my life and my doctrine

Last night at St Matthias I was preaching on John 10.1-21 – Jesus the Good Shepherd. It reminds about how great a shepherd Jesus is, because he lay down his life for us. He did this when we were facing the threat of death. He did this for our sake, not his own, because he cares for his sheep. He did this willingly, not under compulsion or coercion.

Though the passage is primarily about the shepherd, the sheep aren’t totally passive. Sheep don’t follow thieves or robbers. Sheep follow their shepherd. And sheep know and hear the shepherd’s voice.

So, I mentioned that as sheep, the best way to hear our shepherd’s voice is to read his word. I publicly shared my new year’s resolution to read through the Bible in one year, and asked if others are keen to join me. (It’s only the 3rd, you can catch up!)

A few people have mentioned reading through the Bible in chronological order. I’m going to use the Blue Letter Bible reading plan that takes us through the Bible in the order the events historically took place ‘according to recent historical research’. I’ve also been pointed to this progress chart, which I’ll keep in my Bible to ‘check off’ chapters as they are read.

I also said in my sermon that I’m not likely to be a systematic few chapters every day kind of person. I expect I’ll do this in fits and starts. It’ll be fun and exciting to begin with. It’ll be a challenge at times. It’ll be easy to let it slide. However, I hope that this will be something I share with you about here, and maybe even you will come on this journey with me. Please let me know if you do, not so that I can check up on you, but that we may encourage each other to keep hearing the shepherd’s voice, in order to better follow this good shepherd.

So I’ve got a smartphone, an HTC Desire. The last thing I wanted to mention was two particular apps I’ve installed. Today, the Bible software I use, CadreBible.

Unlike the iPhone, there isn’t an ESV app, which is a shame, since that’s the translation we use at Evening Church. There is an app called ‘YouVersion’ which came with an ESV. Olive Tree reader is a common app supporting multiple platforms.

However, in the end I went with CadreBible which is an Android specific Bible. Why? Cost, and I didn’t just want an ESV. I was hoping to get a Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament also. YouVersion didn’t have it. Olive Tree would charge me $17 for ESV, $46 for BHS (Hebrew) and $36 for NA27 (Greek). ie $99 all up. CadreBible has the ESV for $10 and a public domain version of Hebrew and Greek, which it offers for free.

So, was it worth it? Of course. The physical ESV I carry around cost me $10, so it’s not unreasonable to pay the same for an electronic copy. Plus, I also have access to Greek and Hebrew, if really necessary, whenever I have my phone with  me.

One last thing, I’ll still carry around a physical Bible for a couple of reasons.

1. I still feel a little uncomfortable pulling out my phone during a sermon, even if I know I’m doing the right thing. I can’t turn the pages in a real book and get distracted by some app or email or …
2. I want to encourage others to have a physical Bible on them at all times, so I’ve got to set the example. What if I’m meeting someone who doesn’t have a Bible app of some description? We can both look at a book together, but both staring at a phone seems a little odd to me.
3. The most important reason is that I want to have  a Bible ready to give away whenever the opportunity arises. The reason I bought lots of the same $10 Bibles is that they are easily replaceable. If I give one away, I can get another off the shelf at home. Since it’s the same version, I can find particular passages or verses easily, especially since sometimes my memory is, it’s on the left or right hand side of the page.

God has made himself known to us. We don’t need to strive to find or understand him. God’s word can be near us, even on our phones. (Another reason, by the way, to be thankful for the Reformation. That the Bible is in everyday language we can understand is a privilege others died for, that I too often take for granted.)

[11] “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. [12] It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ [13] Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ [14] But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14 ESV)

Next in this series about using a smartphone, is how I’m hoping to manage my todo lists.

After trying a number of different apps to manage tasks, to do lists etc, I’ve settled on three. ‘Three?’ I hear you ask. Why?

My goal was to find one for ministry that would basically be something that managed a nested list. I’ve gone with ColorNote, which can categorise notes by colour. I don’t use the text notes, only the checklist. Using the touchpad is easy to shuffle the order of items on a checklist and then tapping each will marked them done. I’ve got yellow for administration and staff meeting items, blue for longer term strategy, another colour for people to contact etc etc.

Since I’m keen to be able to ‘switch off’ when it’s my day off or on holidays, I figure that seeing my todo list wouldn’t help. The simplest way was to use a different app for home related stuff. And, there are better apps suited to that. I found To Do List, which has five built in categories – my tasks, @ work, I want it!, grocery and jotter. I’m only going to use ‘my tasks’ for jobs to do around the house and ‘grocery’ for a shopping list. A task is stored as a name, note and priority. A grocery item is stored as a name, price, quantity and priority. It can also simply add basic/regular grocery items.

