Trevin Wax had an interesting post this morning talking about why the kindle beats the iPad as an e-Reader. Here are the reasons why:

As an e-Reader, the Kindle beats the iPad. Here are the reasons why:

• Easy on the Eyes: I thought the talk of the Kindle’s natural screen to be overblown until I started using it myself. I quickly realized why my eyes had gotten so tired so fast with the backlit screen of the iPad. The screen of the Kindle is indeed like reading a book page.
• Focused on the Book: The Kindle is an e-reading device, period. It does one thing only, but it does it well. Pick up your Kindle and you lose yourself in the world of reading. The content stands out, not the impressive features of the device. With the iPad, e-reading is just one of the many features, which means that there are any number of distractions from keeping your nose in that eBook.
• Light and Easy: The Kindle is lighter than the iPad. Sometimes, I stand on the bus on the way to work, which means I’ve got to use one hand to hold on to the rail. I wouldn’t be able to hold an iPad with my other hand and easily click the pages. The Kindle’s size and weight make it easy to read anywhere.
• Cost: The iPad costs more than $500 compared to the Kindle at $114 (or $139). That’s not to say the iPad is overpriced. It does have more features, after all. But the Kindle excels at doing one thing – providing a reading platform.

If you’re on the fence as to whether or not you should go the direction of the kindle or the iPad, I highly recommend Trevin’s post to help you narrow down your decision.  You can read the post in its entirety here:  LINK

So, you are a whole 4 days in to your 2011 Bible Reading plan, but you feel that you need to add something else to your daily regimen.  I might be so bold to suggest that you consider following along with The Marrow Project (www.themarrow.org), where Austin Britton, Brian Chang, Paul Johnson, Brad Jones, Brian Lund, Nicole Noran and Chrisopher Chelpka will be blogging their way through Edward Fisher’s The Marrow of Modern Divinity for all of 2011.  They’ve put together a handy 52-week reading plan that is aligned with the 2009 edition of The Marrow of Modern Divinity published by Christian Focus.    In the event that you are not yet acquainted with this book, I’ve included the description from the publisher’s web site below:

An intriguing book, quite unlike any other The Marrow of Modern Divinity defies pigeonholing. It was written in the 1600s by an author of whom we know little, yet it proved to be a critically important and controversial theological text.
Penned as dialogue between a minister (Evangelista), a young Christian (Neophytus), a legalist (Nomista) who believes Christianity is a set of rules to be obeyed and Antinomista who thinks it’s okay to sin because God will forgive him anyway, it makes for a wonderfully insightful book that remains tremendously relevant for our world today.
This newly laid out and eagerly awaited edition includes explanatory notes by the famous puritan Thomas Boston, an Introduction by Philip Ryken and an historical Introduction by William Vandoodewaard.

What sold me on the importance of this book was the following recommendation by Sinclair B. Ferguson:

“Anyone who comes to grips with the issues raised in The Marrow of Modern Divinity will almost certainly grow by leaps and bounds in understanding three things: the grace of God, the Christian life, and the very nature of the gospel itself. I personally owe it a huge debt. Despite their mild-mannered appearance, these pages contain a powerful piece of propaganda. Read them with great care!”

I deeply respect and appreciate Dr. Ferguson and quite honestly, any book to which he owes a huge debt should be moved to the top of my reading list. With that in mind, I’ll be going along for the ride and reading through The Marrow of Modern Divinity in 2011 and will strive to be an active commenter on The Marrow Project as it unfolds.  While the book retails for $29.99, many booksellers have it available for less than $20.  As of the date of this post, the best prices I found were:

• Monergism Books – $17.99
• Amazon.com – $19.33
• Westminster Bookstore – $21.59

I am excited to see a collaborative blogging project like this come together.  Hats off to the team at The Marrow Project for putting forth the effort to launch the web site and create the reading guide.  Be sure to visit www.themarrow.org and consider participating in their 52 week blogging adventure.

Tim Challies has blogged a couple of videos that he’s shot at T4G.  If like me, you’re unable to attend, go ahead and pretend your there for a few minutes via Tim’s videos below. 

I ran into my friend Matthew Taylor at church this morning and he filled me in on a new blog project he began recently.  Matt has been spreading the good news on twitter for quite some time now.  While twitter is great for many topics, there are times when Matt has more to say than can be expressed in a mere 140 characters.  His solution to this problem is taylormatthews.blogspot.com.  This blog will track all of his twitter posts as well as those things he feels require further explanation.  Matt is striving to create something more verbose than twitter, but slightly shorter than posts on a traditional blog.  I’m excited to see what he does as he develops this new mini blog.  Please take a minute to check out taylormatthews.blogspot.com and if you’re a twitter user, you can follow Matt who tweets as @matthewtaylors.

