Mark Stibbe - 100 Bible Verses That Will Change Your Life: It’s Time to Encounter the Father’s Love

Copyright 2020Mark Stibbe

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Please note that Destiny Images publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some publishers styles.

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ISBN 13 TP: 978-0-7684-5156-6
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Tables and Illustrations

DEDICATION

To Tim and Sue, Holly and Harriett Eldridge, and the lovely Brenda Henderson, with fondest love and profoundest gratitude. And in loving memory of Dibley.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I d like to thank Bill Williams, Larry Sparks, and all the team at Destiny Image for their invaluable support and their continuing faith in me as an author. Id like to thank Monarch Publishers for releasing an earlier version of this title back to me so that Destiny Image could produce this dynamic new reboot. Id also like to thank my wife Cherith for her ever-cheerful companionship and her always stimulating advice.

Id like to thank my loving heavenly Father for His tireless and unrelenting kindness in inspiring me to write books that change peoples lives. And last but by no means least, Id like to thank my black Labrador Bella, who lies at my feet every day while I write my books, and who trots by my side as I walk and pray in the beautiful Kent countryside. The love of God and the love of a dog are truly hard to beat!

my FATHERS Book

B efore you begin turning these pages, Id like to tell you a storya story that will help you understand how to read the pages to come.

In 1947, my adoptive father Philip Stibbe wrote and published his one and only book. He had been schooled well in the art of writing, having studied under C.S. Lewis at Oxford University. Dad knew how to write elegantly and clearly; Lewis mentored him well.

My fathers book is called Return via Rangoon and it was first published just after the Second World War. It is the moving account of his time fighting in Major General Wingates column behind enemy lines in the dense jungles of Burma. Dad was part of a special force (called the Chindits) tasked to cause as much disruption as possible. One day there was a battle in a village called Hintha and Dad was seriously wounded. A bullet went through his shoulder, just millimeters from his heart, and came out the other side.

Dads prospects were not good. The rule was that if anyone was wounded, they had to be left behind in the jungle to fend for themselves. As a special military unit, Wingates column had to move fast and could not be held up by caring for the injured. However, a Gurkha rifleman called Moto volunteered to stay behind, so that Dad was not left alone.

For days and days Moto looked after Dad, foraging through the local villages for food, applying fresh dressings to the wound, and fetching water. If Moto had not been there, Dads chances of survival would have been minimal. But this selfless riflemana Christian from the Karen tribechose to remain with a wounded officer rather than stay in the greater safety of the marching column. It is hard to express how much my family owes to him.

And it is even harder when I tell you that Moto one day did not come back. Dad had seen him go off to find food and water, just like on previous days. But this time Moto did not return. Worried that something had happened, my father somehow struggled to his feet and walked toward the nearest village. As he approached its boundary, he saw to his horror that there were two enemy soldiers sitting in the clearing in the center of the village with their rifles, bayonets fixed. He knew he could not escape so he shouted as loud as he could to alert Moto to the danger.

But Moto could not hear. Later, my father discovered what had happened. Enemy soldiers had been out on patrol searching for a British officer hiding in the jungle. They were eager to interrogate him for information about Wingates army. But instead of capturing my father, they had come upon Moto and they tortured him. Moto would not divulge the whereabouts or even the existence of my father. In the end, realizing that there was no way Moto was going to tell them anything, they shot him.

For the next two and a half years my father spent his time in jail as a POW (prisoner of war). His final place of incarceration was the notorious and horrific Rangoon jail where he was frequently questioned and tortured. He never talked about this, writing only very briefly about it in Return via Rangoon. But he suffered badly. Many of his friends and colleagues died of punishment, starvation, and disease.

One day in 1945, the soldiers took all the POWs out on a forced march. They told them that they were being moved to a camp. But the reality was that the Allies were advancing on Rangoon jail and the war in the Pacific was nearing its end. As the prisoners walked through the jungle, the enemy soldiers suddenly disappeared. Not long afterward, a column of Allied soldiers approached the emaciated POWs and gave them the news that they had been waiting for; they were free.

Within several weeks, my father was on a plane home, flying over England and then returning to his parents. Within months, he was back at Oxford University renewing his English degree studies. During that time, he worked on the only book he ever wroteand what a book it is! After the Bible, Return via Rangoon is my most precious book. It is the beautifully written story of one mans triumph over adversity.

It may sound odd to mention the Bible and Return via Rangoon in the same sentence. The Bible, to be sure, is very different. It is read by millions of people all over the world. It is the best-selling book of all time. In fact, its more than a book; its really a library of sixty-six books covering the whole of human history, from Paradise Lost in the Garden of Eden (Genesis) to Paradise Regained in the Garden of the New Jerusalem (Revelation). None of these things can be said of Return via Rangoon. The Bible is quite simply unique. It is divinely inspired, and its sweep is vast.

And yet there are some important similarities. Return via Rangoon is my fathers book. Even though my father is not with me now physically, I find that in reading its pages I can hear his voice and access his heart. Even more significantly, at the very center of his story is the most self-sacrificial act imaginablea man who lays down his life for his friend, after being cruelly questioned and abused.