I watched the film The Book of Eli this week. The movie wasn't too bad. I would have made some different choices here and there... And since this movie gives a message that has value to Christians, I would certainly have had that message play out in a different way. But over all it was good... just be sure you can handle a few killings along the ride.The Book of Eli shows life in a world about 30 years after a catastrophic global war. It is a world of terror and survival and there are very few copies of the Bible that survived the war and its aftermath. Eli feels called to protect his copy of the King James Bible and bring it "west." In a world where people kill for the simplest of things, there is a great danger in being the keeper of this book of "power."
How easy it is for us to take the Bible for granted. Billions of Bibles have been produced and I'm sure billions more will be produced. It continues to be world's best selling book. You don't have look too far to get an English translation of the Bible for yourself at no costs. There are not too many churches that would turn you away empty handed. Our congregation just ordered two more cases of give-away Bibles just waiting to be given away.
So yeah the printed Word is all over the place. I have no less than a couple dozen of them in my office alone. But God is not interested in us filling our shelves with Bibles. A heart filled with the Word beats a dozen cases of Bibles.
Test yourself someday. How much of the Bible has been planted in your heart? If you needed to write it down from memory, how many stories about Christ would you remember? How many of Paul's illustrations about God's love through Christ would you know? How many of the Psalms would get in your book? How much of the Genesis family tree would be included?
The day may come when that Bible on your shelf won't be available and give-away copies might not be waiting on a tall pile for you to take one. Open the Scriptures and study the Word and allow God to write his story into your heart.
