Tomorrow morning we will gather with our church family to worship our God and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. In our worship center almost every other chair has a Bible underneath it so that those who need a copy may follow along as our pastor preaches. They are even welcome to take a copy with them if they do not own one. Many in the service will use electronic copies on their phones or other devices. Upstairs, on the youth hallway, it is inevitable that I will find a Bible left lying around in the game room or in another classroom, left there by a teen who got distracted and forgot to take it home. The same thing will happen in the lobby as adults engage in conversations. One will be left on a counter or bench. Our lost and found gets full of Bibles that have been left behind never to be claimed again. Maybe they have multiple copies at home so leaving one behind is no big deal. But that's just the point isn't it? It's become no big deal.
Too often we take for granted that we have the written Word so readily at our disposal. We have no concept of what it is like to not have accessibility to the Scriptures, to have to listen to someone tell you what God's word says and not be able to read it for ourselves. We forget that men died so that we could have the written word and study it for ourselves, intimately knowing our God and listening to Him in our hearts and minds. We have taken so much of this for granted. Perhaps, if we could go back and witness what it must have been like to read the written word in our own language for the first time ever we would have a deeper love for Scripture, a more earnest desire to study it and to love God's word. While we can never go back and see God's written word in our own language or hold it again for the first time we can see how others respond when they receive Scripture in their language for the first time.
The Kimyal People Receive the New Testament from UFM Worldwide on Vimeo.
