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Google Translate: Breakin' Down the Language Barrier for the Glory of God!

2011-01-13T20:43:00.006-05:00

If you have ever been confronted with attempting to share the Gospel message with someone who speaks a different language, you know how frustrating it can be. It's tough enough to communicate a true, Biblical message...but a language barrier can make it all but impossible. Sure, we can all spend years learning another language, but for most of us, this is not practical. Praise God for those who do, but for those of us who are still monolingual, shall we remain unable to share the glorious Gospel with those of a different tongue? Is there a way for us to use the flood of constantly developing technology to cross language barriers for the glory of Christ?

In steps Google, with a new update of Google Translate for Android. The most recent update includes an alpha of "Conversation Mode" which enables you to speak a sentence in your language, and it will speak the sentence back in the language of your choice (at the moment the alpha only works with English and Spanish, with more to come soon).

Check out this video from Google for an idea of what's ahead:

This is already an amazing tool, with incredible future evangelistic potential. Go ahead and give it a try...download it from the Android market, for the glory of God!

Way of the Master begins daily live ustream webcast.

2011-01-05T12:58:00.005-05:00

Today at 2:30pm eastern Way of the Master begins a daily 30 Minute television show called "On the Box", which according to the shows description will consist of

"Ray and the team [talking] about open-air preaching, apologetics, and a host of other evangelism-related topics; and [they] will answer questions from you, the listening audience."

It's interesting that with new technology, we can discuss old methods for preaching the Gospel. The same open air method of preaching the Gospel that has been used by Jesus Christ, the Apostles, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, and Charles Spurgeon is now being taught using methods they could only dream of.

You really have to give credit to Way of the Master. They are the only ones that are really pushing solid theology creatively in the video production arena. At least in terms of broadcasts. Can someone thing of any other television program that routinely quotes from men such as Spurgeon and Edwards?

The Way of the Master ministry has had a huge influence on my life, and although I know that not everyone who reads this blog is a fan, I hope everyone will take some time and watch an episode or two and see just how Open Air Preaching, when done properly to the Glory of God can really make a difference in the submission of the nations to the King.

It will be interesting to see how this small en devour will encourage other Christian ministries to live stream programs on a regular basis.

You can watch the show here: "http://www.ustream.tv/channel/on-the-box"

Kirk Cameron a Trending Topic on Twitter!

2011-01-03T23:24:00.006-05:00

The beloved Growing Pain, and co-founder of Way of the Master, got a bit of tweeting fame tonight after appearing on CNN to explain the mysterious dead birds. He made it to the Twitter Trending Topic hall of fame. Though most of the tweets were blasphemous and mocking of him, we should still rejoice when those who are preachers of the Gospel are given platforms to preach the Gospel.

Catch the screen grab below for proof.

Does SolaGadgeta encourage covetousness?

2011-01-03T11:37:00.003-05:00

This weekend, when I tweeted about the exciting tech that will be on display at CES next week, my friend jokingly told him that I was causing him to covet. The intention was not there, nor is it ever the intention of SolaGadgeta to cause people to covet. Instead we want SolaGadgeta to be a place where Christians can rejoice!

Don't look at all the tech we show and review with an "I gotta have it" mentality, but a heart that is grateful to the Lord. The point of this blog is not to show all the material things a Christian needs to get, or should desire but instead it is to show the glorious grace of God in allowing man to use technology for his Glory. This blog is created to show how God is using new technology to advance his Gospel throughout the nations!

If this blog is ever used to create covetous hearts, as opposed to gracious hearts may God destroy it.

A collection of truly horrific papist and "Christian" apps.

2011-01-03T11:18:00.004-05:00

I know a lot of times we post some apps that are great for Christianity, yet I thought it would be good from time to time to post some blasphemous Papist apps and other terrible ideas for Christian apps.

Title: Jesus Widget

Price: Free

Platform : Android

From the Developer: This widget has collection of Jesus Christ images and Bible quotes. It changes every day. This is useful for those who wants to have prayer while on move.

Just spend one minute looking at Jesus. This will sooth your soul.

My Comment: If the soothing of your soul comes from a picture of Jesus, and not the Word of God. I believe you might have some idolatry/graven image sins you might need to repent of.

Title: Prayers to Saints

Platform : Android

From the Developer: Here is a collection of few prayers to Catholic Saints. May the Lord Almighty answer all your prayers through the intercession of the Blessed Saints.

My Comment: Let's just be honest have you ever seen a truly original and creative Catholic graphic designer. Look at this mess, the text is unreadable against the paintings of saints. But that's not the worse of it. "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," Dead saints and virgins don't hear your prayers and even if they did, why would you want them too? We have Christ, praying without ceasing for us as he did in the garden to the point of blood, and as he continues to do now seated on this throne of Glory.

If you come across some truly awful apps, then please comment below and send us a link. We will feature them in our next collection.

And the winner is...

2010-12-31T11:33:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everyone that did all the requirements to win a Droid. However, there can only be one winner and for this contest the winner is @Forehand, you can follow him on twitter and speak to him with your jealously.

To all that entered, thanks! I hope to have more contests in the future and as the blog grows in readership, maybe some actual new stuff!

Chrome App Preview: Biblia

2010-12-29T11:50:00.006-05:00

I have to say, I am not all that happy with the Chrome App store, there are many good things about it but for the most part you have to admit, it's just a fancy way to bookmark websites.

For example, the YouVersion and Crossway ESV Chrome apps do nothing but link to their normal web pages. Yes, I understand that their normal web pages are fancy, contain tons of HTML5 and geeked out in Java, but it just doesn't seem like it should be in an app store.

Imagine downloading an app on your iPhone that was nothing more then a bookmark to take you to a developers normal website.

Well that's what most of these Chrome Store Apps are turning out to be. Nothing more then bookmarks.

Perhaps it's Google's way of pushing the capabilities of websites further. Sort of like they did when they released the Nexus One. By putting into the market place a powerful phone, all the other companies will do the same. Well we know that worked. Will web apps push the internet into new territory?

Personally, and to my shame, I do not own Logos software so this is not a review of the app, so I am only going to preview the app using the options available to the common person without an account.

It's nothing more then a book mark to Biblia.com...but what a bookmark it is.

(A quick editors note, I do not have a fancy logos accont. So my review is limited to only what Biblia/Logos allows users to use for free.)

Biblia allows you to log-in to your Logo's account and access your entire library straight from your web browser. It's simple to navigate consisting of just three columns; navigation, bible text, and commentary. Everything you need to do exhaustive biblical study is right there.

The best part is I tested this from my 10in Toshiba net book which only has a display of 1024x600 and it didn't feel as if I was limited in space like other online web apps. Which is great because after all, the entire purpose of web apps is to add function to your net book.

Available for free is the 1881 Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament, the ESV Bible and several other translations. Once you register for a free account, you get 31 other resources including Charles Spurgeon's Evening and Morning, some more Westcott-Hort Greek resources and a whole bunch of other stuff.

My only gripe is that it was difficult to navigate through the scriptures,while synced with the commentaries. In fact there is no synchronization at all. If I am reading the Psalm 23 and want a commentary of verse 2 I can't just click on the verse and see available commentaries or other resources that discuss that verse. I am forced to go one at a time through my collection and search it out. This should change. In fact, it has to because it is much easier to find resources on a Bible verse with just a simple Google search. One of the great things about Logos is the ability to quickly view the commentaries available on a verse with a single click. Yet, even in the most simplest of forms, it's nowhere to be found in Biblia.

With that gripe aside, Biblia is still something for the Church to rejoice over. I have always stated that we need to get the original Greek and Hebrew texts into the hands of the common man. Not just the caste system of seminary graduates.

You can download the Chrome Biblia ~~Bookmark~~ App here.

Or just simply point your browser to http://www.Biblia.com

An ebook review: The Search for God and Guinness, By Stephen Mansfield.

2010-12-28T13:06:00.006-05:00

In our modern American society, if I were to ask you "What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of alcohol?" Chances are you would say something along the lines of drunks, grungy bars, club's, frat parties etc. etc. For the most part you would be right. In America the business of alcohol has been given over to major corporations bent on selling frat boys that never grow up beers they can binge. Alcohol consumption in America, has long been associated with sin.

However, it wasn't always like that. In fact it might surprise you that up until prohibition the brewing industry was really, pardon the pun, under the influence of many Christian men. In fact alcohol was considered the drink of choice by many church goers throughout much of history. The Pilgrims even landed in Boston, Massachusetts as opposed to Virginia because they were out of beer. Yes these were the same Pilgrims that wrote "Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country" on the Mayflower Compact.

It might also surprise you that one of the worlds largest brewers of beer, Guinness, in Ireland was started by a Christian who was influenced and sat under the sermons of George Whitefield and John Wesley during their Irish tours and He was very influential in the spread of Christianity in Ireland.

His name was Arthur Guinness and the book "The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World" by Stephen Mansfield is a biography of that very man and about the beer he is famous for brewing, but it's also about a lot more then that.

You might be surprised to know that many great witnesses before us were in favor of alcohol as well. The book goes into discussing the positions of Martin Luther, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and others throughout church history who would occasionally have a glass of wine, and of course some beer. It also goes through a history of brewing beer throughout past civilizations in general...but none of this is the primary goal of the book.

This books primary purpose is not a defense of Christian drinking alcohol (although that's in there.). It's primary purpose is a defense of the Christian world view in our business practices.

What set Arthur Guinness apart from other business men is his devotion to the family unit as revealed in scripture. Stephen Mansfield does a fantastic job of making you realize how far our Christian world view of business has fallen.

In our modern view of business, the company makes profits to help benefit a small amount of share holders by cutting all costs, at all costs ,even the welfare of the employees that work for them. Arthur Guinness ran his business with the idea that the family was the key to reclaiming culture and that an employee with a strong family, would be a strong employee. Compare that to modern beer ad's that destroy the family by using lesbianism, adultery and fornication as the tool to sell alcohol.

Unlike modern big business breweries, Arthur Guinness would hold lectures to educate his employees wives, send his employees on paid vacations with the family, hired a full time doctor and nurse that any family member could use at any time and he made his employees take an all expense paid excursion day with the family, once a year. The idea being that a strong family is the key that makes a strong community and company.

A reoccurring theme throughout the book is "Don't expect to make money from your employees, if your employees can't make money from you." because of this, the employees of Guinness brewery were the highest paid employees in Ireland and it was well known that Guinness was the best place to work in all of Ireland.

But it doesn't stop there. From that, Arthur Guinness used the extra profits to establish the first Sunday Schools all over Ireland, help rebuild St. Patrick's Cathedral and many other acts of community involvement.

And although I am not in full agreement with everything Arthur Guinness did, this book has opened my eyes, once again, to how Christians have sat back and allowed the world to take over areas that were once dominated by a Christian world view.

It reminds me of the recent resurgence of Christian Hip-Hop. How Christ has redeemed that area, which the world once looked at as evil and pagan, it is now being used for the Glory of God.

This book is a reminder that we, as bearers of the Gospel, must not allow the world to remove Christ from his throne of rule. We must not allow the world to make evil, what God has given us as a gift. The world is not given the authority to dictate how to use the internet, alcohol, sex, technology, movies, gadgets and it certainly does not have the authority to regulate business.

Christ has given men the utmost authority, as given in His Word and that is the only guide for all things. To sit back and allow the world to take over anything, even the business of brewing beer, is destructive to the Gospel and completely contrary to the Great Commission's command.

The NOOK version of "The Search for God and Guinness" is on sale for $14.99 and available here.

The Search for God and Guinness is available for $9.99 on the Kindle here.

INFOGRAPHIC: Television by the Numbers

2010-12-28T05:58:00.004-05:00

I look around at all the technology God has blessed us with, and then I look and see some massive multi-part commentary, several thousands of pages long written by some puritan who felt like expositing one scripture verse in the Bible and I cannot help buy ask "Is this stuff good for us?"

The following infographic demonstrates the amount of hours people spend watching TV a weekly and monthly. I know sometimes we like to say that technology is OK as long as we don't make it an idol, but the question needs to be asked...is it already?

Christian brothers and sisters, we have a duty to take technology, gadgets, television, media all captive for Christ. He owns it all, and likewise he is worthy for it to be used to his Glory.

However, we also have a responsibility to get people social again. We need to get just as creative in our uses for technology and figure out how Christians can lead the way in getting people talking with one another and sharing with one another. Do you know your neighbors name? Do you host parties for your neighbors in an attempt to share the Gospel with them?

How can Christians be the one to mobilize communities away from the Television or Internet and into engaging in the public forum.

We have to do something...and getting to know and dialog with people on Facebook doesn't count.

What tech were you blessed with on Christmas morning?

2010-12-27T11:39:00.004-05:00

So I know a lot of Tech blogs on the internet are asking that you post what sort of cool tech you got on Christmas. However, this blog is not so much about "what one gets" instead were about "what one does with what they get"

So...comment below and let us know not just what cool technology you got, but how do you plan on using that technology for the Glory of God?

"To Glorify God, and Enjoy him forever"

Comment Below.

Google Android get's glorious view of God's creation.

2010-12-27T00:31:00.000-05:00

"Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!" Proverbs 30:4

"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." Romans 1:20

It's a Christmas Miracle. "Savior" is a trending topic!

2010-12-24T12:01:00.004-05:00

OK, so maybe not a complete Christmas miracle seeing that "Savior" is trending right beside Maury Povich, however compared to all the other junk that trends on Twitter, I can say I am glad that the twitterverse has not completely forgotten the Savior this Christmas eve.

UPDATE: and at 12:09pm, less than ten minutes from posting this blog...it's gone.

Merry Christmas, from SolaGadgeta!

2010-12-24T08:34:00.012-05:00

"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” - Luke 11:13

Tomorrow, millions of people will awaken around the world to the glow and hum of the latest and greatest tech. New iPads, iPods, Android phones, and even those really annoying flying helicopters that the foreign people sell at the mall.

Tomorrow, weeks of anticipation will come to an end as gift givers the world over surprise their loved ones with that unexpected surprise gift. Many will become benefactors of joy when they open the present they secretly desired, but never thought they would receive.

Tomorrow many people will be brought to tears, but others will be brought fits of jealousy as children fight because one got the blue one when their sibling got the red one.

May we remember as we download our new apps, on our new devices, that we don't deserve even the wrapping paper that covers the cardboard packaging.

We don't deserve Christmas.

The only two things we do deserve on Christmas day is death at the hands of God, and an eternity in Hell under his anger.

Yet, God did not give us what we deserve. He gave us what we do not deserve.

