Been busy.

SwordSearcher Bible Software version 6 is now available. 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of SwordSearcher.

I love my job!

Lots of details here and here. Also got a video of some of the new features here.

I’ve recently created a SwordSearcher fan page on Facebook, too.

Let me start by saying that I am not happy about Obama being elected President. Not happy at all. But I’ve managed to turn my unhappiness with the election into the same feeling you get right before you sneeze — you know, that resignation that this is simply out of your control and it will happen regardless of your approval, and all protestations to the contrary will matter nary a wit.

And let’s insert the obligatory “Omaba is bad” stuff: He knows nothing about business.  He has no real-world experience in anything. His ideas are bad. He supports the killing of infants recently born because, you know, saving their lives would be too much of a burden on a woman who has chosen to kill her child. And he wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens.  Check. Check. Check. Yadda yadda.

But here’s the thing: He’s president. I’m not going to act like some pipsqueek liberal holding a sign that says “Bush is not my president.”  Because he is.

And you know why?

Because God wants him there.

Chew on that. Chew on that real good. (Don’t swallow as you might choke, but chew for a little while.)

It doesn’t matter how much you dislike Obama.  It doesn’t matter how good your reasons are for disliking him.

Romans 13:1-2  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

There is just no getting around this. Paul lived under a nation that had both just and unjust laws. The sins of the leadership of the United States aren’t any worse than those of the Roman government. And yet Paul didn’t dwell on his government.  He didn’t intermingle the Gospel with warnings about Caesar. Even when Paul was accused of crimes that would have resulted in his execution, he didn’t set out on a campaign of reform against his government.

Now back to the first thing I said: Politics can bring out the worst in anybody. I have heard people say the worst of curses against their new President. And it bugs me. Here’s why:

1 Timothy 2:1-2  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Here Paul tells us what our attitude about our leaders must be. We are to pray for them and even give thanks for them.

Ouch. That’s hard. I think living up to Old Testament standards might even be easier than giving thanks for Obama.

But there it is, nonetheless. And Paul told us why. “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” This is God’s will for us. This is what we should be striving for — not to get ABC, NBC, or CBS to air the right news. But to live a peacable life. And there is a flip side. Ignoring this exhortation means getting the opposite of “peaceable life.”

Yes, it’s nice to be right. Of course Obama is going to be one of the worst presidents this country has ever had. And, no, of course you don’t have to be happy about it. And in four years, you will get to vote against him again. Maybe in four years enough of the people in the country will see what’s right to prevent his re-election.

What do we do in the meantime?

Proverbs 29:2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Notice the key here: mourn. No rebellion, no railing. Mourning.

I’m thankful I live in a country where I have freedom of speech and can blog about things that interest me, like economics and the insanity of environmentalism. I am thankful I get a “say” in who my governors are. But in the end I know that nothing I do is going to change the fact that it is going to take Christ returning and establishing his own rule in Earth for anything to get better.

So I’ll deal with the fact that Obama is president.

I hope you will, too.

Version 5.4 of SwordSearcher Bible Software is finally released!

For years I’ve received requests for Clarence Larkin’s Dispensational Truth. I’m happy to report that it is now part of the SwordSearcher study library, including all of the charts.  This was a pretty big job.  The charts in the book were not suitable for scanning as they often spanned pages and just couldn’t be properly combined into single images.  So, I obtained large-format prints of the charts, then had them scanned with hardware designed to archive large blueprints.  The result is the best possible scans of these old illustrations.

You can see what else has been added here.

I wasn’t able to attend the conference this year.  I’m sorry I missed it.  But I’m certainly pleased to get the award again.  To whomever is voting for SwordSearcher: thank you!  (I’ve never solicited votes, so I don’t really know who you are.)

2 Corinthians 12:14  Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

As with any verse in Scripture, this one teaches many things. There is the direct application of what Paul was telling the Corinthians concerning his ministry to them, but what is striking me right now is one of the secondary truths Paul states here: that of laying up for the children.

While many Christians are busy claiming Matthew 6 and “taking no thought” of life, food, drink, and clothing, what are they doing to “lay up” for their children?  And what of providing for their own house?

