Bible Gluttony

The King James Bible has 788,280 words.  If I use that as my standard and multiply it by 46, I discover that I have a lot of eternal words floating around my house.

We have 46 Bibles.

46 x 788,280 = 36,260,880

Thirty-six million, two hundred sixty thousand, eight hundred eighty words.

Forty–six Bibles.

That seems excessive.  Gluttonous, if you will.

I have no idea how we achieved this number other than the Bibles date back to childhood, my childhood.  Six people live in our house.  Bibles were purchased as Christmas presents . . . Resurrection Day reminders.  Money was paid for Scripture that was on sale, but never given as a gift. 

I find it slightly embarrassing.  We have 46 Bibles . . . which doesn’t include the one on my Kindle and the Engineer’s phone.  And I just remembered . . . we have two more audio Bibles.

48 Bibles.

Sigh.

If each family member only kept one Bible, we would have 42 that we could give away.

Yet, when I suggested this to my children as I stared in disbelief at our Bible pile, they became mine-o-saurs.  All sorts of excuses were given from, “This has neat pictures,” or “But I read this last week and his stack is higher.”

With the force of the crash of this very stack of Bibles lacking support, I realized that I too horde God’s Word.  I don’t hide it like I should (in my heart) but I hoard my resources. 

How long did I know about Bible poverty but I did nothing about it?  How long did I sense God telling me to support Bible translation but kept my $26 in the bank . . . for a blog conference or an extra Starbucks?

A long time.

Too long.

So, I dare you. 

• Find all the Bibles in your house. 
• Take a picture. 
• Post it on the One Verse Facebook page or link up over at My Journey to Authenticity. 

A bunch of us are taking pictures of our Bible gluttony stacks. 

It doesn’t take 48 Bibles to transform a life. 

All it takes is having a verse, just one verse, translated into one person’s tongue.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  John 3:16

If you can’t see the video, head on over to the blog or watch on YouTube.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  (Romans 1:6)

Twenty-Six Dollars and a Bible Verse

Drum roll . . .

Bam bam, bang bang, whildlop, lop, lop . . .

And the Bible Verse you helped to translate this month through your usage of affiliate links on Granola Mom 4 God . . .

Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Matthew 25:1, brought back some memories for me.  I wrote a thesis paper on this very verse in college. 

Maybe I should publish it for you all to read.

No.  I would have to retype it.  I have it saved on one of those hard disks . . . and I lack a computer to read that kind of disk now. 

Instead, I’ll give you three ideas to do in lieu of reading my thesis paper:

1. give up Starbucks, your diet Cokes, or a meal out . . . and sponsor one Bible Verse Translation for this month for the Vidunda people group
2. commit to memorizing Colossians or the Sermon on the Mount this year
3. collect all the Bibles in your house and take a picture . . . you’ll find out why on Wednesday
4. Leave a comment and tell us what verse you helped to translate!
5. Read or re-read last month’s post on Bible poverty
6. watch this video from artist, Aaron Shust