Living Bible

I cut my spiritual teeth on the King James Bible, but I am not going to start World War III over a Bible translation. The older I get, the more I am convinced that the Living Bible is the best. There are thousands of different Bibles. I am not talking about "Good News for Modern Man," or the "Young Life Translation." I think the Living Bible is the only Bible God cares about. Jesus Christ was the Living Bible. He was the Word who became flesh. He was it’s Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He was His own proof text. He was Truth itself from cover to cover. Along with the text, He offered up clear illustrations, applications and examples. Luke begins his book of Acts pointing out that it is the second volume born out of all the Jesus began to "do" and "teach." The Life of Jesus needed no comments or explanations in note-filled margins, because His life was it’s own commentary. Nothing about Him was in italics, which we reserve for things left out, implied or missing from the original. His words were not "red letter" or "black letter." Every syllable of the Word was sacred. His life was an open book. While the Scribes were counting jots and tittles, He was counting tears. While the Pharisees were measuring the length of Phylacteries, He was the length and breadth of Life itself. He was the Word of God Incarnate. Yes, He was the Living Bible. Not only that, He was also the First Copy of the First Edition. Everything before His coming was prologue or preface.

Whatever Bible we pick up, regardless of its publisher and copyright warning which warns us not to copy, quote or use it without permission (yes, that’s what it says), we should look for God in Jesus. Jesus is the Living Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He was there as the first utterance of creation and was the Author of eternity. He is light itself. Darkness as we know it, is merely the absence of Him. He always shines. He is also the life. Death is His absence. Although God is Omnipresent, it is possible to be "far from God." The farther away, the "deader" the dead. We say a corpse is "cold," but there is no such thing as cold. Cold is merely the absence of heat. Spiritually speaking, spiritual coldness is the absence of Him. "You will not come to Me," He said "that you might have life."

He also is love. Whatever love is, the opposite is something or someone without Him. Jesus is God and love incarnate. Not the god of some fanatic’s imagination. Not the god of some sect, cast, cult, or culture, but the real and Living God. What does that God look like, this One who is invisible? He looks like Jesus. While religions split hairs over the portraits they attempt to paint of Him, while some go on crusades and others on Jihads, Jesus offers something better. While some argue over the canon of the Scriptures and load their cannons with the shot and powder of their indignation, Jesus simply offers peace. He is the Living Bible Who lives. He is the Living Word and Book of Books. Read His actions, read His wisdom, read His heart. Be so filled with His words which are Spirit, until your own spirit catches fire. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Hearing the Word has been the flint and steel of a billion sparks, which have like little stars found their way into the tinder of tender hearts and beginning so many new creations. To as many as receive Him, receive the Living Word and live.

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