Shortly after the novel Gone With The Wind had been published, a young woman sat beside a history professor at a dinner. Trying to make conversation, she asked him if he had read it. "No," the professor answered. The woman admonished, "You'd better hurry up. It's been out 6 weeks." Then the professor inquired, "Have you read Dante's Divine Comedy?" "No," the woman said. The professor responded, "You'd better hurry up. It's been out 600 years."

These days, new books dealing with all sorts of subjects pour from printing presses in an overwhelming cascade. Even if we did nothing but read, we couldn't keep up with the output. So we must discriminate and decide what we'll read and what we'll ignore.

But there's one ancient book we must not ignore. It's the Bible, God's inspired Word. For many centuries, it circulated in scrolls and handwritten manuscripts. But ever since Johannes Gutenberg devised the printing press, Scripture has been reproduced in countless forms and editions.

Important as many books are, only the Bible reveals the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35). Only the Bible teaches us how to please Him. So let's make sure we give the Bible the priority it deserves. It's a "must read" book.  — Vernon C. Grounds