“So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.”(Psalm 102:15, KJV)
Entering a German checkpoint at Frankfurt Airport last fall, I was stopped by an official. My carry-on bag, after it was put through the security scanner, was taken aside and set on a table. I was asked to step in front of it.
“Is this yours?” the man asked sternly.
“Yes,” I answered. The bag carried two Bibles, three daily devotionals, and Bible studies, so I wondered what the machine could have identified.
The man looked at me rather sternly as he unzipped my bag. “Let’s look at what kind of books you are bringing into Germany.” He took the first one out. He read, “The Power of Prayer – E.M. Bounds.” He looked at me and said, “Oh, we must not touch this.” He quickly let go of it as it fell into the bag.
Then his eyes looked for another book. “Let me see, it must be another book.” His eyes looked angry. He put his hand in the bag and took another one out. He read, “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus – Anne Graham-Lotz.” “Oh, ah, we mustn’t touch this,” he said. He couldn’t let go of it quickly enough.
He put his hand back in the bag and said, “It has to be this one!” He took it out of the bag. The title was Daily Light by Baxter/Lotz. He said, “Another one!” Again, he quickly let it fall back into the bag. He said, “We mustn’t touch.”
Then he pulled out another and said, “It has to be this one!” He read, “The One Year Chronological Bible.” He didn’t want to hold it a second longer in his hands, and he quickly placed it back in the bag.
He took another one out. He said, “It must be this one!” He read, “Thompson Chain Study Bible … another one! This must not be touched. It is holy.” He pushed the bag away from him. He said, “I must not look.” With humility and fear, he looked straight into my eyes and said, “This bag must not be touched.” He quickly zipped the bag. With a disposition of honor, he looked in my eyes and said, “Please, please, take your bag. It must not be touched.”
“Abba, Father, we have no thought or understanding that at the sight of books about Your Word, the Bible, others fear to even handle it. We have not understood that by just carrying Your Word in a bag, we are carrying the Holy Scriptures. What must it have been like with the Ark of the Covenant—which was carried by men on poles and was not to be touched? Abba, have we no thought of how we handle these books and Your Written Word with our hands? Abba, have we no fear as the heathen do, who understand that the holiness of Your Word must not be touched or looked upon with unholy hands or eyes. Yeshua, to know that the very Word of your blood shed for sins is alive in Your written Word, and that those who do not know You fear to touch it, makes us tremble. Messiah, cause us to be men and women who know that You, The Living Written Word, are in us and among us as we carry Your Word in our hearts and our hands—and that we must have holy fear of how we handle Your Word.”