Be reminded of the sins of Christmas, be reminded of the jealously, covetousness, greed, envy, idolatry, pride and selfishness that happen all over the world, and in our own hearts.

Then remember Christ. Remember the King who died for his treasonous subjects.

May every gift we give remind of us what we were given.

May every smile that is unwrapped be a reminder of Christ, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

May every smell of new merchandise remind you of the stench of the manger, that Christ left the aroma of heaven for.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, please do not forget the condescension of Christ, the Baby God on Christmas day. Do not forget amidst the buzz and hum of remote control cars and new laptops that unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. His name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!

Remember the one who is worthy of all things, but has given all things to those whom he loves.

Remember Christ, the Lord.

May you enjoy Christmas this year. Enjoy getting the latest technology, the newest cell phone, that iPad, Kindle or Nook. The gift card to your favorite store, or just the blessing of staying home with friends and family.

Enjoy the grace that is your gifts on Christmas, and remember that the Father takes great pleasure in giving those gifts to you...and much more.

Win a free (barely used) Motorola Droid from @SolaGadgeta!

2010-12-23T10:15:00.002-05:00

So for the longest time I have had this Verizon Motorola Droid, just laying around. It's the first one (which is easily rooted) and still runs all of the apps on the market. I know, because I still use the first Motorola Droid to do all my reviews on.

Hey, this isn't Engadget, we do what we can....it's free!

All you have to do is tell people about SolaGadgeta!

You can do this in all of the following ways.

Follow @SolaGadgeta on Twitter, and share this post.
Become a Fan on Facebook. Click here.
and finally, most importantly leave a comment on our blog letting us know that you did!

It's quite simple really. Winner will be announced one week from today. That means you have an entire week to spread your love for @SolaGadgeta!

Let the shameless promotions begin...

What Bible technology do you use in your Church?

2010-12-23T09:29:00.002-05:00

I was wondering what sort of Bible the readers of solaGadgeta use during church. Personally, my Bible technology of choice is the free Crossway iOS app. I love that thing. So if you see me on my iPod in church, just know I am not playing Angry Birds.

However some of you might still use the ancient technology of printing and you might carry a Bible with paper, binding and all every Sunday. Why do you choose this method over that of a Bible app?

Let us know what you use, and why you use it below.

Homeschooling By the Numbers [infographic]

2010-12-22T13:08:00.003-05:00

I came across this infoGraphic today and thought I should post it. Seeing that infoGraphics have recently become a staple of the tech/geek community, if I find any interesting ones, I will post them on here. [Original Source]

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. -- Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Android App Review: SermonAudio

2010-12-22T08:47:00.000-05:00

I really don't know how long SermonAudio had this app available for the Android Market, but let me tell you that I am glad I finally know about it. It's been on iOS for a long time, but not having an iPhone myself, I was unable to really use it on the open road when I listen to sermons the most.

I really do think SermonAudio is a great resource, the staff of SermonAudio really know what they are doing when selecting featured sermons or "Staff Picks".

I really love this app. It's one of my favorites. I don't have much to say about it. The interface is wonderful, easy to navigate and the quality of the sermons is fantastic. Not only can you download the audio (which as the name implies is an obvious expectation) but you can also download videos of the sermons.

The only problem I have with this app, is not the fault of SermonAudio, but a problem with Android in general. The API for streaming media on the Android platform is the worst. The skipping forward never works...rewinding never goes anywhere and if it does it's always back all they way to the beginning. I am hoping this problem is sorted out in Gingerbread release...but that rant aside, a sermon is a set it and forget it sort of thing so it really has no baring whatsoever on the SermonAudio app.

You can download the app here.

4G's effect on the Gospel.

2010-12-21T09:14:00.001-05:00

Think about this dear Christian, how has your knowledge of the Gospel been shaped and influenced because of the common grace of God in allowing you broadband internet? I have many friends whose growth in Christ has been influenced as a result of having access to the high speed intertubes. Allowing them the ability to stream videos of John Piper explaining the Gospel. The ability to listen to podcasts and not to mention the many people I know what have gotten saved as a result of stumbling across video clips of sermon jams online.

The Internet has helped the reformed community grow in art. It has spread reformed rap and spoken word across the nation, giving God the Glory for redeeming a once pagan art form into something one can worship to.

Having access to high speed Internet has allowed me to meet many friends I never would have. It has allowed me the ability to travel and preach the Gospel, while sleeping in strangers homes for the night.

Indeed, the Internet was the modern printing press that launched the current reformed resurgence.

None of this would have been even remotely possible without God allowing men access to high speed Internet and giving them a desire to use it for Christ...not porn.

Yet even today nearly 40% of Americans have no access to high speed Internet. Most of this is because in rural areas people are stuck with two options. Dial-up or Satellite. Both of which are unusable for anything other than checking e-mail.

But very soon that is going to change.

It's very hard to find a populated area of the United States that doesn't have some cellular coverage, 95% of the nation is covered in 3G speeds. (Which rival lower end DSL speeds.)

When Verizon cut the lights on 4G in their launch markets at the beginning of December, over 30% of the US Population was covered, but very soon the entire nation will be covered coast to coast with 4G Internet speeds and Verizon will be leading the way in covering most of the United States in just 2-3 years.

Why do I bring this up?

Because right now there are people all over the United States, in the most rural of areas that are still untouched by the reformed resurgence. There are entire cities, where the Gospel has not been able to reach. Right here in our own back yard.

But soon that will change.

The launch of nationwide wireless Internet speeds that are faster than land line cable and DSL is going to launch solid Biblical teaching into areas of the nation that have not heard anything like it. Small rural towns that have only one cult-like fundamentalist church will soon have their lights come on. Opening the world of the Gospel, reformed theology and resources to many people who have not had access in the past.

Just as Tyndale used the press to get the Word of God into peoples hands, 4G is the next wave of getting the Gospel into the common mans hands.

May God be glorified and Christ exalted among the nation as a result of this great thing he has allowed man to create.

Android App Review: Christian Patriot

2010-12-21T08:00:00.001-05:00

Christian Patriot is best described as the Android version of the iReform. An app that allows you to read many of the creeds and confessions of the Christian faith. This app has tons of stuff to look over. The description claims 120 documents of the American history and the Christian faith, in all honesty in addition to the multiple documents of our nations founding and included theological documents, it has eighty five of the federalist papers.

Included theological documents that come with Christian Patriot are listed below:

The Shorter and Larger Westminster Catechisms with references.
The Heidelberg Catechism
The London Baptist Confession of Faith
The 95 Thesis
The Apostles Creed
The Nicene Creed
The Athanasian Creed
The Chalcedonian Creed

With all the good stuff that this application includes, it also includes some things that I am not to fond of. First and foremost is the "Four Spiritual Laws" under the "share" documents. I have never been a fan of this evangelism tactic and will continue to take a stance against the watered down Gospel that it presents. However, the four spiritual laws are not left alone, it does include an adequate explanation of the Gospel under "Evangelism Explosion"

However, let's be serious.

If you are in the need to pull out an app to share the Gospel, why not just pull out the app and read the Westminster Shorter Catechism to someone, especially since the catechisms are split screened allowing you to read the corresponding Bible verses?

On a pet peeve note. I think the app is very poorly designed. It's very stock Android. Just black with white text, a cut and paste of the basic android API(which is nothing to look at.) In addition it has very small plus and minus buttons that make navigation difficult and awkward. The app does include the ability for a classic Android robotic voice to read the creeds to you, which is nice but impossible to stop. The entire app must be closed out.

Still, it's free and a free catechism is always nice to have laying around.

You can download the app here.

Motorola references the Ten Commandments in "Evolution of Tablets" teaser

2010-12-21T07:47:00.005-05:00

Then Ten Commandments were just one of several "tablets" that made the cut for the preview of Motorola's upcoming sure to be Droid Tablet device.

According to Motorola, during their teaser trailer for their secret tablet, the Ten Commandments were "extremely durable, but not flexible (unable to edit)."

Praise God that His law is immutable as it is a reflection of our King's immutability.

In fact Matt Johnson in his introduction as a writer for this blog, stated something that so captured the heart of this blog that I turned into SolaGadgeta's mission statement.

In this world of constantly changing technology, gadgets fascinate for a moment, but the Word of God abides forever. We hope to bring these two realities together, and to encourage you all to use that which is always changing to honor and bring glory to the One who never changes. - The SolaGadgeta Team.

I think that says it all.

But personally I am pretty excited about Motorola having a tablet device. Their Android phones are at such a high quality that there really is no one to compare them to and I imagine if they have funneled all the profits from their incredibly successful Droid line into a tablet, then they are sure to be a competitor. Am I the only one excited about a tablet with Gorilla Glass?

Catch a glimpse of the inflexible commandments in this teaser trailer below. Oh and by the way, at the end of the video there is a honey bee flying around hinting that the long awaited Android Tablet OS honeycomb is coming soon!

What do you think about SolaGadgeta?

2010-12-20T12:32:00.002-05:00

Dear SolaGadgeta Readers,

I wanted to take a moment and ask you a question.

What do you think about SolaGadgeta? I seek to improve this website as much as possible and the content provided.

We have been blogging several times a day, every day for two weeks (except the weekends) and I wanted to know your thoughts. What would you like to see that you don't see. How can we improve? What do you like?

Leave your comments below.

iTunes Pick: Caleb Andrews - Betrothal

2010-12-20T11:59:00.005-05:00

I have a tradition. Every time I go on a road trip I buy something for my iPod. Whether it is a debate or two or a new album. This time as I was preparing my iPod touch with music for the road I decided I wanted a new album, but not a reformed Rap album. It was time for variety. So I did something crazy. I went to iTunes, looked at the top 100 Christian albums and found number 100. I listened to a preview of some of the songs, they sounded shockingly Biblical so I bought the album.

The album is called Betrothal by an artist, to my shame, I have never heard of. His name is Caleb Andrews and his album is gloriously Christ centered.

Music that exalts the King of Glory, is a rare gem in the modern me-centered, therapeutic, deified music industry. Occasionally a band will come out with an entire album, that's trash and then they have that one track, at the very end, that can only be bought as part of the entire album. Betrothal is not one of those albums.

There is not one song on it that I dislike. Here is a sample of the lyrics from one of my favorite songs on the album...Beautiful Example.

Bowing low to bear my shame You gave Your
back to the scourging as they cursed Your
name, You bore my reproach to show me a
Man who truly loves without condition, a
Man who truly loves without conditions,
I’ve seen Your love throughout the pages,
You broke my heart throughout those pages

Life ain't only but it's always a war
My flesh is raging against You Lord
I've paid my vows but walk it out is a
narrow road, it’s a narrow road.
I'm tryin Lord to lay my life down but it
takes violence, it takes violence.

Just now while looking for the lyrics to his music, It appears that he is tied with the International House of Prayer in Atlanta, which is strange because most of the time IHOP music is really, really reptitive and Biblically meaningless. Remember "You spin me right round, Jesus right round" or "Were gonna dance in the River"?

However, this Album is not like that, in fact on the same website it describes the album with the following "his album shares the songs of a heart grateful to be saved from the wrath to come and called into eternal relationship."

All I can say is you have to listen to the album yourself. To do so you can preview it on the only website with any information reguarding this artist on the internet. Here.

Lane Chaplin reviews the CR-48 ChromeOS!

2010-12-17T15:30:00.007-05:00

Looks like Google has shown favor to Lane Chaplin. Yesterday Lane received a package in the mail from Mountain View, CA. To his surprise it was a CR-48, Google ChromeOS Laptop that's completely cloud based.

You can watch the review below and just in case you guys are wondering; there is no jealously or covetousness on the part of SolaGadgeta. None whatsoever. Nope. None. None at all. None.

From the Tower of Babel to Word Lens.

2010-12-17T13:57:00.006-05:00

Word Lens has just been released on iOS and since its release it's been making a lot of headlines, even being a trending topic on twitter.

I think the video tells it all. The ability to point your camera at a sign, have it translate it for you in real time. The best part? It's all performed offline with no need for an internet connection.

Our society really is becoming one. The barriers of languages are no longer an issue. For years, websites like Google Translate and Babelfish have broken down the international language barrier on the Internet. With the help of Google Translate, I have friends on Facebook who write German status updates and I have been able to engage in theological debates in their own language.

Until now this language barrier has only been primarily broken in three ways, by the gift of tongues, when in isolation behind a computer, or by many years of classroom education.

But with Word Lens, that barrier has now been broken in real time, in reality (Well, augmented reality)

Genesis 11:6-7
And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”

Those are the words of the Lord in Genesis 11. The human heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, so much so God had to confuse the languages making multi-national communication impossible for thousands of years.

But with the Great Commission, God gave men the ability to speak in different languages again, for the sole purpose to proclaim the truth of Christ to all men.

Acts 2:6-11
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ allows us to fulfill the Genesis mandate and have dominion of all the earth for the Glory of God.

So when we see things like Word Lens, we should rejoice. We should praise the King because this will help advance the Gospel. The easier it is for men of all tongues to speak in one, the easier it will be for Christ to proclaimed and the nations to be discipled.

The Government shall be on his shoulders.

If Mary and Joseph had Facebook

2010-12-16T08:37:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine posted this on FaceBook and I thought it was a perfect fit for this blog.

Merry Christmas from us at SolaGadgeta!

A plea to GodTube.com - @DailyGodTube

2010-12-15T11:21:00.006-05:00

Godtube became Tangle, which became a mess so to untie tangle they resurrected GodTube. For the longest time I have been on their mailing list, too lazy to unsubscribe I guess. I wake up every morning with an e-mail newsletter with them trying to lure me into visiting their website.

Every morning, without fail, GodTube tries to get me to watch the exact same video I saw yesterday on YouTube, again. What’s the difference? Well it’s been stolen from YouTube and now it’s placed front and center on GodTube.

Just this week, a tweet was sent around the world mocking GodTube. It contained a front page screenshot of cats playing patty cake. Why did they post this Christless video on their webpage? Well because it was done by a youth group and two, it was on the front page of YouTube, while keeping with the GodTube déjà vu, I saw it the day before. The video was just as Christless and meaningless on YouTube twenty four hours earlier as it was on Godtube.

I don’t have a problem with the concept of “GodTube”; I think there should be creative outlets to encourage Christian creativity. However, I get the feeling sometimes that the people of GodTube don’t have a clue with what to do with their own website. When the company changed their name from GodTube to Tangle because they wanted to “be more inclusive”, I knew that they had lost their minds. When they decided to untie the Tangle knot they made and turn back into GodTube I really hoped that they were going to do something different, something unique.

But they didn’t.

Really it was just a meaningless name change. They still had the same shameless, day behind the world, featured videos. It’s really quite embarrassing.

