So I’ve had my iPhone now for about four months. Anyone who knows me in real life knows I’m practically a zealot for the thing. I absolutely love (just about everything) about it.

A little over a year ago, I had switched from Verizon to AT&T so that I could get my hands on the iPhone 3G. Well, Verizon managed to lure me back with a series of pretty outstanding incentives. During the short time I had the phone, there were a handful of complaints that I had about it. The usual of course, (no picture messaging, no video capture, no landscape texting). Finally, with the 3GS, all of my complaints were addressed, and frankly, I can’t really think of anything I wish was there that isn’t! So, naturally, I abandoned Verizon and moved back to AT&T.  (And I don’t know what you all are talking about, I don’t even notice a difference in service).

So, as I have been planning on writing this for a few weeks now, the time has come. This is a list of my absolute favorite applications for the iPhone. These are all apps that I use on a regular basis. They appear in no particular order.

Vlingo
Lets up update multiple social networking sites at once. I use it for Facebook and Twitter. But the best part is, it has built in voice recognition so that you can speak you updates rather than typing them. Perfect if you on a long car ride or something. Vlingo is free.

Rowmote Pro
Rowmote lets you control your Apple computer with your iPhone. It has a built in touchpad for the mouse (full control and gestures, just like the Apple touch pad), a full keyboard, and an Apple style remote for media control. It also has built in support for lots of different applications—not just Apple’s Front Row. Among them are VLC, Plex, Last.fm and even Safari. Rowmote Pro is $4.99. It may seem steep, but when you add up all the different apps you need to do what Rowmote Pro does, it’s actually quite reasonable.

Dictionary.com
I like to avoid general web browsing in Safari when there’s a specialized app alternative. The Dictionary.com app is just that. It also includes a thesaurus. But best of all, all the info is localized in the Phone. The app predicts which word you’re looking up, and results are instantaneous. The only drawback: it takes about four seconds to start, which feels like an eternity. Still faster than Safari though. Dictionary.com is free.

WifiTrak
WifiTrak is a wifi scanner that will look further than the built in one. And it really does work. It can be set to refresh constantly which makes it perfect for scouting out open wifi networks in a pinch. And, because it’s in your phone, it can be used while you’re driving (something you can’t very well do with an open laptop). Once you find a network, then you can pull out your laptop and get to work. WifiTrak is $0.99.

The Weather Channel
The lite version and the paid version are the same, but one has ads. The Weather Channel app is more complete that the native weather app—namely with hourly and weekly reports. The Weather Channel is Free, or $0.99 depending how tolerant of ads you are.

Shazam
Identifies songs. Hear a song, open the app and find out what it is. Works about 90% of the time. I use it to identify music in movies and tv shows. The app also provides a portal to online stores selling the songs. Shazam is free.

Apple Remote
Browse and control iTunes on your computer. I love it because it lets you browse you iTunes library like it’s your iPod. See album art, rate songs. It’s pretty much all there—except coverflow. It also supports song requests by other iPhone users who are guests.

Movie Genie

Once again, I like to avoid Safari when there’s a specialized app. Movie Genie browses the IMDb website for movie and television information. It has about 90% of the website’s functionality. Movie Genie is $1.99, but it should be noted that there is now a free app put out by IMDb, but I know nothing about it’s functionality.

Cheap Gas
Pretty self-explanatory. Uses your current location to find the cheapest gas. Also provides a quick link to directions and a weird augmented reality function. Cheap Gas is free.

ProCamera
Among other things, it adds zoom and anti-shake to your camera. In fact, it makes the camera down-right usable. It has video function, but there are no special features for the video, which is kind of a blower. Perfect for photos though. ProCamera is $0.99.

RedLaser
RedLaser is a barcode scanner. It’s way faster than any other barcode scanner in the app store and it’s product search is far more thorough, even including local results. I thought this kind of app was useless until I found RedLaser, and now I rarely shop brick-and-mortar without using it. RedLaser is $1.99.

