A Day in the Life. . .
The supernaturally inspired, powerful, comforting Word of God. . .sitting in a warehouse in Colorado Springs or a Lifeway bookstore in Plano. It may stay there for months, unused and unread. The shelf it sits on is quite boring for this Bible. This Bible seeks adventure. It seeks to travel to a home next door, a street corner in the next county, or a far away land that it’s never been before. Most of all, this Bible seeks to touch someone’s heart with the love of God and show them how life can be purposeful and abundant! It wants to fulfill its purpose!
Once this Bible is purchased with your donation to Urban Bible Outreach, it is inventoried, its price labels removed, and it waits just a short time to arrive in its new home. In a matter of days, this unused and unread Bible could be in the calloused and worn hands of a homeless man who woke up that morning thinking that not a soul cared about him. He only has the clothes on his back and feels worthless as a human, but now this new Bible feels like his greatest possession on earth. Just to receive something new. . .and the volunteer that handed it to him prayed with him, gave him some food, a new pair of shoes and invited him to take a shower in their facility. He is beginning to feel a little bit of dignity again. He settles down for the night, his stomach full and his heart touched, and he opens this new, crisp Bible to Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” The Holy Spirit reveals to him, through this Bible, that he is not alone, he is loved deeply, and he is not worthless but rather rejoiced over.
Or maybe this new Bible finds its way to a woman struggling with 3 children in a domestic abuse shelter. She is hiding from her husband who has already bruised her body and her heart more times than she can count. Although she desires for him to change so that they can be a family again, she has her doubts, and it has left her feeling terribly abandoned and alone. But as she has finally quieted her children and they sleep safely beside her, she opens her new Bible, lovingly given to her by a volunteer at the shelter (and prayerfully donated by you and Urban Bible Outreach). She opens to Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” and to Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The tears begin to fall down her cheeks as the wall she built to be safe from the world is now hurdled by a loving Savior-hero. And her children, with their first-ever Bible in their sticky yet sweet hands, look at pictures of boys and girls crawling up into Jesus’ lap as he says, “‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these'” (Matthew 19:14).
This is our desire and prayer for each and every Bible that passes through our hands into the life of one in need. It’s a day in the life of an Urban Bible Outreach Bible. Thank you for being a part of that journey.