Beautiful feet

I have been moved to tears just now. I was on one of my favorite boards and came across a thread that pricked my heart something heavy.

A pastor in Kansas City (I assume) posted an urgent thread requesting prayers because his church plant is seeking to meet with the pastor of a church located in one of the toughest areas of the city.

His intentions are to meet with this pastor, share his heart, and HOPEFULLY gain the use of the facility to minister to this harsh section of the city...

It got me thinking... here's a guy who's married, and could start a megachurch and make some cash if he wanted to. But instead of all that... he opts to jump into the deep end of the pool, and minister on the doorsteps of the drug dealers and killers. A move that could likely get him or his family hurt on the wrong day.

How many times do we water it down so our neighbors and coworkers won't be offended? OUCH.

How many times do we leverage the Gospel for personal gain?

I'm encouraged.. i guess that's the point i'm looking to make..

To every missionary, to every minister on the blocks and street corners, to every martyr... keep running with those beautiful feet you have. Run that gospel until we're inspired to either run with you out of the fullness of our inspiration, or from the conviction of our cowardess. RUN!

Christ Toothpaste?

Have you ever been around a person you just knew was a Christian's Christian, they stub their toe and something "less than holy" comes out of their mouth? How about riding with someone you looked up to in the faith only to find that their witness on "the highways and byways" wasn't one that glorified Christ to other drivers (even with a Jesus fish on the back of their ride or my favorite, the "F8ith" license plate). I'm sure we're all guilty as Christians, no matter where we are in our walk, of instances just like these and sometimes worse. It's called sin, and it's something none of us can escape. However, these momentary glimpses into our fleshly shortcomings shouldn't be the things that others can look at our lives and see as the norm.
When we look at scripture, we see a picture painted of the kind of person who's attitude, outlook, and emotions are completely under his control. The kind of person who's never brought down by circumstance, who's never downtrodden in countenance, and has tamed fits of anger and frustration into patience and graciousness.

How is it that such people able to achieve these things? What is it about them that sets them apart from the rest of us? For the unsaved it would be God's grace, for the Christian, it would be God's grace plus the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's check Galatians for some Biblical perspective on how we ought to act if we're indwelt with the living Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:19-26
"19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

If we live by the Spirit of God, then it would make itself known in us by providing the kinds of "fruits" listed above. This applies to every area of our life. When we are dealing with those who would be our enemies, we're still bearing fruit. When situations in our life arise that are less than favorable for us, the world should see us going through it while "bearing fruit". The Bible is actually very specific concerning the way Christians should face trials. James 1 teaches us the following:

James 1:2-3
"2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

So here the Bible actually tells us that as we grow, our progress is actully measured and given to us in our trials. R.C. Sproul had this to say regarding verse 3 of this passage

"Trials can be considered pure joy only when there is knowledge that they are designed by God for a purpose. They are tests of faith given in order to develop perseverance. In turn, perseverence produces mature Christian character."
- Reformation Study Bible commentary

This is also illustrated in Romans 5.

Romans 5:3-5
"3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

So there, we have a clear illustration of how and why a Christian can and should handle trials with a grace that should stun all onlookers. It's not because we're good people. It isn't because we were raised well. It's solely based on the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and because of His work that we are good trees able bear good fruit.

Christ also promoted this principle several times during His ministry. Here's a quote from Jesus found in Luke 6.

Luke 6:43-45
"43 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,
44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

So we know that it's what is IN us that determines what comes OUT of us.

This presents a whole new perspective on trials and temptations that Christians endure during the race of life. We're able to see them as a sort of gauge to measure our growth and maturity. It allows us to see the areas where we need to focus on developing. Much like the law is a tutor that leads us recognizing what sin is, ultimately leading us to turn and lean on Christ, we see trials achieving the same thing in our day to day lives. Showing us the areas of our shortcomings so that we're able to turn and depend on the Holy Spirit to help us grow in those areas. We should be monitoring closely the kinds of knee-jerk reactions we give to all circumstances. When you squeeze a tube labled "Crest", you expect toothpaste as opposed to glue. So we bear the label and name of Christ, what comes out when we are squeezed?

