He was a young man with a few hours to spare. He walked along Freedom Road with one thing in mind; he wanted something really interesting to do. He had just enough money for a movie.
But the young man was early, and although most of the stores were closed, the bookstore at #8 was open for business. The books might help him pass a few extra minutes. No harm in trying.
The featured display was a Bible. He had never held one in his hand before. Strange how this book - this Jesus Christ - has such an influence on people everywhere, he thought. This bookstore was in Taiwan, and the saleslady was from America. He knew the book itself was two- or three-thousand years old, and yet, somehow, it seemed to have a strange power in world history.
Why? What’s so special about this book, the Bible, more than any other? Why is it that there are people in every country in the world who seem to want to read it every day?
The saleslady did not say much. She was secretly praying, but she let the book speak for itself.
Time slipped by, until he suddenly looked at his watch. I am just in time for the late movie, he thought, but I don’t have enough money for the book and the movie too. What should I do?
Now that’s a hard question to answer, in Taiwan or in your own life, wherever you are right now. Perhaps it will help you to decide if I tell you what settled his choice. He looked up at a motto on the wall, which said, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.”
“Are those words from this book?” he asked.
“Yes, Psalm 16:1111Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:11).” The saleslady showed him the place and let him read it for himself: “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
“I will buy the book,” he said.
He left no name or address, and it was years before they saw him again since he lived far away. But, you guessed it, they found him a happy, rejoicing Christian, telling others of the Saviour he had found.
A good choice, wasn’t it? Are you choosing today’s fun? or choosing the Lord Jesus’ forgiveness and His pleasures forevermore? You can’t have both.
ML-11/21/1999