CREEDE HINSHAW: Finding the Bible on I-75

Driving up and down I-75 between Macon and Atlanta is no fun these days. The traffic is usually horrendous and lengthy delays are predictable. It ranks almost as a minor miracle when one makes this trip without inconvenience.

Perhaps the travail of this route is what made me so happy when I spied a particular18-wheeler going my direction. It wasn’t the shiniest or newest truck; it had seen better days. As I passed it I glanced to my right and looked to see the name of the trucking company. The door had these words:

In Christ Trucking

Ephesians 2:10

You may think that all pastors know their Bible by heart, and maybe most of them do. But I had to look this verse up. I know that it is illegal to text while driving but as far as I know it’s not illegal to thumb through a Bible, and I always carry a New Testament with me. (Note: it may not be illegal, but it’s pretty dumb to leaf through a Bible or any book while cruising down the highway.)

Here’s Ephesians 2:10 (NIV): For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I don’t know what the truck was hauling or where it was headed, but right there on I-75 I received a very fine message. Thanks to this trucker and his handiwork! Those words carried me through the rest of the day.

VETOING THE BIBLE IN TENNESSEE: Earlier this season, the Tennessee Legislature passed a bill that would have made the Bible the official state book of Tennessee for “economic and historic reasons” (whatever that means). Gov. Bill Haslam, R, vetoed the bill, saying it would “trivialize” this book.

The Legislature vowed to override the veto, but this week fell seven votes short of success. A former Baptist pastor who is now a legislator justified the bill by saying, “It’s simply symbolic.”

Speaking against the bill was a current Baptist pastor, also a legislator, who said, “We can put (the Bible) all over the billboards of any corner in Tennessee, but if it is not in your heart we are doing nothing but mocking God.”

No mention was made of whether Tennessee’s official state book would have included the Apocrypha, whether it would be the King James or a modern version, etc. The Associated Press reports that the Legislature did have time to add the .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle as one of the state’s official symbols.

METHODISTS ANNOUNCE CHANGES: In the Methodist system of moving pastors, we are currently in the season where our bishop announces the projected appointments for the following year. And so in some Methodist congregations across South Georgia (and in the readership of The Albany Herald), Methodist pastors and church members are in a couple of months of transition.

Some pastors are retiring; others are receiving new appointments. These next two months (pastors move in June) become a time for appreciation of the soon-departing pastor and a time of preparation for the person to come. It’s a unique system.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister from Macon, at [email protected].