Most of you who read this probably know me, but in this first post I want to introduce myself. My name is Burton Whited, and I am a retired educator and minister. In education my position was that of a high school math teacher, but I also taught physics several years and German several years. After 27 years in Nashville (TN) Public Schools I retired, went to Friendship Christian School in Lebanon (TN), taught 15 more years, and retired again. I was the minister of a Church of Christ in Davidson County (TN) for 15 years and of a Church of Christ in Sumner County (TN) for 17 years. For 8 years I served congregations in Monroe County (AK) and in Putnam, Cheatham, and Wilson counties in TN. In all, I was a church minister 40 years at the same time I taught in high school.
To prepare for these dual professions I studied a total of 7 years in these universities: Tennessee Tech, Peabody-Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee, David Lipscomb, Harding Graduate School of Religion, and Tennessee State. I earned the B.S. degree, M.S. degree, and a year of certificated study beyond the master's degree.
My wife and I have been married 52 years and had three children, one of whom is now deceased. My wife was an elementary music teacher, our deceased son was a physicist who worked for Bell South, our other son is a truck driver, and our daughter is a kindergarten teacher. We have three grandsons.
Now for the purpose of this blog. It is designed for people who love the Bible and want to increase their Bible knowledge and understanding. Each post will feature a relatively short essay on a text in a chapter of the Bible. The first will be in Matthew 1. Successive posts will proceed chapter by chapter, in order, through the New Testament. The final post will be, of course, in Revelation 22. In all, then, there will be 260 posts (essays), for that is the number of chapters in the New Testament. Each post (essay) will be equal in length with the rest and will require 5 minutes or less to read. Although each post will focus on the select text in a chapter, it will relate to the rest of the chapter. These posts will therefore take the reader on a tour through the entire New Testament. I propose to complete at least two per week, thus it will take about two-and-a-half years to make the entire tour.
In these essays I use the NASB (New American Standard Bible) unless otherwise noted. I began using it about 35 years ago and generally prefer its readings. I have completely read through most of the popular Bible versions, some more than once. Through the years I have carefully compared readings among them.
In these essays when I refer to Divinity, whether in a name, pronoun, or descriptive word, I will capitalize the word. In this way I intend to emphasize the sacredness of any word that denotes the members of the Holy Trinity.
These 260 essays are already written. In fact, I began composing them in 1988 and finished in 1998. It was my original purpose to publish them in book form, but have recently been persuaded to use the blog presentation. I hope a great number of interested people become regular readers of this material and find it of great benefit in expanding their Biblical knowledge and perfecting their understanding of its message. God bless you if you engage as a reader-student.
