[tried and proven: adding meaning to your bible]

life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you're not looking. i mean, in less than a year, i met a beautiful young woman, started dating, met her family, fell in love with her family, made some mistakes, grown a lot, abruptly stopped dating, grew some more, moved out on my own, and started working in a hotel.

now i'm probably moving away from north carolina out to california for a change of schools and a change of scenery. and yet through all of the tumultuous times, God has proven faithful.

God is faithful. He has always been faithful, and He will always remain faithful.

to illustrate:

a few years ago an elderly saint passed away. she lived alone in her house and she had outlived all of her closest friends. her children came in from all over the country for the funeral. her pastor who only knew of her in passing, came to ask her children about their mother so that he might say some kind things about her at her funeral.

her children informed him that they really had no information that he might find useful, but they handed him her old, well-worn bible. he thanked them and got into his car. when he arrived at his home, he pulled out the bible and began to explore. pen marks and hand-written notes were everywhere. tithing envelopes and bulletins spilled from the covers. bookmarks seperated out the most often visited locations in the bible for easy access and one thing kept catching the pastor's eye.

on the margins of the page next to the verse numbers, two letters kept appearing. tp followed by numbers. perplexed, the pastor called the woman's eldest son and asked if he could help to sort out what these letters and numbers may have symbolized. he told the pastor that he had no clue but one of his sisters may. after asking each of the children and no answer given, the pastor committed to continuing searching through this bible.

as he flipped through the psalms, he began to see a pattern. the letters frequently appeared by promises and by descriptions of who God is. but this still gave no indication as to what the letters meant.

finally, the pastor caught a break when he saw the words tried and proven next to a particularly strong promise in isaiah. this revelation challenged the pastor. it was also then that the pastor realized that the numbers were not random, but dates. here he was looking into the life of a woman of strong faith. she had dared to take God at His word and hold Him accountable to proving He meant what He said. and God had proven every single promise to her.

at the funeral, the pastor rose to give the eulogy, and something began to happen. as he recounted how he did had not taken the opportunity to get to know this saintly sister, he suddenly realized that her greatest legacy was not something that could even be measured by man.

she had a thick bible. a bible full of meaning and proofs. a bible that was more than a collection of revered words, but precious promises.

do you have a thick bible full of meaning and proven promises or is yours thin and lifeless?