Daily Devotions?

[sci]

There seems to be plenty of conversation regarding Bible software, my question is what do you use for daily devotionals? I know Laridian has a reading program but what other options are there? Are there any ebook titles that are devotionals?

It's pretty sad but since I sold my palm which had a great devotions program I find I'm struggling to keep up with some daily reading and devotions.

[Lex]

Hey sci, welcome aboard here. Check: http://www.olivetree.com/handheld/BibleReadMe/index.htm

Haven't tried it but I love 'free'. Some finageling to set it up for PPC but looks do-able and did I mention 'free'?

[sci]

Yeah I was looking into that, however I use Laridian and eSword for Bible translations and the OliveTree reader linked to Bibles use with that Viewer. I guess I'll probably just break down and pay for Daily Reader, I noticed it had a couple more books than I thought. I"ll have to look into some Christian ebooks though, any recomondations?

[Brad Adrian]

Well, I'm sticking with Laridian, both because I really like their stuff but also because I've invested a fair amount of money in all of the translations and tools.

Any daily Bible reading program that includes "My Utmost For His Highest" is worth looking at. I really like that book.

[Paul Martin]

It's pretty sad but since I sold my palm which had a great devotions program I find I'm struggling to keep up with some daily reading and devotions.

Sci,

What kind of program did you use?

Personally, I find myself not using my PPC a whole lot for devotions. When I do, I use the free Daily Light for Daily Reader (I read through the Bible using it previously). I made Mobipocket ebooks of Spurgeon's Morning and Evening as well as My Utmost (original language, not the updated version) and use them on occasion. I get My Utmost via the text version of Mazingo and also refer to it on occasion. I'm trying to work through the Bible again, but not sticking to "in a year" and am using a paper Bible.

[baker]

I used Avantgo in the past.

Another Freebie -

http://www.e-sword.net/pocketpc/downloads.html
For Devotions it has:
Day-By-Day By Grace (Bob Hoekstra)
Our Daily Walk (F. B. Meyer)
Morning & Evening (Charles H. Spurgeon)

[capo]

" I'm trying to work through the Bible again, but not sticking to "in a year" and am using a paper Bible."

<gasp!> A *paper* Bible? How analog! ;-)
I thought I'd throw in something that's been working well for me recently - I have a couple of hours of commute time every day and tend to be a fairly auditory kind of guy. I bought the NIV Bible on CD and ripped it all down to MP3. I transfer a couple hundred megs at a time over to an SD card and listen while I drive. I'm sure this wouldn't work for everybody, but I find it hard to stay focused in my reading sometimes with all the distractions. I'm usually alone in my car and this is really working out well for me.

[Paul Martin]

<gasp!> A *paper* Bible? How analog! ;-)

And proud of it! :D I do like to underline familiar passages as I go through. You just can't do that with Laridian. It's a good program, though. It's the only Bible I carry to church; I take notes in MS Wordpad, um, I mean Word. :wink:

That's a good idea on the MP3. I just haven't committed to spending the cash to get a CD version. A friend gave me a KJV set on cassette (purchased from a used book store...one of the gospels is missing!) Yes, cassette, remember those? I do listen to it on my.....tape deck in the truck. I guess I'm going to have to turn in my PPCT thoughts badget and find a notepad and pencil. :lol:

[Lex]

Rationale for paper Bible in church: My PPC alarm went off in church once and a wise-guy friend a couple of rows back said loudly, "Did you go for bonus points again?" :oops:

Olivetree has been working on highlighting for a long time on their public beta version but it still doesn't work right. That version does allow for background color changing. Legalpad yellow is much easier on the eyes than Laridian's 'white only' background.

[sci]

Wow, thanks for the replies! capo that was a good idea with the mp3's. I do a decent amount of comuting as well and it would be a great way to use the time.

I did break down last night and buy Daily Reader so I'll be trying to take advantage of that. I use to use a program on palm simply called Devotions. You can take a look at devotions.ca, there was a lot of material available and it integrated well with Laridian's MyBible.

I typically like to use my pda because my daily routine varies so much from day to day I usually have to do devotions whenever I have a moment, and the pda is always with me. This way if I finish early in a meeting I can get some reading in before my next appointment.

I do wish Laridian had the same highlighting feature on the pocketpc as it did on its palm Bible reader, that is one feature I definately miss.

[Lex]

I have to chime back in and say Laridian does not seem to put much time into development of it's Pocket Bible reader. Highlighting and background color-change options have been suggested -long ago- and replies indicated those features were under consideration. Other than support for WM2003SE I haven't seen any reader development. I own Pocket Bible so I get to declare. :?

