So about a year ago I was talking with a student who mentioned that their father made it a point to never place anything on top of his Bible. Nothing... Ever! The Bible was to always be held in the greatest respect. I thought this was honorable (and yet a little OCD) so I began to actively think about how I carry, place, and position my codex of God's Word. But after a while I began to notice a problem. Particularly because of my family.
1) When I held my kids' Bibles as they went to the restroom on Sunday morning I found that I now had three Bibles in hand. So which one got the top priority? Was it mine because it did not have any pictures in it? Or was it theirs because they outnumbered mine 2-to-1? But what about when Shelly asked me to hold her Bible? Which one took precedence? Mine because it was an older NASB or hers because it was a newer NIV?
2) I have several Bibles I keep in my office for personal study and stuff. I typically keep mine handy along with my Greek New Testament and even the Hebrew Old Testament. So while I'm stacking these things in my bookends I stop and think which one gets the better placement? Is it my English translation because I can readily read it? Or is it the Greek NT because it has the original text which is maybe more authoritative. Oh what about the Hebrew Bible because its older?
My Conclusion:
I hope you can tell that I am being sarcastic here. This was really not a dilemma for me. I just wanted to ask this father how he handled situations like this. I think while I have often times not given my copy (or copies) of God's Word their due respect, I think if God were commenting, He'd say something like this, "Robert, I don't care that your Bible has a pencil or a calendar on top of it... I'm more concerned that what's inside of it has penetrated your heart.
5 comments:
I wonder how the dad felt about underlining or highlighting certain passages.
That is probably the way his dad taught him to be ... you know kinda like the mom that would always cut off the end of the Thanksgiving turkey .... right ?
DWC
yeah, I'm guessin' the Lord probably is more concerned with the heart. At the same time - I can understand why a christian parent would pay attention to how they care for their Bible.
Speaking of the Hebrew text - do you know of a Hebrew word that means/represents "to wash" ?
Hey Aunt Denise... I won't bore you with all the details (of which I am a little fuzzy on myself) but here is what I found.
Well, from what I know the verb for "to sin" is "hatah" with the first "h" sounding more like "ch". When you change the stem form of that word you use the same word but it means "to cleanse", more specifically "to cleanse from sin." However I have not found anything talking about "washing."
Robert
Thank You -
There was a specific word mentioned in Bible study (study on Daniel)on Sunday and I missed it - didn't write it down - Just thought I would ask.
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