A recent story from Christianity Today told about a well-worn Bible that accompanied seven US soldiers through eleven tours of duty. It began in 1967 when 19-year-old Jesse Maple from West Lafayette, Ohio was drafted into the Army to fight in the Vietnam war. At the time, Maple was living a wild and backslidden life. But then a man with the Gideons gave him the pocket-sized Bible. His mother taught him to respect the Scripture, so he stuck it in his pocket and kept it there.
It was still with him during one intense firefight when bullets ripped through the pack on his back. One round pierced a can of fruit but left him unharmed. Afterward, Maple was standing there, juice leaking on the ground, when a passing Catholic priest told him, “The Lord was with you today.” Maple immediately thought of the little Bible in his pocket. “You wouldn’t believe what that Bible has been through,” he said. All those close calls and the power of God’s Word converted Jesse into a true believer.
When Jesse Maple’s tour was done, he gave the Bible to his younger brother Bill as he shipped out to Vietnam. Before Bill left Vietnam, he gave the Bible to his close friend Roger Hill, who also grew up in West Lafayette. Hill wrapped it in plastic to protect it from the monsoon rains and had it with him when he was severely wounded during his final tour. “I still pray to God every day and thank Him for another day,” Hill later said.
The Bible then went to another West Lafayette native, Cliff McPeak, who fought in the Gulf War. Next, it went to Zac Miller, who joined the Ohio Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq in 2004. When Miller finished his initial tour of duty, the Bible was given to another pair of brothers from West Lafayette; they carried it into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan before finally returning it to Miller for safekeeping in 2019.
While that little Bible never stopped bullets or diffused bombs, it conveyed to each man a sense of God’s presence in the midst of the dangers they faced. As Iraq veteran Zac Miller explained, “In very trying times, having that Bible with you gave you a little ease that you were not alone and being watched over by God.”[1]
While ducking in a foxhole perhaps one of those soldiers turned to Psalm 119 for comfort and courage, where they would have read, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, For I will keep the commandments of my God! Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope” (Ps. 119:114-116).
During difficult times we turn to God’s Word, because it is strong enough to carry us through difficult times. Don’t wait until crisis hits to start searching the Bible for a promise you can cling to. Store up the Word of God in your heart and mind before the chaos of life’s battlefield begins to consume you.
Charles Spurgeon said it better than me, “God never gives his children a promise which he does not intend them to use. There are some promises in the Bible which I have never yet used, but I am well assured that there will come times of trial and trouble when I shall find that that poor despised promise, which I thought was never meant for me, will be the only one on which I can float”[2] -DM
[1] ADAM
MACINNIS, “How Seven Soldiers Carried One Bible into 11 Combat Tours,” Christianity
Today, APRIL 20, 2021 <https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/may-june/bible-battle-army-gideon-soldiers-vietnam-iraq-afghanistan.html>
[2] Charles
H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1983),
404.
No comments:
Post a Comment