Anyone who knows me, knows that right after being a minister and a christian, I am a geek.  I love technology and I love all most things geek.

Right now I'm looking for the best bible study software that I can find for under $50 USD.  I want a nice UI with a wide range of bibles.  The bibles that it must, absolutely, have are the KJV, NKJV, NIV,the NLT and the Amplified Bible.  Other versions are bonus.  I'm looking for a solid version of Strongs Exhaustive Concordance and Vine's Biblical Dictionary.  Other references = bonus.  I would like to have a couple devotionals and commontaries as well, but they aren't needed.

Right now I'm playing around with a few free software packages, but I can't get any bible versions past KJV and to add the other ones that I want will cost over my budget.  For free software I have to settle for public domain bibles, which includes the KJV but not many others that I want to use. 

The reason I'm in the market for the software is that I want to start some serious Bible study.  Since I'm a geek, I want to have my study materials available on my laptop.  I wan't all of the materials there.  I don't want to have to have a library of books just to do the simplest of studies.  I'll still have my hard copy Bibles that I will use for ready and as my pulpit bible, but I want the software for study.

The ones that I'm playing around with now are the Bible Explorer and the e-Sword.  These are nice, but not overly intuitive.  Getting add on material can be a pain. 

I'm all about downloading things, but the pain I've gone through to get these packages working well hasn't been real fun.  I'd much rather have the material on an install disk that I can reuse when I reinstall windows (I do often as a software developer just to keep my system running fast.)

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  I'm anxious to see what alternatives other people are using, and maybe one of them will be the right fit for me.

I want to talk a little about human nature.

Let me explain.  Human beings have three distinct, yet intertwined parts of our nature.  We have three parts because we are created in the image of God.  We are made up of the spirit, soul and body, as God is made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In our nature, the biggest difference between God and man is corruption.  Where God knows no corruption, we humans are corrupt, flawed from the womb.

So, if we are corrupt, from where does that corruption originate?  The easy answer to that is sin, but I’m not talking about the outside influences, or the consequences of the corruption, I’m talking about the corruption itself.

To get a grasp on this, let me explain some basic things about human nature.

Within each person there is a war going on. When sin enters our lives, at birth, it brings two parts of our being into conflict over the third.

The human spirit is incorruptible.  It is the divine, eternal portion of our nature.  After our bodies have perished, it is our spirit which will endure.

Our soul has another name in the modern vernacular, it is called the mind.  This is also an eternal part of our being, however, it is corruptible. Anyone who has had an evil thought, and that is everyone of us, knows that the mind, the soul, is corruptible.

The body is not eternal, it is temporal, and it is in the body that the corruption starts.  It is the body that screams for pleasure, no matter how temporary, no matter the long term cost.  That is why addictions are so devastating.  The alcoholic drinks and numbs the pain that the alcoholism creates.  In order to avoid the pain the drinking continues until the bill comes due, and it always comes due in time.

So, the body and spirit are at war in the battlefield of the mind, and at stake is your eternal soul.  The spirit tells the mind to do the right things.  It tells you to live a good life.  It tells you to seek after your heavenly father, and seek a relationship with him.  It tells you to buffet your body and stay away from sin.

The body tells the mind, “If it feels good, do it.”  The body wants to corrupt the mind in order to have the experiences that it wants.  It doesn’t want to be in an unpleasant position, it want pleasure for the sake of pleasure, because it doesn’t care about eternity, it wants what it wants now.

Satan tells two lies that have been effective to deceive the body and mind.

The first is that he doesn’t exist.  If he doesn’t exist you can do whatever you want with no eternal consequence, because Satan doesn’t exist then God doesn’t exist.  If God doesn’t exist there is no heaven to be saved to nor hell to be saved from.

The second is that Satan is more powerful than you.  There is nothing you can do to resist him.  If there is nothing you can do to resist him, there are two consequences that people experience. First, if you can’t resist him, you are not at fault.  Second, if you can’t resist him, why try.

These are the lies that the body will introduce to play with the mind.

So why is the mind the battlefield?  The mind is the seat of intellect.  It is the seat of emotion.  It is the driving force of personality.  If your mind decides it wants to get drunk or take a drug or have sex, your body is going to rejoice and your spirit will scream.  If your mind decides to not give into the temptation, or decides to seek God, then the spirit rejoices and the body screams.
So, there is a war.  Do you recognize this battle in your own life?  I know I do in mine.  I know there are a couple of areas that my body uses.  Primarily it uses my love of food and the fact that I experience pain when I get involved in too much physical activity.

