From the archives:

Do you own tools you have put up and then forgot you had them when a need arose? I’m good at that. I looked in my desk drawer and saw a box cutter I had forgotten. I wondered how many times I could have saved a fingernail if only I had used that little tool. That’s what used to happen to my Bible but worse;  I didn’t even realize it was a tool. It was a safe place to hide money and other important things–a place no one was going to look–proven over the years as it sat on the living room table. Even though  I was a regular attender at church I didn’t read for myself. I let someone else read it and interpret for me–someone whose job it was. I didn’t know the power of the tool inside the covers of the Book.

Pope Gregory I said, “The sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.” How can that be? “See, the Word of God is alive! It is at work and is sharper than any double-edged sword–it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit and joints meet marrow, and is quick to judge the inner reflections and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) My little box cutter was nothing in comparison to the cutting power of the Word.

Sometimes it takes courage and strength to pick up the tool because it will turn and speak directly to your heart and it might get a bit abrasive. That tends to happen when the Lord begins to clean us up, He has to scrub off all of the caked-on filth. However, the Book is also filled with soothing-comforting words of love and peace that will settle in your heart and flow through your veins. You will be drawn into a world of amazement where your life becomes part of the story and the story becomes a part of your life, the most important part.

In today’s world of acronyms what could be better than this to remind us of the importance of the Bible: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? Learn to live before you die, by using the tool God gave us.