The electronic device I used to read the Bible has an update coming…

Report: New models of Amazon’s Kindle coming

An “insider” told TechCrunch that one model, a smaller, updated version with an improved interface, would be available as early as October, in time for the holiday season. The source also said that Amazon has “skipped three or four generations” and compared the old Kindle to the first-generation iPod and the new version to the sleeker iPod Mini.

TechCrunch said the second new model, which should be available next year, is shaped like a 8.5-by-11-in. sheet of paper and is much bigger than the current model, which is the size of a paperback book.

Both models will most likely come in a variety of colors and may be aimed at younger readers, according to TechCrunch.

Recently when talking to some co-workers we were discussing the environment you have at work, and the manner in which you interact with your co-workers.  Sometimes we seem to be extremely eager to cut others down or poke fun at them while around different sets of people. I was describing the desire to treat everyone respectfully in an uplifting manner and was told that was just to idealistic. That it was unrealistic and that no one lives that way. I wonder if they are right, I hope not, I think we just choose not to live that way.

In the past I have caught myself rationalizing why I shouldn’t have try so hard, or to make excuses why I have not lived up to the example Jesus has given us. In Colossians 3 Paul tells us we should have lofty goals in regard to our actions, that settling isn’t really proposed as an option. So I am trying to treat everyone as I think is befitting my understanding here in Colossians 3, failing frequently, but working at trying to improve on that performance.

Do you think we can ever over strive to be more like Jesus? I am convinced we can’t but that the devil has done a great job of making us think we are too hard on ourselves. Can’t we be aware of our failings without it being guilt laden? I think if anything this awareness of our imperfections and their implications should strengthen our resolve to lean on Jesus to make up that difference. But I think we just don’t bother reaching for it most of the time. I know I don’t. But I want to, and I want to get better at it. Maybe today I can be more like Jesus for only 5 seconds, but maybe tommorow I can do 6. I’m not implying you should keep track, that would kind of botch your ability to do it at all, but by focusing on being aware of your actions surely that brings us closer to making a difference in our actions.

Some may say, duh! and they should restart their timers, just kidding but I would say that thinking about how we treat each other can only be at the root of being more like Jesus. Every day he made a difference in the lives of sinners around himself, not becoming one of them to understand the sin. Just loving them enough to want to draw them away from their sins rather than ignoring them. I fear I ignore so many people because of their sins, but again doesn’t that come back to how we treat each other. No one is unimportant in God’s eyes, if we aren’t aware of our own shortcomings then we could tend to separate ourselves from others because of their sins. So by working on myself and caring about you, enough to actually try and help you, maybe we both can draw closer to God.

If I have a choice I think I want to live idealistically.

Sometimes I think that blogging is a great past time, then I realize it is just that. Passing time. If I were to devote an hour a day to the various web projects I could update I would be in negative time land. So not that you possibly read them daily or monthly or even knew they existed. As of tonight they now point here or to a forum I established along with the site.

In other news since my last post I have found a better Portable bible replacement for my Kindle. This one is solar powered, in other words just a little light and your set for hours or until you fall asleep. Additionally it has great fonts and is even in color, with full color maps, and a colorful place marker that is really easy to operate. Additionally it works equally well in the right or left hand and is excellently balanced.

If your thinking WOW, how could you give up the cellular connectivity and additional versions plus any other book you might want to be reading. I struggled with it but since they are still so difficult to get I decided to get out while the getting was good and sold mine used for what I paid for it back in November. It’s hard to get to play with technology for 6 months and only be out the taxes since the new buyer paid for shipping as well.

Additionally there is just something about a physical page your turning and the ability to use a highlighter and it show up a little easier. Don’t get me wrong, when they get the kinks worked out of the electronic version bible it will be a great advance. But my new Cambridge NIV is exuisitly made as far as craftsmanship. It will probably easily last 10 years if I use it daily and have the occasional oops regarding walking in the rain etc. It may last even longer and if so then it will have been a good choice, the Lord loves it when we wear out a Bible from use, there is no finer use of an afternoon or early morning time than to draw close to our father through his word.

