How Do You Use Your iPhone and iPad in Christian Growth?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:07.360 | We close the week talking about technology
00:00:09.960 | and Pastor John, because we often get questions
00:00:11.960 | from listeners who know that you use technology
00:00:15.000 | all the time in your Christian walk.
00:00:17.200 | Explain for us here today how you use technology,
00:00:21.040 | how do you do Bible reading on your iPad,
00:00:23.080 | and how do you use Bible software on your laptop,
00:00:25.400 | and how do you use podcasts and audio books
00:00:27.800 | to serve your soul?
00:00:28.740 | How does all of this technology work for you?
00:00:31.720 | - I think the first thing to say is that nobody
00:00:35.840 | should try to copy anyone else in this regard
00:00:39.740 | because our circumstances and our needs and our gifts,
00:00:44.740 | our vulnerabilities are so different.
00:00:49.760 | So perhaps the best way for someone to listen
00:00:52.440 | to what I'm about to say would be to listen
00:00:55.240 | for possibilities, not prescriptions.
00:00:59.580 | My use of technology for reading and for listening
00:01:04.580 | and for watching can be divided roughly,
00:01:08.460 | it seems to me as I've thought about it,
00:01:11.380 | though I may be overlooking something,
00:01:12.940 | into one, Bible, two, prayer, three, reading for spiritual
00:01:17.940 | and intellectual growth and enrichment,
00:01:20.740 | four, listening for both entertainment
00:01:23.460 | and growth and enrichment, and five,
00:01:25.780 | awareness of what's happening in the world
00:01:28.840 | and culture and evangelicalism,
00:01:31.000 | and six, relationships with family.
00:01:34.100 | So those are the categories.
00:01:35.220 | Let me just say a word about each one.
00:01:37.860 | Bible, I've been reading through the Bible once a year,
00:01:42.000 | the whole Bible once a year, as long as I can remember,
00:01:44.300 | maybe starting in my 20s.
00:01:46.280 | I really can't remember when I first started,
00:01:48.780 | but as long as I can remember, I've been doing this.
00:01:51.400 | I've done it now for quite a few years on my iPad
00:01:55.560 | using various Bible software.
00:01:58.400 | Now I'm using Logos software.
00:02:02.060 | It provides a way for my daily readings.
00:02:06.480 | This year I'm using McShane's reading plan,
00:02:10.280 | which gets you through the whole Bible once,
00:02:12.840 | through the New Testament twice, through the Psalms twice,
00:02:15.940 | reads about four or five chapters a day.
00:02:19.040 | And Logos enables me to see on my home screen every day
00:02:24.040 | what the next place is to be read in the Bible.
00:02:27.960 | And you just click on it, it takes you to that place.
00:02:30.280 | And when you're done with that place,
00:02:31.240 | you say done or finished, and it takes you to the next place.
00:02:34.580 | And so it's just unbelievably, unbelievably convenient.
00:02:38.520 | And there's several reasons why I do it,
00:02:41.900 | why I read my Bible electronically.
00:02:45.440 | One is that I can save verses easily for later meditation.
00:02:50.440 | I use Evernote.
00:02:53.400 | I'm sure there's a way to do it in Logos itself,
00:02:55.400 | but I've been using Evernote for a long time.
00:02:57.560 | So I use Evernote.
00:02:58.400 | I create a folder for Bible quotes
00:03:00.560 | and specifically Bible promises.
00:03:02.880 | And then I can look at these later in the day or later on
00:03:07.480 | to remind myself of what was especially powerful
00:03:10.640 | or precious in the reading that morning.
00:03:12.960 | So just a click or two, and the verse that I'm looking at
00:03:16.320 | that's meaningful to me at this moment
00:03:18.160 | I can be saved for later on in the day.
00:03:22.120 | Another reason for reading the Bible electronically
00:03:25.560 | is that one of my purposes for using Twitter
00:03:30.560 | is to send out Bible verses or Bible truths three times a day
00:03:35.680 | and virtually all of these come out of my daily reading.
00:03:42.780 | And the electronic version enables me to cut and paste
00:03:46.600 | into Twitter or Hootsuite very simply.
00:03:51.040 | So you might say,
00:03:52.560 | I view this particular use of Twitter that I have
00:03:57.320 | as simply an overflow of my enjoyment
00:04:01.640 | of scripture every morning.
00:04:03.600 | And I schedule those out a week or two in advance.
00:04:08.080 | They just, when they come, they come.
00:04:10.240 | Another reason for using the iPad
00:04:13.900 | is that I'm regularly consulting the original languages,
00:04:17.940 | Greek and Hebrew, and Logos makes that real easy
00:04:20.920 | with a split screen to have Greek or Hebrew right there
00:04:24.320 | when I'm doing my meditation so that I wanna check
00:04:27.300 | and see what's behind this word, I can do it.
