One Thousand Gifts–that’s a lot of gifts.
Yet, in the years I’ve lived on this earth–even in the past year alone–I’ve been given far more. And I suppose I’ve missed most of them in the hubbub of life.
Yesterday at church, I kept thinking about the gift of Scripture.
I remembered how as a child, I would pore over the pages of the Bible looking for Truth.
And I found it.
I found Him.
Jesus. The Christ. God’s one and only Son. He is the gift that God gave the world, that whoever believes in Him won’t perish, but have everlasting life.
So the first gifts on my list of a thousand are big ones; the most crucial to the core of my being. The first was eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord–by that, I mean Jesus Himself, too, not just the personal benefit of eternal life.
Here is the second:
2. The Christian Bible.
A gift.
Our Sunday School teacher told us that years ago he was in a parachurch organization that issued a challenge–he took that challenge: to spend five minutes a day in the Bible.
Five minutes, eh? I have to admit, it didn’t seem like all that much.
“Five minutes. Every day. From that day forward,” he said. “It was a lifelong commitment.
“Five minutes may not seem like much,” he continued, “but over time it has made a huge difference in my life.”
Many days he would have much more time to spend in devotional reading or study. But on the days he might have been tempted to just forget it and get on with the day, he remembered the commitment. And he would sit down and spent five minutes reading the Bible before rushing off.
And then he mentioned memorizing Scripture. Some days, he didn’t even have five minutes to sit down with His Bible. On those days, he kept his commitment by spending five minutes reviewing a passage of Scripture he’d committed to memory. Sometimes that was as rich as reading something for devotions, he said, as he pondered it more deeply and mined it for all its worth.
Whether I delve into it for five minutes or five hours, whether I memorize five verses or five books of the Bible, it’s a gift.
Each day it offers more treasure, so it is truly a gift that keeps on giving.
amen amen amen. what makes me even more thankful is knowing how much people who have limited access to it, value it. biblesunbound.com is a great resource to contribute to.
Thank you so much for a very up-beat post!
Five minutes is achievable and good advice.
God bless,
Adam
Hi, I stubbled on your site looking for something about giving a bible as a gift. Well I was wondering what to inscrible on the front page of the bible that I am going to give to a woman who was brought up a mormon. She is 23 years old. I work with her & we have talked about God recently. She is open. Thanks for any suggestions. Love in Christ Sylvia