The big story in the news with this new iPhone has been antennagate. Steve Jobs held a special press conference on Friday to defend the phone. I sort of laugh about it. When you have over 2 million people buying a product, there is going to be someone who has a problem. Also, when a company like Apple enjoys the success that it has, someone is looking to find the chink in the armor.

As for me, I love this new phone. It is incredible what it can do. I have had absolutely no problems. What I find most amazing is the quality of the camera. The following video was completely shot and edited on the iPhone. The only thing I used the computer for was to upload the video.

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It’s hard to avoid talk about the economy today. It is on the forefront of our minds in many ways. There are so many unknowns. So many of the things that we trusted in as Americans can no longer be trusted. What once gave us a feeling of safety and security no longer does. Jobs that were once thought secure are now on the chopping block. Corporations once the prize of Wall Street are on the verge of bankruptcy. What was once considered a dream home for many has turned into their worst nightmare as they face foreclosure. It is in times like these, we see the treasures of this world for what they are. They don’t last. They are easily lost. And most importantly, we can’t take them with us.

This is why Jesus says, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . .” (Matt. 6:20). Jesus knew knew the uselessness of chasing after worldly wealth. He knew where it leads to and it is not a good place.

Yet, the kingdom of heaven is something we have a hard time putting a value on it. We try to wrap our mind around it and we come up short. It’s a concept that is hard to grasp as it is not something we can put our hands on like cold hard cash. One of the reasons we fail to pursue is because we fail to grasp it’s full value. How do we discover the value of the kingdom? In contrast the wealth of this world is something we can put our hands on. It is something we can touch and we can taste.

So how do we discover the value? The answer is the value of the kingdom is shown by the church in action. The value of the kingdom is when lives are saved and transformed. The value of the kingdom is shown when the hungry are fed, when the lonely are befriended, when the sick person is healed.

True wealth is not measured by the abundance of our possessions, but by the abundance of lives that have been touched through our efforts. It’s not about the house you live in, the car you drive, the gadgets in your drawer, or the size of your retirement fund. None of that stuff will matter in the end.

You can make a difference in someone else’s life today. It is not that hard to do. It could be making a telephone call or writing a note to let them know that someone cares. It might be taking a meal to a family in need. It might be volunteering to serve at a local shelter, food bank, or group home. To many of us are living for ourselves which ultimately means we are living for nothing at all. To live for something means living for something bigger than ourselves. It is living for Jesus and living for others.

We give thanks to Jesus for giving us purpose beyond ourselves!

Last Sunday, we sang this song at Lord of Life. It sort of points to what I am talking about here. Loving others may not get us the job, pay the bills, get the house in Beverly Hills, or fix our lives in 5 easy steps. But it is truly all we need.

I am continually amazed how easily we are offended. The internet seems to accelerate the process of offense. Just take a look at any internet forum or comments made on many blogs. We are often quick to say things online that we would never say to that same person face to face.

The word of advice from this Proverb is be slow to take offense at what someone else say, especially online. When you see something on Facebook, Twitter, in an email, or in a letter written to you – take it with a grain of salt. We typically read between the lines and jump to conclusions about what the other person did not say.

If you do find yourself insulted, don’t respond in kind. Don’t respond to the inappropriate email with another inappropriate email. Call the person. Better yet, go and see them in person. Every level of interpersonal communication we take away opens the door for more misunderstanding. In other words when you cannot physically see the other person in a conversation over the phone you have a greater potential for misunderstanding than if you were standing face to face. And when you cannot see them or hear them, such as in a communication by email, you increase the potential for even more misunderstanding.

The internet is a great tool for communication but it does not replace the need for face to face. The internet greatly supplements communication. It will make us more effective in our work, but we need to beware it has the ability to make us less effective as well.

So when you find yourself miffed at something so and so said, give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Put the best possible construction on everything. Be an encourager for Jesus.

The iPad is all the latest hype from Apple. It’s all over the news today. Check out this guy trying to make a name for himself. He is already waiting in line. The silly thing is he already has one reserved. There really is no reason to sit in line.

Well, tomorrow it will be released. No doubt I am intrigued. No doubt I can think of a few uses for it. No doubt most of us will likely own something similar to this as it moves more into the hands of the mainstream and not just the early adopters.

What could I see myself doing with one now? Maybe use it as a book reader. I already have a Kindle along with the Kindle app installed on my iPhone and Kindle for Mac installed on my Macbook Pro.

To watch TV or videos? I don’t really watch much TV and when I do it is usually at the end of the day when I am not ready to go to bed but don’t really have much energy to do much else.

Use it for presentations? This is by far the most powerful use I can think of for an iPad. It could be very useful for giving presentation and for messages on Sunday morning. Would give much more control over the screens than the iPhone without the bulk of a laptop.

It could be very useful when traveling for navigation. It would be a GPS on steroids. Would be helpful in finding restaurants and other attractions.

It would be good for attending conferences and such. I like to take my MacBook to take notes, but always need to look for a power outlet. With 10 hours of battery life, would not really need to find an outlet. I also like to get out of the office when preparing my messages. Again the challenge is finding a place to plugin having limited battery life on the MacBook. Now I don’t know if I really believe it has a battery life of 10 hours. Those who have reviewed it, claim that it does.

One thing I would definitely need before I would buy one of these would be a keyboard dock. I do way too much typing to use the virtual keyboard on the screen. But it sounds like the keyboard will not be available for some time. It would be nice that while they are at it, if Apple would release a keyboard that works with the iPhone. Although, as controlling as Apple is, I doubt we will see that happen anytime soon.

