I Pledge Allegiance to the Bible

I've been helping with our church's Vacation Bible School this week. Yesterday morning in the opening assembly I stood with the children, put my hand on my heart, and said the pledge to the Bible. 

I was not prepared for the emotion that clinched my heart and brought tears to the corners of my eyes. 

I joined my voice with the voices of over 200 other children and adults, and we all said:

I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's Holy Word. 

I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

I will hide its words in my heart so that I might not sin against God.

Dang. Ouch. Ugh.

Read that again. Slowly. Really think about what it says and what it implies.

That's what I found myself doing yesterday (while both fists were clinched on the backs of the two 2-year olds I was wrangling).

When I was growing up, I said that same pledge to the Bible every summer during VBS. 

Oh if I had only grasped and meant the words I said. 

Oh if I had only understood my desperate need to cling to God's Word as my guide and safeguard. 

Then, I wondered, how many within my church and churches all around America would benefit from a regular, somber rehearsal of the Pledge to the Bible. How differently would we live if we really used God's Word as a light to our path and if we really hid it in our heart?

 

Take one book of the Bible for example: 1 Thessalonians. I've been reading and re-reading through it this week. Its authors convey a very serious and dedicated handling of the gospel message, a determination to please God rather than man, and an expectation that such living will be accompanied by strong opposition and suffering that must be endured. These scriptures command us to always be kind to everyone, to minister to one another, to build one another up, and to overflow with love for one another. They command us to be sanctified: dedicated to God and His divine purpose for our lives, devoted to moral and spiritual excellence, pure and separated from the world. I don't know about you, but it is evident to me that the contents of 1 Thessalonians alone are much greater and higher and holier than what my life has looked like so far. 

I have not practiced appropriate allegiance to 1 Thessalonians.

I have not practiced appropriate allegiance to the Bible.

I have been aiming to do much better.

What about you? Do you need to Pledge Allegiance to the Bible?