So I wanted to take some time, and tell the staff of Salem Communications what I would do with GodTube.

1. Make the Gospel the central focus of everything. I do remember, one time, GodTube sending out an e-mail blast with Paul Washers infamous youth conference sermon, but to the best of my ability I think that was the only time they sent out a blast that actually had a Christ centered sermon in it. I could be wrong.

2. Greatly reward brilliant Christian filmmakers and artist. There has to be a reason to place your video on GodTube first. I am not talking about splitting advertising dollars, you can't compete with Google there; I am talking about prizes and gift cards. GodTube has the power and resources to seek out and encourage creative Christian independent filmmaking, and artist, and this should be their bread and butter. Reward Christians with film equipment, video cameras, gift certificates and other creative partnerships. Work with Salem Radio as well to reward musicians. You have a brilliant forum for Christian art. Nurture it.
3. I would stop featuring videos that were popular yesterday. Doing this will always make you imitators. You’ll never escape it; you will never become anything other than a “rip off a fortune five hundred logo” t-shirt company like Kerusso. You should actively seek out Christ centered, creative musicians and filmmakers. Promote independent artist, not the ones who everyone knows and give people a reason (other than money) to post their videos on the website. Change the culture. Don't imitate it.

4. Finally, get rid of bad theology. Dump all the word of faith, prosperity garbage that so corrupts your website, while allowing solid, Biblical churches to easily host videos of their pastors sermons. I think some churches (even the smaller ones) would be quite OK with paying a small monthly fee if it allowed them to bypass YouTube’s 15 minute rule. Live streaming anyone?

That’s it. It’s simple. Use GodTube as a resource to glorify the Creator, while providing a rewarding outlet for individual Christians to be creative, with a focus on working in partnership with local churches to further the Gospel.

But alas, I am just a lowly tech blogger and have nowhere near the power that Salem Communications has. If Salem is genuinely focused on using media to change the world for the Gospel, they will listen. If GodTube is just another domain name in their portfolio, then GodTube will continue to forever be a tangle.

Tech Savvy @MarsHill updates iOS app, now with offline downloads and "More Jesus"

2010-12-15T08:23:00.004-05:00

No seriously, according to the geeks at Mars Hill, aka the Church where Mark Driscoll is the pastor of, the team has updated their iOS app and placed in the change log that it now comes with "More Jesus" don't believe me skip to the screen shot below. If only we could just update ourselves to include "more Jesus." Sanctification app anyone?

The pocket protector crew at Mars Hill have long been leading the way in the tech department, they gave the world The City, an online church community tool (which we discussed in great detail here and here)

In addition to improving the look of the app, they have added the ability to watch the videos on the big screen when using the iPhone.

The Mars Hill app is beautiful and elegant. These guys routinely set the bar in using technology for the Glory of God.

Want to download the app or get even more information click here.

Christmas, @BestBuy and Christianity.

2010-12-13T10:00:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, when the Christmas season just started, I walked into a Best Buy, for no other reason but to play around and kill some time. I'm a Gadget Geek, so coming in here every now and then and playing with the latest and greatest stuff is a good time killer.

So as I was on my stroll, in and out of the Corridors of Tech, I was halted dead in my tracks by this glowing sign.

Now it has long been known that Best Buy, at the utmost corporate level, are enemies of Christianity. They were the first to jump onto the "Happy Holidays" bandwagon, and although I am not to offended at the use of Happy Holidays, you have to admit it does say something about ones hatred of Christianity to go through all the trouble of instituting a corporate policy like that, but this year I think they crossed the line.

A walk through any Best Buy store this year and you will see the glistening signs that actually use words, that only God can give and/or get. Throughout the store it tell people to "Give Glory" and "Give Awe"

Best Buy is stealing from the Bible, the very attributes and qualities of God, as a tool so that people might shop there. They are appealing to the first sin in the garden, the desire for men to be as God. It really is an amazing display of hypocrisy isn't it? We are totally not OK with using words like Christmas because it will offend those that don't celebrate it, but we are OK with stealing attributes and qualities from you God as a way to appeal to one's inner covetousness.

But it doesn't end with Blasphemous signs for Best Buy in demonstrating their hatred for anything...religious.

Jump to this weekend. While again, wasting time, I found myself playing with the New GoogleTV box that they had on display. Although this post is not a review for GoogleTV, I was actually enjoying my test run. (Hey, were not big time, well never get devices sent to our doorstep, this is all I got)

ahem...

As I was attempting navigate the "revolutionary" controller for the device, I decided to go to a website I go to a lot when I want to test if a device is capable of handling, busy, flash based websites. I decided to see if GoogleTV would function on "DesiringGod.org", and that's when I got the images below.

Based on your corporate access policies, access to this web site ( http://www.desiringGod.org/ ) has been blocked because the web category "Religion" is not allowed.

That's right. While navigating any website while using Best Buy's merchandise, you are blocked from any website that is categorized as "Religion"

Now I did test this out and they are consistent, they won't allow you to visit Islamic websites either.

But you got to ask yourself a question. Just how much hatred for Christianity can one company publicly demonstrate? How many meetings were there in their offices in Minnesota devoted to planning a strategy that removes Christmas from all advertising gear, while blaspheming God in the marketing, all the while blocking any sort of religious website from being displayed on the companies computers.

I don't want to know.

However, there is good news to this. The good news is Best Buy failed.

Even though Best Buy does everything in their power to block Christianity from within their walls. They were unsuccessful at blocking SolaGadgeta from their infrastructure.

This weekend, while being in shock at the complete inability to access any Christian website, I was able to access my own. Which caught the attention of an employee in the store. What followed was a thirty minute conversation about the Gospel, questions regarding religion and name of King Jesus exalted.

An open letter to Steve Jobs

2010-12-13T10:00:00.002-05:00

Subject: Objective truth, and your Sanford commencement speech.

Dear Steve Jobs,

I want to start off by letting you know that I am amazed at the talent of everything that is Apple. It is truly amazing to see how you guys keep advancing technology onward in ways that no one ever thought could be done. Not only is your desire for perfection evident in how you design technology, but it is also clearly seen in the films that PIXAR makes, which I believe to be the only movies worth going to the theaters to see. I find it quite extraordinary that years ago, you launched the "Think Different" campaign where many brilliant minds were pictured and now, nearly 30 years later, your picture could fit in those ad's with the exact same amount of impact.

I say that to let you know that I have great respect for you, but I also have some great concerns.

I understand that there were multiple outcries in regards to the Manhattan Declaration app, as people were offended about it's views of homosexuality, but what about the people you offended in removing it? There is no such thing as neutrality, everyone has their own world view in which they regulate their life and practice.

Those that hold to a Christian world view are offended at the Islam apps, those that hold to an Islamic world view are offended by the Christian apps and those that hold to an autonomous secular humanist world view are offended at any sort of religious app. If none of these world views are valid, then there is no basis to block offensive apps, but if one of these world views are true, then it seems to me that truth should be the supreme objective basis in which Apple regulates which apps are good, and which are not.

Here is the point. There has to be a source of objective truth, or else the entire system fails.

In your commencement address to Stanford graduates, you made a very clear point in telling people to follow their heart. You said "Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice." I have to ask if you have ever followed that thought to it's logical conclusion.

What if those exact same words were stated by a pedophile, or a rapist? The question has to be asked would that statement still be valid, in those situations. Certainly not!

Which is why this follow your heart, autonomous world view leads to an outright unstable world view where no real conflict can ever be resolved.

Proverbs chapter 16 says "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

There has to be an objective and transcendent standard for right and wrong.

That standard can only be found in an objective and transcendent Creator, who governs matters of right and wrong.

I am not saying that you have no morality apart from the God of the Bible. I have no doubt you know right from wrong. I believe that you believe rape is wrong, child molestation is wrong, adultery, lying and yes even Microsoft's grotesque stealing from Apple is wrong. I am saying that you do indeed have a standard of morality but it is grounded in something greater then your own autonomy.

Even the laws of art and design are objective. If I were an ad agency and I created an advertisement video using comic sans, lawless typography and colors that don't match, you would fire me and demand your money back. There are clearly objective laws to design, because there is an objective creator and designer.

Romans 1:19-20 states "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made."

There is truth in the world. Objective, authoritative and transcendent truth. The problem is that people because of their sin and rebellion suppress the truth, like a holding down a beach ball in the ocean.

Placing the above verses in context just one verse before it states "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Pedophiles, adulterers and rapist know right from wrong but by their unrighteousness, because of their love of wickedness they suppress the truth. They throw a blanket over God, hoping that He, the one who knows all things, won't see the truth of their hearts.

In the exact same commencement speech you mentioned another absolute truth. You stated "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share." What true and sobering words.

Steve, the part of you that is so keenly aware of perfection, is also clearly aware that something is wrong with the universe. Something is out of place. There is something about death, that is not right. To this I would agree. Death is a result of our own sin, as much as we hate to admit it, we deserve it. The Bible says "The wages of sin is death", God will call you into judgement one day and every thought, word and deed will be exposed, every lie, every act of prideful rebellion against God will be on display before the great judge.

You cannot bribe the judge, there is no amount of good that can be done that can somehow excuse you from justice owed. A murderer cannot escape prison because he feeds the homeless, or else the judge would be corrupt and unjust.

Because God has an objective law, he must have an objective standard for justice and because he is infinitely just, he has an infinite standard of justice for those who break the law. One sin is infinitely offensive and worthy of an infinite punishment. Because God is the standard for good he cannot, and he will not be unjust with those who have broken his law.

This is where I pause.

Because, this is where I mention the good news, the good news is that in your commencement speech you were objectively wrong.

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."

Steve, there has been one who has escaped it.

His name is Jesus Christ, the creator of all creation, the objective standard of beauty, the second person in the triune Godhead.

Jesus Christ, who is worthy of all honor and praise, filled with glory and rules all things, left the aroma of heaven for the stench of a manger, He who owns all took possession of nothing, He who is sinless took the punishment for sin, and he who creates life died.

The Lord of all creation took the justice that evil, wicked and rebellious men deserve, so he might be a demonstration of kindness and grace.

Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried and on the third day and...he escaped death.

Everything hinges on this fact. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 15 he said "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith...And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

The fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, is the hope of many throughout history, that there is a way to escape death. Not because we have done anything to deserve it, not because we are more worthy or righteous, but because Christ showed kindness and grace, all while demonstrating justice and wrath.

The cross is the centerpiece of all creation, the summation of all things.

Finally you said in your commencement speech

"All external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Christ, and your attitude towards Him is the only thing that is truly important.

David Livingston, a missionary to Africa in the 1800's said the following "Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

I pray that you will examine your heart, your motives and your standing with the Creator of Creativity. That you might turn from your sin and rebellion into the arms of Christ, who died for the most evil of his enemies.

I don't expect that I will ever hear from you and I don't pretend that you will ever reply to this e-mail. All I ask is that you ponder the truths of this letter, knowing it was sent in love, by a stranger who greatly respects and appreciates you.

May you beg God to give you a hatred of sin, that leads to repentance and trust.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Marcus Pittman

SolaGadgeta.com

---

If you want to listen to Steve Jobs commencement speech to Stanford, you can watch the entire thing in it's entirety below.

Reader Review: Wielding Your Weapon With e-Sword

2010-12-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

The following is a guest review from a SolaGadgeta reader. Because of the incredible amount of things to be reviewed, we love to have readers review apps as much as possible. If you would like to review an App for any mobile device or gadget please send your review here.

e-Sword

Review by: Elijah Osborne

Bible study software can help us to understand Gods word faster and effectively without

having to buy an expensive library of books that take up space. These Bible programs are expensive, but what are the alternates that won't leave your pockets in smoldering ash? Even though not as powerful as some of the high-priced Bible programs, e-Sword is a good tool to study the Bible because it is free to download and use and comes with free Bible translations and commentaries.

What is it, Who Made it, and Why?

E-Sword is a piece of software that can make studying the Bible fast and effective.

Packed with more features than you can shake a stick at, while providing good usability to help you understanding Gods word fast. Oh and the best part about e-Sword is it's free as in Grace because the creator of the software Rick Meyers wanted to bless others with his God given' abilities to write code.

Rick Meyers wrote the first lines of code in the year 2000 and since then God has blessed his work and now 10 years later with over 2.5 million downloads from 225 different countries e-Sword has proven its ability to handle the word of truth.

Whats Under the Hood?

Right out of the box e-Sword will let you use the King James Version of the Bible with the added Strong's Concordance and Vine's Dictionary. In its self that's wonderful, but lets not stop there, e-Sword has extensions for download that would make any seminary student overflow with joy

and thanksgiving. On a side note some downloads you will have to buy if you want them bad enough.

Most are free downloads to further enhance the e-Sword program.

Bibles

Theres a plethora of Bible translations to download with e-Sword. Need the New American Standard Bible? What about the NIV or the ESV translations? No problem. Do you want to view the Bishops' Bible, 1568, the Geneva Bible, 1587, or the King James Bible, 1611 all with the included Apocrypha. The best part about having all these translations to choose from is that you can create your own parallel Bible. It's easy with e-Sword.

Commentaries

I once heard Paul Washer say something like if what you believe is not in line with the saints from the last 2000 years then something is wrong. For this reason you will appreciate the different commentaries for download with e-Sword like Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vincent's Word Studies, The Treasury of David by C. H. Spurgeon, and John Wesley's Notes on the Bible just to name a few. Don't forget that this thing can store your own commentaries or study notes then finish it up with the spell checker and thesaurus.

The Features I use the Most

This is my goto gadget for searching scripture when I can't remember the whole passage. I just hit the search button and type in what I can remember and depending on the search options picked e-Sword can list all the verses that have the word or phrase in it so re-finding those lost verses became easier without manually looking through a thick concordance. I also use the dictionary and commentaries for the reasons listed above.

Freely you Received, Freely Give

Like I said before e-Sword is free for download and to use, so if this program blesses you in understanding Gods word then please consider contributing financially. By doing so it helps pay for bandwidth for web-hosting and helps keep the software free for others that cannot afford to buy something of this quality. If you cannot afford to give financially then writing the creator of e-Sword Rich Meyers, thanking him for his time and effort and the blessings his work has caused.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although not as powerful as some of the high-priced Bible programs. ESword is a good Bible study for two main reasons. First, it comes with free Bible translations and commentaries. But most importantly, it is free to download and use for Gods Glory. I have only touched on some of the main features of e-Sword to show its power and capabilities as e-Sword offers much more exciting things. Do you use the e-Sword Bible Study program? How has it helped you with Gods word?

