• Bible Reading/Journaling – Four Tips for Bible Reading and Journaling
• Prayer – Six tips for talking to God.
• Generosity – Five tips for becoming more generous.
• Confession – Five tips for developing a habit of confession and repentance.
• Service – Four tips for becoming a servant.

We live in a world where those with the most authority do the least amount of work.  Those with the power don’t serve others.  They are the ones that are served.  It is the American dream to gain enough power and wealth that you never have to work again.

Jesus showed us that in the kingdom of heaven it is quite the opposite.  The all-powerful God became a human being and served us by dying on the cross.  Jesus is the perfect example of leading by example.  He constantly served those around himself.  While his disciples were arguing about who is the greatest, Jesus healed countless people, fed thousands, and humbly washed the dirty feet of those that were fighting for ranking in the kingdom of heaven.

A true Christian isn’t noted by their pious self-righteousness but by their humble servanthood.   It is through service that we walk in the same steps that Jesus did when he was here on earth.  Through a kinetic learning experience of serving, we grow in our understanding of God’s heart for the lost and hurting people of this world. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of service.

Tip #1: Aggressively look for places to serve.  For those of you raised with a strong work ethic engrained in your brains, this won’t be much of an issue.  The rest of us need to constantly seek places to serve.  This is both in the church and out of the church.  Seek ways to serve fellow Christians, but also seek to serve those in your community and at work.  If you ever catch yourself saying, “I wish someone would…” You need to take it upon yourself to be that someone.

Tip #2: Seek a change of heart.  1 Corinthians 13 says that if we do anything without love, it is pointless.  If you have a heart that is begrudging towards service, seek God to change your heart.  Jesus wasn’t reluctant in his service.  It was his joy to serve.  Seek God to give you a heart that takes deep joy in serving those around you.

Tip #3: Use your stuff to serve others.  Everything that we have in our lives is a gift from God.  Therefore we should see our stuff as a gift from God not just for us but also for those around us.  Serve those around you by sharing your stuff with them.  Open your house to share meals with friends and family and host events.  Use the yard tools you have to care for and maintain more than just your yard.  Give people rides in your car.  If you have two of something, give one away.  Develop yourself to see the stuff you have as being used more than just for you but for those around you.

Tip #4: Serve first and ask questions later.  Just like generosity, our tendency is to ask the question "Why?" Why should I serve those around me?  How is this going to develop my relationship with Jesus?  The reality of it is that these questions can’t truly be answered on paper. You can read countless Bible verses. You could hear stories from people’s lives. You could hear hundreds of hours of sermons about Jesus humbling himself as a servant. But you won't get it. You won't get it until you mow your elderly neighbor's yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you pick up trash in your neighborhood without anybody asking you.  You won’t get it until you serve in your church’s nursery. If you decide that you aren't going to serve until you fully understand why, you'll never serve. The reality is you need to serve first and then ask questions, because by serving you'll find the answers.

Martin Luther began his 95 Theses with the primary thought of, “the whole life of believers should be repentance.”[i] Repentance of our sins doesn’t end when we become a Christian.  It continues until we are received into heaven.

Unfortunately most Christians slowly begin to forget that it is Jesus’ righteousness that puts us in relationship with God.  Over time they begin to trust in their own righteousness.  This leads to either despair or pride, neither of which Jesus wanted for his disciples.

Therefore, it is a necessity to continuously seek God to expose our sins to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, repent of those sins, and confess them to loving brothers and sisters in Christ.  Through repentance and confession we are able to experience true community and love.  We are able to see each other as we truly are and love each other despite our sins because of the blood of Jesus.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of repentance and confession.

Tip #1 – Keep a short list of sins.  One of the worst things you can do is to hide your sin.  Sin holds you captive and steals the joy that is yours in Christ.  It separates you from those around you.  Don’t build up a list of sins before you confess and repent.  The instant that God reveals a sin in your life to you, immediately confess and repent of your sin.

Tip #2 – Find a righteous person.  When James says that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,”[ii] he isn’t saying that there are people who are actually righteous on their own merit.  He is talking about those who trust in the righteousness of Jesus.  This is the type of person that you need to find to confess your sins to.  You need to find a person that will help you see your sin in light of Jesus.  Many times when ours sins are made real to us, we tend to focus on ourselves.  A righteous person helps you see that there is forgiveness found in Jesus.

Tip #3 – Keep a journal.  As Jesus reveals the sins in your life to you, keep track of them in your journal.  Make note of your sin, how it made you feel, the consequences of it, and the work of Jesus in your life to remove it.  Later you can look back on your journal to see how God has been working in your life.