Lastly, and this is the most exciting of my finds is EveryDay ToDo, which is more geared to regular reminders. I’m using this as my prayer diary. I can add items that occur daily, weekly or on a particular day a month. So, every day it will remind me to pray for Jo and the kids. Mondays is Bible study leaders from Evening Church, Tuesdays – Matthias staff and families, Wednesday – three mates from college, Thursday – particular CMS friends, Fridays – my extended family, Saturdays – Jo’s extended family. Then, I can also put in particular people that I want to pray for once a month.

I start the app on any given day and I’m reminded what to pray for based on the day of the week and the date in the month.

So, now that I’ve got an HTC Desire, what’s important as I set it up?

Obviously, I’ll work out how to sync things to my computers (a home desktop and work laptop). However, I want to describe two things that I hope will keep it a tool serving me, not my master.

Firstly, the ‘scenes’ feature of an HTC.

My phone has seven ‘panels’, in which I can drop in links to programs/apps, shortcuts to files/contacts and even application widgets. Together, they are considered a ‘scene’. Better than that, it has the ability to store different scenes. At the moment, I’ve got a home and a work scene. The home scene includes a front panel with links to mail, people/contacts, messages (SMS), Bible software (I’ll write another post about this), to do list, cardio trainer (for my bike rides) and foursquare. Other panels are for social networking (Facebook, Twitter, blog reader), SMS messages, diary, games and Friend Stream (an HTC thing that combines Facebook and Twitter. I’m not sure about this yet).

My work scene has on the home panel my diary, Bible app, to do list and people/contacts. Other panels have my work email and fuller diary widget. I can’t get to my Facebook or Twitter or games without more of a deliberate choice. I know myself, and know that I need to do this to prevent procrastinating.

Over time, I imagine these different scenes will settle down as I stop adding apps and get on with life. I plan to tweak the ‘home’ scene for when I’m on holiday, with more restricted access to email, Facebook and SMS etc.

Secondly, while it’s great to have a big data plan so I don’t have to worry about downloading too much, I still want to be in control of when I get notified about things. It’s great that my phone can be always on, always connected, always tethered, but I don’t want it to run my life. So, I’ve had to play with how it set up my email. I’ve got three email accounts – one for home, one for work and a Gmail one for putting into websites and all other stuff. My phone came with two email apps, one called Mail and one GMail.

The Mail app was like any email client that I could set up with multiple accounts and it would download mail when I started the app. The GMail app was, not surprisingly for an Android phone, more tightly integrated with GMail online. In particular, if I read an email on my phone, it would be marked read online and vice versa. Truly integrated. The problem I found was that it would notify me everytime I got an email. I’ve since discovered that turning off the ‘sync with Gmail’ feature refers to the automatic syncing of email, not the link between my phone and the website. Perfect.

Now, what about my other email addresses? Well, both my work and home ones are managed through Google domain apps. Which means the web interface for these emails is identical to Gmail and, even better, the Gmail app can access them in the same way.

So now all my email is accessible on my phone. I refresh when I hit refresh, and my phone already knows if I’ve read it online.

I recently got a new HTC Desire and want to reflect on what difference it’s made to my past week or two. However, I want to be transparent about the buying process, because that was a rather interesting experience.

I’m a very price sensitive shopper, so did a lot of research (read, big spreadsheet analysing 6 mths phone usage) and decided that Telstra had the best plan for this phone. $49/mth with $400 cap value and 200mb data. Sign up before 1 December and I’d get 500mb, for the life of the plan.

The sales guy makes me feel like we hit it off. He asks me if I have an ABN. ie could I get a business plan? No, sorry.

Later on, after I’d already committed to buying he said, “Tell you what, I’ll put you on the business plan. You’ll get 700mb data and if your wife ever swaps over to Telstra you can get x minutes calls to each other free.”

What would you say?

As I now reflect on it, I had three options:

1. Take the money and run. Don’t say anything, except thanks.
2. Reject the offer because it seems dodgy. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
3. Remind him I don’t have an ABN, but leave it up to him. “It’s your call”.

What would you say?

I went with option 3. “I just want to remind you that I don’t have an ABN.” His response, with a cheeky smile, “I didn’t hear you say that.”

I’ve since regretted not being firmer in rejecting a good offer. In two years time, maybe I’ll use that much data? The  majority of my phone use I expect will be for work. What I did was abdicated my responsibility to do the right thing, leaving the decision to the sales guy, so I could blame him if it all blew up.

