By Danny Minton

On the shelves of my home office, I have at my disposal Bibles of every shape, size, and translation. They include: the King James Version, the American Standard and the New American Standard, Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, Archeological New International Study Bible, New International Bible, New International Study Bible, New International Women’s Study Bible, Phillips New Testament, The Message, Jewish Tanakh, Alexander Campbell’s Book of Acts, Good News for Modern Man, Nestle’s Greek New Testament, Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, Nestle-Marshal Greek-English Interlinear New Testament, a New Testament in Spanish, and others I can’t remember the versions.

Several reserve spaces for more than one copy on the shelf. In addition, I have two Bible programs on my computer and another one on my smartphone. This list does not include my commentaries and study guides. There would be more, but I had to sell several books when I moved my office inventory to the house. However, I still have scores in the house and garage. I have a wealth of spiritual food at my disposal, which reminded me of a story I heard years ago.

The story is told of a young man who was taking a boat trip across the Atlantic from England to the United States. After buying the ticket, he found that he had little money remaining, and, to conserve what he had, he lived off cheese and crackers for several days. Each day he would pass by the dining room where he could smell the aroma of a nice hot meal. One day, as a steward passed, the man inquired as to the cost of a meal. The steward replied, “Why, your ticket entitles you to three meals a day. Go on in and order what you want.”

Many Christians go through life trying to live on as little Bible study as possible. They read and study just enough to know the essentials and no more. As a result, their Christian lives pose the danger of becoming weak, unproductive, and subject to the darts that Satan throws at us to get us to move further away from a Christlike life. Some people fail to get nourishment from the Word to help them through the problems and struggles that they face daily. Consequently, many spiritual lives have wasted away due to the lack of a proper diet that the feast found in God’s Word has to offer. 

So, the question we face is, “Why starve when you have a whole feast at your hands?” God’s Word is full of the strength and nourishment we need to grow closer to Him, build stronger character to overcome any problem we might face, and stand up to Satan’s warfare. 

Peter wrote, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter2:2) As children of God, let us have an intense desire for the growth that can come through the study of God’s Word.

You don’t have to have all the versions that I have in my library. I usually rely on just three for my daily study and for the base of the Bible classes I teach: my New International, which is easy to read and has all my underlining in it, a New American Standard because it is closer to the Greek (in my opinion), and my Greek New Testament for deep study. 

The best thing for any of us is to pick one we feel we can use to be fed the feast that God has to offer through the writings of those thousands of years ago. Where do you start when you have a feast at hand? I encourage my classes to take time every year to read one of the Gospel accounts. I tell them to start with Luke. It is in those books that you become closer to Jesus, whose words feed us on how we are to shape our lives.

Mainly, let’s be careful and not spiritually starve to death when we have a feast right before us.

Danny Minton, a member of Southern Hills Church of Christ, is a hospital chaplain