¹O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.

²From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.

³When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

⁴what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

–Psalm 8:1-4 (NIV)

I’m sure the stars seemed brighter in David’s day. At least they would have been easier to see (with the naked eye) then than today living in a brightly-lit city. Of course David’s “consideration” of the heavens, moon and stars would have been different from ours. David didn’t have access to all the space telescopes we have today. For me this only solidifies that David’s words were divinely-inspired.

I happened to come across an interesting article on Popular Science’s web site. In it they share a video that was created for an exhibit at the Rubin Art Museum. The video simulates, to scale, the journey light takes as it travels from Earth through space. All the way to the edge of the known universe (then the video reverses). I generally take things from Popular Science with a grain of salt, given their prejudicial favour against Creation, but this video simulation really helps put into perspective just how small we truly are in light (pun intended) of all that God has created. It lends credence to David’s closing words in Psalm 8:

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

–Psalm 8:9 (NIV)

Click the link to watch the video.

After watching this I was reminded of a message I shared a few years back, Beyond Wonder. At the time my church was doing a series on how wondrous God is. You can get that message in audio and video.

Read on for the satirized, scientific study.

1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total–378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.
3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.
   This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest manmade vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second–a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that “flying reindeer” (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload–not even counting the weight of the sleigh–to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison–this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
5. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance–this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion–If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.

Source: www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~dufour/HUMOR/Santas.html

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

²²All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–which means, “God with us.”

–Matthew 1:18, 22-23 (NIV)

The book of Matthew launches a new era in Biblical writings: The New Testament. The book initiates a new beginning of the Bible that builds on the foundation of the Old Testament and starts the ball rolling with a series of writings that together comprise a single narrative. What is remarkable about Matthew is that even though it begins with the Christmas story, the birth of Christ, there is something that takes place in the first few verses that is even more interesting: The genealogy of Jesus. Although I find reading genealogies a tad dry, the fact that God chose to begin with one illustrates a facet of His character that I find most intriguing.

As far back in Biblical history as one may choose to read, whether it be Psalms or Chronicles or even Genesis, God has consistently demonstrated a desire to knit His plans into our lives. God certainly does not need us, but He repeatedly includes us in His life. It is difficult to make any conclusion other than this: God wants to be a part of our lives.

Whether it was a man by the name of Joseph, whose sole act of forgiveness and love saved his family and thereby the nation of Israel. Or a young shepherd boy by the name of David whose love for God so moved the Creator that David was known as, “A man after God’s own heart.” Or even a prostitute by the name of Rahab who made a decision to take a stand for what she knew was right. Her lifestyle, scorned then just as much as it is now–even more, not being a barrier to what God had planned. All of these lived without ever meeting Jesus, yet share a similar place in history. They were ancestors of Jesus and, more importantly, their actions had a measurable effect on the course of history leading right up to the birth of Jesus Himself.

Jesus’ birth set a series of events in motion that ultimately fulfilled a pivotal element of God’s plan. Jesus created a way for us as individuals to have a relationship with God. No religious motions. No repetitive prayers. A direct connection that allows us to discover how great God is and how we have been knit into the fabric of His life (His plan).

²⁶From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. ²⁷God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

–Acts 17:26-27 (NIV)

This passage might not seem to meld with the theme of Christmas, but what it tells us is that God set in place where we would live and He did this so we would have the greatest opportunity of encountering Him. It would be like some great force dropping you on a highway in such a way that you would be as close as possible to the exit you need to take. The only choice you have to make is to take that exit. In much the same way Jesus made a choice to walk out God’s plan, we must also make that same decision.

So why are we unable to escape the fascination that is Christmas? Is it the tradition of a newborn Child? The start of a great new book series authored by God? Or is it the beginning of a realization that God has knit all of us into a tremendous sequence of events?

There is an ineffable quality within people that draws us to the spiritual unknown. It is the same quality that forces us to ask the question, “Why am I here?” The answer is surprisingly simple. You are here for a time such as this. In much the same way Jesus was born to fulfil His God-assigned purpose, you are here to fulfil yours. The only real question that needs to be answered is, “Are you ready?”

Many months ago Apple introduced a new feature in iTunes called Genius. The (simplified) premise behind this new technology is that iTunes reports your library of songs, artists and albums, along with a record of your listening habits to Apple’s online servers. It sounds big brother-ish but really the goal is that when this information is collected en masse it allows Apple to analyze and build associations between songs based on the collective listening habits of… everyone.

I’ll admit I’m a bit late to the game. I never actually tried out the Genius feature when it was first introduced. I decided lately to give it a shot. What did I find?

The Genius was able to take the song I had selected, Starfield’s I Will Go, and build a list of 25 songs from artists in my library. The result? I had a playlist that started with some great rock songs that eventually progressed into those famous “transitional” songs worship leaders like to use. Of course, no worship set would be complete without the obligatory finale ballads.

What about those times when the Spirit of God moves after the worship leader finishes his or her last song and all of sudden we feel drawn into a state of majestic worship with songs that cannot be described as up-beat nor slow, but rather as intense and powerful? Genius has you covered. My playlist wrapped up with just those songs.

Eerie? Maybe. Perhaps the Spirit of God moves through my iPhone.

Facetiousness aside, the playlist was well put together. The accuracy of the playlists does seem to reinforce that human beings are creatures of habits. The beauty of Apple’s implementation is that as time goes on the lists will only ever get more accurate and better-suited to the style you want to listen to.

So can a Genius replace a worship leader?

Heh, no. Of course not. But if you’re a musician on a worship team it will definitely get you a song list sooner!

Full details and a download link are available on the z-Lightview page.

I tried Laridian’s web-based iPocketBible service. Even though the web application was feature rich, it wasn’t available when I had no Internet connection and it was a bit slow to use. For the last several months I have been using Olive Tree’s BibleReader [iTunes link]. It is a great piece of software. Simple, fast, and easy to navigate (I can get to any verse in only four taps). The downside, of course, is that with Laridian I had purchased a significant library of translations and study notes. Replicating the same material with Olive Tree’s line up would have cost me several hundred dollars.

Now Laridian’s PocketBible for iPhone and iPod Touch is set to be available tomorrow (September 16). The free application will include the KJV and allow users to log in to their Laridian account to retrieve purchased titles (both newly purchased and previously purchased ones). Material is available off-line, so an Internet connection is not required.

I have not been following Laridian’s blog to the extent of knowing what their software will feature; however, if it is anything like their previous offerings it should be pretty good. I am looking forward to being able to have my entire library of reference material with me again.

My only complaint (yes, I can have a complaint without having used the software) is that Laridian is late to the game. If you search the iTunes Store you’ll find a plethora of Bible applications. Some are garbage, but some have tremendous offerings. I think Laridian’s only saving grace is their pre-existing customer base.

I will update this post with a link to their software when it becomes available.

Update: The application is now available [iTunes link].

Take a look around. Hopefully you find it easy to navigate and don’t run in to many errors!

Click the link below to listen to the audio, or watch the video.

Note: There is some mild language in the video.