Theology Technology

For almost all of my adult life, portable computing technology has been a part of my spiritual life.  No matter how small a role, it's always been a benefit to me somehow.  In everything from jotting notes, recording Bible studies, writing down scripture references to look up later, taking down ideas for topics to study on, and even just devotions and Bible reading.  It's always been something that I've used more and more over the years to help myself grow spiritually.

I started out the way everyone normally does, taking notes with a pen and pad every Sunday, but found that my notes would always get lost, or become difficult to organize.  (And even lost a ton of them along with my main Bible when my car was "unexpectedly towed" *blush*).  Ultimately, I'd get too frustrated with either looking for the darned things or trying to figure out which hand drawn outline went with what note and what order they went in according to the topical series being taught on.  PDA's saved my note taking life!

So years later, I've evolved from taking notes on a monochrome Palm Vx to a miniature laptop like Redfly paired to my AT&T Tilt.  The thing I have started to notice lately, however, is how much notice I've been getting.  As my function and mobile computing ability has developed, the devices I use have gotten a little bigger, and so it goes. 

While reading a discussion on another message board about my review of the Redfly, one of the participants in the discussion mentioned that he didn't think that laptops or PDAs had a place in God's house on the Sabbath.  This got me thinking.

Obviously I don't see anything as a problem with using technology in church, but I can see an argument for those that do.  There are definitely pros and cons to using devices like the Redfly.  Easy access and storage, the ability to backup notes to more than one device, and sharing with family and friends, are great benefits, but there are also drawbacks.  I experienced one such drawback not too long ago.

As the sermon was starting up, so was I, then discovered that a recent change I made to the OS had broken the software I normally use to take notes.  So for the first 5 to 10 minutes of the sermon I was troubleshooting to correct the issue.  I learned my lesson since then and haven't had any problems since.  I've also noticed that another guy I fellowship with started bringing in his 17-inch laptop to take notes as well, which is much more noticeable than my 9 inch Redfly.

With all the resources available to us online, technology is a natural progression to how things can be done in the church.  Think about it, we've gone from displaying lyrics to music on overhead projectors to laptops and projectors,  announcements are now done with accompanying Powerpoint presentations, entire church services are broadcast on TV and the internet and even the Bible is available freely in just about every translation known to man with a few clicks of the mouse.

This started me to thinking about how churches are currently using technology.  Recently John MacArthur released his entire sermon library on-line, the ESV study Bible comes with a key that unlocks an online version that comes complete with with commentary, my church offers the sermon outline and the mp3 of the weeks sermon free of charge weekly. 

The change is undeniable and even expected, the Church is already using technology to make the gospel more widely available. With more powerful portable devices becoming more and more available and the prices becoming more accessible, isn't it about time for Congregation 2.0?

Is this what we REALLY wanted?

As I sit here in my bedroom and listen to our new President elect, scratch that, our first AFRICAN AMERICAN President elect, I wonder how many african americans like me are feeling how I'm feeling. I don't mean that they were anti-Obama from the start like I was. I mean that this victory is bitter sweet, admittedly for me, it's more bitter than it is sweet, but I can deal with that. What I want to know, from my fellow african americans who are Christians and voted for Obama, the questions I pose to you are the following.

1) Do you support gay rights? Obama does.
2) Do you support a pro choice view that considers children a "punishment" for failing to practice abstinence? Obama does
3) Do you support a liberal world view? Obama does
4) Do you support a homosexual agenda being promoted in our schools? Obama does


I have tons more questions... but i'll limit my thoughts to these few here and deal with it. God is sovereign and His will is done. But I wanted to leave my brothers and sisters in Christ with something to think about while we're celebrating our new President. I will support Obama in office because it's my civic duty, but these are my thoughts. Anyone have any mature feedback? Preferably Christians (black or white).

