Have you ever been going through some old religious books, magazines or Sunday School literature and seen one of those pictures of what was considered at the time to be a clean cut American Christian family? There was Dad with the plain black suit and tie, hair neatly greased and parted to one side or cropped to a plateau shaped flat top. Then there was Mom in a dress that appeared to be made out of a giant pink piece of pipe with huge white buttons glued down the front, topped off with a hat that had been molded from a small cookie tin. Her hair was stiff and flipped up on the ends like the anchor of a big ship. Then there were those glasses! I truly believe that you could take the most beautiful woman in the world, put her in a pair of those awful willow shaped lenses and she'd be instantly changed into the most unattractive female in the place. A couple of kids were always present in these pictures, clones of Dad and Mom. Junior with his flat top or crew cut, white button up shirt, pants pulled up to his chest, white socks shining and Sissy with a dress made out of a smaller piece of pipe, and like mother like daughter, the same ugly optical apparel. Get the picture? If you were around thirty or forty years ago you probably have a family photo that's very similar or you were at least part of one (I was). The funny thing is that we look at those pictures with some humor and embarrassment, thinking how on earth could we have actually thought that we looked good then? Times change.

Those neat and modern pictures we see and take today will someday come under the same judgment as those we've just made fun of. Can you imagine how embarrassed today's young people will be when ten or twenty years from now they look at those pictures you took last week. Your son will wonder just how those baggy pants were able to defy gravity and stay up or why he would sit still while the hair stylist gave him that terrible haircut. Your daughter will simply be amazed that she ever went out in public dressed that way. We are a people of constant change. It doesn't take us long to become bored or dissatisfied to the point that we crave something new and different.

When God inspired men to write the Bible, he most certainly had this characteristic in mind. That's the reason you can read that Bible story that you've heard countless times and still discover something new. God's Word is always fresh and new, no matter how many times we read it. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that his Word would last longer than the heavens and the earth (Matthew 24:35). We can pick up the Bible and read what God's will is for our lives and not worry about it being out of style or out of date. It won't become funny or embarrassing like those old photos do. But God did leave it up to us to keep his Word up to date in our hearts, by daily reading and study (Acts 17:10-11). Have you been in contact with God's Word today or is your Bible study like those old pictures, embarrassing and out of date?