I didn’t want an iPhone, to be different. I was concerned about the worldliness of a smartphone, to be different. In the end, I was happy to be different for difference’s sake, but not for what I believe. I’m reminded of 1 Peter 2:11-12:

11  Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

I mentioned recently in a sermon on 1 Timothy 6, my personal struggle with a desire to get a new smartphone. In particular, the aptly named HTC Desire. My concern was centred around how do I apply verse 17:

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Was my desire for a Desire demonstrating a love for this world and its toys? Did I just want something new because my old phone was described as an ‘old-school Blackberry’? Was I coveting something of this world? Making a phone an idol?

Or was it a recognition that God in his generous grace has placed me in a time and situation in which I could use it as something provided by God to enjoy? Would it be a useful tool for ministry? Not essential, but useful.

In the end, I got one. Did I change my mind? Did I succumb to temptation? It’s impossible to have only one motive, and a pure one at that. Our motives for action are always mixed up. One thing that tipped the balance was a comment made at our recent Moore College reunion by our speaker. We as a younger generation of pastors, ministers and mature Christians, who can understand the changing communications in our world, need to work out how to speak the gospel into this age, and the years to come.

So, I want to reflect on what has changed in my life and ministry because of my phone. More than that, I hope to be transparent in the good and bad impacts it’s had on my life. Why? To be accountable. Also, so that others may see my progress, or regress.

Yesterday I was chatting with an older and wiser friend, further down the ministry track than I am. We were discussing how often we think we can get more done than we really do. In particular I was lamenting how little I read last year, compared to my sedate goal of six books. The one thing I was glad of though, was my commitment to read my Bible more often and more regularly, even if it meant at the expense of other reading. It is probably obvious to you that reading the Bible is more important than any other book, but I certainly find it tempting to read other things before it.

So, next time you see me, if you ask me how my reading is going, check to see that I’m still regularly reading my Bible. (Right now I’m going through Isaiah. Hopefully a chapter a day and plan to be done by the 18th February.)

And, having said all that, if you’ve got suggestions on what should make my list of must read books for 2010, please let me know.

I’m not really into new year’s resolutions, but if you are, and one was to read through the whole Bible in 2010, or even read through the Old Testament, then check out some reading plans. Go to www.bibleplan.org where you can see the schedule for the year and/or you can even be emailed the readings for each day. The famous reading plan was developed by Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a Scottish minister who died at 29.

Though I’m not into resolutions, I’m into Bible reading and would strongly encourage you to, if you haven’t already, read through the whole Bible.

Yesterday I wrote about my highlight from Engage conference, namely the preaching and teaching of William Taylor from John’s gospel.

I want to reflect on getting and reading the Sydney Morning Herald. This could be my old age, it could be my ignorance and/or I could be plain wrong. Most of all, I’m sure this will sound blatantly hypocritical. After spending the week being reminded of the importance of God’s word taught and spoken, it struck me that all our delegates were offered a copy of the SMH on Saturday morning. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading it. I check out the website most days. In fact I didn’t make enough of the opportunity to read it on a weekend without our children.

A slow start to a Saturday morning with a coffee and the paper is still my ideal Saturday morning. And yet I couldn’t help feeling a little unnerved inside. Part of me wanted to challenge the group from my church, in fact all of us there, who read their Bible before reading the paper? Or, if you’re not a morning person, which is to be expected in the target demographic, did you spend more time over the weekend reading the paper or your Bible?

What do you think? Is it fair to assess our attitudes by our reading habits? Is it fair to expect Christians to spend more time in God’s word than the daily newspaper?

I wanted to give an update and reflect on the reading list I mentioned earlier.

I’ve almost finished the first book on my list, Green & Jackman, When God’s Voice is Heard. It’s been great to read Chappo’s chapter on preparing and giving evangelistic talks. If you’ve never read Setting Hearts on Fire, can I encourage you to do so. This chapter is similar in a lot of what it covers. Not surprisingly however, he covers in more detail the reasons for and the how to of what he proposes in the fuller book. One particularly nice thing about reading it is every now and then hearing Chappo’s voice in your head because he writes like he speaks.

I’m still struggling to get out of bed to read in the morning, but it’s worth it. By really struggling, I think it only happened once last week. Yet, whether foolishly or not, I set my alarm again and was up at 6am yesterday and today.  I’m reading through Proverbs, which is a very different experience to most other Bible reading I do. Also, I’m reading through Ephesians and then reading some of the corresponding parts of Peter O’Brien’s commentary. After a recent conversation with a mate from college days, I decided to give up reading through the introductory chapter and got stuck into the commentary on the text itself. Two days in and it’s going well, as in, I’m up to Eph 1.3.

One other thing I’m endeavouring to do is to keep up with Con Campbell’s blog posts about Galatians. These have been really helpful for me to learn more about Galatians and also to watch his method as he starts with the Greek and moves to how to preach. Thankfully they are in bite sized chunks.

Another five books to go and a 6am start tomorrow beckons.