Things In My House Thursday # 13
>> Thursday, October 23, 2008
TIMHT 13
THIRTEEN BIBLES
I believe I've mentioned that I like books, and Bibles rate a category all their own.
This collection includes old Bibles, gift Bibles, study Bibles, water-resistant Bibles, King James, NASB, NIV, NKJV, The Message, etc. and etc.
This was my Bible from when I was twelve years old, and it was a hand-me-down then from Aunt Patsy:
There is a list, in the back, in particularly wonderful handwriting, of my favorite Christmas songs. In the early seventies, I declared "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" to be my # 1.
Moving on a couple of decades, this satiny, lacy, pearly, ribbon-y Bible cover and Bible was a Mother's Day gift from Jessica. Back when she was still an only child. Please check out the inscription.
(In case you can't make out the fine print, it says: To MOMMY, From BOO - BOO).
Okay, fast forward. This is my main, go-to Bible. I've had this one about six years. It's the King James Study Bible , and has the best best best notes and outlines and concordance and extra information for me. And I make no apologies for my "cheater tabs", because I don't care how familiar I am with the Bible, I still pause if looking for Ezra or Joel, or just 'separating' Philemon from Hebrews.....I'll get there, sure, but these make it easier.
I also really like study Bibles with even more pictures, illustrations, maps, and history:
But here's where I started to take my Bible reading seriously:
And failed.
I didn't make it past February.
Then I read Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney.
This book should be required reading for Christians . . .it begins with Bible intake, but covers disciplines from prayer to fasting to evangelism and more.
Three practical suggestions for Bible reading success are 1) discipline yourself to find the time, 2) find a Bible reading plan, and 3) find at least one word, phrase, or verse to meditate on each time you read.
Success!
This beautiful duct-taped Bible is the NKJV Daily Bible with devotional insights from Charles Stanley. I'd picked it up at Wal-mart for $5. This is the first Bible I read through, cover-to-cover, and I was finished in August. Each day had a selection from the Old and New Testament, as well as Psalms and Proverbs.
For those of you who don't understand the duct tape on the outside and the packing-taped pages on the inside, go here. (That post will also explain the little, orange, plastic, water-resistant Bible at the top of a stack).Currently, I'm reading the One Year Chronological Bible. I'm liking it. I also like (thought I'd lost it once and almost couldn't keep reading...) my book marker: leather string with beads and a cross chiseled out of a coconut. The best part: it was a no-occasion gift from a cousin-in-law, from the Dominican Republic, and she made it herself.
Reading all of the Bible is challenging; it is so easy to get bogged down in the Old Testament. The first time I read the instructions for the tabernacle in Exodus, the detail fascinated me. The next time I read them, all I could think about was math. (Math and I aren't friends).
The first time I read Job, I was completely confused: I couldn't keep straight who was talking to whom and whether they were friend or foe..... The next time, I actually saw the poetry and wisdom of the book.
However, as you know - - the greater the challenge, the greater the reward!
I know how blessed I am to have the freedom and the means to own these Bibles, as well as the simple ability to read them. I'm trying to hang on to the good sense not to squander any of that!
" in the book The Wonder of the Word of God, evangelist Robert Sumner tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille. But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters. One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, "I can read the Bible using my tongue." At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times."
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