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Getting Started

Welcome to Bible J. This guide walks you through your first session and the spaces you will use most.

Begin here

Bible J opens to a single, gentle prompt called Begin here. Tap the plus button and speak, write, or draw freely. Whatever you capture can become a journal entry, a prayer, a dream, or a reflection.

You can also start from one of the quick chips under the prompt:

  • Bible Sessions for reading and study
  • Sermon to capture or follow a teaching
  • Prayer, Dream, and more under the expander

Reading the Bible

Open a Bible Session to read. While you read you can:

  • Highlight a verse by selecting it and choosing a color
  • Add a note in your own words, attached to the verse
  • Record a voice note connected to the passage
  • Compare translations side by side
  • Write or draw in Chapter Notes next to the text
Your free Bible collection includes freely available translations such as ASV, KJV, and WEB. Add a Bible to your collection to have it listed, including translations in other languages.

Journaling

Entries are built from gentle blocks: text, voice, drawings, and images. Type a verse reference like "John 3:16" and it becomes Scripture inline. Voice notes can be transcribed, so a spoken thought becomes something you can read and search later.

You can give an entry a cover: choose a photo, a color, or let Bible J create cover ideas from what you wrote.

Help Me Pray

When you are carrying something and the words will not come, write or speak it, then choose Help Me Pray. Bible J prepares a personal guided prayer from what you shared. The prayer is displayed and read at your pace, with the Scriptures it draws from linked underneath. It is a place to begin, and you can always continue talking with God in your own words.

Commitments

Turn a passage, prayer, or reflection into a simple, personal intention. Commitments live inside your entries, can be reaffirmed when you return, and are suggested gently along the way. There are no streaks and no guilt, only an invitation to carry what mattered into your week.

Sermons

Two ways to engage with a teaching:

  • This is a Sermon: capture a live sermon. Set the church and speaker, record voice notes with one tap, and keep your session notes and Scripture in one place.
  • From someone you follow: open a teaching from a ministry you follow and walk through its guided note, step by step, with Scripture and reflection prompts woven in.

StudyCanvas and Apple Pencil

On iPad, Scripture study feels like working on paper. Highlight verses, write in the margins, and draw on the notes canvas with Apple Pencil or your finger.

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Scan a handwritten page and continue journaling digitally. Your writing flows forward, even when it begins on paper.

For You

Bible J quietly resurfaces verses, prayers, and themes from your own entries, like an unfinished reflection or a moment worth praying about. It is not a feed, and it never rushes you.

Tips

  • Start small. Even a sentence counts.
  • Use your voice. Speaking is journaling too.
  • Return when ready. Nothing expires, and nothing nags.

Need help?

Visit our contact page and we will be happy to help.