When I was a teenager, I saved my money and bought a good quality Bible.... for $37.50, which was the discounted price my church offered for ordering this particular Bible. That was a huge sum to me at the time (I still don't take such an amount for granted! :) I bought an Oxford KJV Bible with a cover made of Genuine East Indian Calf leather and pages that were made of India paper. I used that Bible through a one year Bible Institute with very intensive Bible study and then four years of Bible college, and in life, teaching, studying and more.... and I loved it. It was a high quality Bible and the more I used it, the more I treasured it. I memorized from it and could even picture in my mind where the verse was on the page in my Bible.... and what color of ink I had used to underline it. :) My Bible became pretty marked up as I highlighted, underlined, made notes and just really used it. This Bible held up well to Bible drills where we would quickly search for a particular verse or passage.... and as it aged, it just "fit" my hand better and better. As I said, I treasured it.
Eventually, that Bible started looking a bit tattered... and very used, but still I continued to use it... and this Bible got a LOT of use - every day... and sometimes many times every day. A page or two developed a tear... and the binding started to break... and a missionary from Bangladesh took that Bible and carefully fixed it using some special flexible book glue. I was shocked at how nice it was again after he fixed it.... I couldn't even find the tear in the page. Of course, I decided to buy some of that glue- I had to special order it as it was a special library glue and it wasn't cheap... it worked great though, and I continued to fix my Bible when it needed it... the missionary had shown me how to use a toothpick to apply the glue in small areas... and use wax paper between pages as it dried. Though I fixed the pages, I also continued using that Bible... searching and studying... in Sunday School, church, at home.. and more.
Some pages started to come out... and the page size reduced as the pages wore away... no, they weren't tearing.... they just wore down from so much use.
I tried to fix pages... and did sometimes... but the more I used it, the more it wore away... especially areas that saw a lot of use.
Finally, the glue went bad... it stunk so much and I had to throw it out, but by then, it was getting harder and harder to fix the Bible - it was wearing out.
When using it, I had to be careful not to lose pages, but I still loved this Bible.
Finally, I realized it was time to buy a new Bible.
I looked and looked, but couldn't find one that I liked. I mean, they were the "Bible", but they felt odd and were not what I wanted. I tried Christian bookstores... and looked at many Bibles, but I didn't like any of them. One big problem for me was that the new Bibles had pages where the print could be seen on the other side of the page... and it made it hard to read. I didn't know what to do. A lady at a small Christian bookstore tried to help me, but I rejected all of what she had. When I took my old Bible in to show her what I was looking for, she said she understood my problem. She said I had a very nice Bible-a very expensively bound one... the India pages are thin, but opaque and they make it easier to read... they are not used much today and then only in very expensive Bibles. I had enjoyed years of use with a very nice Bible and I guess I was a bit "spoiled". She did tell me that a more cheaply bound Bible would never have stood up to the hard use I had given it over the years. She also said they didn't make them like this anymore.
Well, I felt very sad as I wanted "my" Bible and not a new one. It was all God's Word... and yet, I had treasured my copy of the scripture... and it was such a dear friend and so easy to use.
My husband and son gave me money for Christmas one year to buy a new Bible... I think they gave me $65.00. We looked at new Bibles and I still couldn't find what I wanted - even among the expensive ones, so I started checking on ebay for Bibles from several years ago, thinking they were better quality and hoping I might find something similar to mine. After several weeks of daily watching, I found one... one that was very similar to my old one and we bought it... for $67.50, I think. A lot of money, but what is more important than God's Word, right?
When it came, I looked through it and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was easy to read... the pages looked like my old Bible's pages - only in better shape.
Eventually, we realized that it was almost the SAME Bible!! It was also published by Oxford... The leather cover was black and I really liked the brown cover better, but it was a great Bible and I was excited.
After I checked it further, I realized that the pages were EXACTLY the same! Page 897 has the start of Ezekiel 43 in BOTH Bibles... and the words are in the same place on the page as in my old Bible. What fun to discover this! :)
After buying this Bible, I started reading through it and used a blue highlighter that year... the next year, I used a green highlighter... and yellow fits in there too.
The "new" Bible was not a red letter edition, but I found that I liked the all black letters as well... or maybe even better.
As I marked up my "new" Bible, I drew closer to the Lord and found that I was discovering things in a new way as I started with an unmarked Bible.
Now, I have used my "new" Bible for a few years... not sure how many - maybe 4 or so... and it is wearing a bit - of course, it was already about 30 years old when I bought it! :)
I have been very happy with it...
Once in a while, though, I pull out my old Bible and read it... and what a joy to see again the notes showing what God was teaching me at the time.
Both Bibles are kept and used... and I found a nice Bible for sale at a library book sale... and I bought it. I have learned what a treasure old Bibles are... I don't mean for collecting purposes... I mean for using. So, I am saving the one that I bought... it is the one I plan to use when this one wears out.
We had given our children new Bibles at various times... now we look for older Bibles at book sales and garage sales and give them a better quality bound one, which should last for many years. I don't find the good older copies often, but I DO find them... so many people just don't treasure the Bible... or use it. I found one beautiful copy at a garage sale and it was from the estate of a woman who had simply displayed it on a shelf... and it was in almost perfect condition....for $2.00. They are out there, but it will take work to find them... it is a treasure hunt. :)
By the way, I know many are now using electronic "Bibles"... and that is okay, but for me, I want a hard copy of God's Word... and I want to "hide it" in my heart. Our Bibles are meant to be used... not just to sit on a shelf and collect dust. We are so blessed to have more than one copy of God's Word in our homes.... and there are those, even in authority, who would like to take that privilege away from us... we need to use the Bible and get to know it daily, and if the Bible is ever outlawed here as it has been in other countries, what is hidden in our hearts can never be taken away from us.
Thank you for visiting today... I hope you have a good day... and that you enjoy fellowship with God today. :)
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Counting Our Blessings
My daughters and I had a rather impromptu tea party with a couple of friends, where we all showed our sewing projects to each other and chatted about sewing and other handwork. It was fun to see what others were working on and it was fun to share tea and treats.