Tip #4 – Don’t get discouraged.  You might think that as you grow as a Christian, you will begin to feel like less of a sinner.  The reality is quite the opposite.   When you look at the writings of Paul the Apostle, you see a progression in his understanding of his sinfulness.  Early in his writings, Paul simply called himself a sinner.  Then he called himself a chief sinner.  Towards the end of his life here on earth, he called himself the greatest of all sinners.  This isn’t because he began to sin more.  Instead, it is because as you walk with Jesus, your understanding of the glory of Jesus deepens.  As your understanding of his glory deepens, your understanding of your sinfulness grows in light of his glory.

The beauty is that you are a work in progress.  The Holy Spirit is continuously working on conforming you into the image of Jesus.  This is a project that won’t finish in your lifetime.  Therefore, trust in Jesus and his work in your life.

Tip #5 – Focus on Jesus.  The ultimate purpose of repentance and confession isn’t to focus on your sin but to focus on Jesus.  True repentance and confession turns you back to finding your identity in Jesus.  It’s only when we find our identity in Jesus that we have truly repented of our sins.  Anything less is simply pointing out your flaws with no ultimate power to have change in your life.

[ii] James 5:16 (ESV)

After understanding that everything we do is worship, you will begin to see that one of the biggest idols in your life is stuff.  More than likely, you are a worshipper of stuff.  Your car, house, computer, iPod, phone, television, paycheck, books, yard, clothes, furniture, bike, music instrument, and movie collection all hold a higher place in your life than God.  You spend more time focusing on them than Him.

At heart, we are very selfish and greedy.  This is in direct contrast to God the Father who gave us His Son and the Son who gave up His life for us.  If we want to grow closer in our understanding of God, we need to become generous people.  We need to have the mindset that God is more important than stuff.

Here is the amazing thing.  You can use your stuff to worship God.  Your stuff is really God’s stuff and He can do with it whatever He wants.  When you invest your stuff in the kingdom of God, you start to put God before your stuff.  By being generous with your stuff, you are aligning your heart with the heart of God.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of being generous with God’s stuff.

Tip #1: Make it a priority. You’re not going to be generous until you make it a priority.   For example, when I was in college, I had a moment of enlightenment. I was a poor college student, and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same thing. He responded with the kindest of words: “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.”  You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shiny things that will take center stage if you don’t. Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.

Tip #2: Have a budget. 
You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don't have money to be generous with because you don't plan.  Most people will tell you that when you first started budgeting, it was like you get a raise.  When you start budgeting, you are finally able to plan. You are able to make your money work for you instead of the opposite.
 You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t serve others because we never have any extra time. Here is a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like your paycheck only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you’re able to serve those around you.

Tip #3: Give first. This has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that you should give the first of everything that you receive (animals, harvest, children, etc.) to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away.  If you’re a member of a church, it should go to your church. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off of. If you don’t do this, you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous. The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip watching TV and go do a generous act.

Tip #4: Have a separate checking account. This is a little trick that my wife and I learned when we weren’t part of a local church for a while. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our paychecks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills. When we became members of a church, we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don't get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the Holy Spirit presents us with opportunities.

Tip #5: Give first and ask questions later. Now this might sound like you’re to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it, but this is different. What this means is that we have the tendency to ask the question "Why?" Why should I be generous with my time and money? The reality of it is that you can't understand the answer to that question until you start being generous. You could read scripture. You could hear stories from other people’s lives. You could see a vision of heaven coming to earth. But you won't get it. You won't get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby's for lunch. You won't get it until you mow your elderly neighbor's yard without them asking or paying you. You won't get it until you help your wife's single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won't get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends, knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner. If you decide that you aren't going to be generous until you understand why, you'll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you'll find a lot of the answers.

As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith.  Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God.  It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires.  The list could go on for days.  God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.

Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week.  Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray.  Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.

Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn't necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for.  So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.

Tip #3: Talk to God. 
This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don't know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called "prayer talk."  This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer.  It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you'll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.

Tip #4: Write it down.   When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about.  Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time.  Keep it simple though.  Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, "God help me." The idea is to simply write it out.

Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine...even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don't have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn't keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.

Tip #6: Keep it sweet. 
Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God's own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn't a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren't praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying?  The reality is that this is the core of all prayer...to seek the face of God....to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith

The two most basic disciplines of the Christian faith are scripture reading and prayer.  In fact, it is hard to separate the two.  God communicates to His people through His Word, and we communicate with Him through prayer.  This week we are going to focus on reading our Bibles and journaling, and next week we’ll look at prayer.

Reading our Bibles and journaling our thoughts are helpful tools to cultivate our relationship with Jesus.  Through scripture we are able to learn more about Jesus, have Him speak to our hearts, and be prepared to do His work.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of spending time in God’s Word.

