I was very pleased today to find a most welcome podcast: Audition from Mars Hill Audio.  The Mars Hill Audio Journal has been a wonderful staple for segmenting literature, science, art, theology, philosophy, and culture in an audio format.  It’s much like the format of many NPR programs, with a more poignant focus from a christian/theological perspective.  Ken Myers and the group at Mars Hill Audio has done a phenomenal job of attracting world reknown scholars, authors, and professors, as well as amassing more book/resource recommendations than one could every hope to read.  The Audio Journal comes out bi-monthly and costs $30/year and $55/2 years.  It is available in tape, CD, and MP3 download.  The podcast is free to add to your iTunes podcast library, and can also be downloaded freely on their site: http://mhadigital.org.  The cast only comes out monthy and are usually around 30 minutes in length.  For you convenience, I have included link to the available casts below:

http://mhadigital.org/index.php?post_category=podcasts

Here are more links that have been added to the God-centered.com/resources page. These are all starter level classes taught mostly by seminary professors.  Registration is required for most of these courses.

Old Testament Survey, by Douglas Stuart

Old Testament Theology, by Paul House

New Testament Survey, by William Mounce

Inductive Bible Study, by George Guthrie

Bibliology and Hermeneutics, by Michael Patton

History of the English Bible, by Daniel Wallace

Greek Tools for Bible Study, by William Mounce

Introduction to Theology, by Michael Patton

Systematic Theology, by Bruce Ware

Trinitarianism, by Michael Patton

Worship, by Gary Parrett

The World Mission of the Church, by Timothy Tennant

Christian Ethics, by Ron Nash

Apologetics, by Ron Nash

Educational Ministry of the Church, by Gary Parrett

Advanced Worldview Analysis, by Ron Nash

Islam, by Timothy Tennant

Hinduism, by Timothy Tennant

Just finished accumulating a decent list of free journals online for the God-centered.com/resources page.  These are all worth bookmarking.

Biblical Theology Bulletin (Seton Hall University)

Biblica (Rome Pontifical Institute)

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Evangelical Theological Society)

Journal of Biblical Literature (Society of Biblical Literature)

Journal for the Study of the New Testament (Sheffield Academic Press)

Trinity Journal (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)

Neotestamentica (New Testament Society of South Africa)

Filología Neotestamentaria (University of Cordoba)

Theology Today (Princeton Theological Seminary)

Kerux (Northwest Theological Seminary)

Denver Journal (Denver Seminary)

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Semeia (Society of Biblical Literature)

Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry (New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary)

Criswell Theological Review (Criswell College)

Institute for Reformed Theology Bulletin (Union Theological Seminary)

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal (Protestant Reformed Theological School)

Western Reformed Seminary Journal (Western Reformed Seminary)

Currents in Theology & Mission (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)

The Master’s Seminary Journal (The Master’s Seminary)

Journal of Religion & Society (Creighton University)

Reformed Review (Western Theological Seminary)

Journal of Biblical Studies (exclusively online)

Journal for Christian Theological Research (Luther Seminary)

Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism (McMaster Divinity School)

McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry (McMaster Divinity School)

Stromata (Calvin Theological Seminary)

Journal of Ministry & Theology (Baptist Bible Seminary)

Concordia Theological Quarterly (Concordia Theological Seminary)

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism (Society of Biblical Literature)

Themelios (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship)

Vox Evangelica (London School of Theology)

Bulletin for Biblical Research (Institute for Biblical Research)

Evangelical Quarterly (Paternoster Press)

Whether I have been in a jam because my work computer doesn’t have a certain program available, or whether I have been too cheap to pay, I have found a vast array of high quality free software online. I thought I would share the best of what I have found.

I was tipped off about Firefox about a year and a half ago by Dr. James and have never looked back. It is by far the best web browser available. It is slick, intuitive, and has a built-in search bar. You can select from an endless list of skins to suit your fancy, you can add how ever many search sites you want for your search bar, and you can add a ton of extensions for weather, music, etc. Must have.

If you are sick of Windows, or want a Mac but already have a PC, the answer is Linux. Linux is a free, open source Operating System that has everything included. It is multi-faceted so you can make it look like Windows or Mac. As a matter of fact, the Mac OS is wrapped around Linux and adds its stuff on to it. Linux takes a lot more motivation and elbow grease, but once you know what you are doing you probably won’t go back.

This is exactly like Microsoft Office, but free. It was done by Sun Microsystems, the same people that do Java. So if your PC only came with a sample of MS Office or just MS Works, you can snag the OpenOffice.org program and have everything you need. MS Word is still tough to beat, but this a great alternative and allows you to export files as PDF’s. Plus it’s free.

If you want Bible software but have no cash, or want a program that runs a little quicker and can handle simple searches, get yourself the E-Sword. You can download the Greek (NT and Septuagint) and Hebrew, as well as good translations like the ESV for free. Also has other classic references tools, like Bible dictionaries and commentaries.

If you like to record stuff or tweak certain audio files that you have, Audacity is yours for the taking. You can edit to your hearts delight and convert WAV files to MP3 and visa versa.

Want to find directions when you aren’t online or see a satellite picture of your friends neighborhoods? Google Earth will do this and more. This is almost too much fun.

Also by Google is this nifty picture viewer/editor. It looks sharp and helps you make your pictures look sharp.

CDBurnerXP Pro

If your computer has a CD/DVD Burner but no software, or the software is too hard to use, CDBurnerXP Pro is more than adequate. It is very intuitive and efficient.

Everybody hates spyware and viruses yet always has them. What Ad-Aware cannot do, Windows Defender can do. Wouldn’t you want your spyware done by the company that makes your operating system (atleast for over 90% of people)?

I know this pretty much comes on everybody’s computer anyway, but I really think this is the best audio/video player. It is easy to use and can play any kind of file you need played. ITunes is good, but extremely limited, as is Quicktime (both of which you much download together, even if you want one or the other).

Of course there are many more than these, but this is a good place to start. For a great site on free software check out Download.com.