References

Meyers, R. (2010, December 11). Introduction. Retrieved December 11 2010, from e-Sword

website: http://www.e-sword.net/

Meyers, R. (2010, December 11). History. Retrieved December 11 2010, from e-Sword website:

http://www.e-sword.net/history.html

Meyers, R. (2010, December 12). Features. Retrieved December 11 2010, from e-Sword website: http://www.e-sword.net/features.html

Should Christians Fear the Cloud?

2010-12-09T18:59:00.008-05:00

With Steve Jobs recently pulling The Manhattan Declaration application from the iTunes App Store because it was "offensive" and with Google about to launch ChromeOS, there are some serious questions we as Christians need to think about.

I want to take a moment and talk about 'Cloud Computing", which is the next big thing in the PC world. The idea is that instead of things being stored on your computer, where you own it. Data will be stored on a cloud. In other words, all data will be stored on Google's hard drives in the sky. Where as your personal computer will no longer need to store data on expensive, and destructible drives.

I am not the paranoid bunker dwelling individual. However I think it is good that we as the Christian community look into some potential problems of a private company owning and storing everything you do.

A few weeks ago The Manhattan Declaration application was pulled from the iTunes app store because it's anti homosexuality statements were offensive. Now, I am no fan of the MD for strictly ecumenical reasons but that is not the topic of discussion for this blog post.

However, the reason it was pulled is the topic of discussion.

My concern with cloud computing is that with the press of a button, Christians all over the world could be halted from accessing websites, creating content, or sending information to others.

Because all data, applications, operating system instructions and information will be stored online in the cloud, the user will not personally own any data and thus the company could place restrictions on it.

This could mean that the Government could place pressure on a company like Google to shut down the distribution of anti-homosexual speech.

We see this happening now with WikiLeaks, no matter your opinion on WikiLeaks, you have to say it is concerning when companies all over the world gather together to shut down and hault their business after pressure from government entities.

When everything is on the cloud, shutting things down could be as simple as deleting your account from the Google servers and suddenly years of blogs, years of writings, books, access to the internet could be gone with the flip of a switch.

What are your thoughts? Are we wise as Christians to hand all of our freedoms to a corporation? We wouldn't do it for the Government, how does a massive international corporation make it better?

Is there a correct time and place for "Bible Apps"

2010-12-09T14:47:00.002-05:00

Last week I posted a blog stating that it might be possible for us to "hide behind" Bible apps. It caused a lot of discussion.

So I want to pose a question for the weekend.

Are there certain time with a Bible application on an electronic device is not as wise as having an actual 66 book, leather bound bible on display?

My take is that it could go both ways.

Just as someone might coward behind a Bible application because he is ashamed, another could use the original text as a way to be self-righteous. It depends on the conscience of the individual.

But what do you think? Are there certain times when the original printed text is better the that of the digital? Is it OK for a pastor to stand behind the pulpit with nothing but an iPad?

That's the topic of discussion...so comment below.

Android App Review: Cross Movement Records

2010-12-09T14:14:00.004-05:00

That's right, the title says it all. The Cross Movement Records App. This application says everything about the current state of the Android market. It's here to stay, and it's mainstream.

With the Cross Movement Records app for Android you can do everything you would expect from a record label's personal application. You can stream music, purchase music, but also each song that your stream has a lyrics tab with all the words available.

The interface itself is very clean and well designed. It's very easy to navigate from album to album, song to song.

The point is that this app, it feature rich. Containing tons of music is just a small part of it, there a pictures, a "fan Wall" to leave comments, photos, news and the ability to sign up for the newsletter plus there is more.

Cross Movement was really the first solid, reformed Christian Hip-Hop group. So it's nice to see them still staying ahead of the curve.

However, there is a downside, and it might just be a personal thing.

It seems as if after only six months, DA T.R.U.T.H. has been restored back into Cross Movements good graces after his adulterous affair and much of his music is on the app for sale. Although I do not doubt Da T.R.U.T.H.'s repentance, I feel that after only 6 months time, and being suddenly brought back into the limelight that caused him to fall is a serious concern.

But with that aside, although the music of Cross Movement, is no where near the level of Reach or Lampmode, I still think their music is solid and worth a free listen to.

You can download the application on the Android Market Place or click here.

UPDATE: This is also available in the iOS app store by clicking here.

Newest Bejeweled lets you "breath deep in Zen mode...you know?"

2010-12-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Remember how much time you spent playing Snake on the old monochrome Nokia phone? You know that was back when playing video games on a cell phone was groundbreaking stuff.

Not too long after that cell phones started having color screens and games got more colorful.

Bejeweled was one of the most popular cell phone games of all time. Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2...you know?

Over the past few years, PopCap has re-hashed the same version on everything from cell phones, to iPods. It's been quite some time since PopCap games has made a new version of Bejeweled. The version is Bejeweled 3 with Zen Mode.

What is Zen mode? You know? I'll just let PopCap founder Jason Kapalka tell you all about it...You Know?

"The zen mode is gonna be quite interesting. A lot of this stuff that's in there is actually kind of scientific-lite. It actually has things in there that you can actually use to kind of, you know, get into a meditative state. It's got breath modulation stuff.
Well, you turn it on. And this sort of tracking line moves up and down the screen at the same time you hear kind of, basically, breathing in and out sounds. It actually works pretty well...It definitely works. I mean, as you're listening to the, you know, breathing and watching this line in the background, you kind of think up your own breathing with it. And as that slows down, you know? You tend to, you know, make you also slow down your own breathing.

Yeah. I mean, it's not exactly, you know? It's not full-on biofeedback-type stuff, where we kind of attach, you know, electrodes to your head or anything like that.

But it is, you know? It actually does, you know, the kind of function that will, you know? If you sit there and do that, it's very likely it will actually kind of slow your breathing down, which will probably cause you to calm down and lose your stress." (HT:Games.com)

With the newest release of Bejeweled, you not only waste hours of time doing something of no real value, but you can possibly get into a new age, mystical zen and yoga like trance.

It seems like Jason Kapalka is already in a Zen-like trance. You know?

There is no such thing as neutrality...even in video games.

Those people who oppose the Gospel with their opposing world views, always seem to find ways to destroy even the most simple areas of life.

Nook VS Kindle. The Battle for Puritan Classics. Nook Part 1

2010-12-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

This summer I was faced with a decision, a friend told me that he was going to buy me a nook or a Kindle. I had to choose which one. With much thought I decided to get ~~Nook~~ nook. (Does anyone know if the N in nook should be capitalized? I think it's lowercase like iPhone. So be it, it's my blog.)

Why? Well the reason was quite simple. The nook, which is created by Barnes and Noble is much more open than the Kindle, and to those looking to dive into the great reformers of the past having the ability to download PDF's and ePub files is critical. Ill get more into content formats later in this post...first the specs.

What sets the nook apart from the Kindle is the small Android powered color touch screen on the front. This is nook's main navigation device. It allows you to scroll up and down, navigate the store and it even becomes a small, awkward to use keyboard when needed.

Although it's not the most natural interface, (at times it seems quite awkward, and hard to use)...it does allow for a faster navigation experience then that of the Kindle. With just a press of the button you can change from reading your PDF's stored on the built in 2 gigabyte memory card, to reading the latest book you bought from the store and this can all be viewed via a very iTunes like book cover flow.

However, although the color touch screen does provide for a quicker navigation of libraries then that of the Kindle. The lack of a physical keyboard makes it nearly impossible to take notes on. When taking notes your forced to use the color screen as the joystick to navigate and select the passage you want. This leaves you with an incredibly painstakingly slow delay as the color screen works at getting the attention of the e-Ink screen and vice versa.

With that being said, nook just realeased their new software update to 1.5 last month, which has improved the speed significantly and made it quite useable, but I think it's still a flaw none the less. You're not going to be taking notes as your pastor preaches on Sundays with this device.

There are also features missing from a Kindle that I wish it had. There is no ability to share passages on twitter and facebook, and there is no ability to have the nook read the book to you, which I really wish it had.

The nook is simply and purely a reader at heart and this alone, it does beautifully. The nook comes equipped with a gorgeous six inch e-Ink screen that is easy to read even in candle light. It contains no backlit LCD, which it shouldn't because baklit LCD's are an abomination on any e-reader. Did you hear that iBooks?

The nook is built for one thing. Reading Alone. (uh. SolaLiteraturea?)

Sure it lacks a lot of features, but I find comfort in that. I got an e-reader so I wouldn't be distracted, so I could read for long periods of time and that is why I love my nook.

But that's not the only reason...

With access to millions, and I mean millions of free books via Google Books, many of which can be downloaded straight from the nook's online store anytime.

But not only that, the nook allows you the ability to download and read the typical PDF files plus ePub open source e-reader files. A lack of access to ePub files has long been a thorn in the flesh for many Kindle users.

What does this mean? Well it means you have even more access to millions of free eBooks, many from Google Books, but also Archive.org which stores complete libraries of many of those, puritans of old...

But what sort of puritan treasures are there to be found for nook users?

For that you'll just have to wait and see...

Nook VS Kindle. The Battle for Puritan Classics. Kindle Part 1

2010-12-07T11:25:00.009-05:00

One of our most requested reviews is Nook VS Kindle, so finally here it is, released in four parts in this order.

Kindle Review. (Matt Johnson)

Nook Review. (Marcus Pittman)

Kindle Puritan Collections. (Matt Johnson)

Nook Puritan Collections. (Marcus Pittman)

Today is day one. So without any further a due here is Matt Johnson's review:

In the battle royal between Kindle and Nook, we want to offer reviews from a Christian perspective. I'm the Kindle guy, so this review will focus on the features of the device and how I, as a Christian, utilize it in my pursuit to bring glory to Christ. In the next article, I'll share about Kindle's Christian content availability.

I've had the device (Kindle 2) for over a year now, and must say it has exceeded my expectations. I've seen the content availability increase dramatically, to the delight of my fellow Christian readers. The device itself is simple...which is part of its charm. I'm one of those guys who needs to be enclosed in a really quiet place when I read. Distractions and reading don't mix well for me. So the fact that the Kindle is a reader and not really much more is actually a plus. I'm not tempted to check email on it because...well, you can't. Sure, there is a very rudimentary browser and certainly it is possible to pull up a basic HTML Gmail page, but who wants to wait on that to render on the eInk screen? Are you always tempted to out the book down and Google something you just read about? If you've ever tried reading on a computer you know how that temptation leads to endless web surfing, and little reading. With Kindle, the web just isn't that accessible, which again, is actually a plus. There are no apps. So no pulling away to play that crazy "Talking Tom Cat " game. It's just me and the reader. And I must say that Kindle had dramatically increased the amount I read.

The eInk screen is incredible. I've read Edwards on the beach, Owen in the yard, and Spurgeon by the pool. No glare whatsoever. One feature that is missing is a backlit screen. which means that you can't read it in the dark without a light of some kind. But again, it keeps it simple. And lets me read for more than a week without charging the battery.

Other features that Kindle offers are its ability to share books across multiple platforms. I currently have the Kindle for Android app on my Droid X, which works flawlessly. Also available is the Kindle for PC, which I use less often.

Kindle has one feature that I especially love...the ability to highlight and write notes in the book you're reading, both of which are synced to the Amazon server and can be accessed from anywhere. If you were to flip through any book in my physical library, you would find underlining, highlighting, and many notes scribbled in the margins. I have that same capibility with Kindle, only now all of my notes and highlights are secured online and searchable. So when I'm preparing that sermon and recall a quote that I recently read, I can search either from Kindle or on the Amazon server and quickly find it.

New to the Kindle world is the Kindle 3. This device is available with the standard 3g Whispersync or wifi only. I live out in the country, and while I have great cell coverage with Verizon, the Whispersync is miserably slow, if it's available at all. So I will often have to take the device with me for a ride to download my book purchases, wait overnight for the download, or download them via USB through my computer. However, with the new wifi device, this problem goes away for me, as my house is wifi'ed to the max. That is, if I had the new device...

Overall, my Kindle experience has been phenomenal. It has made me much more of an aggressive reader than I was before. Much of that is due not only to the secice itself, but to the massive volume of free or nearly free content that of available. As both Marcus and I agree, the power of these devices is not so much on the device itself, but in the content that is available for it. And that, we will tackle in Round 2...

- Matt Johnson

What's your 2010 App of the year?

2010-12-07T09:52:00.002-05:00

Time to vote for your favorite mobile application of the year!

1. Leave a comment below with your favorite app and it's use.

2. It doesn't matter if it is for iOS or Android. Either one is fine, just be sure to let us know which platform it is for.

3. There has to be some sort of spiritual use for the app. Unless there is a deeply Christ centered use for Angry Birds, you can't list it.

That's it. We will look at all the votes, make our decision, and list our favorite apps for the year in an up-coming post.

What's on your Google Reader?

2010-12-07T08:35:00.002-05:00

With the long awaited launch of the Google Reader app on Android, I thought it would be appropriate for everyone to share the contents of their Google Reader?

What blogs do you follow?

Here are mine below:

Albert Mohler's Blog

Alpha and Omega Ministries

Desiring God Ministries

Thoughts of Francis Turretin

Vision Forum (Doug Phillips)

WorldNetDaily

Leave your Google Reader list as a comment below.

J. I. Packer a Technology Warning

2010-12-06T10:55:00.003-05:00

I'm amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I'm not against technology--but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger--and then moving on quickly to the next blogger. That makes us more superficial, not more thoughtful.

"Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16

- JI Packer (HT: GraceGems.org)

This blog was created to make us ponder and think of these exact things. What are your thoughts? Does technology make us more or less thoughtful?

Meet our new SolaGadgeta contributor, Matt Johnson.

2010-12-06T10:40:00.003-05:00

In an effort to keep this here blog going on strong and continually update the content, we sent out some tweets and posted an ad looking for some contributors. After searching through thousands and thousands of e-mails, I came to the realization that I was in my spam folder and looked in the inbox to find out that a good friend of mine, Matt Johnson was interested. So I asked him to introduce himself for the three readers of this blog. Below is his introduction.

-----

My name is Matt Johnson, and it is an honor to be a small part of what my friend Marcus is doing here on SolaGadgeta. I'm happy to join in his efforts to bring some "sanctified gadget" information to you all.

As a short introduction, I've been a gadget head for as long as I can remember. I'm nearing 40 years old now, so I can recall the days before the internet, and even the days of the Tandy TRS-80 with the huge floppy disk. Even then, I was fascinated that a floppy piece of plastic and a green screen could produce "Hello, world!" at my command.

Needless to say, the times have changed. Computers and gadgets change and evolve almost daily. And I'm still fascinated. I love reading, and now writing, about the latest gadget to wow our eyes and minds.

