Do you believe it possible to fit a Bible into a cellphone?
There was a time when I would have said that it was no more possible for such a thing to happen than to see that much talked about storm in a teacup become a reality.
However, my field of work often calls for me to be present at various functions with some element of speech-giving, such as opening ceremonies, product launches, corporate luncheons, graduations, anniversary celebrations and awards.
And with the evolution of mobile phones, especially the BlackBerry, I have seen many a master of ceremonies, and people called on to give a few remarks, replace the reading of their information from the traditional sheet of paper with that from the screen of their BB.
With this mobile phone’s ability to send and receive emails, it’s quite easy to email your notes to yourself and then, at the appointed time, open the file and start welcoming your audience or addressing them about whatever has been assigned you to do in your brief remarks.
What is also possible – in the event that you forget your notes on your computer at the office – is for you to stand at the podium with your BB in hand and read the notes being sent to you line by line by a workmate back at work via the BB Messenger feature.
I was waiting to see how long it would be before some main or guest speaker walked up to a podium with nothing but a cellphone, placed it on the podium and, for the next 15, 20 or 30 minutes, just read the entire contents of his or her speech from that little technological miracle.
To date, I have not seen such at any function, and probably never will, now that the iPad and the subsequent wide range of other electronic pads have made their way onto the market. Speakers now have a screen that’s almost the same size as a traditional sheet of paper, which makes it as easy as child’s play for them to comfortably read any amount of information, from a single line sentence to the entire contents of a book.
But the size of the screen is perhaps the only advantage the pads have on the BBs. For whereas mankind will never be able to construct a teacup large enough to contain an upper level trough, far less a storm, I have the entire Bible inside my BB, along with the Koran, a whole dictionary, a book of 5 000 Amazing Facts, a book of 3 001 Wisdom Quotes and various other what in BB language are known as Apps.
So any time I feel the need, I just click on my Holy Bible icon and within seconds I am able to open any book from Genesis to Revelation, open any chapter, then scroll through and read any passage or even the entire chapter if I so desire.
My Bible in a cellphone also provides a reading plan for checking off of each day’s reading, and a search facility where I can enter from a word to a sentence and, in no time, have on the screen a full list of all the occurrences of that word or sentence in the Bible, along with the associated books, chapters and verses.
Therefore next time you are amazed by the awesome ability of your pastor to accurately and consistently quote chapter and verse from any part of the Bible, check to see if he or she has a BB on the altar on silent and out of sight of the congregation.
