Study Bible – Naty Matos

So I arrive at church, lighter than I usually do these days. I used to carry this big bag with my bible and my notebook, but not anymore. I sit no farther than the third row and see the person next to me with their Ipad getting ready for service…it’s a new world out there.

The reality is that technology has change the methods that we use for worship and bible study. I can’t deny that I have jumped into some of those wagons and I’m not sure that I could turn back unless I had to.

The internet has invaded out lives, which is not necessarily a negative thing. It has allowed us opportunities that we didn’t have before. You wouldn’t be reading this article if it wasn’t for your access to it. It has allowed people with physical challenges to be able to be ministered to, evangelism in other countries and yes easy access to the word.

Like I said at the beginning I was always carrying a bible around. I had my big bible by my nightstand (which I still use), then another one for church and a smaller one in my purse. Now I use the YouVersion app on my phone, which I admit has me spoiled because I can search for a scripture in whatever language I want and version I want within seconds. I also committed to read the bible in a year as one of my New Year Resolutions. My phone alerts me at the time I scheduled to do so and shows me the corresponding scriptures of that day, this means that I can do that if I’m on my lunch break, stuck waiting at a doctor’s office or sitting in my living room. Yes, I can do that with a paper bible, but not everybody carries one of those all the time and let’s be honest, our cell phones have become a limb in our lives.

It also allows me to give a scripture to a friend in need because it has a search option for those times where I know what the scripture says but not necessarily where I can locate it.

Is everyone on board with these methods? No. I still get weird looks when the pastor says “look up in your bible Ephesians….” and instead of a book I get out my phone. It makes me want to tell the lady two seats to my left, “it’s my bible, no I’m not playing Angry Birds or texting my BFF or even taking your picture to post it on Facebook, although right now it would be hilarious” Which by the way I don’t understand Angry Birds so I don’t play the game anyway even outside of church, but I digress.

Many churches have the ability to stream their services nowadays and have several campus where people are just gathered in a room watching a big screen and experiencing the same service. The ability of those streaming’s allow people who are sick, in hospitals, nursing homes, vacations or mission trips to be united with their congregation in a different way.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love my paper bible. I’m a romantic and to me sitting at the feet of my Lord to pray and spend quiet time with him means my big bible, my notebook and silence. At the same time the technology is catching with us and more and more we will see people utilize bible apps in gadgets for their needs.

As always I like to know your thoughts in this topic. How has technology changed the way you study the Word of God? Do you feel that it makes any difference for you to read the word from a screen than from a paper Bible?

Talking about technology, remember you can still grab your eBook of Growth Lessons for 1.99 just today and tomorrow. If you have an Amazon Prime account you can read it for FREE! If you rather have the paperback you are able to obtain it for $9.99 Grab your copy today.

Image via CrunchBase

Continuing some of this technology talk, I was going through a phase of condemnation about my quiet time with God. Every morning I try to at least read a verse and meditate on it, but I usually don’t find that verse in my actual big bible on my nightstand. I felt bad thinking that because I was not opening the book all the time I was not doing enough.

First of all, I discovered that reading the Word of God is for me and not for God. I always felt that reading the bible was my ritual of worship and that it was done to please God, so I would read some, kind of like you read a billboard on the side of the road and my duty was done. As I’ve grown in my faith I’ve realized that although reading the Word of God it is an act of worship, it’s my heart and meditation in the Word what makes it an act of worship. Also, the bible is my manual to seek God’s wisdom and will for my life, so it’s actually for me that I should read it.

I had this idea that in order to do it “right” I had to do it with the actual big paper book and that’s why I was feeling bad about it. So I stopped being religious about it and realized that I had been reading, meditating and studying the Word of God, it was just in less traditional ways. So I wanted to share with you some of the ways I do so, maybe it will help you expose yourself more to the Word.

Biblegateway.com- Sometimes when reading the word you get a particular message about what God wants to say to you, but sometimes you want to know about what the bible says about a specific subject and it can be hard to find things, especially if you don’t have too many memorized scriptures or if you’re like me that I know the bible says something about that but I don’t know where. This site has a keyword search field that makes it very easy to search by topic or keywords.

This site also has daily newsletters that come to your e-mail and are very educational.

Bible.com- it’s very similar to the one above. To me the distinction is that this particular site has some bibles studies about some very specific topics.
Twitter- Yes, believe it or not twitter has several “tweeps” that post scriptures all day. If you have a Smartphone and you have twitter on your phone, you can follow these people and wherever you are you can meditate on a verse. There are people who actually pray on Twitter everyday, twice a day (@Virtual_Abbey) some of my favorites are: @TopBibleVerses, @GreatBibleVerse, @DailyVerseTweet, and @Gods_Lighthouse You can stop and meditate wherever you are. Of course there are pastors, preachers and speakers who are on Twitter that also post very good things, but I’m focusing on those who just post scriptures. (side note: and if you’re on twitter I hope you’re following us as well @therisingmuse)
Bible on your phone- most people have smartphones these days and there is a free bible application available for most of them. I have a blackberry and the one in my phone not only allows bible reading in most popular versions, but it allows keyword searches and has some bible studies as well.
Facebook- I’ll be honest, I don’t use this one. I do have facebook on my phone, but I rarely look at it, but I’ve seen in some of my friends news feeds some bible verses pages.

So being a technology geek should not keep you from feeding your soul.

Do you know of any other sources and want to share? Feel free to comment we would love to hear from you…

Blessings