An Order for the Presentation of Bibles

P: The following persons are being presented a Bible, the gift of this congregation. (Their names are read.)

	The time of your baptism, your parents and sponsors promised faithfully to bring you to the services of God's house, to teach you the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, to place in your hands, the Holy Scriptures, and to provide for your instruction in the Christian faith, that, living in the covenant of your Baptism and in communion with the Church, you may lead a godly life/lives until the day of Jesus Christ.

The psalmist writes: "Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105).

The apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Rome: "Whatever was written in former days was written for your instruction, that by your steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).

And the Reformers, writing in the Formula of Concord, inform us: "We believe, teach, and confess that the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments are the only rule and norm according to which all doctrines and teachers alike must be appraised and judged" (FC Epl).

Now, on behalf of ______ Church, of which you are a member by Baptism, I present you with a copy of the Holy Bible.  As the apostle wrote to Timothy: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15).

The congregation shall stand.

P: The Lord be with you.
C: And also with you.
P: Let us pray:
	Blessed Lord, you speak to us through the Holy Scriptures.  Grant that we may hear, read, respect, learn, and make them our own in such a way that the enduring benefit and comfort of the Word will help us grasp and hold the blessed hope of everlasting life, given us through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.