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Free ESV Student Study Bible Online

By on August 15, 2011 in Books, Technology

One of the tools I frequently use when studying and preparing teaching lessons or papers is ESVBible.org. At this site I have access to the ESV Study Bible notes as well as a host of other items. For a limited time you can get the new ESV Student Study Bible notes for free. It is pretty simple to do, all you have to do is follow their directions.

Normally on sale for $9.99,  you can unlock the Online Student Study Bible for free by sharing it with five friends. Here’s how:

 

  1. Log in to your ESVbible.org account (or register for free)
  2. Click on the add content button at the top
  3. Click on “Student Study Bible Notes”
  4. Click on the “Invite 5 friends” link
  5. Submit 5 e-mail addresses and the Student Study Bible notes and resources will be unlocked – use and enjoy!

There are a host of other things you can access as well besides these notes—MacArthur’s notes are available as well as the Literary Study Bible notes. I hope you check it out and make using the resource a normal part of your routine.

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Is it Rude to Not Have a Facebook Page?

By on June 1, 2011 in Culture, Technology

My wife and I were traveling back from the airport recently and the topic of friends without Facebook pages came up. I made the proposition that to not have a Facebook page in this day and age is pretty rude. I had this thought and made this statement without more than a moment of actually processing the thought…so then I started to process the question, “is it rude to not have a Facebook page?”

I am sure those that don’t do Facebook have a bunch of good reasons to not participate. At the top of that list is usually the idea that they prefer face-to-face, voice-to-voice interaction that is more meaningful than what social media can provide. That is all well intentioned, but I would propose that it rarely happens. We live in a time and culture where we are driven by social media. Social media is both a blessing and a curse and is a big part of this world, but I would propose that there are a lot of redeeming qualities about it as well.

How many of us have friends scattered all throughout the country and maybe even the world? Even this week I have a friend who is moving his family to Cambodia. It is not as if we will have any meaningful face-to-face interaction and it’s quite unlikely we will have much voice-to-voice interaction. Facebook, or any kind of social media in general, is a great way to keep in touch and stay informed of what is going on in people’s lives.

So what do you think? Is it rude to not have a Facebook page? Unfortunately this question is falling on the ears of those that have them because most of you found this post through Facebook. But for those of you who didn’t and don’t have a Facebook page, why don’t you?

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“The Next Story” by T. Challies | Book Review & Giveaway

By on May 30, 2011 in Book Review, Giveaway, Technology

Tim Challies’ The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion has been extremely confrontational to my soul. If any of you know me well you know that I am a technology type of guy. I enjoy using my iPhone, MacBook Pro, Amazon Kindle, and a myriad of other devices to stay connected and informed. It is a rare occurrence when I am more than a few feet from any one of these technologies.

What I have learned from Tim is that I have a problem. I have a distraction problem and I have an idol problem. Tim addresses these topics and many more in this latest book. I think one would be hard pressed to find someone more capable to write such a book on technology and faith than Tim Challies. He is the author and owner of the popular Christian blog, challies.com, and is the author of a few other books as well. He frequently speaks at conferences on technology and faith, which makes him well suited to address this topic in a book. On top of these things he is also an elder at his church.

In The Next Story Tim does well to not only address how technology impacts our lives, but he does so through a Scriptural grid that intersects with theology. Each chapter is packed full of practical insight on how technology can serve us or how we can serve technology. One of the best aspects of how Tim has brought each chapter together is that he ends with a section on application and questions for reflection. These sections take the already practical insight that Tim has and helps you to process the thoughts personally.

One of thoughts that has stuck with me is when Tim was talking about how we have become a “skimming” society, always skimming material. He says;

If we grow so accustomed to skimming words, to passing quickly over texts, we will eventually impose this practice on the words of God. The danger today, in an era of skimming and fragmentation, is that we will fragment the Bible into small bits and have no time or ability to craft unity from the parts.

The church has been served well by this latest book from Tim Challies. I would recommend to anyone that uses technology in one form or another (read here, everyone) to get into this book. I think you will be surprised about how attached you are to digital media.

In conjunction with this review I am giving away a copy of this book. To enter fill out the form below. If you are reading this with an RSS reader you might need to click through to the page.

FTC Rhetoric: I do not receive payment for my book reviews. I do sometimes receive free review and giveaway copies from authors, publishers, and publicists. My first responsibility is to my readers, therefore, I am committed to honest reviews.

Congratulations to Coach Pete Wehry for winning this great book!

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Books – Digital vs. Paper?

By on May 20, 2011 in Books, Technology

It is no secret that I love books. Books bring us knowledge that we once did not have and there is a certain amount of power in that. For me, books are the tools I need to perform my job and my ministry. Just like a mechanic needs certain wrenches and power tools, the theologian and teacher needs good books. It is with this mindset that I have grown my library to around 2800 volumes. Many of my books are digital and are contained in Logos Bible Software, others are on my Kindle, and then there are still others that live on shelves in my office. If you were to break my library down it would probably be around 2200 digital volumes and 600 print volumes (624 to be exact at time of writing).

