In The Pages Of My Bible

I wrote a note to myself so I wouldn’t forget—then I forgot where I put that note.

Not in my inbox. Not taped to the refrigerator. Not in my desk drawer.

I know. I must have stuck in my Bible. I do that. Stick bits of paper in the pages of my Bible because I don’t what else to do with them.

Hunting my lost note, I opened my Bible.

The first thing I found was an envelope of seeds from three years ago that I never got around to planting in our garden.

And I found the car rental papers from when Ginny and I went on vacation in 2003.

I found a batch of lesson notes from a class I taught, and some of those little paper things they give you when you go to somebody’s funeral that say the name and date of the deceased and you’d feel guilty to throw that sheet away because it would seem disrespectful, but you really have no reason to keep it.

And I found this brochure:

It’s dated 1965!

Can it possibly have been in the pages of my Bible since then? Yes, I’ve carried this Bible around for a long time. And yes, I have newer copies in a lot of different versions, but I’m comfortable with this one and I consider the tattered old thing, “My Bible”.

Digging deeper in the pages of my Bible, I found a hand-drawn map of how to get to somebody’s house—I have no idea of who these people were or why I’d need a map to their house….

And then I found this sad, sad thing, a crude, Xeroxed flyer once taped to a telephone post at the corner bus stop:

Back before we had a car, about seven years ago, Ginny rode the bus to work. Because we live in a rough neighborhood, each morning I’d walk her to the bus stop, and meet her bus and walk her home in the evenings.

One morning this crude flyer appeared on telephone posts up and down the street. I have blacked out Anita’s name and address.

As you can tell the writer of the flyer felt unhappy with Anita and wanted the world to know about it. Therefore, she typed this notice, Xeroxed dozens of copies, and posted it on telephone posts up and down the street.

Various people waiting for the bus took out pens or pencils and wrote their own comments on the flyers:

Commenter One said—“Let satan become your friend. He’ll show you the great life of evil”.

Commenter Two said—“Kill the fucking bitch”!

Commenter Three said—“Chop her up and eat her for breakfast”.

Commenter Four said—“ Your only solution is Jesus. He’ll be your very best friend. The Bible declares that Jesus said He’ll never leave your or forsake you. He loves you and He wants to be apart of your life—Sincerely, Concerned”.

Commenter Five said—“This is what He’ll do—J”

After a few days I removed this poster from the phone post and took it in to pass around an adult Bible class I was teaching; we talked about bitterness and forgiving and being forgiven.

I believe the Bible is the word of God. It may not tell me everything I’m curious about, but it tells me all I need to know about life and godliness. It does not answer all my questions about history, but what it does tell me is true. It does not tell me everything there is to know about God, but it tells me more than I want to know about John Cowart.

And one thing I find in the pages of my Bible is this statement: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled”.

Defiled by bitterness.

Bitterness besets me. When I feel a slight, real or imagined, I let resentment well up inside me. I dwell on that trespass to my dignity. It festers inside me.

I feel troubled as I chase the incident around and around in my mind. My complaints take over my mind. Prayer becomes bitching.

“ Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us … as we forgive…”.

What a kicker!

And Jesus elaborates saying, “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses”.

Without the help of the Holy Spirit we can’t forgive others.

To be honest with you, WITH the help of the Holy Spirit, I still find it hard to forgive someone who has crossed the line—that’s what trespassing is, to cross the line defining someone else’s property, to break through some proper boundary.

One thing that sometimes helps me is to recall times when I have crossed the line myself, when I have done the same sort of thing to someone else that I am so upset about someone now doing to me. And I don’t have to search my memory very hard before the Spirit reminds me of that time when I…

Well, you get the idea.

There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man… They did it. And I did it too.

Now I have never posted a notice about my own resentment and grudges against someone on a telephone pole for all the world to see—that’s what blogs are for. But I have cherished slights inside my heart and go over them again and again as though they were My Precious.

Heck, I just observed my 70^th birthday and I can still remember the names of kids in elementary school who did me dirt!

No wonder I published my recent diaries under the title A Dirty Old Man Goes Bad., etc.

So, how can I get out of this morass?

When Jesus healed a man sick of palsy, He said, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins”.

Yes, forgiving is serious, costly business.

Jesus died because of our sin. He rose again because He is God, the source of life.

He does not excuse us. He forgives us. There’s a difference.

And the Bible tells us about such things.

It behooves us to know what’s in the pages of our Bibles.

Oh, by the way, I did find the note I’d started out searching for. I had tucked it in the pages of my Bible. Unfortunately it did not say what I thought it said.

Drats!

However I enjoyed browsing in the pages of my Bible and I was especially pleased to find that quote about how we pipe smokers are men of dignity, charm and refinement.

That quote must be true—I found it in the pages of my Bible.