SmartSync

Syncs your phone contacts with your Facebook account. This is good for the compulsive people like myself who want to have all the last names and pictures possible for the contacts in their phone. It works fast and has plenty of options to keep you from accidentally overwriting information. SmartSync is $1.99.

Dragon Dictation
Simple voice recognition and interpretation. But the key is that it’s really, really good. No need to over-pronunciate. Just speak normally and Dragon figures it out almost every time. It doesn’t do anything else, but offers quick links to copy text and jump to email and text messaging. Best part is, Dragon Dictation is free.

Last.fm

Everything we love about Last.fm radio, on the iPhone. I use this all the time to find new music when I’m away from the computer. I recommend it over the Pandora app. Last.fm is free.

This was just posted over at the Desiring God blog. Page CXVI is a new project aiming to make hymns more accessible; not much unlike Indelible Grace Music. Desiring God share the explanation of their name. It’s pretty cool.

CXVI is definitely a bit more hip, mirroring, in some ways, the recent indie sounds. In short, the renditions they produce are top notch. Great production quality, well thought out and executed with cultural relevance. Unfortunately, the songs they selected here are songs that have fairly recent recordings in the same vein (i.e., Come Thou Fount and The Wonderful Cross). Regardless, raising awareness about hymns stands to enrich the church, so it’s fine.

Plus, methinks they might be hoping to hook new listeners with songs they’re familiar with before releasing lesser-known hymns.

The Page CXVI album is available for free here. And, if you like their vision, you can donate here.

The songs that come on the album are:

- Come Thou Fount
- In Christ Alone
- My Jesus I Love Thee
- When I Survey the Wonderful Cross
- Nothing But the Blood
- Solid Rock
- Joy

All are quality recordings, but one stands out as the single most powerful recording, head and shoulders above the others. It’s the last song, “Joy”. You’ll recognize it and you might not like what you hear at first. It’s the song that goes: “I’ve got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart…". Yeah, you know, the camp-fire song?

What makes it so unique is that it’s produced in a really overtly minor key. She almost sounds sarcastic singing “joy joy joy”. Then, it builds into this:

I’ve got the joy joy joy joy
down in my heart…
and I’m so happy,
so happy, so very happy.
And I’m so happy,
so happy, so very happy.
And I can’t understand
and I can’t pretend
that this will be alright in the end.
So I’ll try my best,
and lift up my chest
to sing about this
joy joy joy joy.

When peace like a river attendeth my way
when sorrows like seas billows roll
whatever my lot,thou hast taught me to say
it is well, it is well with my soul.

I was listening to the album as I was doing other things. And, I’m not going to lie, this one caught be off guard and made me well up. It’s a powerful rendition, probably because it feels deeply relevant to the human condition.

So, it’s free. Go download the album. Be enriched and encouraged. Sing the songs in church and in small groups. And, if you’re able support the project.

Something that has encouraged my prayer life at different times and has helped me to hone my focus has been laying music underneath my time in prayer. I know it’s something that has help others as well, so I thought tonight might be a good time to just say a few practical thoughts on improving prayer with music.

The goal in playing music during your time in prayer is not to stir up your emotions. Although, there may be some times when that happens, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Even in scripture we see music playing a powerful roll in people’s emotional responses. That’s not what we should seek, but shouldn’t be concerned with shunning it either.

The goal in adding music to your prayer time is to encourage focus. Music has a unique ability to cause us to think in certain ways. This can be helpful in preventing your mind from wandering too much. I have found it also often has the added bonus of helping me to treat my prayers with the seriousness they demand; that is, of course, provided the tone of the music serves in that way. When used behind closed doors it may help to obscure the sounds coming from a noisy house, which will add to your focus. And, for the self conscious, it will help to obscure your own voice to any one who may be outside the door.

So, the question for most would be, what music to use?

