Posts tagged Bible Study
Preparing a Sunday School Lesson with Olive Tree
2Developing the Bible Study app and resources isn’t just a job for us here at Olive Tree. Like you, we are passionate about reading the Bible and we love using our app to enhance our study of God’s Word.
We thought you might like to see the Olive Tree app in action. Keith, an Olive Tree engineer, put together a step-by-step guide for preparing a Sunday school lesson on the Bible Study app for Windows 7. Here’s Keith:
“I’ve been preparing Sunday school lessons on the “Lord’s Prayer”-Matt 6:9-13, and next Sunday’s lesson is on Matthew 6:11: Give us today our daily bread.”
“With the ESV Bible open in my Windows 7 Bible Study app, I type Matt 6:9 in the search bar in the upper right corner of the window and press enter. This takes me to this passage in the main window.”
“I’d like to make some text from this passage be my lesson title, so I highlight “Give us today our daily bread” in the Bible window and right click the highlight. This displays a menu from which I click “Copy” and now I can paste the text into my word program.”
“I want to know more about the word “bread” in the Matthew passage, so I right click on “bread” in the text which highlights the word and displays a menu with various search options. I select “Look up bread” from the menu.”
“From “Look up bread,” a list of articles, notes, images, etc. about “bread” will appear. I choose Easton’s Dictionary of the Bible from the “Articles,” which gives me a great article with some background information. I highlight the first two paragraphs in the pop-up window and right-click/copy/paste the section into my lesson document. Here’s what I find in the Easton’s Bible Dictionary:”
Bread–
Among the Jews was generally made of wheat (Ex 29: 2 Judg 6: 19), though also sometimes of other grains (Gen 14: 18; Judg 7: 13). Parched grain was sometimes used for food without any other preparation (Ruth 2: 14).
Bread was prepared by kneading in wooden bowls or “kneading troughs” (Gen 18: 6 Ex 12: 34; Jer 7: 18).
“The term “daily bread” reminds me of “manna,” so I look up manna by typing it into the search bar and hitting enter. In the right window, I now see headings that guide me to topics, articles, Bibles, images, charts, all about “manna”. I can simply click on a result to go to any of the articles and Bible passages that pique my interest. In “Search results in Open Books,” I choose the Bible I’m using for study to see a list of every time “manna” is mentioned in the Bible. I highlight and copy the verses I want to paste into my lesson plan.”
“But what does the word “manna” mean in the original Greek and Hebrew? I go back to my search results for manna and scroll to the “Search results in Dictionaries” to select Olive Tree’s “Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary” that comes with Strong’s numbered Bibles. Now I have information about manna in Hebrew and Greek:”
h4478. מנ man; from 4100; literally, a whatness (so to speak), i. e. manna (so called from the question about it): — manna.
AV (14)- manna 14;
manna the bread from Heaven that fed the Israelites for 40 years of wilderness wanderings means ‘ What is it?’
“Olive Tree has many original language reference works available, including many Bibles with Strong’s definitions that are tied to the words in the biblical text. In a Strong’s numbered Bible you can click the word “bread” and the Strong’s definition pops up with further options for searching deeper into the word right in the popup.”
“With this research under my belt, I’m well on my way to bringing an excellent and thought-provoking lesson to my Sunday School class.”
Thanks Keith! That was only an introduction to the basics of how the Bible Study app can help you prepare for Bible studies, Sunday School classes, sermons, and more. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay on top of all the latest updates and news for the Bible Study app.
This blog is a re-post from the best of 2011 Olive Tree blogs.
Isaiah 40:8
0October 29, 2012
by Cherylyn
in Inspiration
I recently wrote about how standing in line is made better by reading my Bible and devotionals on the Bible Study app. The comments I received from readers reminded me of this verse:
Isaiah spoke these words to the exiled Israelites as he proclaimed the good news that there would be an end to their plight, that the their “warfare is ended and iniquity is pardoned,” and that the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isaiah 40:1-5)
Peter repeats these words and exhorts the early Christians to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” (1 Peter 1:22-25)
A good reminder, especially as we debate over politics, gawk at the latest gadgets, and go about our busy days. In the end all of it will fade, but God’s Word remains forever.
Top 5 Features in The Bible Study App
15I teased you last week with some exciting new features that are making their way to The Bible Study App, but I realized that everyone might not know about all the great features already available in our app. Here are my top 5 favorite features:
1. The Resource Guide
This is hands down the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a Bible study app. While I’m reading the Bible, I can open the Resource Guide in the split window to see cross references, study Bible notes, maps, topics and more that are all related to my current reading. As I continue to read, the Resource Guide tracks with me and updates the material to match the Scripture I’m reading.
2. Search
I’m not very good at remembering verse references and often find myself asking things like, “Where is that verse about the mustard seed?” Instead of flipping through the Bible or searching through an index, I can tap (more…)
Back to Basics: Using Tags on iPad
0Tags are one of Olive Tree Bible app’s most useful features. When you create a tag, you can add your notes, bookmarks, and highlights into this one top-level category. Any bookmark, highlighted word, phrase, or verse, and any note can be added to a single tag so that selecting the tag displays the list of all its annotations—the bookmarked verses, highlighted words and verses, and the notes that are tied to the tag. Thus using tags allows you to create custom topical studies. Here’s how this works.
