Reading Between the Lines


When I was first saved, I had the strange idea that bibles were sacred. I don’t mean The Bible, the Word of God, I mean those paper and ink books that had the Word of God written in them. It might seem like a semantic thing, but the effect of this odd idea was that I thought it was wrong to write in your bible. Like letting the American flag touch the ground or not taking off your hat when you ate, I thought it was somehow disrespectful to underline, hi-lite, or add little notes or cross references. It wasn’t until I got to know some real lovers of the Word, people who lived in and by the Word, and looked at their bibles that I began to change my view on writing in my bible. Seeing their personal walk with, and revelations of, the Word of God spelled out in the margins and between the lines, helped me see my bible as less of a holy relic and more of a daily companion and confidant.

For the past couple of years, I have carried a beautiful leather-bound NET bible that I got as a gift from the folks at Bible.org that I just haven’t been able to bring myself to write in. As a compromise, I have been using the Personal Commentary module in my Gnomesword software to keep notes. This has worked pretty well, but I am finding myself in more and more situations where I have a paper and ink bible with me and firing up my laptop just isn’t convenient.

With that in mind I just ordered a wide-margin Zondervan NASB. This will be the first bible I have purchased with the main intent of writing in it.

If your more of a digital life type, you might want to checkout MyVersion. MyVersion not only lets you make notes, but you can add links, images, and videos and share them with others.


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