Sword Vs. Lightsaber

My Christmas present of 2012 came in the form of my first smartphone in over 5 years, specifically an iPhone. Since this is a whole new experience for me, I've been taking some time to get used to all the features this phone comes with; I had an iPod Touch until 2010, so I'm not foreign to Apple products (but this is way more advanced than what I'm used to). A standard with the 21st century Christian is the Bible app, which I'm sure many a fellow believer is grateful for; the idea of having easy access to the Word with a couple taps of the touch screen is a win across the board. At the start of the year, I took avantage of the many Bible reading plans available to me, deciding on the basic Bible in one year plan; so far, it's been awesome having a form of motivation to read every day. I haven't read this frequently in a long time to be honest, and every time I'm done with a chapter or portion of scripture, it leaves me wanting to read the next part! About 3 days into the reading plan, a thought popped into my head, which happens to be the point of this entry: the difference between reading the technological Bible and the classic book format. We live in a day and age where convenience is everything; the smaller and more compact, the better it seems to be. Even though phones are kinda growing in size lately, they still manage to be tiny compared to a several hundred page Bible with concordances, index summaries, and maps of ancient Israel featuring the layout of Paul's journeys. Naturally, we would feel more inclined to take the phone to work, school, and even church; so many people nowadays use their phone to follow along sermons, and preachers are even using Bible apps to bring an interactive experience with their congregation using their notes. This was culture shock to me, because ever since my kindergarten days a hardcover Bible's been my go to choice. Then I got to thinking about how this phone would change the way I read; would this be the end of the hard copy era? Would this new Bible format become my new best friend? Would I start reading from the Message translation?? [Hillsong college students would understand that last one as a joke] The field test came this past Sunday, when I visited the church my family's been going to since I was in college in Sydney. I got there early with my sister because she was part of the P&W team for the morning and she needed a co-pilot for the trip there. While the rehearsals were happening, I took out my phone and started reading through the sections for the Bible plan; simple and effective use of my time #winning. The real test came during the preaching of the Word; by this point I had my phone out ready to jump right in. But then I started to think on what would help me be 100% focused to get everything out of this message; those that know me are aware of my impressively short attention span. I'm heaps prone to getting distracted and off track, and considering I had several means of distraction a few clicks away, I had to decide what to do in order to prevent that from happening. So I ended up picking up a Bible and used my phone to take notes; best decision I could have made. I walked out of that church with some of the best notes I've taken in a while; felt pretty good about myself then. So what am I trying to say with all this? Obviously, there's pros and cons with how you read the Word. The technological Bible has the advantage of being easily accessible, lightweight, and has different features like reading plans and outside connectivity. The potential danger is getting lost in the rest of your tech that you could forget it's even there to begin with, as well as getting easily distracted when you are using it. What's always been special about the book to me is that every time I hold one in my hands, it just feels right; holding a "real" Bible carries a certain level of significance. I've left so many Bibles to gather dust in my lifetime, but now that I'm entering a season that will require me to be stronger and closer to God than ever before, I know that I need to be well equipped. For me, both tools are awesome and powerful, but I can't forsake one for the other. Ephesians 6 calls the word a sword of the spirit. Hebrews 4 says the word is sharper than any two-edged sword. We know this thing's not just a random book; it has the power to impact lives and feed our spirits with hope and a genuine sense of peace. Nowadays we carry around lightsabers; nothing wrong with that (they are pretty awesome, after all), but we should ought to have a sword handy instead of automatically ruling it out. God's word is God's word; it's great regardless of how you carry it. My encouragement is that we keep in mind the significance of carrying it, in our hearts as well as in our hands/portable electronic devices.