You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your Word. —Psalm 119:65

I'll always remember the Bible teacher who held up his well-worn Bible and said, "Every believer should wreck a copy of the Bible every 10 years." In other words, we should use our Bibles so much that they gradually wear out. His challenge also reminds me of the saying: "A Bible that's falling apart is usually owned by someone who isn't!" This certainly became true for me.

I'm not proud of the years when my Bible was considerably under-used. During that time, I was falling apart instead of my Bible. Amazingly, God used my condition as a means of whetting my appetite for His Word.

One day I sensed that God was reminding me that His Word is full of truth that works. From that point on, I desired to put those truths into action in my life. For me, the Bible was no longer just a guilt producer and a dust collector. Little by little, as I read it, digested it, and underlined key phrases, my Bible began falling apart instead of me!

In the margin of many pages in D. L. Moody's Bible, he wrote the letters T and P, meaning "Tried and Proved." He had put into practice passages from God's Word, proving that they work. You too can try and prove God's wonder-working Word.

-JEY

My Bible—worn from years of fingered use,
Penciled margins, verses underlined,
With edges frayed and many pages loose—
Shows where God impressed my heart and mind.

-F. Hess

The Bible is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions.