Most everyone has at one time or another been blessed by the romantic poem that begins with the line, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote volumes of poetry to the man she was in love with, Robert Browning, before they were married. Elizabeth’s parents disapproved of her marriage to Browning, so much so that they disowned her. Week after week, she wrote love letters to them, begging for reconciliation, but they never replied. After 10 years of this, Elizabeth received a huge box in the mail. It was all of her letters to her parents, unopened. Those letters are among the classics of English literature. But her parents were never moved by them toward reconciliation, for they never read one of them! (The Alliance Witness, 1/14/76).
How many of us let God’s beautiful letters go unread, year after year—letters that could bless us, build us, better us. Yet they often remain unopened, unread!
Martin Luther exclaimed, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” Yes, all of the above and more, but It must be opened!”
Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott said of the Book of books: “Within this volume lies the mystery of mysteries; happiest they of human race to whom their God has given grace to read, to fear, to hope, to pray, to lift the latch, to find the way; and better had they ne’er been born who read to doubt, or read to scorn.”
Yes, it is God’s book of grace, but it must be opened!
English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: “For more than a thousand years, the Bible, collectively taken, has gone hand in hand with civilization, science, law—in short, with the moral and intellectual civilization of the species, always supporting and often leading the way.”
But, it must be opened!
It was said of John Wanamaker, the famous department-store pioneer, that when he was 11 he purchased a Bible for $2.75, paying for it in small installments. Later he said of the purchase, “I have made large purchases of property in my time, involving millions of dollars, but it was as a boy that I made my greatest purchase. That little red Book was the foundation on which my life has been built and has made possible all that has counted in my life. I know now that it was the greatest investment and the most important I ever made.”
The greatest, yes! But, it had to be opened!
French novelist Victor Hugo reportedly said that “England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.”
For sure, but it had to be opened!
Do you remember a time when your heart burned when you opened the Bible and read it? It can, again, but only happen when in faith and spiritual thirst you once again will open the Bible!
Someone may say, “I open it when I can, but I just do not have enough hours in the day to read it often or consistently.” Well, someone has calculated that it takes 70 hours and 40 minutes to read the Bible through at pulpit rate. About 10 minutes a day will get you through the Bible in a year. A few minutes a day will get you through this remarkable book that is just long enough to tell you all that God wants you to know, yet short enough to carry in your hands. This book is deep enough to confound scholars, yet simple enough to speak to the simplest. It is timeless though timely. It is without error but warns us of the pitfalls on life’s pathways. “It reveals to us the holiness of God, the mercy of Christ, the power of Calvary, the way to heaven, and the life that wins. It contains all the answers we need, even when we don’t always understand the questions.” (Robert Lightner, The Savior and the Scriptures)
But it can only transform us if we open the Bible!
“For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
YOU and GOD 