Gotta say it. Go Pack! Go! Tommorrow is the biggest game of the year so far. Win and it sets them up nicely. Lose and it digs a big hole.

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

I get excited about some very boring things sometimes, but today I read about this about an upcoming Laridian PocketBible for iPhone update:

The major new feature is notes. You can associate notes with any Bible verse. Notes are independent of the Bible you’re reading. So a note on John 3:16 in the KJV also shows up on John 3:16 in the NIV.

Notes are indicated by a “Note” link at the start of the verse. Tap the link to view the note, or simply tap-and-hold anywhere on the verse to open the context menu and from there, choose to view or create a note.

Any references to Bible verses in your notes will be automatically linked. While viewing a note, just tap the reference to view the Bible verse. Notes are happy to be just plain text, but if you’re comfortable with HTML you can use most HTML tags in your notes. We provide a menu of HTML tags you can easily insert, and bold and italics are available from a toolbar in the note editor. So select the word you want to italicize, then use the <i> button to italicize it. No advanced HTML tagging knowledge required.

The note editor supports undo and redo. Few iPhone apps do, and for good reason. The current state of the text editing features on the iPhone is pretty primitive. It’s difficult to get access to everything you need to support undo/redo.

That will be great.  Of course their competitors at Olive Tree are doing some really exciting things with notes and syncing with Evernote.  Also Mantis Bible has some form of note syncing and their web site.  Both are still very much in “beta”.

The update to Laridian’s software will be coming in a few weeks.  When it does it will also add rotation lock, copy/paste of passages and verses to other apps, and some bug fixes.

This is from Engrish.com which is a funny site containing translations that are most likely the result of a computer generated translation into English using something like Google Translator.  The results are often quite comical. But none as funny as this one.

My favorite is #9. The people in the coffee shop where I was sitting when I posted this must have thought I had “stupid disease” as I laughed out loud!

Do you use Bible software to study for preaching and teaching? I do. One of my programs of choice is Logos. Morris Proctor is THE Logos guru and does training as well as sends out a newsletter with great tips and info on Logos.  In the most recent email newsletter he had a wonderful tip that I will likely employ for collecting illustrations.  It is below:

I recently received an e-mail with this question:

Preachers are always in search of the perfect illustration. I’ve been collecting stuff from various sources and dumping them into my notes.  
My question is:  Can I make my own customized "Illustration Bible" with my collected illustrations embedded into the various texts?

Excellent idea and question! Here’s what to do:

• Create a new note file at File>New>Note File
• Name the file something like Illustration Bible
• Open any Bible to a verse for which you have an illustration
• Right click on any word in the verse
• From the right menu select Add a Note > Add a Note to Illustration Bible > Add a Note to "the verse"
• This creates a note in the note file and adds a note indicator in the Bible
• Paste the illustration in the note file
• Click the Note Color icon on the note file toolbar and select a color for the note indicator in the Bible (use the same color for all illustrations and pick something other than the yellow default color)

Now when you open any Bible to that verse and see that color note indicator next to the verse, you know you have an illustration for it! Just click the indicator to jump straight to the illustration.

Get Morris Proctor’s info at his helpful site.

This is a kind of funny, even if disingenuous ad against Windows 7.

I’ve been using Windows 7 since January when it was in beta. It is really pretty good and far better than anything MS has done to date.  I find Apple to be a little snotty and this ad shows that they really have little to say about their own work.  Like politics, I’m always more impressed with a candidate who has a lot to say about what he or she will do to improve rather than how better they are than the other guy.

Really?

God chose your team over the other guys?  Really?

That is what people who do not understand the Christian vernacular assume we mean when we say such things.

We’ve all seen this play out after the big game.  Some, fine young Tebowesque quarterback, pitcher, or point guard is interviewed by ESPN’s on the field/diamond/court reporter.  And the first thing or maybe the last out of the mouth of the Christian players is “I’d like to thank God for this win.”  And all of us Christians are impressed with his (or her) commitment to God and their outspoken witness.  But what many non-believing viewers or listeners here is this: “Thank God that he randomly chose my team because our players are better Christians than those sad sacks over on that bench.”  And often these non-believing fans will roll their eyes at the foolishness of this statement.

If that is in fact what the player means, then they are right to roll their eyes.  God does not randomly select one team over another in order to show his love for that Christian player while punishing the Christians on the other team because they are not faithful enough.

This first hit me when I was a kid.  The Milwaukee Brewers were in the World Series in 1982.  I was in Bible class at Heritage Christian School in Milwaukee.  Mr. Pereira, our teacher, asked us for prayer requests.  One of my fellow students ask him to pray that the Brewers would win against the St. Louis Cardinals that night.  Mr. Pereira asked if we really thought God would grant that request.  Many said yes.  Then he asked what about the Christians in Missouri asking for the same thing.  Why would he grant our request and not there’s?  Hmmm!  It made me think.  Then, when my Brewers lost game 7, I wondered.  Is God a Cardinals fan?  No!  God was not a Cardinals fan.  He was and is an Ozzie Smith fan and a Paul Molitor fan (Smith was their short stop and Molitor was our Third Baseman).  He is a fan of all of his creation.  He loves all of us.  So like Peyton and Eli’s parents when the Giants play the Colts, he does not choose sides.  He just wants his children to remain faithful to his teaching to love Him with all their being, and to love one another the way they want to be loved.  He just wants us to ask Him to forgive us for our sins and repent.  He wants us to live for Him.  Do those things and you are a winner.

So, when Christian athletes say, “I want to thank God for this win” I wish they would say something a little more accurate and clear.  Here is what I would say.  “I just want to thank God for life and the chance to play the game.  I want to say that I do my best to please  him just like many of the players on the other side did.  We just were able to win. But I respect and honor their commitment just like I know God does too.”  It would take longer but you just won the championship.  Are they gonna pull the mic away before they get to ask their ridiculous questions?

Someone email this link to Tim Tebow or Kurt Warner please.

I just read a great post by Ed Stetzer of Lifeway. In it he talks about how Christians need to end the worship wars with truth rather than a truce.  In other words lets not compromise but rather find the truth about worship and let it reign king in our hearts and churches on Sundays.

I love the idea and I support what he says.  My fear is that too many who are embattled in the worship war will never see it or listen to it.  The one idea he advocates is the crux of the problem.  He says:

The reason worship wars exist is because the church thinks it is fighting for something permanent when it is actually temporary. Musical styles and service preferences are like a jacket that can be taken on or off depending upon the temperature.

True.  And that permanence is the issue.  I am thankful I am not really involved in the worship wars at my present ministry, but I have been in the past.  The key issue is that people think their way is the most spiritual way and should be THE way.  He also said we need to remove preference as the key choice.  What I like is different than what you like.  However, I can worship the way you like.  I do it all the time.  In one week’s time I went to worship experiences that included old hymns and Revivalist gospel tunes.  Later I went to a service that included a blend of contemporary songs, praise choruses, and hymns.  Then, with my  youth group, I went to a concert that included both a country rock style and and a bee-bopping boys band.  All were worshipful to me.  Not all were the kind of music I’d download to my iPod.  But I worshipped.

I hope you can worship no matter where you are, who you are with, or what is playing over the speakers. If you cannot, then the problem is not with the music but your heart!

Pray for Burke County is a new web site focused on praying for Burke County, NC.  The site is kicking things off by supporting the Prayer for the Cities event on November 21, 2009 at Freedom High School Stadium from 5 till 7 PM.