Tag Archives: gospel study

Dec 02

LDS Study Tools – RSS Feeds

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There are myriad ways to communicate and disseminate information on the Internet. One that helps me keep up with news is called RSS (or Really Simple Syndication). These types of feeds are great for retrieving the latest articles and information directly from a website. This only works if the site offers RSS feeds, of course. You just copy the feed link from the site and put it into your RSS reader.

Of the thousands available, there are a few RSS feeds that will give you news and current events of the Church. Some give you access to wonderful articles on Gospel topics. Yet others will provide you with academic or scholarly research done on other theological subjects.

I wanted to provide you with a list of RSS feeds that I have found to be most related to the Church and Gospel. They are listed below:

So grab your favorite RSS feed reader and load those feeds into it. They are quite enlightening and informative.

Do you have other LDS RSS feeds that you really like? Post them in the comments below so we can share them with everyone.

Take a look at some of the other Gospel study tools that there are available.

Feb 26

Gospel Study Journal – Now In Beta

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After way too long, we are proud to announce the availability of our new online Study Journals.  We are currently in the testing phase.  We are looking for a few brave souls who are interested in creating their own, private online study journal (they’re free).  Then, we’d like for you to poke around to see how things work.  In a few days, we’ll have a way for folks to provide feedback.  Write us about things you’d like to see, things that don’t appear to work the way you’d like, and any other questions of comments you have for us.  If you’d like to have all of your study notes in a single place, drop by and create your own study journal.  We’d love to see you!

What is the study journal? http://www.ldsscripturestudy.com/the-study-journal/ explains the purpose of this site and what it can do for you.

Sign up at http://www.ldsscripturestudy.com/

Feb 12

The Gospel Study Journal is Coming!

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We are so thrilled to make available our upcoming Gospel Study Journal!  You will be able to link your entries together, or link them to scripture references or passages.  Entries can be tagged with keywords.  You may even include citations to other works in your entries.  This allows for non-conventional ways of studying and comparing related entries that you have written.  Eventually, you will be able to share study journal entries with others.

You will be able to search by keyword, scripture reference, or look at all entries attached to the one you have open.  You will also be able to print entries.  It becomes your own, personal, searchable knowledge base.  You can use it to reference any entry that you have ever written on any topic.

We’re working as fast as we can so that you will be able to create your free, private Gospel Study Journal and start using it soon!

Jan 15

The Work Continues

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Just about seven major events such as holidays and birthdays have taken up a bunch of time in the past two months.  It’s incredible how much time important things take up these days!
This past week we were working on some design mock-ups of how the Gospel Study Journal will look.  Though it is taking longer than expected, the design looks nice.  We want to provide something that is very simple to use, is visually appealing, and yet is able to do everything it is meant to.
Expect regular posts from now on, as the Christmas Holiday rush is now behind us.

Podcasts

I can’t wait to share with you some of the wonderfully uplifting and educational podcasts that I’ve been listening to on my way to and from work. I’ll write a post on the two that have been the most thought-provoking, educational, and inspirational in the next couple of posts.  It would be impossible to relate all of the new and wonderful things I have learned by listening to them.

Dec 21

Free Gospel Study Journal

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We’ve got a way to completely overhaul your scripture study. Take a look at what our study journal has to offer.

The Gospel study journal:

  • provides you with the full LDS scriptures online
  • allows you to quickly retrieve notes and thoughts that you have recorded.
  • makes it easy to share thoughts and ideas with others.
  • makes it easy to remember the entire thought you had when you made the note.
  • allows for new inspiration – not bind you to only what you’ve already learned.
  • helps keep your scriptures from wearing out because of over-marking them.
  • helps prevent losing all of your notes should your scriptures get lost.
  • provides some structure without being overly rigid.

The journal entries you create can be linked together. You can tag them with keywords. You can link scripture references to them. Entries may also contain citations from other books which you feel are relevant.

Take a look at the QuickStart Guide to see how easy it is to use.

We want to your feedback!

Please leave thoughts, comments, and suggestions on our Contact Us page.

Oct 23

Exciting New Technology Coming Soon!

