Pastor Joe McKeever shared about an experience his friend Ralph Bethea had while distributing Bibles in Russia after the fall of communism. Bethea visited an older gentleman who talked of abandoning communism and returning to his mother’s faith.
However, the man had no Bible. So Bethea gave him one and the man clutched it to his chest like a long-lost treasure. The Russian invited his neighbors over and read his new Bible to them. Among the listeners was a former KGB agent, whom Bethea helped come to Christ.
When Bethea ran out of Bibles, the former KGB agent said, “I know where there are 40,000 Bibles.”
The man located the Bibles, then helped Bethea purchase them at auction for $1,000. Russians anxiously gathered around as Bethea opened the first box, picked up a Bible with writing on it and handed it to the KGB man. The man looked at it and started weeping. This was his mother’s Bible, confiscated decades earlier.
The Bible is a treasure, taken for granted by many but deeply appreciated by others. At the conclusion of my first mission trip to Brazil, I prayerfully watched the invitation time unfold during our last worship service. While the band played and many people made decisions for Christ, a young Brazilian woman sitting nearby approached me. She asked if she could look at my English Bible. She sat down by me and held my Bible in her hands as gently and respectfully as she could. You would think she was holding fine China dishes.
She carefully looked over each page, taking her time. I thought she was going to read the entire Bible. Then she took out her phone and began taking pictures of different passages. She was totally oblivious to anything else happening around her as she focused on God’s Word.
I led her to take pictures of God’s plan of salvation. She asked questions in broken English, and I answered as best I could. Finally, I asked her if I could send her an English Bible, and she was thrilled! Several days after I returned home, I bought a Bible, mailed it to Brazil and nearly a month later, she emailed:
“The Bible arrived … Thank you for the gift!”
Do we see God’s Word as a gift? As a treasure? Do we long for God’s word more than thousands of coins of gold and silver (Psalm 119:72)?
How does this valuable gift describe itself?
God’s Word is our food for spiritual growth (Jeremiah 15:16, Matthew 4:4).
God’s Word is spiritual nourishment for newer believers (I Peter 2:2).
God’s Word is life (Deuteronomy 32:46-47, Psalm 119:50).
God’s Word gives comfort (Psalm 119:50).
God’s Word is our strength (Psalm 119:28).
God’s Word gives guidance (Psalm 119:105).
God’s Word protects us from temptation and sin (Psalm 119:11).
God’s Word gives hope (Psalm 130:5).
God’s Word revives our spiritual life (Psalm 19:7).
God’s Word is powerful (Hebrews 4:12), transforming lives.
Seminary professor Donald Whitney wrote, “No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture.” (Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 28).
If suddenly we found ourselves without access to the Bible, how many scriptures would we remember? When Captain Howard Rutledge was forced to eject from his jet over Vietnam, he was captured on November 28, 1965, and spent 2,634 days in captivity. He endured brutal treatment and solitary confinement, but the verses he read and the hymns he sung as a youth helped him get through each day.
Rutledge wrote, “I spent my first eighteen years in a Southern Baptist Sunday School, and I was amazed at how much I could recall. Regrettably I had not seen the importance of memorizing verses from the Bible. I never dreamed that thinking about one memorized verse could make the whole day bearable. How often I wished I had really worked to hide God’s Word in my heart.”
As the old saying goes, “A Bible falling apart usually belongs to a life that isn’t.” What does the Bible mean to you? How much time are you spending in the incredible gift of God’s Word?
Lord, help us to “long for your precepts!” (Psalm 119:40).
[David L. Chancey, the Writing Pastor, enjoys preaching, writing, and spending time with family. See more of his writings, including his books, at www.davidchancey.com. Contact him at davidlchancey@gmail.com.]