Lastly on more than one occasion I ran out of Juice before I ran out of want to read. Twice in church, that was actually annoying since you are already jumping through hoops to keep up with the verses as they are requested to be read. In other words I say Habakkuk, you say little book behind Nahum and before Zephaniah, usually less than an 1/8th of an inch from Matthew to the left. i flip a moment, then I’mm there. OR I go to the index of the kindle, select Habakkuk and then page to the 3rd chapter. Well maybe that one I might normally have beat you on, but Galatians or Romans, come on, your there in a heartbeat. But so far the replacement Kindle device has yet to run out of power and it is extremely portable.

It seems that the more I try and focus on something the more time I have to accomplish it. That seems like a reasonable statement but the reality is life gets in the way of the best made plans.  How does life do that you may ask, it is by my allowing it to be the distraction that draws me away from the stated focus I had.  The one resounding facet I keep coming up with on why things I want to focus on don’t get focused on is me.  Whatever I say I want to do, my actions speak louder than my words.

Most things are like that I am finding, for most of us “Me” is a 900 lb. gorilla preventing our best altruistic plans from becoming reality. If I say I want to read my Bible daily and pray more, yet choose to record more shows on my DVR than I can watch in an evening than i am fooling myself.  But I am on to “me”, I can do something about this Jekyll that creeps up and steals away the time and focus from my desired goals.  I can’t Hyde from the fact that I am a human trapped in a temporal experience that doesn’t let me do whatever I want in the amount of time I want to do it in, I have to play by the rules of reality that currently constrain me.

So what do I plan to do about it?  First is I need to tell a couple of unwitting accomplices that I am trying to make a change. The fact that I spend at least 2 hours a night in front of my TV with my wife for several evenings of the week doesn’t mean I love her more or less than if I let her know I am going to try and cut back my TV nights to 4 a week.  I am sure if I use the time for something other than TV she will be fine with it.  Though up to know I enjoyed watching shows with her and conversing about the plot lines and subjects, but that is why I kept doing it.

Second I need to actually set apart some time to do my reading and praying, not a catch if I can moment but an actual time each day that i will use for that purpose.  Now I am sure many of you may say why do I even want to do this, that’s irrelevant, the fact is if you want to change your habit of losing time to nothing in particular you need to plan to do what you want to accomplish.  For me it is because I feel closer to God when I study his word, or if I use my skills to further the kingdom then I also feel like that was a good days work.  As a technologist that sense of accomplishment is not always there, God has given us a blessing by allowing us to feel satisfied or dissatisfied with our efforts.  Ultimately when viewed appropriately in my opinion choosing to reflect on how God has used you is a way to see him moving in your Life, provide encouragement and offer opportunity for growth.  Without real self inspection your just wandering aimlessly, when I get to the end of my life I would like to feel I did not waste my days watching the TV, TV is not bad, but the allowing of it to rob the church of our productivity is bad.

What are you allowing to steal you time?  Is it something that when your final day comes you will be glad you emphasized?

Well in an effort to make things easier on myself I have cobbled together a little CSS and an HTML table to create a years worth of links with a pleasant line through after you have visited the page. If you come back from a different machine each time you’ll need to remember what day it is, but if you come from the same machine it should provide a nice visual sense of accomplishment to see all the lines through the days you have read. Missed a day, just use the same machine and you’ll always know where you were. Made it for me, but if you can use it praise God , enjoy.

WorthyJourney.com» Reading Plan

One of the items I asked for Christmas was an electronic book reader. Well I got it a bit early,it wasn’t supposed to arrive until mid December and my wife is too nice to pry the new toy from her husbands grasp. I have to wrap an empty box and put it under the tree so I remember what I got. But anyway I wanted an electronic reader so I could always have something to read when I had a moment to do so. Have you ever wished you had they version of the bible you are fond of or a daily devotional that had a short devotional or even the latest best seller? I did.

