Featured song: Planetshakers- Beatiful savior

On politicians, peace and prayer

Amazing what can happen in just a few days. Wednesday morning nothing particularly eventful seemed to be happening in Australian politics. The prime minister had done a few unwise things of late but everyone assumed he'd stay in charge until the election later this year, if not later. Wednesday night news started coming round the internet that something dramatic might be brewing in the government. By 10am on Thursday morning our then prime minister Kevin Rudd had been removed from power by a revolt from members of his party and a new Prime Minister Julia Gillard was sworn in by lunch time. While technically not the head of state (the Queen has that job) Prime Minister is the most powerful position in the Australian government so this was a really big deal.

Obviously in light of such an unusual method of taking power, lots of people are asking questions. People are pondering what kind of precedent such a dramatic turn of events sets for politics and how it fits (or doesn't fit) into a democratic system. These are good questions I hope people keep thinking about. While it is easy to get too worked up about these things, as Christians there is a peace we can have about the craziness of politics. In Romans 13 we read that all governing authorities are established by God. It doesn't qualify it with governing authorities that gain their positions through conventional democratic elections. It doesn't qualify it with anything about their election campaign or even their policies. Since the verse gives us no exceptions, we can have peace that whatever circumstances got our governments or leaders into power and whatever good or bad they may be doing now, God is still in control and is higher than all the political drama.

I've also realised in this how much we need to pray for our politicians.Outside election time, praying for politicians is not something I often remember to do. Their jobs must be so stressful having to make decisions that could impact on the prosperity, security and development of the whole country. Add to that having the media, fellow politicians and the public watching everything they do and ready to criticize and/or remove them from office at the next election (or sooner) if they are seen to mess up. I'm sure they could really use our prayers. Our prayers could also help us as well as them. If we were to be humbly praying for strength, wisdom and protection for politicians, even those with whom with disagree, we might be less inclined to unnecessarily complain about politics.

iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps for Christian learning

There are a lot of really dumb apps in the Apple app store but if you do a bit of hunting around there are also some great ones to be found. Here's a few I've found particularly helpful for bible study/theological learning. I tried these out on an iPod touch but they should work just as well on an iPhone. Some of these apps also have an iPad edition available.

ESV bible (free)
While this one has less features than some other bible apps, it is well designed and easy to use. It features the popular English Standard Version of the bible. It also does not require internet access for any of the features which is great if you are an iPod touch user and not always within range of a WiFi hotspot

YouVersion (free)
YouVersion seems to be one of the most popular bible apps. It includes many English translations and some foreign language translations. Some of the available translations can be downloaded for offline use, some you need an internet connection. Other features include reading plans, bible commentary from other users and being able to search for nearby church services and events.

Legonier Ministries (free)
The Legonier ministries app includes daily devotions and messages from R.C Sproul. It also includes an extensive library of sermons and articles on a wide variety of topics by teachers such as Jerry Bridges, D.A Carson, Kevin DeYoung, Joshua Harris, John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, John Piper and many more.

Mars Hill (free)
The Mars Hill app features an extensive library of sermons from popular preacher Mark Driscoll. Sermons are available in audio and video formats. The app also includes the Mars Hill Church blog and a lot of original worship music from the church.

GoodReader (US$1, AU$1.19. free but limited version also available)
Not a Christian app, but it definitely has uses for Christian content. There are heaps of great free Christian ebooks online in .pdf format from sites like desiringgod.org or gfa.org. GoodReader makes it really easy to read these or other publications in pdf or Microsoft office formats on your iPod touch or iPhone. There is heaps of options for transferring books to your gadget including email, FTP, downloading straight from the web, google docs and WiFi (some of these options do cost an extra dollar to unlock). When reading the books you can read them with the original document's formatting or reformatted for easy reading. The app will automatically open the document to where you were last reading.



Anything worthwhile I've missed?