However, I also know that as a Christian, I have a duty to keep my eyes on the One who never changes. In this world of constantly changing technology, gadgets fascinate for a moment, but the Word of God abides forever. I hope to bring these two realities together, and to encourage you all to use that which is always changing to honor and bring glory to the One who never changes.

Looking forward to the adventure!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Matt Johnson

Can Bible apps damage your witness?

2010-12-06T08:38:00.011-05:00

Almost a year ago I had the urge to bring my big fat ESV study Bible to work. It was Sunday, I never work on Sunday, this week was just a "fluke" so I decided since I wasn't going to be at Church I would bring my Bible and make up the time.

I learned later that I brought my Bible to work for other reasons. Not because I wanted to read it, or because I wanted to take notes and highlight what I was reading. All of those were true. The reason I took my big Bible to work, was because God needed someone to see it.

While at work, I had a customer notice the Bible and ask me what I was reading. I was reading Ezekiel and from there we got to talk about the Gospel. For an entire hour.

He left my store in tears. Explaining how beautiful the Gospel was and since then we have made contact and have plans to have dinner while we discuss some RC Sproul sermons he listened to.

Which brings me to a point to consider.

I could have read my Bible that day on my iPod or my Droid. Both of which give me great resources for Bible study. But if I would have done that, then the Bible itself would not have been visible. There is something about seeing large black leather bound book that screams to people exactly what you are doing. Having an actual Bible in public is pretty much like "marketing the Gospel."

So here is my question.

Although the apps and gadgets that allow us to place the Bible on anything we want is definitely a good thing, are we losing something more valuable? Like the bold and powerful witness of someone reading their Bible in public? Are we using our apps and gadgets as a way to purposefully or even on some subconscious level hide our witness?

iPhone App Review: ESV Bible by Crossway

2010-12-03T07:46:00.000-05:00

The ESV Bible. Some say it fixed the errors the KJV made while it was correcting the errors of the original Greek and Hebrew. Personally, it is pretty much my main translation and the one my local church preaches from. Needless to say, having a good ESV application is important to me.

For the longest time, and I mean the longest, I have used YouVersion. However recently our churched moved to a public school building auditorium and getting any cell phone reception behind those concrete walls has been impossible. so I have only been limited to using the offline translations, which although are on there now, were not originally available for ESV on YouVersion.

It also used to be that in order to get a good ESV app you were stuck with the poorly designed and expensive OliveTree suite of applications. Let's just face it guys, us reformed folks spend the most money on books, Bibles and commentaries and the publishers know it.

But Crossway has cut us a break and they have given the world a very nice, very beautiful offline ESV Bible application for free. That's right. Free.

Not only is this app beautifully designed and pretty to look at, it allows you to do the following things thereby putting YouVersion to shame.

1. Highlight, copy, and share verses via facebook and twitter.

2. Cross Reference verses in a new window and then click the X to go to the source verse.

3. Type up and save notes on each individual verse.

Did I mention that the interface of this application is elegant, simple to use and beautiful to look at? It's seriously a piece of art.

It has become one of my most loved apps on my iPod Touch. While listening to a sermon in church service, I type up notes, thoughts and quotes from my pastor and have them there two days later for community group to discuss.

Everyone should have this app on their iPhone/iPod touch.

It's every Authorized ESV 2001 Fanboys dream app come true.

My only gripe is that it is not available on the Android Market, however if it were, it would seem incredibly out of place because beauty and function is not common place on android devices...yet.

You can download the app from the iTunes store here.

An overview of Pandora.

2010-12-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

By now most people have heard of Pandora Radio, a website and app that allows you to create "Radio" stations based on music that you like.

For example on my account, I have the following stations.

Sovereign Grace Music Radio

Keith Green Radio

Shai Linne Radio

Contemporary Christian

John Williams (Composer)

Now with each Pandora station, I am allowed to vote on which songs I like or do not like. Based on a secret Pandora algorithm, Pandora plays songs as it gets to know my personal likes and dislikes. This is the heart of Pandora.

Pandora is great for short rides home where you don't want to be bothered starting up an entire podcast or bother risking your life while trying to operate your iPod/iPhone looking for that one song. It's nice to sometimes let Pandora do what Pandora does best. Help you discover new Music.

However the Pandora experience is not perfect. Most of time time it's very predicable. For example, on my Sovereign Grace radio station it always plays three artists, in the exact same order and from the exact same album. The first song will always be a song from Sovereign Grace's Come Weary Saints, followed by The Getty's and last but not least as my ride home ends, I am greeted to a Chris Tomlin song which is mostly from his "See the Morning Album." I am hardly ever greeted to the same song, which is expected but I wish there were more variety in terms of artist. However, most of the time it does a good job of picking music I want to hear. But then there are those times it doesn't.

There is one thing that Pandora cannot do. I don't believe that it ever will be able to, but it can be quite frustrating. So forgive me as I state the obvious.

Pandora cannot determine the theology behind the music you listen to. Here is an example.

Your driving down the road, listening to some Shai Linne, or Lecrae and suddenly ex-nihilo some crazy prosperity rapper will come on or some pentecostal oneness gospel music craziness...

Sometimes the thumbs down that normally means "I don't like this song" is just not enough. Maybe a thumbs in ears button would be more useful.

Inability to properly exegete lyrical content aside, it's still a great app none the less. Some even believe it to be the end of radio as we know it.

Just a tip...my favorite thing to do is to play "Instrumental Hymns" while reading some puritans on my Nook and kick back.

and that's how this Sola-Gadgeta reformer gets down.

Help Wanted: Godly, Christ Centered Gadget Geeks.

2010-11-11T16:43:00.007-05:00

It has long been a desire of mine to really see this blog take off and reach a lot of people. However, it's really hard to maintain a gadget blog every day. There is so much news and information that is happening all the time, that I would seriously be stuck at my computer 24/7 doing nothing but blogging just to keep up.

However, I do believe there is a need for this sort of blog. A blog that shows how Christ is, will, or can be glorified in the midst of our nation's Gadget Idolatry.

That's why I am looking for top notch Christ centered Gadget bloggers to help launch this website.

Do you know what Engadget is?

Do you have 3 different Bible applications on your Smartphone?

Do you have more notes on your ESV Bible app, than in your actual ESV Study Bible?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, this might be a great thing for you to do. If you're able to commit to three blog posts a week with no word limit, then please send an e-mail with a witty, yet Christ centered review of one of your favorite Apps, Gadget or Phone to:

solagadgeta -at- gmail.com

Please make it original, and unique, demonstrating your own personal writing style and charm.

Again, thanks to all who have encouraged me to start this thing back up...again, I look forward to a fresh new start of glorifying Christ via sola Gadgeta..

Apologetics in a Flash. Literally.

2010-06-26T13:43:00.004-04:00

Earlier this week we showed you a Puritan Hard Drive. Now we've got a USB Drive filled with Bahnsen. So, like the title states, it's literally Apologetics in a Flash.

Filled with 54 Lectures of Greg Bahnsen, this 1GB thumb drive gives you more sermons and lectures on presuppositional apologetics then most people would need in their life.

And because it's filled with intellect from the one and only Greg Bahnsen, we're sure that only 2 lectures are really understandable to uneducated men like us.

But hey, it's only $59.99 which is far less then the $797 drive, and seems like quite a deal when you realize that the Covenant Media Foundation requires that you pay $1.99 for every single part of a multi-part sermon from Bahnsen. (I'm still hoping for a deal on his 63 part series on The Book of Revelation)

But until then...this will have to do.

The Puritan Hard Drive - For serious, puritan geeks, with serious cash.

2010-06-24T16:27:00.003-04:00

So, if your not like me and want to figure out the best way to spend $800 to the Glory of God, how about buying an external 250GB Hard Drive that's loaded with puritan resources!

PuritanDownloads.com promises that if you spend just $797.97, you can save a whopping $4200 on more puritan resources then you will ever need in your temporal life.

According to Puritan Downloads, for an entire $2.03 less then $800 you can get over 12,500 resources, that's a full 80 Gigs of resources that leaves you with 170 Gigs to download even more solid doctrine.

Check out the video below or view all of the geeky puritanical stats here.

Cell Phone Worship?

2010-05-20T20:15:00.005-04:00

So the other day, I was at a training meeting or something, I can't exactly remember, but the guy was talking about how intimate our cell phones have become to us.

It's the first thing you grab in the morning.

You always carry it with you.

You take it in the bathroom with you.

It sits beside you by your bed.

You talk about it with your friends.

You share it with your friends.

It causes you to think about how our hearts are indeed human idol factories.

Let's keep that in mind as we enjoy our gadgets that God has given us.

We don't worship the gift, we worship the gift Giver.

To him be all the Glory and Honor.

Google Listen Android App Review

2010-05-19T09:15:00.003-04:00

Google Listen

If you're a gadget savvy geek, with a regenerated heart, chances are you have tons of Podcasts you listen to daily, and sometimes it's just not convenient to connect your iPod to the nearest computer to resync.

I currently have the following Podcasts that I listen to constantly:

1. Wretched Radio with Todd Friel (Which is Password protected and will not work on Listen)
2. The Dividing Line with James White
3. The Gary DeMar Show
4. Desiring God by John Piper
5. Generations Radio - Kevin Swanson
6. Fighting for the Faith by Chris Rosebourgh
7. Last but not least, my guilty pleasure--The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast

I cannot tell you how many times I have been running late, ran to the car and plugged in my iPod only to realize that I had completely forgotten to update and sync all of my podcasts for the day.

Well, if you have an Android powered device, there is an App for that.

Google has a great podcast feed reader called "Google Listen" that allows me to input all of my favorite audio RSS feeds, updates, and allows me to stream or download them to my miniSD card.

It even allows me to search for new podcasts by searching for a keyword. With that being said, I have not found the search to be very helpful as it seems like the results are pretty chaotic and unorganized. The search feature is about as bad as a Bing search and not something you would expect from a Google product. Hopefully, they will work on it.

Terrible search aside, there are two great things about this app:

First, if I am browsing a website and notice that the website has a Podcast feed, I can click on that RSS and it will ask me if I want to subscribe to that Podcast right from within the Browser. A very handy feature. The other day I wanted to listen to a talk radio podcast to hear the commentary about a certain event, but, because I am not really into political talk radio anymore it was great to be able to just view the podcast right away without having to go home, log on to iTunes and sync my iPod.

Second, this app is great because it allows all of your Podcast subscriptions to be managed via Google Reader. You can add, delete and manage your favorite feeds right from within your browser. It really adds a lot of power to your Android device and places podcast management well over what the iPod can do.

Anyway, it's nice to always have the latest updated podcast with you at all times. I know that besides reading the Bible, my podcasts are a huge source of Biblical education for me. So Google Listen will play a huge role in that.

Steve Jobs says, "No" to iPhone Porn!

2010-05-18T11:57:00.008-04:00

Apparently, there has been a little debate between Steve Jobs and some bloggers on whether or not Apple will ever allow the App Store to have porn readily available.

I won't post the entire e-mail conversation as it contains words that are contrary to the Gospel of God, but I do want to emphasize some important points...

Ryan Tate, who writes for "Gawker", a pretty vile blog about entertainment and worldly desires, wrote Steve Jobs in what apparently was a drunken rant. Apparently, he was angry that the Apple iPad is being advertised as "Revolutionary" while restricting people's freedom to porn.

Tate appeals to Steve Jobs love of Bob Dylan...

"If Dylan was alive today how do you think he would feel about your company? Would he think the iPad has the faintest thing to do with 'revolution'? Revolutions are about 'freedom'."

Freedom, of course, here is implying that one has freedom to access all the porn he wants.
To which Steve Jobs replies quite bluntly...

‘Freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times they are a changin’ and some traditional PC folks feel their world is slipping away. It is.

Constitutional Liberties have nothing to do with freedoms that allow you to do whatever you feel like. The US Constitution allows the citizens to pursue happiness. The Bible makes it very very clear that there is no happiness to be found in sexual depravity; with this, he is right on.

I praise God that, at this time, Steve Jobs is taking the moral ground. I want to make it very clear that it is only "at this time" he is making that decision. We should not expect those who are unregenerate to maintain a moral high ground. When something better comes along, when the right amount of cash is thrown into Apple's bank account, this high ground may indeed change.

A sinful man's morality can never be a constant moral authority. Without Christ as the standard rock of our law, we should not be surprised when morality is not "rock" solid.

But, what is interesting here is that he states that people have freedom "from porn" and then attacks PC's for being responsible for that.

I believe he thinks that having a safe, family friendly device that is free from pornography is nothing more then a good business decision. It's amazing isn't it? A midst all the chatter of people claiming that a Christian business could not succeed because people desire depravity, Steve Jobs, a supporter of the homosexual agenda, is making a business decision based on family values.

I want to make this clear.

Any company that sides with a Christian view of morality will always profit more. The Christian world view is better and because of that it runs things better, even businesses.

This is not to say that Steve Jobs is running Apple with a Bible in one hand, but it does show how men who hate God and are his enemies are illogically and incoherently bound to follow his Law in other areas of life...especially for economic prosperity.

In other words, men follow God's Laws to gain the lust's of their hearts. They actually use God's Laws to sin against him.

Let me just be clear, there is no man besides the President on my list of men who I would love to see become a Godly Christian more then Steve Jobs. His work at PIXAR and Apple is truly an unbelievable reflection of God's common grace. If he would take his passion for creative perfection and reflect that into the glorification of God...it would have an unspeakable effect on Christ's Kingdom.

But until then, we support Steve Jobs when he makes good decisions. We love him, pray for him and challenge him in hopes that he comes to repentance before the Creator of Creativity.

Much like Joshua Harris did here...

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs, by Joshua Harris

2010-05-18T11:54:00.005-04:00

Below I have quoted the entire Open Letter to Steve Jobs from Joshua Harris. I thought it was very well worded and showed genuine concern that one of our nations most creative individuals will one day worship the Creator.

The original blog can be found here...

Dear Steve Jobs,

Tonight my son Joshua Quinn and I drove to the Apple store in Montgomery Mall with our good friends the Marescos--Kenneth, Patrick and Braden--to see and touch your new iPad. On the way home we all talked about whether or not we "felt a connection" with it (we all did) and what our favorite features were. I loved looking at pictures on it--so much more personal and intimate than a laptop. Joshua Quinn liked playing a car racing game. Kenneth said reading a book on it made the Kindle look like a decrepit Palm Pilot.