Tip #1: Have “triggers.” Probably one of the hardest things to do is to get in the habit of opening your Bible.  Leo Babauta of WritetoDone.com talks about putting triggers in your life to help you develop habits.

What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.[i]

Triggers can be a very powerful tool for any spiritual discipline that you are trying to start.

Tip #2: Have all the right resources. It is suggested that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items:

A Bible – Make sure it is a version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). This guide uses the English Standard Version, but you might find another version easier to understand. Just go to your local bookstore and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.

A Journal – This is where you are going to write down your thoughts.  You can find several different styles at your bookstore.  Don’t be afraid to switch journals if one isn’t working for you.   Use the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning each day. This way you can look back and see what you have been learning.

A Reading Plan – This guide provides you with passages to read every day while you’re going through the lessons.  When you’re done going through this guide, read whatever you want. Just have a plan. There are several different Bible reading plans online that will take you through the Bible in a year, or you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day. Whatever you do, use a plan, or you’ll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.

A Planner - It’s going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart out…and you are going to remember that you’re out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, “get milk” and go right back to your journaling. If you don’t have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper.  Otherwise, your time with God will be hijacked by random thoughts of things you need to do for the day.

Tip #3: 
Use S.O.A.P.  This is an acronym for a Bible reading and journaling structure from Wayne Cordeiro.[ii] It stands for the following:

Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. Use the questions, “Who is God?,” and “How do I enjoy Him?,” to focus your observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read…what should you do? Try to make this practical and realistic. Set a goal for the day based upon your reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God.  Make note of these in your journal.

Tip #4: Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It’s not to check off your list. Don’t add extra burdens to this focus, such as: “I have to make at least 15 observations.” “I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal.” “I have to pray for at least 45 minutes.” The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that…the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.

[ii] Wayne Cordeiro, “Plenary Session 1” (presented at the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference), Orlando, Florida, April 25, 2007).

Tech Wednesdy is back!  Well for now.  It has been a long time since I got my iPhone.  So long that the warranty has actually gone out on it.  So with that in mind I decided to jailbreak it.  Jailbreakng an iPhone simply allows you to do whatever you want with it.

You can put whatever third-pary programs you want on it.  You can access the OS.  You easily add new ring tones.  It is a beautiful thing.  But the most beautiful thing about it was using Pwnage Tool.  Pwnage Tool made what could be a headache of a process really simple.

I love my iPhone, but I love it even more now.  My favorite thing is the ability to do video with my phone now.  One of the first programs I installed was Qik.  It's a program that allows you to do live video from your phone.  I'm loving it!!!!!!

If you have an iPhone and you aren't worried about voiding your warranty, I highly recomend jailbreaking it.  If you decide to, use this guide.  It was really helpful and walked me through the process step-by-step (and it didn't even have Suzanne Somers).

So I'm writing this post in an effort to get my butt in gear.  I'm running my first triathlon ever in two weeks (April 11th to be exact).  I ran long distance in High School and haven't really done much since.  Luckily I have my grandfathers metabolism.  So I'm not really overweight, but I'm definitely not in shape.

So to get myself motivated to be more healthy and be able to be around to be grandfather myself some day, I decided I needed something to motivate myself to work out.  So when several friends announced a few months ago that they were deciding to run a triathlon, I decided to sign up.  I determined that the competition and the distance wold require me to work out.

Now the past several months have been the most active in recent years.  From running long distance in high school, I have a natural level of conditioning built in already.   But I haven't been training as much as I need to be for this triathlon.  For example, the total amount of training I did for last week was running 4 miles.  I say this as a sort of confession and hope for accountability and motivation.

So with two weeks left before the tri, I'm throwing out a life line.  What suggestions do you guys have for me?  Have you been in this situation before?  Any tips from you athletes out there?  What goals should I set for the next two weeks?  Should wear business socks and put tassels on my handlebars?  Does my swimming suit make me look fat?

photo by: orangeacid

It's kinda become a tradition of sorts now with a few friends of mine. After church on Wednesday nights, we all go to a local bar and get a drink. We talk about sports (well they do and I listen), theology, politics, popular figures of our day, life experiences and the sort. It is one of the highlights of my week. It's just a great time to hang out with friends and relax.

Last night my friend Donovan made a really profound statement about life.

You know why the grass is always greener on the other side?! Because they water it.

It struck a chord with me. There are so many times in my life that I look at my friends lives and wish I had what they have. I wish that had their job. I wish that I had their car. I wish that I had their __________. You get the idea.

The reality in life is this. We could go move into our neighbor's house and have their nice green lawn. But it will eventually turn brown. Because there was an original reason why their grass was greener than mine. They watered and cared for it. They pulled the weeds out. They mowed it on a regular basis. They put down fertilizer. They were patient and waited for the results to show.

