Most of us have a bible around the house somewhere, maybe even one of those real big ones that usually gets shoved around the coffee table, you know, the big Living Bible with a big picture of Jesus on it, that weighs about thirty pounds. You could probably use it to take out a burglar. One whack with that bible and they’d be done. So I guess I can say we kept that one around for security purposes, because I don’t remember ever reading it growing up.
M
y whole life growing up I don’t believe I opened a bible once, until I was about 27 years old, after I got married. I’m sure I probably shoved our Living Bible around on the coffee table a few times, to make room for a drink or a plate of food. (Sounds terrible I know, but that’s the way it was.) But THANK YOU JESUS! for the awesome church you left us with, because even though I wasn’t physically reading the bible growing up, the church was reading it to me every Sunday. Even the parts of mass that weren’t read directly out of the bible, were and are soaked in scripture. There is no other church in the world that’s services have as much scripture as the Catholic Church. But wait! Is that enough? To go to church and wait for someone to read the bible to us, and teach us what we need to know about Jesus? That’s a good start, but I don’t believe its enough.
One thing I admire about our separated brothers and sisters, is their love for the bible. The bible comes from our church, no one can deny that, but (a lot of us, not all) don’t appreciate what we have, I think, its because we have so much. We’re spoiled, and we don’t even realize it. You see, no other church has the history that we have, no other church has a direct connection and beginning with Jesus like our church. All other churches were started by men that can be named, but no other church can say that their church was literally started by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Where am I going with all this? I guess I’m trying to point out the fact that we have so much gold (not literally) in our church that we loose track of that huge glistening diamond. That diamond being the bible.
My experience, whether Catholic or Protestant, people that read the bible to better themselves, to become better Christians, and to listen to God speak to them, are nicer people, with more patience, more love, more forgiveness, more wisdom, and on and on. Sometimes we have to look over the fence, to see what the neighbor’s doing, and remember that truth is truth, and that if we see that our Christian neighbors have all these wonderful qualities because the bible is a big part of their lives, we should do the same. Can you imagine if all of us started reading the bible to truly forage a strong relationship with Christ, to share with our neighbor. We would take the world by storm. “We wouldn’t be going out taking no prisoners, we would be going out bringing in new believers.”
God Bless
Robert