I was thoroughly impressed. Yes, I agree with all the hype about the iPad being a game-changer for how we read books, surf the web and interact with all the digital stuff in our lives like movies, games and photos. Of course you already know all this.

I did not buy one, though sometime down the road I might. Even though I consider myself a foaming-at-the-mouth Apple fanboy, I'm glad to say I've grown in self-control a bit over the years. And I don't feel I need to own an iPad to enjoy the unfolding spectacle of public interest and your gift of stirring up media interest. I just enjoyed watching other people use the iPad at the store. I can't imagine what it's like for you to watch people using it. That must be fun for you.

It struck me tonight how many of God's characteristics your work embodies. The Bible teaches that man is made in the image of God. In other words man is the creature most like God on the earth. And that's on display in your life. The creativity and attention to detail and joy you take in unveiling your work to the world, are all qualities that point to the ultimate Creator and Inventor and Showman.

Mr. Jobs, you are created in God's image. He's the one who has given you all the incredible gifts and talents that have allowed you to succeed. I sincerely pray that you'll glorify him--that you won't be like the ancient King Nebuchadnezzar who proudly surveyed the kingdom he built and ascribed it all to his own majesty and brilliance. (If you've never heard his story, it's in chapter 4 of the book of Daniel and is worth reading.)

I've been using your computers now for 25 years. I'm grateful for the work you've done. I mean that. Thank you! And I want you to know that I pray for your good health often. I also pray that one day soon you'll come to know and worship God's son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to save sinners like you and me. All the success you've achieved is meaningless apart from knowing him and finding through faith in him reconciliation with God.

God bless you, Mr. Jobs. And great work on the iPad.

Sincerely,

Joshua Harris

We're back in the game like Windows Mobile 7

2010-05-18T11:22:00.006-04:00

...well maybe not exactly like them. But you get the point.

It's been a while since I blogged on SolaGadgeta. It started as something that was very exciting, but to be honest the excitement drifted away as I shifted between new jobs. Now I think my life has gained a sense of normal consistency (not to mention an amazing Netbook whose review will begin shortly), so I think I am able to blog again...hopefully routinely.

This week at the Psalm 119 conference, I came across some people whom I never met that really encouraged me to keep it up.

To help keep the blog active, I plead with you and encourage you to spam me with all sorts of articles that have to do with Christ and Tech, even your own App and Gadget reviews.

Your help is appreciated.

Soli Deo Gloria

Marcus Pittman

Powerpoint Preaching is not Prophetic

2010-03-04T10:14:00.003-05:00

The following post is by Alan Kurschner a contributor for Alpha and Omega Ministries. I thought it was a great discussion starter for SolaGadgeta. The original can be found by clicking this link. What do you believe the dangers of using technology during worship are?

PowerPoint Preaching is Not Prophetic

These brief comments are not intended to give a list of pros and cons for using PowerPoint to supplement pastors' sermons (or for the more enlightened pastors who use Mac's Keynote). I just want to consider one con, probably the most important one. I simply do not find sermons supplemented with Powerpoint conducive to the qualities of soul-grabbing, prophetic, anguishing preaching.

I think it is safe to say that the main reason why pastors who use PowerPoint is to induce a bullet-point memory in their congregants. But that goal sets the bar too low for God's people. Preaching requires much higher demands on its people. In addition, there is just something about a cold, large projector screen vying attention away from the flesh and blood countenance of the pastor that diminishes my reflective soul to hearing God's Word. And I do not have a short attention span, so I cannot imagine the affect on those who do.

I know I said above that I was going to consider one con, but I will mention a second one, while on the subject. I have not pinned down why exactly, but after a pastor puts his most recent bullet-point on the screen, there is this atomizing affect that disconnects it from the other points. I am a big discourse analysis guy (aka "arcing"). Expository preaching is not about preaching bullet points, so why communicate it as if it were, in PowerPoint? Expository preaching is about explaining the author's argument---whether that is found in Jesus' parables, Paul's epistles, or Revelation's apocalyptic prophecy. Gordon Fee aptly once wrote: "For the sermon to have integrity as a proclamation of the intent of Scripture, it should focus on this question [the intended author's reasoning], and all its parts should serve that focus."

So jettison the PowerPoint and quit worrying about whether the congregants will remember the "three main points" of a sermon by Wednesday, and focus on edifying their Christian soul at that moment with soul-grabbing, prophetic, anguishing preaching.

(Case in point: John Piper does not use PowerPoint when he preaches. If he did, I am convinced that it would diminish the soul-grabbing, prophetic, anguishing quality of his preaching. But not just the latter quality, but it would also diminish his explanation of the expository-argument. I have observed that Piper does a masterful job in interweaving his discourse analysis into his sermons, which just goes to prove that DA is essential to good expository preaching.)

Discussion Starter - How do you use your mobile device for Evangelism?

2010-03-03T10:41:00.005-05:00

Comment below and tell us how you use your mobile device to help in the proclamation of the Gospel? Whether it be a recording app to record conversations or use it as a Bible, let us know below.

10 Words for Bob Pritchett CEO of Logos

2010-02-19T13:00:00.003-05:00

On Fridays, I plan to use a space for something I call, "Ten Words," as a way to keep the website active over the blogless weekends.

Here is how it works:

I will post a photo of someone in the Christian/Tech industry and you leave a comment of only ten words that you would like to say to that person.

It's simple, be creative, encouraging, sarcastic or funny but remember to be respectful as you would anyone within the body of Christ.

For the first weekend we have Bob Pritchett. The CEO of Logos Software. That's right, THE Logos Software. The makers of the iPod App and Desktop Bible research software. They have truly used technology to help pastors and their sheep get deep into the Word.

So here it is. Ten Words for "Bob Pritchett"

My Ten Words, "Do you have free copies of Logos Portfolio Laying Around?"

Now it's your turn, you can comment below by using your twitter account.

Stargate Studios Distorts Truth But The Gospel Is Still Real!

2010-02-19T07:22:00.002-05:00

Want to see something scary? The video below is a demo reel of Stargate Studio's Virtual Backlot. A really awesome Chroma Key (green screen) technology that allows directors to place actors anywhere in the world without them actually being there.

The faux sets are so incredibly realistic that one has no idea that an actor has never even been there.

It really makes you wonder what is real and what is tangible.

I praise God that The Gospel is not made up on some Hollywood soundstage, by a creative team of directors; It is true, it is real, and it was created before the foundations of the World by a living God.

After watching the video, once your head stops spinning, once you settle down and come back to reality, Praise the Lord for His reality and meditate on these verses:

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' John 14:6"

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory" Ephesians 1:13-14

First Impressions: The City

2010-02-18T13:10:00.011-05:00

When I started SolaGadgeta I was worried that there wouldn't be enough to do. I didn't think there was a lot going on in the world of Christian tech. Then just a day before I decided to launch SolaGadgeta, I came across a tweet about TheCity. I remembered reading an article about it when Zondervan first took ownership of it from Mark Driscoll's church, Mars Hill.

I decided to fully investigate it.

So, over the past two days I have attended two web seminars and had a phone interview with Adam Wygle, who has been with The City from the ground up, and is one of The City's lead trainers.

There is a lot to talk about so let's get started.

What is The City?

The City is a social media, cloud based web application that is used to allow members of a local body to interact and connect with each other in a way that does not violate the Biblical Model of the Church.

Geek Note:
A cloud based program is a program that is hosted on a series of servers over the Internet. Which means the program can be accessed from any computer and all the data and information is stored and protected without the user having to own a server, and worry about backing up the Data. You use cloud based programs everyday. Google Documents, Gmail, and Facebook are examples of cloud based architecture. As long as you have Internet, you have access.

Back to The City:
If I wanted to use Facebook to let everyone know that there was a pot-luck dinner next Saturday night, Facebook would be a great tool, but Facebook by itself is very public.

Everything I do on Facebook can be seen by people who go to my Church and those who do not.

For example: Facebook would not be a good tool to tell the members of my Church to pray for Mrs. Smith as her husband has cheated on her, nor would it be good to announce to everyone to pray for Melissa in Youth group as her father is in jail. These things are very personal and meant only for a small portion of people to know.

This is where the City really takes advantage of the Social Media world.

The City has Prayer and Event tabs that are meant for the Church and those that are meant for the public. A pot-luck dinner invite is for everyone and is announced publicly. A prayer request remains only where church members can view them. Even more sensitive information can be viewed only by those within your community group or even more privately, just for the elders of the Church.

But, The City is far more then another social media platform you have to keep up with.

The City is a complete church management application. It allows users to input their addresses, phone numbers, and e-mails. It keeps track of tithes and allows users to tithe online. The City is not accounting software, but, it does allow you to export tithing data and financial information into Quickbooks. Also, The City will eventually contain child management resources for child care workers and parents.

Finally, there is a reason to get rid of that terribly expensive and utterly terrible ACS program that enslaves so many churches financially. The ACS program forces Church staff to take routine and expensive training, not to mention that the software itself is impossible for non-staff to use. I think that The City will destroy ACS. It can't come to soon. ACS is seriously entwined with the Catholic Churches and something called Monvee which looks anything but Christian.

With that being said, The City is not free. The cost for smaller churches is near one dollar per month, per member. The larger the church, the less expensive it is per member. For all that The City offers a church, the price is really a great deal.

The City solves a problem that modern culture has not been able to fix. And that is, How can the members of a Church learn from each other, fellowship and interact...daily?

"And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts." Acts 2:46

In the Book of Acts, we see that the Church met daily. The members fellowshipped and ate with each other in almost cult like closeness. However, in our days, you frequently hear pastors saying, "That sort of unity is not required because the "culture" is different". It is different because we do not think of the local church as something we dedicate our lives to, but rather something we do for a certain amount of hours each week.

The Body of Christ, and one's dedication to it is of far more importance then weekly meetings. We are to give our lives to our Church family as Christ did.

The City solves this problem of lack of communication between the members of the body and allows smaller churches to grow closer together and larger churches to get to know each other on a more personal basis. It truly is as the developers say, "It is not a Church management application, but a church community builder".

But of course, as when any new technology is available for the Church, there are concerns.

The Concerns:
The City in all of its wonderful additions raises several questions. Is it possible for people within the Church to use The City for sinful gain?

A pastor can monitor, share notes and comment with any user that will only be known to a select few within the Church. The Elders can know everything about a member (as shown in the photo to the left), from the member's deeply personal past to slopes in tithing history. Surely, leadership that has such an insight on every member of the Church can use it for sinful gain and manipulation.

I asked about this concern with one of The City's trainers, Adam Wygle.

Of all the amazing things that The City does, Adam made it clear, "The City does not stop sin."

But, isn't that true with all technology? We seem to be so paranoid that the newest idea or latest methodology in Churches will lead to sinful and corrupt practices and ignore the positives and because of this our churches remain culturally stagnant. Humans will invent sin where there is none. Technology does not stop depravity, but preaching the Gospel does.

So yes, of course, The City can be used for all sorts of crazy things. However, its intention is to bring glory to God. Just as the printing press has been used for evil, it started as a way to bring glory to God and The City is the same.

I look forward to seeing how this can build a church and grow its members in unity. The City, with all the questions it raises, the fears that it brings into people's minds, the potential of 'Ananias and Sapphira' types using it for wicked gain, is truly an amazing tool. Also, The City is a tool that is meant for and I believe to bring glory to God and grow its members of a church together in ways not seen since the start of the first church over two thousand years ago.

For more information on how your church can get involved with The City visit http://www.onthecity.org

UPDATE: The pricing information listed above is not entirely accurate and was clarified in the comment below. Click Here

Reader Review - PocketSword iPhone App.

2010-02-18T10:13:00.006-05:00

The following is a guest review from a SolaGadgeta reader. If you would like to review an App for any mobile device or gadget please send your review here.

PocketSword

Review by: Laura Caudill

Have you see Pocket Sword Bible iPhone App? It is very cool. I just thought I'd tell you about it. It is free and can be downloaded for offline use. It comes with KJV (don't frown) and Matthew Henry's Concise commentary on the whole Bible when installed. Inside the app you can download the ESV (yay) and many other versions. Many languages are also available. I have also downloaded in the app Calvin's commentaries, Easton's Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary, ASV, Geneva Bible which I can't read, Tyndale Bible which is just as difficult, and CH Spurgeon's Treasury of David, Luther's commentary of Galatians. It also has copy/paste feature, history, and search and bookmarks. It is fast and I think I could sit in a corner and just read the commentaries. It is all free, including all the downloads that you get within the app itself. I only mentioned a few of the downloads available. There is even Greek stuff available, but it is Greek to me. (I know not funny.) Just thought you might like it.

The What if's of Technology.

2010-02-17T10:19:00.005-05:00

"and through Him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Col 1:20

The other day I was speaking to Adam Wygle from The City and I asked him all sorts of paranoid questions about the dangers of a social media device being used between members of the Church.

He said something pretty profound that has had me thinking all week.

Technology won't stop sin.

It's so easy to look at the newest piece of tech and think that it will bring about the end of Christ and his Church. Fear over the newest music, the newest innovation, the newest smart phone or device.

None of it will stop sin.

Humans invent sin, but that's no need for humans (especially Christians) to stop inventing for the Glory of God.

The printing press, which was originally used to create cheaper and more abundant copies of the Bible has since been used for pornography and gossip.

The Internet which has been used for proclaiming the Gospel all over the world and has made the Bible more available then ever in the history of creation has also been used for pornography, rape and countless other crimes against God.

Yes, using a projector in Church will cause people to be lazy, not bring their Bible to church, but it also allows members of the house church in China, who do not have enough Bibles to read the scriptures as a group.

That newest technology, whatever it may be, will result in numerous countless acts of depravity. More then we can possibly number. However, we should still use what God has given us to redeem culture and advance the Gospel to the nations.

Because the only way to halt sinning with technology is to advance the Gospel using it and there by sending the only name that can start the process of sanctification to as many people as possible.

Reader App Review - PocketBible by Laridian

2010-02-16T13:14:00.008-05:00

The following is a guest review from a SolaGadgeta reader. If you would like to review an App for any mobile device please send your review here.

PocketBible by Laridian

Review by: Russell Bonchu

One of my favorite apps on my ipod, which is a Christian app is PocketBible by laridian (http://laridian.com/). I have been a customer of theirs for years, ever since I had their My Bible program on a Palm Pilot. The program it self is free, you just pay for the bibles or other modules you want. They have virtually every version of the Bible, commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, and virtually anything else you could possibly need to study God's Word. Best of all, the program acts just like a physical Bible. You can make bookmarks, highlights, margin notes, all of which can be color coded and in categories to make them easier to find. You can feel free to review this program and rate it anyway you like, but I consider it a top rated program, and a must have for anyone who wants to study the word on a portable screen.

