Note: We did not post a message yesterday. As we get older we just don't have the stamina on busy days we once had! Yesterday morning I transported 2 special needs Amish students from their home to their school in eastern Lancaster County. (Their regular driver was ill.) This experience will likely prompt a future message. Then we had two men come over for some work on our house through the afternoon.

Message summary: Today's message is a testament to the enduring value of the Holy Scripture. It has some background information that I find interesting so I hope you will as well! It's also preliminary to tomorrow's message.

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The Bible is a wonderful book, the divinely inspired, inerrant Word of God.

Evidence to the value of the Bible is a method of referencing that we very likely take for granted. That is, the division into books, chapters and verses that makes it so helpful in finding passages quickly. Most books of all subject matters have chapter divisions but it's the specification of verses that is helpful and even necessary for Bible study, both personal and as we follow along in church.

To a newer follower of Christ or an unbeliever such a system may seem unusual or even cryptic. Many of us have seen the Christian witness  at major sporting events using the simple numeric reference to one of the most famous verses of the Bible, a sign posting simply "3:16".

The original manuscripts of the Bible did not have chapters and verses. The chapter divisions commonly used today were developed by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. Langton put the modern chapter divisions into place around A.D. 1227. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this chapter pattern. Since the Wycliffe Bible, nearly all Bible translations have followed Langton’s chapter divisions.

The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi by the name of Nathan in A.D. 1448. Robert Estienne, who was also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into standard numbered verses, in 1555. Stephanus essentially used Nathan’s verse divisions for the Old Testament. Since that time, beginning with the Geneva Bible, the chapter and verse divisions employed by Stephanus have been accepted into nearly all the Bible versions. (from gotquestions teaching site)

The numbers in our Scripture reference today do indeed mean something. It's the binary code for one of the most famous verses in the Bible that many of us have memorized. Binary is the language computer's use. See below for the widget I used to create this code. I sure couldn't do it without the widget. But aren't you glad you don't have to memorize it in binary code!

Tomorrow's message will be on the verse we use today in binary code. Hint: it's a verse many of you would recognize by its numeric reference only.