Genuine Leather Bible

Reading in 1 Samuel the other day I read the story in chapters 4 through 7 where the ark was taken from Israel by the Philistines.

3 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was come into the camp. 7 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. 8 Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

—1 Samuel 4:3-9

The presence of the ark represented the presence of God. However, in this passage it seems that the focus is on the ark itself and not on the God of the ark.

In the next chapter the baby named Ichabod was born. His name means “the glory is departed.” His mother was the daughter-in-law of Eli, the priest who raised Samuel. When the baby’s mother learned that the ark was taken and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, she also died in childbirth. Spiritually and emotionally this was a tough time for Israel.

We don’t need to depend on a physical object that can be taken away from us to have God’s power and glory in our lives. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have the presence of God with us at all times. It is a matter of acknowledging God’s presence and allowing Him to work in and through us.

Through the course of the story the Philistines were punished by the presence of the ark. They even gifted the ark to one of their enemies as a way of bringing God’s judgment on that nation as well. The enemy understood the awesome power of God even if the Israelites occasionally took God’s power for granted.

Like most kids growing up in a Christian school I had to read a little bit about George Washington Carver as part of my education. However it has been many years since I read about this great scientist and Christian. I was excited for the opportunity to read about Dr. Carver again. Thomas Nelson has a new series called the Christian Encounters Series in which they have biographies of great Christians of the past. I had not read any of these books before, but will likely read more based on this title.

This biography focused on two things that shed some interesting light on the man and the time period. First was his relationship with Booker T. Washington. The second was his view of the scientific method. With those two items the author wove in some of the socio-political environment that surrounded the time.

Booker T. Washington was the man who started the great school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where Dr. Carver spent the majority of his career as a teacher and researcher. While these two men worked with each other for many years, they had a rough personal relationship. They both had common goals, but their approach was completely different on how to achieve those goals. This brought tension in their day-to-day work environment. It seemed Carver tendered his resignation a couple of times each year while Washington was still alive. Washington never accepted the resignation letter because he knew that he was completely dependent on Carver and what he added to the school. They had a mutual respect for one another and publicly spoke highly of the other man. However, privately they seemed to struggle and were constantly frustrated with the actions of the other.

Carver believed that God revealed to him what facets of research he should be engaged in. Because of this, he did not have any regard for the scientific method (the idea that a scientist would document each variable in his research so that he could know what did and did not produce the results that were seen). Since Carver did not take exhaustive notes of his research, he had to rely on intuition and past experience to know what caused the results. This was not because of laziness on his part. He honestly believed that if one was in tune with God and His leading, then God would reveal and guide the scientist to the right answers. Carver understood the scientific method, but he believed it was an un-Christian way to do research.

For all the good points Dr. Carver had, he seemed to be overly focused on recognition for his accomplishments. He would rather have someone publicly recognize his achievements as opposed to give him large sums of money for his work. This need for public recognition was much of what caused the tension between him and Washington. Money meant nothing to him. In fact, he saved virtually every dollar he earned and gave it away to different causes towards the end of his life.

The book is well written and moves the story along. While not everyone is looking for a quick read, I personally like an overview-type biography. This book is just 176 pages. Though I have not read any books by John Perry, I am interested in other books he has written in the Christian Encounters Series.

George Washington Carver by John Perry. Thomas Nelson 2011.

[Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.]

I just finished reading the book of Judges which is typified with the cycle of the Children of Israel falling into sin. They are punished by God through another nation or judge. The people then repent and find deliverance. Yet, they fall back into sin once again.

The final verse of the book, Judges 21:25, gives a summary of the problem.

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

The Israelites are typical of people throughout the ages. We want to do what is right in our own way of thinking.

Rightness and wrongness are not determined by our feelings or opinions. It is determined by God’s Word.

In the book of Judges the people did not just do wrong to rebel against God; they justified their actions. What about us today? Are we trying to justify our actions by our own thinking? You may not think that you are going against God and His Word, but any time you think your situation justifies your disobedience to the Bible, then you are falling into the same trap of sin that the Children of Israel fell into. According to the cycle in the book of Judges, the next step in your life is judgment. Consider carefully how you proceed from here.

In Mark 15:21 we read:

And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.

It is interesting that the two boys are mentioned as if they were known to the readers. Simon, their father, was a “passer by” when the Romans compelled him to carry the cross of Jesus. He was from the modern country of Libya.

Could he and his family been in Jerusalem because they had heard of Jesus and were seeking to learn about Him? Or, was this encounter with the Lord what set this family on a quest to know the Lord and become known to the early church?

Mark mentions this family as if they were friends of the readers. A Rufus is also mentioned in Romans 16:13. This might have been the same man. Paul, many years after the cruxifiction, sends his greetings to Rufus.

Simon seems to be a common name in the Bible. Rufus is only mentioned twice. There are various Alexanders mentioned in the Bible. But it doesn’t seem that any of them would be the Alexander mentioned in Mark 15.

Whoever they were to the early church in Rome or Jerusalem, they seemed to be well known at the time.

Have you been in churches and seen people over and over, but never really known who they were? Not everyone has a public ministry, but each should be involved enough that other people know them. As I prepare to leave a church I have been in for a year and a half, I am surprised by the handful of people who I have seen at church on a regular basis, but I have no idea what their name is or what they do. They are never at church for anything other than to slip in unnoticed and slip out before people can get to know them.

Do you feel like you are lost in the crowd at church? Maybe it is not because everyone is rude and doesn’t want to spend time with you. Maybe it is because you have not made an effort to hang around for a few minutes and meet other believers.

The Book of Missionary Heroes was one I saw recently offered on the Kindle for free. I was surprised to find in it a very well written book. The vast majority of the missionary stories were new to me. Most of the missionaries mentioned were men and women I had never heard of either. Because of this, it was not a re-telling of many familiar tales. It was an encouraging timeline of how the Gospel has propagated throughout the world.

The author, Basil Mathews, starts by telling the story of the Apostle Paul and how he shared the Gospel with cities and countries near and far. However, the story of Jesus did not stop with the distance Paul could carry the message. It continued to spread to western Europe and eventually around the globe. This book uses the premise of a relay team carrying the baton from one point to another. The author traces the baton of the Gospel throughout history by giving snapshots in time of how the baton was taken from continent to continent and little islands in between.

It is not an unbroken chain from person to person and country to country, but this book gives the reader a sense of how the Gospel spread from one location to another. Where he does connect the links it is amazing to see how God brought people together at one time in their lives which ignited a greater passion for sharing the good news with the world.

I don’t know the history of all the missionaries mentioned in the book. It seems that some would not be considered Baptist (as I am), or even Baptistic. The love of God and the truth of the Gospel is shared nonetheless.

Each story is relatively short (about 10 pages per chapter in the print book). There are 28 chapters which each containing a story. Some stories are continuations of the previous chapter, yet all the chapters stand alone in their content. These would be great stories to read for a mission group in church.

You can get the Kindle version for free. The version for the Nook is $0.99. But the print version is over $20! Time to buy that ebook reader you have been considering. You can also get the Kindle software for smartphones or for reading books on your computer screen.

The Book of Missionary Heroes is worth the effort to read. You will be encouraged as to how God used various people to share His story with the world.