It’s not my birthday for several days, but a few presents have already arrived. My mother-in-law blessed me with a copy of Courageous on Blu-ray and my sister and brother-in-law sent me a copy of How to Position Yourself as the Obvious Expert by Elsom Eldridge Jr. and Mark L. Eldridge. For the rest of my family members and friends who still have shopping to do, you can find my wishlist here:  LINK.  ;)

It is also available as a PDF here: LINK

Rachel Held Evans featured a post today on her blog, where Jana Riess answers questions about her conversation to Mormonism and other questions related to Mormonism that I believe were asked by some of Rachel’s regular blog readers.  The post is available here:  LINK.  It was interesting to get an insider’s perspective to some common questions asked by those outside of the LDS church.  While I personally don’t condone abandoning the Christian faith to join the LDS church, I was fascinated to see how Jana ended up where she is today.  One book that I’ve found particularly insightful about Mormonism is The Mormon Mirage: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today by Latayne C. Scott (Zondervan, 2009).

Last week I found myself in a bit of a conundrum.  I wanted to participate in an upcoming blog tour for Planting for the Gospel (Christian Focus, 2011), but had actually lent my copy of the book to a friend.  Fortunately, the kind folks at Christian Focus Publications came to my rescue and provided me with a PDF version of the book, which I loaded up in iBooks on my first generation iPad.  While I’ve read portions of several books on the iPad in both iBooks and the Amazon Kindle app, I’ve never actually read through an entire book.  A couple of hours and 128 pages later, I can say that I officially read through my first e-book.  All things considered it was a decent experience.  On the plus side, I could bookmark where I left off and I found that I was able to skim and scan pages in the e-book much faster than I can in an actual printed book.  I definitely appreciated that the format and medium made the book highly portable and convenient to access as I generally have my iPad with me, which precluded me from forgetting the book on my desk at home.  Honestly, it’s hard for me to think of anything that was negative or frustrating in this whole experience.  For better or worse, I find myself in more and more situations where an electronic or computer searchable format is preferable over a printed book for my writing and research needs.  As a lifelong bibliophile it horrifies me to think of leaving my library of printed books behind.  For now, I’ll have to live somewhere in the middle of this print versus e-book dichotomy, riding the fence on whether or not I should become an ardent supporter of the e-book revolution.  For now my slogan will be:  Long live the printed book, except for the times when an electronic format is more convenient. 

In the event that you weren’t raptured yesterday, I’d suggest heading to church.  And if Harold Camping is looking for some devotional material to dwell on today, I thought the passage below would be most appropriate.

No One Knows That Day and Hour

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding oat the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Mt 24:36–44.

Just when I thought Missional Wear had run out of new places to put images of Calvin, Luther, Edwards, and Spurgeon, they surprised me once again.  Click the image below for details on how to order these fine looking pint glasses.

I recently celebrated my 33rd birthday.  I’m never quite sure what my kids are going to get me, but I really felt like they wanted to put me into a sugar coma this year.  As far as sweets are concerned, I received two bags of gummy bears and a bag each of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats.  Speaking of caffeine, I received gift cards for both Starbucks and Caribou Coffee.  These gifts were wonderful and greatly appreciated.  However, the two gifts that I loved the most came from my dear wife (Sinaiticus prints) and from my brother-in-law (Putty) and sister-in-law (Brittany) (William Still book).  Thanks guys!

Codex Sinaiticus Facsimile Prints, 2 folios from Hendrickson Publishers
Description:  The Codex Sinaiticus is not only one of the most important manuscripts for the purposes of biblical translation and for the study of the textual history of the Christian Bible, it is also a beautiful and fascinating piece of history. Now you can display the delicate beauty of this important text—its parchment, inks, and scars, all visible in incredible detail—for all to see.

The folios include two of the most historically significant and best preserved pages reproduced as prints, suitable for framing: Songs of Songs 1:18–2:15, and John 20:1–21:1.

Painstakingly photographed using the latest high-quality digital technology and a careful imaging process, the folios are printed on the same high-quality, acid-free paper as the Fascimile Edition and come in a sturdy tube for shipping.

