How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
Psalm 139:17

Why Pocket Bible?

RICHARD BEWES WRITES

IT'S A NATURAL QUESTION on visiting this website. The fact is, having a pocket Bible on your person every day is a sure-fire indication that you mean business ; that wherever you go, the Bible is going to be with you - in your pocket, in your brief case, in your handbag.

I grew up with the Bible and its message, in a missionary family on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya . My auntie Pearl gave me my first Bible

Mt Kenya from 130 km; original watercolour by Fausto Cattaneo, 1945

when I was only a few weeks old; it was about as big as me. It was very large, dark red - complete with pictures and coloured ribbons. The Bible is teeming with stories, and from my earliest days, these stories provided my daily diet. In this way I was growing up with a biblical world-view.

It was my missionary father, Cecil Bewes, who - among his various Bibles - had a tiny pocket-sized one, complete with fastening zip. It went everywhere with him, and it never left him until his departure from this world at the age of nearly ninety-one. It must have been that pocket Bible of his that prompted me to acquire one for myself when I was in my teens. I've got plenty of other Bibles - but somehow there is a feeling of completion about going into the day, with diary in one pocket, mobile phone in another and a pocket Bible in the third.

That's what this website - right through - is all about. The Bible in our daily lives - through talks and sermons, to be sure; but also in the hymns we sing, in the books we read and in programmes we view. In certain parts of the world there has been a massive loss of confidence in the Scriptures. I get asked to travel, and deliver Bible studies - and then look round the room; no one is carrying a Bible! I listen to umpteen sermons - and ask myself, When are they going to open the actual pages of the Bible and start pointing us to Jesus? When are they going to stop telling these funny stories?

Bible thoughts should be coming at us all day long - if we are awake to them. The Kikuyu people of Kenya , among whom I grew up, have a distinctive word for Thoughts - powerful, creative and penetrating thoughts that can shape your actions and change ven history! It is the word Meciria ( 'Mesheeria' ).

That's what the Scriptures give us in overflowing abundance. David the Psalmist could write, "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!"

That's exactly it; nothing that God has thought can possibly be feeble. His thoughts, when received humbly, have resulted in captivating works of art, inspiring literature, words and music that have built whole civilisations, towering architecture, enduring schools and universities, honourable ethics in medicine and commerce, and trustworthy government.

These pocket Bible thoughts, then, simply reflect what I have been doing for years. On top of regular preaching, teaching and writing, I find myself delivering Bible thoughts at barbecues, on radio, in prayer meetings and conventions. What you will find on this home page is the shop window for this whole website. Everything on it is designed to assist towards generating a fresh confidence in the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus.. that is what the whole operation is about - to get to know and serve HIM better.

--ooOoo--