So will I get an iPad. The answer is not now. Maybe someday. Maybe not someday. I will wait and see.

Maybe one day there will be an Android Tablet from Google. That would be an interesting possibility.

This app provides paraphrased Bible Verses that speak the truth of God into various situations we encounter in life. The app is free and it is very simple. If nothing else it provides a Word of encouragement just to read the list of the verses used in this app.

If you are an iPhone user, check it out. You have nothing to loose. It is free. Here is a link: http://skyballoonstudio.com/rhema

Unfortunately, when I moved to a Blackberry I was not able to find a Bible application that matched the quality of the application I had on my Palm. Because of this, I did not often use the Bible on my Blackberry. The Blackberry app was slow and much less intuitive.

Enter my new iPhone. With tens of thousands of apps for the iPhone, I was certain I would be able to find a good quality Bible app that would surpass the quality of my former Palm application. At the very least I would be able to find an app that was at least on par.

I have since found three applications that have made me happy. Each of these three Bible apps have their strengths and weaknesses. There are other apps out there. But these three stand out for me.

First, let me say I am biased to modern translations. There are many applications which allow access to the King James Version. But when I am looking for a Bible application, I am looking for one that has access to the NIV, ESV, and/or the NLT.

YouVersion

The first application I found was the widely popular YouVersion by the people at LifeChurch.tv. What is good about this app is that it free and has all the major translations available. It is also connected with the YouVersion website. The YouVersion app is backed by a large community and the app allows you to contribute and interact with that community.

What I don’t like about the YouVersion app is that most of the Bibles are available through your online connection. What this means is that if your connection is slow or worse case, you have no connection, the app will not work very well. A second thing that is problematic for me with the YouVersion app is that it scrolls the text. My preference for reading is to read by page (similar to the Amazon app).

Laridian Pocket Bible

The second app was a great surprise. I discovered the Laridian had come up with an iPhone app called the PocketBible. I was excited about this. What made me excited about this was my license for my former Palm application worked for my iPhone. I would have all translations I purchased for my Palm available on my iPhone.

This app is very different from the YouVersion app. Both apps are free. However, you need to purchase the individual translations for the Laridian Pocket Bible. These typically run between $15-20 each, but you can often find coupons. The advantage is you download the translations directly onto your iphone. There is no need to rely upon the internet connection when reading the Bible. The obvious downfall of the PocketBible is that the translations are not free.

I like the interface of the PocketBible better than YouVersion. With YouVersion you need to type in the the name of the book you are looking up. PocketBible offers and easily accessible table of contents (see pic below) that allows you to easily look up specific verses. Another thing I appreciate about the PocketBible is that you navigate by page turning rather than scrolling. Again this is something that is likely personal preference. You should also note the PocketBible does not offer the online community experience of YouVersion.

The biggest downfall of the PocketBible which is a major problem is that it is buggy. I often find that when I turn pages it will skip multiple pages at a time. This can be frustrating. This problem seems to be a frequent occurrence and because of this unreliability I typically use YouVersion.

Update: Craig from Laridian contacted me after doing this review.  You can see the his reply in the comments below.  It seems I did not fully understand how the navigation worked.  It was not that the program was buggy.  The problem was user error – Me!  Now that I better understand the navigation, I am much, much more happy with this app and will likely go back to using this app as my primary app.  Craig points out there are 9 free Bibles available from Laridian and other books.  One thing I have always appreciated about Laridian is their customer support.  They have always been helpful and good to their customers.  They are a company that cares!  Keep up the good work Laridian.

Logos Bible App

The third application is my new favorite. I just discovered it. It is the Logos Bible App. This app is also free like the others. It is linked to the Logos Bible Software which is available for Macs and PC’s. I was disappointed the NIV was not available without paying for it, but the NLT and the ESV were both available for free. Translations are available through the online connection, but individual versions can be purchased and loaded directly onto the iPhone. What is really exciting about this app is that it also has Greek and Hebrew versions available. This is probably not important to most people, but having attended seminary and learned Greek and Hebrew, this is something quite exciting to me.

What I also really like about the Logos Bible Software is the clean interface. There are no menus or anything else when you are reading the text. Just the text and nothing else at all. To get the menus back, all you need to do is tap the screen and the menus will pop up.

I don’t have the Logos Bible software installed on my computer. The Logos version 4 software is not yet available for the Mac. It seems to me that the combination of the desktop/laptop software and the iPhone app could be a powerful combination. But the software is not cheap.

In summary, any of these programs will do you well. My favorite is the Logos app and is my new default iPhone Bible app. You should also know each Bible app has daily reading guides, but I don’t use this feature on the iPhone.

One other app that might be worth checking out is the Olive Tree app. I have not tried it, but it looks like another promising option.

Happy reading!

Just two years later you see how Facebook has risen to dominate. The most surprising is in India where for many years Orkut has been king. Not anymore.

The results came back with the expected stuff like my blog, facebook page, twitter page, and the Lord of Life Church website. There was a few newspaper articles including obituaries from funerals I have done. There was the article about truck accident in front of the church last summer. Also found the transcript from when I led the opening prayer for the Illinois State Senate.

Did a second search on “Phil Ressler Lutheran.” That was a little easier to sort through. Dug up the dirt on me in the church world. Most all the search results turned up in this search were me.

Lesson to be learned here. Watch what you post online. What you write online will follow you. I wonder how many people would be embarrassed by what they would find online about themselves if they did a simple search. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, was recently quoted saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place . . .” Big brother Google will find you!

Of course you could put the Bible on your cell phone! A great free app on the iPhone and other phones is YouVersion.