I thought that if I indeed had all this that I might be more inclined to read when I got the chance or even sit down and plan to read. Today at lunch I bounced out and got to Wendy’s to buy a hamburger and the line was around the place and down the side, I almost went elsewhere and it occurred to me. Pop out the Kindle and read something. Now the plan had been to get it to go and return to the lunch room and read my daily portion for my bible readings, I am in Joshua and was looking forward to day 2 of this newly minted habit. (No I didn’t get to Joshua in one day, I wish, I picked up where I had been from my trusty regular bible earlier) But instead I found I could start reading there while the line poked along, sure I didn’t get but a chapter further along, but I could do it.

During lunch I proceeded to get rolling and very quickly did not notice I was reading from a gizmo instead of my bible and I even jacked the font up a notch to where I could easily read it without my glasses. That is quite nice and has the added benefit of making you feel like you are really burning through the pages. This afternoon I took a break and read my daily devotional from Streams in the Desert and My utmost for his Highest and it was awesome. Just one device met three of my book carrying needs.

Additionally I read a copy of the Wall street journal yesterday. I wasn’t all that enthused by it but can see if your a newspaper lover you will like the ability to get it delivered to you daily. But for me the biggest deal was having the right book when I needed it. I have high hopes this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Now if your unsure about the device I’m referring to or want to know more I do have a blog I post to as well regarding it. (Yes Mel, shameless plug for other website) but if your interested I have done the legwork and you might as well benefit from it. It is over at kindlechat.com.

If you haven’t picked up or read a daily devotional I can highly recommend Streams in the Desert, both the last two days have made me think about the subjects and todays will probably find it’s way to this blog once I digest how I feel about it better and can articulate my thoughts. For a link to the book for info click here. I can’t express how hopeful I am that this will indeed become a habit, what is that something you do for 30 days and then it becomes common to your routine, if so I am 28 days away from making my daily reading of God’s word a habit. I have always read some, but I feel the need to read daily, and to allude to the subject of my next blog to rediscover meditation on God’s word.

Allan over at allanstanglin.com has said ”think very carefully about how and why we do things.” When he says this does he mean lag hopelessly behind the existing culture to the point that it appears to be submitting to the culture because you make use of the technology that is now has embedded in it? 

Multimedia is not intrisically bad or good, but getting past the idea of how we use powerpoint or streaming video and podcasts and focusing so much on how we deliver the message is an over worried on subject.  We argue over how to reach the people when I frequently wonder who we are trying to reach.  Are we making efforts to find the women and men that are estranged from the existing culture as Jesus did?  Or are we reaching out to all the regular people that are exactly like you/we are?

Not to sound to much like several churches that are around us, but where is our skate park?  Is there any similarity to the samaritan women culturally and the tatooed skater or baggy clothed hoody wearing young person.  Do we reach out to these people or shy away from them?  Why not worry about the college age kids from our area, do we just hope to snag them once they get married and settle down and want to raise their kids in a better envionment? 

If someone is never around the word or the gospel how can they be affected by it.  What if the initial exposure they have is right next to the dancing bunny on some youtube page.  I agree we must NEVER CHANGE THE MESSAGE, but we cannot be affraid of others using these alternate ways to advertise the need for the “Message”.  In the end I think they won’t work anyway, but they shouldn’t hurt if they make someone think about what they are doing.

To think we can sit and offer a service that is perceived to be “traditional”, seems very contrary to the very methods Jesus used. What was traditional about preaching from a hillside to the masses.  That certainly wasn’t the only way he preached, but it was not the teaching from the synagoge that a normal rabbi would have done.  He preached wherever and whenever he spoke to people.

Perhaps our biggest failing is thinking that people think “I am hurting and lonely, hey I am going to find a church, that’l fix it, what about that one over there”  Sure that happens, but how many believers are around those poeple everyday and should seize the opportunity to invite/pull them into their lives, not their church building. 

