The Junk Drawer

In our kitchen, we have what we call the "junk drawer." The best way to explain this is by quoting a Family Circus cartoon I have taped inside..the cartoon shows Dolly and Billy standing by an open drawer filled with a hodgepodge of items: "If you don't know where something belongs, it belongs in this drawer."

Our junk drawer houses a mess of stuff, including but not limited to: matches, batteries, rubber bands, loose change, mailbox letters, a mini-screwdriver, tape, glue, and the roll-on thing you use to get fuzz off your black clothing. We call the home of these items the "junk" drawer not because the things in it are worthless but because "Catch-All Receptacle of Various Items Essential for Daily Life as We Know It" takes too long to yell when someone is asking where something is in the house.

This page will serve a similar purpose: it'll be a catch-all for valuable stuff I don't know where else to put on the blog. Much as I just throw things into our kitchen JD, I'm planning to just throw them onto this page in a bulleted list for minimalist organization. Here we go...

• If you decide to actually do one of the Bible studies on this blog (thank you, thank you, thank you!), you might want to use a journal to write down your answers to questions, personal reflections, results from putting God's Word into practice, prayers, memory verses, etc. The personal workbooks I've poured over during Bible studies I've done are among my most treasured possessions. Your Bible study journal might just become similarly precious to you.
• Bible translation or paraphrase...what's the difference? I am not a theologian, so if you want an "official" answer on this, you might want to find someone who is. But, here's what I think I know: the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. A Bible translation attempts to stay as true to the original meanings of words in these languages as possible when "converting" them into English (or any other language, for that matter). This is tricky because, for instance, we have one English word for love, which is (wait for it) "love." But in Greek, there are several words which can be translated as "love," and each one has a different definition. Knowing expanded meanings based on the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek can help us better understand what the Bible is saying, so I'll sometimes throw those details into this blog. A Bible paraphrase, on the other hand, is not so much focused on getting the "right" translation of the original languages as it is with conveying the basic meaning of the original material. Paraphrases such as The Message can help you understand what the Bible is saying by communicating its truth in a conversational, often story-like way. Overall, it's just important to know if the version of the Bible you're using is a translation or a paraphrase and to read it accordingly.
• What is all this talk about sin? Coming soon!