Bibles come in all shapes and sizes- paperbacks, leather bound, thin paper, thick paper, pages with big margins, pages with study notes and devotions. And then of course there are many many different translations- King James, New King James, New International, New Revised Standard, New Living, and on and on.
Some Bibles have a large font and are thick. Others have a small font but can slip into a pocket.
Some Bibles print the words of Jesus in red text.
Some Bibles have a family tree and spaces to record weddings, baptisms, births and other important dates.
But here’s the Most Important Feature of a Bible…
Some Bibles look “pretty”- they sit on a table for decoration. They have a fancy ribbon bookmark. But others are beaten up, faded, and dogeared. They’re stuffed inside a duffel bag or left on a sofa or dining room table. Their binding is stressed by pages stuffed with scrap papers serving as bookmarks. Every page is full of handwritten notes, underlined words, and highlighted passages.
Marvin Guice, our pastor from 1940-1958 once said: “It’s not how often you’ve gone through your Bible. It’s how often your Bible has gone through you!” But your Bible can’t go through you until you open it and use it like a well worn tool to seek out and discover God’s truth.
The most important feature of a Bible is that it’s well-read and well-used. God has something to say to us, but we’ll never hear it unless we spend a lot of quality time in our Bibles- studying, reading, re-reading, marking, underlining, highlighting. The Holy Spirit does amazing things for us when we have Bibles bearing the marks of someone who has struggled to understand and apply their Bible to their life.
What kind of Bible do you have???
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