T. Michael W. Halcomb is offering what he describes as a semester worth of Greek training at his website: Getting Greek (gettinggreek.blogspot.com).  I strongly encourage you to wander over to Getting Greek and take a look around.  He has put together quite the selection of creative little helps.  So go ahead & get your Greek on.  We know you want to.  All of the cool Biblio-bloggers are doing it (hopefully every day, so their post-graduate school language skills don’t go south). 

Once again, it is time for another installment of Bible Geek Gone Wild’s Biblio-Blogger of the week.  This time around our lucky victim volunteer is none other than Jason Skipper.  If you’re not yet familiar with Jason’s pastoral musings, be sure to subscribe to his RSS feed at pastoralmusings.com and follow him on Twitter:  www.twitter.com/pastoralmusings.  Many thanks to Jason for his willingness to participate in this interview.  I’m always blessed to learn more about the Biblio-Bloggers I encounter on the web and I’m sure you will be too. 

1. What is the name & URL of your blog? Why’d you choose that?

• Pastoral Musings @ pastoralmusings.com.  I chose that because I’m a pastor and I originally intended to record my simple thoughts on the blog.  Over the last few months I’ve also been invited to contribute to the King James Only Debate Blog @ kjvodebate.wordpress.com and have begun another team blog called Fundamentally Changed @ fundamentallychanged.wordpress.com.

2. How’d you get into blogging?

• I saw that others were doing it, thought I might have something to say occasionally that might encourage someone, and it has gone from there.

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

• A good Christian, father, and pastor.

4. Do you have a family?

• Yes.  I have a wife, Tonya, to whom I have been married for eighteen years, and two precious children who we were blessed to adopt, and were blessed that we could adopt siblings.  They are Titus Luke (3) and Abigail Ruth (4).

5. Is Bibilical & Theological studies a hobby or a career aspiration?

• No answer.

6. Who’s your favorite author? Recommended books?

• The Pleasures of God and Desiring God by John Piper.   In addition, I would add Portraits of God by Coppedge.

7. What’s your favorite theological subject / topic?

• Doxology.

8. What’s your favorite Bible translation?

• I grew up KJV only.  I still love and use the KJV primarily.  I have recently come to love, appreciate, and enjoy the ESV.

9. What’s in your CD and/or MP3 player right now?

• A great mixture. Some country, bluegrass, Casting Crowns, Kingdom Heirs, John Piper, John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll, and some courses from Covenant Seminary.

10. Where did you go to school? (undergraduate, graduate, etc.)

• I have only fifteen hours of any kind of formal education after high school.  I strive hard to read and learn. I read widely, and I read seriously.

11. What is something interesting that most of your readers don’t know about you?

• I am shepherd/pastor to two small country churches, preach six times weekly, and love it.

12. What are some research / writing projects you’re interested in pursuing?

• I am deeply interested in the Genesis debate.  If I were to write, however, I would write some simple doctrinal studies in a systematic form for the churches and preachers in the circles where I minister.  There is a great need to move beyond some of the more extreme fundamentalist attitudes that I see in my particular area and I would love to be able to help folks do that.  Of course, I am deeply interested in the KJVO debate as well as historic fundamentalism and have begun blogging about that.  Apologetics is also something that interests me and I find myself reading about quite often.

Many thanks to Jeff who blogs over at www.scripturezealot.com for agreeing to be featured as this week’s Biblio-Blogger of the Week.  I’ve been following Jeff’s blog for more than a year now and I’ve come to value his insights.  Be sure to add his site to your feed reader and please take a few minutes to read this brief interview below, so you can get to know Jeff a little better.

1. What is the name & URL of your blog? Why’d you choose that?

The name of my blog is Scripture Zealot at www.scripturezealot.com. Romans 12:11 says to never be lacking in zeal. Over the last few years my zeal for getting to know God through Scripture has increased exponentially so I came up with the name with those ideas in mind. I love reading the Bible and reading about the Bible. There’s so much I want to learn and learning through reading is worship for me.

2. How’d you get into blogging?

I spent a lot of time on the Internet and not much time at all reading Christian related material which wasn’t right so I started looking around. I found a Christian message board or two but was dissatisfied. Then I found various Christian blogs and found what I was looking for. When I started reading commentaries I decided to start my own blog so I could write about what I’m learning, have a place to collect quotes and links and hopefully lead people to some good resources I come across.

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A wise old man who isn’t wise in his own eyes.

4. Do you have a family?

I’m happily married and we have two very lucky cats.

5. Is Bibilical & Theological studies a hobby or a career aspiration?

It’s definitely a hobby for me but I’d call it more than a hobby. I was born in 1964 and didn’t start really getting serious about studying the Bible until a few years ago even though I’ve been a Christian for 25 years and have always been very serious about my relationship with God. My interest in finding refuge in God has increased as chronic suffering has gotten much worse from various conditions.

