Scripture
I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.
~Psalm 119:162, NKJV
Quote
To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the BIBLE.
~Queen Elizabeth, II
I don’t do that many human interest stories because I spend most of my time reading the bible and commentaries but lately I’ve been on a reading frenzy and this wonderful story comes from Nancy Leigh DeMoss {the woman women need to read instead of reading Beth No Moore}. The story is about Margaret Nikol, a concert violinist who grew up in Bulgaria behind the iron curtain.
The communist, devils that they are, confiscated all the bibles. Margaret’s father was a pastor but not even he had a bible. Margaret lived in a small village and one of the ladies had managed to hid her bible from the communist. It was the only bible in the entire village. Being unselfish, she agreed to share the bible so they slowly took it a part page by page so that each believer in the village had at least two pages. Margaret got Genesis chapters 16-17 which she soon memorized. At age 34, the communist exiled her and she came to the United States. Her friends here asks Margaret what she would like most in her new found freedom and she said without hesitation, “I want a bible.” They carried her to a Christian Book Store where Margaret saw hundreds of bibles, she began to weep aloud and uncontrollably right there is the middle of store. She could not contain her joy.
On the same subject, two centuries earlier, deep in the heart of Wales lived a little girl named Mary Jones. Mary loved the bible but her family could not afford one so they traveled some distance once a week to hear the bible read. The family who owed the bible promised Mary that she could come and read for herself once she learned to read and she did not forget the promise. Every week Mary went to see the Evans family. Mrs. Evans would put Mary in a room by herself and let her read until her heart was content. Mary read and memorized but she still wanted her own bible so she started saving money. It took Mary six years to earn enough money to buy a bible and then she had to walk 25 miles to the nearest city that had bibles. When Mary got to the city, she was told there were no bibles. All the bibles had been sold. Mary sat down and began to weep. Her sobs were so disturbing that a local minister came to Mary and said, “Here is one of my bibles, I have another.” She sang most of the way home: her heart was exuberant with joy.
In a way it is sad that we American’s cannot relate to such stories: THANK GOD FOR FREEDOM AND FOR OUR BIBLES. Mary’s favorite verse was Genesis 1:3, “And God said…” Have you ever thought about what life would be like if God had not spoken. Try to imagine a world without bibles. I do not want to go there.
I have a praise: We got the kitchen floor torn out and the new sub-floor laid. We finished just before 10:00 pm and I was thrilled. We are not finished but we have the hard part behind us, PTL. I try to get Big Mama to go somewhere when I work on the house but I have to admit, she was a lot of help and I didn’t hollow at her one time.
I know folks are excited about the Holiday coming up, so am I: I love holidays. The Bailey’s are all over the place, some on the beach and some here. Georgia Tech didn’t give Clemson much of a test. The Auburn/Oregan game will probably be the best, although I don’t think Bama is gone to blow Duke out. It may be a better game than I want. I like blow outs as long as we are the ones with the upper hand.