00:04:30.900 | And another reason is that when I get ideas
00:04:36.500 | for articles or books or blogs or sermons,
00:04:41.500 | while I'm reading, I can quickly put a note in
00:04:45.940 | or cut and paste to my Evernote file on various topics
00:04:50.900 | so that I'm ready to go with those ideas or those texts.
00:04:54.540 | So everything is just quickly streamlined
00:04:58.480 | by being able to save things and comment on things
00:05:03.100 | when I'm reading the Bible in my iPad.
00:05:06.260 | And I suppose it goes without saying
00:05:09.380 | that I do virtually all of my Bible study
00:05:12.480 | on my computer at my desk.
00:05:14.140 | I'm using my computer right now in front of me.
00:05:17.260 | My Bible program is open in front of me.
00:05:19.620 | I use Logos 6 and always have ESV open.
00:05:24.260 | I have the Greek and Hebrew open beside it.
00:05:26.540 | I have a search window open beside that.
00:05:29.380 | I have an open commentary at the bottom.
00:05:32.740 | I love Alford, my New Testament commentary,
00:05:36.260 | though I can click through other commentaries.
00:05:38.180 | I've got lots of things open here and ready to go.
00:05:40.940 | So that's Bible.
00:05:44.000 | That's the category of Bible.
00:05:45.460 | And I do use BibleArc.com, B-I-B-L-E-A-R-C.com
00:05:49.960 | for rigorous arcing and leveling of text.
00:05:54.960 | But that's for another time to talk about, perhaps.
00:05:58.740 | Second category is prayer.
00:06:01.340 | How do people remind themselves
00:06:04.540 | of what they want to pray about?
00:06:05.580 | Besides praying my way through the Word,
00:06:08.100 | so when I'm reading my Bible,
00:06:09.060 | I'm praying over this Word for all the people
00:06:11.880 | that I'm concerned about and all the things
00:06:13.940 | that the Bible is throwing up to me.
00:06:16.460 | I also have concentric circles of things I pray about,
00:06:21.460 | and I keep track of those in my iPad,
00:06:26.300 | on an Evernote folder, so that if I kneel down to pray
00:06:30.860 | and can't remember all the things I want to pray about,
00:06:34.180 | I just click open my Evernote.
00:06:36.140 | It's called Daily Prayers, and I keep it up to date
00:06:39.020 | with requests that people ask me.
00:06:40.900 | So prayer is another way I use technology.
00:06:44.100 | Third, reading for spiritual
00:06:46.860 | and intellectual growth and enrichment.
00:06:49.860 | I do still read from paper books and love them,
00:06:52.820 | and I believe we'll always have them with us.
00:06:55.420 | I don't think they'll ever cease to be useful.
00:06:59.760 | But I love the fact that I have all the works of John Owen,
00:07:04.760 | all the works of Jonathan Edwards,
00:07:07.100 | all the works of Charles Spurgeon,
00:07:09.380 | at my fingertips on my iPad, anywhere, all the time.
00:07:14.380 | This is an incalculable gift from God to me.
00:07:19.820 | So, for example, I've been reading volume four of John Owen
00:07:23.620 | as I prepare to write a book
00:07:24.940 | on the affectional use of Scripture in our lives,
00:07:28.760 | and I've been reading relevant sermons
00:07:30.600 | from Jonathan Edwards in this regard.
00:07:32.300 | And I just finished two lectures from Charles Spurgeon
00:07:34.540 | called "How to Read the Bible."
00:07:36.900 | And all of these, I've been reading on my iPad,
00:07:40.340 | and I've been reading them in Logos.
00:07:42.180 | And the main reason is because of how easy it is
00:07:45.880 | to highlight or to do clippings
00:07:48.820 | so that what I just saw will immediately go into a document.
00:07:53.720 | I can print out that document.
00:07:56.260 | Oh, I can remember in years gone by
00:07:58.500 | how many hours and hours and hours and days and days
00:08:02.420 | I would spend underlining books
00:08:04.540 | and then going back and typing and typing and typing
00:08:07.500 | to try to save what I had seen for use in books and so on.
00:08:12.900 | And now, oh God, be praised.
00:08:16.660 | I can just read, highlight, bang, they're in a document.
00:08:21.540 | These wonderful insights
00:08:23.340 | of these great historic lovers of God have been preserved,
00:08:27.500 | and now I can read them later, I can use them later.
00:08:31.020 | So reading for intellectual and spiritual growth
00:08:35.300 | is done a great deal on my iPad, but not only.
00:08:40.020 | Fourth category is listening for both entertainment
00:08:44.100 | and growth and enrichment.
00:08:46.100 | The mind, John Piper's mind anyway,
00:08:51.540 | cannot always be wound tightly
00:08:54.840 | for the sake of maximum rigor in analysis and synthesis.
