The following was first posted a week ago
My first contact with the Bible as such was at my First Holy Communion while in the second grade in Cheektowaga, New York where I was born nearby at Sisters Hospital and where we lived until my parents separated and my mother and I returned to Pittsburgh where both my parents were born......East Pittsburgh and Braddock to be specific. It was the custom to be given a Bible by the adult standing up for you at your first communion. I was hoping for a big Bible and disappointed in the tiny pocket size given to me.
My second experience was three or four years after that in the same Catholic elementary school....and not with the Bible itself. Students did not report directly to their class in the morning but rather were encouraged to go to Mass in the new modern church. Catholics were not to eat anything in the previous three hours before communion so we were given a treat of a glazed donut as we got to our classrooms....which I really enjoyed.....and looked forward to. Half the students had to sit in silence while the rest of us dunked our glazed donuts in tea! It may be my fondest memory of my early schooling! I did not own a regular Bible other than the pocket one given to me at my first communion in which the writing was too small to read. I did have a Daily Missal which I treasured. The words themselves did not mean anything to me. The thin....delicate pages....the red Latin phrases....and the bold print on the important words.....that was what mesmerized me.
My third experience with the Bible was in Catholic high school in Pittsburgh. It was in two paperback volumes.....the Old Testament and the New Testament.....and it was more of a textbook than the Bible as we know it. I admit that I didn't like reading it. I don't know that these experiences would necessarily be duplicated today.....but that is what I experienced.
My fourth experience with the Bible was probably in the winter of 1973. I commuted to Pitt after getting out of the army and would usually stop in the National Record Mart on Fourth Avenue in Oakland to browse while I waited for the Port Authority Lincoln Coach to come. One day I bought a paperback titled.....Reach Out....The Living New Testament Illustrated. The letters for Reach Out on the cover are superimposed over pictures of smiling young people, and inside there are a dozen or so similar pictures scattered here and there. The effect of that book....small though it was in retrospect....stays with me today. It was the first time I actually read the words of the Bible to see what they had to say. I was moved.....tremendously....only for the moment....but enough to stay with me to today. That book sold for $2.95....and is next to me as I type.
I was....Born Again....sometime in 1982. My wife had given me a hardback New King James Version of the Bible for Christmas that year. I also have that Bible next to me. There's not a word highlighted....underlined.....or any notes or comments anywhere in the Bible.
A year later....1983....I went out and bought a leather bound New King James Version called The Open Bible....that also is next to me. My wife was at a Christmas dinner gathering with the neighborhood ladies this evening and told me that they all talked about how their husbands never throw things out. This Bible has assorted color highlighting all through it......underlining everywhere....and tiny notations that I wrote from the first page to the last.
I have written a number of times in these posts over the years on how the Bible.....the Word of God.....is more valuable than anything else on this planet! None of those words were exaggeration. In fact I'm ashamed that I couldn't write more accurately how wonderful and powerful this great gift given to us is.
One great American malady today is that.....because of various reason that I won't go into in this post.....we seem to think that our primary knowledge of God comes from simply meditating on Him......in our free time. I was talking to a dealer in precious metals the other day....and played the dummy....because I am a dummy in the specifics of precious metals. That should be how it works friends....if someone has done the homework.....then it should behoove us to at least listen to them....but that's not what we do in America on religion. Nothing has to be learned here......history is superfluous......we just think about God......and come to our conclusions.
Moses gave the Hebrews the Law that God had given him to give to them. First century Christians had special gifts available to them to guide them while the entire Word of God was being compiled. This is where we go folks....to the Bible! Let others laugh and ignore the greatest gift given to man by God. My hope....and my prayer.....is that you might read this post......dig out that Bible from wherever it is.....and accept this gift. If you do this then you will be the one marking up your Bibles and keeping some extra Bibles on hand to give away at the slightest interest shown by friends or relatives.
My first contact with the Bible as such was at my First Holy Communion while in the second grade in Cheektowaga, New York where I was born nearby at Sisters Hospital and where we lived until my parents separated and my mother and I returned to Pittsburgh where both my parents were born......East Pittsburgh and Braddock to be specific. It was the custom to be given a Bible by the adult standing up for you at your first communion. I was hoping for a big Bible and disappointed in the tiny pocket size given to me.
My second experience was three or four years after that in the same Catholic elementary school....and not with the Bible itself. Students did not report directly to their class in the morning but rather were encouraged to go to Mass in the new modern church. Catholics were not to eat anything in the previous three hours before communion so we were given a treat of a glazed donut as we got to our classrooms....which I really enjoyed.....and looked forward to. Half the students had to sit in silence while the rest of us dunked our glazed donuts in tea! It may be my fondest memory of my early schooling! I did not own a regular Bible other than the pocket one given to me at my first communion in which the writing was too small to read. I did have a Daily Missal which I treasured. The words themselves did not mean anything to me. The thin....delicate pages....the red Latin phrases....and the bold print on the important words.....that was what mesmerized me.
My third experience with the Bible was in Catholic high school in Pittsburgh. It was in two paperback volumes.....the Old Testament and the New Testament.....and it was more of a textbook than the Bible as we know it. I admit that I didn't like reading it. I don't know that these experiences would necessarily be duplicated today.....but that is what I experienced.
My fourth experience with the Bible was probably in the winter of 1973. I commuted to Pitt after getting out of the army and would usually stop in the National Record Mart on Fourth Avenue in Oakland to browse while I waited for the Port Authority Lincoln Coach to come. One day I bought a paperback titled.....Reach Out....The Living New Testament Illustrated. The letters for Reach Out on the cover are superimposed over pictures of smiling young people, and inside there are a dozen or so similar pictures scattered here and there. The effect of that book....small though it was in retrospect....stays with me today. It was the first time I actually read the words of the Bible to see what they had to say. I was moved.....tremendously....only for the moment....but enough to stay with me to today. That book sold for $2.95....and is next to me as I type.
I was....Born Again....sometime in 1982. My wife had given me a hardback New King James Version of the Bible for Christmas that year. I also have that Bible next to me. There's not a word highlighted....underlined.....or any notes or comments anywhere in the Bible.
A year later....1983....I went out and bought a leather bound New King James Version called The Open Bible....that also is next to me. My wife was at a Christmas dinner gathering with the neighborhood ladies this evening and told me that they all talked about how their husbands never throw things out. This Bible has assorted color highlighting all through it......underlining everywhere....and tiny notations that I wrote from the first page to the last.
I have written a number of times in these posts over the years on how the Bible.....the Word of God.....is more valuable than anything else on this planet! None of those words were exaggeration. In fact I'm ashamed that I couldn't write more accurately how wonderful and powerful this great gift given to us is.
One great American malady today is that.....because of various reason that I won't go into in this post.....we seem to think that our primary knowledge of God comes from simply meditating on Him......in our free time. I was talking to a dealer in precious metals the other day....and played the dummy....because I am a dummy in the specifics of precious metals. That should be how it works friends....if someone has done the homework.....then it should behoove us to at least listen to them....but that's not what we do in America on religion. Nothing has to be learned here......history is superfluous......we just think about God......and come to our conclusions.
Moses gave the Hebrews the Law that God had given him to give to them. First century Christians had special gifts available to them to guide them while the entire Word of God was being compiled. This is where we go folks....to the Bible! Let others laugh and ignore the greatest gift given to man by God. My hope....and my prayer.....is that you might read this post......dig out that Bible from wherever it is.....and accept this gift. If you do this then you will be the one marking up your Bibles and keeping some extra Bibles on hand to give away at the slightest interest shown by friends or relatives.
