Chained Bible Beddesley Church Hamshire, England 1702
It has been over 470 years since Henry VIII Ordered the Bible placed in every church. They were chained to prevent theft.
My dear wife, who is an Assistant Manager of a Christian bookstore is participating 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 is sad to find every year how many music CDs are shoplifted and more awesome to discover how many Bibles are stolen! I could recount how large a dollar amount is lost by the store by this shoplifting, but the store officials would not like my divulging that information. Of course with fine leather bindings and quality paper published at higher and higher prices, it is suspected that some theft is to enable reselling “on the street” perhaps to get money to purchase drugs or alcohol. Who knows? Then, there is the possibility that there are some who just want God’s Word so much that they may resort to this wrongful choice to steal. Having formerly worked in the hospitality industry years ago, I remember how many Gideon Bibles placed in hotel room were stolen 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. Does God still bless the heister of Bibles? Well, he does bless His Word to accomplish 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 I pray that someone who has made the wrong choice of stealing a Bible may just come to make the right and best choice of heeding what they may read therein.
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 it, memorize much of it and quote it freely and still its truth is locked away from us if we do not let it transform us to become the persons God intends us to be! 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) A similiar unchaining of truth is described by two followers of Jesus after 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 to 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 may rightfully posses your Bible and God’s Truth will rightly possess you.
Shalom,
~~ bro_david
