Goldfinch Bible study & prayer for iPhone · in beta
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GoldfinchBible study & prayer · iPhone · in beta

Begin where
you are.

A quiet place to read Scripture, pray, and come back to the verses that are shaping you.

Watercolor of a goldfinch, red-faced and gold-winged, perched on a thistle and reaching into a spiny flower head.
Why a goldfinch? Look at its face.

Free, through Apple’s TestFlight app.

5
free translations in the reader
10
minutes a day, by design
0
streaks, scores or percentages

Success here isn’t screen time or streaks. It’s what you do after you close the app: the prayer prayed, the forgiveness extended, the friend encouraged.

II
Why a goldfinch

The bird & the thorn.

Watercolor of a thistle, two spiny flower heads on a single stem, one tipped with crimson.

Goldfinch is named for a real bird, the one old painters placed in the hand of the infant Christ. Legend says it tried to pull a thorn from his crown, and was marked by his blood. It lives among thorns and thistles. It doesn’t avoid what is hard. Getting that close is the invitation.

What the field guides add

A young goldfinch has no red on its face. It leaves the nest with gold already on its wings, and the red comes in with its first moult.

III
Notessermons, studies & spoken notes

Record the sermon. Keep a note you can actually read.

Tap Record, or import a recording afterward. Every Scripture reference is checked against the real verse.

Press play · a sermon becomes a noteEach verse checked against the text
Time →

As it was said

Your note

A sample sermon written for this page, with no audio. Gold marks Scripture: what was said, and the verse it was checked against (King James Version, one of the five free translations).
A new note in Goldfinch, with a large Record button and Import a recording.
A finished sermon note: Augustine on charity in 1 John 4, with a summary and a section on context.

In the appA new note, then the finished note. Every new Notebook starts with this one: Augustine on 1 John 4.

IV
The daily practiceabout ten minutes

Read it, learn it, pray it.

The bird A goldfinch works one thistle head at a time, pulling out the seeds one by one.

The reader open at John 15:5, with the verse selected and its actions below: highlight colors, Save, Memorize, Note, Words and Related.
The readerFive free translations, and a tap on any verse.Save it, highlight it, or send it to Memorize.
Memorize practicing John 15:5 with only the first letter of each word shown, and a microphone to say it aloud.
MemorizeLearn a passage a piece at a time, out loud.First letters help, then fall away. Progress in words, never a score.
Daily prayer showing the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6, line by line, with a Next button.
Daily prayerAbout five minutes, aloud or silently.It starts with the Lord’s Prayer. Shape it to fit you.
V
Saved versesback on later days

The verses you save come back to find you.

Save a verse and it comes back to you on a later day. The ones you chose, not a random verse of the day.

One verse you savedIt comes back on Home, days later
The day you save it
John 15:5

I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit.

A later day
John 15:5

I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit.

Another day
John 15:5

I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit.

Berean Standard Bible.

VI
Sharingfor the friend who missed Sunday

Share a note with a link anyone can open.

They read it in any browser. No app needed.

A shared note opened from a link, titled A note from Goldfinch, with an invitation to get the iPhone beta.
A shared note, opened from a link
VII
Similar specieshow to tell it apart

A gym for the soul, not a library to browse.

Not a feed to scroll. A place to slow down. How to tell Goldfinch from the things it gets mistaken for.

A feed

Often confused with
  • Endless by design.
  • Measures time on screen.
  • There’s always one more.

A streak counter

Often confused with
  • Counts days in a row.
  • Turns a missed morning into a loss.
  • Rewards opening the app.

A library to browse

Often confused with
  • Everything, all at once.
  • Easy to visit, hard to stay.
  • You leave with nothing in hand.

Goldfinch

What it actually is
  • About ten minutes, then you’re done.
  • No streaks, scores or percentages.
  • Success is what you do after you leave.
One more field mark

Your prayers aren’t a product.

Your notes and prayers stay in your own account. We don’t sell your data or use it for ads.

Read the privacy policy
VIII
In progresspartly built, and said so

Still coming in. Shown as it is.

Goldfinch is young. Some of its feathers are only partly in, and we’d rather show you that than pretend otherwise.

Original-language word study

The Hebrew and Greek beneath the English.

Partly built

Voice search on iPhone

Find a verse by saying it.

Partly built

Premium translations

More translations beyond the five free ones.

Partly built
IXThe invitationcome early

The practice is forming.

Goldfinch is in beta on iPhone and iPad. Come early and help shape it.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, tap Get the iPhone beta.
  2. If TestFlight isn’t installed, get it from the App Store, then tap the invite again.
  3. Tap Accept, then Install.

Not on iPhone? Sign up to use Goldfinch in your browser.

Watercolor of a full mustard tree with small birds in its branches, and a single seed on the ground beside it.
The mustard seed · Matthew 13:31–32

Before you join

Which translations are free?

Berean Standard Bible, King James Version, World English Bible, American Standard Version and the Bible in Basic English.

Is it for my tradition?

It’s made for Christians in any tradition who read the Bible and want that reading to become practice.

Where do my notes and recordings go?

Into your own account. Turning speech into text runs through our backend and service providers under contract, never advertisers. You can export or delete everything.

How do I tell you what I think?

Tap Feedback in the app, or write to brandon@odysseylab.co.