It’s Just A Book

06/15/2006

For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper
than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost
thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.
Hebrews 4:12 (NLT)

“It’s just a book.” That’s what I heard…and my mind went blank. I had no witty comeback, no words of great truth, no plan to convince this person that it was so much more than that. I was drawing a total blank--absolutely nothing came to me. But since hearing that statement about the Holy Bible, God has not let it rest in my heart without the urge to someday address it.

As I started to leaf through the pages of my Bible this evening, and all the things of “importance” that I’ve stuck in here since I bought it, I found such a history of the days that have passed just since 2002. I wondered, do I do that with any other book I own? No, I don’t… I started to think about what other books travel with me, what other books do I write life’s moments in, what books do I write God’s lessons in, my struggles in, friend’s names in, prayers answered in…and the list could go on. There might be one…perhaps a journal, but what’s so different about God’s Book is that God has written to me in it. God speaks to me about so many things in His Book…He comforts me with His words, encourages me with His stories, helps me with His strength, heals me with His Hope, and the list could go on and on.

There’s history in the Good Book, God’s, and our own, and it can help us remember things we’ve learned and where our focus should be if we will use it. The Word of God starts in Genesis with, “In the beginning…” and ends in Revelation with “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.” (NLT) In between Genesis and Revelation, is the recipe for life. The difference with the Bible, and just any other book, is that it is a life-giving, energy-building, hope-filled message that can help us through each day because it’s more than:
Just a book…It’s a Book so filled with love and hope and encouragement that when I hold it tight to my chest it seems God’s promises fill me up inside as nothing else can even come close to.
Just a book…It’s a Book so precious that when this one wears out I will go and buy another one, and another one, and another one until my dying day, and when that day comes I hope and pray that someone will love me enough to sit by my bedside and read the words I can no longer read, and soothe me with the tender mercy found within the pages of God’s Holy Book.
Just a book…It’s a Book so wonderful that when I had no words to offer to my own dying son, I could read it to him and he was comforted by it as no medicine could do, and as I spent that time with him, he said, “Mom, I never read the Bible much, but I wish I had now.” And later, as his death drew nearer, he said, “Everything you’re reading to me answers every question I have in my head.”

Just a book…No way, no how, not at all. It’s a book full of miracles from days of old, and so full of God’s power and might that miracles still happen today just by opening up the pages and spending time with our Lord in His Book.