Hiding the Word

We are called to move forward in the Lord, to grow spiritually, to radiate His glory through our lives. We get a glimpse into God's will in our lives in the words of Paul in Colossians 1:
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God...

How do we gain that knowledge?  By reading and studying God's Word, and living it out.  Our acceptance of the Word into our hearts and minds will produce the spiritual fruit that the Lord desires, so that His light and love will flow through us.  We can know Him by interacting with the Scriptures and fellowshipping with Him.  Jesus teaches us that we are to abide in Him, so that He can produce fruit to His glory.

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Jesus shared a parable in Mark 4 about the nature of God's Word, where it is sown, and how it
becomes effective in our lives. We can read, beginning in verse 14:
14 The sower sows the word.
15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.
18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."

I came across a story the other day in the Montgomery Advertiser that caught my attention.  It had to do with a Bible that had been placed in the Court Square area of downtown Montgomery.  Seems a man named Ben Davis, back in the 40's, had arranged with the city to place an open Bible in that location.  His grandson, Lawrence Glass, was in Montgomery recently for a rededication ceremony for the Bible display, including its pedestal.  Glass said: "Granddaddy and I would go to church on a Sunday morning. We'd walk," and he added: "He didn't like driving a car even to come downtown. We'd go to church and walk down and change the page on the Bible. ... Some of the best days I ever had."

The article goes on to say:

Davis thought a Bible in a public place might help people even if they only read it out of boredom, according to Kathryn Tucker Wyndham who wrote "Alabama, One Big Front Porch."

And, it quotes Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange:

"Thousands of people waiting for a bus or walking across the street or just wandering aimlessly around to kill time have passed by the open Bible to read a few verses of the scripture," Strange read paraphrasing Wyndham. "Reading from that Bible is a downtown habit for some businessmen."

The rededication occurred because the Bible display had been moved during the reconstruction of what is now Montgomery Plaza.  But, since the 40's, when the Bible had been placed there originally, there has been an air of mystery.

According to the article, seems back in 2009, then-mayor Bobby Bright, in preparation for Christmas, wanted the Bible, which had been covered by a purple cloth, unveiled and turned to the Christmas story.  He dispatched leisure services director Scott Miller to do the deed.  But, it was a bit more difficult than expected.  The article states:

"It hadn't been opened in a long time. It took me about three hours to find the key to it. I went there and took that purple top off and it was a phone book. (There) was no Bible," Miller said.

Miller said he went to the store and replaced the telephone book with an actual Bible to satisfy the new mayor's order.

Who knows how the phone book got there, but it's apparently still a mystery about where the original Bible went. And, since the printing press was invented a long time ago for the purpose of communicating God's Word, it's fitting that a local printer actually made this available to the city.

Well, I'm thankful for a city that is dedicated to putting the Bible on display in a strategic location in the downtown area.  That type of religious freedom is not common in all parts of the world.  For instance, a recent Christian Headlines story related that:

Tourists who display a Bible or take more than one into the country could face possible arrest in Saudi Arabia, according to the Barnabus Fund.

“The new regulations for tourists state that a Bible may be brought into the country provided it is for personal use only,” the statement said. “Bibles must not be displayed in public and anyone found bringing a large number of Bibles will face ‘severe penalties.’”

As the article points out, in Saudi Arabia, it is against the law to convert to Christianity.  And, it's pointed out that visiting Christians from other countries practice their faith in private.  This new law was developed to encourage tourism to the Saudi kingdom.

So, Saudi Arabia is basically saying to hide your Bible; in Montgomery, the Bible had been stolen and its display case covered for quite a few years until a recent discovery.  That speaks powerfully to how we are to live out the Word: don't hide it.  The Word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path, according to Psalm 119, and Jesus told us in Matthew 5 to not hide our light under a basket.  In our culture and even in the Church, we can find that the truth of God's Word has been hidden and is not readily evident; its contents have been rejected.  We have to guard our hearts to make sure the enemy doesn't steal the God-honoring content that is embedded within.

But, the Bible does say that we are to hide the Scriptures in a very important way: to hide it in your heart.  That means to me that we are to allow His truth to penetrate our hearts in such a profound way that it becomes part of our consciousness and our very being.  We can release the power of God's Word, as it is suggested in Psalm 119: "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!"

We can be cautioned to not hinder the work of the Word.  Jesus taught in Mark 4 in the parable of the sower that there are forces that would come to render the word ineffective.  He talked about the types of ground - and how the Word can be stolen or even "choked out."  We can make sure that we are allowing His Word to grow and flourish in us.