Well, I use a number of rules for myself when I select music for prayer. For one, I try to select music that is fully instrumental. In your prayer time, you should have the freedom to think and follow your prayers wherever they go. If there is a singer directing your thoughts, you’ll either follow him where he goes (which is sometimes okay) or you’ll end up distracted all the time and just sing along.

I also try to select music that does not carry too much of its own emotional direction. In other words, I try to select music that doesn’t have a lot of instrumental climaxes. I’ve found in the past that it can, over time, produce a kind of artificiality that’s really just subconsciously trying to mirror the music. I tend to stick with ambient music, eastern instrumental music, or solo piano music. Although my favorite is definitely the ambient since it commands the least amount of attention.

Those are the guidelines I’ve used for myself, but if you’re feeling like your prayer life would be encouraged with music, I would encourage you to expiriment some and see what is helpful for you. Maybe it’s the same as me, maybe you don’t end up liking music during your prayers at all. In any case, here are a couple of resources I’ve been using and found helpful.

Hammock
This group is primarily the ambient music I described. I doubt they’re Christian artists, but it makes no difference since the music is completely instrumental. The best album, I think, is Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow. But all the albums are similarly useful.

Music to Pray By by Ron Johns
Ron is a piano player who records massive amounts of instrumental piano music solely for the purpose of aiding people in their prayer times. The resource is completely free and downloadable from his website. Some of it is better than others, but all of it is produced with a truly outstanding purpose. Kudos Ron, you’re doing the church a invaluable service.

Song Download: Ben Lane – Geisha (Live @ The Relay Station)

This song was written by an old friend by the name of Ben Lane, several years back. He was kind enough to give me permission to distribute the song for free. I can’t say that I really have the corner on what he intended that it would mean, but as I listened to it this afternoon I developed my own (loose) interpretation. It seems that Ben is contrasting two forms of bondage to two different masters, while continually holding out hope that “God is not dead”.

Read the lyrics, and I think you’ll get what I’m seeing. Ben, if you happen to read this, feel free to chime in.

The world is cold and dead and so am I
Holy Spirit resurrect these bones so dry,
I’ve become a geisha to the evil forces living inside.

History grows to crack the world in half,
Mystery speaks in tongues from an ancient past,
Grab that needle and fill my vains;
I’m tired of living my life in chains
God why can’t you hear me call your name?

Just put a leash on me
and in this bondage I’ll be free
Or evil roots will choke the tree
the Christ once planted in my heart so long ago
Religion and philosophy
and knowledge lost their hold on me.
I take these pills and watch my pupils grow…

But God’s not dead so I’m not ready to go.

Life is a black hole and so are you.
Following a vacant mirage in search of the truth.
Take a look into my heart
and you will see just what the evil can do.

History grows to crack the world in half
Mystery speaks in tongues from an ancient past
kamikaze thoughts running through my head
I would kill myself but I’m already dead
I’m dead to the world that I once sought to claim.

Just put a leash on me
and in this bondage I’ll be free
(put a leash on me)
I open my eyes just to see,
the life’s much darker than the one I thought I had
tie my hands and lay me down
bury me deep in the ground,
the future just ain’t what it used to be…

But God’s not dead and you’re just a geisha to me.

I’ve spent the last few days with Indelible Grace Music. I’m sure some of you are familiar with the project, but others are not. The idea behind the ministry is honorable and frankly, just plain cool. The gist, although over simplified, is to reproduce very old, often forgotten, hymns for a new generation of Christian worshippers and thinkers. Here’s a quick excerpt from the statement on their website:

We want to be a voice calling our generation back to something rich and solid and beyond the fluff and the trendy. We want to remind God’s people that thinking and worship are not mutually exclusive, and that not everything worth knowing happened in the last three years. We want to invite the Church to appreciate her heritage without idolizing it. We want to open up a world of passion and truth and make it more that just an archaic curiosity for the religiously sentimental. We believe worship is formative, and that it does matter what we think.

