Your Bible is the most important tool that God has delivered to you. Preserved from every attack and force against it, the Bible, has survived generation after generation and has been delivered to us. It is amazing to think of what God has done. Where would we be without it? It is the road map for our life, our guide to heaven, our instruction on how to live, our encouragement, our filter from evil, our description of God and His desires for us, it’s our sword against hell, and our rock upon which we stand. It is God’s Words, preserved for us so that we might persevere. This Bible is the book by which we will be judged, and so we are without excuse. We need to know it and live it. We need to memorize it and memorialize it.
It isn’t a choose your own adventure book, it isn’t fiction, it isn’t a fairy tale nor is it a fable. This book contains the very Words of an almighty God. The Bible isn’t a cut and paste your own religion, your own way of worship or your own path to heaven. The pages are not meant to be ripped, torn, removed, or rearranged but to be read, cherished, and obeyed.
This book gets us to heaven, saves us from hell, builds and restores marriages, makes better men and women, teaches children, creates homes, makes better bosses, employers, and employees, church members, and Christians, offers healing for the body, soul and mind, mends fences and relationships. This book builds a church, one body at a time. This book divides yet it brings together; it unites, and it separates, it builds walls, and yet tears other walls down.
It is like no other book. It is not written like any other, nor does it claim to be. This book claims that it is the Words of God, preserved for all generations and people. It claims perfection, and it is. It claims it is a weapon, and it is. It claims to be profitable, and it is. It claims to be right, and it is. It is written by the hands of men with a pen provided by God. It is preserved by both man and God working together against the foes that are constant and never ending.
When evil could not burn, banish, or break up this book they added to it, changed it, removed words from it and rewrote it. All of the tools of hell could not destroy it. From its early beginnings to the printing press, from the “church” that locked up the words, to the rewritten words of today, the Bible stands. From the skeptics of the past to the “scholars” of today God’s Words are preserved and available.
The only thing this great book lacks is you. The Bible needs you to hold it, open it and read it. It needs you to love it. It needs you learn it, to memorize it. It needs you to live it. It needs you to defend it. It needs you to spread its message. And…you need this book too.
Do not be ashamed of your Bible, it does not contain your feelings, your whims or your ways; the words within are God’s. His words are true; they will not return void and they shall never pass away. Know the truth and let it set you free from your sin. Know the truth and live it with conviction. Know the truth and share it boldly with others.
Study this book with a desire to find something. Bring a notebook or a journal to every encounter you have with your Bible. You will find something you will want to write down and remember. Study to align with God’s Word, not to malign it. Conform your life and your thoughts to the Bible, don’t wrestle the Scripture to your life or your way of thinking. Don’t force the Bible to fit the mold the world provides. God is right every time, His Word is right every time and everyone else that disagrees is wrong. Your Bible matters. It mattered to God. It needs to matter to you.
Remember Psalm 12:6-7.
“The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
God preserved His words for you. For now. For this day. Go study it.
-PP
