Most of the news networks are carrying a story about the Carnival Cruise Line's ship Sunshine that was violently rocked back and forth in rough waters off the South Carolina coast. So I'll use that news to tell my little story.
It was 1982....and my wife and I were on a Caribbean cruise....which was very lovely....particularly zipping around Jamaica on a small motorcycle....but on the final leg of the cruise around the western edge of Cuba we encountered a storm that closed all the activities down and sent the passengers back to their staterooms.
Our stateroom was in the middle of the ship so we didn't even have a porthole to look out. We had two single beds and a table between them. I was so new to the Christian Faith that I didn't even take a Bible along with me....although I did take a copy of Charisma Magazine and an autobiography of B. J. Thomas....Home Where I Belong....both of which I gave to Russian sailors from a bauxite ship....in probably my first attempt at witnessing.
I opened the drawer of that table and there was that wonderful and dependable Gideon's Bible. Most hotels and motels do not provide Gideon's Bibles in their rooms anymore. I check every time....usually just as we get to our rooms.
Anyway....having absolutely no idea how to read the Bible....and certaiinly not knowing the different books or what testament they were in....I simply picked up the Gideons....opened it wherever the pages parted....and put my finger on a verse. I've told this story many times over the years. As things were sliding off the table....and we were rocking back in forth in our beds....I read this from the 93rd Psalm....
The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice
The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.
I have a pocket Bible down in our basement....leather bound....the leather ripped on all the edges....and the pages with water damage throughout. Tiny notations are throughout....so small that I couldn't read them even if they were clear. I worked in a very industrial environment....with coal dust everywhere....and after I returned from the cruise....that Bible was always with me....stuffed in my back pocket.