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As Latter-day Saints, we diligently strive to gain a mastery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no more important body of knowledge to apply to ourselves as human beings. Consider the following quotation of Elder Boyd K. Packer:

“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior…. That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel” (Elder Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Nov. 1986, p. 17).

We find that this proposition is based upon scripture:

“And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just–yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them–therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.” – Alma 31:5

My life is a testament to the soundness of this principle. As I spend time straining to understand the Gospel, studying and pondering the Scriptures, and writing down things that come to my mind, my very core behaviors change. If only slowly, my own perceptions of myself and the world around me become more positive.

The purpose of Gospel Study Journal is to enhance Gospel study and further Gospel scholarship through technology. This will be accomplished primarily with a specially-designed Gospel Study Journal. There is no cost to you should you decide to create one. Your entries are your own, and are kept private.

As you study the Gospel, you may have inspiration that you wish to write down. Even while doing completely unrelated things, impressions may come to you. You may have an experience that you may wish to record. This Study Journal will offer to you a central location to record all such notes, thoughts, and impressions.

In addition, the study journal will allow you to:

  • link together entries that are related.
  • tag entries with keywords describing the content.
  • link related scripture passages to your entries for easy reference in the future.
  • include relevant citations to other uplifting books that are not in the Standard Works.

As I have spent a great deal of time considering different scripture marking systems, some of them seem to have certain drawbacks, for example:

  • Scriptures wear out – Over time as you mark your scriptures, they begin to look tattered and become difficult to read. There is no longer room for new notes.
  • Lost scriptures mean lost notes – Should you lose your set of scriptures, all of your notes are lost, too.
  • Storage and Retrieval of Thoughts – How many times do you say, “Now, where did I mark that thought or idea?” Many systems fail to provide a good way to retrieve thoughts.
  • Difficult to share with others – Sharing thoughts and notes isn’t as easy as handing them a copy.
  • Forgetfulness – To save space, we sometimes use symbols to mark our scriptures. This means we have to remember what the symbols mean. We run the risk of forgetting what we wrote down.
  • Skew of Meaning – Let’s say you write a thought out to the side of a verse that touched your heart one day. The next time you read through that passage, you may see that note and mistakenly tell yourself, “I already know the meaning of that verse.” This is more common than you might think, and you may not even realize it’s happening. The idea is to have a clean slate where you are able to receive continued revelation, even on verses you may have read many times.
  • Either too much or not enough structure – With many systems, you are either told exactly how to use the system, and it is in a rigid format (such as a book). The huge drawback with books are that they are linear. You read them front to back, and cannot access many pages or pieces of pages at once. You are tied into the structure of the book and cannot move things around as you want.

The Study Journal offered on this site will overcome all of these problems. You will be able to link journal entries to each other, tag them with keywords, link them to scripture passages, or even add citations from other books into your notes, among other things. The benefit of an immersive, intensive study of the Gospel is a tendency towards self-improvement. These are all things that have contributed to the creation of this site.

A preliminary version of the Gospel Study Journal will be available on http://www.ldsscripturestudy.com/ very soon. We will keep you posted on the progress!

Oct 15

Study Journal Progress

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Studying the Gospel has been important to me for a long time.  The system hosted here has also been available for a number of years.  I’m re-writing it so that it is usable for everyone, and not just myself.  We’re making progress.

The Gospel Study Journal has all of the mechanics for doing what it needs to, but it isn’t quite polished.  That’s what the new version is all about.  So far, it displays about 25 entries per page.  The entries alternate colors so that it’s easy to view.  I have paging buttons to move through your collection of entries. I have a rudimentary search available.

My focus is making it as easy to use as possible.  This enables just about anyone to study the gospel in a simple and easy way.  In future releases, I would love to have localization set up so that we can translate it for folks who may not speak English.

Although the progress is slow, it’s coming along nicely.  It is worlds better than what is available now.  Subscribe to the RSS feed to keep appraised of progress on the new version of the Gospel Study Journal.

Sep 21

A Different Way to Study

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How long is your drive in to work?  Do you ever find yourself waiting?  Waiting for them to finish your oil change, car repairs, fill your prescription, finish your child’s haircut, or any other down-time can be used to study the Gospel.  This method is a little out of the ordinary, but is very effective in furthering one’s understanding.

