Yes, on the bottom of this post you see a stack of Bibles.
One can probably visit any house in the ‘Bible Belt’ and find at least five Bibles. At one point in my life, I felt weird about this. Not entirely sure why, but maybe I felt that having more than one meant that I wasn’t fully focused on the Living Word, but only a physical representation of it.
Maybe it’s because of my creative nature, but I am a underliner, scribbler, writer in a Bible. There’s color all over the place.
I think I developed this idea that covered pages of my Bible meant my study of God’s Word was rich and deep. Coloring words and underline verses doesn’t mean depth and meditation and memorization.
I confess it was a pride thing. I wanted people to see, even if they never said anything about it, that I actively read and studied the Bible. I also thought it was help those who opened up to me trust my heart, or my words of advice. But when I looked at my prayer life, and the degree of my soul on a daily basis, I only saw a lack of knowing the Truth. A lack of living the Truth.
But alas, my eyes have recently been opened. Grace.
The Living Word. His words to us, to me. No matter if the Bible has fresh clean pages with no marking on them, or if they’re covered with pen. My relationship with the Godhead, the Trinity, and His words to me are personal and intimate to me.
Pride tells me I need to defend my study and knowledge of the Bible.
Proverbs 22:4 says pride begets spiritual death, but humility brings life because God “gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5), who “tremble at his word” (Isaiah 66:2), and he revives them (Isaiah 57:15).
“The main purpose of Bible study is knowing God personally and deeply in a life-transforming way (Philippians 3:10) so that the character of Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19) as God conforms us to the image of (Romans 8:29) and transforms us into the likeness of (2 Corinthians 3:18) his Son, Jesus.” John Hughes
I feel prompted to slip on a new perspective. To read the Bible more and more every year. Mark up one, studying and meditating, and when it gets filled up, get another and mark that one up. It’s the beauty of seeking God’s Truth.
I don’t want it to be a box checked, I want to see Jesus in the words.
I don’t want to trudge with my Bible down a path toward a false feeling of earning or justification. I want to sit down in the shade of the cross and plead for the blood-bought pleasures and promises.
“The greatest effects are by no means those which make the most noise, and are most easily observed. The greatest effects are often silent, quiet, and hard to detect at the time they are being produced.
Think of the influence of the moon upon the earth, and of the air upon the human lungs. Remember how silently the dew falls, and how imperceptibly the grass grows. There may be far more doing than you think in your soul by your Bible-reading.” J.C. Ryle
