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THE INEXHAUSTIBLE,
INCREDIBLE WORD OF GOD
Last Saturday, a group of our
members set up folding tables in front of the church facing the
boulevard. The sign above their heads read "Free Bibles;
10 am to 2 PM."
We started this three or four
years ago. I grew convicted about all those unused Bibles on my
bookshelves and in the homes of our members. We set boxes in the
church foyer and invited people to bring in Bibles they no longer
use. An adult Sunday School class took responsibility for giving
them away. One Saturday, they erected tables in front of the church
and gave away 150 Bibles of all types and sizes to anyone who
stopped. By the time we had done this the second time a few months
later, we had given away all the "extra" Bibles of our
members, so people started contributing money for new ones.
Sunday morning, a deacon handed
me a report on the Saturday Bible giveaway. In four hours, our
people gave 269 Bibles, which was 102 more than last time. "We
ran out," said Nick Carrone. He added, "Pastor, the
people who stopped by gave us 155 prayer requests for our prayer
ministry. They wrote down the names of 93 service men and women
for us to pray for. We're adding them to the 90 already on our
prayer lists." I was thrilled, but he wasn't finished.
"We prayed with six people
over situations they were facing, and one of those prayed to receive
Christ as Savior. Four said we could look for them in church."
I come from a long tradition of
Bible-believers, Bible-lovers, and Bible-quoters. We hold that
there is no book like this one in all the world. It is inexhaustible
in its depth. One might spend a lifetime studying any of the 66
books of the Bible and never deplete its riches and insights.
Here's an experiment. Ask any
veteran Christian, "Why is the Bible special?" Then,
pull up a chair. Each of us has our reasons and some of us have
dozens. Here is one.
Emile Cailliet was an agnostic.
During the war, he grew more hardened to the idea of God. Nothing
had prepared him for seeing dead, bloated bodies hanging from
barbed wire barricades. How anyone could believe in the presence
of a loving God in such a universe escaped him. Yet, Cailliet
found himself with a strange inner longing---a longing for a book
that would understand him. In all his reading, he had found no
such book. So, he decided to create one.
In a scrapbook, Cailliet pasted
articles and quotations he found helpful. When the last page was
filled and the book was complete, he read it through. An immense
sadness swept over him. This book was of no help. "It was
all of my own making," he said.
That very day, something unusual
occurred. Cailliet had forbidden his wife to make any mention
of religion in their home. As she was pushing the baby carriage
to the market, she turned onto a side street to avoid traffic.
Then, tiring of the bumpy cobblestones, she detoured onto a patch
of green grass to rest. Across the way, she saw an outside staircase
attached to a strange building. Inexplicably, she climbed the
stairs. At the top was a long room with an open door. She entered
and saw an old man. Realizing she was in a Huguenot church, she
heard herself asking, "Do you have a Bible in French?"
An hour later, she stood before Emile with the Bible and began
apologizing. "Show it to me!" he said. He had never
seen a Bible before.
Emile Cailliet opened the Bible
to the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 and began to devour its contents.
Later he said, "I could not find words to express my awe
and wonder. This was the Book that would understand me. I read
it into the night and finished the four gospels. And, as I read,
the One of whom they spoke, the One who spoke and acted in them,
came alive in me." He concluded, "This book was animated
by the presence of the living God. It changed my life."
Eddie was a member of a church
I pastored some years ago. Not long ago, he phoned to tell me
of a bizarre religious experience he was having. He was convinced
that God was speaking to him---brace yourself---out of the television
set. Even when the set was turned off. Already he was gathering
people to him to share the revelations he was receiving. "I
wanted to see what you thought of it," he said.
I said, "Eddie, I'll give
you a quick test to determine if this is of God. Does it make
you love the Lord Jesus more, love the Church more, and love the
Word of God more?" There was a pause, then he said, "Joe,
you don't understand---I've been there and done that." I
said, "In that case, my friend, you may safely denounce these
experiences. They are not of God."
When it comes to loving the Lord,
His people, and His Word, none of us---even we who have spent
our lives in His service---have "been there and done that."
The best among us have only scratched the surface. We have barely
"touched the hem of His garment."
"O, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" (Romans 11:33)
(The Emile Cailliet story comes
from an article "The Book That Understands Me," from
HIS magazine of June, 1982. A publication of InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship.)
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