As I was typing this I realized that I was about to say that the use of technology to bring others to the message is a neccasary one, but in reflection I think that I may be changing my mind that the ultimate method to bring the message is a personal one.  Individual to individual.  The only way to truly make a huge impact is to go back to one on one.   Softening up the ground with youtube or loud alternative music that actually has a good message embeded within it is not going to get the job done.  It lacks the very thing Jesus offers all of us, a personal relationship.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with making an attractive building and placing culturally appealing ammenities, but to do so without the personal element will fail. 

 In the end we must all look for the current culturally insignificant people as they are the samaritans of our day, we must attempt to create personal bonds by caring that can withstand the culture we are exposed to.  But we should always “think very carefully about how and why we do things” and not keep doing what we are doing just because it was what we have always done.

Recently there has been some discussion around me of where our focus lies on helping others. There is a new program out that is called “one laptop one child” and for a limited amount of time you can buy a laptop for $400 and one will be given away to a child in an impoverished country for your efforts. Now this is certainly a commendable thing to do, children who are given a tool to help them embrace learning or are given an opportunity to learn at all will indeed have a better chance to succeed. Ultimately this success would allow them to prosper and possibly continue to help others from their home area lifting the whole region from the bottom up, rather than the top down.

I would certainly not argue that there is any flaw in that assumption, helping people help themselves through education should work and be less prone to influence from potentially corrupt officials who might choose to not distribute raw funds. But what I don’t understand is why we choose to not pay attention to the millions of children here in our own neighborhoods that could benefit from some form of assistance in this regard as well.

This notion of programs that exist to assist others in a far off location brings me back to my opening comment. A friend of mine is a youth minister (Jason over at talkinthewalk.com)and has discussed on his site the issues of youth missions and the perceived need to have their missions in some remote location. The further the better it would seem if you talk tot he right people, and I have often thought it was easier to minister to those in far off regions where I am certainly the outsider or foreigner. I felt it would be easier to be like Jesus if I already didn’t fit in, that the difference between how I treated others and he way they were would be more obvious.

The embarrassing truth is I should have that same advantage here. Even though everyone (surely not so) seems to have what they need (materially at best) and I have plenty myself there are tremendous opportunities here locally. You don’t even have drive downtown, there are people living around me on all sides. I know I am speaking about getting to know the folks that live right next door to us, and they may even already be church attending individuals, but they may not. Within our own church itself why are we not thinking of spending our efforts to improve the lot of those we purport to love and care about. Most likely because we do not.

We are a nation of weekend warriors for christ. It is like we have formed a national guard unit that we hope will only be deployed once or twice a year in the battle to save the planet. We are in the front lines and don’t even realize it. The only reason I can see in myself as to why I don’t do more is selfishness. It sounds so harsh, and I don’t want to believe it, but it must be true. I care about me more than I care about you. That certainly isn’t Christ like, now if there were only one soda left on the counter I would let you have it. If you needed a ride to the airport at 11pm or even midnight I am your man, but that’s because I know you probably. We are going to have decide if we really want to be full-time Christians or just weekend warriors. And if I want to be a full-time Christian then I am going to have to start thinking about those that are around me that I don’t know and those I do know more than myself.

I am reminded of a song that says “more of you and less of me”, if we can just get that straightened out in our lives we won’t need to go out of town to make a difference. We will be making a difference year round everywhere we are, with or without a programed effort from our church to accomplish it. A small plug for a ministry at my church that I hope could be a part of this solution, small groups.

In a small group you can get to know people in a more personal and intimate way, but no program will substitute for the fact the answer lies in our own decision to become like Christ and place ourselves behind others. It is not an easy answer, but it is the one he gave me. First to Love him and his father will all my heart, no mention of me there. And then to Love others like I love myself. If that were true the local churches would be bursting with programs that went beyond the superficial. The momentum would be again like that of the early church bowling over governments, changing lives, and bringing the lost to the father.

