Odds & Ends

Our church’s monthly newsletter has a page called, “This ‘n That” which provides the pastors a space to post announcements of upcoming events, give short summaries of recent developments, congratulate people, offer condolences, and list people who need prayers for healing. It is a helpful way to communicate important matters to the members in a succinct manner.

I found it very useful, which is why I’m beginning a similar “page” for my blog. I’m calling it, “Odds & Ends” (to avoid copyright infringement?). I don’t know how often it will appear, but whenever I accumulate a few things to tell you which don’t warrant an entire article, I’ll stick them in “Odds & Ends” and pass them along. I hope you will find these short comments useful and interesting.

1. The Bible translation I am using the most in my blog citations is the English Standard Version (ESV). It follows in the long tradition of the King James Version/ASV/RSV while taking advantage of recent textual discoveries and updated language. Before switching to the ESV I used the NIV because it was very comfortable and understandable, but its tendency to play loose at times with its translations, plus the decision of the copyright holder to forbid public use of the NIV from any editions before 2011, led me to make the switch. (Besides, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (ESV), just sounds better than “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (NIV). I know my preference is subjective and not a rigorous scholarly opinion, but it is after all my blog!
2. You may have noticed that except for my first post, I have not been capitalizing the personal pronouns which refer to the Deity. This is not to show any lack of respect or honor for God, but to be consistent with both the modern English translations which I cite (such as the ESV) and the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts from which those translations are made. Pronouns such as he, his, him, and himself are not capitalized in the Greek or the Hebrew texts, so using lower case letters is actually more scripturally accurate.
3. The Bibles pictured in the heading on my blog pages are from my own library. While I was looking online for stock images of books to place in the header and portray my interest in reading, my wife asked me why I didn’t just take a picture of my own books since I had so many to choose from. It was one of those “duh!” moments. She was right of course, so I got out the camera and took the picture you see. We like how it turned out, and besides . . . no royalties! (Unless you want to use it, then let’s talk . . .)
4. Besides writing my blog and trying to assimilate the books from my church office into my home library, I’m also finishing work on my second book, which has the working title of Raising Ebenezers: Recognizing God’s Miracles in Your Life. I was almost done with it until I taught a course on miracles at church and realized there were a few more things to be added to the book. By the way, Ebenezer means “stone of help,” and refers to a stone that Samuel erected to commemorate God’s help in defeating the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). Watch for news of publication when it’s done!

Until next time, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace.

Read: 1 Samuel 7:5-14