To the best of my recollection....this was my entire experience with the Bible in my early life. The first was my First Holy Communion....as a second grader in Cheektowaga, New York....an outskirt of Buffalo. The tradition was that someone was to give the young boy or girl a Bible. I remember being very disappointed because my uncle gave me a very small pocket New Testament. I could hardly read the print. To this day when I recommend a Bible to someone....I emphasize that more important than the translation or the binding or all the pictures and maps and helps....is the readability....the print. What good is it if you have the most expensive Bible but it is hard to read?
My second experience was not really with a Bible....but what many Catholics had with them at Mass....and that was a daily missal. I have no idea if they still use these.....but they were something special back then. The pages were real thin....and the writing was large and easy to read....either in black or red....and there was Latin all through it. The purpose was to help the person follow along with the Mass....a Latin Mass at that time....and I owned a missal....and treasured it. I didn't really have any idea what was going on there.....but it made me feel like I had some kind of inside track....on something?
The third experience was in high school....a very good.....super-rich in tradition....Catholic high school in Pittsburgh....which I always have to add that I may not have partaken in the rigorous academics....but I at least experienced the atmosphere....and value it to this very day. Anyway....they were two paperbacks....the Old Testament and the New Testament....and they were used in religion class....more as literature than anything else.
I did not own a Bible during my three years in the army....even though I occasionally went to mass....even in Vietnam. I immediately went to Pitt upon getting out of the army and was somewhat a regular at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oakland....but still never actually owned a Bible....and no one ever offered me one.
I would finish class and then take the bus home. Now most of the days I would go to the local bar until it closed and then either take the last bus or thumb a ride home....but I did manage to go home at the regular time some of those days.
So on this particular day....as I waited for the Port Authority....Lincoln Line....(to the Lincoln Highway)....I stopped in the National Record Mart....to browse the paperback titles. This also was my regular habit....and even though I needed to be reading my text books....I preferred the latest bestseller. I could give you twenty names right now off the top of my head....I'll give the first one that comes to mind....The Greening Of America....1970....by Charles Reich.
Anyway....I walked out of that record mart one day with a paperback. You could easily Google it to see what it looks like. I have it in my hand right now....roughly fifty years later....Reach Out....The Living New Testament....Illustrated....$2.95....Tyndale House Publishers....edited and paraphrased by Ken Taylor....sixteenth printing....October 1972....2,250,000 copies in print. This was at the Jesus Revolution time folks.
I remember being excited about it....but that excitement only lasted a short while. I used to....over the past few decades....pull this book out....open it up...and put my nose right in the middle of the spine....because the smell brought back in a way those first moments of excitement. I just did it right now but either the smell is all gone....or my olfactory powers are all gone....after working for 37 years in an old factory.
So ten years passed....and I praise and thank God for the many mercies over all those years....and that my life was not recalled before God opened my eyes to the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!
I was....along with so many others in the early 80s....becoming interested in this....born again thing....that so many of my fellows at work were talking about. My wife noticed this....and lo and behold....as I opened my Christmas gifts....there was this Bible....that I also have in my hands right now.....for after at least a dozen new and fancy Bibles over the years....all of which I used and highlighted....maybe four or so years ago....I dug this old first Christmas gift Bible out of my bookshelves....and now it is my regular Bible.....no helps....no maps....no fancy leather cover....but very easy to read! This Bible is a....Thomas Nelson Publishers....NKJV....third edition....1982. Both front and back covers are about to fall off from use....after sitting pristine on the shelf for almost forty years.
An hour ago....as I was reading in the Gospel of John....I had one single thought that I wanted to post....so I wrote all of the above....just to lead to this....to someone who is not a believer in Jesus Christ....never having been born again....born from above....name written in the Lamb's Book of Life....to them....to you who may look at a Bible you may own....and even open up from time to time....please read John 12:48...."He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him-the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."
So go ahead....put the book back down and go on to other things....but that which you put down....is that which you will be judged by when you are called....for everyone is eventually called. If you but would believe that one verse....it might encourage or lead you to open it up seriously....to see what that judgment....and salvation....is all about?
