Disguised as a Book

The Word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires, (Hebrews 4:12).

The Bible is the bestselling book of all time, with estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies.  About 50 Bibles are sold every minute.  The Bible is also the most shoplifted book in the world.  Nine out of every ten people own a Bible.  The Bible has been translated into over 2500 languages.

The Bible was written in 3 different languages on 3 different continents over a 1600 year period by at least 40 writers from diverse walks of life: shepherds, soldiers, governors, kings, fishermen and priests.  The subject matter of the Bible covers all aspects of life on earth: love, marriage, and family life; child-rearing and growing up; teaching and learning; work and rest; governing and dealing with authority; animal husbandry and viniculture; music and dance; food preservation and preparation; medicine; war; and so much more.  Despite all this, there are no contradictions in the Bible[1].  This is amazing when one considers that the Bible was written over such a long period of time by such diverse people and covering all aspects of life on earth.

Think of it: if you found ten people from the same town who grew up together and asked them to write about just a few subjects, what would be the result?  Certainly not the cohesiveness and continuity of the Bible.

No other book in history has ever been so brutally attacked as the Bible.  In the year 300, the Roman emperor, Diocletian ordered every Bible burned, thinking that by destroying the Bible, he could destroy Christianity.  He also decreed that anyone caught with a Bible would be executed.  Just 25 year later, his successor, Constantine, ordered 50 perfect copies of the Bible to be made at government expense.  Since then various leaders have tried to burn and banish the Bible, yet it remains the world’s bestselling book of all time.

I love Your Word.  Time and again it has been proven true, (Psalm 119:140, ERV).

The Bible contains more than 3200 verses of fulfilled prophecy.  And there are still more than 3100 verses with unfulfilled prophecies.  Many believe that these remaining prophecies will be fulfilled very soon.

The verse at the very center of the Bible says:

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people, (Psalm 118:8).

Some things you might not know about the Bibles:

The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119.  The shortest is Psalm 117.

The shortest verse in the Bible is: “Jesus wept,” (John 11:35).

Swearing on the Bible is against the Bible (Matthew 5:33-37).

Tampering with the Bible brings a curse (Revelation 22:18-19).

Reading the book of Revelation brings blessings, and hearing the book of Revelation brings a blessing (Revelation 1:3).  So if you want to double your blessings, read the book of Revelation aloud when you read it.

Jesus had four brothers: James, Joses, Jude, and Simon and several sisters[2].  James and Jude wrote books of the Bible which are named for them.

There is an organization that illegally parachutes copies of The Bible into North Korea.

In 2011, 25 million Bibles were printed, compared to 208 million IKEA catalogs.  What does that say about our society?

Have you read the Bible?  The whole Bible?  If you read one page every five minutes, it should take you about 84 hours or just under three and a half days to read it all.  You have probably read many other books cover to cover, but have you read the most important book of all time?

I’ve read the whole Bible several times, and even after several times, I still find things that are new and surprising.  Sometimes God will give me a rhema word, and the words will seem to glow or leap off the page.  How can this be?  Because the Bible is not a book.  The Bible is the Living Word of God disguised as a book.  If you want to find God, you can find Him in the pages of your Bible.  If you want to discover whether God exists or not, then read the Bible.  If you can come away from reading the Bible, still unsure that God exists, it is only because you love your sins more than you love or want to know the truth.  The truth will set you free.  And the Truth is a person you can find throughout the Bible: Jesus.  God is good!

[1] Some people claim to find contradictions in the Bible, but they have to take verses out of context to do so.  When looking at the Bible as a whole and understanding its teachings there are no contradictions.

[2] Matthew 13:55-56 & Mark 6:3.