In preparing for a lesson Sunday on “Computers, Humans, and God,” it occurred to me that there might be some who would be interested to know about some tools that you can use to enhance your devotional life. In this issue, I want to tell you about two of them.

For many Methodist, The Upper Room has been a standard devotional guide for years. They publish devotionals for various age groups and they publish devotional studies as well. Many of our members look forward to getting the printed version of The Upper Room when it comes out every two months. It comes in regular print and in large print.

But if you are into using your computer regularly or your smart phone or a tablet, etc. you can receive this devotional in your email box every day by simply subscribing to it. Here is what you do. In your browser, go to the Upper Room website.

• Under the date there will be a drop down box to select different pages. Click on the down arrow and pick “Daily Devotional.” It will take you to today’s devotional which you can read on line.
• There is a highlight in the lower part of the third column to make the type larger. Of course there is always a way to do that with any browser.
• In the first column, there is a heading called “Subscribe.” Under this heading are options to subscribe to a printed version which will be mailed to your address or to subscribe to an email version. Large print and other languages are also options. If you want the email, just click on it and it will open a sign up page where you give your name and email and tell it if you want html (with graphics) or text only. Fill it out and click “subscribe.”
• Every day about 3:30 in the morning you will get today’s devotional in your email box which you can read wherever you can get your email.

The second resource I’d like to mention is an on-line Bible. There are many options out there, but let me tell you about my favorite. It is the Bible by LifeChurch.TV and you can find it in your browser at www.youversion.com If you want information on the various mobile versions, simply add /mobile to this address in your browser. This resource has 41 translations in 22 languages and it is all FREE! From your smart phone or tablet, go to your app store and search for “Bible.” You may need to tell it to list them by price so that the free ones are on top. This one simply has a picture of a brown Bible with gold print saying “Holy Bible” and it may have the tag “LifeChurch.TV.”

What makes this fun is that you can use it across your various platforms—phones, tablets, computer—and it will keep track of your preferences, bookmarks etc. You can pick your favorite translation which will become the default, but you can always switch to another one. It includes a great search engine for finding verses by key words or phrases. It includes a variety of study aids including devotionals and various Bible reading plans from which you can choose as many or few as you want. You can add your own personal study notes, read comments shared by others, or share yours with others. It is a great app. I use it all the time on my phone and iPad and when I’m borrowing a computer. (I have another program I normally use on my own computer that includes all kinds of other study books, but it is not free.)