Signed copy!

Have you seen this doing the rounds on the social media sites? It's been causing quite a stir.

To have a book with the creator's visible signature - well, that would be quite something! I’m sure if there were a Bible signed by Almighty God himself, it would be a major source of Bible envy.

But perhaps you suffer from that already?

You know; that feeling you get when God appears to be speaking to your friend in some electrifying way during their quiet times, but when you open your Bible, it’s frankly underwhelming.

Or when you’re at home group, and the person sitting next to you is bursting with insightful comments on the passage, while your mind strays elsewhere.

Or when everyone else in the prayer meeting prays with eloquent maturity, while you’re left stumbling and stuttering your way through.

These kinds of comparisons leave us feeling discouraged, dejected and jealous. We feel one step removed from the author of the Bible, while Mr. Better-Christian-Than-Me appears to have an autographed copy. Or at least, their walk with God has got something special, personal and exclusive that we appear to lack.

What’s the solution to Bible envy?

One of the reasons that God’s put us in a church family is not so that we can measure ourselves up against each other, but so that we can “spur one another on towards love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). If we look at the verses preceding this one, we see how we can make our relationships with other Christians like that:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds…” -(Hebrews 10:19-24)

The Most Holy Place was the most exclusive place in all of ancient Israel—yet the writer to the Hebrews tells us that every Christian has access to God’s presence through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The promises that we read in the Bible are far from a bog-standard edition—they’re what Christ gave up his life to secure for us. Why look for anything extra to gratify?