00:08:59.840 | There's a place for more relaxed, passive entertainment,
00:09:05.220 | but I personally believe, and here's the vulnerability part,
00:09:10.500 | I personally believe that the Christian
00:09:13.100 | should not be entertained by things
00:09:15.860 | that require a spiritual bath
00:09:19.180 | to cleanse the mind when you're done.
00:09:21.460 | That's not a good way to get entertained,
00:09:23.920 | and I fear many, many, many evangelicals
00:09:26.940 | contradict their own conscience
00:09:28.660 | because they're just following the world
00:09:30.260 | and what they get entertained by.
00:09:32.060 | Now, one of the ways I do this
00:09:35.460 | is by having audio books on my iPhone.
00:09:39.400 | Right now, for example, I have a huge book
00:09:43.760 | that I'm working my way through, audio,
00:09:46.280 | namely C.S. Lewis's Essays and Shorter Writings.
00:09:49.500 | It's a gargantuan book, I don't know how many hours,
00:09:51.420 | like 50 hours worth or something.
00:09:53.720 | And I take a little bit every now and then,
00:09:56.260 | and at the same time, I'm listening to a narrative history
00:09:59.900 | of the great migration of African Americans
00:10:02.780 | from the South to the North
00:10:03.980 | called The Warmth of Other Suns,
00:10:06.980 | a Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative history
00:10:11.980 | that's just knocking me over with sadness
00:10:16.180 | because of what I was involved in in those days
00:10:19.220 | and the horrors of the background
00:10:22.500 | of African Americans in this country.
00:10:24.680 | And at the same time,
00:10:25.820 | I'm listening to Leland Rykin's new biography of J.I. Packer.
00:10:28.720 | So I got three audio books going at the same time,
00:10:32.000 | just listening according to what I feel like in the moment.
00:10:36.460 | And I just finished listening last year
00:10:39.520 | to the Brothers Karamazov.
00:10:41.800 | In other words, I try to listen to fiction
00:10:45.480 | if somebody has given me a really good recommendation
00:10:49.680 | of something contemporary
00:10:51.000 | or if I wanna get back into something historic
00:10:53.980 | that I haven't ever done.
00:10:55.860 | So for example, I think I got this
00:10:58.440 | from seeing a pile of books on one of your photographs, Tony,
00:11:03.260 | and I took the risk just 'cause it sounded so good.
00:11:05.860 | I just finished listening to Anthony Doerr's
00:11:09.180 | "All the Light We Cannot See."
00:11:11.700 | That was deeply moving to me.
00:11:15.880 | So I listened to these basically in the cracks of my life,
00:11:20.960 | I listen while I'm jogging, while I'm walking to church,
00:11:25.960 | while I'm driving to get the oil changed,
00:11:29.240 | while I'm brushing my teeth, changing my clothes,
00:11:32.440 | while the teapot is heating.
00:11:34.680 | The goal is both enjoyment and learning
00:11:38.760 | and the awakening of emotions
00:11:42.640 | that might not otherwise be touched.
00:11:46.220 | I think one of the things that great literature does,
00:11:48.920 | fiction included, is that it touches us
00:11:53.520 | in places and ways through insights we haven't had
00:11:57.160 | and emotions we haven't experienced
00:11:58.720 | that make us wider, deeper persons
00:12:03.120 | when we come to the word of God itself
00:12:06.320 | so that we are more useful in God's hands
00:12:10.600 | and we're more capable of even knowing
00:12:13.280 | and experiencing more of him.
00:12:15.380 | So number five is awareness of what's happening in the world
00:12:20.380 | and culture and evangelicalism.
00:12:23.220 | I get virtually all of my news,
00:12:25.300 | both concerning the world and the nation and the state
00:12:28.020 | and the city and the wider evangelicalism
00:12:30.460 | and world missions and everything else I learn
00:12:33.780 | about the world, I get it from the internet.
00:12:36.500 | We don't have a TV, I never listen to the radio.
00:12:39.060 | It's mediated mainly through my iPad and iPhone.
00:12:44.500 | So for example, at breakfast,
00:12:46.180 | which I usually eat by myself
00:12:47.680 | because my wife isn't out of bed yet usually,
00:12:50.780 | I look at the news sites to see what's happened
00:12:54.420 | in the last 24 hours.
00:12:55.980 | I look at national sites
00:12:57.620 | and I look at my local Minneapolis Star Tribune
00:13:00.660 | newspaper online.
00:13:02.900 | My main use of Twitter on receiving,
00:13:06.460 | not giving but receiving,
00:13:08.640 | is to let people become a filter for me
00:13:13.140 | of what I need to be looking at.
00:13:15.060 | In other words, I used to do this by thinking
00:13:17.340 | that I could subscribe to enough podcasts
00:13:19.420 | to stay on top of things.