I know that if I lost weight, the pain would go away.  I also know that the physical activity required to lose the weight will hurt.  My spirit says go through the pain, lose the weight, be healthy. A healthy Shaun is a more productive Shaun.  My body says, “Ouch!”, surf the internet, eat some ice cream and be lazy.
I think it’s time for me to choose to listen to my spirit and get active.  What do you think?

Majestic & Glorious, the first CD from the Family Fellowship Worship Team with Nazaria Music hit the shelves yesterday!

What makes this CD so special to me?  My wife and I are both on the worhsip team.  We both sing, so on most songs she's one of the female voices and I'm usually the only male voice.  The last song on the disk the male voice is Chuck Bihun.  For those in Sarasota eagerly awaiting our arrival this is important because Chuck is going to be coming down with us. 

Anyway, all in all, we're just excited to have something we've worked so hard on for so many years finally get out there.  Go to the Family Fellowship or Nazaria Music websites to get your copy today.

I think that everyone who claims to be a Christian and has a true understanding of who God is and who they are agree that there are no words that can be used that can express the glory of our Father in heaven.

Just because any words we speak or actions we take are inadequate, doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.

With Father's day on the precipice this Sunday in the United States, I am going to put forth my best effort to express my feelings for my Father in heaven.

So as I continue this post, the remainder of is from me directly to God.  You are free to join me in any expressions to our Father.

Father, there is only one word in my vocabulary that I can use to explain my feelings toward you.

It's not majestic, glorious, awesome, inspiring, holy, loving, merciful, graceful, forgiving or restoring, even though you are all of those things.

These words are all a pale reflection of what you are.  They are the mouse compared to a dragon.  They are painfully and completely faulty and inadequate.

My word, though as weak in reality as any of the words above, express my true feelings for you Father.  This word encompasses my passion and my love for you more than any other word in the English language.  That one word.  That one amazing word is Daddy.

Thank you, Daddy, for never abandoning me when I had abandoned you.  Thank you for pursuing me and wooing me back to your arms.  Thank you, Daddy, for always being my comforter when I was in pain.  Thank you, Daddy, for always giving me those things I don't deserve and never giving me those things I do deserve.  Thank you, Daddy, for adopting me as your son.  Thank you, Daddy, for always allowing me to come before your throne with boldness and confidence.

Daddy, I love you.  If you had a refrigerator, I would draw you a picture to put on it.  If you owned a Zune I would sing you a song to share with your friends on the Zune Social.  However, more than anything, I want to hug your neck and kiss your face.  One day, when we're face to face, I won't ask you a million questions.  I won't stand dumbfounded.  I will throw down my crowns, run to the throne and throw my arms around you and do exactly what I've wanted to do for so many years of my life.  I will cry, I will not be able to stop it, I will be unable to hold back my unending joy.

Watching prayer work is pretty amazing.  When it involves a specific series of requests and they all start to happen, even more so.

For the past month or so, my grand father has been in the hospital.  It all started with the flu and dehydration.  However, after getting to the hospital he started getting worse.  His kidneys started to fail.  He was bleeding, a lot.  He was in pretty bad shape.  Eventually the hospital released him to a rehab center once they saw that he was starting to get better.

This didn't last long, he was in the rehab center for a couple of hours and started bleeding again, so they shipped him off to a different hospital, one that was closer than the first.  While there his health started to rapidly spiral.  On Thursday (June 4th) the doctors came in and told us that he was never going to leave the hospital and that it would be a couple of days or a couple of weeks until his passing.

We had all been praying up to this point, but it was at this point that I changed my prayer.  You see, up until this point, I had no doubt that he would be coming up and he would recover.  I was praying for his healing, but not fervently.  However, hearing that he was not coming home and knowing that he didn't know Christ, moved me.  I prayed two specific things in the situation.  First, that someone go in to see him and to be a witness to him and for him to give his life to Christ.  The second, that the Lord work a miricle in his life and bring him back to health.  I would have been satisfied with a quick and less painful death, but that is not what I wanted.

Well, on Friday, a gentleman from my mom's church came in and was being a witness to him and he gave is life to Christ!