Review: Celio Redfly - A blessing and a curse

For the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to live "life on life" with the Celio Redfly. For the uninitiated, the Redfly is much like the defunct Palm Foleo. It is a mobile companion that simply seeks to enhance the users Smartphone experience by adding a few luxuries. In the case of the Redfly, those would be a nice 8 inch screen that doesn't just zoom in or blow the devices screen up to an ugly pixilated blur, it actually changes the resolution! So those spreadsheets or word documents become easier to edit and create on the run, but it does have its limits, but more on that later. It also adds a larger keyboard, a VGA-Out port for monitors or projectors, and 2 USB ports which are very useful! All while touting a hefty 8 hour battery rating. While I haven’t had time to thoroughly test that theory, I can say that whatever the battery life actually is, it’s pretty satisfactory!

The hardware itself doesn't do any of the processing work. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing it runs on its own is the video processing. So apart from using this with a windows device (which at the time of writing this was the only device supported), this thing is utterly useless unless you like to stare at the nicely portrayed "Redfly" logo. Which is not a bad thing! Say you're at your local Starbucks and someone decides to swipe it... the thief actually makes off with an expensive paperweight, because all of the data and processing power comes from the Smartphone. So to make it perfectly clear, the device itself does absolutely nothing, but when used in conjunction with a Windows Mobile Smartphone, it makes that Smartphone look pretty nice.

Eye Candy - The Hardware

The hardware itself, I have to say is very attractive. From the decorative raised curves on the top, the prominently displayed "Redfly" logo, the sharp looking reflective burgundy coloring and matching track pad, to the lovely screen, this thing doesn't LOOK like a simple cell phone add on. In fact, anytime I've been seen in public with this thing I get quite a few comments/questions/curious looks. The most common responses I get are "that's cute" and "it's a WHAT-'fly?". Let me tell you... trying to explain what it is and what it does to the "less than tech savvy" is a task. For most, the curiosity tapers and thins when I tell them that it isn't actually a laptop. That says a lot about who is buying this thing.

For the average consumer, a netbook or a laptop would probably be best. Even when shopping for a case in a computer store, I was stopped when comparing the carrying options to the device. "What is that?" the store rep asked (two of them). I tried explaining what it was and they pressed me for more information. "Is it a Windows machine? No... That must be Linux..." the other rep added. I pulled out my AT&T Tilt and said "nope... it's neither, it's my cell phone". At that, they both quickly lost interest. So cosmetically at least, this thing has been a big success with others, myself included!

The two features I was the most curious about before ordering, were the VGA and the USB ports. My mind raced with USB possibilities. The first thing I did once I got it back to my office was plug my 60GB USB drive up to see if it would work. It was a no-go. However, every USB Flash drive I tried has worked flawlessly. The day I bought my case I also picked up a 4GB flash drive. It worked perfectly! The next day I took the flash drive back to exchange for a 4GB micro SD to replace the 2GB micro SD I currently used. I got home, swapped the cards, put the 2GB card into a USB flashcard reader and plugged it in. The Tilt picked up both cards perfectly. I even transferred some of the data from the 2GB card over to the 4GB card with Resco Explorer. It took a little while but it did the job! I tried out a wireless keyboard and mouse I have laying around the house, and they both worked flawlessly. I also attached my computer monitor which worked as expected. When displaying on a monitor or projector, the image displays at a 800x480 resolution and shows an odd grey block that covers the remaining bottom portion of the display. I don’t know why they couldn’t just have it black or just not display at all, but it’s a small issue and doesn’t detract from the usability of the function.

Aside from looks, this thing is actually quite hefty. Not hefty as in “cumbersome” mind you, but hefty as in “this device doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy”. Heavy enough, however, for one to be quite wary about damaging the device if dropped. Here’s one area where it seems that Celio was one step ahead. A large majority of the outer portion of the device is completely rubberized. Both the top and bottom portions of the shell, in fact, every portion of the outer shell colored in the attractive burgundy tone mentioned earlier is in fact rubberized, giving the carrier a measure of confidence in grip and hold. Even the rubber feet on the bottom have a decent grip on most desktop surfaces, so you don’t have to worry about it sliding off the table and smashing on the floor.