If we want to have greener grass in our lives, the answer isn't to move into our neighbor's house. The answer is to start taking care of our own lawn. So take some time today to water your lawn and pull a few weeds. Cause the only way your lawn is going to get greener is if you start focusing on it and stop staring at your neighbors.

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).

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.

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.

1. Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
2. Get away from people.
3. Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
4. Wear comfortable clothing.
5. Turn off everything...phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
6. Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
7. Take your Bible (ESV ), a pen, and something to write on.
8. 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)
9. Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
10. Have an agenda/time line.
11. Don't have an agenda/time line.
12. Pray, pray, pray
13. Take a snack and some cash.
14. Take some water.
15. 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.
16. Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
17. Read through a passage of scripture several times.
18. Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
19. Fast
20. Eat
21. Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
22. Take a short nap (it's better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
23. Write out your prayers to God.
24. Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
25. Take some time to sit and listen to God.
26. 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.

The idea behind Evernote is to be a place where you can store all the information that you come across in day and easily pull it back up through search features and tags later down the road. There are other things out there that can do this, but the main thing that wowed me was the fact it can search text in pictures (even handwriting).

I've just started using it (and only the web side since I don't have Leopard), but I'm liking it so far. For a person like me that ingests copious amounts of information every day, this is great. I'm pretty good at remembering things, but this will make things easier.

I've included the video from their site below. I have 9 invites left. If anyone is interested, send me an email through my contact page.

Here is the reality. Most beers are served too cold and this is a bad thing. I remember growing up and seeing signs at the local bars that said, "Coldest beer in town." The only problem with this is that most beers aren't meant to be served at super frigged levels. By drinking your beer extremely cold, it does two things.

1. It doesn't allow the beer to "open up" and reveal all of it's wonderful aromas.
2. It numbs your tastes buds and inhibits you from being able to experience the full flavor of the beer.

Now certain beer companies serve their beers at extremely low temperatures to disguise the real taste of the beer (which would be categorized as disgusting). I see this as one of Big Business' greatest conspiracies to dupe the American beer drinker. They want you to think that you need to drink beer really cold. Then they can sell you their crap and have you think that it is good. To use a friends analogy, "It's like the Wal-Mart greeter. They're there to make you feel happy about all the crap you're about to buy."

Well I'm sorry...I'm not happy.

So what temperature should you drink your beer at? That is a wonderful question, and I'm glad you asked. Each style of beer actually has a different temperature. The general rule is to drink it at the same temperature that it was fermented at. If you're like me, you're not going to go out and research to see what temperature your beer was fermented at. So I've included a handy chart from herestobeer.com that will give you an idea of what temperature your beer should be served.

So here is your homework for this week. Get a beer with which you are familiar with the flavor. Now take your time drinking it and take note of how the flavor and smell changes as the temperature of the beer changes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

Did some grilling this weekend and thought I would share.  Come back next week and I'll put one together for how to smoke a brisket.

photo by: meyshanworld

The following post is from my friend Sandra Bauman. Sandra and I met at City on a Hill a while back. Sandra is the type of person that you can become instant friends with, but one of the things I like to talk to her about the most is how her Jewish heritage her current relationship with Jesus. The following is an email that she recently sent out to all her friends. I hope you enjoy.

[Ash Wednesday] got me thinking -- and got the Holy Spirit reminding me -- about something that struck me this fall, which I fully intended to implement....but didn't....

Every so often I miss a bit of the liturgy, the Hebrew prayers, and the traditions of my Jewish upbringing. So, this past Yom Kippur - (the Jewish "Day of Atonement" - the one day of the year a Jew has the potential to be forgiven everything one did last year and hopefully be written in God's "book" to live another year) - I went to Adat Yeshua.

At one point in the Yom Kippur service the congregation confesses together out loud a litany of sins. The list was intriguing because I could identify something I had done in practically every line. My natural tendency, at the end of a day (or week, or month...or never), is to look back and not be able to specifically identify anything I would call "sin." This list of sins totally blows that out of the water.

My intention after that YK service was to type the list up handily and go over it every evening before going to sleep. Needless to say, that didn't happen. But now that I've confessed that please feel free to hold me accountable - ask me about it!

I also offer it to you (at the bottom) as a potential tool to use (and share) as we, individually and as a family, enter into this Lent season with the charge Dave and Donovan offered: to truly agree with God about our sin and need for Him, and allow Him to work an amazing transformation within us.

I love you and look forward to the adventures this challenge will bring!