Pretty cool, right? I agree. I stumbled on Indelible Grace while looking for really excellent renditions and arrangements of old hymns. You’d be surprised how few there really are. In fact, if you search for hymns on Amazon MP3, you’ll come up with several thousand results that all sound more or less exactly the same.

Then, while doing my monthly peruse of eMusic (read about it here), I came across Indelible Grace’s Music. I was stunned. They literally have a plethora of modern hymn arrangements, something like 85 of them. While there are a handful I’m really not enthusiastic about (i.e., really cheesy), the majority of them are performed with a great deal of care and, dare I say, relevance.

Most of the arrangements range from mellow indie-folk melodies, to heavier rock, to full blown southern-slide-guitar country. The performers also range from people I’ve never heard of, to bigger names in Christian music, like Derek Webb.

Indelible Grace also makes implementing hymn arrangements into worship services relatively easy. On their website you’ll find pretty comprehensive listings of hymns they perform, as well as lyrics and chord charts for various instruments.

I would very much like to see churches put Indelible Grace’s hard work to good use in their local congregations. Because the words we sing are indeed formative. And, in many ways they do shape our theologies and our ideas about God. In fact, I fairly often hear people quote songs, thinking they’re quoting scripture. If that is the case, then let’s bring real depth and real substance into our songs. Lets sing hymns.

Here are some of my favorite recordings from Indelible Grace Music so far:

O Help My Unbelief
Album: Wake Thy Slumbering Children

Come Then, Lord Jesus
Album: Wake Thy Slumbering Children

Hear Our Prayer (The Litany Song)
Album: Wake Thy Slumbering Children

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Album: Indelible Grace Side B

O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
Album: Indelible Grace Side A

O Come and Mourn
Album: For All the Saints

Not What My Hands Have Done
Album: For All the Saints

Lead Me On O King Eternal
Album: Beams of Heaven

Jesus Lover of My Soul
Album: Beams of Heaven

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
Album: Beams of Heaven

Poor Sinner Dejected With Fear
Album: Pilgrim Days

This list is in no wise exhaustive. There are many other great recordings on these albums, but this list is a pretty good taste of what’s there. If you like what you hear in these, I would strongly recommend you go ahead and buy the albums. You won’t be disappointed. But, good news!

Get Indelible Grace Music for FREE!

I’m probably breaking some rules somewhere, but I just think that this music will be a great blessing to many, so I’m going suggest it anyway.

On eMusic now, if you’ve never signed up, then sign up! They’ll give you 50 songs for free. They’re yours to keep. When you sign up, you’ll have to give them a credit card so that when the month is over they can start charging you the subscription fee, but it’s a trial. So, just cancel before the month is up and it wont cost you anything. But for the purposes today, the trial will get you about 4 out of 6 of the Indelible Grace albums.

So, get on there. Sign up. Download the Indelible Grace Music. Cancel your account right away. Or, keep the service going. It really is great.

I’m sure many of you have already found SermonAudio.com, but for those of you who have not, I hope you will find something that encourages you.

SermonAudio.com is…

In a nutshell, SermonAudio.com is a massive database of free audio files which can either be streamed and listened to from you computer, or downloaded and loaded onto an mp3 player or cell phone. I did say “free” right. Right, free. There are sermons from contemporary preachers from all over the US and internationally. That’s great and all, but it gets way better. SermonAudio.com also has a wealth of classic preachers as well. Tozer, Pink, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon—just to name a few. But really, it seems that the list just keeps going.

How it works…

When arriving at the site you’re dumped into a fairly cluttered environment. It takes some time to catch your breath and figure out what exactly you’re looking at. However, most folks won’t have too much trouble after a minute or too.

The main column of the site is filled mostly with updates and daily postings, popular downloads and featured speakers. But, the really juicy stuff starts on the left.

You’ll see four very important links: Sermons by Bible, Sermons by Speaker, Sermons by Topic and Sermons by Date. I’m sure you can figure out what these are. This is the main artery for browsing sermons. Choose to look up all the sermons by a favorite preacher, by the date they were delivered, or the topic they’re about. Or, by my favorite, the verse they are taken from.

