My mom always told me so, but I didn’t know it until now!

No, but seriously, I won a contest at the hospital. They are getting ready to unveil a new Intranet for employees, and needed a good name. I submitted a few ideas, and as they picked one of mine, I won an 8GB iPod nano (3G).

I’ve been using a 4GB nano (2G) for a while. I welcome the extra capacity and the video capabilities. And Diana welcomes having an iPod of her own.

Sweet!

According to a post on a LGBT site, this is a pregnant man, Thomas Beatie.

Beatie, who was born a woman, chose to undergo medical procedures aimed at changing her gender to male. Her reproductive organs were not modified when she chose to become he.

I’m almost at a loss for words with this one. I guess I can make the obvious statement that I don’t think this is “right”, not just from a moral or theological perspective, but even from a secular social and cultural perspective.

I mean, heck, I struggle to refer to Beatie as a he, simply because he’s a she, and I’m of the (non-religious) opinion that gender isn’t something that can be “reassigned.”

On the other hand, I do feel badly that these folks feel they are being discriminated against, particularly in regards to medical care. If indeed this isn’t a hoax, and there is a baby involved, I sincerely hope that appropriate medical care is found.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of these types of currently-atypical cases in the years to come, and if the only thing we do is condemn people, we’re stupid. At the same time, one must recognize that this sort of thing is so severely out of the revealed will of God for marriages and family units, that it must be commented on.

So how is the church to respond? In what ways can we as Christians both love God and love others, in this case?

The folks over at Logos Research Systems recently released an alpha version of the forthcoming Libronix Digital Library for Mac. This is literally the one program I was sad to lose when I made the switch to Mac over a year ago. (I had Parallels, but didn’t use it much.)

Since that time, I literally lost my Logos discs off the back of a truck, during our move from the last apartment we were in to the one we currently occupy. I didn’t have much of a collection; certainly not the Scholars Edition or anything cool like that, but I was sad to see it go.

However, I do still have the free ESV CD that came as an offer with one of my ESV print editions. So, I installed the Alpha, got my licenses plugged into it, and copied the resources over.

I now have a (surprisingly reliable) copy of Libronix running on my Mac with the ESV and KJV, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, and a number of other resources. Sweet!

I’ve been using the English Standard Version of the Bible as my standard translation for about four years now. I preach from it, teach from it, do personal study with it, and generally use it for everything. It’s a great translation.

One of the first things I noticed about the early ESV product line in 2004 was the lack of a solid study bible, containing notes and commentary. Over the years, there has been the Reformation Study Bible, as well as a Literary Study Bible, however both of these have a specific audience in mind. I was looking for more of a general purpose study Bible. The ESV site said they had one in mind for long-term planning, but no details were available.

Over time, my personal desire for a Study Bible has lessened, primarily because I’ve found my other tools and scholarly texts to be more useful as study aids than any one condensed study bible could be. However, I do actively teach verse-by-verse studies through the Bible in my church, and more often than not, the folks I teach don’t have the resources or desire to purchase dozens of commentaries and systematic theology volumes.

That brings me to the point of this post. Crossway is about to announce information regarding the release of the ESV Study Bible. This is quite exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with, and have signed up for email news bulletins as info becomes available.

Justin Taylor has confirmed that Wayne Grudem is also the General Editor of the Study Bible. This makes me even more excited. I’ve found Grudem’s Systematic Theology to be immensely helpful, and am sure this study bible will be great for my people.

Okay, so my wife tagged me to do this random things list on my blog.

Once you’ve been ‘tagged’ you have to write a blog of ten weird/random facts/habits/goals about yourself. At the end choose ten people to be tagged, listing their names and WHY you chose them.

Here’s my list:

1. I once worked at a public television station. They had employees who dressed up like a purple dinosaur. It was a scary place to work.
2. When I was a teenager, the last thing I wanted to be was a Christian, let alone one of those born again ones. Now I’m a pastor.
3. My regular reading list of periodicals is somewhat eclectic. It includes Your Church, Leadership Journal, Relevant Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Time Magazine, and 2600 (The Hacker Quarterly).
4. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, along with Hyperfocus, which is an autistic-spectrum disorder. Results? I twitch. A lot. And I have a hard time communicating my torrential brainstorms to others in a coherent and useful way.
5. My first job was selling cellular phones and other retail electronics at RadioShack. It was awesome.
6. I love books.
7. I’d like to complete an MDiv degree, and some sort of doctorate as well.
8. I tend to be a cynic and and a grump. Mark Driscoll says that Irish people have two emotions, angry and asleep. I see the truth of that statement evidenced in my own life.
9. I wasn’t a great person before I came to Christ (immediately prior to college). Now, since I’m pastoring in my home town, conversations with old acquaintances are often quite uncomfortable, but I still love having them.
10. Having children of my own has changed my understanding of God the Father in amazing, healing ways.

Now‚Äö I’m supposed to tag ten more people. But I’m not going to. I’m just going to tag Calvin, Mandy, and Earl, since they are the only regular readers I have!