A Beggar At The Table

I’m a big fan of the new long-tailed publishing model and the idea of print-on-demand publishing. Nice to see that CPH has jumped in on the game, too.

Question for any of the 5 remaining Lutheran readers whom I haven’t utterly bored away from my blog— which of the new on-demand titles are actually worth my while? I’m thinking specifically in terms of the commentaries thus available; I have Laetsch’s Jeremiah & Minor Prophets, Arndt’s Luke, Franzmann’s Follow Me (Matthew), but which of the others are worth my hard-earned and admittedly meagre book-buying budget?

Today BabyM receives the second birth of water and the Word in Holy Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, eternal life, and salvation, at approximately 10:36 am. Then we’re having a big party after church in the fellowship hall. As his daddy and his pastor, I’m bubbling over with excitement. What a great day!

Please keep the owners of the webserver on which this blog resides in your prayers. Dear friends of mine for about 13 years, they also recently had a child, but the Lord saw fit to take young Ian Smith from this world of sin and trouble after only two short days. Pray for Darrin and Melissa and Caleb during this time of intense grief and sorrow for them.

Kelly’s baptism book arrived in the mail today. As usual, LuLu did a nice job with the printing. Their shipping/handling costs have gotten a little stupid, but otherwise I still recommend them. Now to do a close read, make final tweaks, and then make it publicly available!

Baby is here. Boy. Big one. God is good to us. Kelly’s doing much better than last time around. Having some of the usual first-24-hour things.

Baby is imminent. This waiting for child to come seems always to have some sort of eschatological edge, to me.

Back from the LCC Central District convention now. Have a decent amount of things on the docket between now and Sunday to get done. Dr. Gene Veith was our keynote speaker, speaking on vocation. Not a lot of big things involved in the convention, but it was a chance to meet together and remind ourselves of our unity in purpose and effort as one church united in one confession.

The Central District certainly has its failures, faults, and flaws, as does LCC, but I am glad to be part of both, and glad that God can even use a flawed pastor like me to serve His people here in the Winkler/Morden area.

It’s been an utterly draining Holy Week—but here we are at Easter once again. Christ is risen, our sins are taken away, life eternal is a reality for all who are in Christ Jesus. God’s blessings to you on this season of rejoicing!

Kelly and I are on phase three of her Baptism book project. I’m excited. It’s coming together well.

From the 15th Century, by an anonymous author:

A God and yet a man?
A maide and yet a mother?
Wit wonders what wit can
Conceave: this, or the other?

A God — and can he die?
A dead man — can he live?
What wit can well replie?
What reason reason give?

God, Truth itselfe doth teach it.
Mans wit senckes too far under,
By reasons power, to reach it.
Beleeve, and leave to wonder!

If you are interested in getting a copy of the ESV with decent cross-references and a basic concordance included, check out Canadian Bible Society. Their special Pew Edition ESV is basically the ESV Classic Reference Bible, without red-lettering, and slightly reset to be a little more compact, though still very readable.

The best part is the price— $9.99 or $8.00/ea if you buy a case lot (and apparently $8.99 through the website!). As with every Bible purchased through CBS, the funds generated from the sales go toward the work of translating the Scriptures, so it’s a no-lose proposition. I haven’t read through enough of it to know whether it’s the original 2001 text or the slightly revised 2007 text edition; from my standpoint it doesn’t really matter so much. The ESV is the translation used on the bulletin covers we use, the version read during our public worship, so it’s nice for me to have a replacement for my much used and literally falling apart 2001 ESV Classic Reference Bible. I’m more inclined than ever to agree that red-lettering is harder to read, so having the text all black is nice, too.

The only negative is the colour of the cover, which evokes a mildly Pittsburgh Penguins or Hamilton Tiger-Cats vibe. Or, as Kelly noted, a Stryper-ish vibe. Though it’s not quite THAT yellow.

Major props to Canadian Bible Society for making this available in this form. (And to the British and Foreign Bible Society, who, according to the copyright page, were instrumental in making this edition available.) And apologies to my American readers, but CBS material is only available for sale in and to Canada.