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Start Here
rfrmd.com is built to make five things easy: read the Bible, follow a daily reading plan, pray through the Psalms, linger over one verse until it is planted more deeply in your heart, and keep study notes close at hand. You do not need an account just to use it. You can open the site and start reading immediately.
If you want your notes, highlights, library favorites, shared-note access, Daily Reader progress, and saved setup preferences to follow you across devices, register with one email and one passphrase. If you do not register, the site still works, but your reading data stays on that device.
Getting Around
The easiest way to think about the app is this: the top bar keeps you oriented, and the right-side flyout is where the main controls live.
The Flyout
Use the menu button in the top bar, the three vertical dots or vertical ellipsis, to open the flyout. Inside it you will see four familiar places:
Bible: choose books, chapters, and translations.
Notes: see chapter notes, verse notes, sync controls, sharing tools, and note-related actions.
Site: jump to Daily Reading, Prayer Guide, Library, About, Start Page, and other major pages.
Gear: open settings for things like theme, font size, default page, and reading preferences.
The fifth everyday lane is the Meditation Reader. You can reach it from the Start Page, from the Site tab, or make it the default page if that is where you return most often. It exists to help you stay with one verse long enough for truth to sink beneath mere familiarity and become something lived and remembered.
The Top Bar
The top bar usually keeps three quick routes close by: the ? help button, the bookshelf Library shortcut, and the menu button that opens the flyout. If you are unsure where something lives, start there.
Inside the Bible tab itself, the small bookmark/history button beside the search field opens your recent and pinned chapter shortcuts. That is one of the fastest ways to jump back to a chapter you were just reading.
Reading the Bible
The site gives you several ways to read Scripture faithfully instead of treating every reading moment the same. The Bible Reader, Daily Reading, Meditation Reader, and Psalm Prayer Guide belong together here. Each one slows you down in a different way.
Bible Reader
The Bible Reader is the main working surface of the site. Open any chapter, switch translations, tap verse numbers for actions, and keep notes and highlights attached to what you are reading.
If you want the deeper Reader-specific walkthrough, especially for split panes and verse actions, use the Using the Bible Reader guide. This page is the bigger-site overview.
Opening Scripture
Open the flyout, go to the Bible tab, then choose a book and chapter. You can also type a book name into the search field there if that is faster for you.
Chapter Shortcuts
The Reader keeps a quick chapter system so you do not have to hunt for the same places over and over. The small bookmark/history button in the Bible tab shows recent chapters and pinned chapters, and the bookmarks bar under the Reader header can keep those shortcuts visible while you read.
Verse Actions
Tap a verse number to work with that verse. That is where note actions, highlights, and related study actions begin.
Translations
KJV, ASV, BSB, WEB, and NET are available offline. ESV is available too, but it is online-first through the app API. You can change translations from the Reader and from settings.
Notes, Sync, and Sharing
Personal Notes
You can keep two main kinds of personal notes: chapter notes and verse notes. Chapter notes are useful for outlines, summaries, themes, and class-style notes. Verse notes are useful for observations tied to a specific verse.
To work with chapter notes, open the flyout and go to Notes. To work with a specific verse, tap the verse number in the reading surface. The current note editor uses movable rows or blocks, so headings, list items, and short sections can be rearranged later instead of forcing everything into one long text box.
Sync
If you register, the app can sync your personal notes, highlights, library favorites, Daily Reader progress, meditation state, shared-note access, and saved setup preferences. Use the same email and passphrase on every device where you want that information to travel.
If you do not register, your study data stays local to the device you are using.
Sharing And Shared Notes
There are two different ideas here:
Simple note sharing: send or receive current chapter notes by code when you want to pass something quickly to another person.
Shared notes / NotePaks: longer-lived shared study material that can be opened beside Scripture and, when approved, pulled to an account.
Your own personal notes are still separate from those shared materials.
Daily Reading
The Daily Reader follows the classic M'Cheyne plan. Each day shows Family Worship and Personal Devotion readings. Tap any reading to open it.
Your progress can stay local to the device, or it can sync with your account if you register. The Daily Reader also tracks streaks and total completed days, so it is easier to see both current momentum and long-term consistency.
Meditation Reader
The Meditation Reader is for staying with one verse over time instead of moving past it too quickly. It is built to help the truth you know in your head become truth that is planted more deeply in your heart.
You move through the cloud by choosing the heart-word or need that best names where you are today. From there you choose one verse and return to it for several days through a guided pattern of consideration, application, prayer, remembrance, and reflection. Thoughts, planted verses, and meditation state can also follow you across devices if you use sync.
This is not meant to replace ordinary Bible reading. It is meant to keep you from rushing past a truth that needs to stay with you longer. If the Bible Reader helps you cover ground, the Meditation Reader helps one verse stay with you until it begins to shape the way you think, pray, and live.