Towards Spiritual Maturity: Overcoming Evil in the Christian Life by William Still

Description:  The Christian’s greatest target is to glorify God and to enjoy glorifying Him. The path to this target of enjoying God is described as striving towards spiritual maturity. William Still describes that path through the three results of the death of Jesus – the removal of sins from the believer, the mastery of sin and the defeat of satan, the motive power behind that sin. Living in the shadow of the Cross is living in victory, a victory which means peace with God and hope for eternity.

“This book is small in size but seed-like in nature. From its teaching strong and healthy Christian lives may be developed. It is a book to be read and reread, to be pondered frequently, applied constantly, and shared with others.”
- Sinclair B. Ferguson, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina

This past weekend, my mother-in-law gave us the wonderful gift of free babysitting for 24 hours.  When you have as many kids as I do, these types of offers don’t come along too often.  It had been more than 9 years since our last overnight trip away from the children, so we mulled it over a bit and ended up deciding to visit Stillwater, MN.

I immediately hit the web and started looking for a nice bed and breakfast.  The bed and breakfast that stuck out to me as having the right amount charm at just the right price was Ann Bean Mansion (www.annbeanmansion.com).  We were able to book the tower room.  This room sits on the third floor of the mansion and has a tower with 4 windows located above the room.  The tower is accessible up a steep little staircase and through a trap door.  You can see a picture of the tower below:

As an avid reader and hopeful author, my first thought is that the tower would make a great hideaway for a writer looking to find some reclusive peace and quiet and maybe even a bit of inspiration.  The room below also has a 2 person hot tub as well as a gas fireplace.  The wonderful accommodations made for a restful and rejuvenating experience.  Our stay was capped off by a gourmet breakfast the following morning.  My wife and I especially enjoyed getting to know Erin and Jeremy, the inkeepers at Ann Bean mansion.  They both went out of their way to make us feel at home.  We may have spent as much as two and a half hours just chatting with them.  In fact, I’d love to go back just to get to know them a bit more.   All this is to say that we had a wonderful time staying at the Ann Bean Mansion.  They get 5 stars in my book!

Once we concluded our stay at the mansion, my wife and I parted ways for a bit.  She went off to Goodwill, but not before dropping me off at my favorite book store, Loome Theological booksellers (www.loomebooks.com).  You can see a picture of me in front of the store on the right.  This is one of the most unique book stores in Minnesota and maybe even the whole country.  It is housed within an old church and there are books in the sanctuary, up the staircases, in the choir loft, etc.  There are literally books everywhere.  I can browse in there for hours and hours.  I got out of there pretty inexpensively this time, spending a mere $29.  My finds included:

• The Archaeology of Palestine by W.F. Albright – $2
• The Biblical Archaeologist Reader edited by G. Ernest Wright & David Noel Freedman – $2
• A Reader’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Sakae Kubo – $8
• Encountering New Testament Manuscripts:  A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism by Jack Finegan – $15

The final stop on our trip was dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ and then it was back to reality again.  Hopefully it won’t be 9 years before we do something like this again.

I was spending a little time reviewing the google analytics information for Bible Geek Gone Wild this morning and noticed that the 10 highest viewed pages this year are:

1. Home Page – 4275 Page Views
2. Continued Controversy over the Shack? – 1005 Page Views
3. Cheap Book Stand from IKEA – 517 Page Views
4. Does John MacArthur Hate Mark Driscoll? – 449 Page Views
5. Free Audiobook: The Divine Comedy (Unabridged) by Dante Alighieri – 411 Page Views
6. Book Review: New Testament Text and Translation Commentary – 347 Page Views
7. Free E-Book – Porn-Again Christian by Mark Driscoll – 310 Page Views
8. Bible Software Showdown – BibleWorks Versus LOGOS – A Discussion – 272 Page Views
9. Free Audiobook: Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan – 238 Page Views
10. Free Easter Movie for the Kiddies! – 232 Page Views

After 10 years of resistance I finally took the plunge and am converting from PC to Mac. I’m interested in doing more audio and video stuff for Bible Geek Gone Wild and I really felt that the Mac platform was the better way to go. I opted for the 13.3″ MacBook Pro. So far, my favorite features are the integrated webcam, LED display and the backlit keyboard. I guess all those switch adds and Peter’s (www.edstrom.net) many encouragements finally paid off.