I have a confession to make.
The Lord prompted me late in the night to repent of...
Hello 👋 I’m Aaron Joseph Hall, a pastor in Lower Alabama (not that LA). Mark Batterson once said, “I do not type on a keyboard. I worship God with the 26 letters of the English alphabet.” That’s what I’m doing here—writing as worship, for God’s glory. If you’d like to walk this journey with me, and you haven’t already, I’d love for you to subscribe below.👇
I have a confession to make.
Late one night recently, the Lord prompted me to repent of something.
My confession: Bible idolatry.
As a pastor, I have a lot of Bibles. And pretty much most major Bible translations. I love books, and especially the Bible. So, over the last decade, I’ve found more and more Bibles on my bookshelf. Some I have read a lot of, studied in, and even preached from. Others are really just collecting dust, to be honest.
My confession isn’t about having multiple Bibles.
It’s about always having or feeling like I need to switch what’s my primary Bible—the one I read in, write in, pray in, preach from…that one.
And as a result of that “need,” I miss out on reading, praying, and sitting with the Lord to hear His voice. I miss out on true intimacy with Jesus. That’s something I’m broken over, because there’s nothing more important to me in this life than being with Jesus. My wife would tell you the same is true for her, and I pray that will be the reality for all of my kids one day.
Why call it Bible idolatry? To be honest, anything that gets between you and God is an idol. And as silly as it sounds, the need to always have to switch which Bible I use because one was too small, too big, the ink bled through, had a small torn page, I could go on and on… that became an idol of sorts and hindered my ability to connect with the Lord on many occasions, truly.
John writes in 1 John 5:21, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” And then the book ends. That’s it. What a statement to close the book of 1 John on—keep yourselves from idols.
To keep myself from Bible idolatry, I had to make a choice.
I had to repent. And then…
So, I picked up my ESV Bible. The pages are blank, ready to hold prayers, notes, and the stories of walking with Jesus each day. Not empty, but ready. Ready to be marked by surrendered moments, hard questions, quiet encounters, and the slow, faithful work of the Spirit. This Bible isn’t meant to stay clean—it’s meant to be lived in.
That’s something worth passing down to my kids one day—they are my legacy and as John again writes in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” It’s my prayer that my kids will see MY Bible and MY walk with Christ in its pages and know the truth I read about, believed, and lived out.
So, that’s why I had to repent, to confess to the Lord my Bible idolatry. As silly as it sounds, it was something hindering my walk with Jesus.
I love Jesus so dearly, and I want to honor Him, follow Him, please Him, and obey Him—in all things. Even the silly things.
Today, I wanted to share a glimpse into my personal walk with Jesus and leave you with this one question, and I pray you’ll seek the Lord in answering it swiftly, “What idol(s) are in your life you need to repent of?”
-AJH
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Really appreciate this honest reflection. The distinction between having multiple Bibles and using them as a barrier to actual intimacy is subtle but important. It reminds me of how I've done similar things with productivity tools, constantly switching note-taking systems instead of actually doing the work. The 1 John 5:21 context is perfect too, ends the whole letter on "keep yourselves from idols" like its THE main takeaway. Sometimes the tools we use to connect actually become obstacles themselves when we fixate on getting them perfect.
I am in AZ for 2 months. I decided not to bring my Bible. We are very tightly packed. I miss it. But for 2025 I read a different Bible, chronological one. I miss my NIV. So when we return I will take that one out. I do miss the notes and my notes. It’s bound together with tape but still has all the pages.
We are looking at a verse or passage a week. I check many different translations and versions. I’m getting a lot from this way of studying. It incorporates listening and prayer.