One complaint I’ve heard others give concerning netbooks and sometimes laptops in general is that the keyboards have a little give and bend slightly under pressure. No such thing can be said about the keyboard on the Redfly. While it does have some give, it’s not enough to be readily noticeable unless you’re looking for it. It’s certainly not enough to be felt while typing. The Keyboard is also a bit smaller than regular keyboards, but I was able to become quite used to it in a small amount of time. The shortcut keys are easy to identify because they’re all located on the top row of keys (the function keys) and do what you’d expect them to. The Bluetooth connection is quick and responsive, and the track pad works just the way you’d think it would. So all in all, the hardware itself does exactly what it’s supposed to.

Software and Performance

There isn’t any software on the Redfly itself to speak of, so what I want to address here, is how the software on the smartphone takes advantage of the hardware. Things like resolution, video playback, keyboard response times, sound emulation, and the like are all issues that books can be written on. Some things work perfectly, and others, way less than stellar.

First I’ll talk about video playback. At the present time, there isn't any. In my limited experience with this, it seems that once the Smartphone is attached to the Redfly, all video processing is done via the onboard processor, which no developer has written anything for. This unfortunately isn’t limited to just videos. Most of the games I play (Warfare Inc. for example) will not render on the device, or even boot up for that matter. All video players that I’ve tried will boot and render sound, which by the way only renders via your smartphone’s speakers as the Redfly doesn’t have any built in, but the players don’t render any video. To its credit, most of the other applications take full advantage of the increased resolution. All of the Microsoft Pocket Office applications, Palringo IM, EReader, Pocket e-Sword, Olive Tree Bible Reader, the picture applications, and the file explorer for example, all worked without problems.

Internet browsing does leave something to be desired, unfortunately. While Pocket Internet Explorer does take advantage of the full screen, it doesn’t improve the page rendering very well at all, and because of the video processing issue already mentioned, currently, alternative browsers like Opera 9.5beta and Skyfire also do not work. This is very unfortunate as most of what users will be doing will involve internet browsing. The current version of the Opera browser (8.65) does, however, work very well. Web pages were snappy and rendered nicely as if this were a full fledged desktop browser. I love the Opera browser and hope issues with the 9.5beta version are resolved quickly as this is the version being included with a lot of the newer HTC devices like the HTC Diamond and Diamond Touch Pro.

I also tried the device with remote desktop services like LogMeIn, and it performed above and beyond what I thought my cell phone was capable of. I was even able to set the color and screen resolutions up so that it was optimal and fit pretty snugly on the screen with great readability. Now there’s a great use for that 3G connection! The web page rendering speed really doesn’t have much to do with the Redfly itself because it’s all done on the phone, so tests on how fast web pages load won’t be much different than if you were using the phone on it’s own.

Speed, however, is a factor in typing. Even using the Bluetooth connection, there is no noticeable lag behind keystrokes and letters on the screen, unless you’re typing a text message. I have used the Redfly every Sunday to take notes in both the new members’ classes and sermon notes for the last 3 weeks. I’ve used applications like MS OneNote Mobile, Pocket E-Sword, and Pocket Word with much success and satisfaction. However, the one thing I dread using it for is typing text messages. Emails type fine however, but text messages are another story. At first I thought it may be a problem with the threading (I use Windows Mobile 6.1), so I deactivated threading and tested again to no avail. It’s quite an annoying issue. I type at about 60-70 wpm (I’m sooo sloooow), and the rate the words appear on screen is utterly ridiculous. Imagine typing a message, let’s say around 100 characters long, completing your thought, and ready to send… but you have to wait to see if you made any typing errors for up to a full 10-13 seconds after you finished typing (I actually counted… and it was only 82 characters.). As I said, this can be quite annoying.