Sandra

Confession*

The sin we committed in your sight forcibly or willingly
And the sin we committed against you by acting callously

The sin we committed in your sight unintentionally
And the sin we committed against you by idle talk

The sin we committed in your sight by lustful behavior
And the sin we committed against you publicly or privately

The sin we committed in your sight knowlingly and deceptively
And the sin we committed against you by offensive speech

The sin we committed in your sight by lewd association
And the sin we committed against you by insincere confession

The sin we committed by contempt for parents or teachers
And the sin we committed against you willfully or by mistake

The sin we committed in your sight by violence
And the sin we committed against you by defaming your name

The sin we committed in your sight by unclean lips
And for the sin we committed against you by foolish talk

The sin we committed in your sight by evil impulse
And the sin we committed against you wittingly or unwittingly

The sin we committed in your sight by fraud and falsehood
And the sin we committed against you by bribery

The sin we committed in your sight by scoffing
And the sin we committed against you by slander

The sin we committed in your sight in dealings with men
And the sin we committed against you in eating and drinking

The sin we committed in your sight by usury and interest
And the sin we committed against you by a lofty bearing

The sin we committed in your sight by our manner of speech
And the sin we committed against you by wanton glances

The sin we committed in your sight by haughty airs
And the sin we committed against you by scornful defiance

The sin we committed in your sight by casting off responsibility
And the sin we committed against you in passing judgment

The sin we committed in your sight by plotting against men
And the sin we committed against you by sordid selfishness

The sin we committed in your sight by levity of mind
And the sin we committed against you by being obstinate

The sin we committed in your sight by running to do evil
And the sin we committed against you by talebearing

The sin we committed in your sight by swearing falsely
And the sin we committed against you by groundless hatred

The sin we committed in your sight by breach of trust
And the sin we committed against you by a confused heart

*(Paraphrased from the High Holiday Prayer Book, Copyright 1951 by Hebrew Publishing Company, New York, and 1979 by Philip Birnbaum)

photo by: moriza

We are almost two weeks into the Lent season now. I'm sorry for the delay on this last post in my Lent series. Things haven't allowed me to sit down and write it. But for those who have been waiting patiently (and I guess the impatient ones too), here is the final post.
Once again, I’m not the most generous person you’ll ever meet (that's probably why this list is shorter than the other ones). I don’t even like to share candy. But I’ve realized my short comings and here are some things that I’ve learned that help me to be a little more generous with my time and money.

1. Make it a priority
   You’re not going to do it until you make it a priority. As I said in another post, I learned this from a wise friend when I was in college.

   I had a moment of enlightenment when I was in college. I was a poor college student (which for some is a load of crap statement…but that is another blog), and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same. And he responded in the kindest of words, “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.”

   You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shinny things that will take center stage if you don’t (this comes from the guy with the iPhone…I know about shinny things taking center stage…and I’m still learning). Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.

2. Have a budget
   You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don't have money to be generous with because you don't plan.
   When Shannon and I first started budgeting, it was like I got a raise. Before we budgeted, we just tried to keep an eye on our checking account and when it got to low we stopped spending (don’t judge you know you do the same thing). When we started budgeting, we were finally able to plan. We were able to make our money work for us instead of the opposite (check out DaveRamsey.com for more information on budgets).
   You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t have time to serve our fellow man because we never have any extra time. I’ll give you a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like you’re pay check only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you serve those around you (check out ZenHabits.net for more information on budgeting your time).
3. Give first
   This is has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that everything that you received (animals, harvest, children, ect.), the first of it was to be given to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off. If you don’t do this…you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous.
   The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip the basketball game and go do a generous act.
4. Have a separate checking account
   This is a little trick that Shannon and learned when we weren’t part of a local church for awhile. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our pay checks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills.
   When we started going to City on a Hill we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don't get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the opportunities present themselves.
5. Give first ask questions later
   Now this might sound like I'm say to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it (in fact I would say not to do that...give them food, clothing, bottled water, a cup of coffee...but don't give them money. Read "Under the Overpass" to see why). What I'm saying is that my tendency and I know some of your's tendency is to ask the question "Why?". Why should I be generous with my time and money. The reality of it is that I can't answer that question truly. I could give you scripture. I could give you stories in my own life. I could paint a picture of a vision of bringing heaven to earth. But you won't get it.
   You won't get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby's for lunch. You won't get it until you mow your elderly neighbor's yard for them without them asking or paying you. You won't get it until you help your wife's single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won't get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner.
   If you decide that you aren't going to be generous until you understand why, you'll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you'll find the answers.

So Lent is centralized around three actions that are lived out through the season...prayer, fasting, and generosity. I've already covered prayer.

The idea behind fasting is two fold. The first is to deny yourself of something you like/need in order to drive/draw to you God. The second is to give yourself extra time to pray (which pours back into the first part).

Most fasts typically give up food for a season of time, but there are a lot of options for fasting during the Lent season. You normally start on Ash Wednesday and go until Easter taking Sunday's off (adding up to 47 days). Sunday is suppose to be a time of celebration, therefore you don't fast at that time.