[Paul Martin]

Rationale for paper Bible in church: My PPC alarm went off in church once and a wise-guy friend a couple of rows back said loudly, "Did you go for bonus points again?" :oops:

I don't usually have my sounds up on my PPC so that hasn't been a problem. I have been asked (by friends) if I'm playing games. I usally load up Galaga and show them. :lol:

[emuelle1]

I've been using my Pocket PC more and more in church. My wife doesn't offer to carry my Bible in while I carry our son in his car seat, and it's hard to carry a baby and a paper Bible plus whatever book I need for the quarter's class.

I typically use Pocket E-sword, but I've been gravitating back to Olive Tree for casual reading. I stick to whatever is free for the most part. Pocket E-sword is a much more powerful program with the Stong's integration and everything, but the resources take up a lot more room. Olive Tree takes up less room and allows for verse by verse scrolling rather than page by page scrolling, so I have been using that more for casual reading. It also seems a little easier on my processor (Ipaq 3765, ARM 206Mhz), so the verses load faster.

For devotions, there are many wonderful sources. I have been using Avantgo lately. I have Our Daily Bread on my subscription, as well as Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. I also have links to The Bible Minute, which is always quick yet insightful. There are several others that I sync but often don't use. Give them a try if you'd like.

[ironguy]

I get My Utmost via the text version of Mazingo and also refer to it on occasion.

I thought Mazingo was gone?

I used to get the Daily Bread through them

[ironguy]

Check out www.memoware.com. They have many 'religious' books in many formats. Be careful of what you read though. Wheat from chaff, sheep from goats, etc...

[emuelle1]

There's also http://www.backtothebible.org/devotions/, which is linked in several of the Avantgo subscriptions that I use for devotional reading.

[Paul Martin]

I thought Mazingo was gone?

Well, my text subscriptions for Mazingo still work. So, I'm not complaining! If it does bail, I'll just add an Avantgo channel.

[sci]

It's encouraging to see this much discusion. Thanks emuelle1 for the link to get some Avantgo channels, I've added some of them to my channel listing and will see how they are.

Ironguy I was looking at memoware, any recomondaions?

With all these options now I have no excuse to miss doing devotions everyday.

[emuelle1]

I wish I could tell you that you won't find an excuse to miss devotions every day, but with all the megs of Bibles and Avantgo channels I have, I still somehow manage it.

I like to put Chuck Missler MP3 files on my CF card to listen to in the car though. That helps to get a Biblical lift during my day.

[Paul Martin]

I wish I could tell you that you won't find an excuse to miss devotions every day, but with all the megs of Bibles and Avantgo channels I have, I still somehow manage it.

Boy, isn't that the truth!

I've been trying to read the "Daily Light" on my Daily Reader before I get out of bed in the morning, so at least I won't get invovled in something...like e-mail and forum posts. :lol:

[ironguy]

Here are a few authors I like:
John Piper (top notch)
John Calvin
Jonathan Edwards
Bible Reading Plans
John Wesley
Andrew Murray
CS Lewis
Oswald Chambers

[nategesner]

I'm an avid fan of Pocket e-Sword and have been using it since it was first available. I originally didn't like it, but contacted the developer and requested some additional features. He came through and now you couldn't pay me to use anything else! If you've tried the software and don't like it because of how it scrolls or anything else, I recommend you contact him directly and ask if he'll try to include your suggestion for the next upgrade.

Yes, the program does take up a lot of memory. But you can put your Bibles and other resources on a memory card and it runs great. Not to mention that size is necessary if you want such a powerful program. If your only reason for not using it is the lack of one feature, such as scrolling, I would recommend you contact Rick and talk to him about it. I bet he'll incorporate it in the next issue. I asked him to add the Prayer List feature, highlighting, and imbedded notes: he included all of them within six months. Try getting that kind of support from Laridian or OliveTree!!! By the way, he personally replaced his paper Bible a long time ago and now uses Pocket e-Sword exclusively, so he has a vested interest in making the product user-friendly. I'm sure he'll also take suggestions concerning Bibles, dictionaries, and devotionals.

Some of the best features:

- FREE!!!
- Perhaps not the fastest, but still fast. I have an Ipaq 2215 and load time takes about ten seconds, but then it runs very quick. Probably around a second or less to switch translations, commentaries, or dictionaries.
- Compatible with 2002, 2003, and 2003SE (VGA and QVGA). I'm just ordered an X50v, so this is a must!
- Highlight text (highlighted text remains highlighted when you switch Bible versions and has about ten colors)
- Highlight a word, tap and hold, and select "Definition". Program takes you directly to your Bible dictionary and the definition of the highlighted word! You can also tap-hold and select "Search" for a quick search of a particular word.
- Bible, Dictionary, Commentary and Editor tabs are always visible for quick switching. If you are reading John 1:1 and click on the commentary tab, the commentary will be on the same verse. Once you are in Commentary, you get a drop-down menu of all the commentaries loaded, making it quick and easy to jump between versions.
- One of the best search features I've ever seen. You just have to try it yourself to fully appreciate it!
- Great editor for creating sermon notes, prayer journals, etc.
- Imbed notes directly in text, just like writing in the margins of a printed Bible. Note is depicted by a small icon and is visible no matter what translation you are looking at.
- Create a reading plan based on days of the week (sun, mon, etc), books to include, and length of time (days, weeks, months)
- Maintain a prayer list

