The first Christmas after I was called to preach, my wife asked me what I would like for Christmas? I told her I wanted a red Bible. She asked me why would I want a red Bible? I told her that I heard Maze Jackson preaching one time and he was talking about his red Bible, he said that he always used it when he was preaching as a reminder of the blood. When I told my wife that story I thought she would forget about it before she had a chance to go shopping, and even though I really wouldn't have minded having a red Bible I didn't think she would get me one. The way Christmas always worked around our house was I would buy her and my son what they wanted, they would get me a couple of small gifts and if there was something that I really wanted I would just buy it after Christmas.
I soon forgot about the conversation I had with my wife about the Bible. Well Christmas morning finally came and after all of the gifts had been opened, my wife handed one more. I unwrapped a brand new BLACK Old Scolfield study Bible. She started explaining that she had looked everywhere for a red Bible, but couldn't find one. It meant the world to me that she would work so hard to try and find me the perfect Bible. I knew it cost more than I would let her spend on me, so I promised myself I would never write any notes in it, that I would keep it in as good of condition as I could.
I was getting a sermon ready one night and started thinking about how that Bible came to be mine, and I told myself that Maze may have had a red one, but I have a black one that will always remind me that God had given me my perfect help meet, to stand by me in the Ministry.
During a sermon, I was preaching on the value of the Bible, when for some reason I told the story that Maze Jackson had told that night about his red Bible. I don't know why I told it, because it wasn't in my notes and I hadn't even thought of story in years. When I finished the story, I looked out at the crowd and took what the professional speakers would call a dramatic pause. I simply called it trying to figure out how to get back on my subject.
As I was standing there I looked down on the pulpit at that same black Bible my wife had worked so hard to buy for me that Christmas, and I picked it up and walked down off of the platform. I walked all the way up to about the second row of pews and I said "I don't want a red Bible, I don't want a hardback Bible, I don't want a paperback Bible." I said "I want a Bible with a leather cover." Maze Jackson said he wanted a red one to remind him of the blood when he looked at it. I went on to tell the crowd that night, that I wanted a leather Bible so when I held it I could the feel the leather against my hand, I could hear the creak that leather makes as it gets broken in. I want a leather Bible so every time I pick it up I am reminded that an animal had to die so the printer could make the book I was holding. I told that church that night that I wanted to be reminded that an animal had to die to make the cover, of the book that was in my hand so it would always remind me that a Lamb had to be slain to make the book that was in my hand, more than a book.
Whenever I pick my Bible up and I feel that leather in my hand, I am reminded that it isn't just a book to be taken lightly, but it is the Word of God. It is the mind of God. It is the love of God. That leather reminds me when I hold it in my hands, I hold the very breath of God. That leather reminds me when I open it, that I open the mind of God. That leather tells me when I read it, it tells me the price of God's love, it tells me of the death of God's son because of his love for me.
If you like a paperback Bible I don't mind one bit, but please don't take it the wrong way when I say:
I don't want a paperback Bible.
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