Here at Gospel Study Journal, we have a page of Podcasts, usually offering audio files, but sometimes providing links to wonderfully uplifting videos.  Enter your choice of these links into any podcatcher, such as iTunes or MediaMonkey (both have free versions).  In this day and age, there are literally thousands and thousands of hours’ worth of marvelous uplifting talks, discourses, audio books, and other recorded programs.

Smartphones these days come with some great podcatchers.  For the Android platform, I would recommend either BeyondPod or Podkicker.  On the iPhone, I’m not sure what options are available for listening to Gospel programs, but if you know of one, please do let me know!

When my ears are graced with the powerful, stirring words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie or President Gordon B. Hinckley, it is a little easier to forgive the foibles of the drivers around me while driving to work.  The Spirit is with me, calming me and helping me to feel love for others as I drive.  Additionally, I learn a great deal about the Gospel.  If you have the means, I highly recommend this manner of learning the Gospel.

Audio books, talks, discourses, and other recorded programs can be a wonderful way to partake of the marvelous teachings of the Gospel.

Sep 17

Gospel Study Journal, Part 2

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Last time, I was discussing different ways that I have tried pondering the scriptures.  During my mission, as I had mentioned, I wrote short notes in my margins.  Then, I would write a unique number (for that page) next to the note.  Next, I wrote that number right next to the line and verse to which that note applied.  For longer notes, I wrote them out on a small sheet of paper, then glued them into the spine where the note applied.

In this way, I was able to keep track of all of my thoughts.  But then, I began to notice things I didn’t like about that way of studying the Scriptures.  My scriptures were getting quite messy and tattered.  I also realized that if I lost them, I would lose all of my notes.  Also, when I began studying a new set of scriptures, I would have to hand-copy all of the notes from the old set to the new set.

From then on, my method of scripture study slowly evolved.  When I got home from my mission, I began keeping electronic copies of my notes so that I could easily print them out again if I needed to.  Also, if I lost my scriptures, I wouldn’t lose all of my notes.

After a short while, I noticed that I would sometimes want to link notes to other notes.  I would have to write something like “see note on D&C 132:5 about marriage” at the end of a note if I wanted to link them together.  Also, I would want to add scriptures to the end of my notes so as to create scripture chains.  But then, I would have to physically write on the printed note that was glued into my scriptures if I wanted to have the changes in my current set.

It was at that point that I sat down and considered creating a method of gospel study that could be either electronic or printed out or both.  Next time, I will describe where that took me.

Sep 12

Gospel Study Journal, Part 1

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Studying the Gospel has been important to me for a very long time.  While on my mission, I woke up an extra half-hour early every single morning to have that much more time to study the scriptures.  As I got more serious about getting as much out of it as possible, I began to consider different methods of scripture study.  When meeting with my Mission President, the topic of Gospel scholarship came up.  I asked him and many others about the different methods they used to understand the scriptures.

One method that I saw many folks use was to take a red pencil and underline something that jumped out at me from what I was reading.  This method of studying the scriptures didn’t and still doesn’t make much sense to me.  I have nothing against it.  Should someone find it effective, I’m glad they have a way to study the Gospel that works for them.

Another way some of the missionaries studied their scriptures was to mark passages of different types in different colors.  For example, things marked in yellow could be Christ’s direct words.  Blue could refer to a prophet making a prophecy.  Other colors could refer to other concepts or types.  My questions here were, “What happens when I run out of colors?” and “What if a given passage fits multiple categories?”  I ended up not choosing this manner of studying my scriptures.

For a long time, I did take extensive notes in the margins of my scriptures.  This allowed me to easily refer back to a thought I had about a given passage when I again was reading it.  One problem with this is that you unknowingly lock yourself into assigning that passage as having the meaning you wrote.  You aren’t as free to ponder upon what you are reading.  Your mind says, “I already know what this means because there’s the note I wrote about it the last time I was studying this passage.”  I couldn’t think of a better method, so throughout the remainder of my mission, I studied in that manner.