Bob Tamasy
The Bible, the best-selling book ever, has been translated in entirety into more than 635 languages. The New Testament has been translated into more than 1,440 languages. The Bible is comprised of 66 separate “books” – 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament – with nearly 3,000 languages having at least one of those books. But these statistics pale in comparison to the astonishing array of facts, truths, teachings and principles presented in the Bible, all believed to have been written and compiled under the inspiration of God.
With that in mind, if someone were to ask, “What’s the most amazing fact in the Bible?” how would you respond?
One might be tempted to reply, “Where do I start? There are so many things that we could cite.” But recently, reading a book about the early history of CBMC – a ministry to business and professional men – I came across a statement that caused me to nod in agreement, “Yes, that is the most amazing fact in the Bible.” What is it? I won’t keep you in suspense for long.
In the book was the story of Waldo Yeager of Toledo, Ohio, one of CBMC’s early leaders. He had written a gospel tract called “Life’s Most Amazing Fact,” and was explaining to another leader in his city what that “fact” was.
Yeager proceeded to acknowledge that in their community he would have been widely considered “a good sort of fellow, an average businessman at least, a good husband and father. But people don’t really know me. My wife and my two boys know me a little better than you do, and they are quite charitable with me…. But you know, even they don’t really know me.”
Then he concluded, “There’s only one Person who really does know me, and that’s God Himself. He knows all about me, my weaknesses, the myriad things I would not dare to expose, even to my own family. Yes, He knows all about me, and here’s the amazing fact – He still loves me!”
That, in the proverbial nutshell, is the most amazing fact in the Bible. God, the holy, all-knowing, omnipresent deity that many of us worship, knows each one of us – faults, imperfections, sins and all – and still loves us. That’s truly justifies the adjective, amazing.
Most of us do reasonably well at maintaining a good front. We like people to think highly of us, and have become skilled at showing our most favorable side – unless, of course, someone really ticks us off, in which case our facades come down. We want folks to say of us, “He’s a good guy,” or “She’s a nice woman.” But in the presence of God – which is all the time – He knows us as we really are on the inside.
As King David wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast…. Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:7-24).
Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we’re reminded, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). From childhood, we begin cultivating the skill of acting as if we have it all together, even when we don’t. No sense letting people see us at our worst, right? As Abraham Lincoln once said, we can fool all the people some of the time.
But God isn’t deceived. He knows who we truly are, on the inside as well as out. And He still loves us! That, as Waldo Yeager said many years ago, is the most amazing fact in the Bible.
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Robert J. Tamasy is a veteran journalist, former newspaper editor and magazine editor. Bob has written hundreds of magazine articles, and authored, co-authored and edited more than 15 books. These include the newly re-published, “Business At Its Best,” “Tufting Legacies,” “The Heart of Mentoring,” and “Pursuing Life With a Shepherd’s Heart.” He edits a weekly business meditation, “Monday Manna,” which is translated into more than 20 languages and distributed via email around the world by CBMC International. To read more of Bob Tamasy’s writings, you can visit his blog, www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com, or his website (now being completed), www.bobtamasy-readywriterink.com. He can be emailed at btamasy@comcast.net.