00:13:20.540 | I don't do that anymore.
00:13:21.540 | It's just unworkable for me.
00:13:23.540 | I need people like Justin Taylor
00:13:27.060 | and goodness, I could name a half a dozen people
00:13:30.180 | who tweet out things that they've stumbled across.
00:13:33.620 | Somehow, I don't know how they do it,
00:13:35.380 | but they find important things.
00:13:36.980 | And they cite me, they send me to them.
00:13:40.140 | And so I go there and if it looks like I need
00:13:42.460 | to read that to figure out what's happening
00:13:45.520 | that I need to be engaged with, then I do it.
00:13:48.340 | But almost all of that.
00:13:49.380 | I do subscribe to a few magazines
00:13:54.380 | and I read them both paper and online,
00:13:57.740 | whichever seems to be easiest at the moment.
00:14:00.780 | And quickly, just a couple more things.
00:14:03.560 | There is a use I just thought of
00:14:07.480 | that maybe I ought to include.
00:14:10.420 | Namely, that I have a folder in Evernote
00:14:12.860 | called Poems in Process.
00:14:14.580 | This is probably not what everybody does with Evernote.
00:14:16.980 | So when I'm sitting on the couch at night,
00:14:20.920 | Noelle and I are just sitting there together.
00:14:22.920 | I have an hour before I go to bed.
00:14:25.100 | I may open up this folder in my iPad
00:14:28.820 | and just work away on a poem that's been in process
00:14:31.680 | for a month that I'm trying to write about something.
00:14:34.420 | So it's a writing device as well as a reading device.
00:14:39.380 | And finally, I use technology
00:14:41.700 | for the sake of my family relationships.
00:14:43.900 | This is the only use I make of Facebook.
00:14:46.660 | I hardly follow anybody or whatever the word is, friend.
00:14:50.940 | I hardly even know how Facebook works.
00:14:52.560 | I just know I've got family members who are on Facebook.
00:14:55.780 | And if I put their name in my friend,
00:14:57.980 | I can see what they're doing.
00:14:59.140 | And I like to do that.
00:15:00.140 | So that's my little limited use of Facebook
00:15:03.940 | is that I can tell what my kids are doing.
00:15:07.620 | And I suppose there's just lots more I could say
00:15:10.300 | about sermon preparation and look at the book
00:15:13.180 | and email and on and on.
00:15:16.260 | We could do another one of these
00:15:17.500 | if you wanna get more specific sometime.
00:15:19.460 | But maybe in closing, I should say,
00:15:24.460 | I regard my computer that sits here in front of me
00:15:28.180 | on my desk and my iPad and my iPhone
00:15:30.660 | as an incredible gift from God.
00:15:33.660 | I mean, I can almost come to tears
00:15:35.180 | over how precious they are to me.
00:15:37.500 | And all these pagans are behind it, I know that.
00:15:39.860 | And they believe stuff I don't believe.
00:15:41.780 | But for all the misuses that can be made of it,
00:15:46.220 | for me, it is a treasure chest of the glories of God.
00:15:50.940 | I see God and I learn of him everywhere I go
00:15:55.580 | on these devices.
00:15:57.140 | The temptations to go in destructive directions
00:16:01.060 | are a kind of test that if I weren't seeing them
00:16:05.560 | or being tempted to see them on the phone,
00:16:08.500 | there would be another way I'd be tempted.
00:16:11.100 | And so I regard those kind of tests
00:16:13.420 | as a proving ground for my faith and my holiness.
00:16:18.340 | And God has been very, very good to me
00:16:21.100 | and good to us in these days
00:16:22.660 | to give us these resources, I think.
00:16:25.460 | - Thank you, Pastor John.
00:16:26.300 | It's helpful to hear you explain all this.
00:16:28.580 | And if you have a follow-up question
00:16:30.380 | on how Pastor John uses technology, send it in to us.
00:16:33.420 | And for more information on the podcast
00:16:35.560 | or to download our apps and to search our archive
00:16:37.280 | of over 800 past episodes now,
00:16:39.720 | find us online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:16:44.320 | We're gonna break for the weekend.
00:16:45.360 | On Monday, John Piper will address a woman
00:16:47.120 | who notices that her pastor is using pre-made sermons.
00:16:50.680 | Should she be concerned?
00:16:52.360 | That and more, including next week,
00:16:54.160 | we'll talk about "Look at the Book,"
00:16:55.840 | this series of videos,
00:16:57.640 | and when and where is the proper context
00:17:00.200 | for using technology to mark up Bible texts.
00:17:03.280 | All of that and more next week
00:17:04.840 | on the #AskPastorJohn podcast.
00:17:06.600 | I'll see you then.
00:17:07.440 | Have a great weekend.
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