How many Bibles have I owned since childhood? Oodles! The first of them (white imitation-leather) was probably a gift from my parents or a Sunday school teacher and came as a payoff for memorizing Scripture verses.

In the years that followed, my Bible collection grew to include black, red, and navy blue leather- and calf-skin-bound Bibles. My prized possession? A most-memorable wartime military-brown Bible produced for soldiers.

My inventory grew to include pocket Testaments, red-letter Bibles (the sayings of Jesus in red ink), Scofield Reference Bibles, Thompson Chain-reference Bibles, KJV's RSV's, TEV's, NIV's, ASV's, paraphrases (Phillips, Living, and Amplified). Oh, and I must not forget the plethora of study Bibles, which offer notes for youth, athletes, business people, women, contemplatives, and truck drivers, to name a few. Given my recreational inclinations, I have been waiting for a kayaker's Bible.

In my early teen years I was given a special flaming-red evangelism Bible designed ...