If you haven't tried this program, give it a shot. I've used all the others and this one beats them all. For those that complain about the size of the program: buy a memory card! You can get a 256 MB memory card for less than $25 now and can store all your Bible materials on that one card and still have space left over. I currently carry five Bibles, five dictionaries, six commentaries, and three devotionals. I plan on adding a couple more dictionaries and commentaries this week. Now, try and get all that for free from someone else! Better yet, try buying the paper versions and then schlepping them to Sunday School! ;)

[Annejillian]

I agree- and LOVE pocket esword....but I didn't know it could highlight. Could you explain how? Thanks!! ~Anne

[nategesner]

First, make sure you have the latest version. Open it and look at the bottom toolbar. You should see a highlighter icon. Select a verse by clicking on the verse number (no need to select the actual text). Then click on the highlighter icon and it opens an options page. You can choose the color to use or choose to remove a highlight that already exists.

This option highlights the entire verse, not individual words. The good news is, no matter what version of the Bible you open, the highlight shows up because it is tied to the verse, not individual words. This is a great option, in my opinion.

Same thing with tying a note to a verse. Select a verse number and then open the notes icon (to the right of the highlighter icon). Write a note and then click the ok button. A small note icon appears at the beginning of the verse, showing that a note is tied to that verse. No matter what version of the Bible you open, the note will show up for that verse. This notes option has some great formatting features and even lets you build pop-up text. It's better than writing in the margins of a paper Bible!

Hope this helps.

[Annejillian]

Too cool....I'm off to play with it now, thanks for pointing it out!! :D

[brewabel]

Another great thing about Pocket eSword is the verse notes. Now on Sunday, I have a verse note attached to the scripture for the sermon. Not to mention my verse note now looks like the handout given out on Sunday. With the ability to use html tags, formatting the text is a snap.

In addition, you can add a link to a specific scripture in the note as well.

I've tried most of the other products. Laridian, OliveTree, etc. Will be sticking with Pocket eSword as well.

[Lex]

nategesner I remember your post in 2003 when you first placed it. I tried Pocket E-Sword but was hamstrung with a PPC2002 unit and the app was just too slow and didn't display ClearType properly. Seeing these posts revived my curiosity and PES runs great on my new-ish iPAQ 2215 ! I can't believe Holman's and The Message are free. And this reader app has really developed nicely. I gotta $upport the guy and will do it. Thanks all who posted here about PES. Now I have NIV via uBook, ESV + Ryrie Study Notes via Laridian and Holman's + The Message on PES. I guess memory isn't an issue for me?

EDIT: Whoa, ESV is free for PES too ! Sianara Laridian? :roll:

[Mona13]

Be sure & follow directions for Pocket-e-Sword. I put it in BIS on my x50v and it kept locking up. Removed program and installed it in main memory (like it said to begin with) put the books on SD card instead of BIS and works great.

Mona13

[SimonM]

Hi everyone, I'm from Zimbabwe and it was great to find other bible users with Pocket PC. I can relate to the comments in church about the PC but I have found it great to have everything with me in church. I have looked at E Sword and I like it apart from the lack of an NIV bible. I use Laridian software for that reason but I miss not being able to highlight passages that mean something for me.
How many of you use the notes feature a lot. I do and have made a habit of making notes against specific verses given to me then put a calender reminder to check it in the future. That often shows me how God IS in control.
Thanks
SimonM

[nategesner]

If you really like reading the NIV, you should give the HCSB version a try! It is a new translation that is as easy (or easier) to read than the NIV. You also don't have to worry about gender-neutral language or other translation problems being brought in by the politically correct. HCSB is accurate, easy to read, and best of all, FREE!!

I typically use NASB and NASB with Strong's (cost $20), but I also carry HCSB and KJV for comparisons.

[Annejillian]

If you really like reading the NIV, you should give the HCSB version a try! It is a new translation that is as easy (or easier) to read than the NIV. You also don't have to worry about gender-neutral language or other translation problems being brought in by the politically correct. HCSB is accurate, easy to read, and best of all, FREE!!

I typically use NASB and NASB with Strong's (cost $20), but I also carry HCSB and KJV for comparisons.


Do you have a link for this? Thanks!

[Lex]

Do you have a link for this? Thanks! See: http://www.e-sword.net/pocketpc/index.html