Old Bible – New life

I routinely encourage people to read the Bible. I always recommend a version such as the International Version, The New King James Version, or my favorite, the Living Bible. I also recommend that they start by reading the book of Romans, and then go back to the beginning of the New Testament and chronologically read all of the books in the New Testament. When finished, read the Old Testament and when through with that difficult and time-consuming assignment, continue reading right on through the New Testament again.

Anyone who follows that suggestion will need to invest a little time each day for a year or so, but at the end of the project will have a far better understanding of God’s word than most anyone that they know, and most importantly will have read God’s holy Scriptures and be better prepared to accomplish great things for the Lord.

I came to know the Lord through reading the Bible. I was fortunate that the very first Bible that I read was the personal Bible of a nurse at the hospital that I was in. I say that because her Bible was riddled with scribbled notes and underlined passages which emphasized important verses and thoughts and they were very meaningful to me a first time reader.

At the time I read the Bible I had lost all hope. My life was in shambles in every imaginable way. I was all alone and suffering tremendous pain from my injuries, and had nowhere to turn. I was very close to committing suicide. I read the Bible out of boredom and a desire to disprove it. I was pleasantly surprised in that Jesus Christ was not as I envisioned Him and I could feel His love pulling me towards Him which gave me a glimmer of hope.

I suppose I can summarize my feelings by saying that as I read more about Him it made me feel less lonely and I felt that God actually cared about me and was powerful enough to change me. The passage in that regard that the nurse had underlined stated that “I could do all things through Christ who strengthened me”. This was an epiphany to me. I wanted to change my life, but had no idea where to begin. I already knew that less than 5% of anyone who ever puts a needle in their arm ever quit. In effect it was a death sentence.

Change my life I did though and I give Christ all of the glory. I have used that verse many times since and it always comes to my mind when I struggle. I have another set of verses below that were underlined in that first read and that I have used throughout my life, and usually when I am asked to sign someone’s Bible for them, I include the reference to it.

I realize how hard it might be to give or loan someone your personal Bible that you have marked up through years of note taking while attending Sunday school and church, but you know it just might be a worthwhile thing to do. I have done it several times and I hope that my notes will help whoever reads it for the rest of their life and the results will endure right on into eternity.

Eph. 2:1-10
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressionsit is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faithand this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.