In this post I hope to give you a few tips for fasting that I've picked up. Once again, I've only been regularly fasting for about a half-a-year, but hopefully you can learn from the mistakes that I've already made.

1. Be honest with yourself
   Forty days is a long time to go without something no matter what it is. For most this will be a life changing event. Be honest with yourself. Don't say you are going to give up TV for Lent if you know that there is no way that you really will. You're just setting yourself up for disappointment. Be honest with yourself and give up something that you know you will be able to go without for 40 days.
   If you've already started a fast and are realizing now that you've bitten off more than you can chew (sorry I couldn't pass up that pun), it's ok to edit your fast. God won't shot you with lightening bolts from heaven (or will He....hmmmm).
2. Start Small
   If this is the first time that you are going to fast, don't give up everything but water (by the way this is the hardest and most dangerous of all fasts and should only be done with a doctors supervision). Start off small. Give up meat or alcohol (for all my boozers out there). Then work your way up to harder fasts later down the road.
   My first fast was a three day all juice fast. Since then I've done a three week juice fast and a three week fruits and vegetable fast. But the key is to start small and work your way up to more challenging fasts.
   A side note though, make sure that the fast is still challenging, or else you're not fasting. You're just giving something up for a little while.
3. Check your calendar
   This will happen every time you decide to do a fast. You will swear off booz for a week, and an hour later your best friend who you haven't seen in four years will call you up out of the blue for a beer. These are the things you have to prepare yourself for. But you need to make sure in advance that you don't already have something scheduled that will conflict with your fast. This might mean that you are going to need to reschedule your fast, alter your fast, reschedule your event, or be prepared for the temptation that comes with your event.
4. People will find out
   Jesus tells us that we aren't to proclaim to people that we are fasting, but the reality is that people will find out (unless you're giving up some obscure thing that no one would notice anyways...even you). When people notice that you turn down their offer for a Starbucks run for the fifth time in a row, they will start to ask questions. I find this is a great opportunity to share the gospel with them in a simple and humble fashion. "Oh I've given up coffee for Lent so I can draw closer to God." The key is to not make a big deal about it and most of the time they won't either.
5. Don't do it alone
   Fasting isn't a glamorous or easy act. So don't go it alone. Team up with a friend or a group of friends. This way you have someone to pray with during lunch. You can also pray for each other during your fasts too.
6. It's not a contest
   This happened to me on my first 40-day fast. I had given up all food for forty days and I was doing really well...too well in fact. I was getting really excited. I was half way through the fast and was really starting to get full of my self. I was starting to think about how cool it was going to be to tell people that I had gone 40 days without any solid food (I was just having juice and smoothie every now and then). I knew I needed to edit my fast mid-stream and start a fruits and vegetables fast. This kept me from being prideful, but still allowed me to deny myself and drive myself to God.
   If you find yourself getting prideful about your fast, it's time stop and reevaluate your actions. Remember your purpose is to draw closer to God.
7. If necessary, STOP
   There are times when you will just need to stop your fast all together. Your health is a really good reason for this. Any fast where you deny yourself of food can be dangerous to your health (do lots of research before you give up any type of food).
   The main reason to stop is if your fast interferes with your relationship with God. I have a friend who doesn't fast because he says that he ends up focusing on the fast rather than focusing on God. Remember the ultimate purpose of a fast is to draw you closer to God. If you find that your fast is doing the opposite, STOP! No fast is worth your relationship with God. Stop your fast and find other avenues to draw closer to God.

That's it for now. Until next time, enjoy your chicken broth.

photo by: Lori Morris

I have to be honest, this is actually the first time that I've participated in the Lent season. If you don't know what Lent is, wikipedia states it as so:

Lent, in most Christian denominations, is the forty-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan. Different churches will calculate the forty days differently.

The purpose of Lent, like most Christian seasons, it to be a special time where you grow closer to God and those around you. You are to do this through three ways: prayer, fasting/self denial, and generosity. Now I'm not a master at any of these...but I'd like to give you some advise from what I have learned over the years (I sound like a wise old sage...um...I'm not).

Prayer

I must say that prayer has only increased in my life in the past few months to where I could even start to give someone advice. Before then, it was simply something I would do during the typical expected times (at meals, church, ect). I've only recently come to begin to understand how God uses prayer to draw us closer to Him and as a tool to complete His work. With that being said, here are some simple tips to help with your prayer time during Lent.

