[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fliving-and-active":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fliving-and-active-surround":108},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":12,"columnName":90,"date":91,"description":18,"extension":92,"image":93,"meta":94,"minRead":95,"navigation":96,"path":97,"postType":98,"publication":99,"publicationUrl":93,"seo":100,"stem":101,"topics":102,"__hash__":107},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fliving-and-active.md","Living and Active",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11],"Psalms","1 Thessalonians","Hebrews",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":86},"minimark",[15,19,22,25,36,42,48,54,57,64,67,70,73,76,79],[16,17,18],"p",{},"I met Feng Min at a dinner for international students at the University of Cincinnati. A few days before, he and his wife had come to the United States from China. Since the meal was sponsored by Christians, we bowed our heads and prayed before the food was served. Feng Min asked me what we were doing. It turns out, he had never seen anyone pray like that before.",[16,20,21],{},"For dessert we were served fortune cookies that contained Scripture verses printed on slips of paper. When Feng Min asked me what they were, I explained they were sayings found in the Bible. He looked at me with a blank stare. I asked, \"Have you ever seen a Bible before?\" He said, \"No.\" I had the privilege of giving Feng Min his very first copy of God's Word. By the look on his face, you'd have thought I had given him a brick of gold.",[16,23,24],{},"Actually, the Bible is more valuable than gold. The psalmist praised God for his Word and said, \"I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold\" (Psalm 119:127).",[16,26,27,31,32,35],{},[28,29,30],"em",{},"The Bible is a gift for all ages."," When my granddaughter was less than a year old, she already had her own ",[28,33,34],{},"Baby's First Bible",". My great-grandfather read the Bible through every year. When he died, they found him sitting in a chair with the Bible in his hand.",[16,37,38,41],{},[28,39,40],{},"The Bible is a gift for all circumstances",". I have a friend who rides the Long Island Railroad into New York City every day. He uses his commuting time to read the Bible. The wife of another friend has Alzheimers disease. When she could no longer speak, she still responded with smiles and tears when her husband read the Bible to her — especially the Psalms.",[16,43,44,47],{},[28,45,46],{},"The Bible is a gift for all cultures",". When I preached at a church in Seoul, Korea, they asked me to take my shoes off first out of reverence for God and his Word. In Ethiopia I had dinner at the home of a man named Sima who told me he had to hide his Bible for 17 years so the Communists wouldn't confiscate it or imprison him for owning it. The Bible gave him spiritual liberty even when outwardly he was not a free man.",[16,49,50,53],{},[28,51,52],{},"The Bible is a gift that comes in many packages",". In ancient times Scripture was written on leather scrolls or leaves of papyrus. Today there are big, heavy Bibles that look impressive on pulpits, museum shelves, and coffee tables, and others so small you can stick them into your pocket or purse, or read them from your computer. The Bible can even be found in outer space. In 1970 a microfilm packet containing Genesis 1:1 in 16 languages and a complete *Revised Standard Version *Bible were placed on the moon by astronaut Edgar Mitchell of the Apollo 14 moon mission.",[16,55,56],{},"Scripture is not only to be read; it's meant to be lived.",[16,58,59,60,63],{},"In 1999 a book was published called ",[28,61,62],{},"1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium",". A lot of famous names made the list: Albert Einstein, George Washington, Queen Elizabeth, Christopher Columbus, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven. But the person identified as the most influential individual of the last thousand years was Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor who produced the first major book ever printed on a moveable-type printing press: a Bible published in 1456. Gutenberg's work forever changed the way information was communicated and was a major factor in the Protestant Reformation, which put God's Word into the hands of the people. Since Gutenberg's Bible rolled off the press, over 12 billion Bibles and New Testaments have been printed and distributed.",[16,65,66],{},"The apostle Paul wrote, \"And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe\" (1 Thessalonians 2:13, emphasis mine). God's Word is at work in us. It is \"living and active\" (Hebrews 4:12). It's not only meant to be read, but to be lived.",[16,68,69],{},"My friend Bob Walters wrote a letter to me and said,",[16,71,72],{},"It was one year ago that you baptized me. That date is now a special anniversary. As I praise the Lord every day, I thank him for the message he sent to me through you.",[16,74,75],{},"I've read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, made it to all but a half-dozen sessions of the Wednesday night \"Through the Bible in a Year\" series at our church . . . read Scripture every day, pray deeply and frequently for all things great and small, and have been blessed with opportunities to share my faith publicly. I've met the most interesting people. We go to church as a family every Sunday. I'm bursting with gratitude to the Lord, and can't wait to learn more.",[16,77,78],{},"Yet the most important thing I've learned is that God's love endures forever. . . . I have found great comfort in the Word, and I will be grateful as that gift resides in me the rest of my life and beyond.",[16,80,81,82,85],{},"Editor's note: This article is excerpted from David Faust's new book, ",[28,83,84],{},"Unquenchable Faith"," (HeartSpring\u002FCollege Press, 2004), a study of First & Second Thessalonians.",{"title":87,"searchDepth":88,"depth":88,"links":89},"",2,[],"First Look","2004-08-29","md",null,{},5,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fliving-and-active","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":18},"articles\u002Fliving-and-active",[103,104,105,106],"Biblical Theology","Spiritual Formation","Church Leadership","Christian Unity","SY4BSV-QAJGllqPiYE92DN1vARdcgQKs9fo2OYJjvKg",[109,114],{"title":110,"path":111,"stem":112,"description":113,"children":-1},"Lives on Loan","\u002Farticles\u002Flives-on-loan","articles\u002Flives-on-loan","In August my wife Candy and I took our daughter Melinda to college. She is the youngest of our three children. For her, it's time to spread her wings. For us, it means an empty nest (with a few feathers left behind).",{"title":115,"path":116,"stem":117,"description":118,"children":-1},"Living Beneath the Line of Despair","\u002Farticles\u002Fliving-beneath-the-line-of-despair","articles\u002Fliving-beneath-the-line-of-despair","To start a lesson or sermon you might use a funny story, a provocative question, or a comment about current events. One ancient teacher introduced his lesson with a depressing philosophical observation. He exclaimed, “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)."]