There was many a time as a kid I was told “this isn’t the library, if you
want to read a magazine you have to buy it,” by John at the Sweet Shoppe. But a
recent walk through Barnes and Noble is a quick reminder of how things have
changed. I know of no other place where you don’t have to buy or rent the
goods, and for the price of a Starbucks can read all the latest if not so
greatest books and magazines. So while killing time, looking for the best way
to spend the gift card I had, I noticed the cover from Vintage Truck, which used
to be called This Old Truck, until the This Old House people threatened to sue.
It seems they felt their devotees may confuse the two, houses and trucks, and so
This Old Truck became Vintage Truck. Either way, a great magazine devoted to
the preservation of small trucks. And the first thing I noticed after I noticed
the cover, was it was different, but the same. The magazine I get every other
month in the mail has a great photo of an old truck on it, with only the title
Vintage Truck on it. This one was along with the same photo, had teasers of the
articles in side, ruining the cover shot. Why would they do that crossed my
mind for a second, and then I recalled a conversation with some guys I knew from
Road Rider, now Motorcycle Consumer News, from back in the early eighties. They
too only printed great photos on the covers, but to increase sales, which it
did, they too put teasers on the cover. Which only goes to show a picture may
be worth a thousand words, but the words make you buy the magazine. No word yet
on the version found in the library....
Now I must admit that I too fall for a pretty face, and more
often than not the words on its cover. Certain buzz words will get my
attention, and make me pick up the book, hoping the content is as fulfilling as
the teaser. And what is the first thing we look at in the article-the
pictures! So maybe we discount the power of the cover photo, when the photo is
the key to the story. And once again one picture is worth a thousand words is
intact. You might want to ask yourself, “what makes me pick up a magazine and
want to read it?” Maybe we need to go back to another old saying, “you can’t
tell a book by its cover,” and although the pictures get our attention it is the
words that complete the transaction and make us look up what they say. So
looking at magazines on my ottoman, I notice all the words that grab my
attention. Where once cover girls, cover bikes, or cover cars once were, now
words cover them, and tell me what is inside. Which either makes me pick it up,
or put it down. At one time we had to thumb through it to see, now we get sound
bite of written words, and make the decision. And I wonder, how much do we miss
when we don’t open the book to see what is inside? And subtly we are being told
what to read. Not to read, and I wonder what I have missed over the years. And
if an advertiser, how many of my ads went unread based on the teasers on the
cover. Yet we are attracted by the picture, but it is the words that direct
us.
Remember the children’s Bible covers when you were a kid?
Noah’s ark, how many times have you opened up to read about a great flood? Yet
I see very few if any Bibles that aren’t black. Bonded leather, or other
colors. And still it is the best selling book of all times. Imagine what it
could do if it got creative in its advertising? Think of the teasers on a
cover. Tailored to each group it is trying to read. In a health store,
“thousands live on bread and fish alone.” For working moms, “Feed your family
for pennies of bread and fish!” And the story tells of Jesus feeding the 5000
with a few bread and fish. Science fiction fans would be spellbound at “the
battle of Armageddon!” Even porn stores could quote the Song of Solomon,
intimate reading. Rated X-how many now will pick it up and see? All without
pictures on the cover. Imagine how Bible sales would increase if God had a
great PR firm behind it? So what is God thinking, why isn’t he advertising
more? Maybe we should go back to an evening in a garden, between Jesus and
Nicodemus. Old Nicky was told “you must be born again to enter the kingdom of
God,” and all he could think of was a return to a prenatal time. How could that
be? But Jesus was talking of a spiritual rebirth, a changing of heart, a
rebirth of the spirit. And although he left his meeting with Jesus asking
questions, some 20 chapters later in John, we see him at the grave of Jesus,
with Joseph or Arimethea asking for the body of Christ. Something had happened
to him in those 20 chapters, and he and Joseph, known as a silent believer, gave
everything to take the body. Nicky faced ridicule, power loss, and loss of his
riches. No headline can make you do that, just as no t-shirt, bumper sticker,
or sermon can change you. They are not bad, but by themselves don’t save. It
takes the same thing that changed Nicodemus, it takes the holy spirit to tell
you that you need Jesus. And only the spirit can change the heart to do that.
So maybe God knows what he is doing, and his advertising budget is well spent.
We find freedom in the spirit, and then when guided by that same spirit, we find
the words to make us change.
You may be the only Bible that someone may read. What is on
your cover? What photo of Jesus do you want to know about you? Or are you just
a glam event, wanting the glory, but not paying the price? Is there anything in
your walk with Christ that shows Jesus in your life? Or do you depend on
words? Which can help, or hurt. How important are photos, or the act? Quick,
look at Jesus on the cross. What comes to mind first, the vision or his words?
What were his last words? But we remember the vision even more. So maybe words
sell magazines, but images change lives. Now, what is on your cover? Any last
minute changes before you go to print?
The same spirit that saved Nicodemus is the same Jesus that
saved you. No matter what your cover looks like, God can see the inside. He
can see the articles we are, and wants to edit them for our benefit. And who
could be a better editor than the one who inspired a best seller, the Bible?
Turn to him, be led by him, and become a best seller. Not to compete with the
Bible, but to be complete in the Bible. Only found in Christ.
Now for your table of contents....if necessary use words. Be
the gospel in action....dis-cover Jesus today!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com