1. Set up Triggers in your life.
   I've talked about triggers in a previous post. This is taking something that you normally do in your life and using it to "trigger" you to do things that wouldn't normally do. For example, most people use sitting down for dinner as trigger to pray for the meal (I hope you're not one of those people that pray for like two hours before every meal...that's really annoying). Take things that you do everyday, and make them triggers for you to pray. Some of my favorites are taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.
2. Have a plan.
   This is probably my biggest short-coming. I'm a random prayer. Whatever comes to my head at the time is what I pray for. For this reason, I'm constantly praying for the same things over and over (these are mainly food, finances, my future, my son, and my wife). This isn't necessarily bad. But there are a lot more things in my life that I would like to pray about/for (did he just end a sentence with two prepositions...yes he did). So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.
3. Talk to God.
   This might sound dumb to some, but for me this was an epiphany. I don't know if you noticed this or not, but over the years I've discovered that people like to use what I call "prayer talk." You know what I'm talking about (if you don't...go to a prayer meeting and you'll know). This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of Benny Hen and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer. Shannon and I actually have a game where we will count how many times someone uses one of these words in their prayers (I know...we're a bunch a heathens...but Jesus loves us just the same).It came as a surprise to me that I could actually just talk to God. I didn't have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. I didn't have to speak in old English. I could just talk to Him. Just like I talk to my friends about my troubles and my successes, I can talk to Him. I can tell Him my struggles and failures. I can tell Him jokes. I can even be angry and yell at Him (read a few Psalms and you'll get the idea). Prayer is me simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.
4. Write it down.
   This one comes from my wife and Dave Ortega (Dave you need to get a blog so I can link to you). I'm not good at this, but for the two previously mentioned they swear by it. My wife has several spiral notebooks that she has filled with her prayers over the years. This has been really cool, because she can look back and see how God has answered her prayers.Dave does the same. The last time I talked to him about the subject, he said the biggest tip he could give someone was to not set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days he will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, "God help me." The idea is to simple write it out.
5. Keep it simple.
   Awhile back I learned that, during the time of Jesus (and I think it might be true for today too), Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine...even going to the bathroom. The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don't have to be 5 minutes long for God to hear us (once again with you guys who like to pray until my food it cold...stop it). Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn't keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just want to hear from you.
6. Keep it sweet.
   Remember who you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. I think the reason that David was a man after God's own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. I think the worst prayer isn't a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren't praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying. The reality is that this is the core of all prayer...to seek the face of God....to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

Ok that is it for now....I'll cover fasting and generosity in the next couple of days. Until then, enjoy God.

So when I was waiting in line for Obama the other day, I looked over at my friend and noticed that his iPhone was hanging from his belt loop. He had just recently went to MacWorld (the punk) and picked up a new item called the Hangman. Now I've tried a few different carrying cases since I've gotten my iPhone, but I must say this is the coolest one that I've seen so far. The best part is that it works with any iPodish product.

It actually connects to the dock part of the iPhone/iPod. Then the other side connects to a belt loop or anything else that you would want to connect it to. It also has a built in feature to help wrap up the extra slack from you head phones. Very nice. Right now I'm broke. But I plan on getting one soon...if I can't steal one first.

Wayne's lesson was a needed kick in the pants. He reminded me of my need for a one-on-one relationship with God. While it's good to learn from others, Jesus calls us to follow Him (not follow others who are following Him). This has always been one of my biggest struggles. After listening to Wayne, I knew that I needed to go to the Source.Wayne gives some helpful tips for spending time in the Bible. Being the nice guy I am, I'll share those tips with you (and some others that I picked up along the way).

Tip #1:
The first tip is actually from zenhabits.net and writetodone.com. The author of both of these blogs (Leo Babauta) talks about putting triggers in you life to make you do the things that you don't want to do.

What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.

My trigger is getting dressed for work. Like Leo's example above, I have other triggers before that, but this is the trigger for me to spend time with God.

Tip #2:
Have all the right resources. Wayne suggests that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items.

1. A Bible - This is a no brainer. But make sure it is version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). I use the ESV...but you might find another version to your liking. Just go to your local book store and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.
2. A Journal - This is where you are going to write down your thoughts. I use a blog to keep my daily thoughts, and it works well for me. Plus, I can share with my friends my daily reflections. Otherwise Wayne recommends using a paper journal and using the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning. This way you can look back and see what your have been learning (another reason I use a blog...this is done automatically for me).
3. A Reading Plan - Use whatever you want. Just have a plan. I am using the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan to read through the Bible each year. But you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day or two pages. Whatever you do use a plan or else you'll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.
4. A Planner - It's going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart our...and you are going to remember that you're out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, "get milk" and go right back to your journaling. If you don't have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper. This is probably the best advice that I got from Wayne. I don't know how many times my God time was hijacked by random thoughts of things I need to do for the day.

Tip #3:
Use S.O.A.P. This is Wayne's structure for your time with God. It stands for the following:
Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. I use the questions, "Who is God?," and "How do I enjoy Him?," to focus my observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read...what should you do? I try to make this practical and realistic. I set a goal for the day based upon my reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God.