How to Create a Tag
To create a tag, tap the My Stuff briefcase icon, make sure you are on the My Stuff main page, and scroll down so that the Tags option is displayed. Tap the Tags option to display the My Tags dialog. At the bottom of this dialog, tap the Create New Tag button to display the Create Tag dialog. In the Name field of this dialog, enter a name for the tag you wish to create, for example, Marriage.
Tap the Create button in the top right corner to create the tag. This takes you back to the My Tags dialog where you will see the new Marriage tag listed.
Adding a Tag to a Highlight or Bookmark
Having created the Marriage tag, we can now add stuff to that tag. To associate one of your existing highlights or bookmarks with the Marriage tag, tap the My Stuff briefcase icon, make sure you are on the My Stuff main page, and then select either Highlights or Bookmarks from the My Stuff menu. Find the highlight or bookmark that you would like to tag and tap the blue button to the right to edit the highlight for this verse.
In the dialog that pops up, tap the “Edit Tags” button to display the My Tags list. On that list, tap the Marriage tag. (Tapping the Marriage tag displays a check mark by it.)
Adding a Tag to a Note
To add a tag to one of your notes, go into the My Stuff folder and tap on the note you would like to edit. On the bottom of the edit note pop up, tap on the icon that looks like a sale tag, it should be the middle icon.
Tap on “Marriage” to add the tag to your note. You can also add a tag to a note at the time you are creating that note. Just make sure to hit “Save” before exiting the note you’ve just created.
I somehow managed to make this seem far more difficult than it really is. Follow along and try it for yourself to see how easy it is to use Tags to aid in your Bible study!
Back to the Basics: Creating Notes & Highlights on Android
7Creating Notes & Highlights
If you aren’t already using the notes and highlight features on your Android Olive Tree app, well, you should be. I’m here today to show you just how easy it is to take notes and highlight verses in the app. Now, lets get to the basics:
To add a highlight:
Tap on the verse number where you would like to add a highlight.
A toolbar will pop up, with several options. Select the “Highlight” option. You can now select the number of verses to highlight. Tap the right facing arrow to select multiple verses. Once you have selected the verse range to highlight, tap “Select [number] Verse(s).”
The highlight editor will pop up which allows you to title the highlight, change the highlight color and edit tags for the highlight. Make the changes to the highlight you would like, and tap “Save” to finish adding your highlight.
To add a note:
Tap on the verse number where you would like to create a note. A toolbar will pop up, with several options. Select the “Note” option.
The note editor will pop up which allows you to title the note, add text to the note and edit tags for the note. Tap on the “Edit” button to add text to your note. Tap “Done” when you are finished editing the note. A note icon should appear in the Bible text next to the verse you selected to create a note.
And that’s it! Simple, right? Now go start taking notes and highlights in the Olive Tree app and head back here to see how to sync your notes and highlights to the Olive Tree cloud and make sure you never lose any of them.
The Importance of History
0July 26, 2012
by Elizabeth
in Product Reviews
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”
-Michael Crichton
History was likely a subject you studied in school and either loved or hated. In high school, I had an awesome U.S. History teacher who had the class make up what kind of cars America’s Founding Fathers would have driven based on personality. Though history might be an obligatory study in school, there’s no doubt that history is important, even working its way into popular culture. When I asked my co-workers to think of movies based on history, I got a list a mile long, everything from Titanic to Braveheart. Even Hollywood recognizes the power and importance of history.
The question is: Do Christians recognize the value of our own history? John Piper, a longtime pastor, speaker, and author, gave 15 short lectures at multiple Desiring God pastors’ conferences about Christians whose lives exemplified the two Great Commandments.
I would encourage you to download this free resource, called the John Piper Biographies Collection, to read the fascinating histories of fifteen Christian men, from St. Augustine to John Newton, who served Jesus Christ in the midst of persecution, prosperity, widespread heresy, and shifting world powers.
My favorite character in John Piper’s collection is Charles Simeon, the pastor of a Cambridge, England church for 54 years in the late 1700 and early 1800s. Simeon was a vibrant evangelical pastor when Cambridge had little evangelical Christian influence and even some persecution.
Students and professors at Cambridge were hostile to Simeon for his vibrant Christian faith. They continuously disrupted church services and spread rumors about him. A professor at Cambridge even scheduled a Greek class on Sunday night specifically to prevent students from attending Simeon’s Sunday evening worship services. Even Simeon’s congregation was hostile to him at various intervals in his long ministry.
But this is where the true benefit of history comes to play. Simeon’s writings give us clues to how he endured a life of persecution and hostility and how we might follow his example. Simeon writes:
“Repentance is in every view so desirable, so necessary, so suited to honor God, that I seek that above all…Here I cannot err. . . . I am sure that whatever God may despise . . . He will not despise the broken and contrite heart.”
Simeon’s story is only the tip of the iceberg in Piper’s Biographies Collection and in the 2,000 years of Christian history in which countless men and women have followed Jesus boldly and loved people fearlessly. Don’t miss out on the wisdom and encouragement that history provides.
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