Chained Bible Beddesley Church Hamshire, England 1702
It has been over 470 years since Henry VIII Ordered the Bible placed in every church. Cains prevented Bibles being stolen.
My dear wife, was an Assistant Manager of a Christian bookstore often participated in the annual inventory chore which she has done many years. This is an all night and all day event that ends in mental and physical exhaustion and always some degree of disappointment. It was sad to find each year how many music CDs were shoplifted and more awesome to see how many Bibles were stolen! Mindful of the increased prices of Bibles having fine leather bindings and quality paper leads me to surmise that some theft may enable reselling “on the street” to get money to buy drugs or alcohol. There is the slim possibility that some who just want God’s Word so badly that they resort to stealing it. Having formerly worked in the hospitality industry years ago, I remember how many Gideon Bibles were stolen from hotel room by guests.
There is always this hope: Perhaps; just perhaps, someone desperately needed the counsel, help, comfort that the Bible gives and resorted to any means to secure it. Can God bless the theft of Bibles? He does bless His Word to carry out His purpose. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11 (ESV) I wonder and pray that someone who chose to steal a Bible may just come to make the right choices in the future by heeding what they read in God’s Word. They may read and obey in the future, “Thou shalt not steal.”
However, one can legitimately own a Bible and yet it is a still a chained book. Failing to read it chains it. Neglecting to seriously study with help from the Holy Spirit keeps 
it chained. It is even possible to read, memorize and quote it freely and still lock its truth away. If we do not let the Bible transform into what God intends, the truth is as good as chained! Only when we internalize biblical truth can the Bible become unchained. We can unlock the Bible and experience that life-changing power of the prophet Jeremiah, “But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV) Jesus unlocks truth in the story of two disciples encountering him after his resurrection: “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Luke 24:32 (KJV)
Most likely if you are even reading this blog, you are not one who would steal a Bible. My counsel is that you not let its truth be closed and locked with the chains of doubt, disputation or disrespect. I believe the Bible is God’s love letter to us. Let His Spirit inscribe it on your heart. Live with its “golden ray of truth upon your pathway.” You will rightfully own your Bible when the Author of Truth owns you.
Shalom,
bro-david