The program is also available on other platforms including Blackberry, windows Mobile, Windows, and others. I am not sure if they have an Android version yet but I would be willing to bet it is in the works.

Will "Square" change how you tithe?

2010-02-16T11:54:00.003-05:00

I for one love the idea of using plastic to pay tithes.

I know there are different opinions of ATM's in churches, and many of the opinions are valid, but I always forget to bring cash to Church to tithe with. If I do bring cash to church it's only left over dollar bills from some other purchase. So yes, as long as one is using plastic to tithe and that plastic is using actual money as opposed to credit he doesn't have, I am all for Churches setting up ATM machines where congregants can access them.

At least I was.

I was for giant ATM machines in Church lobbies until a friend sent me a link to Square.

What is square? Well some people are saying that Square is the cash killer. I know what your thinking "People have been saying plastic was going to destroy cash for years, but we still have cash". That's correct. But this time I think they might be serious.

The problem with plastic is that it is impossible for the average Joe to use. The only people that can receive payments via credit cards are those that have the terminals. So for the most part credit cards can only be accepted by businesses or people with PayPal/Google Checkout.

Then came Square.

Square is a new iPhone app that allows any user to take credit card payments as simply as taking cash from a friend. Whether you have the special attachment or not, anyone can take any credit card for payment for any service.

Watch the video then meet me 344 pixels below for some thoughts.

Personally I am excited about it. Youth car washes wouldn't be cash only anymore and neither would the seniors bake sales.

Of course a major concern of everyone using square is the value of the dollar being reduced by the still unknown percentage that is taken from Square with every transaction.

Do you think it's a good idea for Churches to set up Square tithing stations with iPods in which a member could just use this nifty program to tithe at local churches? Why or Why Not?

Chop it up below.

iPhone App Review - Answers in Genesis

2010-02-15T12:24:00.004-05:00

If your looking for a review of the Answers in Genesis app for the iPhone/Touch on iTunes here is what you will see.

Useless, this misinformation has no business in education and actually makes you dumber. -RobFay

Shame on Apple for putting this in the Education section. This belongs in the philosophy and mythological section. - CivicMinded

This isn't science and frankly it's the opposite of education. - Hornet52

But of course no creationist app would be complete without a review from the one and only PZ Meyers who so humbly lends us his words of open mindedness and reason.

It's a disgrace that this garbage is being peddled as "Educational" It's basically a dump of Bad content from a looney creationist site. Don't waste your time with it. - PZ Meyers

Well it looks like your not going to get a decent review of the app from the iTunes store. So I guess that's where I come in.

I was indeed very excited the other day when I got the tweet stating that Answers in Genesis, who is one of the premiere Creationist resources has finally made an Apple App. As soon as I read it I ran to my iPod touch which at the moment happens to be a first gen model and attempted to download the application. To my complete devastation. I could not.

Why? Because the Answers in Genesis App is built using a third party Instant-App maker called AppMakr and because of the limitations of the AppMarkr design process you could not install the Answers in Genesis application on older iPod touches because "you need a microphone."

Trust me. You don't need a microphone because the application does not have any cool features that would benefit from it. In fact, the Answers in Genesis application does not have any cool features at all. It is a complete and utter disappointment.

Let's be clear here, unlike the rabid atheists, my negative review has nothing to do with the creationist content on the app. Instead it has to do with the lack of creationist content.

The Answers in Genesis application is nothing more then a very, very stripped down feed reader. It allows you to view several feeds from the Answers in Genesis website and that's about it. You can view the Blog, latest Answers in Genesis resources from the store and even read the latest After Eden comics and there is just not much more.

The biggest disappointment is that you are not able to search Answers in Genesis for...well...answers.

I have to admit when I first discovered this app my mind was racing with visions of being able to debate atheist with the app in hand, searching for their answers to questions and letting them read the evidence for a young earth but it's just not possible because there is not even a search feature on the program.

For some small Churches and Blogs the AppMakr application is a great idea. It allows people who have no knowledge in designing applications to have their own feed reading App for only 199.99. But when it comes to a major international organization like Answers in Genesis. Using AppMakr to design your iPhone application is probably the worst idea.

Hopefully this was just a preview of something bigger that AiG is working on, but until then were still waiting for Answers.

CloverSites.com - The $1000 Template.

2010-02-12T07:59:00.001-05:00

Three jobs ago I started doing sales and marketing for a small website design company. I liked the job, mainly because I got to go to be involved in a lot of social media stuff. I learned a lot of great things about website design and fell in love with Wordpress. I also learned that people are only willing to pay so much for a website.

The websites we made were custom and by "custom" I meant we took a Wordpress template and designed it around your needs from scratch. This meant designing a logo and incorporating the logo into the feel of the template. Manipulating the template to suit the feel of the company etc etc. Anyways, it was a lot of work and we did it for pennies. A whole three hundred bucks and that included a year of hosting!

For small business owners...this was a steal. I was responsible for trying to generate some church and non-profit leads but ran into a problem. Most churches of substantial size either want to hire people to work on the website constantly from within, or they have enough volunteers and geeks within their walls they can do it for free. Smaller churches were a lot tougher because they either have a volunteer maintain a website for them or they just don't want one.

But now for all of those in between churches there is Clover.

Clover allows a Church to quickly and easily create a custom website using very non-custom "templates". You pick the style, add your text and insert photos. It all can be done within minutes. It's quick. It's simple and it's expensive.

Really expensive.

The price is flat rate. $1000 for the entire site. As Clover explains. "It's not priced at $999 to make you think like it's $900, it's $1000." Thanks for that Clover. Oh and that doesn't include the hosting fees of $20 a month.

Now don't misunderstand me. The websites look really good. They are very clean and slick and with every site you can customize it to make it look however you want. Yet, there is something inside of me that says..."Because the website design process is so cookie cutter, the price is outrageous."

Not only is $1000 really high priced for the limited options for the websites, but your stuck with them as web hosts. Which means if you ever want to do something different guess who has all your data. Yep. Clover. Which means when your church does get that new member who is willing to really get your website up and running....everything is lost.

But what if later on down the road you decide that your church needs to change the design. Well that will cost you as well. But don't worry the guys at Clover will only charge half of the cost to re-design it. That's another $500. Their website states:

"The main thing to keep in mind is that Clover isn't like a blog where you can switch designs at any time. What you're purchasing is a full-blown website, not a little template that you can swap out at any time." - CloverSites.com
I'm pretty sure that Clover websites are the very definition of a template. Look on Wikipedia.

Template - a pre-developed page layout in electronic or paper media used to make new pages with a similar design, pattern, or style. - Wikipedia

What do you guys think? Should a church pass the offering plates and raise $1000 to buy a site off the Clover assembly line, or should they go to their local university and find a designer to be that's more then willing to get their hands dirty for the same price or less?

Respond Below.

Live Blog of The City Webinar - Day 2

2010-02-11T12:00:00.026-05:00

OK, it's time for day two of The City Webinar. If you missed the first one you can find it here.

So far I have been really impressed with this program, but I still have tons of questions. Many of these questions I hope to get answered in a few moments. IE What does a new user see? What can I do on The City as someone who is not in leadership? How does The City integrate with other social media applications like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace?. OK. No one really cares about MySpace integration except middle school students. While were at it, how would youth groups be able to benefit from The City? Would an online fart joke among a group of middle students still be as non-funny as in real life?

So many questions....

But it's almost time for the show.

You can view the webinar live with me at 4pm by clicking here.

Oh and be sure to check out the live blog from yesterday here.

The show begins at 4pm eastern, right here. So be sure to check it out.

3:57pm EST: Waiting for the event to start. No music, No Live Band, nothing. Zondervan must be on a tight budget.

4:00pm EST: Looks like it's about to start!

4:03pm EST: Steve Montgomery is speaking an leading the webinar today. And we have started.

4:04pm EST: We will be going over pricing today!

4:05pm EST: The City started from a former employee of Amazon who had a desire to leverage technology to build community and help the Church be organized. Great story of Redeeming culture for the Gospel.

4:10pm EST: The City manages public, Private, Internal and External affairs of the Church all in one. Facebook and Twitter are public Church events handled by The City Plaze where as accounting is handled via The City internally.

4:12pm EST: You can't place sensitive material on Facebook, but with The City you can. Am I the only one that has placed Church matters on Facebook? Big No No.Big Trouble.

4:15pm EST: Were going through user management. How a new member would register for The City. It sure beats something like ACS where the church secretaries have to do all of it. Saves Office staff tons of time.

4:16pm EST: Pastor has the option to turn off getting e-mails from certain groups. Not to sure I like that. A pastor should be open to speak with every member. Even if it is overwhelming at times. Read "The Reformed Pastor" by Richard Baxter.

4:18pm EST: Church can promote meetings and seminars to members. They appear as Advertisements on the right side of the page.

4:20pm EST: The City has a prayer wall that is really phenomenal. Someone can post prayers and updates (sort of like a Facebook Wall) that is private for the entire Church. Church members can then comment and respond as well as keep track of the current prayer event.

4:22pm EST: talking about a member named Lars who joined Church to "Find Friends" not a good reason to join a church Lars. I would suggest Biblical Study 101.

4:25pm EST: Basically The City allows anyone in the Church you want to know everything about a certain member, keep notes and information.

4:27pm EST: This could be a help for Large Churches, but for small churches it could make them lazy. Also do we want to get phone calls from the pastor because The City has stated we have not been called in a while, or do we want to be called by the Pastor because he cares about us? Questions...

4:30pm EST: When there is an event IE a Church Dinner, people can pick what roles they want to do. Like take out trash, help cook, bring Chick-Fil-A. Everyone sees what everyone has agreed to do, they also see what people have not agreed to do. For that you call in the Deacons.

4:33pm EST: Facebook integration. Public events that appear on Facebook like invites and comments contain a link that says "Go to the City" from there people can view an event from within the City. IE If you are raising money for a mission trip it will be shown to the Church + people in Facebook expanding fundraising opportunities.

4:35pm EST: A non-Church member can visit The City from Facebook and make comments about an event. This would be great for surrounding area churches. For example what if three churches met together for a revival event?

4:36pm EST: Did I mention that The City is designed very well. It's clean and pretty. Just like you would an expect a Web 2.0 Cloud Application to be. In fact it looks like something a Fortune 500 company would design. The average Facebook/Twitter user is going to feel right at home. Grandma is still going to have a problem.

4:41pm EST: Google Earth implementation. Very cool. Not sure how useful it is in the real world. But still it's cool. Photo below.

4:43pm EST: Going over a lot of Roles and Groups that they went over yesterday in the Admin webinar.

4:45pm EST: Steve uses TweetDeck.

4:49pm EST: Going over the accounting functions of The City. A lot of financial information can be exported to QuickBooks. The City is not accounting software.

4:54pm EST: Were going over pricing comes out to about a dollar per person per month. Image below.

4:55pm EST: and we are done.

Do you tweet for the Glory of God? (repost)

2010-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

The following post is one I wrote a few months ago on my Transplant Ministries blog. The original can be found here.

----

Exactly two weeks ago a dear friend rebuked me about my tweeting. He said that it seemed as if Twitter and Facebook has been the primary source for my evangelism as opposed to a desire to see souls saved and God glorified.

He was dead on and it scared me.

So for the past two weeks I have abstained from any sort of unnecessary social media communication. It’s been really freeing and has caused me to question my desire to tweet.

In fact for the first few days I noticed that I wanted to tweet about everything.

Every event, every funny thought, every spiritual thought, Where am I going? What am I doing? What am I eating?. It made me ask myself why? Why do I want to tweet this? Will it bring Glory to me? Do I desire to see what people will say, how they respond or even if they think I am witty or bright? Will it Bring Glory to God?

I quickly realized within the first few days the the vast majority of my tweets were about me and for me.

and quite simply…that's sin.

The one thing I did not abstain from during these two weeks is reading other peoples tweets and Facebook statuses. I got to observe. For some tweets I wish I could have responded. For others I wondered why they posted it at all.

I learned that Twitter is a very valid form of communication. I think as time goes by we will see its importance rise. Being able to keep up with the news without sifting through hours of commentator diatribes on cable networks. Staying up to date on my favorite blogs and glancing at the current trends allow me to be culturally relevant and aware without being a part of the world or wasting to much time.

Needless to say like all forms of social communication Twitter can be dangerous.

Just as communication on a cell phone can lead to others sharing Gossip, the cell phone, like Twitter, is not sinful. Just as the cell phone can be used for the Glory of God…So can Twitter.

So please examine your motives. Why do you Tweet? Is it really for the Glory of God or is it really for the Glory of You?

With that I end my Twitter fast. I will be tweeting less about things I am doing and instead use my twitter account to discuss topics, engage in discussion, promote blog posts and be an encouragement to other believers.

I pray that you use my recent failure to examine yourself before the throne of God, so the King of Glory might increase.

Soli Deo Gloria.

YouVersion - The Good, The Bad and the Pretty.

2010-02-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

YouVersion App for Blackberry.

A few weeks ago before this Blog ever existed I posted a tweet asking people to suggest their favorite Bible reader program. It was pretty much unanimous. The winner was the YouVersion Bible by LifeChurch.tv

Although most people might know it by it's Application name. Bible.

The people had spoken and with good reason. YouVersion is a great Bible application and it is one that I use myself, all the time. In many ways it has changed the way people take their Bible to church. For many people, myself included our Bible is now on our mobile device.

What is YouVersion?

YouVersion is a Mobile Bible application that according to their website "contains 41 different translations, in 22 languages" and works on most of , if not all wireless phones and devices. Including Iphone/iPod Touch, Android Devices, Blackberry, WebOS (Palm) as well as countless JAVA platforms. If none of those work for your phone, have no fear because they have a Mobile Web version as well.

The pretty.

What really sets this apart from normal everyday Bible readers is it's functional design. Every platform of YouVersion I have ever played with has a stylish yet functional design. It is anything but ugly. It is as the title of the blog suggests...very pretty.

There are hundreds of Bible apps that are made by someone who simply did a quick copy and paste of a KJV text file. Boring to look at, hard to read with tons of typos, hard to distinguish verses and no functionality.

YouVersion is not that. Every verse is easy to read, and the text of the Bible is seamlessly integrated within the core beauty of the program itself. It really is a tremendous program...and it's all free.

Its very clear why YouVersion has taken over the mobile Bible market.

But there is one more thing that set's YouVersion apart. Something that makes it incredibly unique and terribly dangerous.

The Theological Dangers of YouVersion (The Bad)

YouVersion allows users, no matter who they are, no matter their degree of theological training or lack there of, publish what it calls "Contributions".