Pray for our own selflessness.

First let me say if you have no idea what I am talking about then first go read the first 2 chapters of Genesis paying particular attention to the way God is described in the two chapters. Allan on his blog poses a unique question that I am glad to see has sparked some discussion amongst those that know me.

I have seen a couple of different responses to this inquiry and one of them disturbed me a bit. I have snipped a section below to give you a taste if you don’t have time to go read the full story, I’ll pick up below the quote…

“The God of Genesis 1 doesn’t have to touch, or even see, anything. He’s distant from it. All of creation seems to take care of itself once he’s finished. He gives orders and commands. God blesses and provides for his creation and gives it what it needs. But it’s all very matter of fact and general.

Contrast that with the God of Genesis 2. That account shows us a God who forms man and breathes into his nostrils. He performs surgery on Adam and then sculpts Eve with his hands. In fact, he forms every animal and bird from the dust of the ground, not just man. He “plants” the garden. He “brought” man to the garden. He “brought” the animals to Adam. And he provided Eve out of concern for the man.” - The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys » Blog Archive » The Two Gods of Creation

They both started out similarly, first a somewhat confused and then interested look followed with an inquiry into “whatever do you mean the 2 gods described in Genesis?” Then the difference really hit home. A fellow at my work thought that it was odd at first, and as we read through the accounts we were impressed by the simplicity of the two accounts and relief that they were indeed the same God. This was followed by a discussion I enjoyed about the Simplicity and depth that has been conveyed to us through the word of God. No fear, no doubts, just wonder at the plan God laid out so quickly in 2 short chapters to describe the unique divine nature of our God. (This is where I think Allan has hit the nail squarely on the head in his description)

The second however is one where the listener was put off and defensive almost immediately to the idea, and I almost thought they might be a bit offended I had approached the subject in the manner I did. Almost like it was being flip and demeaning to God. It is this strict “The bible says what it says, don’t try to read to much into it” attitude that I wonder about. Is it wrong to pursue a greater understanding of the nuances God has preserved for us in his word? I don’t think so, although I can understand a fear that one needs to be careful to make sure your efforts are holding true to the contextual intention of the message as it was conveyed.

At first I thought it was an age thing, but that isn’t it because after beginning to think about this I have seen it from both sides of the age fence. I am no longer considered a spring chicken, though I am no where near pasturing age, I am pretty much a tweener right now I think. So if it isn’t age what is it? My wife was once asked if she thought you had to be able to read Hebrew and Greek to get into Heaven, she was taken aback, but the persons point was he didn’t think all that “interpreting” was necessary, just take the Word at it’s word.

That isn’t a bad thought if your truly aware of how the word was understood when it was originally given. I think this deeper understanding of God’s will is part of the maturing process, the feeding on meat rather than milk. I am not accusing anyone of being worldly or immature but I am seeking a better definition of meat for my life. Growing spiritually in knowledge and actions I think is beginning that walk in Christianity, if your not walking/growing your sitting still waiting.

If you began the journey good for you, I don’t try to place limits on what God’s grace and mercy cover after you become a believer. But, I can’t help thinking it is better to learn and grow than sit and wither. I know many of us fear the growth, what if I get to big for the pot I am planted in? Maybe you move to a bigger pot, or maybe you are taken completely out of the pot and are transplanted to a larger field.

In the end I liked Allan’s view on God’s 2 different sides being described in Genesis, I think it’s good to stretch outside our own boundries. In my case it was somewhat like “why did you focus on that, I have looked that over and moved on, but wait, that is interesting…” When someone challenges you with a new idea, don’t take it as truth immediately, take it in and compare it with the scripture. Does the statement ring true to the nature and descriptions given throughout the Bible along the subject. If the concept holds up then it is probably a sound view worth further study.

After that study you can decide for yourself what you think of the proposed idea. When your done with your research you’ve most likely jumped from being just a passive reader to an active reader growing deeper in your understanding of God’s will.