You Gotta Read This! Vol. 1

Hi there, art blog friends! Happy December! I love that we get to chat about all kinds of things on this blog. Art, of course, is a biggie. We discuss artistic tools, techniques, inspirations and even struggles. I also share a lot about life, faith, prayer, and my relationship with God. However, this week I would like to talk to you about something new - books! Ok, so books themselves are not exactly “new,” but this segment is :). I am happy to introduce the first ever installment of: You Gotta Read This! Once a month, I will share a special book that has inspired me, encouraged me, and impacted me so profoundly that I just can’t keep it to myself! Sounds pretty awesome, huh?

I have read a LOT of fantastic books lately (hence the inspiration for this new segment) but I would be remiss if I didn’t kick off the list with The Book. Yes, there is one book that has impacted my life more than any other… you guessed it - THE BIBLE! 

You might be thinking: “Angela, The Bible is not new. It’s a really old book.” Or perhaps you’re thinking, “The Bible is not new to me. I know my Bible, I read my Bible all the time! I even go to Bible study every Thursday, for crying out loud!” And you would be absolutely correct (that the Bible is very old, I can honestly say that I have no notion of your Bible Study attendance). The Scriptures contained in The Bible have been around for several thousand years. Printed versions of the Good Book have been around since 1455 (thank you Mr. Gutenberg) and mass produced versions have been in circulation since 1611 (big shout out to King James).  But actually getting your hands on a Bible wasn’t always as simple as a click on Amazon or taking a stroll down to your local Christian bookstore. Don’t believe me? Just Google the topic: “Protestant Reformation” and you’ll see what I mean. 

Today, there is a veritable rainbow of versions of The Bible available. It seems like there is a Bible in every flavor - Old English Bibles, plain language Bibles, comic book Bibles, Bibles for teenage girls, and Bibles for manly men, even digital Bibles on your smartphone! We’ve come a long way from the Gutenberg Bible, that’s for sure. Sadly though, there are still a lot of places where it is difficult to obtain any Bible. In fact, there are many countries in our modern world that are classified as “Closed Countries.” These are nations where Christianity is forbidden and owning a Bible is ILLEGAL! 

The Action Bible Expanded Edition: God's Redemptive Story by Sergio Cariello | David C Cook 2020 

(image retrieved from: https://theactionbible.com)

I have to admit, it’s hard for my American brain to grasp this idea. I remember the first time it hit me just how incredibly blessed I am to live in country where religious freedom is the norm. I was reading Brother Yun’s book The Heavenly Man (which I will totally do a You Gotta Read This! article about at some point). In his testimony, Brother Yun, recounts coming to faith and expresses his profound longing for the Word of God. He tells of intensively fasting and praying for God to send him a Bible because there was literally no other way to get one in China at that point in time. *Spoiler Alert* God miraculously answered his prayer and had a forbidden Bible HAND DELIVERED to his door! Brother Yun’s description of holding his new Bible for the first time, like some sort of mythic treasure, hit my heart like a ton of bricks! I was convicted. Do I hold my Bible like that? Do I cradle it in my arms like the priceless Word of God that it is? I had no idea when I first walked up to the info desk at church, as a newbie believer, and said “I’d like one free Bible, please” just how special that experience was. God forgive me, I had no idea.

My freebie Bible and I have gone through a lot of stuff together and it will always have a special place in my heart. I will never forget how surprised I was the first time I read The Bible for myself. I was down right shocked at the things that were in there… as well as the things that weren’t. In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), he begins a number of his statements with the phrase “you have heard that it was said ________.” Jesus then follows the flawed or incomplete interpretation with “but truly I tell you ________.” This was how I felt. I had heard that it was said. And thanks to TV and a very liberal art college, I had heard that it was said about a LOT of things! I had heard that it was said that the God of the Old Testament was a vengeful God, full of wrath, smiting entire civilizations on a whim. Instead I found a loving God, full of compassion, waiting patiently (sometimes for generations) to fulfill his promises. I had heard that the heroes of the Bible like Abraham, King David, and Jesus’ disciples were great men of impeccable character, instead I found deeply flawed humans who made mistakes (just like me). I also found that that same loving and patient God used them despite those mistakes, sometimes because they were flawed and broken. My eyes were opened and never again would I blindly accept what someone told about The Bible. And, after learning about the struggle of believers in closed countries, never again would I take owning one for granted!

Eight years have passed since the first time that I opened the cover of my freebie Bible. God has taught me SO MUCH and He continues to reveal new and exciting things to me on a daily basis! Along the way, He has also implanted a love in my heart for the persecuted church while simultaneously placing in me a deep appreciation for the blessing of the freedom which I enjoy. I have made it a point to exercise this freedom and acquire lots of Bibles (and treat them like the treasure that they are). My religious freedom as an American is a gift from God and one that I plan on making the most of!   

