I sat down at my portable piano/keyboard on Thursday to practice a new song. I wasn’t surprised to find a thin layer of dust covering it. It’s that time of year. The windows are open and if I am not constantly using something, it will be covered in dust. The song Dust on the Bible immediately came to mind. I’m not sharing it here, because it has the implication in it that you can somehow earn salvation simply by reading it, when we know that salvation is by Grace through faith and that it is through Jesus Christ, and Him alone, not our own works that we are saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast”Titus 3:5
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
But getting back to the dust, I thought to myself how much better it is to have dust on piano keys than dust on my Bible. I’m not referring to my actual paper copy of the King James Bible languishing in my carryall bag, but rather every single copy I have of it, on my Kindle, my computer, my phone, audio versions, paper copies, etc. It doesn’t matter whether I read an electronic version or a paper version, it is the same King James Bible. The dust I refer to is metaphorical. If I were to choose not to read the word and let days, weeks, or even months go by without opening it, my own understanding would go dusty. Reading God’s word isn’t like reading other books. We can’t just read it once and be done with it. To really grow we need to read, study, and pray. Whenever possible.
2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
How can we study if we don’t even read? The more I read the word, the more jumps out at me. New things come to light with each new reading. Some people say that there is a certain number of pages we should read in a day, I disagree. The important thing is to stay in the Bible, read it regularly and pray about gaining understanding. God gives wisdom to those who ask for it.
James 1:5
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
Last night, I listened to my Bible as I went to sleep. I do this most nights. It is a way for me to get a deeper understanding by meditating on what I hear as I fall asleep. I was back in the book of Genesis. Jacob/Israel gave the blessing to Joseph’s children and then to his own children. He also asked Joseph to carry his bones to the cave in the land of Caanan and bury him there. There was so much there to think about. Why did Joseph have his father embalmed? Why was there a forty day “fulfilling” period for those who were embalmed? Why did it matter where Israel’s bones were laid? And don’t even get me started on the blessings, there is so much to be understood in those verses. It’s easy to just skim over the words in the book only retaining the milk and totally missing the meat of the subject. If we take the time to think about the things that God told us, we will always be better off. God didn’t waste words. None of the Bible is extraneous detail. If He put it in there, you can be assured, there is a reason it’s there. (I have to remind myself of that every time I get to a genealogy list of whom begat whom.)
So, anyway, back to my portable piano/keyboard. Maybe I should practice more, so it doesn’t have the chance to get dusty. I started learning to play a few years ago. I go through spurts. Some weeks I play almost every day for hours and hours. Other weeks, I don’t even touch it. I should practice more. I know that. I have a lot of excuses. The same ones I use to avoid writing. I’m in pain, I don’t feel good, I’m busy with taking care of life stuff, and the list goes on. I won’t dwell on it too much or beat myself up over it. I hope to build better habits to get my writing and my piano playing firmly into my daily schedule, but as long as I keep my Bible and my prayer time there, I have everything I need. Everything else is secondary.
Share your thoughts about dusty Bibles in the comments section below.
(All verse references are taken from the Authorized Version of the Bible, commonly referred to as the King James Version.)
