I have been on summer holiday. It is, obviously, one of the best times of year for a teacher. Six weeks off for me to spend some time with God, my wife and my kids. It was supposed to be us going to visit both sets of grandparents but unfortunately illness made that impossible.
Instead, there has been a lot of DIY and a lot of reading. I have been working my way through some books by Nick Page. I like his books and have had two that I had been trying to finish for a while. One was called the Dark Night of the Shed. It is excellent and deals with the Mid-Life Crisis and how Christians are meant to respond.
However, one in particular I had not finished from ages ago.It is called God's Dangerous Book and it is the story of how the modern Bible came to us. It truly is fascinating. I knew a lot of the stuff but it was great to fill in many details.
The Bible hasn't always been readily accessible. For many years, and to its eternal shame, the church has tried to keep scripture out of the hands of the people. It is dangerous you see. It tells of a radical love. It tells people that their lives needn't be a constant life of pain and inferiority. It tells of the freedom brought by Christ's redeeming act on the Cross.
People have striven and died for the right to have scripture in their own language and in their own hands.
I finished the book on my tablet on the way home from Wales his week. We had been to see my parents and we tried to pack light. I left my bible at home. I took just my phone and tablet with their apps.
Now, please don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a Bible app. In the modern world they are great and they are certainly a way of getting scripture into the hands of people for whom a hard copy would be impossible to obtain. I have used mine this year and am 220 or so days into my Bible in a Year. It is great.
However, when I got home late on Wednesday evening, I had to reach out for my bible. I had to touch it. I spent some time reading it on Thursday. Page's pages had taught me that holding a bible is a precious thing. It is a simple thing but it really is precious.
I love my Bible and through it I know that God loves me, totally, amazingly and for free. That's why it is dangerous, When a tyrant tells you that you're worthless, the Bible tells you that you're worth everything. When the world tells you that you are alone, the Bible tells you that's a lie. When the government says this is the way it should be, the Bible says no, it really isn't. That's why it's been banned and why we need to protect the right of people the world over to have it when and where they need it.
