Grandmother’s Bible
by John Shafer
One day, a mother told her daughter that she would be spending time at her grandmother's house. The little girl told her mother how excited she was, because of how great grandmother's Bible was. “Why is it so great?” her mother asked. The little girl told her all the stories and people in her grandmother's Bible. “But they're in my Bible, too,” her mother said. “Really?” the little girl asked. “Well, grandmother's Bible is so worn out, while your Bible looks so new. I just thought there must be some differences between them.”
Yesterday was the start of a new year. Many people will be making resolutions for the new year to live their lives better. One of the main resolutions that people make is to read the entire Bible in a year. People will get charts that provide a certain number of chapters to read, and they will get off to a great start. But after a few weeks or a few months, many will get behind and soon give up entirely and wait until next year to begin again.
The one thing that people must remember is how important it is to read and study the Bible on a daily basis. When people stop reading and studying, they soon lose what knowledge they have. That is why we must read and study, so that our minds are constantly refreshed (Romans 12:1-2). In Hosea 4:6, Hosea writes, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge...”. The people in Hosea's day failed to study God's word, and because of it, they were easily led astray into worshiping false gods. And we see the same happening today. People aren't studying as much as they have in the past, and that has allowed false doctrines to enter and take hold, leading many congregations astray. This all could have been stopped by picking up the Bible and studying the truth found within.
Christians were once known for knowing the Bible, but that isn't the case today.
It was said that if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed, a person could go to the churches of Christ and retrieve a complete copy of the Bible, word for word, because that is how well the members knew it. But the same cannot be said today. People don't spend time with God's word like they used to. People don't memorize God's word like they used to. Without that knowledge, false doctrines and poor translations enter into the congregation, leading many astray.
Is your Bible a grandmother's Bible? Is it read and studied every day? Is it a Bible that is actually used? Or is your Bible just for show? Is your Bible practically brand new, hardly being read and studied? Don't be like the man who buried his talent and wasted what was given to him (Matthew 25:24-30). Read and study God's word every day, so you can be a faithful servant that is approved of by God at the Day of Judgment (Matthew 25:20-23; II Timothy 2:15).
