Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

• Joshua 8:34-35

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

• John 3:16-21

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

• John 15:9-17

Remember the old joke or was it a brain teaser?

“What is black and white and read all over?”

Of course, when the question is not given orally, the question becomes a BIG hint.  Everyone think the three colors when they hear the question: black, white, and red.

The answer used to be “newspaper,” but do they print those anymore?  You know, white paper, black ink, and you read them all over, front and back of each sheet.

But it could apply to a Bible in more than one way.  With white or black binding, it could be black ink on white paper, but then there is the “red letter” edition which has everything that God says in red letters.  Of course, there is the BRG Bible, which has the words of God, the Father, in blue, Jesus in red, and the Holy Spirit in Gold.  I do not have one of those.

The third option is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) version which removes the diety and holiness of God and places even the God of the Bible in subjection to the CCP.  Since communism usually goes with the color Red, that would be a different form of RED, but I would not recommend it.

The key is to read the Bible.

Black ink on white paper collecting dust is simply something that needs dusting.

In this electronic age, you do not even need to read it.  There are many applications on the computer or the phone that reads it to you, but we each need to be absorbed in the Word of God.

Another question that I have heard a lot in my youth?

“Have you read any good books lately?”

And I have had occasion to say, “I’ve read the Good Book, the Bible.”

Unless the person asking is a regular church goer, that answer might throw them off.  Maybe that gives you a chance to talk about God with them.

But if you wish to grow in faith, and we should all wish to be more like Jesus, Bible reading and prayer are very important.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.