I’m a bible geek. I know I’ve mentioned it before in May 2004 and August 2003. Anyway, I was doing some late summer cleaning, throwing stuff out, moving stuff and i moved my collection of bibles to a place outside their former closet space. That’s personal history, right there. Every one of those books played an intimate role in my life from the time I was 15 until my 30s. And then I walked away. Okay, it was more than that. I have a BA in Biblical studies and have several bookshelves and filing cabinets full of books and reference materials that speak to the compulsive book-buying thing that I had going when I walked away.

So here it is 15-years later and what used to fill my bookshelves I can now put on my Palm PDA, and tools I could never imagine are available on my computer(s). With the latest terrorist crap coming down at the end of last week I decided that I needed to find out more about the Islamic faith and pulled out my old out of date copy of Eerdmann’s Guide to World Religions. I used to love Eerdmans guides and looked for whether they offered any of their guides either on computer or online. No such luck but I did find that my old Thompson chain-reference is available on Windows or Palm PDA platforms. Very cool. Of course, I’m probably the only one who feels that way. It’s just that I can appreciate, after having been away for so long, what it means to have all of these resources available for way less than it would cost to buy the actual books or reference works, and then have them be just a simple mouse click away. It’s mind-boggling. Now I just need to get through the rest of Matthew before J. Vernon McGee laps me on the radio/podcast. JBB