I would bet that few if any of you knew that I was a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman when I was fifteen years old. Coming from a poor family, one of the few and best things I remember growing up is having a set of World Book Encyclopedia and the yearly update that would come. I can still remember selecting a volume each month and committing myself to read through it in a month. So, over the course of approximately two years, I read each of the 22 volumes that made up the encyclopedia. Working odd jobs from the age of 12, I was able to get a job selling World Book in Newport News, VA for a couple of years, until I got a better job driving a taxi during breaks from my time at the Virginia Military Institute. Young folks probably don’t remember, or even realize, but door-to-door salesmen were a common sight in the in the United States back in the mid-20th century, selling everything from vacuum cleaners to kitchenware. With the advent of NO SOLICTING signs, online shopping, and just bad reputations for hard-pressure sales pitches, that profession has essentially died. But back in the day, selling door-to-door would make a person some money. Perhaps the real nail in the coffin for print encyclopedias were the words, “Hello World,” initiated by Jimmy Wales when Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, as an online open-source encyclopedia, which has become It is the largest and most-visited reference work in history.
Given the opportunity to sell World Book, I jumped at the chance despite my youth. I always felt good about selling encyclopedias to families, even poor families because I recognized how invaluable it was to have a comprehensive reference work at home, and how it had helped me in my general self-education. I also thought maybe someday I maybe could sell Encyclopædia Britannica, because that was the gold standard of encyclopedias. All of my teachers thought that the articles in that encyclopedia were better references for term papers and would scoff at my World Book references. Surprisingly, in 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica stopped printing its physical editions and switched to a digital-only format. Even more surprising, World Book Encyclopedia is the only encyclopedia company still in print.
Let me be clear, I am not trying to sell you an encyclopedia set or even recommend Wikipedia as an alternative, but I was thinking, how much the Bible is an encyclopedia of God’s Word that we have ready access to. Despite my fond memories of World Book and how it gave me hours of joy reading, the first time I read Scripture through, was even more valuable and more enlightening than all the time I spent reading about apples to zebras in World Book.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV)
Last year, we as a church read through the NLT Chronological Bible. My hope that one of the positive habits that was developed was a daily reading of Scripture and a greater desire to understand it even better by re-reading passages that stood out to you, or systematically reading through a particular book. Belinda Eber and I teach In-Person Bible Studies on Sunday mornings beginning at 8:45 am. I teach a ZOOM Bible Study on Monday at 7:00 pm, focusing on the Book of Acts, and a ZOOM on Wednesday at 10:00 am, focusing on the Gospel of Luke. All are invited. I hope that all of those in the congregation who are not involved in a Bible Study will join one of the ones offered.
So, now you know. The next time I come up with an obscure factoid, you can attribute it to my years of reading the encyclopedia. But once again, I might have learned the annual rainfall in Botswana, or what the flag of Bhutan might look like, it was coming to know Jesus Christ in my life, and then reading about him in Scripture that was the thing that really opened my eyes. Please read Scripture when you can. Peace and Love, Pastor Bob
