Zambia Hunt

The Bible I’m holding in my hands is a leather-bound, wide-margin Cambridge edition of the King James Version. There’s a little note etched on the top left corner of the first page: “1981 – $65.” I recall that my job the summer of 1980 was mowing lawns in Mustang, Oklahoma. I would earn $5 per lawn. I worked and saved up my money until I had enough to purchase this Bible at the local Christian books store in Oklahoma City. I was 15 years old at the time.

I recall the challenge the preacher gave in 1981 (though I don’t remember who) that an average reader, dedicating 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evening, could read through the Bible in 30 days. I remember thinking, “I can do that…” and I did for several months in a row.

Written in the flyleaf of this Bible a year later are these words: “Called to the mission field November 10, 1982.” That was the date that I stopped telling God I would serve Him, but that I did not want to preach. If I were writing that note today, it would read, “Surrendered to missions” because that was the day that my running stopped.

Under that note is scrawled the words, “Not ‘I’m willing,’ but ‘I will.’” Under that inscription are these words added three years later. They say: “I died. March 18, 1985.” That cryptic note may seem strange to some, but for me it was the culmination and realization that I must die to self, and present my self alive to God. This was written the spring semester of my freshman year in college. I was a student at Oklahoma Baptist College in the missions aviation program.

It was during this time that I selected Philippians 1:20-21 as my life verses. These verses are penned on the front page of this Bible in fading blue ink: “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Underneath my life verse is written,  “Life theme: I have been saved to do the will of God!”

I used this Bible from 1981 until around 1989. The pages are filled with ink marks that offer a glimpse into the spiritual journey I was on. There are quotes by Andrew Murray, E.M. Bounds, Bruce Foster, Jim Elliot, and Matthew Henry.

Alongside passages in this wide-margin Bible are notes written as I sat to listen to sermons preached. I see notes from the sermons preached by my youth pastor and by teachers in the Christian school that I attended. Others are my personal notes from when, as a young man, I was asked to teach a Sunday school class or share at some gathering.

The pages of the New Testament are heavily marked, especially when you get to First Corinthians, Philippians, Hebrews, and Titus. Those pages are heavily stained from the many times my young fingers touched the paper. 

This Bible marks the period in my life when the Spirit of God was moving upon me with clarity and power. He planted within my heart a deep desire to serve God with my life. This Bible was there during those 18 months of agonizing struggle, whether or not I would surrender my life to full-time service. I was so concerned that if I did something like that, I would be called to preach, and that was the last thing that I wanted to do.

Inside the back cover, on a blank page, written in adolescent-style lettering, are notes under the heading “Systematic Way to Study the Bible.” And all around those notes are outlines from various texts in Hebrews that relate to faith.

The Lord has taught me how to study the Scriptures, nothing fancy, but a real and personal interaction with the living Word within the pages of Scripture. The Lord has used his Word again and again through these years to strengthen my faith, filled me with an unshakable trust in His word, and a desire to make it mine and act upon it. This is all the work of Grace through the Word of God.

This worn Bible is a reminder of God’s faithfulness during those formative years. Every stained page, every underlined verse, every margin note reminds me of that young man wrestling with God’s call and finally surrendering to His will. It is a testimony to God’s grace and the life-shaping power of the Word of God.

My teenage Bible is a treasure that I will likely hand down to one of my children. It is a slice of history, and a record of a particular season of my spiritual journey.

I long to say with the Psalmist, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps 119:97).  May God grant me that heart.