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Bible Reading: Psalm 119:89-96
Forever, O Lord, your word stands firm in heaven. Psalm 119:89
Courtney took her place in front of the class. She sniffled twice, cleared her throat, and pushed her glasses up on her nose. Then she held her report up within easy view, just as her teacher had shown her. “My report,” she said, “is about the rhinoceros.”
“Rhinoceroses,” Courtney read, “have long necks so they can eat leaves from the top of trees. They have bills like a duck and pouches to carry their babies, tiny hooves to run fast, and spots to help them hide in the jungle. They also have gills to breathe underwater and a big throat and wings so they can fly down and scoop fish to eat from the ocean.”
You can’t believe everything you hear in a school report. If Courtney’s job was to create a silly make-believe animal, she hit a bull’s-eye. But if her assignment was to give her classmates accurate facts about the rhinoceros, she missed by a mile.
You don’t have to look far in most school assignments to find slipups or even slap-you-in-the-face mistakes. But after your teacher points out your mistakes and you’ve learned from them, you probably file your paper in a round basket at the back of the room.
The Bible, however, is different. Its message will last forever. It was here before we arrived and will be here after we die. Why? Because it’s “God-breathed.” It’s God’s Word.
Not only is the Bible written to last forever, but it is totally without mistakes. We can stake our life on its accuracy and look to it for error-free guidance and inspiration. Dr. Henrietta Mears wrote, “The Bible is a story—it is a revelation, to be begun and pursued and ended as we start and continue other books. Don’t trifle with the Bible. . . . Believe that every book is about something and read and reread until you find out what that something is.”*
God gives us the Bible as our absolutely reliable guide to life. He is perfect, so we can trust his Word to be perfect. Whenever we open our Bible to read, we find a message from God waiting for us. What he lovingly shows us will be totally true.
TALK: Why do you read the Bible? What are you looking for? How has the Bible helped you learn to trust God?
PRAY: God, we are eager to get to know you better each time we read your Word. Thanks that your Word is trustworthy and true.
ACT: Show your eagerness for the Bible by spending some time reading it on your own today.