My Bible

Matt Miles • December 5, 2023

   The written Word of God is absolute and authoritative on all subjects it touches. It is God-breathed for life by His inspiration and different from any other book. My Bible is the most prized and important book I own. I am an old-school written Word carrier. There’s something about reading from and teaching out of a paged, written text that impacts me more. The text may be the same on a device, but it feels different on a physical page.


   Over the years I have exhausted many Bibles while preaching and teaching. I may only be able to use a Bible for about 6 years before they deteriorate beyond usefulness. Either the binding goes away or the cover dissolves from being held, folded, rolled, packed, and unpacked. This use is vital to my walk and ministry with the Lord. Using the same written text for years helps me familiarize myself where passages are located, if I can’t remember chapter and verse. It becomes the place where I note important details and underline impactful verses the Lord teaches me. My Bible has become part of me; weathered, worn, used, a little soiled, comfortable, trusted, inspiring, and dependable.


   My present Bible, as many of you know, has been on it’s last leg for a year or two. I have had suggestions from many to rebind it or just replace it. Over the last few years I have searched for a replacement of same size and type set, but to no avail. My particular Bible went out of print several years back. So, I keep on using my trusted “friend”. I can hardly think about parting with it for the time it would take to rebind it. It totally scares me to send it away out of my presence and trust another to take care of it. The Lord would have to put my spirit at ease.


   Enter into the picture a good friend from Missouri. A few months ago, while preaching at his church, we went out to dinner. Afterwards, his daughter had asked we stop by the restaurant she works to say hello. As Providence would have it, there is a vinyl record and used book store off the restaurant. Neither my wife nor friend would ever pass up the opportunity of used books. As usual, my friend found several books to buy. One looked strangely familiar in it’s original box - a Bible. I asked to see it. To my surprise it was the same one I have been looking for all these years. I immediately felt like I needed this Bible and was willing to pay whatever to my friend who had found it. Then he simply said it was mine, a gift. I believe my wife had shared the state of my own Bible and the search to replace it. What a glorious gift!


   Now begins the arduous task of transferring all my notes and inspirations. That seems far easier than parting with my old “friend”. Who knows, I may be able to get my old Bible rebound after all since the Lord has provided a replacement. The Word of the Lord is always to be treasured above all else. I pray your Bible is as important, impactful, and used as mine has been to me. Take a moment and thank the Lord for His Word in your life!


By Bob Dugas May 23, 2025
NS-29 Launch
By Matt Miles May 22, 2025
As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the renewed interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for evolutionary reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. While Blue Origin is best known for its New Shepherd rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule, this NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown through experimentation and observation to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
By Ryan Cox May 22, 2025
Moses & History (part 2)
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