What If You Are the Only Bible Someone Ever Reads? — Part One

Bottom line upfront: The most-read Bible in America right now isn't printed on paper. It isn't on an app. It's walking around in your skin.

Let me tell you about a dream I had the other night.

Char and I had finally gotten away. You may remember when Back to the Bible almost went under last year. Because of that my wife and I chose to cancel our annual anniversary trip (but not our marriage!). And as you remember, it was through a string of small miracles that BttB made it through. So this year in April Char and I took three weeks just to sit on a beach. The ocean used to be our whole life. Salt water, no schedule, just cruising from one adventure to another.

So maybe there was leftover ocean still sloshing around in my head. I don't know. But the other night I had this dream and it was a doozy.

In the dream I was back on my old boat. I walked in and bought it on impulse then threw a huge surprise party for myself. My friends kept calling it a yacht. Char was a little annoyed, but I figured she'd come around. I felt smart. Successful. Admired. I had finally — finally — arrived.

And right there, in the middle of all that imaginary applause, Francis Chan's voice cut through the noise like a flare:

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure — but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

I woke up and looked out the window. No boat. No yacht. No ocean. Just horses chewing hay.

And right then — I am not making this up — Char forwards me an email. It was from a woman I could not pick out of a police lineup if my life depended on it. I honestly to this day do not remember her.  And here she is, after fifteen years of silence telling Char and I that what our family taught her way back then is still shaping her marriage, her parenting and the way she's raising her own daughter around horses today. She mentioned Lola, our old barn kitty. She mentioned Cashy, the horse we let her ride. She thanked us for the humility, grace, and life lessons we taught: much more than just horsemanship.

I sat there feeling like an idiot.

Not because it was bad news. It was wonderful news. It's just that I am constantly amazed at how slow I am to catch on to the simplest things about the way the Lord works. She didn't remember a sermon. She didn't remember a Bible study. What she remembered was a life — lived close enough that she could read it.

And here's what hits me harder than the dream.

According to our SALT Index research, more than half of Americans never read the Bible. Not on Sunday or Monday or any other day of the week. Think about that. If half your neighbors will never crack open the Word — not the church-hurt ones, not the nones, not the spiritually curious folks reading horoscopes on their lunch break — then how on earth is the gospel supposed to reach them?

Paul gave us the answer. I just keep forgetting it.

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." — 2 Corinthians 3:2–3

You are the letter. Your life is the page. The Holy Spirit is the pen. And somebody in your orbit — a coworker, a grandkid, a student you may never hear from again— is reading you right now. They may never read a Bible, but they are reading you.

Now let me catch myself before I run too far with this. Because if you stopped reading right here, you might walk away thinking the key to sharing the gospel is to just be a nice person and let people figure Jesus out on their own. It isn't.

Yes, a readable life cracks the door open, but the door still has to be walked through. The same Paul who referred to the Corinthian believers as “his letter,” spent the rest of his life pleading with people, and reasoning and begging people to "be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). Jesus commanded both actions: “let your light shine” (Matthew 5:16) and “go make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). In other words, walk it and talk it.

Sit with these questions this week and be honest when you answer them:

• If someone read only your life for five years — not your social media, not your church attendance, just you — would they end up hungry to open the Bible themselves?

• Do the people closest to you know you belong to Jesus? And do they know why?

• What if you are the only Bible someone ever reads?

We'll dig into this more next Sunday.

Because if it’s true that as Christ Followers we are the only Bible someone may ever read —and the data screams that it is — then what you do today matters more than you think. And this is especially true for the folks in or approaching retirement who quietly believe their best Kingdom days are behind them and then quietly hide themselves away like a forgotten book in a library basement. You are precisely the people God is still using.

Don't take yourself out of circulation.

All in, eyes up! 

—Arnie

P.S. Join me this week on the Spiritually Fit Today podcast where I talk with my friend and pastor John Comstock about the power of shame and how we can overcome it.