"The Gideons"

"The Gideons"

   

    As we traveled recently, I was pleased and grateful to see a Gideon Bible in the hotel room wherein we stayed.

    "The Lord gave the Word; great was the company of those that published it" (Psalm 68:11).

    In the current climate of our culture, I am almost surprised that hotels still allow the Gideons to continue their long tradition of placing a copy of the Scriptures in bedside drawers.  I prayerfully hope it continues, which yet again leads to thanksgiving for a ministry that has distributed 1.5 billion Bibles in their 119 year existence.  The first Bible I ever owned came from the Gideons.  My sixth grade history teacher invited several men from the ministry come to class one day for the purpose of giving New Testaments to each student who wanted a copy.  I'll never forget how it felt to receive that which I knew was something very special.  I did not become a believer until six years later, but I have no doubt the Gideons played a role in my salvation by faithfully disseminating God's Word.  "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).  

   The day may come when hotels and other institutions will succumb to cultural pressure and no longer allow the distribution and presence of Gideon Bibles.  I pray not, but if it happens, I have no doubt the organization will still find ways to get God's Word to people. The Lord who "gave the Word" will see to that, I'm sure.  And great will be the company of those that continue to publish it, as led and enabled by the Holy Spirit.  This serves as a great example to all believers as the Lord works in each of us to find ways to share His truth with our particular worlds.  "Here am I, send me" prayed the prophet of old (Isaiah 6:3).  May it be our request as well regarding the declaration of the Bible's revelation of God's saving grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thoughts of the Gideons motivate such determination, yet another reason to be grateful for a ministry that bears faithful witness to the living Word, the Lord Jesus, and the written Word, the Bible.  And, a faithful example.

"Finally brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified."

(II Thessalonians 3:1)

Weekly Memory Verse

  "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18)