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The Bibles©
by Pastor Jim

I am not a garage sale person. Now, my dad -- well he has flea market blood and can see poorly hand written signs two miles away while traveling at sixty-miles-an-hour on a rainy day. It's not that I hate them. It's just that I have a hard time understanding how someone can ask such large prices for what I consider junk.

I tell you this so that you will understand my own surprise when I find myself -- without my wife -- stopping at a garage sale. There could only be two explanations to this phenomenon, either I had lost my mind or the Lord was leading. It couldn't be the first because you must have something before you can lose it, so I will trust it was the Lord's doing.

These people made great "garage people." They had large imaginations when it came to prices and were convinced that no one else in the world went to Walmart -- where you could buy the same thing for less and it would be new! Their children's toys best reflected their imagination because prices started at fifty dollars and rose quickly. That was true for everything except -- two Bibles.

There in a box were two almost new Bibles. They weren't the kind we give away at Vacation Bible School. They were nice Bibles. The tag read fifty-cents. The first thought that went though my head was, "You don't need another Bible," and the second thought was "Why are they selling them?" 

I was about to put them down when I decided to look inside. That's when my skin stood on end. The Bibles were their children’s Bibles. And! There on the front page under their names was written, "Love, Grandpa and Grandma." These people had great respect and held great value for the toys they had bought their children, but they had little respect or value for the faith and love of their parents. They had spent a great deal of time and money to assure that their children had the best most poplar toys but gave little care to what really was of value -- their children's souls. The grandparents cared. But, that care was being sold for fifty-cents.

I wanted to do something -- say something, but I was speechless (a wonder for any preacher). I stood there with the Bibles in my hand looking stupidly at the toys when God spoke. Now when I say He spoke, I don't mean audibly but to my heart. It was clear what I was to do. I bought the Bibles, not to give away, but to use. God impressed with the need to take Grandma's and Grandpa's Bibles and use them when I preach, when I study, during my quite time. Why? So that I'll remember to pray for the two children whose names are in the front and for all the children of this rich nation who are not being taught the values of His word and the value of the their soul. 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Permission is granted to use this story in less than nonprofit publications that are less than 1,000 in circulation as long as this tag appears along with the author's name: Printed with the permission of Net 153 Publications http://www.net153.com

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