Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
The Church Supply and Book Store where I worked in the early eighties shared a building with the headquarters of a very large Mainline Denomination that had become very liberal in the Twentieth Century. It was a place of dark oak bookshelves, formal leather chairs, and brooding tradition. While the bookstore carried all the current Christian Books, as well a Sunday School Supplies, "decor" and more traditional Church Supplies such as Choir Robes and Vestments, the Denominational Office seemed to be a bastion of Old-World religious culture. We never went in there, and "they" never came into the store.
One day, I noticed a huge pile of books placed next to the dumpster that served both tenants of the building. Hating to see books thrown away, I loaded them all into the back of my car and brought them home.
The books were old, beautifully bound, and heavy. When I got home I began to sort them out. Here are a few of the titles:
VINE'S Expository Bible Dictionary
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Introductory New Testament Greek
Interlinear Greek New Testament
The Writings of Martin Luther
Complete Commentaries of Matthew Henry
Several Bibles in different Translations
Several Tomes on Church History
Hymnals
and, my personal favorite:
A Harmony of The Gospels.
There were many more, as they had filled the entire trunk of my hatchback Pinto! I sorted the books out and began to study. I never did learn NT Greek as well as I would have liked, but "The Harmony of the Gospels" gave me a wonderful perspective. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were arranged chronologically in four columns across the page, and matching incidents were lined up next to each other. It was so elegant and logical! I loved that book. As we look at the "Shared Meal" in Scripture, we can see how the stories line up as well. It is not so much redundancy as it is "digging deeper".
To this day, I can't imagine why anybody could throw those books away. The Denomination that did this has since drifted into a total apostasy of liberalism, so I guess it was kind of symbolic. Oh Well...my B-I-L now treasures those books in his Theology Library up in Maine.
Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.
"The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance..” Psalm 33 NASB
God Bless America!
Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.
This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.
Hallelujah and Amen
ML/LTOS