There is a growing trend in publishing where more digital copies are now being purchased than print copies. The Amazon Kindle has been the primary factor in this. As of this last April Amazon has said they are selling more digital books than they are print books. There are still many out there, many people I know, who simply refuse to go the route of digital…and I get that. People love the feel of a book in their hands and the fragrance of the paper under their noses—I am no different. There are many pros and cons lists that people have created to look at this subject. Before I share with you my pros and cons of digital books let me share with you my rationale of how I choose to buy a book in print or digital.

I like having most of my reference works in Logos so they are fully searchable. These works include commentaries, systematic theologies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and larger sets that might take up a lot of shelf space. Aside from these types of books I also have thousands of journal articles in Logos that are fully searchable. Then if non-reference type books I am looking to buy are available in Logos or on the Kindle I’ll get them digitally, but if they are not I will get the print version. I won’t typically wait for a Kindle version or Logos version to arrive if a print version is already out. There is just no saying how long the wait could be. So what about those pros and cons of digital material?

Pros

1. Searchability

2. With the Kindle I can have hundreds of books with me at all times and in total it weighs less than a pound!

3. With Logos the power to preform complex searches is a snap

4. Kindle books tend to cost less than print books

5. Saves some series shelf space and the cost of bookshelves

6. If you move frequently (I’ve moved 15 or more times in the last 15 years) books become arduous to move with you

7. Environmentally friendly in that digital books can save tons of paper

Cons

1. Page recognition. One of the tools some people use to remember what they read is to recall where the material is on the printed page. This is not possible with digital books.

2. You have to have some sort of hardware to read a book with

3. Difficult to share a digital book, however, some books on the Kindle can be shared temporarily with friends, but this function is left up to the publisher if they are willing to allow it.

4. Many times digital books are not available when the print book comes out, this is especially true of books on Logos.

5. Studies have shown that people tend to read slower with digital books (this is not true for me, I actually can read faster on my Kindle)

6. You have battery life to worry about, whether that is on a Kindle or on a comptuer

There are a myriad of factors not even listed or discussed here. Even though the list for the cons appears longer, I am still a strong supporter of the digital book movement. An article I read years ago that has been helpful can be found here.

So what do you think…tell me your thoughts about the ebook revolution and how it is or is not changing your life.

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Zotero as a Necessity

By on March 15, 2011 in Announcement, Books, Technology

My friend Jim Hamilton at this blog, “For His Renown,” put a quick post up this morning about Zotero. Most of you will be asking yourself what Zotero is…that is cool, just go over and check out his post and you’ll learn something new today and perhaps help yourself save some time in the future.

Zotero is something I’m planning to write more on in the future. Until then Jim’s post is a great introduction.

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The Next Story

By on March 14, 2011 in Books, Technology, Video

Now here is a book almost anyone in my generation needs! If you know me well you know I am constantly connected in someway with technology. It can be difficult to balance using technology or letting technology use you. Tim Challies has recently written a book that deals with the use of technology coupled with a life of faith. In fact, the subtitle of the book is “Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion.” To get a good idea what the book is about take a look at this promo video that they did. I think it characterizes more of us than we know. Essentially Tim is trying to answer these three questions:

  • How has life—and faith—changed now that everyone is available all the time through mobile phones?
  • How does our constant connection to these digital devices affect our families and our church communities?
  • What does it mean that almost two billion humans are connected by the Internet … with hundreds of millions more coming online each year?

I have already pre-ordered the book—It comes outs on April 5. If you are a Kindle reader, they have set up a cool promo. For every 200 copies of the Kindle book that are pre-ordered, the price drops by $1 (and everyone gets charged the lowest amount). It’s currently at $8.99. The more that are ordered, the lower the price. So it could get down as low as $2.99.

If you want to catch a good review of the book take a look here.

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Email—A Curse or a Blessing?

By on March 10, 2011 in Culture, Technology

Email is one of those mediums of communication we use every day. Tim Challies has some provoking thoughts on the matter. It also reminds me of a post I read on email not all that long ago that spoke of email etiquette. I learned a lot from the email etiquette post. That is why I’m no longer sending an email that simply says “thanks” anymore.

I am sure I don’t get nearly the amount of email most people get, but I know that yesterday I received around 100 messages and sent about 60. One way I use email and my inbox is to treat my inbox as a to-do list. So if there are 15 items in the inbox then I probably have at least 15 things that I need to give attention to at one point or another during the day or week.

One of the things Tim said should be the obvious to so many of us:

Today we receive mail in our inboxes instead of our mailboxes. They take a few seconds in transit instead of a few days or a few weeks. They consume no resources other than the few seconds it takes to type them out. With a click of a button we can send that same email to hundreds of other people, making each person believe that we have sent it only to him. This is the new paradigm: quantity over quality, immediacy over thoughtfulness, amusement over significance.

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