Well, I’ve just returned to blogging after two weeks of vacationing and catching up on some much needed rest.  While away, I had a chance to reflect on life, marriage, my relationship with God, ministry, and family.  Over the course of the next few weeks, I will blog about my reflections and vacation experience.  I’m refreshed and ready to get back to work.

BEFORE WE BEGIN…

Once again (just can’t seem to make up my mind) I switched back to the iPhone and put my BlackBerry Bold away.

Check out this video & you’ll understand why:

Mantis Bible Study 4.0 is the most advanced Bible Study Tool available for any mobile platform.  Designed exclusively for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, Mantis Bible Study was created to be powerful enough for full-time Bible students and pastors, yet easy enough for the casual reader to use. Here are a few features:

1. Fantastic support for Bibles with integrated Strong’s Numbers – tap a number to open a definition, tap it again to close it
2. Additional support for Strong’s Numbers: drill-down to root word(s), tap to find where a number is used throughout Scripture, then tap and preview verses
3. Easily create bookmarks, notes, and highlights for any verse in the Bible, or even for commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, or other books
4. References to Scripture inside personal notes are automatically turned into one-tap cross-references
5. Create, edit, and move bookmarks and bookmark folders
6. Unique “Analyze Verse” feature shows a single verse in multiple translations on one page, along with any installed commentaries for the selected verse
7. Fast and flexible, yet simple search system
8. Save search results as a named folder full of bookmarks
9. Personal notes and translation notes appear inline with the text and can be toggled on and off, making it easier to view the notes within the context of its related scripture
10. Highlighting Bar allows highlighting of individual words and phrases in 4 colors
11. Inline verse-display toggle links for all cross-reference links (in commentaries, dictionaries and other books containing scripture references)

That’s right, it took ONE application to make me switch and after one week of continuous use, I’M HOOKED (for now…)!

By the way, what do you currently use, I’d love to hear your comments!

Microsoft recently released a jaw-dropping video based on some of the their current research projects.  All I can say is OH MY GOODNESS!  These technologies will dramatically change your world and mine.  The video is less than two minutes long and will give you a clear vision for what awaits us within the next ten years!

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO

As Jonathan Crossfield explains, “These ideas are not science fiction but are just around the corner.  It shows how far things will change in just a few short years and the ramifications for consumer behaviour are massive.”  As an urban pastor who’s technically saavy, I openly ponder if pastors/church leaders will be able to lead this technically saavy generation.

How will the church (and it’s leaders) will need to change in order to be successful?  I would love to hear what you or your church is currently doing to prepare for tomorrow.

One of my facebook friends asked me to convince her why she should buy a Mac.  Her question inspired me to share my experiences with you.

Ok, here we go:

You know you’ve been thinking about it.  Everyone is doing it.  Who wouldn’t when they look at their ugly black Dell compared to one of the macbooks?  Of course Macs look good, however, I’m sure you want reasons other than “they’re the finest looking computers out yonder.”  Let me first give my testimony.  I used (“PCs”) for 18 years.  Then when Apple came out with OS X, I was a little intrigued, although that didn’t stop my jeering.  After watching it develop, I caved in and purchased an MacBook & an iMac G5.  Now I wouldn’t switch back for money or fame.  I sometimes forget the horror people go through with their computers—although I am jolted back into reality when a friend calls with problems, and is fixed after running Ad-Aware or some other utility.  Defragers, disk doctors and utilities, registry repairers, virus protection, spy/adware removers, and more all need to be bought and run frequently.  It isn’t worth time, money, or stress.

(Ooooo…looks so sweet…you know you want it)

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