As I mentioned, the reading tools I use (Pocket E-Sword, Olive Tree Bible Reader, and EReader ) all work wonderfully. For consuming electronic reading material, the Redfly really does a great job with its larger screen. And with a rated 8 hour battery life, that’s a lot of reading for me! I have yet to have this thing die on me when I really need it. I don’t use it for long periods of time most of the time (except if I’m in a bind and really need to get some web browsing done), so I always have plenty of juice to get done what I need. On average, I’d say I end up charging this device maybe two or three times a week. And mostly to top it off if I know I’m going to be using it the next day. I love to be able to listen to a sermon while tabbing between programs like pocket word and E-Sword while reading and keeping notes.

This device has taken typing to a whole new level. I didn’t use Pocket word much until I got the Redfly. OneNote was another useless application to me until the Redfly showed me how useful the app could be, especially when paired with OneNote syncing. I’ll save my doting over OneNote for another time and just say that I love that program, both on the Tilt and the PC. Yet, even with all of these great uses, if you’re ever side by side with someone on an Asus (as I was on a recent trip to a conference with a friend who uses an Asus 1000H ), you’ll find that your experience in comparison with theirs… is less. While I was able to keep pace and hold my own while we were taking notes, during breaks, the Asus was the clear winner when it came time to fire up the wifi and browse some of our favorite websites. He was able to visit a message board, start a thread and post it all before I was even past the hotel registration page. I never did make it to the actually internet before I gave up trying after he ran circles around me. I’ll add that we were literally sitting right next to each other, so he was able to watch in quiet satisfaction while I labored to keep a smile and pretend that everything was working exactly as it should. While I am happy that the Redfly does in fact make using a smartphone better, it does not make it better or equivalent to the experience of using a full fledged computing platform.

While not an exhaustive list of issues I have with the Redfly, it’s definitely a list of my big concerns. Given that they’re promoting this device (at least on their site) to IT groups as a replacement for work laptops, I would definitely throw a fit if I was handed one of these by my local IT guy and told that this was the device I had to work from. For spreadsheets and word documents, it’s excellent, but not for much beyond that.

Life Application – Recovery after the purchase

So the big question is… “Brian, are you happy that you shelled out the cash for this device?” My answer is of course… yes! I can see you scratching your head already so I’ll go ahead and preemptively address your questions and confusion (because I’m a prophet and can read thoughts. Duh). I purchased this device for $200, which is way less than the current asking price of about $400. I could never see paying above $200 for this device given the options in other netbooks of the same size that compete for the same market essentially. At $400 you get a lot less bang for your buck when you can spend another $50 to $60 bucks for an Asus 1000H and get a ton of usability and features. I think for what I paid, I’m getting a good amount of usability for my money. I work with spreadsheets all day long, in an emergency I have a perfect way to email edits to word and excel documents while out and about. While the browsing is less than satisfactory, at least it’s there, and if you sign up for LogMeIn (which is free) you can take advantage of a full computing experience, including browsing, whenever you need one with some obvious rendering speed drawbacks, but they’re not significant with the right settings.

The real benefit to me is the larger screen and keyboard with portability. This IS available with netbooks, but I don’t want a 3rd computer to have to sync my data with. I want to take my notes, bring them home and have OneNote import them without me thinking about it. I want to be able to have all the files on all my computers synchronized without any extra steps. A third computer would likely draw me to abandon using one of them eventually because of this. Also, a netbook is $400 vs. the $200 I paid. Extra features like USB and VGA-Out ports are very nice, but not likely to see much use from me save for the occasional emergency file transfer or mouse usage. For me, the idea was to get something that would allow me to type faster and more accurately, rendering apps and data on a larger screen making them easier to use, while not creating an additional place to store data. For those of us who are tech savvy, one thing we will always be if we keep multiple devices, is tech redundant (i.e. Always having more than one device that can play mp3s, videos, store files, type documents, browse the web, or clean your shoes…. Ok... I’m wishing with the last one).

