Do you own a Bible? If so, you own the greatest book in all the world. It is a priceless possession for which people have suffered, bled, and died through the ages. It is the inspired, eternal, authoritative, powerful word of God. In the light of its importance we ought to do four things with the Bible.
1. We ought to believe it. If you believe what you like in the Bible and reject what you don’t like in the Bible, it isn’t the Bible you believe, it’s yourself. I tend to be like Bob Harrington, former chaplain of Bourbon Street, who said, “I not only believe every word in the Bible, I even believe the leather is genuine.” If we don’t believe the Bible, we will never take it seriously.
2. We need to study the Bible. D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, said, “I have never found a useful Christian who wasn’t a student of the Bible.” As Francis Bacon wrote, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested ...” The Bible is to be chewed and digested through daily study.
3. We are to live the Bible. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “The world is equally amazed at two things—anyone who denies the Bible and anyone who lives the Bible.” There are a lot of people who own it, read it, believe it, but don’t live it. The Lord expects us to “do” the word of God.
4. We are to share the Bible. Since it contains the eternal word of God and its authority, promises, and power are eternal, it is the most vital and important book in all the world. We should be far more anxious to share its message than any other book that we have in our possession. As quickly and as easily as you recommend some other best-selling book, you ought to recommend the all-time best seller—the Bible.
If you have a Bible, you have one of the greatest treasures of all times. Don’t neglect it.