The Good Book

"the Word was with God, and the Word was God"

John 1:1

Do you have a Bible? 

How many? 

Just the one?

Or one upstairs, and one downstairs, and one in your car? 

Or do you just access the Word of God on a hand-held gadget? 

Those are so... well... handy. 

I'm not sure I'll ever be sold on the concept of reading on a hand-held gadget.  I think I love books too much for that.  Besides, I can't highlight and mark a page and write myself little notes in the margin of a hand-held gadget. 

So, as you can probably gather, I own a Bible.  Actually I own several.  A couple of different translations because back in the old days, you couldn't access multiple translations online.  I have a study Bible, and a devotional Bible.  I have a beautiful, travel Bible that was given to me as a gift. 

And I have a Bible in French, because I speak a little French {un petit peu}.  And a Hawaiian Bible.  Well, pidgin Hawaiian, really.   "God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world, dat He wen send Me, His one an ony Boy, so dat everybody dat trus Me no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva."  That's John 3:16.  I loved Hawaii so much when we visited there, and my pidgin Hawaiian Bible lets me be in God's Word, and thinking about Hawaii.   

But of the many Bibles I own, one is my favorite.  I don't just love the Bible, I particularly love that Bible.  It's the one I take to church and Bible Study.  It's the one I do most of my note-taking and highlighting in.  And if I can’t remember where a verse is, sometimes I can find it because I know it’s on a left page, at the top of the right column.  Or whatever.  Yup ~ visual learner; that's me. 

Last year, when we were traveling, I had some writing I had to do for the Bible Study I'm in.  Normally when I write, I have my Bible and my laptop and maybe some other books, like commentaries, for research purposes.   It's helpful sometimes to be able to learn something about the geography or cultural traditions about a passage. 

But because we were traveling, I didn’t want to take anything more than I had to, so I took my laptop and my Bible.  Nothing else.  Now, I knew I could access Scripture online, so really I didn’t need my Bible.  But I wanted it.  I wanted my Bible at my side as I wrote.

But the thing is, my Bible ~ my favorite Bible ~ is just a book.  God’s Spirit was going to inspire me and guide me as I wrote, no matter where I was and no matter what I had access to.  It’s not about the book ~ the cover; the pages; the font and the maps.  It's about an attitude toward God and His word. 

Do you know the story of the transfiguration of Jesus?  It’s in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Jesus took Peter, James and John up on a mountain to pray.  And as He prayed, His face was altered and His robe became white and glistening, and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory with Him and spoke with Him.  When Peter saw this, he said, as only Peter could, “This is great!  Let's make three tabernacles on this spot; one for each of you!”  {my paraphrase, obviously...}

But while Peter was speaking, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice said, “This is My beloved Son.” 

That was a warning.  Peter was equalizing Jesus, Moses and Elijah.   Bringing Jesus down to the level of His prophets, and wanting to honor them all equally.   The Israelites had a tendency to do the same thing with the ark of the covenant.  They would take it into battle with them as if it were a good luck charm, instead of making sure they were in God's will, and then trusting Him for the outcome. 

So by all means, love your Bible.  And definitely, read your Bible.  But when you do, hear Him.

~ "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" ~

John 1:14