What I needed, was a cheap way to do my emails, blogging, note taking, and reading. While leaving some things to aspire to, the Redfly fit the bill… quite literally and without breaking my pockets.

The Celio Redfly can still be purchased at the $200 price point until November 17. Act quickly! Head over to the Celio Corp store website and pick your vendor of choice!

http://www.getredfly.com/REDFLY.htm

Wolves in sheep's clothing?

Over the last few weeks, I've been giving a LOT of thought to the church and how it's to handle false doctrine and those that operate under the "banner of Christ", without actually holding to Biblical teachings. 

It's quite a dilemma!  I find that there are two extremes in most cases.  There are those that choose simply to accept them and shrug their shoulders at their teachings, and there are those that opt to throw labels like "heresy" and "false convert" on them and then exclude the offender from the body of Christ. 

In the past, I've definitely been the latter, but things are changing rapidly for me lately, here are my thoughts.

We've changed churches (again?!?!?!).  Prayerfully this time, it's final.  We really feel like this is the place.  It's a part of the Sovereign Grace fellowship that C.J. Mahaney has put together, and, so far, I can say that I agree with the doctrinal stance of this church! 

Last Sunday, in the new member class, we started discussing the "gifts of the spirit".  The class leader asked if anyone had any questions, so I raised my hand.  I asked about how to tell between FALSE use of gifts like tongues, and the like and how we should go about telling others NOT to support ministries that demonstrated this false fruit.  The answer I received really surprised me.

He opened his response by saying that I should first check my heart for signs of pride and self-righteousness.  *GASP - SHOCK* ME?!?!  Self-righteous!?!?  The opening landed on me hard.  He went on to discuss that we don't know if the offenders are sincere or not.  They could REALLY be trying to serve God with whatever it is they know to do!  He gently reminded me that any knowledge of Christ that we have been given, wasn't because we were so smart to figure it out, but it was a gift given by the Holy Spirit.

This prompted MANY conversations with very close friends.  I shared what I'd been told, and discussed it at length with many different people.  Ultimately I was turned to a book by Randy Alcorn.  The brother I spoke with had told me about this book before so it was kind of funny to me how it came that we were talking about it AGAIN (about 2 weeks after the first conversation).  He had a copy and he let me borrow it.   The book is called "The Grace and Truth Paradox".  I have to say, that I found myself nodding so much I had to take frequent breaks to calm myself because I kept getting excited!

Then later that same week I received an email from a friend (whom I had NOT discussed this with) with an excerpt from the Puritan John Newton that said:

I am not to expect others to see with my eyes! I am deeply convinced of the truth of John the Baptist's aphorism in John 3:27, "A man can receive nothing--except it be given him from Heaven." I well know, that the little measure of knowledge I have obtained in the things of God--has not been owing to my own wisdom and teachableness, but to God's goodness. Nor did I learn everything all at once--God has been pleased to exercise much patience towards me, for the past twenty-seven years--since He first gave me a desire of learning from Himself. He has graciously accommodated Himself to my weakness, borne with my mistakes, and helped me through innumerable prejudices, which, but for His mercy, would have been insuperable hindrances! I have therefore no right to be angry, impatient, or censorious to others, especially as I have still much to learn, and am so poorly influenced by what I seem to know!

I am weary of theological controversies and disputes, and desire to choose for myself, and to point out to others, Mary's part--to sit at Jesus' feet, and to hear His words. I cannot, I must not, I dare not--be contentious! Only, as a witness for God, I am ready to bear my simple testimony to what I have known of His truth, whenever I am properly called to it.

So a confirmation for me (Aside from the made up words... "teachableness"?).  This has made me change my views on how I handle a lot of things, but especially my speech about those whom I consider to be "wolves in sheep's clothing". 