When you select “Sermon by Bible”, you’re dropped onto a page displaying each book of the bible and a link to the each chapter. Within each link you’ll find sermons relevant to the selected verse. And, at the top of the page you’ll find an handy quick reference to the chapter of the bible you’re browsing in. From the scripture quick-reference, you can also further narrow your searches down by clicking on a particular verse and displaying sermons relevant to that specific verse.

When browsing through sermons, you also have some pretty advanced sorting methods to choose from. You can sort by the geographic area the sermon was delivered, the speaker, the denomination of the speaker and more.

The sermon…

Once you’ve actually found the sermon you’d like to hear, first you’ll have to sign up for their newsletter. No biggie. Then, you’ll have the option of either streaming the sermon live using Windows Media Player, meaning no hard drive space will be taken up on your computer. Or, you can choose to download the sermon onto your computer. The sermon comes in the form of an mp3 file. The files are a pretty decent size, not too big, but not so small that the sound quality stinks.

If you choose to download the sermon, you’ll then have the chance to load it into itunes, then onto you ipod. Or any other mp3 playing device.

One drawback to downloading the mp3′s are that they are not intelligently named files. So, for example, if you download a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, the file may not have a name you recognize. It will more likely be titled with a seemingly random string of numbers. You’ll want to rename the files so you can easily find them later.

Membership options…

I offer kudos to SermonAudio.com for offering this service for free. It’s commendable and, I believe a great gift to the church, if she would only take advantage of it. However, more robust options are available for people who are willing to pay a nominal premium.

For free you can get pretty much all of the best benefits. Listen to sermons. Download sermons. Browse sermons. Search the bible. Stream sermon related videos. Even get access to a lot of PDF sermon resources.

For bloggers and other web junkies, $4.95/month will get more features. Namely, the ability to download a lot of stuff unattended–although I don’t really know how this works. There’s also things like blogging tools and some advanced RSS options.

For churches and pastors, $29.95/month will get everything, plus the ability post your own sermons from your church. It seems that there must be some kind of a screening process, because the site really doesn’t seem to be overrun with junk. But whatever the case, that’s the gist of the complete package.

However, take note, the best and most important features are offered for free. The way it should be.

Highlights…

SermonAudio.com has a host of really cool and free features. There’s a few that stick out to me.

1. RSS Capabilities. Lets be honest, we’re not going to be visiting this site all that often. It just wouldn’t be a very practical stop along the road. But, with RSS subscriptions to sermon series or speakers, you can bring SermonAudion.com into your RSS reader. With Google, the sermon can stream directly from the feed.

and

2. Morning & Evening Devotions with C.H. Spurgeon. In addition to being able to read Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening Devotions, a good audio version is offered making the devotional easy to do in the car on the way to work or at your desk. Pair this one with the RSS functions and you’ve got a pretty sweet pair.

Conclusion…

SermonAudio.com is fantastic. It’s an excellent resource, especially considering all the classic content. And, it’s free, which is great.

So, go check it out. Download some sermons. Learn a thing or two and fall more in love with Jesus.

Not that I’m an expert, but I thought it good to share some practical ideas to help improve your study, or devotion time. These are all things that I have found useful in my own experience. Of course there are no real rules to study and devotion preparation, but I think there are some things that can help. I sometimes use all of these together, but more often just employ some of them, depending on my situation. Almost none of these are my idea; most of them came from folks far my qualified than myself to instruct. Consider each carefully, perhaps you will find good fruit in them just as I have.

1.Devotion is a lifestyle, not an activity.

