The other day one of our former church members was in town and stopped in to see me. In the course of our conversation, I asked how her extended family was doing, which prompted her to tell me about an incident that took place a few years ago.
Her aged father-in-law, who lives in town but attends a theologically liberal, mainline Protestant church, came to our church one Sunday morning. As one of our associate pastors opened the service with a Scripture reading, the lady's father-in-law asked, "What's that sound?" She listened carefully but couldn't hear anything but the pastor's voice coming over the sound system. "Is it a buzzing in the speakers?" she asked. "No, it's not really a buzzing sound," he replied. Then he immediately proceeded to say, "Wait. It just stopped. What was that?"
She didn't have a clue.
Later on in the service, the father-in-law heard this "sound" again and told his daughter-in-law so. Again, she couldn't hear anything and began wondering if he was "losing it." After a few seconds he said, "There! It just stopped again! You couldn't hear it?" "No," she replied, just a bit concerned.
When I got up to preach and announced the sermon text, the aged gentleman turned to his daughter-in-law and said rather emphatically, "There it is again! Listen! Can't you hear it?"
It was then that she heard it. What her father-in-law had been hearing on-and-off again throughout the course of the service was people turning the pages of their Bibles!
This man was not used to hearing this sound, for in his church, people for the most part did not bring their Bibles, and the minister did not preach from the Bible.
How blessed I am to hear the rustling of pages each Lord's Day. It is music to this pastor's ears, and a sound I don't ever want to take for granted. Biblical exposition is cherished in my church, and for that I praise God.