d say there are much better options out there than the AcroBible. Grade: D.