Among the first mistakes I made when learning to spend time with the Lord was to think that I could section my time with him off into some portion, which is then defined as a “devotion”. But as a Christian, than makes little sense. I have been brought back to life, and my whole life is now in Christ. I cannot consecrate only a thirty-minute portion of my day to the Lord, but all day and every day. When I am in that mindset, I am best suited to tangibly spend time in a devotion. If I have only a short time to go deep into God in his Word, then I will not get very far. But if I have all time to go deep, then the time I spend specifically with his Word, I will go very deep.

2.First thing in the morning is best.

I’ve gone back and forth and I definitely don’t always do this, but I think that the church fathers throughout history were onto something with this one. “I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning” (Psalm 59:16). I’m convinced that this is not just an antiquated idea that it is good to be up early in the morning and bad to be up late at night, but I think there is an important principal embedded here.

Some of my most fruitful days begin with my mind and heart in the Word. To begin my day, first thing, with the Word of God helps set things on a course of godliness. It helps to ripen conviction for sin and helps me to notice approaching sin before it has passed and guilt can set in. In addition to that, my comprehension of the Word is improved. I, like many, am generally not a morning person. I’ve said many times before, that if I read first thing wouldn’t get much out of it. But therein lies a mystery, because I do. Almost always.

3.Consistency is key.

I’m a pretty firm believer in that we sabotage ourselves when we are convinced that every time we sit down to study or devotion that our minds and hearts must be blown away. I think this expectation mostly just breeds discouragement. While we should always attempt to approach scripture with a tender heart ready to be impacted, the fact is, sometimes (for some, even often) we just won’t. If this fear, or expectation, prevents us from even beginning to sit and read, or pray, then the enemy has already gained a foothold.

When folks who are discouraged or struggling with their spiritual life come to me, or around me, with complaints like that, my advice is always the same. I tell them to read the Word consistently, regardless of the way they feel. Even if that is only as much as one chapter per day. Just don’t miss a single day, keep reading the Word. Feel no further obligation beyond whatever has been decided. In my own walk, in times of struggle and discouragement, this has frequently helped to bring me back to good spiritual health.

Always read the Word every single day.

4.Stay organized.

I know a lot of folks who have very little organization in their study and devotion. In study I think this is more important, but the principal works in devotions too. Many jump around, or use the close-your-eyes-and-flip-to-page approach. You’re not going to go too deep into scripture if you’re just randomly picking stuff to read. It’s unlikely that you’re going to get too much out of what you’re reading, or even worse, you might string together the wrong set of verses and come to the wrong conclusion about scripture and God altogether. I used this approach at one time and it was rarely, if ever, fruitful.

Develop a pattern of some kind. It doesn’t mean you can’t break out of the pattern sometimes, but something general to keep you organized. Maybe it’s one chapter per day, from the same book, until the book is done. Then move onto another book. I know some people who read one whole new testament book every day for a week, then move onto another book. Some people go through a bible reading plan, like bible-in-a-year, or a chronological plan. One of my favorite methods I call A-B Days is reading through the Old Testament on “A” days, then reading through the New Testament on “B” days. It’s all good stuff, just stay organized.

5.Keep a journal.

Some people feel like keeping a reading journal means writing down insightful, inspiring, or profound thoughts based on what you’re reading. That’s just not true. You might sometimes write things like that down, but that’s not always the point. Sometimes when reading scripture, you’ll come across something that just doesn’t make sense to you. That’s okay. You shouldn’t feel obligated to understand right then and there. But you do a disservice to yourself by just forgetting about it. Keep a journal that will allow you to jot down questions, or scripture that doesn’t quite make sense to you. Even if you don’t actively seek out answers, you’ll be surprised how many questions are answered just by continuing to read scripture. Keeping a journal can also help you stay consistent, even if every entry is something as simple as “4/24/08 – Today I read Ephesians 4:1-11”.

6.Get a grasp on theology.

Theology is not something man-made. It’s not a box that people put God into. Theology, good theology, comes from scripture, it is the whole of scripture. It is some understanding of God, and for hundreds of years the Church has learned about it and taught it. Today, it stands to help you learn. Time may simply not permit you to read huge chucks of scripture every day and because of that, many biblical concepts may seem muddy to you. Do you want to know what scripture says about suffering? Learn something about the theology of suffering, and it will help make reading the bible and seeing for yourself what it says about suffering much easier.

