God Squad: Psalm 23 … the next two words
Marc Gellman
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Last week in response to M from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who is a member of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s Bible Study Group, I began a study guide for the 23rd Psalm. I may offer study guides for other Psalms and biblical texts but as I suspected, I only got through the first two words, “The Lord is my shepherd” before the column ran out of space! Today, I am hopeful to get through at least the next two words, “I shall not want.”
The King James Version translates these two Hebrew words (lo echsar) as, “I shall not want” but the Hebrew for wanting is hafatz not echsar, which would mean that the proper translation should be, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack.”
May 6-8
Rummage sales: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 6-7 and 8 a.m. to noon May 8 at Harmony United Methodist Church, 2600 W. Pearl City Road, Freeport. Masks and social distancing will be required. The sale will be held outside of the church. Food will be served. For information: 815-233-0057; harmonyumcfreeport@gmail.com.
May 7
Friendship Day program: 9 a.m. at Grace Episcipal Church, 10 S. Cherry Ave., Freeport. Church Women United will gather to celebrate May’s Friendship Day program. A presentation on friendship and the Earth will be given.
May 9
Dakota United Methodist Church worship service: 9:30 a.m. at 120 S. Church St. The service will continue the series “Dare To Dance Again.” The message will be titled “Who Can Withhold: Break Forth.” Worship will be held in person and via Facebook Live. The Rev. Leslie Stanford can be reached at 815-541-6646.
Staff report
Central Illinois Community Blood Center
Central Illinois Community Blood Center is hosting two blood drives in the area. The first is in Lincoln from noon to 5 p.m.Wednesday, May 5 at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1140 N. State St., inside the Fellowship Hall. To donate, contact the Blood Center at (800) 747-5401 or visit www.bloodcenter.org and use code 61219 to locate the drive. Potential donors must be at least 17 years of age (16 with parental permission form available through www.bloodcenter.org) and weigh more than 110 pounds. A photo I.D. is required to donate. Donors who last gave blood on or before 3/10/21 are eligible to give at this drive.
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Knoxville is hosting a community plant sale today from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pastor Josh Feala says this is way the church is continuing their community outreach after some typical events were cancelled last year due to the pandemic.
“After listening to some parishioners and the joys they found in gardening, I suggested we do a plant sale. One of the parishioners jumped on the idea and started this up, I helped him along the way, and we formed a team of individuals to make it happen. We like being part of the Knoxville community, and we were really missing that during the pandemic. This was a great way to do that.”