A while back, I stumbled across an entirely new genre of Bibles that I didn’t even know existed. I was searching for a version that presented the text in a single column. I find the classic two column set-up distracting when I’m trying to read out loud. I knew there had to be some special version floating around out there for people like me. In my Googling, I discovered a subcategory called “Note Taker’s Bibles.” These Bibles present the text in a single column format and have extra room on the side of the page to take notes in. Wait, back the truck up! I thought to myself. They make Bibles that you are supposed to write in? And if they make Bibles that you can take notes in, that means they make Bibles that you can DRAW IN! That’s a thing?! Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s a thing. Note Taker’s Bibles also come is several different translations, and have a variety of cover styles. Now, I know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts but my artistic heart just fell in love with one of the pretty ones. After some soul searching, I decided that there was no crime in having the outside of my Bible match the beauty that was waiting to be found on the inside. 

When my pretty new CSB Hosanna Revival Notetaking Bible arrived in the mail, I carefully unwrapped it with awe and reverence. Inside and out, it was beautiful! The cover was beautiful, the special hard cover box was beautiful, and best of all, the text was beautiful. And I could read it! I  slid my hand gently over the pristine pages and pondered all their potential. I imagined the empty columns and cover pages filled with illustrations reflecting the ideas and events of the passages. My mind then wandered to “someday.” Someday, I daydreamed, someday I will hand this book to my grandchild. This book - that is the very expression of God’s heart - will be held by my descendant and it will be full of drawings that show how it touched mine. No matter what happens, what laws are passed, or what government officials decree, my family will have this Bible. Wow! What a vision!

This was an amazing inspiration and one that I have not taken lightly. For months, I have carefully selected and highlighted passages. Verses that I wanted to remember and locate quickly, verses that I was inspired to draw, and most importantly verses that I want my children’s children to know. Some are new verses that God has shown me as I’ve read through this new-to-me translation (CSB). Others are old ones from my first Bible (an NIV). I have transcribed these older ones alongside the new text in an effort to preserve them just as God gave them to me. 

 

I have always found drawing on expensive paper a bit intimidating, so you can image my mental block about working on the very pages of the WORD OF GOD. I thought long and hard about where I would start. What would be the very first piece? Which verse? What style? After much time and deliberation, I determined (with the Holy Spirit’s help) that it would be best to start at the beginning. Not “The Beginning,” as in the book of Genesis, but rather, the beginning for me. I remember the very first time God gave me a special verse that felt like a promise all my own (I would later come to know that this was called “getting a word from God”). I was attempting to read my free Bible for the first time and had made it to the book of Jeremiah. 

I’ve heard it said that starting at “The Beginning” (Genesis) and slogging through the Old Testament all by one’s self is not the greatest strategy for a new believer. In hindsight, I can totally understand why. There were many things that were foreign and confusing to me, lots of people who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (common description in the books of 1st and 2nd Kings) BUT, ultimately, God blessed my efforts all the same! So here it is, the first message that God spoke directly to me through scripture - Jeremiah 29:11. 

“For, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV). 

I still remember thinking about how nice that sounded. I remember how much hope and comfort the words from Jeremiah 29:11 gave me at such a seemingly chaotic time in my life. And I remember realizing that God wasn’t just talking about the Israelites, God was talking to me. God had a plan specifically for me? God was going to protect me and planned to give me some sort of special future? …And that future involved prospering? Wow! 

I still remember how a smile warmed my face as that promise sank into my mind. I couldn’t see how it was going to happen but prospering, hope, and a future sure sounded better than what I was living. I had no idea. God had given me a promise and He always keeps His promises. 

I still can’t boast that I fully comprehend the “Jeremiah promise” He gave me all those years ago; even after everything I’ve seen God do in my life, the depths He has delivered me from, and the heights that He has taken me to. The truth is that I have only glimpsed a little piece of the plan… mainly, because God’s not done! His plan for me (and all of us) is still unfolding. The promise is still taking place. There is one thing though that I can say with absolute certainty, one thing that all my Bible Study has confirmed - God’s plan is a good one and thanks to Him, I have hope and a future. 

P.S. If the plight of our Christian Brothers and Sisters in closed countries has hit your heart, and you would like to do something proactive about it, please check out Back To Jerusalem’s ministry. Back To Jerusalem is an amazing movement that strives to bring the Gospel message and the love of Jesus to the least preached parts of the world.  BackToJerusalem.com is an amazing resource which shares news updates from the present day persecuted church, real stories from real people all over the world. This international network of brave souls also fearlessly prints and distributes Bibles, hand delivering them into some of the most dangerous places on Earth. You can support their Bible distribution effort financially by clicking here. I am also a HUGE FAN of BTJ’s testimony books and wholeheartedly recommend them… but that is a blog post for another time :).