You can find trustworthy theological resources at Monergism, Banner of Truth and Desiring God, just to name a few.

7.If your environment is too loud, use white noise.

People make fun of me for this one one all the time. But it really is useful. If you can’t go somewhere quiet, use white noise. After a few minutes of listening to it, it’ll blend into the background and you won’t even notice it anymore—you also won’t notice the TV in the other room, or the radio on in the kitchen.

Here are a few you can download for free. You just need a way you can loop them; like an ipod or windows media player. Each one of these mp3′s is about 30 – 45 seconds long and is set up to loop seamlessly.

• Blow Dryer
• Running Shower Water
• Vacuum Cleaner Running

(right click, save-as to download)

8.Read out-loud, or listen.

In very long texts, like Old Testament stories, or long winded treaties, such as Romans or the Corinthian letters, hearing what is written may help you to connect larger ideas in the text. For example, in the book of Ephesians, you’ll find many intricate and beautiful ideas. However, in reading quietly and slowly, you may miss the larger theme of encouragement. I have found in listening to the bible on CD or reading it out-loud to myself, it’s much easier to pick up on the larger themes.

I’ve found this highly affording MP3 bible in the ESV version, under 20 bucks.

9.Use study tools!

There are tons of awesome resources available for free, or very inexpensive. When there’s something you need some help understanding or grasping more clearly, make use of the tools that some good organizations make available for free. Here are just a few that you ought to give a shot.

• Commentaries: Well studied men of God have gone before you, and much like asking your pastor today, they can help to give insight into the meaning of a verse or several verses. While no one person can be the end all of all understanding—except for Jesus—they can help. If you want printed material, check out Monergism for some good printed stuff.

  Try: bibleclassics.com, bible.org for some free commentaries.
  

• Bible Dictionary: Some stuff we’re not going to understand as well unless we can grasp some of the cultural stuff surrounding it. Want to know why John is always talking about “vines”, it might help to know something about ancient Roman agriculture. A bible dictionary can help. In print, I have the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, under 20 bucks.

  Try: NETBible for a free online bible dictionary.
  

• Online Bibles: Using a digital bible can make study much easier. Especially when it comes to cross references. You might find yourself reading something that reminds you of another passage you read recently. Using a keyword search will make it easier to find the verse you’re looking for. Plus, some digital bibles have a vast number of translations available making it easy to line them up next to each other.

  Try: biblegateway.com on the internet, or e-sword for your desktop. You can also check out this article on making biblegateway even esier to use with firefox!
  

• Interlinear Bible/Lexicon: Sometimes the depth of meaning of scripture is diminished in translation. The Greek language has way more words than English does. I’m not a Greek scholar and you probably aren’t either. But that’s alright, to help us out with that are Lexicons and Interlinear bibles. They can help us to understand the original language without having to know it. It won’t replace actually learning Greek or Hebrew, but it will help the rest of us. In print Lexicons can get pretty expensive.

  Try: Crosswalk.com for a free interlinear bible and lexicon.

10.Under no circumstances should you be without your bible.

I had a friend a while back who I really admired. He always carried a backpack, even if he was just going to 7-11 or something. Sometimes all that he would have in it was a notebook and a bible. Eventually I adopted the practice. You’d be surprised how often you end up having to wait in line somewhere, or sitting at a red light and think of a verse you need to look up. For these occasions and more, it’s indispensable to carry a bible with you everywhere. Think about it, of all the things you won’t leave your house without: cell phone, wallet, keys, ipod, whatever, and yet you leave home the sword of the Spirit? (Ephesians 6:17). So my advice is to carry it with you everywhere, at all times. Even if it’s not often used, it will you keep a mindset of constant readiness, and that is of ultimate importance.