1 Timothy 5:8  But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

As believers in this Church Age, we are to consider Paul first (2Ti 2:7), so let us focus on what Paul tells us to do for a moment.

There is an effort right now that is indicative of the general spirit of the times in the United States. We are poised to elect the most Marxist candidate ever to the presidency, in so doing transferring more responsibility off of the individual to the State. The nation is on the verge of demanding the nationalization of the health care services industry. These are certainly not “providing for his own.” We demand from our government new handouts in the forms of economic stimulus checks and home finance bailouts, and our politicians happily oblige us by borrowing more money from our children and grandchildren — the children laying up for the parents.

While we (and I speak to those of us who are Bible believers) may not have a strong influence on our government, we can certainly do more in our own lives to take ownership of our God-given responsibilities. Paul’s writings in Scripture are not suggestions, so let us take consideration of what we are doing and be sure to line up ourselves with Scripture:

• Do you look to the government or other people for your basic provision, or do you do everything in your power to “provide for your own?”
• Do you put your hopes in a ponsi scheme for retirement (Social Security) that requires your children and your children’s children to “lay up” for you, or do you make provision for your own welfare in the future?
• Do you hope for the government to care for your health, or do you care for your own health?
• If you have children, have you planned for their care in the event of your death? (Lay up for the children!)
• Do you “lay up” for your children by ensuring they are learning strong character, independence, and honesty, or do you leave their training up to other people who are not even allowed to teach such matters?

We do not live in a world where doing everything above is easy or necessarily possible all of the time. However, the Bible does not leave us room for apathy on these things. In fact, Paul’s comments here would be regarded as heartless by today’s humanistic standards:

2 Thessalonians 3:10  For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

When you go before Christ to give an accounting for your life as a child of God, are you going to have to answer for not abiding by the precepts?

Don’t misunderstand me — we have a responsibility to care for those among us who can not care for themselves. That’s not what I am talking about. I am talking about our Biblical duty to care for our selves and not force our children to lay up for us.

Living by the Truth is hard. These precepts are hard and go against the grain of so much modern teaching on the subject that even bringing these truths up can get you shunned by other Christians. But they are there nonetheless.

Are you doing everything you can to live by them?

SSModules: Free Module Downloads for SwordSearcher Bible Software is currently in “beta.” It’s beta because there isn’t much listed there yet, but I’m working on it.  My goal is two-fold:

1. Index many of the modules available from third parties.
2. Upload my own “extra” modules that I have built but not added to SwordSearcher’s Deluxe study library for one reason or another.

Work will be ongoing. I don’t know how long it will be “in beta” (certainly not perpetual beta like a Google internet service), but it’s usable now, so have a visit if you’re a SwordSearcher user.  You may find something you like.

In looking over the revision history, I think this is one of the most significant updates since 5.0 — not because of new content, but just because of new code. The new user editor should really be useful for people writing their own personal notes in the software, and the new Scan Text for Verse References tool should be an all-around time saver for anyone who reads Bible study stuff on the web.

Here’s what it does:

In the above example, I copied in text from a web page using the Windows clipboard. Each reference is automatically highlighted by SwordSearcher, and I can hold the mouse pointer over a reference to read the Bible text as I read along in the article. Obviously, clicking the verse links performs actions such as moving the Bible panel to the passage or loading the references in a Verse List panel.

This even works with “old style” commentaries that use Roman numerals for chapter identifiers.

(Geek alert: the rest of this blog post is programmer stuff.)

In order to handle this automatic verse reference discovery, I built a custom parser that uses a combination of Regular Expressions and good ‘ol Delphi code. SwordSearcher can understand over 2,000 forms of Bible book names and abbreviations. Jan Goyvaerts’ program RegEx Buddy was an invaluable aid in developing the RegExes SwordSearcher uses internally — I highly recommend it if you have to build RegExes in your line of work.

Anyway, version 5.3 was a lot of fun to develop. Now I can switch gears for a little while and do some other work that’s been waiting for me…