Here's my view in short.  While we ARE supposed to judge the fruit of those who claim to be Christian, and we are to season our speech with grace concerning those we consider to be off in stance.  I don't think we are to IGNORE them, I don't think we are to VALIDATE them either.  Share the truth, with Love and Grace.  Randy Alcorn kept making the point during the reading that Christ wasn't full of just grace, nor was He just full of Truth.  I like Randy's illustration best for describing it.  "Christ wasn't 50% grace and 50% truth.  He was 100% grace and 100% truth."  Christ held both at once.  We are to do likewise.  While not condoning a false version of the gospel to be presented, we should help to correct others in a way that reflects Christ's method best.  TALK TO THEM, don't just LET people be led astray, but do it in love.  And if they don't receive God's words and wisdom, don't take it personal.  Keep in mind that it's not YOU they reject, it's CHRIST.  They also reject because the Spirit has not opened them to receiving, so shake the dust from your feet and move on.  LOVE THEM, of course, continue to preach to them if you can!  When a fireman enters a burning building and finds occupants unconscious and unable to help themselves (sinners dead in sin and unable to help themselves), he doesn't scoff and insult the helpless (how DARE they reject the true gospel!).  His attitude isn't one of pride (I'm conscious.. they're NOT, glad I'm not THEM).  Because he CARES about the well being of those people he makes an attempt to save them (preaching and teaching the truth, not allowing others to be deceived BECAUSE of love, not out of pride, hate, or arrogance).  If he is unable to save them he has to regretfully move on (no injury to pride, but saddened because this person could not be reached or helped), however if he is able to rescue them, everyone rejoices! 

That of course is a very loose analogy, but I think it fits.  So when discussing the teachings of those we find to be unbiblical with those that follow them, are we critical or caring?  If we happen to find ourselves in discussion with a teacher who presents false teachings are we lovingly corrective or abusive and harsh?  Any thoughts?

Tech Reviews too?!? Celio Red Fly… coming soon!

Some of you know, some of you don't, but I'm a technology geek! Ever since my first computer back in 97 and my first PDA in 2001 I've been inseparable from either or both (sometimes simultaneously, LOL).

So I've just ordered a Celio Red Fly and I'm pretty excited about it. I've recently started taking notes in church on Sundays with my cell phone (AT&T Tilt). It works pretty well, I've got some Bible software loaded and MS Onenote makes it pretty easy to take some decent notes. I can add bullet or numbered points, bold, underline, italicize, etc. So I love the setup. I can even come home and plug it up to my PC and have my notes backed up to my PC with MS Office 2007!

The only thing I would change is the small screen. I also work heavily with spreadsheets at my job, and being able to edit them on the go with my tilt gives a little push in productivity in those "Gotta have it done" situations like over the weekend when I'm out and about with my family. However, the screen size can really be a hindrance when dealing with large spreadsheets or multipage word documents. So this is where the addition of the Red Fly is really great!

A brief look at the device and you immediately think laptop, but you'd be wrong. It's a lot less and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll give my pros and cons of the device in the future.. and I MAY do a video. Still deciding on that one. Here's a quick breakdown of the features.

Hardware Specifications:

Size:
1 x 6 x 9 inches

Screen:
8-inches; 800 x 480 pixels

Weight:
2 lbs.

Battery:
4,500 mAh (lasts 8 hours with typical usage)
REDFLY can also use its battery to charge most smartphones via USB cable

Connectivity:
Bluetooth
USB (2 ports – supports USB Keyboards, mouse, and usb storage drives)
VGA (1 VGA out port for connection to projectors or external monitors)

The Red Fly is a Windows Mobile Smartphone accessory. It simply adds a larger screen and keyboard to the device. Some might be aware that similar functionality is available for FREE with software for a PC, however, those solutions don't actually change the resolution of the smartphone.. it's simply a copy of the phones screen on the pc. If it's not clear to you now, just wait until the review and hopefully I can answer some of your questions (like… "what's the point?!?"). LOL. Stay tuned!