The Bible, by Teresa Mathews

The Bible

Upon a shelf, an old dusty Bible lies.

For days it hasn't been touched by hands or seen by any eyes.

It’s been replaced by other things that seemed so important then.

But what could be more important than God’s word sent down to men?

God loves us so very much He wants to show to us His way.

He wants us to learn His word and read it every day.

It is to be a treasure map to show us the way home.

We are to follow its straight and narrow way and never from it to roam.

God has hidden secrets in His Word for us to find. 

When you open it, read it, and store it in your mind.

Now satan has a plan devised to keep you from God’s book.

He will send your way something else to do or some place else to look.

He’ll plant a little seed of doubt that God’s word really doesn’t matter.

He’ll send a lot of thoughts your way and fill your mind with chatter.

Don’t let this be your downfall to keep you from your goal.

Pick up your Bible, read it everyday, and let it refresh your soul.

Keep it close for in your time of need, your life it will sustain

It will bring strength to your body, through it healing you can attain.

You should open up your Bible and by God’s Word be led,

In the very early morning hours and before your time for bed.

This should be your motto, this should be what you say.

“This is the Mighty WORD of GOD, I will read it everyday”

Teresa Mathews © 03/01/2013

A couple of weeks ago we had a guest speaker at our church, Dr. Hong Yang. He was raised in China and as a young man he was part of the Youth Peoples Communist Party. He had never seen a Bible or even knew the story of Jesus. God spoke to him in a dream and told Him to how to find a Bible. There was one in the library basement of the school he attended, it was under western pornography. They are not allowed to have Bibles in China so he sat and wrote down scripture after scripture so he could have a part of it with him. Long story short he accepted Jesus as his Savior and God worked it out for him to come to America and attend a Christian College and when he told the leaders in the communist party he was coming to attend a School of Theology God let them hear 'School of Technology" and they gave him money and a new set of clothes to bring with him! 

Dr Yang is now a US citizen but goes back often so he can help with the underground churches there. He smuggles Bibles in when he goes and the last time he went was about 4 years ago and he was caught and put in jail for five days. During that time he was treated inhumanly, some of the people that are imprisoned are never heard from again. They had to let him go because he is a US citizen, but he was banned from coming back for five years. His wife goes at least twice a year and she does the same thing. There are hundreds of thousands of people there that have never heard of Jesus or the Bible. 

After that service I kept thinking about America and how easy we have it, most of us probably have at least three or four Bibles lying around the house, and maybe one on our I-pod or Kindle. You can find one in just about any store. The problem with that is we take it for granted, it makes us feel good to know we have one if we need it. The question that keeps ringing over in my mind is; do we read it like we should? I have to admit there are days I have failed to read mine, letting the things in life get in the way. This was how I came to write this poem. I'm not condemning anyone this is just a friendly reminder to cherish God's Word because one day we may be like the people of China and not have the privilege to have a Bible. 

Question: When you do your daily Bible reading, how do you feel?