The luxury of easy access to a variety of God-oriented books in the 21^st century sometimes draws my attention away from reading the Bible.

The Bible can be a rather hairy read, all the drama, killing, adultery, incest, torture, and triumph over evil. Modern-day books point to spiritual insight in a more civilized context. But, I have to hunt to find them.

Over a period of centuries, smaller books were accumulated and grouped together to form the Bible. They were just books at first, canonized later as people thought about it more and decided to canonize them.

Maybe society will accumulate a series of modern day good reads and canonize them over the next millennium, but until then I return to the Bible.

The Bible stories are more universally familiar. As a child, I remember learning Bible stories and would find later in life, those stories coming back to mind when I needed them.

For example, after an accident involving heavy equipment, in which I was caught in a blast of fire, the doctors said I had second degree burns on half of my face.

Laying in the emergency room, I prayed, but at one point felt very despondent. Then the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came to mind.

These three men were thrown into a burning fiery furnace by the King, because they did not bow down to a golden image, but prayed to God.

The king looked inside the furnace and saw four figures, one like the son of God.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire unharmed.

At the hospital, I thought, “If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can show fire has no effect greater than God, then I can too.”

Within three weeks, my face healed without a scar.

From 21st Century Science and Health, “The Christian Scientist, understanding that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the truth of being, to destroy the error. This remedy has the power to correct positively, reaching to every part of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches the “joints and marrow,”[1] and restores the healthy functions of the body.”