Mega Bible Commentaries App

This is one of my favorite ministry Apps.  I first bought it last year while finishing my Masters of Christian Education for my iPod Touch.   It is a great resource to have.  I used so many times in class, but now I daily use it to look up things when preparing for a small group, Sunday school lesson, youth group lesson, and personal study.  You can't beat the price of $1.99.   They now have several Apps like this for the iPad which I plan on downloading in a few minutes.  I just found out about them when I went to their homepage to get the pictures for this blog.
Here are a couple screen shots...

Mega Bible Commentaries features 23 commentaries on the Bible, along with 24 English Bible translations. The commentaries include John Wesley's Commentary, the Geneva Study Bible, Coffman NT, Matthew Henry Concise, John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels, and many more. 


Great Buy for only $1.99

Bible App

This is by far my most used App in ministry.  I use it when looking up scripture while sitting in service on Sunday mornings.  I use it daily for personal devotion time.  I use when someone asks me about a scripture.  I use it in small groups.  I read out of it when I preach on Sunday nights.   It is a great App and has so many useful features.

YouVersion did a great job with it and I'm so glad that they have made an iPad version of it.  Here are a couple screen shots.

The best part is that it is totally free!  So if you have a smart phone, iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch...Go download it!

I admit it I'm a MAC now...

For years, my Uncle Ed (my dad's twin brother) has been telling me and my dad that we needed to get away from the PC world and join the Mac family.   We didn't listen, we were a Dell family.  For as long as I can remember we have owned Dell computers in our household.  Last year, my laptop for school died and I needed a new one.  I looked at the MacBooks but ended up going with a Sony Vaio with Windows 7.  I made fun of youth workers and pastors over the past couple years at every conference I went to and seeing them online for having to have MacBooks to do ministry.  All the "cool" pastors and youth pastors used them...i.e. Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick.....

I was satisfied with my iPod as being my only Mac product....Then last July our Verizon contract was up and we were fed up with the horrible customer service and the numerous dropped calls in Charlotte, NC with Verizon.  So after test driving a couple iPhones of our students, we made the move to AT&T and the iPhone.   Since then we have had great service and only a few dropped calls for all of you nay sayers on AT&T having horrible service.  We have had nothing but great service, we have saved over $40 a month on our bill and we love our iPhones!  

When we moved and started at our new church, I found out that I was going to get a new computer and so I decided to go with a MacBook Pro.  At first I wasn't convinced that the Mac was better for me than my PC.  I did not like iWorks and a few other things...But after a few weeks of using my MacBook Pro and learning it I don't know how I've lived without it!   

Then a couple weeks ago I made the plunge and bought an iPad.   Several people said it was just because I was becoming a Mac fanboy...but I saw a huge need for it.  I love it.  I use it so much for ministry.  I now put all my small group lessons, my worship set lists, and my Sermons in dropbox and then open it up on my iPad and save tons of paper.  It has made me so more productive and organized.  

Plus there are so many Apps that I use in ministry.

Yes I'm a convert!  We have become an Apple family.  It started with an iPod in 2004...now we own an iPod 80gb, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod Touch, Two iPhone 3GS, a MacBook Pro, and an iPad.  And one day when our Dell takes its final Blue Screen we will get an iMac or a MacPro

Over the next couple weeks I'll review several Apps that I use daily on my iPad and iPhone and how I use them in ministry.

Blogging

I know I've said several times in past posts that I was going to get blogging again...I have been, but its been reading.  Lately I've been reading tons of blogs.  There is some great ministry tips out there and thanks to twitter and google reader I keep busy reading them.  I'm using them to help me professionally and personally spiritually.  I have been really busy with several things of late.  I have been writing lists down for future blogs. And I hope to get back into daily writing again.  Just lately I've been doing more reading and educating that blogging myself.  But I that will be changing soon.

Penn Gillette gets a gift of a Bible

Someone sent me this video of Penn of Penn & Teller.  I found this video to very interesting.  I used to watch them all the time growing up on Comedy Central.  This past week I taught Confirmation Class at our church and we talked about the importance of scripture and our Bibles.  The students shared their thoughts on their Bibles.  Only 3 out of 10 had their Bibles with them and one had it on his iPhone.   We talked about how we should read it daily and share it.  The students talked about how they had received  several Bibles over their lifetime and that most of them sat and collected dust.  I then went over to my bookshelf (we had the class in my office) and looked at the 12 different Bibles that I have there.  I use almost all of them weekly (different translations and different highlights and notes from over the years).
One of my students then said that we should share more often.
I look at Penn here, a known atheist, was given the gift of a Bible.  He could have easily accepted the gift and never shared that he got this.  But what strikes me is that he posted in his video blog.  I find it amazing how much respect that he gave this man who gave him the gift of God's word to share it with all of his fans.  I find that really amazing after seeing many of his shows and interviews with him over the years.  He might not have changed his view at this point, but I really feel that God used this man and is working in him.  I pray for Penn.  I also pray for all his followers and fans that see this.

When is the last time you shared a Bible with someone?
How can we be more like the man who gave the Bible and show God's love to others?