Tech Wednesday – The Secret Side of Google
I’m going to come right out and say it…I love Google. Yes. I’m totally sold out for Google. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Image Search, and Youtube (owned by Google). Now most of these are well known to people, but on this Tech Wednesday I want to share a few Google features that aren’t as well known.
These are like the red-headed-step-children of the Google world. They’re just as good as the other Google features. They’re just not as widely known. So let me introduce you to the step-kids of Google.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts automatically updates you with an email when something is added to the internet based on the search terms you give it. I mainly use this for two things. One, to see if anything is put up on the net about me (yeah it’s egotistical…but kinda helpful too). Two, to see when someone talks about beer and Christianity (I use this search term for theBeerean.com).
Goog411
I haven’t used this one that much since I got my iPhone (Google Maps on the iPhone replaced it), but before the iPhone it was a staple. It’s basically a free 411 service. I would explain it some more, but the video below explains it a lot better than I could.
Google Reader
I’ve talked about this a little bit in the past, but I felt the need to bring it up again. Google Reader is a feed reading program offered by Google. It allows you to keep up with all of your blogs in one place. Once again I’ll let Google tell you more about it (if you start using Google Reader make sure to add me as your friend glqualls [at] gmail [dot] com and to subscribe to my feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/gregquallsfeed).
Best (local) commerical ever!
I came across this and had to share it. I’ve never seen a local commercial done so well. It nearly brought tears to my eyes (who am I kidding…I cried).
Why I think being “organic” is stupid?
For those of you that know me, I’m a pretty cynical guy. I try my best to not be that way on this blog, but I decided that I had speak out about this one.
For awhile now I’ve noticed the concept of being “organic” has been creeping into the church. It’s become a buzz word. Whole ministries and churches are changing everything they do to be more “organic.” I even have a book on my shelf called Organic Church. But I’m coming out and saying publicly that I think being organic is stupid. I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but I don’t care. It’s just stupid. Let me tell you why.
Yesterday I was at a church meeting for the leaders of the small groups in our church (we call them Neighborhoods…it sound edgy and vague 
). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.
We wanted our groups to form “organically.” We wanted to be “organic” yet intentional. It was like everyone was getting payed $5 every time they used the word organic. I was expecting someone to start marketing an Organic Pyramid Scheme at any moment.
Now I like the concept that they were trying to get across. That we shouldn’t be forcing relationship to happen in our church, but we also shouldn’t be sitting on our butts just hoping that relationships will happen.
My problem is with the fact that we were attributing so much power to “organic.” Who the hell is organic and when did he/she/it start leading the church?! The last time I check that was Jesus’ job.
We aren’t lead by some impersonal force:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11
Life, relationships, and groups don’t come about by some impersonal force:
In him we live and move and have our being – Acts 17:28
So I’ll say it again, attributing anything to this impersonal force called “organic” is just stupid. So if you are a church leader, please stop referring to organic as the leader of anything. Give glory where glory is due and trust in the true leader of the church. His name is Jesus and He’s a much better leader than organic.
Tech Wednesday – PicLens
Ok…I know I’m a day late. But this is worth it. My friend Dave Ortega told me about this one and I’m totally sucked in now. It’s called PicLens. You have to watch the video to understand. I can’t explain it. If you have FireFox, download it and start using it now.
This is Awesome!
Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC had a trailer stolen that had 75% of everything the church owned in it. Ok it’s not awesome that they got 75% of their stuff stolen, but it is awesome in how they responded. They posted this video on youtube and also put up some billboards around town to try to get in contact with the thief. They know the ultimate reason why they had the stuff in the first place. I have to give the guys at Kinetic Church some mad props. For what they did, I don’t know if I could have done the same thing.
Check out some other stories on the same event:
Let me introduce you to my new blog….
If you’ve been following me on twitter, you know that this day has been coming for awhile now. I finally launched theBeerean.com. This is my new blog that is focused on the world of beer through the eyes of a Christian.
This is the reason I won’t have the Beer Tip of the Day on this site anymore. But don’t worry, I will continue to write on this blog. GregQualls.com will be where I will share my spiritual/theological/biblical/personal/youtube.comical insights. TheBeerean.com is where I plan so share all my beerical/theological/cultural insights.
I also plan to do a weekly video podcast on theBeerean.com called Beer Tip of the Week. I’ll give a new tip each week to help people enjoy their beer more.
This is a new venture for me and I’m really excited. I would ask you as a friend if you have your own blog, would you give theBeerean.com a little shout out. It’s hard getting a blog started from scratch. You need all the help you can get. For those of you don’t have a blog if you cold please tell everyone you know, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all your love and support, and I hope you to see your shining faces at theBeerean.com soon (I know I can’t really see you…or can I?)
Tech Wednesday – ESV Study Bible
Ok I know…it’s a book. Some might say that a book isn’t technology, but I say tell that to Gutenberg. Anyways back to the point at hand. Crossway recently annouced it is coming out with an ESV Study Bible in Ocober. For most of you this won’t be a big deal, but I’m totally geeking out on this one.
Let me give you a run down of the authors in this Study Bible:
That’s just the authors. This thing has:
I’ve also heard that buyng this study Bible will garuntee a place in heaven and a new BMW. Ok maybe not. But the free online version is a nice plus. All I have to say is I own too many Bibles already, but I might have to add one more to my collection.
Grilling with Greg – Brisket
This one was only done with about three hours of sleep. So it doesn’t contain as much humor as the last one, but it will teach how to make on heck of a smoked brisket.
26 Tips for Spending time with God…Hardcore Style
photo by: JasonRogers
If you’re like me, you have trouble spending time with God (I don’t like to use the words quiet time…it makes me feel like I’m five and in a “time out”). I’ve written in the past on some tips and tricks that I use to do this daily. But just like in a marriage relationship, sometimes you just need to spend more than a few minutes with your spouse. You need to spend the whole day. I call this spending time with God hardcore style.
I learned this concept from Doug Fields a few years ago. He talked about one of his youth saying that they “take God on a date.” Now taking God on a date is a little creepy for me, but I liked the concept. The idea is to just spend some extended time with God and nobody else.
To do this, I normally take an afternoon and spend the entire time reading scripture, praying, walking, reading some more, praying some more, and walking some more. The idea is to have a large chunk of time that is devoted to nothing but growing closer to God. This isn’t time to study your Bible and parse Greek verbs…this is time to just be with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.
The following are 26 quick tips that can help you with your hardcore time with God.
- Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
- Get away from people.
- Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
- Wear comfortable clothing.
- Turn off everything…phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
- Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
- Take your Bible (ESV ), a pen, and something to write on.
- Anytime you think about something that you need to do when you get home, write it down and forget about it. This will allow you to focus on your time with God. (this is a good practice in general)
- Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
- Have an agenda/time line.
- Don’t have an agenda/time line.
- Pray, pray, pray
- Take a snack and some cash.
- Take some water.
- Tell one person where you are going to be in case of emergencies (your wife goes into labor). This helps to keep your thoughts from being overtaken.
- Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
- Read through a passage of scripture several times.
- Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
- Fast
- Eat
- Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
- Take a short nap (it’s better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
- Write out your prayers to God.
- Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
- Take some time to sit and listen to God.
- Be diligent to focus on God and your relationship.
Well I hope that helps. I’m off to go spend some hardcore time with God. Leave me a comment, with any tips that you might have for spending hardcore time with God.
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