Tip #4:
Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It's not to check off your list. Don't add extra burdens to this focus. "I have to make at least 15 observations." "I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal." "I have to pray for at least 45 minutes." The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that...the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.

Hey everyone...sorry I missed the last two days. I'll have a post up later today showing you why I haven't been posting. For the time being, I wanted to post a quick blog about Woot.com. My friend Donald turned me onto this the other day and I wanted to share it with you.

Woot.com is an online store that sales one item at a discounted price. The thing is that it has a new item every day. You have only 24-hours to buy the item at that rate, and then it's gone forever. It's the one day sale on steroids. I haven't bought anything from them...but it is cool to go drool over what they have every day. It's a procrastinators dream.

They also have shirt.woot.com and wine.woot.com. Sometimes the shirts are pretty sweet.

Monday: I forgot to write a blog (ok I was just lazy)...so I vowed to do two on Tuesday.

Tuesday: "Give it up." was a post about the lack of generosity in the the church and people today. Huckabee Hater was one of my most commented blogs for the week. I talked about my dislike for Huckabee's Christian platform.

Wednesday: You got another two for the price of one as I talked about the Belkin Podcast Studio and how I need one. I also put out a desperate plea for some suggestions for the use of my iTunes Gift Card.

Thursday: In Waaaaa. I’m Not Getting Fed, I commented on Vince Antonucci's posts by the same name.

Friday: The The Black Screen of Life covers our need to get rid of distractions.

Saturday: The book UnChristian gave me the idea to post my own survey.

Sunday: I used this Week in Review as a sly way out of getting to write a new blog.

-picture courtesy of WriteRoom.com

If you haven't noticed yet, I have really tried to start writing at least one post a day. I don't necessarily have any planned goal in mind. I just decided that I really wanted to write more (with the encouragement of my wife and my friends). So I've been trying to find ways that will help me to do this.

One particular blog that I recently came across gave some helpful suggestions. Leo Babauta on his blog WriteToDone.com gives some really good advice on writing.
From writetodone.com:

Think about it for a moment — if you could write consistently for an hour (or two) a day:

* You’d write a whole lot over the course of a month, or a year. Your output would be prodigious.
* You’d meet writing deadlines, because procrastination wouldn’t be a problem.
* Your writing would improve, simply from the amount of practice you’d be getting.
* You’d feel great about your writing, which in turn would motivate you to keep going.
* You’d solve the problems of war and world hunger, from the brilliance of your writing.

Now the last part might not be true (or could it), but the rest has been true. I have truly enjoyed witting something everyday (sometimes more than once). And the constant red underlines has really improved my spelling (plus Shannon's proof reading). The one thing that I have had problems with is just sitting down and writing.

It's not that I don't want to...it's that I get distracted. I'm like a toddler who trades the priceless ceramic figurine in his hands for a set of keys. I'll sit down to type and all the sudden I'll wake up and realize that I've spent the past 30 minutes watching videos on YouTube.

Leo had another blog on this post that I read today that was of great help. He made several recommendations...but the one thing that I have found to help the most is:
From writetodone.com:

3. Use Writeroom. Writeroom if you’re on a Mac, or some other similar software (Writer.app is another good Mac writing program, and DarkRoom works well for the PC — I’ve used all three and love them).

Basically, these programs are for writing text, and nothing else. They block out the rest of your computer with a black (or otherwise faded) background, so that you have the text … and that’s all. They aren’t chock-full of features like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. You write in full-screen mode, with no distractions.

After reading this point, I downloaded WriteRoom immediately. I must say it felt a little weird at first writing with nothing but my text on a black screen. But then it became liberating. I was able to do what I set out to do...write. It's amazing how many distractions we can fill our lives with (cell phones, email, web browsing, online games...email...and I have all these on just my phone). Sometimes we just have to get rid of all the distractions and do something.

If you like to write...I recommend WriteRoom. If there are other things in you life that you like to do but are distracted from...I recommend taking the time this weekend to decide what is distracting you from your goal. Take the time to find a way to eliminate those distractions and then do what you enjoy. It really is very liberating.

LibraryThing.com is a place to store all you information on the books that you have.  And it is so simple to do.  You just enter either the title of the book or the ISBN, find the book in the corresponding search, and add it to your library.   The let you do up to 100 books for free and then after that it is $10 a year for unlimited books.

I fell in love with this online app instantly.  I don't have a huge library, but Shannon and I are adding to it every week.   It is slowly getting to that tipping point where I won't be able to remember what books we have anymore.  This will allow me to keep track of them and even search for certain topics.

I've already started adding my books and I'm about a fourth of the way through.  If you want to check out my catalog, you can go to:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gregqualls

Try it out and tell me what you think about it.