Some of the contributions are very good. Every now and then you open up a verse with a contribution someone posted with commentary from Charles Spurgeon or Matthew Henry. But then there are other people who post on YouVersion who shouldn't be commenting at all.

This is the YOU in YouVersion. It turns a very objective truth, The Bible, into a very subjective conversation that never gets anywhere. It allows people who may not even have the Holy Spirit to help them understand scripture, to give their thoughts on the Word of God.

It reminds me of a story.

A while back ago I was looking for a good Bible study that I could go to with people my own age so I could be fed because I was leading the Youth at my Church (and thus there was really no teaching for me, because I taught). I got permission to attend a local baptist college group on weeknights even though I was not a student on the campus.

After two weeks I couldn't take it anymore.

The format for the study was everyone would read the same passage of the Bible and then take turns commenting on "what each verse means to them".

Let's be blunt here. I don't care what a verse means to you. I care about what it means.

This is the post modern problem we have here with YouVersion. There is never a right or wrong. Don't believe me? Read the Romans 9 Contributions. One guy named SilverSkylark talks about how he is losing his faith over these verses. SilverSkylark states : "This can't really mean that God makes people for destruction can it?" he goes on to say "I don't want to serve a God that is cruel. I am hoping Paul's examples are theoretical..."

And that's not the only concern...

Now the contributions themselves can be valulable. The same chapter holds commentaries from Piper and Albert Mohler, but the contributions by themselves is not what makes YouVersion such a problem. It's the purpose of YouVersion as stated by the makers themselves.

LifeChurch.tv the makers of YouVersion give me pause. Their website talks a lot...a whole lot...about relevance and making the Bible "relevant" for everyone.

From YouVersion.com

Since its start in 1996, LifeChurch.tv's purpose has been to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. In doing so, we have looked for new ways to help people connect the Bible to their daily lives. [emphasis mine] Our methods have changed over the years as we've incorporated various technologies and strategies. But at the core, our focus remains on relevancy as we consistently strive to demonstrate and teach people how God's Word relates to everyone, no matter where they are in life.

Let me use this to interject...

Technology is a blessing. The fact that we can carry our bibles on the same devices we use to make phone calls is a sign of God's grace that we don't deserve. We should talk about it more. We should engage in discussion on how we can make use of Technology for the Gospel. That's what SolaGadgeta is about. Using technology to further the Gospel, not to make the Gospel appeal to people. Only God can make someone see the Gospel's relevance to their lives.

The Gospel is relevant with or without technology and gadgets.

The Bible IS relevant to ALL people.

Whether they have to read God's Word on hundreds of sheets of paper bound in something people over 60 call a book or if they read it on their cell phone. The idea that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem wicked men of their filthiness before him by His death on the cross and resurrection and the shocking concept that God turns enemies who repent and trust in Him into heirs of His kingdom. That is always relevant, no matter what medium it's presented on.

The Gospel is not relevant because you can read it on your iPhone while in the shopping mall. The Gospel is relevant even if you can't. YouVersion is doing and has done nothing to make the Bible relevant. It already is. LifeChurch.tv is only making the Word of God more accessible.

So there you have it.

The Good, The Bad, and the Pretty. YouVersion is a phenominal piece of technology that is truly a blessing to many people, including myself. Although the folks at LifeChurch.tv may have participated in making the Bible more accesible and easy to reach then any generation in history, despite their claims, they have done nothing to make the Bible more "relevant" then it already is. God already took care of making his Gospel relevant to all men before the foundations of the World.

You can download YouVersion via iTunes here.

The Blackberry Version can be downloaded on your Blackberry by visiting this website from the Blackberry browser.

http://youversion.com/bb

For all other versions visit their Mobile application webpage here.

LiveBlog: @TheCity Webinar

2010-02-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The City's Live Blog for IT Staff.

Stay tuned as the seminar starts at 1pm Eastern. You can view the seminar here.

This seems to be like it will be a meeting devoted to a lot of the technical stuff. So it might get a little geeky...perfect.

Keep refreshing the blog for updates.

12:58pm EST : Were waiting for the webinar to start.Listening to the soothing and repetitive robotic female voice. "The Webinar will begin Shortly...Please Remain on the Line." Don't worry. Were not going anywhere.

1:02pm EST : Were waiting...

1:04pm EST : Three main areas to help churches Connect. Grow. Lead.

1:07pm EST : How are we leveraging all the different technology options being used to advance the Gospel" I agree, this is a good goal for the Church.

1:09pm EST : "City Plaza let's you expose some of the things that are going on inside of the Church to the outside world"

1:10pm EST : The city has built in e-mail functions...that's expected.

1:12pm EST : The City helps the Church connect all the social media technologies.

1:14pm EST : "Instead of chasing down small group leaders and information the City gathers that information instantly and organicly"

1:16pm EST : Information on users profiles can be changed by administrators.

1:17pm EST : Were talking about security. It's hacker proof.

1:18pm EST : DEMO TIME!

1:22pm EST : I am noticing that it "looks" like facebook as far as a lot of features. but it has it's own unique feel. It's not a "Christian Facebook" that you have to pay for.

1:23pm EST : Google Earth is built into the application. Pretty cool being able to see current location of Church members. Even ones that have moved away or been shipped out to sea via military.

1:24pm EST : You can control how the sharing is enabled. Different modes for Multi-Campus churches and Single Campus Churches.

1:26pm EST : It has a lot of options. Just like setting up any normal PHPbb or Bulletin Board system. Every user has different access and abilities.

1:29pm EST : You have the ability to measure the health of small groups. I am not sure how on e would be able to measure that. But yep, it can be kept track of.

1:31pm EST : Editing User profiles. This ladies profile is a deacon. Must not be a presby church. Emma needs a vacation . She does a lot.

1:33pm EST : Disturbing. Admins can keep personal notes about each user. Emma was abused, and she has issues with tithing. A lot of crooked and evil churches could take advantage of that sort of info. See photo below.

1:38pm EST : Very simple to e-mail just certain groups of people. Contacts can be exported by Small Group or Church Level. Now that is nice.

1:40pm EST : You can view campus wide demographics. See age of members, whose divorced or remarried. Pastors can know a lot about their members from a single user to the church as a whole. Anyone think this might prevent pastors from spending time with his sheep? #possibleDownside

1:44pm EST : All the colors can be changed and customized. Make it "The City feel like your church"

1:46pm EST : At the moment people can tither and give money via Google Checkout. This is nice. I forget to bring cash to church all the time. More finance providers are coming soon. The don't have PayPal yet. Shame.

1:48pm EST : There are a lot of options for the Admin/backend of the system. But it'salso very simple to use If you have ever set up a wordpress blog or something of the sort you will feel very comfortable with the CMS.

1:50pm EST : It's Cloud based! No need to have a server at the Church. Very nice for churches (like mine) who don't own a building but rent out a place to hold service.

1:53pm EST : Talking about processes now. For example allows users to keep up to date with and following the process for covenant membership or leadership/elder training.

1:54pm EST : This seems like a really good idea for churches with multiple steps for membership. But walk down the aisle baptist churches might have no use for this feature. ;-)

1:57pm EST : Looks like were wrapping up now. time for questions and answers.

2:00pm EST : I like how the "software" is built around keeping the biblical model of the Church. This is not meant to replace the Biblical Church but meant to help it and keep it's Biblical structure. (I wonder if it will allow you to have a female pastor)

2:05pm EST : Just asked if data could be transferred to another church that uses the city. It cannot be transferred. So if you move to another church. Your out of luck. Gets a typing.

2:07pm EST : Looks like were done here. Overall looks great for large churches with upwards of 1000 Members. Would be interesting to see how a smaller church (like mine) would benefit from it. Still no info on costs either.

2:09pm EST : And were done! What No live David Crowder Band Concert or nothing. Time to wake up for, a moment I thought I was at an Apple Announcement.

Cross Shaped Christian MP3 Player - Gadget Fail.

2010-02-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

If your not like me, your iPod is maxed out with so many volumes of WOW Worship and Music that there's no room to store the newest collection? What should a Christian do?

You need the cross shaped MP3 player! With this MP3 player you'll be guaranteed to stand out in youth group and catch the eyes of the Pastors daughter.

Look at what the manufacturer "ChinaVasion" says:

"A perfect MP3 for making a fashion statement, this PMP will get noticed
whenever and wherever you take it." ChinaVasion

OK, let's get serious...

Not only is this piece of junk MP3 player guaranteed to not play MP3's well. It's also made in China. Why is that significant?

Because Christians in China do not have the luxury of sporting Cross shaped MP3 players or else they will be martyred on the streets. Now, certainly these sort of things can be made in Hong Kong, but try to smuggle that poor excuse for relevance to a house church in another part of China and you could find yourself in a whole lot of trouble and most of that trouble would come from the Christians themselves who would be wondering where the Bibles are. Fail.

So yes, what ChinaVasion says about the MP3 player is true, especially in China. It's guaranteed to get you noticed.

The Kindle succeeds in not being new.

2010-02-09T16:19:00.001-05:00

It's interesting that no matter how much technology we have, no matter how many different apps we can view the Bible on. Nothing beats reading via paper and ink. When it comes to reading, were still comfortable with the black and white technology of old. The very technology that God used to give us his written word was paper and ink and after thousands of years, it is still the best method to read.

It is quite an interesting thought isn't it?

As churches try hundreds of new and fancy ways to get the message out there by being "hip and relevant", Amazon comes along and their hip and relevance is in copying something as archaic as paper and pen.

Chew on that a while and while your at it get the full review on the Kindle from Tim Challies here after the leap.

"While the Kindle does support both notes and highlighting, it is not easy to
run back and skim the book looking for notes and highlights—or certainly not as
easy as it is with a book. While I love the Kindle for lighter reading, I do not
think it would be as effective for me when it comes to more dense reading; for
those situations I would still want to have my book, my pencils and my
highlighter." Tim Challies

EvangelismDroid - Background Wallpaper.

2010-02-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

So you just got a brand new Droid phone from Verizon right?

Everyone is asking you to see it right?

What if showing someone your phone was as good as witnessing to them?

Below is a background I made to help people do just that. Just plug your phone into the computer, mount it, place it in your pictures folder on the memory card and set as Wallpaper.

Easy as that. The first 10 Verses are listed on the front while the last verse is read from left to right. It does minimize your desktop space for icons, but that's what the application drawer is for right?

Will "The City" Change the Way We do "Church"

2010-02-08T10:14:00.001-05:00

A little while ago the Tech team at Seattle's Mars Hill made a cool little program for their church which was bought by Zondervan. A way of organizing the church together and keeping them social throughout the week when Church is not in session.

It's sort of like Facebook with the ability to manage small groups, church events and prayers. A sort of Virtual Church Bulletin.

From what I gather from watching the videos I am pretty excited about it.

This week my parents Church decided last minute to shut down the service because of snow. It wasn't a lot of snow but by the time word got out that they were going to cancel guess who was already dressed and out the door risking her life to make it on the dangerous roads to Church. My mom was.

It seems to me that if my moms Church had "The City" this problem could have been solved.

But that's only one thing The City does.

I left the last Church I was at because of a lack of fellowship. It didn't seem that anyone wanted to really do anything with Jesus except during the allotted times. Sundays and Wednesday Nights. During the week you were left on your own and no one really wanted to discuss Church things on Facebook because some issues were "in house".

So there was a problem, even though people in the Church had Facebook, they were not to keen on using it for Church stuff and rightfully so. Some Church stuff is private.

The City allows you to use the benefits of social networking in a private in house matter.

Now I am at a new Church, a much more culturally hip church but still very theologically driven church. What does that mean? It means that everyone carries their ESV Bible on their iPhone.

So, how could the city help our Church? We currently use a system called Church Community Builder and it's not very special. I guess you would call it the MySpace of Church communities and as far as I know we only use it for distributing the e-mail news letter. No one really interacts on there regularly.

It would be amazing to have a system in which I could just talk directly to my community group or speak to the church as a whole or even, dare I say, tweet directly to people about the sermon like a conference. I think The City is that system.

Being that it's so new and there is not a lot of information about it. Like price, features, etc etc. It seems as if there are a lot of questions. But still possibilities are exciting.

Below is the video that goes into more detail.

What do you think of The City? Is it useful or will it become an incredible distraction?

CCEL - Free iPhone app

2010-02-06T18:50:00.001-05:00

So you might know you can get Charles Spuregeon's Evening and Morning for 99 Cents by doing a quick App Store search, but what you probably did not know is that you can get it for free thinks to the Christian Classic Ethereal Library Devotional Bible.

If your not familiar with the CCEL (as it's more simple and abbreviated name is called) it's a massive online collection of (some) reformed works. Everything from Jonathan Edwards to Charles Spurgeon and even for some strange reason some Charles Finney.

The CCELDB is not a complete collection of everything on the Etherreals Internet(s). It is however a collection of devotionals.

Most importantly this free iPod app contains the complete Morning and Evening app, the ASV Bible and a KJV Bible for you onlyist. So every morning and evening you can read for free what I believe to be one of the best Devotionals you could ever use.

It also contains two other devotions. I have know idea who these other guys are or anything about their writings. So take it as it comes. Did I mention it has free Spurgeon devotionals?

Download the App here.

UPDATE: My friend Joel Taylor at 5ptSalt alerted me to the fact that Brother Lawrence is heavy into Contemplative Prayer and Mysticism. He also happens to be one of the authors of the devotionals on this app.

To learn more about the dangers of this, take the jump to Apprising.

Sola Gadgeta

2010-02-06T18:16:00.001-05:00

We live in a crazy world with technology changing all around us. Were constantly bombarded with tons of new gadgets. The newest gotta have it gadget, the newest video game or the newest cell phone with the newest apps.

It can be a lot to handle. Well let's be honest here. It can be Idolatry.

In one week our fascination with the newest device can grow from intrest and curioisity to out right idol worship and covetousness.

Don't be silly, there is nothing sinful in the newest iPhone or Android device. But our love for such things can become sinful. So that's why I created this blog.

SolaGadgeta.

This blog is about Gadgets alone. For the reformed gadget geek.

Not only do I hope to review some of the latest cell phones, techno devices and gadgets on the planet. I also hope to review and discuss ways these new devices can be used to further the Gospel.

What mobile applications are best used to further your walk for Christ?

What iPhone apps are best for sharing the Gospel?

Why would getting that newest cell phone actually help your devotional time?

Think of it as redeeming culture.

Because having a love for the newest Apple product shouldn't throw you into the crazy pomo eco-friendly emergent camp.