The B.I.B.L.E! YES that’s the book for me!

This past summer I was invited to speak at a camp for ages 8-10.  This was way out of my comfort zone.  I would rather speak to a room of teens or women.  But I was up for the challenge.  As I prayed in preparation for the week, I felt that God was asking me to introduce these campers to their Bibles.

At this age they are just learning Book/Chapter/Verse.  This was a very exciting message for me because I love my Bible.  Sometimes I just sit and hug it and find comfort in it.  What an honour and privilege to be able to introduce these young people to their Bibles.

At camp I began asking the campers about what they think of their Bibles.  Their answers were quite interesting and something that I felt people needed to hear.  Two of their answers still bother me, here they are:

• Bibles are only for adults.
• Why should I learn about my Bible?  I never need it, someone always reads it to me.

And we wonder why young people are becoming lazy with their faith.  We are doing it for them.  They feel they do not need to be active becomes someone will just do it for them.  Look at what we do in our churches; it’s true.  Who needs to lug around their Bibles to church anymore because everything will be up on the screen for you.  To be honest that bothers me a lot.  For some people the only time they opened their Bibles was on a Sunday morning and now we have taken that time away from them.

We need to spend time the in Word, our daily bread.  This isn’t something just for adults, and it isn’t just for Sunday morning.  We need to know what the scriptures say, it is the foundation of our faith.  How can you stand for something if you don’t know it?

I like lugging my Bible around.  I have one wherever I go.  I don’t want to come off as being self-righteous but if I ever find myself in a situation that is more than I can handle I want to make sure I have by Bible on hand.  On Sunday mornings I want to have my Bible to look up the passage, that way I can read it in my version, and I become familiar to where the passage is in my Bible in case I want to look it up again.

My daughters are ages 6 & 8.  They were at camp this summer when I spoke.  It was awesome to see all the campers looking up verses in their Bibles.  I started with Psalms 118:8.  Are you familiar with that verse?  It is the middle verse of the Bible and it gives a very important message.  Look it up.  I thought that would be a good place to start for the campers.  The largest book of the Bible, easy to find, and an important verse to hear.  Each day we would look up more verses as they became more familiar with their Bibles.  We would learn about who wrote the book and why.  It was awesome!  After chapel one night a camper came up to me to tell me that she realized that she knows the Bible better than she thought she did!  How great is that!

Now I want to issue a challenge.  Actually maybe a couple of challenges.  Don’t become lazy in your faith.  Choose to lug your Bible to church, the more time you spend in it, the more comfortable you will be and the more your faith and knowledge can grow.  Second, don’t be the cause of someone else’s lazy faith.  As a parent, pastor, Sunday school teacher whenever you may have the chance--expect to see Bibles in use!

I have challenged my daughters to start bringing their Bibles to church every Sunday to be used in Sunday School and church.  I heard the complaining yesterday that they didn’t want to because they would be the only ones.  How sad is that.  They are old enough to be able to experience God’s word.  Why would I take that experience away from them?

Are you up for the challenge?  Just imagine what our communities and schools would be like if more people spent time in the Word and chose to lug their Bibles around!