Then, another doctor came in and recognized the symtoms that he was displaying as an allergic reaction to a specific medicine.  He wasn't on the medicine as far as anyone knew.  They did a little digging and found out that the first hospital had indeed given it to him.  Well, the doctor immediately started the antidote process and on the other end my grand father has started to recover! 

My family and I went in on Saturday to see him and he was talking and interacting with everyone.  On Sunday he was feeling even better.  This morning my mom called and told me that the doctors were talking about sending him back to the rehab center and eventually getting him back home.

You see, the prayer has to be effectual and fervent.  Prior to the doctor saying he was going to die I was praying effectively, I was using scripture. I was praying, but not with fervancy.  I started praying with fervancy, praying with similar words, but this time with power.

Soon, Grandpap will be going to the rehab center, getting better both physically and spiritually.

For a long time in the United States the church has been a social club.  I'm not sure when this happened, but I'm desperately disappointed that most of the congregations that I am familiar with completely miss the point of what it means to be Christian.

For example, see if this sounds familiar, you walk in to the building, everyone is dressed to the 9's.  You get a big hearty hug and someone says, "Hey, (Brother/Sister) So-and-so, it's great to see you."  Which is code for, "Hey, don't I look great and isn't it great that I'm great!".  This isn't everyone, but I think you all know who I'm talking about.  The people of the church like it when new people come as long as the person is like them.  They don't want to get their hands dirty.  They don't want to do anything that might put them in contact with, *gasp*, a sinner.

Have you ever sat in a service and had the pastor say something like, "You know, if Jesus were to show up in our town right now, he'd walk past, such and such church, he'd ignore this other church and he would stroll into this building and join us here tonight!"  I've been in a service where the pastor actually said that, naming the so and so churches by name.  I wanted to stand up and scream, "No, he wouldn't, he'd stop off at the bar and minister to those who truly need him.  If he showed up here it would be to tell us that we are whitewashed tombs filled with dead men’s bones."

Have you ever been to a church where they say, "Love the sinner, hate the sin.", but in the next breath condemn the sinner while putting on a show for everyone, like they have no faults?

The first misconception of the church is that the church is a place.  The church is not the building; the church is the collection of God's people.  That extends past walls and far past denominational boundaries.  The church is the whole of the Bride of Christ.  We were pursued by Christ.  We were romanced by Him.  We were saved from our sins and brought into the bride.  Do we so soon forget who we were before?

I remember where I came from.  I remember who I was.  I remember the prayers and I remember being pursued, no matter how far I wanted to run.  I remember being woo'd by God.  I remember falling in love with Him.  I remember being made the bride of Christ.  I remember these things.  I remember who I was.  I remember knowing I was going to Hell.  I remember not really caring.  I remember being rejected by the church.  I remember being hurt and humiliated.  I remember the sin that encumbered me.  It wasn't something I did, it was what I was.  I was sin, I was a sinner.
However, God loved me, where I was.  He pursued me because of His absolute, unending, unfailing love for me.  The Bible says there is no where we can run, no depth, no height, nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ.  While I still had the disease of sin hanging off of my like a flesh eating bacteria, He loved me.

Do you remember that in your life?

Being that I remember who I was, I cannot look at people in that position in judgment.  We need to get past the sin, that disgusting disease that hangs on them, and see a future bride.  One that is clean and pure and perfect, despite what the person looks like, acts like or how they live their lives.  If we can develop compassion for the lost we will want to be around them, because we will want to be the one who shows them Christ.

The second misconception of the church is that the gathering together of the saints is where ministry takes place.  It can take place and it's a good place for Christians to minister to Christians, but it should not be the place in which unbelievers are ministered.  The pastor is not meant to be the one that leads your friend to Christ, which is meant to be you.  Church, the place, is meant to be the school where the saints go to be educated and edified.  Church is supposed to be the way station in the battle, the M.A.S.H. unit to heal and replenish the troops.

Ministry is not what happens in the four walls of a specific building.  Ministry is what happens when you leave the church building and go back to your house and your neighborhood and interact with those around you.  Ministry is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to grow His Bride.

We, the church, are on the brink of destruction and revival.  We stand on the precipice of greatness and disaster.  We can become the true, perfect Bride of Christ, or we can become a deceived anathema to God.  We can have our worship be sweet incense or it can be a rotten stench.  The choice is up to us.  I for one have decided to be what Christ wants me to be.  I choose to be His bride.  I choose to look at people as He sees them.  I choose to be an instrument to be used by God to institute His will.