Psalm Prayer Guide
The Psalm Prayer Guide helps you move through the Psalms as a pattern for prayer. It is meant to help you pray with Scripture, not to replace your own prayers.
You can reach it from the Site tab in the flyout. It is especially useful if you want a daily habit that complements the Bible Reader and the M'Cheyne plan.
Library
The Library holds articles, confessional documents, study guides, and church resources. You can open it with the bookshelf icon in the top bar, and you can also reach it from the Site tab.
The Library search is there to help you find things by title or topic. Some accounts also see tradition-specific or church-specific material depending on saved setup preferences and approved access.
Manage Library View is the place to shape what this device presents. There you can choose the lane that should guide the normal library view, hide resources you do not want to keep seeing, and restore hidden resources later without deleting anything.
Split View
The Reader can keep two things open at once. This is useful for references, proof texts, notes, and articles that need to be seen beside Scripture instead of replacing it.
Use the split-view button in the top bar to open or close split view. When split view is open, the extra arrow button in the top bar changes which pane is targeted, and the center divider lets you focus the top or bottom pane, swap them, resize the split, or close it again.
Each pane can also be made larger when you need it. References can open in the second pane, and study material can stay visible while you keep reading instead of constantly replacing your main chapter.
Settings
Use the gear in the flyout for the preferences that shape everyday use. It is now grouped into a few calmer sections so the page is easier to scan.
Defaults for This Device is the main place to set the durable choices that most people should decide first: library content, default page, meditation verse preference, and Bible audio behavior.
Beyond that, the gear groups together reading and layout choices, study and reference tools, and sync and recovery actions so you do not have to hunt through one long uninterrupted list.
Default page: choose what opens first when you come to the site. This also controls what the site logo takes you back to when you tap it later.
Translation and font size: make the Reader fit the way you actually read.
Theme: light, dark, or follow your device.
Reader behavior: verse-link behavior, poetic Psalms, and other reading preferences.
Bookmarks and history: keep the quick chapter bar visible when you want easier chapter jumping during longer reading sessions.
Welcome setup: reopen the launcher and guided start flow if you want to revisit orientation, not as the main place for day-to-day preference editing.
Hard Refresh: use this first when the app seems stale or strangely out of date. It asks for the newest shell files without intentionally wiping your saved settings.
Device defaults: settings now also give you a stable home for things like library emphasis, default page, meditation verse preference, and whether the Bible Reader shows the Listen to ESV control by default.
Installing on Your Device
rfrmd.com works as a Progressive Web App, which means you can place it on your home screen or desktop and open it more like an app window than a normal browser tab.
iPhone or iPad
Open the site in Safari, tap the Share button, then choose Add to Home Screen.
Android
Open the site in Chrome and look for Install app or Add to Home screen.
Desktop
In Chrome or Edge, look for the install icon in the address bar and confirm the install.
Working Offline
Once the site is cached on your device, the offline translations and the core app continue to work without a connection. That is one of the main strengths of the project.
KJV, ASV, BSB, WEB, and NET are offline translations. ESV should still be treated as online-first.
ESV and Accounts
ESV is available through the app's server-side proxy. It is not bundled as a fully offline translation the way KJV, ASV, BSB, WEB, and NET are.
Reader accounts are for sync, recovery, and shared-note access. They are not required for ordinary offline use of the built-in translations.
Privacy
If you use the site without sync or sharing, your study data stays on your device. If you choose sync or shared-note features, the relevant data is stored on the server so those features can work. The site does not sell your email address.
The site uses HTTPS so traffic between your device and the app is encrypted in transit. Reader account emails are protected for lookup and recovery, passphrases are not stored in plain text, and synced note-related data is protected at rest on the server rather than left in clear text.
Access to synced notes and shared content is controlled through your account and the permissions you grant. Limited moderation and admin access also exists to support recovery, sharing review, publication workflows, and account support. Shared Notes and NotePak content may be machine-moderated as part of sharing, publication review, and safety workflows. Best efforts are made, but no moderation system can guarantee that nothing inappropriate will ever get through. If you find something that should be reviewed, please use the Report a Bug feature.
Terms of Service
Using rfrmd.com means you agree to the Terms of Service, especially around shared content, moderation, privacy, and appropriate use.
Getting Help
The ? button gives the short orientation. This page is the longer walkthrough. If something is broken, or if you have an idea that would make the site more useful, use the project's feedback page.
If things simply do not seem right on your device, start with Hard Refresh in Settings. If that still does not clear the issue, you can wipe the app's local cache from the device and reopen it as a clean install.
If you had already set up sync, that wipe is usually recoverable. Sign in again with the same sync email and passphrase and your synced notes, highlights, reading progress, meditation state, and saved setup preferences can be restored from the server.
If you need personal help or want to talk about using the site with a church, group, or class, email john@rfrmd.com.
~ john
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