[1] What is Your Bible?
In your home you have a small object that is:
more precious than gold;
more powerful than dynamite;
filled with more blessing than a million good luck charms or medals.
It's your Bible. It has:
changed lives,
altered the destiny of nations,
guided people in all ages,
given healing to those in pain and strength to those who felt weak.
Its pages of power give us:
God's assurance that He will fulfill His promises if we trust in Him and that our highest hopes can be realized.
[2] The light for our way
The Bible is sometimes compared to a lamp to light our way. It reminds me of an heirloom, a lovely, old oil lamp.
The owners told me that they had found it tucked away in an attic, shoved aside with useless things that were to be thrown away. They cleaned the old lamp, had it rewired for electricity, and placed it in a prominent spot in their living room, where visitors always exclaim over it.
It is a very old lamp, but it gives very up-to-date light.
Similarly, some people think of the Bible as an old-fashioned light like a smelly, flickering kerosene lantern, suitable only to be hidden in the attic, too dim for this age of neon lights and laser beams.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Like the light from the sun, moon, and stars, the light from the Bible is ageless.
[3] Getting out of the Bible into everything else
There's an old story about a man who wanted to learn to read and write. Finally a visiting missionary offered to teach him, using the Bible as a textbook. The man learned rapidly and joyfully spelled out the words.
The missionary had to continue on his journey, but some time later he returned to the community and looked up his former student. "How's the reading going?" he asked. "Still on the gospel of John?"
"Ah, no," was the reply. "I'm out of that long ago. Now I read the sports pages of the newspaper." Isn't that typical of our generation?
We got out of the Bible long ago and into everything else.
[4] "What shall I read?"
When Sir Walter Scott was near death, he asked one of his servants to read to him.
"What shall I read?" the man asked.
"Need you ask?" Scott responded.
"There is only one book."
His library was stacked from floor to ceiling with thousands of volumes, yet he thought of only one book, the Bible.
Scott added, speaking to the servant, "Be a good man, be strong in faith. Nothing else will give you comfort when you lie here."
[5] "God's stories always come out all right"
A Bible school teacher was dramatically telling the story of Abraham and Isaac and making it exciting. As she described the wood being stacked on the altar and Isaac being placed atop the pyre, one little girl nervously began to cry. "I don't want to hear any more," she said.
But the girl next to her nudged her and said, "Don't get worried. This is one of God's stories, and God's stories always come out all right."
[6] The Word of God
An old lady at her fruit stand on a city street was reading a book as she waited for customers. One man came along and asked, "What book are you reading?"
"The Word of God," she answered.
"The Word of God? Who told you that?"
"God told me himself," the woman answered.
"How did he do that?" the man persisted.
Confused, she changed the subject. "Mister, can you prove to me that there is a sun shining?" she asked.
"Prove it," he exclaimed. "It proves itself. It warms me, and I see its light."
The woman smiled. "Just so, you are right. God tells me this book is His Word. I read it; it warms me and gives me light."
[7] Man doesn't live by power alone
If man could live by power alone, the hydrogen bomb would save the world. If we could live by bread alone, the productive wheat fields of the Western Hemisphere would be our salvation. If money were all, the mounds of gold stacked at Saint Peter's church in the Vatican would be sufficient.
But humanity does not live by power, bread, or gold alone.
Our resources for living must meet spiritual needs, light in darkness, hope in despair, direction in times of confusion, faith in days of doubt. Such needs are met only by the Bible.
[8] Archaeology and the Bible
Archaeology has in recent years verified many facts in the Bible, but other proofs pop up in unexpected ways. During World War I the British General Edmund Allenby conducted an expedition through Palestine and made one very successful maneuver simply because a staff sergeant was a Bible reader.
The sargeant discovered that in ancient times the Israelites had captured one town by a certain roundabout approach. He reported this to the general, and the British army repeated the Israelite strategy with great success.
