My Computer-Based Personal Bible Study Timeline
Having an electronic library at my fingertips has been both a blessing and a challenge. Personal Bible study has been made very easy with the Logos software Libronix Series X. Though at the same time has also exposed some challenges in those computer-based studies.
Many years ago, my computer-based Bible study was relegated to a text editor with a search function on a CPM computer and a lot of 8" floppy diskettes. I only had available to me the public domain text of the King James Version of the Bible in ASCII form. This continued into the late 80’s when I had upgraded to a DOS system and a 5 megabyte hard drive.
The hard drive on a “personal computer” was a boon to my personal Bible study as I was now able to have all my Bible files on one computer and had even managed to create a single file of the entire text of the Bible. Searching was now made easy, since I could actually access the entire book at any given time.
When I first discovered, and was introduced to the Logos software, I believe it was in its initial versions, and had to be loaded from a stack of 3.5” floppy diskettes. I marveled at this software when I continued in my Bible study time. Not only could I have a whole Bible available for Bible study, class and sermon preparation, but I could actually have several versions of Bibles!
As I increased my library that started to also contain extra Biblical books, and my computer-based Bible study skills also increased, I realized that the Logos software had become something that I am not sure that I could live without. I had started to become dependant on the speed and convenience of a computer-based Bible Study.
Prior to Series X being released, I participated in the alpha and beta programs. My resource list in my electronic library had started to grow quite a bit, and had to be imaginative in how I used the older Logos software in order to optimize the use of my rather large electronic library.
Once Series X was released, I had already decided that the Libronix software was going to be my default standard for electronic library and that I would no longer invest in any other Bible Study and electronic library product. My resource list is now in the many thousands.
I do not consider myself any kind of expert with the Series X software, but I do consider myself an expert in my own personal Bible Study as I use the Logos, Libronix software. The challenge as I mentioned early on is now that I have such a large library that it is very easy to spend many hours at a Bible study, and not even complete the original task. I find that with these resources and the various ways the software allows me access, it is extremely easy to go in a Bible study direction that wasn’t what I had initially intended.
A challenge, yes, but a good one. I am not saying that I get distracted in a negative way, but rather my Bible Studies are more fulfilling and satisfactory as I bookmark, notate and highlight various other paradigms of thought within the software, and continue on in my original thought and study. I am never lacking for a topic with my computer-based Bible study habits.
Submitted by Brent Hoefling