Some 25+ years ago when I was entering the military, the term ‘guerrilla’ was ‘all the rage.’  At the time, major enemies were not terrorists, though some terrorism was going on.  Primary enemies were Marxist type nations and most enemies we faced were insurgents in small countries.

Typical insurgent armies were under-manned, under-funded, and under-armed, therefore, they tended to resort to unorthodox means of getting their point across.  Because larger nations and their armies were considerably less flexible and more staid in their doctrines, the insurgents, or guerrillas, often had great success, though under-advantaged in most every way.  The American military particularly aided and abetted guerrillas friendly to our cause, generally with Special Forces soldiers who specialized in teaching ‘subversive’ warfare that centered around ‘hearts and minds’ campaigns while delivering debilitating attacks on infrastructure.

Well, last night as I lay in bed tinkering with the YouVersion app on my phone, I noticed an interesting opportunity and suddenly I was thinking like that old warrior that learned a little something about subversive warfare and small unit tactics…

I wrote about YouVersion a while back and shared what I believe to be a terrific app with lots of potential for exploitation use in sharing the Hebraic understanding of Scripture.  You have noticed me using the app’s Scripture images to, in a very sharp/short manner, make a quick statement that hopefully causes people to think.

As my article about the YouVersion app mentioned, I tried to get onto their roster to write reading plans that concisely and compassionately revealed the Hebraic perspective to their 190,000,000 users!!  After an initial warm greeting, they read my first submission about the Feasts of the Lord and quickly backed away…  I guess the truth is too hot to handle, but I digress.

Well, last night I found a whole new way to use the app without being quite so obvious, but just as ‘subversive,’ to the established doctrinal traditions of Christendom.  (On a Skype call this morning with Ephraim and Rimona Frank, I mentioned that we must get better at utilizing and training others to utilize technology to get our message out there!!) So, what did I find that was so cool?  Glad you asked…. But first, understand, if I tell you, you become a responsible warrior…  a subversive for the Messianic cause…  LOL!  😉  My heart being that of an Airborne Ranger, I charge you as a Messianic Ranger to form fire teams, infiltrate the ‘enemy’s position’ and begin to wage a hearts/minds campaign by planting thought seeds….

Okay, so I am really enjoying this meme….  Here’s what I found!!  In small teams we can conduct Guerrilla Messianic operations on YouVersion much like many of you already do on Facebook!

HOW TO: Guerrilla Messianic

1. Get the FREE YouVersion app on your smart phone.

2. Sign up for a FREE account.

3.  Get a couple Messianic friends to also sign up and ‘friend’ them, so that you can function as a (fire) team.

4.  Use the app in the following manner to plant seeds of truth into the hearts and minds of many people you may never meet on this side of heaven.

Methods of planting thought seeds:

1. Scripture Images

2. Public notes on popular verses

First, Scripture images.

1. Take random pictures of lots of interesting things…
2. When you have a verse association that fits an image, go to that passage in YouVersion in the desired translation. (You have dozens of translation choices.)
3. Tap the verse so that it is underlined, then tap the orange ‘image’ icon that appears in the top bar.
4. Choose an image.  You can use any of their stock images, or choose your own by selecting the white square in the top left hand corner.
5.  If you decide to use your own, go to your gallery and select the image you wish to use, then adjust size and placement of square for what you want to focus on.  (Take into consideration where you will put the text.)
6. Now, you can edit the text for font, size and placement on the screen as well as color of the text.
7. Add any pithy question at the top and if you are really fancy like my YouVersion warrior partner, Steve King, include Hebrew text with a Hebrew keyboard on your phone you can toggle back and forth between…  (I’ve learned this one and it is a fun trick.)
8. Next, hit ‘save’ and then ‘share.’ Sharing options include: Pintrest, Hightail, Bluetooth, Cloud, Drive, Droid Zap, Email, Gmail, G+, Hangouts, Text, ooVoo, Picasa, WordPress, etc….  I email it to myself, then can share to Facebook, etc.

It takes longer to type out these instructions than to actually do it!!

Second, Public Notes (on popular verses):

When someone selects a verse, they can select an icon in the upper right hand corner that shows them what commenters in the community are saying about the verse.  Here is how to put comments in the public community!!

1. Select your text (preferably a popular one many people read and comment on… New Testament is best) and tap to underline and have option bar light up.
2. Select ‘Note’ icon.
3. Type your pithy, but kind comment.
4. Tap ‘Next’ and select ‘Public,’ then ‘Publish.’

Previously:  Now, if a couple friends are working together, your comments and interaction about the original note all appear in the ‘public’ notes so long as each participant marks their comments ‘public.’  Viola’    Now, you and your ‘fire team’ can stir the pot by selecting verses and making comments that cause others to THINK!!!

Update:  It might be that only ‘friends’ see the responses to a note that you post, so, to INSURE that your comment is posted publicly, select the same verses that the original note comments on and then attach a follow on note referencing the previous note….  Not any extra trouble, just a different way of doing it to insure the note is posted for public viewing.  Begin the follow-on entry with: “@Person’s Name” you are referring to.

If I learn/figure out differently, I’ll add a correction here.

I would ask that any who use this method, come back here and share in the comments section any additional tips/tricks you learn that we might all benefit by employing them.

Tips:

• Make title attention grabbing.
• Only first three lines are visible unless someone opens the comment, so make them good!
• Cross-reference to other Scripture in your comments on a team member’s note…
• Make your note on a larger block of Scripture (3-5 verses or more), that way if anyone searches the notes on any one verse in the block, they see your note and comments.
• Make notes on popular verses.
• Add a web address to a site that can lead interested viewers farther… i.e., 119ministries.com, natsab.com, etc..
• Notes might also include clues like, “Rico Cortes at WisdominTorah.com has a great teaching on this topic…”

I now commission you to create small teams and ‘infiltrate’ YouVersion with seeds of Torah Truth!!

If you are on YouVersion, send me a friend request…  Pete Rambo and my icon is a grey picture of text in the Torah.  See the second picture below to see my icon.

Here are images of a recent exchange, though, as noted above, we may need to make each note an individual entry to insure the whole thread is visible to the general public.

An additional thought on the whole ‘hearts/minds campaign’:  Torah Terrorist are precisely what we do NOT want.  Nobody’s heart/mind is won by being accosted!  Be sure to maintain a spirit of love and peace as well as FUN!  After all, we know Abba wins, and we know His ways are liberty!! (Psalm 119:142)