Year of the Bible

“This I call to mind and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion ... therefore I have hope in Him” (Lam. 3:22–24, RSV, adapted).

My first recollection of Jeremiah’s words came as a 19-year-old. It opened my eyes to the many mercies God brings into my life on a daily basis. That was true when I studied abroad as a college sophomore, and true four years later when my father died at 59. It’s been true throughout my life.

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17, NIV).

During the quarantine, God is with us and He is mighty to save us from COVID-19 by protecting us from evil. We can take great delight in God by reading His Word and by praying every night. We have to pray from our hearts, and we have to pray for everyone not to get COVID-19 and for the sick ones to get better from it.

“But His hand is stretched out still” (Isa. 9:12, NKJV).

This verse in the Bible caught my attention. I wondered if I was reading it correctly. I looked at it in several versions, each showing a different picture than the New King James Version. I decided to see what Ellen White wrote about it:

Welcome to the Columbia Union Conference Year of the Bible. Throughout 2021, we will place special emphasis on the primacy of the Word of God and how it informs and impacts our mission, ministries and lives. During this special year, we invite you to join us in spending more time reading the Bible, digging deeper for knowledge and understanding, and meditating on its precepts, promises and prophecies.   

Welcome to 2021, and what we in the Columbia Union are calling “The Year of the Bible”. For Seventh-day Adventists, the Bible is EVERYTHING, and remains our only creed.

So 2021 seemed like a great time, as a Columbia union family, to spend a little extra time in our bibles. To facilitate this special initiative, we published a devotional book, are producing videos (like this one!), promoting this project in our annual calendar, and creating opportunities to engage with each other through social media.

Follow us on youtube.com/columbiaunion to see our videos throughout the year.