6. Who’s your favorite author? Recommended books?

I can’t say I have a favorite. I haven’t read more than two or three books of any one author. Some of my favorites are A.W. Tozer, Gordon Fee, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul and D.A. Carson. The latter may become my favorite. I’m reading his commentary on John right now, I’ve read two of his books, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers and Exegetical Fallacies along with some papers and articles and I have two of his books on my list–How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew5-10.

One fairly unknown book I would recommend is The Lord by Romano Guardini. He was a Catholic scholar and the book goes through who Christ is from the beginning to the new heavens and the new earth. Other than some things about Mary the mother of Jesus and John the Baptist that I don’t agree with it’s a great book.

7. What’s your favorite theological subject / topic?

They would simply be Jesus, Prayer, Suffering and God’s Sovereignty/Providence. The latter two overlap quite a bit of course.

8. What’s your favorite Bible translation?

The HCSB because of its use of traditional theological terms but less archaic language than many others. The NLT comes in a close second even though it’s very different. The NRSV was my primary translation for three years until earlier this year and the NIV was my main translation for about 20 years before that.

9. What’s in your CD and/or MP3 player right now?

Mostly orchestral music from the Romantic period and electronic music–both ambient for sleep and some with beats–along with a bit of big band and New Flamenco. I like music without vocals so I can read or sleep while listening.

10. Where did you go to school? (undergraduate, graduate, etc.)

I had a full music scholarship to a major university but couldn’t keep up the required grade point average and then dropped out. I don’t have fond memories of that.

11. What is something interesting that most of your readers don’t know
about you?

I brew my own beer along with a friend. With my bad back and chronic fatigue there’s no way I could do it by myself. I can’t say I enjoy the process but it’s nice to brew beer where you make up your own recipe and drink high quality beer at a lower cost. I don’t drink very much of course so we only brew a few times a year between the two of us and give some away. I also roast my own coffee. (I have too many hobbies) even though ironically I can’t handle very much caffeine. My afternoon cup along with reviewing memorized Scripture is a nice time of the day. The flavors that God put in those things are amazing.

12. What are some research / writing projects you’re interested in pursuing?

In 2010 I’m going to start educating myself more on the Old Testament. We’re studying Ecclesiastes in our small group Bible study right now. I love that book.

I can’t get enough of the Sermon on the Mount. We studied that in our small group Bible study and want to keep studying that. I read D. Martin Lloyd-Jones’ exposition of it which was great, Stott’s which was kind of like cliff notes for the former and a little one by Oswald Chambers in addition to France’s commentary on Matthew and other bits and pieces here and there. I mentioned that I’d like to get Carson’s book on it and may look for others. I’m familiar with Betz but it’s very expensive.

I want to study Colossians as in-depth as I can and possibly write a Bible study for use in small groups. I love Colossians.

I’m working on lining up three or four new Biblio-Blogger of the Week interviews for December.  You can read the previous Biblio-Blogger of the Week interviews here:  LINK.  If you’re a Biblio-Blogger and you’d like to be interviewed, please drop me a note through my contact page.

Tim Challies wrote today about Cassidy: Amish Vampiress of the Tribulation.  Is he finally revealing his latest writing project to the world?

That’s right. It’s an Amish novel; it’s a vampire novel; it’s an end-times novel. It’s the best of all worlds.

Here is the back cover text:

He is handsome. He is romantic. He is Amish.

Twenty-three year old Cassidy lives a simple life in the Amish countryside of Lancaster County. Simple, that is, until Slade Byler moves into the old Lapp farm. Cassidy finds herself irresistibly drawn to the handsome Slade; but she fears to share the secret that she alone knows. For Cassidy is an immortal, a princess in the long line of ancient Amish vampires. Will Slade’s love grow cold when he learns this great secret? Can she give to him a heart that does not beat?

Meanwhile, the strength of the Antichrist grows as he consolidates his power and seeks to destroy the peace-loving people of Pennsylvania. A blossoming romance unfolds between Cassidy and Slade as the world around them changes forever. They must fight to stay alive, they must fight to keep their forbidden love a secret, but, as Amish, they must not fight at all.

In this irresistible tale of intrigue and adventure, set against global upheaval, the bonnet meets the cape in a story sure to span the ages.

Read more here:  LINK.

Since I know all of you out there can’t get enough book reviews from us Bibliobloggers, I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to Jason, who blogs over at Eis Doxan.  He is a graduate of New Orleans Theological Seminary, currently pastoring at a church in Forest Hill, LA.  A few of his book reviews that I’ve enjoyed as of late are:

• A Review of John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One
• A Review of Timothy Ward’s Words of Life

You can see a longer list of his book reviews @ eisdoxan.wordpress.com/book-reviews.  Be sure to tell Jason I told you to stop by.